I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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Jeongjae, who did not believe that the Royal Knight Order would be annihilated in such a short time, dispatched only the bare minimum of reinforcements and instructed them to rescue Alex. The cavalry that Margaret brought was only a few hundred.

Of course, numbers did not matter. The fact that Margaret took action herself and that the banner of Eramenia appeared had psychologically shaken Helmut, who nervously stroked his beard. This was a carefully crafted trap that Helmut had painstakingly set after analyzing the Empire’s military structure and its generals.

Helmut believed that Alex was the weakest among the main generals, so it was appropriate to devise such a strategy. Weakness did not imply a lack of combat power, but rather a judgment about how patient and composed a leader was. The Royal Knight Order was powerful, but it was an elite legion made up of young nobles who were easy to provoke.

It was easy to exterminate them, and the effects gained by doing so were significant. It was akin to having delicious juicy prey all trapped in a net. No matter how much Margaret had come to save them, Helmut could not easily give up this prey and retreat.

“Keep firing the cannons. Don’t hold back the ammo, shoot it all out. The scale of the reinforcements is small, so if we can suppress them with the cannons, we can push them back.”

In response to Helmut’s command, the Terkeon forces increased the speed of cannon fire, continuously pouring iron projectiles toward the knight order. Knights were falling from their horses due to cannon fire. Margaret frowned and said.

“Are they bragging about their cannons? I’ll show them which side has the bigger guns.”

Margaret gestured to the cavalry and moved the two special siege cannons from Eramenia forward. Having assessed the terrain beforehand and anticipated the crisis facing the knight order, she believed it worthwhile to bring these cannons despite the hardships.

Her judgment was correct. Margaret aimed at a large rock blocking the path and shouted.

“Fire!”

The iron projectiles shot from the two cannons quickly shattered the rock into gravel. Once the path was cleared, the knight order regained formation and began to withdraw out of the alley. Margaret continued to signal for the two cannons to move forward, slowly advancing herself.

“Now that we’ve regained formation, advance again! Do not fall back, join with our cavalry and push forward! The only way out is to break through. For the knights who have been left behind, we must go back!”

Margaret urged the knights retreating out and directed them to turn back. Knights who had hurriedly mounted their horses to escape, upon hearing her orders, stopped and turned their heads back towards the Eramenia cavalry. Margaret encouraged them by patting their backs.

“I understand the fear of being surrounded and collapsing. I know what it feels like to be trapped and unable to move. But fortunately, your current situation is much better than the crisis I faced. Fire!”

Once again, the artillery from Eramenia fired. These cannons were larger and more powerful than the ones Helmut possessed, and they had greater range.

The cannons fired iron projectiles towards the enemy without even entering the range of Helmut’s cannons, destroying the enemy’s artillery. Just when Helmut rushed to the artillery to assess the situation, one cannon shattered, and a shell rolling on the ground suddenly erupted into flames and exploded.

“Damn it, that igniter-”

Caught in the explosion, Helmut was thrown back, cursing. Although he was not seriously injured, the explosion caused him to lose consciousness and he fell to the ground. The human soldiers within the Demon King’s Army, who relied solely on his charisma, fell into chaos.

Margaret recognized that victory was now in her grasp and shouted with hope.

“Listen! Your leader has lost consciousness and collapsed. If you surrender by handing over that head, the alliance of the Empire and the Kingdom will guarantee you the same freedom as before and protect you. If you refuse, we will continue to fight. What do you think of my proposal?”

“Shut up, you pointy-eared witch!”

The unfortunate truth was that these survivors were the genuine loyalists who had survived Helmut’s thorough “clean-up operation,” and they also belonged to a group of true Audrich haters.

Most of them had their reasons for hating the Audrich Empire. Some had seen their families sacrificed under imperial law, and many were deceived by the imperial royal family, who promised to protect them before swiftly withdrawing their troops, effectively leaving them to be captured by the Demon King’s Army.

Many of those who fell victim to Helmut’s brainwashing could not distinguish their own grievances from the collective hatred. Regardless, the commonality among the human soldiers present was that the overwhelming majority would never choose to submit to the Audrich Empire, even if it meant being beaten to death.

Such individuals had either already surrendered to Rose or were left as a mountain of corpses before the allied forces. Hearing the insults hurled at her, Margaret’s expression darkened.

“Is that your answer?”

“Since when have the pointy-eared wretches been sacred allies of humans! When was it that you nobles never intervened in matters outside your precious forests? Now you come crawling when your own woods are burning! Flee while you can, before I cut your tongues out!”

“Fire!”

Margaret commanded with a gloomy expression. Once again, the cannons unleashed explosive rounds, directed at the enemy troops that had surrounded her allies from a favorable position. Seeing the two shells, Helmut’s troops hastily began to retreat with their leader in mind. Considering that Helmut had fainted, the enemies responded with considerable calm. Many gunmen seemed to be intent on stalling for time, preparing their rifles to fire at the alliance, while other troops were escorting Helmut northward in retreat.

Surveying the surroundings, Margaret bit her lip and shook her head.

“It’s not wise to become too detached from the main forces in this situation. Let’s go back, Duke. Duke? Are you alright?”

“Uh, uh, uh…”

Margaret called to Alex, who was sitting on the ground, helmet off. Alex was almost out of his senses due to the pain from his broken bones and the shock of his defeat. Seeing the once fine-looking man now appear as a wreck made Margaret click her tongue.

She saw her own reflection in him. If that was the case, Alex would surely have a hard journey ahead.

“Carry him. Take him to the capital immediately.”

Margaret designated a few relatively uninjured knights and instructed them. Just as the knights were about to take Alex away, he turned to Margaret and asked.

“Why am I… so weak?”

“The Duke is not weak. The enemy’s malice has simply crossed the line.”

“I… once tried to persuade a human army that had betrayed us.”

Alex murmured, his expression blank.

“It was a request from the Grand Mage. I tried my best, but… nothing worked. I thought it might be impossible. But shortly after, my sister succeeded and brought back thousands of citizens. How can two red-haired siblings be so different? No matter how, we have the same mother and father, yet how could it come to this…”

“You are not Rose Caprice.”

Margaret answered briefly.

“Take a moment to rest and clear your head. Continue carrying him and ensure he can rest when we reach the capital.”

Following Margaret’s words, Alex quietly leaned on the knights and trudged along. In essence, Margaret was advising Alex to withdraw from the battlefield, which could be quite a blow to his pride.

Of course, Margaret did not intend to send Alex away because she thought he was useless or overly incompetent. But Alex had misunderstood that the fairy monarch’s cool judgment on him had rendered him a liability.

Despite harboring such a misunderstanding, Alex was so deeply wounded that he couldn’t muster a rebuttal. Margaret was aware of his misunderstanding but made no effort to resolve it, as she knew better than anyone that it was his own sister who could guide him best.

“What is the scale of the surviving knight order?”

Once Alex had completely departed, Margaret cautiously inquired about the current situation from a soldier nearby. One of the Eramenia soldiers answered gloomily.

“Half are already dead, and among the survivors, half are severely injured. The Audrich Royal Knight Order is practically annihilated.”

“The left wing is empty. No, more than that, many promising young nobles have perished.”

Margaret sighed. For noble offspring, a glorious way to gain military experience was to be commissioned as infantry officers, and an even more honorable way was to join the Royal Knight Order. Whichever path it was, commanding soldiers from their own territory was more honorable than that; but in terms of pure numbers, knight order members vastly outnumbered infantry officers, and fighting as part of the knight order was deemed a far more specialized and honorable undertaking.

Naturally, the finest young men had applied to the Ironclad Knight Order; the advanced talents who would lead the Empire’s foundation filled its ranks. Not only simple nobility candidates or heirs, but there were also quite a few knights holding baron titles or higher. This implied that many of the voting members of the Imperial Assembly had also been killed in this battle.

As for the dead, there was nothing to be done. On the other hand, Margaret was concerned about the deep emotional wounds Alex would suffer from this crushing defeat.

The grip of her twin swords in her hands revealed that she, too, had not escaped similar wounds.

Thinking about whether she had to stack up injuries one by one, she couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory of Jeongjae’s fiery outburst.

“Ah, right, that’s true.”

Margaret muttered in a deflated tone.

“After all, it’s not an era where one can act as a commander without some sort of insanity attached.”