Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 99

Zetta Great War (14) – The Third Day – Speculations

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Translator & Editor: Nisarah

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As the sun set in the background, signaling the end of the third day’s daytime attack, Zegabain relaxed, exhaling slowly upon returning to his tent.

Because the decreased intensity of his army’s offensive today, the damage suffered by both his and the enemy’s army had lessened. However, as the supreme commander, Zegabain still felt the pressure. Taking off his helmet and sipping tea, he received news from his close aide.

“A messenger from Wickharlt wishes to meet you.”

“Let him in.”

A somewhat aloof-looking man, dressed in a Gorber soldier’s uniform, entered his tent and handed Zegabain a letter, stating, “Wickharlt-sama has ordered me to give a periodic report to you.”

It seemed like Wickharlt intended to report the situation periodically, just as Zegabain had instructed. Zegabain hoped that a certain idiotic general could learn from Wickharlt.

The letter contained information about the Warrior Princess reinforcing the fortress, an information already known to Zegabain from his scouts. 

Lapilia brought only 2000 soldiers. We will let you know as soon as we know how she will make her move, but for now, there are no changes to tomorrow’s plan.

Though Zegabain didn’t completely trust Wickharlt, his distrust of Loderite outweighed his suspicion of Wickharlt.

This morning, when Loderite barged into his tent, Zegabain made a decision. He proposed to Loderite that he would add an additional troop for today’s night raid.

Thinking that Zegabain’s proposal meant that Zegabain had acknowledged how important his night raid was, Loderite left Zegabain’s tent in a good mood, saying, ‘Then, the flag of our country will be at Kitsar Fortress tonight’ It was a good thing that Loderite didn’t seem to realized that his ‘secret deals’ has been found out. 

As soon as Loderite left, Zegabain called the other two generals and he told them about his suspicion toward Loderite.

The two generals were both surprised, but they seemed to have some inkling of Loderite’s betrayal already, thus, none of them raised a strong opposition.

After Zegabain told the two that he had a plan that could take down the fortress tomorrow if they could keep Loderite’s movement under control today, they both were willing to listen to Zegabain’s proposal

Zegabain’s proposal was simple. On the third day, the attacking force would be divided into the force for the daytime attack and the force for the night raid, and neither of the two would make an aggressive attack. The main objective, especially for the night raid’s troops, was to guard against Loderite’s movement. As for attacking the fortress, they could just do it moderately.

“But will we be able to bring down the fortress on the fourth day?” One of the generals raised a doubt.

“Yes. I have a plan for that. Even if my plan failed, Rudek’s men wouldn’t be able to survive our continuous attack. We might suffer some damage, but I believe we will defeat them.”

“Well, It’s true that they are on the brink of defeat, but our side has also suffered a lot of damage. So if we can take a breather for today, the soldiers will also be happy,” The other general agreed.

Thus, the Gorber army’s plan for the third day has been decided.

In fact, the damage to his side was becoming impossible to overlook. Each of the four armies has lost around 1000 men. Still, there were 16000 ….no, it would be better not to count Loderite’s soldiers…so minus the Loderite’s soldiers, his side still had 12000 soldiers.

In contrast, Rudek’s army holed up in the Kitsar Fortress has about 7000 soldiers. According to Wickharlt, who came to him last night, Rudek has about 2000 soldiers who became unable to fight. That meant their total fighting force currently was about 5000 soldiers.

Even though today, his army’s attack wasn’t as aggressive as usual, that didn’t mean his army didn’t cause any damage to the Rudek army.

Zegabain wondered how much damage the Rudek army suffered today. 100…no, there must be more than that so maybe around 500? So Rudek likely has about 4500-5000 soldiers remaining.

The War Princess’ 2000 soldiers joined the Rudek army today.

That meant the total number of the Rudek army must be a little less than 7000 soldiers.

However, according to Wickharlt, some soldiers wanted to betray the Rudek army, just like Wickharlt. Their number was probably around 50-100 soldiers. Should he count these soldiers as Gorber soldiers? No, he could only trust Wickharlt after he opened the west gate.

So in total, it was 12000 of his soldiers against less than 7000 Rudek soldiers….among them were the 2000 soldiers of the War Princess. That woman was a troublesome opponent… no, wait.

Zegabain had an idea. How about he just let the War Princess fight against Loderite? That man would be overjoyed if he could fight against the War Princess.

Even if Loderite was secretly working together with the Rudek Kingdom, he wouldn’t be able to refuse a battle against the War Princess. Given the opportunity, Loderite would definitely want to fight against the War Princess, even if that fight was in fact nothing more than a farce.

Besides, ‘you will be fighting against the War Princess tomorrow’ would make a good excuse for him to tell Loderite to keep tonight’s night raid in moderation.

If he dispatched 4000 of Loderite’s army to fight against the War Princess, then he would have 12000 soldiers against 5000 of the rest of the Rudek army…with that much difference minus the War Princess, he could definitely win the battle.

After thinking that far, Zegabain immediately sent out a messenger to the Loderite’s army.

In the end, today’s night raid ended earlier than before.

Everything would be settled tomorrow, on the fourth day.

When the night raid troops had withdrawn, Wickharlt’s messenger came to Zegabain again. He was the same messenger as before.

“Wickharlt-sama has told me that the plan will be executed tomorrow in the early morning,” was all that the messenger said after he gave a letter to Zegabain. The messenger then disappeared into the darkness of the night.

After reading the letter, Zegabain let out a smirk.

At today’s war council, the War Princess proposed for her to be allowed to come out of the fortress and participate in tomorrow’s battle. The opinions of other commanding officers about this proposal were divided. If things continue as they are, it looks like the War Princess will participate in the battle with just her brigade, or while bringing a small number of other Rudek’s soldiers. She will be coming out to the battle from the east gate tomorrow morning. It seems like she was thinking of taking a detour to avoid the Gorber army detection, and then launching a surprise attack against the Gorber army. We are planning to open the west gate when everyone else’s attention is concentrated on the east gate. We will secretly begin clearing away the rocks blocking the west gate tonight. If the operation fails, we will set fires near the west gate, so please take advantage of the confusion and attack.

Regardless of Wickharlt’s plan, Zegabain has a good reason to drive Loderite to the east gate. It seemed like luck was on his side.

In addition, whether the War Princess would truly come out of the east gate tomorrow would be one factor he could use to determine whether Wickharlt had really betrayed Rudek.

If the War Princess and Loderite fought with each other then they might end up destroying each other…no, if Loderite was working together with the Rudek Kingdom, then he would just return safely to the Gorber’s camp while boasting he fought evenly against the War Princess.

Was it Loderite’s goal to make it seem as if managed to fight against the War Princess with just his army, regardless of the outcome? Could it be that Loderite and the War Princess already had some kind of agreement beforehand to fight against each other, and that agreement was the reason the War Princess was here, rather than helping Rays Stein? No, maybe he was thinking too far about that.

“In any case, everything will become clear tomorrow.”

Zegabain carefully put away the letter and took a sip of his already cooled tea.

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The night of the third day, Kitsar Fortress., around the same time as Zegabain was drinking his tea…

On top of the wall of the east gate, I was waiting for Sazabi’s return from Gorber’s camp. I could already see my breath becoming white.

Though I had tried to convince myself that Sazabi would be alright many times, I still couldn’t rest easy until I saw him return with my eyes.

“You’re going to catch a cold,” Lapilia-sama said.

“Lapilia-sama, you can just wait in your room,” I replied, which resulted in getting kicked lightly on my leg by Lapilia-sama.

“I wonder if tomorrow will turn out exactly as your prediction?”

“ ‘Exactly’ will be impossible. Besides, if things go well, you will have a tough job. Sorry.”

“It’s just fighting Loderite, It’s not a big deal. Plus, I just have to buy us some time, right?”

“Yes. We will settle the battle using the time you bought for us.”

“Then, leave it to me!”

Not long after saying that, Lapilia-sama held out his palm to the sky.

“Look.” (Lapilia)

Following Lapilia-sama, I also held out my palm to the sky.

On my palm was a cold, white ‘winter fairy’ that quickly melted and disappeared.

T/N: It’s fun to see how Zegabain has utterly fallen into Roa’s trap. But seriously, just how bad Loderite is to the point all three of the Gorber’s generals are so suspicious of him even though he’s not actually a traitor?

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