“What was it again? Right, the Battle of Crécy and one more… foie gras? No, Poitiers! The Battle of Poitiers! Those two battles are the representative ones.”

Joachim Murat stammered as he explained, clearly displaying the downsides of being born the son of an innkeeper with little education.

“From France’s perspective, those were really embarrassing losses. They taught us in cavalry training not to let it happen again.”

The Battles of Crécy and Poitiers.

They were the two most representative battles in which Edward the Black Prince distinguished himself.

“The problem was the longbowmen. Longbowmen. They could fire arrows way faster than our French crossbowmen back then. And they’d set up obstacles in front to block cavalry charges. In the end, we kept charging again and again like fools and ended up losing both the army and the country.”

“What about the ranking battle?”

“His style in the ranking battles is similar. He places elf archers in defensively advantageous terrain and holds his position. Then, once he’s built up enough troops, he launches a big offensive.”

Joachim Murat pushed his bangs back and boasted.

“But the mistake he made was treating me the same as those idiotic French knights of old.”

“How did you win?”

“I couldn’t break through his defense and kept getting pushed back. But in the final big clash, I made a huge play. Oh, and that guy uses possession too, so be careful.”

“Possession?”

“One of his Apostles brings an Elf Guard. When that Elf Guard gets promoted to an Elf Assassin, it uses possession and fights directly.”

“Is he strong?”

“Oh, pretty decent. But no match for me! He’s just a prince, but I became a king with my fists—a genius of battle! Hahaha!”

Judging that there was nothing more useful to hear, Lee Shin said farewell to Joachim Murat.

But just before parting, Murat stopped him.

“Wait! Who did you say Demon Lord Decarabia fought and lost to?”

“Andromalius.”

“Andromalius… A Demon Lord who should be ranked much higher ended up down here?”

Joachim Murat looked visibly disturbed.

He spoke to Lee Shin.

“Want a tip from me?”

“What is it?”

“Bet 50,000 mana in this ranking battle.”

“What?”

50,000 mana was the maximum allowed bet in a ranking battle.

Seeing Lee Shin puzzled, Murat continued.

“Defeat Decarabia, scoop up 50,000 mana, and leap up several ranks. It’s best if you skip facing Andromalius altogether.”

That was strange.

For the usually arrogant and self-confident Joachim Murat to say something like that...

“The Contractor of Demon Lord Andromalius is a guy named Owun. He’s really not normal. I couldn’t beat him.”

“You fought him?”

“We had a ranking battle against those guys and lost 50,000 mana. We ended up stuck here. Those guys should be ranked in the 40s by now. I guess they had some rotten luck, too.”

Owun? Never heard of him.

Even as he returned to the palace after parting ways, Lee Shin tilted his head in confusion.

If Joachim Murat was talking like that, then this Owun must be quite the big shot. But Lee Shin couldn’t recall hearing of him.

I should brush up on my historical knowledge.

In any case, though he had gained some useful information, Lee Shin still felt it wasn’t quite enough.

Joachim Murat’s shallow knowledge and narrow strategic view limited the value of the information he could provide.

Come to think of it, Gilles de Rais was also from the Hundred Years’ War era.

Lee Shin recalled one of his Apostles—Gilles de Rais.

Alongside Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais had led France to victory in the Hundred Years’ War.

Whether they were contemporaries or not, Gilles de Rais would certainly know more about Edward the Black Prince than Joachim Murat.

“I want to train,”

Lee Shin said to Gremory upon his return.

“Understood. I’ll send you to the battlefield. Which one would you prefer?”

“The First Battlefield—Asteia, please.”

“Got it.”

Gremory teleported Lee Shin to the battlefield.

Upon arriving at the First Battlefield—Asteia, Lee Shin immediately summoned his Apostle, Gilles de Rais.

“You summoned me, Contractor.”

Gilles de Rais greeted him respectfully.

Skipping the formalities, Lee Shin went straight to the question.

“Do you know of Edward the Black Prince?”

“The Black Prince?”

Gilles de Rais looked momentarily puzzled, then asked in return,

“Are you referring to Edward of Woodstock, the crown prince of Edward III?”

“Yes.”

“So he is now called the Black Prince. I had heard that he always wore black armor.”

The nickname “Black Prince” was coined in the 16th century. Gilles de Rais, a man of the 15th century, wouldn’t have known it.

“He was the nemesis and terror of France. Of course I know of him. So he is your opponent this time.”

“That’s right.”

Lee Shin gave him a rough summary of Edward of Woodstock.

After listening, Gilles de Rais spoke up.

“The Battles of Crécy and Poitiers can’t simply be attributed to the power of the longbow.”

As an elite military officer, Gilles de Rais possessed far broader knowledge than Joachim Murat.

“Both battles were fought in terrain highly advantageous for defense. Positioned on sloped hills, they wore out the French forces who had to climb uphill and prevented them from mounting a proper attack.”

Gilles de Rais continued his explanation:

Edward the Black Prince, positioned on the hilltop, arranged his troops in an inverted V formation. Infantry and cavalry in the center, longbowmen on both flanks.

In front of the archers positioned on both wings, obstacles such as stakes and pits were installed to prevent enemy cavalry from charging.

As a result, the French medium cavalry, unable to reach the longbowmen hidden behind the obstacles, had no choice but to change their target to the infantry in the center.

The outcome was that they walked straight into the V-formation and were pelted from all directions by a barrage of arrows from the longbowmen.

Even worse, the French repeated this ineffective charge multiple times, leading to a disgraceful and crushing defeat.

“The command system was also in complete disarray. The Genoese mercenaries, who had been using crossbows to counter the longbowmen, momentarily retreated to fetch shields to block the arrows, but the cavalry mistook it for a retreat and attacked them, executing them on the spot.”

“……”

“The units got in each other’s way, and there was absolutely no coordination between the military branches. It was impossible not to lose. In that regard, Crown Prince Edward demonstrated excellent command ability by effectively coordinating longbowmen, infantry, and knights.”

“Coordination, huh……”

The previous opponent, Sanada Masayuki, had shown excellent troop management, but he hadn’t considered the aspect of unit ‘combination.’

Though he had shown very advanced tactics and troop management, he still lacked the skill to create powerful effects by combining a more diverse range of units.

But it seemed that the Black Prince Edward, at the very least, was skilled in such combinations.

“What are his weaknesses, then?”

“He is vulnerable in politics and resource management. He squandered money like water, placing a burden on the people through taxes, and provoked resistance throughout France with unnecessary massacres.”

In addition, the massive cost of the countless wars he fought also became a major problem.

“Still, he’ll probably fight desperately, so you must be careful.”

“Desperately?”

“Like me, he was also in Hell before being chosen as a Contractor. In such cases, the contract is completely one-sided in favor of the Demon Lord, and the Contractor has no protective clauses. If his performance is poor, he’ll be discarded without hesitation.”

That was exactly what had happened to Gilles de Rais.

He had been thrown back into Hell and then recruited again as an Apostle by Lee Shin.

‘Having already lost once and fallen several ranks in the hierarchy, he must be mentally cornered as well.’

Should he lose again, even his position as a Contractor could be in jeopardy, so the Black Prince Edward was likely to come at him with all he had.

His style was most likely focused on defensive tactics.

Securing terrain favorable for defense, building defensive lines, and then gathering a large force for a decisive battle—this was his typical strategy.

Anticipating this, Lee Shin began devising a counter-strategy.

“You take command of the elves.”

“Understood.”

For now, they began the mock battle that way.

Since Gilles de Rais’s main race was monsters, he was naturally unskilled at commanding elves.

However, true to his reputation as a genius elite commander, he quickly adapted to the characteristics of the elves.

After conducting a few more mock battles, Gilles de Rais proposed a new opinion.

“Focusing on defense early on is not an efficient strategy against humans. Even though his tactics are defensive, at his core he was a very aggressive monarch.”

“That’s a valid point.”

Lee Shin agreed.

The reason he had drawn out the battle with defensive tactics and then used massed troops to finish it was likely because his opponent had been Joachin Murat.

Unlike Joachin Murat’s orcs, humans were very weak early on.

Leaving humans alone while only defending would be inefficient.

The Black Prince Edward couldn’t possibly be unaware of that.

After thinking for a while, Lee Shin spoke up.

“In that case, there is something worth considering.”

He recalled a powerful pressuring strategy used by humanity in Space Craft.

High-speed tanks that laid down mobile turrets with overwhelming firepower and planted mines.

The humans of Space Craft, specialized in defense, would use these as weapons to build a defensive line right in front of the enemy’s base in the early or mid-game, locking them in and applying tremendous pressure.

It was possible the Black Prince Edward would attempt a similar strategy.

“Yes, let’s give it a try.”

Following Lee Shin’s words, Gilles de Rais executed a rapid-pressure strategy.

After a few trials, it became clear that there was no better strategy for elves when facing humans.

Elves had fast movement speed, making them good at expanding quickly from the start. Though they had low HP, they specialized in long-range attacks, and with obstacles set up in front, they were extremely effective defensively.

Of course, as time passed, humans would eventually bring out catapults with very long range.

Attacking from afar with catapults could break the opponent’s defensive line effortlessly.

But if the humans were subjected to suffocating pressure before those catapults came out, the situation would become dire and potentially irreversible for them.

Lee Shin was beginning to see what kind of strategy the Black Prince Edward might use.

His guess could be wrong, but in Lee Shin’s view, the most difficult strategy for elves to deal with when facing humans was early-game pressure.

If it wasn’t that, he was confident he could win with tactical improvisation no matter what strategy was used.

The training proceeded smoothly.

As the one being challenged, Lee Shin was allowed to choose the battlefield, which made practice even easier.

Once preparations were complete, at last, two guests arrived at Gremory’s palace.

They were the Demon Lord Dekarabia, ranked 69th in the hierarchy—

And his Contractor, Edward of Woodstock.