Chapter 3 – Story 94: Battle of Caliraya 2 – Hundred Wolves Squad
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Take down Daraios in a big group! If you do, it will mean victory for Holmea!”
With the enemy supreme commander having appeared on the frontline, King Warius ordered to send forth all the rear forces. In correspondence to that, the soldiers of Holmea rushed towards Daraios who stood in the center of the front. And because of that, the frontline somehow managed to avoid falling apart after Viscount Gattos was killed.
But, this was a bad move by King Warius.
Sure, killing Daraios would allow Holmea’s army to make a big leap towards victory. But because he had all soldiers move towards Daraios, it caused big gaps in the battle formation. And one of Romania’s units started to move as if having predicted such an outcome.
Daraios also perceived as much. It was just then when Daraios was about to send a messenger to the other generals to tell them that they should exploit the openings after he had lured the enemy over towards himself as decoy.
He tried to spot the general who had so much insight to try to exploit the opportunity and the unit which had moved as if having known Daraios’s intentions, but seeing the flag flying close to the head of that unit, Daraios slightly knitted his eyebrows.
Drawn on the cloth as it was teased by the wind was a crest depicting a wolf, which was only allowed to be used by Romania’s royal family, and a white lily which signified purity.
One of his guards likewise spotted the flag and raised his voice, “That is the Hundred Wolves Squad of Her Highness, Princess Piarta!”
This squad was a knight unit which King Doldea had granted Piarta after she had selfishly demanded her own knight order. At first the king had gathered young nobles to form that squad. He had intended to make it a decorative unit made out of women alone so that they could go along with Piarta’s willfulness rather than making it a battle-hardened combat unit. For this reason, he had named the unit Hundred Flowers Squad to please Piarta who loved flowers.
But, Piarta put those noble girls through such grueling, military exercises that even the regular army became ghastly pale when watching it. The noble daughters, who had only done embroidery and poem composition until then, gave up one after the other, and Demetoria, Marshal Daraios’s granddaughter, was said to be the only one remaining at the very end.
Everyone thought that the story about Piarta forming her own knight order would end with this. But, Piarta took an unbelievable approach next. She started to recruit the second and third sons of noble families through the noble girls who had dropped out earlier.
Unlike the eldest son who would inherit the family headship, the second and third sons were outcasts, destined to remain in the family’s mansion as substitutes for the eldest son. Piarta invited those guys to her newly organized knight order. They were obviously roused by the prospect of having a new future. And even more so because it was an order by a princess.
After thoroughly sorting out the applicants and reforming the squad, now filled with overly motivated members, they were presented to King Doldea who had come to visit for his first troop review without knowing about any of this, causing him to become extremely surprised.
The king believed he’d see a gaudy knight order of beautiful noble ladies, but what he found was a group of boorish guys, whose eyes were filled with fighting spirit. Once King Doldea asked Piarta about this in a fluster, she brazenly answered, 「When I heard that you’d be giving me someone from Lord xxx family, I was sure you meant that person」.
Afterwards, Piarta would gleefully lead her unit whenever she heard about bandits appearing somewhere, completely eradicating all of them. Before long, people started to whisper, 「Those are no flowers but wolves」, and nowadays it’s an elite unit who is called Hundred Wolves Squad instead of Hundred Flowers Squad behind their backs.
“Stop them!”
The officers had noticed the movements of the Hundred wolves Squad and tried to hold back their advance in a hurry. But, the squad moved past those officers as if to ridicule them.
Everyone was shocked by the speed of that unit. However, that was no surprise either. In an era, where only commanding officers were allowed to ride mounts, the Hundred Wolves Squad was a rare unit almost completely consisting of cavalry, if you exclude the common soldiers who assisted the cavalrymen.
Moreover, they weren’t riding normal horses, but special breeds which King Doldea had bought for Piarta from a country specializing in raising excellent horses for a ridiculous amount of money. Those horses were one size bigger than the ones you could usually find in the West. Of course, they were also more powerful and they could easily carry knights with their heavy equipment. On top of that, their natural habitat were the plains. As such, they could persist on a frugal diet and they had such a rough temperament that they’d even kick wolves, their natural enemies, to death. They were hailed as the perfect breed for being war horses.
The mounted Hundred Wolves Squad was the fastest cavalry unit in the West at that time.
As they skillfully weaved their way through the gaps in Holmea’s battle formation, the Holmea’s flag, depicting the profile of a golden, vermilion lion, appeared in front of the Hundred Wolves.
While drawing a throwing spear from inside a quiver, which hung at her saddle, Piarta shouted, “Ready the throwing spears! All hands, aim at Holmea’s flag and throw!”
Piarta herself used the momentum of her horse’s speed to throw her own spear, before turning her horse around. Following her, the Hundred Wolves knights also threw their spears in succession.
The power of those throwing spears was terrifying. They had enough speed and force to penetrate not only armor, but also the human body underneath.
Many soldiers in Holmea’s headquarters fell victim to the downpour of spears, plunging Holmea’s army into a melting pot of chaos.
While hearing their screams and groans in her back, Piarta yelled, “We’re going to retreat just like this!”
Demetoria steered her horse to ride next to Piarta who was making her horse gallop.
“Your Highness! Won’t we change direction and launch another attack!?”
In this era, cavalry units had the duty to throw the enemy lines into confusion by repeatedly changing their direction and throwing spears.
Once Demetoria looked back towards Holmea’s headquarters, she saw that it didn’t look like they’d be able to pursue as the soldiers were aimlessly wandering around. It seemed like that place would easily fall apart, if it suffered another attack.
But, Piarta rejected Demetoria’s idea.
“Don’t be too greedy! I’d love to do the same, but then that man will show up!”
“That man…?”
Demetoria looked back once more and suddenly threw her eyes wide open. A unit led by a chariot, which was pulled by six horses, had advanced from the rear of Holmea’s army. That unit, which displayed outstanding discipline, started to form a strong defensive wall between the Hundred Wolves and Holmea’s headquarters, which was still in chaos.
If they had attacked the headquarters once more, that unit would have likely stabbed right into their flanks. Turning around on her saddle, Piarta happily looked at that unit. No, to be more precise, she looked at the flag flying on the chariot which led that unit.
“Now then, what are you going to do next, Your Excellency?”
And as if to answer Piarta’s cheerful question, the flag, which depicted a golden lion on black ground, fluttered wildly in the wind.
◆◇◆◇◆
Protecting King Warius’s surroundings was an elite unit called Royal Guards. But, King Warius had never stepped on the battlefield thus far. And because of that, it was the first campaign for many of the Royal Guards members, too.
There was nothing to criticize about their skills and equipment, but they clearly lacked real combat experience, which led to them losing their heads over the enemy attack at this stage that could only be described as the beginning of the hostilities.
If they had been attacked a second time at this point, things would have ended in a disaster.
The captain of the Royal Guards, who had become paler than he himself imagined, frantically shouted in an attempt to get a rein on the chaos while staring at the retreating, enemy cavalry unit as if praying that they never come back again.
But then another unit arrived from the rear, wedging itself between the headquarters and the retreating cavalry unit as if to hide them from the captain’s eyes. They were facing the enemy.
The soldiers in the front row thrust their big shields into the ground and knelt down so as to support the shields from behind. The soldiers behind them thrust their long spears out through the small gaps in the shield wall, forming a strong line formation.
And as soon as that unit had taken up position, a chariot pulled by six horses hurried towards the captain and the headquarters. A flag that depicted a golden lion on black ground was erected on that chariot.
“Why are you in such a chaos!?”
Darius roared from atop his chariot. And with just that alone, the panicking soldiers all calmed down at once.
“Swiftly form a circle around the king’s flag and get ready for another enemy attack! Flag-bearer, why are you standing around like an idiot!? Wave the Kingdom’s flag to inform our allies and enemies that the king is safe and sound!”
Normally, Darius was exceeding his authority after having his general’s rank stripped from him. But, everyone naturally accepted his orders and carried them out.
Meanwhile, Darius disembarked from his chariot, took off his helmet, and walked up to a group of knights who were equipped more heavily than everyone else. Those knights readily opened a path for Darius.
While walking past them, Darius yelled, “Your Majesty! Are you safe!?”
The one in the center of the knight bulk was King Warius who was sitting on the ground with a pale face. His usual, extremely neurotic atmosphere was completely gone while he was staring into empty space with a somewhat vacant expression.
The fear stemming from his first battle, the forcefulness of the enemy soldiers, who had pushed in close to the headquarters, and above all, the glimmer of the throwing spears’ tips, which had been thrown at him to reap his life just moments ago, had completely overwhelmed King Warius.
Coming to his senses thanks to Darius’s voice, the king clung to the old lion with an ashen pale face and a trembling that made it hard for him to keep his mouth shut.
“It’s impossible. This is too much for me…!”
Hearing that, the knights grimaced, wondering what that fool was prattling at this late stage in the game.
However, Darius knelt down without a single change on his face and grabbed King Warius’s hand with his hands.
“Your Majesty, the officers and men are still fighting for your sake. You cannot say such things despite that.”
But, King Warius looked at him with a whiny face, “That’s why I said it’s impossible for me! ――Ah, right! Darius, you do it! If you’re Holmea’s guardian deity, show me how you scatter the enemy!”
A stir went through the ranks. One of expectation.
All the officers around the king should belong to the anti-Darius faction thanks to the Darius-hater Prince Alexius. But, even those people’s faces brightened up when they heard King Warius’s demand.
The sole exception to this was Darius. He revealed a slightly bitter expression and stated, “Your Majesty, if you tell me to do so, I shall use all the power this old, weak body has to offer to fulfill your decree.”
With those words, Darius lightly bowed at Warius, put on his tuft-less helmet, and quickly stood up. His appearance reminded one of an old lion who finally got up while tearing apart the chains binding its body.
While being watched by all the surrounding officers with bated breaths, Darius inhaled deeply and then loudly announced, “I shall take command of this army from now on!”
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