Chapter 5: The Fires of Farewell

A few days had passed since the end of the festival, and our reconnaissance unit had just returned from Trisphede. According to their report, Salekhard was in the process of tightening their rule over Trisphede Castle.

Since Salekhard was located up north, they’d had their sights set on the northern territories of Trisphede and Évrard for a while now; hence why Reggie had speculated that Salekhard was aiding Llewyne’s invasion in exchange for Trisphede.

Now that the Llewynians had retreated to Trisphede with their ally, they’d been communicating via boat with the province west of Delphion, Kilrea. Word had it that they were planning a two-pronged attack on Delphion from Trisphede and Kilrea. However, due to a kerfuffle currently unfolding at the royal capital, the Llewynians were in no immediate position to assemble in Delphion.

The explanation was a surprising one.

“There’s going to be a coronation for the queen? But wasn’t the kingdom of Llewyne planning to annex Farzia?” Lord Azure’s voice reverberated throughout a reception hall within Delphion Castle.

We were holding a meeting to plan around the results of our scouting mission. Reggie, the generals, and I were all there. Cain was present, given his role as my partner, and Reggie’s royal guard was in attendance as well.

Standing one step away from the long meeting table was the knight who had led the scouting troop. He answered, “Apparently not. It seems that Her Majesty intends to become our new ruler. She’s promised the Farzian nobles under her heel that she will let them retain possession of their provinces. The territories occupied by the Llewynian army will then be allocated to Llewynian nobles.”

“Perhaps her plan is to win over the nobility of Farzia,” Reggie speculated.

“But do you really think Llewyne would acknowledge Queen Marianne as the sovereign of Farzia? Up until now, they’ve annexed each and every one of their enemies, absorbing them into their own country,” Alan added.

Neither one of them looked terribly convinced.

“Does this mean the king of Llewyne and Queen Marianne had a falling out?” Lord Enister wondered aloud.

“It’s always possible they had planned to rule independently from the start,” said Jerome.

Something felt off about all this, and I furrowed my brow. If ruling Farzia had been the queen’s plan from the start, I figured she would have gone about it a different way—for example, assassinating Reggie, then taking out the king next. If the royal family was taken out of the picture in one fell swoop, instating the queen as a provisional ruler would be the natural flow of events. Was there any particular reason why she had to overrun the country with Llewynian soldiers instead?

Judging by his skepticism, Reggie was thinking the same thing.

“Due to the coronation ceremony, it should take some time for a sufficient number of soldiers to gather in Kilrea. We heard the Llewynians joking that if the attack on Delphion is put off too much longer, they may just have to spend the winter in Trisphede.” That ended the knight’s report.

After a stretch of silence, Lord Enister said, “If we’re going to make a move, now’s the time. They’ve got their guard down, and it ought to take a good long while for their reinforcements to show up. This is too good an opportunity to pass up.”

Everyone other than me nodded in wordless agreement.

“Did you learn anything of relevance from the Trisphedean girl?” Lord Azure asked.

Reggie responded, “She overheard a few comments of interest, but not as much as I’d hoped.”

“I see.” Perhaps Lord Azure had held high hopes for Ada’s intel; disappointed, he cast his gaze downward.

“If your troops were to leave now, Your Highness, Delphion would likely find itself under attack by Salekhard, putting us right back where we started. It would be of great help to us if you could subjugate the northern province of Trisphede, at the very least. I do wish I could contribute more soldiers toward the effort, but we have Kilrea to worry about, too.”

It was only natural for Ernest, the new baron of Delphion, to be preoccupied with Kilrea. If we focused all our attention on Trisphede, the Llewynians were likely to invade from his other neighbor instead.

“I fully understand the need to defend your border, Baron. I would, however, like to know how exactly you plan to divvy up your men,” Reggie prompted.

Ernest answered straightaway. “Yes, sire. The plan is to seal off the Kilrean border with a force of two thousand men. Emmeline will command the march on Trisphede, bringing three thousand soldiers with her.”

“That leaves your defenses fairly thin,” Alan remarked, folding his arms. “We’re supposed to have reinforcements from allied provinces arriving soon. They number five thousand in total, and it should take them another week or so to get here. Perhaps it’s better to have those men head directly for the border.”

Reggie nodded. “Well then, it should take us three days to prepare for our departure. Our first stop will be a fort at the southern tip of Trisphede, Fort Zelan.”

With that, we had our plan of action. Everyone filed out of the reception hall to inform their respective troops.

I shuffled out of the room a bit later than everyone else, fretting to myself all the while. In the RPG I had played in my past life, Trisphede was one of the provinces that struggled against Llewyne until the bitter end. It was off the beaten path to the royal capital, which was presumably why the Llewynians had left it as one of their last conquests.

Thus, the upcoming battle in Trisphede would diverge completely from the events of the game—in other words, I had no knowledge of what was going to happen in the fight. I was getting nervous before we’d even hit the road.

Plus, Llewyne wasn’t our only enemy. We would have to fight Salekhard, too.

Is there any way to settle this without fighting Isaac?

No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with any clever ideas. Of course, I wasn’t going to be able to fight around him, either. It would just confuse all the soldiers who weren’t privy to our history, potentially leading to disastrous consequences.

“He’s an enemy. He’s an enemy!” I repeated over and over to myself like a mantra, biting down on my lip.

◇◇◇

The Farzian army was used to long journeys by now, so it was only a short while before we were ready to head out. The only issue we ran into was that our shipment of food had been delayed, but we dealt with that by reaching out via post-horse or messenger bird to the various towns along our path through Delphion, adding to our supply when we spent the night.

“Now if we can kill the enemy and rob them of their provisions, we should be in good shape,” remarked Reggie, terrifying in his sincerity.

At the moment, I was riding in a carriage with him. I had been instructed to use this method of transportation whenever we were on safe ground, since riding a horse all the time was bound to wear me out. Carriages bumped up and down a lot, too, but they were decked out with cushions and had plenty of space to lie down in, making them a much more comfortable alternative.

Reggie’s lord-in-waiting, Colin, was also riding with us. He would periodically offer us sweets or tea, so I had the sinking feeling I was going to be a lot chubbier by the time we reached Trisphede.

Still, having Colin there made the trip a lot easier on my nerves. After that kiss and the spectacle of Master Horace turning into a portable fan, it had been a while since I’d managed to look Reggie in the eyes. I was feeling a lot better about everything now, but some of the embarrassment still lingered. It would have been pretty awkward to be alone with him.

The ring was still on my finger. Every now and then I got the sense that Reggie was staring at it, and I never knew what to do with myself when I did. Each time it happened, I told myself It’s just your imagination over and over until I finally calmed down.

Anyway, it was time to put that aside and focus on the war.

“I expect you’ll act independently as per usual, but be careful not to stray too far from the troops. There’s a good chance that viscount will make yet another appearance.”

I nodded. If I threw caution to the wind and found myself too close to Lord Credias, I’d be down for the count.

“I have it on good authority that the viscount of Credias is traveling with the Llewynian army. I was hoping to assassinate him before he could make it to the battlefield, but it didn’t pan out.”

“You were planning to assassinate him?” I parroted back.

Reggie simply nodded, as if it were no big deal at all. “Yes. I attempted to have it taken care of while we were staying in Delphion Castle, but I was one step behind him. I’d wanted to put your mind at ease—so much for that.”

I felt a little guilty, making him go to such lengths for my sake.

Huh?

I tilted my head to one side, baffled by a sudden sense of déjà vu. It was only vaguely, but I recalled him saying something similar to me once before.

And yet, this was the first time he’d mentioned anything about assassinating Lord Credias. I didn’t even remember hearing about it from someone else.

That sort of thing kept happening a lot as of late. Was it because we’d made it all the way to the place where Kiara had shown up in the RPG? But even in the game, nobody had ever brought up assassinating Lord Credias for her sake. After all, aside from being an enemy spellcaster and the queen’s lady-in-waiting, little was revealed about Game-Kiara’s character.

Game-Alan saw her as nothing but a nemesis, so there was no way he would have said anything to that effect. Given that Game-Kiara worked in the royal palace, there was a chance Reggie had been acquainted with her, but he was dead before the start of the game.

Was I just imagining it?

Absorbed in my thoughts, I spent the entire ride to our next rest area in silence.

◇◇◇

After a four-day march, the Farzian army arrived at the northern tip of Delphion. The plan was to set up camp about a half-day’s horse ride from the border and spend the next few days there. Only after sending scouts to scour the land near the border and take stock of the situation would we go on to invade Trisphede.

Stopping there gave us an opportunity to join up with the soldiers summoned from all over Delphion, too. Looking dignified in a male knight uniform, Emmeline inspected and organized the gathering of men.

That said, rather than assigning a certain number of soldiers to certain posts, she just had more and more men join under her command. Thus, the soldiers from all the other territories were able to conduct themselves as normal.

Amid all that, Lord Azure’s men seemed a little out of place. Their dedication to their morning and evening prayers always had differentiated them from the rest of the crowd, and their habit of bursting out into song didn’t help matters, either. Still, today they felt even more insular than usual. The space near Lord Azure was always tightly guarded, his men forming a circle around a carriage packed with luggage.

Before long, the scouts returned with their report.

“We spotted a Llewynian unit on the border!”

I braced myself, fearing that our battle was already about to begin. However, the encounter ended in the blink of an eye.

There were only about 200 Llewynian soldiers, as it turned out. Lord Enister, the one tasked with wiping them out, managed to send them running with a mere 1,000 men. Reggie had hoped to obliterate the entire unit, but given that their numbers were in the hundreds, it was only natural that a few men would get away. He decided to let them go.

A Llewynian soldier we captured confessed that they were just a border patrol unit, and that there was no need to worry about a larger force waiting around close by. I was relieved to learn that we wouldn’t be clashing with the Salekhardian army just yet.

Finally, we set foot inside Trisphede.

The following day, there was a bit of an incident. Now that we’d entered the province of Trisphede, I decided to scan the area for any spellcasters, just as a precaution. If I was careful to check every now and then, I would know ahead of time if Lord Credias was lying in wait somewhere to ambush us.

Given his body type, I doubted he’d be able to keep up with the more athletic soldiers, so we probably didn’t really have to worry about that. Still, if it was all part of some master plan, there was a chance he might haul himself along through sheer willpower.

Cain was letting me ride on his horse, so I could take my time seeking out any magical presences. When I scanned the area...

“Huh?”

I sensed a spellcaster.

But why do I sense one behind me?

I glanced back behind us, twisting my body so I could see around Cain.

“Is something the matter?”

“Uh... I was scanning for any spellcasters in the area, and I think I sensed something behind us.”

It was pretty close, too. What’s going on here?

Cain relayed my report to Chester and Alan, who were hanging around nearby, and I found myself surrounded with knights in a matter of seconds.

“Let’s fall back so you can start searching. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself,” Alan instructed.

I gulped and nodded. Pretending that I was headed to the rear to handle some business with Alan and his knights, we doubled back along the edge of the high road, taking our sweet time about it. We had to go slow if I wanted to pin down the source. It would be one thing if they were shadowing us, but in the event that this mystery spellcaster had slipped into our troops, rushing was just going to make it harder to find them.

I closed my eyes, seeking out the source of this powerful magical energy.

Just a little farther... It’s getting close now!

Eventually, the direction it was coming from shifted. That proved that this mystery person had just passed close by. The moment I knew I’d come right up beside them, I opened my eyes and gave Cain the signal.

“Wait, what?”

I was staring straight into the lines of Lord Azure’s troops. They were marching steadily along, a carriage full of luggage at the heart of the procession. My finger was pointing right at said carriage.

I checked one more time, which only confirmed that I had the right source.

Could someone as devoted to Reggie as Lord Azure really be sheltering an enemy? There’s no way, I thought, but Alan and his knights had already sprung into action.

“Allow us to inspect that carriage of yours, Lord Azure,” said Alan. His knights flanked the carriage, fixing the marquis with stern gazes.

Lord Azure gasped, taken aback by Alan’s declaration, but he ultimately consented. “Very well. I do apologize... It was an act of impulse. I just felt so sorry for the poor thing.”

Alan gave a puzzled tilt of his head. Judging by that response, it was true that Lord Azure had snuck something onto that carriage... but whatever it was, he clearly didn’t seem to believe it was anything dangerous.

Before Alan’s men could begin their search, the marquis’ knights barked an order. Moments later, someone emerged from under a burlap sheet inside the carriage.

“Miss Ada?!”

She hung her head, forlorn, and replied, “My apologies. I wanted to return to my hometown as soon as I possibly could.”

Evidently, the source of the magic had been the contract stone that still hung around Ada’s neck.

I explained the situation to Alan and Cain in hushed tones. “It’s okay. It looks like I was just picking up on Ada’s pendant.”

“Her pendant?”

“It’s a contract stone. It gives off the same magical vibes as a spellcaster, so I’m pretty sure that’s what led me to her.”

Next, we heard Lord Azure’s account. Desperate to return to her hometown, Ada had pleaded with Reggie and his knights to bring her with them, only to be rebuffed. It was when she was praying for even one member of her family to stay safe and sound, if nothing else, that Lord Azure had stumbled upon her. After hearing her out, he had taken pity on the girl and allowed her to ride in his carriage.

While we were listening to his rundown of the situation, I could have sworn I felt someone’s eyes on me. Curious, I glanced around, but no one appeared to be looking my way; perhaps it had been my imagination. Even Ada’s eyes were trained on the ground.

As I was puzzling that out, Alan came to a decision on what to do with Ada. “Now that we’ve brought you all this way, we can’t very well send you back to the castle. If you’ve overheard any of Lord Azure’s conversations, surely you’ve picked up on the path of our march and other such bits of information.” Once he’d prefaced his judgment with that, he leveled Lord Azure with a glare. “We are set to pass by her hometown. You’re to toss her out once we get there. If we drag her along for the entirety of our march, she’ll just get in the way. You... Ada, was it? I assume you accounted for this possibility.”

“But, Lord Alan—” Lord Azure stepped in to intervene, but Ada cut him off before he could.

“Yes, that’s fine by me. I was already planning to look for my parents’ bodies to give them a proper burial, and I certainly couldn’t detain the prince’s troops in enemy territory over a personal affair. Now that I know I’ll never win His Highness’ heart, it no longer matters if an enemy soldier were to spot me and kill me,” she said, claiming she had come here prepared to die.

Alan turned to Lord Azure, the look on his face as dour as ever. “See? She knew what she was getting into. Do as I’ve told you, Marquis.”

“Very well,” Lord Azure reluctantly agreed. Judging by the pitying look he shot Ada, he felt awful for her.

I understood the feeling. I hated the idea of throwing a lone girl into enemy territory.

Perhaps Cain was worried that my sympathy was going to drive me to say something I shouldn’t, seeing as he guided me away from the scene. “Let’s go, Miss Kiara.”

I nodded, and Cain’s horse resumed its trot.

When I took one last look back, I saw Ada still staring at the ground, a despondent smile on her face.

Night fell. Given the enormous number of soldiers we had with us, we would be camping out once again.

Dinner was a lot of fun. Emmeline, Gina, Girsch, and I all gathered around the bonfire to eat. When the topic of Ada came up, everyone wore inscrutable expressions.

“In other words, she abandoned all hope after her heart was broken?” Emmeline theorized—bluntly enough that Ada surely would have fainted if she were around to hear it.

She was seated atop the stone bench I’d made, the light of the bonfire casting an orange glow over her pale skin and ashen hair, which was tied back behind her.

“I suppose it’s no surprise, when you think about how obsessed she was with His Highness,” she went on. “All that passion, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to sway him. Not even bringing her love for her family into the equation was enough to convince him to take her along to Trisphede. That must have been when she abandoned all hope... or at least that’s my best guess.”

“I thought the same thing. She never did seem like she had eyes for anything but him,” Gina chimed in.

Girsch placed a hand to one cheek, humming thoughtfully.

“Do you see it differently, Girsch?” I asked.

The mercenary responded with a bemused look. “Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“With how caught up in her delusions she is, she seemed more like the type to jump straight to her death after a rejection. One of His Highness’ knights, Sir Felix, even came to me about that. He asked me to talk her down if she ever seemed at risk of throwing herself off the castle walls.”

“Sir Felix did that?”

I had no idea those two had had that sort of conversation behind the scenes. Felix really had his hands full looking out for her. Despite seeming like a meek guy at a first glance, he was always pretty strict with Ada; lately, I’d been taking extra care to make sure I never did anything to warrant the same treatment.

“That’s just the way it goes. Once a girl her age finds something to fixate on, she’s never going to budge,” Master Horace piped up.

“My, Sir Horace! You understand the female mind so well,” Girsch praised.

He chortled and replied, “Of course I do! Why, in my younger years, I always had a girl hanging off each arm, just begging for me to pick her over the other!”

“Wait, you’re saying you were a ladykiller, Master Horace? Are you sure you didn’t just imagine it?” I asked, sincerely curious.

Master Horace fell dead silent.

“Kiara! You were supposed to just run with it!” Gina stressed, pity in her eyes.

Before I could respond, Oops, I didn’t realize it was a joke we were all in on, Emmeline cut off that line of conversation. “Then, Girsch... in your opinion, Miss Ada seems like someone who would choose to die after losing out on love?”

The conversation pressed onward, leaving Master Horace to stew in his silence.

“I thought that there was a decent chance of it, that’s all. Besides, what she’s doing now is just another form of suicide, in a sense.”

“That’s a good point,” Gina remarked. “Trying to go back to her hometown when it’s still in enemy hands? I’d never do something like that.”

“Well, of course. When you strike out in love, you’re the type to go, ‘Fine, I don’t need men!’ and set out to support yourself, only to spend the whole time thinking about the very man who left you heartbroken,” Girsch replied, wearing a mischievous grin.

Gina puffed out her cheeks just like a little girl would. It made her look oddly cute, considering she was a grown woman. “Don’t say that!”

“Please, it was just a hypothetical. I never said it was true.”

“Grr! That know-it-all attitude of yours drives me nuts, you know that?!”

“My, my. Are you entering your rebellious phase, Gina dear?”

Thus, Gina spent the rest of our dinner as the victim of Girsch’s teasing.

◇◇◇

The next day, the Farzian troops marched even farther north. In Ada’s homeland of Trisphede, her family managed a fort in a region called Liadna. It had been built a fairly long time ago, but had supposedly only been used a few times in the past. Since Trisphede’s adversary was typically Salekhard, it was the forts near the northern border that saw the most use.

Just north of the fort was the town of Liadna. The branch family to which Ada belonged resided in a manor there.

The Évrard army headed for Fort Liadna first. We knew there were about 500 Salekhardian and Llewynian soldiers stationed there.

That bit of intel had been spilled by a Llewynian soldier we’d captured on the border. The king of Salekhard, Isaac, had been staying there right up until the unit had headed out on patrol. It was then that he had left for Trisphede Castle, apparently.

Of course, there was always a chance that Llewynian had fed us false information. Reggie had us exercise great caution as we approached the fort.

Once we’d made it close enough to get a good look, we found that the fort was in rough shape. When Salekhard attacked Trisphede, Llewyne’s defective spellcasters had destroyed the wall. The Llewynians had repaired it later on so they could use the fort for themselves, but they had only managed to restore it to about half of its original height.

Evidently, it hadn’t been earth spellcasters that tore it down. Fire spellcasters, perhaps, if the traces of explosions along the walls were any indication.

That was when I realized that something seemed off about all this. Was it even possible to wield the sheer number of defective spellcasters it would take to do this much damage?

Bemused as I was, I confirmed that there were no spellcasters in the vicinity. I already knew Ada was here, so I focused my efforts elsewhere. I didn’t pick up on anything else, so I figured we were in the clear.

At Reggie’s request, I formed a golem at the head of the troops lined up outside Fort Liadna. All we cared about this time was capturing it as quickly as possible, so I had my golem break into the fort by kicking down the half-repaired sections of the wall.

Next, to aid the assault of Jerome’s Limerick troops, I started picking off the dozens of archers who were shooting their arrows from atop the fort and moving them down to the ground. Once I was done with that, I decided to build us an alternate entranceway. Having just one path inside wasn’t going to cut it. With that in mind, I was just about to kick open another hole in the wall.

That was when one of Jerome’s men, who had charged into the fort ahead of us, came rushing back out.

“The Llewynians are fleeing from the rear!”

It sounded like the Llewynians had opted to abandon the fort.

Alan clicked his tongue in frustration. “I thought there were too few archers... So that’s what they were planning. Relay a message to His Highness! Tell him to stamp out the soldiers who cut around to the back to escape!”

The runner who had been standing next to Alan dashed off.

It wasn’t long before the troops led by Reggie and Lord Azure went on the move. I hung back with Alan and Jerome. After all, if my golem was stomping around all over the place, there was a chance I might accidentally crush some of the soldiers on the march.

Once we’d confirmed that Jerome and all of his Limerick soldiers had made it back, we went after Reggie. However, not long after they’d cut around to the back of the fort, Reggie’s men had started marching even farther north.

“Did the Llewynians get away?” Alan wondered, skeptical.

We caught up to a squad of Delphion soldiers at the rear of the vanguard troops. Emmeline galloped over as soon as she spotted me.

“Are you alright, Miss Kiara?” she asked.

“What’s going on? Did the soldiers who fled from the back give you the slip?” Alan cut in.

“The Llewynians had begun to flee before we even got here. After taking out a unit in the rear, we learned there was an even greater number of enemies down the path. Their vanguard was headed for the town, so His Highness believes that’s where the main body is hiding. He wants to go bring them down.”

“So you think Llewynian troops are hiding in town?”

“It’s possible. That said, Liadna isn’t very big, so there couldn’t be a particularly large number of soldiers lurking there. Lord Azure proposed that this was a necessary measure to ensure the safety of the surrounding area, and His Highness agreed.”

What I was most concerned about was the town itself. “The citizens of Liadna haven’t been evacuated, have they? Since it’s under Salekhardian rule, it should be considered an ally of Llewyne. Hopefully that means their soldiers won’t do anything drastic, but still.”

Occupied territory or not, I was worried they might commit violence against the townspeople simply for being Farzians.

“There’s no telling what might happen. The Llewynians could always invent some way to justify slaughter. Having the Farzian army nearby gives them the perfect excuse; they can just claim that the citizens took the opportunity to rise up and attack them from behind,” Cain said, which only further fueled my concerns.

“I’m sure Reggie accounted for that. I bet his plan is to put pressure on them by closing in, and then see if that takes care of the problem on its own,” Alan hypothesized.

“You’re probably right,” Cain agreed.

In that case, there wasn’t going to be much we could do for a while.

Eventually, Reggie halted his march right where Liadna came into view down the road. As soon as we saw that, Alan and I started heading over, planning to report to him on Liadna.

But then, all of a sudden, his troops once again began to advance north.

“Why?!” Alan exclaimed.

He detained one of the cavalrymen in the vanguard and asked what was going on. The man explained that a townsperson had come to the Farzian troops requesting their aid. Now that someone had called on their help, they had no choice but to head into the town.

Even so, Reggie had remained cautious.

“If it was only a hundred men that escaped into the town, there’s no reason to send all our troops in. Let’s split up into three squads: one that will head into the town, one that will stand by outside, and one that will guard the surrounding area,” he’d said. After that, he had divided his soldiers up, sending a small enough number of men into the town to let them navigate it easily.

Before long, a message made its way back to Alan. I was instructed to wait outside the town with the Delphion and Évrard armies. I listened to my orders, gazing out at the Delphion soldiers standing guard around a food transport carriage while I searched for any magical presences nearby.

Suddenly, someone jumped out from one of the wagons.

“Miss Ada?!”

There was no one among the Farzian army who wore a dress other than me and Ada, so it had to be her. She was making a beeline for the town.

I nearly ran after her, but Cain stopped me from dismounting his horse. “It’s too dangerous, Miss Kiara. There’s no telling where the Llewynian soldiers could be hiding in the town. If you rush in alone only to come face-to-face with an enemy, what are you going to do?”

“Alright.”

Cain was right. I was vulnerable to surprise attacks, and if someone cut me down with a sword, I’d be dead in an instant. Jumping headfirst into a town where enemies could be hiding anywhere was practically suicide. Thus, I simply nodded.

Should I have gone after Ada there or not? Even after everything was all said and done, I was never sure of the answer.

◇◇◇

I heard about what happened on Reggie’s end after the fact.

Reggie, his royal guard, and about 500 of Lord Azure’s soldiers had marched into the town of Liadna, the same place I’d just seen Ada make a run for. Given how narrow the roads were, rushing in with any more men than that would have made it harder for them to get around. Thus, the Évrard army—which had been effectively operating as Reggie’s troops—and the remainder of Lord Azure’s soldiers joined up with Alan instead.

Soon after Reggie and Lord Azure set foot inside the town, a fire broke out. When they looked up, they could see smoke billowing overhead in several spots. Every now and then it would drift in their direction, clouding their vision.

“Leave it to me! I’ll brush away any sparks that dare fly toward His Highness!” Lord Azure shouted as he sprinted toward the heart of the town, leading the cavalry.

Reggie sent Lord Azure’s foot soldiers ahead, but something about the scenario didn’t sit right with him. “Say, Felix... Don’t you think this happened a little too quickly?”

“How fast the fire spread, you mean? Given how dry the air is, I don’t believe it’s anything implausible.”

“No, it’s covered far too much ground already,” another knight interjected. “Did the enemy have that big a lead on us?”

Suddenly, a small piece of firewood came plummeting down from above. Vigilant and alert, Reggie and his knights all glanced up in unison.

What they saw was a bald old man in the second floor window of a building facing the road. He sluggishly turned toward Reggie and his men, then pressed his hands together and bowed his head—a gesture of apology.

Reggie wasted no time before he began shouting orders. “We’re retreating! Someone notify the marquis!”

“Your Grace?”

Some men stood there bewildered for a moment, while others galloped off toward Lord Azure without delay. Soon enough, however, everyone was complying with Reggie’s orders, none of the men asking for so much as an explanation.

As he turned his horse around, Reggie announced, “The fire spread so quickly because the townspeople started it themselves! We need to call back the marquis before—”

“YOUR GRAAACE!” Lord Azure roared from afar, his voice no doubt loud enough to carry across a distant mountain. It wasn’t long before the man himself made his way back to Reggie, the rest of the cavalry in tow. “I heard we were to retreat immediately! Did something happen?!”

Reggie shared his theory with the marquis. “It looks like Llewyne lured us into town. They knew that if a townsperson called on our help, we would send in someone of a general’s rank. There must be even more soldiers lying in wait, ready to take us out.”

After that, it was a race to escape Liadna. While he had plenty of soldiers waiting outside the gates, Reggie had only brought a fraction of those men into town with him. If the enemy’s numbers were greater than anticipated, he would be at a huge disadvantage.

Meanwhile, the enemy was similarly panicked over the speed of Reggie’s response. The plan had been to lure our men closer to the heart of the town before ambushing them all at once, yet our retreat had come sooner than they’d predicted.

In hopes of whittling down our numbers whatever little they could, arrows started to fly.

“Hurry!”

The cavalry galloped ahead while the stream of arrows was still sparse, making Reggie’s safe getaway their top priority. It wasn’t long before they had managed to escape the range of fire; however, just before the stone walls surrounding the town could come into view, their pace slowed to a stop.

“Lady Ada,” Felix murmured.

Ada had come running from the entrance to the town. Once she spotted Reggie and his knights, she stood right in the middle of the road, blocking their path.

“What are you doing here?” Lord Azure asked, pulling out ahead of Reggie.

Ada ignored him, her gaze fixed intently on the prince. “Allow me to protect you, Your Grace. I can put a stop to this attack by Llewyne and Salekhard... so won’t you please choose to stay with me?” she asked.

Reggie furrowed his brow. As he signaled his knights behind his back, he responded, “And how exactly do you plan to manage that?”

“It’s quite simple,” she said, extending a hand. In an instant, the tree branch she was holding was engulfed in flame.

“She’s a spellcaster?!”

Shocked as they were, Reggie’s knights swiftly moved in to protect him. Ada only laughed at the sight of it. Flames slithered forward like a snake, licking the rooftop of a nearby house. The fire continued to spread to previously untouched homes. The smoke grew even thicker, dyeing the sky gray.

“Everything should be fine. Now that they know I’m here, the Salekhardians chasing after you will keep their distance.”

Ada took a step forward. The knights held their positions, and the soldiers who had only just caught up made to stand in her path, too. The blaze in Ada’s hand spat smaller bits of flame, which hit the ground in miniature explosions, drawing shrieks from the men.

When he saw that, Reggie motioned for the soldiers who had stepped out in front of him to fall back. “There’s no need to put your lives in danger. For the moment, at least, it seems all she wants is to talk to me.” Once he had instructed even his own knights to move out of the way, Reggie addressed Ada coolly. “What are your demands, then?”

“I’ve adored you for so long, dreaming of nothing but delivering you from certain death.”

“What are you hoping to protect me from, exactly?”

“Her Majesty has already eliminated her greatest obstacle to the throne: the king. So long as you come with me, she’s promised to spare your life,” Ada replied, her expression far from radiant. She was forcing a smile—almost like a little girl who feared she was about to be scolded, but hoped to somehow be forgiven regardless.

“So you were the queen’s pawn, hm?” Reggie muttered to himself. After whispering something into the ear of one of his knights, he responded, “Unfortunately for you, my life isn’t what I consider most precious to me. I’m not interested in anything you have to offer.”

“Then what do you want?! If I ask the queen, I’m sure she’ll—”

“I know someone who can’t live in peace until your master, her loyal count of Patriciél, and the viscount of Credias are all out of the picture,” he answered, claiming that person as his reason to fight.

Ada’s face twisted, on the verge of tears. “Yes, I realized as much. Then, at the very least, I ask that you die by my hand before anyone else can kill you. I shall follow soon after. This is the only path I have left now.”

The fire under Ada’s control flared up, transforming into a vortex of flame around her. Soldiers screeched in fear, and one group even fled into the city. More screams soon echoed back from afar; most likely, they were under attack by the Llewynian soldiers laying siege to the area.

“Come up from behind and kill that spellcaster!” came an order.

Reggie’s knights sprang into action, but one man leapt forward faster than the rest.

“Don’t let up, my fellow Azurans! Protect His Highness at all costs!”

“Stay back, Marquis!” Reggie yelled.

Lord Azure ran forward, hiding his body behind his shield. Not even the prince’s warning was enough to hold him back.

“You damned TRAITOR! You pawn of a foreign vixeeen!”

Lord Azure had completely bought into her story. Unwitting though he had been, he must have deeply regretted that he was the one who had brought Ada—an enemy—all this way, and thus been desperate to somehow take responsibility for his actions.

He rushed in with a battle cry loud enough to sway the flames, and his shield almost seemed to repel the swirling fire. His soldiers followed close behind, surging forward in unison. The marquis’ sword swung down as though cutting through an oncoming wave, but just as it was about to reach Ada, the flames burst with enough force to send shockwaves through the air.

The dozen men surrounding Ada were blown back as the flames coiled around them, their bodies slamming against the road or the walls of nearby houses. Lord Azure likewise hit the ground, only to be incinerated moments later, dead before he could even get out a scream. Both his sword and the iron that had once formed his shield were warped within the red flames, and his lifeless form was gradually dyed black.

The marquis’ men shrieked. Reggie and his knights grimaced.

By the time the flames had died out, Lord Azure was so blackened and charred that it was impossible to tell who the body had once belonged to.

“It’s foolish to oppose a spellcaster with nothing but a sword. Particularly when you don’t have the element of surprise.” Ada didn’t appear the least bit repentant.

She extended the flames in her hand once more... only to give a frustrated click of her tongue.

For the second time now, she blew back the marquis’ knights. Watching their leader meet a grisly end had only seemed to stoke their fighting spirit; no matter how many of them she flung away, more and more soldiers and knights came swinging their swords at her. While her attention was occupied with that, Reggie and his knights vanished.

The majority of soldiers had disappeared into the town, too. Their actions had been hidden from sight both by the wall of flames Ada had built to protect herself and by the soldiers who had kept desperately throwing themselves at her.

“Why would he go that way? There are enemies there!”

Reggie had fled further into the town where the enemy was lurking. Rather than running toward danger, Ada had assumed he would go around her and make a break for the entrance to the town. She was stunned for a moment, but swiftly made to give chase.

However, her attempts were thwarted.

By the time she realized what was happening, there was a sword coming for her back. If she hadn’t noticed the shift in her flames, she would have been run through before she even knew what hit her.

Even so, Ada had no formal training as a soldier. She couldn’t quite manage to avoid the strike in time, and the sword ripped through her arm.

Still, this wasn’t Ada’s first time getting slashed on the battlefield. She set off a blast in the next instant, sending her attacker flying... and gasped.

Her victim had been Felix.

The knight was lying on his back along the road. His cape was scorched, and there were bright red burns all over his face. His arm had been roasted, left so black that it was impossible to tell what was skin and what was charred clothing.

That was the state he’d been left in after forcing his way through the maelstrom of flames, all so he could attack Ada.

“But why?!”

Ada had assumed he’d fled together with Reggie. Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself rushing to Felix’s side. He hadn’t so much as twitched since he hit the ground, but the moment she knelt beside him, he reached out to grab Ada’s wrist.

“I need you... to be a good girl and stay put. At least until His Highness gets away.”

“Wha—why?! Why would you do that?! You nearly got yourself killed!”

“It was to protect His Highness. If you’re going to kill me, go ahead.”

“With those injuries, you’re going to die whether I deal you a finishing blow or not!” Ada cried out, her voice catching in the back of her throat.

Felix responded, “If you were going to cry about it... you shouldn’t have done it... in the first place...”

One would expect that reply to have sounded cold and indifferent. However, Felix’s dying words didn’t seem to betray any resentment toward Ada; he’d simply spoken them in his usual tone of voice.

Ada didn’t say anything. Forgetting to so much as wipe away the tears that had welled up in her eyes, she merely hung her head in a daze.

And that was when I passed through the town’s gates and saw the two of them there.

◇◇◇

I had jumped into action not long before that. When we heard the sound of an explosion from within the town, everyone realized something had gone wrong.

“What?”

I cast a glance over my shoulder. Everyone around me turned their attention toward Liadna, too.

At some point, smoke had started rising in several places. I assumed the enemy soldiers had set fire to the town, but something didn’t add up.

“Was the explosion really caused by the fire? It sounded kind of—”

Just as I was about to say “close,” I heard another one. A chill ran down my spine. Reggie was somewhere inside that town—and he’d charged in with a scant number of men at that.

“Is His Highness alright?!”

“We must help him!”

The crowd around me started to clamor. I wanted to rush in just as badly as they did, but first, I asked Cain, “Could you please call for Gina and Girsch? They’re with General Jerome.”

Next, I closed my eyes and scanned the area for any magical presences. I couldn’t act without making sure there were no spellcasters around first.

“Wait... why?”

What I felt directly north of us had to be Ada. Thus, I expected there to be one more presence inside the town, but I wasn’t picking up on anything.

Meanwhile, I sensed several presences outside the walls. I detected mana in three different spots, and not one of them was all that far away. Were they hiding out, waiting for us to head into the town before they attacked?

“Oh no... Are there defective spellcasters here?”

“What’s wrong, little disciple?”

“I’m getting tons of spellcaster-ish feedback. Three more, in addition to Ada,” I explained.

“Yeah, those might be defectives,” Master Horace muttered. “Hey, little disciple. You don’t feel your mentor’s constraints yet, do you?”

“No, not yet.”

“In that case, you ought to head in a direction where there aren’t any spellcasters. Taking care of those guys should wait until after your soldiers have clashed with them and gleaned some information. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your energy.”

That meant I was better off going north, where Ada was the only one I sensed—in other words, into the town.

“Let’s head into Liadna, Sir Cain!”

He checked with Alan. “Is that alright with you, milord?”

Alan nodded. “That’s our only option here.”

“I’m going, too!” Emmeline picked out a nearby squad from her Delphion troops, then started shouting commands.

There were enemies somewhere outside the town, too, but I had just spotted Jerome racing toward us, so he could handle that.

I placed my hands on a nearby patch of ground, formed five golems that were each twice the height of a grown adult, and had them lead the way into town. Cain and I, plus Emmeline and her squad of Delphion soldiers, followed close behind.

We were immediately assailed by white smoke and the stench of something burning. Due to the tall stone walls surrounding the town, there was little in the way of ventilation.

As we marched carefully through the lines of brick houses, we made an oblique turn on the path, only to stumble upon a familiar face.

Sparks were flying everywhere. Over a dozen soldiers were sprawled facedown along the road, and Ada was there kneeling next to one of them. The houses around her were burning more fiercely than any we’d seen thus far.

“Miss Ada!” I called out, and she snapped her head up to look at me.

She was crying. Yet instead of running toward us, she fled farther into the town.

I hadn’t the slightest clue what had happened here, but checking on the unconscious soldiers came before anything else.

Just as I was about to do that, Cain gave a startled cry. “Felix?!”

After letting me down from his horse, he rushed over to Felix’s side. I hurried after him.

Felix was in awful shape. His cape had burned away to little but ash, and the back of his armor had been warped by the heat. Plus, he was too hot to touch. Per Cain’s instructions, one soldier poured the water from his canteen over Felix before removing his armor—which revealed that his back was red and blistering with burns.

Even worse than that was the right arm gripping his sword.

He appeared to have fallen unconscious; he didn’t respond no matter who called out to him.

I heard Emmeline shout, “Check for any survivors! Everyone else, stand guard!”

Once he had assessed the extent of Felix’s injuries, Cain lamented, “There’s nothing left to do but cut it off.”

“Wait!” I exclaimed. Maybe there was still something I could do. Hoping Cain would let me have a crack at it, I added, “Can you hold off for now? I might be able to heal some of this.”

“Heal it?” he parroted back.

I didn’t waste time elaborating. Instead, I cut a slash across my palm with the knife I’d been carrying, then touched his wounds with my bleeding hand.

Shutting my eyes, I felt out the flow of magic energy. First, I focused on my own. Next, I took that and gradually blended it into the mana that formed Felix’s body.

“Make sure you know your limits, kid. The last thing we need right now is for you to be down for the count.”

“I know, Master Horace.”

When my fingers were hurt, all it had taken to heal them was repairing the places where the flow of mana had stagnated. I hoped the same would apply to Felix’s wounds.

Felix’s arm felt similar to the way my fingers had back then; in his case, there were simply far more points where his mana flow had been cut off. I linked all of those ends back together. After checking the results against the mana in my own arm, I finally opened my eyes to see if it had worked.

The formerly blackened bits of Felix’s arm had been mended enough to look like flesh again. Given how red his skin was, he was still suffering light burns, but he was going to be just fine.

I let out the breath I’d been holding, suddenly realizing how dizzy I was. Perhaps I’d been too nervous to notice it until now.

Cain took a look at Felix’s arm, then heaved a sigh of relief. “Now that I didn’t expect. His arm swelled up from the inside, absorbing the blackened skin. Before I knew it, he was back to normal.”

Now I finally knew how the healing process worked; it sounded like something similar to cell proliferation. I’d wondered if it was something like that when I fixed up my hands. Still, the thought of growing cells with magic seemed pretty weird to me.

“What should I do about his back?”

“Just leave it,” Master Horace said. “Those burns can be fixed up with a salve. If you use too much more magic on him, the boy’s body won’t be able to take it. It won’t do you any favors, either.”

When I took a closer look, I noticed that the color had drained from Felix’s face. It seemed that my spell had chipped away at his strength, too. Plus, Master Horace was right; if I healed him any more than this, I’d put myself out of commission just trying to patch him up. I couldn’t have that—not when I still didn’t know what had happened to Reggie.

We got to our feet and loaded Felix onto another knight’s horse.

“I wonder what happened to Reggie and his knights. Did they get into a fight here, then escape through a different gate?” I pondered aloud.

“Miss Kiara!” came Emmeline’s sudden shout. Having attended to the rest of the injured soldiers, she rushed over to me and Cain to announce, “Miss Ada was a spellcaster all along!”

“What?!”

For a moment, I nearly doubted my own ears. Ada was a spellcaster?

“His Highness caught on to an enemy ambush before it was too late. Just as he was doubling back, Ada stood in his path. She burnt down everything around her with her fire magic... including Lord Azure himself.” Emmeline pointed to a charred corpse near the side of the road.

Ada... killed Lord Azure?

I was having trouble processing all of this.

Master Horace muttered, “Guess the contract stone was there to fool us about her magical energy.”

I had to agree. There was no way all these half-dead allies of ours would frame Ada as the culprit if she hadn’t actually been involved. Plus, she had been the only one unharmed when I caught sight of her earlier.

The reason she’d run off into the town was because she’d been an enemy from the start. If you assumed that Salekhard and Llewyne were her allies, everything suddenly made sense.

“His Highness got away from Ada. While Sir Felix and Lord Azure’s men were keeping her busy, he headed for the west gate.”

“The west gate?”

It was no surprise that Reggie had determined his only option was to get away from the spellcaster. However, what was waiting in the direction he had gone was only barely preferable to a confrontation with Ada. Judging by the look of things, there were even more enemies lurking in the town than we’d anticipated. Regardless, he must have figured that he had better odds of dealing with them than a mage.

Deep down, all I wanted was to rush straight to Reggie’s side. But given that Lord Credias could show up at any moment, there was a chance I would just get in the way if I wasn’t careful.

“The fires are too loud; we won’t be able to find him by following the sounds of sword fighting. I suggest we give up on looking for him,” Cain said.

I bit down on my lip, but deferred to his judgment. Taking Felix and a few other survivors with us, we left Liadna behind. It felt wrong to leave Lord Azure there, but I settled for entrusting his personal effects to Emmeline.

Gina and Girsch had been awaiting our return alongside Alan. Once we were out of the town, they rushed over to us.

“We need you to cool off some people ASAP, Gina!” I requested the moment we were face to face. We had to treat the burns on Felix’s back that I hadn’t gotten around to healing.

When she saw the condition he was in, Gina quickly slathered some salve over his burns, then had Reynard breathe puffs of cold air atop that.

Off to the side, Jerome, Alan, and Lord Enister had flocked over to Cain to get a rundown of the situation.

“That fool. How dare he kick the bucket before an old geezer like me,” Lord Enister bemoaned upon hearing of Lord Azure’s passing, closing his eyes for a few seconds. Given that the marquis had been his swordsmanship disciple, his death must have hit hard.

“We need to go rescue Reggie,” I said to myself.

The moment our forces were ready to start marching west, one of the soldiers who had been standing guard nearby came to us with a message. “We caught sight of the Salekhardian army to the south!”

Alan made his call right away. “General Jerome, take your men to the western side of the town and aid His Highness! Take the mercenaries with you just in case!” he ordered, leaving Reggie in Jerome’s hands.

“Understood!”

Jerome jumped into action immediately. Once Gina was done administering first aid to Felix, she and Girsch followed suit, just as Alan had requested.

As we watched them go, I said, “I should go with them, too.”

“Isn’t there a spellcaster who masqueraded as a hostage somewhere within the town?” Alan replied. “That means the odds are good that your archnemesis is there, too.”

He dismissed my offer out of hand. Well, of course he would. If we didn’t make absolutely sure that Lord Credias wasn’t there, there was a chance I wouldn’t be of any use at all.

After a brief discussion with Lord Enister, Alan started issuing instructions to the Delphion troops. With the town to our backs, he stationed the Delphion soldiers to the right, a mix of Évrard and Azuran soldiers in the center, and the Enister soldiers to the left.

There were about 8,000 enemy soldiers incoming. Even excluding Jerome’s troops, our numbers surpassed 10,000, so we still had the advantage here.

“The enemies in the town should have their hands full pursuing Reggie. I’ll leave a lookout just in case, but don’t waste too much attention on them,” Alan ordered.

Meanwhile, I saw the Salekhardian army come into view. Their green capes blanketed the entirety of the road, about two carriages wide, and spread out past it to the surrounding trees and hills.

Was Isaac somewhere among them? My heart raced, drumming unpleasantly in my ears. My mind was already made up, however. If he stood before my eyes, I would attack him—for the sake of protecting my loved ones.

Perhaps he had noticed the uneasy look on my face; Alan shot me a wry smile and slapped me on the back. “You know how crafty Reggie can be. I’m sure he’s handling himself just fine! If he already managed to give a spellcaster the slip, the rest should be a piece of cake.”

“Ouch! Like I’m always telling you, Alan, I’m not wearing any chain mail! Go a little easier on me, would you?!”

“My mistake. You were looking glum, so I thought it might cheer you up. In any case, you should hang back and—”

“Wait. Let me head to the front.”

Alan blinked, confused. Cain began to fret. “If we don’t know where Lord Credias is, there’s nothing you can do, Miss Kiara. You should wait until we’ve confirmed—”

“It’s a waste of time to sit here and wait. It would be faster to go find out for myself.”

Now that he’d guessed what I was getting at, Alan grinned. “Go ahead and crush those Salekhardians while you’re at it.”

I was going to get a preemptive strike. The first attack was always the easiest one to land—and thus the best time to get a critical hit.

“You’d better strike while the iron’s hot, little disciple. Eeeheehee!”

“I know!”

All fired up now, I made my golem. If I’d scooped out the earth right in front of the gate, it could have impeded Reggie’s escape, so I used dirt from a spot a short distance away.

The soil rose and took the form of a golem about a dozen mers tall, which slowly stood upright. Since there was a grove nearby, all the trees sticking out of its head and back made it look almost like it had been pelted with giant arrows, but that was the least of my concerns right now.

My golem barreled toward the lines of the Salekhardian army in one long stretch. The Salekhardians had clearly been anticipating an attack from the spellcaster; they immediately switched gears to retreat.

Of course, I had no intention of letting them get away. My golem jumped, soaring through the air. Just like plunging headfirst into a pool, it dove straight into the place the Salekhardians were running to just to the left of the road.

For that one moment, I had to keep my eyes shut.

The subsequent screams and tremors in the earth gave me a good guess as to how it had gone. Earth as solid as rocks had just come raining down upon them; there was no way anyone who had taken the hit had made it out alive.

“Delphion, to the right!” Alan commanded.

When I heard the thundering of hooves and feet as soldiers and cavalrymen ran past me on either side, I finally opened my eyes. The Salekhardian troops had been separated into two groups by the miniature mountain of dirt that was what remained of my golem. Alan had launched an attack on the right faction without missing a beat.

Meanwhile, I realized: “I’m totally fine?”

I didn’t feel the slightest bit of interference from Lord Credias. In other words, he probably wasn’t with the Salekhardian troops. Did that mean the presence I had detected in the same direction as the Salekhardians was a defective spellcaster?

“Alan, there might be a defective spellcaster among Salekhard’s forces. I don’t think the viscount is there, either.”

“And that’s all we need to know.”

Alan gave orders to his runner, instructing him to relay them to Lord Enister. “I’m going to strike down Salekhard head-on. The count should wrap around from the left and—”

Someone interrupted him. “Pardon me! More Salekhardians just showed up about one thousand mers to the east! They number about five thousand!”

“What?!”

Over there, too?! I was just as surprised.

Alan swiftly modified his message for the runner. “Tell Lord Enister this: we need him to hold back the five thousand Salekhardian soldiers to the east. We’ll send the spellcaster his way, but if anything goes wrong, we may need her to retreat. For now, he should focus not on destroying their forces, but on driving them back. If it’s too much to do alone, he can pull back.”

He sent out a second messenger, too. “Inform General Jerome of the current situation, but make sure he knows that Reggie’s safe return is our number one priority.” After that, he turned back to me. “There may be even more Salekhardians troops waiting to ambush us. I need you to go back up Lord Enister so that we can put an end to this as quickly as possible.”

“Got it,” I responded with a nod. Cain helped me up onto his horse.

“The spellcaster’s safety is our top priority, Wentworth. Depending on the situation, we may need you to come back even if it means abandoning Lord Enister’s forces.”

Having said his piece, Alan disappeared into the charging waves of the Évrard army. Rather than playing the part of the stationary control tower, he always preferred getting at least one hit in for himself. Given how strong he was, I figured he’d be fine... but I was still worried.

I took off, praying for his safe return. It wasn’t long before Cain and I had caught up to Lord Enister. He was positioned right at the center of 4,000 cavalrymen and foot soldiers, sitting proudly atop his giant goat, so he was easy to find.

Before I could even call out to him, he looked back over his shoulder. “Why, if it isn’t our Lady Spellcaster! I already got my orders from your messenger. What’s your plan here, little miss?”

“Just like earlier, I’m going to get the first hit in. I may be taken out of commission soon after that, so it would help if you told me what sort of spell you’d find most useful.”

Lord Enister hummed thoughtfully and faced forward once more, spending a few seconds mulling that over. “In that case, I’ll take a wall that can stop the enemy in their tracks.”

“Alright.”

A wall. If our goal was to carry out Alan’s instructions, that was our best bet.

When I caught a glimpse of Lord Enister’s goat, an idea suddenly occurred to me. By the time I was done explaining my plan to the count, the Salekhardians had come into sight just beyond the trees. Decked out in their green capes, the soldiers steadily marched across the gentle, mulch-covered slope.

Standing beside Lord Enister, who had brought his troops to a halt, I slammed my hands down on the ground and cast my magic.

“C’mon, let’s see a wall! Now with added steps!”

The earth rose up, blocking the Salekhardians’ path. Building in stairs had made the wall deeper and harder to tear down; plus, it forced the enemy to split up into two groups. I could see from over the wall that the Salekhardians had stopped their march, perplexed by its sudden emergence.

“Split up into two groups! One should follow me!” Lord Enister called out to the soldiers and knights under his command. Leading one half of the troops, he sprinted up the stairs, gaining more and more momentum until he finally leapt down to the other side of the wall. I heard the roars, shrieks, and clashing of swords that followed.

An old man riding a giant goat had just descended from above, leading the enemy vanguard. In the face of this newest assault, the Salekhardians had apparently been too stunned to so much as fire off their arrows. It sounded like they were being subjected to a one-sided beatdown.

The remaining Enister troops proceeded to the left. Over on the right-hand side, I supplemented our attack with a little extra dash of magic. I created several more giant, earthen walls, aimed them at the Salekhardians, and let them drop. I was a little out of breath afterward, but I was confident I’d intimidated them enough to hold them back.

Sure enough, the Salekhardian forces on the right side of the wall had grown thin—but just as I was thinking that, several Salekhardians came running in my direction, screaming in fear.

“Why are they coming this way?”

The reason soon became clear.

The feet of one of the last soldiers to come running had turned into sand. After collapsing on the spot, the rest of his body soon crumbled to dust. What’s more, even the very ground underneath him had begun dissolving into sand. All the Salekhardian soldiers caught in the blast radius likewise toppled over and disintegrated.

Standing at the very center of the sandpit was a defective spellcaster... and an earth one, at that.

“We need to stop him, Sir Cain!”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m still holding up just fine! And I haven’t felt any interference so far!”

I concluded that the magical presence I’d detected earlier must have been this defective spellcaster.

I made another golem, this one about three mers tall.

“I’ll go just in case,” Cain said before dismounting his horse, leaving me to sit atop it. He then ran off to go kill the defective spellcaster himself.

That was when one of the soldiers who had been running from the defective suddenly collapsed on the spot. “We were all duped... Why?!” he screamed as he writhed in pain. The wind whirled about with each thrash of his limbs.

“Sir Cain!”

The wind scattered around, slicing the surrounding ground to ribbons. Whenever a gust had made it about ten mers, it suddenly died down. That was the full range of the spell, most likely.

Unfortunately, Cain was well within that range. Several strands of wind rushed toward him.

Despite ducking down as fast as he could, his left sleeve was torn and a large rip appeared down his blue cape. Luckily, the combination of his armor and his sword, which he’d held up in front of him like a shield, had prevented him from taking too much damage.

Weaving through the gaps in the wind, Cain drew close to the newest defective spellcaster. He brought an end to the man’s life in an instant, leaving him to crumble away into sand.

Meanwhile, the soldier using earth magic was hard at work destroying the surrounding trees and even the wall I’d made. Perhaps the other Salekhardians had decided to let him do the heavy lifting here; they didn’t draw any closer. That part actually worked in my favor, but at this rate, we were going to lose the wall that was holding them back. The nearby knights of Lord Enister’s couldn’t get any closer either, for fear that their horses’ hooves would get caught in the sand.

I dismounted my horse and prepared to make my next move, only to hear:

“Don’t you dare cower in the face of this, you maggots!”

A bearded old man riding a white goat—Lord Enister, who else?—came barreling into view. When had he turned back around?

Lord Enister threw his spear from atop his goat. With a whoosh, it cut through the air and ran the defective spellcaster straight through. The defective crumbled into sand, subsumed into the surroundings until he was no longer identifiable.

“Are you alright, knight of Évrard?” Lord Enister called out to Cain.

Cain, however, was preoccupied with something else. “Come look at this, Lord Enister!”

The goat once again leapt down from the wall, after which Lord Enister dismounted and rushed over to Cain’s side. Cain was holding up the leftover clothes of the soldier who had been shooting blades of wind. Lord Enister took a look at it, furrowing his brow.

“A disguise, hm?”

A what?

“This was a Llewynian soldier. The structure of his armor is different from a Salekhardian’s.”

A Llewynian soldier? Wait, are these Llewynian troops?!

I glanced around. I had relaxed after we killed the defective spellcaster, assuming that had been the presence I’d felt earlier, but this meant that Lord Credias might actually be here somewhere.

Just then, my eyes were drawn to a certain spot. There, I saw a squad of men in green capes, approaching us as they detoured around the sandpit. There were about a hundred of them, by my estimation. I recognized one of the men on horseback, positioned toward the rear.

“Ah...”

I felt the blood drain from my face as I was struck with a sudden lethargy. I slumped against my horse’s neck, and it took all my energy just to support my own weight.

“Sir Cai—” I tried to call out to him, but I could barely get the words out. Regardless, it wasn’t long before Cain and Lord Enister noticed the enemy squad.

“So they’re here now that the worst of the danger has passed,” Lord Enister muttered.

Cain held his sword at the ready. Lord Enister grabbed the spear fastened to a nearby horse, grumbling thoughtfully. “Isn’t that the viscount suspected of sorcery?” he asked.

“Credias?” Cain whipped around to look at me as soon as he’d uttered the name, his expression turning grim. “Miss Kiara!” Now that he’d noticed the condition I was in, he came running over.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Lord Credias, too nervous about what magic he might unleash upon us.

His face had grown even chubbier since the last time I’d seen him. That made his frog-like eyes pop out a little bit less than they used to, but there was no mistaking who he was. Who else could have such distinctive features?

Eventually, I saw his mouth moving.

I didn’t know how to read lips. Still, I had the feeling I knew exactly what he’d just said.

Found you.