Chapter 52 – Territorial Dispute IV
Translator: Isekai Shousetsu
The Ars army and the DeBell army faces each other as they stood on the opposite sides of the river.
Up until now, they still haven’t contacted Almis.
They should have been able to contact him within several hours if they use a falcon. However, the only one who could use a falcon here is Soyon. And in order for the plan to succeed, Soyon is necessary ((so they couldn’t make her soul-ride the falcon.))
Their formation is something like this:
■■■■■
■←Elite Unit + Gilberto DeBell Army
～～～～～～～
RIVER
～～～～～～～
■←Elite Unit + Ron Ars Army
■■■■■ □□ ←Roswald + Cavalry
（Soyon, the Bowmen, and the Bomb Spears are behind the infantry）
It looks like the overwhelmingly numerically inferior Ars army, because they spread out thinly to not be encircled and annihilated, would immediately pull out when you collide with them squarely.
Both armies immediately went into combat without particularly discussing anything first.
“We are double the size of the enemy. We’ll take down these treaty-breaking cowards!!” Gilberto begins his advance.
The two armies collide in the middle of the river.
The river is unusually shallow that the deepest part reach only up to the lower part of the knee.
Naturally, the two armies fought only in the shallow parts of the river, that reaching up to the ankle.
You would have thought that the DeBell army, holding the size advantage, would immediately be tearing apart and destroying the Ars Army.
However, the battle is progressing evenly.
There are three reasons.
The first reason is the difference in morale.
The DeBell Army is army made with conscripted troops. Their morale is unusually low and their training lacking. Furthermore, all of them are peasants.
They’ve seen their fellow countrymen oppressed before their very eyes. To be made to fight someone who saved those countrymen is…
With this, it’s unreasonable for them to increase their morale.
Furthermore, it’s a huge factor that they don’t have that much experience with war itself. They exchanged a secret agreement with King Ferrum and held a ceasefire after all.
Compared to that, the Ars Army are all recruited soldiers so their morale is high. A lot of them also were originally farmers so they too don’t have much training. However, they have fought with the Ferrum Army countless of times so they are experienced in battle. Besides, there exists in them a great cause to free and protect oppressed people from tyrannical rule.
The second reason is the difference in equipment.
First, a third of the DeBell Army’s s.h.i.+elds are made of wood. The remaining two-thirds are bronze.
A third of their armor are made of wood while the remaining two-thirds are leather. Lastly, their spears are all bronze each with a length of 3 meters.
They seemed to essentially want to issue even longer spears, if you look at it. However, without sufficient skill, the spears would be unusable. Rather, if you consider skill, then the spears are still a little too long.
In the other party, the Ars Army’s s.h.i.+elds are all bronze. Their armors are all-leather too. The spears are four meters long with all spearheads made of iron.
The third reason is the bowmen responsible for rear support.
The DeBell Army’s bowmen are only conscripted hunters. Their bows are small because they’re only used for hunting in the forest while their arrowheads are made of stone.
In the other party, the Ars Army’s bowmen are elites tempered by Gram himself. Their bows are high powered long bows while their arrowheads are made of iron.
The Ars Army’s bowmen are shooting down the DeBell soldiers one by one, but the DeBell Army’s bowmen, in response, could not even send any kind of damage.
“Is the the right flank of the Ars Army a collection of monsters?” shouts a soldier of the DeBell Army’s left flank.
All of the soldiers a.s.signed in the right flank of the Ars Army are people under the influence of Almis’ divine protection. While some of them got injured, not even one of them got killed. Even wounds that would normally be fatal are just ordinary wounds for them, after all.
Thus, little by little, the DeBell army’s left flank starts to get routed.
Ron’s efforts particularly stand out.
“Toryaaaaaaaaa!!”
Ron, while holding a 5-meter long spear with his left hand, cuts a spear that jumped out at his heart with a sword in his right hand and making it impossible to use.
Naturally, the DeBell Army’s spears are concentrated against such a seemingly monstrous Ron but as a result a lot of them are rendered useless.
Having said that, the DeBell Army brought two times more soldiers. Gradually, they begin to obtain the upper hand.
“Push them back!! Kill them all!!”
Gilberto shouts with a large voice as they slowly pushed back the Ars Army.
As if they were getting pushed back, the Ars Army move to the center of the river and…
By the time anyone noticed, both armies became soaked with water that had gone from their knees up to half their bodies.
“Alright, it’s our turn! Let’s immediately go around and head for their rear!!!”
Roswald and his cavalrymen kick their horses in the abdomen crossing over the shallow parts of the river to go around their enemy.
Naturally, the DeBell Army tries to divert a part of their army to deal with them but…
“Hey, it’s taking too long!! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?”
“We apologize! Our feet are getting slowed down by the water and…”
The soldiers in the rear couldn’t change course considerably. It was quite harder than normal because of the long spears.
Furthermore, this was the middle of the river.
Gilberto raises his voice to urge his soldiers on.
However, it had the opposite effect.
The riverbed is not flat but rugged because of stones. The water level is different, too.
It’s obvious that if you hurried them to change course under these circ.u.mstances then the formation would break. Thus, here, the 40 bomb spears swoop down as if signaling the final blow.
The explosion occurs at the center making the formation collapse horribly.
Furthermore…
“It’s temporary fire! It’s just to deceive the eye!!”
As Soyon shouts this, a blaze rages from the explosion point. That however is not a real blaze. It’s a sorcerer’s illusion.
They pulverized some gra.s.s with a dazzle effect and mixed it with the gunpowder beforehand. It was originally a countermeasure for the refugees.
The gra.s.s’ particles scatter when the gunpowder explodes. This will then enter a human body.
After that, the sorceress cam use the gra.s.s as an intermediary.
Dazzle sorcery is not omnipotent. It’s an impossible charm. In other words, it’s impossible to make it seem water would appear suddenly from an empty s.p.a.ce.
However, they prepared a gla.s.s cup and it was surprisingly simple to make it seem full of water.
Thus, for the dazzle sorcery, against group targets, it should easily work if you made them lose their calm judgement.
Now, an actual blaze rages forth from the gunpowder’s explosion and the target is a group of 300 people. Furthermore, they’re in a state of confusion.
In other words, it’s the perfect timing.
Nonetheless, the affected side’s sorcerer would soon see through it and cancel it. This is because she would get an uncomfortable feeling since she couldn’t feel some hotness in the first place.
However, ((Soyon)) didn’t really need a long time to deceive the enemy. Even if they get to understand that it’s an illusion, the visual terror still remains.
Besides, once the formation breaks, just like a person’s heart/spirit, it can’t be immediately returned to the original.
“The enemy is considerably exposing their backs defenselessly, huh……just as planned. Alright, cut them down!!!”
Roswald a.s.saults the DeBell Army’s rear.
The DeBell Army was completely routed.
The Ars Army did not pursue.
As expected, if they pursued and invaded the enemy’s territory then they would be viewed negatively.
Even after all of this happened.
The Ars Army captured the DeBell soldiers one by one. They killed those who resisted.
Gilberto desperately ran for his life. To the Ars Territory.
It’s not like he’s fleeing to the Ars Territory because he wanted to.
The Ars Army went around to the back of the DeBell Army and routed them. With this, the Ars Army Infantry suddenly began to recover their strength and the DeBell Army ended up getting caught in the middle.
Gilberto was in disorder. From the very beginning, he was not a person of a caliber who could command an army more than a hundred troops.
He also didn’t have that much actual combat experience. All he had was ((experience)) to the degree of subjugating fugitives and rebelling peasants.
Naturally, he probably couldn’t even pretend to skillfully withdraw his devastated allies after being attacked by the enemy from the front and back.
He, like the other soldiers, recklessly fled, and without realizing it he was running to the Ars Territory.
“You’re the enemy commander, right? I’ll get that neck of yours!!!”
A man riding a horse chases him from behind.
Roswald chases after the enemy commander.
Roswald is running on horseback while the enemy is on foot.
In the blink of an eye, the distance shortens.
Roswald raises his spear………then calms down.
This battle.
The one to blame was without doubt the DeBell Army but the error is ours.
No matter what the reason, the first one who fought was us.
In this situation, is it fine to shoot at the enemy commander?
This is without a doubt a close person to Regal. A celebrated person who became the leader of a whole army. By some chance, he could be his relative and a great clansman.
Roswald puts himself in the reverse standpoint.
In other words, the one who got pre-emptively attacked would be them and Ron gets killed in the revenge invasion.
In this situation, would I be able to forgive the enemy?
Would Almis allow that to happen?
No. It’s unforgivable.
They would certainly ask King Rosyth to compensate for his life.
In other words, in this situation, killing this man would be exceedingly bad.
Conversely, if we let him live, then he’ll be a card in the negotiations.
Roswald rotates the spear and points down its other end. He knocks down the enemy commander taking great pains to make sure he won’t receive injury as much as possible.
The enemy commander splendidly kisses the ground.
Roswald descends from the horse and gently restrains the commander while contemplating whether he made the wrong decision.
“You’ve been captured!! Please be obedient unless you want to forfeit your life.” He’s probably a distinguished person so Roswald uses polite speech.
With this, Gilberto gets captured by Roswald.
Author’s Note:
Virgar is house-sitting right now.