Daniel Steiner? Isn't He Just a Green Staff Officer?
Daniel Steiner? Isn't He Just a Green Staff Officer?
After the enemy commander Henry declared his surrender, the battlefield was promptly secured.
The Kingdom soldiers, caught in an unexpected ambush, knelt with their will to fight shattered, and their officers, seemingly resigned that the board couldn't be flipped, willingly accepted becoming prisoners of war.
"Move it! You plague-ridden rats!"
"By all rights, you're all dead meat! Be grateful to our merciful company commander!"
As was typical of victorious troops, they herded the prisoners with harsh shouts.
'Why are they making the atmosphere so needlessly vicious...?'
Just as Daniel, frowning, was about to step forward and say something, Lieutenant Mekkel approached him.
"Company Commander! Headcount complete!"
"Right. Our side's casualties?"
"Out of a total of 207 personnel, we suffered 16 casualties. Of those, 4 are KIA, and the remaining 12 sustained only minor injuries."
They had subdued an enemy force the size of a battalion, and had lost only four men.
Even considering the operation was a success, it was an astonishing exchange ratio.
It was enough to elicit an involuntary hollow laugh.
"Troublesome...."
He had racked up achievements in the middle of a support operation — it was, without a doubt, troublesome.
If this kept up, General Headquarters would keep putting Daniel in command every time they formed an operational support unit.
That was one of the worst possible scenarios for Daniel.
That was why he had been wearing a self-deprecating smile, but Lieutenant Mekkel interpreted it differently.
'To have achieved such brilliant results and still not be satisfied...!'
It was a mindset so far above Lieutenant Mekkel's understanding that he couldn't even begin to fathom it.
It truly hammered home that the titles 'Ace of General Headquarters' and 'Hero of the Imperial Capital' weren't bestowed for nothing.
While Lieutenant Mekkel looked on with awe, Daniel let out a low sigh.
"Now, prepare to move to the forward base. Inform all troops that we depart after a brief rest."
If it were up to him, he'd have liked to wander around the vicinity for a few more days before joining up, but now that he had prisoners, he could no longer afford to delay.
If, while he was dragging his feet, one of the prisoners snapped their bonds and escaped, it would be a disaster.
In the worst case, the Kingdom forces could even dispatch a mobile unit to rescue the supply battalion, so reaching the forward base as quickly as possible and ensuring their safety was the better move.
"Yes! I will relay the Company Commander's orders!"
Lieutenant Mekkel shouted energetically and headed over to where the soldiers had gathered.
Left to himself, Daniel blankly turned his gaze and spotted Frien overseeing the Kingdom soldiers.
Frien was speaking softly with a smiling face, but the Kingdom soldiers were breathing heavily, paralyzed with fear.
'What the hell kind of threats is she making to the prisoners...?'
He was worried she might end up violating the international laws of war at this rate.
Just the day before, during the ambush planning, he had dismissed Frien's suggestion that disguising herself as a civilian and approaching them would make it easier to fool them.
For the record, attacking the enemy while disguised as a civilian was a clear war crime.
When he had explained that, she'd replied with a chillingly sincere, curious expression, 'If they joined hands with the Allied Nations, they're no longer human, so why would it be a crime?'
'For now, I'm just glad she's on our side.'
If the enemy had a nationalist psychopath like that, they'd be incredibly difficult to deal with.
Turning his gaze away from Frien, Daniel looked at Lucy this time.
Lucy was herding the prisoners in a businesslike manner, just as she had at General Headquarters.
He had wondered whether she would harbor resentment over attacking the Kingdom forces, an ally of the Allied Nations, but Lucy's expression was more nonchalant than he had expected.
Just moments ago, she had even knocked a resisting prisoner unconscious with the butt of her rifle when he charged at her.
He couldn't quite tell whether she was putting on a calm front or genuinely didn't care about the Kingdom forces' destruction, but he was relieved for now.
'Looks like I won't have to worry about Lucy shooting me for the time being.'
The Allied Nations' side also likely considered the Kingdom a disposable pawn, so they wouldn't go out of their way to offer help.
Secretly relieved, Daniel lifted his head, feeling the world around him gradually brighten.
He could see the sun slowly raising its head over the ridgeline yonder.
It was the dawn light heralding morning.
*
Forward Base, Coastal City of Nordia Sector.
Division Headquarters Temporary Operations Center.
"It's strange. Aerial reconnaissance shows no signs of their supplies dwindling."
"Indeed. By now, their supplies should normally be running dry...."
Around the operations table set up in the headquarters command post were three regimental commanders, one brigade commander, plus several battalion commanders and staff officers.
This was because the division commander, the division headquarters' supreme officer, had summoned them all in the name of a tactical conference.
【Supreme Commander, 6th Magitek Armored Division / Division Commander, Major General Pelderham】
Seated at the head of the table with a solemn face, Pelderham was listening attentively to their discussion.
All the while, he was racking his brain over why they had failed to capture the coastal city of Nordia.
'The Northern Front Army's northward advance was smooth. In less than two weeks from commencing the march, they seized territory amounting to 30% of the kingdom.'
It was, quite literally, a rapid blitzkrieg.
Believing they could steamroll the kingdom at this rate, the military leadership provided lavish support, and the Imperial Army was able to report consecutive victories.
But now, the Imperial Army had run into a wall.
With the Kingdom forces' resistance stiffening, they could no longer push the front line forward.
As a result, after much deliberation, the Imperial General Headquarters issued the order to capture the coastal city of Nordia.
The key point of the operation was that capturing Nordia, a strategic chokepoint, would facilitate seaborne movement and allow them to attack the kingdom from two directions.
It was an excellent plan. With no objections, Pelderham led his division and succeeded in encircling Nordia.
Having succeeded in the encirclement, Pelderham concentrated his efforts on severing the Kingdom forces' supply lines to Nordia.
His reasoning was simple.
A surrounded city, cut off from supplies, quickly succumbs to terror and exhaustion.
Not only would military and civilian morale plummet, but social order would collapse and disease would run rampant.
If things went smoothly, he might even secure the enemy commander's surrender.
It was a method that could secure the greatest possible victory while minimizing friendly losses.
'However....'
Things hadn't gone according to plan.
Because there had been no disruption to the supply of the Kingdom's Ironclad Division stationed in the coastal city of Nordia.
That was what puzzled Pelderham.
With the help of the Imperial Air Force, which had successfully seized air supremacy, they had already sunk the enemy's seaborne supply lines several times over.
The ground was being ruthlessly guarded by his own armored division. Without even a crack for an ant to pass through.
And yet, the Kingdom's Ironclad Division was receiving supplies on time.
Tormented by this persistent absurdity, Pelderham turned to Brigade Commander Heinrich.
"Tell me, Heinrich. Do you have any inkling as to how this situation has come about?"
Regrettably, Heinrich shook his head.
"I, too, cannot figure out how the supply is being accomplished. However, HQ mentioned they dispatched a staff officer to assist, so I believe it would be best to wait and see."
"...A staff officer to assist? Hah. Surely you're not referring to that Daniel Steiner."
Having spent many years in the Northern Front Army, Pelderham, too, knew of Daniel Steiner.
After all the ruckus he caused in the capital, it would be stranger not to know.
But Pelderham did not trust Daniel in the slightest.
It was because he found it hard to believe he had racked up so many achievements in just half a year.
'No doubt the capital created a hero for propaganda purposes.'
It was highly likely he was an artificially manufactured hero from the capital, made to increase conscription rates.
Of course, he probably handled a few incidents himself, but from a common-sense standpoint, it was hard to accept that Daniel's achievements were anything other than fabricated.
He could understand HQ's desire to boost recruitment numbers, but weren't they attributing achievements to him far too blatantly?
'And on top of that....'
What this headquarters needed right now wasn't some staff officer who was all talk, but a capable warrior who delivered results.
'To think all HQ is sending us as operational support is a single greenhorn staff officer.'
Disappointed on many levels, Pelderham was just about to let out a sigh.
"D-Division Commander, Sir?"
The radio operator standing beside him spoke up.
Wondering what it was, Pelderham turned his head, and the soldier opened his mouth with a dumbfounded expression.
"They say the company under Captain Daniel Steiner has arrived at headquarters. However, they've also reported casualties. Sixteen casualties: four killed, twelve with minor injuries...."
What? In what was just a simple march, he sustained 16 casualties and 4 of them died?
It was beyond comprehension even if they had conducted a forced march, but to suffer sixteen casualties after dragging his feet for six whole days past the original arrival date...?
'A woefully incompetent commander...!'
He was the type who must absolutely never be deployed to the battlefield.
He resolved that when Daniel arrived, he would hold him reasonably accountable and send him off to the rear.
"And also...."
The radio operator swallowed hard and spoke as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say.
"They report that on the way to Division Headquarters, the company led by Daniel Steiner located and neutralized an enemy supply battalion. The report states that out of 335 total supply battalion personnel, 135 were killed, and 192, including the enemy battalion commander, were taken prisoner...."
A silence settled over the operations center where various opinions had been flying back and forth.
'...What did you say?'
At that ludicrously outstanding battle record, not only Pelderham but all the officers gathered in the operations center were staring blankly, mouths agape.