The Brans Army's Invasion (2)
"You want to stick that old man out front as the vanguard? Then what about me?"
Tifa asked, staring down at the map of Zeiland and its surrounding region spread across the table.
I tapped the spot where the castle stood.
"Lady Tifa, I would ask that you remain inside the castle with two thousand soldiers and handle the defense of the territory."
"Wait… just hold on a moment."
Kane wiped the cold sweat running down his face and asked,
"If you're entrusting Lady Tifa with two thousand soldiers… then what of me, standing at the vanguard?"
"You will sortie with the remaining troops."
Kane's face twisted into a look of pure horror.
"If two thousand men are stationed within the territory for Zeiland's defense, then even scraping together every last soldier for the interception force leaves us with roughly thirteen hundred men… or am I mistaken?"
"No. You're correct."
So what I was proposing, in plain terms, was this:
Put a man who was clearly no general — an administrator-type officer — at the head of a mere thirteen hundred soldiers and send him to face eight thousand. Meanwhile, park two thousand troops as a garrison, and leave them with the most combat-capable general in the entire force.
Even a ten-year-old would find that decision incomprehensible.
Honestly, I didn't understand why I was giving these orders either.
My mind simply kept insisting that this was the right move.
"…Swen. Do you have some personal grudge against me? No matter how I look at it, this sounds like nothing more than an order to go die as bait."
"Yeah! If Old Man Kane takes the vanguard, he's definitely gonna die! I'll take the front instead!"
"No. Lady Tifa, please devote yourself to the castle's defense."
"But why?!"
Tifa shouted, frustration boiling over.
"You gotta give us a reason! If you've got a plan, say you've got a plan. If you've got an idea, tell us what kind of idea. If you've got a scheme, just say you're gonna try to scrape something together and ask us to help. We can talk like that, can't we? We're on the same side! We should at least be able to share information!"
She was right. Completely, utterly right.
I wanted to tell them so badly it was driving me insane.
I wanted to say it cleanly — that somehow, miraculously, we were going to win, so just follow me.
But what could I do?
I could only predict the favorable outcome. I could not predict the process that led to it.
My job as a strategist was to package that process as convincingly as possible. But even if I tried to dress it up, I wasn't some walking encyclopedia of military tactics. If I spouted nonsense and the situation resolved itself some other way, that would create its own set of problems.
Garand Eternity Saga was an old, outdated game that never demanded high-level tactics from the player to begin with.
Still, I understood their reaction perfectly well.
Things will work out somehow, and the result will be good. But I don't know how. Anyway, trust me and do as I say.
If a strategist said something like that to me, and I were the lord, I might well have him beheaded for sheer insolence. That kind of line might work after I'd proven myself — but this was my first battle as their strategist.
"…"
Luna looked at me with a sorrowful expression. I read the thoughts behind her eyes.
She wanted to back me. She wanted to believe in me. But she herself couldn't quite reach a firm conclusion either.
How do I convince them?
This wasn't like telling someone to go work the market and trust me. This was war. We were under invasion. People could die. In a situation like that, simply demanding "just trust me" would never produce real conviction.
And in a life-or-death operation, nothing was more dangerous than committing without understanding.
Given the result my mind had produced, the outcome would surely be good… but I still wanted to eliminate even the smallest variable.
In that case—
"Understood."
"Alright. So? How exactly are you planning to stop eight thousand soldiers with a deployment like this?"
At Tifa's question, I closed my eyes and spoke carefully.
"For the moment… I cannot explain the details."
"What…? Hey, are you kidding me?! You call that an answ—"
"However!"
I cut Tifa off sharply. She had been about to lunge at me in full fury, and the sudden force in my voice made her flinch and hesitate.
"I will stand at the vanguard as well. I will join Lord Kane with the thirteen hundred soldiers and ride out to intercept. Will that be acceptable?"
"Th… that's…"
"I am deeply sorry, but my plan must not leak to anyone. Even among allies — especially when we are backed against a cliff — I want to execute this scheme as safely as possible. But if I merely talk and then sit somewhere safe while sending all of you into the jaws of death, of course you wouldn't trust me. So."
I pointed to the position where Kane's interception force would advance.
"I will ride out at the vanguard with Lord Kane."
"A… are you serious?"
I looked at Kane and spoke with more gravity than I ever had before.
"Lord Kane. Do you truly believe I would send you to your death? If dispatching you there were nothing more than shoving you toward the grave, do you think I would go with you?"
"W-well, that's true, but…"
"Then trust me, and follow my orders. I will protect Zeiland. Without fail."
I turned immediately to Luna.
"My lord. Please make your decision."
"…"
Yes. No matter that I was a strategist with an Intelligence of 100 — whether or not my words were followed was ultimately the lord's choice. If Luna refused to believe me, what good was a prediction with a hundred-percent accuracy rate?
She listened, sank into thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"…For this defense of Zeiland, we shall prepare with full regard for Strategist Swen's counsel. Anyone who objects, step forward."
"Ugh, seriously…! If Luna says so, I'll do it… but listen here, Mister Strategist. If something goes wrong and Luna dies, your head comes off by my hand. Got it?"
Tifa threatened me in a menacing tone — but whether it was her personality or some buried certainty that I was right, she didn't sound particularly frightening.
"As you wish. However, once the operation begins, I ask that you follow my instructions to the letter. Under no circumstances abandon the defense and charge out through the gates with your soldiers."
"What do you take me for?! Don't worry about that."
"Haa… honestly…"
Kane still looked thoroughly displeased, but he was not the type to sabotage an order once given.
"Very well. Lady Tifa, assemble the garrison. Lord Kane, form the interception force. Time is short. Move quickly."
"Got it!"
"Understood. Then… I'll see you shortly."
The two of them left the castle. Alone with Luna, I spoke.
"My lord."
"…?"
Something had been nagging at me the entire time.
Why had my mind concluded that two thousand soldiers needed to be stationed for Zeiland Castle's defense? If those troops had to be left here, it meant there would be a use for them. Somehow, by some path I couldn't yet see, a direct enemy raid was possible.
If it came, it would come not from the front but from the rear — and to our rear lay only a handful of minor powers similar to our own.
I couldn't assert anything with certainty. But saying something versus saying nothing could make a considerable difference in our preparations.
I leaned in and spoke to Luna in a low voice, almost a whisper.
"There is a high likelihood that someone will launch a surprise attack on this castle. It may be one of the nations to our rear — or perhaps a mercenary company hired by the Brans Army."
"…!"
Luna started, then asked,
"Is that why you organized a castle garrison…?"
"Yes."
"But… if it is a raid, the force wouldn't be that large. Wouldn't it be better to put more weight on the interception force facing eight thousand soldiers?"
"…"
I was still searching for an answer when she slowly shook her head.
"…No. I will trust you, Lord Swen. You need not explain. As you said — nothing is more dangerous than a scheme that comes unraveled."
Trust, was it?
In all my life, I had never received faith this one-sided. Honestly, aside from finding that treasure chest by ordering commercial activity, I hadn't shown her anything as a strategist. And yet this woman believed in me this completely.
I was only human. Of course I wanted to repay someone who believed in me.
"I will return alive. Without fail. You must survive as well."
"I understand. I will survive. Lord Swen… please, you must come back alive too."
I left the castle slowly and made my way toward the field where the interception force was being assembled.
Zeiland Castle was not particularly far from Anel Castle, the seat of the Brans Army. From Kihara Castle — the nearest Brans territory — a forced march could cover the distance in a single day.
At a full run, they could have reached the gates in no time at all. But—
"Slow the advance!"
Kalintz Brans was deliberately holding back his army's pace.
The operation he had devised was a pincer strike.
While eight thousand soldiers drove in from the front, a force from the Garamill Army — one of the powers sitting behind the Lunarien Army — would strike Zeiland Castle from the rear. The "negotiations" he had mentioned earlier had been precisely those talks with Garamill.
The Garamill Army feared the Brans Army intensely, so the negotiations had not taken long.
To synchronize the attack and throw the Lunarien Army into chaos, a slow advance was the better choice.
The plan offered the Brans Army advantages no matter how things played out.
If a large number of soldiers came out to intercept, the castle could be seized quickly — Garamill would simply overrun the emptied fortress. Soldiers who had lost their castle would panic, their morale plummeting straight down, and mopping up demoralized troops was easier than sweeping fallen leaves.
Conversely, if no one came out to intercept and they settled into a siege, that suited him just as well. With the advance deliberately slowed, Garamill would inevitably engage the Lunarien Army first, and the Brans Army could stroll in and take the castle once both sides had exhausted themselves.
In all likelihood, the enemy would dig in and hold. Forming an interception force out of a mere three thousand men defied common sense.
So all he had to do was advance slowly and wait for Garamill to wear the Lunarien Army down a bit.
Even if I do say so myself, this plan is perfect.
Did he really need to go this far against a mere three thousand? Perhaps not. But not long ago, Kalintz had suffered the humiliation of having territory retaken by Walnut Army soldiers. Ever since, no matter how weak the opponent, he had made a habit of deploying more than double their numbers and finishing the job properly.
He already stood out the least in terms of ability compared to his elder brother and his younger sister — who was also his lord. He had no desire to make the same mistake twice.
And just as he was thinking that—
"Enemy in sight!"
"The enemy's interception force has appeared!"
Voices rose from the front ranks of the column.
An interception force?
With only three thousand men to their name, they had actually sent out an interception force?
The unexpected move surprised him for a moment, but it changed nothing.
They must be in a hurry to die.
Well — if it were too easy, it wouldn't be any fun.
Kalintz Brans shouted with absolute confidence.
"All forces, prepare for battle!"
"That banner…"
"It's the Brans Army's flag, no doubt about it."
I nodded at Kane's words.
"So it is."
As expected, it hadn't taken long for the enemy to arrive. Kihara Castle — where I had stayed before joining Luna's forces — wasn't that far from here. If anything, given the distance, they had arrived a little late.
"Well then, what now, Strategist? Do we charge in and fight as we are?"
"…"
Thirteen hundred against eight thousand.
In this game, it wasn't as though there were no scenarios where you could win at that engagement ratio. Stick a single SSS-class general on the field and you could carve through soldiers like a knife through cake. But right now, all we had were Kane and me — and calling either of us high in Martial Force would have been a joke.
…
Battle was about to begin. At this rate, we would die. I would never return to my original world. I would never see Lunarien Iniang unify the continent.
But then—
I found my conviction again.
My Intelligence was 100. Intelligence 100 never erred.
Therefore, we would win. Without fail.
Holding that thought, I slowly opened my mouth.
"All forces, cha—"
But I never finished the word.
"Loose!!!"
A thunderous rain of arrows — thud-thud-thud-thud-thud — began to pour down upon the Brans Army from somewhere unseen.
"Wh-what?!"
"Is it the enemy?!"
"No — it's coming from over there!"
As if some divine messenger had descended upon the field, a countless storm of arrows came crashing down upon the Brans Army.