Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 304

Chapter 304 

Side Story: Memories of a Princess (55)

“General Laiasha has made a move!”

“He’s heading east! Just as Sir Ast said, he’s moving east!”

Hearing the soldiers’ shouts, Ast raised his voice.  

“Withdraw, leaving only a small elite force! Just make a show of haphazardly attacking them!”

“What should we do if they counterattack?”

“Fire threatening shots from a distance where they can’t counterattack! Our opponent is General Laiasha! If anyone dies from engaging with them, they should be considered natural deaths, not killed by the enemy’s attacks! It would be too humiliating for them to die like that!”

“Understood!”

“Yes!”

“He is the Empire’s precious talent. Although he is not able to shine in the Kingdom of Merdeah now, if we bundle up some achievements for him, the Kingdom of Merdeah will also recognize him!”

“Understood!”

Hearing Ast’s words, the officers defending the east quickly began to withdraw.

“We really should try not to make it too obvious…”

“With the excuse that we’re moving to support other areas, it will mean there are spies among officers or higher if information leaks out.”

“It’s an opportunity to weed out spies, but not as important as General Laiasha”

“Indeed.”

I had never even imagined doing such things, so I thought only Ast was capable of it, but it turns out the Kingdom of Merdeah also had individuals who could take actions beyond imagination.

“I can’t believe he would head east…”

“Didn’t I say he would go east?”

“It was an action that doesn’t make sense according to common sense.”

According to common sense, no one would flee into enemy occupied territory. 

Unless our whole army was under attack, who would deliberately charge into where the enemy lies?

“I guess similar people think alike, huh?”

“Are you talking about me?”

“Yeah.”

Every action was unpredictable by human standards.  

Ast was that kind of person, and so is General Laiasha.

However, there was a difference,

“I’m not like that!”

“Yeah. Unlike General Laiasha, all your plans have succeeded.”  

Ast’s plans succeeded, while General Laiasha’s did not.

“If you had failed, would your evaluation be similar?”

“There are no meaningless words like ‘if’. With an ‘if’ attached, anything becomes possible or impossible, so it’s meaningless.”

That was true.

It was meaningless to change the past.

Regretting what had already happened and thinking what if I had done that ,was meaningless indeed.

“Rather than wasting time on what ifs and if onlys, it’s more productive to think about the future.”

“You’re right.”

“So ‘what if I failed’ is not important. ‘I failed’ is what matters.”

He will not fail.  

That’s what Ast was saying.

“Alright, hang in there.”

“…Shouldn’t you be offering support or help here?”

“Haven’t I been helping you plenty already?”

I believe in Ast. He is an excellent talent with outstanding abilities.  

“You have the best talent for pissing people off. 

He wasn’t a talent, but rather a disaster. That was Ast.

“Go ahead and torment the enemy all you want.”

“Was that… A compliment?”

“Of course.”

From an ally’s perspective, it was the best talent.

Occasionally pissing off his own side was a flaw, but considering the adversity and hardships the Kingdom of Merdeah has yet to face, it was at a tolerable level.

“So show me what you’ve got.”

“That didn’t sound like a compliment at all… Well, I should do work equivalent to my salary.”

Ast quickly glanced over the map he had and flashed an evil grin typically seen only in novels, like a black devil.

“First… To highlight our brilliant commander General Laiasha’s tactics, we’ll have to kill everyone except in the east.”

I need to correct myself.  

His grin wasn’t evil like a black devil, he himself was the black devil incarnate.

*70 Their Circumstances: Circumstances of a Soldier

“It’s an enemy attack!”

“It’s not an accurate attack. Don’t waste your magic unnecessarily!”

“Just block the attacks that fall near our allies!”

Arrows, stones, and magic falling everywhere. 

The attack was less than expected, but the current state of our allies was not good either.

Still, the troops led by General Laiasha did not even reach 10,000. 

According to the words I heard from General Laiasha’s soldiers, not all were dead but seemed to be scattered, but being scattered in the enemy camp is as good as counted as dead.

And even if some got lucky and escaped the encirclement, there would be no fool returning to the army. 

“Bl- block them! I said block them! You exist to protect me! So protect me!”

As long as an embarrassing guy like that leads the army, there would be no one among them who would want to return to that army.

“The enemy numbers are less than expected! Move quickly!”

The one fortunate thing was that General Laiasha’s aides were not so incompetent. 

Of course not all were like that, only half or a third were decent.

“Captain, what should we do?”

“Follow that knight and break through the encirclement. That knight is trustworthy.”

He seemed very natural in not only commanding without panicking at the enemy attack, but also intercepting magic with his sword skills.

Though he looked to be in his 40s externally, his smooth wielding of the sword made it seem he was much older.  

“He must have served the former General Laiasha.”

With him at the center, several knights were clearing a path.

The soldiers following behind them were also different from the other soldiers.

Among General Laiasha’s troops, which seemed to be an unorganized mob made into an army, these soldiers showed coordinated movements that even the kingdom’s elites would have trouble matching.

“Following them is the best choice. However….”

I turned my head slightly to see other soldiers escorting General Laiasha and the nobles around him.

The soldiers silently carrying the nobles who were hurling insults despite being saved by them.

Seeing the contrasting scenes only made me let out a sigh.

“Our army won’t get any bigger right?” 

Starting with our platoon that first arrived, about three companies worth of troops had joined.

Not a small number, but still insufficient considering the opponent was the Karan Empire.

“Isn’t the entire army surrounded?”

“Further support will be difficult.”

“Any other place it may have worked, but having to go east…”

“Indeed.”

The ally would have to escape towards a more favorable area for reinforcements to arrive.

For the army already fighting, allies entering an area where the enemy lies in wait… Any commander hearing this news would be tearing their hair out while sitting on the floor.

“But the enemy numbers aren’t large?”

“That’s true. General Laiasha’s tactics may succeed.” 

“I hope that’s the case but…”

The opponent was the Karan Empire.

Their military might was said to be on par with the Merdeah Kingdom’s, but what happened after the war started? Were there proper victories?

No, there were none.

Killing Imperial 13th Corps Commander Pelstein, who was known as a mastermind and one of the empire’s best, was the first and last achievement of this war.

And that was a gain made by sacrificing several times more troops.

Since then, not only did we lose the vanguard that killed Commander Pelstein, we lost General Arisetia, who could be considered the core of the army.  

The damage was on different scales.

Commander Pelstein was called a mastermind but was just one of many corps commanders, while General Arisetia was responsible for the Merdeah Kingdom’s entire military might – they were on completely different levels.

While General Arisetia’ life cannot be easily measured, he was at least worth five or more enemy commanders.

A cold evaluation must be made.

Looking solely at the results so far, our army had only been defeated by the enemy.

That meant the enemy was militarily superior to our army.

The enemy is superior to our army.

Accepting that and looking at the situation, rather than thinking the enemy vacated the east to attack elsewhere, it would be better to assume they made it seem like they subtracted troops to bait our army.

“Look, look! The enemy attacks are weakening! They must be intimidated by our numbers!” 

“Yes. They likely sent reinforcements elsewhere so their numbers here are fewer.”

“As expected, this General’s foresight is the best in the Merdeah Kingdom, no, the continent!”

Of course, it’s unlikely General Laiasha thinks that way.

Isn’t he still acting like he’s some hero, buoyed by the flattery of the surrounding nobles?

That’s a mistake. 

It might be best for the Merdeah Kingdom if he quickly died.

“What is he saying?”

“Shh! There are many listening ears.” 

But it would have been foolish to repeat it verbatim.

I really can’t understand it, but General Laiasha’s soldiers had sworn loyalty to the Laiasha family.

That’s why we have to be careful, extremely careful. 

Because we don’t know what might happen if those fiercely loyal soldiers catch us.

It would be better to think of them as mercenaries rather than fellow soldiers.

“I spoke out of turn.”

“No. Their loyalty is stronger than expected.”

That must mean the previous General Laiasha was excellent. The incompetence of the current General Laiasha is incomprehensible.  

“Still… Let’s wait and see as General Laiasha said.”

We haven’t encountered the imperial army of the Karan Empire yet. 

The unstoppable magic that exists in the empire hasn’t appeared either.

While the possibility of a trap still remains, that is the worst case I imagined.  

(Green Dragon, annihilated.)

Just then, a short message popped out of the communication magic tool.  

“What?”

The Green Dragon refers to the division waiting on standby in the west.

How could that division, the safest one that hadn’t been attacked at all, be annihilated?

(What do you mean?) 

(This is the Red Dragon. Green Dragon side, respond!)

(This is the Green Dragon . Sending the last message. Green Dragon, annihil…) 

With the sound of something enormous falling, the communication was abruptly cut off.  

(Green Dragon? Green Dragon? I hope someone from the Green side appears, anyone will do!)

The other sites desperately started looking for the Green Dragon, but not only was there no response from Green Dragon, there was no contact from any other Green coded sites either.

The sudden annihilation of the Green Dragon division.  

A chill went down my spine in that instant.

“W-What is this?”

“The western division has been annihilated.”

It was a trap.  

If we had retreated westward, it’s likely we would have been annihilated without knowing what hit us. 

And that is…

“Th-that’s right! Didn’t I say so! That we must go east! If we had gone west, our lives could have already been lost!”

It means General Laiasha’s nonsense ramblings were correct.

“With the west breached, they must have pulled out forces from the east. This place is safe!”

What sounded like nonsense just a while ago is starting to gain credibility.  

Even for the empire, it’s unlikely they could eliminate an entire division so quickly without even a chance to communicate.  

With magic communication tools assigned to every mage in each platoon, that should be the case.

In a normal company, there were at least 4 communication magic tools.  

For a division, there would be close to hundreds of communication magic tools. 

The fact that communication was impossible despite that means a massive number of personnel were killed in a sudden bombing, or the imperial army thoroughly blocked communication magic.  

The former and the latter both require a lot of manpower.

Operations that can’t be utilized without prior preparation.  No matter how many imperial troops there were, considerable forces would need to be mobilized in order to completely eliminate a division.  

For that reason… it’s highly likely they pulled out forces from the already advantageous east side.   

“You need only follow my words. I will lead you. Follow me!” 

General Laiasha, who was trembling with fear just before, seems to have gained confidence and starts walking ahead boldly.  

“Squad Captain…”  

Feeling extremely uneasy about that sight.  

About that appearance I absolutely did not want to trust.

Not only the other soldiers, but I was also consumed with anxiety, yet there was nothing we could do.  

“There’s no other way. We have no choice but to believe in General Laiasha…”

The only thing we could do was pray for the great gods to show mercy upon us.   

And perhaps the gods did take pity on our plight?  

With no battles whatsoever, we were able to break through and survive the eastern side.

“See! While the entire army was annihilated, I alone am different!” 

The only one among our forces.  

“My command is flawless!”

Oblivious that he had expendable forces inserted solely for his own survival, General Laiasha led the troops in attacking the imperial army before I could even desert.  

And naturally the imperial army took that assault and…

“See! We have won!”

They were seemingly flustered and started fleeing the headquarters.

…Huh?

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