165 – 169
On a dark night.
Relying on the light of the full moon in the sky, Mary and the cavalry quietly passed through the dense forest.
“Hmph! Let them try to be wrong. Agrippa won’t stand idly by.”
She followed Agrippa’s orders as she was not the commander, but she didn’t think she was wrong in her own thoughts.
If only the enemy supply warehouse is set ablaze, the enemy won’t be able to do anything, but what can she do? After all, the commander is her husband.
“The moon is so bright.”
She felt there was a certain charm to it.
The blue moonlight and the dense forest.
Quite charming, isn’t it?
Of course, the grass beneath must be suffering.
***
“Commander, a report has arrived from the front lines. The enemy has completely broken through the second line.”
Upon hearing this, Sabenelli clapped his hands and stared at the map, confirming it.
“Alright! In which direction did they go?”
Clearly, to the west.
He plans to rush towards this hill where he is positioned and deal a significant blow to the enemy cavalry with a trap.
Just like his first strategy.
“Well… it seemed like they were heading south.”
Upon hearing this, Sabenelli felt puzzled.
“South? Why south? Could it be a misunderstanding?”
Sabenelli inquired, but the sub-commander had no choice but to relay the report as received.
“That… I’m not sure either.”
Sabenelli felt that something was amiss.
“Clearly, something is wrong.”
It should have been a simple task to take the bait through the gap deliberately created by Sabenelli, but although the gap was entered, the bait was not taken.
As if they already knew about his trap.
***
When Sabenelli began to feel anxious.
The spies brought news that the enemies were preparing for an attack.
“The enemy! The enemy is attacking!”
Upon the sudden news of the enemy’s attack, the frontline swiftly moved.
“Goodness! Why another attack at night.”
“Those uncivilized bastards.”
A battle unfolding in the dark night.
For the soldiers, it tastes no different from death.
“Hey! Captain, what are you doing?! Hurry up and get the troops ready for battle?!”
At the officers’ shouting, the soldiers grumble as they put on their armor.
***
“Commander, reporting from the battlefield. The enemy is preparing for a large-scale attack. It seems like a full-scale battle will start soon.”
Upon the following report from the messenger, Sabinelli feels perplexed.
‘Goodness… What’s going on… Could it be? Are they trying to flank us?’
Frontal assault.
Realizing that the enemy has chosen a frontal assault, Sabinelli senses that his plan has gone awry.
He quickly goes outside to look at the enemy’s formation from the hill, lost in thought.
Looking at the brightly lit camps scattered on the hilltop, he thinks,
‘There are cavalry in the rear, so… I should probably deploy pikemen to the rear.’
Hammer and anvil.
Among them, the hammer is already prepared.
Sabinelli feels that if the hammer starts striking forcefully, the damage will undoubtedly increase.
‘Damn it…’
Already, over 20,000 pikemen are deployed on the hill, so there are not many pikemen at the forefront.
But if he withdraws the pikemen, the hill will become defenseless.
‘What should I do…’
Until now, Sabinelli has been skilled in siege warfare and fortress defense, but he lacks experience in field battles.
Most of his experience lies in siege conquests or fortress defenses.
‘Perhaps the enemy is watching our troop movements. If they see no movement, they might be planning to come to assist our main camp.’
As it is a dark night, with torches lit for movement, Sabinelli believes the enemies will observe these lights and make their judgments.
“hahahaha… Checkmate.”
He senses defeat looming over him.
‘But… I cannot just sit still.’
The Supreme Commander knows that if he remains passive, the front-line units will surely face destruction.
Hastily, Sabinelli begins writing a letter.
***
On a vast plain, the armies of Nicaea and the Empire face each other.
At that moment…
Fireballs light up the night sky from both sides.
-Hiik! Boom!
-Boom!
The barriers created by the mages on both sides prevent the raining fireballs from reaching the camps.
Watching this, Agrifah falls into thought.
‘There are quite a few mages, more than I expected.’
Currently, while the Imperial army is attacking with fireball scrolls, the enemies are countering with their own powerful magic attacks.
Seeing the Empire’s abundant supply of magic scrolls compared to the relatively scarce Nicaea army, Agrifah is internally surprised.
“More firepower than I thought, isn’t it?”
Blocked by the ally’s barrier, Agripa gets lost in thought while watching fireballs soaring endlessly high into the sky.
“It feels like… everything is at stake in this battle, doesn’t it?”
As Agripa, unaware of Sabi Nelli’s desire for him to unleash the fireballs with the hope of defeating Agripa in this battle and rallying the Eastern nobles, contemplates, his thoughts become somewhat convoluted.
“Should I move the troops first? Or continue the standoff?”
Thinking that his own forces would be overwhelmingly superior in magic and firepower, Agripa is taken aback by the formidable momentum of the enemy.
“They say orcs are skilled in battle. Should I send the giant battalion?”
As he ponders this.
-Whiiing! Boom!
A fireball shot by the ally lands among the enemy troops.
“Ah… just as I suspected.”
Agripa sees through the hastily deployed barrier magic.
With a smile, he instructs his subordinates, “Tell the mages to increase the attacks. Keep firing the scrolls.”
Meanwhile…
Observing the scene from afar on a hill, Sabi Nelli feels perplexed.
“Attack! What is the commander doing without ordering an attack?!”
Naturally, in a magical battle, the Nicia army cannot win against the Imperial army. The Imperial army has the magic divisions of the Shardenia Kingdom deployed, and unlike the allies, they are well-supplied with scrolls.
Furthermore, although the number of mages is not greater in the Imperial army, there is one advantage they have over them.
That advantage lies in the Babylon mercenaries, a mix of humans and orcs.
As Sabi Nelli feels anxious and shouts.
The Nicia soldiers start rushing towards the enemy.
***
Mary, carefully watching from a distance on the hill.
“No movement? Ugh…”
No movement is visible near the hill.
“Well, we’ll have to move as planned, I guess.”
Eventually, it seems the opponent has decided to guard the hill.
From Noble mtl dot com
So, they will just have to do what needs to be done.
“Alright, let’s aim for the enemy’s rear.”
She smiles at the cavalry behind her.
“Oh? Lady Mary. Look over there.”
When one of the giants speaks, Mary turns her head to look at the hill, where the light of torches starts to appear one by one.
“Hm… About 10,000? Seems like 20,000. What should we do?”
Seeing that, Mary blinks her eyes in surprise and says quietly.
“What? Was it really a trap?”
***
Sabi Nelli even deployed the hidden archers near the hill.
Watching the torches advancing towards the front line, they anxiously observed.
“Please… join us as planned.”
They desperately hoped for the secretly infiltrated enemy cavalry to join their main forces.
Rather, they wished to properly strike the friendly infantry and mercenaries with hammers and maces.
It wasn’t the worst-case scenario.
But…
-Bang!
“It’s the enemy! The enemy is attacking!”
And they felt their end approaching.
***
Mary and the Giant Battalion ascended the hill, rallying the soldiers.
“Burn it all! Burn it to the ground!”
As she commanded, the Giant Battalion tore apart fireball scrolls at the makeshift tents and wooden warehouses in front of them.
-Boom!
-Roar!
“Block it! Stop them, you bastards! Are… are you going to abandon our homeland like this?!”
A man stood, trying to lift the morale somehow, but…
“Really… noisy.”
Mary accelerated, piercing the sharp end of her spear into the man’s chest.
-Thud!
“Ugh…”
As the man bled from the hole in his chest, dying, Mary ordered the soldiers.
“Quickly capture Sabirelli!”
“No need to search for me. Lady Mary.”
A man in his thirties, looking at Mary with red hair.
“I am Sabirelli.”
“Oh? You’re that famous Sabirelli?”
“Yes, my lady.”
Nodding at his appearance, Mary spoke.
“Surrender. Then I will spare your life.”
‘Defeat is now certain.’
Ultimately, feeling futile… with the thought of the kingdom falling, Sabirelli’s strength left his legs.
-Thud.
He dropped his head, unable to stop crying… tears streaming down.
“W-what… why are you suddenly crying? Do you think I’ll show mercy if you cry?”
Mary, seeing a man who seemed much older than himself… no, about ten years older than Devian, shaking his shoulders while crying, felt deeply perplexed.
“Sob… it’s… it’s nothing, my lady… I’m a shameless coward, but I have a request.”
He didn’t raise his head, so his face was not visible, but Mary hesitated, hearing the sorrow and regret in his tearful voice.
“What… What’s the matter?”
“We will surrender… Please release the remaining soldiers. We also hope for the return of Babylon’s mercenaries.”
Upon hearing this, Mary scratched her cheek and looked down.
“Alright… I will talk to my husband. Stop crying.”
To Mary, Sabinnelli’s crying didn’t feel like something she would remember.
‘If Sabinnelli and her circumstances were reversed… she would have cried just like that.’
Indeed, even if the Great Empire fell, would there be a loyal subject like Sabinnelli?
Regardless…
The war of Nicaea came to an end with this.
***
Report from Nicaea.
[Captive of enemy generals Sabinnelli and Nasser.]
Though brief, the end of a tough and exhausting war had come.
“It’s finally over.”
Handing over the report, he continued to work quietly as usual.