44 – Meanwhile in the North – 6
When swords and axes collided for the first time, Raknar’s body floated into the air. At that moment, Raknar felt it. What is a Sword Master?
The one who stands at the apex of the sword. The final reach of all weapon bearers. The pinnacle of the finest swords in the world.
After tasting such a sword, Raknar realized something. As much as Emilia, she couldn’t possibly win.
And Emilia did not miss the moment when Raknar was floating in the air. Emilia attacked Raknar with great momentum.
once, twice, three times. One after another, Emilia’s slashes poured into Raknar. Raknar bent down and blocked Emilia’s sword with the shield he was holding.
However, Raknar’s defense had its limits. Raknar was barely avoiding Emilia’s attack by literally a piece of paper, and Emilia continued to attack one-sidedly.
In just a little while, it seemed that Raknar’s solid defense would be breached. and that moment.
“Lacnar-nim!”
“We will help!”
Raknar’s subordinate knights rushed forward to help Raknar.
Dozens of knights faced Emilia with swords and axes. Emilia faced all those knights alone, but she didn’t look like she was being pushed back at all. Rather, it was a push.
Raknar also tried to step forward to help the knights under his command, but his arms and legs were powerless. After receiving only a few attacks from Emilia, all of her strength was drained.
Raknar had no choice but to fall back, recovering his strength from behind and watching how the battle progressed.
After about 10 minutes like that, the whereabouts of the battle began to be roughly decided. Emilia’s army was winning a one-sided victory against Rachnar’s army, which was almost twice as large. This was partly because Emilia’s army was strong, but Emilia’s individual performance was significant.
Of course, the number of soldiers Emilia had killed was not that many. At most, it was at the level of 100 people or not. In a battle between 5,000 and 10,000, 100 are only 1%.
But that 1 percent split the direction of the fight. The mere fact that Emilia was fighting in front and killing the enemy was enough to boost the morale of the allies and actively push in, while the enemy had no choice but to run away due to low morale.
After 30 minutes, the battle started to flow in a one-sided direction, and when an hour passed, Raknar finally gave the order to retreat.
When they retreated to the rear castle, only 5,000 troops remained. Half of our allies had either died or had fled. Of course, it was a self-evident fact that more people ran away in fear of Emilia than dead people.
Raknar had two options left. Gather all the soldiers in the remaining castle and start a sit-in, or surrender.
At first, Raknar continued to worry. Is surrender right or resistance right? It was shameful to surrender because it was a disgrace to the name of the Skane family, which had been passed on for 15 generations, and it seemed that it was nothing more than a matter of risking one’s life to resist.
However, there was a decisive event that Lachnar von Skane decided during the surrender and resistance.
“Emilia-sama’s swordsmanship was on a different level. Is that what a sword master is like… ”
The three sword strikes that Emilia wielded. Although Raknar barely blocked it with his shield, those three sword strikes were enough to make Raknar’s shield tattered.
The new shield was broken in places. But something was strange. Raknar couldn’t help but be astonished the moment he saw the shield.
Emilia swung her sword at Raknar three times. Therefore, it is normal for three marks to remain, but seven sword marks remained on Raknar’s shield.
“Wasn’t it three times…? !”
Yes. The number of times Emilia swung her sword was not three, but seven.
Even Raknar, the third strongest knight in the North, couldn’t even see half of Emilia’s swordsmanship. If the fight had continued just a little longer, Raknar would have risked his life. Realizing this, Rachnar was shocked, admired, and felt a deep sense of defeat.
“Our army… I will surrender to Emilia and go under her command.”
A different level of swordsmanship. That was the reason Rachnar surrendered to Emilia.
—–
Emilia accepted Rachnar’s surrender, and 2,000 of the remaining 5,000 of Rachnar’s army went under Emilia’s command.
As a result, Emilia’s remaining soldiers were 6,500. This was a possible number as they had lost 500 in the previous battle and gained 2,000.
Originally, it was normal for the number to decrease as war progressed, but Emilia’s army was abnormal. Strangely, the number increased as the battle progressed.
The nobles with the remaining 3,000 soldiers broke away and became rebels again, but it didn’t matter if they were virtually non-existent. Because there was no centripetal force to tie them up, they were in fact only at the level of 500 to 1000 bandits.
So, what remained was not the Three Kingdoms, but a one-on-one battle between Archduke Carl von Cronor and Emilia von Cronor.
Meanwhile, the emergency bell was ringing in the army of Archduke Carl von Kronor.
“Hey, Your Highness the Grand Duke of Cronor… ! It is said that Lord Rachnar von Skone has surrendered to Lord Emilia von Chronor!”
“What? What about Emilia’s remaining soldiers?”
“It is said to be 6,500… ”
“… ”
dump. Archduke Carl von Kronor sat down.
“What the hell did Raknar do… I was thinking of wiping out both forces when they were weak due to fighting… Didn’t you become stronger instead of weaker! What did Raknar do that he couldn’t cut even 10% of Emilia’s soldiers!”
“… ”
“What am I supposed to do now! Emilia, who has become stronger now, will attack, but how can I stop it! Someone please answer!”
However, none of the servants could answer. There was no way I could afford it. Because now we have reached a situation where there is no answer.
And the next moment, Archduke Cronor murmured.
“Friends… ”
The reason why this division was born from the beginning was because Emilia was sent without direct contact.
“I’ll do it myself! bring my sword! No matter how much Emilia is a sword master, she is only my daughter! I will cut Emilia’s head myself!”
Having said that, Archduke Cronor attacked Emilia with 4,000 soldiers, made by adding 3,000 remaining soldiers and 1,000 newly recruited soldiers.
—–
In this situation, if it was Charles Jean Rochepole, not Emilia, who led the rebels, Charles would have filled each small castle with a small number of soldiers, between 500 and 1,000, and deployed those castles in depth to form a deep defense.
The advantage of this strategy was that it would take a long time for the enemy to break through the defense line in depth, and the supply lines would be long when they reached the deepest part of the defense line.
In a word, there are more allied territories, so it only takes time. That’s an idea that Charles would do.
However, Emilia von Cronor was the exact opposite of Charles Jean Rochepole. Emilia von Cronor led an entire army of 6500 to face her father.
It was a choice that some would call stupid, but Emilia von Chronor considered her choice the correct answer. What Emilia thinks is not simply winning the war, but showing her strength. It was to show that the ruler of the north was strong and healthy, so that numerous forces that were scattered were to come under his command.
Of course, this tendency of Emilia did not come from strategic insight. Rather, it came from an animal sense close to that of a wolf leading a pack.
In other words, it was not a result of learning, but an innate tendency.
Whatever the reason for Emilia’s choice, in the end Emilia’s choice led to another war.
Carl von Cronor led 4,000 soldiers, Emilia led 6,500 soldiers, and they faced each other on the plain called Larsson.
Archduke Karl von Cronor, the defending side, decided to deploy his troops on the plains rather than mountains or rivers as a result of poor judgment due to opium.
If he had been the Grand Duke of Cronor a year ago, he would never have placed soldiers on the plains. There is no retreat in battle on the plains. In the case of fighting in the mountains, just placing an ambush on the mountain can block the pursuing army to some extent. Even in the case of fighting on the river, the pursuit will inevitably be delayed a little as the pursuing force crosses the river.
However, there is no such thing in the fight on the plains. No ambush can be planted, and there are no natural obstacles, so the losing side has no choice but to suffer great damage.
The reason Carl von Cronor insisted on deploying soldiers on the plains was because his judgment was clouded by drugs.
Then, what was Grand Duke Cronor thinking?
‘The losing side in the battle on the plains suffers damage close to annihilation. So, I will win against Emilia in this fight and turn the tide of the North at once.’
It was an absurd delusion.
Emilia von Cronor and Carl von Cronor.
The idea of defeating the enemy in one shot is similar. Are there similarities between father and daughter?
However, the only difference was that Emilia had a chance and Grand Duke Cronor had no chance.