Surviving a Harsh Fantasy with Cheat Items (WN)

Upon the suggestion to launch an offensive from the city by Louise, the butler knight Kato paled.

He was already struggling to keep the impulsive Princess Knight Eleonora in check, even with the assistance of the stern mercenary captain, Garan.

「Your Excellency Louise, please refrain from provoking our princess!」

「General Eleonora’s judgment is fundamentally sound. Now, listen to me, Kato-dono.」

Louise waved away Kato’s hurried complaints and attempted to explain. Kato, though not lacking in resolve, listened attentively, his arms crossed.

「Shall we hear the esteemed discourse of ‘Ten Thousand Swords’ Your Excellency Louise?」

Louise analyzed the battlefield situation.

True, with multiple layers of defensive walls and ample supplies, Lanct’s city seemed impregnable. However, defeating an enemy force of thirty-four thousand wouldn’t be possible either. Why, then, did the enemy persist in this stalemate, knowing they couldn’t capture Lanct?

Perhaps their true objective lay in perpetuating this very deadlock.

It made sense to assume that drawing our forces here wasn’t their primary goal. 「Consider this, why did General Mainz refrain from entering Lanct’s city and instead engage in open-field warfare? I, as a loyal servant, following the orders of my lord, will move according to General Mainz’s arrangement.」

「Indeed, that reasoning holds.」

General Mainz likely planned to annihilate the Fist Slave Imperial Army in a decisive field battle. By observing his movements, anyone could discern his intentions.

Therefore, they must not merely defend; they should also strike. At the very least, they cannot afford to idle away time by keeping their mobile knights confined within the walls.

「Kato-dono, most of our reinforcements have already arrived. The strategy of holding out for reinforcements is the essence of our defense. Keeping our cavalry within the walls, wasting time—such an approach is ill-advised.」

「…it’s as you say.」

Louise, despite her appearance, hailed from a prestigious knight lineage and had once served as an advisor to the knight order.

She possessed a solid foundation in military studies.

Certainly, Kato’s decision to adopt a defensive strategy wasn’t entirely misguided. For him, safeguarding Lanct, his hometown, took precedence, making the choice of a siege a sound judgment.

However, General Mainz, viewing the overall strategy as the grand commander, would likely make a different assessment.

For Louise, who desperately sought to sever the Fist Slave Emperor Dyson’s head, there was only one course of action, an offensive.

「Now, where shall we strike from…..」

「Louise-sama, our target must surely be the enemy general’s head.」

Louise chuckled as she observed the innocent exuberance of Princess Knight Eleonora.

Unlike Suzanne and Claudia, whom Louise had raised and who still retained traces of youth, Eleonora, just past twenty, displayed an eagerness to play the role of an adult.

Compared to that, it was amusing to see Eleonora, who admired Louise, swing her sword alongside her like an excited child. Speaking of which, this noble princess knight had married Takeru, hadn’t she? Louise pondered.

Despite Eleonora’s tomboyish nature, she possessed a certain charm. Beyond her physical beauty as a woman, her vibrant life force was captivating. Perhaps that vitality had drawn Takeru to her.

「Is there something on my face?」

「No… We needn’t delve too deeply into strategy. Let us advance from the rear gate and aim straight for the enemy general’s head.」

Lanct’s heavy knights, numbering two thousand, formed the core, flanked by the Silesie Kingdom’s five hundred light knights and the volunteer army’s two hundred cavalry. Their task was simple: maintain mobility while surrounded by the enemy’s vast forces. Speed was their ally—drag out the enemy general and deliver a decisive blow. If he refused to emerge, they’d break through their weak points in the formation.

「Certainly! Louise-sama’s strategy is straightforward and easy to understand. 」

「Once the situation shifts due to our actions, General Mainz, who is currently engaging in open-field warfare, will likely respond accordingly. 」

Being addressed as Louise-sama by the princess of Lanct, who is also her lord’s wife, is something she has grown accustomed to. Louise chuckled, cracked her knuckles, and rubbed her neck.

Finally, she can unleash her might. As a knight, Louise felt her arms tingle with anticipation for her first intense battle in a while.

※※※

「I knew this would happen but not this easy.」

As Louise and Eleonora’s knights charged forth, the ragtag enemy forces surrounding Lanct city crumbled like fragile paper. Even soldiers who hadn’t been hit yet scattered at the mere sound of our horses’ neighing. Their retreat lacked any semblance of coordination. So much for common foot soldiers.

It was almost disappointingly easy, as if it were a trap.

「Ha! I care not if it’s a trap. Let them come!」

Louise sought out worthy opponents.

Occasionally, warriors with mohawked helmets—likely commanding officers—charged at Louise. But whether it was a sword or a spear, she dispatched them with a single or double stroke, effortlessly cleaving them in two.

Her strikes lacked resistance, as if she were cutting through paper.

Louise’s ‘Orichalcum Greatsword’ sliced through everything, and neither arrows nor musket fire could harm her ‘Orichalcum Armor’.

「Ugh…」

Suddenly, a loud explosion reverberated through the air, causing horses to halt mid-battle.

The enemy had hurled primitive hand-thrown explosives—powder kegs—toward Louise.

Even the Germania Imperial Army, mere foot soldiers, hadn’t been idle in an era where new weaponry emerged one after another. While they lacked the technology to create guns, it was wise to utilize gunpowder—a novel material—to craft bombs.

People, through the process of evolution, acquired the ability to hurl objects—about the size of stones—with greater accuracy than any other creature. In medieval warfare, skilled stone throwers were said to rival the power of archers and arquebusiers.

Now, imagine a primitive hand grenade—a mere spherical lump of gunpowder with a fuse attached. Yet, when hurled by adept hands, it became an attack accompanied by intense light and a thunderous explosion, effectively immobilizing even mounted horses.

「False threat!」

Ordinary cavalry might have faltered, but Louise was no ordinary warrior.

As she swung her greatsword, each bomb thrown at her was deflected by the sword’s sheer force.

Before the astonished throwers, Louise raised her sword from horseback and shouted:

「Uraaaaaa!」

Her dragon-like roar, the Dragon Shout, resonated across the battlefield, vibrating the air. The primal fear it instilled in animals left them paralyzed.

Louise, having slain dragons and consumed their flesh, had become a dragon-slaying hero infused with draconic essence.

As if in response to Louise’s cry, the panicked horses regained their composure. They realized that they carried not just a mere show of force but a fearsome war goddess.

Guided by Louise’s reins, the horses charged toward the enemy. Her merciless ‘Orichalcum Greatsword’ flashed.

The bodies of the throwers were effortlessly cleaved, transforming into crimson-black masses of scattered flesh.

In the face of this whirlwind of death, resistance was futile.

「Hiyaaah!」

Terrified by the hellish power Louise wielded, the Fist Slave Imperial Army’s peasant soldiers lost control, fleeing one after another.

Only those who remained, frozen in fear after hearing Louise’s shout, bore witness to the true horror of the battlefield.

Of course, those who couldn’t escape were mercilessly trampled by the mounted horses and killed.

Under Louise’s command were formidable generals, including Eleonora. Foot soldiers armed with mere equipment stood no chance against them.

Moreover, soldiers who had lost their resolve were useless on the battlefield. There were no capable commanders to rally them. The demoralized troops scattered—a pitiable sight.

Louise’s cavalry charged forward, perpetuating a one-sided massacre.

Louise was becoming the strongest knight on the continent of Eura.

Although she had once donned legendary equipment, her true strength lay in her ability to fully unleash the potential of brave-worthy gear.

With a mere seven hundred cavalry, Louise overwhelmed the Fist Slave Imperial Army, which numbered over twenty thousand. There were no knights left who posed a threat to her.

Of course, that didn’t mean there were no enemies coming for Louise.

「Ahahaha! You are up against the Three Devon Brothers!」

「Kuraeee!」 「Deeeii!」

While shouting, the three men—each wearing a distinctive mohawked helmet—launched a coordinated attack with their peculiar weapons: chains adorned with sickles.

Even though they were formidable warriors, facing them three against one gave Louise the advantage. But such overconfidence proved fatal on the battlefield.

Louise deftly shattered the three iron chains attempting to entangle her with a single swing of her greatsword. Orichalcum’s blade could not be ensnared by mere chains.

「What?!」

Their assumed finishing move shattered, the brothers cried out in surprise. Their heads flew into the sky, one after another, accompanied by a chorus of ‘spon, spon, spon’.

Generals, officers, and foot soldiers—all unfortunate enough to stand before Louise—continued to lose their heads in a gruesome display.

In the face of Louise’s relentless onslaught, drenched in the enemy’s blood, her fiery crimson hair billowing, she charged straight toward the heart of the enemy formation.

She believed that the head she sought was right in the midst of this massive enemy force. To Louise, these mere foot soldiers—whether twenty thousand or thirty thousand—were no match from the start.

Her only goal is to kill the Fist Slave Emperor Dyson, who poses a threat to her master.

For that purpose, she will crush anything that stands in her way.

The difference in forces is tenfold, perhaps twentyfold. In a normal battlefield, a smaller force cannot defeat a larger one. But even the wisdom of such warfare would cause the legs of those before the war goddess Louise to tremble and flee.

The pinnacle of female knights, the right arm of the hero of Silesie, ‘Ten Thousand Swords’ Louise. Her blood-soaked exploits of this day became the legend of Louise, the strongest knight who repelled an army of twenty thousand with just two thousand seven hundred cavalry.

Inspired by her valor, Princess Knight Eleonora, Knight Commander Marina, and warriors like Suzanne and Claudia fought with all their might, swinging their swords and thrusting their spears.

With their warhorses as one, Louise’s knight order, like a raging torrent, broke through the twenty-thousand-strong army.

Those observing the entire battle from the rear were undoubtedly moved to their core.

※※※

「Is this really something human can do?」

Generals, whispering such sentiments, began to respond to this unprecedented situation.

General Mainz, who had been lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike back, seized the opportunity and resumed his advance towards the enemy.

If Louise continued to cut through the enemy forces, even with a small number of troops, they could encircle and crush them. Overwhelmed and losing control, the enemy army had become nothing more than a hollow shell.

Of course, there were generals in the Germania army who tried to respond to this.

「We must stop that female knight…」

The fierce general Rai Rakan, despite being reinforcements, led the mixed battalion of the Rastore Kingdom to the front to reorganize the Fist Slave Emperor’s army and stop Louise.

The thoughts of the Trania-Gartland Kingdom army seemed somewhat different. While supporting the Rastore Kingdom army, they began to look for the right moment to retreat.

The Fist Slave Imperial Army, numbering twenty thousand, teeters on the brink of collapse. If they crumble entirely, the balance of power will shift unfavorably. At this juncture, even opening the city gates for the Lanct Duchy forces could prove perilous.

Should that happen, while the Fist Slave Imperial Army faces its fate, the Trania-Gartland Kingdom troops—mere reinforcements—will retreat before the damage escalates.

Despite their alliance, the Trania-Gartland forces have no intention of sharing the same fate. Their commitment extends only so far.

This is the pivotal moment—the fork in the road. Clan Chief Rai Rakan of the Rastore lineage feels the urgency of the offensive.

Emperor Dyson, once enslaved but originally of Rastore blood, now seeks to ascend to become the Emperor of Germania—the very country who once enslaved him.

The Rastore clans rejoiced as if it were their own cause, offering unwavering cooperation. These humble Rastore folk from the distant northwest borderlands dared to dream of dominating the mighty Germanian Empire.

For Rai, a true Rastore, this ambition ignites a fire in his veins—a purpose beyond measure.

Before marching forth, he met Emperor Dyson in Northmark. He was entrusted with supporting the advance toward the Lanct Duchy.

Dyson, standing over two meters tall, epitomized the Rastore lineage. His robust physique, brown hair, and eyes left no doubt of his heritage.

For the Rastore knights, long oppressed in unwanted territorial battles against the Empire, independence for the Rastore Kingdom is their fervent desire.

Yet Dyson, a true Rastore, aspires to transcend that—to become Emperor of the ruling nation. Those who remain unmoved are no true Rastore men.

Before Emperor Dyson, General Rai instinctively lowered his head—a silent pledge to serve this man as his liege.

Thus, in this battle, defeat is inconceivable.

「Knights of the proud Rastore lineage, brace yourselves. This is where our strength shines!」

Clad in a crested iron helm called Kabarin, wearing chainmail beneath lamellar-style cuirass, General Rai, mounted on his steed, brandished a massive barbarian sword and ordered his battalion to charge.

The Rastore people, inhabitants of humanity’s borderlands, endure harsh conditions and possess strength beyond common foot soldiers.

The meticulously selected four thousand troops of the Rastore Kingdom’s composite battalion would surely surpass the twenty thousand Germania Empire conscripts.

Even if the legendary ‘Ten Thousand Swords’ Louise, performs feats akin to a monster, the Rastore knights—battle-hardened against true monsters and demons—will not falter.

As General Rai himself charges alongside, determined and resolute, he faces the task of halting the momentum of Louise’s knightly order.

Whether the enemy dons legendary orichalcum armor or transforms into bloodthirsty fiends, the Rastore knights will hold their ground and emerge victorious.

Thus, these proud warriors of the Rastore clan have safeguarded the far reaches of the human world against all formidable foes.