“Still not likely. It’s very difficult to take control of a city with a small number of men… Speaking of which, Gazef-dono. Do you know the condition required to successfully conquer E-Rantel?”
Gazef shook his head.
“One needs to face the Kingdom in open battle and gain an overwhelming victory. If the aggressors barely manage to triumph, governing the conquered populace will be difficult, to say the least. The citizens won’t respond well to the invaders and will rise up in revolt whenever possible. So even if the Empire used a separate force to attack E-Rantel, as long as our soldiers have their strength, they would immediately fight tooth and nail to take back their city. As such, the Empire needs a total victory. With that, the citizens will be frightened into abject submission, and the soldiers won’t be able to take action.”
In other words, the Empire had to win here. In addition, they had to achieve a victory so complete and absolute, that the Kingdom would not risk trying to take back E-Rantel.
Suddenly, Gazef had the feeling that he had all the pieces of the puzzle. However, putting them together was beyond him.
A dull annoyance tormented Gazef.
“What’s wrong, Gazef-dono?
“No...”
Gazef wanted to tell Raeven about the scattered pieces of the puzzle that he’d managed to sweep together in his head. He believed that Raeven, with his superior intellect, could extract insights from them that he could not. However, at that moment, the Marquis’ eye turned back to the Imperial formation.
“Gazef-dono. It seems they’re making their move.”
The Imperial army parted in two. As Gazef was wondering if they were planning to attack the left and right wings of the Kingdom’s army, he saw an unfamiliar flag rising into the air.
It was a flag that Gazef had never seen before, adorned with a bizarre crest that belonged to neither the Kingdom or the Empire. The company raising the flag advanced.
All eyes were on that company.
And then... Gazef’s heart ran cold with terror. Raeven, who was standing beside him and saw the same thing he did, swallowed loudly. Knowing that he was not alone in his feelings, bitterness began rising at the back of his mouth, and his heart pounded madly.
A monstrous regiment.
What appeared was a group of roughly five hundred riders. It seemed entirely insignificant compared to the two armies facing each other down.
But those knights… they were highly unusual. They seemed to radiate an oppressive air that he could feel even from so far away.
It stirred up Gazef’s memories from his time in Carne Village. Ainz had said it was a knight he had created, but it was actually a monster. There were roughly two hundred of them, carrying gigantic shields and wearing spiked armor like he remembered from back then.
The rest were similarly inhuman soldiers, but they wore leather armor, and they were armed with axes, pikes, crossbows or similar weapons.
If the former were knights, then the latter could be called warriors.
But whatever they were, they were not human. They were monsters, down to the marrow of their bones.
Then, there were the creatures they rode. They were beasts made of bone, with tendrils of fog replacing their flesh and blood. The fog sparkled everywhere, pus yellow and emerald green.
Goosebumps sprouted all over his body.
This was bad.
This was very bad.
Gazef simply didn’t have the words to describe the situation more clearly than this.