A few days later, during the march westward of Castalll.

"It must really be frightening huh?"

Viscount Scott Aldiss says as he watches a mother hugging her child. Everyone in the village is looking at us, and staying alert. An army of over 1,000 men advances along the highway like a giant serpent. The villages in the vicinity have not seen such a large army before, and there were two types of reactions: staring at us in amazement or running away in fear. I turn to the head of the archery division whose advice I sought a lot on tactical matters.

"Viscount Leonhardt Strauch, how do you think the enemy will move?"

"If you’re talking about if I was the enemy, I would attack the main force with many small to medium scale squads using early morning surprise attacks and night attacks repeatedly to reduce enemy numbers and destroy their formations. When they respond by splitting their forces to wake themselves from the shock, then I would have our main force collide with them, taking the numerical superiority. Something like that."

I see, the reason why the enemy main force hasn’t showed up is because the advanced squad that is attacking is too small-scale, and they judged it to not be our main force. It is more advantageous to have your card out later.

"But it’s not like they can ignore those noisy guys either."

If they were to receive attacks every night, even if the damage was minor the morale of the troops would fall.

"That’s true. So we should find the enemy first, and launch a pre-emptive strike to wipe out the enemy’s outpost squad collectively in one blow."

"That is the best case scenario, but we don’t know where they are."

But it’s not like they can ignore those noisy guys either."

If they were to receive attacks every night, even if the damage was minor the morale of the troops would fall.

"That’s true. So we should find the enemy first, and launch a pre-emptive strike to wipe out the enemy’s outpost squad collectively in one blow."

"That is the best case scenario, but we don’t know where they are."

"Then let’s gather them. Let’s have a decoy prepared and restrict their movements."

"Are you’re going to send out another large army? If you can do that then we could crush them."

Scott Aldiss cuts in but Leonhardt Strauch laughs from his nose. It’s at these times that you build animosity you know.

"It’s not like they will come in broad daylight. They will approach when it’s either night or dawn. To determine the number of soldiers, you don’t look at the head or their body. You only need to count the number of campfires and tents."

After half an hour, we arrive at a grassy plain. 

"Alright! Everyone is here. Today we’ll be camping here so get ready!"

Azal, the dark elf swordsman who is also Riheet's deputy announces to everyone. Scott Aldiss and Leonhardt Strauch seem to have no problem adhering to dark elves, unlike the veteran Brian Haddock, who I had  purposely left at Torun city. 

The soldiers take a breath and lower their waist, but they cannot be relieved. In this place, they will most likely be receiving the attacks from the enemy every night; it is a situation where every day there would be someone in the squad that risk dying. We can't lose anyone as we only have less than 2,000 soldiers in the region.. Adding to the fatigue that the soldiers are suffering from, if we are to get hit with a full-blown attack now we would not be able to defend that well.

Even through all that, the order to gather the entire squad was enough to make me feel hopeful. The fact that we are gathered when we have the responsibility to defend is because we have the important players with us. If things go well, we may be able to return to the north.

But there would be no reinforcement army even if they get to the rendezvous point they were told to march towards. They are simply preparing a large amount of tents and torches. There would be just a few soldiers among them but it might possibly be too little. There are only 100 people, but is that all? What is left is the landmark, so we spread out straw-like objects around the outer parts of the campsite.

For some reason, the soldiers inside the campsite go to collect the flag. Come to think of it, he was saying something like march under this flag or something annoying wasn’t he…I don’t understand what the Redcliffe army guys are thinking at all.

I’m thankful that we don’t have to get involved in setting up the tents, but it won’t be a counter-measure against night attacks. I also don’t understand the order to light all the torches. In addition, those guys who got that prepared were incompetent as in the beginning we were only 1,000 people. No matter how you look at it the tents here are for five times the amount.

And if the reinforcements don’t come then as a result, we would have to sleep while in fear of the night attacks. Even now, we could see the light cavalry that we are pursuing nesting on top of the hill. It would be useless to chase them so we should ignore them…

"Yes, the enemy scouts have spotted the large camp and are hurriedly going to return. At this moment, the squad in the vicinity will be assembling and plotting for the night attack."

We are secretly setting up in the vicinity where we can overlook the army in the campgrounds and the main force is also scattered around in various positions.

"Until it becomes night time, we will select five archers and form a group in front of the hill, and place them under the ridge line. We will be hunting the enemy scouts."

"Even though we missed the previous guys?"

"If they discover the place where we set up, it would be meaningless. However, the information is already known to them. The first report tends to be an overstatement, it’s fine if the enemy gains an exaggerated and inaccurate information. There will not be a second report, though."

The scouts are basing their search for us on their preliminary information, so they will predict the general area where we will appear.

"But even if we were to reinforce the campsite from here, there is too much distance to cover. It would be hard-pressed even for those who can see in the dark."

Scott Aldiss and I have the same idea but we purposely say nothing. Since, if it continues on like this we would definitely get retorted by Riheet.

"Don’t worry. We have prepared lightings. We will turn it on at the same time as the enemy’s signal."

"I will leave it to you. I will trust you till the end."

"Thank you very much. Well, as long as the enemy is not as stupid as I imagine, they will not show themselves in places that have light. I will go sleep."

It’s a precise kind of boldness – that is what I might call a great commander. By evening, the soldiers are sleeping and the night has fallen. Clementine and Sekrit who are sleeping beside me wake up with a twitch. I left the injured and exhausted girls at Torun.

"There is….something…"

It’s true that I feel some sort of presence, a lot of them. However, the surroundings are completely dark and the moonlight is also scarce. The only place that was bright and brilliantly lit is the campsite which was unnecessarily placed, only the torches’ light. The archers get ready just in case. That guy Leonhardt Strauch says that we would know when the enemies come closer but let’s see..

"Ugyyaaaa!!"

"Guaaa!!"

"Hiiiihh!!"

"Hiidebu-!"

Screams can be heard in the distance. Even so, the exact location is not known but the army at the campsite is making a fuss.

It is probably a pitfall that causes the enemy to scream, at the bottom of the hole are spikes pointing up. There must have been several of them placed all around the campsite to have caused the enemy to scream huh…how vicious.

"Give the signal."

The head of archery division, Leonhardt Strauch who is holding the torch directs his hand around the campsite. Immediately, the soldiers remaining in the campsite release flaming arrows in all directions.

The flaming arrows light up the surrounding grasslands. Of course, normal grass would not create this amount of blaze from something like flaming arrows. What is burning is the dry straw that is sprinkled around the campsite, and instantly lit up the area.

What is projected is the enemy troops; 200 in the east, 200 in the west, and about 600 in the south. Being able to simultaneously coordinate this amount of troops in the dark is a feat that our army is unable to do. However, now that they have been found out, there is no advantage. They are just 1,000 people that are out in the open.

"Release all the arrows at once!"

Not only my group, but the squads that are completely hidden and the main army that is in the campsite fire their arrows too. The difference in troop strength is that of the difference in the number of arrows. The enemy soldiers that are trying to escape are defeated by the arrows, and there are some that slip and fall and others who jump into the flames.

"Listen up! We won’t charge at them. Right now it is only raining arrows. Don’t leave your positions no matter what!"

When it becomes a free-for-all when it’s night time, you cannot make an effective attack. It is the best case scenario right now to one-sidedly shoot them to death with arrows.

"Calm down, it’s not like we are being surrounded by the fire! This fire is nothing more than light! Retreat from the campsite immediately. Run into the darkness!"

I can hear the enemy commander’s angry shouting. It is certainly the case, and they know the amount of dry straws so they realize it’s not a fire that could burn and kill the entire squad.

"But you can no longer get away."

Leonhardt Strauch gives the archers an additional order to attack the external surroundings. Once again, the fire is lit and the dark night is brightened. Unlike the nearby campsite, and though only a portion of it – the only shortest route that they could run to is blocked by a wall of fire created by the straw placed there.

It is there that a strange scenario developed. The soldiers struggling to run away from the fire fall down one after the other. They are holding their feet and squatting down, crying out in pain.

"It is the traps by the dark elves, huh.."

"Yes, it’s simple. I buried wooden stakes facing the campsite at low angles. They will step on them when they pass by, but when they turn back their feet will be stabbed."

It is just lightly covered in dirt, but even if there’s fire it would be hard to see in the dark. The speed at which the enemy troops are running away is visibly slowing down. There are fellow soldiers in front of them, bleeding from their legs and collapsing to the ground. There is no other way but to watch where they step while gingerly moving forward.

However, if you move slowly, then the duration you get showered with arrows will only get longer. There are no sounds of swords clashing or  of hooves. Anyhow, the enemies have no idea where they are.

They are being shot one-sidedly by arrows, burned by fire, having their feet pierced with stakes and falling down. They are being driven off the path by the fire and arrows in what would normally be the path that they could escape.

"How cruel.." Clementine says it as those tragedies are just jokes to her. Even Sekrit giggles. Luckily, my past brainwashing ability had turned these two psychopaths into loyal allies.

Kill the enemy and keep the allies alive. In war, that is what the ultimate victory looks like.

Isn’t this good, if we can fight like this then it would be good if we could do this as many times as possible. But there will also come a time where we will need to fight and push through with force. It will be dark elves and Redcliffe elites that will be sharing that role.

Eventually, the sky begins to brighten, those who have run away will have to face the 1,000 army that have shown their faces. Already over half their numbers have died or have been injured with no hope of surviving. The cavalry and infantry pursue the enemies as if to unleash their resentment of the archers hogging all the fun. There are few that have escaped, and many young people of western Castall disappeared like the dew on the plains.

"With this, the enemy’s vanguard has been vanquished. Next is for us to advance westward." Riheet coldly explains. The dark elf guy does not change his expression in the midst of the rising smoke.

Even so, I laugh at Scott Aldiss who makes an unhappy face while the two lunatic girls, Sekrit and Clementine seem to be enjoying the scenery.

All of us start the march with our differing expressions.