Rakuin no Monshou:Volume1 Chapter6

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Chapter 6: Battle of Zaim Fortress

Part 1

After that, Mephius and Garbera, who had always been mutual enemies, were completely out of step and could only glare at Zaim fortress before them.

When about five days passed after setting up their camps, the distrust in Prince Gil finally increased in the Mephian camp as well. There were rumours among them that he couldn’t meddle with Ryucown’s cause because wanted to attract the feelings of his to-be-wife, Princess Vileena.

But as there was absolutely no development in the matter, even Vileena herself felt like she was on a bed of nails.

Speaking of what Orba was doing at that time, he would hang around the camp whenever he had the chance. Although he never gave the important orders to attack, he wandered around making strange requests here and there, and everyone in camp had troubles on how to deal with them. They ranged from the posting of the guards, up to the contents of dinner.

“You shouldn’t stray too far from here, your highness. You never know where the Garberan soldiers may be lurking!”

The Mephian soldiers called out to him in loud voices, as Orba was heading down the slopes of the hilled area. They were part of the same team, so surely it was no miracle that there were Garberan soldiers lurking among them.

Then, galloping down the slope, Gowen whispered in Orba’s ear.

“Orba, be a little more careful.”

Gowen and the rest, as his personal guard, were being looked at by the other soldiers with blank stares. Those formers slaves had been appointed as imperial guards by the prince on a whim. Naturally, the gladiators were the target of hatred and jealousy from, leaving the nobles aside, the conceited soldiers who bragged about risking their lives serving Mephius.

“The other side of these woods?” Orba asked the nearby villagers he had brought along, unconcerned. They were Garberans, of course. That the one who spoke to them was the Mephian Prince, complicated matters for them, but being surrounded by soldiers armed with guns and swords at the moment, understandably didn’t make them want to try to oppose or deceive him.

“There flows a river. The riverbed’s wide but, still, if Lord Ryucown’s soldiers move their numbers over there, they’d be completely visible from this camp.”

Orba stood on his toes. Indeed, in the beginning he had only seen the usual scenery of a riverside. But now he noticed that, if they would focus their soldiers over there, they would probably be spotted right away.

“What’s your command?” Gowen asked, keeping a respectful tone in front of the soldiers. “Basically, it’ll be nearly impossible for us to lay an ambush for Ryucown’s forces here.”

“If it’s Ryucown.”

Giving his enigmatic reply, Orba then went off to yet another location. Here and there some soldiers and commissioned officers bowed their heads, but even though they saluted perfectly upright, there was hardly any respect in their eyes when they saw ‘Prince Gil’. He even heard voices whispering that they’d rather place Prince Gil on a lenient confinement and make General Oubary their commander instead, if it meant they would otherwise let victory slip through their hands.

Letting the soldiers wait behind, Orba headed for the pens where the dragons were being kept. The smaller dragons used for the war were all packed in there together. Among them, he could see the shapes of the Tarkas’ group large- and mid-sized dragons. There were animal trainers in the employ of the military, but Orba called for Hou Ran, who’d become a member of the Imperial Guard, instead.

“Orba, are you done with the mask?”

“Ahh,” a strained smile appeared on his face due to Ran’s direct words. “How are the dragons?”

“The children from the army are always in a bad mood. Almost all of them are being drugged. I can’t come to terms with them here, Orba. Do something about those guys if you’ve gotten so important.”

It looked like Ran was in a bad mood as well. With ‘those guys’, she probably meant the animal trainers.

“I get it. But even as a prince it’s impossible to do it right away. For now I’ll make sure the dragons from the Group won’t be getting any more drugs. I’m being led around here and there, but if the dragons get irritated, I’ll have that trouble to take care of too.”

“Obviously.”

Concerning the sudden change in environment, it might have been her who had integrated the most successfully. Stretching out her hand between the bars, she brushed the dragons’ snouts like she always did, to the surprise of the other animal trainers.

Then, as Orba and the others looked around the camp here and there, they happened upon some trouble stirring at the edge of camp when the sun was about to set. The person in question was Garbera Kingdom’s Princess Vileena. The hatch to the warship’s hangar was open. There were several high-speed airships used for scouting lined up in a row, but Vileena was being stopped from boarding one by the soldiers.

“Let me go!” Vileena said, as courageous as ever. “Unhand me! It’s useless to try and stop me!”

“But, Your Highness. You’re a guest here in Mephius. Aside from protecting you, we cannot accompany you anywhere without receiving strict orders.”

“That’s why I said I’ll go alone!” Vileena said, worked up, when her eyes met the approaching Orba. “If you want your orders, why don’t you ask the prince over there?”

“It’s fine, step back,” Orba said.

After the soldiers retreated with dissatisfied looks, he and the princess were the only ones in the hangar. Still having her hand on the airship’s seat, Vileena gave him a fleeting glance. The Mephian airships were mainly modelled after wyverns, but other than that there were hardly any differences with the Garberan models.

“What are you trying to do?” he asked.

“What?” the young princess raised an eyebrow. “May I ask you a question in return? What do you want to do, Your Highness? It’s because you’re doing nothing at all, that I can only resort to take up action instead.”

“Oh? Are you telling me you’re going to rally and shed blood with your countrymen?”

“T-That’s not it. Something like that…”

About to fly into a rage, Vileena took in a deep breath, not wanting to be riled up by his comments.

“Without Mephius’s aid, the Garberan forces are only going to be cut through. Blood has been spilt already. I cannot bear to watch it. “Even if I launch the attack, it’ll be useless. Besides, I can’t do anything either way.”

Suddenly, he started having a more careless way of speaking. He could keep an act in front of other nobles and generals, but when he was in front of her, he was not at all able to keep up appearances. This princess was much too straightforward, and to him, concealing his social status unconsciously gave him a strange feeling of guilt.

“What do you mean?”

“It means that it’s likely Ryucown would knowingly go after Mephius.”

“So you’ve set up some sort of trap? But even so, why do you handle it all so indifferently. What if they fear, and merely tremble and watch, not doing a thing?”

“Things have already been put into motion. We’ve surrounded them with ‘Princess Vileena’ as our flagbearer. I’m certain at this time things have already begun, I might even say things will soon come to a close. Even if something does still happen, it won’t change the current situation.”

“That’s…”

Realizing what it was the prince pointed out, Vileena lowered her head. With the sun setting at the same time, there was a slight pink glow on her cheeks. As if she’d once again swallowed down all those feelings, like anger and disgrace, she raised her head.

“I certainly acknowledge my shortcomings. The truth is that I was about to meet with Ryucown by myself, although even I don’t think I can make an end to this by myself. However, for this reason, you have to go out of my way. If I can only let my voice come across when I speak with Ryucown in person, for we both consider ourselves Garberans, it should be possible to open his eyes to another conclusion. One other than an honourable death in battle.”

“But above that, if we happen to lose you, we’ll likely completely fall apart. The hands that just managed to join with Garbera’s will be cut loose.”

“You are quite right, I will admit it,” Vileena said sullenly.

Her face, pretty like flowers on a windowsill, soon distorted with the hatred and biting her lips.

Geez… Orba murmured in his head. This princess, she certainly holds pride and dignity in what she says, so why does it sometimes feel like I’m exchanging words with someone from the village.

Having gained the upper hand, Orba was about to chase away the princess, when,

“Why you’re being so calm is nothing short of a mystery to me,” she said. “Tomorrow, Ryucown’s and Garbera’s forces may strike each other again. If that happens, those soldiers will die in vain. Are you able to carry the feelings of all those men? Aren’t you the one who hated wasting their lives for the sakes of the nation and its nobility?”

She’d no doubt said those words just for the irony, but they stabbed Orba’s heart like daggers. Gasping in surprise, this time it was he who lowered his head in shame.

She may be right…

Orba hadn’t considered the soldiers’ feelings concerning the current battle. It was more important to determine the outcome of a battle, than all of the sacrifices made. It was just like the point of view in playing a game of chess. However,

That’s the thinking of nobles that I hate most.

And at the same time.

But I believe that, right now, this is necessary.

When he’d been just a regular boy from a rural village, when he’d been made to kill others as a slave, both the harboured hatred and the intent to kill had been real, but at the same time it was also true that he couldn’t gain victory if he wanted to protect the lives of the each and every enlisted soldier.

Under the fiery sky, like oil in flames, Orba was too shocked too move, his heart burning with that contradiction.

“What seems to be troubling you?”

Because he was keeping quiet, and it was clear to any outsider that he seemed to be in a state of shock, Vileena gave a slight frown and changed her tone.

“Nothing…” he said.

“But haven’t you started to look worse?”

Orba opened up the distance, as the princess was edging closer.

“That’s not it,” he said. “Princess, as it is, if the Mephian troops participated with Gabera, the battle would grow more intense, which will only cause a pile of corpses. All the members of Ryucown’s army fight while prepared to die. That’s why we have to wait for time. In this way, I am thinking of the soldiers. Wait… If I will get a victory the way I think…”

The end of his sentence seemed to melt away with the evening breeze, and disappeared. Without realizing it, Orba was clenching his fists so tight that the muscles in his arms swelled.

The next day, the evening of the sixth day since setting up camp, Princess Vileena finished her meal at her room aboard the ship. Although it was unreasonable to think so, considering it was a battlefield, she felt completely restless from dawn to dusk as she spent her days looking outside.

It was to be expected but she basically had no one to talk to, because she hadn’t been able to bring Theresia along with her. There were Mephian pages stationed at the camp, but they kept well away from Vileena unless it was really necessary.

Usually, Theresia was always by her side to quickly take care of things. She would start Vileena’s morning by taking up the time to comb the princess’s hair. Theresia would always be annoyed because Vileena couldn’t be as diligent as her and was never able to sit still, but it was a routine for them ever since Vileena was a child. She believed she could do it by herself for once, but the job took a lot of time that morning and it was sheer boredom. So now she knew that, every morning, Theresia, who had little free time herself, always took the trouble to gather a wide amount of subjects for them to talk about.

Even though she was on her homeland Garbera’s soil, now that Theresia wasn’t here, it was actually for the first time that – whether or not she would admit it herself – she had a sense of loneliness, as if she’d been thrown out and left alone in foreign lands.

Six days…

It had only been that long. But it felt more like six years, as if every second cut away at her. Yesterday, the Garberan forces had attacked the fortress again and, as ever, Mephius only gave them unsympathetic support through bombardments.

Of course, not only Garbera was dissatisfied, but voices were also raised one after another on the Mephian side. Vileena knew that it wasn’t only the officers, but also some the common soldiers who were criticizing the prince.

Only wasting their forces at this rate, Garbera would have to give up on Mephius’ support and request even more reinforcements from the capital instead. And even if the Mephian troops would end up getting bigger in number, Ende would probably not think to invade Garberan territory. Having taken that in account, this also seemed to be the reason that the Garberan side chose not to publicly criticize Mephius.

Because, if that happened, the war situation would only become fiercer. As the prince had said, Ryucown would not yield before an approach with brute force. However, there were also soldiers who joined up with him. And according to the words of an officer who had an audience at this camp the day before yesterday,

“The family members of those who follow Ryucown – the ones who were too old or too sick to head for the fortress along with him – have all committed suicide.”

Or so she’d heard.

They probably couldn’t bear being on a bed of nails after being exposed as a traitorous family and if they’d allowed themselves to be caught, they’d be shackled and used as hostages. She wondered which one was actually the real case. But because of this, the soldiers following Ryucown were likely also prepared for anything. Where they were concerned, it just made their bond all the more stronger. They would probably continue to fight with every ounce of strength until the last of them was downed by a bullet.

Vileena stood upright for the umpteenth time that day. She walked along the room’s wall and gazed over at the ropes connecting the airships. She walked several steps forward and then, again for the umpteenth time that day, turned back.

She bit down on her lower lip. It was a bad habit of hers that Theresia always deemed to point out.

“Those of royalty should not reveal their true feelings before others. When everyone annoys you, laugh, and when everyone laughs, show them a serious look. Your highness, your face is the face of your country.”

She knew what she meant by it. She couldn’t be a tomboy princess forever. Because, this time around, her rash actions were liable to influence the country. Without so much as a pause, Vileena again half rose out of her seat. Although her notion of having a direct talk with Ryucown had been dismissed, she couldn’t count on that still being the case. She decided to meet up with Gil Mephius once more.

Although there are also rumours he doesn’t want to move out of camp…

It was said that Mephius, who’d assumed they would have an easier battle, wanted to give up on this fruitless battle as quickly as possible. And the source of these rumours wasn’t from the Garberan, but from the Mephian encampment. Several soldiers had heard, leaked through from the imperial guards, that the moody prince had already grown tired of playing soldier and wanted to hurry back to the palace.

Vileena, her anger flaring up like fire as usual, had been about to storm over to Gil and grill him about the matter in detail. However, Theresia had commented earlier that she couldn’t decide an impression of him yet, and Vileena held the same thoughts. She believed that the reason he hadn’t given orders to sortie, wasn’t because he was merely a coward or something, but because he didn’t notice or concern himself to listen to the criticism surrounding him.

He’s thinking about something.

In yesterday’s conversation, Gil had made a remark that hinted to this. First of all, the problem was him. Just like with Ryucown, if she wanted to weigh his true intentions, she would have to get closer to confirm what was going on inside his heart. If she could learn about that ‘something’, and if they could put their heads together in the process, that would be great.

That’s right. I completely forgot!

Vileena suddenly thought back on her own determination in this marriage. Probe out Mephius’ internal affairs and manipulate the ‘foolish’ prince. She unintentionally let a smile slip through.

That’s right, that’s right! The prince and I can think of this together, and if he doesn’t like it, I will just have to kick him until he does.

Coincidentally, while she felt like she was ridiculing herself, there was a light knock on the door just when she was about to stand up,.

“Prince Gil?”

Feeling caught, as if her true intentions had been exposed, Vileena uttered his name on the spur of the moment. The door opened and she was blushing red. It looked like it was a page about to retrieve her meal. Vileena formed an unusually rare smile, while her cheeks were burning red with embarrassment, and handed him the tray herself.

Then, as he graciously bowed his head, she noticed he was different from the usual page.

“Princess…”

Hearing the tension in his voice, a certain bad feeling crossed her heart.

“Please hear me out calmly, if you wish,” he whispered. “I have come from the Garberan camp. But it’s not because I simply want an audience…”

It was that night.

A man with a sloppy appearance had entered Prince Gil’s room. He was of his personal guard but, regrettably, had slipped into the Garberan camp right before meeting the important Mephian figure – the gladiator known as Iver.

He quickly summoned Gowen and Shique, and they were startled to see that Orba was wearing armour.

“What’s going on, Orba?”

“Have you heard the something from Iver? Don’t tell me that the enemy’s not Ryucown, but the Garberan army!”

During these past few days, it was the two of them who’d been most surprised by Orba’s many outrageous actions. Despite what the words he said next, it looked like he was wearing a nonchalant look.

“That’s right,” he said, and showed them something in his hand. “They intend to come at us in one go. Hurry up with the preparations. I will take our gift and run for it.”

References and Translation Notes

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