Treasure-Stealing Ditter
“Alright, this is gonna be a game of treasure-stealing ditter!” Rauffen announced. “We’ve been playing nothing but speed ditter for a while now, so I’m pretty pumped. Back when I was young...”
Rauffen had evidently deemed our walk to the knight building the perfect opportunity to launch into a speech. He really was excited about this, and from what I could tell, he wasn’t invested in Dunkelfelger winning at all—he just wanted to enjoy a good game of ditter. Despite seeming like something of a meathead, he was ultimately the dormitory supervisor of a greater duchy, so manipulating events in his favor like this was probably rather common. Or maybe he hadn’t even considered the idea that Dunkelfelger might lose.
While I was thoughtfully watching Rauffen, Hirschur gave a small shrug. “It is quite clear that Rauffen is dying to play ditter with you, the infamous disciple of the great Ferdinand,” she commented. “He was stunned to see you so frail in the Farthest Hall, but with treasure-stealing ditter, you can show your talents as a tactician. I imagine he hopes to see whether Ehrenfest will pose a threat at this year’s Interduchy Tournament.”
Rauffen was intensely passionate about the ditter played during the Interduchy Tournament, so it made sense that my reputation had caught his interest.
“It sounds to me like Professor Rauffen’s intentions here are far removed from the actual problem at hand,” I observed.
“That is correct. I imagine he does not care in the least whether Lord Lestilaut becomes those magic tools’ new master; his priority is seeing how strong Ehrenfest is, and in turn, how strong you are. There are only a few students who know your mana compression method in the Academy this year, but the immense growth they have displayed on top of our duchy’s stunning written grades has caused quite a stir among the professors.”
I could feel all the looks the Ehrenfest knights were giving me, and their gazes were agony. I couldn’t deny that I’d given everyone a slight push and a bit of an incentive, but their high grades were ultimately the result of their own efforts—they barely had anything to do with me at all. What I was more concerned about was Rauffen enthusiastically demanding a rematch after we beat him.
“I get the feeling that Professor Rauffen will start being quite a pain in the neck if we win this. Should we lose on purpose?” I asked.
“Lady Rozemyne! What are you saying?!” Hirschur shouted. “You have to win! Lord Lestilaut will steal Schwartz and Weiss away otherwise!”
Oof. I see Professor Hirschur gets just as heated when her research is involved.
The goal here was to win, but I didn’t want to win in a way that stood out too much. We had a blessing up our sleeves, but the knights hadn’t yet formed anything resembling a proper battle strategy. Would it really be that easy for us to win a game like treasure-stealing ditter, which was all about outwitting your opponent and catching them by surprise?
Hm... A game about outwitting one’s opponents, huh? No wonder Ferdinand dominated it.
I desperately searched my memories to see if any of the tactics mentioned in Ferdinand’s reference documents would work here. I was still lost in thought by the time we reached the stadium.
It’s so huge!
We were standing in a circular stadium about as big as a baseball field, designed for highbeasts to be flown around inside. I was initially convinced this was an open-air venue—a cloudy gray sky stretched out overhead, and motes of snow floated down toward us—but I couldn’t actually feel any wind, and it looked as though the snow was hitting against a transparent ceiling of some kind.
A hallway had taken us directly from the main building to the stadium, leading to an area that I assumed was where the audience would normally gather. That was just a guess on my part, however—unless one was standing at the very front, it certainly wouldn’t be the most convenient place to watch the game from, since the seating wasn’t sloped or arranged in steps as I was used to. The actual playing field was much lower than where we currently were, and I could see that there were large circles drawn here and there.
Rauffen stopped and turned around. He looked over the apprentice knights from both duchies, his expression lively, before opening his mouth to speak. “I’m gonna explain treasure-stealing ditter now. Pay close attention, since it’s not the same as the ditter you spend most of your time practicing.”
According to this explanation, teams had to first and foremost hunt the feybeast that would serve as their treasure. Defenders would need to weaken the feybeast for their own safety, but not so much that the feybeast could easily be stolen by the attackers. A team was considered defeated when its feybeast died, so it was crucial to master the art of weakening feybeasts just enough that they were manageable.
Each team would take the captured feybeast serving as its treasure back into its territory. From there, one had to repel attacks and protect their treasure while simultaneously invading enemy territories to either defeat or steal others’ feybeasts.
“Right. Let’s decide on the team size, based on whichever duchy has fewer knights. Ehrenfest, how many do you have?” Rauffen asked.
“Twenty-five,” Cornelius replied in an instant. Rauffen nodded in response and then instructed Dunkelfelger to select twenty-five knights.
“This is already unfair,” I muttered. “Dunkelfelger are getting to pick their best players. We don’t have that luxury, since we’re playing with everyone we have.”
Cornelius shrugged. “The same method is used in the Interduchy Tournament; that’s why lesser duchies with fewer people rarely ever win. Still, there’s a downside to them picking their best people—it means the apprentices of greater duchies who never get chosen don’t ever get a chance to prove themselves in the Royal Academy. It’s hard to say which situation is worse.”
Excellent grades were naturally important, but so was one’s performance in the Interduchy Tournament—not only did it have a huge influence on who the Sovereignty selected to join them, but it also impacted what job one was given back at home upon coming of age. Students who weren’t even given the opportunity to demonstrate their worth were in hot water without a doubt.
“Next, we’ll decide territories,” Rauffen said. “In actual treasure-stealing ditter, each team is positioned around its respective dormitory, but we can just divide the stadium into halves for this. The second and fourth feybeast areas can be your territories. Take your feybeasts there.”
Rauffen pointed at the circles on either end of the stadium. From what I understood, these circles were important for when feybeasts were created during normal practice. They also served as magic circles—when a hunted feybeast touched one, it would no longer be able to leave the area.
“We’ll also implement a time limit for this game,” Rauffen continued. “Dunkelfelger wins if they can kill or steal Ehrenfest’s feybeast within the allotted period. Ehrenfest wins if they can outlast the time limit, or if they manage to kill or steal Dunkelfelger’s feybeast. Naturally, either team will lose if they accidentally kill their own feybeast.”
Feybeasts turned into feystones when they were killed, and a dead feybeast would instantly settle the match. Victory could also be secured by capturing the enemy’s feybeast alive, which involved taking it from their territory into one’s own, but this was so unnecessarily hard to accomplish that nobody even bothered to attempt it.
“That’s everything. Any questions?” Rauffen asked, looking over the knights.
I shot my hand up. “Professor Rauffen, can we use feystones and magic tools when playing ditter? Could we use a feystone to make a barrier, for instance?”
“Absolutely. Back in the old games of treasure-stealing ditter where all the duchies played at once, using magic tools was par for the course. Games sometimes lasted long enough that teams needed to rely on rejuvenation potions, especially if someone got hurt.”
“I see. Thank you ever so much.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if a certain High Priest hid tons of magic tools all over himself.
I pressed a hand against the leather pouch hanging from my waist, confirming that there were rejuvenation potions and feystones inside. It was at that moment that Rauffen suddenly looked up, as if coming to a sudden realization.
“Wait... Hold on. Are you planning to play too?! You’re a first-year archduke candidate—not even an apprentice knight! Have you got a death wish or something?!”
Those from Ehrenfest had likewise not expected me to participate. I heard a variety of cries telling me it was too dangerous, that I should simply sit out and watch, and that fighting was best left to the knights.
“This is a battle for Schwartz and Weiss; it would be unthinkable for their master not to get involved,” I said.
“Oho! I admire your spirit!” Rauffen declared. “You should play too, Lord Lestilaut!”
Lestilaut glared at me angrily. It seemed that he had intended to spectate the match rather than actually take part, but my own involvement was forcing his hand.
“Alright. The game will begin when the next bell rings,” Rauffen said. “I’d recommend you spend the time until then working on a plan.”
It was decided that Ehrenfest would use the circle closer to where we currently stood, while Dunkelfelger would use one at the far end of the stadium. Without missing a beat, Dunkelfelger’s knights jumped onto their highbeasts and flew to their territory. Once they were gone, Cornelius scolded me for my recklessness, and then we began our strategy meeting.
Games of treasure-stealing ditter began with each team hunting its chosen feybeast, so the first matter to discuss was naturally which feybeast we were going to hunt. Weaker feybeasts were easier to capture but could also be eliminated in an instant by the opposing team, whereas stronger feybeasts were more resilient but harder to capture and more likely to attack those in the team busy defending it.
“We should hunt a relatively weak feybeast for this game,” I said.
“How weak, exactly?” Leonore asked, tilting her head. Strength was such an abstract concept that I struggled to find the right words, but I tried to describe what I was looking for as precisely as I could.
“Weak enough that it will not pose much of a threat once restricted with bands of light from a schtappe, but not so weak that it might die while being bound. The smaller, the better too.”
“But why? Dunkelfelger will easily kill a feybeast that weak!” Traugott protested, but I dismissed his argument with a wave of my hand.
“There’s nothing to be concerned about. Once the feybeast is bound and thrown into my highbeast, our opponent will struggle to even lay a hand on it,” I explained.
The inside of my highbeast was filled with mana, and Ferdinand had said that I would be safe as long as I was inside. Attackers couldn’t break Lessy without overwhelming my mana with their own, and I wasn’t too worried about that; I doubted there were many apprentice knights in the Royal Academy who could overwhelm the mana of an archduke candidate with mana as compressed as mine.
The apprentice knights widened their eyes in surprise after hearing my plan.
“That’s just...” Cornelius trailed off.
“Is it not cowardly for us to hide our feybeast somewhere they cannot attack it?” Traugott asked.
“Why would it be?” I retorted. “Professor Rauffen said we have to keep the feybeast within our circle, but he said nothing about highbeasts being forbidden from use.”
“Of course they’re not forbidden! Fighting on highbeasts is a fundamental part of ditter!” Traugott declared. It was precisely for the reason he had stated that nobody could complain about me hiding the treasure within my own highbeast.
“I will simply be riding my highbeast. There won’t be any problems as long as I stay within our territory, correct?” I asked, but my question was met with nothing but dazed stares from the apprentice knights. “What is the problem with giving the treasure absolute protection? The rules of the game state only that we must protect the feybeast and keep it alive. Furthermore, Dunkelfelger may use the same strategy on us.”
“Absolutely not. No normal person would think to use their highbeast to store a feybeast,” Cornelius shot back. He had a point there, especially considering that the apprentice knights didn’t even have drivable highbeasts to begin with.
“You are all acting as though storing our treasure in my highbeast will make it invincible, but that is absolutely not the case,” I argued. “There are ways Dunkelfelger can still succeed; we are simply relying on the situation being so abnormal that they struggle to realize them.”
I gazed across the knights as they continued to blink in surprise, trying to encourage them to think on their own. They needed to protect my highbeast with its potential weak points in mind, but they were evidently struggling enough that I decided to provide a hint.
“Angelica, do you recall our victory conditions?”
“Defend our feybeast until time runs out, or defeat our opponent’s feybeast. Was there something else...?”
Cornelius raised his head, seeming to have had a sudden epiphany. “Or steal our opponent’s feybeast,” he added. “Are you warning us that they might attempt to steal your highbeast with the feybeast inside?”
“Exactly. It is entirely probable that they will capture my highbeast the same way it was captured two years ago, though it is an abnormal enough approach that I am unsure they will realize it straight away.”
“The moment they do though, you yourself are going to be in danger,” Cornelius said with a pained expression.
“Regardless of whether we win or lose, I will be safe as long as I remain in my highbeast. Even during the incident, I would have most likely been safe had I stayed inside Lessy and not tried to get out.”
“Still. I do not wish to put you in danger.”
I couldn’t help but sigh at Cornelius’s obstinacy. “The very reason for strategizing is to outwit one’s opponent and catch them off guard. A head-on engagement with no greater plan is no fight at all. Dunkelfelger already has a strength advantage, since they were able to choose their knights; the only way for us to even the playing field is by outwitting them. Exploit absolutely every weakness you can without restraint, surprise them time and time again, lay traps for them to walk into, and—ultimately—secure the best possible result for yourselves. You will never become as cold and calculating as Ferdinand if you only ever attack your opponents head-on without any trickery.”
It was at that moment that I had my own mini revelation. “Hm... Actually, never mind. It just occurred to me that we do not need more cold, calculating individuals,” I said, backpedaling at once. I knew deep down that nothing at all good would come from more people I knew acting like Ferdinand.
Cornelius chuckled. “Judging by the plots you are cooking up here, you are taking more influence from Lord Ferdinand than anyone,” he observed. The surrounding apprentice knights all nodded in agreement.
Wait, what...? Am I that evil now?
“To summarize, Lady Rozemyne: you want to move the treasure to as secure of a location as possible while we focus on defense?”
“I believe that would be wise.”
If we could win without ever having to go on the offensive, then that was unequivocally the best option. The apprentice knights here also seemed to lack any ideas more complex than charging together in a group to win by force, so this would be good defensive practice for them.
“You are so used to playing speed ditter that you do not have much experience playing defensively, correct? Guard knights who can only fight on the offensive simply will not do,” I warned. My eyes rested on Angelica and Traugott in particular—they pretty much embodied the concept of “offense is the best defense.”
“Judging from the prior ditter games I have studied, Dunkelfelger excels at using coordinated teamwork to defeat their enemies with swift, targeted blows,” I explained. “They are likely to heavily prioritize offensive maneuvers here, especially considering the time limit. We will win if our defense lasts, so they are going to be desperate to break through at all costs.”
“I agree,” Cornelius said.
“Their attacks will intensify as time decreases. This is when their defense will be at its weakest, and it is then that we will attack. You need only hold out until then.”
Most of the apprentice knights were nodding along in agreement... but not Traugott. On the contrary, he had finally lost his patience.
“Focusing on defense is not how the game is meant to be played. It is not real ditter. I want to go all out and attack with everything I have!”
It seemed that Traugott was so used to playing speed-focused ditter, which was all about killing feybeasts as quickly as possible, that he lacked the patience to remain on the defensive. I couldn’t deny that I was effectively pulling the rug out from under the apprentice knights, so I decided it might be wise to give them some way to blow off steam.
“Traugott. If you can remain patient, I will give you an opportunity to go all out.”
“Lady Rozemyne, please give me the same opportunity! I want to fight the feybeast too!” Angelica exclaimed not even a moment later. She was just as eager to show off.
“Very well, then. I shall make preparations for you also. Cornelius, please support them both.”
“...Understood,” Cornelius replied. He looked at the two knights already pumping themselves up, and in an instant his expression became tired and withered. He was the only one here who could drag them back to our territory if they ran off.
“If we are to give you such an opportunity, however... I will need someone who is good at throwing weapons,” I said. “Is there anyone here who could throw rocks, or perhaps javelins, into the enemy territory?”
“Yes! Me!” Judithe exclaimed, shooting up her hand. “That’s my specialty! Am I going to get an opportunity to show off too?!”
I gave a brisk nod and decided to take her up on the offer. “Very well, Judithe. I will ask for your help in this. You will need to ride with me in my highbeast.”
“Absolutely!”
I resumed speaking to all the knights. “In this game, we need only protect our treasure, so we shall focus entirely on defense at the start. Here, patience is essential. Think of this as practice for fighting defensively, and focus on blocking the attacks of our opponents. That is not to say you should simply ready shields and wait, however—a good offense does indeed make a good defense, since eliminating foes prevents them from making future attacks. The key is to remain in formation and not rush into enemy territory alone. Fight as one.”
“Yes, ma’am!” the knights replied in unison.
We separated into groups, with some preparing to leave to hunt the feybeast and others remaining behind in our territory. It was not long before fifth bell chimed, signaling for the hunt to begin. Knights from both Ehrenfest and Dunkelfelger wasted no time in taking to the skies on their highbeasts, though Judithe and Leonore were staying with me in our duchy’s territory.
“Lady Rozemyne, do you think we can defeat Dunkelfelger?” Leonore asked quietly, watching as the highbeasts took flight.
“I am approaching this with the intent to win. Do you think we will lose, Leonore?”
“We have never beaten Dunkelfelger before, so I find it hard to imagine us winning this time...”
“You have only ever lost at speed ditter. This is treasure-stealing ditter, and our opponents are equally inexperienced with it. We have a chance to win.”
Worst-case scenario, I could just brute force a victory by encapsulating both myself and the feybeast in Schutzaria’s shield. I had absolutely no intention of allowing us to lose; I just wanted it to seem as though the knights had played a bigger part in our victory, to avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to me.
“The game will start once both teams have brought their feybeasts into their territory, correct?” I asked.
Judithe smiled and then shook her head. “It started when the bell rang. We’re playing it now.”
I glanced around the stadium, stunned. I could see Lestilaut and several apprentice knights hanging around Dunkelfelger’s territory, but they weren’t really doing anything. They merely seemed to be waiting for the feybeasts to be brought back.
“If the game has already started, why are we not attacking each other...?”
“What’s the point in attacking their territory when they don’t yet have a feybeast?”
“Well, could one not theoretically attack the knights as they’re bringing it back?” I asked. They would surely be weary from the fight, they would be traveling with a dangerous feybeast in tow, and their guard would almost certainly be down. It seemed to me like the perfect opportunity.
“Lady Rozemyne, would that not end the match before the competition has even begun?!”
“Judithe, what in the world are you saying? You told me it had already begun barely even a moment ago.”
Leonore blinked in surprise several times. “You are quite right, Lady Rozemyne. That was quite the blind spot,” she said.
As it turned out, the apprentice knights were only experienced with practice games of ditter, during which they waited for the professors to prepare the feybeasts before the starting signal was given. Leonore noted that the knights had never played a game of treasure-stealing ditter that included the feybeast-hunting stage, and so it hadn’t occurred to them that they could act so soon.
“The notes Cornelius received from Lord Eckhart about ditter strategy did mention how to stay on guard during the feybeast-hunting segment. In short, it must be normal in treasure-stealing ditter to disrupt one’s opponent while they are hunting their feybeast and attempting to bring it back to their territory,” Leonore said.
Judithe listened silently, her head tilted in confusion.
“Lady Rozemyne, let us rethink our plans,” Leonore continued, already considering ways to strike the enemy territory. “We cannot attack now as we do not have enough knights, but shall we attack the moment they return?”
“I would rather attack their camp now, but I suppose that would run the risk of us being caught in a pincer movement by their returning knights.”
“Indeed. Our combat potential is lower than theirs, and they have no doubt left some of their best knights behind,” Leonore agreed. It would be much too risky to attack them now considering that we didn’t know when their knights would return from hunting their feybeast.
“Rather than attacking their feybeast, I suggest we launch an all-out surprise attack on Dunkelfelger’s returning knights. We can secure an early victory if we kill the feybeast there,” I proposed. We had a much higher chance of success launching a surprise attack on the tired knights lugging back their treasure than we did attacking their empty territory.
“What happens if we don’t manage to kill it though?” Judithe asked, worried.
Leonore smiled gently. “Nothing at all. We will simply return to prioritizing defense as we agreed during our strategy meeting.”
The knights from Ehrenfest were the first to return, which came as no surprise given that we had decided to hunt a fairly weak feybeast. They had a fetze—the evolution of a zantze—bound with bands of light.
“Are you lot really settling for a tiny feybeast like that as your treasure?” jeered the apprentice knights from Dunkelfelger who had stayed behind in their territory. “A few measly mana ripples could probably kill that thing.”
While watching our opponents out of the corner of my eye, I produced Lessy and made him roughly the size of a family car. I tossed the bound fetze onto the back seat before shutting the door.
Okay. Perfect.
“Wh-What the...?! Is that her infamous highbeast?!” came shocked cries from the enemy camp. I turned my attention from them to my own knights, who were all trying to avoid making eye contact with their surprised opponents, unwilling to confirm that this was indeed their leader’s highbeast.
“There has been a change of plan, everyone—we will now be launching a full-on surprise attack when the enemy returns with their feybeast,” I said. Leonore then took a brief moment to describe what Eckhart had written in his notes.
“In other words, we failed to grasp how to properly play treasure-stealing ditter.”
“Does this mean we can go all out?” Angelica asked.
I nodded. “Killing the feybeast is of course our goal, but I want you to fly high into the air before descending on the enemy’s territory to prevent them from dispersing. Make sure you have a clear path behind you so that you can return at once if the surprise attack fails.”
With that, we divided into offensive and defensive groups; we needed at least some defense to counter a potential attack on our own territory during our raid. Everyone then changed their schtappes into weapons and climbed onto their highbeasts, pretending to take defensive stances while in reality preparing to attack.
“Dunkelfelger might not even falter from our surprise attack, so do not let your guards down under any circumstances,” Cornelius said. It was a strict warning to Traugott, who, despite having said that he understood, really did not look as though he understood at all.
“Angelica. Traugott. You must follow Cornelius’s orders without hesitation,” I said, fixing them both with firm glares. “Return to our territory as soon as he tells you to. Should either of you prove unable to do as instructed, consider this the last ditter game you will ever play.”
The two exchanged looks, and then they nodded.
Dunkelfelger appeared to have chosen what was at least theoretically considered the best feybeast for this particular game. Even from a distance, I could see its large shape floundering within a net of light.
“Not yet,” I said. “Wait until they get closer.”
The knights returning with their treasure steadily descended to cheers of approval from their teammates. “A schnefeld!” one apprentice cried. “Good job! Perfect!”
Schnefelds seemed to be regarded as the easiest feybeast to capture in treasure-stealing ditter. They had resilient hides and were relatively docile, at least as far as feybeasts went. From my perspective, they looked somewhat like slightly smaller, rockier hippos.
“...Okay. All their knights are there. We won’t be attacked from behind,” Angelica said, enhancing her sight to count all the knights before turning to look at me.
I preemptively raised my hand, and then—
“Now!”
The surprise attack began.
Cornelius and a power-enhanced Angelica immediately took point. They were using other knights’ highbeasts as stepping stones to jump through the air, saving themselves from having to expend mana on their own highbeasts. Angelica leapt ahead of Cornelius with a long-bladed Stenluke in hand, moving in an arc before plummeting down upon the Dunkelfelger knights transporting their feybeast. Her eyes were on the schnefeld and the schnefeld alone.
“Whoa! What the...?!” came the confused, panicked cries of our enemy. Angelica’s one-woman assault had caught them entirely by surprise, and she ripped apart the net containing the feybeast with her manablade, freeing it from captivity.
“Falling! Backup!” she called, turning in midair after inflicting some degree of damage to the target. Unlike during the kidnapping incident, however, she wasn’t plummeting to her death—she easily produced her highbeast while enhanced, swiftly flew back above the enemies, and then jumped down again, strengthening her attacks with the force of gravity.
“Hyaaah!” Cornelius yelled, striking apprentice after apprentice. His opponents were entirely focused on Angelica’s sudden appearance, which had given him the perfect opening to launch his own sneak attack.
“Leonore, check the enemy’s territory!” I shouted, watching the battle in the sky with narrowed eyes. She replied at once.
“The enemy is destabilized. Several knights guarding the territory are getting on their highbeasts to provide aid.”
“Right! Prepare your bow! Judithe, continue observing the enemy territory!”
“Understood!”
Leonore transformed her schtappe into a bow, nocked a mana arrow, and then glared up at the aerial clash with me. Our plan was to fire a volley that would not only signal our retreat, but also stall any enemies who attempted to chase our fleeing knights and intimidate any others from joining the pursuit.
“Leonore, shoot when you feel it is time to retreat.”
“I will do my best.”
Having entrusted Judithe with watching the enemy territory, I started focusing on the battle as well. Dunkelfelger were stuck trying to transport their feybeast, meaning they needed to leave some knights to protect it. This resulted in them having fewer knights on the attack and made them a far less adaptable force. On top of that, Ehrenfest had the divine protection of Angriff the God of War. We were clearly at an advantage here.
“How is Ehrenfest this strong?!” the knights on the receiving end of our surprise attack sputtered. It seemed they had assumed they would effortlessly seize victory, since their duchy was ranked much higher than ours.
Uh huh. Uh huh. That’s right.
I nodded in satisfaction, appreciating how well my strategy had worked... but Ehrenfest’s dominance did not last.
“Do not falter! Defensive positions! Protect the treasure!” barked an older student among the Dunkelfelger knights—one who was likely used to taking command.
In the blink of an eye, the Dunkelfelger knights organized themselves back into position. Some blocked attacks with shields, others rewove the net used to carry their schnefeld, some launched counterattacks... Each person had a clear grasp on the role they played, so the panic from the surprise attack quickly subsided.
“Half of you, return to our territory with the schnefeld! The rest, keep up the counterattack while gradually moving to rejoin us!” the older student continued.
The knights replied with a crisp “Yes, sir!” as some began making their way back to their territory. Our surprise attack had ultimately been a half success: we had managed to stun Dunkelfelger and disrupt their formation, but they were so well-trained that a single bark from a superior officer had put them right back into place.
I guess they don’t win the Interduchy Tournament every year for nothing.
I had no choice but to applaud our enemy’s excellent teamwork, but also sigh in disappointment at our own. Even I could see that Ehrenfest’s coordination was embarrassingly bad in comparison.
Our teams are like night and day.
My blessing meant that the Ehrenfest knights were stronger than usual, but they were working almost entirely independently of each other. For that reason, the moment Dunkelfelger began hardening their defenses, Ehrenfest stopped doing any real damage at all. Cornelius and the still-enhanced Angelica were going to town, but they were the only two actually having much of an impact. We had a huge potential advantage here, but not the teamwork to properly realize it.
“Lady Rozemyne, the enemies are not coming this way, but more and more of their defenders are leaving to join the attackers as their treasure approaches their territory!” Judithe shouted.
Dunkelfelger were fighting at half strength while they defended their treasure, yet we were still doing barely any damage to them. Once they had the treasure secured and could go all out, they would wipe us out in an instant.
Leonore glanced my way before firing the arrow calling for a retreat. It arced through the air, then exploded noisily above our knights.
“Retreat!” Cornelius ordered, spurring the Ehrenfest knights to immediately start falling back.
“Support them with arrows!” Leonore yelled.
Several more Ehrenfest knights readied their bows and unleashed a volley of mana arrows as both groups returned to their respective territories, clashing slightly in the process. There was one knight, however, who abandoned the concept of coordination entirely to continue his assault. I furrowed my brow in frustration just as Cornelius barked for Traugott to retreat.
Traugott unwillingly rejoined us, looking very annoyed.
The wounded and those lacking mana drank rejuvenation potions to recover. I would have liked to launch a follow-up attack to prevent Dunkelfelger from having the same opportunity to recuperate, but it was hard to imagine Ehrenfest ever having the coordination to accomplish such a feat.
“Our apprentices are weak...” I observed. “I had thought that students in the Royal Academy would show at least a fraction of the coordination I’ve seen from the Knight’s Order, but I see that was a foolish assumption.”
The teamwork the Knight’s Order had shown when hunting the trombe and the Lord of Winter indicated that they at the very least knew what they were doing.
“I truly cannot believe our knights are so unable to cooperate. As much as I would like to blame speed ditter for this, Dunkelfelger has thus far shown excellent teamwork skills. The knight commander has my sympathy; I will not envy him when he has to train this many new recruits from the ground up.”
“What would you know, Lady Rozemyne?!” Traugott shouted. “You didn’t even join the battle!”
“It is because I watched from afar that I can speak with such confidence, Traugott. Consider how much you are throwing our entire command hierarchy into disarray by ignoring an order to retreat.”
Traugott frowned, anger blazing in his eyes. “I saw no point in falling back. I can still go on.”
“Of course you can. And that is important, because the game is not yet over. It would not do for you to tap out this early on.”
“Then let me fight. Don’t shame me with retreat.”
I widened my eyes in surprise, having not expected him to be this much of a concern. I didn’t know what was making him so angry and discontent, but his desperation was making him run in circles.
“As I have said, a fight is more than just blindly charging one’s enemies. Observe your surroundings carefully and—”
“I know that already!”
“I hope for your sake that you do... The enemy will now be taking us seriously. This is where our defensive battle truly begins, and it will be your last opportunity to prove that you are capable of proper teamwork.”
Both sides seemed to finish healing at the same time. We exchanged tense glares, watching each other carefully as Dunkelfelger took on an offensive position and Ehrenfest went on the defensive. Our opponent had no openings—they must have been on guard against another surprise attack—while our formation would most likely break down the second another battle began and Traugott broke away to fight on his own.
Thiiis isn’t good...
Angriff’s blessing wouldn’t be of much use if our formation crumbled; the most it would do was delay our inevitable defeat. My aim had been to give the Ehrenfest knights at least a little experience fighting defensively, but I doubted they would be able to do much better than they had during the surprise attack.
“Judithe. Leonore. To me.”
I jumped into my highbeast with them both—though Judithe climbed into the passenger seat with great trepidation—and took a light-yellow feystone dyed with my mana out from a leather pouch. It had once taken the appearance of an ordinary crystal, but it had since been pared down with a brewing knife to about the size of a piece of candy. I took one of the ultra-nasty rejuvenation potions I had received from Ferdinand and poured a few drops onto the feystone’s surface.
“Judithe, when I give the signal, I want you to hit the schnefeld with this.” I gave her the feystone, but she merely tilted her head at me, unsure what it was. “This is the second part of our surprise attack. I will give the signal when our defenses begin to crumble, so be ready.”
I would fly to the edge of our territory when that happened, and then have Judithe leap out onto her own highbeast and throw the feystone. I explained to her how to go about doing that while demonstratively opening and closing Lessy’s side door.
“Okay. But couldn’t we just do it now and win easily...?” Judithe asked, prompting Leonore to nod in agreement.
“Yes, we likely could,” I said, “but it would be the worst possible outcome for Ehrenfest to win through my plans without struggling themselves or realizing how lacking they currently are.”
“What do you mean? Isn’t winning a good thing...?”
In this case, it would have been better for us to lose and allow the better players to claim victory; after all, defeat provided an important opportunity to analyze one’s performance and determine the reason for the loss. It was best to remind our knights that their coordination was pathetic, and that they lacked experience with defensive combat. Had we not been playing with Schwartz and Weiss on the line, I would have merely sat back and allowed Ehrenfest to lose. Given that this wasn’t an option, however, I just wanted to win the fight itself, while still reminding them how much further they had to go with their own training.
“You and Leonore were both watching the surprise attack as well, yes? You will now see from within my highbeast what happens when the situation is reversed, and we are the ones on the defensive. Observe carefully and compare Dunkelfelger’s defensive coordination to our own, and then consider the significance of what you have seen. Fight while thinking at all times about what you can do to become stronger.”
“We will,” they replied with determined nods.
With that, the highbeasts began moving. Dunkelfelger started their advance, and then Ehrenfest moved in turn. The two teams glared at each other in the air while fighting to get as high up as possible, and then one of the Dunkelfelger knights suddenly broke forward. Several knights from Ehrenfest shot up to pursue them.
“Ah, no! Don’t send that many people after a single knight!” Judithe cried in a panic. Dunkelfelger had left some of their knights behind to guard their treasure, which meant Ehrenfest was at something of a numerical advantage, but that was still too many knights to send after a single opponent. Naturally, that weakened a part of our team’s defenses, meaning we were struggling from the very moment the actual fight began.
“That is not where their primary fighters are! Go back to Cornelius!” Leonore cried, cradling her head in agony at being unable to warn the knights of their poor coordination and all the gaps in their defenses.
It was more than apparent how little experience Ehrenfest had when it came to defensive combat, and the highly coordinated Dunkelfelger was dominating the battle as a result. Ehrenfest had only even survived for this long due to my blessing—their desperate fight continued with almost zero coordination. The only ones working together at all were Cornelius, Angelica, and those who served Wilfried, since they had all been trained for their guard knight positions. But that was only seven of our twenty-three knights up there; it was only natural that Dunkelfelger’s best would soon destroy them.
“Aah! Traugott! Where are you going?!” Judithe cried.
“Lady Rozemyne... Is it just me, or is the entire defensive line flying increasingly higher?” Leonore asked.
“Yes, and that is exactly what our opponents are hoping for. I expect an ace squad of their strongest knights will soon charge across the ground toward us,” I said, pointing at the enemy territory. The Dunkelfelger knights left behind to guard the treasure were assuming an offensive formation, with only a few staying on the defensive as guards for Lestilaut and the treasure. “Did you not learn this tactic in your written lessons, Leonore? I read about it in books and saw how it functions in gewinnen. We will lose for sure if we let things continue as they are.”
“I did. I did, but...” Leonore trailed off, wearing the frown of someone who was for the first time experiencing something they had only ever read about. It seemed she had never actually connected the content covered in her lessons to any real-world situations.
Judithe, in contrast, had yet to even start her knight course, meaning she lacked the necessary context to talk about strategizing. She was simply aghast at the battle she was witnessing. “Lady Rozemyne, is now the time to be acting so casually?! They’re about to be on top of us! We’re going to lose as soon as they attack!” she yelped.
“I suppose we should make our move now then. Remember what I told you.”
Just as predicted, the enemy knights who had been watching the aerial fight on their highbeasts began racing this way to launch a direct attack. Once they were right between our two territories, I started to drive Lessy straight toward them at the edge of our territory.
“They’ve noticed us!” one of the enemies cried.
“They’re planning something! Get back to base!” shouted another.
Having noticed my Pandabus, the approaching Dunkelfelger knights abruptly turned around and started retreating back to a defensive position.
“Judithe! Shoot the stone above its head!” I called. “Hurry!”
“Understood,” Judithe replied. She jumped out once we were at the edge of our territory, got on her own highbeast, morphed her schtappe into a slingshot, and then finally shot the stone.
The feystone soared through the air faster than our opponents could retreat on their highbeasts. It followed a smooth parabola before heading straight for the head of the schnefeld, just as planned.
“They fired something! Block it!”
“What do you mean ‘something’?! Where is it?!”
The feystone was small and moving at an incredible speed, such that the knights from Dunkelfelger weren’t even sure what was flying toward them. The schnefeld, however, was evidently more perceptive. It opened its mouth wide and caught the feystone in one effortless motion.
“Lady Rozemyne! It ate the feystone!” Judithe shrieked, coming back to me with tears in her eyes. She was certain she had failed, but I met her with a smile.
“I was hoping for it to land nearby and be eaten, but this is even better.”
All of a sudden, the schnefeld started to grow in size several times over. It ripped through the band of lights binding it as it turned into a giant before our eyes.
“GRAAAH!” the hippo-like feybeast finally roared. It ended up around the size of a two-story building and started to rampage as though its calm just moments ago had been a complete ruse.
“What?! What?!” Judithe shrieked. She wasn’t the only one taken by surprise, however—our enemies began letting out shocked cries as well.
“The schnefeld has become giant!” one of the Dunkelfelger knights shouted. His comrades in the air stopped their attack and immediately rushed back to their territory; a rampaging schnefeld of such a great size posed a threat to Lestilaut the archduke candidate and the knights who had stayed with him.
“What in the world was that, Lady Rozemyne?!”
“A ruelle fruit dyed with my mana,” I replied. “They’re well-suited for mana rejuvenation, which also conveniently means they turn feybeasts into giants.”
It turned out that the purple ruelles gathered on the Night of Schutzaria had restorative properties; one could eat them like candy to recover their mana. Ferdinand had given some to me to use in the event that I ran out of mana to activate my charms, considering how much mana the enhancers all over my body were already using.
“Why would you ever do something like this...?” Judithe asked.
“So that Dunkelfelger can no longer hold back against their schnefeld. Still, Ferdinand never fails to impress. To think his ultra-nasty potion would taste and smell so bad that even a feybeast would be left floundering.”
It was much riskier to contain feybeasts of such great size and strength, which made them ill-suited to serving as treasure. Dunkelfelger had no choice but to start fighting the rampaging schnefeld as they would in a game of speed ditter. My plan had merely been to make the feybeast large enough that trying to contain it was not even viable, but the result was even better than expected—Dunkelfelger were no longer able to pay us any attention at all.
“Do not just laze about; begin healing at once. Angelica, Cornelius—drink these potions,” I instructed, snapping the Ehrenfest knights out of their daze while handing Angelica and Cornelius two vials containing Ferdinand’s improved potion. “Our next attack needs to be at full strength, so I want you both to recover all of your mana.”
“Understood!” Angelica replied. “Ngh... But it smells so bad...”
“Ferdinand brewed it himself,” I noted. “It really is impressive, both in terms of its effectiveness and its taste.”
Angelica and Cornelius each drank their potion with a grimace. They groaned and clapped their hands over their mouths mere moments later, their eyes squeezed shut, but it seemed they had somehow managed to keep the concoctions down.
“Just what were those?!” Cornelius yelled, tears in his eyes.
“Rejuvenation potions, with an improved flavor that Ferdinand generously worked very hard on,” I replied.
“What do you mean, ‘improved flavor’? That was vile!”
“You will understand just how kind Ferdinand truly is if you try the original, but do you have what it takes to attempt that? How courageous are you feeling today?” I asked, holding up a vial of the ultra-nasty potion I had dripped onto the feystone earlier.
Cornelius hurriedly shook his head, and then he looked at the giant schnefeld. “That potion was extremely effective at restoring my mana, I must admit, but what are you planning to make us do?” he asked with a guarded expression.
I smiled confidently. “Turn your schtappe into a sword and fill it with as much mana as you can, preferably until it begins to spark. Then, once the enemy has weakened the schnefeld, finish it off with a single blow. Father and Eckhart are able to do this, so I am sure you are as well.”
Cornelius blanched, already feeling the pressure. “I can try, but... I’ve rarely ever done that before. And an all-out attack such as that will leave me defenseless until I can recover my mana. Is that acceptable?”
“Fear not, I have more potions from Ferdinand. You can just blast away and be ready to drink more. If we do not finish this here, Ehrenfest has no chance of winning. Surely you recognize by now how terrible our knights are at cooperating.”
Cornelius nodded with a bitter frown.
“You say that you now have as much mana as Father, and I am placing my trust in that. It seems to me that an attack is best done while plummeting down toward your target—that is what I have learned from watching both Ferdinand and Father.”
“Where did you see them use an attack like that...?”
“I have accompanied the Knight’s Order on feybeast hunts several times in the past for religious purposes,” I said. I had seen them use the attack during the trombe hunt and the Spring Prayer ambush, so that much was true; I just wasn’t planning to disclose how many times I had seen it, or where.
“Angelica, please protect our territory from the shockwaves of Cornelius’s attack. Face the schnefeld directly and produce mana just as Cornelius does.”
“Understood,” Angelica said with Stenluke in hand, having recovered from the potion’s nastiness.
“I will go too!” Traugott declared.
“No,” I replied curtly. “You stay, Traugott.”
“But why?! Are you saying I’m weaker than them?!”
That certainly is part of the reason... I thought to myself. Traugott was indeed several degrees weaker than Angelica and Cornelius, but he was so obsessed with strength that I couldn’t imagine it was worth telling him this now.
“No. I am saying it is dangerous for an uncooperative knight incapable of following orders to participate in this. You are useless where it counts. Stand down.”
“What?!” Traugott exclaimed, his blue eyes widening with surprise. I simply turned my back to him, instead getting ready to send Angelica and Cornelius on their way.
“The two of you must deftly time your attacks together. Keep a careful eye on one another,” I said.
“Understood.”
Cornelius soared up into the sky to prepare. Even from where I was below, I could tell he was already pouring his mana into the large broadsword in his hand. Angelica, meanwhile, had moved into position to protect me and was readying her manablade. Stenluke used that opportunity to instruct her.
“Master, if you plan to protect the master of my master and the territory, stand here. No, do not face that way. Move your right foot half a step forward. Hm... Yes, that should do. Ready me and begin pouring in your mana—use as much as you can manage.”
“Everyone else, ready your shields and prepare for the upcoming blast!” I called.
The apprentice knights all obeyed at once, turning their schtappes into shields. I gripped Lessy’s handles as tightly as I could and steeled myself, ready to endure the shockwave no matter how intense it was. Leonore, who was sitting in the back seat, looked up at Cornelius as if praying for his success.
Dunkelfelger’s knights were landing blow after blow on the schnefeld with excellent coordination. Watching them fight made it clear why they were dominant in speed ditter, but the rules here weren’t quite the same as what they were used to—killing the schnefeld would result in their loss, meaning they had to stop at just weakening the rampaging beast.
Cornelius arrived far above Dunkelfelger’s knights as they fought with limited strength so as to not go overboard. He readied his loudly crackling sword, flipped his highbeast in midair, and then charged down while roaring “STAND BAAACK!”
Dunkelfelger’s knights had been so deeply embroiled in their fight that they hadn’t noticed Cornelius, and upon hearing his cry, they all stopped and looked up in shock.
“Retreat! Get on the defensive. Protect Lord Lestilaut!” one of our opponents’ head knights ordered, having realized that the attack was coming at full power.
“I’m going too!” Angelica shouted, her eyes fixed on Dunkelfelger. She was filling Stenluke with mana, on the very cusp of unleashing an attack, but her manablade interjected at once to warn her that it wasn’t yet time.
“GRAAAH!” Cornelius roared, swinging his broadsword and unleashing the huge quantity of mana he had stockpiled. A massive slash of radiant light, much like the ones I had seen so many times before, shot down toward the schnefeld.
“Now, Master!”
“HYAAAAH!” Angelica swung her manablade hard, sending a similar slash racing toward the schnefeld. Stenluke’s timing had been perfect: Cornelius’s attack resulted in a huge explosion and a rapidly expanding shockwave, which Angelica’s attack then sliced right through, hitting the schnefeld with a second blow.
Despite their defensive formations, the knights from Dunkelfelger were barely able to remain upright, and several Ehrenfest apprentices were sent flying back with such force that they rolled along the ground. I gritted my teeth and endured the shockwave. Once it settled, the schnefeld was gone.
“Lady Rozemyne, I got the feystone!” Angelica cried in a bright voice, holding up the glittering feystone in her hand.
Rauffen, who had been watching the entire fight, cried out in awe. “Incredible! Ehrenfest wins!”
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