Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume6 Chapter4 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

Before their departure to the front, the soldiers received a warm reception everywhere they went within the town. All of them were righteous martyrs about to embark on a holy crusade against Garda. With that, the west’s cooperation gained strength. Even those who had been enemies just yesterday stood shoulder to shoulder and sang the same songs, drinking the same wine together.

It had to be said however that this sense of solidarity was peculiar to the Zerdians and that Orba and the others, having come from Mephius, naturally didn’t receive the same warm welcome.

But instead, the night before leaving for the front, they were once more invited to Kay’s store. There was nothing luxurious but it was a feast prepared from the heart. Incidentally, Talcott wasn’t present. He had already found a new woman and was busy drawing her portrait and writing poetry.  

Niels was also working at the eatery. He acted just as before, as though nothing had happened. 

“But it would be great if this time could put an end to the fighting,” Kay, a better drinker than men, muttered with red cheeks. After that, her eyes suddenly started shining. “Say, this is just my idea but, once this fight is over, won’t Tauran definitely be more peaceful than in the past?”

“Oh, why’s that?” Gilliam asked. 

“Well, so many countries are joining hands to beat back Garda. Won’t the higher-ups all realise how stupid it is to always be fighting among fellow Zerdians?”

“If that happens, we’ll be out of work. And after we got to the point of being mercenaries and thanks to Mr. Captain, the pay’s good.” 

“It’s fine, isn’t it, you can think about it after it’s all over. You’re a strong guy, so you’ll have plenty of work. And that ladies’ man there looks like he’d have no trouble conning money out of lots of women.”

“W-Who would!?”

Shique nearly spat out his drink. When it came to romantic relationships, he was to the core a self-confessed misogynist, but on the other hand he commonly talked with women like Kay and he had been worried about her when Helio fell.

“As for the masked captain… Er…” 

As Kay faltered, Gilliam laughed heartily.

“Ha ha ha. This guy isn’t good with anything except swords. He isn’t suited for any kind of job. Just imagine him listening to a boss and baking bread. Ah, no good, I’m laughing so much my stomach’s gonna burst.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t work. Kind of like you when you’re whispering sweet words to women.”

“Whaat!”

As usual, Orba and Gilliam did not make good drinking partners. And even less so as Talcott wasn’t around today. 

“Yes, yes,” Kay waded in to stop the two in his stead. “When it comes to you, I can’t tell whether you get on well or badly. Even if every single country stops fighting, you’ll definitely always be quarrelling. Without just going your separate ways.”

Kay certainly didn’t think that everything would be over just like that. Undoubtedly, the western countries were currently united to face a common threat, but this was no miraculous occurrence and the same thing had happened a little over a decade ago. At the time, when none other than Mephius had invaded from the east, Kay had lost her father to the fighting.

The various countries of Tauran had banded together for a while to keep Mephius’ aggression in check, but one only had to look at the current state of affairs to understand what had happened afterwards. By the very next month, the Zerdians who had raised cries of victory together and shared celebratory drinks in triumph had started getting into skirmishes with their neighbouring states.

Kay knew that Zerdian temperament all too well. But it was a woman’s role to see the men off to the battlefield and to prepare banquets with as cheerful a feel as possible.   

''And yet…''

And yet this time, although Kay didn’t know if the atmosphere she sensed was the same throughout the west, the mood in Tauran was certainly different from what it had been during the war with Mephius. A major reason for that was probably that this wasn’t an outside aggression but something that presented the aspect of a civil war in which all Zerdians were caught up. 

It couldn’t be denied that this was the result of the cycle that they themselves had repeated.

''Will the fighting still not end?''

It wasn’t only one woman managing a restaurant who held that thought, but also the soldiers who went out on a spree with their mates before leaving for the front in an attempt to forget their dread of the battlefield, the lovers who gazed up at the night sky even as the soldiers’ carousing reached their ears, the women who went to the temples of the Dragon Gods faith to buy protective charms for their husbands and sons, and even the officers who were even now working out strategies probably felt the same.

With his characteristically keen senses, Orba could feel the change carried on the western wind. 

''But for that…
''
There was still something missing in Tauran. When he came to a conclusion about what it was that was missing, Orba felt as though he had betrayed his own self. So he didn’t say a word and he didn’t push forward with any concrete plans.


The soldiers led by Surūr Wyerim left Helio about two weeks after Orba was incorporated amongst them. After stopping for a while in Cherik and taking in the remaining soldiers to reach the allocated one thousand, they set their sights on Kadyne.

For two days, they marched and camped before finally arriving at the relay-station town that was located a little over a third of the way to Kadyne. An advance party had already surveyed the area. 

Orba had heard about it before. That in order not to impede trade throughout the west, even for those who spent all of their time at war, it was practically a rule to safeguard the coming and going of travellers and merchant caravans along the highways from the Zer Tauran era. This relay-station town too seemed to have formerly prospered thanks to the incessant traffic of goods and people that were linked to trade with the coastal countries, as well as to Cherik exporting produce grown near Lake Soma to allied countries.

The “formerly” was because since Garda’s army had seized control of almost all of northern Tauran, trade had all but ceased to be carried out. Now all that could be seen were a few prostitutes and peddlers who followed after the soldiers.

The thousand soldiers occupied the town’s inns, the Dragon Gods temple and even the empty houses of the townspeople. 

As they still had a long way to go, Surūr would normally have allowed the soldiers some degree of freedom, but the battle was close at hand. 
Night had fallen when the various unit commanders were summoned to the temple-turned-headquarters. It was larger than the temples of the Dragon Gods faith found in Taúlia and in Helio, and it was filled to the brim with icons such as weren’t seen in Helio. It seemed that worshippers had been allowed to come and go as they pleased. 
Advance parties had been sent out in every direction and the information from the scouts was then collected together. 

“It appears that the second company’s vanguard unit was fired upon at a village near the highway.”

“The enemy seems to have soldiers lying in ambush in the villages.”

“Should we crush them systematically?”

Orba was at the edge of the temple and was looking around him thinking that it gave a strange impression how even if the location changed, the buildings of the Dragon Gods faith didn’t change. 

Information was of course pivotal in war. Straining his ears hard, he stored ever detail in his chest.

There was a fortress at the border with Kadyne and eight hundred soldiers were said to be defending it. They exceeded them in numbers but if the Kadyne side gave their utmost in defence, two hundred soldiers couldn’t be considered much of a difference. For the offence, having twice the enemy’s numbers was desirable. The Eimen capture force should soon be leaving from Helio. One opinion held that as the distance between them was not yet so great, they should send a messenger on horseback to ask for reinforcements, but Surūr immediately rejected that proposal.

''Oh?''

Beneath his mask, Orba raised his eyebrows slightly. He glanced quickly at Surūr’s face. Then he turned his eyes to the company commander standing next to him, Bisham. He too was a Helian soldier. With his gentle personality and appearance, he had an atmosphere like that of a father who would make a good playmate for the neighbouring street kids. 

“Orba-dono,” he called out after making an eye signal to Orba. “What is your opinion?”

It was probably just out of consideration for Orba who had enlisted with Lasvius’ endorsement. Bisham didn’t have any kind of hidden agenda but the eyes of every one of the Zerdians seated there turned to look at Orba.

''Right then''.

While keeping Surūr’s face at the edge of his field of vision, Orba deliberately stood up as though to say that he had indeed been waiting to make a statement during the meeting. The area fell silent.

“It’s one thing if we are only going to keep Kadyne in check, but if we intend to take it then I wonder if reinforcements aren’t necessary. If we take Kadyne, with Fugrum and Lakekish in check further north, we should be able to encircle Zer Illias.”

“The soldiers we have now are enough,” Surūr shook his head. A faint smile appeared on his lips. “Even in this town, there have been no less than a hundred youths and mercenaries who have begged to join us. As we liberate villages from here on, I imagine that our numbers will increase more and more. Even if they quarrel, Zerdians band together when the west is in danger. No doubt foreigners can’t understand the western temperament.”

Several of the people at the meeting laughed in agreement. Through his mask, Orba looked briefly at Surūr’s round face. ''He’s getting impatient'', he realised intuitively.

He had gotten quite a bit of information about Surūr Wyerim in Helio. His war record wasn’t bad. Or rather, he was man who was comparable to the dragoon commander Lasvius. Yet despite being that kind of man, 

''Or better said, because he’s competing with Lasvius,''

He was eager to capture Kadyne. Overly so.

After all, to all appearances, the one who bore the sole merit of rescuing Helio from Greygun and Garda’s army was Lasvius. Of course, when Surūr received Lasvius’ call to rise to arms, he had single-handedly stirred up an impressive ruckus in town, but compared to Lasvius, who had defeated Greygun himself, his achievements appeared plain indeed. Needless to say, the one to receive immense support from the people was also Lasvius.

Moreover, during the time when he had lain hidden in the Belgana Summits waiting for his chance, he had safeguarded King Elargon’s orphan son, Rogier Helio. Rogier was still only nine years old but he was the royal family’s legitimate heir. 

Surūr must have been feeling completely eclipsed by Lasvius. For that reason, having been appointed as the officer in charge of capturing Kadyne, he was eager to make a name for himself there. If a commander could work zealously in a good direction, the reverse was of course also true. Unfortunately, Surūr’s case was the latter.

“Lasvius said that you had the resourcefulness of a strategist. Where do you expect the enemy to attack from?”

Not only had he tossed his opinion aside, he was testing him. In that way, he was also showing his contempt for Lasvius who had recommended Orba.

Orba turned his eyes to the map on the table. After thinking for a moment, he pointed to a spot and Surūr flashed a broad smile.

“Good. We’ll place the vanguard on lookout there. If the enemy comes, they will immediately inform the main body of troops.”   

The fifty-three mercenaries were sent out as scouts. 

Orba’s judgement had not erred. Halfway along the route from the relay-station town, there was a mountain pass suitable for the enemy to prepare an ambush and they kept watch over it throughout the night. 

But enemy soldiers did not appear. There were a number of people on the road, but they were a group of Zerdians who had come from the west to join Surūr’s unit and as such, they tended rather to validate his confident attitude. In the end, Orba’s unit had no choice but to return empty-handed, to which Surūr simply said “Good work”.

Orba had taken back Helio along with Lasvius and was, so to speak, a minor hero. When the story went around that the commander had taken the foreign hero down a peg, the effect rapidly spread and affected the general atmosphere. Although more than half of Orba’s mercenary unit were Zerdians, they were left isolated within the thousand soldiers.

It was the same even after the fighting started.

Two days later, the troops aiming for Kadyne momentarily veered west off the highway. From there on, the road leading to the border twisted and turned, and was deliberately built so as to be a detour. It was taboo throughout the west to blockade the highways, to attack merchant caravans or to hinder trade. Equally, there was an unwritten law to avoid building forts or castles along the highways. And so, using plausible excuses like “maintaining the trade routes”, the countries changed the layout of the highways to make the roads inconvenient for enemy soldiers on the march. 

Two hundred enemy soldiers lay in ambush in a village along that bypass to the west and fighting broke out. Their plan was to attract attention with a highly manoeuvrable cavalry unit, then launch several medium-size dragons to disrupt the troops formation. Surūr however remained calm and, personally leading his soldiers, repelled the attack with almost no losses.

Thereafter, platoon leaders and company commanders were sent out from the relay-station town to crush the hostile forces posted all around. As Surūr’s troops were superior in vigour and in numbers, victory was assured. 

“They’re probably sending out soldiers sporadically to dull our steps. But we are used to this kind of warfare.”

In western wars, there were often skirmishes involving several hundred units of soldiers. It was the first time that Surūr led a thousand men but he skilfully pulled together that large army corps.

After each battle, the captains returned to headquarters with war trophies as souvenirs. Some even included guns and cannons snatched from the enemy. Getting drunk on alcohol they had obtained from the villages’ storehouses – who knew whether they had received it or had plundered it – officers and men boasted every night about their own achievements.

Orba’s unit however did not join that circle. It wasn’t that they didn’t take part in the fighting. Far from it: Surūr actively incorporated them in the battle formations. However, they didn’t earn any war trophies. Or better said, they weren’t given a chance to.

“That Surūr really is a sly son of a bitch.” 

It was no wonder that Talcott cursed him bitterly. The commanders of each company that Orba’s unit was integrated into must have received orders from Surūr since they rarely stood at the front and they were only put to use protecting bivouacs and acting as the rear guard. 

Neither their swords nor their armour had been wetted in enemy blood and all fifty-three of them were uninjured. At headquarters, they felt increasingly humiliated.

“Yeah, I guess this is how whores who have to go on the tout without makeup feel,” Gilliam was also irritated. He was a heavy drinker but, obviously enough, he didn’t want to receive leftovers from the boastful, merry-making Zerdians. 

Amongst it all, Orba didn’t display any emotions whatsoever. Instead, he galloped off every time with his subordinates to reconnoitre the villages that were under enemy control. Because it was a drab and dangerous duty that nobody wanted to undertake, he and his unit continued to take the lead in it. 

“He’s desperate to curry favour because the other units have gotten all the glory.”

Orba was perfectly aware that that kind of malicious rumour was being whispered. 

“That guy, what’s he thinking?” Talcott asked Shique as they were galloping along just as night was about to fall. 

“Why?” Shique seemed amused.

“It’s normal that you can’t read his expression since he’s masked, but since he became captain, he’s even more taciturn than before.”

“That’s true. He is like ''that''.”

He received no other answer. Only Shique seemed satisfied while Orba, who was comparing the surrounding topography to the map in his hand, looked into the distance from horseback.

Just as Surūr had said, every time they pushed back Kadyne’s forces, volunteers from the villages flocked to join them. As Surūr’s troops continued their steady advance, the people of Kadyne started to hope that they might claim the city and recover their family members who had been taken hostage by Garda’s army. Although it no doubt gave them mixed feelings that the ones they were fighting were also soldiers from Kadyne.

Having finally subjugated the surroundings, Surūr’s troops moved their headquarters west. Although the new quarters were only slightly smaller than the previous relay station, they were barely able to house the thousand soldiers. The story went that Garda’s forces had also been posted there but, frightened by Surūr’s irresistible advance, they had fled three days earlier. 

Instead of gunshots and the roars of dragons, what greeted Surūr’s troops was the people’s enthusiastic welcome. Some were already extolling Surūr as the west’s greatest hero. Delighted by this and in light of their overwhelming victory up to that point, Surūr allowed his men a certain amount of freedom in order to rest from their fatigue.

Surūr himself, his helmet removed, received a warm reception from the town’s leading figures. He was especially pleased when smoked fish was served by fishermen from Kadyne’s lake district. Fish was a rare treasure in Tauran.
Wine was also brought out. Surūr emptied his wine cup in great good humour but someone was coming towards him with rough footsteps. They were still wearing a cuirass and had a sword hanging from their waist.

“What is it, you’re being loud.”

“We need to get away from here at once.”

Orba spoke vigorously. Surūr’s eyebrows were as narrow as his eyes and he drew them into a frown. 

“What?”

“In terms of defence, there are only the rocky hills to the south, everywhere else is exposed. If the enemy comes, we won’t be able to defend it.”

“A strict watch has been placed.” As there were local dignitaries present, Surūr did not raise his voice angrily but he appeared to be seething. “The enemy’s main force is at the border fortress. They probably intend to ambush us there. They won’t be foolish enough to come here when they are hopelessly outnumbered.”
 
Surūr spoke triumphantly so as to let those around them hear.

“However…”

“Unlike you, who hasn’t fought once, the soldiers and I need to rest.”

''This guy is absolutely desperate for glory'' – that thought was clearly written on the battalion commander’s face. As though he had been struck with a sudden idea, he said,

“If you’re that scared of an attack, I’m happy to leave the watch to you. Go and stand to attention with a spear all night.”

“I’ll do just that,” Orba turned away, looking furious.

Surūr had meant it as ridicule but Orba took him at his word and went to get involved in organising the watch. Only a hundred soldiers were on shift as lookouts but he increased these to two hundred to the north and fifty each to the east and west.

However, no matter how much he may have had the verbal consent of the battalion commander Surūr, nobody would be willing to take orders from an outsider. The soldiers who had suddenly been assigned to night watch voiced their displeasure and, in the end, more than half of the ones that Orba had newly assigned arbitrarily left their posts and were said to have gone drinking. 

Feeling sorry for him, Company Commander Bisham took fifty of his own men and lent them to Orba, but their number was simply insufficient.

“What? Another hundred?”

“Spear-wielding infantrymen would be good. If we don’t gather at least that number, we can’t lead an assault.”

“An assault,” Bisham rubbed his chin a little agitatedly. In this situation, he didn’t know if should yell at the foreign newcomer or laugh him off. 

But in the end, he added another hundred. With that, the defence stood at three hundred and fifty men. For some reason, Orba positioned half of them to the north and also had his own unit stand sentry there.

He himself, after making arrangements with Bisham, slipped secretly out of the town. Taking only a few of his men, he headed towards the rocky hills that protected the town to the south. They weren’t particularly tall but the slopes were steep whichever way one went.

Just as the sun was about to set,

“Here,” said Orba. 

They were at a flat ledge that projected outwards and which commanded an unbroken view of the town.

The sun soon set and the town was faintly rimmed with the fires lit by the guardsmen. The laughter of soldiers rose incessantly from the town’s streets.

“To the Dragon Gods who rule over the protection of Tauran!”

“To the false Garda’s last moments!”

Each called out as they raised their wine cups together in a toast. Many other soldiers were making pillow talk with prostitutes by describing their own feats in battle.

Midnight was drawing near.

Just as the town was quieting down, the roar of artillery fire resounded. Cannonballs hit the trees, smashing several of them as fires started to spread. The flames were like living creatures as they extended further around them and while the soldiers on guard did their best to fight them back, the sound of cannons thundered again two then three more times.

All at once, the slumbering town was in uproar. There were those who were running around trying to extinguish the flames, those who, without taking their sword or spear, were escaping in a panic, believing that lightning was falling from the sky, and those who, although pulling their horses with their sword in hand, were at a loss not knowing where to go.

Surūr immediately rushed out into the street.

“What were the guards doing?”

“T-The attack seems to be coming from the south. From the rocky hills.”

Before he even had time to answer “What?”, more news came flying.

“It’s Nilgif!”

It took Surūr a long time to realise that the soldier who was shouting was from Orba’s mercenary unit. He simply opened his eyes wide.

“Nilgif is leading dragoons and cavalry, about five hundred are charging this way!”