Dungeon Defense (WN)

Did they start feeling the urgency of the situation once their cavalry retreated?

The army of Sardinia started to fight more desperately. The Duke of Milano personally entered the battle to encourage his troops. I swear I could hear him shout, “Kill them all, even if they are our kin!” The roar in the old man’s voice could probably rival that of a newborn man.

“Push them!”

“Uahhh!”

The Kingdom’s army now looked poised for defeat if they couldn’t break through our infantry. At the moment, our cavalry had set off on a little excursion to finish off the Kingdom’s cavalry, but it was obvious that they would come back looking for even tastier prey afterward.

They probably wanted to end the battle before their rears could get assaulted. The Kingdom’s army focused all of their efforts on pushing forward. My unit was pushed back the more they did, which naturally pulled the enemy troops further in.

An intense blood-filled struggle took place. My unit which consisted of civilian soldiers was slowly reaching its limit. If we continue to hold our ground like this without a clear strategy, we will crumble like a sand castle under the enemy’s relentless assault.

“Allow the enemy to break through the center and split our unit to the sides.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

The officer conveyed my command to our troops. This command was planned before the battle had begun. There are 4 unscathed regiments waiting behind our unit. We just have to hand them the baton.

“……?”

As my unit, to put it mildly, tactically dispersed or, to put it bluntly, collapsed structurally, a strange feeling of deja vu hit me as they fled. I soon realized where this feeling of deja vu was coming from.

This was the same thing we did when we wiped out the Grand Duke of Florence’s troops.

At that time as well, our army encircled Sardinia’s army. Right when we were about to completely encircle them, Laura abruptly gave an order that was hard to understand. ‘Allow the enemy troops to get through our center.’

Thanks to this, the cornered Grand Duke of Florence was able to survive as he pushed past our forces and fled. I felt disappointed at the time since we missed an opportunity to get rid of the Grand Duke. What did Laura say to me back then?

‘A perfect victory is as harmful as a perfect defeat.’

And Laura had said the following during yesterday’s military meeting.

‘The Duke of Milano is a smart individual.’

‘Wise people learn from their past mistakes.’

‘The Duke of Milano must have thoroughly analyzed why the Kingdom’s army has continued to lose.’

A revelation that felt like a bolt of lightning struck my brain.

If, as Laura suggested, the Duke of Milano is a wise individual and has learned from past failures, then in the previous battle where we allowed the Grand Duke of Florence to break through, could he have failed to realize that Laura had deliberately allowed that to happen and simply interpreted the outcome as ‘the imperial army’s infantry in the center is weak’?

Everything became clear in an instant.

‘He cannot see the forest for the trees.’

‘The Duke of Milano has walked into the jaws of death of his own accord.’

Laura had intentionally let the Grand Duke of Florence go.

The reason was simple.

It was for the sake of making the enemy mistakingly believe that our central infantry was weak.

Laura had stopped treating the Grand Duke of Florence as an enemy by that point. He was nothing more than preliminary work for the next battle, for the larger battle that would one day occur.

But how?

How did Laura know that the enemy would learn something from their past mistakes? It wasn’t set in stone who would become the next supreme commander after the Grand Duke of Florence was removed from the picture. A fool who doesn’t know how to learn from past mistakes could have become the next supreme commander.

“Aha…….”

I then figured it out. Oh right, I told Laura! I undoubtedly told her that we would end up facing Consul Elizabeth in this war!

Laura knows just how highly I regard Elizabeth. Laura has absolute trust in my assessments at any place and time. In other words, Laura……doesn’t believe that the person whom her lord holds in high regard would be foolish enough to not look back at past mistakes.

Letting the Grand Duke of Florence go in the Battle of the Trebia was a trap, disguise, and lie prepared for the sake of the future battle against Elizabeth.

Who could possibly think this far?

In order to secure the future supreme commander who hadn’t even been determined yet by that point, she let the supreme commander, whom she had completely surrounded, slip away!

No one would believe something like that. I’m sure that even Queen Henrietta, who is known as a military genius, would also doubt that level of foresight. The Helvetica mercenary captains and the commanders of Brittany would also criticize that strategy as being excessively ridiculous.

—Therefore, the enemy would never be able to think this far either.

Both the Duke of Milano and all the nobles and generals that had been gathered from all throughout the Kingdom of Sardinia wouldn’t be able to realize this. As long as the opponent isn’t foolish, they’ll fall deeper and deeper into Laura’s web the wiser they are.

‘It seems the nobles of Sardinia are competent.’

Those were the words that Laura had muttered at some point. There is a chance that what she wanted to say was, ‘There are no easier opponents to manipulate than competent ones’.

I informed her before this battle that we wouldn’t be fighting Consul Elizabeth. Thus, the strategy that Laura de Farnese had devised was being used on Ludovica de Sforza instead of Elizabeth von Habsburg…….

“…….”

A hard-to-describe emotion filled my chest.

The feeling of joy and regret mixed together. This was my lover, the girl I had corrupted and pledged to be with for eternity. Is her talent not blindingly radiant? How irresponsibly and hastily have I ruined such a brilliant human being……and yet this was my lover.

“Lieutenant, I will leave the rest of the command to you.”

“Your Excellency?”

“Our unit has basically collapsed now anyway. Whether you or I lead, it will not make much of a difference. Good luck.”

The lieutenant shouted something from behind, but I couldn’t hear him. This was because I had rushed to the backline with my mantle fluttering behind me. My left thigh hurt like crazy, but I paid it no mind. For Demon Lords, pain was only momentary anyway.

The flag that I had gifted Laura with a blue landscape on it was fluttering in the distance.

I staggered forward clumsily as I ran. Even though I was still a fair distance away, Laura somehow noticed that I was approaching. She started running toward me as well, her subordinates following after her in a hurry.

“Lord, what is the matter!? Were you injured again!?”

I let out an involuntary chuckle. She was still addressing me as ‘lord’. I couldn’t fathom how she planned to navigate life with such a reckless tongue, especially when everyone around could hear her. It seemed I would have to clean up after her messes quite frequently. What a troublesome lady.

“Lord, are you okay?”

Amidst my labored breaths, I addressed Laura, who wore an expression of devastation as if she were showcasing to the world what it meant to worry about someone.

“You are a genius, Laura!”

I embraced Laura by her shoulders.

“L-Lord?”

“No one has noticed and no one will! You are a genius!”

I had spat those words out without any sort of explanation, but further elaboration wasn’t necessary between us. The worried look on Laura’s face instantly turned into joy. It appeared that she promptly understood what I was talking about.

“Yes, I knew that you would piece it together, Lord!”

“What a ridiculous thought. No one would be able to realize something like this.”

The officers, who had stopped some distance away, looked at us with bewildered eyes. The commander of the first line had suddenly approached and shared an incomprehensible conversation with the supreme commander before the two of them burst into laughter. It was only natural that they would be perplexed.

It didn’t matter. What the ‘truth’ was behind this battle will most likely only be known by the two of us for all eternity. This was no different from Laura killing Elizabeth! The person to fall in this battle should have been none other than Elizabeth!

At this very moment, Laura had become the greatest strategist and tactician on this continent. That was the true meaning behind this battle. I felt both anger and pride in the fact that only I was able to figure this out.

“Laura, right now you are the greatest. You killed Consul Elizabeth……. I will not forget this fact.” (TL Note: I’m not sure if this is confusing, but he isn’t saying that she actually killed Elizabeth. Just that, this strategy would’ve worked on anyone, even Elizabeth)

“R-Really? Am I……the greatest to you, Lord?”

“Of course. Do you even have to ask? You have always been the greatest to me, Laura.”

“…….”

Laura buried her face in my chest. For some reason, she was crying. Laura mumbled incoherently between her sobs.

“Mhm, I’ll work hard to always be the greatest for you……. You always recognize my efforts. This is more than enough for me…….”

We treated the shouting and screaming from the battlefield as a lullaby as we embraced each other softly. My Laura, my sin……my proof that shows how I have lived. She was my proof that engraved the fact that I cannot die thoughtlessly.

The Supreme Commander suddenly left the command post, but the outcome of the war had already been determined.

Our forces had completely surrounded the Kingdom of Sardinia’s army on three sides. The enemy was desperately trying to break through the center, but the newly deployed reserves held them off firmly.

As time continued to flow by like that, our cavalry finally returned.

The Duke of Milano wasn’t an idiot. He knew that the situation could flow in this negative direction. This was why he placed the elite mercenary soldiers in the rear. The mercenaries skillfully created an anti-cavalry formation with spears.

The Duke of Milano was a little careless. Brittany’s cavalry, the cavalry led by Queen Henrietta, wasn’t just a ‘negative’ situation.

They were nightmarish.

Back in the plain of Saint-Denis, Frankia’s army was three times larger than that of Brittany. Wooden fences were also built to solidify their defenses. Despite this, they were still defeated and annihilated by Brittany’s charging assault. Did they think that they could fend off Henrietta with a unit of only 5,000 mercenaries?

If it were me, I would’ve told them that this wasn’t a wise decision.

Henrietta’s cavalry didn’t even try to cooperate with allies. Once they returned after wiping out the enemy’s cavalry, they immediately commenced another charge. They were probably still feeling lively thanks to Saintess Longwy’s blessing.

It was a single sharp attack, and the outcome of the battle was decided.

The mercenaries, who were being treated as the most elite soldiers in the Kingdom’s army, were unable to block Henrietta’s assault even once. Their spear formation crumbled miserably as the rest of their troops tried to flee as they were scared out of their minds.

However, another kingdom was blocking their escape route.

The enemy soldiers couldn’t fight back or escape. Our imperial army surrounded them on three sides, while the last side was being assaulted continuously by the Kingdom of Brittany’s forces. They were being assaulted by a volley followed by a charge over and over again. A tactic that I was well accustomed to.

Sardinia’s army was gradually pushed further and further into a corner.

And then the slaughter began.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Genuinely nothing to say this chapter. I hope everyone had a good Halloween? I’m probably going out to have lunch with my dad and brother next weekend. Though, for some reason, they want to meet at a restaurant that’s like 2 hours from me. I’m still going, but man I have the right to complain about the distance.

Welp, I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.