Editing Rakuin no Monshou:Volume6 Chapter3 (section)

=== Part 3 ===

While voices were being raised in various countries, Ax, Lasvius and Yamka II assembled once more at Cherik castle more than half a month after the troops led by Moldorf had been repelled.

During that time, Taúlia, Helio and Cherik had cooperated to spread out a strict military cordon, while Garda in contrast persisted in not moving a single soldier. He must of course have understood that they were setting up a common front, so if, for example, a small state that was about to join Taúlia’s side were to be bullied by having a few neighbouring villages set alight, or if there were to be a raid aimed at the goods that were constantly travelling along the highways, or if a camp were to be set up in the Coldrin region in order to prevent the enemy from heading north as much as possible – those were things that seemed likely from Garda as he had been up until now. Yet his military force was only moved around Lakekish, Fugrum, Eimen and Kadyne, or in other words, within the occupied territories and things were so quiet it was eerie.

Although Ax and the others were unable to read his intentions, they were at any rate able to steadily amass their military strength without encountering too many obstacles. The total number of soldiers they currently had gathered was a little under ten thousand. Naturally not all of them would be used for the offence but it had already been decided that if necessary they would send up to seventy percent of them to the front lines. Nevertheless, compared to the manpower, their horses, dragons and ammunition were somewhat lacking. Whether or not to take the time to gather sufficient amounts of these was something that Ax, who did not want to delay the departure to the front, and Yamka, an advocate of caution, got into frequent arguments about. Yet every time, Yamka would reluctantly back down at the words,

“Have faith in the Bazgan family’s authority.”

He was of course in a position of weakness. 

Ax’s retainers and the leading figures of Helio were running all over the west giving instructions to the troops that were leaving from the various cities, allocating weapons and supplies, and organising the military units. Moreover, on Ravan Dol’s advice, Ax had set up an advance air carrier base north of Lake Soma, across from Cherik, on the old trade route to Eimen.

The ships they planned to send to the base were two cruisers belonging to Taúlia, seven small carriers gathered from the different cities and, at best, fifty short-range airships. In the west, where buying ether took time, using air carriers in battle was not the norm. For a large fleet it was quite a sparse line-up, but having it or not having it made all the difference in the world. According to information, Garda’s forces had air carriers. The ships would be used to guard against attacks from the flank or the rear during their march, and of course, they would be a powerful aid once the assault was launched on Zer Illias.

One of the two owned by Taúlia had only just been purchased from a Mephian merchant. It was faster than the other ships at the advance base and had a longer range. As was to be expected, the one who had provided it was Zaj Haman, the merchant who had the monopoly over shipping air carriers in Mephius. 

“There are strongholds blocking the way to Zer Illias,” Lasvius pointed with the pommel of his sword at the map spread out on the desk. There were two city-states northwest of Lake Soma. “First is Eimen. The shield of Zer Illias. The enemy should have positioned most of its military strength there as well.”

Hearing the name ‘Eimen’, Ax’s expression clouded over. It was a city standing at the boundary between the wilderness and what had been pastures in the era of Zer Illias, and it was also the land where, in the past, Ax’s older sister had been sent in marriage. Ax himself had never been there but they had long had diplomatic relations with Taúlia. Yet now, he didn’t know if his sister was safe or not.

“It is protected to the south by mountains but the other three sides are fairly open. It will be hard ground for the enemy to defend. There is however a possibility that they will build impromptu forts to prepare against our invasion.”

Lasvius then tapped a location southwest of Eimen with his sword’s pommel. 

“The other is Kadyne. Its military capability cannot be overlooked. It looks like the enemy has emptied Fugrum and Lakekish and gathered their soldiers at these two locations.”

Kadyne lay southwest across the mountains that protected Eimen. It was a city known for its belt of lakes and marshes and for its forest of low trees.

“Hmm,” Ax nodded. 

Up until now, Garda’s army had concentrated the forces they had absorbed on a single point and had delivered their attack by surprise or by night. There had also been internal strife in each of states he had targeted, and while it had worked well for him, it seemed that once you removed that ability, Garda was left not knowing what to do next.

As Ax once more looked over the entire map on which information received from the scouts was jotted down here and there, he smiled.

“After only a single defeat, has Garda moved into nothing but a defensive stance? So he’s ignorant of battles after all. We have the greater number of soldiers. We can win this war.”

He wasn’t normally a cheerful-looking man and for that reason, the smile he gave to those who had become his allies was all the warmer.

Eimen and Kadyne.

Seeing that whichever one they targeted the other would move in for a pincer attack, the allied forces would march in both directions and would carry out operations on both fronts. Of course, the enemy anticipated that and had divided their soldiers in half, intending to hold the decisive battle in Eimen. 

As Ax and Lasvius had previously discussed, the enemy excelled at information warfare. It was unavoidable that enemy spies would be lurking. Nobody knew where their eyes and ears were. It was best to assume that the entire contents of their council of war would be leaked.

“That being the case, we’d never even get started on working out some kind of plan,” Ax’s way of thinking was simple. He simply decided to perform a two-prong attack. “Being greedy and trying to take both of them will only result in a bad outcome. It would be great if the troops sent to Kadyne act as a defence against the enemy. Sir Lasvius, what will you do?”

“I will go with you to Eimen, Lord Ax.”

The commander of Helio’s dragoons wasn’t the sort to go in for complicated plans either. He thumped his chest once and spoke plainly. In this short period of time, Ax had come to like this man. He nodded contentedly.

“It’s decided then. We, the main force, will head to Eimen and we will send a thousand soldiers to Kadyne, consisting mainly of infantrymen and mercenaries. Lord Yamka, I leave the defence of Cherik to you.”

“Un-Understood.”

Yamka II, who had been left out from start to finish, looked like he had just woken up. It had been the same when he had been linked with Garda and he was the kind of man who left everything to others and who thought it was fine to just wait for what would happen afterwards. Perhaps as far as Yamka was concerned, the situation with Garda was already as good as over. Ax laughed inwardly.

''Good. As Ravan always says, I should act the part of a serene and uncomplicated king''.

According to the old tactician, it had a bad influence on the officers, soldiers and retainers when Ax looked grim and sank into silence. “You should act serenely,” Ravan always said. “Sufficiently so that the rumour will spread that you are no fool. You will then be loved, my lord, and the retainers will feel that they must stretch every sinew to firmly support you.”

''There’s a limit to how much of a fool you can be. There’s no mistake that this Yamka is a fool, but because of that, his retainers do not stand firm''.

The problem was that Garda seemed able to read the minds of all people, no matter how clever or wise they might be.

''Hence the brute force approach. It’s not wrong, but…'' 

As bold as he was, even Ax couldn’t shake off his unease whenever he considered whether they had any chance of success in this fight.


Three days after the tripartite talks, Orba, stationed in Helio, received his orders. 

“This is the worst.”

What made Talcott scowl wasn’t that they had been chosen as part of the force to capture Kadyne but that the one who would be leading the thousand soldiers headed towards Kadyne was the commander of Helio’s infantry battalion, Surūr Wyerim. 

Another two days later, summons came from Surūr. Because the call extended to platoon leaders, Orba would also need to go.

The story of Taúlia’s masked mercenary had become something of a rumour in Helio. He was person who had rendered distinguished service by rescuing the city along with Lasvius. And of course, it was also known that he was Mephian. 

“Thank you for coming all the way from Taúlia. Or, no, it was from Mephius, wasn’t it? That’s an even greater distance. As expected of a gladiator, your ability to sniff out blood and battles is impressive,” Surūr said sarcastically as soon as he spotted Orba’s mask.

He had a round face but his narrow eyes were unpleasant. His moustache had been beautifully styled with what was clearly fussy attention.

Half of the Kadyne capture force was made up of Helio’s regular soldiers and centred around Surūr but the rest was a collection of people of various origins. Helio’s mercenary unit, the horseback archery unit of mountain tribesmen, infantrymen from states so tiny their names weren’t even recorded on maps, a dragoon unit of nomads. And the fifty-three-strong mercenary platoon led by Orba. 

When everyone was gathered, Surūr read out the organisation chart that he appeared to have personally put together.

Orba brought it back to his own unit.

“This is the worst,” Talcott looked up at the sky again. 

Orba’s platoon wasn’t attached to any company and had been placed under the battalion commander Surūr’s direct supervision.   

“Since you guys are Mephians, he’s going to torment you in full. No really, we’ll probably get given the most dangerous duties. Stan, you made the wrong choice. Can you never, neeever get things right?”

“Brother, I didn’t say anything.”

Orba didn’t particularly pay attention and lowered his gaze to the maps he had been collecting this past half month. He wasn’t displeased. However, he had inwardly decided that whoever he served under, he would assess the situation from their own surroundings and he himself would make sure to ascertain what it was he needed to do.

''I’m not going through a repeat of Coldrin''. 

At that time, he had been pretty apathetic about the war. Saying that he had been apathetic while taking up his sword and heading out to risk his life on the battlefield was pretty strange, but thinking back to how he had been that time at the Coldrins, there was no other way to put it. 

The defeat at the Coldrin Hills had been carved deeply into Orba’s heart. It wasn’t that he believed that he could have done something with his strength alone, but even so, if he had been a little more careful, and if he had had a little more influence on those around him, then he thought that they wouldn’t have been so comprehensively defeated.

Orba’s eyes landed on one point of the maps. Kadyne.  

Apparently that Moldorf’s younger brother, Nilgif, was stationed in charge of defence there. Most of the troops were probably from Kadyne. It wouldn’t be the same kind of hodgepodge that Moldorf had been leading and, in the first place, Nilgif and the others wouldn’t be fighting as part of Garda’s army but in order to defend their own home. They would be coordinated and their morale would be high.

''Considering the number of soldiers, Ax seems to be thinking that we’re to keep Kadyne in check''. Which meant that they didn’t have to capture the city at all cost. He didn’t think that plan was wrong in that it anticipated the enemy deployment. But. 

''Right, “but”…''

Their opponents were the sorcerer’s military forces. Whenever he thought of what was to come, every time he was about to draw a conclusion, that “but” reared its head.

Just as the west was finally coming together, Orba felt the same kind of unease as Ax did.



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