Chapter 121 – The Decisive Battle That Determines the Fate of the Empire (1) *Self-Congratulatory Illustration (Yuria Botebae)
A decisive battle for the fate of the empire (1)
“Reinforcement!!”
“Ajin has arrived!!”
There were quite a few soldiers who used axes as weapons, but Ajin was the only one who could blow off a person’s head by throwing such a hatchet from afar, so the soldiers in Gerard’s unit quickly figured out who the owner of the hatchet was.
“Kwoaaaaa!!”
Along with Ajin’s roar, arrows fired by rangers rained down in the dark forest.
“Aaaaah!! Raise your shield to block!!”
“I don’t know where it’s shooting from!”
The fire caused by Gerard was extinguished, but smoke was still rising, and because the smoke obscured the view of the Imperial Army, the Rangers, with a few people, were able to safely eliminate the Imperial Army by hiding in the trees of the forest.
“Crung! Gerard, you worked hard.”
“Ajin! Thank you for coming. But how did you know that we were in danger…?”
The situation was so urgent that there was no time to send communications, and since the area was so far away, Gerard was glad to have survived, but wondered how reinforcements could have come.
“Mayer sent me. He said you guys must have fallen into a trap.”
“Ah… Master Mayer…”
“Kreung, this is not the time to stay like this. When the enemy is in confusion, we must reorganize our soldiers and destroy the enemy.”
“Yes, I understand!”
Following Ajin’s instructions, Gerard quickly gathered his troops and began attacking the imperial army.
“The only chance is now! Squeeze out all your might and destroy the enemy!”
When Gerard’s unit began attacking the imperial army, the rangers changed their arrow shooting at them to covering fire and efficiently hunted down the imperial army.
“How can you shoot an arrow like that through smoke that you can’t even see?”
“I heard that while we were running to death, Jane did eye training in addition to the training we were doing. Why would she be a ranger for no reason?”
Gerard smiled wryly as he listened to his men, who had allowed a surprise attack from behind while cutting down the enemy, talk about their training after being saved by the rangers’ covering fire.
‘I thought I was going to die because of that eye training… The training involved finding a marked stone in the forest in the middle of the moonless night…’
Gerard, who briefly remembered the painful memories of having to go through that to sleep, focused on the battle again and annihilated the enemy.
“Come to your senses! Raise your shield high to block the arrows and re-form your formation! The enemy is only a small number!! The numbers are still similar!!”
“If we just keep our heads up, we can win. We haven’t lost yet!!”
However, the imperial army, as if it were the imperial army, gradually reorganized its battle lines under the command of hundreds of commanders, even in the midst of chaos with the death of the commander who led the Cheonjindae and sniping coming from all over.
“Whoa, Ajin… I think we should retreat now. The smoke is slowly blowing away with the wind, and they have also set up camp. Ajin?”
Despite Gerard’s call, Ajin remained silent and looked at the formation of the imperial army.
“Ajin. Now we have to retreat… Gasp!”
Gerard once again recommended a retreat, but before he could finish his words, Ajin let out a huge roar, reorganized his battle lines, and jumped into the imperial army, which was once again in a dense formation.
“Cooooo!!”
“Troll… It’s a troll!!”
“Why is the troll here? React calmly! It’s no big deal if you use a polearm and stab it from afar… Ugh!”
The imperial army tried to fight against Ajin with spears and arrows, but the power of the trolls in the forest of the night was greater than their imagination.
Azin broke into the camp and wielded a huge ax, causing a bloody storm among the imperial troops.
Moreover, because the troll was not an ordinary troll but a master Ajin, the damage to the imperial army, which responded as if it were dealing with an ordinary troll, began to increase enormously.
Several shield warriors overlapped their shields to block Ajin’s axe, but the cool energy on the axe tore their shields apart like pieces of paper, and as blood and flesh exploded, the faces of the imperial soldiers were filled with fear.
“Ma… Master…”
“A monster… A monster!! A troll that uses sword techniques!!”
“Run away!! It’s a monster we can’t deal with!!”
As soon as one person began to run away, the fear spread and all the soldiers began to run away in disorder.
However, the fleeing imperial troops were knocked to the ground one by Ajin’s ax and the swords of the light infantry in pursuit, and the arrows of the rangers hiding here and there in the forest also flew towards the backs of their heads, so by dawn there was not a single imperial soldier left alive in the forest. I didn’t.
“Whew~ It was barely finished… Still, quite a bit of sacrifice was made. There were close to 200 deaths…”
In terms of military history alone, it could be said that it was not bad as it recorded only 200 casualties and completely annihilated one thousand troops, but since it was Yuno’s army that had barely suffered any casualties so far, Gerard became a little depressed.
“Crung! Come to your senses, Gerard. You did your best!”
“But… It was a useless sacrifice because I didn’t recognize the trap quickly…”
“It is not your responsibility, nor is it the responsibility of the leader, Mayer! Rather, I should praise Mayer, who quickly identified this trap and sent a relief force, and you, who quickly used firepower on the spot to create an opportunity to escape.”
“… Thank you. But I am so sorry about the deaths of my subordinates… They were the ones who followed my training very hard and worked with me…”
“Crrrr of all, then you just have to fight harder from now on! So that such vain sacrifices won’t happen in the future… Lest the same people fight among themselves like this anymore!”
“Thank you, Ajin… In order to do that, I will have to fight harder for His Highness Yuno.”
“Yes, that is enough. My great master Miri said that being loyal to his companion Yuno is what our clan and humans need~ ㅡㅡ ㅡㅡ”
Ajin’s consolation helped a lot, but from the moment he started praising Miri and Yuno, he knew that it would continue endlessly, so Gerard left with the excuse of having to clear the battlefield.
Then, he gathered the corpses of the imperial and friendly forces in one place, cremated them, carefully scattered the items given by Mayer toward the west, and then left the battlefield with his troops.
After Gerrard’s unit returned to the main unit, Mayer also called in Cordelia’s cavalry, secured her supplies by looting the last food warehouse she had obtained, and departed for the Eastern Front on the date agreed with Juno.
The day Mayer’s army departed for the Eastern Front. In the cabinet hall of the Adriatic Palace, Emperor Henry’s anger was piercing the sky.
“What? Is it true that the food warehouse has been robbed, and the legionnaires can’t be supplied? How on earth does this even make sense!!!”
“I… I apologize, Your Majesty. But their movements are so strange…”
“So, didn’t I hand over to the head of the intelligence department one of the thousand men of the Capital Guard Corps, which was heading to the east to suppress Prinz? It is a unit with the combat power of two thousand men of the Imperial Legion, but what happened to them?”
In response to Heinrich’s question, Viscount Skimmer, head of the intelligence department, could not bear to answer and only sweated heavily.
But his attitude made Heinrich’s anger worse, and eventually Heinrich took his sword from his belt.
Squeak!!
The sword Heinrich swung was deeply embedded in the table in front of Viscount Skimmer.
“Answer me straight. Director of Intelligence. Do you think I put you in that position expecting such silence?”
“Ah… No, Your Majesty. I am confirming that the Emperor’s Majesty’s Majesty’s Royal Guards Corps, No. 2, has been annihilated… Heeeee!!”
As soon as he heard that 10 percent of the strength of the Guard Corps, which he had worked hard to cultivate since his days as a prince, had been lost, Heinrich swung his sword again, and this time it grazed Viscount Skimmer’s neck instead of the table. 〉
“Next time, my sword will go deeper. Director of Intelligence. So, have you found out who is behind them? At least you have found out whether they are the Prinz Army or not, right?”
Hehe… Because the legionnaires were wiped out, they could not take any prisoners, so they could not get the correct information… Now… Please wait a moment, Your Majesty!! Still, I found out something!!”
When Heinrich’s sword tried to rise again, Viscount Skimmer was horrified and reported everything he had discovered.
“Hmm~ A small amount of milk powder was found on the battlefield?”
“Yes, that’s right. It seems that the unidentified men who robbed the food warehouse spilled it while eating after the battle. Not only this, a small amount of milk powder was found on the battlefield where the food warehouse or supply depot was robbed.”
“Milk powder… There is only one place in the empire that produces enough milk to be used as food for soldiers…”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s the southwestern region currently occupied by the rebels in Kent. That’s the only large pastureland where cattle can be raised in large quantities.”
Chancellor Marquis Dietrich supported the intelligence chief’s report.
“It appears that when food to supply the people of the empire became scarce due to the rotation of the Zenon Plain, he deployed his own army and robbed the food stores and supply depots. Count Zion, who was a member of the Prinz faction, governed the area so well that the public sentiment would not have followed even otherwise. However, it seems like they are distributing food to prevent refugees and calm public sentiment at least a little.”
“How dare this damned bastard… Are you trying to found a nation through that place!! Taking care of the public sentiment!! The emperor of the empire is this Heinrich!! Whoa, whoa, whoa, I can’t get enough of it. Impersonating that nobleman. “I have to cut off the tiger’s head right now!!”
Heinrich was furious and ordered the Guards Corps to retreat and suppress the rebels in Kent.
However, it was barely possible to stop it due to the opposition of all ministers, including Chancellor Dietrich, and it was decided to turn the 8th and 9th Corps on the central front, which had been organized as reserve forces, down to attack the Kent rebels.
‘Whoa~ It’s cold… There’s nothing wrong obviously… But I feel like I’m being played by someone… Now that we have no reserve forces… If we lose this war, Your Majesty’s empire could collapse at any moment. There will be’
Chancellor Dietrich trembled with inexplicable anxiety. However, he did not know where his anxiety came from, and although he was excellent at political strategy and financial management, he was poor at military affairs, so he only trusted Baron Derian, the former commander of the 5th Corps, who was newly appointed as the commander of the Prinz subjugation army.
Mayer’s original plan was to retreat one of the legions heading east, but the intended goal was achieved by eliminating the two reserve legions, and as time passed, the day of the decisive battle for the fate of Balkan arrived. It was approaching.
* It has nothing to do with the content, but the author wanted to make it for his birthday, so he created an illustration of Yuria’s pregnant belly
