Leave a comment

–––Tannux’s viewpoint

“Dispatch the pegasus and wyvern units! The enemy is attacking from the air!”

The soldiers that were scrambling around senselessly seemed to recover some semblance of reason as they all headed towards the stables. Lights were being lit all over the palace, with both torches and magic, which slowly began to illuminate the sky as well as the palace.

“Look up! There they are!”

A knight shouted and pointed to the sky. I followed that direction and spotted a woman in the air with a staff in her hand.

That is not Lapis?! The woman looks completely different from how I remember Lapis, so that must mean there is someone else who knows how to use Flight Magic.

“Stop that, you idiots!”

I noticed a soldier next to me had prepared his bow to shoot an arrow at the woman, and then saw that many other soldiers nearby were doing the same, so I quickly tried to stop them. But I was a second too late, and countless arrows whistled as they were shot into the sky. A single woman in the sky was a smaller target than a pegasus or a wyvern, so the arrows did not even get close enough to graze against her. The arrows simply drew an arc before falling back to the ground.

“Woah!”
“Ghah?!”

Dodging falling arrows is a difficult task even with daylight, so the soldiers who were not paying attention quickly fell to friendly fire without recourse. It was such a shameful sight even considering we were under attack!

“Don’t fire towards our allies! Just focus on putting out the fire!”
“Y-yessir!”
“Also carry the wounded into the palace! Make sure they get treated soon! Leave the enemy to the pegasus and wyvern units!”

The aerial attacks continued. But that did not mean we were completely helpless. Our magician troops were the first to respond, launching spells towards the sky. Unlike arrows, magic would just vanish after missing a target, or continue flying endlessly until it hit an obstacle. It was the perfect tool to deter an aerial attack.

It seemed like the two attackers finally began fearing our retaliation. The frequency of their attacks began to fall. At the same time, the pegasus and wyverns had taken to the sky flapping their enormous wings. Meanwhile the magicians stopped attacking, out of fear of hitting their allies in the sky. An aerial battle was going to be unavoidable now, though I still felt unsure. Lapis would probably be able to fight back easily. She was also faster than the wyverns, and she was smaller than a pegasus, so hitting her with a sword was going to be tricky, and trying to use magic could easily hit allies. Yet…

“Look! They’re going away!”
“We did it! We drove them off!”
“Our pegasus units really are the best!”
“The wyverns too!”

Lapis and the other attacker did not even attempt to engage in combat, flying towards the south. Our allies in the sky attempted to chase after them, but the two were too fast. They were out of sight in an instant, and all we had left were soldiers running tirelessly to put off the fires.

“Have you counted how many got wounded?!”
“There were no deaths from the fire! At most some soldiers got light burns, I feel like the arrows caused a lot more damage!”

I asked one of my subordinates nearby, and he quickly gave that answer. That was odd. If Lapis went all out and used her magic indiscriminately, I would not be surprised to hear we had piles of corpses numbering more than a hundred.

“So…that wasn’t a full-out attack then..?”

If all they wanted was to fire a warning shot, it would explain everything. It was easy enough for them to do this, and they could easily attack even harder… I almost felt like I could hear them taunting us.

I felt like that was more a warning for Stied rather than the soldiers. Goddamnit…if Stied was their target, this was no warning shot, they were trying to rile him up even more. That was a low blow, directly attacking Stied’s hiding place to drive him crazy. Once he heard how much damage they caused, the prince was definitely going to rush to the frontlines. They had sullied his home, the palace that represented his authority. Stied would never listen to reason after that.

I could easily imagine what I would be told tomorrow, so I just sighed in defeat.

–––Lapis’ viewpoint

“I think we’ve shaken all of them off.”
“Yeah, I can’t see them after us anymore.”

Ciel and I flew to the south while avoiding the enemy’s aerial forces. We were much faster than any of them, so we could leave them behind even if we flew in a straight line. Less than five minutes passed before we lost sight of them. There was a chance they would continue flying in this direction trying to catch up, but they had left so hastily I doubted they had enough resources for a long chase.

“Still, are you sure that was a good idea?”
“Well, we did avoid killing anyone. I don’t mind getting rid of some black knights, but I hate the idea of innocent soldiers dying.”

Once we defeated Stied and either Magna or Luvias took the throne, those soldiers would have to become our allies. We had to avoid killing any of them needlessly. Though if our provocation worked, Stied was likely to mobilize his entire army. Some sacrifices would be unavoidable once that happened.

“Should we go back then, Lapis?”
“Let me think… Ideally I’d like to go for another round, but they’re probably way more careful now, and if we take too long we won’t be able to prepare to fight back against his army. We should go back.”
“Roger that.”

Satisfied with our current results, we headed back to Surfour at the same speed as when we left.

§　§　§

“We’ve already dispatched our scouts and spies. We need to put any information provided by them to good use, even when split into four armies. I’m letting the commander of each army have full control of their men, but remember we’re merely bait to disperse the enemy.”

Preparations to move out were already underway when we reached Surfour. We had managed to amass an army of around six thousand soldiers, but we could not afford to use all of them for our plan. If everyone went out, the provisions like food and water needed for each army would increase, which also meant more horses and carriages.

Each one of the four armies would have a thousand members, another thousand would be ready to support us afterwards, while the remaining thousand would remain in Surfour to defend the city and serve as messengers between the four armies. None of the various groups was large enough considering the size of our enemy, but it would be enough to react quickly to surprise attacks or changes in plans, and speed was key for our success.

There were four of us that would become Stied’s targets, so we would go together with the various armies as well. The enemy had no way of knowing that, so our collaborators in the capital were hard at work leaking that information.

“This is the man leading your army, Master.”
“Nice to meet you, Lapis. I’m Lyde, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”

I bowed after greeting the knight Luvias introduced to me. He seemed to be around thirty years old, which was the best age for a man in the army, and he was filled with energy and ambition.

Apparently he used to be a baron of a nearby territory to Surfour. His territory was not particularly important, but he was chosen as commander because of his personal history. He was one of the rare cases of an adventurer that was recognized by the king for his efforts and awarded a place amongst nobility. By the end of his career as an adventurer, his rank was Gold. He was rather famous back in the day, even without having the title of Dragon Slayer.

He was no slouch with a sword, and even though his skills were self-taught, he could easily hold his ground against other knights. After testing him for a bit, I felt like he would be able to fend off black knights as well.

“Ideally I wanted to fight in the frontlines myself, but there was no one else suited for this position so I had to accept this position.”
“Do you have any experience leading an army?”
“I give orders to the soldiers in my territory daily, though this is the first time I’m in charge of a thousand men. But that’s why I’ve been assigned more aides than the other commanders.”
“I see…”

I hated to admit it, but our armies felt like they were a bit all over the place. I was afraid they would all run away the moment things went south. But maybe that was why people like Lyde had been picked as leaders. He was a simple man, so rather than standing all important behind everyone else merely giving orders, he wanted to stand in the front inspiring everyone else to keep fighting. In a way, he was a perfect fit.

“I’ll handle the first strike, so you can just follow after me with the army.”
“That’d be a great help. You’re the strongest member we have after all.”

Other nobles might have scowled hearing my suggestion, but Lyde accepted it with a gracious smile. He did not worry about pride and accepted I was strong and placed all his trust on me. It felt liberating interacting with him.

“Well Master, we’ll be heading out first.”
“Okay, don’t push yourself too hard, Luvias.”
“Same to you. Good luck.”

All four armies were ready to depart, but we decided to leave one at a time, heading to our designated locations one after another. I watched the marching soldiers, they all looked nervous. They knew that if just one thing went wrong, they might not come back alive, so I could not blame them.

“Lapis, we should get ready too.”
“Yes, you’re right.”

I put on the sectioned armor prepared for me, and I climbed on a horse. An instant later I felt like everyone around me sighed at the same time. I could tell they were all looking at me, but I decided to ignore that and made my horse move forward. It felt weird feeling this way, but I knew that my current attire and appearance made me look like a legendary valkyrie ready for battle. A beautiful appearance and unmatched power. The soldier’s morale seemed to increase simply by having me on their side.

This was the first time I realized that looking this way could be a valuable asset when fighting alongside others. I did not mind that as long as they were willing to put in more effort because of me. It was not time to think about such trivial matters though, so I focused on our current battle again.