Chapter 226: The Lions Kneel

"It’s incredibly reassuring that the Marquis sent you, Sir."

"With the young lady here, helping is only natural. We want to show the future crown princess that House Offenburg is never stingy with its support."

I wasn’t sure if the girl in white would appreciate the Marquis’s noble intentions, but it certainly made an impression on me. With our forces weakened by repeated battles, reinforcements of some 300 cavalry were like rain after a drought.

I’d heard that the Western Lords’ Army stationed at Rosenheim had marched south and finally clashed with the southern rebel forces, but all I had was the news itself. I was dying to know more, but right now, I had to deal with the detachment in Euz first.

On our way to Euz, I shared with Benjamin the intelligence on the enemy we’d be facing. He had only known about Count Baschurten’s betrayal and had come to reinforce the deteriorating southern front.

"You’re saying the Count of Basel, who should be in the south, is north of Euz?"

"His plan was to pass through Baschurten and attack the northern part of Euz to seize it. At the same time, Feuzen was also under attack. We nearly lost everything."

The detachment’s top priority was to engineer Euz’s defection and capture Lily. All of the Altringen conspiracies, stretching back years to the queen’s affair, would be completed through Lily.

The crown prince was illegitimate, so by marrying him to Lily, who carried the Altringen bloodline, the lineage would ultimately be preserved. That was the grand duke’s objective, which made the enemy’s plan to target Lily extremely dangerous.

Benjamin’s expression turned grave.

"So the enemy knew the young lady was in Feuzen?"

"The rebels must have known. As soon as we crossed into Offenburg territory, the Imperial Knights and Hungarian mercenaries ambushed us. Either someone on the inside betrayed us, or the information leaked out somehow."

Unseen eyes were everywhere. Ever since I’d learned of the existence of Hoenir, the grand duke’s intelligence agency, I’d come to realize that no secret lasts forever. And the culmination of that truth was the Battle of Feuzen.

We’d been ambushed while escorting Lily from the Marquis’s estate, and Count Euz had known I was protecting Lily, which was why he’d recommended Angela as her handmaid. I should have just sent Lily to the royal palace instead.

There were no spies among my men, but there was a strong possibility that unseen eyes were lurking somewhere else. Even with my scouter equipped, my field of vision had its limits. That meant I still had a long way to go.

Benjamin let out a sigh.

"Good heavens! Trust is the most sacred virtue of chivalry!"

Benjamin was one of the few with a justice (good) disposition. He could be overly idealistic at times, but this disposition meant he would strive to uphold justice even at his own expense, making him an excellent ally.

"How will you handle the chain of command? Are we going with a dual-command system?"

"Don’t worry. The Offenburg Knights will fight under your command, my lord."

"...You’re sure you can decide that so easily?"

"Support the lord of Feuzen with everything you have! Our liege said those exact words."

Was it really all right to hand over command of the knight order, the pride of the grand prince of the North, just like that? I was the one left speechless. The cavalry that other lords had sent as reinforcements came without much complication, but the Offenburg Knights were in a completely different league.

"In that case, please take command as deputy, Sir."

"Leave it to me. I won’t be a burden to you, my lord."

"I’m truly glad you came, Sir."

I meant every word.

Any other noble would have started negotiating first.

With the Offenburg Knights joining us, our cavalry swelled to around 600. Where on earth did all this cavalry keep coming from? They’d pulled in a massive number of idle nobles from Offenburg to expand their ranks.

I’d heard that nobles within Breisburg had also joined the civil war for the sake of their families’ honor and the reward money, so naturally, hidden cavalry reserves had poured out in droves.

"The Offenburg Knights are fighting under your command, Commander?"

"They’re supposed to be the proud Lions of the North. This is unexpected."

Fiel and Viktor seemed genuinely shocked to learn that Benjamin had placed himself under my command. It was only natural for me, as the ruling lord, to be the superior, but the knight commander of the Marquis’s order held no lesser standing.

I’d been worried about potential issues with the chain of command, but Benjamin resolved that cleanly, allowing us to quickly organize the combined cavalry force. The Essenbach cavalry, in particular, seemed to see me in a new light.

First, they’d been stunned by my fists, and now they were even more stunned by the status that let me command the Offenburg Knights. In truth, it had less to do with my reputation and more to do with the Marquis’s house having dispatched them on Lily’s account, but reinforcements were reinforcements either way.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

As we advanced northward, we finally crossed the border. From here on, this was Euz territory, and I began using the Commander Scouter to search for enemy scouts or hidden forces.

"What’s the situation on the eastern front?"

"There were only minor skirmishes for a while, but just before I was dispatched with the reinforcements, the first real battle broke out. It was the kind of fight that would stir any man’s heart. Reminded me of the Great War."

If the southern front, handled by the Western Lords’ Army, had devolved into a mess of guerrilla tactics and every trick in the book, then the eastern front was a pure clash of strength against strength. I’d heard that all manner of nobles and mercenaries had flocked to the east.

Eight thousand duchy troops and ten thousand ducal forces collided on a plain called Zaunten, adjacent to the Duchy of Radensdorf. The Beren Lance Cavalry’s valiant charge shattered the enemy’s formation, securing victory in the opening engagement.

Lucas von Pensler, the cavalry commander, was as valiant a man as he was notorious for his widows, and the breakthroughs led by his Beren Lance Cavalry were, without exaggeration, the finest in all of Beren. As a result, the ducal forces withdrew from Zaunten.

Being stuck in the chaos of my own front made it extremely difficult to receive news from the eastern theater, so his information was invaluable. In any case, the opening battle had been won and momentum was on our side, so the overall situation was favorable.

The results of the battle between the Western Lords’ Army and the southern rebels still hadn’t reached me, which remained a source of unease, but for now I could rest easy and focus on eliminating the detachment that had invaded Euz.

"We won the first battle, but the ducal forces haven’t been completely broken. Mercenary companies keep crossing the border from neighboring nations. Ultimately, it’ll come down to a war of finances."

Mercenary companies without a contract were no different from job seekers. Mercenaries who’d gotten the news late would inevitably round up every available resource in the area and bring them along, desperate to land a contract.

As long as their coffers didn’t run dry, fighting men would keep pouring into Beren, making a prolonged civil war highly likely. That was why a devastating blow needed to be dealt, but that was easier said than done.

Civil wars could drag on for months or even years, but they had to be ended as quickly as possible. Not only would the entire nation be left devastated, but it would also be unable to turn its attention outward.

If the French civil war ended, that aggression would undoubtedly turn toward a weakened Beren. The Bold Duke of Burgundy had seized most of Lothringen’s territory but had left Beren and Roden untouched for now.

"The reinforcements we’ve been waiting for are finally here!"

Fried von Euznirk, who had set up camp near Meriant, greeted us as though he were seeing his saviors. The mental burden must have been enormous; he looked far more gaunt than the last time I’d seen him.

Then again, he’d been facing pressure from the forces of the Count of Basel—a hero of the Great War—along with the traitorous local nobles, all on his own and without any elite troops. It must have been more than Fried could handle.

Euz’s elite soldiers were currently fighting alongside Count Euz in Basel’s territory. The forces Fried had mustered were a total mobilization in every sense of the word; if they were wiped out, it would be a disaster.

That was why he’d been hoping for reinforcements more desperately than anyone.

"I am Benjamin von Bastern, knight commander of the Offenburg Knights."

"Welcome, Sir Bastern. I didn’t expect the Marquis of Offenburg’s house to send support."

"My liege sent me to support the lord of Feuzen."

"Ah, I see! If that’s the reason, then it makes sense."

Euz and Offenburg had almost no connection to each other. There was neither favor nor grudge between them, and the distance was great, so they had relatively little interest in one another. Sending reinforcements under those circumstances was enough to invite suspicion.