Chapter 36：Silent Scream

"Unfortunately, the Ostrians seem to be obstinately determined to side with the Paniards. They refuse to recognise our sovereignty and even claim that Drussia belongs to the Paniards."

When Sicilia returned to the Violet Army's encampment, she immediately found Maxwell and Erika inside the command tent and told them the entire story of her meeting with the self-righteous princess of Ostria.

Sicilia saw a look of slight irritation grow on Maxwell's face when he heard Sicilia's report. It was the type of look one would make when trying to swat away that one annoying fly or insect that's flying too close to one's face.

If Sicilia was being honest with herself, it was actually rather humorous.

"How unfortunate indeed."

Maxwell casually shrugged before he continued.

"It looks like this campaign will be slightly less convenient than we originally predicted... However..."

As Maxwell spoke, the look of irritation on his face was gradually replaced with a look of excitement. As if he came up with some sort of cruel experiment.

"This does give us an opportunity to finally test the capabilities of 'that' division."

A similar look of excitement grew on Erika's face when she heard what Maxwell had to say. Her eyes seemed to shine brightly as she questioned Maxwell.

"Does... does that mean that it's finally time?"

Sicilia noted how Erika's voice was slightly less formal than normal. Whatever this 'time' was, Erika was very excited for it. Soon after Maxwell confirmed Erika's thoughts.

"Yes, it is time."

With her eyes still shining brightly, Erika went to ask Maxwell another question.

"And the rules of engagement?"

Maxwell once again shrugged casually before he answered her question.

"We have no need for prisoners. Consider the Ostrian army 100% expendable."

...

"A 1000 strong cavalry force? Are you sure that, that is correct?"

Victoria immediately questioned her chief knight the moment after she heard his report.

"All of the scouts have reported spotting a similarly sized cavalry force ahead. Unless all of our scouts are mistaken, then there should be a 1000 man strong Drussian cavalry force waiting for us."

[But that doesn't make any sense. Just what exactly are the Drussians planning?] Victoria doubted that the Drussians would believe that a simple 1000 strong cavalry force would be enough to drive away the Ostrians.

They must have something else planned.

It was because of this that Victoria couldn't shake off her bad premonitions.

Ever since she set foot into Drussian lands, she has had bad premonitions.

And it was especially now that she felt that these bad premonitions are at their worst.

By now the Ostrian army is only five days worth of travel away from Elgon so it was understandable for the Drussians to attempt obstructing them.

She just could not understantsnd what they were thinking.

And as the saying goes 'people fear what they don't understand.'

After two days of marching, Victoria was able to confirm the scout reports.

At the top of the hill, she spotted roughly 1000 men dressed in purple uniforms riding atop horses.

[Just what are they planning?] Despite Victoria's doubts, she still had to order her army in order to engage the Drussian cavalry.

"Give the order. Tell the men to get into standard battle formations."

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the Ostrian army a ragtag horde. Excluding the knights and the house-guard of the nobles, there were no real professionally trained soldiers within the Ostrian army.

Instead the Ostrian army was mostly composed of peasant levies or conscripts. All of whom were only sparsely trained in how to handle a pike, how to follow orders and how to maintain discipline to a relatively adequate degree.

However, they still should be more than enough to handle the inferior numbers of the 1000 Drussians. As long as the flanks remained secured there was no way that the Drussian cavalry can do any real harm to the Ostrian army.

Soon enough, Victoria saw the Drussians suddenly start galloping closer towards the Ostrians who were still getting into their formations. [Are they that desperate? Are they trying to break our lines just before we get into formation?].

Although the Ostrian army was not yet in formation it should not be long before the protective pike walls surround the Ostrian army. In truth, if the Drussians were charging onto the Ostrian army, they would be charging into their dooms.

However, to Victoria's surprise, the Drussian cavalry suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"They're... dismounting?"

The chief knight's confused voice told it all. For some inexplicable reason the Drussians were dismounting their horses before collecting what seemed to be a musket that was attached to their horses.

Their speed and proficiency was unlike anything that Victoria has ever seen before. Within a few moments they were already formed up in a thin formation consisting of three ranks which spread across the field.

On the other hand, the Ostrians were still scrambling to get into position.

Before Victoria even had the time to process this information, the deafening sounds of men screaming in pain rang through Victoria's ears. When she glanced at the Drussians, she saw a truly astounding sight.

Volley after volley, the Drussians in a single rank would fire in unison before kneeling down to let the rank behind them fire. At the same time they reloaded their weapons in a speed unparalleled by any conventional musket-man.

"My lady! Order the charge!"

As Victoria was left in an unresponsive state, the sound of her chief knight's screaming voice was enough to bring her back to her senses.

"There is no longer any point in battle formations! We can just overwhelm them with our numbers!"

"Signal the middle to charge! The left and right flanks will move outward to surround them!"

As horns blared out across the battlefield and the Ostrians began to charge towards the Drussians, Victoria was there to witness the Drussians perform another inconceivable action.

The Drussians started to run.

But they were not routing.

Instead it was an orderly, professional run.

As the Ostrians closed in on the Drussians, the latter quickly got back on their mounts before retreating to the base of the hill.

And all the while, the Ostrians were still chasing madly after them.

And it was at that moment that something clicked inside Victoria's head.

"It's a trap..."

"It's a what my lady?"

As her chief knight asked her a question, Victoria found herself instinctively shouting at him.

"IT'S A TRAP!"

Victoria turned to glare at her chief knight as she gave her next desperate set of orders.

"Order our men to retreat and regroup!"

With a look of confusion on his face, the knight tried to respond.

"But-"

"Those are Ostrians out there! Our people! Our people that we are sending to their deaths! Order the retreat! Order the retreat this instant!"

The knight had a nervous look on his face as he explained himself to Victoria.

"But my lady... our men were already provoked into attacking the Drussians and I doubt that the nobles will give up the opportunity to massacre the enemy."

Unable to stop her face from twisting in anger, Victoria announced her next set of actions.

"Then I will go myself!"

Before the knight could even respond, Victoria has already spurred her warhorse into action, leaving the entirety of the reserve force behind.

As Victoria started to catch up to the main Ostrian army, she started to remember all the bad feelings she had prior to this moment. Perhaps they were all true after all.

"NO!"

Victoria screamed as she drove these negative thoughts our of her mind. She simply just could not believe that this was the fate of the Ostrians. There has something she can do. Anything that can change the situation.

However, her hopes were all for naught.

As Victoria got closer to the Ostrian army, a sudden strange feeling overcame Victoria even as she rode on her horse.

It felt as if thunder shook the earth.

However, contrary to how nature normally works, what came next after the thunder was lightning.

Or was it better to call it stars?

Victoria was only just able to see it.

Above the main body of Ostrians she saw what seemed to be large metal balls falling from the heavens before they burst into a wonderful display of dazzling stars in the skies.

Bright bursts of beautiful blue colours that only spread death and destruction to everything beneath it.

As the sounds of more men screaming in pain and anguish reached Victoria's ears, she could not help gritting her teeth together in anger before she unleashed her rage.

"Those bastards! They'll pay for this! They'l- GUAAH"

Before Victoria was even able to finish speaking, she found that her sight was disorientated as she rolled across the grass of the floor.

As Victoria's sight gradually returned to her, she spit out the mouthful of dirt that got into her mouth.

Within a few moments, Victoria went to press both of her hands onto the floor so that she can push herself up.

Except...

She found that she can't do that.

As she pushed her hands against the floor to help herself up, she felt a sudden spike of pain in her back. It felt as if there was some heavy burden that weighed her down.

When Victoria forced her neck around to check on what the burden was, she felt her heart drop.

The heavy burden was none other than her own warhorse. Or what was left of it anyway.

It was at this moment that Victoria remembered the words that Sicilia left her.

"You just signed your own death warrant."

"NO!"

Victoria screamed as she put more strength into her arms.

"I! WON'T! LET! IT! END! LIKE! THIS!"

As she screamed, Victoria felt the weight on her back gradually getting lighter and lighter.

Both sweat and tears ran down her face as she poured all of her strength into her arms.

"It's working! I can do this! I ca-"

Snap

Victoria heard the sounds of bones breaking before she felt a sudden sharp pain in her back.

Soon she felt the strength drain from her arms just before her face planted itself back onto the dirt.

"It can't end like this. It can't end like this. It can't end like this."

Even while in extreme pain, Victoria still continued to struggle.

However, it was all in vain.

Despite her committed attempts, it was no use.

Soon Victoria felt her mouth being flooded with her own blood and soon enough she even struggled to breath.

Despite all of this, she still continued to persist in pain.

"It just... can't... end... like... this..."

Just before Victoria's sight was lost to darkness, she saw a vision.

A vision of an ageing old man and an eight year old girl who were eagerly awaiting for Victoria to return home.