Gasi

Boris who heard the report from the messenger was so shocked that he almost fell from his horse.

The cavalry unit that acted as bait was annihilated, furthermore even the magicians who were positioned to ambush were receiving immense damage.

This situation was completely unexpected for Boris who was preparing to finish off enemies that were thrown into disarray.

No, something like that wasn't the problem.

Actually it was a really big problem, but for Boris, the biggest risk was getting laughed at by Isaac due to the blunder he committed.

Because of that he couldn't recognize his failure and choose to get a fresh start no matter what.

Human who didn't have any leeway in their heart would gradually become unable to accept small failure and could only keep charging forward toward their destruction.

「All troops follow me! We're going to push back those cocky animals!」

At the start Boris wasn't a foolish man by any means.

However for someone with immature heart, the more excellent they were, the more they tended to look down on the enemy and limited their field of vision instead.

At the same time, they would believe that they should be placed in high position. They wouldn't even consider that people who they thought as stupid might be superior to themselves in some respect.

As the result, Boris made a foolish decision that was hard to believe.

His tactic had failed and his allies were retreating in disorderly state. Moving out to attack at this situation was a bad move.

After all most soldiers would lose heart when they saw their allies running away while wounded.

Only a commander who had obtained considerable level of trust from his soldiers would be able to use such situation to heighten his army's morale instead.

Unfortunately, Boris wasn't a commander who could obtain the trust of the soldiers to such degree.

「It will be a disgrace to the honor of our Answerer Kingdom if we lose against the likes of beastman! Don't stop moving until you have torn apart those bastards!」

The total number of soldiers of Answerer Kingdom to face Nordland that was placed under Boris's command reached up to 80000.

Compared to the 50000 and few thousands of the opponent, his army was superior in number though inferior in quality.

It would be better for Boris if he focused in defending. With 80000 soldiers equipped with holy relics, it would be just barely possible to protect Kronstadt's fortress.

──The reason why it would only be just barely possible instead of a child's play would become clear right away.

──*DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!*

「W-what? What in the world happened?」

「Your excellency! There is white smoke from the fortress!」

「D-don't tell me this is just a diversion?」

Boris immediately felt cold sweat trickling on his back.

「No good! Return! We absolutely can't allow the fortress to be taken down!」

There was suddenly a thunderous sound reverberating from Kronstadt fortress. Of course it was the work of the hot-air balloon that Egil was riding.

As soon as the balloon arrived above the fortress, he threw down all the grenades he had.

It was obvious but there wasn't any separate detachment for conquering Kronstadt.

「Now then, it will be time for us to get relieved soon. We are pulling back while my mana still hasn't run out!」

「Oh my, those guys are hurrying back in panic see?」

「They even abandon their pursued allies. That's pathetic even if they're the enemy.」

「Exactly. I don't want to fight under that kind of commander.」

Boris's heart was captivated by his own ambition more rather than his subordinates' lives.

That was why he could get easily cornered into predicament like this.

Even Aaron and Masaki didn't plan to expand the battlefront until this far at the start.

──Perhaps, surely, maybe....

There was no way that they would be so mad with rage that they wouldn't think of anything except cutting down the enemies like crazy.

They would make the enemies went through really painful experience in order to take the wind out of their sail. That was the plan at the beginning, shouldn't it?

「Eh?」

「What's up?」

Egil's comrade who was looking through his telescope was making a hysteric voice.

Egil got a bad premonition and asked while lowering his voice slightly.

「This is bad. Even Ernst-dono who should be acting to hold back the others is also feeling really murderous right now.」

「Don't tell me...」

「It looks like he is opening the fortress gate to go for all-out attack.」

「There won't be anybody who can stop the troops if even that person is also going wild!」

Ernst was known as a calm, cool, and collected soldier with taciturn personality even among the Nordland military.

There was a rumor that he got dumped by his fiancée, but it instead become a trigger for him to take off his veneer and became a reliable superior.

Everyone thought that someone worthy to become the successor of great general Euftace had finally appeared from among the beastmen who tended to be impulsive and straightforward but....

Egil didn't know.

Ernst didn't decide to sortie out because he was driven by violent emotion like Aaron by any means.

.

When a lot of troops were moving, sometimes the troops aura could be seen following their movement.

It was said that in the ancient era, Uesugi Kenshin, Gao Changgong who was famous as Prince of Lan Ling of Northern Qi dynasty, and some other warriors could see this troops aura in the air.

Most likely what Ernst saw was also that troops aura.

Something thick was covering the sky above Answerer Kingdom army. That something was distorting uglily as though it was in anguish.

An excellent warrior would value his instinct.

Ernst too was convinced that they would win if they could go to below that sky.

Ernst was entrusted with the fortress's defense and command, but acting arbitrarily without consultation was also a splendor of battle.

He would fight if he thought that he could win. He decided that he would pay with his own life to take responsibility for his decision. Ernst inhaled until his lungs were filled to the brim and yelled.

「──All troops, depart!」

The 40000 troops that were in standby for battle started moving all at once.

They were also waiting for this moment.

There was no solider who would wish to sit still while their allies were fighting hard to strike at the hateful enemies.

Besides the commander's fighting spirit was something contagious to the soldiers.

The feeling of Ernst who was convinced that they could win was definitely transmitted to the soldiers.

「Let's go!」

「UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

The allied force departed from Angelholm's fortress with a war cry that shook the ground.

「──Oi oi, that guy, he is really doing it with that unruffled look of his.」

Aaron grinned fearlessly because he had detected Ernst coming out in full force after sniffing that this was the crucial moment of the battle.

As the field commander, he was also feeling it on his skin that they should expand the battlefront here.

When the opponent was committing a blunder, only a fool would satisfy themselves with small gain.

If they were going to plunder then they should plunder to the end mercilessly. They mustn't leave the opponents with any hope that there would still be next time for them.

Aaron was also feeling it, that they could win if it was now.

It was unknown whether they were doing it intentionally or not, but the surprise attack of the hot-air balloon was done in very splendid timing.

They attacked at the timing right when an army of nearly 70000 was moving to attack.

Even if they were a big army──rather exactly because they were a big army that the psychological impact from worrying that their path of retreat might be cut off was huge.

The ambush unit that was in flight, the main force whose mind was completely focused on Kronstadt fortress that was their place to return.

At this moment, it didn't matter anymore how many the enemy number was. There was nothing to fear from them.

「The enemy is running away with their naked butts pointed at us! Teach them that their punishment is still not over!」

An army of 70000 changing course to withdraw to the fortress wasn't something easy to do.

The road for military use that was stretching from the fortress could only be passed by eight people walking side by side at best.

That meant, even if between soldiers there was only a space of 70 cm, the army would stretch into a long line that was more than six km long.

For the normal army, chasing after such retreating enemy would also cause their line to stretch long and the battlefront would also become very limited with only the soldiers at the very front could fight, but for Aaron and his men, fighting inside a dense forest wasn't something that difficult.

Boris should hold his ground.

At the very least he shouldn't move the unit that was under his direct control. He should only send a detached force back to the fortress.

The terrain where the main force was positioned was an open plain with simple fortification for field battle. Although it wasn't as solid as the fortress, it was suitable for engaging the beastmen.

Boris understood that, but his lack of experience in real battle against beastmen caused him to make decision using human standard. Boris was flustered, and he was also being conceited.

「Now then, I wonder how many of you will be able to return back alive!」

The pitiful one here was the ambush soldiers who got found out and tormented to death by the overwhelming number of beastmen.

The main force that they thought would save them suddenly began to retreat and abandon them just when they thought that they were finally able to escape death.

Even the few remaining survivors got heartbroken. They were finally overtaken by their pursuers and got reduced into corpse.

Answerer Kingdom army lost nearly half of their magicians who were as precious as gems.

That effectively meant losing their trump card to face the beastmen.

After this even if they ended up shutting themselves in Kronstadt to do siege battle, Answerer Kingdom army would be tormented by a severe lack of firepower.

「...Stupid idiot. It's like they're intentionally dangling down the prey.」

Most likely the next one that would get visited by tragedy would be the unit that was entrusted with the role as the rear guard of the main force's retreat.

Their path of retreat was blocked by their allies. They were placed in a situation where they couldn't retreat until that chaos was resolved.

Masaki wasn't someone who would let such prey got away.

The elites of cat-eared tribe who specialized in forest battle immediately overtook them and launched a fierce hit-and-run assault to the stretched out enemy formation from left and right.

「W=we're surrounded?」

「Shit! Quick...if we don't run away quickly...」

「Don't panic! Maintain the formation and calmly defeat the enemies! Protect the archers behind you while fighting back!」

A man who seemed to be a commander raised his voice.

His instruction was completely right. But it brought about the complete opposite effect to the man.

Because Masaki gave precise order to his men to aim at the commander.

「It's troubling if you do something uncalled for like that.」

「Wha-...he vanished?」

The man caught sight of Masaki's figure jumping out from the forest's shadow──the moment he thought that, Masaki's voice came from his immediate right for some reason.

The terror of death crawled up his spine. At that moment the man's head slipped down and fresh blood spurted out like a fountain.

Even the units that were continuing their organizational resistance got their commanders targeted one after another. They were gradually losing control.

Without the commanders, the army was just a disorderly mob.

Even if individually they were skilled soldiers, soldiers who fought for his own survival couldn't become any threat.

If the rear guard crumbled, the unit behind them, and then the unit even further behind them would also...the chaos was gradually spreading uncontrollably.

「Keep pushing. An army that only want to run away won't be able to endure the pressure.」

「Roger!」

At this time, the main army that Ernst was leading finally also joined the battle.

There was no battle front where 70000 troops and 50000 troops could have a decisive battle here.

The only one that could fight was the cat-eared tribe that launched attacks from the forest area and Nordland empire army that was pursuing from the military path.

However when a large army was trying to move to a single direction, it would become a tremendous pressure.

It would be easy to understand by imagining the flow of people rushing to an idol concert.

Even weak civilians could exert pressure that destroyed fence or railing when they became a crowd.

The pressure that was exerted by a murderous army was obviously incomparable with that.

The army's supreme commander Boris was the one running away at the forefront back to the fortress. Was it possible for such army to endure that pressure?

The answer was no.

The first one that began to crumble wasn't the unit at the very back, but the unit that was near the middle of the line.

While fighting at the frontline, soldiers would be scared that they would also get killed if they carelessly mess up the chain of command.

However a unit that still hadn't entered the fighting but almost getting dragged into the nearby battle would want to run away as fast as possible so they wouldn't get dragged into it.

As the result, the units that still hadn't received any damage at all were starting to be the first one crumbling.

In military terminology, this phenomenon was called as 『opposite crumbling』.

Maeda Toshiie retreating arbitrarily at the Battle of Shizugatake despite being at the rear of the frontline was an example of this opposite crumbling.

Ootani Yoshitsugu was also experiencing the opposite crumbling at the Battle of Sekigahara due to Wakisaka Anji's betrayal.

When this opposite crumbling occurred, the unit that was fighting at the frontline would think that the rear also got attacked, or that their allies were abandoning them. Their morale would immediately crumble then.

Even if the battle was progressing advantageously for them, they wouldn't be able to stop their morale from dropping.

「This is hopeless!」

「Shut up, just move aside-! Don't get in my way to escape!」

「Don't screw with me...they're abandoning us who're still fighting here!」

When the rear crumbled, the front would also crumble.

After that it became the crumbling of the whole army. It became completely impossible for them to hold any organized resistance.

The only thing that could possibly stop this was if the supreme commander himself was fighting at the frontline and encouraged the soldiers, but Boris was already arriving to Kronstadt Fortress.

And then he learned that there wasn't any separate detachment of the enemy. And although the cause of the explosion in the fortress was a mystery, the damage wasn't really that serious.

「...I'm tricked.」

The saying of the mountains have brought forth a mouse must refer to something like this.

His rashness in mobilizing the whole army to overwhelm the enemy, his ambition invited this defeat. But Boris wasn't thinking like that at all.

It couldn't be helped. He accepted that he was defeated in the beginning of the battle. However the battle had only just began from here.

Boris was persuading himself like that, but then he saw an unbelievable sight from the large arch shaped window of the fortress.

「What happened? Don't tell me...the enemy intend to suddenly launch an all-out attack?」

He was the attacker, while the opponent was the one being attacked. Such subconscious condescending perception actually didn't have any basis at all. This sight was showing that to Boris with bitter clarity.

「Fire the rocket arrows toward the forest. It can't be helped even if some of them hit our soldiers.」

Even so, Boris also came back to his senses quickly.

It was pointless to ponder something that had come to a pass. Right now all that he could do was allowing as many soldiers as possible to return back safely.

From what he saw, the army's chain of command was already sundered. The soldiers were all getting slaughtered continuously without putting up a fight.

The situation was already one where he couldn't have the luxury to consider avoiding friendly fire.

First it was necessary to obstruct the rampancy of the cat-eared tribe that was freely moving around in the woodland and minimized the battlefront.

It was unfortunate, but right now wasn't a situation where he could consider anything else like counterattacking.

「The archers and magicians are to prepare to intercept the enemies. Take down any beastmen who come near the fortress even if you have to bring down your allies together with them.」

The only hope for victory that was left to Boris was to make use of the fortress's high defensive ability and waited until the beastmen were tired.

The magicians' fighting strength that was necessary for that had been reduced, but they still had a stock of rocket arrows and grenades. And although few, they also had guns.

「Lans! Lead the heavy infantry and assist our army in retreating.」

「Roger!」

The area in front of the fortress was opened wide so that a large army could be stationed there.

The battlefront would suddenly expand as soon as the enemies passed through the military road. In order to hold them back, a reinforcement with organizational capability was necessary.

Also if it was the heavy infantry unit that specialized in crowded formation, they wouldn't be bewildered by the speed of the beastmen.

After all they were army branch that had abandoned mobility from the start to focus on defense and attack power.

「I of all people have been losing my touch. Why would I try playing with some intricate tricks against this kind of highly spirited muscle brains...」

If he only sent a messenger to provoke the beastmen at the beginning, perhaps he would be able to simply wait in his fortress and welcomed the enemy army with perfect preparation.

Boris was seized with depressed feeling seeing his soldiers getting rapidly reduced.

「──Shit! They're just randomly firing. It's hard to dodge them because their trajectory can't be predicted!」

The explosions of the rocket arrows that rained down from above the forest turned some elites of the cat-eared tribe into chunks of flesh, though only a few of them got caught.

The fire was spreading due to the explosions, because of that their area of activity was shrinking.

The fire was terrifying, but the smoke could also steal human's life easily.

Masaki gritted his teeth, even so he was forced to relax his pursuit.

「But, don't think that this is the end.」

Certainly the slaughter under the guise of one-sided pursuit was going to end soon.

Even the soldiers who had temporarily lost sight of themselves due to fear of death would regain their composure when they reached the fortress that was close by.

The presence of the heavy infantry unit that was reinforcing them would also help.

They would gradually have the leeway to pay attention to their surrounding and together with their comrades they would protect each other's back.

It was something simple, but it wasn't something that could be done when the chain of command crumbled and they were in a state of terror.

Because the battlefront was limited to the military road, the damage to them was also quite reduced although not completely.

However, it still didn't change the fact that this was a good chance for the allied forces of Nordland and Gartlake.

The more they could reduce the opponent's strength here, the easier they would have it for their next attack to Kronstadt fortress.

Aaron and others who had fought continuously since the beginning retreated to the rear while Ernst stepped forward and continued his fierce attack to Answerer Kingdom army.

「──Now then, I hope that our number can be evened out with this but...」

Ernst looked at Answerer Kingdom army that suddenly showed stronger resistance and muttered.

The number of soldiers that Answerer Kingdom had lost at this point already passed 20000, including the heavily wounded.

It was a number that made them completely lost their number advantage at the beginning.

If this fact was spread around, the result would definitely make other countries considered this as Answerer Kingdom's defeat.

The only salvation for Answerer Kingdom was that this Nordland frontline wasn't regarded as that important.

It was ironic that the cause that made Boris felt depressed to be assigned here became a salvation for him.

「We still haven't lost...I'll overturn this situation no matter what!」

「We still haven't won. Of course I also have no intention at all to let them win.」

Coincidentally Boris and Ernst were thinking about something similar.

Kronstadt Fortress had two layers of outer wall and four sortie points that could be used as field battle encampment.

It was a gigantic composite type fortress that could accommodate more than 100000 personnel. And it was stocked with food that could last for three years of siege.

The reason why simply staying in the defense from the start wouldn't give any achievements was because of that solid defensive power.

But even Krosntadt Fortress that boasted prominent toughness even within Answerer Kingdom was now filled with anguished voice of the wounded.

Speaking in the extreme, the wounded was just a burden in the battlefield.

Taking care of the wounded would take away some manpower, and they had to be prioritized to be provided with highly nutritious food and clean clothes.

Even so if the wounded was abandoned, not only the allies' morale would drop and became unable to fight, they would also lose experienced soldiers who had managed to survive the boundary of life and death due to heavy wound.

Therefore, excellent commander wouldn't abandon the wounded and took great pain to maintain his troops' morale.

──But, unfortunately Boris wasn't an excellent commander.

The person himself thought that he was an excellent general, and he was strong in training on the desk. In addition he also excelled in winning easily when fighting a weaker opponent.

However he would immediately be reduced to a fool when facing someone stronger than him.

He was a man with the tendency of the elite who had never fought someone absolutely stronger than him and met a setback.

「Make those annoying groans stop!」

The curtain of the night was already starting to descend.

The number of soldiers that could be placed inside the fortress was less than 70000, and nearly 15000 of them were wounded.

Even if it was a huge fortress that could accommodate 100000, it couldn't accommodate for 15000 wounded.

Excluding the heavily wounded soldiers whose life were in danger, the wounded whose injuries weren't life threatening like broken bone were left aside.

Even so that didn't mean they weren't being tormented by intense pain.

This Aurelia continent only had herb with pain suppressing effect at best. There was no anesthesia to block out the pain.

Baldr had given the instruction to produce general anesthetic in preparation to develop surgical procedure in the future, however it was still in the middle of research.

In the era of the Three Kingdoms, Kada who was praised as a godly doctor was said to make use of anesthetic that was called as Mafutsusan.

However based on the confirmed record, it was Japan's Hanaoka Seishuu who succeeded in performing general anesthesia for the first time in the world.

The main ingredient of the Tsuusensan that he developed had been lost right now, however it was widely believed that it used jimsonweed, aconite, dong dang gui, senkyuu, and so on.

This world didn't have that kind of anesthesia, so people could only endure the intense pain when they were wounded.

Furthermore, many wounded would get into fever in order to heighten their body's power of resistance. People who were in fever and saw hallucination kept appearing.

──People who raved with loud voice, people who were screaming their mother's name, people who were still fighting the enemy in their dream.

The defeated army would always be forced to fight against this kind of mental negative spiral.

Answerer Kingdom was the strongest country in the continent.

Therefore even if they sometimes would get harassed by guerilla like Lagunitas, they didn't have the experience of getting a lot of wounded from a big battle that involved tens of thousands of soldiers.

「Those who are hallucinating are being isolated, but the number of the heavily wounded is too many. I think it will be impossible to keep things silent.」

「The soldiers won't be able to sleep with their noises! Make them bite clothes or something! Also, tell the lookouts to watch out for night attack!」

「The soldiers are on alert with three times the usual number of watch fires being lit.」

The fortress was stocked with a great amount of oil for this kind of time too. Fires were being lit fierily, making it looked like it was afternoon. It would be impossible for beastman to slip in the darkness of night to close the distance.

However their prediction, or rather their wish was easily betrayed.

「...Do you smell smoke?」

「Yeah, even if there is this many fires being lit, this is still...」

It wasn't just the smell of smoke, smoke was also shrouding the area. It stung the eye and worsened the field of vision terribly.

The soldiers wouldn't be able to fulfill their duty as lookout like this.

Depending on the situation they would have to reduce the number of fires. That was what they thought, but they immediately noticed that it was a mistake.

Because not long after that, dense black smoke enveloped the fortress. It became difficult to even open the eyes.

「W-what's this?」

「Enemy attack...no, even the beastman couldn't possibly do anything inside this kind of smoke!」

「A-anyway fire rocket arrows to the direction of the smoke!」

「R-roger!」

What the allied forces prepared in the darkness was the smokescreen that Jose used last time.

The main ingredient was the peat that could be gathered abundantly in Nordland Empire.

Aaron had brought a lot of smokescreen ingredients to Angelholm for the sake of this day.

「Do you think that we will just launch night attack normally?」

Certainly beastman race had a side where they turned arrogant due to the height of their physical ability and liked to push on with brute force. They were also thinking that human was cowardly for using magic and fighting from range where they couldn't see each other's face.

However the current beastmen were different.

They were unconditionally accepting the new technology, the new warfare that was developed by the absolute authority that was the beast king.

That was why they weren't fixated with their traditional way of fighting. They also used traps and tricks without batting an eyelid.

Although Baldr wasn't here, Boris was naïve thinking that the beastman race would be no different from the past.

「Masaki-dono, I shall leave the rest to you.」

Masaki was wearing something like a google and with a scarf wrapped around his mouth. He was grinning in delight together with twenty of his subordinates.

Wearing the present of his majesty the beast king to accomplish the mission in a decisive battle. This is truly a man's dream.」

「I completely agree with that.」

If possible Aaron too wanted to get the turn to accomplish something like that.

They tactfully closed their eyes toward their action not long ago where they blindly rushed forward at the forefront while being driven by their violent emotion.

「Even so this is something amazing, this smokescreen...」

「As expected, it will be suicide even for us beastmen if we take action inside this smoke. Normally that is.」

「Yes, anyone will think like that.」

A fossil fuel, especially peat that could produce the most smoke and mixed with special fat wouldn't just block the vision, it would also cause shortage of oxygen.

However the weight of smokescreen was lighter than air.

It had been made so that it wouldn't get easily blown away by wind, even so there was a limit. In other words the amount of smoke accumulation near the ground was small.

Fighting in a very narrow confined place like forest or cave was the specialty of cat-eared tribe.

They made use of the smokescreen to approach the gate while running with a very low posture that skimmed the ground. Then they blew up the whole gate with gunpowder.

Then they infiltrated inside and sowed chaos by throwing grenades at the magicians and the unit using holy relics.

They conquered Kronstadt Fortress in one go without giving the enemy any chance to get back on their feet.

They decided it before Answerer Kingdom army could get used to the beastman's way of fighting.

The front part of Kronstadt Fortress was already covered by smokescreen. The heavily wounded people who were unable to run away screamed.

「S-save me!」

「Please, don't leave me behind!」

「Painful...my breath...」

The soldiers who were tasked with nursing them called out to the soldiers who passed by.

「Oi! Anyone free should lend a hand! This smoke won't reach until the west section!」

「No one has any time for that when you don't even know where is the enemy coming from!」

「Those guys on the lookout still haven't said anything! We won't be able to move the wounded if even more smoke get inside!」

The soldiers were already disheartened by the defeat at the noon.

Of course their own life was the most important, but it would still break their heart to abandon their comrades.

However at this time, the soldiers also still had their reasoning.

「Anyone who isn't in standby for combat should move the wounded...」

──It was right at that moment.

*DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOO!*

A sound of huge explosion shook the fortress shakily. It became difficult to even stand up.

「W-what happened?」

「It looks like the gate is destroyed!」

「WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT!」

This was nothing but nightmare for Boris.

He had prepared enough against night attack.

In preparation against the beastman, the rampart was coated with wax that made it easy to slip up. The space for shooting was increased and the shooting angle for crossbow was secured.

Even if the enemy had twice the number, he thought that they would be able to endure for half a year.

But to think that he would be cornered until this far in the first day of fighting without having even putting up any decent fight. He couldn't understand the reason at all.

「What happened? What's this smoke? What is the lookouts doing?」

Something like this wasn't the war that Boris knew.

「It seems the beastmen exploded the gate by taking advantage of the smoke. Right now the heavy infantries are intercepting them at the first corridor!」

Boris was dumbfounded by his adjutant's report.

「You're saying that the gate is already broken through!?」

Half of a fortress's defensive strength came from its high rampart and solid gate.

The gate being destroyed was the same as the castle having lost half of its defense.

「We can't even count on rocket arrows inside this smoke...withdraw the magicians to the inside area. If you think that an area can't be kept anymore, use oil to lockdown the way.」

「Lockdown...is it? The moving of the wounded is still not over yet though.」

「We can't allow the fortress to be taken down like this. Go defeat the enemy rather than focusing on something like that.」

「...」

「Where is your reply!」

「I shall quickly order the men to lockdown the area!」

Perhaps it was at this moment that the adjutant really resigned himself of the fortress falling to the enemy.

.

「──Now then, let's stop the smokescreen now. If we keep this up the cat-eared tribe is going to snatch all the juicy parts.」

Aaron spoke with a composed expression while listening to the sound of explosions from grenades inside Kronstadt.

Even from afar, the fighting spirit and desperation of the enemies would be clearly transmitted.

Right now he couldn't feel anything like that from Kronstadt fortress. There was nothing that he should fear here.

「The hot-air balloon unit will arrive soon.」

「With that many watch fires and explosions inside, they won't get lost even in this dark night.」

It was easy to lose sight of direction when flying at night. The difficulty of that was high.

Night battle only really occurring for real starting at the latter half of the second World War. Weather—proof aircraft only appeared after the war was over.

Night takeoff and landing were especially difficult to do even at the middle of the second World War.

However by putting a cat-eared beastman with good night vision on board and having a bright and large landmark like this. The hot-air balloon unit was able to arrive at the designated place safely.

In battle, there was something that was called as established tactic.

When attacking a fortress, there was the sequence of arrow battle, battering ram, and then close-quarter combat. In a rare occasion outlandish scheme like fire attack or digging hole would also be used.

However what Answerer Kingdom army experienced right now wasn't any of those established tactics.

「We can't keep the outer wall anymore. We have also lost a part of the holy relics. But they won't get past the inner quarter!」

He was bluffing with all his might, but Boris was feeling angry at the inside toward this situation that was beyond his understanding.

(How can this kind of battle exist!)

Boris was feeling the same like those people of Haurelia Kingdom and Trystovy Dukedom when they fought Baldr.

Normal fire attack would also cause smoke, but the smoke wouldn't be so thick and obstructed the vision completely like this.

Furthermore the explosion that blew away the castle gate──it must be caused by gunpowder that was used for rocket arrows and the like being gathered in great amount and exploded.

Even Answerer Kingdom found it difficult to mass produce gunpowder, so why that side could have it in such abundant amount?

Thanks to that the archers and magicians who made use of the high place that was the rampart got neutralized easily. It didn't stop there. They had to form a defense line hastily and got forced to abandon the heavily wounded.

Even though it was something that couldn't be helped, the gaze of his subordinates toward him was cold.

Even he himself didn't want to abandon his subordinates if possible. The enemy's penetration was just too fast.

If they were going to harbor resentment, shouldn't they direct it to those hateful beastmen? And yet why was it that it was him who got resented instead!

The anger that had no outlet made Boris wanted to yell to anyone without caring whom.

「The rearrangement of the gunners as well as the magician unit has been finished.」

「What about the corridor's lockdown?」

The corner of the adjutant's lips twitched slightly. He hesitated a little.

「Currently the preparation to lit the rocket arrows that were scheduled to be disposed is finished. We will begin the lockdown when the timing is right.」

「My order should be to lockdown the corridor when it can't be supported anymore though?」

「We should rescue as many soldiers as possible. We have finished the preparation to lockdown the corridor anytime. I beg your excellency to postpone the lockdown for a bit more.」

「Are you planning to endanger the whole army for your own self-satisfaction?」

「N-no! By no means I...」

「The interception plan itself might fail if we failed in locking down the corridor!」

Answerer Kingdom army was already placed in disadvantage in everything whether it was number, morale, or momentum. So Boris aimed to lockdown several of the corridors to limit the battlefront and focused their firepower to the remaining battlefront.

Failure in order to save their allies would be intolerable.

In the past, when German army failed to destroy Great Bridge Ludedorff, all the people in charge got executed for their failure.

「All the preparation has been finished. I shall stake my life on it.」

「...Do as you please!」

He didn't like it. He didn't like everything.

Boris didn't have any way to change his adjutant's decision of risking his life to ignore his order.

However looking at the result, both Boris and the adjutant were completely mistaken in their prediction of the future.

A bombing was started from the unguarded sky above the inner quarter that should be a safe place.

「Oo, they are all there.」

「So that's the gunners. Looks like it's true that the churh is starting to lift up all of their restrictions.」

The number of guns didn't even reach a hundred.

However from the perspective of those who had already made use of gun and cannon in real battle, it was something that could be overlooked at all.

For beastmen, magic was more threatening, but gun surpassed magic in versatility and range.

If these two cooperated perfectly with each other and formed a defensive line, the past beastmen that liked to push on with brute force would receive serious damage and ended up defeated. Although they were here in order to not allow something like that to happen.

「The wind speed is weak and slightly to the east, keep it steady.」

「Prepare for ignition.」

「Preparation finished.」

「Start dropping them in order as soon as they are ignited.」

「Starting the drop!」

Explosives were thrown down one after another from the balloon.

The fuse was adjusted based on the height and wind direction. The explosives exploded just right before they touched the ground.

One of them exploded right in the middle of the magician unit in the inner quarter.

Just a bit before the explosives were dropped, Masaki's cat-eared tribe unit threw their grenades simultaneously and began charging.

The group was united as one without any individual thinking, so the group was able to maintain its fighting power. If the individuals in the group thought on their own, the group's fighting power would be halved.

Intentionally creating a situation where it was hard to make a decision was an effective method as a tactic.

In the end Answerer Kingdom's commander hesitated whether he should intercept the enemy or dodge the grenades.

Masaki's objective was to earn that moment of hesitation.

The commander's hesitation infected the soldiers. And then it caused the individuals to think by themselves, creating an opening.

With that, some amount of damage from magic wasn't scary.

There was no beast that would fear a trap that it knew could tear apart from the start.

「I-intercept! Go all out to intercept them!」

「...Slow.」

The beastmen's charge couldn't be stopped with that kind of timidity.

The cat-eared tribe's instantaneous force could crush the distance of ten meters in an instant.

Like that, the fighting range with the magician became close-range. And then there was no way the magicians could focus on using attack magic calmly when the enemies had already approached so closely.

The magic that should be fired in tandem with others became a scattered shot that spread out sparsely.

The disarray in shooting brought about the decline in the magic's suppressing power.

「No good!」

The heavy infantries immediately advanced forward to close that hole. But in a stroke of bad luck the explosives exploded above their head at that timing.

Bombing was fundamentally a probability weapon. It depended on luck where the bomb would land.

For a bomb to explode right above the magician unit that was attacked by Masaki, it could only be said that their luck was bad.

However for the people with experience in war, it was also a fact that it was those with the momentum of battle at their side who would be able to draw luck toward them.

「Slaughter them. There is no reason to leave any leftover.」

「My brethrens, perform transformation.」

Aaron also decided to play his trump card because he saw this as the crucial moment.

Even if the enemies couldn't comprehend the existence of hot-air balloon, they must have noticed that there was something in the sky.

For the allied forces that were greatly inferior to Answerer Kingdom in magic battle, they mustn't give the enemies the time to prepare countermeasure.

They would produce the greatest battle result while the enemies were still in chaos.

Aaron didn't intend to be stingy in order to do that.

Kronstadt's defensive line that should be in full strength was going to be broken through by unreasonable power.

「Fire! I don't care even if you hit allies!」

Boris mercilessly decided to fire rocket arrows to the frontline where allies and enemies were mixed in chaotic melee.

There was no hiding the disadvantage his own army was in anymore.

The only chance to turn around this despairing situation was by taking down the enemy's main commander in the battlefield.

Right now Aaron and Masaki were fighting furiously at the frontline. Kronstadt would be saved if he could luckily kill those two.

Although such thinking was logically correct, that was something like a rose-colored illusion that was seen within a predicament with no way out.

Certainly the beastmen would be shaken if Aaron was dead in battle. There was also a possibility that they would retreat temporarily.

However Boris underestimated the demerit of such action too much.

──There was a psychological experiment. When someone troubled by money was given two options of paying back his debt by ten million, or making a gamble with 80% chance of losing and doubling the debt and 20% chance of winning and not having to pay anything back, more than 80% people would choose the latter option.

It was an impossible option if they made the mathematical calculation, but for cornered people, that option would sound like a good idea that answered their prayer.

Considering the possibility of the rocket arrows killing Aarron, and the damage that would be inflicted to his soldiers and the decline of their morale, this decision had very high risk.

Boris's adjutant recited the command with a cold voice that had lost all expectations to his superior.

「──Fire.」

The rocket arrows flew with a thunderous sound.

Explosive sounds reverberated in succession. At the same time the magicians' bodies were blown away. The number of beastmen who died from the attack was only a fragment of it.

The kill ration was roughly 5 to 1.

Even though the soldiers at the front line were desperately trying to repel the beastmen's penetration, their allies behind them suddenly stabbed them in the back. There was no way they could keep fighting like before.

Boris didn't understand that the soldiers were thinking of fighting as their job.

Pawn was pawn because it would follow any order. Pawn that could bite back with its own will wasn't a pawn.

「Fall to hell! You cursed ally killer!」

Not only Boris had abandoned the heavily wounded, he also intentionally attacked his own ally.

Not all action could be forgiven just because it was strategically correct. An army was an organization, a group, exactly because of that the soldiers couldn't be made to think that they had been abandoned. The skill of a tactician could be seen from this.

The rocket arrows couldn't kill both Masaki and Aaron was half inevitable.

「The enemies are in chaos! It's really hard for the subordinates to have a stupid general.」

「Who are you calling a stupid general! You damned animal!」

Boris was furious from Aaron's insult. He wasn't so lowly that a mere filthy animal could make fun of him.

But the reality was the opposite of his thinking. The situation was completely the worst of the worst for him.

The enemies had already penetrated deeply into the headquarters that Boris could even hear Aaron's voice.

Boris was unable to accept that fact.

He could still manage somehow.

He still had a chance to win.

It was impossible that the pride of Answerer Kingdom, Kronstadt fortress could fall in just one day, that a great general of 80000 troops like him could be defeated.

Such convenient story only existed in fairy tale. It couldn't possibly exist in reality.

「I found an idiot here. Don't pay any attention to the others. Run with everything you got to take that idiot's head.」

Aaron who heard Boris's yell grinned widely.

It wouldn't be difficult to win even if they kept fighting like this, but if Boris was killed, the enemies would choose to run away rather than fighting.

In most cases, the battle would be decided decisively when the great general was killed.

Boris who realized that he had been discovered by the enemies lost his presence of mind in an unsightly way.

「G-gunners, what are you doing! Mow them down!」

「It's pointless. That weapon is useless if it's not used in an environment where you can aim calmly.」

「You bastard-! What are you acting so calmly for. This headquarters is being targeted right now!」

「I'm already prepared to fight to the death.」

「D-don't screw with me!」

Boris didn't have any resolve to die.

He wondered why everyone around him was so useless.

They easily allowed the beastmen to infiltrate inside, and they couldn't even carry out his order correctly. Furthermore there were only fools around him who had given up on winning and accepted their death.

「The glorious Answerer Kingdom must never lose against the likes of the beastmen. Do something about this!」

「Please manage it somehow by yourself. After all the commander of this fortress is your excellency.」

The adjutant dismissed him with a single sentence. Boris was angry at this lack of patriotism.

If they really knew about the prestige of Answerer Kingdom, then they should fight the enemies even at the cost of their lives.

「Enough! I don't have any time to keep arguing with you bastard like this!」

It was impossible to fight if he had to lead this kind of cowards into battle.

Boris turned his back toward the screams and battle cries. Seeing that his adjutant called out to him with a chilling tone.

「Are you going to run?」

「I'm not running! This is so I can get more useful soldiers to win!」

「──There is no such thing as useful soldier. You were the one unable to make a good use of the soldiers. Though it's pointless for me to say that now.」

「I'm not mistaken at all! Don't talk big when you can't even carry out my orders correctly!」

「We are unlucky. We got a bad opponent. If this is just an insurrection at the countryside, then even you wouldn't be this incompetent of a commander」

「I told you to not talk big...」

「Time's up.」

「What-?」

Boris got a bad premonition and turned around.

There, he saw the figure of Aaron laughing with his canine bared. Boris lost the strength in his waist and fell on his butt.

「Wha-, wha-, wha-!」

「I'll thank you for one thing.」

「W-what?」

Boris didn't know why a beastman would thank him. He endured his fear and asked back.

「It really helped that you are an idiot who dared to insult his majesty and shot his allies on the back.」

「That's──」

Boris wanted to surrender to the beastman so that his life could be spared at least, but he couldn't speak any further.

That was because his adjutant wordlessly beheaded him.

「Please don't discard your own righteousness for abandoning your subordinates. Though, I guess you can hear me anymore.」

Would the battle situation change if he did this faster?

No, there was no commander in Kronstadt who could replace Boris. The adjutant also couldn't possibly act as Boris's replacement.

「My name is Mine Drasse. Here I come.」

「From Nordland Empire, the supreme commander of the western side army, Aaron. I shall remember that there is one hero in this Kronstadt.」

Mine instantly broke into a run.

With a dash that he poured all his focus into, he held his sword on his waist's height with a stance to slam it into his opponent.

It was obviously a stance to take down his opponent together with himself.

「It's too bad. The match might go in your favor if there is one more hero here.」

No matter how hard Mine's resolve to throw away his life was, he couldn't manage to reach Aaron who was in his Transformation state.

Aaron crouched so low to the ground and cut off Mine's legs. Then while Mine was falling, Aaron stabbed his heart from the back. He felt that it was too bad that such person had to die.

.

Because Boris and his staff officers were annihilated, Answerer Kingdom army completely lost cohesion and gave up resisting. They began to run away from the west of the fortress.

Their number was roughly 30000. The number of soldiers who were wounded or surrendered was also around 30000. The number of the dead was 20000.

With such miserable result left behind, the battle that would be called as Northern Battle later on ended in a great victory for Nordland-Gartlake allied forces.