Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume5 Chapter4 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

Orba, Shique and Gilliam were all three of them punished by being put under house arrest. The same went for the platoon leader who had been so lacking in zeal for his supervisory duties. Locked up in the cramped private house, every time Orba or the others entered the corner of the platoon leader's field of vision, which was constantly, he hurled insults and curses at them. In the end, Gilliam threatened him.

"I'll stop you from ever being able to use that mouth again," and so the platoon leader didn't speak on the third day, although he hadn't been on the receiving end of any violence.

Red Hawks mercenaries also passed in front of the house once, laughing out loud in an unnatural way. The figures of those who had brawled in Kay's shop were among them.

"Those bastards used to be gladiators."

"Then a cramped cage suits them. Please don't feed the beasts without permission."

They laughed but at that moment, Shique's face appeared through a crack at that window.

"I'll remember your faces," he said with a smile. "We won't be in here for ever. You do understand that sooner or later, the wild beasts will be released into the fields. At the moment, you've gathered in a large crowd, but how long will that last? There's no one along the unlit streets at night, is there? At times like those, please watch your backs. A starving wild beast with gleaming claws and fangs might be lurking in the shadows, no longer locked up."

His features were like a woman's but as he narrowed his eyes while smiling, that face was somewhat chilling. The Red Hawks' laughter gradually faded and, spitting out words somewhere between contempt and justification, they left.

It was unusual for Shique to threaten like that. He seemed to very much bear a grudge over his face being hit.

Their circumstances back when they had been gladiators had been much harsher: it had been far more painful to have sword practice and to have to take care of the beasts during the hottest part of the day until they were dripping with sweat. Orba was far from having a patient personality. He had a goal he had to accomplish and for that purpose, he was a man who could endure waiting, be it three days or three years, but he had never been able to stand waiting for nothing.

By the fourth day, he was even considering deserting but luckily – if it could be called that – on the fifth day, the situation changed. Garda's forces finally departed from Eimen. They numbered roughly two thousand. A thousand had been left in Eimen as their base.

"I can't believe it."

It wasn't surprising that Bouwen spoke with suspicion as he folded his arms. The enemy totalled three thousand as they had absorbed most of the military strength of city after city that fell before them. It was said that hardly any soldiers had been left at the ruins of the Zer Illias temple, thought to be the headquarters of Garda's army.

"Garda's forces should have almost no control over the possessions they've only just seized. They should normally be leaving large numbers of soldiers there, yet they're using practically all of their increased army corps to advance. In the first place, it should be difficult to take command of the soldiers and it wouldn't be surprising if revolts arose in the cities."

"They must be controlling the people and soldiers through sorcery."

Greygun's answer was simple. He had received permission from King Jallah and they were finally to march. On their side, they numbered two thousand five hundred. They had the numerical advantage. The rumour among even the lowest-ranked soldiers was that although a general from Helio had been chosen to take command for the time being, he was no more than a figurehead and in practice, Greygun was the one who made the decisions.

Orba and the others were also released from house arrest. Duncan, the commander of the mercenary unit, had personally gone turned up for the occasion,

"The next time you get into a fight with the mercenaries from the Red Hawks," he had solemnly declared, "do it somewhere where nobody will notice."

He was a man with a strange sense of humour. Perhaps that was necessary for one who managed professional warmongers.

Helio's troops, Taúlia's troops, the Red Hawks led by Greygun and the mercenary corps led by a several commanders, starting with Duncan. Those forces started off, weaving their way through the crowd of spectators that thronged the road before the gate.

The vanguard consisted of Helio's regular cavalry. Behind them, amidst the sound of thundering footsteps, followed the dragoon corps. Speaking of the dragoon corps, their commander, the far-famed general Lasvius whose loyalty to Helio's royal family was absolute, had disappeared during the revolt following King Elargon's death. Because of that, their numbers had been reduced by half.

Behind Helio's army followed Taúlia's troops. Cavalry, dragoons, artillery then the mercenary corps led by Duncan followed in a line. They consisted of a hundred riders and three hundred and fifty foot soldiers, and naturally Orba was among those infantrymen. They advanced hoisting their long spears.

Although he was heading into battle wearing the military gear he had longed for as a child, pennons fluttering bravely, marching while being seen off by a great crowd of people, the haze within Orba's heart had still not cleared.

Then, before they passed through the gate, Shique who was walking beside him, nudged him with his elbow.

Looking in the direction he indicated, there were Kay and her brother Niels among the crowd. The two of them were waving their hands and he inadvertently waved back. No matter that they were headed towards mortal peril, when the soldiers were greeted by the cheers of the crowd, for that one proud moment, every one of them was a hero who didn't fear death. The tramping of their footsteps and the clatter of their equipment resounded. Even if the kings of the various countries were turning over all sorts of ingenious schemes, even if the fight had started through all sorts of ambitions, what each and every soldier was fighting was a crusade to protect the country they were born and raised in, their family and neighbours.

However,

''Both for gladiators and for mercenaries'',

The torrents of cheers and the looks from the people seeing them off didn't hold any meaning at all. Orba walked at the centre of space that had been painted entirely grey.

The last to pass through the gate were the Red Hawks, commanded by Greygun. Five hundred of them were leaving for the front, with two hundred remaining along with fifty of Helio's regular soldiers to defend the city.

The line of military troops left Helio behind.

The sky was cloudy.

The wind was dry.

"Lord Hardross, it is bad for your health. Please return to your room."

Hardross Helio stood on the rooftop of a tower projecting from the castle walls. The woollen mantle he wore over his toga was fluttering.

Without responding to the chamberlain's appeal, he continued to gaze down in silence on the crowd below until he got tired of it, then suddenly turned to face southwards and narrowed his eyes. When the weather was good, one could see the shadow of the forest surrounding Lake Soma in the far distance.

Hardross was contemplating Lake Soma with particular attention.

The land around the lake was fertile and it had been an important grain-producing region since the days of Zer Tauran. East of that lake was Helio, and south of it was Cherik. The two countries had competed countless times for supremacy over it.

Because it was fertile land, naturally not only those two countries but other powers as well aimed for Lake Soma and had constantly kept a vigilant eye on it. Their claws and fangs gleaming, they had waited for the two countries to weaken.

And so, as that land risked being easily snatched away, Hardross Helio had proposed an alliance with Cherik. They pledged that they would have joint jurisdiction over the pasture land, farms and fields, and that they would divide the harvest in even halves.

The result of Cherik's consent was that as proof of the alliance, Marilène had left Cherik to marry into Helio twelve years earlier. Although still only fourteen at the time, the girl already possessed an adult-like beauty. Hardross had rejoiced more than anyone at the arrival of this emissary of friendship. Because he was so innocently delighted, his subjects had gossiped that ''His Majesty Hardross might be intending to make the young princess queen''.
[[Image:Rakuin no Monshou v05 131.jpg|thumb]]

His successor Elargon was an only child born when Hardross had been in his mid-thirties. He had raised him with great care and it was heart-warming to see the king exulting over going to greet his son's bride. Moreover, his son's generation was promised the rich blessings of Lake Soma without there being war with Cherik. For Hardross, there had been a sense that his work as king was complete.

''But now'',

Elargon had died in battle and his grandchild Rogier, born to Elargon's concubine, had disappeared. It was the same as saying that apart from himself, the royal lineage had died out. Princess Marilène of Cherik whom he had been so happy to welcome sat next to some man who was in the position of king and yet whose name Hardross didn't recognise, while among the people and in the shadows it was whispered more and more that she intended to sell Helio out to Cherik.

''I must endure for now''.

Hardross continued to gaze in the direction in which he had once spurred his frail body to run through battlefields, the direction that would be filled with the deep blue of Lake Soma.

''The rampage of that accursed Garda's army has to be safely held in check''.

He vowed to himself that when that time came, he would be awaiting the final task for the former King Hardross.


It was said that having left Eimen, Garda's army was advancing through the grasslands that spread north of Helio. The area was a region dotted with nomadic herders, but it seemed unlikely that they would oppose troops two thousand strong. The combined Zerdian forces on the other hand were advancing towards the Coldrin Hills, which lay northwest of Helio and northeast of Lake Soma, at roughly the same distance from both if you drew a straight line.

North of the hills was the steppe. The only pass through which a great number of people could advance was a narrow one, and Greygun's strategy was for the main body of their troops to take up position on the high grounds there.

"The enemy probably has airships," was the assessment made by the upper echelons of Greygun and the others' forces.

According to rumour, Garda's army possessed three large aircrafts and instead of installing guns on the ground, they fired from the air and massacred all indiscriminately.

As the Tauran countries were not close to the sea and the routes for purchasing ether were scattered, supply was unstable. It was therefore an accepted opinion that the Tauran countries were vulnerable to air battles.

"Where the hell is Garda getting ether from? Even a sorcerer can't produce it out of thin air!"

Advancing in front of Orba and the others, their platoon leader grumbled complainingly.

Also, according to another rumour, the people in the areas that Garda controlled were treated like slaves. The women were taken away and it seemed that most of them were sacrificed during strange, suspicious ceremonies. The men saw their families and lovers taken hostage and were forced to take the path of soldiers. It was said that black smoke rose incessantly from the cities occupied by Garda's army.

"It's a secret ritual of Garda's sorcery," someone murmured as though telling a ghost story when they ate their crude meal around the open fire late at night. "They say he makes ether from living humans. That's why he needs so many sacrifices. Actually, they say that when the historical Garda performed powerful spells, he also demanded a proportional number of sacrifices."

Just as Orba had previously heard from Stan, it was claimed that Garda sank those sacrifices into Lake Kurán. There was such a history, or at least various legends, handed down about Kurán.

Another story was that not long after Zer Tauran had collapsed, a powerful clan which had settled in the area had apparently planned to build a town on the lake's estuary as part of the northern trade route. However, as the people in charge died of illness one after another, the project remained at a standstill. Consequently, ships coming from the north had to unload their cargo at the mouth of the river and take an overland route towards the south.

As the people in Tauran were superstitious, when a strong wind sometimes blew in the dead of night, the soldiers would look at each other uneasily. It was as though the wind was blowing through skulls abandoned in the wilderness and the tune it played was the same as the wailing of departed souls.

Their opponent was a magician whose true nature was unknown and who might use any kind of strange art – enemy soldiers might suddenly appear right here, or a monstrous bird or dragon manipulated by magic might come from the sky, or perhaps Garda himself might step out from the deep shadows and lay a death curse upon everyone there – and the Zerdians remembered their dread.

Probably sensing the soldiers' unease, Greygun was continuously choosing the best riders out of his own men and sending them out as scouts. This backfired however when, just before the Coldrin Hills, one of the scouts failed to return.

Greygun had the main force advance with caution. To march while feeling uneasy about the possibility of a surprise attack put the soldiers under stress. It had to be said however that as was characteristic of them, the Red Hawks mercenaries alone threw their chests out and roared as though unconcerned by superstitions.

But – 

When they arrived at the upwards slanting terrain with the Coldrins right before their eyes, Greygun gave the order to halt the march.

The enemy troops had already taken up position on the high plateaus overlooking where they were.