Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===


‘’I won't lose this time!’’ – facing an opponent who had once defeated him, it was only natural for a young man's feelings to flare up. Unfortunately, however, that was not Leo's case. Or rather, no, he did have those feelings, it was just that...

‘’At best, I only have three hundred soldiers that I can freely command’’ – he also had that other 'viewpoint'.

Even though he had gone to pieces when he had heard that Darren's forces were advancing on Guinbar, he could also observe himself with surprising detachment. And when he received the information that Lance Mazpotter was moving to attack the temple ruins, his first thought was: ‘’Good.’’

They would run.

Leo easily abandoned both the first, then the second of his encampments. Still, he used various tricks so that his intentions wouldn't be seen through too quickly; one such  was when he had shown himself to lure the enemy.

Setting up camp to draw out the enemy, then escaping as soon as he saw a chance to do so... It's easy enough to talk about, but a war of retreat was, of course, always accompanied by considerable danger. At the first glimpse of an opportunity, the horse-riding unit would effortlessly crush Leo's troops, which were so few in number. Yet Leo repeated the manoeuvre.

In a situation in which bullets would fly at him as soon as he stopped, or where his head might be smashed open at any moment, he kept his gaze on what was happening in all directions and gathered detailed information from the messengers sent by each platoon, and with that, made his decisions.

The airship that Camus had brought from Mount Conscon was invaluable in this. Leo did not send this precious weapon directly out to fight, but only occasionally despatched it into the sky to have an idea of how the battle was progressing. On one occasion, Leo himself had gone up, clinging to the pilot's back and with his face hidden under a helmet. From high above them, he could see the full picture of how his allies and enemies were moving.

After they had been chased from their second camp, Leo set up yet another one.

“We're just being lured away, huh,” Lance Mazpotter said in disgust after stopping his horse.

When he had first received Darren's order to 'cause chaos in the camp in Bernard's territory,' Lance's honest opinion was that: ‘’This man is a fool’’. Although it was certainly a tactic that Lance excelled at, if they were going to use the same method anyway, then they should been the ones spurring their horses towards Guinbar Castle.

“Darren should have assembled his men and horses at Olt Rose, and continued threatening the prince from there. If he had, the prince wouldn't have been able to move, and Darren wouldn't have ended up on the battlefield for no reason. And as for us, we wouldn't have had to waste our time like this, and we could have struck a blow that would have been enough of a threat against Savan.”

Darren was not used to war after all. He loathed Savan, and what he wanted above all else was to watch his enemy's castle burn, and to take his head with his own sword, so he wasn't interested in whether his method for doing so was inefficient.

Lance marched forward, feeling nothing but exasperation towards Darren, but the situation had developed into one that made him exclaim: “So there was actually someone who's even more of a fool than Darren!”

His lieutenant, who had halted his own horse beside Lance's, looked at him.

“You don't mean me, do you?” he asked. “You can't mean me. I was just following orders. Who knew that the wind would change direction as we were halfway through setting fire to the forest? And to make things worse, my beautiful beard even got singed...”

“Yeah, you're a fool too, but in a different sense. The man I was talking about was Leo Attiel!”

He had seen through the prince's intentions: all he was doing was luring them away. That was it. Judging from Leo's battle formation, he didn't have the military strength to withstand a siege after inviting it on himself. Which meant that the prince wouldn't be getting help from Bernard either.

Yet despite that, Leo publicised the idea that Bernard had allied with him, and he deliberately set up camp in a conspicuous location. Because Lance had been wary of Bernard – who had never had the slightest intention of making a move – he had taken far too long to attack Leo's base. It really had been a complete waste of time. And on top of that, he had lost a portion of his men. Thinking about it infuriated him.

Up until then, he had thought of Leo as: ’’an opponent who is capable in warfare’’. But now, that hasty evaluation seemed absurd. Rather than being capable, Lord Leo's way of waging war was unconventional. Even now, when he had already seen through him, Lance found it hard to believe that Leo had used himself as bait to lure him in.

‘’In battle, it's checkmate once the 'king' is taken. Even if you have the upper hand, even if your formation is bound to win, it's all over once the 'leader' is taken. Having the 'leader' become a decoy is such a foolish idea.’’

Darren didn't know much about war, but the prince's behaviour was like that of a child. And Lance could feel his blood boil with anger from having been tricked by that childishness. He turned his horse around. His men hurriedly imitated him, but he drove his horse on alone, without waiting for them.

“Ha,” a feeling separate from his fury welled up inside him. “I've lost this fight, huh?”

Just like the prince, he was a man who could always see what lay ahead with calm detachment.



Another reason why Leo had set up camp in such a conspicuous location was to forcefully grab the attention of Darren's army, and so make it easier to send messengers to where Kuon had taken up position, west of the Dharam region. Since Darren was marching hurriedly, he had neither the time nor the number of soldiers to widen his surveillance net.

At first, Kuon had established his camp near the church, but following Leo's instructions, which had been brought to him by messenger, he had travelled north along the Old Highway, and had taken up position at a  point where it intersected with the current highway.

By that time, they had been joined by the troop composed of the rest of the tribesmen, who had all of them – except for Sarah, their guide – travelled on foot. Adding them all together, however, they were only a little over a thousand; no more than half of Darren's forces.

When he received the report from his scouts, Darren believed that this must be the total number of troops that Savan could dispatch. Although there was the possibility that more soldiers might come to support them from behind, these would have to be taken from the castle's defence.

“What a brave bunch, to come and face us out on these plains. It looks like they've become overconfident after pushing back our advance unit,” he said to raise the morale of his troops.

For all that Lance considered him to be someone who did not understand war, Darren was still vigilant. He frequently sent out scouts while his troops advanced. Thanks to this, it was clear that no matter how you looked at it, there was nowhere where the enemy could conceal troops in ambush close to Darren’s battle formation, and there was no sign that further troops would join Savan's side.

I'm repeating myself, but time was precious for Darren; he needed to have things settled before the sovereign-prince interfered. So he increased the speed of their march.

A platoon from Savan's side came out to meet them to fight a defensive battle, but when they saw the enemy in the distance, they were forced to retreat. Darren's army advanced ever more arrogantly.  

An unexpected attack was staged by night, but Darren had not been negligent. The would arrive at the enemy camp on the next day, so there was sure to be a large-scale battle, and they were increasingly at the ready.

The camp that Darren was fast approaching was, of course, Kuon's headquarters. Tactically speaking, the position there was completely useless, yet Darren was marching towards it. Which meant, of course, that he had been lured there.

On Leo's instructions, Kuon had gathered locals who were familiar with the area, and listened to their advice. He was able to infer which route the enemy would follow, and had its surroundings investigated in depth. And although Darren was not negligent, he did not notice: as he and his men steadily advanced, the enemy soldiers that they were supposed to have left behind them as they passed, or that they had driven away from their flanks, had circled around them and were now lurking in hiding.

The mountain tribe had always been good at battles that involved drawing the enemy to them. They knew how to retreat in unison, and how to kill in unison.

That night, the forest which should have been sleeping quietly was alive; villagers rushed out in a frenzy and saw clouds of dust billowing upwards from beyond the hills which should have been echoing with nothing but the cries of beasts .

Darren's various units were attacked from all sides. Seizing the opportunity, the five hundred soldiers that Savan had sent in reinforcement also made their move, lead by Kuon. It was exactly as though a pack of beasts which had been hiding in the night's shadows had opened their maws wide, and leaped out from all directions.

Leo had been the one to suggest this multi-directional attack, but he had gotten the idea from Lance Mazpotter's tactics, which made skilful use of the terrain. In fact, it was fortunate for Kuon and his group that Lance's unit was not present.

Communication between Darren's various platoons was cut off, and they were routed and forced to flee while barely understanding what had happened. The only ones that Kuon's group did not allow to escape was the central command – in other words, Darren's own unit – whose position they had inferred beforehand.

Kuon smashed into the headquarters with enough force to carve out an escape route all by himself, cutting down the spear-wielding defenders to make his way to Darren Actica. Even the commanding officers with strong ties to House Actica had already fled, and, rather than throw away their own lives, the hired mercenaries surrendered one after another.

Around the time the world was dyed in the colours of dawn, Darren had finally been chassed down to a deserted house in a village that showed no other sign of human life. He flicked the sleeves of the filthy clothes which had been abandoned in the building.

“You've got it wrong: I'm a villager from here. I don't know Darren. Go away, go somewhere else,” he screamed, but Kuon's men dragged him out.

When Kuon himself dismounted and walked towards him, Darren changed his attitude and snorted.

“I am Darren Actica. You foul messengers from hell! Tie me up with ropes, bind me with chains, do whatever you like. But don't think that you've won because of this. The gods – not that evil deity that Leo believes in, but the gods who watch from above all that humans do – see everything. Justice is on one side. And which side that is will soon be made clear in Tiwana Palace,” Darren shouted, his face covered in mud and hay.

He still had Oswell Taholin to back him, and he was sure that most of the vassal-lords would stand by him.

“When that time comes, you lowlifes will regret it. Leo is destined to end on the gallows sooner or later. And every last one of you, his followers, will burn at the stake! But it's alright, it's not too late yet. Join my side and...”

Darren continued to cry out, but Kuon drew the sword at his waist without saying a word, cut down the distance between them in an instant, and pierced Darren through the heart.

In that too, he was carrying out Lord Leo's instructions.

Darren Actica was dead.



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