Dungeon Defense (WN)

The bad feeling I had became a reality.

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The enemy seemed to not get tired as they launched a series of attacks over and over again without rest.
As time passed, their warhorses would charge and the knights would thrust their spears once before retreating.
First-line mounted archers, second-line cavalry charge.
This cycle had repeated itself 7 times now.

They were persistent bastards.
I spat out words that were indistinguishable from a sigh or a scream.

“Do Brittany’s warhorses not eat!?”

5 hours had passed since the start of the battle.
During this time, one of Brittany’s units had already charged about 12 times.
Their cavalrymen didn’t care about their dented armor as they threw their bodies at our spearmen.

“But they are gradually losing power.”

Jeremi commented while wiping the blood off of her dagger.

“No matter how impressive their horses are, they are still living and breathing creatures.
There is no way they would not get exhausted.”

“The problem is also the fact that our soldiers are nearly exhausted as well.
Damn it.”

Our spearmen were growing visibly tired.

Three to five of our troops would die for every cavalryman we killed.
The difference was almost by four times.
I had tried sending an envoy to the central army and the right wing, but it turned out that their situations were pretty much similar to our own.

Our army had quite literally shoved our 5,100 infantrymen right into the fold.
We succeeded in defending our barricades thanks to this.
If the size of our army wasn’t three times larger than the enemy’s……I didn’t want to imagine what would’ve happened.

‘I understand why General Zepar considers human cavalries to be terrifying.’

They were abnormally powerful.
From the knights who knew how to bring their auras outside of their bodies and the cavalrymen who were training their auras under those knights.

The lengths of their lances were outrageous.
They ranged from 5 meters to 8 meters! Only orc spearmen would want to fight them on an open plain.
They were no different from a living nightmare.

I now understood what Barbatos meant.
General Zepar was truly an idiot among idiots to order a charge against knights.
They weren’t human.
They were something fucked that was completely different from humans.

“They are charging again.”

“Damn it.
These sons of bitches who are more bitch-like than bitches.”

Thousands of horses were charging to us from across the plains.

“I’d rather suck Parsi’s dick than have to fight a pitched battle against knights again!”

“Who is Parsi supposed to be? Sheesh.”

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Jeremi let out a sigh as she excused herself to head out to the frontline again.
Jeremi and her assassins had to be prepared in the rare chance that a knight managed to get through.
We had already lost 5 assassins.

“Cough, cough……fuck.”

I wanted to encourage our soldiers again with an amplification spell again, but it was impossible.
My voice had already become as hoarse as an old man’s.
This happened 3 hours ago.

The soldiers who had become a kebab at the end of a lance screamed.
Warhorses let out miserable sounds as they fell to the ground.
Be it our allies or the enemy, we had all become shabby.
The people who had been farming all their lives were soaked in blood and tears as they cried out and the Brittans were sacrificed on a land far from home.

“Sir Priest……please save this man…….”

A soldier came up to me while supporting an injured man.
I let out a sigh on the inside.
Again.

“This man has lost his arm.
Sir Priest, please be merciful…….”

There was no need for me to tell him myself.
It was as clear as day even to me.
The injured man had lost both his left and right arms from the elbows.
The cut was almost scarily clean.
Unfortunately, it seems that he encountered a knight that was above rank 3.

The soldier kissed the tip of my shoe multiple times as he bowed over and over again.

“This is the last person from the same hometown as me.
If he dies as well, then how could I show my face at our village……? Sir Priest, please be merciful……!”

“Look here, my comrade.”

I struggled to speak.
My throat felt heavy.
This was really a shitty thing to do.

“It is unfortunate, but even a priest that serves the Goddess cannot revive the dead.”

“What?”

“That man is already dead.”

The soldier turned to look at the injured man’s face.
The injured, no, the fallen soldier’s mouth was agape and had bleary eyes.
It was almost like he wanted to see more and say more.
The soldier’s face became pale as he looked back and forth between his friend and me.

“Uh? Huh? What? But earlier, no, just a second ago, he was talking……huh?”

His eyes looked as if they were asking me to take back my words.

The soldier was probably telling the truth.
He had most likely been sharing a conversation with his friend until a second ago.
Just hold on, hold on a little longer, the priest will heal you.
Just a little longer…….
He was probably saying things like this as they slipped away from the frontline.
The injured soldier died along the way.

He wasn’t able to even say farewell to his friend from the same hometown as him.
That was it.

The soldier slapped the deceased man on the cheek.
He told him to open his eyes and get up.
There was no response.
It was then that he realized that his friend had entered an eternal slumber and broke out into tears.
Tears flowed down the face of the middle-aged man with a rugged beard.
His cries were partially muffled by the dust.

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“…….”

I patted the man’s back.
I was being a hypocrite, but hypocrisy was probably what he needed right now.
There was no good in war anyway.

Something had to be done, but what? Either the enemy fell from exhaustion first or our forces collapsed first.
It was one or the other.
There was nothing else we could do but endure…….

Did the other commanders think the same thing?

“The duke wishes to throw in the reserve troops.”

An envoy from the supreme commander had arrived.
It seems the other commanders had also concluded that ‘something had to be done’.

It wasn’t surprising.
While I was in charge of 12,000 soldiers, Supreme Commander Duke Guise was in charge of the lives of 63,000 soldiers.
10,000 and 60,000 were on completely different levels.
This wasn’t just rhetoric.
They were vastly different.
You couldn’t even compare them in terms of mental pressure.

“The reserve troops? We still have reserve troops?”

“Our cavalrymen.
The Duke plans to use them.”

I let out an ‘ah’ once the envoy elaborated further.

Why didn’t I consider this before!? That’s right.
Our side also has cavalrymen.
We have 1,000 knights and 10,000 cavalrymen.
They probably lacked in quality compared to Brittany’s powerful mounted soldiers, but the enemy was tired now.

On the other hand, our cavalrymen were still lively.
It was only natural since they hadn’t participated in the battle yet.

“I see……I did not even consider them since I do not have any cavalrymen under my command.
The Duke seems to have prepared a trump card.”

I nodded.

“Should I report that the commander of the left wing is on board with this plan?”

“Very well, then.
I do not have any cavalrymen anyway, so my input is not very useful.
Tell His Highness the Duke that I wish him luck.”

I smiled bitterly as the envoy quickly departed.

Honestly, they didn’t have to get my approval.
Only the nobles of the Empress Dowager’s faction in the center and Batavia’s republic army in the right possessed cavalrymen.
They could’ve come to an agreement themselves and informed me about it later.

Despite this, they went out of their way to get my approval by sending an envoy.
This made it clear how thorough Duke Guise was.
His benevolence had the power to attract the people around him.

‘If the Emperor was even partially like Duke Guise, then this civil war probably would’ve never happened.’

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It was unfortunate for Frankia, but it was fortunate for me.
It was also unfortunate for the injured soldier who had died a second ago…….

I got on my horse and stared at our rear line of defense.
10,000 cavalrymen were slowly moving.
I ordered our men to make a path beforehand so that they could traverse past our spearmen more easily.

I let out a sigh.

“Is the end drawing near? This wasn’t an easy battle…….”

* * *

“It has finally begun.”

Queen Henrietta smiled.
She was in full armor and mounted on a warhorse.
Brittany’s advisors were in a line around the Queen.
Their horses were also facing forward.

The enemy’s accursed fences.
The spearmen were slowly stepping away from the gaps between each wooden fence.
The Queen calmed her excitement as she spoke.

“Tell the mounted archers to take up their lances immediately.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

An advisor passed the order down to the envoys.
The envoys gave a firm salute before dashing away on their horses like arrows.
The number of lances they had prepared for today’s battle was beyond count.
Not only did they strip the armory of Frankia’s imperial palace of everything it had, but they also worked the blacksmiths in Parisiorum to the bone for the past few dozen days.

“Saintess Longwy, I stated previously that it was someone close to the emperor who had leaked the information.”

“Huh? Ah, yes.
I remember, Your Highness.

Athena’s saintess, Jacqueline Longwy responded.

“That was a lie.”

“……Pardon me?”

Henrietta de Brittany let out a laugh.

“If the person who sold the information was actually trying to stop us, then they would not have asked for reinforcements from a republic nation which is also another ‘foreign power’.
Someone had arbitrarily brought the republic in on their own.
There are two possibilities.”

She first pointed out a single individual.
The individual who had borrowed the republic nation’s power in order to be enthroned, in other words, Duke Henry de Guise who was currently leading the noble army.

“Duke Guise was the only person who made it out safely in the last battle.
On the other hand, his political rival, Montmorency, had fallen in battle.
There is a high possibility that Duke Guise had schemed all of this.”

“What is the second possibility, Your Highness?”

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“Longwy, think outside the box.”

Henrietta received a lance from her attendant.
Brittany’s lances were made from fir trees and would be carved out to be hollow.
It made them that much lighter, but it also lowered their durability.
Brittany’s lances were designed to pierce enemy soldiers even as they broke.

Henrietta, as a Rank 2 warrior, grabbed the lance deftly.

“No one made Batavia move.
The republic itself had manipulated the northern nobles of Frankia.”

“……Batavia did?”

“That’s right.
This would explain why Frankia is relying on a foreign power to overcome a threat.
Mm.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a horseback charge.”

The horse the Queen had mounted let out a light neigh.
It felt like it was telling her to not worry.

The warhorse was pitch black and also had a black mane.
The Queen had given this horse the name ‘Crow Feather’.
It was her favorite horse that perfectly represented a black lily, the symbol of Brittany.

“If Duke Guise is the culprit, then we must lure him in.”

Queen Henrietta gently stroked the mane of her horse.

“He is a shrewd man who is capable of getting his political rival killed.
If the battlefield isn’t advantageous to him, then he probably wouldn’t step foot in it at all.
Hmm, he would have prolonged the battle for as long as possible.
Not only is our cause weaker, but we are disadvantaged in prolonged battles.
Batavia would have also utilized political schemes.”

The cavalrymen that were attacking in a rotation were starting to form a line on the plains.
A straight line formation was a classic battle array for cavalry charges.
The enemy’s cavalrymen were coming out from behind their defenses and creating a stable line as well.

“Whichever is the truth, we must get rid of both Duke Guise and Batavia’s army.
Today, we must do more than simply win.”

Queen Henrietta spoke casually as she steered her horse.
Her advisors followed after her.

“We must crush them thoroughly.
Saintess Longwy, pray for me and my men.
We have to exert ourselves one more time.”

“Yes, may fate be with Your Highness’ cause.”

The Queen’s group merged with their cavalrymen so that they could take the lead.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter.
I was somehow able to finish this chapter even though I was out visiting relatives for two days.
Unfortunately, I ended up getting a huge headache last night and it’s been affecting me since.
I’m probably going to take the day off and get some proper rest.
The headache started the moment it started to rain heavily, so I feel like there’s probably a correlation.
Something something pressure change.
But yeah, the weather is getting cooler and there’s been a lot of storms happening all over, so I hope you guys take care of yourself.
I’ma go lay down now.

See you guys when I get better.