Blame for the Probe but Arrows Shone
The knights' archery was impressive compared to their scrutiny.
The torrential rain of arrows severed the enemy's breaths and killed the pitiful beasts.
"Move!"
As soon as the enemy showed signs of pursuing, they vanished at once.
Until now, the 2nd Knight Order of Bluisol had used the tactic of quick ambushes to steal horses and weapons and flee.
Their individual strength was outstanding, and their speed was so great that the Rotinzel troops, instead of chasing them, chose to fortify themselves solidly like turtles.
But now, ambushing with arrows from a distance. Because they had not prepared properly against that, they were helpless.
Even their new weapon, the matchlock, had a disadvantage of a long reloading time, making it difficult to use in such situations.
Meanwhile, Heini, who had not yet fully fused with the knights, moved separately for the task Jeanne had asked her to handle.
"Why must I follow your commands. Tch."
She grumbled but faithfully performed her role.
The one who was far superior in archery to anyone here poured out her skill to the fullest.
The arrow with fire lit fell precisely between the straw piled for the horse's feed. Dry grass caught fire, and the flames spread in an instant.
"Fire! Fire!"
"Bring water quickly! Put it out right away!"
Unlike the time they rescued hostages in the forest, this time the knights became the bait and Heini took on the key task.
Of course, calling the knights bait would cause resistance, so they only knew the superficial operation of "disturbing the enemy's rear by shooting arrows and maneuvering through mobile combat."
And strictly speaking, since both sides were doing important work, it could even be called a flanking maneuver.
Fires soared from all directions. The Rotinzel army suffered little loss of life, but the stored rations in the timber warehouse became the problem.
The grain they had eaten for days turned to ash.
Of course, Aaron and Nicolas were not fools and had distributed their storage, so not everything was lost. Still, the dwindling rations would cause impatience.
The best option would be to blow up the gunpowder warehouse, but they knew the importance of gunpowder, so it was placed in the central area.
Touching there was dangerous.
Jeanne avoided clashing with the soldiers and chose to remove supplies.
So, when the Rotinzel showed signs of deploying a large force in anger, she retreated at once.
"That's enough withdrawal."
Jeanne's order was passed quickly to the entire 2nd Knight Order.
Facing them head-on lacked strength. If they were surrounded by that large army, no matter how superior their skills, they would naturally fall one by one due to the numerical disadvantage.
They could not afford to lose twenty or so valuable knights here, so the best they could do was to push and withdraw thoroughly, disturbing the enemy and delaying their advance as much as possible.
***
The special detachment led by Jeanne harassed the Rotinzel troops bit by bit.
Direct loss of troops was small, but oxen and horses were injured, carts broke down, and warehouses burned, accumulating small damages.
If the city of Roire had remained, they would have rested there and maintained themselves, so the special detachment's ambushes would not have been easy.
But because the city burned, most soldiers could not enter the city of Roire and had to stay outside the city walls where they had first camped.
Thanks to that, it was easy for the special detachment to ambush.
"Damn it."
Nicolas, who arrived belatedly after receiving the subordinate's report, spat out a curse.
Once they prepared to sortie, the enemy would come rushing and shoot arrows, leaving them helpless.
Nicolas was annoyed at everyone except himself.
The foolish subordinates were just playing around and being played with by the enemy, and the pathetic Aaron had carried the supplies and things to be protected deeply. He seemed to have no intention of leaving Roire, his body crouched like a turtle.
The broken ox bellowed sadly. The large ox's rampage caused not only the wagon loaded with rations to overturn but also the cart itself to break and become unusable for carrying anything.
Nicolas looked in the direction from which the arrows had just flown.
Normally, they would just shoot arrows from a distance and run away, and chasing them to catch them was impossible.
He had issued pursuit orders several times, but each time they disappeared into the mountains.
This land belonged to Bluisol, so they knew the terrain far better than the enemy.
Jeanne's soldiers' actions were more effective at provoking Nicolas than anything else.
"You filthy rats!"
Nicolas, who had harbored grudges against the knights who had ambushed him from the beginning, was at his limit. His patience had run out long ago.
He wanted to sortie right away and beat them all to a pulp or advance and crush the country of Bluisol itself, but Aaron was too slow.
It could not go on like this. Nicolas, exasperated by Aaron's heavy ass, went to his tent to negotiate.
"Aaron! Do you know what those worms are doing right now?"
"I know, Duke Nicolas. Please calm down first."
"Calm down? Ha, when did I say calm down? I don't know how you, of all people, got into the master's eyes."
"Nothing gets better by being angry."
"Enough. I'm sending out the soldiers. All of them."
Nicolas had come to meet Aaron not to seek his opinion but to notify him. He had already made up his mind to sortie.
Aaron sat up straight. His bulky body, unlike a proper general's, made the chair creak in agony.
"We have been doing lightning warfare so far. Our supplies have depended entirely on coming from the homeland. As you know, Duke Nicolas, the only way to connect the homeland and here is by ship. This is a very unstable supply route. Therefore, we must replenish our supplies within Bluisol itself. I think it would be good to build a supply line using this Roire as a base and clean up the things running wild in the provinces."
"How ridiculous. After doing lightning warfare this far, shouldn't we be even faster in capturing the king and pushing upward? If we defeat the king, we can ignore the minor armies in the provinces."
"If our goal is to end Bluisol, then yes. But what our country truly aims for is the Blesk Empire of this continent, Duke Nicolas. Bluisol is merely a stepping stone to advance to the continent. Look far ahead, Duke Nicolas. We must lay a solid foundation and push upward step by step."
Aaron's logic was annoying to Nicolas. Moreover, Nicolas thought that logical approach was foolish given the current situation.
"Even with a grand picture, the paper will tear. Why are we giving them time?"
"Time is on our side."
"No. If we had pressed on like this, we would have already crossed Ileang and reached Cordial. We didn't even need to stay in Roire to begin with."
"Listen, Duke Nicolas! The one who said to take spoils in Roire was you. If you move too hastily and our back breaks, we will be isolated on this land."
Nicolas wanted to give more time to the enemy, while Aaron wanted to take a solid step-by-step approach for a more perfect and certain victory.
There was no answer to which was right.
The two facing each other off desired for the other to give in first.
Sparks flew in their eyes.
Nicolas wanted to slap Aaron's plump face right away. He barely pulled back his fist that had risen to his chest and turned his body roughly.
"I will go alone. Our unit is more than enough to deal with the Bluisol rats hiding like mice."
"Go ahead. If it's not to sortie together, I won't stop you either."
Surprisingly, Aaron agreed readily. Nicolas ground his teeth.
"So that's how it is?"
He seemed to have placed a spoon in the duke's mouth and planned to wash his hands of blame if he failed.
Perhaps Aaron wanted him to fail completely.
Just as Nicolas hated Aaron, Aaron hated Nicolas.
However, while Nicolas showed his dislike openly, Aaron only hid his feelings and worked behind the scenes.
How many years of competition had they had? Nicolas couldn't not know. Because of that point, he hated Aaron even more.
Nicolas left Aaron's tent.
He swore to occupy Ileang Castle as if to spite the man he didn't even want to look at.
***
"They are preparing to sortie in earnest."
Fabian muttered while observing the movements of the Rotinzel army.
The Rotinzel army, which had suffered the first few ambushes, had thereafter thoroughly defended around the supplies.
According to Jeanne's orders, the 2nd Knight Order had moved with safety as the top priority.
They had avoided direct clashes with the enemy as much as possible and repeatedly pushed and withdrew while shooting arrows from afar.
But with only bows and arrows, there was a limit. They had risked danger to secretly approach at night and set some important places ablaze, but the more they did that, the more thoroughly the Rotinzel army fortified itself.
The day before, because the Rotinzel army had pre-loaded their guns in preparation for Bluisol's ambush, they had nearly been counter-ambushed. That meant it was time to move to the next step.
Fabian looked at Jeanne. Jeanne nodded her head.
The 2nd Knight Order, which had taken on the special detachment's role for these days of joint activity, moved as one.
Without separate orders, the knights knew what they had to do next.
Fabian lowered his arm holding the bowstring. The arrows were released at the same time.
Ting! Ting!
But the arrows hit the shields with light sounds and fell. Because they had repeated it many times, the Rotinzel army had adapted.
The soldiers around the supplies had many horses.
Not using carts, and given that they placed greater weight on horses than oxen, it seemed they intended to move quickly.
"The supplies being taken seem too little."
"It seems they have decided to end the siege of Ileang Castle in one go. They don't need supplies and are aiming to conquer it in one breath."
Jeanne's expression showed her thoughts, and Divain explained it, guessing the enemy's intention.
The enemy's purpose was clear.
In this situation, Jeanne's soldiers could only do limited things. It was to try to slow the enemy's advance.
But the Rotinzel army was already familiar with the repeated ambushes, and the remaining arrows were few, making it difficult to maintain the same level of attack power as before.
Even chopping down trees and shooting them hit their limit. Just appearing briefly and shooting arrows only reduced the annoyance to the level of mosquitoes flying at night.
Previously, the Rotinzel army would have sent soldiers to catch Jeanne's special detachment, but now they seemed to have decided to ignore them altogether and showed no reaction.
They only seemed to be guarding the horses carrying supplies more thoroughly.
"It seems there is nothing more we can do."
It is foolish to keep clinging to useless things.
Jeanne judged that she could no longer delay them.
Then, she had to hurry as fast as possible to Ileang Castle and inform the enemy that they were coming.
"We will also go to Ileang Castle."
The knights nodded their heads in unison to Jeanne's order.
They pulled the reins. Dust flying, Jeanne and the 2nd Knight Order headed north.