“It’s almost time”

　General Marcus stood in front of his army which raised the blue war flags while looking towards the fort on the hill and murmured.
　The Imperial Guard’s captain, Lunos, waited beside him.
　A few minutes later black smoke was visible in the blue sky above the fort.
　Lunos who saw that directed a few words towards Marcus.

“It went up, didn’t it?”

“Umu. I’m counting on you.”

“Yes, I’ll be off then”

　After having bowed to Marcus lightly Lunos turned to the soldiers and raised his voice.

“Let’s go! Raid unit, follow me! We might encounter the enemy on the way so, Captains of all departments, you can’t let your guard down!”

『Yes!』

“Then, let’s go!”

　Thus Lunos led the soldiers out of the camp.
　They took the route going around the south side of the hill.
　By the way, the distance between the red and blue camp to the fort would be about 1,5 kilometres in a straight line.
　Although it’s not that far one has to climb up that steep slope.
　Taking the route around the south side of the hill the distance to the opposing camp is approximately 5 kilometres.
　As their army is a mix of archers, cavalry and infantry the blue army led by Marcus and Lunos will take around one hour.

“What fine weather, the sunlight is warm.”

　While on his horse Lunos unintentionally muttered.
　One could see the blue winter sky shining through the trees if one looked up.
　The wind wasn’t as cold as the sun was shining from the south unceasingly, fortunately.
　In summer the sunlight is interrupted by the tree’s leaves but now in winter all of them fell and the sunlight is able to shine through.
　The Alamos hill in itself was grassland on which only a few trees were able to grow but at its foot a forest spread out.
　Right now Lunos was leading the soldiers on the boundary between the grassland and the forest area.
　He was riding along the forest so that the archers and infantry can advance easily.

“However, the others did nothing but some strange training. Did Sir Lunos see that?”

　An adjutant who was riding next to him started to talk.
　The man in his late 30s seemed serious and grew a beard.
　He was also an Imperial Guard Order’s captain.

“Yeah, I saw it. He lined his infantry up and just let them walk.”

“Yeah, they were going in circles again and again while executing these movements and strides. How on earth are they going to fight with that? What a laughingstock.”

　Lunos fell silent without answering the adjutant who seemed amused.
　He didn’t think that their master Carlo would do something without any reason behind it.
　When he witnessed Carlo’s skill as he uncovered Viscount Gerg’s crimes Lunos came to the conclusion that Carlo has the mysterious talent to think deeply.

(What is the meaning behind that training, what measures did Carlo-sama take?)

　This marching training was based on the knowledge Carlo (=Ryosukes) obtained from a book of his original world “The infantry’s leadership decides over a battle’s victory or defeat”.
　The infantry in this world were basically commoners half-forcibly drafted so their moral is pretty low.
　It was a normal occurance for them to flee in all directions as soon as the situation seemed to be a little disadvantagous making it impossible to maintain a front.
　If we were to fight a battle with the Barbarians who mostly consist out of cavalry it’s obvious that the infantry won’t be able to keep up with their horses’ movements which makes it impossible for them to hold formation ending with the infantry eventually fleeing.
　What Marcus was concerned about the matte of separating the cavalry from the infantry was that he believed the foot soldiers would be impossible to control if the commanders, the knights, were gone.
　Ryosuke’s answer to that was the marching training of the infantry but Lunos didn’t know about that at this time.

“Well, the infantry and archers are just a disorderly gathering of some people with their commanders, the knights, gone, we can’t lose”

　At the moment Lunos answered the adjutant he noticed some kind of ruckus at the front of them.

“What happened? Report to me what happened here.”

　Having been told that a knight came galloping over from the front.
　He stopped his horse next to Lunos and started to report.

“There are some foot soldiers making a fuss saying they saw enemy riders”

“What? Their numbers?”

“It’s just one horseman.”

“Just one horseman, you say? Could it be that they were mistaken? It can’t be that there’s just one horseman acting alone.”

　While the adjutant was amazed by this ridiculous story Lunos wore a difficult expression and started thinking.

(Are you telling me they just moved one horseman of the cavalry? It’s hard to believe that they would divide the cavalry for some reconnaissance soldiers……Did the cavalry unit come here as well without aiming for the top? If so, then it’s just like we expected.)

　As he thought so the adjutant raised his voice.

“A red beacon got shot up from the fort. Seems like they were aiming for the fort with the horsemen after all.”

“I see, If it’s like this everything is going as planned. Later the infantry and archers will follow them as reinforcement. Their camp should be insufficiently guarded by then. Let’s hurry and head there!”

　Lunos commanded the party to raise their marching speed.

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