Fly the Flag of Fire!

"It was a flashy one."

He looked around at the fort, which collapsed into heat all over the coal, and the man finished his thoughts with only the words. The military costume is that of the Imperial Army Light Cavalry, whose black coat moisturizes and hides the warrior's body. There's no shard warmth on the eyes, and I just look at the smoking fire there like it doesn't matter.

Lieutenant Colonel Terencio Barcelo, Imperial Army.

He was once a man who commanded a cavalry regiment as an Imperial colonel and made war efforts throughout the Kingdom of Asuria. The fierce battle is feared by the kingdom soldiers under the alias "Black Snake," but the Imperial soldiers never speak of the name. The fear of his strength is similar to that of the kingdom, but the origins concerning colour make him speak of aliases.

"... it's a story of no body."

That's why I added the words. He is a stingy man who admits himself, and he intends to make promises in all of his daily life. In his capacity as a samurai, but not unlike that of a general soldier when it comes to clothing and living, he never dreams of having a home, etc., so much so that he also returns the official building for samurai and sleeps with the miscellaneous soldier. I also hate wasting money on troops under my command, and the pots and the like are enough to make me use them until I have a hole in the bottom.

Conversely, I don't feel spared about the expenses I deem necessary. Spend a dozen bucks on every promise you make. His troop meals, for example, are known to be lavish. There's plenty of meat and vegetables in a dilapidated pan. The quality of military horses is enhanced even with the addition of private property.

One of those expenses is a black coat for night raids. That is what he is wrapped up in now. It's luxury. It is a supple, premium quality dyed textile fabric that does not reflect it even if it receives light. A substitute tailored to slightly increase the chance of success of a night raid.

But that was just fine. It was always too comfortable. It's sturdy, it's highly insulated, and it looks ridiculous... so it's settled in as a uniform for the troops. The truth is that the color of the "snake” is “black”. Because it is a source of laughter in the Imperial Army, there is no way you can call it "Black Snake” or anything like that.

Arrange all the costumes with supplies, make all the coats black and elegant... Barcelo walks the burnt fort. The two men who follow it dress similarly again. The black on his jacket had taught him that he was his man.

"Looks like it was a surprise raid by a light cavalry. Around not reaching more than a thousand and two thousand, the military flag was flying an example, a unique object long and white."

"Supposedly a separate unit of the Third Princess SS. Rumor has it, it's a bunch of people who are treated like swelling, but inside, it seems to be a strong force."

Barcelona was listening not to the wind but to what the two men spoke alternately. The wind of the fort rides hard with the smell of scorched earth. That was also the smell of war.

"But... that's a brilliant thing to do while enemies. Though the form helped by the confusion in the fort, it turned out to be able to burn this place. Even if the opponent's self-destruct, the pressure exerted to do so is sufficient."

"Absolutely. The formation we raided was also brilliantly empty, and it seems that the commander's... general named Accelli Arnell needs to be watched in the future. I was talking about a captain in the rear."

Without a reply, Barcelo walks on the premises of the fort. Avoid debris and sometimes step over it. It was a situation where a simple casualty search had been carried out and there was no prospect of reconstruction. The disruption in the upper ranks of the army is considerable, and Barcelo is here as a result of the decree that troops should be kept stationed anyway. It has been ahead of us by placing infantry units, but we only saw more damage in its eyes than we expected.

The Royal Asrian Army destroyed the military base of the Eberian Imperial Army.

Even if that were one of several front-line fortifications, this fact greatly damaged the Imperial Army's prestige. It was a thought that sighed even as a Barcelona. It can be said that the Empire, which lost all its main power in the former wars, has raised its total strength to rebuild its army in the last decade or so. Crushing the Royal Army in another meeting, take that path through once to the east, and south. This time we have enriched our forces with a united nation.

That is this great defeat at the beginning. We were only settling on each other's sentries, and we were supposed to hand over the warplanes of the match by stacking small victories and small defeats. Although there seemed to be some other proposal in the upper ranks of the army, Barcelo thought that the end of the war was more than accidentally opened in such a way that the war would only proceed solemnly without surprise afterwards.

"In fact, SS is like an elite unit of the Royal Army. He has fought three battles in a row with troops of the same size before reaching the fort and has won a great deal in all of them. Or maybe a unit that was selected and nurtured by the royal family."

"If so, the divergence from prior information may be what was intended. Is it something that operates as a trump card for a match, or a unit that aims to boost the morale of the military… in any case, a unit that cannot be ignored has emerged"

Barcelo had taken it with some confusion that a tremendous enemy had emerged. I was already aware of the existence of the Knights of the Knights of the Sword Horn, to be named as a powerful enemy. I actually confronted him. He was a brilliant army that would not betray his valiant name. I don't see him as an unbeatable opponent of his complacency. But there were martial arts that prepared them for considerable sacrifice.

I also have a history of screwing my own appearance when I heard they were going south. Normally there was such sunshine. Barcelona had no connection to the battle, but there were imminent circumstances that made it impossible for him to do so. It is considered problematic that he left without a single battle with the Knights in the previous encounter. In that case, Barcelona thinks it's the right thing to do by assembling your allies, and the military superiors admitted it once, but the fact that it's Barcelona's behavior, not anyone else, causes the problem.

He was neglected by the Emperor. Once upon a time and still are. And probably will.

"It seems that the enemy troops that entered the fort did not capture the prisoners, were blind to their possessions, but only took the horses away"

"I think it's a hard decision while enemies. It is impossible to maintain the fort where it was occupied, and adding more luggage would have been captured by troops who came to the fort. We just have to run away from the numbers. If you're a horse, you can pull the reins and do it without reducing your mobility."

The stables were miserable again. Barcelo touched the rubble here for the first time. Out of the way with my feet, out with my hands, looking for something, even though it was black and dirty. A lot of time went by and I found out that I couldn't find it. Get up and pay for the dirt on your knees.

"No horse wreckage. Looks like they took the horse."

When I said that, I turned around and started walking.

"It was the infantry who took the horse. The enemies that were here are not all light cavalry. The fort has been disrupted by enemy infantry."

Even if there was no response, I knew I was listening seriously with it right behind me.

"We have no sightings of enemy infantry, so we can deduce that this is due to some measure. There is information that the enemy was posing as an Imperial Army light cavalry, so there may have been a similar measure about the infantry. Well, I don't even think it would be so easy to put clothes in a fort where they are imitated..."

Barcelo was clouding his verbal butt into exhalation and remembering how empty formations were on the back of his brain. This is where SS and Yamato were battling and spreading their orders to Royal Army units in the southern part of the plain. Ordered to raid because of his blindness, Barcelo could not find his enemies within that formation, which was easily but effectively constructed.

I don't think so. So where were you? I thought that might have been inside this fort, but I didn't think it was possible to time and distance it. If it had been empty from the beginning, it had to be known, and there was certainly an enemy there. Before Barcelona and others rush, the Imperial Army scouts are encountering enemies in formation. Judging from smoke cooking and the like, the number of people couldn't be ten or a hundred. That's for sure.

"... Whatever it is, it seems to be a unit that knows the cavalry well"

Preparations against the cavalry were secretly exchanged around the skyline. It's called the placement of a horse fence, it's called digging an empty moat, and the formation thinks Barcelo is as skewed by the defensive content. That has nothing to do with what any of the light cavalry was paying for as a separate task force, and I wonder if you wanted to seal the empire's mobility in particular, bearing in mind its covert retreat.

"Use infantry to take enemy horses. Stand in formation to prevent enemy horses. And use a separate team for horseback riding only to strike at enemy surprises. The battle against the Imperial Army also seems to have won by harnessing the mobility of the Light Cavalry"

Sometimes you can tell by saying words. Barcelo saw an enemy unit called SS as an army of cavalry subjects. It also seems to put light cavalry at the center of tactics, not heavy cavalry like the Knights. It means an army with particular emphasis on mobility among all elements in the battle.

"It's like... you're an enemy like us"

"I think so too. Speaking of which, the general named Accelli Arnell was the captain of the cavalry of the army."

Barcelo was feeling strange discomfort as he poured the words of two of his men into his ear. A slight nostalgia lingers in your chest when you think of the enemy's brilliance. Its effects are just awesome while enemies...... and while I don't think it's something I can do for it, I think there was once a man who would slap it out for that kind of effect.

"... where was the head of the SS?

That was a rare act as Barcelo. He rarely asks questions about his men. Allow me to speak in varying ways, but I give everything to myself to guide my conclusions and ask my men to carry out selfless and thorough orders. Strictly enforce punishment beyond military law if it goes against the rules of the army and, conversely, provide separate rewards beyond military law if you achieve merit. I am distressed by the accumulation of money for this, but Barcelo believes it will lead to an improvement in the force's strength as it is.

"Until the second battle, we have been witnessed leading a heavy cavalry at the center of our troops. For the third time, the enemy was only a light cavalry... well..."

"Heavy cavalry has been confirmed during those formations. Did you change your uniform, or did you change the team you command..."

Apparently, we don't have any confirmed information. Many of the troops deployed in the northern part of the plain did not return, and almost all of the miscellaneous soldiers survived. That had significantly reduced the probability of information. It seems that many soldiers still remain discrete and do not return. I guess he got away with it.

"Make sure. Was the captain in the line, or was he leading a separate task force?"

One of them graced Barcelona and ran away. Outside the fort, Barcelo's troops are building a camp. I guess I'll send someone south for a quick horse.

"Which was the main unit?"

"... it changes the way you look, depending on which way you were"

Barcelo finally proceeded to the corner of the rubble mountain, avoiding any further explanation. There is a relatively large burning remainder, which must have supported the stone, with wooden columns shaking the tyrosis and orange. I can see that.

There was a person who remembered ahead of the color of the fire.

A man who played a warrior named Barcelo and made him think he couldn't win without throwing his life on a bad bet of minutes. A war genius with a tactical eye equivalent to Barcelona and a strategic eye over Barcelona. The hatred of the Eberian Empire, which killed numerous imperial nobles with its army, led by the Crown Prince. And a sinner sentenced to burning by the hand of the Kingdom of Asuria as the demon who killed the brave man.

Salomon Hahato.

In the former war, Barcelo faced Salomon three times, none of which could be won. It was just a battle that had not been defeated tactically, but had been defeated strategically when we put the later impact into perspective. And in every battle, Barcelona's failure to make a mistake has rendered victory and defeat irrelevant. I mean, practically close to losing. If I had been greedy at all, I would have been devastated.

Barcelo remembered such a man. The SS's effects remind him of his former enemies. If Barcelona was in the Royal Army, I don't even think he could do it. It would be very impossible if I could not be helped by several coincidences. But it is Salomon who does the unusual things.

Barcelo thinks with fear. That battle that wiped out the Imperial Army mainstay, including the Crown Prince, by the time it was completely skinless... who else could such a battle be but Salomon? Barcelona can't do it, let alone something that a pig warrior like that brave man can do. In that sense, the Church's certification of Salomon as a demon somewhere convinced Barcelo. I see. I was still wondering if you were an ordinary person.

There were signs of the man.

Barcelona missed something when he remembered all of the SS's actions. One fight at a time leads to the next, and before the first, he finally launches an achievement that he could not have imagined. It's like the ideal reverse drop of a light cavalry... an offense that no one can stop once you let them run.

It's what Barcelona once tasted more than once. Fighting Salomon meant resisting such intangible pressures that would not remain in the fighting mood of a single army. It actually cooled my gallbladder. The fact that there was no Barcelo on that dreadful battle of extermination is not what he aimed at and did. Because it was only a coincidence.

The man is dead. Barcelo remembers it strongly in his heart. He hated being imprisoned by a dead man. A battlefield is a place where life and death can easily be turned upside down, so those who are attracted to the dead are drawn to life over there. To the dead, pray for all happiness beyond the hedge of the kingdom, and only the living can compete with the power of God. By and large, the dead are the overwhelming majority over the living, so by being strongly willing, Barcelo believes that the world's protagonists must remain the living.

But the similarities are similar. Once you feel that way, you can't forget. Barcelo doesn't know how many men named Accelli Arnell are. If the man led a light cavalry into the fort, or maybe someone similar to Salomon, I think. Because the gall of a series of operations lies in its entry.

If the fort hadn't fallen, make it a light cavalry, a soldier in formation, you probably wouldn't have made it back alive. It was only for a very short time that the northern part of the plain was in a military void. Moreover, it was temporary, and the Imperial Army had a number of manoeuvring forces, including Barcelo, in a state of collision. If the fort had been exposed to an attack, it would have rushed immediately and struck one unit after the other, exhausted in a series of wars. I won't let you get away with it.

But the fort burned down, so things got confusing, and the Imperial Army moved the placement to protect the other forts anyway. We just had to prioritize doing so. Tapping on what the enemy will have to deal with is an exquisite tactic, but it can be said that this SS action was carried out on a scale that spanned the entire plain.

So Barcelo has to check. Tell me where the man named Accelli was. If you were in the line, the outcome of this battle is a complete coincidence. A separate squad was helped by luck and I just dropped the fort unexpectedly. Barcelo thinks there's nothing wrong with cutting it off. I wanted to know which one it was as soon as possible.

The fire bounced.

The spark seemed strange, and that gave me a hunch.

I realized there was another possibility. Barcelo tried to laugh it off, but couldn't help but keep looking at the fire. Another possibility that flashed like a spark… it is the possibility that someone who led a separate task force is the true commander and the one who planned a series of battles. It's ridiculous, but it's not normal in the first place. Suppose you got it by planning to get this result. And most of the SS's battles are made up of light cavalry. All keys are in their mobility.

(No way, are you still alive in the flames? Or…)

Barcelo kept staring.

Let's say something of Salomon is left in that leftover fire.