You Must Have a Sense of Responsibility (4)
The arrows that had shot vigorously into the sky were now plummeting powerlessly to the ground, having flown too far. More than half of those fallen arrows bounced off without even embedding in the soil, naturally dealing no real damage to the few soldiers they struck.
Provocation? The word flashed through Charlotte's mind. There was no other way to explain such bizarre antics. And if that really was the case, she might have felt quite disappointed in the man called Baron Werner von Hebel.
He wouldn't think something this childish would actually work, would he? From her few past experiences, arrows were precious ammunition to mounted archers—one arrow could mean one more kill. Wasting them like this was something Charlotte would welcome from her position.
No—actually, that can't be right. But the man named Werner von Hebel, whom she'd observed over the past few days, didn't seem the type to pull off such pointless stunts.
He'd sooner hide and snipe than put on a show like this. So, there must be meaning even in this seemingly trivial action. Of course, that was one thing...
"Cavalry!!"
...and if they'd come just to shoot arrows into the void, they'd have to pay the price. At Charlotte's command, the frontline cavalry charged forward. As if they had never intended to engage in the first place, the centaurs kicked up massive clouds of dust and turned tail to flee. Watching their retreating backs, Charlotte called off the pursuit.
She had already learned the hard way from her mock battle against that margrave what happened if you chased blindly after them.
No matter what, if we advance in formation, there's not much the baron can do.
Swarm tactics were, at their core, a way of turning hunting methods into warfare. It was no different from hunting beasts with arrows—now applied to hunting armies. If that army panicked, broke formation, and flailed about, they became perfect prey. But as long as they maintained order and proper vigilance, the mounted archers' arrows would simply be blocked by the well-armored Imperial troops.
Sure, casualties would accumulate, but if they could seize just one chance, they could recover all those losses in a single stroke.
"Advance."
Instead of chasing the centaurs who had fled into the forest, Charlotte chose to continue south along the riverbank. This mock battle had no grand strategic objectives—it was purely about forcing the opponent's surrender. So, if Werner wanted a decisive outcome, he'd have no choice but to bring his army out to attack.
And for Charlotte's heavily armored Imperial forces, the ideal terrain would be the open plains of the river flats, free of obstacles.
Tactics, at their essence, are about doing what the enemy hates. There was no reason to enter the forest where pursuit would be difficult and hand the enemy what they wanted.
In crude terms, it was come at me if you want a fight.
────Pew pew pew pew pew!
As if to harass Charlotte and her Imperial army's march, dust rose from the forest again, and centaurs burst out, unleashing a volley of arrows. The infantry, marching close to the forest to shield the cavalry, took the brunt. As the sudden barrage spread out, centaur arrows embedded in or bounced off hauberks and brigandines.
"Infantry, swiftly form ranks and advance."
But the princess hadn't selected just any street rabble—these were the Empire's elite infantry. They didn't panic at the ambush, pivoting in their marching formation, raising shields, and responding to the gunfire with disciplined speed. The arrows thudded futilely into shields or missed entirely, inflicting no significant damage this time either.
"...Fire!"
At Charlotte's order, the 200-odd archers who had been waiting unleashed a counter-salvo. The lightly armored centaurs fled into the forest with tails between their legs—before the cavalry could even move.
Is that it? Checking the aftermath of the arrow storm visually, they hadn't lost many soldiers despite the flashy barrage. With them openly declaring an arrow assault and prepared for it, archery alone couldn't turn the tide.
That was the greatest weakness of swarm tactics—one reason why the mighty nomadic peoples of ancient history had all been conquered by the Empire, leaving only centaurs beyond its borders to wield it. Well, there were finer details, but...
In any case, the mounted archers alone couldn't seize a decisive chance.
After that, the same scene repeated ad nauseam. Every time they slowly advanced downriver, centaurs took turns raining arrows and fleeing. Each time, Charlotte had her infantry block lines of fire thoroughly, countered with archers, or smashed isolated stragglers who got too close with cavalry.
Naturally, in this tedious standoff, neither side suffered real casualties. Arrows accumulated in infantry and cavalry armor and shields, and a few even glanced off Charlotte herself now and then.
In this bizarre reversal—Charlotte's heavy troops playing hard to get, Werner's bow-wielding centaur cavalry doing the chasing—no proper pitched battle ever materialized.
Strange. Why is he wasting so many arrows? After two more ambushes, a fundamental question crossed Charlotte's mind.
Of course, it might not be waste. The centaurs had indeed shown vulnerability in close combat. Combining a human upper body with a horse's lower half seemed to offer the best of both at first glance, but it came at great cost.
For starters, their excessively elongated rear halves. Unlike riders atop horses, centaurs had their torsos positioned forward. So, unlike other races' cavalry who could cover front, back, left, and right more easily, centaurs' structures left their rears critically exposed.
Even their signature parthian shots offered some cover, but in melee, that very anatomy became a liability. Chronicles said that aside from a tiny elite of heavily armored nobles trained solely for melee, centaurs almost never attempted it unless the moment was perfect.
In other words, Werner might have no real choice beyond shooting arrows. Once they ran out, he'd have no option but to throw his melee-weak mounted archers against the Empire's melee masters.
That raised another question.
He must know this weakness full well... so why isn't he using his arrows efficiently?
If Charlotte were commanding the centaurs, she wouldn't waste arrows recklessly—she'd target the most vulnerable spots. Like the horses of the cavalry, which couldn't be fully armored despite barding due to structural limits.
She was already guarding against that, using infantry to block as much as possible so the centaurs couldn't easily target the cavalry. And with centaur mobility, they could have maneuvered to create firing lanes the infantry couldn't fully cover.
If someone who knew the optimal play wasn't using it, there had to be a reason. She needed to figure it out.
As she pondered, staring toward the forest, she noticed dust slowly rising in her field of view. It billowed from near and far, in several spots—enough to roughly pinpoint sources since the wind wasn't strong.
Probably traces of centaurs moving in the woods. The multiple sites made sense: the forest forced them to split into smaller groups.
What stood out was the distant dust.
Wait—why is the dust rising so far away?
If it were an ambush setup, there'd be no dust. It was rising because they were moving hastily. Even real ambushes ended once spotted—no need to worry.
Arrow waste, forest, centaurs, dust distance. And that first volley.
From those sparse clues that seemed unrelated at first, Charlotte's mind rapidly pieced together a scenario.
Her lips curled slyly beneath her helmet as certainty dawned.
"──Ah, I get it. So that's how it is?"
At that moment, the priority of actions in Charlotte's mind flipped in an instant.
"All forces, change marching direction."
Reposition infantry, cover with archers, cavalry in rear. Charlotte's unit now headed into the forest she had no intention of entering moments ago.
If her hunch was right, it was to strike at the unexpectedly vulnerable heart of Baron von Hebel.