Volume 8 Chapter 1 Part 13

All of the Heavy Knights of Waldrind were granted the vassal Crest, but only a limited number of the knights actually possessed their own territories. The knights set up mansions in the town of Bertha, and were paid monthly rewards based on their rank. Therefore, rapid mobilization was possible at any moment whenever it was needed.

The other day, there was a battle on the Donir River, and 3,000 knights suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Artuk Treaty’s Army. Originally, they planned to send more soldiers to the border with Artuk, but since their job was to focus primarily on defense, the higher-up thought that just 3000 soldiers should be more than enough.

However, according to their information, Kurt Gallas, the earl of Leclerc was supposed to be in the north of the continent, but then all of a sudden he burst into their camp, went berserk for a while, and then fled to Artuk’s side, almost as fast as he appeared. Then the forces of the Artuk Treaty arrived, and the soldiers of the Factory Alliance, who were all left in a state of confusion, were completely defeated.

The captured Heavy Knights and soldiers already had ransom paid for their release. Seeking an opportunity to clear their name, most of them volunteered to go to war. Everyone probably thought that they’re going to invade Artuk, since they all wanted to avenge the humiliation of their defeat at the Donil River.

However…

「My army will head north and defeat Kurt Gallas, the Earl of Leclerc. 」

Marine Kraische, the Margrave of Waldrind and the leader of the Factory Alliance, declared her intentions loudly for everyone to hear.

「What…?! 」

A roar broke out among the knights and soldiers who were standing next to each other. Marlene lightly stomped her foot on the ground to calm the uproar down.

「The reason for it is simple. First, with this army we currently have, we won’t be able to defeat the current army of the Artuk Treaty. The Lords of the Artuk Treaty are tightly united now, and no matter where we invade, reinforcements will quickly gather to stop our advance. Have you already forgotten how much forces we had to muster in order to capture Castle Unicorn and defeat Vilar Constance? 」

With the help of Waldrind’s entire army, the allies from the surrounding territories and the combined forces of both Dartania and the Nords, Marine’s army was able to defeat Vilar Constance, the now deceased Earl of Artuk, and capture Castle Unicorn from him.

However, Castle Unicorn was then taken away from them later when the Artuk Treaty defeated Dartania and Theo Cornero killed Milza Kuches in a duel, after which he made it his current base of operations along with his allies.

「In comparison, the Earl of Leclerc in the northern part of the continent has run out of funds and is now unable to even lead his mercenaries to battle anymore. If our army challenges him to a decisive battle, we will definitely be able to overpower him and defeat him once and for all, since he was a thorn in our side for far too long now. 」

After she justified her decision to her forces, Marine then gave them the order to move out and advance. Some of the knights and soldiers were still confused about this entire situation, but now that the order had been given, they had no choice but to obey them. The Heavy Knights of Waldrind set out from the palace of Bertha in a long formation.

「I have been fighting the Earl of Leclerc in a long-term battle, but I never thought that the situation would change so much… 」

While advancing her horse in the center of the formation, Marine said to the one who was riding right next to her, her contracted Mage, Aubest Meletes. Aside from him, the only people who were riding around them were Marine’s closest aides who knew the full picture of the Factory Alliance’s current situation.

「The future is dominated by Chaos. It is impossible to predict, so we must continue to deal with reality as it comes at us. 」

Aubest answered.

「Unpredictable…that’s for sure. I thought there was no way for our army to lose in the battle on the border, but it did. As always, unexpected things keep on happening as long as Theo Cornero is even remotely involved in them. First it was the Earl of Leclerc attacking the northern part of the continent when Vilar Constance attacked Veltava, and now we have this to deal with… 」

「If you think about it in hindsight, there is an inevitability to everything. This is exactly why you have to demonstrate that as a Lord, you have enough strength in you to persevere and come out on top no matter what happens. 」

「Theo Cornero has declared that his goal is to have the Factory Alliance reconcile with the Fantasia Union, which means that he’s going to aim to achieve a balance of military power between the three major forces of the continent. 」

Marine sneered at how ridiculous of an idea that was.

「It may not seem so, but that is actually a pretty realistic idea. If the Artuk Treaty is going to join forces with the Fantasia Union and fight back against the Factory Alliance with all their might, then even we won’t be able to lay a finger on them. 」
「Do you really think that my Waldrind wouldn’t be able to go against them? 」

「I think that is a possibility. 」

Aubest said after nodding his head slowly.

「I expected a joint fight with the northern part of the continent, but I didn’t expect that the center of the continent would join the Artuk Treaty. Medinia has a Tree Dragon Forest and the conflict with Fargard on its plate, since Fargard belongs to the Fantasia Union… or so we thought. Up until now we were recognizing Medinia’s independence, but now because we meant it, because we were forced to do so. And now Medinia has joined forces with Fargard and they took care of the Demonic Realm between their countries, after which Medinia allied itself with Fargard. If things continue like this, a defense line against us that runs across the continent will be completed. If that scenario comes to pass, then I’m afraid that Waldrind’s movements are going to be completely blocked. 」

The knights sent to Medinia had already returned to their home country. Although they have failed in their attempts to conquer it, it was because they received information that the Tree Dragon Forest has not actually been liberated.

However, Aubest judged that they had been given false information, and Mariene also agrees with him. However, due to the defeat at the Donil River, they no longer had the strength to invade Medinia, so they planned to keep this information as is for a while. It was for the honor of the night captain who failed in his mission, and also to protect the prestige of Waldrind as a whole.

None of the advancing knights and soldiers may have thought it, but the truth is that Waldrind was in quite a serious predicament right now. If this strategy of theirs fails, Waldrind’s hopes for achieving the hegemony over the entire continent will be crushed.

「I know now it’s too late to be sulking about that… but I cannot help but to think how things would’ve gone if I had actually accepted Theo Cornero’s wish to join the Factory Alliance. 」

Marlne glanced sideways at Aubest.

Ultimately, the decision to decline his request was hers to make, and she had no intention of holding anyone else but herself responsible for it… but still, there are times when she wished that Theo Cornero and Siluca Meletes could be on her side.

「I’m afraid that because of the circumstances and problems that we were facing at that time it was impossible to happen. And besides, it might not seem like it now, but there might come a day when it will turn out that it was a blessing for you to not invite these two to an alliance with you, Lady Marine. This is not even a speculation on my part, but what my intuition is telling me. 」

「Thank you, but it doesn’t really matter. Rather, it’s good to have your own guesses and intuition. When you eliminate them and make decisions, you often can come up with ways for me to achieve solid successes, but I can now see that you also can’t sometimes avoid catastrophic failures like this one. After all, there are people in this world like the Earl of Leclerc who can do insane things without even batting an eye, so there are situations that can only be prevented by guessing or going with what your intuition tells you. 」