The Rural Officer Who Was Once a General

Part 1, Chapter 4

“A command, huh...”

Fade didn’t outright deny it, but trailed off his words.

“Isn’t that up to interpretation?”

“You have a knack for twisting words.”

“And you, Officer, have a knack for twisting what you hear.”

Fade smiled brightly, but as he observed Tryaev’s slightly stiff expression, he continued.

“If we can’t stop them here, we lose. But if we do manage to stop them, we could counterattack.”

“……”

“For example, we could break through the forest and strike their flank.”

As Fade closed his mouth, Tryaev squinted and clicked his tongue.

“Where’s your confidence coming from? I don’t quite understand.”

“Hm, is that so?”

Fade sensed that his words were starting to take hold.

For someone like Tryaev, beginning with a concise and enticing argument like this would be effective.

‘I can tell by that look.’

Look at those eyes, full of dissatisfaction, not even trying to hide it.

‘Eyes craving the battlefield.’

It was a look he’d seen countless times back when he was Terbior.

Those who had been demoted out of the battlefield, those who retired, or those who were promoted and sent to the capital.

There were many who liked the feel of the battlefield.

Some were almost obsessed with it, longing for the front lines.

Of course, there were also many who never wanted to return.

In any case, such people would follow if given a way to get back to the battlefield.

And this wasn’t going to be an unfavorable battlefield where they'd die quickly; it was an easy task of blocking the ranger unit in full armor—without even needing to wipe them out, just holding them off.

‘Well, that’s how it seems, at least.’

It didn’t seem like weak opponents would come, nor would they just give up easily if they were blocked.

What mattered now was how Tryaev would take it.

Fade then elaborated, rephrasing what he had explained to Niss earlier, and tailoring it more concisely to Tryaev’s tastes.

“A reasonable doubt. Even if it’s not true, it’s worth blocking them.”

‘Ha, that’s not what he really thinks.’

Tryaev had been through quite a lot on the battlefield himself.

In that case, his instincts were probably telling him something.

The battlefield is shifting in this direction.

“Alright.”

“Thank you!”

"But we can't assign such a dangerous mission to just five people. Don't you think?"

“……”

‘Got him!’

A man who craved the battlefield wouldn’t just send a handful of subordinates. That was unthinkable.

‘Of course, he wants to go himself.’

It was definitely a dangerous task.

No matter how capable he was, it seemed unlikely that he could protect all four of his subordinates.

‘Well, I didn’t think there’d be no sacrifices.’

But having his direct subordinates die still weighed on him.

However, if his entire unit moved together?

He didn’t think there would be any casualties.

‘Would there be?’

A lingering doubt started to form in the back of his mind.

The enemy were just rangers and light infantry.

‘But...’

Now that he thought about it, the enemy were elites.

Here, the standard for veterans was simply having experienced the battlefield, but the enemy were beyond that.

Heavy infantry made up of random soldiers and elite, lightly armed soldiers—if it came to a fight, he would obviously bet on the elite side.

In other words, he was going to face elite soldiers with a bunch of misfit troops.

‘No, it doesn’t matter.’

The difference in training mattered far more than the difference in troop types on the battlefield.

Hadn’t he won against Karun with an arming sword?

That was something he had to acknowledge.

But there was something that played an even bigger role.

That was the difference in commanders.

‘Would the Khan Kingdom send someone worse than me?’

No, he thought, unless the Khan Kingdom were doing nothing, they wouldn’t send anyone who could outmaneuver him with tactics.

If there were such a person, they certainly wouldn’t be sent with a ranger unit.

If the enemy commander was worse than him, the battle was already half-won.

“Officer.”

“Hmm?”

“Then please give me the right to command.”

"...You? Take command?"

“This was originally my unit’s operation. I also have some ideas. Please, let me take over.”

“If I do that, does that mean I have to follow your orders?”

“You and your direct subordinates can act independently.”

“Hm, independent forces, huh...”

Tryaev paused for a moment in thought before nodding.

“Our unit will take the lead. You won’t be able to interfere with that.”

“Understood.”

Now, all they had to do was wait for the Khan Kingdom to make their move.

***

The rangers of the Khanate were usually referred to as assassins, using crossbows, daggers, and throwing weapons.

This group of assassins quietly descended the dense ridge of Aide.

Their footsteps and the rustling of leaves were so faint they were almost drowned out by the wind.

A total of twelve assassins descended the ridge and gathered in a section of the reed field.

There, three assassins who had arrived earlier were waiting.

“An hour from now, carriages will pass by the vicinity.”

The voice was so softly whispered that only the nearby assassins could barely hear it.

“Terry and Jett will draw attention.”

The assassin speaking placed a hand on the shoulders of the two next to him.

“Six will assist with infiltration, and four will poison them. Two will stand guard.”

Seeing that he had been speaking in an authoritative tone, the assassin, who appeared to be the leader, revealed the pipe hanging around his neck.

“If I blow the pipe to imitate the sound of birds, we retreat immediately and join up with the light infantry.”

The assassins nodded sharply without responding.

Thud!

At that moment, footsteps were heard.

‘Heavy, clinking sounds, dragging through the dirt… that’s heavy infantry. And the rhythmic sounds suggest they’re soldiers.’

From the sound, the number seemed to be at least twenty.

Clop! Clop!

The sound of hooves was also heard.

‘Seven horses.’

One had loud front hoof sounds, suggesting the rider was old, while another was so quiet it seemed the rider was skilled.

‘About thirty in total.’

Come to think of it, there was said to be a unit of that size nearby.

The assassin leader regretted not memorizing intelligence for this area, thinking that this was a far-flung place, and signaled orders with hand gestures.

‘At this time, no unit would patrol the area in full armor with horses.’

It wasn’t even something the capital would do.

Had the Empire caught onto their operation?

Either way, they couldn’t leave now.

First, they would annihilate these soldiers, erase all traces, and proceed with the operation as planned.

‘One hour should be enough.’

The enemy were just a bunch of backwater soldiers, after all.

- At the signal, we strike. Aim for the horses first. Hit fast and hard.

The assassins nodded, and the leader waited a moment before waving his hand lightly.

Creek.

The twelve assassins loaded bolts into their crossbows.

Terry and Jett drew their daggers, ready to leap into action.

The leader waved his hand once more, and all twelve crossbows were simultaneously released with tension.

Bam, bam, bam!

The bolts shot across the tall reeds, attacking the soldiers in a surprise assault.

Eeeh-hee!

Half of the bolts hit the horses, and the rest scraped against the heavy infantry's armor.

“Ugh!”

The soldier, who had an arrow lodged in a joint, groaned and collapsed.

“Enemy!”

At the sudden outbreak of battle, the recruits from another officer's unit stood frozen, staring blankly, and Jett rushed at one, driving his blade into the unprotected throat.

“K-kill!”

It wasn’t realistic to expect a much different reaction from the veterans.

As soon as Jett entered their line of sight, they charged at him.

Thanks to Jett’s excellent ability to open up their flank and rush through, Terry’s dagger was able to sever the legs of two soldiers.

“Ugh!”

The soldiers lost their balance and fell, and before them were twelve newly loaded bolts, waiting for them.

Thwack!

Six of the arrows confirmed the death of the two soldiers.

Eeeh-hee!

The remaining six bolts pierced the horses of the officers.

As a result, three of the four officers, excluding Fade and Tryaev, were thrown from their horses, and three soldiers were killed instantly.

No, even the veteran soldier under Tryaev who had fallen during the first volley seemed about to die, so it wouldn’t be long before there were four casualties.

“Damn!”

One of the veteran soldiers from another unit rushed at Jett with vigor.

In his mind, it was probably an act of revenge for his fallen comrade, but he was simply walking the path to join them.

Jett swiftly closed the distance, and with a sudden motion, used his dagger to make a clean cut.

A long line of blood appeared on the veteran’s neck, and that was the end of him.

“Madman!”

Soldiers, whether recruits or veterans, hesitated upon seeing the life leave their comrades in a single strike.

On their side, there were twenty-five heavily armed men, but it seemed they were being overwhelmed by the two lightly armed assassins.

‘Hmmm...’

Fade muttered to himself.

‘I never expected their skills to be at this level.’

It wasn’t about the Khanate’s Rangers.

Sure, they were elite, but compared to the ones who had once served the Southern Empire, they were clearly inferior.

In the first place, the strength of the people of the steppe lay in mounted warfare on flatlands, not in infantry battles in places like this.

So, what was the problem?

‘Our soldiers’ level is bottom-tier.’

They weren’t even forming a proper formation, and they were allowing daggers to be in the range of their spears.

From Fade’s perspective, it was an incomprehensible level of training.

What’s more serious is that those guys, who would have been called useless trash at the recruit training camp, were acting like veterans and puffing up their chests in this place.

“Pathetic.”

This sentiment wasn’t just Fade’s; Tryaev also clicked his tongue in disdain.

“Officer, please allow us time to regroup.”

Fade spoke plainly, and Tryaev understood the implication and nodded.

In a small-scale skirmish like this, morale and superiority were crucial.

If you were cutting through the enemy, you trusted your comrades to protect you.

Fade himself wouldn’t mind jumping into the fray, but since they seemed to want to handle it themselves, it was pointless to push for a different approach.

Besides, it would be good to observe his superior’s abilities firsthand.

Tryaev quickly dismounted.

It seemed he was trying to avoid the risk of falling like the veteran soldier from his unit.

In such skirmishes, if you couldn’t manage your horse well, a disaster could happen, so it was a reasonable choice.

Tryaev strapped his two swords, which had been hanging at his waist, into his hands and walked a few steps, followed by three soldiers from his unit.

“Form up in a defensive stance. Line up in ten rows with shields in the front and spears in the back.”

Fade gave the order in a voice devoid of any emotion.

It was the only reasonable way to issue a command. If the leader showed emotion in this kind of chaotic skirmish, it would only dampen morale.

This wasn’t a battlefield with thousands of troops mixing together.

***

Part 2

But the soldiers, whether they knew of Fade's consideration or not, just stood there with bewildered expressions, staring blankly."

"Fall back already!"

It wasn’t until the largest member of Tryaev’s unit bellowed the order that the soldiers finally began to move, slowly following Fade’s command.

The moment the formation was completed, twelve arrows flew toward them once more, and without hesitation, Tryaev and his unit threw themselves at the enemy.