October 22nd
The Great Battle
Kailar showed no reaction as he watched the ranks of cavalry spread out and the slightly shorter infantry.
In front of him, Artoria was on horseback, standing on a cliff, gazing down at the enemy's formation, calculating where the easiest breakthrough would be.
It must be said that while Artoria, as a King, had some innate limitations in her vision, her military talent truly inherited from King Uther.
Talented?
To achieve this level with such an education, Artoria truly lived up to her reputation as the famous King Arthur in history.
However, the protagonist of this war was not her.
Kailar smiled.
Behind him were three hundred disciples, divided into several rows by their disciplines.
"Sorry, Lily, but I'm going to steal your thunder," Kailar laughed heartily, then urged his Unicorn to leap directly from the cliff, like a scene from Dynasty Warriors.
As the white-robed, white-horsed figure descended from high in the sky, the entire battlefield fell silent.
"I am Kailar Etolk, the Sage of Camelot Kingdom.
I request the opposing commander to step forward," Kailar rode alone to the front of the enemy formation, his voice amplified by magic, using photons to carry sound waves far into the distance.
"I am Andrewson Shakespeare," the refined nobleman rode out from among his knights.
Unlike Kailar's imposing entrance, he appeared quite ordinary, and the Camelot Kingdom immediately overshadowed him.
Kailar smiled, raising his hand flat: "Hello, Lord Andrewson, I have a suggestion; I wonder if you're interested?"
Perhaps Kailar's use of "Lord" and "you" gave him confidence; he lifted his head, haughty and noble like a swan: "Considering we are both nobles, I shall reluctantly listen to your suggestion."
Ignoring the other party's tone, Kailar smiled: "Based on my observation, your army numbers around forty-eight thousand men, not vastly different from our forces.
But if we were to fight head-on, don't you think it would be incredibly chaotic, and our noble lives could be lost by a tiny stray arrow?"
"Hmm…" Kailar's words made him ponder: "Then what do you mean?"
"I suggest we fight like nobles, with dignity and cleanliness.
Each side sends out five thousand men until one side is annihilated, then another five thousand, and so on, until one army no longer has enough men to form a group of five thousand.
What do you think?"
He's setting a trap! He's setting a trap!
Kailar was using the enemy's fear of death and noble honor as bait to throw out a trap that the other party had no choice but to accept.
No, it wasn't that he had no choice but to accept.
He certainly knew that if they fought for real, Kailar's side had about seventy thousand knights, and compared to that, his side would be at a definite disadvantage.
But if they fought in this manner, it seemed they might even have an advantage!
At least his life wouldn't be in danger!
Besides, in a five-thousand-on-five-thousand fight, the Scottish would absolutely not lose!!
He pondered for a moment and then readily agreed.
Kailar, with a triumphant smile, met Artoria as she dismounted.
"It's nothing," Kailar glanced at Artoria, gently shaking his head: "Today's battle isn't a show for the knights anyway."
"What do you mean?" Artoria asked, coming to Kailar's side.
"Let my infantry open the eyes of these knights," Kailar's eyes gleamed with absolute wisdom, smiling like a fox: "Although these knights will enter the military academy I'm establishing after conquering Scotland, it's necessary to give them a lesson to make them better understand how war is fought."
"With the blood of Scottish knights," Kailar added.
Gently patting Artoria's shoulder, Kailar smiled and said, "Leave it to me," which completely put Artoria at ease.
"Infantry! Advance!" Kailar galloped to the very front, shouting loudly.
"One-two-one! One-two-one!" Following Kailar's glowing bronze staff, the infantry shouted in unison, marching with neat steps and seemingly unified movements to the front of the knights' formation.
The knights on both sides were very surprised, because at this time, messengers were already relaying the news of this rather chivalrous contest.
A grand battle of a hundred thousand men, combined with such a chivalrous contest, this battle would definitely be recorded in history books and by Bards.
But what were these infantry trying to do?
Wasn't their duty to escort provisions!!
"Count off!" Kailar shouted.
"One, two, three…" The infantry began to count off like true soldiers.
Kailar, of course, knew that infantry had an inherent disadvantage against cavalry—mobility, impact force, and piercing power.
These were all weaknesses.
However, after the charges and baptisms of at least eight hundred legitimate knights from two territories, and the deaths of two thousand brothers, although the strongest were selected as replacements, their fighting power did not decrease but increased because they had seen blood!
"What does he want to do? Haha, what does he want to do?" Looking at the advancing infantry, Andrewson burst into laughter: "Doesn't he know that ever since King Uther used one hundred thousand knights to defeat Rome's one hundred thousand heavy infantry, there has been no ground left for infantry to survive on in this world!"
"Parvenus are indeed parvenus! No matter how rich they are, they don't have the heritage to raise knights!" Laughing heartily, Andrewson, though merely afraid of death, certainly possessed military cultivation to have reached the position of Legion Commander.
"Form ranks for me! Five thousand knights! With long lances! I want to show this brat that mud-footed infantry will never catch up to knights."
"Mud-footed" was also a term knights used to mock other troop types, because other troop types always ran on the ground, while knights were always high above.
Leaving aside the formation on that side, Kailar, on this side, was, as always, boosting morale at the front of the formation.
Kailar certainly knew how important morale was; before the advent of something like the Red Spirit, an army's sustenance had always relied on morale and history.
Kailar's infantry had no history, so he could only focus on morale as much as possible.
"In the last war, we won! To protect our property, our wives, and our children, we used our bodies to build a wall of flesh and blood, bringing down the unbreakable myth of the knights!" Kailar, full of impassioned fervor, rode his Unicorn at the front of the infantry formation, his voice echoing across the vast, empty wilderness.
"Now, we come for wealth! We fight for glory! We shout for titles!" Kailar raised his staff and yelled loudly: "All for King Arthur! For Camelot! For Glory!!!"
"Boom!!!!!!" In response, the infantry simultaneously struck their breastplates with their armor.
PS: There are still two thousand recommendation tickets until the extra chapter… The Sage's side is the same~ Then, I rewatched Clannad with A Yin… I cried my eyes out… Damn it, it's not that I'm too sensitive, it's that both seasons of Clannad are too touching!