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The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 84

The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 84

The number of officers stationed in the barracks was about 10.

‘The number of officers is small.’

This was because there were no senior officers commanding our cadet unit.

General Ironheart, who participated as Delbadova’s adjutant, explained the reason for this.

“Our military has decided to entrust you with on-site judgment in this war. General Delbadova will be in overall command, but in situations where his command is absent or quick decisions are required, you are allowed to move autonomously.”

“Autonomously…!”

“I won’t tell you not to feel burdened. It’s true that this decision was made because of the high expectations placed on you. But I believe you will do well. You have the skills for it. I hope you’ll use this opportunity as a stepping stone to break out of your shell and rise higher.”

The cadets barely managed to gather their thoughts. It was more due to the relief from the war situation than the encouragement.

Ironheart nodded with satisfaction and unfolded the war map.

“The area we’ll be responsible for in this war is the Kalon Mountains. If the enemy crosses the Kalon Mountains and attacks the right side, they could cut off the supply route that Crossing has established towards Beckavia.”

“Kalon Mountains…”

It was the place I first went to meet Rutger.

This area is on the border between Beckavia and Alvard, and if you follow the mountains to the right, you can enter Crossing’s territory directly.

“Therefore, we have been assigned the primary role of defending the Kalon Mountains.”

It’s called defense, but since the Kalon Mountains are located away from the main front lines, the possibility of actual combat was almost zero.

This was the reason why this reinforcement was for show. That’s also why they entrusted the command of troops to novice cadets.

“Now, this is the basic topographic map of the Kalon Mountains. Everyone should familiarize themselves with it.”

I had roughly seen the path when I went to find Rutger in the past, but I didn’t know it all.

I checked the strategic points while looking at the topographic map.

‘The mountains are quite rugged.’

It’s no wonder Rutger hid Estelle here. As you climb higher up the mountain, the terrain becomes more complex, and you can easily lose your way if you’re not careful.

On the other hand, if you’re familiar with the terrain, you can use it to make agile movements.

Commander-in-Chief Delbadova nods and says, “We haven’t received any intelligence that the enemy has marched here yet, but this is a battlefield. We never know what might happen. We must be fully prepared for all possibilities. For that, we’ll confirm the branch formation. First, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Dorofei Grimwood!”

“Yes!”

“Your unit’s role is crucial in this defense battle. If we engage in combat, due to the nature of the terrain, you’ll often have to continue the battle situation based on your own judgment.”

“That…!”

Dorofei despairs. Ironheart, who was a vassal of the Grimwood family, seems to guess the situation and turns his gaze to me.

“Ars Elaine. Your 6th Infantry Regiment will follow and protect the 2nd Cavalry Regiment.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

General Delbadova only ended the strategy meeting after explaining the tactics and deployment.

The cadets left the supreme headquarters with tired expressions.

They let out a stale sigh.

“Wow! It’s my first time participating in a top-level meeting!”

“The atmosphere was no joke, indeed.”

Denian Geglish and Joshua Herald groan.

“Surely there won’t be any actual combat, right?”

“Of course not. Neither the West nor Tunkai have any reason to come all the way here. Right, Casper? Hey? Casper?”

Casper seemed uncomfortable with General Delbadova and had been wearing a sour expression the whole time.

He hesitated for a moment, as if trying to say something impressive, then spoke. “Don’t think so lightly. This is a battlefield. You never know when you might lose your life.”

“Y-Yes. That’s right.”

To this, Ruan Chase shrugged and said, “Let them come if they’re going to. We’ll be the ones winning in the end anyway.”

Saying that, Ruan returned to his unit. The others also returned to their units, composing themselves with their mixture of excitement and anxiety.

I also helped Dorofei, whose legs had gone weak, back to our unit.

It seemed the camp preparations were finished, as the soldiers were getting ready for bed.

‘If Eo were here now, she would have prepared a late-night snack.’

Yumir would have given a thorough leg massage.

‘I guess master wants me to overcome these things on my own. Well, let’s just get some sleep.’

As I was about to head to my tent,

“Sir Wade.”

It was a man wearing Calliper’s military uniform. I recognized his face.

He was one of the Crossing officers that Juras had sent during the previous Chimera War.

“…Juras sent you?”

“To be precise, Sir Anton sent me. He said you would need information about the battlefield too.”

“Good. I was curious too. How is the situation on your battlefield?”

Moving to a less populated area, I compiled the information Anton had sent.

Juras’s army of 100,000 had settled in place two weeks ago and began full-scale operations a week ago.

“The Commander-in-Chief divided the army into 30,000, 40,000, and 30,000, stationed them at key points, and began operations to recapture strategic points taken by the enemy. In response, the Western nations also divided their forces into three to deal with this.”

There were five major battlefields.

Two where Tunkai’s 60,000 troops faced Beckavia’s 80,000 troops. Three where Crossing’s 100,000 faced the Western nations’ 100,000.

“100,000? The West was said to have amassed 130,000 troops. What about the remaining 30,000?”

“We don’t know. Given the size of the enemy forces, it’s difficult for us to get an accurate count. Part of their forces might be guarding the rear supply lines, or we might have simply miscounted.”

“What about the possibility of guerrilla units being formed?”

“We don’t know, but so far no guerrilla units have been detected by our intelligence.”

“Hmm. How does Juras plan to achieve victory?”

“That part is…”

“I understand. Knowing him, he’s probably plotting something. So, is that all?”

“One more thing. About the identity of the enemy commander.”

“It’s finally been revealed. Who is it?”

The Commander-in-Chief of the Western nations.

“It’s Hanneman Noiers.”

“Hanneman…!?”

“Does that name mean something to you?”

It certainly does.

If it’s Hanneman, he was the politician who unexpectedly appeared in the Bülang Alliance in the game.

That’s all I knew. The content after that hadn’t been updated.

‘Did the Western traitor infiltrate Hanneman into Bülang? It seems the power held by the traitor infiltrated in Bülang is quite strong.’

Now, due to the assassination of the Bülang king, it must have become difficult to work behind the scenes, so they’ve come to the forefront.

“What information do you have about him?”

“Not much is known yet, but in the West, they call him this, The Thousand Guests.”

“The Thousand Guests?”

It was an odd nickname for a general.

***

The western city of Vilak in Beckavia.

The western people who were occupying this place were discussing countermeasures against Crossing’s entry into the war.

Their military council chamber was a huge banquet hall owned by the lord of Vilak.

It wasn’t because they were vain or extravagant.

It was simply because otherwise, they couldn’t accommodate all the personnel.

The number of officers participating in the military council alone was about 200. Moreover, most of them were senior officers.

“Hmm, is everyone here? Just waiting for attendance takes ages.”

Despite his words, Hanneman’s face was tinged with satisfaction at the number of his vassals.

“Well then, shall we all discuss how to defeat those Crossing bastards?”

Hanneman Noiers.

He had more of a politician’s aspect than a general’s. It was said that the guests indebted to his family exceeded 10,000, so the phrase ‘The Thousand Guests’ was coined for him.

“The Crossing bastards have divided their army into three. Moreover, our numbers are greater, so if we push forward with force, they’ll have no choice but to retreat.”

“Hmm, I like the aggressive opinion, but it seems our opponent, Juras Pamilion, is an extraordinary individual. I don’t know much, but according to General Zemuto, he’s a monster beyond human. He even predicted that we would invade Beckavia, and apparently even lured us in.”

“N-No way…”

“I couldn’t believe it either, but seeing how Crossing has actually entered the war like this, we must consider it true. Don’t underestimate him.”

The 200 or so officers put their heads together to come up with the best plan.

They say too many cooks spoil the broth. When opinions come out like this, it often leads to inconclusive results, but Hanneman was different.

The reason this mere politician could become the leader of the army was due to this insight.

He had the ability to catch only the correct answers among the tactics, strategies, and schemes that the 200 officers were randomly throwing out.

He was a kind of control tower.

“Your Majesty, I have a plan.”

“Your Majesty? I haven’t ascended to the throne yet, Barret.”

“It’s just a matter of time, isn’t it?”

“Huh, alright. What’s your plan?”

“We use the Callipers army.”

“The Calliper army?”

Barret presented a strategy that could turn the tide of war by exploiting Calliper, who had come for show-off support.

Hanneman’s lips curled up at this strategy.

“Sounds good. Alright, I’ll leave this to you, Barret. I’ll assign Fischer as your adjutant. Bring us news of victory.”

“Yes, sir!”

The battlefield began to move in earnest.

The aspects of the battlefield were being compressed into a confrontation between Hanneman and Juras, and Ars and Chief Military Officer Barret.

***

After entering the Kalon mountain range, we set up our base in the center of the mountainous area. Since the possibility of a battle occurring was slim anyway, it seemed like a kind of field trip to us cadets.

However, on the 18th day of the war, which was also the 3rd day since our Calliper army had stationed in the Kalon mountain range.

Suddenly, an emergency was declared in our camp where we had been settling in and living peacefully.

The information came directly to me, the commander of the unit.

“Enemy groups have been spotted at the intelligence point! The 6th Infantry Division, prepare for battle immediately!”

“Enemy groups…?”

It was a situation hard to understand.

There was no reason to bother us, the army tucked away in a corner observing the situation.

“Oh, Ars! What should we do?” Dorofei asked, turning pale.

“For now, gather the troops. We’ll have to stick with our unit anyway, so we can deploy together.”

“Thanks! Th-The Grimwood Archery Unit! We’ll get into formation!”

The soldiers quickly took up their positions.

We went out to the entrance of the mountain area to meet the enemy forces. I was watching the scene along with Dorofei’s archery unit.

Thump! Thump! The soldiers were approaching in step. Their uniforms were something I had never seen before.

‘I see. So those are the uniforms of the Western people that were reported in the intelligence.’

They were marching relentlessly towards the mountain area where we were. General Delbadova sent a messenger demanding them to stop, but their speed didn’t slow.

Instead, they shot arrows at the messenger, chasing him away.

At this, General Delbadova shouted without hesitation, “All troops, prepare for battle!”

The enemy force was roughly estimated at 20,000. It was about the same as ours.

‘As expected, they had organized a guerrilla force.’

Both the West and Crossing, who had begun to confront each other, were cautious and no major battles had occurred.

So it wasn’t hard to guess that they would turn their attention to operations using guerrilla units.

I shouted on behalf of Dorofei.

“All archers, prepare to fire!”

The archers drew their arrows.

“First to fifth rows. Fire!”

Whoosh! The arrows flew. The enemy raised their shields to take a stance, but due to our higher ground, the power of the arrows was quite strong.

“Sixth to tenth rows, fire! The rest, load!”

Then I called Dilas from our unit.

“Dilas, prepare the crossbow unit as I told you before.”

“Yes, sir!”

Under Dilas’s command, 200 soldiers deployed in front of the archery unit.

100 of them lay prone, while the other 100 knelt and began loading their crossbows.

Generally, crossbow units are not often incorporated into regular armies.

Although their firepower is strong, they are not favored due to cost and efficiency issues.

Above all, the biggest problem is the loading time.

While the reloading time for a bow is at most 5 seconds, the reloading time for a crossbow could exceed 1 minute at its longest, and even at its shortest, it took at least 15 seconds.

Moreover, compared to bows which rarely malfunctioned, crossbows were prone to frequent breakdowns.

These drawbacks were particularly prominent in battles against cavalry. Due to the interval between shots, they couldn’t properly check the approaching cavalry.

It was the same with infantry battles. The difficulty of rapid fire allowed for a faster approach time.

Crossbows were expensive to supply, and on top of that, their efficiency varied depending on the terrain.

In actual European history, crossbows were said to be so vicious they were called the devil’s weapon, but that was partly because the scale of battles in that era wasn’t large, and above all, because there were many knights in heavy armor.

In battles of tens or hundreds of thousands like now, there were efficiency issues in organizing large-scale crossbow units.

Therefore, crossbows were used as auxiliary weapons or were favored among mercenaries.

Those mercenaries were in my unit.

“We’ll concentrate fire on the enemy’s vanguard! Crossbow unit, preemptive fire! Then archers, first to fifth rows, fire!”

Twang! The crossbow bolts were fired first, targeting the enemy’s vanguard.

Unlike arrows that were blocked by shields, thud! The bolts penetrated the shields and lodged in the enemies’ bodies.

“Argh!”

Arrows that followed pierced the soldiers who dropped their shields in pain.

The enemy’s vanguard faltered.

“Keep going! Crossbow unit, reload! Archers, sixth to tenth rows, fire!”

“We won’t fall behind either! 1st Archery Unit! Fire!”

With supporting fire from Delbadova’s direct 1st Archery Unit, the enemy’s movement noticeably slowed.

“We did it! Ars! We’ve held them off!” Dorofei shouted excitedly.

However, at that moment, the enemy began to show a peculiar movement.


TL NOTE:

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The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road

The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road

Score 9.2
Status: Completed Type: Author: Released: 2022 Native Language: Korean
I ended up possessing Ars Elaine, a supporting character in the game. Struggling to prevent my death, I pave my way.

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