151. Outbreak of War (2)
151. Outbreak of War (2)
- 1 -
The city at the rear of the Mathepit territory, the inner castle of Signon.
A shadow fell across the face of Countess Markelia Rube as she sat upon the lord's throne.
That was because the Mathepit territory she governed was currently suffering from severe upheaval.
Even so, she maintained her calm composure, the same as always.
At least, in front of the vassal shouting before her eyes.
"Your Excellency! This is an incident that must never be overlooked!"
A vassal within the conference room cried out in an agitated voice.
"To dare damage Your Excellency's property and then refuse to cooperate with the investigation! To think a mere apology would suffice—if we let this pass, everyone will mock us!"
Within the territory, voices calling for the lord's vengeance over the death of a local girl were rising.
But that was not the only problem.
"Urgent report!"
A messenger came running in, breathless.
"Another village has been plundered...! The attackers appear to be mercenaries who crossed over from the United Kingdom...!"
"Urgent report!"
Even before the man finished speaking, another messenger rushed in.
"The military supplies coming from the mainland of the Grand Duchy have been destroyed...! The perpetrators are wild monsters!"
Internally, there were cries for vengeance; externally, the territory was in turmoil from plundering by hostile mercenaries and the rampaging of monsters.
Markelia, however, responded calmly.
"The outbreak of war must be conducted with caution."
A heavy voice filled with gravitas.
She calmly chose her words to persuade her vassals, while simultaneously checking the territory's damages from the letters the messengers handed over.
"It is true that we hold a slight advantage in justification, but if we carelessly start a war and the number of casualties increases, that justification will quickly lose its luster."
"But Your Excellency...!"
"This is a matter of the nation. It is not something we can decide based solely on our emotions."
She then issued instructions regarding the ongoing mercenary plundering.
"I already dispatched the knight order. Are you saying they have not yet arrived?"
"By the time they arrived, the enemy had already struck once and retreated..."
"Order them to find the enemy. They cannot have gone far yet."
"Yes!"
Of course, she also immediately presented a solution for the military supply issue.
"Request additional military supplies, and..."
"The mainland has stated that they must prepare large-scale forces due to the recent severe monster rampages, so there will be a delay!"
"Is that so. Then convey the request to at least prioritize support for weapons, even if the equipment itself is delayed."
"Yes, Your Excellency!"
Markelia's composure was fitting.
She was an experienced lord who had protected the Mathepit territory without issue for over a decade. Most chaos could not shake her.
Which is to say, 'most' chaos, that is.
"Ur-urgent report!!"
The face of the third messenger, who came running in drenched in sweat, was deathly pale.
"What is the matter?"
"It is a direct communiqué from the knight order guarding the border with Damamolon!!"
Markelia urgently accepted and unfolded the letter handed over by the messenger and checked by her adjutant.
Seeing her adjutant's face tinged with the same urgency as the messenger's, her eyes and thoughts grew sharper than usual.
「A large-scale enemy force has crossed over from the Damamolon side. They are currently occupying a number of villages. The knight order is retreating while confirming the enemy's scale...」
"What!"
Bang!
This time, even she lost her composure. And with good reason—this was a situation far beyond common sense.
Though ethnic sentiments were poor, Markelia had inwardly acknowledged Count Dorian Eisaph of Damamolon.
She had evaluated him as a lord who, despite having a dark side, led his land with gentleness and wisdom.
Therefore, she had never expected him to launch a full-scale war like this, without any formality or 'courtesy.'
"What sort of uncivilized conduct is this! To start a full-scale war without a proper declaration of war!"
"What did you say...?"
"These lunatics...!"
The surrounding vassals were all visibly flustered as well.
Damamolon's high-handed behavior was something rarely seen in recent times.
Wars started recklessly without proper mediation or negotiation had been a culture that died out completely in the modern era.
To start a war in such a manner, the scale of each nation had already grown far too large, and at the same time, the continent was extremely stable.
While small-scale battles were always occurring, this was an affair between territories.
Was it not, as the countess said, 'a matter of the nation'?
"That is—!"
"Your Excellency!!"
Just as the anger of the countess and her vassals was about to explode, a soldier dressed in guard attire was in such a hurry that he ran straight into the conference room without even thinking to dust off his muddy boots.
"An envoy from Damamolon has arrived!"
"...Just what is the meaning of this act?"
For the first time, Markelia's face was tinged with bewilderment.
It seemed the Damamolon side was intent on breaking every convention today.
An enemy envoy rushing in simultaneously with a messenger.
This was practically the same as saying the army and the envoy had been dispatched at nearly the same time.
"Bring him in at once!"
"Yes!"
Bewilderment was one thing, duty another.
Following the countess's order, a vassal and the soldier bowed and left the room, while the countess walked out the conference room door to greet the enemy envoy.
Using the reception room was out of the question, for the current envoy was not a 'guest.'
"Baronet Nangke, knight of Damamolon, meets Count Lub of the Mathepit territory."
Looking at the baronet's determined expression as he faced her, Markelia shook her head.
"I do not understand the meaning of this. To send you alongside a full-scale war. Does Dorian intend to send you to your death?"
"He likely does. I am prepared for it. He said he would take full responsibility for my family."
"Ha."
She shook her head, letting out a voice mingled with sighs and lamentation, and soon accepted the document the envoy handed over.
"This... what?"
And once again, deep bewilderment appeared on her face.
For the contents within that document were something she was truly hearing for the first time.
"His Excellency has no intention of stopping until he finds the culprit who dared kidnap and assassinate a noble—his own daughter. And this is also the will of all the people belonging to our county."
"This is a lie. Who on earth would do such a thing...!"
"The proof of the young lady's assassination was found by the mercenary group that conducted armed reconnaissance into Your Excellency's territory. Do you not understand what that means?"
"Hah..."
Markelia pressed her forehead.
She did not know what evidence the enemy mercenaries who came to plunder had supposedly found, but if it was enough to make that level-headed count believe it was suitable justification, even in his enraged state, it must be very solid proof.
At least within his own mind, it would be.
The countess had a gut feeling.
"It seems it is far too late for dialogue now."
Any attempt at negotiation would have to wait until at least that furious advance was stopped.
She could not yet be certain whether Dorian would stop after a single battle, but simply taking hits at this very moment was tantamount to abandoning the duty the nation had entrusted to her.
It was something that should not happen.
For the nation's prestige was at stake.
"You will not be able to return to your territory."
"I have already resigned myself to death."
At the baronet's words, the countess shook her head.
"No. I shall confine you. For we must prove our will."
"Understood."
After issuing strict orders to confine the baronet within her own residence and under no circumstances allow him to die, she raised her voice.
"Prepare for war!! It is full-scale war! Send messengers to all castle lords ordering them to muster their forces immediately and come!"
""Yes, Your Excellency!""
Countess Markelia Rube looked around the room and raised her voice.
"Ooooh!!"
"Kill them! Kill them!"
When she drew her sword and raised it high, warlike shouts erupted from all around.
The Empire, which valued expansionist policies, and its duchies that wholly inherited that culture, had a large number of hawks.
It was rare enough for a lord to be a moderate, one might say.
This was also the reason Count Lub had been able to become the lord of this border region.
A lord who easily started wars could never be placed on the national border.
"We shall make the old monkeys of Damamolon pay the price for looking down on us Arilit!!"
And this also meant that a war, once started, would never end easily.
Just as someone desired.
- 2 -
The border region of Zenota, Haisen, and Arilit, where the war clouds between Damamolon and Mathepit were rising.
The war began with a surprise preemptive attack from the Damamolon side, overturning everyone's expectations except for one particular faction.
"Kill the Imperial dogs—!!!"
Black smoke rising from the ground covered the sky, and red blood and yellowish flesh spilled onto the earth.
Most of the villages swept through by Damamolon's army were empty, but the frontline villages were not.
"Kya... how much is all this! How long has it been since I saw this many gold coins!"
"P-please, don't do this...!"
"Shut up! It's been a while since I've loosened up—don't give me your bad luck!"
Massacres, rape, and looting occurred everywhere at the hands of the mercenaries making up the army.
Nevertheless, Damamolon's advance was fast.
That was how immense the rage their liege lord displayed was.
"Strike! Burn them all! Kill those who resist fiercely! Leave nothing behind that you cannot take with you!! It's His Excellency's order!"
Along with the commander's brutal order, the arrows loosed by Damamolon's mercenaries were tipped with flames.
Haystacks piled up for the winter, the living quarters of Arilit's people, and the granaries containing the village's collected taxes all caught fire.
The farmers' year-long labor and the village's harvest were all plundered and scattered as ashes.
"Commander! At this rate, this army will be isolated! At the very least, we should...!"
"We cannot retreat! If we are delayed even slightly, His Excellency's wrath will turn upon us!"
"But—!"
The mercenaries' aggressiveness was driven by a will to loot, but also by a fear of punishment.
Count Eisaph's fury was immense.
Rumors were already rife that his second son, who had argued this 'reckless' war should not happen, had been whipped, and that one administrator had been hanged by the neck.
'If we slip up, we die by execution!'
He treated even his own family and subordinates so harshly, so no matter what the contract said, no one knew how the count would respond to the mercenaries' failure.
Yet breaking the contract here would ruin the mercenary group's credibility.
They had no choice but to follow the orders of Damamolon's commander.
"All that's left is to advance...! Go!!"
Damamolon's commander's eyes were bloodshot.
The same went for some of the territorial soldiers mixed among the mercenaries.
Count Dorian Eisaph's daughter, Viola Eisaph, was a lady beloved by everyone in the county.
A good soul who had inherited the wise count's character, knew to look after the people's grievances, and treated everyone kindly.
The rumor of losing such a person, albeit temporarily, was enough to inflame everyone's hostility further.
"Stop the enemy!!"
Though flustered by Damamolon's advance, Mathepit's response was equally swift.
Their main force was a regular army raised by the nation.
Soldiers who had been sufficiently trained to exert their full strength even in such a sudden battle stepped forward, setting up tower shields and forming orderly defensive lines to meet the enemy.
"Do not let the monkeys of Zenota take a single step past this line!!"
They deployed their army at the front to block Damamolon's forces, which were spreading out in all directions, and immediately ordered the evacuation of all villages, sending the residents to the rear.
The knight order the countess had painstakingly raised was positioned at the very vanguard.
"Charge—!!!"
The charge of the knights mounted on their horses began.
The thick, silver spearheads reflected the sunlight, baring their fangs to bathe in the enemy's blood.
Under normal circumstances, those silver spears would have caused countless casualties.
Damamolon's casualties, however, were not as great as expected.
"Scatter! Scatter!"
A charge with lances at the head is highly effective against defensive formations.
But it held little significance against mercenaries who had no formation whatsoever and were already prepared to scatter in all directions.
In normal cases, they might have been nothing more than a disorderly mob, but these were veterans who had fought mid-to-low-level monsters from the demon realm on the frontlines, and they had deeply etched into their hearts how to keep from losing their fighting spirit.
"Hamstring them!"
"They're walking right between us!"
Even while scattering everywhere, some mercenaries calmly threw nets or ropes with hooks to pull the cavalrymen off their horses one by one and hunt them down.
Some used long polearms to attack the legs, and some aimed their bows at gaps in the armor.
The tactics of veteran mercenaries, each capable of making their own judgments on the battlefield, existed in a realm of unpredictability for regular soldiers.
Clang!!
"Dodge! Break through!"
Most of those attempts were neutralized by thick armor and well-honed skills, but the damage was not negligible enough to ignore.
"Forward march—!!"
Eventually, at the commander's order after confirming that the knight order could not inflict significant damage, the soldiers began their advance.
The mercenaries looked disgusted at the sight of the giant steel hedgehog, its sharp spears protruding here and there between the shields.
"Fuck. Reminds me of a shield-bearing ogre."
"A giant hedgehog for me."
"Let's go—!! Let's rip these sons of bitches apart!!"
Orders not to retreat also came down from the Damamolon side.
The mercenaries, each clutching their own weapons, ran towards the defensive line, hurling their respective throwing weapons or firing projectiles into the sky.
"If you surrender, I will spare your lives!!"
"Shut up, you bastards! There will be no surrender!"
Count Lub's knight shouted, but the only reply was a venomous roar.
Now, the only thing left to do on this battlefield was to kill each other.
A real war had broken out in this world.
It was an event almost fifty years in the making.