Ambush

Ambush

Ambush

When morning came, the High Priest had an audience with Baron Blon where he would give him one of the smaller chalices. That was all we needed to do for farming towns under the rule of nobles. In the past when the temple had an excess of priests and shrine maidens, they were also sent to the farming towns of nobles. But the current mana shortage was so limiting that this was no longer the case, especially given that they had lent mana to other duchies as well.

Apparently, we only had to directly deliver the blessings of the large chalice to the chiefs of towns that gathered in collective winter homes in the Central District—that is, the land within the duchy ruled directly by the archduke and no other noble. The ruling nobles elsewhere could activate the smaller chalices themselves.

...If all nobles had mana and could fill up the smaller chalices, what was the point in the temple performing some excessively grand Offering Ceremony and then delivering the filled-up chalices to them? Even assuming there was some reason they were unable to fill them up themselves, why not just hand them out before the nobles returned to their provinces to save ourselves the effort of having to deliver them? It didn’t make sense.

I acted like I understood, but on the inside I really didn’t. In the end I just nodded and kept that to myself, figuring that there was probably an explanation behind why they did tedious work for apparently no reason.

Once the High Priest finished his meeting with Baron Blon, we spent the rest of the day flying around the grain-producing region of the Central District where the largest farming villages were. Then, after performing the Spring Prayer at five commoner winter mansions, we once again went to a farming town ruled by a noble and stayed the night. When morning came, the High Priest had an audience with the noble and handed over another chalice.

We went through the same Spring Prayer process the next day, and the day after that. Then, we were done with the farming towns in the District.

“Starting tomorrow, we will only be visiting the mansions of nobles,” the High Priest said with a somewhat grim expression.

We generally traveled on highbeasts while going through noble territory, but for some reason that was beyond my fathoming, we would occasionally travel only by carriage. And when we were on our way to some noble mansions, we got into carriages a short distance away from the mansion to act as though we had been traveling by carriage the entire time.

In those cases, the High Priest told me to hide my face under the kind of veil worn by noble daughters, and when the bumpy carriage arrived at the mansion, only I, the High Priest, Fran, and Arno would go inside; Sylvester and the knights would stay behind in the carriages. I was worried that Sylvester would cause a fuss since he was always so eager for attention, but he would always wait in the carriage without protest.

“Viscount Gerlach’s mansion is our next destination, and we shall arrive by carriage. Let us be off,” said the High Priest as we rode atop our highbeasts. It was early in the morning and he had just delivered a chalice to a certain noble, and we were now speeding through the skies to catch up with the carriage that had left before us. He had explained that the carriages had magical tools within them that allowed the High Priest to detect their location from long distances.

We rendezvoused with the carriages without any issue. We always sat such that Karstedt and Sylvester were in one carriage while I was seated in another carriage with Damuel and the High Priest. That was apparently the best distribution for defensive and offensive purposes. Combat was entirely out of my wheelhouse, so I just took their word for it.

“Viscount Gerlach expressed great interest in you, Myne. He specifically asked for you to visit his land during the Spring Prayer, but know that he is quite close with the High Bishop. You would do well to be on guard around him.” The High Priest seemed to be pretty on edge, as he instructed me to pull the veil down to cover even more of my face than usual.

We were summoned to see Viscount Gerlach as soon as we arrived, so the High Priest, Arno, Fran, and I made our way to the mansion, leaving the carriages behind us.

“Aah, good Brother Ferdinand! Thank you for traveling so long a way to see me. Is this the apprentice shrine maiden I’ve heard so many rumors about?”

Perhaps due to confirmation bias, the man’s voice sounded sticky and nasty to me. I couldn’t see his face at all since I was kneeling and the veil was still covering my face. The most I could see out of the corner of my eyes was the bottom of his legs, but all that told me was that he seemed a little plump.

“You’ll be staying the night, yes?” he continued. “I welcome you readily!”

“Unfortunately, we are pressed for time and will be leaving immediately. We shall be staying at Count Leisegang’s residence tonight.” The High Priest handed over the chalice, then cut the conversation short and left immediately. He had handled the entire process from start to finish, so it all ended without me even seeing Gerlach’s face.

We departed from Gerlach’s mansion before noon, but it wasn’t until late that evening that we arrived at the summer mansion of Count Leisegang in the neighboring province. I had been traveling by highbeast so frequently I hadn’t quite realized just how slow the carriages were by comparison. The High Priest said we were traveling by carriage because he didn’t want us to arrive before our attendants had finished preparing our rooms, but judging by the way he kept looking behind us, I figured there was another reason.

Apparently Count Leisegang’s province was larger than any other noble’s in the duchy, but the building set aside for the priests who only visited twice a year was as small as we had grown accustomed to, and I slept in a room for servants once again. The High Priest had me drink one of his concocted potions for fear of what effect my exhaustion might have on my health and, as a result, I slept soundly until morning and woke up feeling great.

On that refreshing morning, the High Priest immediately called me to his room and passed over a sound-muting magic tool.

“Brigands entered Karstedt’s room late last night,” he said, but I was the only one who tilted their head in confusion. Everyone else wore grim expressions, seeming to suggest they knew already.

“Brigands? Like, thieves or something?”

“No, they were kidnappers looking for you,” explained Karstedt. “It was two men, and they tried to leave the second they saw that the bump in the bed was too big to be you. I jumped out of bed on the spot and tried to capture them, but...” Karstedt trailed off and looked at me like it was hard for him to say what had happened next.

“Did they get away from you?”

“No. I caught one and left him to Lord Ferdinand, then tailed after the other from a distance, thinking I would glean what information I could. There were horses in the forest east of the mansion, and he raced away on one. I summoned my highbeast and went to pursue him, but the second I did, he exploded along with his horse.”

“...Bwuh?” My mind rejected the last part of his sentence, not wanting to understand it. He exploded along with his horse? It just didn’t make sense.

Sylvester, seeing that I had frozen in place, continued. “And the man Karstedt caught killed himself while Ferdinand was disarming him. When the one who got away died from an explosion, everything was over.”

“I thought about not informing you, but as you are their target, I decided it would be best that you are aware of the situation,” said the High Priest. “Given that they knew where you were staying, we can conclude that Viscount Gerlach is behind this. Myne, be on your guard.”

He had declared the culprit flat-out in such an authoritative tone. I slowly looked around at all those gathered, holding a hand against my chest as if to contain the fear and anxiety coursing through me.

“...Is there no chance that Count Leisegang is the culprit?” I asked, but Karstedt shot the idea down with a firm shake of his head.

“No chance at all. They are family on my mother’s side; they would never bring harm to anyone accompanying me.”

We finished a hard-to-eat breakfast, then departed from Leisegang’s mansion. Our next night would be spent in the province at the very southern end of the duchy. We sent our carriages in that direction, then spent the morning and afternoon visiting one noble mansion after another.

“Now, let us rejoin with the carriages.”

We finished our business with no problem at all, and the High Priest turned his highbeast to the road so that we could catch up to our carriages heading for the duchy’s southern tip.

After a minute of flying, a red beam of light shot directly up into the sky. Everyone’s expressions changed—that was the red light the Knight’s Order used to call for aid.

“Ambush!” roared Karstedt, speeding up his highbeast in an instant. His griffon shot straight for where the red light had come from.

“Follow us!” yelled the High Priest as he soared past us on his lion.

Panicking at the thought of being left behind, I turned to look at Damuel with my hands on the reins. “Sir Damuel, we must hurry as well!”

“...I don’t have the amount of mana needed to go that fast.”

“Then use mine.” I tightened my grip on the reins, desperate to get going, and immediately felt my mana flow out of me. The winged horse’s speed shot right up.

“Thanks!”

The road weaved between a forest and rolling plains, and after a moment I could see a group of carriages at the edge of my vision. Inside were Fran, Rosina, Hugo, and Ella... but the carriages were surrounded by some strange black mist.

“What’s that black stuff?!” I called out to Damuel. We had finally caught up to the others, but we were moving so fast that they probably couldn’t hear me.

“That’s a God of Darkness barrier. It drains mana, so magic-based attacks do nothing to it. The fact the ambushing force can make something like that means they must have nobles with them. Attacking at all will be hard until we figure out what kind of mana we’re dealing with,” said Damuel, his voice worryingly tense.

It was then that about a hundred weapon-wielding people—farmers, maybe—surged out from the forest and rushed toward the carriages. The very thought that Fran and the others were in danger made my head go blank, and I had Damuel pull on the reins to bring the highbeast I was riding up next to the High Priest.

“High Priest! If your magic won’t work on the carriage, please use it to knock out those men instead!”

“Wait! Those might be citizens of this duchy, y’know?!” Sylvester protested with a stunned look, but I just gave him the hardest glare I could. Those thugs were trying to hurt people I cared about; I didn’t care who they were.

“Fran and Rosina are way more important to me than they are! I just have to pray to the gods to make magic happen, right?!” I thought about which god I should pray to as I started to unleash the mana pent up inside of me. It flowed through and started to fill my body, making my ring and bracelet shine.

“Ferdinand!” Sylvester roared. “Stop her before it’s too late!”

“Nothing can stop her now!” the High Priest shot back.

“Nothing?! We have no idea how many will die if she launches an attack with that much mana! It’ll be a declaration of war if her attack crosses the duchy border! At the very least, buy me enough time to strengthen the border barrier!”

“She cannot be stopped, but we can influence the direction of her rampage,” the High Priest said quietly. He brought his lion closer to our winged horse and looked at me. “Myne! If you wish to protect Fran and the others, pray to the wind!”

Since I hadn’t yet decided on a god to pray to, the image of Wilma’s Goddess of Wind sprung to mind, accompanied by the research I had done myself.

Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind was the Goddess of Autumn. Once the Goddess of Spring was dispersed, it was she who protected her little sister, the Goddess of Earth, as the God of Life regained his strength. She held back the God of Life and his ice and snow with her shield of wind until the harvest was over. Unlike the Goddess of Water who washed away the snow and ice that imprisoned the Goddess of Earth, she could be called a goddess specialized in defense and protection. She was the perfect one for me to pray to right now.

I glared at the line of carriages covered in black mist, then inhaled deeply. ...I’ll protect Fran and the others no matter what!

“O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, protector of all. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side...”

I began my prayer by saying her name and could instantly feel the mana swelling within me take shape—power meant to protect what’s important to me, not attack my foes, flowed from my entire body to my left arm, where it began to stir like a whirlpool.

“Myne! Form the shield over the God of Darkness barrier, so that your mana isn’t consumed!” warned the High Priest.

I gave a small nod while keeping my eyes on the mist beneath me. Thanks to the prayers I had been forced to memorize for rituals, the words flowed easily out of my mouth.

“Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength. Grant me your shield of wind, so that I might blow away those who mean to cause ill.”

The yellow feystone on the bracelet the High Priest had given me shone the brightest, for it was the divine color of Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind. My mana surged, turning into dazzling bright light and shooting straight for the carriages. I imagined a large dome covering the black barrier but not touching it, as suggested by the High Priest, and the mana moved according to my thoughts like paint on a brush. A sharp metallic sound filled the air and the round dome was complete. From above, it looked like the carriages and black mist were trapped within a divine shield carved into clear amber.

“Hyaaaah!” The armed men continued pressing forward, perhaps not noticing the new barrier or perhaps being too caught up in their charge to stop. The ones at the front were the first to hit the barrier. They were immediately knocked back by strong winds, sending them all flying.

“Nguh?!”

“Wh-What was that?!”

Some had been thrown back several meters, others had fallen backwards and sent the people behind them toppling over like dominoes. They looked at the shield of wind in confusion, having no idea what had just happened.

“...It’s magnificent,” said Karstedt with somewhat widened eyes as he watched from above. His opinion of the shield protecting Fran and Rosina matched mine entirely.

“Right?! You think so too, Lord Karstedt?! I would expect nothing less from Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind’s shield! Prayers of gratitude to the goddess who protected Fran and Rosina!”

“That’s enough praying from you!” Sylvester yelled angrily the second I threw up my hands in excitement over the shield, which was much more powerful than I had anticipated.

...But wasn’t it important to pray to and thank the gods after they had lent me their power? I kept that thought to myself and peered down to see the armed men charging the shield once more. They were blown away by the strong winds once again, knocking over the people behind them as they flew back. It took a few more charges before they finally stopped trying.

“I just sensed mana in the forest,” said Damuel, sending everyone looking his way. His sensing mana meant that someone had tried to use it to interfere with the wind shield, or to otherwise protect someone from the rampaging winds. I had been told that it was hard for those with a lot of mana to detect amounts much smaller than their own; Damuel as a laynoble could sense it, but nobody else felt any mana being used in the forest.

Everyone’s expressions hardened, and the High Priest gave his orders while looking at us one by one. “Sylvester, Karstedt, and I will go search the forest. Damuel, you stay here in the air and protect Myne!”

“Yes, sir!” Damuel gave a firm nod, but Sylvester yelled “No!” and shook his head.

“Damuel, come here a little!” said Sylvester before suddenly standing up on the High Priest’s lion. Then, so nimbly it seemed almost unnatural, he leapt toward our winged horse’s widely stretched out wings.

“Gyah?! What are you doing?! That’s dangerous!”

Perhaps due to being made out of stone, the winged horse didn’t shake or falter at all from Sylvester landing on its wing. He walked this way at a speedy pace, keeping his arms stretched out to maintain balance.

“You’re in the way,” exclaimed Sylvester as he stuck his hands under my armpits, raising me up high and swinging me side to side. I had no idea what was happening as the world shook around me; all I could do was blink.

He then yelled “Ferdinand, catch!” and before I knew it, he had thrown me at the height of one of his swings. Into the empty air, that is.

“...Um?”

I had been thrown into the air with no time to prepare myself. I just stared at the sky in front of me, unblinking. There was no point in me reaching out my arms, since there was nothing for me to grab on to. All I could see was the big blue sky stretching in every direction.

“Apprentice?!”

In slow motion, I saw Damuel stretching out his hands for me, seeming just as shocked as I was while Sylvester jumped over his head to sit behind him.

For an instant after being thrown I floated in the air, but gravity soon got its grip on me and I started to fall. My hair slapped my face as the wind rushed around my body, and the sudden pain knocked me back to my senses. I gasped, realizing that I had been thrown on a cordless bungee jump without any concern for my safety or emotional well-being.

“GYAAAAAAAAH!”

“There we go.” The High Priest moved his highbeast and caught me, having predicted from Sylvester’s throw where I would fall. I probably hadn’t fallen more than a meter, but it felt like a hundred to me.

Being thrown into the empty air with no way of saving myself had been so scary that I instinctively clung to the High Priest for protection. But even though he had caught me, my body still trembled helplessly in fear.

“Th-That was... terrifying...”

“I would imagine so.” The High Priest patted my back comfortingly as I clung to him. But hearing the source of my terror, Sylvester, speak again sent my body trembling.

“Ferdinand, you stay here! Whoever’s in the forest might be a decoy!”

“Very well.”

“The border is close. We’ll catch them before they escape. Come, Karstedt!”

“Sir!” Karstedt gave a short response, and they both flew to the forest on their highbeasts.

The High Priest spoke in a quiet voice while watching them go. “What he did was reckless, but it was a decision founded in logic prioritizing your safety. Forgive him, for me.”

“Wha?”

“Those in the forest do not have much more mana than Damuel. It is ideal for him to be there to detect their location. Furthermore, if the casters there are indeed a decoy, it would be dangerous to leave you and Damuel on your own.”

The High Priest scanned our surroundings without letting his guard down for a moment. I could tell that I really was in danger, and that now wasn’t the time for me to be quivering in fear.

“Myne, could you pray with me for their success in battle?” The High Priest pointed out something we could do while staying protected in the air, and I responded with a small nod. Doing something to help would distract me from how scared I was.

Once the High Priest taught me the words to the prayer, we chanted it together.

“O God of War Angriff, of the God of Fire Leidenschaft’s exalted twelve, we pray that you grant them your divine protection.”

The bracelets the High Priest and I were wearing shone with blue light, beams of which shot from the blue feystones on them. They spiraled around each other, shooting toward where the others had gone.

Sylvester swung his shining wand over the forest and sent a large red bird flying away from him. I watched on, thinking it looked a lot like a phoenix, and saw it spread its wings wide before seemingly melting into thin air. A transparent red wall seemed to appear from where the bird had spread its wings. Then, a yellow, equally large bird shot out of his wand as well, spinning in the air while crumbling and sending shining powder raining down beneath it.

Karstedt had turned his shining wand into a two-handed broadsword at the same time the red bird had become a wall. The massive blade shone with all the colors of the rainbow, and he swung it while roaring a battle cry.

“GRAAAAAAAAH!”

Dazzling light blasted out of his sword and shot right down into the forest.