Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume2 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 1===


Hayden Swift had mobilised his troops.

During the night, rows of armour illuminated by the light from pine torches approached Mount Conscon in a scarlet wave. Near dawn, the first two hundred soldiers advanced to the foot of the mountain. The trumpets sounded, and battles cries welled up with so much force that they drowned out the instruments.

The temple side responded in kind. The warrior monks, who were gathered at the base of the mountain, hurriedly came into view. Arrows were shot, then came the sound of gunfire.

Allion’s side drew ever closer, raising their shields before them or using the cover of trees to protect themselves. Yet they did not push in any deeper than necessary.

Meanwhile, five hundred soldiers were making their way to the back of the mountain. This group did not raise any loud blast of trumpets. Instead, they approached stealthily. Once they were near the mountain, they put out their torches and stopped moving. They silently hid themselves low and, for a while, it was as though the five hundred men had transformed into a single beast, observing its prey from the cover of tall grass.

When the sky started to turn purple, a change occurred on Mount Conscon: a plume of smoke rose from its summit.

It was a beacon fire.

There had been no movement up until then, but even now, Allion’s soldiers showed neither surprise nor restlessness. After all, it was not an action taken by the temple, but by spies from their own side. The rows of armour rose as one.

As per arrangement, a man came to meet them in the grove of trees, a lantern in his hand. He was dressed like a warrior monk, but was actually one of the agents they had sent in, and he would be guiding them from there on. Since the beacon had been lit, it meant that the fighting had already begun on the other side of the mountain. Their unit at the back of it would used this opportunity to attack the temple from the rear.

Meanwhile, there was another person who watched the beacon from a forest that lay to the west of Mount Conscon.

Percy Leegan.

There was a small hill within the forest, at the summit of which a ship was anchored. On its hull was the crest of the Dytiann Alliance: the crossed swords of Saint Mars and the purple scarf that symbolised the lady Saint Brizanica. On the other side of the ship, the crest of the Sergaia Holy Rose Division was clear for all to see.

It was, of course, one of the ships sent by Dytiann as reinforcements for the temple. Arthur Causebulk, the division’s commander, and three hundred of his soldiers were on board.

At first, Percy had been unable to conceal his amazement at the sight of a ship that could carry that many people. In terms of speed and capacity for high-altitude flying, it was inferior to Atall’s twenty-men air carriers, but in terms of its overall size, it was nearly twice as large as them. It was practically on the same scale as seafaring warships.

– Ten days earlier, Arthur had set sail from Dytiann’s sphere of religious influence and, as Atall had requested, he had not headed due west, but had navigated along the circuitous northern route, in order to avoid urban areas as well as the territories of the vassal-lords, and so also to avoid causing anymore unwanted commotion.

It was a voyage that had the officers on Dytiann’s side store up a pile of complaints, since – ''it’s all because Atall’s ruling House is weak and cowardly that we have to put in unnecessary amounts of time and money''. Ether, which was needed to keep ships afloat, was by no means a cheap commodity. Butt their commander, Arthur Causebulk, had a relaxed personality.

“Sightseeing from the sky is nice too,” he said, without a trace of irritation. “Isn’t this idyllic view of Atall just amazing? Oh, Sir Percy, come over here too. Come and see what your country looks like from the sky.”

He had taken a liking to Percy, whom Leo had sent to act as the ship’s pilot, and was always calling out to him. Not only that, he familiarly slung his arm around Percy’s shoulders, and seemed about to touch his hand. While maintaining an outwardly gentle demeanour, Percy Leegan inwardly felt a sense of impending crisis such as he had never experienced before.

Apart from that personal threat, the navigation itself went well, but now that they had crossed west of Atall’s border, they met with an unexpected impediment. Once the ship was moored by the riverside, Percy had ridden to the neighbouring villages to gather information, and had confirmed that the overall situation had not changed much since he himself had been fighting at the temple.

Soldiers from Allion appeared sporadically within the temple’s vicinity. It seemed increasingly unlikely that the base that Percy himself had once snatched away from them would have been left untouched.

“In the circumstances, it won’t be easy to bring the ship closer,” warned Percy.

Allion’s troops might have cannons, and there was a chance that they might have brought several with them on location. A large, slow-moving ship would become an easy target.

“In that case, should we continue on horseback?” Arthur asked with a reluctant expression.

“No,” Percy’s expression grew thoughtful. “We have information that Hayden, the commander, has returned to his troops. There’s a high chance that the enemy will begin a large-scale attack on the temple.”

He unrolled a map of the neighbourhood on the bridge.

“If the ship makes a large detour to the north and allows Allion’s troops to pass first, we could then thrust at them from the rear.”

Arthur’s officers did not look favourably impressed by Percy suggestion. ''There’s that rumour that Atall has withdraw its soldiers, so are we going to be the only ones fighting?''

That thought showed on their faces, yet originally, it was Dytiann which had approached Atall with impassioned speeches about how they wished to send reinforcements to the temple, and how they were compelled to defend God’s teachings. Having come this far, they could hardly announce that, “no, us taking part in actual fighting is a completely different matter.”

Only Arthur’s eyes brightened like those of a child.

“Interesting. So with what you’re suggesting, even though Allion’s troops are planning to encircle the temple, they’ll end up being the ones attacked from behind, huh?”

Bishop Baal had emphasised that he must not “try to be a hero,” but it had been barely a year since Arthur had taken over the Sergaia Holy Rose Division from his father. Although he was twenty-seven, he had not yet taken part in a real battle. Which was why the higher-ups in Dytiann had judged that this mission would be good experience for him, and why they had entrusted him with newly-built ships when they had ordered his departure for the front – essentially, Dytiann’s take on the situation was that, at least until the next dispatch, things would not turn into a large-scale war of attrition.

Arthur did not find this in the least bit amusing. He was also displeased because it seemed that his own strength was really being made light of. Which was why he was greatly tempted by Percy’s strategy.

''Besieged by an overwhelmingly large enemy force, the temple was in a precarious situation. And then, amidst the wails of grief and despair coming from countless monks and townspeople, Dytiann’s troops came rushing, their horses’ hooves dashing lightly across the ground. Charging in the lead, his silver armour gleaming, was none other than Arthur Causebulk!''

Arthur ecstatically imagined a scene which was like something out of a heroic saga.

The result was that on his orders, the ship veered off its intended course and took a large detour to the north, and while keeping Conscon Temple within sight to its south, it positioned itself west of it. On the map, they found a dense forest about twenty kilometres west of the temple. When airships were sent to investigate, they found that there was a hill within it that would just about allow the air carrier to land and to set sail. They let down anchor there for the time being.
A scouting party was sent out to check the surroundings.

– Five days later, they confirmed that Allion’s army had started making its advance, and was moving towards the foot of Mount Conscon.

“Now is a good time,” Arthur Causebulk left the bridge, looking exhilarated.

Not long after that, Percy confirmed that the beacon had been lit.

It was finally time to spring into action. He gave the order for his men to all grab their weapons.

The ship did not have extensive stables, so they had only taken a few horses with them, Arthur’s included, but it wouldn’t be a problem that they did not have many cavalrymen. Simply having Arthur galloping in the lead, brandishing Dytiann’s flag, would leave the enemy dumbstruck.

No, it wasn’t just the enemy: once they heard how he had heroically routed the enemy on the battlefield, his family and the older soldiers who had belonged to the division since his father’s time, and who usually spent their time nagging Arthur, would all be amazed.

At that moment, Percy, who had guided them to the temple and who was the first to have finished arming himself, appeared on deck.

“Sir Arthur, I pray that the fortunes of war be with you.”

“Oh? Aren’t you coming with us?”

“To tell you the truth, we were expecting something like this, and there are troops lying hidden west of Atall’s border. I will go and give them the order, and we will be following behind you.”

“I see. Atall is certainly shrewd,” Arthur was genuinely delighted.

Since Atall was launching into a military attack on Allion, it meant that they had given in to Dytiann’s threats. Bishop Baal would be pleased as well; even if, after this, they were to clash swords with Allion, the main battlefield would be either the temple or Atall. Dytiann would be able to send successive waves of soldiers to thwart Allion’s eastern ambitions without having to worry about seeing their country burn.

“Then see you later, on the battlefield.”

“Yeah, later, on the battlefield.”

With the help of a subordinate, Arthur donned his armour, placed a brand-new sword at his waist, and had his horse brought out from the onboard stable.

His men, over three hundred of them, had completed all their preparations. Outside the ship, they arrayed themselves in ranks, and Arthur rode before them.

It was early dawn. Although the forest was still dusky, the twinkle of stars was vanishing from the sky above.

''The timing is perfect''. Now then, the next step was to call out and to go charging out from the forest…

There was a whistling sound, a bit like the chirping of an insect.

A sentry holding a pine troch was the first to collapse. An arrow stood quivering in his neck.

The whistling sound was repeated again and again, and arrows pierced all around the troops’ surroundings.

“What!”

Just as Arthur cried out, an arrow struck the ground at his horse’s feet. The horse neighed loudly and reared upwards, its forelegs raised overhead. Arthur was almost shaken from the saddle, but managed to desperately hold on its neck.

“Grab your shields!”

“Enemies, enemies!”

The ranks of soldiers, which had only just assembled, fell into disarray as voices roared in jumbled confusion.

''Enemies. Enemies, they say?''

Both arms still wrapped around his horse’s neck, Arthur restlessly swept his gaze around his surroundings.
He started: fire was burning right in front of him. Or no – as Arthur ran his eyes over one place after another, what he saw were lit flames that shone upon the armour of soldiers positioned throughout the forest.

Arthur, who had been planning on attacking the enemy from behind and leaving them dumbfounded ended up being the one struck dumb. Allion’s flag fluttered above the bowmen. In no time at all, Arthur and his group, with the air carrier at the centre, were surrounded. Among the soldiers, some attempted a counterattack, while others fled inside the ship.

However –

“Fire, fire! Kill every last one of those eastern savages who’ve come trampling into Allion’s territory!”

Just when the volley of arrows seemed to have ended, gunshot replaced them. Blood spurting, soldiers collapsed all around him, and Arthur Causebulk’s mind went blank.

“Young lord, my lord! Escape to the ship!”

When the vassal who struck his horse’s flank as he said that suddenly had his wide-open mouth pierced through by a bullet, Arthur didn’t even have the time to feel anything about it.

From a position overlooking the ship, Allion’s commander gazed down at Dytiann’s Sergaia Holy Rose Division, whose ranks had completely fallen apart.

That commander’s name was Claude Anglatt.