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It was the day of the war.

On the day before, the king and his aides had announced the deployment of the soldiers. The Mephilad Army had already been stationed and was standing by at 12 am, midnight.

They had no idea when or from where the attack would come. Consequently, the 15’000 soldiers had been deployed in a way, so they could respond, no matter where the attack came from.

The Mephilad royal capital had large gates in the east, west, north, and south, which could be used to exit or enter the city. The soldiers were thus deployed in places to surround and defend the royal capital, since Mephilad was clearly their enemies aim.

They fought to protect the citizens, so all would be lost, should the enemy enter the royal capital.

Naturally, this country’s higher ups and the dignitaries from foreign countries were standing by in the castle. However, for some reason 4 of them decided to participate in the war; the king, the knight commander, the minister and the archbishop. The others had tried to stop them, but no one proved able to control them.

The deployment of the soldiers was as follows:

South gate
-The SSS-Ranker Gilmars leading the adventurers of the Peace of Hercules, and a mixed army from the kingdom.

West gate
-The SSS-Ranker Lastman leading a group of people who’d abolished slavery in the kingdom (including Gabaina, Lahand and Bacchus), plus a knight squadron.

East gate
-The SSS-Ranker Parasuna leading armed forces.

North gate
-The king’s army, plus Alim and Mika.
-The king, minister, knight commander and archbishop as part of the king’s army.

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There were approximately 15’000 fighters in total and the people in charge of logistical support numbered close to 3000.

Only adventurers of C-Rank or higher participated in the war, those of D-Rank or lower worked in logistics. Further, the adventurers who didn’t take part this time, were tasked to guard and defend the citizens in the city.

The statues Alim had created were placed in the east, west, north, south and the center of the city, and bases were established, surrounding them.

All who participated in the war held some doubts initially.
First of all, in relation to the hero.

Her being a 12-year-old girl defied anyone’s understanding. Now however, thanks to Alim making a show of her true power by strengthening the adventurers, soldiers, and knights, this was no longer a problem.

Moreover, everyone of S-Rank or higher participated in this war.

While the concerns about the hero had been dispelled, they had some other worries. What were those?

To make it short, the problem lay in their information about their enemies, the demons, relying solely on ancient literature. What sort of beings were the demons and what attacks would they use? Only some knew about those details from commonly sold biographies.¹　

Still, during the hero proclamation, the king had specified the demon’s weak point: The light element. He made it known that any kind of attack with the light attribute would be highly effective. Furthermore, the bracelets distributed by Alim automatically bestowed the light attribute onto attacks.

This raised the adventurers’ motivation, too.

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The appointed day, 12 o’clock in the night.

I brought out Mika, who I had temporarily moved to the Magic Room, next to other people who’d also participate in the war.

Mika and I had been assigned to the south gate. There were no SSS-Rankers here. Moreover, the king and the others would fight in this place, too.

Honestly, it’ll probably be hard to fight the demon god while protecting them.

“Hrm… I’ll show you that have yet to lose my touch!” the king said, full of confidence.

I wonder, does he realize he’s also a target for the demons?

For the time being, I entrusted the still meditating Mika to the knight commander and took a look at the people who’d fight together with us to protect the north gate.

“Oh, wow!? That was Alim!”
“Eh, seriously?”
“Huh, I can’t help but admire her.”

Several people stopped working on the base and gathered around me.

The gender ration is about 50/50… I guess?

“Everyone! Let’s do our best!” I exclaimed.

I wanted to encourage the people here with some words and a flirtatious gesture with upturned eyes.²　

“Oh… I’m healed… Just by seeing this girl, I can go all out.”
“Even though you’re the hero, don’t strain yourself! When it gets dangerous, please run away, won’t you?”
“So cute… So cute…”
“Thank you for the bracelets and potions.”

I consented to a group of women patting my head and prodding my cheeks. Then, I evaded being patted by a group of men by flicking their hands away with a high five, when they were about to touch me.

You see, I’m opposed to men patting my head… Since I’m a girl when I’m Alim… no? If they were handsome men like Mr. Tuhl, Mr. Ruin and Mr. Uruto, I wouldn’t mind it, but…

After that, they all gave me tons of sweets. Since I never refused any sweets until now, before I knew it, they’d apparently concluded I love them.

I wouldn’t say that I have a “take everything that’s free” mentality.³

I joked around with all the soldiers for an hour. Then I got awfully tired and went back to the king’s side.
To take a nap.

“Mr. Knight Commander… I’m going to take short rest…”
“…Wait, you are the most important person in this war, Alim. It would be a problem, if the need for sleep impedes you while fighting. Rest at your leisure. Should the enemy arrive during that time, I will wake you.”
“Oh, yes, please… do~…”

I laid out a simple bed for outdoors use next to the meditating Mika, and crawled in. She was still gathering magic power.

Once this war ends, let’s definitely go on a date. Yeah.

With these thoughts, I fell asleep.

1. This is either a typo and is meant to say, that those biographies are not commonly sold, literacy among the fighters is low, or books are simply too expensive for normal people.
2. This may be wrong and instead mean something like “I just wanted to act in a calculating manner to encourage them with some words and a gesture with upturned eyes”.
3. The fact he crafted an insane number of bags, just so he wouldn’t have to leave anything behind during his first dungeon spree, says otherwise.