The situation was far from favorable.
Though she had spoken decisively before her generals, Henrietta was privately anxious. An army was at its weakest when crossing a river. Even a nine-year-old child would know that much. Yet the enemy had begun their crossing anyway...
The opposition were no fools. If they were willing to take such a risk, there had to be a reason. In other words...
'They're either adequately defended, or they're deceiving us.'
Henrietta strode out of her tent and mounted her warhorse. The drums were already thundering through the ranks. Despite the late hour, the Bretagne forces formed orderly columns under their sergeants' commands.
"Do not fear the night! Mages will light your path and shield your comrades! Do not stray too close to your fellows, nor drift too far apart! Let the bugle calls be your lantern and carve your way through the darkness!"
Henrietta rode through the encampment, rallying the soldiers herself. Each time, they removed their helmets and shook them aloft or waved their torches, cheering for their magnificent queen.
"Long live Queen Henrietta! Long live!"
"Goddess, protect the queen!"
Though a night battle was imminent, the soldiers' morale was sky-high. Queen Henrietta was a hero to them. Was she not the sovereign who had conquered the Frank Empire, their centuries-old nemesis?
The Captain of the Royal Guard galloped up on horseback. He called out briskly.
"The first and second formations are in position, Your Majesty. We can deploy at a moment's notice."
"Mm."
Henrietta nodded with satisfaction. It had not been long since the generals received their orders and scattered to their positions. At this rate, the deployment could be considered complete in the blink of an eye. The queen concealed her anxiety and moved to the vanguard of her forces.
"We'll skip the speech. Deploy immediately."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Bugler, sound the advance!"
The Captain shouted toward the bugler.
—Bwaaaah.
The horn blared long and mournful into the night sky. What had started as a single note spread left, right, forward, and backward in every direction. As if awakened by the call, dozens of horns shook the midnight air.
The entire army sortied, leaving only a small garrison behind.
'If they're this well-defended even while crossing... then they genuinely mean to cross the river. Their objective is to bypass us and enter Parisiorum.'
Henrietta tied her hair back in a single knot as she pondered. She was leading the full force alongside the Royal Guard.
'The problem is if the enemy is running a deception.'
This would mean the Demon Lord's army had hidden troops in ambush somewhere.
They would likely wait for the moment Henrietta's forces attacked the tail of the crossing army. The hidden troops would burst out and strike their flank. A crossing, or an ambush — either was entirely plausible...
A figure drew close to Henrietta's side. This person was not mounted on a warhorse but sat astride a red wolf.
"Oh boy. What a ruckus in the middle of the night."
"...Agares."
"Little ones need their sleep at night to grow tall. You've got your habits all wrong from the start. That little twerp Barbatos has a reason for being so short, you know."
It was the Demon Lord Agares. She yawned widely and murmured.
"Watch the skies too. The Demon Lord called Gamigin drags around a whole mess of wyverns."
"The skies... right. There was an aerial approach as well."
Henrietta furrowed her brow. With poor visibility on a dark night and wyverns swooping down from above — the mere thought was horrifying. The actual damage would be less troublesome than the panic it would cause among the soldiers.
As she wrestled with how to respond, Agares casually handed her the answer.
"Tell the mages that if wyverns attack from above, they should use magic to produce blinding light and ruin the beasts' eyes first."
"I see."
The countermeasure was immediately relayed to the mage corps. Henrietta asked a question.
"Agares, do you think they have ambush forces prepared?"
"I've never once considered the enemy's intentions when heading into battle."
A brazen answer. But Henrietta accepted it.
When Agares had been expelled from Habsburg and requested asylum, Queen Henrietta had tested her abilities by observing her in action. Watching her annihilate a monster settlement as easily as twisting a child's arm, Henrietta acknowledged the other's overwhelming power. Since then, Agares had remained at Henrietta's side as a guest commander.
Queen Henrietta nodded.
'Agares could handle an army single-handedly.'
Even if the enemy had prepared an ambush, there was no need to worry overmuch. Any ordinary ambush force could be entrusted to Agares.
No — on second thought, with Agares here, it was unlikely the enemy would resort to something as crude as an ambush. Hiding a separate ambush force necessarily meant splitting the army in two. Dividing forces right before Agares's eyes was practically suicide. So perhaps the crossing really was their objective after all...
"Your Majesty! A report!"
The cavalry that had been sent ahead on reconnaissance returned.
"The enemy is crossing the Marne River!"
Queen Henrietta clicked her tongue. She already knew that. The reason she had dispatched another scouting party was not to hear the same report twice.
"Give me exact numbers on the enemy force!"
"Yes. Over forty thousand, Your Majesty!"
Hearing that a massive force of over forty thousand had assembled just ahead made the air grow strangely quiet. The Bretagne forces were among the finest of the fine, but they were not so numb as to feel no tension before such a host.
"Pontoon bridges are complete, and troops are already being ferried across on rafts. Approximately five thousand have reached the far bank."
"Hmm. That means roughly thirty-five thousand remain on this side."
"That is correct, Your Majesty!"
That settled it. The enemy's objective was the crossing.
Five thousand troops had already crossed. There would be no room to hold back a separate ambush force. Even if an ambush existed, its numbers would not reach ten thousand — hardly a significant threat.
"All forces, increase your speed!"
With Agares as their countermeasure, they could afford to push forward at maximum pace. The queen gave the order, and the soldiers quickened their steps.
Before long, the enemy came into view. Countless torches illuminated their encampment. As the scouts had reported, a pontoon bridge was complete. Two more were under construction as well. Trolls, each as tall as a hillock, waded into the river to build the bridges.
"The enemy is split by the river. Seize the chance and tear them apart!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The commanders answered in unison.
Queen Henrietta thought of her friend who had not yet entered Frank. He had set aside even his position as Consul to come to her aid, but it seemed her dear companion was in for a wasted journey. Regardless of the outcome, he would not be able to take part in the battle.
—Bwaaaah.
The Bretagne horn sounded once more.
*I'll gift Dantalion's head to my friend,* Henrietta thought. They would exchange wine through the night. It would be the sweetest drinking session imaginable. For that moment, tonight she would have to shed blood and sweat...
The Demon Lord's army began their crossing.
That was as far as Consul Elisabeth's intelligence reached. Immediately after, the light from the Magic Crystal Orb faded out.
"Oh. Anti-magic."
A mage who had been listening alongside her tilted her head. The mage was Yuria, the Consul's First Secretary and a 6th Circle mage. As a half-elf, Yuria was well-versed in magic.
"To block magic this far out, they must have deployed anti-magic on a remarkably wide scale... That's strange. Without mobilizing several hundred mages, this wouldn't be possible by conventional means."
"Are you saying the Demon Lord's army brought several hundred mages with them?"
Elisabeth rubbed her throbbing forehead. She had just been jolted awake by the urgent report. Perhaps due to the lingering effects of a nightmare, her head throbbed as if being squeezed from all sides.
Yuria shook her head.
"No. It's hard to imagine they'd resort to such a crude method. The most effective means of severing communication magic... they likely cast anti-magic from the air. They would have been riding griffins or wyverns."
"Sending mages aloft. A trick only demonkin would pull..."
Elisabeth smiled bitterly.
While there had been no shortage of nations that successfully bred griffins and wyverns, using them as military units still lacked sufficient research. More critically, they were useless against the Demon Lord's army — monsters obeyed the Demon Lord, after all.
"I can't believe a battle is about to break out already. We should have set out sooner."
"Devising ways to deceive the nobles' eyes while assembling thousands of troops without the citizens noticing — we did everything we could."
"Doing your best doesn't guarantee the best outcome... That's what makes it unfortunate."
The special detachment led by Elisabeth had arrived at the Habsburg-Frank border region. It was deep into the night, and they had set up camp and gone to sleep. Consul Elisabeth and Secretary Yuria had been roused from their slumber by the news that arrived in the dead of night.
"Consul. Why did the Demon Lord's army cross the Marne?"
"Look at the map."
Elisabeth pointed to the military map laid out on the table. It showed the geography around Parisiorum in detail.
"If they cross the Marne and march straight ahead, they'll reach Parisiorum immediately. They'd need to cross the Sequana River once more in between, but if they've already prepared pontoon bridges and rafts, the crossing would be easy. Henrietta, on the other hand, doesn't even have rafts to cross with..."
Elisabeth traced the river with her finger. Her fingertip eventually came to rest on the Frank Empire's imperial capital, Parisiorum.
"Henrietta has no means to intercept the Demon Lord's army. She can only watch from the far bank as they leisurely enter Parisiorum. That leaves two options: fight an urban battle within Parisiorum, or abandon it altogether."
"Ah... I see. Urban warfare would be extremely unfavorable for the knightly order, wouldn't it, Consul?"
A knightly order's strength was at its peak when mounted. Urban warfare was a battlefield that stripped the knights of every advantage.
Elisabeth nodded.
"The southern walls of Parisiorum aren't as sturdy as the northern ones. Even a siege would be manageable for the enemy. But from Henrietta's perspective, it's not particularly problematic. She has enough room to extract the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, and if forced to maneuver again..."
In that instant, a thought flashed through Elisabeth's mind.
Elisabeth's pupils slowly dilated. At the same time, her gaze swept rapidly across the map. Noticing the sudden shift in atmosphere, Yuria looked at the Consul with an uneasy expression. A voice like a whisper escaped Elisabeth's lips.
"No... but how..."
Some time passed. Without lifting her eyes from the map, Elisabeth murmured.
"...Yuria. The Bretagne forces receive their provisions via supply ships. Correct?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Where are the supply ships transporting grain from?"
Yuria searched her memory. That much she did not know.
"I'm sorry. We've never shared that information."
"Would Henrietta really have stockpiled grain in Parisiorum, where potential rebels could be lurking?"
"...No. The chances of that are slim. If it came to it, the rebels could set fire to the stores."
Elisabeth looked up. Her eyes met Yuria's.
"Then the granary must be somewhere other than Parisiorum — undoubtedly built along the riverbank. Since she didn't anticipate a crossing, she most likely placed them along the southern bank rather than the northern one."
Elisabeth's gaze sharpened.
"If the Demon Lord's army has now crossed the river, and if that fortress housing the grain stores happens to be located somewhere on the south bank..."
Yuria's mouth fell open.
"The provisions! Burning the provisions is their true objective, Consul!"