Ishura - Volume 1 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: New Principality of Lithia

West of Aureatia. The New Principality of Lithia, bordering an enormous flowing canal, was the only stronghold that allowed land travel from the west and north. The city was economically stable, with its abundant aquatic resources, and ceaseless caravan traffic drifted along its paved stone streets throughout the day.

However, today, the goods being carried by one of these carriages was neither clothing nor any sort of metal.

“Wyverns are drawing close. No doubt about it.”

A small woman pulled her upper body back through the tiny window and into the coach. On the outside, she looked no taller than a child, but she had come of age long ago. She was a minia woman named Lana the Moon Tempest.

“When they attack crowds of minia races, the bastards travel in large groups. Definitely wyverns, that’s for sure. Must’ve gotten a whiff from one of the merchants’ belongings… Slipups like that earn executions in the military.”

The subtle shadows, hazy in the blue sky, looked like a flock of birds from the carriage. Each one appeared no more than twice as tall as the average minia.

However, wyverns were far different from other birds in the sky. They were unmistakably draconic, with neither beak nor feathers, and were the fastest race, ruling over the world’s skies. While the group looked like nothing more than a vague speck at the edge of the horizon, they would catch up to a horse-drawn caravan in no time at all.

Lana looked up toward the driver on the other side of the carriage’s canopy roof and shouted:

“Hey, are we gonna make it to Lithia before the wyverns catch up? We’re only a stone’s throw away by now, right?”

“If you can see them, then it’s already too late! What about you, Miss Lana? Can’t you get those mercenaries to do something about it?”

Lana looked at the others sharing her carriage. Including herself, there were only three people in the coach.

“Let me go ahead and ask. Higuare, confident you could?”

“Of course. I could very easily wipe them all out.”

The body inside the coach replied flatly, without a stir.

The mercenary, named Higuare, was not a minia. He was a curious creature, his true form hidden underneath an elaborate cloak of what appeared to be tree roots. The tangled mass of vegetation was sitting just like any other minia race might.

“However, may I inquire something of you beforehand…? Regarding this self-proclaimed Demon King.”

The gleam of his eyes flashed from gaps in the roots covering his darkness-cloaked face. The sentient vegetation, beastfolk known as mandrakes, inhabited the deepest recesses of the forest and were an extremely rare presence to see in areas occupied by the minia races.

“I have heard such things regarding the ruler of Lithia, Master Taren. Even I myself am aware of the terror and atrocities committed by the True Demon King. Is this new master of mine a wicked person?”

“What, you came without even knowing about all that?”

Higuare was a mercenary who Lana had invited to the New Principality. Lana, as an intelligence officer sent across the land on orders from the self-proclaimed Demon King Taren, among the rest of the troops scheduled to arrive that day, was returning with particularly outstanding results to report.

“‘Self-proclaimed Demon King’ is the common name the kingdoms use. No one would actually go out of their way to proclaim themselves a Demon King.”

“I see. I’ve heard similar out on the frontier. If I remember correctly, the minia society is controlled by three kingdoms, is it not?”

“…How far behind the times are you? Aureatia’s the only one left now. The others got destroyed. The True Demon King’s handiwork. From Aureatia’s perspective, they’re the One True King. Those who call themselves rulers without any legitimate royal blood in them are referred to as ‘demonic monarchs’—self-proclaimed Demon Kings, in other words.”

Individuals with too much organizational power and Word Arts proficiency. Monsters that try to establish new races. Visitors who brought heretical political concepts to their world.

There was an era when all those with power declared themselves ruler, claiming territory and self-governance for themselves. The rulers of these hastily established smaller nations held no royal legitimacy, nor did they submit to any other authority—and were called “demonic monarchs.” Taren the Punished, once a courageous general before seceding from Aureatia and declaring her region independent, was not an unusual case.

…Only twenty-five years prior, the self-proclaimed Demon Kings were indeed referred to as Demon Kings. Until, at least, the True Demon King appeared.

“Was this True Demon King not a self-proclaimed one?”

“Well, see…they were the real deal. No one else could be called a Demon King compared with them. I’ve heard of your skill, but you don’t know much about the world, do you? Why don’t you start going to school in Lithia?”

Now, everyone was keenly aware that all the Demon Kings who had come before were nothing more than “self-proclaimed.” Minia races, monsters, even beastfolk and dragonkin had all been affected by it—the terror and malice.

The True Demon King had been the only true evil.

The three kingdoms, perpetually locked in conflict, were forced to dissolve and unite under the threat of the True Demon King. Most of the self-proclaimed Demon Kings were brought to order, or they challenged the True Demon Kings themselves and disappeared.

Evil wrought nothing but tragedy and despair—and thus, the current age was brought about.

“…Higuare, was it?”

The other person inside the carriage chimed in.

“Your life out in the country sounds like it was quite peaceful, huh?”

This person also did not belong to the minia races. Sitting with one knee raised, they had neither skin nor flesh to speak of. Indeed, they were nothing more than minia bone wrapped in a tattered cloak.

In truth, they had been a lifeless skeleton before. Beings created from Word Arts, including skeletons assembled from the bones of living creatures, were not created naturally and had no true life in them.

“Even the Visitors know more about the world than that. Got some nerve, being in the merc trade.”

“That’s right. Due to particular circumstances, I made my living solely through my swordplay. I’m oft known as Higuare the Pelagic. You are?”

“……Shalk the Sound Slicer.”

Annoyance colored Shalk’s reply.

Even faced with light provocation, Higuare’s voice remained as flat as it had been prior. It was an open question whether a being originating from plant life would have emotions similar to the minia races in the first place.

“I don’t particularly care, but can you two get along? If you kill each other or whatever before we arrive, I won’t be able to face Taren. Not that I’d last long if caught in the middle of your fight. Ha. I’m a delicate girl, see?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Do I look like someone who could stand up to you two?”

Lana shrugged, but she was speaking the truth.

Higuare the Pelagic. Shalk the Sound Slicer. The two mercenaries in the carriage with her wielded peerless skills and abilities unknown to the world at large, discovered through Lana the Moon Tempest’s search across the four corners of the world. They were bona fide powerful warriors, and Lana’s skills couldn’t hope to compare.

Moreover, it was a handful of powerful fighters like these two who the self-proclaimed Demon King and ruler of Lithia, Taren the Punished, sought.

“Miss Lana.”

“What?”

“Another group, separate from the wyverns, appears to be gaining on us.”

Higuare’s muttering barely finished before a dry sound reverberated from outside the carriage. With only a short stretch of road left until town, the time was right.

“Stop the carriage! Start shooting the ones who don’t give up the goods!”

“Anyone who resists is getting dragged out and killed! Line up everything you got, and I mean everything!”

Lana peeked out from the carriage canopy to see a line of horsemen hot on the caravan’s heels. Equipped with bows and muskets, they kept their faces hidden to mask their identities.

“…Bandits after the cargo.”

The city was right in front of them, but that meant it was also where the guard was lax. The horsemen were confident they could finish things up faster than Lithia’s soldiers could rush out and respond to the situation.

“First wyverns, now raiders? Today’s not our day.”

Naturally, Shalk’s words were little more than a jest. While it may have been a desperate situation for a normal caravan, for Shalk the Sound Slicer, it warranted humor.

“Or more precisely…this must be this group’s objective. Attack a caravan chased by wyverns on its flank to create chaos, then attack carriages that wander out and break formation… For instance, they might’ve stolen something at the last relay station and chucked it into the wyverns’ nest. The wyverns chasing after our scent must’ve been their doing.”

“The wyverns would just attack the raiders, too, wouldn’t they? What’s their endgame, then?”

“Heh. That’s easy. They just gotta create fresh corpses for the wyverns to feast on.”

“I see. What an awful way to go about it.”

They heard a blast. A group of bandits was using explosives to spook the horses. The carriage transporting Lana, Shalk, and Higuare also began quaking under their feet, and the canopy lurched back and forth like it was floating along roiling ocean waves. Lana was held fast by her passenger strap, and she maintained her ground, despite her diminutive and easily tossed frame.

“…Whoa there! No need to worry, you two…! This isn’t your time…”

She saw one of the raider-led horses start to run alongside the carriage now that its movements had broken into chaos. The brigand fixed his crossbow’s aim on the driver.

“…not yet.”

Before the trigger was pulled, before the bolt flew, the raider’s horse vanished.

At least, that’s how it would’ve seemed to the average eye.

Still seated in the carriage and looking down at the floor, the mandrake Higuare muttered: “Above us.”

At his words, the raider was in the air. A wyvern, descending faster than its own shadow, snatched the hapless soul in its claws and lifted him into the air. Horse and all.

“Hnggah… A-ah! Gaaaah!”

“Grrrk.”

The large wyvern, tearing out the raider’s windpipe and cutting off the man’s dying breaths, had not come from the swarm approaching the caravan’s rear. The beast wore plate armor, like a minia soldier, and there was a crest stitched in the fabric on its back, revealing its origin. But most surprising of all was the fact that it had swooped in from the direction of Lithia City.

“No…you gotta be kidding me!”

“What’re you doing?! The wyverns from behind—gah!”

The masterminds behind the assault saw their horses panic, and many of them shouted in confused anger one after another.

The mysterious wyverns that had appeared from the New Principality of Lithia marked not the cargo-laden caravan but the raiders as their sole targets.

The flock let out a spirited cry.

“Graaah, graaark… Next. Next meat… Meat!”

“Wyverns! Wyverns are pouring out of the city!”

“Wyvern soldiers?! N-no…it’s impossible!”

Listening to the bewildered cries that spilled into the carriage from outside, Shalk muttered with suspicion.

“Lana, what’s up with these guys?”

The situation was just as unbelievable by the standards of the peerless mercenary Shalk the Sound Slicer as it was to the raiders under attack. Despite being far removed from the minia races, even he found it odd.

“I can’t believe I’m asking this, but these aren’t wyverns domesticated by the minia races, are they?”

“Heh. And if I said they were?”

“I’d say you were out of your mind.”

The Word Arts of this world made it possible for the minia-like and other intelligent races to communicate with one another indiscriminately. Even beastfolk like Higuare the Pelagic and their markedly different appearances, through their Word Arts commonality, were clearly differentiated from the actual beasts of the world, like the horses pulling their carriage.

However, as self-evident as it may have been, mutual understandings among intelligent races and the advisability of those races interacting with one another were two separate issues.

Wyverns were an extremely savage race, obeying commands only from the leader that ruled over their flock. Any living creature not affiliated with their flock, including other wyverns, was considered potential prey.

Consequently, they were this world’s sole ruler of the skies.

A universal and natural enemy to all life on the ground.

“Hurry up and shoot them, dammit! Show no fear!”

“Sh-shooting arrows straight up into the air is craz— Augh!”

The ironclad wyverns endlessly descended upon their prey. The raiders tried to shoot arrows or stones back. However, gliding down to the lowest altitudes, one part of the flock took careful aim at these attacks and used their talons to effortlessly sever the raiders’ arms, if not their entire torsos.

With the bandits forced to take defensive measures against the raid from above, the wyverns made a surprise attack from their victims’ blind spot as they looked up in the air, having determined the bandits’ firearms most threatened their air superiority.

One of the wyverns cawed.

“Kraaaaw… Eraaaadicate…! Eradicate archers!”

The remaining raiders had no means to defend against the fighting power raining down upon them. Some fell from their horses in fear and were crushed under the hooves of their fleeing comrades’ mounts.

A one-sided rout. Red blood and white bone were scattered about, punctuated by the raiders’ screams of anguish.

The offensive wasn’t spurred on by feral instincts. There was a clear tactical strategy behind the wyvern soldiers’ attacks.

“Second General, go around the other side of the hill!”

There was someone high in the sky giving orders. This individual (with slightly more intelligible verbal skills) was too high up to identify from the ground.

“Judging from their raid route, the thieves have a carriage lying in wait to carry off the stolen cargo. Make sure you don’t eat any meat. Chop them into pieces and cram them into one of the carriage beds. Take a good look at the final moments of these fools who dared defy the New Principality… Women, children, elderly—it doesn’t matter; don’t leave a single one of them alive. Fourth squad, fifth squad, and seventh squad—prepare yourselves to engage with the oncoming feral flock. They must be no more than vulgar chaff on the verge of starvation if they’re chasing their prey all the way to minia settlements. Three squads of our army will be plenty. After cutting down enough of their number, let the younger ones kill them off as practice. Here, I’ll allow consumption of wyvern carcasses.”

It had continued from the moment the wyvern army had arrived. The voice continuously gave its orders. It was commanding an extremely effective surprise attack strategy, hiding their force high up in the sky to avoid detection before swooping in to mow down the raiders right as the enemy’s plunder was within their grasp. Almost like a minia army’s tactics.

“Elge, first squad. Your hind legs are injured, aren’t they, you wimp?! Fourth squad, Miroh, you’ve got a stray arrowhead stuck in your wing membrane. Focus up and fall back. No meat for you two.”

Hearing this incessant, shrill screech from where she was situation inside the carriage, Lana mumbled a name.

“…Regnejee.”

Previously on the verge of chaos following the raider raid, the merchant column was being guided to the New Principality by wyverns that had landed on the ground. Wyvern cries echoed on either side of the carriage as it continued forward.

“Grrrk!”

“Kraaa…graaaak!”

The wyvern flock, though formed into an army, followed its instincts, rending flesh from the still-living raiders—and those long since perished—and gouging out their eyes. In contrast to the grizzly spectacle, the wyverns didn’t even glance at the merchants of the caravan. They were clearly distinguishing who was prey and who was not.

It was strange behavior for wyverns, at odds with their nature.

“Lana the Moon Tempest.”

The one called Regnejee called out, closing in toward the mercenaries’ carriage.

“You’re returning now? You took forever, slacker. While you were gone, I cleaned up seven of these lousy raider mobs.”

The spy replied through the caravan’s canopy.

“I think it was time well spent. Actually, Regnejee……I’ve brought some guys even you’ll be surprised to see. The Sound Slicer and the Pelagic.”

“…Hmph. You didn’t bring the World Word?”

“The World Word is nothing but a rumor. They don’t actually exist.”

“Then these two aren’t worth much, are they?”

The skeleton, silently taking in Regnejee’s ridicule, picked up the spear at his side but remained sitting.

“……”

“Uh… Whoa, now. Let it go, Shalk. Don’t go picking fights.”

Lana hastily restrained the skeleton. Shalk the Sound Slicer had a bellicose temper.

“I’m supposed to stop? Someone’s got to teach this Regnejee guy the truth about that evaluation of his.”

“That’s just how he is. He’s like this with everyone.”

On the other hand, the other mercenary, Higuare the Pelagic, stayed as he was, looking down to the floor. Higuare was awfully quiet, unlike Shalk, but Lana still found it unsettling.

Regnejee’s orders to the army echoed.

“Grrrrk… The feral ones are here. Don’t let up. All you’ve done is finish off some lousy raiders.”

His interest appeared to have already drifted away from the mercenaries in the carriage.

“You fool! Attack! Prepare for air-to-air combat!”

The air burst open with a crack. The electric, thunderous sound came from the wyverns each flapping their wings and taking to the skies at the same time.

Those on the ground watched the two great airborne hosts fly next to each other. One consisted of feral wyverns. The other was a military force. As the glaring gaps between trained soldiers and amateurs were evident among minia, so, too, was the difference in fighting strength between the two wyvern flocks clear from the start.

The wild wyverns that led their group forward to challenge the soldiers, despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers, had their necks severed by the soldiers, whose advance remained unhindered.

Some of the feral wyverns ignored the soldiers entirely and tried to eat the people on the ground. In the middle of their descent, they were attacked from their blind spot overhead, falling to the ground with their skulls gouged out.

A flash of conical red light wove multiple times through the flock. Wyverns along the flash’s trajectory burned up and dropped to the ground, and though the giant clumped-together flock slowly fragmented, there were only feral wyverns falling from the sky. It was precisely managed Word Arts, performed at the speed of battle.

“That red light? That’s Regnejee’s Thermal Arts.”

“…Is Master Regnejee a wyvern?”

“Yeah. There’s always a leader in every wyvern flock. Regnejee’s theirs.”

“I’ve been thinking he seems to be the very cautious type, yes? He’s always within a close-order formation and manages to keep his exact position hidden.”

“…Higuare, you haven’t looked outside the carriage at all, right?”

“That’s right. I could tell by the sound.”

Only the flowers scattered across the quietly seated mandrake’s body showed any movement.

“Anyway, with them protecting us, the New Principality’s defenses—”

Interrupting her words, a sizzling roar of the air igniting echoed. Lana stuck her small frame outside the canopy and squinted up at the heavens. Unsurprised, she caught what she assumed to be Regnejee’s incanted Word Arts incinerate one of the feral wyverns from behind as it tried to escape.

Lana the Moon Tempest, a spy for the New Principality of Lithia, was long familiar with Regnejee’s way of doing things. Relentless and thorough in his wiles.

“…The defenses are flawless. There has never been a city in all of history that’s made use of wyverns’ airborne might before. Soldiers capable of seeing everything from a bird’s-eye view and who can maneuver around and cut off a force from any direction… On top of that, how are you supposed to handle their dragonkin strength individually, let alone a whole army of them? They’re invincible.”

“……Why did those raiders attack?” the skeleton Shalk asked, butting in.

“Unlike my empty skull, they’re supposed to have a brain stuck between their eyes, right? If the New Principality really is invincible, even raiders wouldn’t think to attack the city with a group that small.”

“……You’re right. To make a long story short…Shalk, Higuare, therein lies the reason why the New Principality needs you.”

“You’re saying the real enemies behind this aren’t some piddly raiders—is that it?”

There was someone inciting the brigands’ misjudgment. Someone who served to benefit from the raiders’ movements and from indirectly attacking the New Principality of Lithia.

Higuare mumbled again.

“The lord of Lithia… You said Master Taren was a self-proclaimed Demon King, yes?”

The famous general Taren the Punished had seceded from the sole kingdom of the minia races—Aureatia. She made the bountiful provincial canal city her own, declared independence, and gave it the name of the New Principality of Lithia. Her actions threatened control of Aureatia’s frontier and served as a major military provocation.

The appearance of a new Demon King in the age after the True Demon King’s demise.

“Oh, I see. I think I understand what’s going on now.”

The sound in the pearl-white mercenary’s voice sneered at the anticipated fires of war that seemed to be closing in.

With their invincible army, Lithia was trying to fight the strongest power among all minia races.

“We’re taking on Aureatia, then.”