“As much as people like to think that they have planned things out for every possible contingency, chances were that there would still be a few they failed to think about. Nobody is perfect, after all.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.
“Maybe I didn’t hear you right… Repeat what you’ve just said again?” asked Nestor the next morning with a baffled look on his face. The bowl of stew he was eating from had fallen – to the table, fortunately enough, even if it spilled a bit – in his surprise, though he clearly was no longer paying any attention to his breakfast. “What did you say happened to the enemies again?”
“They’re gone, Your Grace,” reported the scout with a slightly shaken voice. She had been the head of the scout detachment sent out to watch over the enemy movements first thing in the morning that day, and after noticing the suspicious lack of any movement from the enemy camp, she had gone closer to check the situation.
Only to find an abandoned, empty camp where the enemy army was camped the previous day.
“There had been dummies made from piles of used clothing as well as damaged armor set up around empty tents to make it look like they were still there from afar, but once we closed in to check, it was obvious that the enemy had been gone for a while,” reported the scout. “We had been delayed because we didn’t dare to check closely at first. I apologize for our failings.”
“It’s not your fault. You’ve done well,” said Nestor with a shake of his head. He then turned to Reinhardt with a meaningful look since all the commanders were gathered and eating together that morning, a little superstition believed to bring good luck when a decisive battle was expected that day. “Captain Edelstein?”
“I will relay the command for Hannah to look for them immediately, Your Grace,” replied Reinhardt with a nod. His flying scouts had been used heavily during the conflict, with a couple of them stationed by Andrea Utghwes and the southern half of the coalition forces. Others spent their time watching over the stretches of land between the two coalition forces to ensure that the Imperials were not attempting to bypass the armies to strike at their hinterlands, a task where one flying scout could do the job of a dozen scout teams.
As it was, only Hannah and Avila were present with the northern coalition army. Avila had taken up the night watch around the army camp, while Hannah usually relayed the battle situation for Reinhardt during the day. They didn’t have spare manpower to keep a constant watch over the enemy camp like Reinhardt had preferred, which was one reason the enemy army managed to escape unnoticed like that.
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He quickly relayed the orders to Hannah, who took flight from their camp moments later.
There was nothing else the commanders could do for the time being due to a lack of actionable information, so they returned to their breakfast, if with a noticeably more subdued atmosphere compared to before. Fortunately they didn’t have to wait too long, and right about the time when they had just polished off the breakfast and made some small talk, Reinhardt finally caught sight of the withdrawing enemy force through Hannah’s relayed sight from the artifact.
“Found them,” he stated to the others, who immediately turned their heads his way. “They’re about… huh. That’s at least half a day’s walk away. They must have really rushed their troops last night,” he said with some surprise. Hannah had discovered the enemies a good bit further away than where he had expected her to find them. “Should we give chase?”
“Our cavalry would not be able to catch up to them before tomorrow if they kept going at their current pace until sundown,” replied Angus Harscape with a shake of his head, a statement his daughter the Grafin clearly agreed with given the nod she gave in support. “And I wouldn’t advise sending only the horse cavalry after them. Their cavalry isn’t damaged too badly.”
“Our own troops would need time to pack up the camp and finish tidying up the battlefield before we move out properly. If they were close enough to give chase and return within three days, it would be fine, but with the lead they have…” noted Damien rather morosely. “I’m afraid we won’t be in position to chase after them, Brother. Not unless we’re willing to risk a plague spreading from this place or worse.”
It had become common sense in Alcidea to tidy up a battlefield after a battle was done, partly due to how in their history several devastating plagues had resulted from the corpses that were left to rot in them. One particularly bad conflict during the Clangeddin Empire’s founding had even seen a couple towns wiped out from the resultant plague after the battle.
“It will give them time to prepare their defenses, but I guess that was never something we would be able to prevent anyway,” noted Nestor after some thought. The coalition’s goal was to reclaim the invaded territory, which meant that they needed them back in a usable manner, not as a plagued wasteland, so simply leaving things be was never an option to them. “Very well. Inform the troops to finish things up here over the week. We will march onwards at the start of the next week if everyone is fine with it?”
“I’m fine with it,” stated Grafin Siobhan Harscape, with her father also giving an approving nod from the side.
“It’s not like we have a feasible alternative given our situation,” noted old Duke Orsla Banitu. “We’ll just have to make do with the cards fate dealt us.”
“We’ll do as you command, of course,” said Reinhardt in turn with a deferential nod. While Nestor had treated him more like an equal thanks to the unique capabilities his company brought the force, their relation remains that of an employer and employee in cases like these. “As Your Grace wishes,” he added in a bit of a jest to lighten the mood.