Volume 9 Chapter 8 (1/2)

”Your Highness.”

”Your Highness!”

For a moment, Orba did not realise that all the voices calling out were calling to him. The fear that froze him was so great that he had even forgotten the existence of the very 'mask' the had gone through so much trouble and effort to maintain.

”Orba.” Only a voice whispering quietly in his ear got through to him, the shock of it reverberating through him as though metal had pierced through his brain.

s.h.i.+que.

Orba gazed with startled eyes at his long-time acquaintance - at the man who had also been a gladiator, living in an environment in which neither of them knew if the next day would ever come.

s.h.i.+que drew himself up with a slight smile.

”Your Highness, I believe that I understand you.”

I know you.

In this situation, s.h.i.+que mischievous eyes seemed to be conveying a message intended only for Orba.

”You are a kind person and are worried about our lives.”

To the point of being an idiot.

The gunshots and small tremors continued. While the fortress' roof might cave in at any moment and come down from above, Odyne and the a.s.sembled commanders watched in silence.

”Apparently Zaas Sidious is using slaves as a s.h.i.+eld, but from what I have heard, the slaves volunteered to take to the battlefield in exchange for their freedom. If they can win their lives and freedom, then they gladly go to face death. Naturally, it is the same for us.”

Orba, that's like you.

”We have entrusted you with our lives. What we wish to obtain with that price is a bright future for Mephius. Everyone is of one heart.”

”Does Your Highness think that we are dolls? Is that you cannot bring yourself to damage the dolls that you are somewhat fond of? Pardon my rudeness, but that is looking down on us a little too much. Be it generals, soldiers or slaves, we all have hearts. We can use our own heads to think and our hearts to choose our future. Since we are not being forced to die by an unknown somebody, there is no reason either for anybody to worry about how we use our lives.”

s.h.i.+que once again came up to Orba and this time stretched/extended his hand to his waist.

With a sound of sliding steel, the short sword that he wore there was drawn. s.h.i.+que placed the tip of the blade against his own white neck. Before Orba's eyes that opened wide in surprise, he said -

”Die.”

As everyone suddenly held their breath,

”Come, die. Go ahead and die - It is perfectly fine for Your Highness to simply give that order.” He gave a faint smile then continued, ”we have already decided that our ideal future is the future that you, Your Highness, aspire to. In a manner of speaking, we have chosen a future of being killed on your orders. Therefore, there is nothing for you to fear. Please use our lives as you see fit.”

Was it mere coincidence or had it been s.h.i.+que's intention all along, but the word 'Orba' engraved on the blade seemed to collect all of the lamplight within the command room and to emit it as its own glow. What came to Orba's mind was of course the figure of his brother Roan, who had given him the sword. But the scene he pictured him in was not one that Orba had seen himself.

It was his figure as he fought and gave encouragements to his companions in Apta Fortress. Wearing armour and a helmet that didn't suit him, wielding a sword that looked too heavy, he was desperately fighting to survive. He had heard from Sodan, the master blacksmith, that those had been his brother's last moments.

Believing to the end in the commanding officers who had already deserted their men, Roan had rallied his comrades and defended the fortress.

Believing.

Orba felt an intense pain in his forehead. The scar left from where a fragment of the mask had bitten into his flesh was giving off heat.

Roan believed.

Although he had given the soldiers the order to defend Apta to the last, General Oubary had abandoned them, had used them as nothing more than a way of buying time, and had fled.

Orba's rage against him was unfathomable, but -

Right now, I'm doing the same thing.

In the sense that he was betraying trust.

Orba had felt pity towards the nameless soldiers. He had felt guilty at making those nameless soldiers fight. But wasn't it a greater betrayal towards those soldiers if he failed to grasp the victory before his eyes because he was too busy worrying about them?

He remembered the time when he himself had wielded his sword as a mercenary. If Ax Bazgan, or Duncan and Surūr, who had been his direct superiors, had worried excessively about the soldiers of whom Orba had been a part, and had been fixated on keeping them alive, their allies would probably have faced complete annihilation.

I would kill that kind of commanding officer.

The faint glitter of the sword now dimly illuminated Orba's eyes. Those nameless soldiers entrusted their lives to someone other than themselves when they fought, buying victory with those very lives.

On the battlefield, where the line between life and death was extremely thin, that person other than themselves that they had to believe in from beginning to end, the one who gave them encouragement and sent them out to fight, was their commanding officer.

It was not somebody else.

It's me. Because this is my fight.

An unusually strong tremor shook the entire fortress. Exactly as though he had been waiting for that opening, Orba once more stood up.

He grabbed the short sword from s.h.i.+que with all his strength and returned it to his waist.

”Anyone would think you were in charge of bringing me up, s.h.i.+que.”

”Your Highness, I could never hope to be so blessed.”

Dust was raining down incessantly from the ceiling but Orba paid it no attention as he opened his mouth wide and laughed -

”Since a father is a father,” he said, then looked at everyone in the command room.

Their bewildered faces showed that they were wondering if that was something they should be laughing about.

Orba's expression immediately went back to looking serious.

”Then die,” he cried. While they were looking as though they had just been struck in the face, he once more gazed at each of them in turn. ”It doesn't matter if it's for my sake, or for Mephius, or to leave your names in history, or for some other, better reward. Whatever the case, if you are hoping for victory, die. Go ahead and die.”

s.h.i.+que bowed his head deeply as...o...b.. continued sharply,

”An order to the soldiers. We're heading out. Don't be so much as a second late.”

”Aye!”

”Aye, aye.”

Odyne among them, the various commanders had started to move as though this had all been decided beforehand.

While watching their brisk movements, Orba repeated taking breaths at short intervals to calm himself down. He remembered doing the same thing back when he was a gladiator in the small, part.i.tioned-off antechamber. Once he took a step outside, what was waiting for him was the scorching sun, the earth-shaking roars of the crowd, and an enemy intent on killing him.

Although the positions of crown prince and slave were as far apart as heaven and earth, the situation hadn't changed all that much. The only point of difference lay within Orba himself.

His heart still held a fear that he did not understand and which did not leave him, as though it were now deeply ingrained in his body.

Orba's life was no longer his alone. Now that he had recognised this, this fear would probably never leave him during battle.

In which case - rather than struggling uselessly to shake it off, it would wiser to tame it. He would need to grope for a way of doing so from now on.

I'm still like a baby.

The thought flitted across...o...b..'s mind. When he thought of how, despite his being somewhat used to handling a sword, there were those who could easily block him; and how, as commanders, there were those who had earned so many military exploits, he was seized by the feeling that he needed to study again from the beginning.

His eyes turned to s.h.i.+que, who was hurrying the preparations despite looking pale.

Right. There's still a lot I need to learn from you.

Orba's arms were showing a tendency to shake, so he tightly clenched his fists to keep them under control, then he silently called out to all of those who were there with him as well as to all those others who were not there but who were fighting for the same future -

Everyone, entrust your lives to me.

The violent gunfight continued on.

At first, Zaas' troops had fallen to the rattle of the ambus.h.i.+ng troops' gunfire, but still they plunged in, prepared for sacrifices. Under the cover of their bullets, the infantrymen continued to press on, and, as the enemy were few in number, they became gradually unable to hold their position.

Finally, the inner gate was destroyed and Zaas' infantry ran up the stairs, like a torrent rus.h.i.+ng towards the soldiers lying in ambush along the corridors.

The fortress soldiers started escaping with startlingly well-coordinated steps. They had received a signal from Orba, but Zaas Sidious, pus.h.i.+ng forth, did not realise that.

”Ignore the escaping soldiers,” he shouted from beneath the horned helmet that had been pa.s.sed down to him by his father. ”Hurry and secure the main positions inside the fortress. Go, go, go!”

According to future historians, Gil was good at ”coordinated evasions”.

It was hard to imagine from the historical facts handed down about his exploits and personality, but where Gil displayed exceptional ability was in defence rather than in attack. Using terrain and setting soldiers in ambush was easier to do when defending. Later historians and scholars of military science all agreed that Gil Mephius' strong points were defensive battles that made use of small castles and forts, manoeuvre warfare[1], and that he excelled at luring the enemy by pretending to run away. Above all else, he had an outstanding ”eye” for discerning opportunities.

Or perhaps, to echo s.h.i.+que's earlier words to Gowen, it was closer to a ”nose” than to an ”eye”.

He could smell with precision the air on the battlefield. Morale, bloodl.u.s.t, arrogance, nervousness - being able to sense each fluctuating situation within both enemy and allied ranks, he could move in such a way as to create for himself the next ”situation”.

Perhaps, rather than an innate talent as a commander, it was something that he had developed by standing on the battlefield as a soldier.

Judging that all the enemy soldiers had evacuated, Zaas had his men rush up to the top of the fortress. They were to fly the standard bearing the crest of the Sidious family.

But they were spared the effort. The fortress' large structure was shuddering. Cracks appeared in the wall right before Zaas' eyes.

”The h.e.l.l!” He wondered whether his own men had bungled things and were continuing the bombardment.

This however was an old trick of Gil's. He had commenced firing on his own fort.

His artillery had been positioned behind it in advance. There had been no way for Zaas to realise that this was not so as to provide support fire for the fortress, but so as to as to aim for the fortress itself.

To reiterate what had been said before, both Tolinea and Jozu were decoys. Orba had never had any intention of prolonging the battle. Or rather, they did not actually have the reserve power for a drawn-out fight; and besides, there was absolutely no need to preserve Jozu Fortress for posterity.

Needless to say, as well as the soldiers having retreated, everyone else within the fortress had been ordered to evacuate beforehand.

”The tactics of desperation!”

Although rage coloured Zaas' entire face when he learnt about the enemy bombardment, he gave the order to withdraw from the fort. The attack had come as a surprise, but it was a truly ridiculous tactic. The actual harm done to his side was minimal.

Conversely, having lost their base, the enemy should be feeling cornered both physically and mentally. Since they were now all but naked, all Zaas needed to do was to regroup the formation and charge at them.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

”They have commenced bombardment from the rear of Jozu Fortress,” a non-commissioned officer announced upon receiving the report from a messenger.

”They're early,” next to him, the general of the Dawnlight Wings Division, Rogue Saian, muttered vaguely.

While flames rose from Tolinea and Jozu Fortress was drawing the fires of a bombardment, the area where they were was almost unbelievably dark.

”They were unable to draw ground troops to Tolinea. We have also received a report that the defence of the enemy headquarters remains firm. They will no doubt have decided to accelerate the plan.”

”Fine, it was never going to be an easy war, anyway.”

Rogue Saian had experienced countless battles. He was not going to be shaken because things were not proceeding according to strategy. It was far rarer for a battle to go perfectly as planned.

His manner entirely the same as usual, yet the order he gave to the men scattered around him was undeniably strange -

”Surface.”

From the very start of its existence, it had not really been appropriate to call Tolinea Fort a fort. It was simply an a.s.sembly of abattis and turrets built overnight; and now, having been engulfed in flames, those man-made structures had been burnt to nothing.

In the sky above, Yuriah's flags.h.i.+p and the three other cruisers ignored the flames and turned to fly towards Jozu. The airs.h.i.+ps that had bombed Tolinea led the way.

Standing on the bridge of the flags.h.i.+p, the general of the Bow of Gathering Clouds Division, Yuriah Mattah, looked back only once to confirm the results of the battle.

He chuckled to himself. It would be nice if those huge, vivid flames could cross the border to the west, he thought.

Our next opponents will be the western savages.

With the traces of the flames still smouldering behind his eyelids, he turned forward.

At that moment, behind him, the flames 'cracked'.

What had been one huge ma.s.s of flames now split apart into innumerable fragments and were thrown in the air, but Yuriah had yet to notice.

”E-Enemy s.h.i.+p!”

Yelled the soldier who was observing the surroundings from above the deck. His voice reached the bridge through a speaking tube.

”Putting in an appearance at this point?” The smile still remained on Yuriah's lips as he spoke.

Everyone on the bridge turned as one to look back.

And Yuriah's smile instantly faded. To their eyes, it looked as though Tolinea Fort vanished to ash amidst the flames, and a new 'life' seemed to be reviving from within the fire.

The Reinus, flags.h.i.+p of the Dawnlight Wings Division.

With branches and leaves that were still alight clinging to it, the dark red hull suddenly surfaced from within the flames.

Yuriah's fleet had no time to manoeuvre. The Reinus aimed at them from behind and opened fire. One of the cruisers took a direct hit and sunk instantly. Another of the s.h.i.+ps had part of the structures above deck blown away and, although it just managed to maintain flight, after receiving a further a succession of shots, it became unsteady and started falling.

”C-Come about, come about!”

Filled with the roars of soldiers, the bridge was in such turmoil that it seemed like a completely different place from what it had been just a second earlier.

By the time Yuriah's flags.h.i.+p had finished turning, the Reinus had risen further into the sky and had released its airs.h.i.+p force.

You're joking - Yuriah was still in shock even as he sent a message for the airs.h.i.+p units to return - you're joking, they were concealed? During the bombing, surrounded by fire, under that? Impossible...

Tolinea was, of course, a decoy to attract the enemy. On top of it being hastily built, Orba's side could not afford to divide their already inferior numbers. And so, they had concealed the battles.h.i.+p under what looked like a large pile of leaves and branches. The plan was that, once the enemy firmly believed that Tolinea had fallen and turned their rudder towards Jozu, the instant their behind was turned, the bombardment would begin.

However, that was the last stage of the plan and was only supposed to have happened after Folker had left the enemy headquarters open to attack. It was meant to facilitate Pas.h.i.+r's a.s.sault by mowing down the air force besides causing the enemy's attention to lose focus. Orba having, as it were, switched over to brute force tactics, they were playing what should have been their final hand.

At the command of the Reinus, Rogue understood that they had been compelled to change the plan. Because of that, just like Yuriah, or perhaps even more so, he was shouting out encouragements to his men.

”We have to take the skies at all cost. Never mind if we have to slam into the enemy's main force, as long as we cover our allies' attack. Sky Fang Unit, Wolf Fang Unit, give the signal to send out your platoons!” While shouting on from the bridge, he brandished his trusty sword.

A beacon was sent up from the deck and the airs.h.i.+ps, that had earlier been pretending to defend the sky above Tolinea but which had actually been making a speedy and calculated escape, now returned. The s.h.i.+ps that had launched from the Reinus joined up with them. Without missing a beat, they launched an attack from the sky on the enemy s.h.i.+ps.

Opposite them, Yuriah had his airs.h.i.+ps spread out in a defensive formation. He intended to use that chance to have the s.h.i.+p fix its position and start sh.e.l.ling the Reinus.

s.h.i.+p and s.h.i.+p pa.s.sed by each other at speed.

Gunfire was exchanged.

Mephian airs.h.i.+ps were built to look like flying dragons. The scene in the skies above the Forest of Tolinea was like that of a clash between the last surviving winged dragons.

On the ground below.

While Zaas Sidious was temporarily evacuating Jozu Fortress, he intended to round up his fleeing men.

I'll regroup the formation, then charge again. That was the only thing on Zaas' mind, so when a roar to make all of one's body hair stand on end erupted from the side of the fortress, he naturally went rigid.

It was the dragoons that Orba had kept in reserve as shock troops. Their slimy wet scales glittering, reflecting the colour of the flames, a mixed force of the medium-sized Baian and Yunion dragons plunged towards them.

The effectiveness of cavalry charges against infantrymen lay in the speed of the horses and the pressure put on soldiers who could see themselves being trampled under their hooves. All the more so with dragons. Zaas' unit, which had already lost formation, lost to the pressure from the oncoming dragons and fled just as it had from the fortress.

One of Zaas' allies was caught by a dragon's tusk and was writhing and groaning. Zaas was about to go and try to somehow save him when,

”General, this way!”

A company commander pinned his arms behind his back and dragged him away.

”Let me go!”

This commander was one who had served since his father's time and that was another thing that Zaas could not stand. He felt as though on top of being played by the enemy, even his allies were saying - you're still just a child.

”Holding our ground is what the enemy wants. General, if you want to win, for now, we have to pull back.”

”For the enemy, this is their last chance at victory,” another one of the commanders joined in to persuade Zaas. ”They won't get us with this. With our numbers, we just need to get back into formation and demolish them!”

Zaas Sidious reluctantly gave his men the order to further withdraw.

Meanwhile, Orba had, of course, also left the fort.

Just before the bombardment began, he, along with s.h.i.+que and the others, had taken a shortcut to the forest west of Jozu Fortress. The a.s.sault unit, Gowen and Gilliam among them, had been kept waiting there. All of them were leading horses, but there was one Baian dragon mixed in among those.

”It's started?” Gowen called out when he noticed Orba.

Realising that Orba was only smiling with his eyes, he corrected his tone.

”… Has it already begun?”

Before answering, Orba looked around at the a.s.sault unit. Two hundred cavalrymen, one hundred foot soldiers. In a way, they were the choice picks, but that was with regards to the ground troops of which there had, right from the start, not been enough. Moreover, the most able had preferentially been incorporated into Pas.h.i.+r's detached force, so it was inevitable that, compared to them, they were at a disadvantage.

The mounted soldiers especially had been taken from Rogue Saian's troops and a few dozen soldiers who were ”good at handling horses” had even been separated from Odyne's riflemen. Apart from that, what stood out were the Imperial Guards whom Orba knew well.

”After this, we're going to be running into the enemy headquarters,” he said. He paused for a moment but none of the soldiers' faces showed any trepidation. ”Don't turn around, not even once. Pay no attention to your comrades. Those who gallop forward gallop only forward. Those who fall from their horses are to hold back and kill as many enemy soldiers as they can even if they are alone.”

Neither Orba's voice nor his expression was tragic or heroic. It was exactly as though he were simply saying - there's a guy I can't stand so I'm going to go beat him up.

Yet everyone there understood the situation. What would be coming next would be a suicide attack pitting their meagre numbers against six hundred ground troops. Moreover, even if they managed to break through, the same number of troops again would be waiting for them at the headquarters.

Thinking about it normally, there was no hope for them to even first break through. However, and although the procedure had been a little different from the original plan, they had dealt a serious blow to Zaas' ground troops and to Yuriah's air forces.

They would stab at that opening.

There was no saying how long the enemy would have that opening, but if they launched a swift, sharp attack through it, there was a chance that they would be able to stretch it wider.

”What's the reward for taking Folker's head?”

Gilliam had his vaunted battle-axe hefted onto his shoulder. Orba flashed his teeth as he laughed -

”A word of praise from me,” he answered.

”There's something to be grateful for. So much so, I could cry,” Gilliam roared with laughter.

Orba walked up to the Baian that the dragon-groom from Apta was keeping chained. He had made a snap decision to choose not a horse but this medium-sized dragon. The original plan had been for Orba and the others to lure the enemy reinforcements. Now however they were aiming for a central breakthrough of the enemy lines. Accordingly, it would be better for Orba, who would be leading the unit, to be riding a dragon.

It was a dragon that Hou Ran had been taking care of since their time in Tarkas' Group, so Orba wasn't without any connection to it. The Baian groaned as though it had been waiting impatiently. While touching the nape of its neck the way he had seen Ran do, Orba unfastened the dragon's chains.

Leading the unit, he took a shortcut through the forest.

They were able to confirm the retreat of Zaas Sidious' troops simply by looking. Most of the dragons that had charged at them were riderless, at most there were three dragoons among them. Hou Ran herself, riding a small Tengo dragon at the very back of the unit, was getting the dragons to move according to instructions from those three.

Orba immediately had the Baian run up to Ran's side.

”Move the dragons away towards either side,” he called out to her.

Once they were excited by the blood, the dragons would lose the ability to distinguish friend and foe. They might well hinder the charge.

On the Tengo's back, Ran gave a slight nod and blew on the small flute that hung at her neck. She had once said that the flute had been carved out of the bone from a dragon's talon.

Although Orba could not hear a sound, the effect was immediate. At Ran's signal, the dragons moved quickly - some of them too quickly - to get their large bodies out of the way, parting towards the right and the left.

As soon as the path ahead was free, Orba yelled ”Let's go!”

That shout itself seemed to cleave through the enemy. Raising a spear, he started charging.

Trailing a wreath of dust behind them, a group of riders and foot soldiers cut in a straight line towards Zaas' troops.

”What!”

”U-Uwaah!”

The Baian sent one soldier flying in the air. Following behind him on horseback were both Gilliam and s.h.i.+que, one wielding his axe, the other a spear. To the left and to the right, two soldiers who were just managing to respond to the attack were cut down.

”I am Gil Mephius!” leaning forward as the Baian ran on, Orba himself claimed that name. ”Fools who understand neither justice nor the times. Prostrate yourselves and make way!”

His voice resounded so clearly and sonorously that it seemed unbelievable that he was being violently jolted up and down as he rode the dragon.

That the enemy commander-in-chief - who was also a man who claimed to be the heir to the throne of Mephius - would charge out to the front line on a dragon was a situation that was well and truly outside the expectations of the Mephian soldiers.

Moreover, his face was perfectly identical to the crown prince's, and for those among them who had ever so much as caught a glimpse of Gil, the shock of engaging him on the battlefield was identical to date of being pierced by a spear or a bullet.

”His Highness!” One soldier fell on his backside as soon as he caught sight of that face.

”That's the C-Crown Prince! Pull away your spears!” Another ordered, turning to his comrades.

On the other hand,

”Gil Mephius, you said?”

In the middle of retreating, Zaas Sidious heard the voice saying that - or rather, he heard the commotion raised by the agitated and bewildered soldiers. Although he should have regained his calm, once he heard that the enemy commander had come out, he lost it once more.

His blood was not only raging from the prospect of earning the greatest achievement in this war, he also wanted to check the enemy's real appearance with his own eyes. Zaas shook off the company commander's attempts to stop him and turned back along their escape route. While shaking away his men who were getting in his way as they agitatedly escaped, he arrived to see the Spear of Flames Division, feared since his father's time, being effortlessly cleaved in half.

But that was not the only thing that made his eyes open wide.

Huh!

The one riding the dragon in the lead was, without the shadow of a doubt, Gil Mephius.

And even as he recognised that, he drew the sword that had temporarily been sheathed.

”d.a.m.ned impostor!” the cry flew from his lips.

Having run through battlefields since he was young, Zaas had inwardly despised the crown prince. In the Sidious family, what determined the worth of a 'man' was one simple and unequivocal rule: how many enemies he could slaughter. And so, whenever he caught sight of the prince and gave him his greetings at the palace, Zaas would look down on him. When I was your age, I'd already reaped the heads of plenty of enemy soldiers on the battlefield.

Thus it was unthinkable for that Crown Prince to be splendidly leading troops like this, and furthermore to be charging in the lead. Even though their facial features might be identical, Zaas could only see them as completely different people. In a way, it was because he had such a simple and unequivocal rule that he could so easily see through to the truth.

”We fight!” Zaas shouted and spurred his horse onwards.

As Gil continued to strike down the enemy forces, Zaas once again mowed his through his allies to confront him head-on.

Orba did not recognise this opponent as Zaas Sidious, but he could tell that the young warrior charging straight at him was a formidable enemy.

With all the strength of his youth, Zaas first threw the sword that was in his right hand. Orba knocked it away with his spear. Countless sparks came to life before him.

While Zaas' horse s.h.i.+ed a little to the right as the sparks were still scattering, Zaas himself extracted his spear from his saddle.

The distance between Orba and Zaas was now that of a single blow.

And then, a galloping rider weaved his way into that distance.

Zaas' spear was struck from two directions.

It was s.h.i.+que, wielding his double swords.

”Your Highness, leave this to me.”

Hearing s.h.i.+que call out, Orba nodded from atop the Baian. As he himself had thoroughly hammered into his men, he raced forward without paying any more notice to what was going on behind him.

Zaas was close on his heels but s.h.i.+que skilfully rode his horse to block his pursuit. He drew up so close to him that the horses' heads were almost touching.

”Eei, move!”

”I won't be moving.”

”A paper warrior like you thinks he can be my opponent?”

Zaas gave a broad swing of the spear in his right hand. s.h.i.+que bent his upper body and returned the blow.