Interlude 3: Patrick (Part 2)
The very land of the Mark of Ashbatten was designed from the literal ground up for defense. In the past, it had been a geographically difficult location to protect, but over the course of the several hundred years prior to the establishment of the Kingdom of Valschein, every successive margrave had slowly developed the land. These centuries of effort had led to the impenetrably defensive mark of the current day.
The main roads were well maintained so that a large army could quickly move through the streets. Not only that, but there were several traps laid along the roads, roadblocks that could be instantly activated to stymie enemies of the mark if it were to come under attack. The stone bridges were even ingeniously constructed in such a way that they could be made to crumble away if a certain spot in their architecture was manipulated. The valleys were normally safe for people to travel through, but avalanches could be caused at a moment’s notice if they were needed to halt the advance of invaders.
These defensive provisions were not only present on the western side of the mark, which was close to the Kingdom of Lemlaesta, but they were also installed in the eastern side, which faced Valschein. Officially, the eastern fortresses were abandoned, but they were able to be operational at a moment’s notice.
The Ashbatten family understood the importance of protecting their borders against any form of invasion, which was why the royal family couldn’t underestimate them.
Although the Ashbattens were quite powerful, they weren’t considered to have high standing in aristocratic society. This was due to the fact that they kept their distance from central politics, preferring to remain in the safety of the mark.
On the westernmost edge of the Mark of Ashbatten, lands which were already on the westernmost edge of the Kingdom of Valschein, stood one of the many military strongholds within the territory. Highly trained soldiers were stationed at this fortress, and it served as the front line of defense against Lemlaesta.
On the Lemlaestan side was an open, grassy field, free of any obstructions, which left the fortress standing alone on a barren plain. At first glance, it appeared quite easy to invade.
It didn’t just appear that way, though—it was actually quite easy to invade. The lack of natural obstructions in the terrain made the task of surrounding the Ashbatten army effortless. An enemy could simply go around the fortress and enter the mark.
That was where things stopped being so straightforward. Even if the fortress itself was easily surrounded, it would take time to actually charge in and claim it. While the enemy was so occupied, mounted soldiers from the Ashbatten forces would have an opening to charge in and destroy the invaders, who would have to stretch themselves dangerously thin in order to surround the defending army and its stronghold.
If the enemies ignored the fortress, bypassing it completely to directly enter the mark, they would have to face the awaiting main forces while simultaneously fending off the soldiers from the fortress attacking from behind.
In the past, an army had attempted to execute both of these methods at once. The Talyon Empire, the nation which had preceded Lemlaesta, had sent their main forces around the fortress to enter the Ashbatten Mark proper, while at the same time commanding a separate troop to surround the fortress. Even with their army split up in this manner, the empire had still had the upper hand in terms of sheer strength.
Several hours before the enemy forces arrived, the Ashbatten contingent at the fortress began to take action. The Ashbatten cavalry mustered to face the Talyon forces on the western side—in other words, the area closest to the empire. The commander of the Talyon troop surrounding the fortress assumed that the cavalry had taken a detour, just as the primary Talyon forces were doing to get around the Ashbatten stronghold and into the mark. In order to avoid getting caught between the soldiers stationed in the fortress and the cavalry coming from behind, the Talyon commander strengthened the western edge of the formation besieging the fortress by transferring soldiers away from the side that faced the Ashbatten Mark. However, right as the Ashbatten calvary was about to make contact with the Talyon forces, they abruptly retreated. The Talyon commander and his men were left reeling with confusion, and before they could recover, the Ashbatten forces in the fortress attacked the now-weakened eastern side of the Talyon formation—the side closest to the mark. The Ashbatten forces were composed entirely of high-level, exceptionally trained soldiers, and they broke easily through the weakened formation, pressing onwards to attack the empire’s main troop from behind.
The mark itself ended up as the final battleground for the Ashbatten and Talyon armies. The Ashbatten regiment was outnumbered. The vanguard on the right side of the formation and the rearguard on the left fought gallantly, but the soldiers in the middle had no choice but to fall back...or so it had appeared to the Talyon commander.
As the two armies fought, the elite troop from the fortress suddenly appeared from the rear, as well as the cavalry who had circled back around to the mark. They all attacked the Talyon forces from behind while Ashbatten’s primary battalion surrounded them on either side, each column moving into the formation of a semicircle, partially surrounding the empire’s army at the front and sides. The troops stationed at the fortress, who had launched the surprise attack from behind, completed the cordon. Left without a single escape route, the Talyon army fell into a panic and ultimately surrendered.
Anyone could imagine what followed. The Talyon Empire fell and split into different territories. The Ashbatten-Talyon war had, in many ways, established the present-day state of the region.
The perfectly executed annihilation of the empire’s formation during their futile attempt to surround the fortress ought to have been recorded in every military training manual on the continent, but surprisingly, the narrative only existed within the records of the Ashbatten family. The decisive victory wasn’t widely remembered in the present day. It was possible that the Talyon Empire’s records had disappeared in the chaos of the empire’s fall, or it could be that no one able to record their history had survived to do so.
Despite having achieved such a momentous military triumph, every successive margrave after had declared, “Our specialization is defense, and we have never experienced a complete victory over our foes. Our forces merely have the capacity to protect the mark and no more.” Perhaps this was said out of humility, but it might also have been a posture meant to obfuscate the belief that they might be able to pull off the same operation themselves should the need to do so arise.
◆◆◆
At that westernmost fortress in the mark, Patrick Ashbatten was recalling the accomplishments of his ancestors, which he had learned about before he’d entered the Academy. He, however, wasn’t of the belief that he could execute such a brilliant plan.
But if a strong enemy were to appear, I could just create some tall dirt walls along the border. If I go alone and directly attack their commander myself, it wouldn’t be too hard for me to just... Patrick shook his head before he could continue in that train of thought.
“I guess I’m starting to take after Yumiella,” he mumbled to himself.
“Is something wrong?” asked the man standing next to him, the frontline commander in charge of the fortress. He’d just entered his forties, and he was quite careful in his conduct, a rare quality for a soldier in the Ashbatten army.
Patrick was still treated like a child quite often, and so he felt a slight discomfort at the way the commander responded so formally.
“When I was a child, I learned that there is no way to significantly change the course of a battle, no matter how great of a hero you might have on your side,” Patrick explained.
“That seems to be the case, generally speaking.”
In a war between two kingdoms, even if one army had a warrior skilled in one-on-one combat who was as strong as a thousand soldiers on their own, most experienced soldiers believed that this wouldn’t be enough to overturn things in their favor. History provided ample proof that gathering large numbers of soldiers who met a base standard of strength and leading them well with sound strategy was the best way to win a war.
“Even if one person could take down a thousand troops on their own, their effect in a battle against over ten thousand troops would be insignificant,” Patrick remarked.
“I believe you could take on a thousand soldiers easily, Sir Patrick,” the commander said confidently.
“Even if I could, the thousandth-and-first soldier would take me down. By then, my fatigue would have built up, and all the cuts and scrapes I got wouldn’t feel so small.”
Even the legendary hero of a certain kingdom, who was said to have been able to take down a hundred men at once, had eventually fallen: he lost all his underlings, and although he managed to stall the enemy forces on his own, he eventually met his end despite taking a hundred lives before doing so.
The commander of the fortress thought about how although Patrick had been just a child until not too long ago, he’d grown into a strapping young man. As those thoughts crossed his mind, he found himself feeling a bit sentimental.
“If even you couldn’t accomplish such a feat, then perhaps conventional wisdom isn’t wrong,” the man observed. “Still, by continuously launching surprise attacks and retreating, it would be possible to overturn a battle, even with a large difference in strength. It can also be quite effective to target only the higher-ranking members of the enemy forces.”
“Well, I don’t really care about the various tricks I could pull,” Patrick clarified. “I’m thinking about if there were a person who could destroy a thousand people in the flash of an eye, recover as soon as they’re hurt regardless of the injury, and additionally possessed unlimited stores of mana...”
“If there is such a person...?” The commander snorted. “There is. We’ve discussed it among ourselves as well. We’ve debated how we would take on the countess if, gods forbid, we ever had to.”
“What would you do...?” Patrick was genuinely curious. He wanted to know what kind of strategy this experienced soldier would use against Yumiella.
The man flashed Patrick a placid smile as he answered, “We came to the conclusion that taking you as hostage would be the best course of action, Sir Patrick.”
“I see. And where do you usually have such discussions?”
“There’s only one place where people get excited about what-ifs. We imagine these scenarios while drinking, of course.”
Patrick imagined respectable adults getting together and excitedly discussing how they would take down their lord’s son’s fiancée, going back and forth as they drank—the thought of it made him grimace.
“It’s nothing to be so upset about,” the commander reassured him. “If we could come up with a plan like that while drunk, anyone else could have done so as well. Even if you’re all right, little master... Oh, I’m sorry. That was out of old habit.” The way the man called him “little master” had felt so natural that it took Patrick a second to figure out what he was apologizing for.
It wasn’t until Patrick had become an adult at eighteen years old that the commander had begun to treat him with the same deference as he did the margrave and Patrick’s older brother. I guess I reached some personal threshold at which he thinks I ought to be treated with a similar level of respect, Patrick thought, internally writing off the slipup and continuing the conversation.
“Thanks for the warning,” he said to the commander. “I’ll be careful. She has a habit of pushing herself to protect others.”
“O-Of course... If only the young master were as honest as you, little master,” the man complained, slipping back into his old habits once again. The “young master” he spoke of was the margrave’s heir, Gilbert Ashbatten.
“Well, my brother is...” Patrick shrugged. “He’s always been like that. I’ve heard he’s been doing great in negotiations with those from the Royal Capital.”
“His skills are definitely suited for politics,” the commander remarked. “He’s in charge of most of the negotiations with officials from the capital.”
“So, about that brother of mine...”
“Yes, one minute we think he’s missing, then the next he turns out to be planning all of this.” The man gestured expansively. “I guess it’s something I ought to have expected from him.”
The two were looking at a letter. It was a letter from Gilbert to Yumiella and Patrick. Gilbert’s subordinate Rufus, who had delivered the letter, was currently sitting on the floor in the corner of the room—the dragon ride here had been a bit too much for him.
“I was against it...” Rufus mumbled from the floor. “Eugh... I’m getting nauseous again...” He got up, stumbling a little as he made his way outside, which no one tried to stop him from doing.
I used to be like that too, before I got used to it, Patrick thought before turning back to read through the letter once more.
The letter instructed Yumiella to appear to lose to the Lemlaestan army, an army that was evidently headed their way. The letter explained that the purpose of this plan was to lessen the Kingdom of Lemlaesta’s fear towards Yumiella, as well as to stabilize Lemlaestan politics by giving the first prince’s faction an advantage...but Gilbert’s true reasoning was recorded in the very last sentence.
“‘If the plan is properly executed from start to finish, I will consider attending your wedding’...” Patrick read again.
“I believe Sir Gilbert wants to give his blessing to your union, but he’s just not very honest about his feelings,” the commander commented. “So will Lady Yumiella be able to handle this? From what I’ve heard, she doesn’t seem to be the type who is capable of losing on purpose.”
“I don’t think she could do it. On top of that, she’s still missing.”
As Patrick stood wondering for the hundredth time where Yumiella might have gone after leaving for the moon, a young soldier ran into the room. He whispered something into the commander’s ear, and in response to the message, a serious look appeared on the commander’s face.
“Understood.” He nodded at the soldier. “In that case, tell the soldiers to switch to the second formation, then send a message to the main forces as well,” the commander instructed the messenger, then turned back to the margrave’s younger son. “Things have fallen into quite the mess, Sir Patrick. It appears that the Lemlaestans are taking action sooner than we expected.”
Following the news of the Lemlaestan approach, things became hectic within the fortress. The commander was quite busy, giving instructions to various members of the army. Trying to stay out of his way, Patrick waited for him quietly by the window.
He stared outside towards Lemlaesta, knowing that their army would appear soon enough. Suddenly, the door was flung open behind him. He assumed it was another urgent message, but when he turned, he saw Rufus standing at the door. He seemed to have recovered from his dragon-flight-based trauma, and he had brought another man with him.
The man accompanying Rufus was someone who shouldn’t have been present within these fortress walls at all—it was Linus, an agent from the neighboring kingdom of Lemlaesta.
“Why are you—”
“I apologize,” Linus began, interrupting Patrick. “It’s urgent, so I’ll explain things quickly.”
The only other time Patrick had spoken with Linus was during the incident in which Yumiella had shooed away the Lemlaestan army in the past, but he knew that Linus was a man with a great deal of common sense. If he was so impatient to deliver his message, then it had to be quite the emergency.
“I was the point of contact for Sir Gilbert, who has been hiding out in the Lemlaestan Royal Capital,” Linus explained. “Regarding the plan where Lady Yumiella will be pretending to lose—”
“I know of it,” Patrick confirmed. “Continue.”
“Yes, I’ve discovered the reason that our army moved up the timetable for their plans, so I’ve come here to report it! The First Armory of Lemlaesta has succeeded in recreating the sealing instrument. Its function is identical to the one used to seal away the Demon Lord in the Kingdom of Valschein!”
He was speaking of the magical instrument that had been used to seal away and trap the Demon Lord for hundreds of years. The first queen of Valschein, a powerful user of light magic, had used it against the Demon Lord, whose dark elemental nature had been vulnerable to the instrument’s full potency.
This type of magical instrument would serve as a specialized weapon against Yumiella Dolkness. It made sense that the army would move out at once if they had obtained a weapon that would work against their biggest threat.
“So they’ve come to actually take Yumiella down...” Patrick grumbled.
These squabbles occurred over and over again between the Ashbatten and Lemlaestan forces, and this time around, they were supposed to have been an even bigger show than usual with the addition of Yumiella. However, the deployment of this sealing instrument had destroyed the pretense that these military exercises were a mere performance.
It was no surprise that Linus was in such a panic. After all, Yumiella was in danger. However, although it was a difficult situation, it wasn’t like their backs were against a wall. Yumiella wasn’t even here. Though Patrick felt a strong sense of danger, he wasn’t overly alarmed. He began speaking in a gentle tone to try and calm Linus down.
“It’ll be all right. Yumiella isn’t here. If Yumiella isn’t here, then the sealing instrument is basically useless. If we just go up against them with our regular forces like we always do, there should be no problem.”
“What...? She’s not here?” Linus blinked in confusion. “But Lady Yumiella was most certainly in Lemlaesta.”
Patrick’s mind went blank for a moment upon learning where his missing fiancée had been. Why is she in Lemlaesta...? With her hair color and her strange behavior, I could imagine her getting caught by the Lemlaestan army long before managing to get here. After all, both their army and Yumiella must be heading for the Ashbatten Mark. There’s a good chance that they’d run into each other here...assuming she hasn’t already been caught.
Could she survive being hit with the sealing instrument? She’s definitely stronger than the Demon Lord, who stayed sealed away for a very long time after the saintess used a similar magical instrument on him. Still, Yumiella is just as weak against the element of light. It’s possible that the extra dark magical energy she has will make light magic affect her even more.
The various thoughts running through Patrick’s mind leaned towards a pessimistic outlook, but he got himself together. This situation wasn’t yet a worst-case scenario. There was no guarantee that Yumiella was heading for the mark. She was someone who followed the beat of her own drum, and he could just as easily imagine her leisurely enjoying herself as a tourist back in Lemlaesta. As long as the Ashbatten forces managed to disable the sealing instrument before she returned, everything would be fine.
“Let’s get rid of the magical instrument before she gets here...” Patrick said.
“They’re already here!” Linus said mournfully. “I’m sure she’s arrived by now with Sir Gilbert...”
Patrick flinched. “I guess this is the worst-case scenario.”
There was a very high chance of Yumiella running into the Lemlaestan regiment, who were unexpectedly armed with a secret weapon of the sealing instrument. The situation was, in fact, absolutely the worst Patrick could have imagined, and so he quickly ran out of the room.
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