Chapter 9

[ x ] Thus, you decided to focus some of your time on further improving their ability to get near the enemy, seeing as you were the one that proposed that mages should seek to end combat at any price as soon as possible you should lead by example. [Grants the 354th the ability to charge enemy battalions without losing moral when suffering casualties.]

But despite how highly you thought about all the improvements of the 354th, you quickly refocused the attention of your captains from the northern border to begin the further refining of said improvements to really make sure that all three of your Companies would shine when the time came. And seeing as they were already trading the first blows up in the north, you knew that you would have to hurry if you wanted them properly polished and ready to defend the Fatherland.

Though that being said, it really didn't feel like the Empire was actually at war, it felt more like a little border skirmish from where your Battalion was stationed near the Rhine with how the Republic continued to do nothing but spew acid despite how little sense it made. The Empire was clearly in the right here, was it not, there wasn't even something as basic as a justification coming from the Entente, it was like they genuinely deluded themselves into believing that the Empire of all nations would back down in the face of war, just where was the logic in demonising the Empire for defending itself in this situation?

Perhaps they had some kind of secret plan that would explain it all away, but despite trying quite hard to make sense of it all, you couldn't find even the slightest outline of a greater scheme with how the Entente was already being pushed back by the Northern Army Group alone. But even so, you genuinely couldn't imagine that the Entente could hold off the Great Army once it fully arrived at the northern border, so there shouldn't be a way for things to go as smoothly as they were, right?

The Republic and the Commonwealth had invested a truly unreasonable amount of resources into containing the Empire, so there was no way that they would sit this one out, but then there also wasn't anything that would indicate that they were preparing to launch an invasion of their own. Though even with things going so smoothly that you doubted reality, it was still far from perfect with how the Empire's reaction didn't exactly restore your trust to the higher ups after the little mana debacle. For they actually committed the entirety of the Great Army without hesitation to the northern theater, which in turn left the western Fatherland exposed and vulnerable if the Republic suddenly grew itself a pair and just marched on it.

Yeah, it just didn't sit right with you to send this much of the Empire's strength into the north, for you were part of the Western Army Group and unlike most of the other formations the Western Army Group remained dutiful and wasn't interested in seeking something as fickle as glory, it was simply seeking the fulfilling of its appointed obligations. Even your Mage Battalion of excited volunteers understood that much, so the absence of the Great Army wasn't seen as an opportunity by anyone stationed in the west. It was simply a mistake, no, a catastrophe waiting to happen from where you stood, not that anyone of sufficient rank would oppose the decision of the General Staff in a meaningful way.

An order is an order after all, and once it's given objections were not allowed, at least not without a damn good reason, which the Western Army Group lacked seeing as the troops of the Republic remained passive considering the overall situation. And so with just a few words of complaint things continued on, and the western border gradually became a place filled with prayers as soldiers of all ranks pleaded to God in the hopes it might prevent their fears from coming true as the Great Army orderly but still swiftly redeployed to fight the Entente up north in force.

It was truly a terrible situation considering that the moral of the troops could have weathered just about anything the enemy could have thrown at the Western Army Group, but with the Great Army gone you were no different, for you harboured all the same fears in your heart, so you silently prayed for the good of the Fatherland. But it also shocked you how absurd it was that the generals in Berun were seemingly thinking that they could actually outrun the reaction of both the Republic and the Commonwealth.

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Not to mention that even the Federation could still just declare war on the Empire even if it breaks the nonaggression pact you heard about no matter how much of the Entente would be successfully occupied, they must have gone insane, or you have gone insane, one or the other, someone was insane here, you were certain of it. But you guessed that you would have to talk to the generals about the matter of the troop's moral first before you could waste more time on these thoughts. That being said, your men were all in all doing fine despite the news concerning the movements of the Great Army seeing as there were only thirty-five of them, all split into three Companies with great commanders, so your Battalion could help.

Please select the option you like the most:

[ ] Due to the decisions of the General Staff, the thirty thousand troops defending Fallholt were now just like the rest of the Western Army Group the first and last line of defence protecting the Empire in the west. This fact thoroughly destroyed all confidence the army group once held, thus you decided the troops would now urgently need a scapegoat, for as long as a soldier had someone he can curse he won't break. [Grants reputation with Major General Manfred von Ulmer, Major General Otto von Fuchs and Major General Monbert von Stein, but costs reputation with the higher ups of the Northern Army Group.]

[ ] Due to the decisions of the General Staff, the thirty thousand troops defending Fallholt were now just like the rest of the Western Army Group the first and last line of defence protecting the Empire in the west. This fact thoroughly destroyed all confidence the army group once held, thus you decided the troops would now urgently need a scapegoat, for as long as a soldier had someone he can curse he won't break. [Grants reputation with Major General Manfred von Ulmer, Major General Otto von Fuchs, Major General Monbert von Stein and the higher ups of the Western Army Group, but costs reputation with the higher ups of the Northern Army Group and Central.]