"EVERYONE, ASSEMBLE TO THE MAIN FIELD NOW!!!" A loud voice came from outside our tent.
"Oh shit, General Austin has called us! Everyone, hurry!" I put down a box in my room and run outside.
I run to the main field with Jordan and Vetto. On the way there, I saw many people that have been lining properly on the field. I even see famous adventurer parties from Eastalfall and Westlandia Holy Elf Kingdom on the eastern side of the field. Well, I'm not surprised at least, considering the threat level that we faced right now, we need as many helps that we can get.
On the western side of the field, I can see many famous knights and warriors that graduated from academy and now they served as Queen Anne's subordinates. Well, well…should I say living legends or lapdogs? It's no use standing proudly there, it only makes your faces look more silly than usual.
I bet they will be swearing to help people in need and not abandoning your dying friends on the battlefield. It's useless, you will die first before you can save any of your friends or the people. Did you think this mission is a "chivalric duty" that can make you become "hero"?
No stupid, you are wrong. You are a winner and hero "for yourself" if you can survive in this mission. If you keep thinking you can become a hero in this battle, you are only wasting your time and you are no different from those idiot human heroes from Germaint Empire.
"My Liege, why are you smirking…?"
"It's nothing, Jordan." I covered my mouth.
My party members came while Queen Anne walking to the podium. On her behind, I can see other kings and queens from Elven Alliance's members, I even can see famous king from Medfor Dwarven Kingdom, King Diego Stone.
Well, it's not surprising to see him participating in this battle since "they" have ravaged his kingdom many times and killed his brothers, who were once the King of Valghast and Khazam Dwarven Kingdom. I bet he has a deep grudge against "them" even now.
"Salute for Northlandia Queen, Anne Petroskyvia Reina!" General Austin saluted Queen Anne and we followed after him. Queen Anne replied it by saluting to everyone then she puts down her hand.
"I welcome thee, Warriors, Knights, Mages and Rogues who have come from every kingdom in the world." Thunderous clap came shortly after Queen Anne finished her greeting.
Queen Anne's speech mainly focused on our situation right now and the upcoming battle in front of or eyes. She also raised the soldiers' morale in her speech by promising them a promotion and high reward "if they can survive in this battle". Truthfully in my opinion, it's hard to determine whether she was serious or not, because she kept talking with cold, flat tone and expression.
…Strangely enough, the knights screamed in joy after Queen Anne finished her speech and that makes me wonder whether they are insane or not. Truly if I can say, Queen Anne is the worst speech-giver ever in the Elven Alliance.
I know people are admiring her because she is quick to take a decision, genius and ruthless…wait, I don't mean she is literally "merciless", but I mean she is so straightforward and she aren't afraid to take a decision even though it may cost her honor or stain her reputation.
I remember she beheaded a noble from King Hideryl's faction from Vulcaniar Kingdom because he bribed the guards of Bavary Mine to smuggle out large amounts of [Bavary Metal] that used for making kingdom's currency. Of course, she didn't behead him right away, but she collected information first.
The other things that make people fear her isn't her character or judgement only, but her information gathering ability as well. On [Bavary Metal] Smuggle Case, she only needs two daesh for information gathering and she found four important evidences.
It was enough to bring that noble into the execution field on the evening. Meanwhile, King Hideryl himself, who knew about that ignored the noble's plea to defend him in the judgement. I think he was glad because Queen Anne eradicated "a pest" from his faction.
(Oops…to much lost deep in thought, I almost spotted by General Austin) I shook my head after General Austin glanced at me. Guess, I can't help but hearing Queen Anne's boring speech then…eh wait, was that King Hideryl who gave the speech on the podium?
"…And that's all from me." King Hideryl left the podium.
(Oh, crap I missed the best part) I rubbed my head and sighed.
The Kings and Queens take in turns when they are giving speech, most of them gives an interesting speech (at least, they were better than Queen Anne's speech) or sometimes funny jokes to erase our doubts and fears like King Fidel did when he was giving us his speech.
Meanwhile, the Tempest Elf Rogues who heard King Fidel's speech laughed hard until their laughter can be heard from my standing place. Even Rean, who normally calm and cool can't hold his laughter and burst out after he heard King Fidel's silly speech.
Now, I wonder if this a right time to be joking? I mean it's fine if you want to erase the soldiers' doubts and fears, but don't you have another way rather than throwing jokes? Moreover, you are a KING, King Fidel. I hope you don't forget your position. The speech continued by King from Arthern Holy Elf Kingdom, Ronand and ended by King Vesta from Dark Elf Race.
I glanced Robert quickly covered his face with hood when King Vesta gave us his speech. Sometimes, I saw King Vesta glanced at Robert few times. Robert kept covering his face until King Vesta finished his speech and returned to his chair. After that, General Austin disbanded the joint force and we quickly returned to our base. On the way back, I approached Robert and grabbed his shoulder.
I am staring at him, "Why King Vesta kept glancing at you before, Robert?"
"Hmm, what do you mean?" He glances away.
"No, nothing. Let's go." I patted his back and pushed him.
Once we inside our tent, we equipped our gears and unloaded our luggage. The girls from Mage Squad are busy connecting the network and activating the magic circles when the boys are putting the item we brought into specific places. After that, I called few people that will join The United Forces and asked The Healers to check their condition. We rushed to the main command center after The Healers finished checking their condition.
I entered the main command center's tent and started to greet the generals, "Salute General Austin and General Ian, Ishizaki Haruhisa von Alexandria has come to fulfill the kingdom's request!"
"Welcome Ishizaki-dono. Let's cut off the talk, give me the papers." General Austin raised his right hand.
I gave him the documents that I had sorted again on this morning. He carefully checked and read it while writing down something on his book. Then, General Ian checked the documents again the documents General Austin gave him while typing on the floating screen in front of him. We waited few minerval until they finished their writing. I glanced at my party members and I saw they felt restless when General Ian typing downs their names and sent it to The United Forces Division's Leaders.
"Don't worry, Megantha. Just follow your Division Leader's command and I promise everything will be fine."
"U-uhm…" Megantha looked at me with scared expression.
General Austin called Colonel Hazel and he asked my party members to follow him. I waved my hand to them and smiled at Tim to reassure him. Once they have left, General Austin walked to me and asked with stern tone, "Has Alberto Robert Hawk reported for duty to Queen Anne?"
"I believe he hasn't. Did you want me send a message to him?"
"Yes, please do."
I quickly wrote down a message and sent it to Robert. Then, General Austin asked me to follow him to Conference Room to discuss about the details of my mission. Oh right, I forgot yesterday Queen Anne hasn't properly tell me the details of our mission since she didn't enough time. Well, I guess it can't be helped.
"[MESSAGE SENT]" A notification popped out in my [Status Screen] then I closed my [Status Screen] and told General Austin that I had sent the message to Robert. Then, He nodded and thanked me.
"General Louise Austin von Archengelloire Dunkleins…no, Uncle Austin, may I ask few things to you?" Few people glanced at us when I called General Austin as "Uncle."
Truthfully, Uncle Austin is mother's little brother and one of the three Imperial Army's Generals in Northlandia Imperial Army. He is appointed by Queen Anne as a General in the Army Land Division, not long after grandfather passed away.
He climbed the military rank quite fast compared to mother who serves as Queen Anne's personal guard, due to his great achievements of annexing dozen regions in [The Land of Four Demon Gods] that located on the northwest of Northlandia Kingdom and "clearing" them from the Demons and their kin. He also got another achievement by winning various wars against Germaint Empire, The Land of Four Demon Gods, and The Land of Four Spirits hundred times during 5.812 A.E.V I until 2.600 A.E.V I.
He glances at me, "Colonel Ishizaki Haruhisa von Alexandria, please do not call me "Uncle" in a formal occasion like this, understood?"
"Understood. I'm terribly sorry, General Austin, for my rude behavior before."
"By the way, what do you want to ask?"
"Oh, I would like to know Duke Alexandria and Major General Hannah von Archengelloire Dunkleins' base of operations. I would like to visit them when I'm nearby their base of operations."
He giggled after hearing me talking like a machineman. Oh, come on Uncle…I can't talk formally fluently again after I quit from the Chivalric Order few Eelvariash ago. It's not that I forget about them, but my life as an adventurer has changed the way I talk a lot.
"Ahahaha…it's fine if you call them "father" and "mother" since you are their son and you aren't Royal Family's son either. But it's a different matter for Robert and Rebecca."
"Ugh…I was just following…the basic rules…" I scratched my right cheek.
"Yes, I know…let's cut off our little chit-chat. Follow me."
General Austin asked me to follow him to a room on another side of the castle, which is his personal room. Then, he picked a map from the bookshelf and opened it on his table in front of me. He pinpoints two locations in the map with two pins and he draws two small circles around the pins.
"Brother Azilvanir fought with Fourth until Ninth Division of Land division near the border of [The Land of Four Demon Gods]. I got the report about the activities of ——————— that have been increasing a lot there lately. Meanwhile, that region itself is the vital point in this war, since if we lost there, we will be outnumbered and outflanked by the enemies."
"I see, is there a massive crack there?"
"Yes, there is. A big one, around 700 Me width. If we can seal the crack after defeating "their" leaders, your father will regroup with your mother's force that is located a bit southeast from there and assist them in sealing the crack before returning to the main force that are located in the plain."
"How long until the support army from Beastman Alliance comes?"
"Around seven daesh, if we can hold off "their" invasion for that long, we can win this battle."
I looked at General Austin, "Do we have another support?"
"We had contacted Harpy and Mermaid Alliance, but Queen Bella from Mermaid Alliance unable to help since there aren't any nearby body of water near the battleground. The good news is, Queen Ragel from Harpy Alliance said that her air force would arrive around four daesh from now at best, if they don't encounter any resistance on the way here. Honestly, we really need the air force right now to diminish the enemy's number quickly, but the air force from Draconic Races have encountered a storm right along their way, so their esteemed time of arrival would be delayed for a daesh, at best. We are also lacking in Dragon Knights, which makes thing worse than it already is. Ugh, my head hurts…" He shook his head several times.
Well, Queen Anne sent my father to a tough place, where the battlefield is surrounded by two canyons on both left and right side while there is only one road between them. I bet father doesn't has many choices to defend the one straight that overflowed by many of "them".
Talk about complete battle, if he could pull this off and get out safely it would be a miracle. He needs to take advantage of the top of the canyons first, and assist the force that is holding the enemies. Take an anticipation for flying enemies too, even though I don't know very much about "them" who can fly.
Aside from that, I didn't know father had return to active duty, he isn't Queen Anne's subordinate or knight. He is just a normal adventurer who studied in Northlandia Knight and Magic Academy and continuing his life by taking the path of a merchant, the path that my grandparents entrusted to him after their sudden death.
"Say, Haru. Did you know that your mother will receive a promotion this Eelvariash?"
"Hmm, I didn't—SAY WHAT?!" I'm very surprised with what General Austin said so blatantly and flatly before.
General Austin said that mother's troops have exceeded 44.000 men, and she has an equal number of soldiers similar to an army that a Lieutenant General usually commands. The thing that makes me shocked isn't mother's promotion, but the number of her troops. Maybe this was her reason why she rarely comes back to home for almost two Eelvariash?! Moreover, why did she gather so many people in the first place?!
"Why mother gathered nearly 45.000 people under her special squad…? Aren't a normal squad normally only have 2.000 people at most and a Queen's Royal Guard only has 40.000 people at most?!"
"Yeah, I honestly have no idea what Queen Anne order to big sister is and what is she trying to achieve. You know a wikliviash ago…the Prime Minister came to my office and submitted this report to me. Haaah…"
"But Queen Anne also has fourteen Royal Guard Squads under her direct command excluding mother's squad. If another squad also has 45.000 soldiers, doesn't it mean the Queen herself has around 630.000, plus if we added mother's squad…it would be 675.000?! What is Queen Anne trying to achieve with this amount of people, invading other kingdom?!"
I breathe in and out quickly after I said all of that to General Austin, but he just shook his head and chuckled at me. Then, he closed the map and gave it to me.
"True, it could come that way, but I haven't finished my sentence yet. It's true that big sister's troops have around 44.000 men and Queen Anne decided to merge other fourteen squads into one squad under big sister's command and raise her rank to Lieutenant General. But truthfully, other squads don't have more than 20.000 men you know. Only your mother has that many people under her command. I think she overdid it as usual."
"But why is Queen Anne merged all of them into one squad?"
"In this chaotic time, it's impractical to have multiple chains of command and a wise ruler will merge other squads outside Royal Army into Royal Army to prevent any confusion in the chain of command."
I was silenced for a while after General Austin said that. He is right, since I kept thinking about why Queen Anne would bother to merge all squads in the Royal Guard into one in this peaceful era, without looking outside the shell called "peaceful era" itself. Normally in peaceful era, a wise ruler won't merge their personal Royal Guard or Kingdom Guard into one army, with an exception if they encounter a monetary crisis.
Then, General Austin told me the reason why Queen Anne decided to merge other fourteen squads into mother's squad. He said Queen Anne wants to prevent the same incident that happened during [The First Rain of Chaos] from happening again when she lost almost half of her Royal Guards due to confusion in the chain of command.
"Is it possible for mother to become a General like you, General Austin?"
"She wouldn't. Why would a kingdom have two Great Generals from a same division? It will only bring endless confusion if we have two polar of leadership in a same division. Moreover, the Royal Guard is just Special Guard Corp that are created by forming Land, Navy, and Air Force's best members into one special group solely to serve the King or Queen directly while protecting them from any harms."
After we talked for a while, General Austin reminded me of the time and we walked out from his room.