Dungeon Defense (WN)

* * *

Mounted archers, retreat!

Margrave Rosenberg was able to receive the report from the frontline relatively quickly. The imperial army has numerous liaison officers between the subunits and the main units. Thanks to this, the imperial army is able to coordinate closely between units.

“Has the Demon Lord army begun their counterattack?”

“No, Your Excellency. They are using a small group to defeat the mounted archers one unit at a time.”

The officer answered stiffly. It wasn’t only Margrave Fritz Rosenberg who was present in the tent. The first heir to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, Crown Prince Rudolf Habsburg, General Mikhail Kolovrate, General John Kutuzov, and Mercenary Captain Ferdinand Wallenstein―the highest commanders of the imperial army were also present.

These individuals were like glittering stars to the liaison officer. The officer had to report the retreat of their allies to these individuals. ……They might get upset at the officer’s awful report and, as an example, the crown prince might begin to kick the liaison officer. He will then have to live his life with the title of ‘the one who got stepped on by His Highness the Crown Prince’. This would basically mean the officer would have no chance of succeeding in life. The liaison officer despised the mounted archers that lost to the monsters and, most of all, he cursed the fact that he was the one who had to report this…….

“Did I not tell you, Earl?!”

Crown Prince Rudolf spoke in a loud voice.

“I warned you time and time again that a defensive strategy would be pointless. I have basically lost individuals who could have become my knights. Talented individuals are what form national power. Earl, are you perhaps not treating the lives of your soldiers lightly?”

“My apologies.”

The margrave bowed courteously to the crown prince. It was a submissive attitude, but there was pure discipline in his movement. The crown prince waved his hand as if to say that he would magnanimously accept his apology; however, his inner thoughts weren’t like that at all.

‘This damn roach that leeches off the empire.’

Crown Prince Rudolf longed for a powerful, absolute monarchy. He intended to get rid of all the margraves as soon as he became the emperor. To him, the margraves were nothing more than dormant traitors with excessively powerful military strength. A local margrave would only obstruct a government heading towards an absolute monarchy―a one ruler, one army, and one nation policy.

The crown prince’s intent was already clear. It wasn’t only because of his contorted face. Before the battle even began, the crown prince didn’t offer to put the main army forward and instead ordered the margrave to move his troops first. He even decided to put the mercenaries behind the margrave. Anyone could tell that he wanted to use up the margrave’s army.

The margrave refuted by bringing up the incredibly simple logic that they shouldn’t bring politics into military operations. In response to this, the crown prince and the other generals of the main army gave a simple answer.

―If you don’t like it, then hand over the right to command.

Margrave Fritz von Rosenberg had a headache. It couldn’t be helped. As the supreme commander, it wasn’t entirely irrational to expect him to take initiative and lead by example. If the margrave’s army of 10,000 soldiers wanted to lead the 20,000 soldiers from the main army and 20,000 mercenaries, then he had to expect a certain amount of losses. In the end, the foot soldiers and knights dispatched towards the Demon Lord army’s right wing consisted solely of the margrave’s 10,000 soldiers. The crown prince and the main army generals took a step back from the margrave’s bold decision with a demeanor that was saying that they’d watch to see how well the margrave manages.

The margrave spoke to the liaison officer.

“The mounted archers are all knight attendants. They should not have fallen easily. What method did the Demon Lord army utilize?”

“The monsters were wearing black armor. They swung swords larger than people…….”

“Death knights.”

The margrave recalled the passage that was written in his grandfather’s diary as he cut off the liaison officer’s words. He gulped. The margrave’s ancestors were naturally also margraves and they had written down everything that had happened in their battles against the Demon Lord army for the past several centuries. In the diary, a passage that started with ‘according to records from 150 years ago’ goes into detail about how terrifying death knights are. The margrave had read his ancestors’ records many times since he was a child, so he immediately recognized the description.

Once he did, the other generals became interested. Death knights. This was a new name to them. However, there was a problem with keeping face, so no one could ask about it first―if a general from the main army reveals that they do not know of a monster that the margrave knows, then that would be a problem for the entire main army and not just the general―Fortunately, Mercenary Captain Wallenstein managed to read the mood.

The mercenary captain asked.

“Supreme Commander, this is my first time hearing about death knights. Despite having traveled to every corner of the continent, I have never heard of that name before. Could you tell us what sort of monster they are?”

“They are a type of undead monster with an astral form. It is known that only warlocks at or above Seven Circles can make them into their familiars. Each death knight possesses the strength of well over a hundred men and they are as skilled as the most elite knights.”

“Oh dear.”

The mercenary captain shrunk his shoulders back.

“That is quite terrifying.”

“You can think of them as Rank 8 Demon Lord Barbatos’ royal guards. I have never heard of any other Demon Lord besides Barbatos handling death knights. The Demon Lord army seems to have solidified their right wing as well.”

“I see. If that is the case, then would it be fine to assume that Demon Lord Barbatos is in the enemy’s right wing?”

The margrave shook his head.

“The possibility of that is low. Seeing as they are nothing but a small detached force, only a small number of troops must have been dispatched on that side. Liaison officer, tell us how big the detached force was.”

“Yes. There were some size differences, but the number of monsters that assaulted the mounted archers rounded up to about sixty.”

“Sixty, huh?”

The margrave stroked his mustache. Sixty was neither a large number nor a small number of soldiers. If you exclude bone dragons, death knights are the strongest soldiers in the Demon Lord army and these monsters were positioned in their right wing. ……Therefore, the right wing is the Demon Lord army’s weakest side, so Demon Lord Barbatos assigned a portion of her royal guards to that side in order to make up for their weakness.

If they need 60 death knights, then the right wing might be a lot weaker than expected. Although his strategy to use the mounted archers as bait has failed, this wouldn’t turn the battle around. At this point, only a small bonus was lost. Their side is still at an advantage…….

– Gulp.

The liaison officer swallowed his saliva. Sixty death knights is a number that was reached by the heavy exaggeration of the commanding officers on the frontline. Currently, 10,000 of the margrave’s soldiers were facing the Demon Lord army’s right wing. However, the one leading all of them was someone from the main army and not the margrave’s army. Once it became determined that the margrave couldn’t leave the central command for the sake of doing his job as the supreme commander, a general from the main army was dispatched in his stead.

The Habsburg imperial army’s malady was exposed here.

As Dantalian predicted, the upper management of the imperial army was split into two sides. The main army and the margrave’s army. They fought constantly over the authority to command and this caused the commanding officers on the frontline to act politically.

The failure of a general from the main army weakens the main army’s authority and the failure of a general from the margrave’s army weakens the margrave’s authority. Therefore, once the strategy with the mounted archers failed, the division commander mixed some exaggeration into their report so that it would seem like they had not lost because of their incompetence, but because there were too many enemies. 

In the first place, there being both a nominal supreme commander and an actual supreme commander was a problem. There’s no way an army can function properly when you attach two heads on it. The reason why this dreadfully inefficient system was established was so that if they won, Crown Prince Rudolf, the nominal supreme commander, would get the achievement, and if they lost, all of the responsibility would be thrown onto the margrave, the actual supreme commander.

Margrave Fritz von Rosenberg was already aware of this fact. Although he gave his unconditional support to Crown Prince Rudolf in consideration of his household, even he couldn’t help but be slightly displeased by the current state. However, the ones the margrave despised the most wasn’t the crown prince but the generals of the main army around him that constantly aimed to seize military command. Therefore―.

‘The nobles in the capital are all nothing but roaches.’

It became a situation where the main army and the margrave’s army treated each other as roaches. The main army resented the fact that a mere margrave was acting as the supreme commander in a battle the crown prince was present, and to make matters worse, it was a margrave who had pitifully lost their land. The margrave’s army resented the main army for belittling and not trusting them even though they have the most experience fighting against Demon Lords.

Throughout this, the crown prince constantly tried to intervene with military command while carrying the support of the generals from the main army for the sake of strengthening his authority, and the mercenary captain acted as the bridge between the generals as he tried to act as the mediator, but, in the end, he followed his employer, the crown prince.

The result was simple.

“I have always had my complaints. Everything was wrong since the moment we started to poke away at them with catapults!”

“Why are you saying that now? Was that not something we all agreed upon during the last meeting?”

“The catapults restrict not only the enemy’s movements but ours as well. We should stop and―.”

“It is clear that the mounted archers have failed.”

“So are we going to send in our royal cavalrymen or not!?”

For starters, the meeting became incredibly long. There would often be meetings that would last for several hours and didn’t reach a conclusion. Of course, the margrave, the supreme commander, knew very well that holding long meetings during a war wouldn’t benefit their side even slightly.

“I understand. Let us attack the right wing with 10,000 soldiers.”

He decided to take on all of the responsibility for the sake of ending this meeting.

“Ehem.”

“Very well, then. Hm.”

The crown prince and his generals looked unsatisfied as they gazed at the margrave. The supreme commander had just offered to dispatch his own army, so they had no right to refuse. Albeit, they were naturally prepared to gnaw away at Margrave Rosenberg like a bunch of dogs if his attack were to fail…….

There was only a single reason Fritz von Rosenberg was so unyielding despite facing both internal and external problems.

It was his absolute confidence!

He trusted his army and he had also figured out that the right wing was the weakest side of the Demon Lord army. The margrave was certain that there was no way he could lose when his strong troops were going to strike weak enemies. 

“You, take this directive and mobilize our troops immediately.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

The order was quickly sent to the frontlines. It was a directive signed by Crown Prince Rudolf himself. In this period where the emperor has publicly retired from the political world, no directive heavier than this could possibly exist in the Habsburg Empire. A division commander from the main army, Keinmacher, immediately shouted at his elite troops in a pompous tone.

“All forces, advance!”

8,500 foot soldiers and 1,500 cavalrymen walked into the thick fog.

The location they were headed towards was the military camp that the right wing of the Demon Lord army had earnestly set up for the past couple of days and the 4,000 monsters beyond that. The order given to the imperial army was to breach the enemy’s right wing at all costs, and the order given to the Demon Lord army was to defend the right wing at all costs.

The imperial army’s spear and the Crescent Alliance’s 6th legion’s shield, Rosenberg’s siege and Rank 16 Demon Lord Zepar’s defense were now going to unfold in full swing.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Sorry for the delay, but the next chapter will have a delay as well. I’ve been really busy with exams this week. I’ve finished 3 out of 5, so I have my last 2 next week. Still need to figure out my life, but, yeah. I’ll see you guys in the next release.