Bonus Short Stories

Defense of the Northernmost Fortress

A lone elf stood at the top of a fortress, glaring out across the empty land that stretched all the way to the horizon. Not a single moving thing in sight.

This was the northernmost fortress on the continent of Rohzenheim. For fifty years the Demon Lord Army had thrown itself against its walls, and for fifty years it had stood proud and unassailable. The scale of the fortress was matched by very few elsewhere in the world—it could house a million troops and was surrounded by towering walls a hundred meters high, keeping out all monsters regardless of size.

Normally, a staggering amount of time and labor would be required to construct a fortress of this magnitude. And yet, this particular one had been created by a single elf. It was said that he had possessed the Talent of Grand Spirit User, so beloved by the spirits that he could evoke them strongly enough that they had physical forms. This fortress was one of the miracles that he had performed through the power of the spirits.

The sound of footprints approached from behind. “Ah, so this is where you were, Field Marshall Lukdraal. It is almost time for the strategy meeting, sir.”

“Mm.” The elf nodded and turned around. He appeared to be over fifty years old and was clad in armor. This was Lukdraal, the most senior commander at this fortress.

When he entered the war room, he found the other generals and officers already waiting for him. After greeting everyone, he took his seat.

“The air wasn’t good up there. The spirits seemed pained,” he commented.

The elves lived closely with the spirits. Although Field Marshall Lukdrahl could not exactly manifest them, he could still sense them somewhat.

“I see, sir. Speaking of which, and I’m not sure whether this is related to this push by the Demon Lord Army, but the monsters are behaving differently than usual,” one of the scouting party leaders reported.

“What do you mean? Elaborate.”

“Yes, sir. We’re still in the middle of confirming, but we might be dealing with a much larger force this time.”

According to the scout, the number of besieging monsters was the same as it had been every year. However, instead of immediately landing and rushing toward this fortress, this time they were standing by in the open sea just offshore. If they were doing so to wait for reinforcements, it would mean a much greater force was going to assault the fortress in one massive push.

“I see. Perhaps we should brace ourselves for at least double the usual numbers,” Lukdraal replied pensively. “I’ll contact Fortenia myself.”

“As in, more than a million, sir?” One of the generals gulped. The Demon Lord Army usually sent 500,000 troops each year.

“Mm. They must have figured that increasing their numbers by only a little wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

If the Demon Lord Army had finally gotten serious about capturing this fortress that had not fallen once in fifty years, the idea to send double their usual numbers did not seem all that far-fetched.

“This is going to be one tough fight indeed.”

“And we do not have much time to prepare. Proceed with preparations immediately; there’s no need to wait for the next report from the scouts. We can’t have the troops returning to the World Tree just yet.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“Also, begin evacuating all nearby villages.”

“Y-You mean to say we will fall?”

“It never hurts to be extra cautious.”

Right outside Rohzenheim’s capital, Fortenia, was a massive tree that reached all the way to the sky called the World Tree. This tree, said to have nurtured even Sovereign Rohzen, was one of the objects of the elves’ worship. They believed that when they died, they would return to and become one with the World Tree. To that effect, they strongly desired to be in view of the World Tree when they died.

The World Tree was not visible from this fortress. Field Marshall Lukdraal urged his subordinates to make all possible preparations so that the troops could survive at least until they returned to the shade of the World Tree. He then headed off to use the magic tool meant for communication between this northern fortress and the elven capital to make his report.

＊ ＊ ＊

Several days later, as the elven force continued shoring up their defenses, Field Marshall Lukdraal received a report from a colonel who led a battalion of scouts.

“I see, three million. That’s six times their usual annual number. I suppose this means the Demon Lord Army is finally getting serious about wiping us out.”

“So it seems, sir. What should we do?”

The monsters not only crowded the shore of the continent, but they obscured the ocean surface all the way to the horizon. This fortress was not all that far from the coastline. Once the Demon Lord Army began marching, they would arrive here in no time at all.

“If they’re coming, then they’re coming. We have no choice but to fight. I’ll contact Her Majesty.”

The evacuation of the nearby villages was still ongoing. If this fortress fell, it would lead to a massive number of casualties. In preparation for the worst, Lukdraal made sure to keep in constant contact with Fortenia. After giving his report, Field Marshall Lukdraal also requested that the capital take over directing the evacuation process.

＊ ＊ ＊

Not long after, the tide of monsters arrived, their footsteps shaking the ground as much as the hearts of the brave elves. Even so, the soldiers shored up their resolve, galvanizing themselves with the sole thought of protecting their homeland.

The monsters continued their relentless approach. Five hundred meters. One hundred meters. All too soon, they were at the castle walls.

“Tell the archers to maintain ranks and fire in volleys! The Spirit Mages are to focus fire on the big lunks! Watch out for the boulders that the monsters are throwing! Remind the Healing Mages to heal those on the front line as quickly as possible!”

After quickly analyzing the assaulting force, Field Marshall Lukdrahl swiftly determined the best method of attack and began barking out orders to the waiting generals. It was time for the elves to demonstrate why this northern fortress had never fallen since its erection more than fifty years ago.

The elves’ fighting style placed a heavy emphasis on defense, as they had a lot more people with Talents that dealt damage from a distance rather than up close. Those with the Archer and Bow Master classes lined the ramparts, numbering more than a hundred thousand in total. With a single command, they drew their bows and loosed their arrows as one, creating a cloud of projectiles that pierced the foreheads of Rank B monsters with incredible accuracy.

Standing behind the archers were battalions of elves who manipulated Spirit Magic. They called on the power of the spirits and filled the air with fireballs that reduced whole swathes of the monster army to mere charcoal.

However, the monsters were hardly just sitting still and doing nothing. The massive ones with great strength, such as orc kings and trolls, lobbed boulders and massive spears with enough force to fly up a hundred meters and reach the top of the wall. It was the job of the Healing Mages to tend to the troops who got wounded by these attacks.

No matter how many monsters there were, the elves swore they would hold fast as long as needed. If they failed, it would lead to the death of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of their countrymen. Failure was not an option, so the soldiers fought on with all they had.

＊ ＊ ＊

Half a day later, the elves were still going strong and steadily adding to the corpses strewn before their walls.

“Hmph, it’s the same battle all over again. How uninspiring.” A figure murmured as he surveyed the battle from a position beyond sight of the elves.

“So it seems, Lord Rehzel.”

“As expected, we can’t make any further headway attacking the same way as before. Glaster, tell the orc generals to ‘move the mountains.’”

“Sir, yes, sir!” The man that Rehzel called Glaster saluted before turning around to face Rank A monsters wearing crowns and cloaks. “Orc generals! Move the mountains!”

“Groooaaaaawwwww!”

When the orc generals passed the order down to them, the orc kings promptly began gathering their dead—and nearly dead—comrades in enormous piles. By continuously piling up the corpses ahead, the piles soon became mountains. Once the mountains grew sufficiently large enough, the orcs dug their feet in and began to push them forward, effectively using their comrades as shields. The closer they got to the fortress’s walls, the taller the mountains grew—until they eventually reached the height of the ramparts.

The elves stared in astonishment. They desperately blasted the mountains with fire balls and everything else on hand, but ultimately failed to collapse or destroy them. Soon enough, the piles of corpses crashed against the walls, now serving as ramps for the enemy forces to charge onto the parapets. With their defenses overcome, the elves’ lines collapsed.

In this way, the northernmost fortress, which had remained impregnable for over fifty years, fell within a single day. The Demon Lord Army’s invasion of Rohzenheim had begun in earnest.

Meruru’s Overseas Exchange

Meruru was born in a port town close to the Baukisian imperial capital. She was a first-year student at the Baukisian Academy and was back home for spring break.

“Hey, Meruru! Wake up! Dad’s coming home!”

Meruru’s brother called out to her, jolting her awake. After staying up late the night before, she had completely overslept.

She sat up in bed and stretched. “All right, I’m up now! Don’t leave me behind!”

Seeing her brothers file outside, Meruru quickly hurried after them in a fluster, still rubbing her bleary eyes. By the time she stepped outside, her siblings were already far ahead.

“Urgh! I said don’t leave me behind!” she grumbled when she finally caught up to her family, breathing heavily.

Her mother gave her an amused look and sighed. “Meruru, I told you yesterday that your dad’s coming home today, right?”

This caused Meruru’s four brothers to burst out in laughter. The six of them were currently heading toward the harbor. When they got close, they found the area already packed with other dwarves.

For a second, Meruru thought she felt the ground shake. She wondered if she had imagined it, but the reactions of her brothers proved otherwise. All of them kept their eyes fixated on the ocean, eventually noticing a massive form emerging from the surface of the waves.

“Hey! I see it!”

“The golem’s coming up out of the ocean!”

“Huh? It’s carrying something over its shoulder.”

Meruru’s brothers became increasingly excited as the approaching form grew larger and larger. Soon enough, the golem reached the shore and set foot onto land. Meruru looked up as well, her eyes full of adoration and amazement.

“It’s hu—whoa! The golem caught the sea serpent!”

The golem was shouldering a monster almost thirty meters long. It approached the spectators until it was almost within arm’s reach, then gave the crowd a good look at the broken neck of the sea serpent. Their cheers rose another decibel as the onlookers heaped praise and thanks on the pilot of the golem.

According to the conversations going on all around, this sea serpent had settled close by and was terrorizing the area, so the navy had dispatched a golem to kill it.

The golem then headed off deeper into the town, bringing the sea serpent along. After it had gone quite a distance, a voice shouted from the direction of the port. “Heyyyyy Kanana! Kids!”

“Oh, honey!”

A dwarven man within the crowd disembarking from a ship had noticed Meruru’s group and was walking over while waving an arm energetically. It was Neneku, Meruru’s father.

“You all came to welcome me back?! Damn, I’m one happy man!”

“What? Nah, dad, we only came to see the golem. It was so freaking cool!”

“I dare you to say that again!” Neneku caught his jokester son in a clinch with a grappling move, making the rest of his family burst into laughter. “And Meruru! You’re back too!”

“Right?” Kanana said, pulling a troubled face. “And she said she wouldn’t come home!”

“Dad! Mom!” Meruru pouted at her reception even though she had gone to the trouble of making the trip. She could not protest much further, however, as she had indeed sent a letter a while back telling her parents that while she did have a spring break, she would not be coming home.

The family then began to trace their steps home, now with Neneku part of the group.

“Honey, how long will you be home this time?”

“Well...quite a while, I think. They said that our ship needs maintenance.”

“I see.” Kanana breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“Dear, you do realize that if I don’t head out, I don’t get paid, right?”

When they got home, the family ate lunch together. After having missed breakfast due to oversleeping, Meruru now found her plate loaded with more fukaman, a dwarven fare of steamed buns, than ususal. She smiled gratefully at her mom before turning to her newly returned father. “Was it tough living on the ship, dad?”

“Well, the expedition wasn’t that long this time. The sea serpent wasn’t too far out at sea, so things we didn't have to go quite so far. I’ve been through worse.”

Neneku was a low-ranking soldier in the Baukisian navy. He did not possess a Talent—in fact, Meruru was the only Talented member of this family. The golems of Baukis served as the main fighting force against the Demon Lord Army and any monsters wreaking havoc off the country’s shores. However, the navy was not entirely composed of golem pilots—it had a large variety of positions for the Talentless, such as manning ships to take golem pilots to the locations where they were to be deployed. The salaries of these grunt soldiers were much lower than that of the pilots, but Neneku and Kanana had managed to earn enough to raise five children.

Meruru’s brothers were maintenance workers employed at a nearby naval port that had been expanded in response to the invasions from the Demon Lord Army. As it was a job that hired by the day and saw very little danger, their pay was even lower than their father’s.

It was thanks to the support of all her family members that Meruru was attending the Academy. She possessed the very rare Talent of Talos General. In order to prevent aristocrats from gaining undue leverage over Talented, the Five Continent Alliance had expressly forbidden countries and nobles from fully subsidizing students’ tuition fees.

If the Academy had been able to lend out a golem to Meruru, she might have been able to earn a bit of her own living from the dungeons, but this was apparently still beyond her reach. Therefore, it was her family who was paying the remainder of her tuition, all without saying a word to her and acting as if it was the only natural thing to do.

Halfway through the meal, Meruru spoke up. “Dad, mom, um...I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Her dad turned to give her his undivided attention.

The truth was that everyone in the family already knew that something must have happened with Meruru for her to come home. They had simply chosen to continue interacting with her in the same way as before until she felt comfortable enough to bring it up herself. After all, she had previously told them that she would not be coming home due to how expensive the magic ship cost for a round trip. For the same reason, she had not come home when it had been summer break the previous year. And yet, here was Meruru, showing up all of a sudden when spring break was almost over.

Everyone looked at Meruru.

“I, um, am thinking of going on an overseas exchange. Because the Academy said it would subsidize everything.” In an roundabout way, Meruru was implying that her family would no longer have to pay for her tuition. Her homeroom teacher had confirmed that the subsidy from the school would be enough to cover her tuition and living costs all the way to her graduation.

“Huh? So you’re leaving for somewhere?” Her father, as well as her mother and brothers, all looked at Meruru with worry in their eyes.

In an attempt to reassure them, Meruru said in a joking tone, “Yeah, but I figured that it’s all the same in that it’s not here, you know. I think it’s a country named Ratash.”

“I see. Guess we made you worry.”

“Of course not! Thank you for raising me all this time. When I earn a ton of money with my Talent, I’ll send some home!” Meruru grinned and flexed her bicep.

Baukis was a country that spared no expenses in spending money on its Talented and high achievers, and Meruru’s Talent was said to be one in ten million.

“Whoa, whoa, getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren’t cha? And don’t worry about sending money home. I’m still working, and so are your brothers.” Neneku chuckled before changing the topic. “So then, how was life at the Academy?” He gave his wife and sons a look, conveying that they should send Meruru off with peace of mind.

“Oh, did you know? In order to pilot a golem, I need to use a magic tool that looks like a round plate. It’s called a magic disc.” With her usual smile, Meruru proceeded to gush about all her experiences in the past year.

And so, after getting a warm send-off from her family, Meruru headed to the Ratashian Academy where she would eventually meet Allen.