Sekrit rested her head on my shoulder while Myla explained,

"I believe what he is saying is correct. The Ambroise army is not the only one affected by the retreat order. Our soldiers are staying calm because Your Majesty is standing strong. If by chance you get hurt…… they might be routed in an instant."

Is that so?

I smiled back at Myla and then squeezed Sekrit’s ass firmly.

"Ow. You’re going to get me wet."

"……that kind of thing is also normal and will set the soldiers at ease, I’m sure."

Myla snatched my hand from Sekrit’s body.

When I looked in the distance, I saw the sun was slowly starting to rise.

A surging development followed after that.

Finally, the eastern army showed their face to pincer us from behind.

Ambroise sent a force about 1,000 strong to intercept, trying to buy some time for the others to retreat diagonally.

The eastern army extended both wings to block us, but with 10,000 troops, they couldn’t thin out the formation too much.

To make up for that, the western and southern army in front of us strengthened their attack further, and yet our allies somehow continued to retreat without collapsing.

We slid away diagonally and didn’t let the enemy surround us.

Arrows were fired back in defense while the cavalry shifted accordingly when needed to alleviate pressure, all to help the retreat proceed smoothly.

"Only a little more and we will get free from their pincer. Although we are at a disadvantage in troop strength, we can somehow get everyone back!"

Mirai exclaimed with sweat dripping down her face.

"Looks like it. However――"

"What a relief!"

Right when Irijina excitedly spun her spear, red arrows flew up from the east and west of the army.

It’s the signal for communicating in an emergency situation.

"Appearance of enemy cavalry from both sides! Each with 1,000! They’re charging in!"

"Aah, I knew I was forgetting something."

When I thought about it, the cavalry’s whereabouts were unknown.

I looked over at Leonhardt who had a calm expression…… so he chose not to say anything before.

"It wouldn’t have mattered if I said it. There was already no other option."

"If you said it earlier, I might have done something different."

My anger didn’t last long as I calmly went into thinking.

Wait, Leonhardt was the one who took command and he was also the one who thought of the next plan.

"Hiro-sama simply being here will act as the source of the soldiers’ courage!"

Mirai followed up to appease me, but I guessed it wouldn’t have made much of a difference if I knew or not.

The desperately held together Ambroise army was visibly shaken up by the surprise charge of the enemy cavalry.

"An attack from the left and right at the same time we’re trying to escape from being sandwiched from the front and back…… this might be the end."

"This was probably it. We will get into our own personal defense."

My army, which had been in a combined formation with the Ambroise army, immediately shifted. The infantry moved to the perimeter and the archers moved to the center in an almost square formation.

"Stay alert, shoot arrows only at the enemies coming your way. Cavalry will wait on defense until orders are given."

"They’re collapsing over there…… isn’t that bad?"

"The enemy is coming from all sides!"

I could hear some concern within the Marquis army, however nobody really broke formation or ran away.

By the time we finished getting ready, shouts came from the Ambroise army.

"Defend while you retreat! Match the spearmen against the cavalry!"

"The spearmen already retreated! The army is already stretched out so we can’t get into anti-cavalry formation!"

"Our coordination is a wreck! Headquarters isn’t giving any instructions either. They can’t decide whether to fall back or defend!"

And finally, the situation progressed to the last stage.

"Each squad retreat freely, retreat at full speed! Don’t worry about staying within your group! Abandon heavy objects, just focus on running north!"

"Fall back! Fall backー!"

"Which way is north!?"

"Do we throw our spears away too? Argh, I guess I don’t need it if we’re running. I’ll toss it!"

The Ambroise army beside us was splitting up into platoons or even smaller teams and scattered as fast as they can.

"Ambroise army…… is collapsing!"

Myla couldn’t hide the anxiety on her face as she reported.

"Hey now, what good is dispersing like that?"

That might work if the opponent was on foot, but it didn’t matter how much you run against cavalry, they would catch up.

No matter how messed up things get, you wouldn’t survive if you don’t defend as you fall back.

"Rout them!"

"Chase them all down! Annihilate the Ambroise army!"

Look, there they were.

I’d been on the reverse side a lot. This was the first time I’d been chased.

"Maintain formation."

On the other hand, we stayed in a square formation as we started moving back.

"Normally wouldn’t His Majesty leave by himself first?"

That would be uncool.

I couldn’t abandon my girls here.

"I will stay here. You can do as you like."

The enemy ran around either side of our slow-moving group and chased after the fleeing Ambroise army.

It wasn’t like they didn’t see us.

"There’s still a group that didn’t fall apart!"

"They’re dead meat! Crush them!"

One enemy squad rushed toward us. They were about over 500 infantry.

"Nock."

Archers and bow cavalry within our formation draw back their bow strings.

"Uoooh!"

"Run through them!!"

A single order was given when they got close enough.

Over hundreds of arrows soared in the air.

Fear did not appear on the faces of our allies as the arrows accurately assaulted the opponent as usual.

Meanwhile the enemy ran recklessly forward in the heat of the moment, without giving any thought to defense.

"Gyaa!"

"Uwaaah!"

"What a volley! Cancel the attack! Halt!"

Slowing their charge only made them more susceptible to our dalish’s inherent precision and continuous high-speed volley of Marquis' archers.

It didn’t take long for their attack to be snuffed out.

"Don’t stop moving. Fight while retreating."

Next came a squad of enemy cavalry of 500 horses.

Spearmen quickly responded to block the charge, followed by a storm of arrows and bolts.

"Damn! These guys practically didn’t budge!"

"Don’t run in blindly. You’ll only get yourselves killed!"

When they put some distance between us to try and look for a weakness, Leonhardt gave another order.

"Open up the ranks. Cavalry unit, charge."

Opposing infantry cleared a path for approximately 1,000 horses to run out.

Having suffered a counterattack and getting stopped in their tracks, our ally cavalry successfully finished off the weakened enemy cavalry, turning this area into the only place where our side was one-sidedly dominating.

"Stop attacking and withdraw immediately."

Receiving another order, our ally cavalry returned back inside our formation.

Another barrage of arrows rained down on the furiously pursuing enemy.

The command of the army was smooth almost like in a training exercise.

"How impressive."

Enemies shout left and right as they surrounded us, searching for an opening to exploit.

"Intense assault on the south side, they’re pushing us!"

I rode on my horse followed by my nearly 300 personal army brought from Hezri Kingdom.

"Don’t leave the formation." Leonhardt warned me.

"Are you my mother or something?"

I grumbled as I headed out.

Our formation was still intact although being overpowered considerably.

"Momentum is in our favor. If we destroy one section, the rest will fall apart!"

"Don’t worry about losses. Keep pushing!"

"Push back no matter what! Don’t let them enter our ranks."

"It’s over if we let them break through!"

I jumped into the chaos, horse and all.