Merchant Noble is out (3/3 chapters for today)
Total Collapse
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“Retreat! Retreat!” (??)
Receiving the report from the messenger, the nobles desperately holding back Leo at the front line were left speechless.
“Retreat?!” (??)
“The order for retreat has been given.” (??)
Not believing their ears, they hurried to confirm, but the order was indeed given.
“Ridiculous! We’re in the middle of battle!” (??)
“However, the other nobles are retreating. At this rate, we’ll be left behind on the battlefield!” (??)
“Damn it, give the order to retreat.” (??)
This position was holding firm.
Does that mean the other nobles failed?
The nobles began to pull back their troops one after another. Seeing this, the other nobles also became unsettled. It was because there were so many nobles mixed together, information wasn’t being properly communicated. Even though the orders hadn’t reached them yet, they saw the other nobles withdrawing their troops and began to panic. These nobles hurriedly sent their subordinates to check the situation.
“Retreat?” (??)
“It seems we are retreating!” (??)
The nobles had never trained for communicating information. In the first place, they had almost no experience fighting as a coalition army. Such inexperienced commanders couldn’t accurately assess the situation or give the best orders. The front line quickly descended into chaos.
What Zerold had ordered was a ‘retreat’. However, as the nobles passed the message along, ‘retreat’ became ‘withdraw’, and some nobles mistakenly thought it meant ‘rout’.
“Are we losing the battle?! Hey, withdraw!” (??)
“Run for it!” (??)
The panic at the front line quickly spread throughout the entire central army.
“Even though our forces are holding, it seems the other nobles have been defeated! One after another, they’re fleeing.” (??)
“Let’s escape before we’re abandoned!” (??)
Even the units fighting evenly would be surrounded by the enemy if they stayed too long. Even if they wanted to keep fighting, the other nobles around them were already starting to flee. In such a situation, there was no choice but to flee. Various sections of the front line began to collapse all at once.
“Leo-sama! The enemy has started to fall into confusion.” (??)
“I can see that! Haha! Those rabble of nobles, it was obvious this would happen.” (Leo)
There was no way Leo would overlook the enemy’s collapse. His face, stained bright red with blood, twisted into a smile. Leo, who had been leading the charge and cutting down the approaching enemy soldiers one by one, stood up on his horse. It was a very dangerous move, but it opened up the view in an instant. And what came into his eyes were the nobles fleeing one after the other, their backs turned to face each other.
“Now’s the time, you bastards! Everyone, charge!!” (Leo)
With a voice so loud it seemed impossible to come from a body that had been fighting for so long, he gave the order. That single command, which terrified the kingdom army and raised the morale of Leo’s forces, finally broke the front line.
“Leave the small fry! Go after the ones with the fancy armor, the ones on horseback! Kill the nobles!!” (Leo)
Leo’s scream echoed across the battlefield. Leo’s army ignored the fleeing common soldiers and focused solely on attacking the nobles and their personal knights. The nobles, dressed in luxurious armor or riding horses, often protected by knights surrounding them, stood out so much on the battlefield that there was no need to search for them.
Meanwhile, at the rear of the central army, which had fallen into chaos as the soldiers fled from the front line, Zerold, his face pale, watched the kingdom army collapse. Next to him, the commander of the guards, who had been hesitating while watching the front line fall apart, finally made a decision as Leo’s voice became faintly audible. It was ‘rout’. It might have been a little too late to make that decision, but considering the former king’s pride and the devastating impact a defeat would have on the kingdom, there was no other choice.
“We can no longer hold them off. Here, the Royal Guard will stand firm, risking their lives. Zerold-sama, please flee as quickly as possible.” (Commander)
“Why did it come to this…” (Zerold)
The commander of the guards placed Zerold, who was in dazed, into a carriage. After loading him into the carriage, he realized the obvious fact that it was too slow and too conspicuous, and hastily switched to a horse. With a few subordinates as escorts, they mixed in with the fleeing soldiers and made their escape.
“I should have stopped that foolish order, even at the cost of my life. As a professional in warfare, no matter how royal, I should never have allowed a novice to interfere.” (Commander)
Watching Zerold’s back as he rode away from the battlefield, the commander of the guards sighed as he spoke. But it was too late for regrets. There was no time to dwell on irreversible mistakes. He quickly lined up the 2,000 Royal Guards.
“We are the Royal Guard of His Highness Zerold. While our army has begun to flee one after another, terrified of the enemy, and the entire force is on the verge of collapse, we remain proud members of His Highness Zerold’s Royal Guard. Men! The enemy is 5,000 strong. We who have sworn to give our lives for our lord will stay here until the end and hold them off!” (Commander)
“Oooooooh!!” (??)
The Royal Guard was made up of those who passed the rigorous tests conducted by the royal palace, or those scouted for outstanding performances in the kingdom’s knight tournaments. Not just swordsmen, they were a group admired by the entire kingdom, and the guards themselves held great pride. They were a completely different breed from the conscripted peasants, the panicking soldiers of the noble forces now fleeing.
Leo’s army was halted by the resistance of the Royal Guard, who did not fear death. After breaking through the front lines and continuing to cut down nobles, Leo’s forces were stopped for the first time at the rear of the central army. The battle entered a fierce back-and-forth struggle.
“Leo-sama, the enemy’s resistance is intense, and we can’t advance any further! We only have 5,000 troops, and if we lose our momentum, we may end up surrounded.” (??)
“So, what the hell is that!?” (Leo)
Leo roared in response to the suggestion of retreat. From the perspective of Leo’s soldiers, they felt like they had delivered a crushing blow to an army more than 100 times their size. Even if they retreated now, no one would complain. They could proudly say it had been a great battle.
However, Leo was far from satisfied. This madman, drenched head-to-toe in the blood of his enemies, still craved more destruction.
“If we go home satisfied with just this, it’ll be the same as a draw! I came here to defeat 500,000! Generals, soldiers, follow me!! Anyone who falls behind gets cut down! We’re all going to hell together!” (Leo)
With that single shout from Leo, his soldiers regained their fighting spirit.
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