XII. The Battle of Ramders Plain (2)
XII. The Battle of Ramders Plain (2)
Lothar had three main reasons for being so confident.
First, victory at the Battle of Schaffendorf had gone badly to his head.
The credit truly belonged to Rutger's seasoned tactics and the knights' courageous charge, but Lothar was intoxicated by having commanded an army for the first time.
It was not entirely fair to say he had done nothing. The general orders to attack and retreat had been his responsibility.
Even then, Lothar had contributed very little, but it would be unfair to claim he had spent the whole battle picking his nose.
Second, he had demanded a cavalry charge from the very beginning.
It had worked spectacularly, which only hardened his stubborn conviction.
Third, even Rheesian heavy cavalry could not match true knights.
It was not merely a difference in training. It was the difference between a handful of absolute elites and heavy cavalry raised in quantity.
That gap could not be helped. The Rheesians economized on iron with lamellar armor that covered only part of the upper body.
A knight, by contrast, was a human tank. Once one charged on horseback, very few things could stop him.
Together, those three facts had produced the complacent Lothar sitting before Keldric.
A Lothar who claimed that fewer than ten knights could crush a hundred foreign cavalrymen.
Keldric's head throbbed.
Partly from anger, but mostly from the sheer misery of watching someone act with so little common sense.
Baron Yaven was a reasonably likable lord.
He did not disregard his people, listened to the condition of his territory, and valued commerce instead of looking down on it.
Lothar might share those virtues, but his bullheadedness and lack of military judgment were severe.
Had Baron Yaven raised him badly?
Keldric knew all too well how vicious a child could become after being indulged from birth.
And the cure for that kind of thinking...
'...Should I just quit?'
The thought suddenly crossed Keldric's mind: 'Wouldn't everything be easier if I told them all to fuck off?'
Serving in Lothar's army? He had somehow accepted that much.
But an acting liege this detached from reality made Keldric reconsider the entire arrangement.
He could not blame himself for signing the contract.
Who could have known Baron Yaven would be bedridden or that his son would be this much of a bastard?
"Sir Lothar, more than a hundred cavalrymen are not a children's game."
Keldric suppressed the burning in his stomach and spoke carefully.
He chose his words, but his tone still came out sharper than usual.
"They are difficult opponents, and we have few ways to counter them."
"But Sir Keldric, I have fought Rheesians before."
"A hundred organized cavalrymen are not the same as three or four bandits raiding a village."
The Rheesians on the Rhamdus Plain included both heavy cavalry and horse archers.
The horse archers posed the greatest problem. With sufficient skill, they could strike freely across the open plain and withdraw before any response.
They could swarm close, circle, loose a volley, and slip away the moment a counterattack threatened or their quivers emptied.
It was the classic 'take the shot and leave if it fails' tactic.
Keldric knew it ranked beside humanity's ancient 'come and get me' tactic as one of history's two most infuriating forms of warfare.
If the horses' mobility could be restricted, the hunters and prey would reverse roles.
Unfortunately, the region was open plain. They would have to retreat a long distance to fight near woods or hills.
That would effectively abandon Rundt and every other forward village.
"Retreat all the way to Schaffendorf? Absolutely not!"
Naturally, Lothar, the lord's son, would never accept that.
Keldric's temper began to boil over.
"Then what do you propose?"
"We fight here, of course! Once we reach the Rhamdus Plain—"
"And what exactly will we do there?"
Keldric knew they would probably be forced to fight on the Rhamdus Plain.
What he wanted from Lothar was an awareness of reality—not childish declarations, but the considered judgment of a commander responsible for an army.
The room grew cold. A heavy silence settled over it.
Even Lothar, for all his inability to read a room, recognized that Keldric's patience was running out.
"Sir Lothar, they have more than a hundred cavalrymen alone. At least thirty will be heavy cavalry; the rest include light cavalry and horse archers. Their supply troops can fight as well."
"I know that."
"Oh, do you? Then I am even more curious. How do you intend to fight them, aside from ordering the knights into what amounts to a suicidal charge?"
Lothar fell silent and pretended to think.
Keldric could hardly believe it.
What had the man been doing until now if he was only beginning to consider a plan?
"Including the supply force, they number at least a hundred and fifty. We may have fifty more men, but they possess far better cavalry."
"Sir Rutger, how many cavalrymen do we have?"
"We added some in Bellam, so roughly twenty."
The number was hopelessly inadequate. Lothar had nothing to say.
Keldric saw resentment gather in his eyes.
"...Very well, Sir Keldric. I understand your concern."
They were only words. Lothar still looked at Keldric with hostility.
Keldric slowly loosened his jaw. The dense tension in the room grew heavier.
"Courage is a knightly virtue, but one cannot be courageous in every situation. I understand that you are afraid."
"..."
"But how can you decide the result before we even fight? You have let fear cow you."
Keldric set his helmet on the table.
Enough. He had been patient long enough.
Reason clearly would not reach Lothar. All Keldric had learned was that the future lord was exactly the kind of idiot who spouted nonsense.
If sheer stubbornness kept a man from listening, there was a simple and elegant solution.
'This remedy has worked since ancient times.'
Keldric clenched his fist. The crack of his knuckles echoed through the house.
"Sir Lothar, you just insulted my honor."
"Hm? What are you suddenly—"
Keldric's manner of speech changed completely. The people in the room belatedly realized where this was going.
"I am not afraid. I am prepared to enter the battlefield and stake my life at any time, and I have always acted without shame before God or my honor."
Clink. The plates of his greaves shifted with a metallic sound.
Alisa, Arno, and Helga stood behind him and swallowed involuntarily.
Keldric's back always looked enormous, but now it loomed like a mountain and made breathing difficult.
"I entered an honorable and sacred contract of duty before Count Bogenberg and God. That did not mean I would tolerate the destruction of my honor. And you just insulted it."
"No, when did I—"
"You called me a coward. I have never retreated from battle or feared going to God's side."
"Y-you insolent... Show respect! I am Lothar Mikesh, son of Devanu Mikesh, Baron of Yaven!"
Crash!
It happened in an instant. Shattered pieces of wood scattered across the floor.
As the crash echoed through the house, Lothar stared blankly at the space beneath his elbow.
The table he had been leaning on had returned to its natural state as splinters.
Snatch!
The wine cup Keldric seized followed the table's fate.
"You cur! Such insolence! How dare you treat the future lord—"
Crunch—!
"How... how dare you..."
Lothar could not finish.
The wine cup was visibly collapsing inside Keldric's massive hand.
He folded it like paper. The sight was so unreal that even Rutger, who had moved to restrain him, froze with wide eyes.
"Arno!"
"...Ah, yes! Sir Keldric!"
At Keldric's roar, the dazed Arno hurried over.
Everyone watched blankly. What was Keldric planning?
"Take it off."
"Uh... yes."
Arno hurriedly removed Keldric's left gauntlet.
Once it was off, Keldric tied back the dangling chain-mail sleeve and spoke.
"Sir Lothar, although you insulted my honor, until that moment I still regarded you as my liege under our contract."
"..."
"And this cruel betrayal is how you repay that trust. You call yourself the future lord? Then act like one!"
The timid Helga flinched, and Alisa quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
The sight cooled Keldric's head for a moment, but he could not undo what had already begun.
"Even after this insult, Sir Lothar, I believe your attitude can still be corrected."
Lothar's face crumpled. What kind of bullshit was that?
As if answering the question, Keldric strode right up to him.
"There is such a thing as a beating given out of love."
"A-a beating out of love?"
"Do you think people beat others only from hatred or to punish wrongdoing? Not at all."
Keldric raised his bare left hand for all to see. Lothar stared up at it.
Surely not.
Despite the desperate disbelief in his eyes, Keldric's pot-lid-sized hand was already flying toward his cheek.
BAM—!!
A bizarre sound exploded through the room.
It was not the slap of flesh against flesh. It sounded more like compressed air bursting.
"Hrk!"
Lothar's head snapped sideways with a strange cry, and he crashed to the floor.
He did not merely fall. His body lifted off the ground and flew four or five paces.
"Wh-what... What is the meaning of this?"
Several guards burst in from outside. Rutger stared at Keldric in utter disbelief.
The soldiers who entered later and understood the situation reacted no differently.
But Keldric possessed an invincible shield available to every knight.
"Sir Lothar insulted me first. He sullied my honor."
"..."
"Sir Rutger, I trust you will respect my honor."
"O-of course..."
Rutger nodded, sweat running down his face.
The soldiers hurried back outside without waiting for anyone else.
Satisfied, Keldric walked over and bent down beside Lothar.
"Sir Lothar, I remain with you for the sake of my contract with Count Bogenberg. But if you insult my honor again..."
"..."
"...Sir Lothar?"
Keldric slowly rolled Lothar over. The body that had been bowing to the floor turned limply onto its back.
"Uh..."
He sagged like a puppet with its strings cut. Keldric's expression immediately grew awkward.
It had been only one slap, and Keldric had restrained himself enormously by his standards. Its power was still no joke.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
Despite the strong feeling that he had fucked up, Keldric faced no punishment during the rest of his stay in Rundt.
Lothar regained consciousness a few minutes later and chose not to punish him.
Count Bogenberg heard the story from a messenger and even sent Keldric a letter expressing sympathy.
'I fully understand how much you have suffered, but please endure him once more despite your hatred!'
That was the gist of it.
The letter subtly criticized Lothar's thoughtlessness and, surprisingly, never rebuked Keldric.
That was understandable. A knight's honor was equal in value to his life.
Lothar's unrestrained insult had crossed a serious line.
So Keldric had responded in an equally unconventional manner.
The result was the disgraceful sight of Lothar enjoying the lesson so much that he fainted, but no one blamed Keldric.
Keldric could therefore discard even his faintest unease.
The angry impulse to quit also cooled like water after a sudden boil.
Telling everyone to fuck off and leaving was tempting, but the prize of the Barony of Gofrit still called to him.
Leaving Lothar's army was easy. Without an army of his own, however, Keldric would be left with nothing to do.
He was better off remaining on campaign and scraping together every benefit he could.
Besides, he could not unilaterally break his contract with Count Bogenberg.
Lothar might have sullied his honor, but Keldric had already slapped him senseless and reached an unofficial settlement.
Perhaps he could even hope that Lothar would turn over a new leaf.
Either way, there was no point dwelling on it. Keldric was not one to nurse a grudge.
Lothar would now think before speaking and could no longer dismiss the advice of Keldric and the other knights.
He probably did not want another beating for insulting a knight. Keldric, meanwhile, was now prepared to discipline him without hesitation.
The chance to prove Lothar had changed came sooner than expected.
"Sir Keldric, Lothar has summoned the knights."
A full-scale battle was approaching.