Just as the Gube soldiers were binding the surrendered men and securing their captured ground, the wind shifted and with it came the distant rumble of hooves.
At first, it was faint. Then clearer. Then unmistakable.
A battle cry split the smoky air:
"For Nixel! Push forward!"
Prince Edward surged in from the western side, leading a fresh wave of cavalry and infantry, their banners snapping violently in the wind. The surprise of the reinforcements struck like lightning.
The Gube soldiers barely had time to reform before the front ranks were smashed by the weight of Edward’s cavalry.
Colonel Simon, bloodied and bound, raised his head sharply at the familiar voice.
"That’s His Highness!" one of his men cried, and the broken spirits of the captured soldiers flickered with hope.
Without hesitation, several of the Nixel men who had surrendered surged up, grabbing weapons off the fallen, wrestling away blades from surprised Gube guards.
Simon tore off his restraints with the help of a lieutenant, retrieved his sword from the mud, and barked, "Stand with your prince! Fight!"
"It’s indeed a fine beginning," Colonel Simon said pushing forward, still hoping to kill the strategist.
What had been a battlefield of shame and surrender moments ago turned into a storm of vengeance. The prisoners, now free and furious, charged back into the fray with renewed strength.
Gube soldiers reeled from the two-pronged assault. Arrows cut through their lines, and chaos spread as the organized retreat turned to panic.
At that moment, the five hundred men left as backup also arrived from the opposite direction, surrounding the Gube force.
The Lieutenant General of Gube tightened his jaw as he watched the collapse unfold.
"We’re exposed," his aide whispered, panic in his eyes.
The strategist, calm but grim, closed his map scroll and tucked it into a waterproof case. Thɪs chapter is updated by novęlfire.net
"We’ve lost this flank," he admitted. "Order the elites to withdraw. We can’t win here."
"Should we try to recover the prisoners?"
"No," he said coldly. "Dead men and broken lines aren’t worth the risk. We preserve what we can."
As the front line crumbled under Prince Edward’s advance, the strategist and a cluster of Gube’s elite guards slipped into the trees, retreating under cover of smoke and confusion.
"The strategist is getting away," a captain shouted, ready to chase after him.
"Leave them," Prince Edward said, remembering Ernest’s words.
"Instead of trying to kill the strategist, kill the soldiers. No matter how sharp his eyes are, he cannot plan without soldiers. Just like a wife cannot cook without rice."
"Kill every Gube soldier," prince Edward commanded loudly.
Hearing that their general and elite group had retreated, the remaining Gube soldiers began to drop their weapons in surrender.
Cheers erupted among the survivors. Edward dismounted near the captured field, his gaze hard as he watched the wounded being tended and the dead counted.
"Where is Colonel Ernest?" Prince Edward asked as he looked around the battlefield. When he first arrived and saw that Colonel Simon had led men here, he thought Ernest had stayed back with reinforcements.
"Reporting to Your Highness, Colonel Ernest tried to protect the princess and fell down the slope," a lieutenant answered.
"Where is the princess?" Prince Edward suddenly remembered that he had indeed used his wife as bait for this battle. No matter how much he did not care for her, if something had happened to her, he would feel guilty.
Moreover, many of the elites who disagreed with the plan might blame him for the princess’s death. Although no one would accuse him directly, just having those thoughts in their minds could encourage chaos in the future. After all, the king had just died, there would definitely be people with ambitions.
"Answering Your Highness, the princess and Colonel Ernest have yet to be found. I sent thirty men around the slope to look for them. There was no news before we received the order to provide backup here," the lieutenant answered.
Prince Edward frowned.
"There were supposed to be at least a hundred men keeping the princess safe," he said, his voice turning cold.
"Your Highness, Colonel Simon took a thousand men. About sixty were killed or injured during the initial attack by Gube soldiers.
We could not have fewer than four hundred men guarding the camp, so I had to send only thirty," the lieutenant explained.
Hearing this, Prince Edward’s gaze turned colder.
"Where is Colonel Simon?" he asked.
Colonel Simon, hearing that the prince was looking for him, stood up, bloodied but unbowed, and saluted.
"What happened?" Prince Edward asked. When he first saw the battlefield, he assumed Ernest and Simon had learned something new and modified the plan. He did not expect Simon to have acted on his own.
"I failed to obey orders," Simon said through clenched teeth.
"You will be punished for disobeying orders," Prince Edward said darkly. He had been leading at the front and had seen how many of their men died because of Simon’s actions.
Colonel Simon lowered his head without arguing.
Why had he dared to act? He thought he would be able to kill the strategist with a thousand men. Even if he disobeyed orders, he believed his achievements would lessen the punishment.
Ernest had done something similar a few years ago. He was merely fined part of his salary but was later promoted to colonel due to his success. Simon didn’t expect to fail.
Prince Edward, on the other hand, began instructing a few men to mount their horses and search for the princess. He did not have the heart to deal with Simon now—nothing was more important than finding the princess and ensuring her safety.
Simon, off to the side, felt breathless. He had fought hard hoping to gain merit, but what awaited him was punishment.
Seeing the prince join the search party filled him with regret. He had assumed the prince didn’t care about the princess—after all, he’d allowed her to be used as bait. But now, seeing him so anxious, Simon felt remorse.
What he wanted was to earn merit. Saving the princess would also have counted.
Now, he felt Ernest was very cunning. Not only had he proposed the plan, but he also saved the princess. With such achievements, Ernest might truly be promoted to Lieutenant General after the war.