“Battlegroup Clausewitz is now engaged with the enemy. Heavy bombardment from enemy shützes is ongoing.”

  As Wilhelm finished reading the paper handed to him by one of his aides, he turned to his colleagues, who were inside his temporary office.

  “Seems like he really wants to reach Perlenstadt quickly,” Wilhelm smiled.

  “Of course,” Richard grinned. “Time isn’t on his side.”

  They are currently based right now at Fort Denken, situated just north of the Monile Palace. It overlooked one of the major routes that Henry could use to travel westward to Perlenstadt.

  At the moment, Fort Denken was where the command structure of the 2nd Group Army was located. The rest of the 2nd Group Army itself was scattered throughout the Empire’s western and central regions.

  Battlegroup Clausewitz, which was made up of the XIV Corps, two extra attached army brigades, and multiple Royal Guard ordos supporting them, was tasked with defending the Rutherford Pass and other passageways in the Rutherford Mountain Range.

  It was the centerpiece to Wilhelm’s defense plan. The towns and terrain in Rutherford formed a natural barrier that could slow down the FRA’s advance. Secondarily, it was also a route that would let the FRA get close fast to Perlenstadt.

  Should they break through Rutherford, they would be free to advance through the flat plains of the Empire’s western region. They would then be able to easily capture Fort Denken and the Monile Palace and set out to Perlenstadt in a matter of a week or two.

  That’s why I knew he’d come there.

  Now, while most commanders would use this opportunity to over-fortify Ruthenford, Wilhelm decided against that. He didn’t build extensive trench lines and stopgap fortifications in the gaps of the mountain pass.

  He didn’t even send many troops there. Battlegroup Clausewitz may sound huge to the untrained ears, but they were just thirty thousand soldiers facing what was most likely one hundred and sixty thousand FRA troops.

  “We should reinforce Battlegroup Clausewitz at once!” General Pascal bashed his fist on the table. “I’m going to order my officers to do just that. We can’t just sit here acting like everything’s calm and normal.”

  “Pascal, you should calm down.” Wilhelm poured Pascal’s glass a little bit of his thirty-year-old Monile red wine, which he acquired earlier from Alexa’s palace. “It’s the first battle, and things are going according to plan so far.”

  “I agreed because I didn’t expect that Henry would bring his full wrath to Rutherford,” Pascal frowned as he took his glass. “I know that at this rate, the XIV will be overrun.”

  “The XIV will hold on for a while,” Wilhelm said. “I’ll give them two or three days. They have significant support from six Royal Guard ordos. That alone is massive.”

  The Royal Guard’s ordos were units made up of knights that were reorganized earlier by Alfred for frontline deployment. Each one was roughly battalion-sized, with fifteen ordos numbered from the 1st to the 15th existing in their order of battle.

  Wilhelm decided to deploy them with the XIV to form Battlegroup Clausewitz because many of the knights from the Royal Guard’s ordos were trained combat mages and other high-level individuals. There were even [Paladins] sent by the Holy Church that were attached to the ordos. As such, they would be a great force multiplier near the mountain range.

  All in all, he expected Battlegroup Clausewitz to overperform relative to their size. Unfortunately, not much else could be expected from that. Wilhelm’s plan was to wear down the enemy before committing to a decisive battle after all, so Battlegroup Clausewitz will have to make an orderly withdrawal soon.

  “Move the IV, VII, XI, and XX corps out of the central region,” Wilhelm said to Pascal. “Since they already fell to our trap, there’s no reason for us to hold on to territory there.”

  “We’d be abandoning huge swathes of Imperial territory this way.” Pascal was unable to even take a sip of his wine.

  “This war won’t be decided by territorial gains,” Wilhelm rebuked his fears. “It will only be decided by a few decisive engagements. Remember, Her Highness doesn't want a war of attrition. I intend to satisfy that.”

  Wilhelm stood up, looking at a map of the empire on the side of his office’s wall. His eyes went through the cities that would be in the FRA’s path to get to Perlenstadt.

  Truthfully, he was making a massive gamble here. Refusing battle and giving in territory to stretch the enemy’s supply lines and weakening them before a pitched battle was fine and dandy, but, at some point, should he fail in making it all pay off…

  Then the empire will be doomed.

  Not that he would allow that to happen.

  After all, Wilhelm hated losing.

  +++

  The 4th ‘Azalea’ Ordo of the Royal Guard, made up largely by ambitious noblewomen who joined the Empire’s knightly orders, was now deep in battle. Scoffed at by most other units in the military and the Royal Guard as a fancy parade unit, they found their first chance to prove themselves to the Imperium at last after being attached to Battlegroup Clausewitz, named after its commander, Lieutenant General Max Clausewitz.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  They were currently assigned to defend a small town southeast of the Rutherford Mountain Range. Facing more than five enemy battalions, they were badly outnumbered. The enemy, who called themselves ‘revolutionaries,’ were also well-motivated, contrary to what the noble knights of the Azalea Ordo expected.

  The brutality of the fight was not to be understated. The enemy came at them first with heavy schütze bombardments, which reduced the fields and the town they were in into barely recognizable rubble. Then, out from the craters of wounded earth, hundreds of soldiers emerged to charge at them.

  Luckily, with the number of specialist mages and casters in the Azalea Ordo, they managed to significantly reduce their casualties. Every time the enemy sent fireball artillery at them using schützes, barrier spells would spring up to prevent damage in positions occupied by the knights.

  Even when the enemy infantry charged in with waves, casters armed with staves mowed them down from their dug-in positions. As a result, with each hour that passed, while the number of craters and rubble in their positions grew, the bodies from the ‘revolutionary’ side also grew.

  But the enemy kept coming, like an endless tidal wave that wouldn’t be easily stemmed. They were motivated by pure zeal, all of them shouting their allegiance to the Free Republic and the upstart Henry Richard von Hecker.

  It was why, by the fifteenth hour since the start of the battle, Captain Rosa Mary von Hecker began to feel herself faltering in the face of the enemy’s advance.

  “Bring this message to General Clausewitz,” Rosa said, handing a letter to one of her officers. “Make sure it reaches him.”

  “Of course, Milady. Consider this task done.”

  “Stay safe and good luck.”

  The young knight in front of Rosa immediately rushed out of the ruined church, running straight to her wyvern that was waiting outside. On the other hand, Rosa cursed the heavens once the young woman flew off.

  She joined the Royal Guard ages ago because she wanted to advance the ranks and bring honor to their countryside noble house. Yet, fate now played a strange joke on her.

  Her older brother, who she had always regarded as a crazy one even before he even joined the Defense Forces, pulled off the craziest stunt that eluded her comprehension.

  He just started a goddess-damned mutiny!

  Now, that mutiny dragged the entire Lotharingian Empire into disarray. She knew back then that his strange ramblings about nobility and royalty being ‘stupid’ were out of line, but this was beyond out of line.

  Rosa worked hard to get strong, climb the ranks, and rack up achievements that would bring wealth and glory to the House of Hecker. Even her father, a count, was so proud of her that he didn’t marry her off, and he supported her endeavors.

  Now, she was in a miserable town, being bombed into smithereens, all while fighting for her life against soldiers commanded by her own kin. It filled her with rage, but there was nothing she could do about it yet.

  After receiving a casualty report from one of her subordinates, who told her that two dozen knights had already died, with another three dozen injured who were being tended to by their healers, Rosa emerged from her command post, armed with nothing but her sword-wand.

  She grabbed her horse and rode out.

  Above her, white fireballs from the skies intermittently rained on the town. Most of the time, they would hit a building or two, reducing them into rubble. Sometimes, bluish barriers appeared in the sky, blocking the fireballs.

  It was insanely dangerous, so Rosa activated a spell that she had to protect herself from debris and fragments flying all around her. It was a simple barrier spell that she could maintain without a foci. It wasn’t enough to protect her from any direct hit, but it was enough to make sure she wouldn’t suffer from a concussion or worse from an indirect hit.

  Upon reaching the defense line outside of the town, she bore witness to the carnage ahead of them. From the horizon, dozens of enemy soldiers charged in, many taking cover in the craters to open fire with their crossbows and staves.

  Her knights, who were stronger and better armed, largely kept them off from their positions. But some of the furthest positions were already in melee, with dozens of enemy soldiers trading sword attacks with squads of her knights.

  It was quite disturbing. She couldn’t believe that her brother would do such a thing. But she had to keep fighting.

  “Captain!” one of the knights on the ground rushed to her. “It’s not safe to ride around here!”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Rosa replied. “I just need to check how much more of the enemy is coming for us.”

  “Then send recon teams instead! We can't lose you!”

  “No,” Rosa frowned as she pulled the reins of her horse. “I am not going to send people to a dangerous task when I can do it myself. Stay here and fight!”

  And with that, Rosa rode off.

  She rushed straight into the southern flank of the town they were defending, occasionally encountering teams of revolutionary soldiers on the way. With her sword-wand though, she cut through them like butter, sending flashes of red light that killed anyone who was hit when she swung it.

  That allowed her to reach a hill nearby. Climbing up on it, she used her telescope to check on the enemy’s numbers. Her eyes widened as she watched the numbers that they had marching in the distance.

  “A thousand? No, that’s wildly off.” She took a deep breath, scanning it further. “No…that’s probably two thousand of them.”

  Her blood running cold, Rosa decided that enough was enough. They had to retreat now and regroup with the Imperial Army units behind them, with or without approval from General Clausewitz.

  That was when she noticed something coming from the road south of the town. Observing them with her telescope, she turned angry, as she was quite sure that they had already sent warnings to merchants, nobles, and other civilians stupid enough to go to Rutherford.

  They had evacuated this place in advance!

  Now, some dumbass noble was coming in straight hot. She decided to take a closer look at the convoy of dragon-drawn carriages. It must be someone high-up if they could afford those creatures for private use.

  That was strange. Why would they go this close to trouble for no reason?

  Wait.

  She double-checked the insignia on the lead carriage. There were two banners flown on the sides of the lead carriage. That was when she realized how wrong this was.

  It can’t be…

  “Is that…the standard of the Imperial family?!”