Emperor of Steel

Chapter 213: Start of War 1

Just as Luke had predicted, the enemy began to hunt them until the borders of the Konrad territory. The day wasn’t far away, and a small number of troops had carried out day raids or night raids.

However, the attacks weren’t severe enough for the subordinates to suffer.

The only problem was that the sudden surprise attacks were slowing down their advancing forces and making the soldiers tired.

In addition, the soldiers who didn’t get to fight in the raids were accumulating restlessness, and their morale was falling down.

Among them, the 1st squadron was the most tired. It was because the enemy’s concentration of attack was at the forefront of the army.

Marquis Valentino, the chief commander of the Anti-Revolutionary Army, changed the positions of the 1st squadron with that of the 4th squadron which was at the rear.

Count Marcus, who had been transferred the mission of the 1st squadron, was leading his unit in the front.

‘Is this going to be my chance to establish merit?’

Thinking of the upcoming opportunity, he quickly ordered his unit to close the border.

He wanted to flatten out the proud noses of the other generals who ignored them.

But unfortunately, no enemy had appeared.

As soon as duties were changed, the 4th squadron wasn’t being attacked.

Marcus, who had a lot of expectations was grunting to himself.

‘Tch, cowards!’

Three days later, the Anti-Revolutionary army had arrived at an open field.

“Wah, there is a farmland over there!”

“All through the north, south, east and west, we only see the yellow and small hills!”

The knights who saw the Meltlin Plain, the largest granary of the Holy Arthenia Empire, burst out.

The Baroque Empire too had many granary areas, but none of them were as fertile and as spacious as Meltlin Plains.

Meltlin plains were so fertile and blessed that they accounted for about half the total production of food for the Holy Empire.

The emergence of the Meltlin Plains meant that the next stop was going to be Duke Perrierd.

“If we go a little further, a huge town will come. For tonight, we will rest there, so advance!”

At the command, all the soldiers moved fast.

The 4th squadron marched in the front and began to move quickly.

Have they gone longer?

As they had passed several hilly regions, Luke stared at Count Marcus with a serious expression.

“Count.”

“What is it, captain Lev?”

Count Marcus who was talking with the staff, looked over at Luke.

Although Marcus had failed to get Luke under him right away, he continued to treat him well.

So, without being restrained by the knights, Luke was able to meet with the Count right away.

Luke pointed to a hill.

“There is a possibility that the enemy is right behind there. I think we need to search the place thoroughly and then pass.”

At those words, the nobles next to the Count looked at Luke feeling ridiculed.

“What are you talking about? The scouts have already looked over. How many can be hidden behind such a small hill?! There is no time to waste! We need to get to the village by night, and it was the command!”

As the march had slowed down, the commands had been given to speed it up.

And there could be a rebuke for spending time in scrutinizing the hills.

But Luke didn’t back away from the argument.

“What would you do if a surprise attack comes from there?”

“What did you say? How dare a mercenary commander to speak like…!”

When the two men broke into an argument, Count Marcus looked flustered.

Luke and the Red Wolf mercenary were the kind of talent that he would definitely want to recruit.

However, the noble, who rebelled against Luke’s opinion, had military experience.

“We need to search, sire!”

“No, it can’t be done, if there is no ambush, the Commander General will discipline us for wasting time.”

Count Marcus wasn’t interfering, but he was feeling a lot of mixed feelings at that moment.

The 2nd squadron commander who was right behind the 4th squadron approached them.

“Marcus, what are you doing without moving? Are you picking up gold or banging some bitch?”

At the words of Maxim, the commander of 2nd squadron, Marcus frowned.

Maxim was a paladin and was currently a coordinator of the paladin knights of the Marius faction, a rival of Count Marcus.

So naturally, they didn’t harbor a good relationship, and at the frowned face of Count Marcus, opened his mouth.

“It isn’t like that, there might be an ambush up ahead, so we are discussing it over with the subordinates.”

“Huh, you weren’t deciding, you are scared. If you are afraid, let the 2nd squadron take the lead.”

At those words, Bishop Maxim didn’t listen to the words of Marcus and ordered his troops to overtake the 4th squadron.

Count Marcus who was turned into a coward, was already trying to push ahead, but the 2nd squadron was already reaching for the hill way ahead of the 4th squadron.

Even though half of both squadrons entered from the path between the hills, they weren’t attacked.

In that situation, Marcus turned very displeased with Luke.

“Captain Lev! Because of listening to your useless words, I have been turned into a coward. How do you plan on bearing responsibility for this…?”

When the Count was taking out his anger on Luke.

Suddenly, a huge fire began in the middle of the two hills, and the fire didn’t stop anytime soon.

Kwang! Kwang!

Puchk!

Gunpowder which was buried into the ground reacted with fire magic and created huge explosions that gave out a massive mushroom cloud.

The shock wave was so massive that it turned the nearby Gigants into scrap metals, and the tsunami-like flame devoured the soldiers.

“Kwaahhh!”

“Kuak!”

“Save, please save me!”

Knights and soldiers wrapped in flame were struggling for their lives.

However, no one dared to even get close to them.

Hell-like fires couldn’t be extinguished, and the gunpowder explosion which had destroyed the Gigant’s core engines and wagons were causing them to explode.

In addition, an ambush of the rebels had spilled over.

They had dug around the hills and hid themselves very carefully.

“Move out!”

“How dare you trample on our hometown! Don’t let even one of them live!”

Bishop Maxim, who was leading the group had felt like he had been stabbed multiple times by the rebels who poured out like a tribe.

Count Marcus and the noble who had looked at Luke seeing the situation unfold, couldn’t keep quiet.

The first to speak was the Count, who looked over at Luke.

“Uh, Captain Lev. I hope you give me a lot of advice in the future too.”

“Thank you, sir. But shouldn’t we be saving our allies first?”

“Of course, we need to help, first report to the Chief Commander…”

Rather watching for more devastation, Marcus hoped for salvation.

It wasn’t long, but both the squadrons were struggling with the fire.

“Don’t! Dammit! Don’t scatter!”

“Gigant troops, cover the allies!”

At the very least, the paladins and the officers who were left tried to control the squads, and thanks to that, they have managed to avoid further damage.

In addition, after saving the 4th squadron from the fire, the rebels quickly began to retreat.

In terms of power, only 20 Gigants were there in their troops. They weren’t stupid enough to conduct an all-out war against 150,000 troops with hundreds of Gigant.

In addition, the goal wasn’t the destruction of the army.

It was to hit the army’s heart and defeat their momentum, so when they achieved the goal, they turned back without regret.

“Good night, idiot! We’ll play again next time!”

“Uh! Stand there!”

The rebels were tried to be chased, but they managed to escape by throwing smoke bombs.

At any rate, the battle was over, and the army was investigating who had suffered damage.

“10,000 deaths?”

“More than 30 Gigants are done.”

Less than a handful had suffered from the ambush, but it still was a loss.

Naturally, Bishop Maxim, the commander of 2nd squadron had turned into the target for the act, and his position was narrowed by the fact that he overran the warning of the 4th squadron commander about a possible ambush.

Count Marcus opened his mouth to consolidate Maxim who made it alive.

“Tch, this was too much. Because of this coward, we only get to blame the warriors.”

“…”

“Don’t worry too much, Bishop Maxim. Today we might have fall into a mouse hole, but what might happen tomorrow is something of a mystery, so no one knows. Maybe a bright sun will shine through the rat hole?”

Bishop Maxim’s face turned distorted by shame and anger at the ridiculing consolation from Marcus.

Understanding his crumbled frowned expression, Count Marcus threw out a laugh and stepped out.