Chapter 3 – Story 64: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 4 – Helmet Carrier
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Deputy Corps Commander Hiakis of Holmea’s strongest army corps, the 「Black Wall」, had obtained his rank purely based on ability without any regards to his lineage or family. He, who was being regarded as the true commander of this corps, was evaluated to be first or second when it came to military command, even amongst generals, within Holmea.
But, that didn’t just stem from his rank, but also his multitude of combat achievements he had accumulated over the years.
As General Darius’s right-hand man, he participated in many battled that could only be described as brutal. Not only included this battles against Holmea’s longstanding enemy Romania, but also the clearing of bandits as well as the subjugations of local insurrections at many occasions.
If Hiakis himself hadn’t kept refusing a promotion, he’d have long been a general by now. And some say that he might have even risen to become Holmea’s marshal.
However, Hiakis’s evaluation of himself differed completely. He saw himself as a mediocre commander. Of course, Hiakis had more than enough pride to claim that he was far more capable than some random general working in Holmea’s army staff.
He strictly adhered to the very basic stuff such as preparing supplies and materials, choosing the routes of advance, fully grasping the battlefield, deploying battle formations, closely monitoring the battle progress, and swiftly ordering his soldiers. But he was confident that he could perform those tasks, which other generals would delegate to their subordinates and vassals, at a level above average. Moreover, even General Darius would have never entrusted him with the post of Deputy Corps Commander, if he wasn’t capable of at least that much.
But, even then, he would only be able to become a general who could perform within the boundaries of common military sense. More than anyone else, Hiakis was keenly aware that he’d never become a great and famous general who would mark his name in history.
For this reason, he ended up unintentionally agreeing when he had heard for the first time about General Darius raising a young man called Marius as his successor. Back then, many of his comrades were worried about Hiakis. All of them shared the idea that Hiakis, who had been serving as veteran aide of General Darius and Deputy Corps Commander of the 「Black Wall」, would become the general’s successor.
Hiakis, on the other hand, lightly laughed it off, simply telling all these people that he didn’t particularly mind. And hearing him repeat that over and over again, his comrade uniformly looked disappointed by his lack of ambition.
Of course, Hiakis couldn’t avoid feeling pangs of jealousy as well. But, the feeling that it was inevitable was much more predominant inside him.
Besides, thought Hiakis, what I desire hasn’t been to become General Darius’s successor. What I desire is to be at the side of that man. I want to be right next to him and directly experience what that man sees, thinks, says, and feels. That’s all I wish for.
Those critical of him called him the Helmet Carrier of a Famous General.
Helmet carrier referred to a page who would follow commanders like generals around while taking care of their helmets. It was a nickname you could rightfully see as an insult towards Hiakis who was considered as equal to generals in rank and ability. Yet, Hiakis actually felt proud of that nickname.
But nowadays the helmet he ought to hold was gone. The helmet of his famous general had been tossed into the dirt and become sullied by mud and filth thanks to the 「Divine Son of Destruction」, the enemy standing in front of Hiakis right now.
Under normal circumstances, clearing the name of General Darius would have been the duty of his successor Marius. However, the young man had taken the rear guard for the sake of allowing his general to escape and lost his life after bravely holding off the enemy. Marius’s life had burned out before he could prove his qualities which were extolled to be so outstanding that he might have even excelled General Darius someday.
In that case, it’s not my duty to clear the stigma afflicting the general’s name. Picking up his mud-caked helmet and getting rid of its dirt is something only I, the Helmet Carrier of a Famous General, can achieve. Sure, I’m no more than a worthless, incompetent helmet carrier who follows his general around like a lapdog. But, Hiakis thought.
“The helmet of Holmea’s strongest general isn’t easy to hold by any means…,” Hiakis muttered with a daring smile on his lips, before gazing at the battlefield.
The terrain of the battleground had a gentle, descending inclination for some time, before turning into a gentle ascending inclination from halfway between Holmea’s subjugation force and the revolting slaves all the way to the riverbed of the Conte. Because of that Hiakis, who was commanding the Second Division, could also see the elven mounted archers who were toying with the First Division.
“A unit that shoots its bows while mounted, huh? Certainly, that’s a sight that would shock most people. But even so――”
The generals he had witnessed in the past crossed Hiakis’s mind as he muttered those words. Up until now, he had faced off against all sorts of different generals. Just as there had been men who could be called resourceful generals as they exhibited a divine ingenuity, he had also encountered brave generals who had overwhelmed enemy armies with their belligerent valor like Daraios, the current marshal of Romania. Yet, just as some commanders had been idolized by their soldiers for being compassionate to a degree that you could call them soft, he had also squared off against righteous commanders who had earned themselves the deep trust of their fellow commanders for their high degree of morality. And above all, Hiakis had had the opportunity to keep watching every action of the renown General Darius from nearby.
Each time he found himself in front of such commanders and generals, Hiakis had always been overwhelmed as the ordinary man he was. But, that didn’t stem from the military achievements or appearances of those commanders, but because those men had something to them which somehow overpowered, encouraged and charmed others. And each time he felt that, Hiakis was vividly reminded that he was doomed to become no more than a mediocre commander.
And because he had seen them and evaluated his own value like that, Hiakis could clearly tell.
“――those riders and their commander are no more than young chicks who have started to flap their wings just now.”
Most certainly you can describe mounted archers as terrifying. They are able to freely gallop across a battlefield and hit an enemy where it hurt. No, I think it should also be possible for them to lure an enemy out of a fortified encampment by deliberately pretending to flee. But, I don’t feel anything from them, even though they’re supposed to be an enemy unit equipped with marvelous abilities.
The experience, which Hiakis had gathered until today, told him that he had nothing to fear from those enemies. And it also became very clear, once he observed the mounted archers with a calm mind.
He could see that the elves were in dire distress as they shot their arrows while holding onto the reins. Among them, some even had to separate from the unit as they were forced to hurriedly avoid running into their allies. This was clear proof of the soldiers’ lacking proficiency and experience. Moreover, the same also applied to the unit’s commander.
Once Hiakis took a look at the First Division, he found some soldiers around the division’s general suppressing their unrest while others still were visibly shaken to no end. The elven archers would doubtlessly register as a threat, if their commander could utilize her unit to spread the chaos by deliberately and boldly attacking the sections of the division where confusion was still festering.
However, the commander wasn’t capable of that. For a while now, the mounted archers had been crossing to the right and to the left in front of their enemies, merely shooting arrows. Their commander didn’t take any drastic measures out of fear that she could lose the soldiers under her command. It was almost as if she was diligently iterating the basics of chariot deployment as it was written in textbooks.
Hiakis suspected the enemy commander to be a novice. And because that commander only grasped the basics, she couldn’t draw out the full potential of her archer unit, let alone capitalize on its advantages.
And Hiakis wasn’t wrong about this either.
Eladia wasn’t military personnel to begin with. Eladia was a master in debates and negotiations who exhibited a rare sort of ability due to her art of conversation and discernment which she had honed as a former high-class Prostitute Princess.
However, where her skill in archery was concerned, she was no more than 「above-average」 for an elf. Even though she was better than other archers of her race, it wasn’t as though you could actually describe her as an outstanding, great archer.
On top of that, she hadn’t experienced leading many soldiers, or even fighting battles for that matter, until she was released from slavery by Souma. Moreover, she hadn’t been born with the natural gift of a commander who could fight while commanding others like Garam and Zurgu.
The reason why she led the archer unit despite all of this was to be found in the other elven women having insisted on her taking the command.
Although Eladia used to be called a high-class Prostitute Princess, it didn’t change the fact of her being a sex slave――even if her treatment might have been different. And yet she had invest a lot of effort into helping her brethren. Most of the elven women, who had been sold by the Empire together with her, knew about this. For that reason, they accepted Eladia as their leader.
And for the sake of meeting their trust, Eladia had been training her archery and horsemanship while carrying out her abundant duties as Chief Court Lady. Back during her time as high-class prostitute, she had read through various works such as the writings of the famous general Inkdias in preparation for conversations with clients hailing from the military field. Albeit only theoretically, she had grasped the basics of strategy, and in addition to that, she had even asked Marchronis, a male human whom she ought to hate, to teach her, and studied the methods of military drills under him. She had observed the way Garam and Zurgu moved their warriors, and frantically pondered why they had chosen certain options while discarding others.
As such, she had put much more work into honing herself than anyone else during the last five years. But, all of this was ultimately theoretical. Eladia was crucially lacking live-combat experience. Eladia was well aware of her own shortcomings in regards to commanding others, and yet she kept piling up experience and investing a lot of effort, making it possible to categorize her as a diligent-study-type of commander, just like Hiakis was.
However, those types of commanders often had the fatal flaw of lacking experience. Yet, that served as no reason for Hiakis to hold back.
“Her soldiers are also inexperienced. And with their commander being just as inexperienced, there is nothing to fear from them.”
No matter what marvelous power they might be hiding, if the soldiers are being led by an inexperienced commander while being inferior in skill themselves, they won’t pose much of a threat. Not to mention that there’s only a hundred of them. The level of damage doesn’t amount to much either. As such, we just need to deal with them without getting deluded by them being mounted archers.
Hiakis summoned a runner and gave him the following instruction: “Message to General Rakius! Tell him to calm down and reinforce his defenses. Don’t get tricked by horse-riding. As long as your defenses don’t fall apart, it makes no difference whether quick-footed archers run about while shooting their arrows. Rather than that, keep your attention to the front!”
He furthermore stressed, “This is a decree by His Highness Alexius. His Highness wishes an overwhelming victory through a beautiful battle! Bear in mind that you will have to face a strict punishment if the ranks of your division should become disarranged at some point. Make sure to tell him while emphasizing that point!”
General Rakius was Hiakis’s superior in rank. He had used Alexius’s name to not get talked back to, but the runner merely repeated the message without questioning anything as he fully understood the implications.
While watching that runner rush off towards General Rakius with his white mantle fluttering in the wind, Hiakis summoned two more runners.
“A message to the Third and Fourth Division. Advance 50 steps and hold there.”
“…Huh? Hold there, you say?”
Once Hiakis looked at the runner who doubted his order instead of reciting it, Hiakis noticed that this soldier appeared to be affiliated to the royal army. Hiakis got angry as the generals of the royal army apparently hadn’t trained their runners properly.
“Are you suggesting that the chariot units of the Third and Fourth Divisions should eliminate that cavalry unit? Those two Divisions are protecting the flanks of the Second Division. Are you saying they should expose an opening in front of the zoan who are quick on their feet?”
“E-Excuse me!! ――A message to the Third and Fourth Division. Advance 50 steps and hold there. I shall pass on this message!”
Hiakis sighed deeply at the runner who panicky spurred his horse into a gallop. Then he shifted his attention back to the elven archers who were attacking the First Division.
“It would be suicide to try fend us off on this ground with nothing but a cavalry unit who shoots arrows. All these pesky, little tricks are unnecessary. We will simply crush them with our numbers,” mumbled Hiakis.
But, he didn’t know that Darius had once said in a place outside his ear’s range, “Hiakis is the one most capable of implementing the tactics desired by me. As long as he is around, I can take off my helmet with peace of mind. And that Hiakis’s nickname of 「Helmet Carrier of a Famous General」 was a pun on those words of Darius.
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“A decree by His Highness Alexius, you say!?”
General Rakius became pale after hearing the runner’s message. Only now did he realize that he was still fighting in front of Holmea’s prince. Him displaying such a deplorable leadership despite that would directly affect his future promotions within the royal army.
“Tell H-His Highness that there is nothing to worry! ――You lazy assholes, don’t break the ranks! If you move without permission, you’ll be cut down!”
With General Rakius shouting around, his direct subordinates hurriedly got their own soldiers under control. Thanks to that, the First Division proceeded towards somehow recovering its command. Watching that, General Rakius felt relief spread in his chest, but then the sound of a drum reached his ears from behind.
“W-What is it now? This rhythm…『Front』?”
The drum repeatedly signaled the rhythm for 「Front」. Which didn’t mean to advance, though. It was an expression of Hiakis having lost his temper over General Rakius’s blundering.
“Front? Not advance, but only front? What’s with that?”
Once General Rakius quickly shifted his attention to the front, he got surprised. The elven archer unit was visible over there. While he and his men had been preoccupied with the mounted archers, the regular archers had secretly drawn close. At this point, they had already entered the range of their bows, and they also had finished their preparations to shoot their arrows after getting their defenses ready by raising the shields.
“Oh no! Turn your shields to the front!”
Because they had only been watching the elven cavalry running sideways, the First Division’s shields, which would usually be lined up into a firm wall, were now pointing all over the place. If they were to get hit by a barrage of arrows like this, they’d suffer heavy casualties.
As the general quickly shouted his order, the soldiers finally noticed that they were exposing their defenseless bodies to the enemy archers, and quickly rearranged their shields.
“Hurry!!! The enemy arrows are coming at any moment!”
Angry roars filled the air all over the First Division. But, no matter how much the commissioned and commanding officers yelled, it was impossible to build a shield wall so quickly. Because the soldiers hurried too much, they violently clashed their shields against those of their comrades, resulting in an increasing number of soldiers falling over.
The elven archers, who had finished their preparations, finally released their arrows.
A rain of arrows mercilessly poured down on those soldiers who had been late in hiding behind shields and those who got pushed out from behind their shields by their comrades. Because of all this, the First Division suffered quite a few casualties.
“T-This is not…this is not how it should have been!”
The enemy’s less than 400 soldiers against our 2,000 soldiers; even though we should have overrun them with ease, we have been one-sidedly done in by them, if you only look at the results.
General Rakius ended up dumbfounded for a while, but once he regained his wits, he unleashed a stream of violent rage.
“YOUUU! Fucking whores!!! ――Hurry up and line up your shields! We’re going to counterattack! I don’t mind you ignoring the cavalry! Whatever you do, fire your arrows!”
General Rakius was stomping his feet in anger, but he wasn’t the only one having his plans go awry.
“Elder Sister! The enemy is ignoring us and has started to exchange an arrow rally with our archer unit!”
Eladia lightly bit down on her lower lip as she heard the yell of an archer galloping behind her while firing an arrow at the enemy.
“We will continue attacking like this! We will move around in front of the enemy, confusing the enemy soldiers as much as possible!”
Eladia, who was supposed to inflict one-sided attacks around this time, was also irritated by the battle progressing in a way that was beyond her control.
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