Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

♦

We’d been tense since early morning but once we saw the arrow being fired from the direction of the Great Temple, everyone raised their voice.

“It’s the signal!”

“The demon commander had entered the trap!”

Our army started to rush out toward the demon army. The demon army resisted us but they were clearly confused. Using our superior momentum, we succeeded in pushing the demon army back despite the difference in our pure battle power.

The demon army looked really different compared to the past battles. So this was how big of a difference momentum could make, huh?

Schunzel looked in the distance while pointing his palm out and said, “It looks like we have the upper hand.”

“Of course, we will. You know, I didn’t make the army run and fight for days for nothing.”

In one part of the battlefield, the Zeavert army was also fighting but they were quieter compared to other armies. This was because I had instructed Max, Augen, and other commanders of the Zeavert army to control the momentum of their soldiers.

‘We can’t go all out yet’, I thought to myself as I observed the battlefield.

But really, did these demons not realize that raising their voice in the middle of the night like yesterday was the same as announcing, ‘we are going to launch a great attack on you tomorrow!’

Were they stupid or what!? I guessed the fact that this kind of consequences didn’t cross their heads was indirect proof that they looked down on humans.

“What is the relation between the army running around these past few days and the current momentum?”

“Well, it got to do with the soldier’s mental state.”

As I observed the battlefield, I briefly responded to Neurath’s question.

In the past few days, Beliulace was running around the battlefield while leading the demons’ main force because of that the kingdom’s army only needed to fight slightly weaker demons.

By making the kingdom army repeatedly fight the slightly weaker demons, I succeeded in leaving an impression on the soldiers that a demon army without their commander wasn’t scary and could be defeated! That’s how the army became motivated again. Impression could be quite a scary thing, right?

“Victory is the best way to eliminate fear, even if it’s only a small victory.”

“I see so…”

What I did was simply to change their perception of ‘Beliulace and the demon army are scary!’’ to ‘Beliulace is scary but the demon army is not!’ since erasing the perception of ‘Beliulace is scary!’ was impossible.

Even I was scared of that huge monster let alone normal soldiers. If I saw him getting closer from a distance, I would also want to run away! It was a good thing that Beliulace was moving around while leading the demons’ main force. Otherwise, I would have probably needed to think of a different plan.

“It’s like fighting the nomadic horsemen, huh.”

“Pardon?”

“Nope, it’s nothing.”

I replied to Schunzel’s question. The situation of the demon army was very similar to the situation of the northern tribes in China. They were all armies whose strongest became the commanders.

These kinds of armies were pretty dangerous if they had their commander but their chain of command was usually pretty slow so places far away from their commander were weaker. That was what I aimed for. I let the army attack these weaker points to shave away at the demons’ fighting force. As for the details of the attack and stuff, I let the commanders of each army decide.

Even without the presence of their commanders, these kinds of armies would put up a fierce resistance because they were afraid of their commanders’ punishment if they were found to be backing off. However, their resistance was unorganized, reducing its effectiveness to the bottom. This was the state of the current demon army.

But I chose to still hold the Zeavert army back because I knew what a desperate army was capable of. It looked like I was not the only person who thought of this since the momentum of the kingdom’s army was also quite controlled. Was it the wisdom of old age of Duke Grunding?

There was actually one army that looked a bit more fierce than the others. I recognized their crest. Viscount Davrak was swinging his battle axes while leading them. I heard the Viscount was someone who had fought valiantly in the Hildea Plain battle. I now understand where he got the name of the ‘fierce general’. If I fought him, I would definitely lose.

By the way, the terms ‘fierce general’ and ‘brave general’ are often thought to be the same but they were actually different. ‘Fierce general’  was a term for someone who led the battle while wielding the weapon and defeating the enemies while ‘brave general’ was a term for a general who had bravery and was excellent in commanding their army. That was why Kisho Yoshinaka got the title of ‘brave general’ even though he had never killed famous generals. The phrase “There are no weak soldiers under a brave general’ was actually referring to the soldiers themselves, not the general.

(T/N: Kiso Yoshinaka or more commonly known as Miyamoto no Yoshinaka is a famous Japanese general that lived in the late 1100s. Read more HERE.)

There was also the term ‘combat general’ given to a leader of a small unit. This term was similar to ‘fierce general’ but ‘combat general’ led fewer people. But by the Sengoku Period, the 3 words started to be used as synonyms for each other. The passage of time often changed the meaning of words.

“Keep calm and don’t force yourself to fight!”

“Work together to kill them one by one!”

“Just do it like your training!”

On both sides, Augen and Barkey were shouting at the soldiers. Honestly, I don’t think they both needed to do that but I guess they were both just too excited. To get excited when a battle was right in front of them was just the nature of a warrior, was it?

“UOOOO!!!”

And you, Max! Why the hell was the actual commander of the Zeavert army fighting on the frontline!? Being lively was a good thing but still… Well, at least, he was better at doing the desk work so I would give you a lot of work later, Max. Be prepared.

As for me, I was observing the situation on horseback and didn’t participate in the battle. Horseback was surprisingly pretty high, 150 cm and even 170 cm for a large horse.

Though the horseback wasn’t as high as the pool guard chair I could still see a lot of things from here. Sitting on horseback also made you an easy target to snipe though. Good thing this world didn’t have a gun yet since arrows were a bit easier to handle.

“Welner-sama, does something matter?”

“Both of you. What do you think about this battle?”

My words caused Neurath and Schunzel to re-observe the situation on the battlefield. The soldiers and knights of the Zeavert army were fighting relentlessly against demons like the Lizardman and the Alligator Warriors on the battlefield.

We were pushing the demon army back but some demons kept fighting even though their bodies were riddled with arrows. Damn. These guys were really tough.

“I think our side has the upper hand.”

“I think so too…”

“I know. That’s not what I meant…”

So they both didn’t notice? Or maybe that was normal here since this world was formerly a game? I don’t know. I fell into my thoughts and before I could say anything, the situation suddenly changed.

“Listen, oh, brave warriors who fought the demons!”

Suddenly an old man’s voice resounded throughout the battlefield. Judging from his tone, he was used to talking in front of a large number of people so he must be an important person. Well, even the so-called great ‘Supreme Priest’ was only a weak unit though.

Because the old man’s voice can be heard throughout the battlefield, I wonder if he used some kind of voice amplification magic. I never heard that that kind of magic existed but maybe the Great Temple had to give sermons and stuff to a large number of believers so they had it.

“The leader of demons who attacked this sacred temple had been vanquished by the hands of a brave young man!”

The atmosphere immediately became tense. Did Mazell succeed? If it was the temple guards that killed Beliulace, the old men would say ‘the temple guards’ rather than ‘brave young man’.

“Behold! This is the end of the malicious demon!”

After that sentence, something was lifted above the temple’s gate. It was something big being held up by… I think spears? That thing was pretty big so 3 spears held it up. It was too far so, for me, it looked like a soybean being lifted up with 3 toothpicks.

The second it appeared, the demons became restless. That sealed it. That thing was definitely Beliulace’s head.

For a second, I thought that demons had better eyesight than humans but this was not the time to think about that kind of stuff.

“Zeavert army! Charge!!!”

“OUUU!!!”

“CHARGE!!!!”

When they saw that our enemies had become restless, everyone must be itching to fight with their full power so my order essentially became the trigger that released their desire to fight.

The Zeavert army swallowed the rows of demons and other armies followed suit but our army definitely held the strongest momentum.

After all, the Zeavert army was holding back when everyone was fighting with their full power so we had more stamina left than other armies. This was the time I had been waiting for.

On the other hand, the demon army’s morale immediately collapsed after they saw the death of their commander. This was the army that only managed to maintain their morale because of the fear of their commander so the death of their commander immediately freed them from their fear so they finally could run away if they wanted to.

This was the situation that happened too often in the history of my previous life.

This time, I also participated in the battle. Using the momentum of my horse, I stabbed the throat of the demons that were in front of my way. Maybe because of my Skill and excellent weapons, just with this move, I saw the knights and orderlies in my surroundings become more motivated.

“Kill them one by one!”

“Let’s attack them from the right!”

Even without me saying anything, everyone did a good job in the group fight so It looked like they have gotten used to it. I had Neurath and Schunzel on my left and right so I could fight even the toughest opponent without any hesitation.

Neurath and Schunzel would finish any opponents that I failed to kill so I just focused forward, thrusting any demons that I came across, drenching the soil with blood. Using a spear on the horseback was pretty difficult so I was glad that I got some training back at the aqueduct guarding mission.

The gates of the temple opened and the hero party came from the inside. Good timing. I saw that Luguentz was also in the temple. He was used to the battlefield so he would become a reliable ally here.

“We’ll split the demon army by cooperating with the military force inside the temple. Send Max’s troops to the front!”

“Yes, sir!”

Max still looked energetic so leaving it to him should be fine. I stopped my horse to calmly observe the state of the war. Max and his troop movement had caused a part of the demon army to collapse.

On the other side, Viscount Davrak’s army had pushed the enemy further to the back. It seemed like the demons wanted to run as long as they were given a chance, just like the demons in the outbreak. We wouldn’t let you run, though.

“Tell Augen’s troop to hold enemies on our left flank to prevent them from getting behind us. Barkey. Your troop will follow my troop to rush to the temple’s entrance!”

“Yes!”

We would break through from the center. I needed to stand out here and this was the flashiest move I could think of.

Since we’ve succeeded in half – surrounded the demon army – if we broke through their center, the demon army would be finished. 

“The enemies on our right flank are already on the brink of collapse so ignore them and focus only on your front! If we succeed in breaking through here, our enemy’s formation will collapse!”

“Yes, sir!”

In my previous life, it was a ‘war logic’ that in the war that happened in the Sengoku Era or before that era, the army that half-encircled their enemies or the army that succeeded in breaking through their enemy’s center then proceeded in destroying their enemies rear from the center usually won.

By the way, ‘war logic’ was an uncommon word even in my previous life. It basically meant ‘the principle of war’. Although I also don’t know the detailed explanation of the words war logic, if I had to guess, it meant finding the winning pattern of war and trying to come up with ways to guide the battlefield into the ‘winning pattern’. That was all I know, I mean I wasn’t a linguistic expert or a war expert.

I wasn’t going to think about the details since this ‘pattern’ would change depending on the army’s morale and the speed of the chain of command in the army. What I needed to do here was to give the impression to my allies that ‘with this one move, we will be able to crush our enemy!’

While breaking through the enemy’s ranks, I let out a smile as I saw a familiar face standing at the head of the group that rushed out from the temple.

♦

T/N: The battle against Beliulace is slowly come to end!