Chapter 3 – Story 78: Taste of Mud
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T/N:
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While gazing at the retreat of Holmea’s army with Baron Kantbias in charge of the rear guard, Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki asked his retainers, “Might you have seen General Darius anywhere on the battlefield?”
Shyemul, his most loyal confidant, answered to this, “Nay, Milord. He has remained absent from this battle.”
Hearing that, Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki roared in laughter.
“Oh my, I suppose I failed to catch the kitten in front of me for the sake of being prepared to face the lion.”
Although this was the height of humiliation for Prince Alexius, someone as lowly as a prince of Holmea didn’t even enter the vision of Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki.
This is a passage from the 「Humiliation of Sunomuta」 as it was written in the History of the West. Because this book included many rumors and unconfirmed statements, it cannot be said with certainty that the Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki had truly had such a conversation.
But, according to 「Shyemul’s Notes」, it’s apparently true that Holmea’s Prince Alexius didn’t really matter much to the Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki who was too preoccupied with being wary of General Darius’s moves.
After having suffered a crushing defeat despite an overwhelming numerical superiority, Alexius went down in history as a prime example of a foolish commander and he’s used as a warning to this very day.
However, Martin S. Ackerson voiced an objection to this theory. He claims that Alexius wasn’t as foolish as many people made him out to have been. For the sake of proving this, Martin S. Ackerson carried out the following experiment at the military university where he’s working as lecturer.
First, he provided the information, which Alexius might have known before the battle, such as the terrain of the battlefield as well as the equipment and numbers of his enemies and allies, to Class A and B, and then he compared which options his students chose under those circumstances.
However, on his second run, he added a certain piece of information which he only told Class B while keeping it secret from the students of Class A.
This led to the outcome becoming something very interesting. After all, close to 80% of the students in Class A opted for a frontal attack by the heavy spear infantry like Alexius did. The remaining 20% were mostly students who knew about the 「Humiliation of Sunomuta」. So, if you exclude those students, almost all students went with the same choice as Alexius.
However, almost all the students in Class B chose to avoid fighting on this terrain. This remarkable difference in outcome naturally stemmed from the information which had only been provided to Class B.
It was the information about the enemy commander being the Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki.
Nowadays, Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki is not only known as history’s worst destroyer and mass murderer, but also as an extraordinary swindler, coldhearted schemer, and unparalleled strategist.
Because of that, the students of Class B opted to avoid a battle on the plain, which usually benefited large armies, because they suspected that he’d definitely come prepared with some sort of plan.
Based on those results of the experiment, Martin S. Ackerson stated the following:
“We scorn Alexius as a fool because we know about the Divine Son of Destruction. But, back then, when people didn’t fully understand his menace yet, any general, no matter how outstanding, would have likely made the same mistakes as Alexius. But,” continued Martin S. Ackerson, “it’s also a fact that you cannot help but call him a foolish commander, if you look at Alexius’s actions thereafter.”
◆◇◆◇◆
“Pursue! Order a pursuit!”
Learning of General Darius’s absence, Souma hurriedly ordered his troops to pursue. General Darius, Souma’s prime element of uncertainty and wariness, wasn’t present. As such, this was the very best opportunity to strike Holmea’s royal army.
However, he had failed to capitalize on that opportunity due to his own blunder, albeit his forces had actually managed to encircle the enemy. Hence, it was only understandable for Souma to be flustered, believing that he had to compensate for his error at all costs.
But, Shyemul objected to Souma, “Wait a moment, Soma.”
Once Souma looked back, wondering what was wrong, Shyemul looked up into the sky.
“My body’s fur is heavy. Besides, the air is pregnant with the smell of water. This means rain is going to fall very soon.”
Lured by her words, Souma also looked up to the sky, just to find it covered by a thick blanket of heavy clouds that wasn’t there before.
Souma knew rain would be bad. Although they had attained victory, all of Souma’s small force had continued to fight from the beginning to the end, leading to unfathomable fatigue weighing down on them now.
Currently they were drunk by their great victory and thus had forgotten all about their exhaustion, but this exhaustion would definitely catch up with them in one go as soon as the adrenaline rush faded. If Souma’s men had wet bodies because of the rain on top of that, it’d drain their stamina all the more.
But, even without this, it’d still be quite dangerous to enter a pursuit battle within Holmea’s mostly unknown territory while having bad visibility thanks to the rain. Moreover, the rain would also drown out the zoan drums, and the harpyians wouldn’t be able to fly either. As such, they’d run the risk of becoming unable to control the army, because messengers wouldn’t find it easy to move about in unknown land, which would ultimately result in the soldiers dispersing and getting lost.
Still, was it really fine to let such a great opportunity slip in front of your eyes?
As Souma was plagued by that worry, a lonely rain drop fell on the tip of his nose.
“…Shyemul, tell everyone to quickly prepare the camp.”
◆◇◆◇◆
“In short, you’re saying you allowed the enemy to get away because you were vigilant of the absent black beast?” Garam asked Souma inside the tent while accompanied by the rain hitting the tightly stretched curtain with a pitter-patter.
Souma instinctively curled up his body, answering dejectedly, “Yes, it is as you say.”
At once the entire tent was filled with deep sighs by everyone. The sole exception was Jahangil who roughly blew out through his nose, asking, “Is there still more battle to be done then?”
“Well, isn’t that just fine?” Eladia intervened, apparently feeling pity for Souma who was so completely disheartened. “Thanks to your plans, Lord Soma, the battle ended in a wonderful, crushing victory for us. What if you simply consider that we couldn’t pursue and mop up the rest of the enemies inside the rain as a result of that?”
Zurgo added to that, “Anyway, you can’t change what already happened. ――The problem is what we’re going to do from now on, right?”
Everyone’s eyes focused on Souma. Because of that, Souma realized that he couldn’t indefinitely stay disheartened and raised his face.
“Originally I planned to withdraw to Bolnis at this point, but I think we should pursue them.”
If they had succeeded in completely destroying the Black Wall, the symbol of Holmea’s military might, they wouldn’t need to worry about invasions by Holmea in the near future. If that had happened, it’d become unnecessary to invade Holmea while stretching their own supply lines thin. Rather, it’d have allowed them to retreat to Bolnis and apply pressure through diplomacy afterwards.
However, they didn’t achieve a full annihilation of the enemy because of Souma’s blunder. Still, because they were able to defeat Holmea’s army partially, even Souma didn’t expect Holmea to quickly be able to launch a new attack on them. But, what weighed on Souma’s mind was the possibility of General Darius making an appearance at such a time.
This battle should have clearly labeled Souma as a great threat for Holmea. And it’d also prove that General Darius, who had been bringing this up all the time, was correct in his assessment.
If this led to General Darius’s release from house arrest, the one leading the next army arriving at Souma’s doorstep would be General Darius. If that happened, things wouldn’t go as smoothly as so far.
Right now Souma was overwhelming Holmea, but back when he dropped into this world, Souma’s troops only consisted of the Fang Clan’s zoan. Yet, Souma kept winning which allowed him to gain his current superior standing.
It was unthinkable that Holmea’s strongest general, Darius, wouldn’t be able to pull off something that the likes of him had accomplished, Souma believed. No one would be able to tell whether Holmea’s and Souma’s situations would be reversed tomorrow.
In the end it’s necessary to chip away as much of Holmea’s strength as possible before General Darius enters the fray for real.
Souma explained his reasoning to the others, but there actually existed another reason why he decided to pursue Holmea’s army. A reason he definitely couldn’t voice out.
Aura, the Goddess of Death and Destruction.
Although Souma had made the mistake of misjudging the endgame out of fear over General Darius’s shadow, no one would be able to dispute that it had been a huge victory where Souma’s forces won against an enemy with twice the number, when looking at the entire battle progress.
The losses to the loser Holmea were unfathomable at this point. And if they were to approach the kingdom with diplomatic efforts, they’d likely be able to secure pretty nifty conditions for themselves without having to suffer any further casualties. Furthermore, it’d also be a smart move to whittle away Holmea’s strength by influencing Holmea’s generals to draw them to Souma’s side.
Either way, if we anticipate that our power will overwhelm Holmea afterwards, it’ll become possible to conquer Holmea without any need to fight any further.
However, that alone made Souma uneasy.
He couldn’t believe that this ill-natured goddess, who had tormented and scolded him so much before the battle, would be content with such an outcome. Souma was sure she’d cause more troubles. That sort of prediction, or more like conviction, was nesting inside Souma.
But, naturally it was impossible for Souma to find out the truth about it. Just like he couldn’t know that a lone, poisonous snake would hear a report about the Battle of Sunomuta several days later and start moving to trigger more troubles――
◆◇◆◇◆
“Light the fires! Bring out the provisions from the storehouse! Warm the wine in pots and treat the soldiers, who came back, to it!”
The next morning, Adomius’s voice echoed throughout Fort Garaf which lay east from the bridgepoint. He was the sole survivor among the regimental commanders of the Black Wall.
Currently the remnants of the defeated army, the soldiers who had somehow managed to escape that hell alive, returned to Fort Garaf one after the other. But, they all looked miserable.
Fearing the enemy’s pursuit, they had continued to flee without getting a wink of sleep. Now all of the soldiers were plagued by weariness and hunger while they used their spears or swords as canes to somehow remain standing on their own two feet.
Not a shred was left of the dignity they had displayed when they departed the fort the other day. Moreover, it was their bad luck that rain had settled in right after the defeat, lasting all the way until past midnight. Even under normal circumstances rain would drain their stamina as it cooled their bodies, but on top of that the rain clouds hid the moon and stars, causing many soldiers to get lost in the cold, wet darkness.
Adomius was running about, trying to console the soldiers, who somehow managed to make the way back, as much as he could.
“Selfishly doing as you please is going to mess up our future plans.”
But, the one pouring cold water on Adomius’s efforts was the captain of the guards who had been stationed in the fort from the get-go. It took Adomius a lot of effort to resist the urge to yell insults at the man.
This was an era where it was normal for the majority of the soldiers to run away in all directions, once their army lost a battle, as the concept of strict military rules wasn’t widespread. Despite that, some soldiers had come back even while being covered in mud all over. Adomius wondered what else he should do, if not console them. At least he knew those soldiers wouldn’t come back after another defeat, if he didn’t try to take care of them now and here. Moreover, the soldiers, who had watched it, were the same as well.
If they didn’t handle things one way or another right now, there wouldn’t be another time.
In the past Adomius had lost in a war, too. Even nowadays the warmth of the wine, which General Darius had personally handed out to him inside the fortress he had barely managed to reach alive, still heated his heart.
“I have sent a request for relief supplies to Luoma in our rear. I’ll take full responsibility for everything!”
The fort’s commander looked rather unhappy about Adomius making such a declaration, but he didn’t raise any further objections. Yet, the words he whispered under his breath at that time struck Adomius’s core.
“What strongest army corps? They’re nothing more than losing mutts…”
Naturally Adomius had resolved himself to face that sort of insult. Up until now, the soldiers of the Black Wall were treated preferentially in many ways. The label of the Black Wall being the strongest of Holmea’s army corps was the reason why people deigned them this treatment.
However, the tale of their invincibility had now been shattered. And it was pretty predictable that the animosity towards their favorable treatment thus far would now rear its ugly head in the open. Even so, those words still hurt Adomius as he had lost many good comrades alongside that tale of invincibility.
On top of that, just then a message reached them as if to deliver the finishing blow against Adomius.
“The enemy! The enemy pursuit has caught up!”
That yell triggered screams to arise among the soldiers. Adomius ran through the crowd of soldiers and went up to the top of the wall. There he could observe a group approaching from the direction of the bridgepoint. The group was still far away, but there was no doubt about it being the revolting slaves.
“Fuck! Those bastards plan to thoroughly annihilate us!”
This fort couldn’t accommodate all of the soldiers who had barely managed to return from the battlefield. At this rate, they’d be forced to fight the enemy while not being able to depend on the fort’s walls. But, in such a case it wouldn’t be much of a battle to begin with.
The soldiers, who took refuge here, were still reeling from having been completely trashed and almost slaughtered at the bridgepoint. They’d likely scatter in all directions like a flood from just the prospect of the enemy approaching.
As Adomius was wracking his brain how they should hold back the revolting slaves under these circumstances, a voice called out to him.
“Adomius, why are you dilly-dallying around like some slowpoke!”
It was Alexius. Adomius found some hope that the prince might have got back on his footing again after one night of sleep, but that proved to be premature joy.
“We won’t be able to defend a fortress as small as this! I will head over to the city of Luoma!”
No sooner than saying that, Alexius jumped on the horse prepared for him by an attendant.
Adomius called out to him in a hurry, “Please wait, Your Highness. Even if we fall back to Luoma, our losses will be too high if we expose our unprotected backs to the enemy!”
“He is completely right, Your Highness!”
It was the fort’s commander who agreed with Adomius on this point.
“If this fort falls, nothing will stop the revolting slave from swarming into Holmea! We must reinforce the fort’s defenses here and repel the enemy!”
For the commander it’d be a very serious matter to allow the fort under his charge to fall. If something like that happened, King Warius would lop off his head as he didn’t manage to accomplish his duty, even if he succeeded in escaping the fort.
However, Alexius coldly brushed off his appeal.
“In that case, you are to defend the fortress to the last man as rear guard!”
The commander tried to garner support from those around him in panic, but all of them averted their eyes. If they were to say something stupid in this situation, they might end up in the rear guard as well.
Only Adomius nominated himself to remain here.
“Your Highness! In that case, I shall join the rear guard as well. I shall defend this place until you manage to escape to safety!”
However, Alexius wouldn’t have any of that and immediately denied the request.
“I order you and those soldiers to protect me!”
Although their legend of invincibility had fallen apart, it didn’t change the outstanding abilities of the Black Wall soldiers. From Alexius’s perspective, it was only natural to keep those elites at hand for the sake of guaranteeing his own safety.
Adomius was extremely unwilling, but he had no choice but to obey when it came to Alexius’s decree. Besides, they couldn’t afford to show the many soldiers, who were uneasily watching this exchange, how the commander Alexius and his only regimental commander were bickering with each other.
Leaving behind the fort’s commander who looked at them with the eyes of a puppy who had been discarded by his owner, Alexius left the fort while only taking a part of his attendants and followers along. Adomius followed them while leading the hundred cavalrymen under his direct command.
As he spurred on his horse, Adomius looked back. Thereupon, he spotted a great number of soldiers following them in an attempt to withdraw together with them after learning of Alexius’s departure from the fort. All of them threw away their weapons and scramble to run away first without a care about ranks or files. Adomius also saw a soldier in the glorious black armor among them. It caused him to feel a sadness as if somethings was being torn out of his chest.
This was no retreat, but the continuation of an escape.
As he cursed about that in his mind, Alexius’s voice reached him from in front.
“Pew! Pew! Pew! Bloody hell! I got mud in my mouth!”
The horses of the riders, who were leading the group in order to guide them along the road, were kicking up mud. Some of it had entered Alexius’s mouth and now he was insistently spitting out, trying to get rid of it.
Adomius suspected that Alexius was very likely also aware of the shameful behavior he was exposing. Apparently unable to simply remain silent, Alexius was frequently complaining while on his horse.
Adomius couldn’t help but quietly click his tongue at that.
Why is he bitching around like a silly lass over something as insignificant as some mud entering his mouth? Even at this very moment, many of our soldiers are crawling inside mud, trying to get away. Compared to that, a bit of mud in your mouth isn’t even worth a mention.
“Aahh, I see.”
At that point, Adomius suddenly understood something.
Until now, Alexius hadn’t been allowed to join anything but battles where his side would win in order to not stain his personal record as prince of Holmea. Because of that, this was likely the very first defeat Alexius had experienced.
While revealing a bitter smile on his lips, Adomius muttered, “Didn’t you know a loser’s taste of mud up until now, Your Highness?”
◆◇◆◇◆
Soon after Alexius fled, Fort Garaf was encircled by Souma’s troops. But then again, the soldiers’ fighting spirit was low after having been forced into defending the fort to the last man by Alexius and just one or two stones thrown by the catapults, which the dwarves had brought along, were enough to readily make them surrender.
Even Souma felt disappointed by the lack of resistance due to this. But, once he learned that it was owed to Alexius withdrawing without setting up a decent rear guard, Souma immediately ordered the pursuit while advancing the seizing of the fortress himself.
Of course, the ones charged with that task were the zoan led by Garam and Zurgu. Alexius’s suffering was still going to continue.
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Translation Notes: