Chapter 36
Though he had secretly welcomed the enemy formation's shift, Gare groaned as he watched it evolve.
I couldn't read their move.
"Hey, Gami. What is this?"
He immediately asked Gami.
On a battlefield, the most frightening thing was being unable to read the enemy's intentions. Asking Gami for help galled him, but he could not afford to lose for the sake of his pride.
"Well? What do you suppose it is?"
Yet even Gami, the foremost man in the Demon King's army when it came to schemes and tactics, could not fully decipher the change in formation.
At first glance, the enemy formation looked like a formation for a charge. In fact, that was all it looked like.
But there was no way such a simple tactic could succeed. Then this had to be a decoy, and there had to be another plan—but it was so simple that there was no room for any elaborate scheme.
While they were hesitating, the enemy charged straight at them.
It was just a charge, with no scheme behind it.
"Oh? Nice, nice. They finally got fired up."
Only Galios was celebrating.
"And look at that lively one."
As Galios said, the knight racing at the head of the charge was performing brilliantly, worthy of being entrusted with the vanguard.
Clad in gleaming golden armor, wielding a spear with a massive sword strapped to his back, the knight looked like a hero. The soldiers facing him were cut apart like paper, and he tore through their formation at will.
The enemy apparently possessed a remarkably powerful piece. But any capable general should have known that a single piece could not overturn the entire battlefield.
"Hey, let's go, let's go, I can go, right?"
Galios was itching to sortie, but Gare held him back.
"No. Stay here. Move the heavy infantry forward and strengthen our defenses. Fire arrows from the rear. Don't sally forth."
The enemy's charge had momentum, but it was a simple attack. If they held their formation and absorbed it flexibly, they could withstand it. What concerned Gare more was the enemy's unexpected movement. Perhaps they were drawing their attention while sending out a separate force.
With Galios nearby, Gare could respond to any unforeseen situation.
"Come on, we came all this way. Let's charge and crash into them too."
Ignoring the child's opinion, Gare ordered his men to take prisoners. He did not expect the prisoners to know anything, but he wanted every bit of information he could get.
However, even after they fought until sunset, there was no unexpected attack from the enemy. It ended as nothing more than a straightforward charge.
"What on earth was that?"
At the council of war that night, the assembled officers also wore puzzled expressions.
The enemy's charge had certainly been formidable. Many soldiers and officers had fallen, and they had suffered substantial losses.
"That's why you should've let me go. If you had, I would've crushed them."
Galios shouted, but they could have crushed the enemy without him.
The warrior who had led the vanguard possessed terrifying strength, but lacked any sense of unity with his soldiers, leaving major openings. If they cut off and surrounded the rear with a cavalry charge, killing the warrior at the head would have been difficult, but the unit itself would have been easy to crush.
Yet judging by their tactics so far, the enemy clearly understood things this basic. Gare had stayed on the defensive because he thought they might make some bold move in response to his actions.
Had that been the point of the maneuver—to make them think so? Or had today's battle been bait, with the enemy planning to repeat the same tactic, let them grow accustomed and careless, and then strike?
Gare considered the enemy's tactics, but he simply could not read them.
Gami, too, sat among the assembled officers and soldiers with his eyes closed.
Even Gami had been unable to see through the enemy's move.
With no answer forthcoming, the council continued. In the end, they settled on a cautious plan: if the enemy used the same tactic from tomorrow onward, they would follow basic tactics, respond to the enemy's movements for the time being, and see what it did next.
Even if they ran into trouble, the main camp would not fall as long as Galios was there.
Galios complained about having to remain at the main camp, but since they could not read the enemy's move, they could not afford any bold action.
"Excuse me. The interrogator has an urgent report."
The guard announced him, and the interrogator entered the tent.
As ordered, they had captured enemy prisoners in battle and interrogated them to extract information.
"General. We have discovered something that must be reported at once."
"That was quick. Has the prisoner already talked?"
Interrogating prisoners was standard procedure, but their information could not be trusted too readily.
Most prisoners lied. They had to question them at length, or capture a large number and cross-reference the information to increase its reliability.
If a prisoner had talked so readily, it was highly likely that the information was disinformation.
"Yes, though I cannot be certain myself."
The interrogator looked troubled, but if he had deemed it worth reporting, Gare should hear the report.
"Very well. Speak."
The interrogator reluctantly began to speak and told them what he had learned.
It was astonishing.
"So the prince who supposedly defeated Demon King-sama dismissed the general in command, and today's tactics were his?"
Gare repeated the question before he could stop himself. The idea that the commanding general had been replaced was completely beyond his expectations.
"That appears to be the case."
According to the prisoner, the prince had been enraged by his army's passive fighting, dismissed the general, and taken command at the front himself.
"Did he really say that? Could the interpreter have made a mistake?"
One of the officers voiced a doubt.
We demons have been in this land for more than three years. We have studied the humans' language for the sake of warfare, but few can speak it perfectly.
"I asked several times, but there is no mistake in the interpretation."
The interrogator vouched for the interpretation's accuracy. Those humans had studied the language too, so there was little reason to doubt the interpretation.
"The prince is young, isn't he? Has he led an army before?"
Taking the interrogator at his word, Gare asked about the prince.
"This is apparently his first battle."
The assembled officers could only stare in disbelief.
To become a competent general, one had to lead troops in battle dozens of times at a minimum and learn the fundamentals and tactics of warfare.
Particularly when commanding a large army, experience was everything. Even a military genius could not make up for that shortfall.
Every general there had started with a unit of about ten soldiers, gradually building up a record of service and increasing the number under their command.
For a first-time commander to criticize a veteran general's tactics and take over command in the middle of battle was, from the soldiers' perspective, a nightmare.
"And one more thing."
"What, there's more?"
"Apparently, the one who led the vanguard in today's battle was that prince."
They recalled the figure of the commander who had fought at the front.
"What? That was the prince?"
"Yes, that is what the prisoner said."
The supreme commander was on the front line.
If the enemy's general were taken, the war was lost. This was another unbelievable story.
"Could this be disinformation?"
One officer voiced the obvious question. Perhaps it was a ploy to lure them out.
"That is possible. However, every prisoner we captured said the same thing. I believe the information is highly reliable."
If the captured soldiers belonged to the dismissed general, that would explain why they had been so quick to talk.
And the more Gare thought about it, the more it made sense. It felt as though the fog obscuring his vision was clearing.
The almost childish charge formation and the lack of coordination between the prince at the front and the soldiers behind him.
Gare had wondered whether there was some hidden purpose, but now everything was clear. There was no hidden scheme on the enemy's part.
"Dim."
Gami was the one who muttered it. The generals could not hide their wry smiles.
The enemy's prince seemed to be a dim-witted ruler.
In today's battle, the prince's performance had indeed been remarkable, and the story that he had defeated Demon King-sama might not be entirely false.
In terms of raw fighting strength alone, few in the Demon King's army could probably stand against him.
But that was all. As a general, and as a king, he deserved a failing grade.
A general personally leading the vanguard carried great significance.
By placing himself in danger, he could forge a bond with his soldiers, and by acting as a symbol, he could greatly inspire their morale.
Moreover, anyone utterly confident in their own prowess could break through enemy lines and determine the course of the battle.
It was dangerous, but there was a reason for a general to stand at the front.
But the prince's fighting style was none of those things.
He had fought solely to boast of his own prowess and flaunt his achievements. He was not looking at the battlefield as a whole; he was fighting only for himself.
"Good grief, we're going to fight a child like that?"
Gare suddenly felt exhausted.
A commander should leave the fighting with spears to the soldiers—the pieces—and devote himself to finding a way to seize victory from the rear while minimizing casualties. Winning without ever taking up a spear was the greatest achievement of a commander. If the player became a piece and competed with the other pieces for military glory, there was no point.
"General Gare, why not release the prisoners we captured?"
Gami spoke up.
"And tomorrow, if the prince charges, tell him we'll send an elite unit to meet him."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Galios did not understand, but those around him laughed at Gami's devious ploy. It might indeed let them see something interesting.
"What?"
"Don't worry about it, Galios. More importantly, rejoice—if we're lucky, you'll get your chance tomorrow."
"Seriously?"
Galios rejoiced like a child. Seeing him that way, Gare's lips twisted into a smile as well.
This battle might end sooner than expected.
The path to becoming the Demon King felt one step closer.