Early June, Year 1511 of the Continental Calendar.
Our forces had successfully assembled across the northeastern reaches of the Frank lands, cutting through the summer breeze.
This time of year was critically important for the harvest. Even lords mad enough for war generally refrained from raising their armies around now — one misstep could ruin an entire summer's worth of crops in one stroke. It was also around this period that the people of the fiefdoms would violently resist any mobilization decree.
In other words — it was the perfect time for the Demon Lord's army to invade the Human Realm.
Unlike humans, Monsters were not bound by the demands of agriculture. While humans faced severe constraints in determining when to wage war, the Demon Lord's army enjoyed near-total freedom.
This was also part of the reason the continent had developed such a sophisticated system of knight orders. You needed a military force that could respond to Monsters at any time and place, regardless of the farming cycle. But if you maintained too large a standing army, it would drain the manpower needed for agricultural work. So the only real answer was a small but elite standing force...
It was remarkable. The mere existence of Monsters had transformed the world to this degree.
The establishment of knight academies across the nation was an inevitable development. No matter which direction the Demon Lord's army invaded from, you had to have cavalry forces ready to deploy at a moment's notice. Well, maintaining powerful fortresses at each stronghold to construct a defensive line was another viable approach, I suppose.
Should you focus on knight orders? Or should you focus on fortresses?
Each had its pros and cons. Most human nations blended the two approaches in varying proportions. The Habsburg Empire was the textbook example. The Kingdom of Bretagne, by contrast, had taken an extreme approach to cultivating knight orders.
The capital of Bretagne didn't even have city walls. They had been destroyed roughly five hundred years ago — not by Monsters, but bizarrely, the people of Bretagne had torn them down themselves.
The reasoning was absurd.
"Walls are nothing but tools for cowards."
"The citizens, clinging to the illusion that they can hole up behind walls, will grow lax in their training. On the open battlefield, they will not fight to the death, and when things go south, they will simply flee."
"Therefore, city walls are the fastest route to turning an entire populace into spineless weaklings."
The argument was staggeringly simple-minded and ignorant — almost breathtakingly so.
Even more astonishing was the fact that the people of Bretagne had enthusiastically rallied behind this claim! The citizens themselves had taken up pickaxes and smashed the city walls to rubble, and the massive quantity of stone recovered was used to build yet another academy...
At this point, could it not fairly be called a form of collective insanity? A warrior race with nothing but muscle between their ears.
"Thus, Bretagne is fanatically devoted to open-field warfare."
Laura spoke. The moment the vanguard and main force joined up, she convened a strategy meeting.
In the spacious tent, Demon Lords sat arrayed in their lavish military regalia. Laura calmly met each Demon Lord's gaze one by one as she explained the battle plan.
"Bretagne's forces are specialized exclusively for open-field warfare, both mentally and constitutionally. In the northeast of Franks that we passed through, there were three massive fortresses, but the Bretagne army didn't defend a single one of them. They completely abandoned them."
They had probably ordered the Frankish-composed vanguard to fight in open field as well. Considering that human armies normally went to extreme lengths to avoid fighting Monsters on open terrain, it was certainly abnormal.
"At first glance it looks foolish and wasteful, but... when you examine the substance, the Bretagne army is specialized in mobile warfare. If you had to name it, you might call it mobile defense."
"...Mobile defense? That's a term I've never heard before."
Barbatos tilted her head.
Incidentally, Barbatos was extremely weak in summer. Even though it wasn't terribly hot yet, beads of sweat dotted her forehead. The dampness along her cleavage was oddly erotic and troublesome. Right, decision made. Tonight, it'd be with Barbatos.
"..."
The Puppet Emperor, Rudolf von Habsburg, was holding a large fan. He was respectfully fanning Barbatos. A supreme commander fanning a mere subordinate commander — truly, the man was a sight for sore eyes even in death.
"If it's mobile warfare, call it mobile warfare, and if it's defensive warfare, call it defensive warfare — so what's this 'mobile defense'?"
"The purpose of conventional defensive warfare is to 'hold off the enemy.' Conducting a siege battle centered on a fortress falls under this type of defensive warfare. In this case, both the besieging side and the defending side gradually drain each other's forces while waiting for a resolution."
Laura spoke in a composed yet subtly amused tone.
"The morale of the soldiers, the stockpiled provisions — whichever side, the enemy or ally, is depleted first determines the victor. To put it extremely, in defensive warfare, while forces may be expended, it is possible for virtually no casualties to occur."
The siege of Heidelberg Fortress was the prime example.
The fortress held over ten thousand troops. But the soldiers who actually died in battle numbered only a few hundred. That alone decided the fight. All that remained was simply waiting in leisure until the enemy's provisions ran out.
"On the other hand, mobile warfare intends the annihilation of the enemy. They concentrate elite troops in one place to fight a decisive battle, aiming to settle the war in a single stroke. The Bretagne army is obsessed with a single climactic engagement."
The Battle of Saint-Denis Plains would be the representative case for this. It was the battle that crowned my defeat.
"For that reason, the Bretagne army will go to extreme lengths to ensure they fight the battle where they want, when they want."
"Mm-hmm."
"This is where our army's strategy will be established."
Laura smiled softly.
"As you are aware, a massive purge took place in Parisiorum. Public sentiment there must be extremely volatile. Queen Henrietta cannot help but worry about the possibility of a rebellion. To prepare for any eventuality, she will not move her army far from the capital. In other words—"
Near Parisiorum.
A terrain sufficiently wide and flat for the knights to perform at full capacity.
"She will certainly choose a battlefield that satisfies these conditions. To the Bretagne army, a fortress holds absolutely no value as a battlefield. Fortresses are built primarily on hills and narrow passes, after all."
Laura pointed at the map with her baton.
"Therefore, we shall fully exploit Bretagne's strategy to our advantage."
"Our army will set up camp with the Marne River at our back."
Queen Henrietta declared.
The Marne was a river that flowed directly east of Parisiorum. The commanders exchanged uncertain looks and posed their question to the queen.
"Your Majesty. The Marne River is far too close to Parisiorum. The enemy will surely pillage the countryside. Would it not be wiser to venture out a bit farther and meet them in battle?"
"No. We may have purged those who resisted us, but there are still plenty of rats hiding in the shadows."
Queen Henrietta shook her head firmly.
"Because we executed people regardless of age or gender, the people of Parisiorum are not on our side. If those rats start agitating the masses, a rebellion is almost guaranteed to break out. And the farther we move away from Parisiorum, the higher the likelihood of a revolt."
"Indeed. You speak the truth."
The commanders nodded their heads. Yet an unresolved question remained.
"But why put the river at our back? It runs contrary to the principles of military strategy..."
"It's bait to lure the enemy in."
Queen Henrietta smiled.
"They've got their backs to the wall from the enemy's perspective. The enemy will think they've backed us into a corner without much effort at all. Given the Demon Lord army's preference for field battles over sieges, they'll undoubtedly launch an attack."
The Demon Lord army's invasion — humanity had traditionally responded with defensive fortifications. It was common sense. Queen Henrietta was pointing out exactly that.
"They might be glad we didn't hole up in Parisiorum. Gentlemen — we will end the Demon Lord army in a single decisive battle."
Though he hadn't attended the meeting, the Demon Lord Agares was hiding within the Bretagne army. Queen Henrietta knew just how powerful that Demon Lord was. He was burning with desire for revenge, and had stated on multiple occasions that if she could kill Barbatos, he would gladly cooperate with her.
It would be a difficult battle. But the mere fact that victory wasn't guaranteed didn't mean Henrietta had any intention of avoiding the fight. That was the Bretagne army's confidence.
Just as Laura had predicted with easy confidence, the Bretagne army did not come out to meet us.
Thanks to that, we crossed the Frankish interior with relative freedom. We advanced all the way to the Marne River line without encountering a shred of resistance — it was almost comfortable, like a picnic. But everyone knew this was the calm before the storm.
Barbatos glared at the plains beyond.
"Hey, look at those bastards? They've dug in for a last stand."
With the river at their backs, the Bretagne army had established their encampment with swaggering confidence.
Barbatos and the rest of our officers surveyed the enemy positions from atop their warhorses. The forces numbered roughly thirty to forty thousand. They were significantly outnumbered compared to our army, but the real problem, as always, was the knight orders.
Nearly twenty knight order banners fluttered in the wind. It looked like they'd dragged every single knight order in the kingdom along. For the Demon Lord army, there could be no more revolting sight. It was like how infantry in World War I must have felt, staring at endless trenches stretching across the enemy lines.
Barbatos snickered.
"Look, look — they're ready to fight to the death right here. This Henrietta or whatever, her tastes align with mine. Hey, Zepar. Look. It's the Green Rose Knight Order. They'd be glad to see you — go on, wave at them."
"...That's too much, Lord Barbatos."
Commander Zepar, in a rare display, let out a groan of protest.
The legendary tactician who had answered a knight charge with a massed ogre assault was none other than Commander Zepar — and the ones who had brutally slaughtered those ogres had been the Green Rose Knight Order. Perhaps because he was now face-to-face with the source of his trauma, Zepar's expression had gone utterly rigid a while back.
Laura spoke calmly.
"Having cut off their own retreat, every last soldier there will be prepared to fight to the death. Charging straight into that position would be unwise. Let's first assess the timing."
We set up our camp at a considerable distance from the enemy lines.
At that moment, Laura issued a strict order for us to make it look as though we were about to launch a decisive battle. She put the ogre battalion right at the front, as if we might charge at any moment. The Demon Lords' banners fluttered ostentatiously for all to see.
But three days, a week, half a month passed — and no battle took place.
Finally, growing impatient, they sent a letter. It was written personally by Queen Henrietta, filled with mockery toward Rudolf von Habsburg and derision toward the Demon Lords. The gist was that dragging the war on like this benefited no one, and we should settle things in one decisive clash.
Laura sent back a brief reply.
"Our forces have no intention of learning how to wage war from you. Take better care of your own soldiers."
A grueling battle of nerves ensued.
Both sides had laid elaborate palisades around their camps and waited for the other to strike first. The Bretagne army occasionally rode in with horse archers to raid our lines, but there was no way I would fall for the same trick twice. For this very purpose, I had brought an enormous stockpile of javelins. We simply responded with orc javelins of our own.
Perhaps they realized we were thoroughly fortified. The Bretagne army didn't launch any aggressive offensive either. Small-scale skirmishes, little more than reconnaissance, continued without cease.
"How long are we going to sit here doing nothing, Vice Commander, my lady?"
"Laura. Just once, come on? Just once, let us charge."
The frustration was no less acute on our side. Beleth and Sitri kept whining, begging to be allowed to charge. The warlike Demon Lords also began voicing their dissatisfaction. But each time, Laura would offer a cryptic smile and give her answer without hesitation.
"Absolutely not."
Beleth and Sitri put on long faces and looked to Barbatos and Paimon respectively, but...
"You heard Laura. Do as she says."
"Sorry, but please follow the Vice Commander's orders, Sitri."
There was no way the legion commanders — who understood all too well how important the chain of command was — would side with them. In the end, the warlike Demon Lords had no choice but to bury their anxiety deep inside and pass the time in helpless idleness.
And so another half month slipped by.