Feels like it"s been forever since I last did a main story chapter. Unfortunately, I don"t have any stock so no bulk today/tomorrow. My schedule is changing again so I"ll probably be putting out 1 chapter a day over the next couple of weeks.
This chapter was a pain. Curse your Berserk for giving people false expectations of battles during the middle ages! Quick everyone move to the right! *one week later* NO! They"ve dodged everyone to the left now! *two weeks later* Yes! Attack! *two minutes later* The battle has ended! We will now wait vigilantly for six months and then go home!
Year 7445, Month 8, Day 8
After hearing a conversation like they"d been doing some sports and thinking about some stupid things the details I heard from sister weren"t all that far off from what I expected. The stage for the battle this time was a village called Myuze on the Eastern part of the Dirt Plains and it seems it was originally a village that was pioneered by Rombert Kingdom around 50 years ago or so. After that, the lord of the village changed around three times and up until a short while ago Devas Kingdom was in control of it. The dispatch this time was an invasion of that Myuze village.
The one in charge of the overall command was Viscount Kenudus the third company commander of the first knight group and the core forces this time were the second knight group and Webdos knight group. Other than that there was a number of smaller territories knight groups besides Webdos who"s members didn"t even add up to 300 people and the total forces added up to around 2,300 people or so.
The composition of the 2,300 people was around 200 people including retired knights who were permitted to be on horseback(More than half of those are former knights and lords of villages like brother, or even if they"re not knights the relatives of lords and n.o.bles like father), around 1,200 people including archers and infantry, then the remaining number was largely made up combat engineers, supplies, and those sorts of support units needed for setting up a military encampment from the second and fourth knight groups. These supply units as well as escorts and command of the combat engineers also end up needing infantry and commanders to oversee things as well.
From the first knight group including Viscount Kendusu who was acting as the commander and sister there was another 20 people dispatched. Half were knights and squires and then the other half were an exclusive supply unit with high mobility. Sister partic.i.p.ated as an advisor for someone named Radoru who was a fourth or fifth company commander of the second knight group as they split the entire army into three groups and he was leading the right-wing. The dispatch unit that included Bakuddo village and the Webdos knight group was the core of the left-wing and the leader Sendhel.Webdos was the commander of the left-wing.
The various random additions like the knight groups of small territories which are difficult to take command of and the remaining units of the second knight group were all gathered and positioned in the center where Viscount Kendusu, two other true knights of the first knight group, and three squires took command over everything.
Around midway through February they arrived in the King"s Direct Territory roughly 90 Km to the north of their objective location of Myuze village in Zango the capital of the Zangotto region which Count Jobu acts as governor of, there most of the army of Rombert Kingdom excluding a portion of units gathered and started training for about a month on the deployment. No matter how late they are by this point the Devas side would have detected the organization of an invasion army from Rombert Kingdom. About one month later the highest levels of Devas should have been conveyed the information.
After that, following a week long march, they arrived at the point roughly 10 Km north of Myuze village and setup an encampment in Bekkosu village which was the front line at the time. The army of Rombert Kingdom swallowed up the roughly 200 members of the second knight group that were stationed in Bekkosu village for defense and then finished up the organization of the invasion army.
Just before April, after Rombert Kingdom"s army finished organizing itself they spent a week setting up a simple field encampment around 8 Km South-west of Bekkosu in a plains area that could act as bridgehead. By this point Devas should have already grasped the fact that Rombert"s objective was Myuze village but since Karuhe village which was about 10 Km to the West of that was important as well they couldn"t leave it alone. In the first days of April the Kingdom"s army started moving 10 Km to the west from their objective of Myuze village then in order to deal a blow to Karuhe village they started marching to the South-west. Of course this was a diversion, their objective was limited to Myuze village.
Since Viscount Kendusu created a situation where he had to split up their important defense members he sent the combat engineer unit ahead to Karuhe village and for the time being showed an army on the scale of close to 1,000 people in the distance. The combat engineers waited for the time they were notified of before hand and then started withdrawing to the bridgehead at their fastest speed. With a fixed difference in time, the combat members who were late to leave the bridgehead they had fortified started moving roughly 6 Km towards Myuze village in the South-East.
Obviously the defense forces of Myuze village on the Devas side intensely resisted this. Since the march was slow just like in the middle ages, it"s only obvious the Devas side had long since been aware of it. The defense force was selected from the surrounding villages in Devas and they were sent to Myuze and Karuhe villages. Since the Rombert side also read this, they had no choice other than to just split their defense forces as well.
On the Devas side the defense could be considered a success if the main army of the defense on an equal scale as the invading army gathers from somewhere and moves to Myuze village during the time they"re somehow resisting the invasion and securing both villages. On the other hand it"s Rombert"s victory if they"re somehow able to force the defense forces into surrender and make the village into an occupied territory before Devas"s defenses arrive.
In order to capture a base defended by an army in the 1,000s they need an army with equal mobility that"s about three times the number. Rombert Kingdom"s this army this time has over 1,200 people in just combat members. In order to force them into submission an army with equal mobility over just over 4,000 would be needed. Even if they temporarily divert some of the infantry into combat engineers, including the supply units they would need an army of close to 6,000 people. Just, Devas"s army has a large number of conscripted soldiers so their mobility falls quite a bit behind Rombert Kingdom"s army. Sister said that they would need even more than that.
There"s records that the Emperor Otto the Second of the Holy Roman Empire commanded an army of 2,000 cavalry and 4,000 infantry with shields in the year 981 AD but Orth is just a bit above that, though since it falls behind the level of j.a.pan during the warring states era, in order for them to take back Myuze village with power after it"s fallen once there"s no method other than moving the permanent army to exceed them in number by a certain amount.
I don"t know whether or not they would come from something or other Gurizu the capital of Devas Kingdom which is several hundred Km in the south but I"m sure they would have to do the bare minimum organizing of it as well, even if they skip over the training they won"t make it here in just a month or so. The Rombert side fully understood that and put it into their calculations. The average number of combat members in each of the villages that exist along Devas side of the front lines of the Dirt Plains is estimated to be around 200 from information gathered using spies and scouts up until now. Even if they were to get reinforcements from neighboring villages there"s a large enough number to capture it all at once gathered.
They performed two attacks on Myuze village and during that time took a certain number of prisoners from the reinforcements trying to move from Karuhe village. A short while after the third attack the defense unit of Myuze village suggesting surrender.
It was in the middle of April.
The family of the lord of Myuze village even down to the women and children were killed in front of the villagers(Since they"re the lord, if they reside there then their a.s.sets are confiscated, and unless they"re from a considerably influential family a ransom is meaningless. And then, it was just a matter of them not being from an influential family), the remaining living members of the defense unit are employed as workers for the combat engineers and a register is made of them all as war prisoners.
When I tried retorting to sister how Rozural said something like, "The battle itself was suppressed around the end of May" this morning she said "It"s just talk while stopping in restaurants on the way back. Since you never know who might be listening, we cover up the things we talk about outside." And then also said, "Make sure you cover it up when you talk about it outside for another six months or so as well. Rozural as well." I wonder if the schedule for a battle that"s already ended is really that important of a point? No, I guess it"s proof of the training given to the true knights of the first knight group huh?
After that a governor was dispatched and until they finish organizing the troops to occupy the village again they kept Devas in check while keeping an eye on things. The defense army that was believed to be sent by Devas Kingdom to both Myuze and Karuhe villages entered Karuhe village and after that didn"t show any sort of movements towards recapturing it, then one month after that while leaving a slightly large defense unit it was confirmed they had started withdrawing. Around almost the same time negotiations for ransom started up.
Those whose ransom was successfully paid were released and then around the end of June the first knight group that sister belongs to started returning in order. The war prisoners whose ransom wasn"t paid are pulled along when the second knight group returns to it seems they"re still on hold for a short while longer. Supposedly it seems there was a few of the knight ranking who were permitted to be mounted included so I can hold my hopes high. I don"t intend to leave the position of head slave to Zulu so easily but there"s no guarantee I would be able to confirm an even greater level of loyalty on top of being superior.
It seems that sister who was in the unit on the right-wing only knows the general movements of the Webdos Knight Group that was in the left-wing unit but it seems she wasn"t interested in anything other than whether or not there was any damage to the Bakuddo village dispatch unit.
Obviously, she didn"t even know about the existence of Kuro and Mary. She sure is a useless sister although it"s not like I had told her about them before hand(It might have been fine to mention it before she departed last year but I didn"t want to bother sister who"s a true knight anymore than needed), so this is nothing more than me making complaints. From the start older brother is familiar with Kuro and Mary and they were in the same left-wing unit so sooner or later I should get information on their end as well.
In any case it"s good that sister and the people from Bakuddo village were all safe. I"m a bit worried about Kuro and Mary but since it was an invasion strategy that ended in success against a village the chances of them being taken prison are close to zero. In the first place since Kuro and Mary are both Free People they should still be in their third year as squires. If I were to state my own wishful observations then they"d probably have been deployed in one of the supply units as guards for Webdos knight group and been on the battle field with the feeling of a field trip. No, it"s not like I know though.
The casualties for Robert"s side this time was about 40 people and about 50 seriously injured. Though I say that there were only about 10 people who suffered injuries serious enough to urgently put their lives in danger and within a few days after the enemy surrendered sister fully healed them it seems. It seems that the largest number of casualties were infantry members of the second knight group that was in the central unit.
In comparison the casualties on Devas side supposedly exceeded 100. The number they captured as prisoners was around 400. Among those over 200 were seriously injured to the point of not being able to move so it"s a great victory. It seems they managed to capture around 200 prisoners from their supply units. Since horses and cattle can"t easily be used on Orth the number of people in the supply units is considerably high. Of course, it"s not as if there are no horses or cattle used for the supply units but obviously they"re confiscated.
Since I was able to hear the general summary, I congratulated her on her return once again and excused myself from the first knight group"s headquarters.
I returned to my company and while I was killing time playing with Anna and Hanna, Zenom returned carrying various smoked meats. He shared a bit of them with me and I found something unusual. a.n.a.logue cheese made from soy. It seems to have the name {Kazotto}. Since bread exists, yeast is known but the yeast for even something like this had been discovered? When I tried eating it, just as expected from something smoked, it had a {smokey} fragrance and was quite literally cheese.
While Miduchi and I were showing admiration for the smoked a.n.a.logue cheese and it was just as Basutoral and the others returned, after letting him have a bit he started persistently questioning Zenom on where he bought it. It seems he thought of mixing it into the sausages. It seems Basutoral went to buy the pig"s bowels to use as sausage casings and a saw. Since the structure of a meat mincer is simple I taught him as far as I could remember but it seems he intends to make one. If you were to draw a design of knives like cross shaped shuriken that revolve around or a plate with lots of holes in it then make a request from a blacksmith they might be able to make it.
The problem is the roll part but I told him if no matter what he can"t make it to let me know. It might become practice for the spell {Trans.m.u.te.Rock.To.Mud} but doing that is really exhausting. I can put in the effort to make the parts for a gun but I"d like to be pardoned from concentrating several hours just for the sake of making the roll for a meat mincer, if you intend to make it into a business then it would be more convenient to have someone else other than me manufacture it as well. But in the end, I feel like I"ll have to make the first one.
Around evening we returned to Boil Manor with the three who had reserved seats on the public carriage to Baldukk.
...................
Year 7445, Month 8, Day 10
"Then, we"ll finish today"s training here. Starting tomorrow we"re entering the dungeon again but this time the leader we send from the {Slaughterers} to the {Butchers} is Toris. Miduchi will act as a.s.sistant. Bel will lead {Sooner} and Zulu will be the a.s.sistant."
After seeing everyone nod I declared the end and ordered the slaves to gather the wooden swords and spears for training use.
When I returned to my inn there was contact from "Slave Store, Ronslail". It seems the slave market will be opened in the capital around the 25th of this month. So if I go around the 27th then they should have the combat slaves somewhat prepared. Yeah, the next after that next time we enter the dungeon ends on the 25th so it"s convenient for us as well.
Zenom, Ralpha, Gwine, Basutoral, Cathy, Angela, Giberuti we eat dinner together with those eight while Basutoral and Giberuti are having a lively conversation over the sausage making they"re challenging. Basutoral and Giberuti went out to the capital again yesterday and investigated the producers of a.n.a.logue cheese while buying a considerable amount of it. After saying that minced meat and cheese have a good affinity he said he"d prove it and made some prototypes to feed to everyone while asking opinions.
Unexpectedly Angela who is usually reserved showed interest in the deliciousness of cheese and was eating more than Ralpha. Of course, Ralpha refused to lose as she showed off her gluttony as well but since Basutoral"s already realized there"s no meaning in feeding Ralpha, he was busy trying to protect the failed hamburger mixed with cheese and bacon with cheese on top of it.
Furthermore, as far as they"ve investigated only a few small companies make a.n.a.logue cheese and the amount produced isn"t very high either.
"If business gets on track would you buy out one of the companies?"
Basutoral"s face was serious as he asked that and I almost nodded to it. It"s fine if it"s cheap but it"s not like there"s only one of them so it"s not something that can be monopolized either. It"s plenty if you can just stock up on the product. Since there"s several producers he can purchase from there"s not much meaning in buying the company itself I"m sure.
Rather than that(It would be better to educate Catherine into the head of the sausage factory or in charge of the sales store, since I"m sure slaves will be necessary as well, you need someone to use them right?) and I had trouble holding myself back from commenting on their household affairs.
Well, it"s also possible to leave a factory or store in the hands of a slave as well but it seems that slaves that can do calculations for several 100,000 or 1,000,000 Z on the level of a company are even more expensive than combat slaves. If possible if Catherine can do something like that it would be a big help though.
While I"m at it, maybe we should just buy a number of normal slaves when I buy combat slaves at the end of the month. Ah, No, I guess it"s not too late after the circ.u.mstances are in place for the factory and the store huh...
"It seems like {pizza} can already be made right? Even {cheese dog} or {cheese burger} might work.."
While I was thinking like that Ralpha was drawing up her own rose-colored dreams on her own but that sort of small business doesn"t matter at all. It would be far more profitable to ma.s.s produce sausages and wholesale them and incomparable to that. Also, putting aside {pizza}, wouldn"t the names be {kazotto dog} and {kazotto burger}?
"That"s enough of that discussion already. Since we"re leaving matters regarding the {sausages} to Basutoral, if you have something to discuss over it then do it with him. Rather than that, in regards to tomorrow but"
After gaining everyone"s attention I continued my words.
"If we carry in luggage once more then we should be finished making the base on the 7th floor. I"m thinking of having everyone fight against ogres for a bit and if we"re in good condition we"ll take a look at the 8th floor."
Everyone"s faces tensed up and they were also grinning.
These greedy fellows.
I"m sure they"re thinking that if the magic stones of ogres on the 7th floor is that value then the 8th floor is even higher right?
Something like that is already obvious.
Of course, it"s not like we"re going to explore the 8th floor.
We"re just going to take a look at it.
If possible then I want to see what kind of monsters are in the pa.s.sages, just that.
No, just confirming what"s going on with the pa.s.sages.
I guess it"s fine if it"s just Gwine and I huh?