The retreat was strange, and the timing was way too early. Before they could even drive them into a corner, while they were happily cutting through the middle of enemy lines, they ran away. 

Cutting through enemy lines meant giving the enemy both flanks, and for Kosten it was a perfect situation to pummel them from both sides. Yet they retreated.

Ian, who had been lost in thought for a moment, asked Baron.

“Does Kosten have a rear guard?”

“According to scouts, there’s about 5,000 camped half a day’s distance away. They haven’t shown signs of movement yet.”

A rear guard that didn’t move while 12,000 were getting smashed. Alex muttered like talking to herself.

“Didn’t see any catapults either.”

No matter how overwhelming the Aiden Empire Knight Order’s military power was, they’d inevitably be pushed back by a large-scale offensive. 

If 17,000 including the rear guard pushed forward, they could reach the castle walls in one go and damage the walls with catapults. But they didn’t.

This wasn’t Kosten’s way.

“Ian, Knight Order casualties?”

“None.”

Alex turned her gaze to Baron.

“Count. What’s the scale of casualties among Watton County’s conscripted soldiers?”

“…10 dead and 26 wounded.”

“Jake, the Imperial regular forces?”

“21 dead and 53 wounded.”

The Aiden Empire Knight Order was 100, the Imperial regular forces 5,000, and Watton County conscripts 2,000. They won, but casualties were far too light against 12,000 Kosten soldiers with considerable offensive power. Strangely so.

Come to think of it, an imperial command dropped on the very first day of her commander appointment and they rushed here. Was this coincidence too?

‘Ha, look at these bastards.’

One corner of Alex’s mouth rose crookedly. Ian instinctively knew she’d decided something. Alex looked back at the vice commanders.

“Let’s return to Logia.”

The surroundings, silent for a moment, instantly filled with murmuring. Baron immediately asked back in a flustered voice.

“N-no, excuse me, but what do you mean? We won today, but those Kosten bastards are still left.”

Alex smiled deeply.

“They won’t attack easily.”

“Because they lost today?”

“No. To buy time.”

“…Pardon?”

“Kosten’s finally using their heads, it seems.”

Belligerent Kosten was just brave. 

Rather than a delicate strategy, they just poked with human wave tactics, but today they divided forces into vanguard and rear guard, and abandoned their usual method of crushing in the first sortie to hit and run. They seemed to be evolving.

Alex poured out her thoughts with a smiling face.

“With a 12,000-man force, they naturally learned from experience that the Imperial Knight Order would come to support. It’s already strange that they waited three days making small attacks until we arrived.”

Baron and his vassals bit their lips and just swallowed. Uninterested in their attitude, Alex continued speaking.

“We properly engaged today but our casualties are this light, and they suddenly retreated at an early point. Doesn’t it seem like they’re giving us candy?”

They’d only thought it was a great victory thanks to Alex, but no. They sacrificed Kosten forces as ‘candy’ to make them think it was a great victory. Really, they were crazy bastards.

“If the rear guard didn’t just come on a picnic, then naturally there’ll be another battle.”

Another battle. That’s exactly what they were aiming for.

“Next time they’ll attack moderately and pull back, dragging the battle into a prolonged war. Because Kosten’s goal is to tie up the Imperial Knight Order right here, right now.”

Baron couldn’t close his gaping mouth. It was completely different from Kosten’s methods until now. Alex continued explaining kindly, like answering her own questions.

“Why tie us up? They want to prevent us from returning. Because if we return, our original duty of imperial capital security gets reinforced. So why? Because if commander and vice commander level or higher are in the capital, it interferes. That’s why they invaded from the very first day of the commander’s appointment. To make the new commander even more frantic when she’s already frantic.”

Watching the gently smiling commander, Jake shook his head. Whoever it was would be completely, tracelessly annihilated. He prayed for their souls in advance.

“Th-then what should we do now…?”

Baron was in a bind. 

The Imperial Knight Order that came to Watton Castle now was only a small 100, but since each individual’s skill was outstanding, the military power they held in the whole was tremendous. 

Even in a prolonged war, battles would definitely occur, and after they left, casualties would obviously increase.

Alex knew well what he was worried about. She tried to smile with a face that could reassure him as much as possible and patted Baron’s shoulder.

“We’ll pretend to be here.”

“…Pardon?”

“We’ll actually return to the capital.”

“S-so how exactly…?”

Alex’s amber eyes slowly closed. Multiple pairs of eyes couldn’t take their gaze from those eyes, seemingly entranced.

“Put a red wig on someone wearing Knight Order armor and station them on the castle walls.”

“Ah! Indeed, that would work.”

Baron exclaimed without realizing it. The Red Lion was a notorious celebrity even in Kosten.

“Do sortie, but absolutely don’t overdo it. I mean don’t go in deep. Kosten annihilation is meaningless in this battle. They came with a different purpose, so we can’t get caught up in it. Don’t let the red-haired knight sortie, have them walk around on the castle walls. Can’t look like a wooden doll.”

To look like the real Alexandria Raymer. 

Alex suddenly looked up at Ian standing right beside her. She blatantly examined him, slowly moving her gaze up and down from head to toe. Ian, feeling the gaze, clenched his fist tightly again invisibly.

“To give Kosten a bit more credibility, adding one more wouldn’t be bad. A tall knight with a good build wearing a platinum wig.”

Alex roughly swept back the red hair flowing forward and looked back at Baron. Ian noticed she was annoyed right now.

“I’ll leave some of the Imperial Knight Order too. To deceive them into thinking we’re tied down, we need to be thorough. If the Imperial Knight Order numbers suddenly decrease and the redhead doesn’t come out, Kosten will think we’re ignoring them. You can actually mock them like that from the castle walls.”

Kosten, a warrior race with pride piercing the sky, would definitely think that way.

“Let’s leave 50. Excluding the chief knight.”

As soon as Alex finished speaking, Jake called a knight standing nearby and ordered him to bring spare armor, and Ian wrote something on the Imperial Knight Order roster and passed it over. 

After the knight quietly disappeared, Alex, who’d been watching what the vice commanders were doing with arms crossed, spoke quietly to them.

“We return to the capital as quickly as possible.”

Ian and Jake placed their right fists on their left chests, struck once, and bowed their heads.

If Kosten was trying to trap the highest official of the Knight Order responsible for the capital’s security here, she’d make it look like they were trapped as intended to make them feel secure. 

For her, it was an opportunity.

An opportunity to buy time to find out why they made the commander and vice commanders absent from the capital, what they were trying to do in the capital.

Her golden eyes burned hot.

* * *

The Aiden Empire Knight Order moved immediately. There were no wounded, but because they moved without rest after fighting, they couldn’t make speed as much as they wanted. 

Impatient Alex decided to go ahead with Ian to prepare the situation, and Jake would follow with the remaining knights.

Her heart was urgent but the sun set, and the horses were exhausted. Even with monster-like stamina, after running to Watton Castle without rest plus fighting a battle, camping without lodging was impossible on the return journey.

Having left even minimal luggage to Jake’s group, she looked for a place to camp without tents. 

Fortunately this time they found a small but deep cave and planned to catch some sleep there briefly.

Entering the narrow cave, Alex lit a fire and Ian spread lots of leaves on the ground. They each took off all their armor and set it aside properly, then lay on their sides on the leaves and warmed themselves by the fire.

Ian silently handed her jerky. Alex, in a bad mood the whole time, chewed the jerky with a sour face.

“Nothing will happen.”

Ian bluntly threw out the words with an indifferent face. Alex didn’t answer.

Even with his words, her thoroughly pickled mood didn’t improve. They deliberately targeted that time since she’d be busy with handovers and whatnot after being promoted to commander. 

To distract her attention. She hated being a puppet moving as told. She planned to make them regret trying to set her up as a doll on stage. Alex ground her teeth while carving curses.

Ian, knowing her temper, stuffed another piece of jerky in her mouth when the first disappeared instantly. Alex was chewing the second jerky when she unconsciously gave Ian her attention. 

She saw a very thin red line on his neck.

“What’s this?”