War of Rage (2)
War of Rage (2)
Eugene's army rested and conserved its strength. The autumn weather was mild, and with the upper reaches of the Seven River beside them, water was plentiful.
Those who trained.
Those who strolled.
Nobles shooting bows in the open hunting grounds.
mercenary captains trading with the camp merchants.
Servants cheering around jesters or brawlers.
mercenaries rolling dice or coaxing prostitutes.
Everyone could empty their minds for a while. The only busy one was Eugene, who possessed the large cavalry force.
"Horse archer team 1 has returned from the pasture, and team 2 says they will remain for two more days."
Eugene was looking over a map of Britannia with his dark elf staff officers.
"Team 3 moved north because the land was more barren than expected. To avoid overlapping routes with team 1 after this..."
The soldiers' meals could be managed with the food they had brought, livestock, and the camp merchants. But the warhorses consumed enormous quantities every day.
To maintain peak condition, each horse had to be provided with grain equal to 10 to 20 soldiers' rations, plus an additional 2 to 3 kilograms of hay.
Thus, while the southern supply route was being operated at maximum capacity, cavalry units had to be scattered throughout the central-west to actively secure pastures.
-I'm counting on you. Homi.
-When you return, I'll give you a shave.
Homi had also been assigned to the operation. She, who commanded hundreds of beasts with a mystic-laden whistle, had become a shepherdess leading sheep, goats, and camels.
But the central region was an environment with little grass for livestock to eat. Some territory belonging to the north, which had declared neutrality, was also interspersed, making route planning even more difficult.
"Hay has arrived from the Wandering Castle."
"Oh! At last!"
Thanks to this, when the messenger's report came, Eugene and his staff officers all rejoiced.
The grass that grew from the magic feed trough was the finest horse fodder. Without it, Eugene would have been forced to reduce the operation of his cavalry to a fraction of its current scale.
"A flag has been spotted coming from the southeast. It belongs to the Count Harvester family."
"Have they sent the promised food? Good news piles upon good news."
Hay aside, Eugene was not particularly desperate for food. The livestock he had brought were still plentiful, and grain and dried fish were being amply supplied through the southern supply route.
Count Harvester's provisions carried great symbolic weight. It was a recognition of authority between great lords of Britannia, a matter of establishing a cause since he could not move for nothing, and so on.
The problem was that what arrived carrying the Harvester family banner was not a supply convoy but a messenger.
"They lost?"
"I, I am sorry. I do not know much."
Under the gazes of nobles pouring in from all sides, the hollow-eyed messenger stammered helplessly. He had received only the bare minimum of news and ridden without sleep to get here.
"The eastern army should have been clearly numerically superior, so how..."
The vassals also murmured, looking at one another.
"Surely they did not go out to attack out of vainglorious pride?"
"Count Harvester is not such a foolish man. Why would he, when merely holding out would bring victory?"
The east, a granary region, was the most populous in Britannia. When a mobilization order was issued, its total forces comfortably exceeded ten thousand.
The central army held the advantage in individual combat prowess, but with such numbers entrenched in position, it was difficult to break through.
Above all, the eastern army had enough food to hold out for two years, while the central army was limited until winter at best. Count Harvester's side could have led the situation advantageously.
"Could the enemy not have used some trickery?"
"Is that man truly a messenger of the Harvester family?"
The vassals looked upon the messenger with suspicious eyes. Eugene, as overall commander, was not in a position to move based on the words of a single man either.
However, the merchants and the scattered spies also relayed the same story one after another.
"What we were doing, they were doing as well."
A large number of raiders had landed on the eastern coast and engaged in unlimited pillaging. That was the cause of the eastern army's defeat.
"Upon hearing news that their domains were being ravaged, the eastern nobles fell into chaos, and it is said Count Harvester failed to bring them under control."
Harassing the domains in the rear was a commonly used tactic. Because pitched battles between large armies were burdensome to both sides.
However, unlike Eugene, who occupied territory with restraint and management, the east was being completely devastated.
Villages burned, and the families of vassals were dragged out by their hair. Unwritten rules forbidding the touching of noblewomen or children were utterly ignored.
-Lord Harvester! I beg you, grant me leave to return!
-No. To pull out at this critical moment—are these the words of a sane man?!
-Look at this box! Those bastards I'd tear apart and still not be satisfied sent my two daughters'... daughters'...
The vassal could not bring himself to finish and trembled.
Inside the well-wrapped box were two blood-stained lower undergarments. Along with clumps of curly hair and even the necklaces the vassal had gifted his daughters on their birthdays.
Such mocking packages arrived simultaneously to the mobilized eastern vassals.
-W-wait! I am only a deliveryman! I did not even know what was inside...
-Shut up, you Kruger dog!
Only the adventurers who had been lured by great sums of money to deliver the packages without knowing their contents died one after another.
Count Harvester tried somehow to maintain control.
As a desperate measure, he had a lord who was deserting without leave flogged, but that was his mistake. The discontent of the vassals erupted all at once, and the chain of command collapsed entirely.
-It's a surprise attack!
-Look here! The enemy is upon us! This is no time for us to be quarreling among ourselves...
Attacked while internal strife was raging, they were shattered without even being able to offer proper resistance.
* * *
After confirming the details, Eugene remained puzzled.
"To simultaneously disrupt the rear would have required a large number of detached forces. Did the central army have such capacity to spare?"
At Eugene's question, the chief of staff answered immediately.
"They are not the Kruger family's army. They are Vikings from across the sea. It seems they prepared long ago by coordinating their words."
Gord had been tormented by Vikings until at some point their blood had mingled and they had assimilated. But Britannia was a nation that had resisted to the end and preserved its ethnic identity.
There was exactly one exception, and that was the central region. The nobles there had actively engaged with Vikings through marriage alliances.
They had practically monopolized the blood and military might of the powerful sea raiders. This was why they possessed the greatest armed strength on this island nation.
Across the sea northeast of Britannia lay petty Viking kingdoms, and there were many related families, including the maternal house of the Kruger family.
"Having even declared himself king, it appears he lured them into the civil war with the bait of titles and territory."
The chief of staff, hesitating briefly, gauged Eugene's expression before continuing.
"Among the lands Count Kruger promised the Vikings is a fief belonging to His Excellency Meyer."
"Look at this reckless scoundrel!"
"He's truly gone mad after proclaiming himself king!"
Eugene's vassals raged and stormed about in fury.
The Vikings were friends only to the central nobles; to the rest of the Britannians, they were nothing but barbarian invaders.
"Calm yourselves, everyone. Is it not common to promise the lands of obvious hostile forces as reward?"
Eugene, however, took it in stride.
"The fortunate thing is that the eastern army set all the food ablaze as they fled."
"That could have been disastrous. If that food had fallen into the Kruger bastards' hands..."
The vassals wore expressions that said they did not even wish to imagine it. At that moment, new envoys arrived from the Harvester family.
"Your Excellency. Please accept this token of our sincerity."
The chests placed before Eugene were brimming with gold and precious ornaments.
"Was it not food that was originally to be given?"
"In the current situation, it is utterly impossible to send a supply convoy to Your Excellency. It would all be plundered by the Kruger bastards."
"The amount seems rather excessive for an apology over a broken promise."
It was a sum that far exceeded the cost of purchasing the year's worth of provisions Eugene had been due to receive. The envoy dared not meet the quiet gaze of the ruler of the south.
"You wish for me to enter the war immediately, I presume?"
"If you would bestow this grace, my master shall not forget it for all his life."
As all gazes converged upon him, Eugene rubbed his chin. With Homi absent, the rough sensation of his stubble helped him focus his thoughts.
'It is autumn now. The stockpiled grain was burned, they say, but the crops harvested throughout the east must be lying everywhere.'
If things dragged on, the Vikings who had landed from the sea and the central army would merge into one. And the food obtained through pillaging would flow into their granaries too.
"What are the landed Viking bastards doing now?"
"They are still crazed with plunder. They come from such barren lands that, after getting a taste of undefended fertile country, they simply cannot stop themselves."
The chief of staff placed longship-shaped pieces upon the regions being plundered. They were spreading out in a direction entirely different from the massed central army.
King Kruger no doubt wished to quickly integrate them into his own forces, but it was hopeless. If they were the sort to heed such words, they would not be raiders to begin with.
Blood ties they might have as kin, but they were foreign warlords who had sworn no oath of loyalty. Naturally, he could not issue orders to them as king either.
In truth, they were less an allied army and more an uncontrollable wildfire. It was merely that the enemy's territory was what was burning.
"There is nothing to be gained by waiting any longer, it seems. Very well. We too shall advance."
"Thank you! Truly, thank you!"
"It disgusts me that outside forces with not a shred of affection for this land keep thrusting their filthy boots in. Tell them I shall teach the Kruger lot exactly what love of one's homeland means!"
The vassals all raised their military salute in unison, burning with fighting spirit.
"I will make them taste the southern sword they so looked down upon!"
"Feeble though I am, I will take upon this body everything that flies at Your Excellency. Whether it be arrows or a single drop of blood from those filthy Kruger bastards!"
There was no trace of fear to be found in the vassals' bearing. The armies Eugene had toppled, his skill at leading an organization outside of combat—all of it they had watched from by his side.
Everyone was convinced that their liege was a truly fearsome conqueror.
* * *
Amid the bustling civil war, there was one region that stood by and watched—the North.
True to its harsh and rugged mountain character, it was the land with the strongest regional identity. As defensible as it was, it was also a difficult position from which to advance outward.
-From now on, call me Constantine I!
The great lord of the North, Earl Constantine, had been well content merely to declare himself king.
This was an attitude King Kruger also welcomed, so much so that he sent gifts and congratulations. But the situation had now grown such that this alone could no longer satisfy.
-You understand the importance of this mission, yes?
-Yes, Great King!
-At all costs, this alliance must be sealed. Everything will be settled once the Northern army marches down and harasses Count Meyer's flank.
The Eastern army had suffered a great defeat, but it had not been annihilated. Many of its nobles, including its commander Count Harvester, had escaped and now fortified themselves in their respective domains.
They had failed to seize any food, and now Eugene's army was advancing. The Central army, despite its great victory, could not rejoice.
-I will carry out the royal command at the cost of my life!
-My daughters and sons—anything, whatsoever, I will put at stake. Should you only succeed, I shall grant you title and lands.
The envoy who arrived in the North with such resolute determination was left with a dazed expression.
"King Constantine is dead?"
"Yes, my lord. It seems a rebellion broke out in the meantime."
King Constantine, who had been preening with a crown on his head when the envoy first set out, was now a corpse in a coffin at the hands of the rebel army his younger brother had led.
The main stronghold of the Constantine family was belching out the smell of blood and smoke from every direction.
"Bring more buckets of water!"
Men ran about, dousing the charred-black houses with water. Plenty of surrendered and bound mercenaries were in sight, and yet-more uncollected bodies lay scattered about. It appeared to have been a most ferocious rebellion.
"W-what do we do about this? Shall we simply turn back?"
"Empty-handed? Talk some sense. I will meet the new head of the Constantine family and speak with him."
The envoy's head was in a daze, but the mission had to be completed. Whoever the leader was, nothing would change so long as the alliance was sealed.
The place to which the envoy was thus guided was an audience chamber smashed in places and stained with blood.
On what had once been the king's throne sat a man of weary complexion. He was in armor and propped a sword against the floor. Without question, this was the new master of the Constantine family.
"Your honorable Majesty! I thank you for granting me audience. Today I..."
"Hold."
The man raised a hand and cut off the envoy's words.
"No longer Majesty. It was my older brother who declared himself king—you already saw the man's funeral on your way here, no?"
Earl Constantine raised the family head's ring on his finger, letting it be seen. It was a blood-drenched ring that appeared to have belonged to the late king.
"The more I thought about it, the more it seemed my brother would run this house straight into ruin if left as he was. I have no interest in burdensome titles like Constantine II. Earl, as it has been, will suffice."
"...Today I have come to discuss a most glorious marriage alliance. Here is a personal letter from His Highness Kruger."
The Earl skimmed through the letter a page-boy handed him. He glanced down it so quickly it was doubtful whether he was actually reading it.
The envoy prostrated himself flat and beseeched him earnestly.
"The might of the Highlanders is well renowned. Even the Ancient Kingdom could not subdue the North by force and sought to negotiate instead."
"It was less that we were strong and more that these mountains were strong. Why leave out how, when we fought below the mountains, half the Highlanders were wiped out in a single stroke?"
"Ahem! His Highness Kruger has promised that, in exchange for entering the war, he will share with you the fertile lands of the East."
"You mean to ask us to fight Count Meyer's army."
The Earl's eyes, as he smiled coolly, were as cold as ice. He wiped his face, soaked in blood and sweat, with King Kruger's letter.
"..."
The rustling sound echoed through the hall, and the envoy's expression went rigid as well.
"We are Constantine. Do you know the etymology of that name?"
"It is 'unchanging.'"
As thoroughly prepared as he was, he could answer most things at once.
"That's right. We revere the unchanging. Land, if lost, can be reclaimed. Conviction, if broken, can be pieced back together through reflection."
As he strode closer, the Earl's finger poked and prodded the envoy's heart.
"But blood is different. Blood tainted by breeding with those savage Viking bastards can never be restored."
"Do you speak from true conviction?"
This was an insult aimed not only at the Kruger family, but at a great many of the nobles of the Central region.
"How is it that, in but a bare half-year or so, foreigners have come swarming like this? Those committing their outrages in the East right now are beyond the pale."
"This, too, is the way of a turbulent age! And when you get down to it, isn't Count Meyer also a foreigner who usurped the South?"
"The way of a turbulent age, you say? If someone's going to come in anyway, better a knight of Roman. Those fellows wear honor upon their lips as their constant byword."
Earl Constantine shrugged his shoulders.
"I quite liked the sight of them clobbering those Barsia lads, too."
With a dismissive wave of his hand, the envoy realized that negotiation was impossible. The new Earl's mind was already made up.
"I will concede that, without the North's aid, it will be a trying campaign. The final victor, however, will not change. His Highness Kruger's army is powerful."
After issuing his threat with as little outward sign as possible, the envoy bowed his head and offered his farewell.
Grab!
But then Earl Constantine seized the envoy by the neck as he tried to rise.
"Ghk."
"Stay like that."
A rough hand held him fixed in his bowing posture. Then the Earl bent at the waist and brought his mouth to the envoy's ear.
"You lot cannot win this war."
It was a voice that rumbled like a growl. Mingled within it were a beast's ferocity and a scholar's sagacity.
"The enemy you're trying to fight isn't merely a strong army. It's living history—the deadliest legacies of the First and Second Eras united. You can't cut down something like that just because you're handy with a sword or an axe."
When the Earl released him, the envoy, his teeth clenched, breathed roughly and retreated.
"I did not think that a man fierce enough to drench his hands in a brother's blood would prove so scholarly."
"Right. While my brother was alive, I'd thought to earn my bread as a historian. Return carefully. I wish you luck in the war to come."
Laughing as he waved lightly, Earl Constantine radiated murderous intent. His manner said that if the man uttered one more word, envoy or not, he'd kill him.
* * *
"The Central army is now moving east."
Now, at harvest time, every plain overflowed with things to pillage. The intent was to sweep through the East, where the main host had disappeared, and secure food and supplies.
"The Kruger family is said to have dispatched numerous envoys to the plundering Vikings."
"They mean to buy time against us. They intend to land Vikings along the southern coastline as well and set it ablaze."
The method was simple but effective. On the faces of the vassals who knew the horrors visited upon the East, a slight agitation arose.
An army that thinks of the future, and an army that lives only for today. The former was, of course, nobler, but during a war, the latter held the advantage.
Especially so because, unlike King Kruger who permitted unlimited plunder, Eugene enforced controls over his vassals' conduct with the people in mind.
For now, their morale was so high that they all followed well, but as time passed, creaks and strains would appear in maintaining cohesion.
Eugene sent messengers to the cavalry commanders who had dispersed to feed their horses, ordering them to regroup, and then marched east.
"Lightning arrows!"
"It's the Count's army!"
The small numbers of troops left in the rear did not even dare to confront them, fleeing in every direction.
"We have no place left to go. Only give us weapons and we will fight until we die."
The captives who had been exploited either sought their own paths to survival and departed, or, burning with vengeful fury over their destroyed homes, joined up.
Thus advancing, Eugene's army met with organized resistance for the first time.
"That fortress is Sludge Hold, my lord."
"You have done well to guide us."
A farmer who had lost his family to the Central army bowed his head, his eyes bloodshot. Homi pressed a silver coin into his hand for his trouble.
"They certainly named it well."
Looking out at the fortress that stood aloof amid the marshlands covering every approach, Eugene clicked his tongue.
The Central army sought to avoid a direct contest, but to abandon everything and flee would itself be a folly. Someone needed to stay behind to tie up Eugene's feet and conduct scouting.
Sludge Hold was the optimal place to undertake such a role.
Once the shield of the East, this place that had held back the Kruger family's ambition had ultimately been occupied, and now it stood as the greatest obstruction to Eugene's relief army.
The farmer clutching the silver coin bowed deep at the waist.
"My lord, a plague is spreading through that fortress. Please, I beg you, bring those vicious bastards to justice."
A small mercy was that the garrison inside the castle was not even in sound condition.
End
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