Chapter 355
Chapter 355
Iron Emperor — Chapter 355
KWAAANG!
Deafening booms rang out clearly even over the din of countless war cries and screams.
"It's begun."
A smile played at the lips of Marquis Palau Kenicle as he gazed toward the distant battle from in front of the command tent of the Henesia Holy Empire's main camp.
"Blamir, make sure you stir things up properly."
Perhaps it was his faith in Koyo Blamir?
Not a trace of worry or concern could be found on Marquis Kenicle's face as he stood facing the battlefield.
* * *
On a hill at one edge of the plain, a whole section of scattered scrub brush moved at once.
"Hoo-ee, that's impressive."
"A spectacle. A real spectacle."
"Heh heh, they're fightin' real good."
Human voices quietly murmured from the shifting brush.
Considering they were watching bones shatter, flesh spray, and blood geyser like fountains, those weren't exactly the right things to say, but each man was wholly absorbed in the show, chuckling away at whatever they found so amusing.
"Hey, Teolbo."
"What're you startin' now? You got no professional decency, you bum."
They were none other than Gerard's subordinates: Black Whale Walter and Santare, a former bandit.
Their bickering was brief. The two quickly turned their attention back to the battlefield and began talking.
"Doesn't that look a little off to you?"
At Santare's question, Walter cocked his head and asked back.
"What does?"
"Sure looks like the Holy Empire's getting pushed back right now, but for some reason it doesn't feel like they're fighting to win from the start."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
At Santare's puzzled remark, Walter stroked his beard and tilted his head as if he couldn't understand a thing.
"Take the magic corps. Doesn't it feel like they pulled back way too early?"
"What, it was flashy and impressive."
"That's the problem. For all the flash, the magic corps themselves pulled out early, like they were being cautious. And that's while the Holy Empire's vanguard is collapsing right now."
"Hmm."
Only then did Walter seem to sense something strange. His expression hardened as he began observing the battlefield intently. After watching it for a moment, his face twisted sharply.
"Dammit!"
When Walter, who'd been scrutinizing the battlefield, suddenly spat a curse, Santare's eyes lit up and he leaned in close, curious to see if Walter had figured something out.
"Did you figure something out?"
At Santare's impatient question, Walter wore a despairing expression and clutched his head in both hands.
"...No matter how I look at it, I have absolutely no clue what's weird about it."
"......."
Santare stared at the suffering Walter and silently cursed Gerard for sending the two of them here together.
"C-Captain!"
Suffering for an entirely different reason than Walter, Santare snapped his head up and answered his subordinate's call with irritation in his voice.
"What!"
"Those crazy...."
Instead of answering Santare's retort, the pirate underling burst out in shock.
At their subordinate's reaction, Santare and Walter turned their heads toward the battlefield, and similar—no, worse—words spilled from their own mouths.
"No way!"
"Those crazy bastards!"
The scene unfolding before Walter and Santare's eyes was something that had no business happening on a battlefield.
At least not by any common sense they knew.
* * *
"They've gone mad!"
Count Hail Selmier's pupils widened sharply.
"E-Everyone, defend!"
"Wizards! What are you doing!"
The Empire Coalition's command post descended into chaos in an instant.
The faces of the commanders issuing orders were no different from Count Selmier's.
No, even as they gave commands, they wore expressions of disbelief at what was happening right before their eyes.
"What in the world is the meaning of this!"
On the battlefield spread out before the raging Count Selmier, a spectacle beyond all common sense was unfolding.
BOOM-BOOM!
Chunks of human bodies scattered with the thunderous impacts.
And above them, a rain of death poured down.
"Aaargh!"
"S-Save me!"
Countless soldiers were flailing, trying to survive the fireballs and arrow storms suddenly falling from the sky.
"Gahk! W-Why are our own...."
An apprentice knight of the Holy Empire, who had been commanding soldiers at the very front, turned his head toward the main camp with the light fading from his eyes. Three or four arrows were embedded in his back.
Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwack!
More arrows launched from the main camp hammered into his chest plate. The Holy Empire's apprentice knight collapsed to the ground, his question forever unanswered.
It became utter chaos.
No—a battlefield is always utter chaos. But even on a battlefield, there is usually a distinction between enemy and ally. At this moment, however, there was neither enemy nor ally.
There were only human beings trying to survive.
"God damn it, what could you possibly gain by doing this!"
Count Selmier shouted a question he knew would receive no answer, his voice thick with unspent fury.
The beginning had gone according to his expectations.
The Holy Empire's magic corps, which had caused great tension, seemed largely ineffective against the defensive measures of the Empire Coalition's wizards.
Then, the Holy Empire's soldiers, who had charged through the rain of arrows, reached the Empire Coalition's ranks.
Their lines were already broken.
Naturally, the Holy Empire's soldiers crashed against the Empire Coalition's solid formation and were cut down by thrusting spears and swords, unable to put up a real fight. Even so, they pushed in tenaciously, and battle was joined.
The battle's outcome was decided from the start. No matter how desperately they hurled themselves forward, the Empire Coalition's formation never wavered, while the Holy Empire's soldiers collapsed helplessly.
The problem started after that.
Suddenly, the Holy Empire Magic Corps' spells began landing on unexpected targets.
The spells that until then had been fired only to cut off attacks against the rear lines now began crashing down where Holy Empire and Federal Empire soldiers were tangled together.
In short, they poured magic down all at once, indiscriminately, on friend and foe alike. Right after that, the arrow volleys, which had been comparatively restrained until then, rained down all at once in the same direction.
Of course, the arrows fell without distinguishing between the Holy Empire's own soldiers and the Empire Coalition's enemy troops.
Arrows and magic have no eyes.
"Are they going this far just to force a melee? Is that it!"
Count Selmier's face increasingly twisted into that of a demon. They were ordinary soldiers, treated as expendable, but even so, stabbing your own allies in the back was something that should never be done.
Grrrk.
Count Selmier ground his teeth hard, drew his sword, and muttered.
"Fine. I'll play your game. I'll make you regret this war."
Under the indiscriminate attack, the Empire Coalition's vanguard had turned into a scene of hellish chaos.
Into that chaos, the Holy Empire's second line and the mercenaries charged, plunging the battle into a melee.
Sacrificing countless lives in the vanguard, the Holy Empire had dragged the battle into a melee.
A vision of hell unfolded.
"Heh, good."
A sinister laugh slipped through Koyo Blamir's lips.
That was his reaction the moment he crossed over the earth where enemy and ally had tangled together and become charred lumps and shredded flesh.
Behind him, tens of thousands of mercenaries surged forward. The enemy formation had already collapsed, bought with the lives of their own men. Under normal circumstances, this kind of chaotic melee would have been difficult to pull off.
The mercenaries following him showed no hesitation, as though they had anticipated this situation. Unlike them, the Empire Coalition troops, still gripped by panic, came into view right before their eyes.
"Dumbstruck fools."
While the corners of Blamir's mouth curved upward, his greatsword came crashing down.
CRUNCH!
The sound of tearing flesh.
It was the sound his greatsword made as it bisected the torso of the enemy soldier before him. At the same moment, Blamir's mad laughter erupted.
"Kwahahaha! It's finally hunting time!"
"WAAAAH!"
At his cry, the mercenaries let out a welcoming roar and poured toward the Empire Coalition's soldiers.
* * *
Unlike earlier, when the forces of the Holy Empire and the Empire Coalition had been clearly distinguishable, once they plunged into the chaotic melee, that distinction blurred.
"Teolbo, doesn't something feel off to you?"
Santare's doubts continued.
"Of course it feels off!"
When Black Whale Walter chimed in agreement, Santare glanced over and spoke as if confirming.
"Right?"
"Yeah, why'd those Holy Empire bastards attack right over their own guys' heads?"
"......Is that the only thing you find strange?"
"......."
Under Santare's incredulous look, Walter fell silent. Letting out a sigh, Santare turned his head and gazed back at the battlefield.
The battlefield was different from the start, but the Holy Empire was now clearly at a disadvantage.
Perhaps because the Empire Coalition had anticipated a melee and sent a large number of commanders forward in advance, their momentarily faltering momentum was beginning to recover.
The melee had been forced at the cost of their own soldiers' lives, but the result was predictable. It might have worked in a small engagement, but in a clash of more than a hundred thousand troops, the Holy Empire's tactic was unlikely to have much effect. If anything, it could only breed distrust among their own men.
Could soldiers who just watched their own side attack them from behind calmly fight the enemy in front of them?
Probably not.
And because of that, except for some of the mercenaries, they were being visibly pushed back across the board.
Even Santare, normally sharp enough to be sent on reconnaissance like this, could only sense that the Holy Empire's actions were strange. He hadn't figured out anything beyond that.
"The Holy Empire bastards are gonna lose."
That was Walter's simple assessment as he stroked his bristly beard. Looking at the current situation, even people who had never experienced war could reach that conclusion.
"Must be nice."
"What is?"
At Santare's envious tone, Walter cocked his head.
"Being simple."
"You sneaky little shit!"
"Dumb musclehead. No idea how you even manage piracy."
The order to observe the war had long since vanished from their minds. They were bickering again.
"I'm better than a sneaky bastard like you!"
"Better, my ass. You, the least efficient one out of all of us, are better?"
"What do you mean, worst efficiency!"
When Walter bristled, Santare clicked his tongue and kept going.
"You go out to raid five merchant ships, sink four, and only manage to loot one. Is that good efficiency?"
"Ugh."
In the end, Walter ran out of things to say and shut his mouth. The idea was to keep as many alive as possible to loot more, but Walter's whole approach was to smash everything first and think about looting later, which naturally led to those results.
Toward the fuming Walter, Santare started lecturing as though he'd teach him a thing or two.
"That's why you get beaten every day. Look, you can tell at a glance who's in charge and who isn't on a merchant ship. Take out the leader first and the rest inevitably get scared, but you just smash everything first and..."
"Wait. Could it be?"
Both the lecturing Santare and Walter stiffened their faces simultaneously and turned their heads toward the battlefield. As they kept their eyes fixed on it, Walter's and Santare's expressions grew harder and harder.
"Hmmmm."
The playful expressions were gone from both Santare and Walter. Watching the battlefield, Walter asked as if to confirm.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I get it now."
Santare nodded.
The Empire Coalition was definitely dominant on the battlefield.
That, as they had thought earlier, was entirely expected. But was the Holy Empire recklessly starting a battle whose outcome even Santare and Walter could fully predict?
The Holy Empire was the defending side.
The battle had been strange from the start, with them picking a fight they were bound to lose. Even if the goal was to force a melee, using their own soldiers as sacrificial lambs was also bizarre. There was no way a commander handling a hundred thousand men was dumber than a former bandit or a pirate whose specialty was smashing everything in sight.
Especially not the Holy Empire, the traditional powerhouse.
"Keh, well, I did think it was weird from the moment they put conscripts, not even elite troops, in the opening battle...."
At Walter's muttering, Santare made an incredulous face.
The Holy Empire's aim had never been victory in this battle from the beginning. What they were aiming at was a long-term gambit.
That gambit was to reduce the number of low-level commanders through the chaotic melee.
"They're really unbelievable bastards. They've made up their minds."
Santare's eyes were fixed on this operation that was spearheaded by such absurd sacrifice.
But judging solely by results, it was undeniably a brutally effective operation.
It was an operation only someone capable of treating every soldier dying before his eyes not as a life, but as a mere number, could carry out.