Chapter 98

A Nocturnal Counterattack The Resistance intended to go through the Amagi Pass to get to Azuchi. Therefore, it was of the utmost importance that route was sealed off. Dominion general Shishi had made his case, and after hearing him out, Administrator Jade von Saint-Germain—the man who held all real authority within Yamato—had mobilized troops accordingly, summoning all the soldiers near Azuchi together before setting out from the capital himself. Between the Yamato dominion warriors and the locally stationed imperials, he had a company of three thousand soldiers alongside him. After leading them near the summit, Jade had them establish a massive defensive line. Specifically, he had the Yamato soldiers set it up. He wasn’t foisting off the work simply because it was heavy labor, however. There was a perfectly logical reason for doing so. Most of Yamato was covered in woods and mountains. Between traps that could trigger rockslides to pitfalls to makeshift fences that would hinder an enemy advance, there was no shortage of ways the terrain could be incorporated into a defensive position. And no people were better suited to setting those ploys than the Yamato natives. The war with the empire had given them lots of experience. Their memories may have been sealed off, but their muscles remembered how to do the work being asked of them. With astounding skill, they transformed the Amagi Pass into a perfect natural stronghold. Meanwhile, the imperial soldiers were busy with a task of their own—monitoring the Resistance-controlled Fort Steadfast. “Hey! Over here!” It was that time of evening when the sky took on its first hints of vermilion. A scouting party captain waved overhead from the rocky overpass where he’d been observing Fort Steadfast’s entrance. A shadow descended from above at his signal—a dragon with its wings spread wide. It was the Dragon Knight in charge of delivering communications back and forth. “Yeesh, it’s freezing…,” the Dragon Knight groaned. “Yeah, there’s not much of summer left. Good work up there,” the captain said appreciatively, then offered the Dragon Knight messenger a warm cup of tea he’d brewed. “Thanks a million. Ohhh, I can feel my fingers again.” The Dragon Knight took another leisurely sip, then asked, “So what’s the Resistance been up to today?” “Just as the administrator predicted, they’re using Fort Steadfast as an outpost so they can launch an all-out attack,” his counterpart replied. “Those punks are swarming like flies. We spotted another two hundred entering the fort just today.” “With the ones already in there, that makes about eight hundred in all, right? Looks like they’re finally ready to settle this.” When the dominion forces had first mobilized, Jade had said that given the scale of the Resistance’s past attacks, he estimated their ranks at about a thousand if you included noncombatants like women and children, of which at most seven hundred were active combat assets. In other words, the force massing at Fort Steadfast represented a significant percentage of their full head count. They were preparing to deploy everyone they had. However… “I don’t know why they’re even bothering. There’s no way in hell a mere eight hundred people are going to get through our army of three thousand when we’ve set up camp and control the high ground,” the captain remarked dismissively. “Yeah, you can say that again,” the Dragon Knight agreed. “And even if they did manage to pull a fast one and slip past us, there’s still another thousand soldiers defending Azuchi. If they think they’re gettin’ inside easy, then they’ve got another think coming. And while they’re tripping over themselves trying to figure out what to do, our main forces can come down from the pass and crush ’em.” “For sure, for sure. And we’ve got more people coming in, right?” The Dragon Knight nodded. “Give it a week, and the soldiers from the outlying areas will arrive. It’ll take them time to travel to Azuchi, and they’ve been disarmed as their way of showing allegiance to the empire, but once they’re here and all suited up, that’ll give us another five thousand to work with. Once that happens, the Resistance is done for.” “Hah. When you put it like that, it almost makes me feel bad for those poor saps holed up in Fort Steadfast. It doesn’t matter if they attack or defend; their fates are already sealed. May as well have dug their own graves.” “Heh. That’s what those idiots get for going up against the empire.” The Dragon Knight scoffed as he climbed onto his mount. “All right, I’m going to report back to headquarters. I’ll return at the same time tomorrow, so make sure you keep everything in line.” “Will do. I have to say, though, watch duty is pretty mind-numbing. Are you certain we should continue observing from a distance? Me and my guys’d be happy to kill a few dozen of the bastards on their way to the fort. Hell, we wouldn’t even ask for overtime pay.” “Come on, just stick to your orders. Remember, I’m the one who has to report in to Administrator Jade.” Hearing that name reminded the captain of the thin, comically pompous man who’d briefed them all before they departed the capital. “Isn’t that guy just some spoiled noble brat?” “Yeah. Son of a mistress, I hear.” “Ah, that makes sense. I wonder if that’s why they stuck him out here in the middle of nowhere?” “Your guess is as good as mine there, but I’m sure he’s got his troubles like the rest of us. The point is, there’s nothing Administrator Jade hates more than when things don’t go the way he expects ’em to. Even with all those civilians they’re bringing in, the Resistance still only has a thousand people at most. Against numbers like ours, they’re nothing but dust beneath our feet. We’re here to take out the trash, nothing more, and if they want to make our jobs easier by gathering in one place, I say let ’em. Plus, they’ve got that one nasty piece of work on their side—the one who took on a hundred soldiers back at Azuchi Castle and wiped the floor with them the way Shishi would’ve. If you want to keep your head attached to your shoulders, I’d recommend you stay put.” “All right, all right, I get it already. I’ll keep my head down and do my job. Less work for us, at least.” “Good.” The Dragon Knight nodded, then took off into the evening sky, bound for the main camp in the Amagi Pass to relay the scout’s information. After watching him go, the scouting party captain returned his attention to Fort Steadfast in the distance. What a bunch of idiots. If they had just gone along with Mayoi’s magic, they could have lived out their lives in peace, false though it may have been. There was no way a revolution that small was ever going to bear fruit. They were going to get crushed, and that was going to be that. This is going to be the easiest war I ever fought, he mused. And at that moment, there probably wasn’t a person in the dominion army who felt differently. Over the following day, another three hundred gathered under Fort Steadfast’s roof. That brought the Resistance’s numbers to eleven hundred—a sum slightly larger than the dominion army’s initial estimates. However, nobody found that particularly concerning. After all, there were a number of toddlers and elders among the newcomers’ ranks. The people of Yamato, hyuma and byuma alike, were born with considerable physical abilities, so it wasn’t as though they were useless in a fight, but things were different now than they had been during the conflict with Freyjagard three years before. This time around, the bulk of their own forces were from Yamato as well, so their foes had no advantage in that regard. And when the dominion reinforcements arrived, and their full army swelled to nine thousand strong, the uptick in the Resistance’s ranks would amount to little more than a rounding error. The dominion forces scoffed. Either way, the Resistance was doomed. Come the following day, something peculiar happened. More support showed up at Fort Steadfast, and they weren’t civilians this time. Each was equipped with weapons and armor. That was enough to earn some frowns. Now, their enemies had exceeded expectations. Had the Resistance been concealing its strength somehow? Or had they garnered aid from abroad? The scouts started to get concerned. By the next day, the situation had worsened. Reinforcements kept arriving. There weren’t quite as many of them as there had been the day before, but they were definitely armed and dangerous. Not only did they gather at Fort Steadfast, but it looked like the garrison was at capacity, and some were camping outside. Something was off. The observing dominion troops were fretting. Yet again, the Resistance’s ranks increased the next day, and the scout party captain found himself struck speechless. His team was beyond mere worry. Their faces were pale as sheets, and they all thought the same thing. Did we really make the right call? Was sitting back and letting this happen really the right decision? Have…have we made a horrible mistake? One that can’t be undone? “What the hell are you talking about?!” Jade roared when the Dragon Knight delivered the news. His face was ghostly pale, and he hoisted the messenger up by the collar. “A-are you sure the scouts weren’t just seeing things?!” he demanded, hoping for a different answer. “I-I’m certain of it, sir!” the Dragon Knight replied. “Ever since they took the fort, the Resistance’s ranks have been swelling nonstop! As of today, they’re already at over two thousand!” “There’s no fucking way! That’s… That’s double our projections! What is going on here?!” Based on the Resistance’s previous activities, Shishi had estimated their full size at seven hundred soldiers—or at a thousand, if you included noncombatants. Jade’s calculations had supported that conclusion as well. It was inconceivable that the Resistance could maintain a fighting force of two thousand in its current state. Nothing about this added up. “W-we suspect they’ve called in allies from abroad, sir.” A panicked sweat beaded on Jade’s forehead. “~~~~~~~!” Perhaps they’d been sheltering the bulk of their forces outside the Yamato dominion all along, or maybe they’d hired a group of Lakan mercenaries. Worse, the Seven Luminaries’ involvement might have inspired Elm to deploy their troops. Regardless of whoever these unidentified reinforcements were, this was an emergency. The dominion had about three thousand soldiers defending the pass, and now there were two thousand troops at Fort Steadfast. Jade’s numbers advantage was crumbling before his eyes. Shit, shit, shit! Why does nothing ever go the way I need it to?! He had to do something. “No way we can let ’em keep bringing in more help. Change of plans! We’re taking everyone we’ve got and slamming Fort Steadfast as hard as—” “Calm yourself.” “Rrr…!” Jade glared at the kumadori makeup-clad byuma who’d just cut him off—Shishi. Shishi continued, utterly undaunted by Jade’s expression. “None of our lookouts on the border have reported anything about reinforcements moving past them. Acting in haste carries grave risks, and our reinforcements from the countryside are only two or three days out. For now, we should continue focusing on gathering intelligence about what our enemies are—” Hearing Shishi’s counterargument turned Jade’s face from a panicked shade of white to furious scarlet. “You want us to keep twiddling our goddamn thumbs?! The whole reason we’re in this mess is because you said that their numbers wouldn’t matter even if we sat back and let them gather together!” Out of nowhere, something slammed into base camp right beside Jade and Shishi, its heavy landing crushing water barrels and ration boxes. For a moment, Jade’s heart nearly beat out of his chest. Was it an attack? He swiftly realized that wasn’t the case, however. As it turned out, the culprit was none other than a Dragon Knight. “What the FUCK?! The hell do you think you’re doing, riding your dragon right into headquarters?!” Jade bellowed, partly out of anger at having been astonished. However, the Dragon Knight who’d all but crash-landed had no bandwidth to spare for Jade’s temper. He needed to report what he’d seen during his flight. “I come with news!” he shouted, interrupting Jade’s rant. “There’s some strange activity going on in Fort Steadfast!” “Wh-what now?!” “Th-they’ve got a cannon! The Resistance is setting it up in the fort’s courtyard, and it’s massive! It’s over sixty feet long and has a ten-foot bore!” “WHAAAAAAAT?!?!” Jade screamed. He couldn’t help himself. A cannon that long was beyond his conception. How could a weapon that monstrous even exist? Right as he was about to express this notion… Oh no. …he remembered something. Before the Republic of Elm was formally founded, there was something the Seven Luminaries had deployed to eradicate the Warden of the North, Fastidious Duke Gustav, and his entire massive fortress. Its strike was so mighty that it warped the land’s very topography. “It’s the Divine Lightning…” When Gustav had used his Rage Soleil war magic, God Akatsuki retaliated by bringing down a miracle. Jade had assumed that it operated similarly to magic, but if the miracle’s true form was that of a divinely crafted weapon, then that explained the cannon’s tremendous size. After all, it had been powerful enough to blast away a fortress in Gustav from all the way up in Findolph. Its power and range were off the charts, so it stood to reason that everything else about it would defy common sense as well. The question was, what would happen now that it was set up at Fort Steadfast? Should it be fired…? What then? The dominion army’s defensive line on the Amagi Pass would be annihilated in a single shot. And worse, Azuchi itself was likely within the cannon’s firing range. If it was used to bomb the capital… Noooo, no, no, no, no, no… Jade would lose everything. All he’d sweated and bled to attain would be meaningless. That’s not an option. No shot. “You said they’re still setting it up, right?! Did it look ready for use?!” “N-no, sir! From what I saw from on high, the huge barrel was being held up by a series of pulleys hooked to the fort’s steeples, and the Resistance was still constructing the platform to fix it in place! I think we have some time before it’s operational!” It was evening, and soon, the sun would set. If the Resistance members were erecting the cannon manually, then their work would inevitably slow after dark. Marching normally, an army of infantry could make it from the Amagi Pass to Fort Steadfast in about six hours, and if they hurried, they could cut it down to three or four. And given how large the cannon was, there was no way it could be aimed at anything in its immediate vicinity. If they were going to go, it was now or never. Jade made the call. “All troops, prepare for battle! We’re going to raze that fort before the Divine Lightning is ready!” Shishi had objections, and he wasted no time in expressing them. “Hold on. Our foes’ actions are baffling in a number of ways. Besides, if they truly do have two thousand holed up in there, then attacking them would put us at an extreme disadvantage. We would be playing right into their—” However, his voice cut off midsentence—and it was because Jade had just raised his fist and smashed it into Shishi’s face. It wasn’t enough to so much as make Shishi flinch, but it proved sufficient to quiet him. Jade glared at Shishi with even more vitriol than before as he shouted, “The only one who’s been playing into their hands is you, you brain-dead moron! Look, I get that you’re a dumbass bumpkin from the sticks who doesn’t know shit, so let me spell it out for you! That Divine Lightning down there? That nasty piece of work is a Seven Luminaries’ weapon that only needed a single shot to wipe a fortress the next domain over off the map! It’s how they killed Gustav, it’s what got Freyjagard to throw in the towel… That cannon basically took down the empire single-fucking-handedly! And like the idiots we were, we gave them time to set it up. Because of YOU!” “………” There was a certain amount of truth to that. Shishi offered no rebuttal. “If you’ve got such a hard-on for avoiding casualties, then go head up the vanguard. If you want to keep your idiot countrymen alive, storm the damn fort yourself and dice up those Resistance and Seven Luminaries fucks for me! Understand?!” Jade was no fool. He had the perspective to view situations in their entirety, and he possessed sufficient insight to deduce what made other people tick. That was why he’d accepted Shishi’s counsel and deployed his forces atop the Amagi Pass. Now, though, his eyes were bloodshot. His usual composure was gone. To him, an attack that could reach Azuchi from Fort Steadfast was utterly unacceptable. There was no getting through to him, and when Shishi recognized that… “…Very well.” …he agreed to take point on the attack. “Well, what the hell are you waiting for?!” Jade roared, then turned his reddened face to the two Dragon Knight messengers. “You two, head back to Azuchi and tell everyone who stayed behind to get their asses over here! If they’ve got horses, they ride. Otherwise, they run as fast as they damn well can!” “Wh-what sort of formation do you want them to—?” “We can figure all that stuff out once they get here! Once you’re done with the soldiers, join up with the other eight Dragon Knights and return suited up for air raids! Your dragons are fast enough to catch up with us before we make it to the fort, right?! If you’re not back in time, it better be ’cause you’re dead. Do I make myself clear?!” ““Crystal, sir!”” “Then get moving! Hurry it up, or I’ll kill you myself!” Jade kicked one of the dragon’s rear ends to urge it on as he began chewing his fingernails and cursing everything happening to him. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Like hell I’m going down. Not here!” The dominion army abandoned their defensive line that stretched across the pass and descended the mountain to march on Fort Steadfast. Originally, the route connecting Fort Steadfast to the Amagi Pass and Azuchi had been a supply road for transporting soldiers and supplies from the capital to the garrison that was the cornerstone of the city’s defense. The path had been designed from the get-go to be used by wagons and large groups, so despite how mountainous it was, the three-thousand-man dominion army was able to hurry down it with ease and clear the mountains before evening turned to night. And they didn’t stop there—Fort Steadfast was within their sights, and they surged toward it as a flood. A great forest stood at the base of the trail, but a large swath of it had been cleared so the supply road could make it from the Amagi Pass to the fort. Nothing obstructed the charge. Leading the way was Shishi, a byuma man whose wolf ears shone white in the moonlight. As he ran ahead of the army, his expression darkened with anguish. …Was my judgment in error? The Resistance had swelled its ranks past what he’d anticipated. At the end of the day, though, that wasn’t really a problem. Yamato was surrounded by mountains and woods, and smuggling a small group of people past the border wasn’t hard to do, especially with the support of a group like the Resistance. If any rebels stationed abroad or Lakan mercenaries who specialized in guerilla warfare wanted to, they could cross over with ease. However, that only went for small groups. The thousand Resistance members could double their ranks, but three thousand dominion troops guarded the pass. It was always hard for a smaller force to attack a defensive point held by a larger one. Even if they had soldiers and strategists with the proficiency to gain some ground, quickly overrunning the position was a pipe dream. Sooner or later, the situation would reach a standstill, and that would give the defenders’ reinforcements time to show up and overwhelm them. Shishi knew that, so the news about the additional enemy warriors hadn’t shaken him. If the only thing freaking Jade out had been the additional Resistance members, Shishi likely would have been able to talk him down. However…