Dungeon Defense (WN)

>Fortresses are often built on hills with narrow pathways, after all.”

Laura pointed at the map with her baton.

“Therefore, we must take advantage of Brittany’s strategy to its fullest.”

Ο

* * *

Ο

“We will set up camp with the Marne River behind us.”

Queen Henrietta declared.

Marne was the river that flowed directly east of Parisiorum.
The generals looked confused as they asked back.

“Your Highness, Marne River is much too close to Parisiorum.
The enemy will sweep through the nation getting to us, so would it not be better to advance a little further?”

“No.
We may have purged the group hostile to us, but there must still be a fair number of rats in hiding.”

Queen Henrietta shook her head firmly.

“Our public opinion is not good at the moment because we purged men and women of all ages.
If these rats start inciting people now, then a rebellion will undoubtedly form.
The further we go from Parisiorum, the more likely a rebellion will occur.”

“I see.
That makes sense.”

The generals nodded.
However, there was still something they were curious about.

“But why are we putting the river behind us? This goes against fundamental military tactics…….”

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“This is to lure the enemy in.”

Queen Henrietta smiled.

“From the enemy’s perspective, we will appear as if our escape route is blocked.
They will think that they can corner us with little effort.
If you consider the Demon Lord army which prefers field battles over sieges, they will definitely engage us in combat.”

Traditionally, humankind would respond with a defensive battle whenever the Demon Lord army invaded.
This was the norm.
Queen Henrietta was pointing this fact out.

“They might think that it is a relief that we are not holing up inside Parisiorum.
Men, we will end the Demon Lord army in a single battle.”

She wasn’t present in the meeting, but Brittany was hiding Demon Lord Agares.
Queen Henrietta knew how powerful this Demon Lord was.
She was burning with a desire for revenge and had mentioned several times that she would gladly cooperate if it meant she could kill Barbatos.

It will be a difficult battle; however, Henrietta didn’t intend to avoid it simply because the result wasn’t guaranteed.
That was Brittany’s confidence.

Ο

* * *

Ο

Just as Laura had confidently predicted, Brittany didn’t come out to face us.

Thanks to this, we were able to march through Frankia rather freely.
We reached Marne River without much resistance.
It was almost like we had come out on a picnic.
Nonetheless, everyone knew that this was the quiet before the storm.

Barbatos glared at the other side of the plains.

“Hey, would you look at that? They have their backs against a dead end.”

Brittany’s army had set up their encampment in front of a river.

Including Barbatos, the executives of our army were carefully observing the enemy’s camp from atop their horses.
They had about thirty thousand to forty thousand troops.
Their numbers were far lower than ours, but the problem was their knights.

There were almost twenty knight banners fluttering in the wind.
They probably scraped together every single knight corp that exists in the country.
There was probably nothing more terrifying than this for the Demon Lord army.
This was probably how infantrymen felt when they stared at the endless number of trenches before them during World War I.

Barbatos cackled.

“Look look.
Doesn’t this mean that they plan to fight to the death here? This Henrietta girl has similar tastes as me.
Hey, Zepar.
Look, it’s the Green Rose Knights.
You should give them a wave.”

“……Please do not tease me, Your Excellency.”

General Zepar groaned, which was a rare sight to behold.

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General Zepar was the unique tactician who responded to a knight charge with an ogre charge, and it was the Green Rose Knights that had crushed his ogres at the time.
I wonder if it was because he was seeing the cause of his trauma, but General Zepar has had a grim look on his face since earlier.

Laura spoke calmly.

“They got rid of their retreat path, so they will fight with the resolve to die.
Going to them would not be a wise plan.
Let us first assess the situation with time.”

We set up our encampment a fair distance away from the enemy’s.

It was at this point that Laura strongly ordered us to pretend as if we were preparing for a decisive battle.
We positioned our ogres at the front to make it seem like we were going to charge with them soon.
Our Demon Lord flags were also on full display as they fluttered splendidly in the wind.

However, four days, a week, and then half a month went by uneventfully.

Eventually, the other side seemed to get impatient as they sent us a letter.
The letter was written by Queen Henrietta herself and it was filled with ridiculing words toward Rudolf von Habsburg and the Demon Lords.
She wanted to have a decisive battle, claiming that nothing good would come from dragging the war on like this for either side.

Laura sent a simple response.

“We have no desire to learn how to go to war from you.
Worry about your own army.”

An outrageous war of nerves continued.

Both armies set up their wooden fences and waited for the other army to attack first.
Brittany occasionally sent mounted archers, but there was no way I was going to get done in by the same tactic twice.
I prepared a lot of javelin spears for this sake.
We responded with ease by having our orcs throw the javelins.

Did they realize we had thoroughly fortified our base? They didn’t actively go on the offensive either.
Small skirmishes that were no different from reconnaissance missions kept happening endlessly.

“How long are we going to stay like this, Miss Deputy Commander”

“Lauraaa.
Just once, huh? Let me charge them just once.”

Our side was also getting impatient.
Brother Beleth and Sitri kept pleading to let them charge.
The other aggressive Demon Lords gradually started to complain as well.
Regardless, every time they did, Laura would give them an immediate response with a vague smile on her face.

“We cannot.”

Brother Beleth and Sitri looked like they wanted to cry as they turned to look at Barbatos and Paimon respectively, but…….

“We will do as Laura commands.”

“Sorry, but please listen to the Deputy Commander, Sitri.”

There was no way that the legion commanders would agree with them when they knew how important the right of command was.
In the end, the hotheaded Demon Lords had to hold their complaints in their chests and spend their time helplessly.

Half a month went by like this.