Just as we were about to turn back, a cavalry unit happened to sortie from the enemy lines.
It seemed they had rushed out in an attempt to chase us away. Perhaps they'd been late because they'd been scrambling to grab a meal. Their reaction was slow. We'd already confirmed everything we needed through scouting. Without a shred of hesitation, we wheeled our horses around. The Republican cavalry gave chase for quite a stretch, but they got nothing in return except the clouds of dust our hooves had kicked up.
"……."
Still, I turned around one final time.
Dirty dust hovered over the ground where the warhorses had trod. Beyond it, countless banners fluttered sluggishly like a mirage. Surely, beneath one of those banners, Daisy was standing. She had definitely spotted me.
"My lord?"
"It's nothing. I was just checking to make sure we weren't being flanked by pursuers."
I turned my head back to face forward.
I had scoured the distance through my telescope as thoroughly as I could, but Daisy was not among them. I still couldn't make up my mind. Should I honor her sacrifice? Should I let it go — pretending I'd noticed nothing at all, granting her a satisfying ending?
Or rather... was it the right thing to tell her?
That she had failed. That she had failed in the most wretched, pitiful way imaginable — should I expose that right before her eyes? Would that, paradoxically, be the path that showed Daisy the most respect?
Either option was nothing but self-indulgence. That much was obvious. The only real question was which choice actually served Daisy's interests — not for the sake of the role of Dantalion, but for Daisy herself.
"Laura. There's something I'd like to say about this battle in advance."
"I'll grant just about anything my lord requests."
"Thank you."
And then I slowly opened my mouth.
I could tell at a glance. It was Father.
Twenty-four cavalrymen were crossing the plain, approaching our position. Before I even made out their faces, I already knew he was there.
The black warhorse, the black cloak, the head-to-toe dark attire — no one but Father dressed like that. To be perfectly honest, Father had terrible taste in clothes. The funny thing was, he somehow picked out women's clothes with impressive skill whenever he was buying for someone else.
"It's Father."
"Huh? Really?"
Luke lowered his wheat roll and raised his head like an ostrich. He peered across the plain, then squinted.
"Too far away. I can't see anything."
"I'm sure of it. No matter how you look at it, that's Father. What do you even keep those eye sockets for, brother? If you can't even recognize Father, you're truly useless."
"……."
Around noon. Even under the brilliant sunlight, Father alone seemed to be half-shrouded in shadow.
The blonde woman who looked stupid standing beside him was also visible, but I decided to ignore her. She wasn't human—more like a monkey or a tree-like creature. There was absolutely no need to give her any attention.
"Will he spot us?"
Luke whispered anxiously.
"He must be furious. Honestly, I don't even know what expression to show the Duke."
"Just keep your mouth shut and maintain a blank expression, brother. That's the one and only face you have where you don't look like an idiot. Don't say a single word."
"……Yes."
We had earned the Republic's trust and deployed on this campaign. The savage torture of Barbatos had paid off. They must have judged the likelihood of us siblings being double agents as low. If you truly are traitors, then go fight Dantalion's army—there could have been that meaning hidden in it as well.
We couldn't let the whole scenario collapse now just because Luke was bumbling through his act.
"……?"
Something odd caught my eye. It was Father's left foot. No way—could it be?
There was no way Father, a Demon Lord, would leave a severed body part untreated. In other words, that left foot was something Father had deliberately left unhealed and untended…… Why?
It was an act of penance. To show everyone that he recognized what wrong he had committed, and that he would never forget it. There had been only one recent incident where Father needed to atone to someone—when I, his adopted daughter, had caused a scene at the execution.
*Clench.*
I bit my lip. A thin stream of blood trickled down along my jawline.
I had assumed that Marbas, Gamigin, Sitri, and all the Elector Demon Lords were firmly on Father's side. Vassago was an Elector too, but he held no real power, so I hadn't been worried about him. The chance of excessive blame being placed on Father was extremely slim. Could I have been wrong in my judgment?
"D-Daisy? You're bleeding from your mouth."
Would Marbas and Vassago have demanded Father take responsibility by now? Those shameless ingrates. They wouldn't have even reached their current positions if not for Father, yet they casually forgot his kindness and bared their fangs.
Unfortunately, I had no way to punish them for it.
I planned to die in this battle.
The scenario was simple. Once the battle was underway and reached its midpoint, I would charge toward Father alone. Father would have anticipated that I was targeting him. When I recklessly threw myself into enemy lines, he would deploy some means to eliminate me.
His grudge for ruining Laura de Farnese.
His revenge for driving Demon Lord Paimon to death.
And finally, his retribution for humiliating Demon Lord Barbatos.
Father would kill me without the slightest hesitation. He would execute me with nothing but pure, unadulterated hatred. And by doing so, Father would remain the victim forever.
In the distance, Father turned his horse and fled. His figure vanished behind a cloud of dust kicked up by the hooves. I stared at that cloud of dust for as long as I could……
June 13th, Year 1513 of the Continental Calendar. The two armies faced off on the plains of Munich.
It was terrain wide open in every direction. There was nowhere to hide an ambush. Tactics utilizing river lines were impossible as well. The outcome would depend solely on the pure tactical ability of each side's commanders.
Our Habsburg Empire army numbered fifteen thousand.
The Habsburg Republic army, on the other hand, numbered approximately twenty-two thousand. In terms of sheer soldier count, the Empire was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
However, roughly seven thousand of the Republic's twenty-two thousand were militia. It might be hard to call them so weak as to be completely useless, but they certainly weren't a reliable fighting force. Honestly, they wouldn't serve any purpose beyond human shields.
"So they really did put the militia in the front line."
Laura surveyed the enemy lines with a confident smile.
"Their intent to use them as meat shields is so blatant it's almost embarrassing."
"But it is that much more effective a method."
"So what. We simply respond to the textbook approach with our own textbook approach. My lord, please prepare the ogres."
I nodded and raised my right hand.
From the rear, the two hundred ogres that had been standing by began to move slowly. Thud, thud — every time the ogres' massive bodies shifted, the ground trembled beneath them. Before long, all two hundred ogres had taken position at the very front line.
In the distance, I could see the Republican soldiers trembling with anxiety. The tips of their spearpoints kept shifting ever so slightly — that was the proof. It meant the soldiers wielding the long spears were continuously swaying their bodies this way and that. In other words, they were frozen in fear, glancing around them.
This was Laura's countermeasure against the militia.
If they were elite soldiers, it might be a different story, but ordinary militia members who had spent their days as self-defense volunteers in cities or villages could practically never withstand the terror of ogres. Let an ogre charge like a frenzied rhinoceros — the militia would be crushed by that momentum and unable to hold for even a moment.
— Kruaaaa.
— Grrrrr...
The ogres drooled thickly.
They had deliberately been starved of a meal. This was to exploit the ogres' trait of growing more ferocious the hungrier they became. Their stamina would be somewhat reduced as a result, but an ogre could go without a single meal without issue. The sight of the ogres staring at the humans and licking their lips was terrifying in its own right.
"Look over there, my lord."
Laura pointed toward the enemy lines in a tone that said she had known this would happen.
"The knights are moving. They're changing formation."
"Unfolding exactly as we predicted."
When we sent the ogres to the front, the Republican army responded immediately. The knights that had been spread across both flanks were being redeployed en masse toward the center.
If the ogres charged as things stood, the militia's first line would collapse utterly. To prevent that, the Republic needed to intersperse knight units throughout the first line. The only humans who could stand against ogres were knights.
This, too, was part of Laura's plan.
Our Imperial army held the advantage in infantry but not in cavalry. Naturally, this was because of the knight order. The knight order, composed of superhumans, was always a threat to the Demon Lord's army. Of course, Helvetica's mercenaries were all seasoned veterans in their own right, but in a head-on clash with the knight order, one could not simply guarantee victory.
In short, the question was how much they could weaken the Republic's cavalry strength. The fate of the battle would be decided here.
"It looks like half of them have already pulled back. Don't you agree?"
Laura said with satisfaction.
By deploying the ogres to the front, Laura had addressed two problems at once — countering the militia and countering the cavalry. The militia would be too terrified of the ogres to fight properly, and the knight order had scattered in every direction to try to bring them down. It was a two-for-one deal.
"Very well. Sound the war horns."
"Oh my. We don't need to exchange speeches first?"
"We need to conserve our mages' stamina. Besides, Elizabeth and I are roughly evenly matched when it comes to oratory. There's no reason for us to waste each other's resources."
Laura nodded.
She turned to her adjutants.
"Signal the start of battle."
"Understood, Your Grace!"
The adjutants waved their flags in wide arcs from side to side.
Moments later, dozens of war horns began to blare across the plain.
—Bwooooooo.
When their horns sounded, the Republic answered with horns of their own. The savage, eerie horns of the Demon Lord's army clashed with the clean, refined horns of the human forces. The two timbres intertwined and tangled at the very center of the plain.
Laura raised her right hand high.
"All units, advance!"
The adjutants bellowed her orders back at the top of their lungs. Advance! All units, advance! In an instant, a single command filled the crowd in a chorus of diverging voices. The Helvetica mercenaries stomped forward with vigor.
There was no need to synchronize their marching pace separately. The ogres at the very front stretched out their strides, and the earth shook to a steady rhythm. The Helvetica mercenaries grinned and matched their steps to that beat.
Before long, our army moved like a single massive body, stepping left and right in perfect unison. Two hundred ogres and fifteen thousand mercenaries pounded the ground in one breath, and the earth shuddered as though a minor earthquake had struck.
The distance between the two armies gradually closed. Laura issued her second command.
"Mage unit, open fire."
"Open fire!"
Thirty-six mages launched enormous fireballs into the air. The fireballs traced long arcs as they hurtled toward the enemy line. In response, the Republic also fired off dozens of their own fireballs. The mages busied themselves with intricate hand gestures, working to deflect the incoming bombardment.
Though the fireballs were neutralized just before impact by the defensive barriers the allied mages had deployed, there was no blocking the searing heat they radiated. The battlefield grew ever hotter as the air itself seemed to ignite.
It was the beginning of the battle.