North of Rosenheim, at the boundary of the Ashen Forest.
There, a vast wave of steel was surging.
Rumble, rrrrrumble—!
A deep vibration shook the earth. Dozens of tanks stood in formation, spewing pitch-black exhaust.
“The atmosphere is downright murderous.”
The 1st Armored Battalion under the 1st Armored Division. The Emperor’s Imperial Guard, and the Empire’s most elite armored force.
Beside them were mechanized infantry mounted in half-track armored vehicles, and the men of my direct company loading supplies onto trucks. Gunter was commanding the soldiers in a thunderous voice, while Kurt hurried back and forth. Walter and Franz stood at a distance, directing the scene, and farther away, Seraphina and Erika were busily commanding the infantry battalion.
As I watched them, I heard someone call me.
“Are the preparations complete, Lieutenant Colonel Jaeger?”
It was Brigade Commander Dietrich. Since I was the commander of an independent battlegroup, he was more or less an outsider for this operation.
“As you can see. Ammunition, fuel, rations. We’ve packed enough for two full weeks.”
“Good. Don’t worry about Rosenheim. Once you begin the operation, we’ll make plenty of noise and draw their attention as planned.”
Dietrich gripped my hand tightly.
“Let’s meet again alive. And don’t forget—my promotion depends on you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
After Dietrich withdrew, I walked toward the head of the battlegroup’s column.
Rumble, rrrrrumble—.
Passing through the heat and vibrations emitted by the tanks warming up, I spotted one tank beyond the acrid diesel smoke.
A woman stood aloof atop its hatch.
Short ash-gray bobbed hair.
A faint smear of oil marked her cheek. Her uniform jacket was tied around her waist, emphasizing the tight black sleeveless shirt and trained figure beneath, and a pale scar crossing the bridge of her nose stood out.
Overall, she looked young.
When she spotted me, she lightly jumped down from the hatch. With a soft thump, she toddled right up in front of me.
“Loyalty.”
She removed her glove and saluted. Up close, I saw she only came up to my chest.
‘State Analysis.’
Looking down at the crown of her head before my solar plexus, I activated the skill.
[Using skill “State Analysis (Lv.3)” on “Frederica von Kessel.”]
[Name: Frederica von Kessel]
[Race: Human]
[Affiliation: Imperial Army 1st Armored Division, 1st Armored Battalion (Jaeger Battlegroup (Temporary))]
[Rank: Major]
[Condition: Testing attitude toward newly appointed commander.]
‘Oh?’
The commander of the armored battalion assigned under me. According to the documents I’d checked earlier, she had just turned twenty, a genius among geniuses who had already graduated from the academy long ago.
“Commander of the 1st Armored Battalion, Major Frederica von Kessel. Lieutenant Colonel Jaeger.”
I returned her salute and, out of habit, extended my hand. A handshake.
“Good to meet you, Major. I’ve heard the rumors. They say you’re the youngest armored battalion commander.”
“You flatter me.”
She clasped my hand with her ungloved one. It was small and firm. But her grip strength was no joke.
‘Look at this?’
Her grip tightened as if she meant to crush my hand. A contest of nerves? Thanks to [Indomitable Mind], I stared calmly into her eyes without so much as blinking.
[Hidden Desire: Wants to see whether this “parachute” lieutenant colonel will hold back her tanks.]
‘…Hmm?’
A parachute appointment. It wasn’t exactly wrong. A mere captain had become a lieutenant colonel overnight and was now commanding an armored battalion, so from the perspective of someone who had walked the elite path, there was no way it would sit well with her. Of course, setting aside whether that was something a twenty-year-old youngest-ever armored battalion commander had any right to think.
In any case, what mattered was this.
‘I’ll need to establish discipline.’
I gave a faint laugh, put a bit of strength into my hand, then let go.
“You’ve got an excellent grip. You must be able to hold a control stick steady.”
“An armored battalion commander doesn’t hold a control stick, Lieutenant Colonel. She holds command.”
‘Bold, isn’t she?’
Frederica replied as if scoffing and did not avert her gaze.
“Holds command, does she.”
I paid it no mind and brushed past her shoulder. Then I naturally stretched out my hand. My palm ran along the side armor of the tank she had been standing on.
Frederica’s eyebrow twitched.
[Emotion: Displeased that an infantry officer would touch the tanks she cherishes.]
“Excellent maintenance. Not a speck of grime.”
“……The 1st Armored Battalion is ready to sortie at any time.”
Frederica answered stiffly from behind me. Even to my eyes, there was nothing to criticize.
However.
‘State Analysis.’
[Condition: Maintenance complete, but slight play detected (No. 3 road wheel bearing), overheating (transmission)]
Bingo.
I crouched down and tapped the No. 3 road wheel, the wheel directly touching the ground. Clang, clang. The sound was subtly dull.
“Major. A commander may not hold the control stick, but she should still know the condition of the iron coffins her subordinates ride in.”
“…What do you mean?”
“There’s play in the No. 3 road wheel bearing. The transmission’s been heating up since idling. If you enter rough terrain like the Ashen Forest like this, it’ll die within thirty minutes.”
Frederica’s expression stiffened in an instant.
“That can’t be! The maintenance crew inspected it all night yesterday…!”
“Check it yourself.”
I stood up and brushed the dust from my clothes. Frederica bit her lip, then immediately called a mechanic over and had him inspect the spot I had pointed out.
“H-Huh? Major! The bearing’s gone! No, how did we not see this?”
The mechanic’s flustered shout. Frederica’s face instantly turned as red as a carrot.
“No way… There wasn’t any noise, or vibration….”
She muttered, then looked back at me.
“How… did you know? It should have been impossible to identify with the naked eye.”
“On the battlefield, what you can see isn’t everything. Major.”
I approached her and whispered low by her ear.
‘Charming Speech.’
[Skill “Charming Speech (Lv.3)” has been activated.]
“I see what you cannot see, and hear what you cannot hear. That is the reason I am in this position, and the reason you must follow my orders.”
[Skill “Charming Speech (Lv.3)” uses authority to provoke “Frederica von Kessel’s” sense of shame and instill respect toward her superior.]
“I’ll give you ten minutes to repair it.”
I took a step back and grinned.
“Fix it within that time and rejoin the column. Can you do it?”
“……I will correct it.”
She bit her lip and answered. Soon, she ran off with quick little steps and shouted at the maintenance crew.
“Hey! Strip down No. 3! Bring the spare parts! If you don’t finish in ten minutes, I’ll throw every one of you in the brig!”
The mechanics began clinging to the tank.
*
Despite it being midwinter, the air in the Ashen Forest was damp and heavy.
Creak, creeeak…!
Vrooom— thud!
Whenever the dozens of tons of steel forced their way between the narrow trees, the scraping of hulls and the rough rumble of engines shook the undergrowth.
[Crackle— …Visibility impossible. There isn’t even thirty centimeters of clearance on either side. RPM is crossing into the red zone. At this rate, the engine will…]
Major Frederica’s irritated voice came through the radio.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the command vehicle, I looked out the window. What I saw were densely packed tree trunks and the hidden floors of lurking swampland. Through that maze-like place, dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were stretched out in a long single-file column, passing through by the skin of their teeth.
That was when it happened.
“…! Eleven o’clock ahead! Range four hundred! Multiple faint mana signatures detected!”
Hanna, seated behind me, shouted. At the same time, red dots flickered on my [Minimap].
“……They seem to be orcs!”
“Of course, it had to be now.”
I clicked my tongue and carefully examined the [Minimap] in the corner of my vision. The [Minimap], which had always remained fixed in place until now, displayed dense contour lines and trees in 3D. And now, I was fully reaping the benefits of its [Upgrade] to Lv.2.
‘They’re hiding behind the rocks.’
The first thing I saw was a gray mass of polygons marked with dense contour lines. A massive rocky area. Behind it, red dots were huddled together.
‘There are some in the trees, too. Crafty bastards.’
A textbook ambush positioned behind a massive rocky area where tanks would have difficulty maneuvering, and up in the trees. If I had sent only infantry, they would almost certainly have been hit.
I immediately picked up the radio.
“This is Hammer One. Lead tank, do not stop.”
[Crackle— This is Steel Rose. We can’t secure visibility ahead! It’s a rocky area, so an ambush is suspected. We should send scouts first….]
Frederica reported in a sharp voice. A cautious attitude, as if she wanted to make up for the humiliation from earlier. But there was no such thing as cautious reconnaissance in my dictionary.
“No reconnaissance. Ignore it and advance.”
[……!]
I heard someone suck in a breath through the radio.
“Instead, turn your turret to eleven o’clock. Range four hundred. The middle section of a giant dead tree.”
[…That’s absurd. We barely have room to turn the gun barrel because of the trees.]
Frederica openly questioned me. Her tone said she found it ridiculous.
And she was right. A single tank could barely pass between the dense trees. If they tried to turn the long main gun, the barrel would obviously slam into a massive trunk.
If not for my cheat skill, that is.
I stared intently at the 3D terrain displayed on the [Minimap]. Among the countless huge trees, I spotted one suitable gap.
“Hammer One Four Zero, this is Hammer One. From your current position, eleven o’clock. High-explosive shell.”
I switched the radio channel myself and called the tank in question. It was possible because Imperial tanks had a radio installed in each vehicle.
[H-Hammer One Four Zero! The commander himself…!?]
The tank commander answered in shock.
[Lieutenant Colonel. This is clearly a misjudgment. It would be better to dismount the infantry and….]
Frederica immediately cut in with a sharp voice. She had taken a hit over the poor maintenance earlier, but when it came to tank operation, she seemed unwilling to yield.
“Major, we don’t have much time.”
But I replied coldly.
In the end, the one who backed down was Frederica.
[……Follow the commander’s instructions, One Four Zero.]
[……U-Understood.]
Only then did Tank 140 begin to move.
“That’s it, Sergeant. Advance another 2.5 meters and stop. From that position, insert the gun barrel through the gap on the right and raise the elevation to twelve degrees. Then you’ll see the target.”
[…R-Received!]
Along with the strained commands of Tank 140’s commander, the tank engine began revving quickly. The hull dug through the soil and advanced exactly as far as I had ordered.
Creak, creeeak.
Soon, with the loud whine of hydraulic motors, the turret slowly began to rotate. The tip of the gun barrel passed so close to the rough bark that it seemed it would graze it.
“Ah…?”
Watching it, Hanna unconsciously let out a gasp.
There really was a gap. A minute opening in the dense forest. Like threading a needle, the long gun barrel entered that narrow space with perfect precision.
[…Gu-Gun barrel aligned! Firing angle secured!]
“Fire.”
Boom—!
A thunderous roar shook the forest. The shell, leaving the flame that burst from the muzzle, flew straight into the tree.