Chapter 286
Chapter 286
Iron Emperor — Chapter 286
It is the right granted to the victor after war.
To exercise that right and resupply locally is only to be expected. But what unfolded before the eyes of the soldiers who had advanced with that expectation in mind was the wreckage of destroyed, abandoned houses and the sight of grain so thoroughly burned and ruined it could no longer even serve as horse feed.
Naturally, there was no suitable place to establish a foothold either. And the foundation for pillaging was also absent.
Their supplies could only fall short.
"Aagh!"
A soldier charging toward Duke Baikal went down with a long shriek, cut down by the blade of one of Duke Baikal's escort knights.
"Kill every last one of them! Don't let a single man slip back!"
A shout hurled forward—whether meant for the enemy or for their own soldiers was unclear.
SWISH!
"Gurk!"
"Do not fall back under any circumstances!"
As if answering Duke Baikal's cry, a blood-hot voice shot back from the Holy Empire's formations.
"Hoh."
At the sight, Duke Baikal wore the eyes of a predator that had spotted a delectable morsel, and he spurred his horse forward.
"Who are you!"
The young knight glared and shouted as Duke Baikal rode up to him. Duke Baikal answered with a beaming smile.
"Helios Baikal, young friend."
"Helios... of all people. The War God of the East!"
"My thanks for calling me that."
Baikal sent a sly smile toward the young knight who had cried out in disbelief, and in return, he drove his sword into him.
Whether from shock or because his skill was poor to begin with, the young knight failed to block even a single strike from Duke Baikal and gave up his heart.
"Gurg... this can't..."
Whatever filled him with such resentment, the young Holy Empire knight clutched his spurting heart, eyes wide, and toppled from his saddle to the ground.
"This is more doable than I expected."
Duke Baikal said it with a snicker, flicking the blood from his sword.
"The surprise is just beginning, you whoresons of the Holy Empire."
Duke Baikal's calm words faded into the blood-scented air.
Chapter 94 — The Collapsing Supply Line
The knight Viscount Kwai was now racing toward was a man who normally brimmed with bold confidence, and his swordsmanship was outstanding.
That was why Viscount Kwai had specially brought him when he led this supply unit. And now that very young knight, before his very eyes, had clutched his heart and fallen beneath his horse.
"No!"
He urged his horse on, but Viscount Kwai's anguished voice only echoed emptily; it could not halt the young knight's death.
"You bastard!"
Enraged, Viscount Kwai drew his longsword and kicked his horse even harder.
Around him, his escort knights spurred forward as well, each drawing their own weapons.
The enemy commander had evidently spotted them too, for he wheeled his horse around and began charging to meet them.
"You vermin of Roselin! I will not let this go!"
"Come on, then, you less-than-vermin of the Holy Empire!"
What answered Viscount Kwai's furious cry was a sneer that upped the ante. But in that moment, rather than angering him further, Viscount Kwai fixed his gaze warily on the one who had spoken.
Outwardly the man appeared middle-aged, roughly his own age, but the momentum of his charge was anything but ordinary. And had not Viscount Kwai known full well the skill of the knight who had just fallen in a single exchange?
"Taa-ap!"
"Hyah!"
The two charging middle-aged men shouted, urging their horses faster.
'There is only one force that could encircle us. Unless the homeland's intelligence was wrong... If so, then this man is...?'
Unease flickered across Viscount Kwai's face.
Hoping his own assessment was mistaken, he swung his longsword first.
SWOOOSH!
The speed of the charging horse added to the sword swing, and the shriek of air being torn rang out loudly.
"Yikes!"
At the terrifying sound of sundered air, a cry almost like a scream burst from the charging middle-aged man. But contrary to that cry, his movements as he received the attack were composed.
CLANG!
"Gnnh!"
It had been a powerful downward blow, yet a mere swing of the man's arm sent the longsword rebounding away. Along with it, the shock transmitted through his hand nearly caused Viscount Kwai to lose his grip on his sword.
SHNK!
"Waaagh!"
At the sound of shrieking steel and the scream that followed from behind, Viscount Kwai hastily wheeled his horse around.
The sight that met his eyes was of the same middle-aged knight who had effortlessly deflected his longsword, cutting down two of the escort knights who had followed behind him almost simultaneously.
Upon the sword that had snatched both lives in an instant, vivid, unmistakable Aura shimmered beautifully for anyone to see.
"The, the War God of the East!"
Viscount Kwai blurted out the name.
Even as he spoke, the sword in the middle-aged man's hand was embroidering the void with graceful arcs of blood—cleaving through another escort knight's weapon, his shield, and even his armor. In mere seconds, three knights had lost their lives futilely.
"How can you be here!"
Viscount Kwai cried out in a voice of utter disbelief.
Had Duke Baikal heard him?
Having cut down yet another, Duke Baikal turned to look back. Unlike earlier, he roared with a furious expression.
"This is my country, my land. Where I go is no business of a bastard like you!"
At Duke Baikal's killing-intent-laden roar, Viscount Kwai felt his body stiffen for a moment, but he quickly steadied himself and scanned his surroundings.
'So the main Roselin army was here...'
Only now did Viscount Kwai understand why his supply unit had been encircled. If the opponent was Duke Baikal, called the War God of the East, he himself was no match.
'I have to break out...'
In an instant, Viscount Kwai turned his horse aside and launched an attack at a Roselin knight occupying his perimeter.
"Yaa-ap!"
CLANG!
Steel met steel, spraying sparks.
Yet at this moment, Viscount Kwai's objective was not to lay out the opponent before his eyes. His sole purpose was to escape this place safely and inform the main camp of what had happened.
"You won't get away, bastard!"
"Damn it!"
As if reading his every thought, Duke Baikal's furious roar sounded from behind. With his urgency mounting, Viscount Kwai's sword-hand grew frantic.
"Guhk!"
In that instant, his last surviving escort knight—who had held on until the end—threw both arms toward the sky, slowly spun half around atop his horse, and tumbled from the saddle.
Seeing red blood stream unceasingly between helm and cuirass, it appeared his throat had been pierced through.
"Take him alive."
At Duke Baikal's command, several knights occupied the perimeter around Viscount Kwai. One after another they swung their swords, disrupting his movements.
Clang!
"Grnnh!"
The shield he had been barely holding onto fell away. His longsword, too, was notched all over.
"Out of my way, you bastards!"
Viscount Kwai thrashed his longsword and shouted desperately, but none of the Roselin knights would negotiate with him. Instead, they only swung their weapons more savagely.
SNAP!
"Wha, what!"
Finally, unable to withstand the assault, the longsword gave a shriek of its own and snapped in two.
His face gone pale, Viscount Kwai tried swiftly to draw a spare blade, but the razor-edged implements for taking a man's life—three or four of them—were already closing in around his neck.
Clop-clop!
The face of Duke Baikal as he rode up bore the arrogance of the victor.
"Hmph! Our wizards will already have informed the homeland of this attack!"
"No need to worry. Given the present situation, they'll grasp easily enough that we are the Roselin main army. Do you really think we would spring a surprise attack without preparing at least that much? However formidable the Holy Empire's magic corps may be, it's a gross miscalculation to think that our Roselin main army's magic corps can't handle the magical power of a single supply unit."
At Duke Baikal's words, Viscount Kwai's face crumpled miserably. In truth, even as he had declared it boldly, that part had worried him.
'Just what are they plotting...?'
Viscount Kwai's shoulders slumped powerlessly under the yoke of defeat. Even more than that, what worried him was what the main Roselin army—which ought to be facing the Holy Empire's main camp—was scheming, having come down this far.
After Viscount Kwai was captured, the battle rapidly drew to a close. Roughly half of the twenty thousand escort troops were killed or wounded in the engagement. Yet the ten thousand troops tasked with moving the supplies had, curiously, suffered almost no casualties.
The reason was that the Roselin army, even at the end, had concentrated solely on slaughtering the enemy escort force.
If one sought a reason, it was because from the very start, rather than rashly aiming for the supplies, they had focused completely on wearing down the enemy's numbers.
On the other hand, the Holy Empire army had a prior history of having two supply convoys destroyed before this, and the shortage of supplies at the main camp was so severe that the supply unit's ten thousand—excluding the escort force—had not budged from the secure center, staying there solely to protect the supplies.
In the end, even though the Holy Empire's strength was twenty thousand escorts and ten thousand supply troops, the actual battle took the form of fifty thousand Roselin troops against the twenty thousand escorts.
Moreover, rather than a small force assaulting a larger one, this had become a force more than double in size surrounding and ambushing a smaller one. The annihilation of the Holy Empire troops was as obvious as watching a fire, and as intended, the Roselin army achieved a great victory with only about a thousand casualties.
* * *
When the scheduled time for regular communication with the supply unit passed without any contact, the main expeditionary force led by Public Marquis began to be gripped by unease.
Fortunately, rain had fallen in the meantime, and by collecting the rainwater, concerns about drinking water were alleviated for a while. But other supplies had begun to run dry.
In particular, their earlier decision to use the soldiers' rations as horse fodder was now proving disastrous.
"Hoh, worrying. Still no communication?"
Public Marquis shook his head as he asked. The wizard in charge of communications bowed his head deeply as though he himself had committed some offense, and answered carefully.
"It has yet to appear on the expeditionary force's shared communications network."
Opinions were divided over the circumstances of the supply unit that had abruptly lost all contact, but it was still too early to jump to conclusions. Nevertheless, their mental fatigue was steadily mounting.