“Yes, I have been making improvements to this for a long time now, so I do think it will be a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me. However…I do have just a little concern…” After all that talk before, Ortonba now looked a bit pale. “Hey, Ortonba, what do you mean?” I hadn’t heard anything about this concern. “It’s looking a bit bleak.” “You mean to tell me now that these guns aren’t ready for service?” It had been five years since I’d first employed Ortonba. If he didn’t have something ready to be deployed in battle, it was definitely too late now. “No, I meant literally. The clouds are very dark. Actually, it’s already starting to rain, isn’t it…” Oh, so that was what he’d meant… Just then I heard the drip-drop sound of rain outside. The clouds were thick, too, so who knew when it would stop? Rain was a weakness of guns. If they couldn’t ignite, they’d be reduced to mere iron pipes. “Laviala, do you know much about weather?” Elves had a great deal of knowledge about natural phenomena. “Let’s see… Umm, at worst, this might go on for over two days. That’s about how gloomy the sky is. When it’s this bad, I don’t think there will be much light coming through…” In other words, we had no choice but to hold out until we could use our guns. “Ahh, so that’s the problem! I see! In that case I’ll go and stop these Machaal bastards myself!” Orcus exclaimed. “We just attack ’em with all we got, and then when the weather clears up we suddenly pull back! Once we do that, they should all come attack us. Then we hit ’em hard with our guns.” Orcus’s plan sounded desperate, but it was the most realistic plan we had. It wasn’t clear whether we could keep our lines extended that far until the rain stopped, but if we didn’t go on the offensive, we couldn’t buy time in the first place. “All right, who wants to go out?” I asked. “It will be treacherous, but I want you to cross the river and hit them with your best shot. Naturally, I’ll give you an ample reward.” Noen and Meissel added their opinions, as Orcus had before. “It’s not that frightening. These kinds of battles are all we’ve ever fought. In fact, I thought this was normal for us.” “I agree with Sir Noen. As part of Your Excellency’s extended clan, I shall risk my life to serve you!” I certainly had no complaints about my men’s offensive capability. If the enemy could scatter these guys, we would’ve had to retreat anyway. “All right, I want the vanguard to go ahead and move out. Those of you using guns, be sure you can operate them without issue. If you’re unlucky enough to miss your shots, the enemy will cut you to ribbons when they’re through.” Thus, the battle between me and Seitred, the Margrave of Machaal, began. Seitred’s army reportedly numbered about six thousand—no match for mine, but quite a lot for someone calling himself a margrave. It meant the surrounding lords, for practical purposes, also gave their allegiance to the Margrave of Machaal. We numbered about ten thousand, as I’d had to leave a number of troops in Maust Castle and the royal capital. In fact, I’d even lent men to the Nistonia clan to help them keep watch on the surrounding area. “When it comes to expeditions, I expect it’s still not practical to overwhelm the enemy with numbers?” Laviala was waiting quietly in the fort for her turn to fight. She was touching one of the guns. “They won’t come straight at us on the plains, after all. The challenges are more than numbers can solve.” “But couldn’t you have easily mobilized about twenty thousand? With your power now, I’m sure even faraway lands would have been no problem.” “I could. But the time I could use them would be far shorter.” I tore apart some bread and stuck it into my mouth. It wasn’t very good-quality bread, so it quickly dried my mouth out. “If the war dragged on, there wouldn’t be nearly enough food. Then, when we had to get food locally, we’d earn the ire of the locals, and I’d only have more enemies.” “Ah, I see…” She stopped moving her hand over the gun. “We’re the king’s soldiers—we can’t go around pillaging everywhere. We are more than mere squabbling petty lords. We carry a completely different burden.” All was fair in war. It was kill or be killed. That was a fact, but whether you could get away with saying it out loud was another matter. If kingdom troops started attacking farming villages, the Northlands would certainly unify to defy the kingdom. That was the one thing I wanted to avoid. “You sure do think about a lot, Lord Alsrod.” Laviala’s smile gave me courage, just as it always had since long ago. Recently, I’d thought my daughter was gradually starting to look more and more like Laviala. I wanted to make it so my daughter would be called princess by the time she was of age. I might have killed many, many people, but I still thought my kids were adorable. “Frankly, it’d be easier for me if I just took out every enemy that crossed my path, but it’s just not practical.” “That’s all right. You like hatching plots, too.” That was quite a way to put it. “By the way, Lord Alsrod.” She turned gloomy. “Do you think Miss Seraphina’s clan really will attack us…? Will we have to fight them…?” “Laviala, let’s focus on beating the enemies in front of us right now.” “I’m sorry,” Laviala apologized. “By now, our comrades are performing the dance of life and death to buy time so we can use our guns. Even if there’s a rebellion, we have to win against the margrave first.” “That’s true. I’ll do what I can, too!” Orcus, Noen, and Meissel were all men of valor who had long fought on the front lines. I didn’t think they’d lose very easily, but the enemy was just past the river. Since they’d be fighting in the enemy’s land on top of being exhausted, they had to be prepared for a fairly tough battle. Once in hostile territory, they just needed to hold out. Extending too far would be too risky. Whatever happened, I wanted to create a deadlock in the spot where I was ostensibly pushing. The rain was coming down pretty strong. Definitely not the weather for using firearms. You look frustrated. That’s quite rare for you. Oda Nobunaga was acting cocky. Not being out there on the battlefield makes me uneasy. You’re destined to be a conqueror, so you should act like you’re in charge. Going out in front all the time, as you always have, is the wrong way to fight. You’re not fleeing back home. I understand the reasoning. Of course, you’re the one who actually gave me powers that made me want to go fight. I didn’t exactly choose to be a profession myself. In fact, I feel it is decidedly inconvenient. And now Akechi Mitsuhide and Sen no Rikyuu are professions, too. It would be no laughing matter if that Margrave of Machaal fellow’s profession turned out to be something like Takeda Shingen. I asked Oda Nobunaga about something I’d been wondering about. Tell me about this Takeda Shingen. I think you mentioned him a few times before. What’s this sudden change in attitude? I suppose there’s no reason for a profession to begrudge a mortal, though. Very well. Takeda Shingen was a hero born in a mountainous land. His skill in war was uncanny. It wasn’t all of his army, but part of his elite troops fought on horseback, supposedly. I asked him about Takeda Shingen for a while; the man seemed somehow similar to my enemy Seitred. Of course, I had far loftier political ideas than him, so the Takeda clan was destroyed during his son’s reign. He made enemies of both me and Houjou, boxing himself in. I don’t know about his political ideas, but I see Takeda Shingen was pretty competent, at least. I wonder if my men are all right after charging in. After some time, a less favorable report came from the rappa Yadoriggy. She startled Laviala, who was still there, but that was inevitable. It was clearly that urgent. “Sir Orcus’s troops are struggling against the enemy and need to withdraw.” “I see. That means I’ll have to ready a reserve brigade to go in until the weather clears.” “The strongest of our enemies is Seitred’s younger sister, Talsha. Word is that she is much younger, though—still twenty-one.” Now that she mentioned it, I thought I’d heard of a female brigadier, but I hadn’t expected she’d be that good. “Originally, she married the son of one of his most powerful vassals, and ever since her husband died three years ago, she has been managing one of the brigades he’d commanded.” Losing to the margrave would be one thing, but I sure didn’t want to lose to his little sister. The rain was still going strong. If we were attacked now, our defenses wouldn’t be ready. “Lord Alsrod, I’ll go fight!” exclaimed Laviala. “All right, don’t let me down. But I can’t leave this to my wife alone, you know.” I sprang to my feet. “I’ll go, too. They’ll think twice about attacking when I’m done with them.” The river water was quite cold. This sure is the Northlands, all right, I thought. The royal capital was much farther south, so I couldn’t get used to the temperature here. It’d be understandable if the side that attacked first couldn’t bring their strength to bear afterward. I was leading the charge with a mere four hundred troops. It was only meant to support the other forces. Once they were back on their feet, my men would have enough strength to hold their own. Laviala was with me this time. “Laviala, you don’t need to get any closer to the enemy than is necessary. Whatever you do, just shoot them.” “Yes, sir, understood!” Laviala’s eyes were more serious than ever before. “I only have one question—is there really a reason this person is following along?” Ortonba the dwarf was accompanying us, too. He was carefully crossing the river so as not to get his gun wet. “One use ought to be enough,” he said. “Besides, I can’t help you understand how good it is if we don’t use it a little in actual battle.” It had never occurred to me that we’d be trying out firearms at a time like this. We joined up with Noen’s troops just as they were taking a brutal enemy attack. “We’re here to help, Noen Rowd, just for now!” “Ah! I am much obliged! I would hate to bring further shame on myself, so I intend to push back full force!” This should have temporarily raised my men’s spirits; however, my appearance alone wouldn’t be enough to repel the enemy. Luckily, their apparent emphasis on speed led them to be lightly armored and thus very shootable. Laviala wasted no time firing her nocked arrow. It went straight through an enemy soldier’s chest, right on target. “My bow is terrifyingly precise—my Archer profession isn’t just for show!” The next shot pierced yet another soldier. The other archers fired their arrows as well, suppressing the enemy onslaught. “This place will be all right. Noen, keep it up a little longer! We’re heading to help Orcus!” Orcus’s troops comprised the most soldiers of all, so if we could stop the enemy here, the rest would take care of itself. Laviala and I both took our men and moved down the battle line. The main body of Orcus’s troops was indeed embroiled in a chaotic melee. They were suffering a fierce enemy assault, as if they’d gone and poked a beehive. “We need to stop this at its source.” “I’ll do it, Lord Alsrod.” Laviala’s arrow threw one man off his horse at the back of the enemy line. However, this time their numbers were many. It would be difficult to weaken their advance with our brief strike. “I think I can kill about thirty if I go in.” “It’s too dangerous! And I won’t be able to use my bow!” Laviala stopped me. Right, of course—since she was using a projectile weapon, I couldn’t be on the front line. In that case, my role had to be to boost friendly morale. From Orcus’s troops, I could already hear their leader’s deep voice booming out, “No retreating, even in death! Retreat means eternal shame!” He must’ve heard I was here. He was so transparent. This is utterly reckless. Coming yourself to such a perilous battlefield… Don’t you dare get yourself killed. If you lose your life here of all places, it’ll be no laughing matter for your profession. He was right, but staying on the sidelines the entire time just wasn’t to my taste. Laviala’s attack was working reasonably well, but the margrave’s general who commanded the nearby troops must’ve noticed many of his men had fallen to arrows from a new angle. This time the enemy had enough numbers to break up our attack. The enemy general seemed to have ordered, “Attack those archers!” Of course, to be honest, I mostly couldn’t make it out, as it was in Northlands-speak. Aside from some high officials like the margrave, most of them probably couldn’t even talk in capital-speak. It looked like they numbered about a hundred and fifty. Their tactic was that the general charged in on horseback followed by foot soldiers. Their horses had very dark brown coats and looked significantly larger than ours. Machaal Prefecture was a center of horse breeding. “Ah! Everyone! Please aim for their general!” Laviala was now in a rush, too. The archers fired their arrows, but the enemy general ducked, evading the volley. He seemed pretty good. “This is bad… He’s just going to plow right into us…” I put a hand on my scabbard. Hand-to-hand combat was somewhat dangerous, but that seemed to be our only way out. However, Ortonba stepped forward in front of me, gun in hand. He was bent over it so the rain didn’t get it wet. “I can put them down when they’re this close. I know which one is their general now, too. No problem.” This definitely was a golden opportunity to test the gun’s performance. “All right. Do it. I’ll watch right next to you.” “Lord Alsrod, please don’t put too much faith in it!! If it misses, they’ll be right on you!” Laviala warned. Well, if it happens, it happens. I’ll give this everything I have. “Even with this ridiculous stance, I can still hit them.” Baaaaangggg! A thunderous blast rang out, like the earth itself had torn apart. It was such a tremendous noise, I briefly wondered if I’d died, but that clearly wasn’t what had just transpired. The enemy general fell from his horse and quickly stopped moving. The gun had killed him in one hit. Cries erupted from the enemy troops. Their general had just died, after all. However, they didn’t seem to quite understand just yet what had happened. “That’s right… Everyone, hit them with a volley, please!” Laviala and her archers then fired their arrows once more. The enemy soldiers in front collapsed noisily to the ground. I was witnessing the moment the situation turned around in front of my eyes. With a single gun, the tide of battle had changed dramatically. The roots that had been feeding the attacking enemy soldiers had been torn up. The enemy general’s pinpoint directions had been what was overwhelming Orcus’s men. That general was now dead, and the enemy attack had lost all its energy at the same moment. “All right! They’re just common rabble now! Show them what the Red Bears do best! Push! Push, dammit!” Orcus’s voice suddenly got louder. It looked for now like my coming had been worthwhile. Afterward, Ortonba fired his gun three or so times, and each shot killed another enemy officer. The bullets reached much farther than arrows did. “It sure does take time to ignite in the rain. We would need clear weather for volley fire.” “At least now we know it’s not impossible in the hands of an expert.” It looked like Orcus had driven off the enemy for now, so I left him with orders to hold out until the rain cleared, and we crossed the cold river once again. Afterward, dusk fell, and I heard that the enemy had pulled back to their camp. To take advantage of this, Orcus and the other frontline regiments returned to our side of the river. For the first day, at least, we’d stopped them. There was one more turn of events—the rain ceased before nightfall. Perhaps its intensity had made the clouds pass quickly. “Tomorrow morning will be sunny,” Laviala said confidently. “Indeed. Tomorrow we can finally demonstrate the true worth of these guns.” When the frontline troops got back, I expressed my gratitude and then had them fall back to the rear. “I would have liked to camp there overnight, but I decided it was impossible given how fatigued my troops were,” explained Laviala. “I wanted to hold out until the enemy came to attack again tomorrow.” “If the enemy foolishly comes over to our side of the river, it’s no issue. We’ll welcome them with our guns.” “But will they come over so easily? I’m sure they know to be afraid, after today.” “I’ll put out some good bait. I’m sure the Margrave of Machaal wants to turn this into a clear-cut victory.” During the night I moved the main body of my troops out from the fort. “I’m moving my headquarters next to the river.” I set up a defensive line close to the banks, deliberately building it to look quite fragile. I had my headquarters set up in front as well. Against this, the enemy could make a quick breakthrough and come for my head—or so they’d believe. If they didn’t take the bait, I’d have a detachment cross the river just to lure them, and then I’d pull my men back. We weren’t losing, at least. I’d gotten a good idea of their capabilities, too, so I just needed to finish them in this next fight. And so the long night ended. Perhaps because of the higher early-morning temperature, there hung a faint mist, but this too faded as the sun rose. “We’ve got some incredibly sunny weather today, Laviala.” “Yes! Let’s win and make it even more incredible!” The two of us exchanged banter back at our camp. Indeed, if we couldn’t win, this would turn out to be the most depressing sunshine ever. Of course, the enemy didn’t come in the early morning. I decided to take this time to get fully prepared to meet them. The terrain didn’t allow me to place troops behind and have them charge forward. Apparently Oda Nobunaga had been able to go that route, but I couldn’t ask for too much here. The busiest person that day was Ortonba. He went around inspecting the soldiers waiting behind the fences, making sure they could shoot properly. By the way, the fences were set up quite far ahead of where the men were. If they could slow the enemy down, the gunners would have it that much easier. Just then, Yadoriggy made an appearance. I’d been anticipating her arrival, and I’d deliberately kept only Laviala by my side. “The Margrave of Machaal has decided to come attack over the river, himself included,” she reported. “Understood. Thanks for letting me know. You look really out of breath, so have a rest.” Her face looked more cold than apathetic, but I’d seen her face so many times now that I could tell she’d been in a rush. “I will be nearby, so please call me if anything comes up,” she said, and she disappeared. Well, I think we’re in for a big battle. “Laviala, position yourself somewhere you can easily shoot a gun from. The enemy will be on our doorstep before long.” “Yes, sir! I’ll shoot them down one by one, starting from the front!” I wasn’t sure how the Archer profession would work with guns, but it had the exact same purpose as a weapon, at least, so surely it would work out. At last, I could hear a low rumble off in the distance. They were coming from a shallow point in the river. As expected, they seemed to know what terrain was the easiest to cross. And then, around the time they finished crossing the river, a thunderous blast like the previous day’s rang out. The regiment lying in wait on the nearby hillock had fired their guns. It was a bit too far away for me to tell the results, but it didn’t matter. The real showdown was yet to come. I decided to see how Ortonba was faring. I was surely the primary target, too, so if one of their leaders came to me, it’d be easy for Ortonba to shoot them. “How does it look?” I asked him. “We have good sights on them, and it’s even sunny, so you won’t hear me complaining. It already seems to be having an effect.” The sounds of gunfire had already reverberated several times, and the screams had begun. First, until we drew them close, our focus was to pick them off from up high and far away. They didn’t know where the shots were coming from, which instilled a sense of fear. And then when they made it through that attack and came close, the men inside the fences trained their guns on them. “All right, everyone, fire at will!” I didn’t really need to give the command, as they were already under orders to fire, but I shouted anyway to whip them up. I also made absolutely sure to cover my ears. After the deafening blast, the mounted enemy officers fell noisily to the ground one after another. Of course, we hit their rank-and-file soldiers with gunfire as well. Some among them nearly froze in place out of fear, but our guns showed them no mercy either. “What the hell kinda weapons are these?!” “How do we stop them?!” “Don’t get too close!” Those were just a few of the many shouts I heard following the gunfire. Suffering attacks from a weapon you’d never seen before brought on extraordinary fear. People generally couldn’t think straight when confronted with a situation they couldn’t explain. That was exactly what I was aiming for. I could see Laviala sniping with her gun while hidden in some foliage on the hill. Even though she was quite far away, her aim was deadly accurate. Sure enough, the real star was Ortonba, who took down soldiers quite far off with every shot. Maybe that was why none of their men were any longer trying to break through the fences in front of us—those who had tried to force their way through had all fallen. We had totally destroyed the enemy cavalry brigade’s momentum. At that point, this battle was ours. The enemy’s only hope for victory lay in breaking through our defensive screen, but they almost certainly didn’t have the strength left to pull that off now. My opponent’s worst enemy was fear. Charging in was impossible with doubt in your heart. “I guess their attack is finally over. In that case, I might as well take everyone to mop them up.” I hadn’t yet seen the margrave. The high percentage of officers who had died in the front had probably kept him from coming out. However, one of the margrave’s units came charging. Though their comrades had fallen, their commanding general wasn’t down yet. I could tell someone important had arrived, given the shift in the atmosphere. “I am Talsha Machaal, sister of the Margrave of Machaal! Prepare yourself, Alsrod Nayvil!” Ahh, his famously courageous sister. With her wavy hair streaming in the breeze, she charged toward me. “Shit! I said stop! Reckless bitch!” Ortonba shot her horse, which fell over, but Talsha leaped off and headed straight for me. Even as her foe, I was impressed. She was dead set on coming for my head. I felt a rush of excitement. “No one shoot this woman! I’ll take her myself.” This battle was ours, after all. Why not have a little fun? I drew my sword and stood in front of Talsha. “You called for me, and here I am. Why did you charge into a lost battle?”
Chapter 38
21 min read