+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

En Route to Venido

February 3, 1539 CE

Someone was banging on his mech.

Hans stirred as he snored, until when he got sufficiently annoyed, that he opened his eyes. With the irritated voice of a man who wasn't a morning person, he shouted at his hatch.

"Oi!" Hans shouted, still a bit slurred. "Who the hell's banging on my—"

He looked at his screen as it booted open. Then, he went straight to the time—07:24 hours.

"Hans!" shouted someone from the top. "You're awake now?!"

"Adelyn?"

"Yep! I'm back from my rotation," she laughed. "Nothing happened, so we'll be launching the expedition in an hour or so. Two regiments already marched ahead of us under General Ercole's orders."

"I thought he said we should be more careful?"

"Well…he knows that we can catch up," she stopped for a bit, before deviously knocking rapidly again on his hatch. "So wake up! Wake up! We have to catch up soon!"

"I'm already awake, Adelyn!"

Ten minutes later, Hans was absentmindedly chewing bread while drinking a cup of coffee outside of his mech while watching Alizée playing rock-paper-scissors with Lieutenant Preisner. On his side, Ebert and Jonas were discussing the battalions they would be using today on the frontlines, and Adelyn…well, she was simply sitting on top of her mech, reading a book with a tiny smile.

He took another chew as she watched Adelyn suddenly speed through the book rapidly, her eyes darting left to right as a soft blush appeared on her cheeks. When she noticed Hans staring, she nearly threw it away.

"Where'd you buy that?" Hans asked with his morning, groggy tone. "It has a nice cover."

"N-none of your business!" she quickly disappeared down her mech's hatch, while Hans simply sighed, before going for his mug of coffee.

Why is she so embarrassed all of a sudden? Heh, ladies…

Clearing his throat with a good chug, he felt someone pat him on his back.

"You look extra shit today, buddy," Jonas said with a grin. "I heard you two got into a scuffle last night with a demon."

Hans gave a grunt.

"Yeah, it was a fast one," Hans answered. "Thought we had an easy kill."

"So you and Captain Wittenstein over there just charged in?" Jonas' eyes widened. "And against two demons too?"

"...Yeah?"

"Damn, I wouldn't ever charge in on even just a powerful orc with the guy behind me—"

"What were we saying there?" Ebert suddenly barged in from behind, his expression that of an intimidating bloodhound as he looked at Jonas. "Oi, oi, I can slice a dozen orcs with my sword and kill a dozen with my pistol afterward."

"Sure you do, buckass," Jonas replied. "The last time we were ambushed by one, you began fleeing after discovering there were ten of them."

"That was not a retreat! It was a tactical reevaluation of our position!"

"And you two seem lively today," Hans said, chuckling a bit. "What's gotten into the both of you with those high spirits?"

"Well, we have an entire army with us today. We have so many mages, we have the Viceroy and her friend Ms. Torre, and we have you and Captain Wittenstein," Jonas grinned, patting Hans' back. "Victory is pretty much assured—then we shall have wine in Venido."

"They don't have wine in Venido, dumbass," Ebert crossed his arms. "The people over there are starving."

"Well, we'll bring them over then. Regardless, we should lighten up," the IYC mercenary smiled. "We've defeated two calamities already, dozens of demons too. We even won a battle with multiple of them at once. What's another set of demons going to do to us?"

"That kind of confidence is fatal, Jonas," Hans said, shaking his head before walking away. "Don't get too ahead of yourself."

"But, at the same time, we've been fighting for so long with lower morale. To fight with full confidence, bravery, and determination is only possible if you believe in victory more," Jonas curled his fist. "And that's what I'm doing to myself and telling to my men. Trust the plan and trust their brothers—and we'll win together."

"I see," Hans turned to them. "I agree, a bit, I suppose."

"Nice to see that you agree with me for once, Hans! Now, how about a little liquor—"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Not now please," Hans turned his back, waving his hand at them lazily. "I need to check in on General Ercole first. Have a good morning you two."

+++

The Viceroy, General Ercole, alongside all other officers like Hans and Adelyn, were now once again gathered in a command tent set up earlier. Placed on the table in front of them was the map that depicted the current positions of the army, alongside the last demonic sightings.

Everyone kept their mouths shut as they watched General Ercole analyze the map, his hand below his chin. Hans for his part already had an idea brewing in his mind—charge forward, but he waited for the man to make his decision. He had already recognized after all that, unlike himself, General Ercole was a high-ranking general with more experience in commanding early-modern troops.

Hans was only good at moving himself and Adelyn on the tactical field and perhaps organizing a brigade-sized unit against demons, but General Ercole was on another level. He may be average in terms of tactical matters, but he knew how to move large pieces on the chessboard.

"I see," General Ercole leaned down on the map. "They're not planning to fight in the city."

Everyone raised their eyebrows.

"Too far, and too spread thin," General Ercole looked up at everyone. "He wants us to keep marching forward, so he'll bait us into his trap."

"Trap?" Hans asked.

Isn't that what every demon does anyway?

"That's what those two demons were," General Ercole grinned. "A feint."

"I'm not so sure about that," Adelyn said. "We wasted them. Badly."

"Regardless, it's a feint when you look at the bigger picture. This sly creature fights a new form of warfare. He sits his arse expecting us to come and remove him. So he pokes us. Tests us. And…he threatens an objective just enough to force us into something silly," he points at Venido.

"I…" Hans leaned forward, as the General straightened himself.

"Dig in," he said. "We'll dig in here, twenty miles off Venido, and we'll try to surround them. I already have six regiments available and the 1st Anti-Demon Unit. We can cover a frontage of twenty-four miles around Venido, one regiment shall cover four miles of the frontline. Then, we'll wait."

"General," Emilia suddenly slammed her hand on the table. "We came here to rescue Venido! My people are already starving a-and—"

"Calm yourself, Your Excellency," General Ercole said. "This is a demon who thinks he can play mind games with us, men. Considering Injustice's brashness to think that he can both try to ambush us and threaten a siege of Venido means that the creature's a fool. Eventually, he'll be so tired of us sitting our arse and digging in that he'll be forced into three ugly options."

The general raised his hand.

"He can either attack us in our dug-in lines, attack Venido, and weaken his force by assaulting its walls, thus making him vulnerable to our attack, or flee with full humiliation," he grinned. "Then, we'll retake Venido without blood. Of course, I find the third option quite unlikely."

"And what if he attacks today?" Hans asked. "Wouldn't we be the ones at risk when we're not yet too dug in? At least if we charge forward, we can pin him faster between us and the walls of Venido."

"I already recognized that option, and I ran it in my head," the Virtus general frowned. "I'll be losing too many men in that process. This war is a war of attrition, gentlemen. Unlike us, who lose thousands of people, they lose only a few. We cannot win that war without great caution."

"I can see sense with his plans," Ebert pointed out from the side. "I'll get the men of the 1st moved into our areas of responsibility. Somewhere where we can intervene quickly."

"The rest of you will be given periodic patrol missions," General Ercole said, before turning to Emilia. "You too included, Your Excellency."

She turned her head down.

"I will do my best, but I still…" She seemed greatly disappointed. "Alright, I'm just a battlemage anyway. What do I know in true warfare?"

"People like you risk being too brash and charging ahead of the pack," General Ercole went for his seat. "I know your kind, Lady Viviani. Same with you Lieutenant Hoffman and Captain Wittenstein. I was once like that too back when the Empire and the Republic fought to the death. But the truth is, in war, you must hold back at times—and only strike when the time is truly ripe."

"I know that idea well already," Hans said.

"But you still place too much faith in yourself, young man," the general waved him off. "Don't let the hubris of your past victories take you too much. You can still die, and you only die once."

I suppose he's right.

Hans breathed in deeply.

I did die earlier…but of course, I don't die once—I always come back.

"In any case, we shall dig in and wait," General Ercole said, his tone final. "We'll let Injustice make the mistake first, once he is sufficiently annoyed."

+++

+++ Unknown +++

February 4, 1539 CE

"Sir Injustice—"

"Silence, you two!" Injustice replied, his eyes bulging a bit as he looked back at his two injured subordinates. The Virtus and Vanus demons both bowed slightly, shame clear on their faces. "I had one order for both of you—to simply test them. Now they're not coming back anymore."

His hands trembled as he remembered the last report from a lower demon he sent to check them. Trenches, foxholes, wooden forts—it reminded him of his origins.

Those two are bringing those damned things into this world. Oh…Adelyn, just you wait, just you wait little Adelyn. You call yourself just when you bring such horrors in this world too?

Injustice laughed at that. Preposterous! Even if mankind defeated him and his buddies, afterward, that same terror would be brought into this world too. Did she and her partner not know the implications of their actions?

"Those fools are building more and more defenses," Injustice paced faster inside the ruined room, still at the same time they had occupied earlier. "We need to bring those two fools to justice fast. Fast! But they are simply sitting there, comfortable in their little holes."

"Sir Injustice," the Virtus woman spoke up a bit. "T-the Golden Angel—"

"I do not care what she is capable of!" Injustice replied. "I know the machines they ride on. I know whatever they used must be so special, it must be rare. She only used it twice, no?"

The Virtus demon looked down again.

"Y-yes, Sir Injustice," she gritted her teeth. "But the pain it causes…I want to tear her apart because of it."

"They think they can humiliate us further by doing this," Injustice stopped pacing around, as an idea popped into his head. He then grinned. "No…I see…I see…"

He looked at the ruins of the town outside.

"If that's going to be their way of fighting…then we have a good counter."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.