Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 415

415

Beyond Hope

‘When the battle begins, our Hispana forces in the center will feign retreat, falling back little by little.
At the same time, the Suin and Nudians on the left and right flanks will fiercely press the enemies’ sides.’

‘Commander,
what if the center is breached…?’

‘We’ll deploy the reserves and fairies behind them.
We’ll make the enemy’s front line protrude towards the center, slowly pressuring them from the flanks, and then push forward when the northern warriors join the battle.’

Ludwig knew better than anyone that this was an extremely dangerous operation.

Luring the enemies deep inside meant showing them that the center was about to collapse, enticing them to advance.
However, if the center were truly breached, the formation would be split in half, and the army would be divided and conquered.

‘I know what you’re worried about, Vice Commander Ludwig.
If the center is overwhelmed while drawing in the enemy, the army will be split, leading to a massive disaster.
That’s why the one who holds the center is crucial.
In that sense, I’d like you to take on the role.’

‘Me?’

‘Marquis Volko held the central army in his lifetime and achieved many feats.
The soldiers of Hispana naturally expect the head of the Ledenen family to stand and command at the center.
Although he is gone, you will succeed him as the new head of the Ledenen family, a glorious nobleman and knight of Hispana, and establish yourself as the new commander for the soldiers.’

‘…’

‘I believe that would be the best way to honor Marquis Volko, who is watching us with some concern from elsewhere.’

Hearing Sion’s words, Ludwig thought of his father, whom he could no longer see.
He had never shown it, but Ludwig had always noticed the faint smile that Marquis Volko tried to hide whenever Ludwig achieved something.

‘…’

Ludwig clenched his fist, thinking of this.
Then, with eyes full of determination, he looked at Sion and said,

‘I will fulfill my duty, even at the cost of my honor and my deceased father’s honor.’

‘Make it so the enemies have no choice but to enter, even if they know it’s a trap.
Completely trap them and kill them one by one.’

Ludwig nodded.

Then, amidst the cacophony of the battlefield, he continued to issue orders.

“Fall back five steps!
Fall back!”

“Five steps back!
Back!”

The Hispana army’s formation retreated in unison, little by little.
Retreating was far more likely to disrupt the formation than advancing, something only well-trained units could attempt.
However, these were all battle-hardened veterans, gritting their teeth against the enemies’ attacks and slowly retreating.

“Adjutant!
What’s the news from the flanks!”

“The Suin and Nudians are still pushing the enemies hard.
As soon as the northern warriors appear from the rear, we can proceed as you instructed!”

“They must arrive without delay.”

Zan and Eos, and the fiercely savage northern mounted warriors.
At first, some had ignored them, judging by their appearance and their small, unimpressive horses.
However, after seeing them fight a few times, Ludwig, the Hispana knights, and the soldiers could no longer speak lightly of them.
Their combat skills were equal to, if not greater than, their own, and above all, they showed no mercy.

Ludwig never imagined that those warriors would retreat in defeat, causing trouble for them instead.
He could only wait for them to secure the rear and form a perfect encirclement before the central front collapsed entirely.

“Vice Commander!
The front line is in danger!
The enemies’ attacks are too fierce!”

“Hold on.
You must hold on.
Our allies will soon strike the enemies’ rear.
If we fall, the encirclement will fail, and our allies on the left and right will be in danger!
You must endure.
Remember your comrades who fought to the end at the old defense line, knowing they would die for their allies!
Don’t show them a shameful sight!
Even if we die, let us face death with honor before those who have gone before us!”

If Ludwig were just a simple commander, the adjutants and soldiers would have reacted indifferently.
But this Ludwig was a member of the Ledenen family and the man who would soon become the next marquis.
Above all, he was the only son of Marquis Volko Ledenen, who had insisted on defending the front line in the previous battle and died for his soldiers.
That man was now taking his father’s place, leading the soldiers in the central formation instead of staying in the rear.
He didn’t need to fight, didn’t need to die, but he was risking everything to defend this place, just like his father had.

“Kuh…!”

“Hold on!
Hold on!”

“A death without shame!
Death!
Death!”

Clang!
Bang!
Clink!
Clang!—

The battle between those who sought to break through and those who sought to defend was fierce and desperate.
The Holy Prusian side knew that if they broke through the center, the enemy formation would collapse completely, so they used everything at their disposal to batter the Hispana defense line.
They put so much effort into it that they deployed three or four soldiers to a space where one would normally wield a spear and shield.

Naturally, the battle became even more desperate, but conversely, the Holy Prusian soldiers experienced increasing confusion.
Soldiers kept crowding into the gaps that were only suitable for one person, making it impossible to move or even swing their weapons.

“Uwaaaa!”

“Waaaaa!”

Blood splattered, and lives were lost in vain, with other lives and other existences disappearing on top of them.
Countless soldiers screamed, shouted even louder, hurled curses filled with hatred at each other, and then clashed, died, and were wounded again and again.

The front line, which had been pushed back and forth, gradually became fixed due to each side’s circumstances, and finally, the Hispana army drew the enemies in, causing their front line to curve into a crescent shape.

“…!”

“…!”

Ludwig, who was commanding from the front, suddenly noticed that the enemies were wavering.
They were about to break through their formation, but they were suddenly showing such a reaction, so there could only be one reason.

“Now’s the time!
Push them!
Push!
Push!”

“One step forward!”

“One step forward!
Forward!”

Uwaaaaa!

Thump!
Thump!

The Hispana soldiers signaled by stomping on the ground and banging their shields.
Then, the fairy warriors who had been waiting behind them once again rained countless arrows down on the Holy Prusian army.
The enemies’ central formation was shaken by the arrow rain, and the Hispana army, which had been pushed back, pushed forward, instantly killing the Holy Prusian soldiers who were exhausted and trapped in a space too narrow to swing their weapons.

“Keugh!”

“Kyak!”

The shouts of the Holy Prusian commanders, telling them not to be pushed back, rang out from everywhere, but the terrifying news coming from behind them occupied the soldiers’ ears and minds.

“Enemies have appeared in the rear!”

“We’re surrounded!
Those terrifying barbarian warriors are attacking from behind!”

Even the slightest tremor in the army can quickly turn into a massive storm, sweeping away and completely destroying soldiers and commanders.
Moreover, if such a storm were to strike in the midst of a fierce battle like now, it would be the same as a complete defeat, just before fleeing.

“Kill them all, without exception!”

Meanwhile, Zan and Eos, having annihilated the enemies’ rear units and beheaded their commanders, began to ravage the Holy Prusian main force, wielding terrifying weapons such as spears, maces, and axes.
The rear is the most vulnerable part of any formation.
That’s true even when standing still, but if enemies attack the rear while they’re fighting fiercely like this…
If mounted cavalry charge in, screaming, instead of just infantry, any soldier, even a battle-hardened veteran, would have no choice but to sense defeat.

Clang!
Bang!

“Keoeok!”

“Keuk!”

If the northern warriors had only used light cavalry, they would never have been able to instill fear in the Hispana army.
Light cavalry, whose main weapon is the bow, may be effective at harassing the enemies’ defensive formations, but heavy cavalry must enter to break through those formations and go inside.
In other words, for the Holy Prusian side, it was the same as well-armed knights jumping in, and even worse, the Suin and Nudians were fiercely pressing on the flanks, so they couldn’t provide support and were struggling to deal with their own situation when the northern warriors charged in.

“Aaaagh!”

“Save me!
Save me!”

The Holy Prusian soldiers, who had continued to advance to break through the center, ultimately failed to do so and were trapped there, hindering each other’s progress.
Meanwhile, the flanks were completely overwhelmed and pushed inward, and the northern warriors, who had broken through the enemies’ rear units and knights, roughly rode their horses and ravaged the rear.

Completely surrounded, the Holy Prusian soldiers had no space to reorganize their formation, no space to raise their shields, and no space to swing their weapons, and they were increasingly on the defensive.
The battle that would resume from now on was closer to a one-sided massacre than a battle.

“Kill!”

“Dirty bastards!
Death to those who have defiled the light!”

“They’re the Nudians’ enemies!
Don’t let them live!”

“Haaaak!
Let’s protect our paradise, bare your fangs!”

The boundaries between the central, left, right, and rear units collapsed, becoming a tangled mess, and even orders could not be properly conveyed.
There was no escape, only enemies approaching them and the hostility and murderous intent etched on their faces.

“Fight!
Fight!”

“For the light, for the light!”

However, the Holy Prusian soldiers, the zealous fanatics, the radical fairies, and the celestials only burned with the will to fight to the death rather than surrender.
They cried out that they would kill even one more heretic or sinner before they died, showing their will to resist.

“Waaaaaaa!”

The battle resumed, and a more terrible fight than ever before began.
As expected of those driven into a corner, their resistance was so fierce that the Hispana, Nudian, and allied forces suffered even more casualties than before.
However, the Holy Prusian side suffered even greater damage than the blood they shed.
Small units were sacrificed all at once, and the field commanders drew their swords and died in the melee, unable to command any longer.
The same was true for the fairies and celestials.
They were stronger than the Holy Prusian knights, but they couldn’t be active in a situation where they were surrounded by enemies.

“Aaaaah!
Light, oh light!”

“Aak!”

If they killed one Hispana soldier in front of them, other soldiers with crazed eyes would stab the fairy’s back with a spear, and the celestials would be riddled with wounds and collapse, breathing their last.
As they had said in the past, that they would rise for the light and die for the light, they lost their lives for what they believed to be the light.

“There’s no need to rush.
Kill them one by one, thoroughly, from the outside.
Like peeling an onion, one by one, one by one!”

“Yes, Temujin!”

“No prisoners, no mercy!
Kill them all!
Kill!”

The sight of the northern warriors charging in after cutting off the heads of the rear unit commanders and sticking them on spears was a terrifying sight that made even the Holy Prusian soldiers, as well as the fairies and celestials, shudder.
Zan, who was leading those warriors, finally cut off Bade’s head with her own hands after a close battle, stuck it on the flag of the standard-bearer who followed her, and used it to demoralize the enemy by announcing that even the stigmata [marks resembling Christ’s crucifixion wounds] they boasted about were all fake.

“Temujin!
Temujin!”

Zan, who was ravaging the enemies in the rear to put an end to this war,
frowned at the next words of the messenger who suddenly called out to her and approached.

“What?”

“Kingdom soldiers have spotted strange monsters, referred to as ‘monsters,’ in the rear again.
Unfortunately, they are gathering in the rear of the Hispana soldiers who are currently engaged in fierce battles, so if we leave them alone, our allies may be broken before the enemy!”

Those who don’t know the situation will be angry, saying that the enemies are trying to find a way out with cowardly tactics again.
However, Zan, who had already experienced a similar situation, could only think of Sion when she heard the reconnaissance report that monsters were coming.

‘Why?
Why?’

As expected, the first thought that came to her mind was ‘doubt,’ that she couldn’t understand the reason.
It was a winning battle, a situation where they could achieve the best victory by annihilating all the enemies without a single survivor if they continued to push forward.
But why would Sion suddenly do such a thing, especially when they were pushing the enemies so hard?

‘Could it be that it’s not Sion’s plan?
But Lilith, that woman, is on this side?’

Zan bit her lip and continued to ponder, but the only answer she could come up with was that.
Whether this was Sion’s plan or a sudden accident, the relatively mobile northern warriors had to go out to defend the flanks and rear of their allies.

“Change the flag.
And tell Eos.
I will immediately leave the front line to intercept the monsters, so tell her to take charge of the rear front line in my place.”

“Yes?
But Temujin!
If you do that, the encirclement won’t be perfect, and some of the enemies may take advantage of the gap and escape!
If that happens, later…”

“If we make a fuss about killing even one more enemy, our allies will suffer more damage in reverse.
Stop talking nonsense and change the flag.
And my bodyguards will immediately turn their horses and head in the direction the monsters are coming from.
The rest will gradually withdraw from the front line so that the enemies don’t notice our reversal.”

“Yes!
I will follow your orders!
Temujin!”

Immediately, the warriors under Zan’s command turned their horses and began to gallop in another direction.
At first, Eos and the commanders of each unit were embarrassed by her sudden action, but soon, the scouts reported that monsters were approaching from behind again, and they realized that Zan’s actions were actually justified.

“Those bastards—I’d like to chew them up and swallow them!”

“Dirty things, are you really joining hands with the demons because you can’t do anything else!
Disgusting!”

“There’s nothing more to see!
They’re just flashy guys.
They’re different from those of us who want to reach the light no matter what; they’re just talking and only the descendants of the light on the outside.
Kill them, kill them all!”

At the same time, they burned with hostility towards the enemies in front of them more fiercely than ever before.
They thought that they couldn’t end it properly because of their dirty and cunning tricks in a situation where they had already won, so those who had suffered so far were bound to feel frustrated.

“Waaaaaa!”

“Charge!
Charge, charge!”

There is so much blood flowing now that it is so thick that we probably won’t be able to wage such a great war again for decades to come.
In other words, Sion was capturing that magnificent, tragic, and brutal sight in his eyes without missing a single detail, thinking that he might never see such a great battle again.

“Young Master Sion.”

At the very familiar voice, Sion turned his head.
Then he smiled as he found Kim Yoo-hyun standing there with a slightly tired expression, looking at him.

“You’ve worked hard, Kim Yoo-hyun.”