However, just before noon of the next day, Liza’s plans were thrown into disarray. The reason was a single girl who galloped into the camp of Lebus’ army on a horse. The girl’s petite body was clad in a loose, white attire. On top she wore a reddish tunic with a fox pelt laying across her shoulders. A red cap adorned with beads decorated her head, and a necklace of multi-colored round beads reached all the way down to her chest. Both, clothes and cap, had unique designs stitched into them. A smallish ax with a pink blade hung at the belt tightening her waist. All in all it was an attire immediately betraying that she was no local. People well-acquainted with Zhcted’s east would likely be reminded of the equestrian tribes wandering the plains over there.
Her pink hair, wet with sweat, shone as it received the weak winter sun. Her eyes were reminiscent of black pearls.
Seeing the girl enter the supreme commander’s tent escorted by soldiers of Lebus, Liza blinked her eyes in surprise, and asked with a somewhat loud voice, “How did you know you’d find us here?”
The girl ─ Olga Tamm ─ tilted her head, obviously finding this question odd. With an age of 15, Olga was the youngest among the current Vanadis. She held the alias 『Moon Princess of the Roaring Demon』. The ax on her hips was her draconic tool Muma, also referred to as Rago. 1
Liza invited Olga to sit down on the pelts, and prepared apple cider with honey.
“I’d prefer it if you had kumis or goat milkkoz’ye malako.”
“Those are terms I hear for the first time.” Liza inclined her head at the sudden, shameless request.
Olga grabbed the silver cup, drained down the apple cider, and thanked Liza afterwards. While preparing a second filling, Liza called a soldier and gave him two orders: To make the soldiers wait for further orders until noon, and to choose a messenger and send them to Leitmeritz’s army.
The small Vanadis exhaled in satisfaction after emptying the second cup in a flash.
“I’d like to have the next one without honey,” she requested, and then explained the situation that led to her arrival here.
Ten days ago, Liza took 3,000 soldiers, and headed south towards Legnica from her governmental residence. At the same time, Olga went towards Kazakov’s Polus, accompanied by 2,000 soldiers.
Starting with the conclusion: Olga invaded Polus, defeated Egol Kazakov, and then, after making him promise that he’d go to the capital, traveled to this place while passing through Lebus.
“How…?”
It was only understandable for Liza to ask this with a frown on her face. No matter how she considered it, such a quick arrival here seemed impossible. After all, Olga had no way of knowing that the battle would take place in Boroszló, just like Liza initially didn’t know either. Taking this into account, Olga would usually require five or six days to find out and get here.
“I used a sleigh pulled by dogs.” Olga responded casually.
This young Vanadis had split the 2,000 soldiers entrusted to her into two units of 1,000 soldiers each. Then she had one unit gather dogs and sleighs while having the other unit go ahead. Liza had taught her how to gather and steer dog sleighs before, but the sleighs and dogs assembled by Olga were more than enough to transport 2,000 infantrymen. By having half of the dogs pull empty sleighs in turns so as to keep their exhaustion levels low, Olga traveled to Polus at an astounding speed.
“It’s the method my tribe uses when hunting for meat in distant lands. They gather three or four horses per person, and ride while changing the horses every koku. I applied the same principle here.”
“I wonder if I should have also taught you to act a bit more prudently…” Liza grumbled with each of her odd eyes dyed with shock and irritation.
The dogs and sleighs were property of Lebus and not Brest, Olga’s principality. It was Liza who would take the brunt of resentments and criticisms if Olga exploited the soldiers and civilians too much. Liza was aware that she had to count this as a necessary expense, but she couldn’t help but complain about it.
“No one likes women who waste money.”
“Tigre would have permitted it with a laugh.” Olga refuted completely unperturbed.
It woke the wish in Liza to sigh deeply, but since Olga hadn’t finished with her story yet, Liza limited it to urging her to continue.
Olga and her 1,000 infantrymen had stepped into Polus, but because food and fuel were an issue, they didn’t push their way through Polus’ territory just like that. In Lebus they could resupply as much as they wanted as they were on an official mission by the ruler of the principality, but if they did the same in Polus, it’d be looting. Hence they had no choice but to buy what they needed for hard cash. But, procuring the necessary amount proved to be difficult, and it wasn’t as though the money provided by Liza allowed for that much leeway either.
Accordingly, Olga moved along the territorial border between Lebus and Polus while scattering a certain rumor in the towns and villages on Polus’ side whenever they spotted one.
“The head of the Kazakov family is groundlessly committing slander and defamation against the next king Earl Pardu. It’d be smart to flee to Lebus if you want to avoid getting dragged into the coming battle as a punitive force is soon going to advance on Polus from Silesia.”
After Prince Ruslan had recovered from illness, Eugene lost his standing as next king. Olga was well aware of that, and deliberately said it in a way that even those, who didn’t know much about what was happening in the capital, would be able to understand.
This idea wasn’t anything Olga had come up with by herself. Liza had suggested this method when she had assigned the 2,000 soldiers to Olga at Lebus’ governmental residence.
“Kazakov had passed on secret information that Earl Pardu was targeting the crown. He also claimed that Earl Pardu had won over Sofy, Elen and me. Among all four, the territories of Elen, Sofy and Earl Pardu are far away from Polus. Even if they planned to put down Kazakov, it’d require time to put it into action. But, the same can’t be said about me.”
Considering that point, one could guess what actions Kazakov would take against Liza. He would dispatch many patrols and scouts along the border to Lebus in order to precisely grasp Lebus’ army’s every move. In the meantime, Kazakov himself would avoid a direct confrontation with Lebus’ army while waiting for Figneria to threaten Lebus.
“Egol Kazakov doesn’t have the same caliber as the previous family head, Olgert, but he’s still known to excel in military prowess. Even so, he wouldn’t try to take us on from the front. Accordingly, we’re going to lure out Kazakov by spreading a rumor inconvenient to him.”
If Kazakov kept an eye on Lebus’ movements, it was obvious that such a rumor would be immediately brought to his attention. On top of that, Olga spread a few other rumors as well.
“It looks like Kazakov intends to levy a special tax for the sake of fighting the punitive force. Apparently he plans to procure all the excess food and fuel.”
“Because Kazakov knows that he won’t be able to win against a Vanadis, he apparently plans to behead a man with a face closely resembling his own and offer it to the Vanadis. There’s also word going around that he’s going to give away his assets and a part of his territory.”
“The lack of Egol’s abilities seems to be the reason why the supporters of the previous family head turned their backs on the Kazakov family. At this rate, Polus is in danger.”
All of these groundless rumors were so scary because they carried the gist that Polus’ residents might get dragged into Egol’s egoistic actions.
And just as Liza had predicted, Egol was meticulously gathering all information related to the area around Polus’s border with Lebus. He was forced into repelling Lebus’ army, which had trespassed into his territory, as fast as possible. On top of that, he had to give his people in the borderlands peace of mind and deflect those rumors as lies by personally showing himself at the towns and villages. After all, his residents would suspect that there might be some truth to those rumors if he didn’t alleviate their worries in person, even if he were to chase away Lebus’ army.
Thus, Egol appeared at Novitol, a region located at the western edge of Polus, at the head of 2,000 infantrymen in the morning of the third day after Olga had arrived in Polus. One of the big reasons for him coming out in person was his knowledge about Elizavetta Fomina having headed south with her soldiers. As such, he only expected an attack by 1,000 soldiers of Lebus’ army.
◆◇◆
Novitol was surrounded by several mountains. Many streams flowed down those mountains, making their way into the lowland. However, around this season, those streams were frozen solid by the icy winds blowing across the slopes, and the same could be said for the plains.
The 1,000 Lebus soldiers led by Olga didn’t try to meet the enemy on the plains, but rather took up formation at the bottom of a mountain called Glinna so as to have the mountain itself in the back.
Hearing the report from the soldiers he had sent out to scout, Egol assembled all his chief officers and asked, “What do you think is their plan?”
Egol was 17 years old. He had inherited short dark brown hair and a bulky physique from his late father. Whenever he held a sword, he displayed such skill that people believed that he might not find a match in his own generation. His father had favored using a mace because of his inferiority complex towards Ilda Kurtis, but the son was completely free from such emotion-driven limitations.
Egol wore a full armor and helmet, turning him into an imposing, dignified warrior statue when he held his sword. Besides protecting him, that outfit also had the role to give his men confidence.
“Won’t they simply retreat along the mountain road if we launch an attack on them?” One of the officers asked.
Another officer added, “If they enter the mountain while retreating, they’ll be able to attack us from high ground. In addition, we won’t have the chance to capitalize on our numerical advantage.”
“Then, how about we do it like this?” Egol informed the officers of his plan by scratching the troop movements on the ground with the scabbard. “First we’re going to start by attacking them from the front. If they retreat along the mountain path, we’ll station soldiers at all key points like here and here, and isolate them up there so that they can’t get off the mountain. I’m sure they’ll surrender as soon as they run out of water and food.”
“I think it is a good plan, milord. Given that this mountain has many steep slopes, which are difficult to scale even for animals, or precipitous cliffs, except for the river and the three mountain roads, I believe it should work out well as long as we take control of those four points.” An officer, who was well-acquainted with the terrain around here, agreed with a broad smile.
Thus the strategy was set.
Polus’ army advanced through Novitol, and then confronted Lebus’ army at the foot of Mt. Glinna. The sky was colored by a gray color which was unusual for this time of the year. The sun had passed its zenith, but its light was white and weak like a worn silver coin. As there was no wind going, the Black Dragon Flag and Lebus’ flag – a golden belt on violet ground – were listlessly hanging down.
The armaments of Lebus’ soldiers combined wooled underwear and leather undergarments with thick pelts. Close to half of the 1,000 soldiers held swords and shields, the rest held either bows, shields with one-handed axes, or spears. They had lined up in a square formation in preparation to meet the enemy.
Polus’ soldiers wore full armor covered with a layer of pelts. The weapon distribution wasn’t all that different from Lebus’ soldiers. The two thousand soldiers were deployed in a long yet broad rectangle formation. It was clear that their aim was to squash their enemy with a wall of metal and weapons.
Standing at the head of his army, Egol called out to Lebus’ army, “You who serve the Vanadis of cursed eyes! Why have you trespassed our territory as you please!?”
The name Vanadis of cursed eyes was the worst insult possible for Liza. Her rainbow eyes were called harbinger of calamity and lucky omens depending on the region. Lebus’ soldiers grew restive and hurled loud jeers and insults at Egol in response.
“I deem you scum to be brigands!” Egol yelled, and signaled his soldiers with a hand.
Polus’ soldiers thrust their swords and spears into the air, roaring so loudly that they didn’t lose out to the enemy army. Because there were twice as many of them, their very loud voices also had much more of an impact. Their helmets and armors duly reflected the sunlight.
As the horns blared across the battlefield, the flags were brandished, and both armies began to advance. Egol fell back to the rear, taking command of the soldiers from there. With 3,000 people across both armies afoot, the ground trembled as both sides approached each other.
The slashes and stabs of Lebus’ soldiers, which were teeming with anger, assailed Polus’ soldiers. Skin was torn off, blood got scattered, and Polus’ soldiers at the front line fell in succession. Of course, Polus’ army didn’t lose out in enthusiasm either. They cut and stabbed Lebus’ soldiers, their blades full of scorn and bloodlust. Lebus’ soldiers crumbled to the ground with their shoulders cleaved open and holes in their bellies. Amongst the battlefield noise as glaring weapons clashed with each other, only the number of corpses strewn on the ground kept increasing with each passing moment. Above the heads of the infantrymen, arrows flew back and forth between the archers of both camps, turning into a deadly rain the instant they poured down.
Before long, Lebus’ army started to retreat, apparently overwhelmed by the fervor of Polus’ soldiers with their superior numbers. While frantically blocking arrows, swords, and spears by holding up their shields, Lebus’ army escaped onto the mountain road with their ranks falling apart. Because they didn’t wear heavy metal armor, they were fast on their feet.
“As expected, huh? Damn cowards.” Egol sneered.
He forbade his soldiers to pursue the enemy, and reorganized the ranks. Lebus’ soldiers had altogether vanished on the mountain road with just a few of them watching from a distance to see how Polus’ army would move.
Egol ordered his soldiers to split in four units and send them out to surround Mt. Glinna. He also prepared many messengers, making sure that the units could always keep in touch by having the messengers constantly tour from one unit to the next. This meant that allies would soon show up, even if the enemy were to attack at one spot.
Nothing happened on the evening of that day. Polus’ soldiers erected huge bonfires for the sake of easily spotting the enemy soldiers and staving off the freezing coldness.
Receiving reports that many bonfires were flickering halfway up the mountain, Egol said with a scornful laugh, “Now we only have to patiently wait for two or three days.”
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