I will be crowned king

On May 1st, the hundredth year of the Saint's Calendar, after Eagle Point City was besieged for nearly half a month, the core force of the Elf Kingdom of Ysel, the elite Guards Corps, the imperial military attache and the first heir to the Principality of Adlan, Led by the talented "Sea Knight" Louis Bernard, they marched towards Eagle Point Pass.

Despite the rugged roads among the rolling hills, the 20,000 proud and traditional Yser elves still maintained a compact and coordinated formation; the gold and red, extremely bright and dazzling military uniforms made this mighty army look like a galloping army. melt flow.

When forming this Guards Corps, the instructors sent by the Empire had given kind reminders more than once; in recent years, rifles and artillery have greatly improved in terms of range and accuracy.

Therefore, although gold and red are indeed very good, try not to use these two colors as the main colors of military uniforms; it is better to choose black and white, or light blue and dark brown.

But for the proud and traditional Yser elves, this is simply unacceptable!

In the tradition of the Yser elves, red is the color of royalty and gold is the color of faith.

The unified golden and red military uniforms are the privileges only possessed by the Guards Corps representing the Elf King Yser!

This tradition is reflected in almost every aspect of the army, especially the bloodline: the noblest is the royal family, followed by the six oldest elven families in Yser, then the nobles of all levels, and finally the commoners and aliens without elven blood - — Mainly humans.

This is not all. In addition to the paternal and maternal lineage, the status of an Iser elf is determined by the so-called "source blood", which refers to how many nobler bloodlines it possesses; if two half-elves are both commoners, but one of them If you have one-fiftieth of the noble blood, you are nobler than another half-elf.

In addition, "pure blood" is more noble than "half blood", and "royal half blood" is more noble than "noble pure blood"... This has led to a lot of red tape that makes people's heads burn. Even Louis Bell, who has always advocated blood, has Nadu couldn't stand it.

Although the empire also uses blood and title to divide levels, it is far from the level where Yisel is so willing to pay for every penny. Especially in the Guards Corps, almost every elf is extremely noble, and even the soldiers have "noble blood." In a place where one of the most important responsibilities of a commander is to judge whose bloodline is more noble when conflicts arise - not right or wrong.

Shaking his head to put the troubles behind him, Louis, with a stern expression, rode his horse to inspect the queue. His dark blue military uniform and iris battle flag cape fluttering in the wind on his left shoulder made him stand out among the golden and red queues. Eye-catching.

"What are you thinking about?"

A sweet and soft voice sounded, and a petite female knight appeared behind him; the exquisite breastplate and military uniform were as eye-catching as an evening dress on her body; the long hair exposed from behind the three-cornered hat spread like a waterfall, at noon A faint blue overflows from the sunlight.

"Dear Louis, you seem nervous."

The elf girl's concern not only did not warm Louis' heart, but revealed a bit of tangle; he looked back helplessly and bowed slightly to the other party:

"Yes, you are right, Princess Freya."

The elf girl blinked her eyes and came closer with concern: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She looked up at Louis intently, her almost translucent light blue eyes seemed like pearls dripping with rainwater, adding a trace of dust-free innocence to her fair and childish face.

"I'm afraid not!"

With a flash of panic in his eyes, Louis quickly avoided the other party's sight, desperately restrained himself to stay normal, and looked ahead: "I...I am thinking about how to better rescue Eagle Point City!"

"Then you can tell me."

Princess Freya still did not give up, and refused to take her eyes away from Louis for a moment: "After all, Your Highness is the nominal commander of this legion!"

The elf girl proudly waved her pink fist.

The corners of Louis' mouth twitched slightly... He almost forgot about it.

One of the reasons why the Elf King Yser is so stubborn in making himself the commander-in-chief of the Guards Corps is because of Her Highness Freya.

This was a particularly difficult thing for Louis to understand. He didn’t even know what encounter he had with Freya; he only vaguely remembered that starting from a certain day, the little elf princess put on a military uniform and worked tirelessly. Follow yourself.

Not long after that, his status in the Guards Corps began to rise like a rocket. He was promoted from an ordinary instructor to a chief instructor, then to acting commander, and finally directly became the commander of the regiment.

Along with the marshal's staff, there was also the royal steward who proposed to him on behalf of Her Royal Highness Princess Freya.

Louis wanted to refuse, but the accompanying imperial ambassador reminded and warned him over and over again that he must not destroy the friendly relationship between the empire and the Ysel elves; coupled with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to avenge his brother, he could only accept it silently in the end.

With a slight sigh, Louis raised his head and pointed in the direction of Eagle Point City in the distance: "To put it simply, I personally don't agree with the goal of holding on to Eagle Point City and fighting the Clovis north of the Dawn Mountains."

"Yes, this is indeed a fortress that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and can serve as the southwest barrier of the Yser Elf Kingdom; but on the other hand, it also limits the power of the Yser Elf to the Eagle Point Pass."

"Look around us. These complex hills and roads are so narrow that only a few people can pass side by side. Such steep terrain is indeed a natural line of defense when encountering an invasion, but it will also limit ourselves once we encounter an attack."

"Just like now...the rugged roads completely limit the speed and efficiency of the army. In order to speed up the march, we have to throw more heavy baggage at the end, because even if we march lightly, we can only march as fast as we can in the plains. Less than half.”

"Oh~"

Freya suddenly understood, her pupils shining with admiration.

As a little princess who grew up in a royal court, her understanding of war was entirely based on the deeds of great men in history books. As for boring historical materials and more formal military doctrines, she had no interest in them at all.

The reason why he was so attentive was simply because he was listening to Louis speak, and the self-confidence and focus he exuded unconsciously when he talked made the elf princess who fell in love extremely fascinated and couldn't stop.

"And now, we are suffering the consequences of sticking to Eagle Point City." Louis, who didn't notice Freya's eyes at all, sighed:

"The enemy has completely controlled the fortress and even allowed a sizable force to infiltrate into the rear of the fortress; now they only need to use very few troops to control one or two key positions in these high mountains to immobilize us."

"To give a simple example, have you seen the towering hillside in front? Below is the path we must pass; if I were Anson Bach, I would use thousands of people to set up a defense line here, then..."

“Woo————!!!”

Before he finished speaking, a rapid bugle sound sounded from the front of the queue; an elf knight holding a swallow-tailed flag walked along the marching queue, galloping on his horse while shouting loudly:

"Commander Louis Bernard, the outpost encountered an enemy attack and was blocked. They are Clovis!"

"What?!"

Louis' face showed a flash of shock, but he immediately regained his composure the next second.

Anson Bach...you really control the battle situation so accurately.

Are you planning to fight me to the death by specifically stopping me in a place like this?

Very good, then I will do as you wish!

"鈶鎯!"

The bright silver long knife burst out from the scabbard like running water. Louis, who tightened the reins, turned around suddenly under the adoring eyes of the elf princess and raised the long knife high above his head:

"The whole army is in position - ready to fight!"

“For the glory of Iser—!!!!”

Deafening cheers echoed in the mountains and forests, and the army of 20,000 elves moved into battle at an alarming speed amid orders and bugles.

On the southern leg's defense line at the foot of the hillside at the other end, the Clovis soldiers were all pale-faced as they listened to the roaring shouts of the mountains. They were running back and forth non-stop amid the scoldings of the officers, and they were building positions in a hurry. .

They couldn't figure it out. They clearly didn't encounter reinforcements from the Ysel elves along the way after crossing the defense line of Eagle Point City. Why did they immediately bump into such a tough guy who was obviously not easy to mess with as soon as they stopped?

How are the minds of the Yser elves going around? Do they have to gather all the reinforcements together so that they can feel safe? This is their territory!

In the hurried and chaotic position, Lieutenant Colonel Roman, standing on the trench, observed the military situation of the Yser elves on the opposite side through his long monocular.

It must be admitted that the Iser Guards Corps, dressed in gold and red, is indeed very imposing; eye-catching and uniform uniforms. This army of 20,000 people looked more oppressive than Eagle Point City.

But... Roman frowned slightly.

Why does this army of Iser look like they are going to fight to the death with themselves here?

He only has 3,000 men at hand. Even if he can set up a defense line, he can only block one direction and can only hold back one-third of the enemy's troops at most. In this case, why does the other party's commander need to fight with him instead of rescuing him? What about Eagle Point City?

Isn’t this a matter of discarding the basics and chasing the last?

Roman shook his head. He couldn't understand what the other person was thinking.

But in any case, this is a good thing - since the other party must push past us, it can delay their support of Eagle Point City for a few more days, giving Lord Ludwig more time to capture the fortress.

And it seemed that the enemy had been prepared hastily. There was no sign of heavy artillery in the military formation. If there were only small artillery and infantry, Roman, who occupied a favorable position and had a grenadier regiment, was not afraid at all.

Just when he was thinking about how to delay the other side as much as possible, a rush of footsteps came from behind. Roman, who frowned slightly, immediately looked back and looked at the panting scout:

"did you find it?"

"No!"

The breathless messenger answered decisively: "We have searched all nearby areas that may be suitable for camping, but we have not found Deputy Commander Anson Bach and his army - only some traces of the troops passing by."

"No?" Lieutenant Colonel Roman said coldly:

"Where are the messengers? I remember that one of the messengers sent out last time has not returned yet. Did Anson Bach not even send a messenger?"

"No, nothing!" The scout shook his head repeatedly:

"We found the baggage trains and some fragmentary supplies that were abandoned by them. Most of them were seized from the Yisel elves. We can confirm that until recently, Deputy Commander Anson Bach's army had been operating nearby and had carried out substantial attacks on Yishel. The Thyr supply lines pose a threat."

"But we did find no trace of him and his army, let alone confirm their general location!"

Nothing... Roman's expression was a little ugly.

According to his original plan, if his 3,000 men could be combined with Anson Bach's more than 2,000 troops, they would at least reach the level of nearly a full infantry division; although it was still not enough to stop 20,000 men, he would try to delay half of the attack. Months later, there is still a chance for Lord Ludwig to seize the opportunity to attack the city.

But now it was obvious that not only could they not get any reinforcements, but it was not clear whether Anson and his two thousand men were dead or alive - although Roman did not believe that this guy would be killed so easily.

"Anson Bach...what are you doing?"

While Roman was at a loss, the defenders of Eagle Point City far behind him fell into huge shock and panic.

"what is that?!"

Accompanied by the panicked shouts of a sentry at the top of the tower, the defenders of Eagle Point City, who were being attacked from the front by the main force of Ludwig's Southern Army, turned their sights behind them for the first time.

Among the high mountains of the Dawn Mountains, one side, two sides...countless Clovis unicorn war flags kept emerging, sweeping across several mountains in an instant like dark ants, surrounding the entire Eagle Horn City from the south.

The defenders of Eagle Point City immediately went into chaos when they discovered this - the builder of Eagle Point City was the Grand Duke of Thun two hundred years ago. Naturally, they would not deliberately build too many defensive facilities in the direction of their own territory, so the defense The strength is also relatively weak; the Ysel elves, who desperately resisted the frontal attack of the Clovis people, did not consider what they would do if the enemy appeared behind them.

At the bottom of the mountains, on the road leading from Eagle Point City to the Seven Cities Alliance, a Clovis officer holding a swallow-tailed flag was galloping towards the fortress on horseback.

Under the gaze of the panicked defenders, the officer stopped on a mound outside Eagle Point City. The flag in his hand was suddenly raised high above his head and nailed to the fortress gate like a javelin.

"I am the commander of the First Private Regiment of the Southern Army, Major Fabian!"

"According to the order of the commander-in-chief of the legion, an ultimatum is issued to Eagle Point City - I will give you seventy-two hours to hand over your weapons and city defenses, take the initiative to leave the city, and report to our military camp to surrender!"

"After the time is exceeded, Commander-in-Chief Anson Bach will issue the final attack order and will no longer abide by any previous agreements!"

"Listen clearly, this is not a warning!"

"This is an ultimatum!"