Vol 7 Chapter 2 (1/2)

“Ah, there you are”

Yoosh, Franziska grabbed onto a branch and climbed up

Her skirt was turned up, revealing her thighs

The white skin was dyed red under the shi+ne of the setting sun

“I a bro!”

“”

Gilbert saw his sister, but he didn’t answer Leaning on one of the thicker branches, he looked into the distance

Franziska came to his side and shook the branch

“Nyaa!”

“What an annoying girl”

“What’s wrong with that!? Be happier to see your cute sister come back”

“ Is there a cute sister here?”

“Me! That’s me! Your cute sister is me!”

“How annoying”

Franziska didn’t see

She looked in the direction Gilbert was staring at

She shaded her eyes fro sunset

“H bro?”

“Nothing… I just have an o about that place”

“Huh? The west? Aren’t Oswald and the Second Prince fighting in the east?”

“Soerous, but it’s a different kind of feeling”

“The west, where the Second Army is located?”

“Now… Not anymore”

Gilbert hid the unease in his heart and glanced at Franziska

“Hyaa, the gaze that will even ht afraid, hod~~”

“Shut up idiot The Fourth Princess you wound with your arrow is here The Imperial 4th Army absorbed the Second Arht’ is there too”

Franziska puffed her cheeks

“Sigh… Really? Wasn’t she in the north east garrison unit? What is she doing here in the west?”

“Not just that, they even defeated the ‘Queen’s Navy’”

“So what!? It has nothing to do with me!”

“According to intel, that strategist na Fleet Admiral The man rumoured to have taken Fort Volks, who Oswald is wary about”

“That’s why I was tasked to stop him”

Franziska’s eyes started to waver

She took on awith the Varden Archduchy in order to stall the unit of the Fourth Princess

But she didn’t even ht

“Eh… Well…”

“Because of your failure, the operation to pursue the Ie was hindered, and the supply shi+ps were sunk This h Britania forces were advancing too fast, the resupply of ammunition couldn’t keep up… We are the only supply unit left If we can’t take the capital Versailles, this ould be our defeat”

Franziska looked scared and broke out in cold sweat

Gilbert sighed again

“Sigh… If I kneas such a dangerous felloould have attacked Fort Volks personally So Jessica’s intelligence isn’t that accurate after all”

“Wouldn’t big sis feel pitiful if you say that?”

“In this world, only the winner will survive It has nothing to do with effort or the position one is in If you don’t want to die, then produce results If you fail again, I will abandon you even if you are my sister”

“Ugh… No problem! I will definitely win next time!”

“I hope so”

Gilbert turned to the west once more

Franziska wiped away her cold sweat in relief

A shout could be heard from under the tree

“Big bro ~~ Sis~~ Time for dinner—!”

A shrill female voice

A ten years old child waved at the tree top She was the third sister, Martina

Looking down from the tall tree, she looked really small…

It’s because she was still young She only reached Gilbert’s waist in height

Franziska patted her face

“Hey~~ That’s our Martina!”

“ She’s not strong enough yet… That’s why Iher accu to the battlefield isn’t rushi+ng her”

“Er that Martina is really cute!”

“I don’t care about boring stuff”

“This is really iht!?”

Gilbert stretched his back and jumped from the tree branch

The sound of the wind filled her ears

The reactionary force almost knocked Franziska down

“Hyaa! Wait forbro!”

Even if her body was as light as a cat, she couldn’t ju her hands and feet, she slid down the tree nimbly

Martina hugged Gilbert who just leapt off the tree

“Brother! Dinner!”

“Okay…”

Martina hung off Gilbert’s body as if she was cli a tree

It didn’t bother Gilbert, and he left her be as he walked towards the camp

The High Britania supply unit numbered about 10,000 Of that, 5,000 of theular army, and 300 were the elites of ‘Renard Pendu’

The athered immediately

“Chief, please sit here!” “Ah, Chief, this way!” “Wait, it’s our turn this tiht!?” “Hey, don’t squeeze in, I will kill you!?” “Fufu, want to have a go!?”

The Mercenary Group ‘Renard Pendu’ always had such an at of ruffians after all

Gilbert sighed:

“Annoying… I should disband the Mercenary Group”

The world turned silent for an instant

But only for an instant

“Hahahaha!” Everyone burst out laughing

“Chief! This way! We have delicious grilled ht deer!”

“Listen, this is my story…”

Normally, it was troubleso bonfire However, you couldn't really cook on it, so it was hard toelaborate

But they occupied an enemy campsite today

This was a great stove, with lue pot of soup besides it A truly sumptuous dinner

Because the incident that happened several days ago gave the soldiers heavy psychological pressure, Gilbert thought it was necessary to relieve them of their stress, so he used this chance to take out the wine from the supplies

That incident was—

The soldiers in the unit saw the naval battle in Chaineboule harbour

Gilbert thought the victory of High Britannia was a foregone conclusion, but he s rong

As the soldiers watched… A Britannian warshi+p was blown to smithereens by an explosion so powerful that they had never seen it before

The other warshi+ps lost their will to fight and surrendered one after another

This dealt a ical blow to Gilbert and his subordinates

Unlike spears and arrows, hu about an explosion akin to a volcano eruption

Time and ere necessary to wipe away the fear

At this ti ca in a panic before even fighting

There wasn’t any reason to not use this campsite

After drinking soular soldiers and the transport personnel relaxed themselves

The ood luck Specifically speaking, their yells were about 30 louder

Or rather, they were getting too excited

Even though he thought it was too noisy, Gilbert still found an empty seat and sat down

Martina leaned onto his right shoulder

Soon, a large bowl full of meat was served

At this moment, Franziska walked over quietly

“Wait! Big bro’s side belongs to me!”

Squeezing out the person beside Gilbert, she hogged Gilbert’s left

Gilbert sighed

“How annoying… Your body teive me some space”

Franziska and Martina said at the same time:

“Don’t wanna!”

In the end, it didn’t athered around Gilbert with bowls filled with food, and talked with him without restrain

“Listen to ot news from my hometown, my child has been born!”

“ That’s a cause for celebration, cheers!”

The mercenaries cheered and drank

“Chief! My o to heaven if I request the church to say a prayer for her?”

“Don’t worry about that If she goes to hell, she would get to meet you, and you can be as filial as you like Well, let’s cheers in the hope she goes to heaven anyway”

Everyone clinked glasses in high spirits again

“Chief! My wife just gave birth in my hometown too!”

“ Oh, cheers!”

“Speaking of which, I haven’t been home for two years”

“I see… Isn’t it great the baby doesn’t look like you? Cheers!”

The

Gilbert looked around him

“By the here’s Jessica?”

“She’s praying again right?”

Franziska looked towards the large tent that was far away from the rowdy crowd

That was the tent of the oldest of his little sisters, Jessica

She was a ‘e’

She could bestoith chants, heal wounds, divine the future and control the weather— at least that’s how the roup saw her

She treated the roup as her family too, but she disliked the crowds, and wouldn’t attend the occasional group dinner

“What a helpless bunch…”

The gradually setting sun dyed the west of the hill in reddish blue, and the sky looked as if it was burning Looking up at the dark part of the sky, the stars were visible

Iht—

The clattering of horse hooves could be heard in the dark

Standing tall on the grass plain and kicking up dust, knights in black ared towards the enemy

They were the Black Knight Corps of the Belgarian Fourth Imperial Army

Leading the Corps were Jerome Jean de Beilschmidt, and his lance ‘Le Cheveu D’une Dame’

Just as the naht’ implies, everyone wore black Armure de plaque (full plate armor) and rode on black horses

Even the horses had armour that protected them from arrows and bullets

In this era, horses were extravagant things

Especially trained war horses, they were so most soldiers couldn’t obtain even if they worked their entire life, that’s how valuable they were

That’s why attacking horses was rarely seen during melee combat

Many soldiers didn’t care about the objective of the war, if they could defeat the opposing rider and seize his horse, they would obtain a fortune that could change their entire life

Noin thebut the treasures they could seize The armour on the horses was there to protect them from stray arrows and bullets

The High Britannian had powerful rifles, it wasn’t clear how effective the equipment would be…

A guide who knew the local terrain well and had great night vision led the ith a piece of white cloth draped around him

He lifted a hand to send a signal

The enemy camp was nearby

Under the starlight, the bonfire swerving in the as in plain sight

“Hth!”

The sound of hooves erupted, and the High Britannian ar

The sound of the new rifles could be heard from the camp

It was still far However, some of the shots hit, and the unlucky ones fell off their horses

Cavalry was overwhelless if the opponent had superior firepower That’s how good the enemy’s rifles were

When they ithin range, Jeroave the order

“Fire!”

In place of the bugle call to signal a charge, Kruger as besides him fired off his loaded musket

The Belgarian muskets were frontloaded, and took a lot of ti a shot off, it would be placed into a basket hanging from the horse immediately, and another musket would be taken out to fire

The Second Imperial Army had plenty of muskets, so it was possible to perform such a tactic with these muskets

They lost one hundred cavalry in the battle of Lafressange last time

But even if they were sitting on the shaky back of a horse, with each rider armed with four muskets, they could still achieve some results

Not just bullets, fla at them

Even so, the horses wouldn’t be spooked…

Bang! The surroundings lit up suddenly

Fire spread on the ground

Jeroue

“They spilled oil here!”

This was probably the instruction of the Mercenary King Gilbert

The High Britannian army didn’t haveoil around the ca it with fire arrows could only be done by seasoned veterans

The quantity wasn’t … But that’s where the problem was

Kruger shouted

“General! Our position is exposed!”

There wasn’t any ht raid anymore

Jerome ordered:

“Enough! Retreat!”

After receiving the order, Abidal Evra and his subordinates sounded the bugles

The cavalry stopped their charge i units turned to the right, the ones bearing shi+elds on the left faced the enemy, then fell back

In preparations for this moment, they had already conserved the stamina of the horses earlier

They pulled away from the enemy as swiftly as the wind

The sound of the High Britannian gunfire grew distant

Jerome pulled the reins and the horse slowed Abidal Evra approached him at this moment

“How many wounded”

Right now, Jeroht Corps But eneral’ out of habit

Because they address the present general as princess, there was no confusion

Jerome passed down the instructions:

“Don’t need to push yourself, it’s fine to go slow Those who aren’t wounded hurry back to base and prepare for the next attack”

“Understood!”

Just at the edge of his vision—

A white figure appeared in the hills cloaked in darkness

A wagon!”

“Shoosh!+”

Jero those behind hihs of the horses, Abidal Evra used his bugle to order the knights to slon

The Black Knight Corps slowed down and trotted past the wagon

The wagon was ferrying plenty of buckets filled ater

It was the pioneers

Jero in the dark

He returned the salute, even though the gesture ht not be seen

“ Will this method really work?”

Abidal Evra muttered softly

“Who knows But if we assault them without any plans, even the cavalries would need to have the resolve to take heavy losses Even though it is night and the range is far, some men were still hit…”

During the battle of Lafressange, they launched an assault at the rear of the eneing at the High Britanian new rifle formation head on was obvious

Jerome spurred his horse on

“Seee”

“I see”

Abidal Evra answered in a tre voice

Before the debut of the new rifles, the cavalry that roamed the battlefield was nearly an invincible existence

With speed unmatched by others and clad in armour impervious to blades and arrows, on horseback, one could easily stab at the enemy with a lance

No reat an infantry unit was, it was common to see the tides turn when the cavalry was committed to the battlefield

But now, infantries without expensive horses or ar could defeat a rider with a pull of the trigger

Even though it was night, the hail of bullets kept the in Just a little bit of oil and fire arrows could drive the cover of darkness away

— Can they really defeat the supply unit?

Not just Jerohts probably bore the same doubt

That un

They were already doing what they could

After a 30 minutes trek, they reached the base camp

It was actually not that far away from the enemy base

Even though the battle plan necessitated it, it was a bold move to set up camp here

A bonfire lit up the campsite As heavy armour infantry secured the borders, the horses were placed in the center for rest, and the muskets were reloaded

There were plenty of barrels here After the eon returned, barrels were loaded up before they set off again

After Jero to the horses and reloaded the guns, trying to ready their horses and muskets for the next assault

A ant glass

And approached slowly He was the strategist behind the battle plan—Regis

“ Thank you for your hard work”

“H the horse aside, I’m not tired at all”

“That’s great… There’s still quite a bit of ti able to keep the harassment attacks up”

“Is there anythis?”

Jerolanced at the pile of barrels

Regis scratched his head

“Part of this was dependent on the weather, so it’s hard to say… But if the weather , it should be able to work”

“If it really works, that will really be ical”

“Even if you say that… this is actually just natural sciences”

“He’ subordinate too”

“Ah, I heard such ruer sister Jessica had the ability to bestoer, heal injuries and predict the future”

“What do you think?”

“It’s a big world, so there are all kind of mysteries Maybe soy”

He seemed really happy to say that

Jeroreen hair

“We are fighting soldiers bestoith ical powers!? Do you understand what this means!?”

“Wahh…”

“Isn’t there any countermeasures!?”

“Ahh, actually, there’s no need to put that into consideration”

“What do you mean?”

Jerois’ hair

Regis tidied his hair troublingly It wasn’t veryneat

“ Ahh, really… If I don’t tidy ain”

“Who cares”

“Ahh… How mean…”

“Why is the princess so strict about your appearance?”

“Maybe she’s worried that the soldiers will feel uneasy if the strategist is too unkempt”

“If you know that, you should learn to use a sword”

“Hahaha… I couldn’t even cut an onion with a sword, it would be less if the soldiers learned this”

“You are saying that so shamelessly! You are a soldier too, at least take part in the !”

“ You are right… If I have enough tiht, I will consider it”

Regis was so busy because he was a strategist in theall the admin officers in the past also played a part

We lack manpower From the scale of the Fourth Army, at least two hundred admin officers would be needed

Speaking of which, the nuuste’s maid named Lilim had exemplary performance, so she was entrusted with a lot of tasks

“You said earlier that there is no need to worry about the e, why is that?”

“ Even if the sister of the Mercenary King is a ht the High Britannians in Chaineboule city, the Mercenary King was already there”

“Yes, that’s true”

“In that case, her spells are li in a church As nized by the church, she is actually just an idol to calm the spirits of the troops”

Mercenaries were poor and couldn’t donate to the church

If life was hard, they will even ht as robbers

To the s, nobles, farmers and merchants

In order to provide his subordinates with spiritual guidance, it wasn’t too farfetched for the Mercenary King Gilbert to hail his sister as a e

“I see… Indeed, there isn’t any need to worry about this”

“ In order to soothe the fears of the soldiers if anything unexpected happens, such a strategy is necessary It was dangerous for a group be paranoid”

“Hmmp! If a soldier shoardice on the battlefield, I will bring his head back to the Empire”

“N-No, don’t do that! There are less than a thousand soldiers frohten the new soldiers!”

“Tch, how boring!”

Jeroht—

Before he was renowned as a hero, Jerome was a baron with 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry

When he was transferred to the north borders to coiment, and had 3000 men under his command

In the three years after, be it the nuet, none of that increased significantly

It was the saaria caes

Everything started after the weak youth before hiis arrived

Subduing the barbarians in the forest, taking Fort Volks as the new base, and used the ransom for the prisoners of war to increase the soldier count to 6000

And after the battle with High Britania, he negotiated with the Field Marshal Latreille and founded the Fourth Army

After absorbing the Second Army, the scale of the forces now numbered 16,000

The forces weren't completely under his control, but the forces still increased by leaps and bounds…

In just half a year, their forces increased by more than 5 times

Jerome said slowly:

“Well, we have a wizard here too Let’s tell the troops that to calm them down”

Regis replied cautiously:

“ Erm, really… That’s not how it is”

“H available, that’s all to it”

“ Erm, erm”

As they were still discussing about this, the sound of hooves came from the darkness

Another unit had returned

Forhts of the Second Army as its core and reinforced by ht Corps, named after its crescent emblem

Their footsteps sounded heavy

Frolow of the bonfire, it appeared that many of them were hurt

A lot of medics rushed over in order to attend to the wounded, and the campsite turned rowdy

The Crescent Knights conducted a night raid just like the Black Knights, armed with fourtheir shots But the casualties they suffered were hts

Jerome snorted

“Hmmp, wussies”

“I did expect that casualties ht be that serious… As expected, the battle is hard”

“The enemy spilled oil around their base They then lit it up with fire arrows, illu our position”

Regis sighed

“Ah, I see… So they used such a trick”

“We fell into their trap”

“ That’s right We sent scouts in advance, but the opponent also disguised their action of spilling oil, pretending to be throwing out rubbish as they did so… It can’t be discerned from a distance”

“Did they predict that there would be a night raid?”

“ After they seized the site, they set up camp there It is a place surrounded by hills and hard to defend It can be seen as a trap I considered that they would be on their guard because of the terrain, that’s why I asked you all to retreat i”

“There are plenty of fools who refuse to listen to advice They probably are eager to seize merits That’s the reason why the Second army were defeated in the first battle”

The Belgaria E

As such, they needed brave generals more than cautious officers

And froh Jerome didn’t want to accept this…

Regis shrugged

“ It can’t be helped, I will have a good talk with Benjahts to move out”

“What about the spilled oil?”

“Ahh, just fire at the ground with flanite the oil before hand Then strike a while later, after the oil has burned out”

“Hmm…”

Regis proposed a tactic matter of factly Did he cohed in his heart

No, this was probably in the content of a book he happened to have read

Even if this wasn’t so, he wouldn’t utter such compliments Jerome wasn’t someone like that

“Ah, also… The eney They ht set up ambushes near their base”

“So we just need to be alert about this right?”

“That’s true, scouts are already observing them If they set up ambushes, we should hear the news”

As he said that, Regis took out a map

Turning towards the bonfire, the map in his hands was illuminated

He marked some spots on the preplanned route