Dream Life Vol II Chapter 77.1: “Old General”

　I was in my fifth year at the Tyria Magic Academy, and I was still under the direct supervision of Professor Ruspede. However, there was one subject that he had to attend in his fifth year.

　That is the subject for military magicians.

　Basically, those who can use offensive magic and those who can use healing magic are required to take those courses, and Sharon and I are no exception.

　Even if you don’t become a court magician, there are high expectations for magicians in the defense of a city.

　This is because we are expected not only to be able to use magic for long-range attacks, but also to be able to formulate strategies as intellectuals, in other words, to be operational strategists and military strategists.

　Forty students in a class make one company, and the entire fifth grade, five companies make one battalion. The instructor of the practical skills course – a specially appointed instructor, I was told – would be the battalion commander and conduct classes that resembled military drills.

　This instructor was Joshua Metcalf, a former court magician from the Saltus Kingdom, famous for their magic. It was more than 30 years ago, and it is said that he has actual battle experience against demons.

　He is about 70 years old, with long white hair, a wrinkled face, an eagle nose, and sharp eyes, which has earned him the nickname “Old General” among the students at the academy.

　Metcalf, however, was as much of an “Old Man” from being the “Old General”. He was a man who stuck to his own opinions and would brand any new theory as evil.

　The first time I received instruction from Metcalf was at the beginning of September, right after I entered the fifth grade. First, we learned basic knowledge of military theory, which was lousy.

　It is not his fault for this, but rather the fact that his theory on military affairs in this world is far behind that of the Middle Ages on Earth.

　There is no rational, systematic theory of military organization in this world.

　On earth, in the West in the B.C. era, battles were fought with rational organization to make the most of tactics, such as the Macedonian phalanx and the Roman legion, and in the East, systematic military theories were established in Chinese military books such as those by Sun Tzu.

　In this world, however, there was no clear military theory, just a combination of infantry, cavalry, archers, and magicians in a ready-made number, and there was no concept of organizing an army to make the most of tactics.

　For the time being, there is a theory that the main character for war are the cavalry, who are knights, and that there are infantry to support the cavalry, and there are archers and magicians who aim to support fire with long-range attacks.

　But that is all.

　The knights are organized in platoons, companies, battalions, regiments, and so on. But there is no such structure for infantry or archers.

　This is because infantry and archers are rarely professional soldiers of the country, and are often composed of conscripted farmers, hunters, or mercenaries. There is a commander who commands the infantry, but he is a knight, not a commander specializing in infantry or archers.

　The role of the infantry is to patrol the encampment and guard the Transportation Corps, which is commanded by rotating knights. Since the purpose of the archers was to support the knights’ cavalry charge, they were given a random flanking formation and only fired when given a signal, and they only received direct orders from the Commander General.

　And then there is the magicians’ corps, which basically consists of only court magicians. In other words, although there is a pecking order within the court, it is composed only of the ruling class.

　For this reason, court magicians are often given the same authority as knights, and they can even refuse orders from their commanders.

　　The tactics taught by Metcalfe, the “old general,” are quite simple.

　The infantry forms a defensive position, archers and magicians attack from a distance from behind, and finally the cavalry mounts a cavalry charge to determine the winner.

　This “tactic” assumes that the battle will take place on the plains, but the actual battlefield will be in various terrains, such as forests and mountains. But there is no theory for this.

　In the “tactics” taught by the Old General, the ability of the commander is the most important factor. And experience is the only thing that supports the commander’s ability, he says.

　The court magicians advise the commanders, but the Old General’s teachings are highly biased. His limited “experience” was all he had.

　He had only fought in the forests of the Kingdom of Lacus, which formed a coalition with Saltus, and had only dealt with the demon folk, a tribe of demon folk who did not use ranged weapons. –They are such tribe of demon folk who use ogres and orcs in the eastern part of the Aquila Mountains. He’s only fought against far fewer enemies than his allies.

　And, to make matters worse, he teaches his “experience” as if it were the rule.

　The gist of his “tactics” is this.

　Attract as many enemies as you can, then fire magic at the nearest enemy in front of you. Then he would attack the flanking enemies individually so that they would not get in the way of the knights’ attack.

　When I first heard this, I thought he was joking.

　Intending to play along with the joke, I asked him, “Is it the same for enemies other than the demon folk?” He replied with a serious face, “That’s right,” but refused to answer any further.

　I further asked, “What should I do if they use ranged weapons?” He replied seriously, “Ogres, orcs, and goblins don’t use ranged weapons.”

　It was then that I realized he was serious.

(It’s a lie, isn’t it? There are winged demons with the demon folk, and they are supposed to use dark magic. There are no stories of winged demons appearing on the battlefield, but winged demons such as the Lesser Demon and the Little Demon Imp have appeared along with the Demon Folk. They can use magic.) (Zack)

　And when I questioned him about it, he made no mention of the importance of supply lines or intelligence gathering,

　When I asked him about it, he replied, “That’s not for the court magicians to think about, it’s for the government officials to think about.”

　I listened to him boasting during his lectures, I did not bother to ask any more questions.

　However, there was less criticism of the old general’s lecture than I had expected.

　The number of incompetent teachers was decreasing as Chairman Wagman’s reforms spread, but for some reason, the old general was not targeted for elimination.

　According to my own research, the reason was that there were few magicians who had actual battle experience in commanding soldiers–in fact, for about a battalion of several hundred people—there was no one to compare him with. The Old General’s previous lecturers had been similar, and no one questioned it.

　Countries also do not like to have excellent court magicians drawn to become instructors at the academy. Furthermore, court magicians dispatched by the Magicians’ Guild are not able to stand on the battlefield due to their abilities, and as a result, there are few magicians with military experience in the academy.

　As for the old general, it seems that he was not much of a Saltus court magician in terms of ability. And after he became old and physically weak, he lost his place in Saltus, where many elves have long lives, and so he became an instructor at the academy.

　Moving on to practical skills, i.e., military training, as the head of one group, I was appointed as the company commander of the first company.

　Even so, there was not much to do. All I had to do was line up the users of offensive magic and tell them when to cast their spells.

　During the first class, I made a little creative decision.

　I divided the class into four squads, with each squad consisting of ten members based on their attributes and level and combined two of them into a single platoon. Incidentally, the first platoon of each platoon was an attack unit consisting mainly of fire, light, and wind, while the second platoon was a support unit consisting of water, wood, earth, and other attributes.

　The first squad of each platoon was to participate in the attack, while the second squad was to provide support in the rear.

　Apparently, this did not sit well with the “Old General”.