Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 286: Puppet War (3)

Chapter 286: Puppet War (3)

* * *

“They have not moved at all since facing each other?”

Elizabeth furrowed her brows.

Fifteen days had passed since both armies had positioned themselves on opposite sides of the vast plains. The human army and the Demon Lord army—the public referred to them as the Kingdom and the Empire, but Elizabeth refused those terms—had both been moving with extreme caution.

Henrietta shrugged from her side of the crystal ball.

“Yeah. Seriously, I don’t know what they’re planning.”

It wasn’t her fault that the enemy wasn’t moving. That was the feeling she was getting.

“You still need the other hand if you want to clap. I tried sending them a letter and requesting a duel, but they refuse to come out. Seriously, I came here to have a big pitched battle, but it feels like a siege.”

“Hmm. How bizarre. There is nothing for the Demon Lord army to gain by stalling…….”

Normally, the attackers would be at a disadvantage if a war gets prolonged. Their supply line would get stretched out because they would have to traverse deeply into foreign territory. Protecting a long and narrow supply line isn’t an easy task.

Of course, there was an easy solution for this. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes as she asked just in case.

“Are they pillaging?”

Elizabeth had her doubts even as she asked this. Dantalian was someone who obsessed over justifications more than anyone else. It was hard to imagine him pillaging indiscriminately when this was a crucial time for wheat harvesting.

People would start to favor Henrietta more if they did something like that. Henrietta may have been cruel to nobles and republicans, but she was benevolent to the people. In other words, the people who naively believed that the Goddesses had given the Emperor a wife. She didn’t enact exorbitant taxes on them.

Sure enough, Henrietta shook her head.

“No, they haven’t. Instead, they are asking for something like a safety fee. I heard they promised to not pillage them if they hand over ten percent of their harvest.”

“I see. Ten percent of their harvest, is it?”

That was a fair amount. When you consider that thirty percent of the provisions they reserve for trade get pillaged from them as taxes, having the safety of several towns and cities guaranteed with only ten percent was incredibly generous. It probably wasn’t just an off-handed promise either. They must be keeping it strictly. As expected, Dantalian was aiming for the support of the people.

“……That makes things stranger. Henrietta, do not tell me that you are quietly letting them seize that wheat.”

“Of course not. What do you take me for?”

Queen Henrietta pouted.

“I made a detached unit with knights and I’m taking from them whenever I see their supply line. They seemed to have made their route complicated to prevent this, but they’re outsiders. They don’t know the terrain as well as we do.”

That’s right. Their supplies were the issue.

Queen Henrietta didn’t cut her escape route off simply to raise her troops’ morale. She learned how the vice-commander of the Demon Lord army had captured Heidelberg. The girl had captured the river and cut off the fortress’ line of supply.

Thus, she decided to put the river behind her so that the enemy couldn’t capture it in the first place. This was Henrietta’s countermeasure.

Being against a river increased their strategic burden, but it easily solved Brittany’s supply problem. A cargo vessel simply had to flow down the river and deliver their provisions.

On the other hand, the Demon Lord army was struggling to obtain supplies. Not only did they restrict themselves from pillaging in order to maintain their just cause, but to make matters worse, their supplies were being stolen by Brittany’s detached unit because they didn’t know the terrain that well.

“This is why I’m consulting you, Elize. I told you, didn’t I? If that vice-commander is abnormal, then why haven’t they moved yet?”

“…….”

As time passed, Brittany’s army gradually gained more of an advantage. There was no way the Demon Lord army wasn’t aware of this.

Elizabeth muttered.

“……What about the possibility of them trying to lure you into attacking them rashly because of a gloomy doubt?”

“Ah. I thought about that as well.”

Henrietta scowled as if she were displeased.

“They have Dantalian, right? And Barbatos too. Mmm, how should I say it?”

“A trick like that is far below people like them…….”

“Yup. That didn’t seem right.”

The two rulers fell into deep thought. They couldn’t figure out the other party’s intent right away.

Elizabeth let out a sigh.

“I do not know. I am sorry for being a poor consulting partner.”

“It’s fine. Honestly, if you figured out something that I couldn’t, then I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep for two days because of my pride.”

Henrietta grinned. She was being considerate. It was this side of Henrietta that Elizabeth liked.

“This is just my opinion, but there is a chance that Dantalian made a secret alliance with the nobles of Frankia. They might be planning to start a rebellion in Parisiorum while the Demon Lord army is invading.”

“Hmm…….”

“They probably intend to conquer both the outside and the inside at the same time in order to defeat us. But their plan was messed up because I purged all of those nobles. They basically became a chicken without a head. The Demon Lord army might be waiting to make a new plan because they aren’t able to do this or that.”

It was a reasonable guess.

No, no other answer came to mind when trying to explain the Demon Lord army’s irrational stance.

“……That might be the case.”

This didn’t clear things up in Elizabeth’s head. If that assumption was right, then that would mean that Dantalian had left the success factor of his plan completely in the hands of the Frankian nobles. Would Dantalian have truly done something like that?

Elizabeth suppressed her doubt as she spoke.

“In any case, I will quickly join up with you.”

On the outside, people believe that Elizabeth had left to do an inspection on the general public. In truth, she had created a knight unit under the noses of her people by scraping together small portions of the knights all throughout her nation. It was a detached force that consisted solely of 1,500 cavalrymen.

1,500 cavalrymen may not be much in a war between tens of thousands of soldiers; nonetheless, as it was still better than nothing, Elizabeth promised to personally lead the detached unit in order to help Henrietta even a little bit.

Elizabeth intended to do a surprise assault on the enemy’s backline while they were busy fighting Henrietta. The enemy will undoubtedly be surprised by the sudden assault. There was nothing more dreadful than chaos erupting in one’s backline during a battle.

It took them some time to disguise themselves with Brittany’s flag and armor. They finally finished their preparations today. No one could know that the Habsburg Republic had gotten involved in this war.

“Mhm, all right. The battle might start at any moment, after all. I’ll be in your care.”

“Indeed. I will be careful not to be late.”

As long as they didn’t know when the battle was going to begin, they had to hurry as much as possible. Elizabeth ended the transmission and went to the front of her cavalry unit.

* * *

“Are they only building fences today as well?”

“Yes. The enemy forces are currently procuring lumber from the forest nearby.”

Henrietta let out a sigh after receiving the scout’s report.

She told her friend that the fight could start at any moment, but even Henrietta doubted it. It seemed like the Demon Lord army intended to turn the open warfare into a siege. Every day, their watchtowers and wooden fences would increase in number.

“They started to create a hill as well.”

“Do they intend to fight a year-long war? At some point, they will not be able to maintain their numbers. How strange.”

Saintess Longwy furrowed her brows.

The nearby generals nodded in agreement with the Saintess. There’s a limit to how well the enemy can maintain their large army of 50,000 if they aren’t able to maintain their supply line in optimal condition. They will have to resort to pillaging or something and split their army into smaller divisions in order to procure provisions.

That was the day Brittany would be victorious. Even though there was nothing to gain by stalling for time, the enemy troops were wasting no effort in fortifying their defenses as if they were expecting a prolonged battle. Why were they doing this……?

In the end, Henrietta’s words to her friend turned out to not be a lie. It was on that night that Henrietta woke up due to the urgent voice of her general.

“Your Highness! The enemy has begun to cross the river!”

Henrietta pushed herself up with a hazy head. She rubbed her eyes as she asked back.

“……Cross the river? What are you talking about.”

“It was an urgent message from a scout. Your Highness, the enemy is utilizing floating bridges and rafts to cross the Marne River.”

Henrietta’s mind instantly became clear. The unanswerable questions she had until now were answered in an instant. Henrietta stood up in her sleepwear and shouted.

“Damn it, they never intended to fight in the first place!”

Henrietta quickly ran out while only wearing a cloak over her naked body. Her servants panicked and begged for her to at least put on her armor, but Queen Henrietta didn’t even respond to them. Her body would’ve been plain to see if it were daytime, but it was currently night.

Queen Henrietta glanced up at the sky. The night sky was filled with clouds.

“There is no moonlight either. They were aiming for this.”

Henrietta entered the tent meant for strategy meetings. Excluding a couple of generals, everyone was already present. Henrietta glared at the generals before they could get up and salute her. It was her way of telling them to skip needless formalities.

Queen Henrietta sat in the head seat.

“Report.”

“Yes. One of the scouts reported that they saw enemy troops crossing the Marne River. It was dark, so they could not see them clearly, but they said there were more than 30,000 soldiers.”

“Chances of it being a trick?”

“Almost none. However, we sent another scout just to be sure.”

A mana stone was shining brightly inside of the tent. The Queen’s naked body could be seen between the gaps of her cape, but there wasn’t a single general who was concerned about something like that. The generals of Brittany knew instinctively that they would be engaging in combat soon.

Queen Henrietta let out a snort.

“Your ruler will be giving you your orders, so there is no need for a meeting. Dispatch out troops right away. We must attack them before they manage to cross the river completely.”

“Understood!”

The generals got up and left the tent. Saintess Longwy spoke in a worried tone as she remained at the Queen’s side.

“Your Highness, what do you think their intentions are?”

“Building fences and watchtowers was all a trick. They were actually building bridges and rafts. Tsk, I didn’t think they would avoid a final clash.”

The servants moved as fast as they could to bring Henrietta’s armor and put it on her. Henrietta was furrowing her brows the entire time.

“Their goal isn’t to fight us. It’s to capture Parisiorum. Furbishing their side so they looked like they were going to carry out a defense battle was all a deception tactic.”

“Parisiorum…….”

Saintess Longwy still looked somewhat confused.

“But what could they gain there?”

“They probably intend to free the Empress Dowager and make her an ally. There are probably remnant patriots of Frankia in Parisiorum still. They most likely made arrangements with the Demon Lord army to open the gates for them.”

Saintess Longwy finally understood.

“They intend to threaten us politically and not with a war!”

“Indeed. War is nothing more than a means to an end. I had my doubts about whether they actually intended to fight or not.”

Henrietta scowled.

“As I thought, Dantalian is leading the army more than their vice-commander. This is a tactic that fits him perfectly. Regardless, they underestimated our scouts.”

The Queen received her sword from a servant. She gripped the handle of her sword tightly.

“They are at their weakest now since they haven’t finished crossing the river yet. Let’s crush the troops that haven’t crossed yet. Longwy, let us depart. Follow me!”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Hm, looking at the chapters again, this Puppet War segment is fairly longer than most other segments. I guess a lot is going to happen during this war. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.