Western Orlais.

We advanced westward on the road in a long queue.

"It’s been a while."

"How long has it been since we fought side-by-side?"

Myla and I conversed on horseback.

"It took only 3 days to get here from the centre...... it feels like everything I’ve learned until now is outdated."

Myla looked down.

"Don’t worry about it. I always go on the offensive during wars, so it’s natural for a defense expert like you to do things differently." I consoled the beautiful woman.

We set out to provide reinforcements for Guiscard after receiving the  request for help. 

An army of 500 had been arranged and was garrisoned in the west.

My own personal army of over 80 men would be added to that.

"Sorry for the half-hearted numbers. I understand sortieing with a small force is foolish, but we can't risk too many soldiers."

Gabriel even apologized.

This wasn’t all of their army though.

The only ones here were the cavalry, bow cavalry, escort and chariots―― in other words, just the troops using horses.

We headed south after convening in the central region, however only the fast-moving cavalry went on ahead.

We’ve done this several times before.

According to Leonheardt, it’s apparently inefficient for the infantry and cavalry to march together, excluding siege situations.

"The biggest weapon cavalry have is not their offensive power, it’s their mobility. Eliminating that can be nothing other than foolish."

When I imitated Leonheardt’s face and tone, Myla bursted out laughing.

Seeing how well it was received, I did more impressions.

"Although my face looks like this, I’m actually a big pervert on the inside. The rumor of me liking men is not entirely baseless."

"S-stop it please."

It was worth practicing in the mirror.

What should I do next?

"Your majesty, the number three scout is not returning. I propose getting light cavalry to do a forced reconnaissance."

"Uu, uuh, yeah sure."

Leonheardt came up from behind before I realized.

It’s not anything he said, it’s just really awkward.

Myla also stopped laughing and looked in another direction.

"If we continue down south, we’ll encounter the enemy in no time. Please use your time effectively"

".....got it."

The next thing I knew, Myla was off inspecting the soldiers.

She must also feel awkward to be by Leonheardt after laughing at him.

Gheyna looked after the bow cavalry exclusively while Suzy managed the escort unit. Irijina was allowed to rampage as she wished in the raiding unit.

Finally, Leonheardt oversaw the entire operation, making this a perfect and efficient composition.

"Uuu, Hiro-sama."

Why is Mirai making such a sad face?

Why not try following Irijina’s example and taking it easy?

"Wahaha, I’ve been longing for battle! And with this many brave soldiers, there’s no way we’ll lose!!" Irijina shouted.

"Saxon-Fanoss army is nothing to be scared of!!"

"Malty, make Irijina be quiet."

"Mogh! This fight, mgghogh! Is practically won!!" Malty covered her mouth.

Afterwards, I dispatched a reconnaissance unit as Leonheardt advised and they discovered the Saxon-Fanoss army surrounding a certain fort on the west side of Torose.

I was a little surprised when I received that information.

"So they’re all the way here? I thought they would be further south."

I checked the location of the fort and realize it’s actually really close to the capital of Guiscard, Torose.

So they’re attacking this far in?

I remembered hearing how strong the Guiscard army was though.

"Guiscard does not have much in terms of geographical advantage so the enemy is able to enter deep in their territory from a surprise attack. With that said, an invasion reaching this point is on the bad side of my predictions."

Leonheardt looked a little more stern...... no, maybe it’s the same.

"In any case, we should do something as reinforcements. It’s convenient for us that they are in an encirclement. We can charge in from their flanks."

Myla nodded and Leonheardt didn’t say anything.

I guess his silence meant that he’s fine with what I said.

The royal army marching in columns and the bow cavalry separated before picking up the pace.

Me and the escort unit, along with the chariots, followed them a slight distance behind.

"Enemy flag sighted! As reported, they are surrounding the Torose fort, but it doesn’t look like they’re attacking. What I can confirm is that they have roughly 600 cavalry and carriages!"

Reina stood up on her horse and shouted.

So we have about the same numbers.

"They likely rushed here in the same formation as us. If that’s the case, they’re probably aiming to cut off the Guiscard supply line instead of conducting a proper siege."

From what I could see, the Guiscard fort appeared sturdy with it being on a small hill, although its size wasn’t the biggest.

I didn’t think it holds a large stockpile of supplies.

"We won’t hide. Let’s charge at them head-on."

I couldn’t do any tricks and there’s no need to.

The bow cavalry fired arrows into the air as they ran forward.

Red flames light up the sky.

That’s the signal to begin attacking.

"Attack!"

"Charge!"

War cries and the thumping sound of horses galloping at full speed resounded while the Orlais flag, as well as my intentionally all-red flag was raised.

We charged straight down from the south.

A group of cavalry travelling on the plains wouldn’t go unnoticed by the enemy.

"Reinforcements!? Not from west, but the south!?"

"Orlais!? We received information of their departure from central region not long ago!"

"Hey, don’t panic! We’re cavalry like them. Don’t take their attacks, attack back!"

The Saxon-Fanoss army showed the slightest apprehension before quickly recomposing themselves and switching from an encirclement to a field battle formation.

That was a response beyond what we imagined.

"Reinforcements from the north. I see the Orlais flag!"

"Ooh, we’re saved."

The flag on the Torose fort was waved vigorously.

If you carelessly sent forces out and it became chaotic, things would be problematic, so please just wait patiently.

The first to approach the enemy was the bow cavalry from the left wing.

Under Gheyna’s command, they split into smaller groups and form a wide triangle.

On the other side, the enemy was in two large triangles.

There was a rather large gap in between.

"We can easily breakthrough the middle...... ah, the enemies on the side aren’t wielding spears! They have crossbows!"

Myla realized the enemy’s intentions.

I see, they positioned cavalry with crossbows to the side when they saw us take a formation that wants to run through the middle.

They wanted to use them to attack from or flanks and inserted them where we were disordered.

"Bow cavalry, continue charging towards the middle."

"That’s fine."

Neither I nor Leonheardt retracted our orders.

It’s impossible to do so even if we knew the enemy’s aim.

"Loose!"

Out of the two rapidly approaching groups, the bow cavalry were the ones to fire first.

Countless arrows rained down from the multiple squads.

That was the reason for dividing the bow cavalry into smaller units.

Soldiers in the rear of a single large formation could not see the enemy and take aim.

Spreading out like this allowed all troops to participate in battle.

"Guwah, at this distance...... and archers on horseback!?"

"While galloping at full speed too!"

"Such forces were not in―― gyaaah!"

The enemy formation suddenly fell apart from the accurate barrage.

Maintaining speed, the bow cavalry lose another volley right before collision.

"Their speed is impressive as usual."

"Yes. It isn’t something you can learn with a little bit of training."

Sufficiently trained archers still couldn’t match their speed.

The bow cavalry were hitting the enemy with pinpoint precision and doing so on horses racing at top speeds.

Enemy cavalry fell over amusingly like toys.

Mounted troops were large in size as it is and make for perfect targets.

The enemy waiting with crossbows could do nothing except crumble when the bow cavalry were pelting them with composite bows outside their range.

"All troops, take up your sword! Charge!"

At Gheyna’s command, the bow cavalry stowed away their bows and took out their swords.

They could quickly change into skilled light cavalry for a fight at close quarters.

"They’re clashing!"

They’re clashing, but not exactly clashing.

The lightly armored bow cavalry were not directly engaging the enemy, they’re running past and cutting down the enemy as they go.

The enemy spear cavalry intersected with the sword-wielding bow cavalry.

Piercing metal sounds and neighing, as well as screaming, soon follow.

"Normally, spears would be the stronger of the two."

"With how messed up their formation is, they can’t leverage their longer reach. The difficulty of manipulating weapons with that length is actually more outstanding."

As Myla described, the enemy cavalry wanted to finish off the bow cavalry with a collective thrust, however each individual bow cavalry had more flexibility to change direction, making it hard for the enemy to deal with.

Spear cavalry usually wanted to line up in a horizontal formation, but with allies to the right and left either late or unable to get in position, many of them ended up isolated.

They quickly get finished off by the bow cavalry.

That was when a rather peculiar scene could be seen.

"The bow cavalry have successfully broken through the center! And the crossbows...... can’t get a good shot!"

The cavalry with crossbows were being targeted heavily so their formation was in the most disorder and they could not utilize the opportunity to shoot from the flanks.

Sporadic bolts would fly, although that was far from enough to stop the bow cavalry.

"Switch to bows, and loose!"

After running past the enemy, the bow cavalry took out their bows again and fired while facing backwards on their horses.

Arrows poured down on the heads of the enemy from the opposite direction and I could see how badly disorganized their ranks are from where I was.

That should eliminate the left wing’s fighting strength.

Subsequently, the main army cavalry led by Myla charged from the right wing.

Cavalry equipped with spears made up both of our main forces with a few heavy cavalry leading the charge.

"We are the main army. We can’t fall behind another lord’s personal army!" Myla shouted.

"A fight between cavalry is the flower of battle, let us proudly decorate this field."

I sensed a burning spirit within the commanders of the main army.

"We won’t allow ourselves to be defeated here!"

"They don’t have any unusual soldiers! Meet them head-on and crush them!"

The enemy on the right wing wasn’t scared, instead their fighting spirit increases.

Compared to the acute triangle formation of our allies, the enemy was in a wide triangle almost nearing a horizontal line.

"They’re colliding!"

This time they’re colliding for real.

Both sides charged in with spears and swords.

Crumpling metal and booming thuds from weapons making contact echoed incomparably louder than when the bow cavalry charged in earlier.

"Gyaaaah!"

"Uooooh!"

I could hear the thunderous sounds of spears punching holes in shields, helmets being squashed, armored horses bumping into other armored horses...... adding to that was a terrifying chorus of deathroes.

"The battle is...... swinging back and forth!"

Malty shouted grimly.

Both sides suffered similar losses and experienced the same amount of disorder.

Since they collided head-on, their momentum got stopped almost immediately and both sides were left to fight on horseback.

It wasn’t easy to deal significant damage as either side possesses durable shields and armor.