Chapter 140

The Holy Empire Army infiltrated various parts of the village.

As soon as General Pretzel’s orders were issued, they launched a coordinated attack.

“Fire!”

“Wipe them all out!”

Over a thousand soldiers from the Holy Empire Army revealed themselves from the roofs and alleyways.

With their concentrated gunfire, the Frantz Kingdom Army at the front collapsed like bowling pins.

“Don’t panic! The first unit will commence return fire, while the others lead the civilians to take cover behind the obstacles!”

The Frantz Kingdom Army, centered around the trapped civilians in the plaza, formed a defensive line.

Although they were completely surrounded, they quickly responded under Commander Myura’s orders.

“Tsk… Their reaction is quick…”

Seeing this, General Pretzel clicked his tongue in frustration.

Ambush and surprise attacks were tactics that aimed to take full advantage of the enemies’ confusion.

You could unleash maximum damage while the enemy is in disarray.

In that sense, the enemies who were responding steadily to our assault significantly diminished the effectiveness of the ambush.

“Well, it’s of no concern. Our goal is to keep the enemies occupied. Continue the attack!”

“Yes, General!”

Following General Pretzel’s orders, the Holy Empire Army maintained their offensive.

The cannons hidden within the buildings spat fire.

The heavy shells engulfed in flames soared towards the Frantz Kingdom Army’s position.

There were not only Frantz Kingdom soldiers there but also villagers, yet they didn’t concern themselves at all with it.

From the perspective of the Holy Empire Army, both soldiers and civilians were merely enemies.

Above all, the plundering that had continued up to this point strengthened this mindset.

-KWANG!

“Ugh!”

Homes struck by bombardment exploded, sending wooden splinters flying in all directions.

Without a hint of hesitation, the enemy’s assault continued,

And Myura’s expression deepened with worry.

‘I expected this, but these bastards truly are relentless… They seem determined to wipe everything out, civilian or not.’

Thus, while simmering with anger, Myura and his men prepared to wait as long as possible until the enemy bombardment ceased.

No matter how numerically advantageous they were, they had no intention of engaging head-on against cannon fire, so they exhibited calm patience.

They carefully noted the location of the smoking cannons with their eyes.

Then, a short while later…

At last, the moment the enemy bombardment ceased…

“Everyone, attack! Capture the cannons first!”

With Myura’s command, the soldiers swiftly transitioned to the offensive.

At first glance, it seemed they were simply charging at the enemy in overwhelming numbers, but in reality, it was not so.

Even if ambushed, gunfire needed reloading time, and cannons required even longer.

The Frantz Kingdom Army took advantage of that gap to strike fiercely.

In response, General Pretzel began rallying the Holy Empire soldiers as well.

“Stay calm! Don’t panic and load your guns! Reinforcements will arrive soon… Ugh!”

“! Genera—!”

A bullet flew from somewhere and shot General Pretzel right in the chest.

As he bled and collapsed, his officers rushed to him in alarm.

But at that moment, General Pretzel’s eyes couldn’t see that scene.

The enemy’s gunfire rained down from all sides.

Wood splinters flew, and the air was thick with the stench of gunpowder and blood.

In that chaos, one by one, his subordinates fell.

A soldier collapsed with a bullet in his head.

An officer with wooden fragments embedded in his chest succumbed.

And his vision began to blur increasingly.

No matter how well they ambushed, they could not hold out against the overwhelming enemy coming from all sides.

Still, General Pretzel held no regrets.

The objective of buying time was practically achieved.

He felt a rush of joy at the thought that he could wash away even a fraction of his disgrace.

Clinging to his fading consciousness, he leaned against a wall with the help of his subordinate.

“Are… are you alright, General?”

“I’m… fine… Is the main force… General Wallenstein, is he still not here?”

“Ah… not yet. But don’t worry; we’ve bought enough time. We won’t let them escape.”

“Right… it should be… it must be… this place should become their grave… cough!”

“General!”

Despite coughing up blood, General Pretzel forced a smile.

There were no priests here, and he could not escape death.

It was regrettable that he couldn’t witness the moment of victory with his own eyes,

But at the very least, he wished to see the beginning of it…

To leave a record of the enemies’ confusion at the hands of his main force, he squeezed every last bit of strength to remain conscious.

However…

“…Ah… still not yet? No… why the heck hasn’t the attack started? Hasn’t enough time passed already?”

“Uh… I don’t know either. The promised time has long since passed, so why…?”

Despite most of his subordinates having fallen, there was still no sign of the main force’s attack.

As he pondered this fact…

Simultaneously, he felt his consciousness fading.

General Pretzel’s relief began to transform into unease as time went by.

At that moment…

“G-General! T-This is bad!”

“What… what is it?”

“W-What happened?!”

A blood-soaked Empire soldier crawled toward them.

He was relaying messages between the main force, and he spoke in a frantic voice.

“T-The main force… the main force is under attack.”

“What… what do you mean?”

“That… that… ugh…!”

“General!”

The soldier was making sounds he could hardly understand.

But before he could hear a detailed explanation, General Pretzel couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed to the ground.

His consciousness faded rapidly.

Facing the unavoidable death, the one thing he understood was this:

Something had indeed gone seriously wrong…

And because of this, the plans were failing.

In that final moment, feeling profound despair, General Pretzel died without being able to even properly close his eyes.

*

Our pirates and Revolutionary Army soldiers were milling about near the Holy Empire Army.

Thanks to the excellent slicing they had done before, they had been on a continuous winning streak, and the morale among the soldiers was incredibly high.

Moreover, they had also accumulated ample military supplies from thwarting the enemy’s supply attempts periodically.

While it wasn’t completely finished yet, the tide of battle was flowing favorably in many facets.

In this situation, I spread the Circle of Magical Power to grasp the enemy’s movements for the next encounter.

A radius of 20 kilometers.

I could roughly grasp the enemy movements nearby, but unfortunately, I couldn’t cross a certain line.

As before, there was another Grade 12 existence in that direction, and she could block my attempts at espionage.

So, without grasping the main force’s location, I could somewhat sense that there were enemies there.

Just like now, it was entirely possible to detect enemies that had separated from her influence.

And at this very moment, within my Circle of Magical Power, I detected the movements of the enemy’s special forces.

The direction they were heading was…

“Balmi…?”

“Right. Seeing the movements of the detected enemies, it’s highly likely their next target will be there.”

A small village located on the path to Pare, Balmi.

And… a group of Holy Empire soldiers numbering around a few hundred, just shy of a thousand, were heading there.

The detected troop numbers were not very high, and it seemed the main force’s presence was undetected, indicating they were at a certain distance.

At a glance, they seemed to be moving for plundering, just like before.

However…

“I feel like we should be careful this time.”

“Huh?”

Despite the normal situation revealed by the Circle of Magical Power, I exhibited a decidedly different reaction.

Naturally, Naopleona expressed her confusion, so I seriously explained the situation to her.

“Even so, the enemy isn’t foolish. They’ve lost over ten thousand troops, so they won’t keep using the same numbers.”

“Hmm…”

“Moreover, they’ll soon arrive in Pare, and if they continue to experience consecutive defeats, things will become challenging in many ways. Their morale has dropped to rock bottom, and public sentiment has plummeted, plus we are glaring down at them with our guns. They’ll need at least one victory to change their momentum.”

Circumstantial evidence,

However, beyond that, I held a strong conviction that there must be something more to this matter.

Thanks to my stellar handling of melons, I had been leading us to victory,

But in the original work, the battle where the Revolutionary Army achieved its first victory was the battle that took place here in Balmi.

The Holy Empire Army, having lost here, lost its momentum toward Pare,

And ultimately, they suffered continuous defeats in the ensuing battles and retreated.

Although the circumstances were now completely reversed, the chance of a twist was highly likely.

Thus, I laid out the reasoning behind what couldn’t be said while tying it to this location’s name spoiler, easily convincing Naopleona.

“Indeed… there’s logic to your words. Plus, with how we’ve been winning consecutively, it’s natural for us to become complacent.”

“Though we’ve been winning, we’re still outnumbered by them. If an all-out war breaks out or we fall into a trap, we could suffer irreversible damage.”

“I understand what you mean. So, what shall we do from here on out?”

Naopleona asked seriously.

To which, I replied with a smile on my face.

“We need to withdraw, just as they wish.”