The Imperial Army, Kier Fortress
Five days had passed since the devastating attack on Osmund’s forces.
“Soldiers! At last, the time has come!”
There was a roar from the ranks. In tones of triumph, Rosemarie issued her commands to the assembled officers of Crimson and Helios so that the entertainment she had been eagerly anticipating could begin. In the first strains of dawn, the rays of the sun glittered. The tightly sealed first gate of Kier Fortress swung solemnly open.
“C-Captain! The gate!” Shouts flew between the commanders of the units on the front lines as first, out of the now-open gate, there came a lone soldier, robed in a cloak of majesty and bearing the white banner of the Helios Knights. They were followed by the brave peal of trumpets and the Helios Knights themselves, marching forth in step.
“The hell are those bastards doing?!”
“I don’t know, ser, but I think we have a chance to take the gate!”
“No! Remember the last attack at night. Run in without thinking, and like as not we’ll be playing into the enemy’s hands. We should wait and see.”
The Royal Army had been handed the opportunity, too good to lose, to break into Kier Fortress. And yet not one of their commanders could give the order to charge. In part, they were too taken aback by the brazen display from the Helios Knights. But mostly, they highly suspected a trap.
After the Helios Knights, the Crimson Knights emerged in the same fashion, and last of all a line of horse-drawn carts. Each cart was laden with large piles of wood. In the end, the Helios and Crimson Knights stood in a ring broadly encircling the carts.
Neinhardt’s Camp, the First Allied Legion
The first word to reach Neinhardt, who was commanding his forces on the front lines, came thirty minutes after the gates of Kier Fortress opened.
“So not only did they just open the gate, but they started parading?”
Kier Fortress was no common fortification. Up until the day it had been captured by the imperial army, it had been known as the Impenetrable Fortress. Right then, the sun shone down, nothing at all like the conditions of the last nighttime attacks. There was, in other words, no reason from the imperial army’s point of view to actively throw aside their advantage and come out into the open.
“We also have a report of a large number of carts piled high with wood,” said Captain Katerina Reinas. Neinhardt’s expression automatically darkened.
“Piles of wood? Not weapons?”
“I asked, but apparently it is definitely only wood. With that on top of the parade, I can’t work out what the imperial army is planning.”
“My feelings exactly, but if they’ve come out, we have to meet them.”
The imperial army’s actions were a mystery, but they couldn’t afford to speculate. Neinhardt gave Katerina his orders, but in the midst of their preparations to engage the enemy, a new report arrived that put a deep frown on Neinhardt’s face.
“A ring formation, you say?”
The runner looked bewildered but said, “Yes, ser. They’ve shown no sign of moving since.”
A ring formation, it scarcely needed to be said, placed emphasis on defense. Logically, it was ill-suited to an attacking force. In other words, the imperial army had come out into the open, and yet did not mean to attack. Neinhardt could see why the commanders at the very front had failed to act for fear of a trap. He himself kept the possibility of a trap in the forefront of his mind while he scrutinized the situation, and saw that, in the middle of the ring formation, the imperial army had started to build something. He saw nothing at all there to indicate they meant to attack.
Just what sort of scheme is this? When a situation didn’t make sense, it wasn’t unacceptable, tactically speaking, to play it by ear and attack anyway. What held Neinhardt back from taking the first step to attack was largely this: he still had not found a clear answer for why Osmund’s unit had been destroyed.
“Your hesitation is understandable, ser, but I think we ought to attack. It will be hard on the soldiers’ morale if we don’t.”
Katerina’s words made too much sense for Neinhardt to ignore them.
“Give the archers orders to attack.”
“Yes, ser!”
Out of the limited options he had available to him, Neinhardt had settled on a longbow assault at range.
“Loose!”
“Loose!”
“Loose!”
One after another, the calls of the archer commanders rang out, and a great mass of arrows rained down on the heads of the imperial forces. But thanks to the solid wall of shields that rose up to cover the entire formation, not one imperial soldier was shot through. A second volley was loosed, then a third, but the archers only succeeded in wasting their arrows.
“That defense, isn’t that...”
“The High Tower defense. A favorite of the Helios Knights.” Seeing that further volleys would serve no purpose, Neinhardt immediately gave the order for the attack to cease. The Helios Knights lowered their shields, with no sign they meant to mount a counterattack. The same was true of the Crimson Knights.
“Are we going to engage them directly?” Katerina asked. Neinhardt pondered for a moment.
“Any movement from the Winged Crusaders?”
“None, ser.”
“What about General Lambert?”
“None from him either, ser.”
“Then let’s wait a while and see how things develop. I don’t know about the Winged Crusaders, but Lambert’s at his best on the attack. If he hasn’t acted, he must have a reason for it.”
“Very well, ser. It suits us too if they stay where they are. Our objective is to keep the imperial army pinned down at Kier Fortress, not to defeat them, after all.”
“Exactly. We aren’t trying to defeat them,” Neinhardt echoed. He was trying to reassure himself. Or was it a sign of the unease that had started to take root inside of him? Right then, Neinhardt couldn’t have said which.
Lambert’s Camp, the First Allied Legion