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Fish in Water, or the Unbridled Foal (4)
The commanders of the citadel were fiercely opposed to my plan.
They believed they would not last long in their current state, so it was paramount to get all the forces out at the first possible opportunity.
“So, when will that opportunity come?”
The commanders stayed silent, and I groaned. However, they soon spoke up again, talking about how difficult the defense of the fort would be and pointing out how uncertain my ploy was.
From their point of view, theirs was a reasonable refutation. For men like these, who have never met the first princeps in person, my plan sounded nothing more than a gamble for which they had to risk their lives in uncertainty.
I didn’t mean to persuade them.
“Do whatever you want,” I replied and then remained silent. I folded my arms and leaned back on my chair. Those who watched me frowned, it seemed as if they found my attitude to be too irresponsible.
I snorted. In the first place, I was just a stranger. It was not I who was to determine the fate of the fort; it was them. And I was willing to follow whatever decision they made.
It was enough for me to just have a field of battle upon which I faced the empire’s armies.
It didn’t matter to me if it was the battlefield we would enter if we were to attempt an unlikely escape. Anything would do.
Perhaps they realized this about me after a while, as the commanders of the fort soon ignored me, beginning to exchange opinions among themselves.
However, there were no tricks in the bag which could overcome their difficult position.
In such a frustrating situation where no solution was found, the atmosphere in the conference hall soon heated up with no definite outcome.
Eventually, some held the groundless optimism that the imperial army would not harm the civilians, with some even offering the irresponsible suggestion that the soldiers should march at once and flee.
“Stop! Is this what Dotrin’s knights have come to say now?” the old commander yelled. “Look at their history: You know how the imperial forces treat the inhabitants of occupied territory. I never intended to leave a single civilian in the fort. Find a way where we can all leave together.”
The commanders were silenced by the commander-in-chief’s words.
Silence reigned in the conference hall.
“You are Ian, the commander of the Veil Mercenaries, yes?” asked the commander-in-chief as he broke the silence.
“Yes, I am Ian, leader of the Veil Mercenary Company.”
“Okay, Commander Ian. Say you’re right: Let’s say that when the third princeps arrives on the battlefield, there will be a way for us to survive.”
The commander-in-chief gave me a heavy look.
“Is there any way for us to hold out until then?”
“They will be on the offensive again, taking a day off to recover from the damage inflicted to them in battle,” I replied as if having waited for his question.
“Probably.”
“Then, we must prevent them from recovering.”
“Please tell me your plans in detail,” said the commander-in-chief, and I shrugged.
“I have no details to relate,” came my instant reply, and I added, “If we can damage them before they recover, their assault will halt.”
The old commander now had wide eyes.
“Surely
”
“I will infiltrate the enemy camp and make a mess.”
Once they woke up, the last thing on their minds would be taking the citadel.
* * *
The meeting was over. Just when I was about to get up, the old commander asked me, “But how did you enter the fort in this situation?”
“I just walked in,” came my profound reply.
The commander-in-chief laughed, for he could not believe what I was saying.
“I just got mixed in with the foe and advanced with them, and when I saw the open gate, I walked in.”
“And the soldiers of the empire just watched you enter?”
“They didn’t just look at me – They pushed me from the rear so I could quickly gain the fort.”
The commander chuckled at my answer and then began to laugh. He laughed for a long time, his amazement clear. Then he got up, corrected his posture, and bowed his head to me politely.
“If we make it through this, I will honor you greatly.”
In response to his gratitude, I replied by saying that I would surely be claiming that generous award he offered me. I then left the conference hall.
* * *
The commander of the Imperial Army was in a bad mood.
The fortress had been besieged for two months, and its fall was within his reach, and then a strange guy appeared and disrupted everything. The very precious paladin that the third princeps sent to him was slain. It was close to a force majeure, yet it was unlikely that the third princeps, who was stupid, would consider such extenuating circumstances.
If he had the fortress in his hand, he could turn the tide and keep his head, but his attempt has failed. Everything was a right mess.
“Why does he come all this way, onto the battlefield?” the commander swore as he thought of the third princeps.
If the siege had been a success in the first place, there would never have been such an abnormal offensive from a fortress that had by all rights fallen, and there would have been no need to worry about the paladin’s death.
Many things had gone very wrong, and now the commander was facing oblivion, yet he knew the situation didn’t allow him to merely resent it. He had to find a way to somehow keep his life.
And there was only one way.
He had to capture the fortress and dedicate the act to the third princeps. It was a bitter idea, but he knew it was the only way in which to save his neck.
“Tonight, we attack the fort again.”
He immediately called up the knights who would be leading the operation. It was to be a full-on defensive targeting the entire wall.
After all, there were not many remaining troops. If they were lucky, they would be able to capture the fort by the evening.
“What about the two-swords knight?” asked one of the knights.
“We’ll ignore him. No matter how monster-like, he is but one man in the end. He can’t turn the tide alone.”
That monster-like knight would have to run wild in all four directions to guard the walls. If the fortress was hit from all sides, it would eventually fall into the empire’s hands.
One of the knights expressed further concern, asking if they had to prepare for the worst. His was a very shrunken face.
The knight was pathetic, but the commander did not openly express this. Now wasn’t the time to antagonize the knights. So, the commander said he would have the wizards focus on the knight with the twin swords. He urged his knights to rather focus on their assault upon the walls.
That’s how the meeting ended, and the commander went straight back to the barracks to catch some sleep before the evening’s action.
“Tonight will be a very long night.”
He fell asleep as he laughed at the men of Dotrin, who had endured for two months. Then he suddenly opened his eyes, awake. There came noises from outside.
“What’s out there!” he demanded loudly, and one of his knight escorts came in through the barracks door. The man’s expression looked bad.
“It’s a surprise attack by Dotrin!”
“That’s nonsense!”
The magical flames raging across the fort have not yet been extinguished; the defenders could not afford a counter-attack.
“Our food stores are on fire! Both Sir Annu and Sir Goose, who were guarding that quarter, are incommunicado!”
“Why are you talking about them now?”
“I just heard the report tha-“
The commander shoved the knight away as the man made excuses, and left the barracks.
“Aah
” groaned the commander. The camp was in chaos, and the soldiers who had rested to prepare for the full-on assault were running about helter-skelter.
“How many enemies?” the commander asked in a cold voice as he ground his teeth.
“We still have to grasp-“
“They won’t be much. The fortress doesn’t have the manpower.”
The commander quickly grasped the situation, summoned the knights, and gave them their orders.
“Go get it done right now!”
The knights ran off, and the commander did not doubt that the chaos would soon be stemmed. Yet his certainty proved to be only hope. Some time had already passed, and yet the confusion has not subsided. Rather, it only increased.
“Commander, it would now be impossible to launch an evening offensive.”
The commander snapped awake.
“That was their aim.”
After he had grasped the enemy’s intentions, he summoned the knights to him. However, a small number of knights responded to his summons.
“It seems that it takes time to find the enemy who infiltrated the camp.”
The knights said their comrades would be back soon.
And some did return, or rather, their heads did.
“Give me a headcount, and get all the knights here right now!”
Some of the knights departed from the barracks to do this, and after some time, some of these knights also went missing. It was only then that the commander realized the gravity of the situation, and he summoned all the key officers and senior knights.
Nearly half of them did not arrive alive, with half of that half returning as headless corpses.
“This is an absurd situation!” shouted the commander.
In less than half a day, one-third of the officers in command of the legion had been assassinated or have disappeared. Among them were triple-chain knights.
He couldn’t believe it; he just couldn’t believe it.
The night passed, and none could attempt the scheduled offensive. Only in the morning could the commander determine the true extent of the damage.
“This
”
Dozens of corpses were laid out before his barracks. Among them were the knights who had gone out to save the food stores, while others had eagerly gone in hunt of the enemy.
And there were also precious wizards, dead. The commander felt dizzy upon this observation.
Now, the problem was not gaining the fort. In a single day, a third of the legion’s high-ranking officers had been slain.
The command structure had to be repaired at once, and the commander fired off orders.
Others were placed in the spots that had been vacated, with many officers being promoted to fill the gaps.
But it was pointless, for the next day, even more officers were slain.
“I told you to strengthen our perimeter!” the commander shouted, his anger having reached a peak. He collapsed into his seat. The knights had not ignored his commands; they had formed a patrol and guarded the camp together so that they could all aid each other in the event of a surprise attack.
The enemy skillfully slipped through the gaps. Because all the knights were gathered together, the enemy rather slew the front-line infantry officers, and half of their posts were vacated in this manner.
It had only been yesterday that the lesser officers had been promoted to serve as higher-ranking officers. Now, however, many of them had to be demoted again to serve as front-line officers.
Things were going crazy, jumping to and fro.
“Choose the capable veterans and fill up the officer ranks.”
The commander had to form another messy command structure, and yet, the nightmare has just begun.
The enemy launched surprise attacks day and night. Countless officers died in the process, and soldiers no longer regarded becoming an officer as a good career move.
They wanted to remain soldiers rather than be exposed to the threat of assassination.
Still, the commander forced them into promotion. The problem was that the senior officers were still being targeted, and they refused to use the same barracks as the rank-and-file soldiers, also considering it a shame to dress like common soldiers.
And such arrogance led to their deaths.
Less than half of the officers now remained. It was an insufficient number to effectively command a legion. Food stores were burned, weapon stockpiles and siege engines were destroyed.
It was terrible, and even more terrible was the fact that the nature of the enemy had not been grasped up to this point – Who and how many they were, and even whether they came from Dotrin’s fortress.
The commander never saw a thing.
“Sir, I bring word that His Highness the Third Princeps will arrive in four days.”
To make matters worse, the incompetent third princeps would soon arrive.
The commander closed his eyes tightly.
“From today on, all officers will quarter with the soldiers in a single barracks. If you don’t wish to remove your armor and uniforms, then stay together so that the enemy would not dare attack. We will assault the fortress tomorrow.”
Once a new day dawned, the commander would order the attack.
The commanders had been culled to a significant extent, but their numbers were insignificant compared to the total strength of the legion.
“I should rather have neglected the camp’s defense from the beginning and attacked at once. Then, things would not have reached this point.”
The commander regretted it, so he was determined to correct his mistakes from here on out.
Unfortunately, he did not get the opportunity to do so, for a guest visited him overnight.
“It was you,” said the commander with a haggard face when he confirmed the identity of the intruder.
There was a man, features hidden beneath a hood, who stood before him. Two swords were sheathed upon his back.
“It was impossible from the first, facing a monster like you. It is my fault, to believe that a knight like you would not be part of such a dishonorable mission.”
“Are you provoking me?”
“You can not be proud. Your victory is a low thing, honorless.”
After the commander had given up all hope, he mocked the knight.
However, the twin-sword knight accepted such insults casually.
“Oh, I’m not a knight.”
“What?”
“I am a mercenary.”
The man then laughed and introduced himself.
“Here is Ian, leader of the Veil Mercenary Company.”
The commander considered his foe to be so ashamed of conducting such a dishonorable mission that he now chose to conceal his identity. No mere mercenary would be powerful enough to defeat a paladin of the imperial palace or be able to beat back a legion on his own.
“You’ve tried hard, I’ll say that,” said the man who called himself Ian.
“A princeps of Burgundy has arrived. If you kill me, you will earn his wrath.”
The commander tried to work on the man’s fears, but he failed.
“That’s why you have to die.”
“What?”
“That way, the troops will act under the princeps’ will.”
Only then did the commander realize his enemy’s true scheme.
He might not know who the man was, but the man certainly knew who the third princeps was. How incompetent he was, how stupid, and how he will lead the army.
The enemy planned to make the imperial force self-destruct by placing the princeps in command.
“You bastard!” came the commander’s angry shout, and those were his only words.
‘Klsuck,’ he felt a pain at his throat, and the world turned white, hazy.
“I will take the reigns and care for the precious third princeps,” the man whispered into the commander’s ear. “I promise you: He will win and win. The fall of this fort will be his first triumph, and he will continue to attain many more victories.”
The commander opened his eyes when he heard that.
“That way, he’ll get closer to the throne.”
The commander had thought that, at best, his enemy was trying to save the fortress and collapse at least one or two legions. No
 he was about to shake the very foundations of the empire.
“You dare
” At last, realizing this fact, the commander desperately reached out and grabbed the man. However, his life had been on the brink of ending, and now it left him entirely, ending in vain.
* * *
A man who had once commanded a legion was now naught but a corpse.
Ian looked at the body and stretched his arms.
“After our work today, we have three day’s rest.”
Gunn appeared like a ghost from the darkness and gestured, (Fish That Met Water)
“What?”
(Nothing)
Ian dismissed Gunn’s gestures as insignificant. He started reciting a poem while holding onto his twin swords.
Then he tore out of the barracks and shouted, “The leader of the Veil Mercenaries, Ian, is here!”
The imperial knight escort who saw him were astonished and drew their swords.
Ian killed them as they were, and the mercenary with the twin golden blades swept through the camp.
The figure hiding in the shadows slashed the neck of an unfortunate knight, then saw the figure of Ian, touched her lips, and gestured (You Are Like Unbridled Foal)
As she said this, Ian looked very excited.
There was no Winter Castle to defend here, and there was no need to hold back due to being in imperial territory.
Ian was clearly enjoying the freedom of fighting upon a battlefield that did not bind him in any manner.
“Who dares deal with Ian, the leader of the Veil Mercenary Company!?” Ian roared as he stood tall over the corpses of the knights.
When the imperial soldiers saw him, they fell back.
* * *
Three days later, the third princeps arrived on the battlefield. He quickly rallied the troops whose command system had been severed and attacked High Seabreeze Fortress.
In front of the tactics and strategies employed by the third princeps, Dotrin’s fortress stood helpless.
In the process of taking the fort, the third princeps was captured by Dotrin’s Sword Master.
Yet, due to the infinite wisdom of the princeps, he managed to make his escape.
While being held, he discovered the fortress’s weaknesses, gaining a clue as to how he would capture the fortress that the imperial forces had failed to take for two whole months.
And finally, the fortress fell.
There was no pursuit of the defenders that fled, and this was by strict military order from the third princeps.
“I don’t know who it is, but there is a righteous man in there who helped me escape. They might be the people of Dotrin, but they gladly rescued me and gave up their secrets. He said, ‘The people of Dotrin are waiting for you to come, oh princeps.’ He said that he feared that his comrades, who were hoping to be freed from the wicked Dotrin’s tyranny, would be hurt in a pursuit, so he begged me for mercy, to call off such a chase.”
The imperial army praised the kindness of the princeps for regarding the enemy’s people as precious as the empire’s own, and they praised the name of the third princeps who had managed to capture the impregnable fortress.
It was known so well that it ended up being known at all.