‘War is coming? So soon? And I’m going to be personally involved?’
Alicia, as if she had lost her soul, was dragged by her boss to the armory, forced into armor, then clumsily helped onto a horse, with a flagpole shoved into her hand.
It wasn’t until the army set out and marched onto the dirt road outside the city that she finally snapped back to reality.
‘I… I’m really going to be part of the slaughter in this chaotic age? Not as a bystander, but as a… participant? Killing? Or… being killed?’
Alicia immediately felt a cold fear creep up her spine little by little, and cold sweat oozed from the palm gripping the flagpole.
‘No way, I can’t disgrace the transmigrators like this. I… I need to make contributions, expand territories… I don’t want to die!’
The moment the girl thought about how she couldn’t even truss a chicken and was still being thrown onto the battlefield, she was overcome with sorrow, as if mourning a parent.
“Hey, Miss, you don’t need to hold the flag so straight right now. You can rest it on your shoulder.”
‘Wait, so you don’t have to hold it up all the time during the march? Why didn’t you say so earlier!’
The girl silently rolled her eyes, gave a faint acknowledgment, and clumsily adjusted the position of the flagpole, letting the slender pole with the fluttering double-headed eagle banner rest slantwise on her shoulder.
Speaking of which, Lai En’s flag was quite nice.
The arrogant red background was as cocky as he was, and the golden double-headed eagle pattern stretched its wings freely, full of aggression.
At the bottom of the flag was a line of text, but from the shape of the characters, it looked somewhat different from the common language of this world.
However, the girl’s golden finger seemed to work.
She recited it in a low voice: “Au-dan-tes For-tu-na Ya-wat.”
Fortune Favors the Brave.
That phrase really suited Lai En.
Three thousand against six thousand, and he still dared to march out and meet the enemy.
Wasn’t that someone who feared nothing?
The girl completely failed to notice that when she was muttering under her breath, Lai En, riding ahead, slightly turned his head and glanced at her in surprise.
‘No good! I can’t keep thinking about negative things like fighting and death. I need to think of something sunny! Otherwise, before the battle even starts, I’ll have already decided what pose I’ll strike when I kick the bucket.’
—
So Alicia began to focus her attention on the fellow in front of her, the one responsible for protecting her.
As had been promised, Lai En had assigned another attendant to protect her and also to ride with her.
She had to admit the boss knew how to pick people.
This young man covered in heavy armor was named Andrew.
He was nineteen years old, with striking wheat-colored hair and a dashing look between his brows.
If Lai En hadn’t mentioned it during the introduction, Alicia would have thought he was a muscular youth in his early twenties.
And this guy actually had a one-year-old child, and she heard his wife was only eighteen this year.
That was a bit excessive.
Were all you people from another world lolicon?
But then Alicia suddenly recalled that when the boss had asked her age and she casually said seventeen, he had given her a look of pity.
‘So I’m the old leftover woman, huh!’
In any case, after a bout of indignation, Alicia felt relieved: since women in this world generally married between fifteen and seventeen, then as a seventeen-year-old old maid who couldn’t get married, no one would bother her.
That was a good thing.
The men in this world pursued the women they liked by saying cheesy love lines, writing cheesy love letters, giving random flowers, singing cheesy love songs, and dueling with rivals.
Without these annoyances, she could focus her energy on her career.
Provided she could survive this battle.
‘Sigh, after going around in circles, I’m back to the question of war…’
“Andrew, once the fighting starts, I’m counting on you. Protect me well, please!”
Alicia’s voice trembled.
Andrew turned around, revealing a reassuring smile and his gleaming white teeth.
“Don’t worry, Miss! Leave it to me!”
Perhaps to dispel her nervousness, or because the march was indeed quite boring, Alicia started chatting with Andrew.
After all, she still didn’t know much about her boss, and she wasn’t sure what gifts to flatter him with in the future.
As a result of this inquiry, Alicia discovered that her boss was far from ordinary.
Lai En had been a rebellious son since childhood.
He refused to act like a proper noble young master.
Instead, he would run around half-naked, wearing only underpants.
He would either catch fish in the river or climb trees to steal bird eggs.
He also mingled with commoner children, doing plenty of unscrupulous things like scooping dung balls to throw at walls, sneaking into pigsties to ride pigs, and stealing people’s chickens to eat.
And his father, Grand Duke Maximilian, actually indulged him!
But his mother, the Duchess, had lost patience with his rebellious and utterly undignified behavior, pouring all her love and hope into her younger son, Lemeng.
Lemeng was the model of a good child.
Serious in nature, diligent in study, and respectful to his parents—a classic “someone else’s child.”
As a result, the Duchess and many of her retainers began to think that Lemeng was the more suitable heir.
Although Lai En was the eldest son, he was unlearned and ignorant of etiquette, unfit to inherit the duke’s position.
The fuse for today’s war had been laid years ago.
Perhaps tired of being lectured, or simply not wanting to interact with his mother and brother, Lai En asked his father for the position of lord of Blaine City, and from then on lived a carefree life alone.
But this year, two major events occurred.
The first was at the New Year’s gathering, when Lai En’s tutor got into a quarrel with someone from Lemeng’s faction, which escalated into a life-or-death duel.
The elderly tutor, unable to match his opponent, was killed.
The second was that the Old Grand Duke fell gravely ill, took to his bed, and made a will naming Lai En as the successor to the grand duchy.
He then fell into a coma and had just passed away a few days ago.
But with his father dead, Lai En actually didn’t attend the funeral!
Now the fuse had been lit.
Lemeng’s faction had completely turned against Lai En, and this battle had to be fought.
Alicia could only purse her lips.
In her opinion, Lai En’s not attending the funeral was absolutely right!
Going would be like a lamb walking into the tiger’s den, walking right into the trap.
From this perspective, although the boss seemed like an oddball, he wasn’t stupid!
After all, a foolish, unlearned idiot couldn’t govern a city so well.
Either he was extremely deep and had been playing the prodigal son for years, or he was simply a genius who did whatever he pleased.
As for him proposing marriage the first time they met, Alicia finally understood—’This guy is used to being a free-spirited modern person; he must have had a brain freeze. From now on, whenever he does something crazy, I’ll just treat it like he’s farting! Hmph!’
Lai En, riding a tall horse at the front, suddenly shuddered, feeling inexplicably displeased.
Displeased?
Alicia was the one truly displeased!
It was summer in this world.
Although the temperature wasn’t as deadly as on Earth, the direct sunlight was still sweltering, and to make matters worse, she was wearing a padded coat.
The padding inside the arming coat was cotton.
This thick coat was roasting the girl alive, drenching her in sweat.
On top of that, the leather breastplate was completely unbreathable!
And they were on the march; there wasn’t hot water for a bath every night.
‘My god, do I have to sleep covered in sweat? This feeling is way too sour and refreshing…’
So, an annoyed Alicia complained in a low voice during dinner: “What’s so good about war? People die! Plagues erupt! Widows and orphans increase!”
Andrew, sitting beside her, interjected without hesitation: “It also increases military merit! Promotions and wealth! A chance to rise in the world!”
‘Warmonger! Fanatic! This barbaric mindset is wrong, it should be knocked down, trampled under a thousand feet, never to rise again!’
Alicia cursed inwardly but didn’t dare say it out loud.
After all, when the fighting started, she’d be relying on Andrew to keep her alive.
Yet the girl understood in her heart that in this martial world, winning glory through war was the fastest path to success.
That was why every time a lord recruited soldiers, countless young people with dreams or a desire for change set out on the journey.
But how many of these young people would return alive?
Alicia looked at the faces in the camp, faces equally young and full of hope for the future, and could only sigh deeply in her heart.
Her only wish now was to be among those who came back alive.
—
The next morning, the scouts reported that Lemeng’s army was close at hand.
Before them lay the Leyton River.
At its deepest, the water only reached thigh height, and at its widest, it was less than a hundred meters.
The floodplains on both sides made this an ideal battlefield.
Lai En immediately ordered the troops to form up and array for battle on the high ground by the river.
Alicia had always thought that ancient European or Japanese armies of a thousand men were small skirmishes.
It wasn’t until Lai En’s army deployed that she viscerally felt the impact of the numbers.
A mere three thousand troops, when spread out in several phalanxes and formations, packed the riverside area—about three kilometers wide and less than two kilometers deep—to the brim.
Looking out, banners stood like a forest, armor glinted, and the air was thick with the aura of death.
Sharp orders from the officers rose and fell, and the soldiers in formation responded in unison.
The two armies faced each other, just about a bowshot apart!
Warhorses snorted uneasily, their hooves pawing the ground restlessly; soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, and beneath their armored chests came dull, pounding heartbeats.
Alicia keenly noticed that even the elite soldiers under Lai En’s command, those he had high hopes for, showed slight hesitations and minor confusion when executing orders and adjusting formations.
As for the hastily conscripted militia, needless to say, although Lai En’s troops had undergone some training, their ranks still appeared loose.
‘Troop quality! This level of troop quality won’t cut it! If I survive this time, I absolutely have to come up with a systematic training plan. Basic discipline like “orders followed immediately” must be improved!’
Across the river, Lemeng’s army was clearly worse.
They even took over ten minutes longer than Lai En to finish forming up, and their formation looked bulkier and more chaotic.
On a battlefield with limited width, the two-to-one numerical advantage became a liability because they couldn’t spread out.
The scene was strangely eerie.
Lai En’s army, the side that should have been attacked, simply waited quietly for the panicked punitive force across the river.
‘Why not launch a surprise attack while they’re still forming up? Taking advantage of the chaos should yield considerable results.’
Alicia looked questioningly at Lai En’s back.
But then she thought again: maybe this was her boss’s final concession to his brother.
Fairly waiting for the other side to finish forming up was already going the extra mile.
Or perhaps he intended to use an unquestionable victory to announce to the world: “I, Lai En, am fully capable and qualified to inherit the position of Grand Duke Maximilian!”
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