The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 315
The cold wave grows even more intense.
As a result, the battlefield had entered a lull, but the tension had doubled.
Given the timing, it was clear that this cold wave would be the last, and it was obvious that the war would soon resume.
I was holding strategic meetings at Grancel’s residence every day.
“Is the letter brought by Aggert trustworthy?”
This was Sophia’s question.
“Perhaps.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“What can I do? I didn’t have a direct conversation with Calvern.”
The letter Aggert delivered contained the enemy’s operational plans. Plans that could potentially disrupt the entire structure of the war.
Olaf shook his head.
“I can’t say much since I didn’t experience the situation at that time. The same goes for you, Sophia?”
“That’s right. Only Ars, Erina, Elena, Estelle, and Lucretia directly experienced that situation. And Ilya has now retired, so we’ll exclude her.”
“Hmm… I’ve heard it was quite dangerous.”
“Ars stabbed Estelle with a spear himself. Isn’t that explanation enough?”
“More than sufficient.”
In any case, now that we knew the enemy’s intentions, we had to respond.
“Since identification has become impossible, we’ll have to train for situations where we can’t distinguish friend from foe. I’ll leave the training to Lucretia, who has experience.”
As we concluded the strategy meeting and came out to the living room, Ryuna came running towards me with a loud commotion. It seemed she was eyeing the snacks from the meeting room.
“Dad, hurry!”
Ryuna grabbed my hand and led me back to the meeting room.
Then she climbed onto a chair and examined the snacks on the table.
“Dad, are there any cookies?”
“None. Olaf ate them all.”
“Ugh…”
“Come here. Let’s go exercise now.”
At the mention of exercise, Ryuna pursed her lips but obediently followed.
At the indoor martial arts hall we arrived at, Gaspar was standing like an imperial guard, having set up children’s wooden swords and training uniforms.
While master Ilya, who also retired, had been reassigned as a special instructor teaching martial arts to military officers, Gaspar had chosen to teach children.
He was assigned to teach children to soften his aggressive tendencies, as giving him military-related tasks would likely result in him arbitrarily returning or getting drunk and causing incidents.
The training targets were Ryuna, the twins who had just learned to walk properly, and Gawain.
As their official martial arts training began, the vassals watched nervously.
Yumir, Eonia, Mirabel, Master Ilya, and Anton.
“Stand up straight!”
Gaspar said sternly with his arms crossed, and the children each showed different reactions.
Ryuna looked disinterested, Gawain had a disciplined expression, while Ernie and Edward looked like they were about to cry.
“First, grab the weapon you want!”
When he pointed to the children’s wooden weapons, the kids hesitantly approached.
Gawain picked up both a spear and a sword, Ernie chose an ordinary wooden sword, Edward took a thick middle-length sword, and Ryuna grabbed a thin wooden sword.
“Gawain, my son…!”
Master Ilya was deeply moved, seeing her son trying to be like her.
In contrast, Eonia stamped her feet, wondering why her son didn’t choose a spear.
“Good, before teaching basic stances, I want to observe your individual qualities.”
Specifically, their qualities as warriors.
The basic level of fighting spirit they inherently possess.
Gaspar directly made the children fight each other to assess this.
I was about to stop him, but the children seemed to treat it like a game, so I decided to watch.
First, a match between Ryuna and Gawain.
Gawain held a sword in his left hand and a spear in his right, imitating his mother’s style, but this stance only made his movements awkward.
Ryuna charged straightforwardly and knocked Gawain down with brute force, then tapped his buttocks with her thin wooden sword.
“That, that…”
It was just like when Yumir would hit Ryuna’s buttocks with a switch.
Ryuna seemed to think this was the ultimate attack.
“Waaaah!”
Gawain burst into tears. Master Ilya trembled.
“My son, don’t cry! Get up and strike back!”
But Gawain had completely lost his fighting spirit and was just sobbing.
Gaspar shrugged his shoulders.
“I expected more from the son of Anton and Ilya, but his quality is like this.”
In contrast, Ryuna’s quality seemed exceptionally excellent. She had already been recognized for her martial arts talent by Mirabel, so it was expected.
The problem was her lack of motivation.
During the main training, Gawain was actually more diligent. Ryuna just pouted and wobbled throughout.
‘I need to use a cookie.’
I called out to Ryuna.
“Ryuna! If you try hard, Daddy will give you delicious cookies.”
True to being a child.
She immediately started training with enthusiasm.
Her movements were so good that Master Ilya, who sees Ryuna as her son’s rival, gave high praise.
“That child will leave her name in history. If she inherits Ars’ intelligence, she might become a legendary commander.”
But my thoughts were different.
“I hope she absolutely does not become that.”
“What?”
“If we completely end this war here and create even a temporary peace, Ryuna can live an ordinary life.”
“Huh, that’s true. Our shoulders are heavy.”
“You’ve already retired. Please watch comfortably.”
So that the martial arts these children are learning now won’t need to be used.
The fact that this was about a future at stake made everything feel more solemn.
As the temperature rises and snow and ice begin to melt slowly, this period marked the beginning of the war.
The key point was the mountainous regions. While in flat areas the melting snow made advance easy, in mountainous areas with elevation, snow was still piled up thick. This made it difficult to position ambush troops or station forces in mountainous areas, so merely occupying the plains could also secure the surrounding mountain regions.
To prevent this, fortresses would be built in mountainous areas for defense, but there were no such provisions in the neutral zone between the two sides. This was because establishing supply lines in that area was ambiguous.
As soon as the snow and ice in the plains melted, both armies moved to occupy this intermediate zone.
“Urgent report! General Ash’s unit has encountered enemy forces in the Ricam Plains and has entered battle!”
“Reporting! Enemy detachment spotted at the front!”
Though this was more of a psychological warfare battle, given the precedent of the enemy moving extensively under the pretext of hunting officers, we had to be cautious. I set up my position without missing a single piece of information.
After two days of psychological warfare, both sides finally established their positions in the intermediate zone.
‘Up to here, it’s exactly as the simulation…’
The variables would be in the central and northern battlefields. For the central battlefield, Rutger, working under Kaien, was periodically providing information, so it was easy to understand. But the northern battlefield was different.
Juras was hiding information even from our own side, for reasons unknown.
‘They say to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own allies…’
Since I couldn’t tell what shocking thing Juras might be planning, I wanted to obtain information by any means.
For this, I called Aggert and Anton.
“Anton, in the current situation, variables could arise only in our southern and northern battlefields. Our southern battlefield has ended its psychological warfare without other variables, but the northern battlefield is different. Please go directly and confirm what’s happening.”
“I will follow your command.”
“Aggert, you’ll be in charge of handling any potential unexpected situations. Because in terms of flexibility, you’re better than Anton.”
At those words, Anton’s eyes widen in shock.
Aggert laughs like a mischievous child.
“Why are you so surprised? Everyone knows that Sister Eonia and Anton are inflexible.”
“W-who says we’re inflexible!”
“Hehe, the very fact that you’re reacting like this proves you’re inflexible. If Brother Ash were here, he would’ve joked back.”
“Ugh…! You…”
Anton gives Aggert a light flick on the head and leaves the barracks.
Then Eonia, standing beside me, asks in a low voice, “Ars, am I really inflexible?”
The very act of asking this right now proves her lack of flexibility, though she seems unaware.
Anyway, after instructing information gathering about the north, I increased the manpower of the spy corps and closely monitored the enemy’s movements.
The fact that they were recklessly hunting officers suggested they were preparing some operation to test our command structure.
This could have been the content of the letter Aggert brought, but based on timing, the enemy commander Rancia Galeron seemed to be moving independently.
‘They must be aiming for something.’
Suddenly, I didn’t like being in this passive situation.
‘Let me probe the opponent.’
I stood up and left the barracks, shouting, “Prepare the entire army to advance!”
I decided to preempt the opponent before they could move.
***
In the general’s barracks, Rancia Galeron was meditating with eyes closed. Hearing the hurried footsteps of a soldier, he smiled and opened his eyes.
“Reporting! The enemy is currently…”
“Advancing, right?”
“Oh, yes!”
“Ars Elaine… Interesting fellow. Is he trying to play with me?”
At this moment, Liande’s army had no reason to move first.
They hadn’t been pushed back in the psychological warfare in the intermediate zone, and originally, Svenner was the invading side.
Liande would achieve victory just by successfully defending.
Nevertheless, Ars had rushed out to obtain information.
By attacking, he wanted to observe how the opponent would move and understand the true intent of the operation.
Moreover, there was an unexpected aspect.
Svenner’s intelligence on Ars read,
[Tendency to minimize troop damage.]
This was a consistent tendency Ars had shown in previous battlefields.
According to this tendency, Ars shouldn’t have rushed out now.
In other words, by taking actions opposite to his established tendency, he was trying to confuse the opponent.
If the opponent was planning operations considering Ars’ such tendencies, his current advance would be striking at their weak point.
“More flexible than expected. His cunning aspects are exactly like the first emperor.”
Saying this would make revenge more satisfying, Rancia smiled.
The soldier, feeling an inexplicable chill from that smile, carefully asks, “Your orders?”
“Orders? We can just stay put.”
“What…?”
“Anyway, he probably doesn’t intend to engage in battle. If we don’t react, he’ll get tired and retreat on his own.”
“What if he launches a full-scale attack?”
“If he attacks first… Now that would be interesting.”
Such an interesting situation was about to unfold.
Ars had divided his forces and launched a total attack on Svenner’s left, central, and right positions.
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