Chapter 4: Before the Border
Three days had passed since the adventurers at the post town picked a fight with Rio and the others. They had proceeded even further east and were finally approaching the border of Galarc.
Before noon, the group had arrived at a walled city that functioned as a line of defense near the kingdom’s border. However, before everyone entered the city, Rio went alone to check on the state of things. Celia and the rest of the group hid themselves in the forest off the road to the west gate of the city and waited for Rio’s return. They prepared a slightly early lunch and started eating, when Rio silently appeared near them, calling out to them first so as not to scare them.
“Sorry for the wait.”
For the record, Sara and Alma’s contract spirits Hel and Ifrita were watching the area on the ground in their spirit forms, and Orphia’s contract spirit Ariel was on alert in material form in the air, so they would have noticed Rio’s approach. Ariel was the only one in material form because being in material form provided far greater physical abilities, such as the ability to see greater distances, increasing their search capabilities.
Celia ran up to Rio once she spotted him. “Welcome back, Haruto. How was it?”
“There was no wanted notice on the bulletin board of this city, either. I didn’t see any search party personnel performing any searches, but it is a walled city. There are quite a few soldiers on patrol,” Rio reported.
Incidentally, they had passed through numerous cities and towns on their way to this walled city, but none of them had had the same notice.
“If a walled city on the border doesn’t even have the wanted notice, then there’s no doubt that the notice from the post town was completely fabricated,” Christina declared, sighing. It was good to get more accurate information, but said information wasn’t exactly pleasant to hear.
“In other words, Reiss predicted that we would pass through that post town. He should have received information about us turning back west through the adventurers we let go, but who knows how much that can fool him...” Rio furrowed his brows solemnly.
“However, if we look at it from another angle, that means our actual enemy is Reiss alone. That much is certain after the lack of search parties in the places we’ve stopped at up until this point.” Vanessa gave a positive analysis contrary to the pessimistic Christina and Rio. However, Christina reacted to that with a solemn look to match Rio’s.
“Perhaps that may be true for Charles, but...”
The problem was Reiss. Since the incident at the post town, things had gone smoothly—too smoothly. It made Christina feel uneasy about whether they could really make it to Rodania safely.
Rio also had a bad feeling about how well things were going.
“...For now, our shortest goal is to cross the kingdom border before us. We’ll head for the border through the shortest route so that we don’t have to worry about the search party anymore. If we depart now, we should be able to cross the border within the day easily,” he suggested to everyone. Once they passed the walled city before them, there were no more post towns or walled cities until the border.
There was only a short distance left.
No matter what happens, we’ll move forward. Whatever Reiss has planned doesn’t change what we need to do, Rio thought to refocus his mind.
After their discussion, Rio and the others headed for the walled city. Ever since the incident at the post town, they were wary of the possibility that Charles and the pursuit party knew how many of them there were. They usually split up into groups of two before going through the gates of the towns and cities they stopped at, but this time they chose to enter the city as a group of nine.
If they could pass through the gate like this without a problem, that would mean they had conclusive proof that the pursuit party led by Charles was still unaware that Christina was running with a group of nine people.
“We made it,” Celia said in relief once they entered the city without incident.
“Well, that’s only natural. Charles probably thinks we’ve only traveled half as far as we actually have. The fact the gatekeepers are still checking hair colors makes me think we’ve outsmarted them completely,” Vanessa said, looking around at the city. The inside of the walls wasn’t strictly guarded, bustling with people in what seemed to be the picture of serenity.
Rio walked at the head of the party with Celia close beside him, followed by Christina and Vanessa, then Kouta and Rei, and finally Sara, Orphia, and Alma in a long line as they proceeded from the west of the main street to the east. Out of caution for the presence of the pursuit party, Christina, Vanessa, Kouta, and Rei covered their faces with hoods. Everyone else had their hoods down as they walked.
Celia and the spirit folk girls’ appearances did draw attention, but there were many pedestrians, so the most people could manage was a double or triple take. There were some people who bumped into others and couples that bickered briefly about it, but it was mostly uneventful.
Thus, they walked straight down the main street from the west gate to the east gate and stepped out onto the road.
After leaving the east gate, Rio stared down the road to the border and turned to the party. “All right, let’s go. We should cross the border in about an hour’s time on foot. Our formation will be the same as usual: I’ll take the lead and Sara’s group will surround Her Highness and Celia.”
Rio, Sara, Orphia and Alma formed a diamond formation and walked with caution directed in every direction.
The weather was clear, so there were others leaving the east gate to head for the kingdom border just like them. Their view of their surroundings was clear, but in ten minutes’ time, the city behind them could no longer be seen.
There’s surprisingly few people heading from Galarc to Beltrum. Well, with the kingdom being in the state it is, I doubt many would come here voluntarily... Rio thought to himself. When he looked around them, all he could see were the adventurers that had left the walled city at practically the same time as them.
Suddenly, four adventurers appeared in front of them, walking from the opposite direction. Three were armed with swords, and the fourth was a slender man whose face was covered by a hood.
“Everyone, please keep to the left,” Rio directed the party. It was polite to stick to one side of the road so that others could pass along the other side in cases like this; it was a worldly wisdom that prevented a lot of trouble when people were traveling.
However, the slender, hooded man purposefully cut in front of them and stopped them from moving any further.
“...Please halt,” Rio ordered the party without turning to look. Celia and the others behind him came to a complete stop. Meanwhile, the three remaining men on the other side started surrounding their group.
“Why, what a coincidence this is,” the hooded man said. His voice was familiar.
“Reiss, huh?” Rio immediately drew the sword at his waist and glared at Reiss. Sara and the others behind him had also drawn their weapons, pointing them at the three male adventurers who similarly had their swords drawn.
“Oh? You’re less surprised than I expected,” Reiss said, wide-eyed.
“We knew from that wanted notice that you were trying to locate us. We tried to camouflage our route, but we were prepared to be attacked at any moment.”
“Haha, I see. You really are a terrifying person.”
“You don’t look like you actually think that in the slightest.”
“That’s not true. I find you scary.”
“...You showed yourself rather boldly, if that was true. Is your aim Princess Christina’s life?” Rio asked flatly with a cold glare.
“Hehe.” A fearless smile tugged at Reiss’ mouth.
“There’s something I want to ask you before I defeat you here.”
There was no point in asking anything else. Rio braced his sword.
“Is it about our captain, Lucius? Or is it about your past... Oh my, that’s dangerous.” Reiss chuckled with scorn. However, Rio slashed at him mid-sentence, making him take a large leap backwards.
“There’s no telling what you’re scheming, after all. I’ll listen to what you have to say after I beat you.” Rio glared at Reiss sharply.
“Now, don’t be like that. I’ve even gone and brought out members of the Heavenly Lions for you today. They’re the subordinates of that man you’re so familiar with, and they’re all quite skilled. I’m sure they’ll be a good match for your girls,” Reiss said casually, looking at Arein, Lucci, and Ven who were all glaring at Sara and the others.
“That’s right. Play with us a little, ladies,” Lucci said to Alma, whom he was facing.
“Don’t play around. Act seriously,” Ven said, facing Orphia.
“So, you’re my opponent. You sure seem strong.” Arein laughed boldly as he taunted Sara.
“...”
The girls didn’t respond to their taunts, and instead silently watched for their opponent’s first moves. The two sides were roughly five meters apart. They knew that whoever stepped forward first would mark the immediate start of the battle.
Training and ability aside, Sara and the girls are overwhelmingly lacking in combat experience against people who have intentions to kill. Their opponents are humans that will kill without hesitation. We also have to protect Professor Celia and Princess Christina on our side. Depending on their abilities, we may be forced into a tough fight.
In this situation, Rio couldn’t wander too far from Celia or Christina. He put several meters distance between himself and Reiss, thinking about Sara and the others behind him.
“Four capable fighters glaring at each other. Well, a situation like this would inevitably end in a stalemate. However, what if we had more allies on our side?” Reiss said with a grin.
What...? Rio furrowed his brows dubiously. The only ones there were Rio, Reiss, and their respective parties. Other than that—
Don’t tell me...
The adventurers who had left the walled city at the same time as them were still there. They had been watching when Rio and the others were suddenly caught in a tense situation on the road, but Rio anticipated that these men were the allies Reiss just mentioned. There were roughly ten of them.
“All right! Everyone, charge!” Lucci yelled.
“Augendae Corporis! Raaaah!” The men on the road all chanted a spell at once, drawing their swords and began charging toward the formation Rio’s party had set up.
“Wha?!” The party was taken aback. Among them, the first one to react was Rio.
“What?!” He cut in front of the adventurers closest to him, swinging his sword to create a huge gale to blow the men away.
“Sara, Orphia, Alma! Take Celia and Her Highness through the gaps in their formation and go on ahead! I’ll handle this!” he ordered.
“But...” Sara and the others hesitated.
“Like I’d let you!” Lucci yelled as he slashed at Rio.
“Silence.” Rio flicked his sword horizontally towards Lucci. The two of them clashed, sword against sword.
“W-Whoa... Oh, damn!” Lucci’s body was easily blown ten meters away. If he hadn’t been holding an enchanted sword and had his body enhanced with sorcery, the force would have cut his sword and torso in half.
“Is this guy for real? Just what kind of body enhancement sorcery is he using?” Lucci gave a stiff smile as he shook it off. The charging adventurers who witnessed the blow came to an abrupt halt.
“Hey! What are you slacking off for?! You’ll be killed!” Arein yelled suddenly. While they were standing around, Rio had already moved on to target the next adventurer, sending several men flying away with another blast of wind.
“Quickly, everyone!” Rio ordered Sara.
“E-Everyone, this way! Alma, Orphia, you two take the rear!” Sara snapped to her senses and started rushing through the gaps Rio made in the enemy circle. Celia and the others followed her.
“Lucci, Ven! Don’t let your guard down. This is the guy that got the better of our leader. You’ll die if you’re not careful! Use everything you’ve got! Augendae Corporis!” Arein yelled, chanting a spell before charging at Rio. A physical body enhancement via spirit arts and a physical ability enchantment through magic or sorcery. Normally, it was impossible for the latter to surpass the former in terms of physical abilities, but—
“Uh...” Rio briefly gazed in wonder. Arein’s speed had been dramatically increased with Augendae Corporis. In fact, it was a speed on par with a body strengthening spirit art that would’ve used up a fair amount of magic essence.
It’s not just a normal Augendae Corporis? Rio thought, receiving Arein’s attack.
“Blocking that with such a composed look...” Arein’s expression was strained.
“Augendae Corporis!” Lucci and Ven both chanted. A geometric-patterned magic circle appeared, wrapping around their bodies.
“I hate how this makes my whole body ache!”
“It’s better than dying!”
Lucci and Ven both charged at Rio from different directions.
Their speeds were equivalent to Arein. Lucci must have also enhanced his physical body with his enchanted sword earlier, as his current speed was significantly faster.
“The three of us will hold this guy back! All of you, catch the ones that got away!” Lucci ordered the remaining adventurers. They began pursuing Sara and the others.
So they’ve enhanced their physical abilities with magic on top of strengthening their bodies with their enchanted swords...
Rio found it to be reckless. It was a so-called double enchantment—sure, doing so would allow them to surpass the physical ability boost that the enchanted sword allowed them, but it would place a huge burden on their bodies.
However, the effect was remarkable, as it allowed Arein, Lucci, and Ven to press Rio back when they teamed up.
“Master Reiss, we can’t last long over here!” Arein yelled. Rio used the faint moment of distraction from Arein and the others to slip past them, rushing over to the adventurers pursuing Celia’s group in an instant. However—
“I won’t let you do that.” Reiss moved at an equally impressive speed, firing several high-speed balls of light towards Rio, who was closing in on the adventurers.
“Guh...” Rio swung his sword, erasing the ball of light. However, Reiss’ attack didn’t end there. Without even chanting a spell, he continued to freely create balls of light and fire them towards Rio. The orbs rained down like a storm, but Rio weaved between them in a zigzag trajectory to magnificently evade them all.
“Goodness me, what a tremendous reaction speed,” Reiss muttered in awe. Then, Arein, Lucci, and Ven appeared.
“My apologies, Master Reiss,” Arein apologized.
“This won’t do. You have to hold him here properly,” Reiss said in exasperation.
“The bastard started moving at a ridiculous speed,” said Lucci.
“He’s manipulating the wind to accelerate. From what I can see, it appears to be an application of flying spirit arts, but it is quite the reckless approach. The slightest mistake could send you hurtling into an obstacle for quite a lot of damage, so you’d need a powerful body enhancement going at the same time—it’s not a technique I’d consider possible for a human to use. Let’s see, if I were to try it...”
Reiss trailed off and disappeared instantly. The next moment—
“Wha?!”
Rio also disappeared.
The destination of the two who had disappeared was where Celia and the others were currently fleeing. They were over 50 meters away, but they traveled that distance in an instant.
Rio barely managed to get in front of Reiss and wedged himself before the group. Once he did, Reiss came to a sudden stop as well.
“W-When did he...”
They had been running with their physical abilities enchanted by magic. Yet, Rio and Reiss had suddenly appeared from behind them, which came as a shock to Kouta and Rei. Christina and Vanessa also stared, wide-eyed.
“Ah, it seems like I’m no match in terms of speed, as expected. That aside, are you really human?” Reiss ignored the shock of Christina and the others as he looked at Rio with a cool expression.
“What does that make you, then?” Rio asked back plainly.
“Haha.” Reiss laughed eerily. Arein, Lucci, and Ven all caught up once again.
“Wouldn’t it have been better for you to take on this bastard from the start, Master Reiss?” Arein asked tiredly.
“In all probability, I would have lost. But, well, I suppose that isn’t a bad idea,” Reiss boasted in an arrogant tone.
“...” Rio remained silent as he stared at Reiss with a sharp gaze.
“My, my. I thought I had grabbed you by surprise with my movement technique just now, but it seems we’re back at square one. What a terrifying person indeed.” Reiss shook his head in disappointment.
“Orphia, please take Celia and the others and go on ahead. Alma and I will remain here to support Haruto,” Sara ordered as she stood alongside Rio. She held a dagger in each hand and was braced for battle.
“Got it.” With a nod, Alma held her mace in her hand at the ready and stood beside Rio, too.
“Sara...” Rio frowned apologetically.
“Reiss’ power seems to be equal to the higher-ranked warriors of our village. And those three men over there can put up a fair fight against Haruto. It only makes sense for us to remain here, in case all four of them try to attack at the same time,” Sara said firmly.
“...Thank you. Could the two of you lend me your strength, then? I’ll take on Reiss,” Rio said gratefully to them, lifting his sword.
“Of course. Alma and I will handle the rest,” Sara said. Arein and the others furrowed their brows at being lumped together with the group of adventurers.
“Orphia, I entrust Celia and Her Highness to you. Cross the border if you can.”
“Yes, leave it to me! Let’s go, everyone!” Orphia said, urging Celia and Christina and the others to depart again. Celia turned back for a brief moment.
“Haruto, Sara, Alma! Win!” she said.
“Of course.”
“Yes!”
The three shouted back. At that, Celia turned and ran after Orphia, with Kouta and Rei in tow. Christina stopped to say something to them, but—
“Princess Christina, hurry!” Vanessa urged.
“...Right.” Christina began running with a somewhat pained expression.
“Good grief,” Reiss said, smiling for some reason. “Arein, Lucci, Ven, and everyone else. Please entertain those ladies over there. It’s irritating, but I shall take on the boy,” he said.
“Right. Now that we’ve been treated as the accessories, our reputation is on the line,” Arein said with a hostile expression.
“Let’s teach them some manners,” Lucci agreed.
“I’m relying on you, then,” Reiss said, before suddenly disappearing once again. Immediately afterwards—
Above.
Rio followed Reiss’s movements and leaped up into the sky. One beat later, a violent exchange of blows began in the air, rumbling with a tremendous sound.
“Wow, he’s one outrageous monster. I can see why the captain was seriously wounded.” Lucci looked up at the sky in exasperation.
“I’ve always thought we hadn’t seen Master Reiss’ true potential, but to think it was this much...” Ven muttered in reverence.
“Don’t tell me you two are on par with that monster, too.” Arein looked at Sara and Alma.
“Rest assured, the two of us are weaker than Rio,” Sara noted.
“Indeed,” Alma agreed.
“However, we’re not weak enough to lose to you,” Sara added, provoking Arein and his group.
“Hmm...”
“Let’s see, then...”
Without any signal at all, Arein and Lucci leaped at Sara and Alma simultaneously. They closed the distance in one bound and slashed at the two of them.
“Hah!” Sara used her two daggers while Alma used her mace to parry the attacks.
“Ha, so you CAN put up a fight!” Lucci smiled with hostility.
“Do you have the leisure to be smiling?” Alma asked plainly, putting her weight into her mace.
The clash of their weapons sent Lucci flying. He soared several meters through the air and landed on the ground, wincing as he yelled. “W-What?! Whoa there... H-Hey hey, this tiny brat has just as much brute strength as that bastard!”
Elder dwarves were born with musculature that differed from humans. Even the petite and dainty Alma had enough hidden strength to far surpass the large-framed Lucci.
“How savage.” Alma gripped her mace and went to pursue Lucci, but—
“I won’t let you! Ngh!” Ven intervened to stop Alma’s advance. However, after seeing the brute strength that she displayed with Lucci earlier, he decided to parry the heavy blow by leaping backwards. Even then, he grimaced at the burden placed on his arms.
“You don’t seem to have as much power as that tiny one,” Arein analyzed while exchanging blows with Sara.
“That’s right. My strength is in my speed, so.” Sara nodded without showing any vexation and stepped back. Then, she stepped to the right.
“Hah, I can see you clearly, though! ...What?!”
Arein responded to Sara’s movements and tried to cut around her with a smug smile. But before he knew it, Sara had stepped to the left, luring Arein’s body into reflexively heading left. Using that brief opening, Sara stepped right once again and slashed at Arein.
“Even if you can see me, that means nothing if your reactions are delayed.” As a silver wolf werebeast, Sara’s natural body surpassed that of a human’s in flexibility and agility.
Tch, so annoying. Shit!
Arein suddenly braced his sword and retreated while sticking to defensive tactics. He fell back further, unable to handle all the blows.
“Whoa! Guh!”
Sara released a blow with the pommel of the dagger, catching him in the left arm as she used power surpassing that of a physical body enchantment. He tried to step sideways to parry the blow, but failed and landed on the ground, rolling onto his knees.
“Hey, Lucci! Ven! Facing them one-on-one isn’t working in our favor. Let’s switch this up into a three-on-two!” Arein said.
“I was just thinking the same!” Lucci and Ven promptly ran towards him.
“All of you! Stop standing around and surround the brats! Back us up!” Arein called out to the adventurers around them; they immediately began surrounding Sara and Alma.
“As disgraceful as it is, the moment they knew they couldn’t win alone, they relied on their surroundings,” Alma said, half-impressed and half-exasperated.
“We’re mercenaries, after all. We’re fine with a bit of shame here and there in the name of money. Our lives are precious to us, you see. We don’t take on battles we can’t win fair and square,” Lucci said with a snort.
“Anyway, our weapons are unfortunately enchanted sword knock-offs. We can only use them for physical body enhancement, and the collateral of using double enhancements is wearing on us. I can see your weapons are quite sharp. You’re still hiding more abilities, aren’t you? Just like that bastard above.” Arein glanced up while he spoke. Blasts of wind were whipping about the skies above, crossing paths with countless balls of light.
“Even if we did, we wouldn’t need to use them against you people,” Sara stated plainly.
“Hmm. Arrogant brat.” Arein frowned hatefully.
“Let’s go! Dragging this out is only going to hurt us in the end, since we’re suffering the effects of the double enhancement! Cheat as much as you need to!”
With that order, the group charged at Sara and Alma.
Meanwhile, as the fight continued on between Rio, Reiss, and the others...
“Hah, hah!” Celia, Christina, Vanessa, Kouta, and Rei were running after Orphia with the border of the kingdom almost within their sights. Their view was blocked, but once they crossed the hill before them, they would reach the tranquil mountains that served as the kingdom’s border.
However—
What is this bad feeling I’m getting...? Orphia felt nervous for some reason. Reiss was being kept occupied by Rio, and Ariel was flying in the skies above, searching for any other weird enemies nearby, so there was no need for her to feel as such.
There were no enemies pursuing them from behind, and there were no signs of the enemy to their sides, either. Ariel decided to go on ahead to make sure there were no threats ahead of them.
“...Stop!” Orphia immediately came to a screeching halt as Ariel crossed over the hill; Celia and the others behind her naturally did the same.
“W-What’s wrong, Orphia?” Celia asked, panting for breath.
“We have to turn back...” Orphia said with a rare look of panic in her eyes.
“T-Turn back? But Reiss and the others are behind us... What’s over there?” Celia asked in confusion.
“It’s...”
An outrageous number of soldiers was waiting on the other side of the hill. A thousand—no, two thousand, three thousand? Or more? There were too many to count, and they were marching right towards them.
“The enemy is over the hill—a lot of them,” Orphia said.
“How can you tell?” Vanessa asked in confusion.
“Umm, it’s the ability of my bow.” She couldn’t explain that it was her contract spirit flying around scouting for enemies, so she tried to explain it away as an ability of her enchanted bow. There was no time for a proper explanation; they had to get away immediately.
Then, from far above in the skies, a high pitched call of a bird could be heard. Orphia sensed something was off and looked up.
“This cry...”
It wasn’t Ariel’s familiar cry. Or rather, there were too many of them.
But she had heard this somewhere before...
As she was thinking, the sound of flapping wings also reached her ears. Over fifty griffins descended from the skies to form a semi-circle behind Christina and the others.
“Wha...”
Celia, Christina, Vanessa, Kouta, and Rei were rendered speechless.
“...Everyone, please fall back towards the hill,” Orphia said to them, ordering them in the direction where there were no griffins. She knew there was a huge army waiting in that direction, but she had no other choice.
Ariel, tell Haruto and the others about this situation.
Orphia was able to handle fifty or so of the average knight by herself, but there was nothing she could do against a rush of thousands of soldiers. Even if she summoned Ariel back to the ground, she knew they’d just be subjected to concentrated fire.
That’s why, in order to survive this situation, they needed Rio and the others. If Rio came, he’d be able to buy them some time.
“It’s no use. My army of 5,000 is waiting that way. There’s no escape,” the man who dismounted from his griffin said triumphantly. It was Charles Arbor—Celia’s former fiance. Furthermore, standing beside him was the kingdom’s strongest swordsman, Alfred Emarle—Vanessa’s older brother.
When Vanessa spotted her brother, she glared at him resentfully from underneath her hood. Alfred ignored her with a cool expression.
“Guh...” When Celia spotted Charles, she hurriedly pulled her hood lower over her head. Christina noticed, and for some reason, removed her own hood and stepped forward.
“Stand down. What do you think you’re doing, Charles Arbor?” she questioned using her position as royalty.
“You’ve played around enough, Princess Christina. You don’t need me to spell it out for you, do you? Your father has ordered for your return, so I’ve come to retrieve you,” Charles replied with a surface-thin air of respect.
“Father did?” Christina asked with a scornful smile. She knew that the order was given by none other than the Arbor family itself.
“Indeed. He wants you to return what you took.”
“...What is he going on about?”
“Well, if you claim you know nothing, we’ll just have to ask your friends. Oh, don’t worry—interrogation is my forte. I’ll dote upon them carefully until they feel like being honest.” With a sadistic smile, Charles looked around at the people beside Christina.
“What a disgusting man...” Christina glared at Charles detestfully.
“What kind of interrogation do you intend on doing? Do you plan on doing the same to my friends?” A pretty blonde boy—the hero, Shigekura Rui, stepped forward and asked Charles.
“Oh, no. Of course, Sir Rui’s friends will be exempted from the interrogation. They wouldn’t know anything about the item Her Highness took off with anyway,” Charles explained to Rui in a slight fluster.
Rui breathed a quiet sigh and called out the names of his friend and upperclassman from the same world. “...Hey, Kouta. Rei, too.”
“Rui...” Kouta grimaced, clenching his fists.
“Why... Why did you come after us?! Why are you here?!” he asked Rui in a pained, irritated voice.
“...I’m here because you two left the castle without a word. As your friend, I was worried. Akane and the others are worried too. That’s why I came.” Rui had a pained look on his face as he answered.
“Friend?” At that word, Kouta frowned.
“I consider you a friend... Do you not feel the same?”
“...I do, I suppose,” Kouta agreed bitterly.
“Then, will you return?” Rui asked anxiously.
Kouta hesitated for a moment, then shook his head firmly. “...No.”
Rui hesitated. “...Then I’ll have to bring you back myself,” he said resolutely.
“H-Huh? Why?” Kouta was taken aback.
“You left the castle without a word out of desperation, even when that meant we might have never met again. I’m worried about you. I also promised Akane I’d bring you back. So, that’s what I’ll do... Then, we can all have a proper conversation about it all,” Rui said eloquently.
“...Then there’s even less of a reason for me to return to the castle. My resolve won’t be hindered by a talk,” Kouta refused bitterly.
“...Is that so?” A dark look lit Rui’s expression.
“Sir Rui was filled with terrible grief when his friends suddenly disappeared. That is another result of your selfish actions, Your Highness. Your father has also been terribly worried since you left the castle. Your departure has caused considerable repercussions, influencing our kingdom in a negative way. For the sake of the kingdom, won’t you return to the castle with me immediately?” Charles said with exaggerated sorrow.
“I refuse.” Christina shook her head bluntly.
“...There’s still time to lessen the punishment of those who have deceived you. Vanessa Emarle and the others... the identity of whom, I do not know.”
Charles flashed the implication that the fate of Christina’s accomplices would be decided by her own response. In explaining so, he looked around at the party’s faces and fixed his gaze on Orphia’s exposed face. The lecherous look in his eyes was probably due to the elf’s beauty.
“...”
Hesitation flashed across Christina’s face. If she dauntlessly stood up against Charles here, Celia, Orphia, and Vanessa’s situation would be worse. That thought caused her to become indecisive.
“Princess Christina, hinting at the use of hostages is an old trick of Charles’,” Celia said.
“Haruto and the others will definitely come. I’ll buy as much time as I can, but everyone should be on the defense,” Orphia said, stepping forward to protect them. She held her bow in her hand, ready to deal with whatever happened.
Vanessa also drew the sword at her waist. “I don’t know how much use I will be, but I shall fight, too. The swordsman standing there may be difficult even for Lady Orphia. It may be a challenge, but don’t let him get close to you. Augendae Corporis—” She stared at her brother, before strengthening her physical abilities with magic.
“Princess Christina, Kouta, Rei—you should get behind me,” Celia said, before standing behind Orphia and Vanessa herself. Then, she braced herself in preparation to use magic at any moment.
“...I don’t want to believe this, but are you saying you have no intention of returning?” Charles looked at their battle-ready stances and sneered at Christina in contempt. Sure enough, Christina took a deep breath.
“...Yes, I have no intention of returning to the castle. Feel free to return by yourself,” she said resolutely.
“What a shame. His Majesty has ordered me to bring you back by force if you are uncooperative. I hope you don’t end up regretting this... Hey, don’t hurt Her Highness and Sir Rui’s two friends. And the woman with the bow, too.”
Charles shook his head sadly, then gave orders to Alfred and the knights and sorcerers around him.
Thus, the fierce battle made its spectacular beginning.
Meanwhile, a little further west of the point where Christina and the others were, Sara and Alma were locked in combat with Reiss’ men.
Arein, Lucci, and Ven were proving to be a problem. However, the other adventurers also had their physical abilities enchanted with magic, so they couldn’t be underestimated. In fact, they weren’t just hired adventurers—they were soldiers Reiss had summoned from a mercenary group precisely for this plan. They had the combat strength of the average knight, not to mention their astonishing teamwork.
“Photon Projectilis!”
They were currently using rapid-fire magic to focus their attacks on Alma.
“How annoying.” Alma evaded the bullets of light and swung her mace, muttering in annoyance. A barrage of this caliber was nothing to her, but it was unpleasant in that it made it difficult for her to move and attack with precision.
“Great—keep that tiny brat in check with magic! We’ll take the silver-haired one in the meantime.” Arein rattled off orders at the adventurers and attacked Sara, whereas Lucci and Ven had gone around the left and right sides in a fierce attack. Chasing Sara, who took a step back to gain distance, the three of them closed in.
These three are slower than me, and yet...
When they attacked all at once, she wasn’t able to be on the offensive. Because she was faster than them, she was able to deal with them if she concentrated on simply evading the men. Sara would definitely have the advantage in a one-on-one battle, but their natural abilities weren’t that different. If she tried to cross swords with them properly in a three-on-one, she’d almost certainly lose. Even two-on-one was a little risky.
She felt just a little bit vexed at that. She still lacked in training, she thought.
“Hah, what a cute face for such a frightening little lady. Aiming for the timing of our counters. But we won’t let things go your way without a fight, you know?” Lucci stared at Sara’s movements, observing her every action.
“...Hm, I wonder about that. I pretty much understand all of your moves now,” Sara objected, pouting her lips.
There’s no helping it. I’ll use spirit arts.
She poured essence into the daggers in her hand. Though she was going to use spirit arts, she was limited by the need to make it look like she was activating the abilities of her enchanted sword. But if she didn’t fuss over using her daggers alone, there was plenty of room for victory.
Sara stepped extra hard against the ground and made the biggest leap backwards yet. Since she had to travel a greater distance, the time that she was in the air was longer. Arein and the other men noticed.
“Uh oh, feeling hasty?” They each held their swords ready and closed in, aiming for the moment Sara landed.
...Now!
The moment Sara landed, she released the essence she had poured into the dagger and thrust her right hand forward.
“W-What?!”
A large sphere of water several meters wide formed in front of Arein and the others. If it collided into their bodies, it was sure to do enough damage to knock them unconscious.
However, the three men reacted immediately, leaping high and twisting themselves to change direction. Once they barely managed to avoid the sphere of water, they used their remaining momentum to run left and right, away from Sara’s side.
“Whoaaa!”
“Is it the unique sorcery of that enchanted sword?!”
“Didn’t it have some kind of speed-related unique sorcery...?”
They all yelled out in relief as they broke out in a cold sweat. For the record, the unique sorcery of an enchanted sword was special combat sorcery embedded within an enchanted sword, separate to its standard physical body enhancing sorcery.
“You let your guard down.” Sara looked at Arein and the others cheerfully, lifting the dagger in her left hand up as she spoke.
“...Huh?”
For a moment, her opponents looked doubtful. No sooner than they did, a shadow was cast over them, drawing their gazes upwards. There were three spheres of water roughly one meter in diameter.
“Ugh, shit...!”
The spheres fell smoothly down over their heads. With a splash, the water burst, directly hitting the three of them.
“So the one from the front was bait...?”
“Ngh...”
“How can you drop something with such accuracy...”
The three of them weren’t knocked unconscious, but they had taken enough damage to prevent them from moving any further.
“Any fully-fledged warrior should be able to freely control the trajectory of the projectiles they create. It’s because you relied on the sorcery in your swords to fight that you were late in detecting the spell that was being used in my left dagger.”
“Shit...”
“This is the end. All that’s left is to assist Alma... but it looks like there’s no need.” Sara glanced over at Alma, who had been evading the essence bullets with ease.
Sara used spirits arts. I have no choice—I guess I will too.
In the next moment, she poured magic essence into her mace and slammed it down on the ground with all her might. The ground instantly split and rose up.
“Wh...?!”
The adventurers that had been volleying the barrage of light at Alma all swallowed their breath. They could no longer see her due to the wall that had risen out of the earth—or so they thought, when Alma suddenly came swooping down over their heads. She landed in the middle of the formation the men had taken with about a two-meter gap and once again slammed the ground.
This time, the earth didn’t rise. Instead, a crater was formed, sinking into the ground and sending a shockwave throughout their surroundings.
“Whoa!” The men were caught in the impact and sent helplessly flying.
“Looks like it’s over,” Alma said coolly. She picked up her mace, which was embedded in the ground, and walked over to Sara.
“That tiny brat really has ridiculous strength...” Lucci muttered from where he lay face-down.
“That’s a rude thing to say to a lady.” Alma huffed in offense. Then, she spotted Ariel flying towards them in the distance.
A little earlier in time, when Sara and Alma were fighting Arein’s group, Rio and Reiss were exchanging fierce blows in the skies above.
Rio was flying at a high speed to cut down Reiss. Reiss manipulated nearly a hundred balls of light to keep Rio in check and prevent him from approaching. Each time Rio accelerated to close the distance between them, multiple balls of light would fill Rio’s vision. However, Rio would track what was in front of him and seize each approaching ball of light without missing a single one. With his incredible reaction time, he evaded every last ball before him.
“Splendid,” Reiss praised while maintaining a safe distance. Rio swung his sword at him, firing a blast of wind, but Reiss dodged the attack easily. This exchange repeated for a minute or so.
“...You don’t actually intend on fighting, do you?” Rio furrowed his brow and asked suspiciously.
“If I didn’t, I would have attacked you in the first place.” Reiss shrugged his shoulders.
“Yet I can’t imagine this as you fighting seriously.”
“No, no. Honestly, this is my current limit. I don’t even remember the last time I had to use this much power. If anything, I’d say you’re the one who isn’t fighting seriously right now, no? That humanoid spirit girl is nowhere to be seen either.”
...How does he know about Aishia? Rio thought, but—
“...I wanted to ask you about Lucius, but if you’re going to move that fast it makes it harder to hold back,” he stated.
“I see. So you wanted to know more about him...” Reiss chuckled.
“I heard you’re the ambassador of the Proxia Empire,” he jabbed.
“Who knows? I’ve also heard that you used to attend the Beltrum Royal Academy,” Reiss countered with a sharp hook.
“...” Shock lit Rio’s eyes.
“Are you wondering how I know that?” Reiss guessed.
“Who knows?”
“All things considered, you’re quite the whimsical one, heading on a journey to save the princess of the kingdom that falsely accused you. I even hinted at your past before Princess Christina back at Cleia, hoping your relationship would sour so we wouldn’t have to fight.”
“I have no idea what you’re going on about. More importantly, if you’re the Proxia Empire’s ambassador, then that means it wouldn’t be strange for Lucius to be in Proxia as well.” Rio feigned ignorance with a poker face, then tried to probe further.
“I wonder about that,” Reiss boasted lightly.
...As expected. Drawing information from this guy will be tough. Rio had no idea what was true and what was a lie.
“...Enough. I’m giving up on seizing you alive,” Rio said, readying his sword.
“Hahaha, that’s some impressive bloodlust. You were more amazing when you faced him in Amande, but this is also quite considerable... It’s like the sleeping dragon has finally woken. I do not wish to die, so I’ll be resisting.” Reiss’ expression turned the most serious it had been yet. He created countless balls of light at a smaller size than they had been until now, and fired them at Rio.
Rio covered himself in a barrier of wind and did a vigorous barrel roll towards Reiss, knocking all the balls of light away.
“Haha, what a terrible torrent of essence. How violent indeed...”
By making use of his tremendous magic essence capacity, he rushed forward at a speed too fast to follow with the eyes to overwhelm the opponent with pure power. Charging forward for only that purpose. How else could this be described if not violent?
In order to escape Rio, who had closed in on him in an instant, Reiss tried to fly swiftly. However, Rio’s speed surpassed Reiss’.
Rio kicked Reiss with all his might. The bones of the arm he had kicked creaked.
“Ngah!” A groan slipped from Reiss’ mouth, his body blown towards the ground with the force of the kick. He proceeded to crash into and roll along the ground.
Rio moved in to add a merciless follow-up attack, lowering his altitude. At that, Reiss summoned three of the largest balls of light yet around him, bombarding them at Rio.
The first one was evaded by a twist of Rio’s body. The one following that was mowed down with an essence-filled swing of his sword. As for the final ball, a blast of wind was released from the tip of his sword, blowing it back and towards Reiss, who had fallen against the ground.
The rebounded ball of light crashed into the spot where Reiss was and opened a hole in the floor. If Reiss hadn’t moved, his whole body would’ve been disintegrated.
However, Reiss had evaded towards the side just before the ball came down, then proceeded in his counter charge towards Rio. He gathered magic essence in his right hand, raising it like a sword to challenge Rio head-on. The next moment, the two crossed each other mid air, and the result—
“...See? I knew I would lose, in all probability.”
Reiss’ detached arm went soaring through the air. Reiss grabbed his sliced off arm and immediately distanced himself from Rio. The damage from being kicked against the ground and having his arm sliced off meant he was in quite a state right now.
And yet, there wasn’t a glimpse of pain in his expression. His flippant smile hadn’t wavered at all. He was a truly unnerving man.
“How about you surrender already? Your men over there have been cleaned up by my comrades. If you want to reattach your arm, you should probably do that soon. I can save you in exchange for information.” Rio glanced at Sara and Alma as he spoke. Their battle had just ended, the men Reiss had brought along all lying battered on the ground.
“Information, is it? Then how about this: your friends that left first are running in the direction of thousands of soldiers, led by Charles,” Reiss said, chuckling eerily.
“...No way.” Instead of treating those words as a bluff to get out of this situation, Rio had a bad feeling. Just then, Sara and Alma came running over.
“Haruto! Orphia and the others are...!” they yelled with terribly panicked faces.
“I’ll go ahead! You two come as soon as possible!”
Rio abandoned Reiss immediately and used wind spirit arts to accelerate himself towards Celia and the others. Sara and Alma exchanged looks and nodded, then followed him.
“Now, I’ve bought as much time as I could. Who knows how things will end up.” Reiss’ utterly exhausted voice echoed vacantly.
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