Eliza chapter 46 – Defensive battle at Fort Jugfena, Part 4

“I can’t get a good read on the enemy’s intentions. I think the Densel army must have realized that we left Fort Jugfena…… But as for where they went after departing from their camp and leaving decoy scarecrows behind……”

“Indeed, it feels like they’re plotting something.”

In fact, I can’t think that it could be anything other than some sort of trap. We chatted while trying to get a good look at the Great Plains where their camp was, and Ergnade agreed with me that it could be some sort of trap.

“……I’ll command the knights and go inspect their camp. Everyone else, be on standby here.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to be doing nothing here while we still don’t know the enemy’s intention?”

“That’s indeed the case, but we’re currently at the Great Plains with a wide view of everything around us. It should still be safe to just approach the enemy camp. You should return now to the left wing formation, and proceed with the original plan of having your domain’s army be in charge of protecting the Shiru tribe from any attackers on their tail once they are located. Could I ask you to relay the current situation to the Franks squad captain as well?”

When I heard him mention the Franks squad, bitter feelings towards the vice captain of the Franks squad surged up within me as I recalled my recent encounter with him. There’s no point in passing along any messages to someone that won’t listen to you.

……Him ignoring my orders in that situation, is a serious offense that will have to be taken care of when all of this is over. At the very least, he can be charged with disrespect towards a noble, I wonder if that white-bearded vice captain will still be able to retain his position at the fort after that.

“I understand.”

I swallowed down my feelings and nodded. Then, I suddenly felt like I was floating again as Ergnade picked me up once more.

“Good girl. Take care of yourself.”

He whispered that to me in a very kindly manner as he dropped me off back onto my horse. And so, once again I was now sitting in front of Paulo, the novice soldier, who had been struggling with controlling my horse by himself.

I hurriedly took the reins as my horse neighed and reared slightly. As I took control and had my horse start heading back, I took a peek back in Ergnade’s direction.

He was nowhere to be seen already.

 

I headed for the Franks squad’s vanguard. Since the center formation’s troops had stopped moving, it seems like the other wings’ troops were slightly confused as to what was going on.

“Is the Franks squad captain here?”

Their vice captain had just come over to my army earlier, so I figured that their captain would most likely be leading their vanguard, but once again it was the white-bearded vice captain that came up to greet me. The vice captain smiled at me, and asked, “what’s the matter?”

“It’s an order from Ergnade-sama, to stop marching your troops. The entire army is to be on standby for the time being. Anyhow, where’s the captain?”

“If you’re asking for the captain, he just headed over to the Kaldia army.”

“Wha?”

Because I heard something so unexpected, I couldn’t help but respond in an embarrassing fashion. What exactly would the Franks squad captain want with my army?

I saw a glimmer of malice in the vice captain’s smile.

“Just earlier, our captain noticed Viscountess Kaldia heading off somewhere. Since we can’t have an army without a commander, the captain headed over there to be the acting commander in your place. After all, it’s quite well-known that the Kaldia army is such a low grade, disorganized army that it doesn’t even have military ranks.”

“…………”

With a child as his opponent, he was gleefully saying such base things with clear malice, not even trying to hide his intentions. Faced with his vileness, I could only feel that I don’t want to deal with him for any longer than I have to.

“I think our army’s definitely a grade above from being under incompetent leadership that can’t even accurately assess the situation on a battlefield.”

Paulo who was sitting behind me suddenly butted in with his comment. It was really sudden and he said it quite forcefully.

The white-bearded vice captain’s detestable smile finally disappeared.

“What……?”

“Underestimating someone just because she’s a child, having a dumb brain, and the bad taste of making fun of nobility, I think it’s wonderful that there’s nobody like you in the Kaldia army.”

The things I wanted to say to the vice captain, Paulo said for me without worrying about any consequences, cheering me up greatly. It might be that he’s too tense from the possibility of encountering battle for the first time and he’s forgotten his place.

I didn’t feel like accompanying the vice captain whose face was turning red for any longer, and I turned my horse around to leave. As my horse started galloping, it was a simple matter to put a lot of distance between me and the vice captain in a short amount of time.

The vice captain, who had been quite slow to react, raised his arm up for some reason, which I didn’t see. Well, I would have been too annoyed to consider thinking about what he could have meant with that anyway.

Well then, I wonder what my army’s been doing. According to the vice captain, his captain should be with my army currently. I wonder what kind of person the captain will be, why don’t I see for myself.

“I’m really so sorry, I arbitrarily interrupted my lord in the middle of your conversation.”

As we left the Franks squad, Paulo sitting behind me apologized for his rudeness. Since I had found what he was saying hilarious, it had completely removed all my tension.

“It’s fine. I was feeling like my ears were getting dirty just from listening to his filth.”

As we continued on our way, Paulo laughed raucously.

“So that’s what my lord was thinking. As I thought, you seem even more mature than I am.”

 

When I returned to my army, my army was marching onwards, while I could hear Gunther angrily bellowing at someone.

“Like I said, don’t just selfishly decide on your own to take charge! Viscountess Kaldia personally said that I could take command here!”

“What’s the fuss about, Gunther?”

As I covered my ears slightly to shield them from Gunther’s powerful shouting, I called out to Gunther.

“……Oh, ahh, my lord. Perfect timing. Could you get rid of this guy?”

When Gunther turned around and looked at me, I could see that he had a really frustrated expression. Since Gunther reaches boiling point quite easily and is prone to using his fists when he gets angry, he’s really showing quite a lot of self restraint. It must be because of the rank of who he’s dealing with.

“Ahh, Viscountess Kaldia. I see that you’ve returned, welcome back.”

Standing next to a frowning Gunther was someone who spoke up in an overly cheerful voice that seemed terribly out of place on the battlefield. Looking up at him, I saw a middle-aged, well-built man with a face that reminded me of a reptile’s. He must be the captain of the Franks squad.

“……Gunther, there’s an order from Ergnade-sama to have the troops stop marching. The entire army is to be on standby.”

I ignored the flowery language from the captain and directly gave Gunther an order instead, and Gunther sighed, saying finally as he took out his sword and raised it to give his orders. The captain’s eyeballs were moving about in all directions as he watched us.

“Stop the marching!”

All my soldiers immediately stopped marching. After all, the Kaldia army is quite small. One of the benefits though, is that commanding them is quite simple.

The captain who had come here on the pretext of taking command because of the lack of command ability in the Kaldia army, had quite a bored expression on his face as he watched us.