by Hyougetsu
“What’s the situation on the battlefield?” I ask my spy.
“Creech Castle has been surrounded by the Ashley-Eleora army. They’ve set up encampments on all of the key shores, and it’s proving difficult to engage them.”
“They have that many troops?”
The Doneiks family spy gives me an apologetic look.
“All of the roads leading out of the castle have been blockaded. It’s proving difficult to even ferry messages between you and Prince Woroy, Your Highness.”
Though the spies themselves didn’t seem aware of it, their messages were being intercepted. There was a surprising amount of inconsistency within the correspondence Woroy was sending me. Of course, sending him 20,000 troops would leave this castle under-defended. Furthermore, if my reinforcements ended up encountering enemies en route, they’d be forced to fight a battle in the open field. That’s the last thing I want. If both sides started bleeding soldiers in a war of attrition, North Rolmund—with its proportionally smaller population—would fall first. I can’t afford to send my soldiers out so long as there’s a possibility they’ll end up fighting on the open plains.
If I send soldiers, it has to be when their arrival will be enough to break the siege for sure, or when there’s enough of an opening for them to safely reach Creech Castle’s walls.
Until I’m certain my reinforcements can achieve one of those two objectives, I can’t ask my nobles to send me more troops. All of my lords want to keep their soldiers to protect their own territory. Furthermore, winter expeditions are dangerous and expensive. Eleora and Ashley are probably worried they’ll get hit from behind, but I can’t just move what troops I have left that easily.
“And if circumstances force you to, make sure you win, no matter what it takes... The same way you succeeded in killing me...”
My deceased father’s words come back to me. If I send the full force of my reinforcements to help Woroy, they absolutely need to achieve a military victory, because if they don’t, my lords will lose faith in me. They may even start abandoning me. I need to win, no matter what. That means I need to pick a fight I can’t lose. However, I don’t have enough information to know for sure that I can win if I fight now. Woroy’s messages are being intercepted by the enemy, and I’m having a hard time discerning which are real. Chances are Eleora and Veight are behind the sabotage. I wonder how much of our plans they’ve already uncovered. How many of my messages are even reaching Woroy? How many of his are reaching me? It’s like I’m standing inside a thick fog with no idea where to go. I just don’t have enough information. Seeing me fall silent, my aides walk up to me.
“Prince Ivan, if we wait until spring the lake’s ice will melt. Once that happens, Creech Castle will become truly impregnable. The longer this war drags on, the greater our advantage grows.”
“He’s right, Your Highness. Please, do not worry. Once the snow melts we will be able to maneuver our troops more easily, and sending reinforcements will no longer be an issue.”
Oh no, now I’ve made my aides worry.
“Thank you. It’s as you say, my friends. We should strengthen our defenses and focus on gathering information.”
For now, I’ll wait and see. The kind of strategy my father used to hate. He said it was a waste of time, the most valuable resource. In many ways, he was right. I don’t have much time left for myself, either. But I’m sure I can at least survive until spring.
What about next spring though? Or the spring after? The longer this war drags on, the more likely it is I’ll die of illness before it’s over. Furthermore, once spring comes, Meraldia will be able to send reinforcements as well. I can’t afford to prolong this war too much.
Once my aides leave, I hole up in my study. Looking outside my window I see enough snow’s fallen that it’s piling up to the second floor. This is all happening because our planned invasion of the capital failed. I never imagined Sveniki Castle would be retaken so easily. Creech Castle is too far from the capital to launch consecutive assaults on it, and moving troops to and from the castle is difficult. It’s not suited as an offensive base. What a mess. But even so, it’s important to be cautious when the unexpected happens. I stare at the snow piling up outside, thinking deep thoughts.
* * * *
I had no idea if my counterintelligence measures were having any effect, so I kept thinking of ways to bring down the castle, even as I tampered with as much of Prince Woroy and Prince Ivan’s correspondence as possible. Once spring came and the ice melted, Prince Woroy would be able to send his battleships out to attack our armies on the lakeshore. Those things were so heavily armored that they were like mobile fortresses. On top of that, we had no fleet of our own so we wouldn’t be able to easily hit them back.
“Hey boss, are you sure just doing this is enough? It’s gonna be spring soon.”
Jerrick looked up from the sword he was repairing. He’d taken to inspecting and repairing Eleora’s men’s equipment on his off time recently.
“Once spring comes and the snow melts, we’ll be able to call for reinforcements from Meraldia too.”
“We will?”
“Probably not, but that’s what our enemy’s thinking.”
Meraldia’s viceroys could probably only afford to send an army of a few thousand up north. The demon army wouldn’t be able to send much more either, and I didn’t want to call for demons since their presence in Rolmund would throw the empire into chaos. So in the end, reinforcements from Meraldia wouldn’t be enough to change the situation. But Prince Woroy didn’t know what our internal situation looked like, so he was probably worried about a huge Meraldian army marching northward come spring. The letters he’d sent to his brother often mentioned Meraldia’s army, too. The cautiousness he inherited from his father was coming back to bite him now.
Jerrick put down the sword and picked up a bundle of crossbow bolts. He inspected each one, making sure none were bent and said, “Once spring comes the lake’s gonna melt. And we don’t have any boats, do we?”
“Yeah, we don’t. We could try and build our own fleet, but I doubt they’ll let us do that right under their noses.”
In truth, we really couldn’t afford to drag this out. Right now, Rolmund was experiencing the coldest period of winter. In Earth calendar terms, it was around January. Spring didn’t reach Rolmund until well into May, so we still had a few months of frozen lake left. But our troops were getting exhausted, so the sooner I could wrap this up the better.
“Umm, is this good enough?”
“Yep! Thanks, Natalia!”
I turned toward Lacy and Natalia, who were conversing a short distance away. It seemed like Natalia had just finished making a snow hut. Their snow hut was a lot more elaborate than mine had been, with windows and a curtain hanging over the entrance. Natalia used frost magic on the hut to help harden the walls, and looked proudly down at her work.
“Go inside and see what it looks like, Lacy. These are the kinds of huts hunters in Rolmund make when they’re hunting in winter.”
Lacy ducked inside and looked around.
“Wow, this is amazing! It’s even warm in here! It reminds me of home!”
Oh yeah, I forgot Lacy’s from the northern tip of Meraldia. She probably made things like these when she was a kid. Enjoying the praise, Natalia continued using frost magic to harden the hut’s exterior. Since she was part of the mage corps, she was naturally a mage. The sniper squad she was part of was power-focused, and all of its members were skilled users of destruction magic. Destruction magic drained a lot of mana, so most destruction mages had large mana pools. The frost magic Natalia was currently using was a subset of that same destruction magic. Noticing my gaze, Natalia blushed slightly and gave me a salute.
“Ah, my apologies, sir! Lacy wanted a location she could evacuate to if necessary, so I was constructing one for her!”
It was obvious they’d just been playing around, but I decided to let it slide. They were off-duty anyway. That aside
, I was kind of impressed by how easily Lacy could get along with literally anyone. Or well, literally anyone that was a mage.
“That’s a well-made hut, Natalia.”
“Thank you very much, sir! Frost magic is my specialty, so I can guarantee it’s one of the sturdiest you’ll ever see!”
I laid a hand on Natalia’s hut. The snow had congealed together thanks to her frost magic, and it was much sturdier than it looked. You could probably ride out the whole winter in something this well-made. The hut itself was strong enough to stop a crossbow bolt with ease, too. Wait... Realizing something, I turned back to Natalia. Still smiling, she cocked her head at me.
“Is something wrong, Lord Veight?”
“Can everyone in the mage corps make huts this sturdy?”
Natalia considered my question for a few seconds.
“Well...everyone in the sniper squad can use destruction magic, so all of them could at least.”
“Eleora’s in command of the 203rd-209th mage corps, correct? How many snipers do all the squads have combined?”
“Every corps has a few sniper squads so...there’s probably three to four hundred snipers total.”
Until Eleora developed her magic weapons, mages were rarely used on the battlefield. And those that were had been utilized as scouts or messengers mostly. Right now though, there were hundreds of mages under Eleora’s command. There might be a way to use these guys to break the siege...
I quickly called for a war council to find out how practical my idea was.
“After seeing Warrant Officer Natalia’s snow hut, I started wondering if maybe we could make our own castle of ice to rival Creech Castle.”
Everyone stared at me in shock, too stunned to speak. Don’t worry, there’s more to this idea.
“Just so you know, I’m not suggesting we build a castle on top of the lake. The ice isn’t even strong enough to hold the weight of a catapult; we won’t be able to build anything big on it.”
“Then where do you suggest we build this castle?” Borsche asked, curious. I brought out a map and spread it open.
“Right now, we’ve surrounded Creech Castle. Our army is camped out on the northern half of the lake while Prince Ashley’s army occupies the southern half.”
I’d had Ashley deploy his army on the side closer to the capital, since his troops’ morale was low. Meanwhile, we were in the north, the side that would be attacked first if Prince Ivan decided to send reinforcements. At present, there was nothing around this lakeshore except an open field. To the east and west were deep forests and steep mountains, areas unsuited for maneuvering large forces through. The nearby villages didn’t even have walls, so there was no place we could barricade ourselves if necessary. That meant we had to always be on the lookout for a sortie from the castle to our south, as well as the appearance of reinforcements to our north.
However, if we had a fortress of our own, we wouldn’t need to be so wary. Eleora’s army of 17,000 would become that much more formidable if it had a castle defending it. In fact, we’d be able to withstand a simultaneous assault from Prince Ivan’s 20,000 reinforcements and Prince Woroy’s 30,000 men.
“Fortunately, we have tons of snow here. If we harden it into proper walls, we could create a fortress for our army.”
I’d loved playing with building blocks as a kid back on Earth, and I’d made a fair share of miniature European castles. I’d never made a laketop castle or an ice castle, but now I had a chance to round out my collection. Granted, this would be a snow castle not an ice castle, but it was close enough. In fact, it’d probably end up as more of a glorified set of walls than an actual castle, since making complex structures out of snow was impossible. If anything, it’d look like one of those giant sculptures they made for the Sapporo Snow Festivals back in Japan.
“Right now, our army needs to be wary of attacks both from the north, and from Creech Castle to the south. But if we have a fortress, we can barricade ourselves in—we could take on both armies at the same time if we have to. We won’t have to worry about being pincered, and we’ll still have a force large enough to prevent Prince Ivan’s reinforcements from rendezvousing with Prince Woroy.”
We were in a pretty precarious position right now, but with the right fortifications we’d go from being the weakest link to a huge threat. Of course, fortifications made out of snow wouldn’t be impregnable or anything. Especially since it’d be a rushed job. And once spring came, our castle would melt. Still, as long as it was around it would serve an important purpose.
“Most of our soldiers are mage corps. They’re not suited for battles in the open field. But on the flip side, they’re devastating when holding a fortified position.”
Blast Canes were basically medieval guns, but made with magic.
“If we can build up some fortifications here, our mage corps will be that much more of a threat. Even if Prince Ivan and Prince Woroy pincer us we’ll be able to hold them off.”
And once we were in a position of strength, we wouldn’t need to surround the entire castle to keep Prince Woroy in check. That meant we’d no longer even need Prince Ashley’s army.
“If we can keep Prince Woroy’s army bottled up here with just our forces, Prince Ashley’s men will be able to assault Prince Ivan.”
It was about time Prince Ashley’s forces started pulling their weight. Of course, once his army left, it was possible Prince Woroy would march onto the capital. But in order to take it, he’d first need to capture all the castles between Creech Castle and the city. And if he started marching on any of those castles, Eleora’s army would be able to hit him from behind. Most army formations were brittle if struck from any direction except from the front, so we’d be able to do a good deal of damage despite our inferior numbers. As I finished my explanation, Kite raised his hand.
“Can you explain how exactly you’re going to build these fortifications?”
I’m glad you asked.
“The answer’s simple. We’ll shovel the snow around us and pile it up around our encampment. That’s something every Rolmundian is used to doing.”
We didn’t exactly need skilled engineers for this.
“But by my estimations, we’re a little short on snow so we’ll need to quarry blocks of ice over from the lake. That alone won’t be enough, so we’re going to need to draw water from the lake and have the mage corps freeze that as well.”
I doubted I was the first person to come up with the idea of a snow fort, but I would likely be the first to successfully implement it. The biggest problem was even if an army wanted to make fortifications out of snow, there just wasn’t enough of it. Even during the Sapporo Snow Festival back on Earth, the sculptures used so much snow that the city had to import truckloads of it from elsewhere. There wasn’t enough in Sapporo itself.
Fortunately for us, Eleora’s army had hundreds of mages capable of using frost magic. And we had a lake full of water right next to us.
“The fortifications don’t have to be super tall to begin with. Even if they’re only waist height, they’ll be enough to give our mage corps a safe location to shoot from. Once we’ve gotten them to that level we can see what resources we have to work with and figure out how much more we can build them up.”
Unlike archers, mage corps could fire their weapons from a crouch so even modest fortifications were enough to protect them. And as long as they were protected, they were a force to be reckoned with.
“Ideally, I’d like to get our walls to the height of regular castle walls. If we coat the outer sections in ice, they’ll become impossible to climb too.”
After that, we can start making arrow slits and watchtowers and... My end goal was rather ambitious, though I doubted we’d be able to make everything I wanted. Eleora turned to me and asked, “Do you have a plan to keep Woroy at bay while we’re working on building the fort up?”
“I do. Though I imagine he won’t be able to attack us too easily if we cut up the ice near the lakeshore anyway
, which we’ll have to do to get at the water underneath.”
Getting rid of all the ice was likely impossible but we’d be able to cut out enough of it that soldiers and cavalry couldn’t safely cross. Once we did that, we just needed to make sure the sections of the lake we’d quarried from didn’t refreeze.
Afterwards, we started hashing out the details of my plan. In the end, everyone agreed, since the risks of failure were low, and it wasn’t like there was anything else to do with our soldiers at the moment. Once the decision to build a snow fort was made, we started construction right away. Eleora put soldiers to work digging out snow the very same day. Granted, this was work they always did anyway, the only difference was now we were shoveling snow from outside our encampment as well.
Within a few hours, we already had a respectable pile of snow. Unfortunately, it compacted a great deal when we set about hardening it, so we needed to go out and gather yet more snow. Again we raised up a respectable pile that contracted into a tiny mound once hardened. I’d expected this, but it still surprised me just how much snow we’d need for our fortifications. Elsewhere, teams of soldiers hauled in water from the lake and poured it into wooden frameworks where it was then frozen into ice with the mage corps’ frost magic.
Naturally, freezing such large quantities of water took time, and the mage corps needed to expend a large amount of mana for each block of water they froze. There were more frames than there were mage teams so a number of the blocks of water were left out to freeze naturally. Eleora, who’d gone out to inspect everyone’s progress, returned to where I was waiting near the command tent.
“If the mage corps end up being the star of this war, their relative value will rise. That, in turn, will make my value greater as well. You planned this out with that in mind, didn’t you?”
I grinned at Eleora.
“Perceptive as always, Princess Eleora.”
Once we defeated the Doneiks Family, we still had the Schwerin Family that was backing Prince Ashley to deal with. In order to make negotiating with them easier, it was imperative that Eleora’s army earned the most achievements during this war. Blast Canes were a weapon Eleora had developed, so if they proved the superior weapon in this war, her stock would rise among the other nobles. Of course, that didn’t mean I was planning on having Prince Ashley’s army do nothing.
