A Maiden’s Unwanted Heroic Epic

Chapter 105: Father and Child

***Arc 5 The One Who Obstructed, Chapter 105 Father and Child***

The dawn had ended, and the sun rose illuminating the earth.

Pure white clouds high in the sky dotted the blue sky.

Christand’s army maintained the same formation as the day before, and so did Salva Caldera's.

The only difference was the presence of reinforcements on the right wing of the Caldera army――Nakirus Felizar's corps of 5000.

Selene sent 4,000 of the 5,000 under her command to the left wing, to Terrius, the commander of the third corps, which was to oppose the enemy's right wing.

The marching banner was waved, the trumpets sounded.

And both armies began to move at the same time, as if it were a mirror.

Both sides moved their right wings, then the center, and then the left wing.

Advance with one wing as the main attack, and delay contact with the other wing.

――It was an oblique formation.

However, there was a clear difference in the skill level of the soldiers.

The diagonal march, where the timing is different from the one next to you, is especially difficult, and the quality of the corporal and corporal, in addition to the training period up to that point, is what counts.

Compared to the Christand army, which drew a perfect oblique line with no gaps, the Caldera forces' line was distorted in many places.

Considering that the distortions that occurred became clear gaps and created vulnerable points, it was not a tactic that the Caldera army should have chosen.

"...That's an unsettling move."

"Kolkis-sama?"

Kolkis, who was on the right wing, murmured when he saw the enemy's left-wing movement from his horse.

A comical oblique (diagonal) formation.

It was as if they were asking him to break through.

It was hard to believe that the prudent Salva would make such a move without any measures.

He had expected that the other side would concentrate its strength on one of the two wings, but.

Kolkis stroked his chin as he watched the soldiers from Selene's main camp move toward the left wing.

――There was a danger that the enemy would concentrate an extreme force on our left flank.

It was highly likely that the enemy was thinking of a short-term battle.

"... As expected of Corps Commander Faren. He moves quickly."

The Central Fourth Corps undulated the advancing vanguard formation.

In the oblique line, creating a convex on the left wing and gathering the archers there.

The moment he realized that the enemy would not be concentrated in the center, he set up an improvised firing position on the convex part he had created, and changed the formation so that he could cover the targeted left wing.

Eluga Faren trained his men, emphasizing control and coordination above all else.

As a result, it becomes possible to transform the formation into an irregular, acrobatic formation.

While honestly praising the speed of his decision, he was aware that the blatant move also contained a message to Kolkis.

――Don't expect any cover.

Eluga sensed the danger on the left wing and decided to concentrate his efforts there.

The irregular formation naturally created a weakness.

The protruding convex would be an easy target, and Eluga would have to focus on defending it.

It was better to assume that there wouldn’t be any cover for the right wing, where Kolkis was located.

"However, Corps Commander Faren sure is unreasonable. Though it doesn't feel bad if I think that he trusts me."

"Haha, but don't these situations make your blood boil?"

"Aah, certainly. …Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a problem."

Kolkis turned his attention to the front.

It’s about time they will be within range of the enemy archers.

Since the archers were concentrated in the center and left wing from the beginning, they wouldn't be conducting shooting at the approaching enemy.

‘Considering the damage, should we take full readiness to defend, or should we close the gap at once?’

――The enemy was poised for a short battle. It was obvious.

"We will charge, I will also go. The enemy is in a stupid slanted line of fire, it will be easy to break through. Ignore the fools Gran, charge through and take their back."

The objective was to get near the center of the enemy's left flank――the disorder there was the greatest.

It was probably the joint between the two corps that separated the enemy's left wing and center.

Take the head of the corps commander of the inner left wing near the center and divide them.

After that, a detachment unit would be formed to target the enemy's main camp or the rear of the right wing.

There was no tactical value in a Gran who was divided from the center.

Just pin him down and leave him alone. The important thing was the enemy's offensive against the left wing, Terrius.

"I'll head for the left flank then. I'll leave Gran to you."

"Yes sir!"

Gran closed his eyes for a moment when he saw Kolkis movement.

Then he gave the order.

"――The enemy has moved, let's go. Follow me."

There was no figure of his father charging straight to him.

He was in the lead, aiming at the seam of the army.

He had the slightest bit of hope.

That his father would point his spear at him directly.

Gran commanded the cavalry and took the lead.

The light infantrymen, who were the most capable among the ragtag of the corps, were given large shields and pulled behind, and they advanced from the far-left wing.

On Kolkis’s rightmost wing were pikemen.

As the flank defense against cavalry, Kolkis always had long spearmen in reserve and on the right flank.

And it was the same today.

It was the same father he knew――the same troop deployment as usual.

――When one thinks about the corps commander named Kolkis Agrand, what was the best thing about him?

It was not Kolkis’s own military prowess, but his skill in military drill.

Kolkis’s rigorous combat training turned even amateurs who had never held a sword and spear into valiant warriors in a matter of months.

And with the strength of his soldiers, he easily accomplished otherwise unsuccessful assaults and defenses.

The reason Kolkis did not use complex tactics is that he always prioritizes simple and clear orders that maximize the strength of his trained soldiers.

‘The only thing they understand is to move and stop. No matter how much we twist and turn our brains to develop tactics, the soldiers cannot understand a single piece of it. …In the end tactics are nothing more than the art of creating decoys and disturbing the opponent. The soldiers who are used as decoys are not happy and their morale will lessen.’

Kolkis' battlefield philosophy that he was told as a child.

He had not forgotten it, word for word.

'Rather than that, move forward and defeat the enemy, protect this place and take revenge, these orders are easy to understand. The orders given to everyone, and the situation are equal――that's why you can compete with other squads and boost morale. And that's how I teach them.'

It's not tactics, but strategy, Kolkis said.

‘Train your men to be the best warriors, and then build your army with the best warriors. In every age, it is the superiority of force that determines victory or defeat. If you build an army that can overwhelm the enemy head-on no matter the tactic, then the battle will be over. …Tactics are superficial techniques. It's natural to know it, and it's not the essence of fighting. Don't rely on it too much and neglect the basics."

――He read through all of his father's battle records.

His father's fight was always plain and simple――he confronted the enemy head-on, succeeded in making a breakthrough that could be called reckless, and repeatedly avoided hopeless situations against the opponent's offensive.

Gran, who was vaguely aware that his father was strong, was first surprised by Kolkis’s words, and then understood the true nature of his strength and eagerly learned his tactics.

Once he learned that sword and spear weren't everything, he even kept his sleep to a minimum.

Just like his father.

Just to follow his back.

Gran's life has been like that all his life.

There was no other opportunity to overtake him other than now.

"... Yes, this is the first and last time."

He mounted his horse and galloped to the enemy flank.

The number of cavalrymen he led was 300.

The enemy's far right wing stops and thrusts its long spear here in preparation for the cavalry charge. Their reaction was quick.

From this vantage point, he could see most of the battlefield.

A rain of arrows dyes the sky black.

The unbroken line of battle far in the distance.

A resounding roar――and then a collision of flesh, a metallic sound, and a scream.

Those sounds increased in number over time, swelled up——and the battlefield music began to play across the vast plain as far as the eye could see.

With each sound, human lives scattered like a flower, signaling the end of life.

It was not a life that should have been valued.

The battlefield, filled with madness, there was only one truth——everything was working to win the war.

On this battlefield, one's own life was trivial.

If you face it, you will be overwhelmed.

Even his father's army, with such pressure, was a small world from the perspective of the entire battlefield.

All Gran had to do was to win a small victory in that small world.

——His heart was calm.

The fear in his body disappeared, and the blood in his head, which was threatening to boil, finally began to circulate throughout his body.

The enemy cavalry and reserve pikemen appeared from the front. It was a detachment to block their detour.

Then he turned his horse to the left.

Then he pointed the spear at the infantry that followed.

"——The way to victory has been created! That's where we should aim!"

The cavalry led by Gran caused the enemy's rightmost wing to take stance with their pike, and the result was a slight gap between them and the advancing vanguard.

In order to create this gap, Gran had led the advance.

The light infantry following behind changed direction.

They run up to the enemy's flanks with large shields.

Then they throw their javelin and slam their body into the disordered pikeman.

Following them, led by the lightly infantry, were approximately 4,000 men——almost the entire force of Gran's army.

Assuming that Kolkis would break through, they would charge into the second corps from the flank with all their strength, splitting it into front and back.

This was Gran's plan, putting everything on the line (捨て身 = throw away + body).

Kolkis’s Second Corps could never be beaten in terms of the quality of its soldiers.

If they went head-to-head, they would lose.

Because that army was the strongest army created by Kolkis, whom Gran respects more than anyone else.

He won’t win with the quality of the soldiers.

However, no matter how strong the army was, it was vulnerable to attacks from the flank.

Completely deprives the pikeman of combat ability with a saturated attack and cuts deep into them.

Literally throwing himself away——if he failed, there's no after for him.

But he was sure of its success.

That was because Kolkis ignored Gran and charged towards the center.

As a result, the vanguard of the Second Corps missed their attack against Gran's corps and was completely flanked and hit in the back.

Gran smiles a smile of satisfaction.

But it was not over yet.

The enemy cavalry was closing in on them.

They were heading toward them with desperate expressions on their faces to prevent them from rushing in.

At this stage, a charge from their flank would have ruined everything.

Naturally, Kolkis’s rightmost pikeman――skilled soldiers were in charge of that.

It takes some time to get through it completely, and in order to earn that time, their cavalry must be stopped.

Once again, Gran reversed and turned to face the enemy cavalry.

Then he sprints with his spear at the ready.

"All men, follow me!"

――A head-on collision.

The opponent who noticed it flinched slightly, and Gran lifted his cheek.

With his horse galloping, Gran swung his spear.

Compared to Kolkis’s, it was short and thin.

But it is a large spear with a steel core――it was powerful enough.

With all the strength in his body, he twisted his upper body and slammed the belly of the spear into the lead cavalryman.

The enemy cavalryman tried to parry it, but their quality was different.

The enemy cavalryman's spear was snapped, the steel of his breastplate cracked, and Gran's great spear shattered his armor and his bones, killing the enemy cavalryman.

The body was blown off, disrupting the horses that followed.

With that blow, Gran dissipated the opponent's momentum and took down the disordered cavalry.

The cavalry who had stopped wouldn’t be a problem no matter their number.

He smashed their skulls, pierced their hearts and necks――there was no one there who could stop him.

And the following soldiers shouted in glee and followed Gran.

"I'll leave the rest to you! Bonetz, follow me!"

"Yes sir!"

After half-destroying the enemy cavalry with a single exchange, he leaves the rest to him and leads 100 cavalries to the enemy line.

Meanwhile, the enemy pikeman was sufficiently disorganized that they no longer had the strength to prevent a cavalry charge.

"Surely there are no idiots who wanted to be speared here. Let's go!"

"Yes! All hands――charge!

――The horse ran.

His horse was in good condition. It was exciting, but calm.

He looked at the enemy in front of him.

They didn’t have their spear.

Even those that had readied it have a look of fear on their faces.

A spear without proper stance will not take the life of a horse.

The distance between us rapidly shortened, and they were crushed――what ran through them was an impact.

Since the birth of the saddle and stirrup, the cavalryman, even if unarmed, was itself a deadly weapon.

With a mass nearly ten times that of a man, its entire body was covered with tough muscular armor.

As they galloped, their entire bodies converted all of their kinetic energy into impact――a human body would be crushed like a twig.

If a hundred of them were to join together, the impact would ripple through a thousand soldiers, paralyzing their control for a moment.

Countless dull sounds echoed.

Breaking the bones of the recumbent soldiers, Gran takes a moment to look at his beloved horse.

The horse had countless wounds――he had made it do something reckless. This battlefield would probably be its last.

But even now, his beloved horse continues to run forward. Kicking enemy soldiers.

To respond to its owner’s desire to move forward.

It was a good horse.

Perhaps the best horse he had ever met.

This horse's temperament was a gentle one――but in this place that his master wanted, it was demonstrating its best power as a cavalry horse.

He swung the spear as if responding to the voice of his beloved horse.

The horse kicked away the enemies that clung to him and moved forward.

‘If this beloved horse survives, even if it can no longer run, I will definitely take care of him until he dies.’

He looked behind.

The cavalry that followed was desperately chasing them.

To his right side were his soldiers who were charging toward the enemy.

His father's――the mightiest second corps, had bite off toward its middle.

――After dividing them, they will defeat the isolated frontward group, Kolkis.

It was a breakneck march.

The Second Corps, all of its soldiers were valiant.

Even after being cut down so much, they did not collapse, and they were heading toward them even though they were being cut into pieces.

Every single one of them was a warrior.

What arose was a sense of awe for his father, who trained the soldiers to such an extent.

Gran led the way as long as he could, switching several times.

His cavalry was already cut down by half.

But they followed after Gran.

They looked respectfully at their commander――the brave Gran, who was always in the lead, and pushed his body forward.

A look that had not been there before the battle.

At least at this moment, the eyes of disdain for Gran, who betrayed his master, did not exist.

As he leads the infantry, as he cuts open the way.

And so, Gran splits the enemy line diagonally, and――

"!?"

What was there was not an army of allies.

――It was a spear aimed at himself.

He immediately jumped off his horse and rolled over.

The neck of his beloved horse was snapped off, and fell to the ground without even a scream.

A heroic armor in the shape of a tiger.

His large, muscular frame almost ripped the armor from the inside, and the spear he held in his hand was a heavy spear 8 shaku 3 sun (~2,5 m) made entirely of steel.

The tip of the spear resembles a thick small sword and the but end would even easily crush rocks.

The heavy armor was not meant to protect him.

It was a weight to wield the extraordinary spear.

Just by walking, his feet would leave deep imprints on the earth.

He was probably the best spearman in the Kingdom, both in name and in reality.

Kolkis Nactra Rinea Agrand

As an extraordinary enemy.

"You're sure energetic. I think I underestimated you too much, Gran. …That’s quite a fast advance."

"…Father"

Gran looked to his right――to his allies who were supposed to have charged to the left wing with him.

It was already in a state of falling apart.

Then he understood.

Kolkis, after breaking through the left wing, sensed his intentions from Gran's movement who was piercing through the army’s flank.

Then he decided to turn back immediately, and then, taking advantage of the opportunity, pierced the remaining left wing from the rear and twisted it into a pulp.

He was confident that Gran would not intervene.

It was the best side attack Gran could think of.

It was ideal, without anything amiss , and it took only a fraction of the time.

‘――There was no way father could have returned in such a short time. After destroying a whole corp at that.’

"Hey."

"…Yes sir."

At Kolkis’s signal, the soldier next to him threw something.

What rolled in front of Gran's eyes was a head.

It belonged to Torval, the corps commander who was supposed to be in command of the left wing.

"However, the fact that we were able to break through was the reason for your defeat. Did you think that I would have trouble with the opponent who would turn their back, Gran? Did you think you could handle my army with your ragtag group and little tricks?"

One step closer.

Kolkis feet sunk into the ground.

To Gran, the figure of his father in front of him looked like a giant.

"And now your feet have stopped. What will begin here is not a tactical comparison, but simply a contest of strength. ...Gran, don't cause your father any more grief."

"Gh...!?"

He avoided the swinging spear just in time.

A roar echoed through the air that was hard to believe it was caused by a spear.

Like tearing the wind――that word was not even enough to describe it.

It was a blow that crushed and squashed the space in front of him.

Before he knew it, the soldiers around him were backing away and forming a circle.

Father and child——Kolkis and Gran.

There were only two people inside it.

The soldiers he had brought with him had lost their will to fight at the sight of Kolkis.

Realizing their clear defeat, they have lost the high spirits they had earlier.

It was as if they realized what was about to happen.

"Do you have the luxury of worrying about your surroundings?"

"Ugh!?"

——The spear pierced far backward as it thrusts out.

The blow could easily pierce armor, pierce flesh, and shatter bone.

It was an extraordinary blow, yet it was merely a check.

Each and every one of the countless thrusts——even calling each of them a killing blow was still lacking.

The spear, with its extraordinary weight, was like a mere hand spear in his hand.

The center of gravity was stable, and the core of the body was always maintained.

Only the spear moved with a fluid motion that defied gravity, cutting away Gran's lifespan and heart.

The tip of the spear bisected Gran in two.

The steel handle crushed bones along with Gran's armor.

The butt end of the spear shattered it just by grazing it.

Gran's steel spear——even that spear that ordinary people couldn't wield seemed like a twig in front of the Kolkis’s spear.

Even those watching could not utter a single word.

The roar of Kolkis's spear——the wind pressure.

How many spears swung in the blink of an eye?

Gran, who continued to dodge it, also wasn't an ordinary warrior——but he already knew the result.

Even in this fight, Kolkis was holding back.

Swinging the hilt up, Kolkis broke Gran's spear, who had no choice but to receive the strike.

Blown away and rolled over, Gran quickly rises to his feet, draws his sword, and closes in again.

"Not yet…!"

Gran shouted.

He stepped forward into a leap that seemed to bite into his prey's neck.

Still, Kolkis’s spear was faster.

Gritting his teeth, but without mercy, Kolkis snapped his sword.

——The sword that Kolkis had once given to Gran for his first battle.

Gran's body was flung away and rolled again.

The sword was less powerful, but his arms and ribs were also broken.

Unable to get up this time, Gran only raised his face to look at Kolkis.

Kolkis’s face was filled with emotion,

"...I'm sorry for being such a worthless father. No matter how it is... I feel sad."

"Ah…"

Kolkis then thrust his spear through Gran’s armor then pulled it out.

Kolkis was petrified for a moment in front of the corpse.

He remembers the feeling when he held him when he was a baby.

"——Your corps commander, Riva Torval Gran Agrand is killed by this Kolkis Agrand!"

He then shouted, as if roaring.

"On top of that, if there is anyone who wishes to be killed by this spear, then come forward! I will tear them to pieces, no matter who they are――!!"

It shook the atmosphere and echoed through the earth.

Many lowered their swords at the sound of his voice.

But then, a voice broke through the ranks.

"――Corps commander, the flag of the main camp!"

Kolkis turned his attention to it.

There were six yellow flags facing them from the right, and one red-black-red on the far left.

Only the generals, battalion commanders, flag bearers, and some of the messengers in the army knew what it meant.

They were supposed to do so, considering it could lower the soldier’s morale.

"…Corps Commander Melchikos is"

Kolkis widened his eyes and clenched his fists.

It was the flag announcing the loss of the left wing corps commander——the death of Terrius Melchikos.