Chapter 5: To the Royal Capital

We had slain Lord Patriciél. Our soldiers cheered when they heard the news, and with a new air of harmony about our ranks, I built a tent in my designated spot and went on break.

Some of our men had run to the Sestina castle town to buy the supplies we needed. Why weren’t we just staying in the town proper, you might ask? Simple. The plan was currently to leave Sestina in Lady Évrard’s hands and march on the capital without a moment’s delay. Reggie wanted to afford the queen as little time to prepare as possible.

I’d heard that the slaves from the Kingdom of Toldi, who had defected to our side the other day, were to stay in Sestina for the time being. We would send them home once we had defeated the queen.

Since Lady Évrard would be too busy managing the territory to see us off, she came to say her goodbyes to me before we left.

“Be careful, dear. Something about Lord Patriciél’s tactics didn’t sit right with me, and I doubt the queen is just standing by doing nothing.”

Clad in her menswear and looking as dignified as ever, Lady Évrard wrapped me up in a tight hug that lasted several seconds.

“I will, Lady Évrard. I have my own misgivings, of course... but I don’t really know what it all could mean.”

We had successfully taken down Lord Patriciél, sure, but something had seemed off about the fight itself. Even assuming he’d made each of his knights swallow a fragment of a contract stone, it was weird that they had all manifested the same element. Lord Patriciél’s had been fire, besides. Plus, what was up with the monster?

I had discussed things with the Thorn Princess, and the two of us had speculated that he’d found a way to manipulate the power of the contract stone. We had no idea how he’d managed it, though.

Worse yet, we had no way to verify any of that. We weren’t about to resort to human experimentation, after all.

“I promise I’ll figure something out! I’ll be sure to keep Alan and Reggie safe!” I declared, doing my best to make sure she didn’t worry.

Lady Évrard smiled. “Yes, I know I can depend on you. Now that we’ve found ourselves in circumstances that call for a spellcaster, their swordsmanship won’t be enough to see us through. But look out for yourself, too. There’s no telling what might happen.”

With that, she turned to the Thorn Princess. “Efia... Ah, though as I recall, you prefer not to go by that name. I realize you’ve been through quite a lot. As a member of the royal family, I must apologize for my ignorance of your plight. Once this war has come to an end, tell me if there’s any way I can help you. I’ll do whatever I can.”

She pulled the Thorn Princess into a hug, then exited the tent.

“She never changes. Always so earnest, that one.”

Now that we were alone together, the Thorn Princess gave a dry laugh. The two had been relatives and all. Seeing her again must have brought back memories. I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t tell Lady Évrard the truth, at the very least.

The Thorn Princess rose to her feet. “I’ll be off now, too. I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Do you have business to take care of?”

“No. When Beatrice left, I spotted Reggie heading this way. I wouldn’t want to be a third wheel.”

“A what now?!” I was flustered to hear that from Reggie’s mom, of all people.

The Thorn Princess, meanwhile, just giggled. “I wouldn’t be so gauche as to meddle in the love affair of two children. Besides, considering you always end up together no matter how you first meet, there’s not much point in saying anything, is there? Take care of him for me.”

With a wave of her hand, the Thorn Princess left.

Let me get this straight. Did my boyfriend’s mother just give us her blessing? I’m glad, but talk about awkward!

And lo, just as she had predicted, Reggie showed up moments later.

“Did something happen? You look rather out of it.”

“Oh, uh, the Thorn Princess was just ribbing me about us.” I had no choice but to dance around the issue. Obviously, I couldn’t tell him that the teasing had come from his own mother.

“I was hoping you’d gotten over that sort of thing by now. Does it still embarrass you? I think even the lowest ranking soldiers have heard the news by now.”

“I-I know...”

Reggie smiled and sat down next to me. Lately, he had made a habit of coming to see me. Though he always brought Groul or one of his other guards along with him, he had started asking them to wait outside the tent.

Telling Lady Évrard about our relationship had been the trigger. After that, he’d stopped making any effort to hide it from the people around us, progressively growing more and more bold about it. Naturally, anyone who walked by my tent would be able to tell that the prince and the spellcaster were alone together.

It was through gestures like this that even those we weren’t particularly close to had come to learn about our relationship, I was pretty sure. I doubted Reggie would have let it happen if it weren’t his intention.

I was slowly but surely getting used to the idea of those around us knowing what was up. Still, Reggie was never able to hang around for too long. To make up for lost time, he always asked me to dote on him while we were together.

Lately, his favorite way to be pampered was with a lap pillow. He’d been pestering me to try it for ages, claiming he wanted to do something traditionally romantic. Frankly, even with a few layers of clothes between us, feeling Reggie’s cheek against my thighs always made me want to squirm.

Perhaps we’d done it so many times by now that I’d gotten used to it, though. Today, I was struck with the urge to stroke Reggie’s hair while he was lying on my lap. Brushing my hand over his silky locks gave me the strangest feeling—almost like I was really lulling a child to sleep.

After we’d stayed like that for a while, Reggie murmured, “Once we’ve taken back the royal capital, will you let me stay in your lap even longer?”

“Sure. You don’t have to ask my permission for every little thing, you know,” I said with a laugh.

Reggie chuckled in return. “Then you won’t get mad if I try something a little more extreme?”

“Extreme”?! Even with my past-life sex ed to guide me, I can’t imagine what comes next after a lap pillow!

“Like what, for example?”

“Other romantic things.”

He kept his wording vague. Still, we were a couple. Just having him by my side was enough to make me happy, but I didn’t want to deny him what he wanted, either.

“Okay, I won’t,” I conceded with a nod.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Reggie replied, delighted, before placing a kiss on my knee and pulling himself upright.

“Hey—!”

Excuse me! That was a surprise attack! In contrast to my surprise, Reggie just smiled his usual, relaxed smile.

“A lap pillow isn’t enough to faze you anymore, and I like seeing you flustered every now and then. I’m allowed that much, aren’t I?”

When he put it like that, it was hard to protest. It wasn’t like I was really angry with him, anyway.

You can have this round, I thought, taking it in stride—and wondering to myself if, sooner or later, everything Reggie and I did together would just feel natural to me.

◇◇◇

We set out the next day. I spent the trip jostled around inside a carriage like always, flanked by warhorses and foot soldiers as we made our way down the road.

Two days later, Lord Enister’s troops, who had been at the head of our march and were staying near a town freed from its Llewynian occupiers, were faced with an unexpected development. A messenger came to them with a letter from the royal capital.

The envoy was a Farzian, but his cape was black. Clearly scared out of his wits, he assured them that he was going to quit being a soldier and return to his hometown. Then, insisting that no reply was necessary, he tried to make a break for it.

Lord Enister’s giant goat menaced the horse the man had rode in on. Frightened, the steed bucked its rider, after which the goat chomped down on the scruff of his neck and dragged him away.

I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the guy when I heard the story. Even worse if he’d been serious about quitting his job.

The soldier threw down his sword to prove he had no intention to fight, and once his belongings had been inspected, he was set free. The real issue, however, was the contents of the letter he’d delivered.

“Did the queen really send this?” Reggie asked.

Lord Enister, the one who had presented him with the letter, gave a nod. Seeing as the letter had come from the queen herself, the situation had called for an impromptu war council, and we were currently gathered together inside the same tent.

“That is correct, Your Highness. I read it over before presenting it to you. Seeing as it requires an immediate response, I hoped to hear your verdict straightaway.”

Reggie skimmed over the letter. He promptly passed it over to Alan, then announced, “The queen has set a date a week from now. If we don’t make it to the royal capital by then, she’s going to massacre everyone in the city.”

“Massacre them?!” I couldn’t help but shout. I wasn’t the only one.

Unsettled, Emmeline asked, “Is that even possible? A fair number of the populace already escaped, yes, but there’s still a sizable number of townspeople left.”

“It’s definitely possible,” Reggie replied. “She doesn’t have to kill them one by one. All she has to do is scatter the powder of the spellcaster-birthing stones. The moment the people inhale it, they’ll turn into defective spellcasters and die.”

“Exactly,” Jerome agreed, a groan escaping his mouth.

Contract sand was dangerous. That said, if enough time passed after it was sprinkled around, mingling with the stones, soil, and water around it would dilute the mana in the powder, eventually rendering it harmless. Even the powder Lord Patriciél had plastered onto his arrows the other day had lost its efficacy after just a few hours.

When we had gone hunting for the scattered powder to make sure no one got hurt, Reynard had made the mistake of licking an arrowhead. His body hadn’t grown any bigger, which was what had tipped us off to this fact. But c’mon, Reynard, be more careful about what you put in your mouth!

I had checked it out for myself, and I hadn’t felt any magic on it either. What’s more, there was a soldier who had been grazed by one of the powder-painted arrows, yet he had walked away from it just fine.

Heck, there was even a soldier who had experimented on himself, thinking the sand might turn him into a real spellcaster. One day after the battle had ended, he had tried using some sand that had spilled out of a bottle left lying around, but nothing had happened.

I had to wonder if it would still degrade regardless of how it was stored. It sounded like this sort of thing didn’t happen with the regular stones, after all.

Nevertheless, within a few hours of sprinkling the powder around, the royal capital was bound to turn into a bloodbath.

“Even if a handful of people do have the aptitude to become a spellcaster, we know they’ll be down for the count for three days. Considering everyone else around them will have turned into a defective, they’ll get picked off before they can hope to run,” Alan theorized. Reggie nodded in agreement.

Lord Enister said, “This calls for accelerating our march, lads. We still have a week’s journey ahead of us. At our current speed, there’s a good chance we won’t make it in time.”

“Probably. And given that she’s set a deadline, we can assume she’ll set obstacles in our path to slow us down.”

I tried to work out what everyone was saying. In other words, the queen had set a time limit for us, but she was going to ensure we didn’t make it in time, all so she could force us to watch her slaughter the royal capital?

“Why would she do that?”

“I thought she was more liable to run away, honestly,” Alan remarked.

That comment hit me like a truck.

She should be running away.

Lord Patriciél had withdrawn somewhere around 10,000 soldiers. Even pooling those together with the soldiers stationed in the royal capital, their numbers would only barely reach 20,000. By now, however, the only other territory Llewyne still occupied was the royal domain, located on the outskirts of the capital. Now that the writing of their defeat was on the wall, more and more Llewynian soldiers had to be deserting, too. She didn’t have the means to force all of her soldiers to stay. The Llewynian army’s numbers ought to have been lower than ever.

With those paltry numbers, there was no way they were going to win against the Farzian army, which had a spellcaster in its ranks. Given that she had no chance of victory, it only made sense for the queen to flee. She was a former princess of Llewyne, after all.

Yet she hadn’t run. Not now, and not in the RPG.

I knew it wouldn’t make sense for the final boss of a game to run away, so I had never questioned it that hard. When I thought about it in the context of reality, however, it didn’t make any sense.

Then the Thorn Princess opened her mouth to speak. “There must be a good reason behind this. Perhaps she wants to deliver as big a blow to Farzia as she can for the sake of her homeland.”

“Interesting thought,” Jerome said. “Or perhaps she hopes to ensure that Farzia can’t retaliate against Llewyne right away? It’s certainly true that as long as we have the resources to do so, we plan to transition straight into overthrowing the Llewynian monarchy.”

Reggie nodded.

“One thing we have to consider is that the queen has the power to fight her own battles,” the Thorn Princess weighed in. “In the future I saw, she had tamed a monster of her own. It managed to deal the Farzian army quite the heavy blow.”

“The queen keeps a monster?” Alan asked, pulling a face. “That complicates things.”

“It’s just as you fear; Farzia suffered a great deal of damage in the attack. Though it was only the one monster, it was powerful enough to rival an entire army. Seeing as Farzia didn’t know of the beast ahead of time, they ended up losing one-third of their troops. When I last peeked into the future, she wasn’t utilizing defective spellcasters, so I can’t predict exactly what might happen this time around.”

“One-third? That smarts.”

Everyone’s faces twisted into frowns.

“This is my suggestion: shortly before the rest of our troops arrive at the royal capital, the spellcaster and the prince should head into the city first, infiltrate the castle, and kill the queen straight off.”

“Kill the queen straight off?” Reggie parroted back.

“That’s right,” the Thorn Princess replied with a nod. “If you duel the queen first, her monster won’t have a chance to assail your troops. The queen will call on it to protect herself, giving us the opportunity to take it down ourselves. That way, those left in the royal capital won’t have to die. Isn’t that right?”

“That said,” she went on, “I’d advise against rushing to the capital in a smaller unit. Just as the prince predicted, Llewynian soldiers are bound to turn up to impede our march. Needless to say, they’ll be keeping an eye out, counting on us sending a squad to assassinate the queen. It would be difficult to slip past without their noticing, and you’ll be in trouble if they get you surrounded.”

“Yes. Everything waits until we’ve closed in on the capital,” Alan concurred, heaving a sigh.

Reggie was of the same mind. “I agree. At any rate, we need to get moving; time is of the essence. Someone inform Salekhard of the plan.”

◇◇◇

We made a dash for the royal capital first thing in the morning.

Reggie had informed the troops that if we didn’t hurry fast enough, there was going to be a massacre. To no surprise, that got our soldiers to hustle. As a result, we made it into the royal domain in just two days, well ahead of schedule.

There, however, we found Llewynian soldiers blocking the path forward. I walked a little ways ahead of our troops with Reggie and his knights, overlooking the enemy from atop a high cliff. There weren’t that many of them, all told. Taking out all 10,000 of them wouldn’t have posed too much of a problem, but we didn’t want to grind our march to a halt, either.

“There are too many of them to just cut past and let someone else handle the fight,” Alan mumbled.

“The troops left behind would be decimated,” Reggie agreed. “That said, if all of us tried to slip through together, the damage to our supply wagons would be devastating. Even if Kiara were to summon a golem to aid us, we’d risk being split up, too.”

“I’m sure the enemy came here prepared to lay down their lives. With all the soldiers who have fled, the ones who remain are likely convinced they have no choice but to see this through to the end.”

“A result of Llewyne attempting to stop the flow of deserters by threatening to turn them into defective spellcasters, perhaps. In which case, we should be prepared to see more defectives enter the fray.”

Alan and Reggie brainstormed plans together. Once they came to a consensus, they would go confer with the rest of the generals. That was the way they always did things.

For my part, I wouldn’t have minded mowing the enemies down with my golem and breezing past, but some of our men and their horses could have been left behind in the process. Whichever squad went ahead first might have ended up cut off from the pack and in a lot more danger for it, too.

“If only there were a bridge or something,” I muttered before clapping my hands together in a eureka moment.

We were still a good distance from the royal capital, so I doubted the boss monster would be rearing its head any time soon. That meant it was safe for me to push my magic to its limits—which gave me an idea.

“Say, Reggie. Do you think I could mow down a path with my golem?”

“Take out the soldiers with your magic, you mean?”

“Yeah. But once that’s done, I’ll build earthen walls along the sides of the path my golem carves out. If we have our own ramparts, our infantry and supply convoy can forge ahead swiftly and safely. I’ll pare down the enemy troops while everyone is moving through.”

Reggie looked concerned. “That’s a pretty big area to cover. Will you be alright?”

“I think I can scrounge up enough mana. Besides, we don’t have to worry about a certain monster popping up all the way out here. Right, Thorn Princess?”

With the ball tossed in her court, the Thorn Princess smiled and replied, “The queen’s monster can’t stray too far from her side, so we should be fine. Either way, I have high hopes for any future you forge. Do as you see fit.”

She then gave me a pat on the back. Something about the gesture felt oddly similar to when my mother used to stroke my hair.

“Thank you,” I said, then turned my attention to Master Horace. “Alrighty. I’m going to craft you another custom-made golem. Do you mind being the pilot again?”

“Fine by me. Sounds more fun than swinging from your waist doing nothing, at least. Heeheehee!”

I thanked Master Horace for his compliance, then started getting things ready.

“If I want to erect a wall, I’ll have to sprinkle copper ore over the ground,” I muttered to myself. “Maybe I should have Master Horace do that for me.”

As the Farzian troops kept marching forward, we eventually closed in on the Llewynians, who had stationed themselves all along the high road and surrounding fields. We positioned our supply carriages in the center of our ranks, bolstering the vanguard and rearguard with more soldiers. Isaac and his Salekhardian troops trailed along at the very back of the lines.

Once we were in formation, Cain saw someone give the signal and told me, “Go ahead, Miss Kiara.”

“Got it!”

I moved off to the right flank of the troops, where I created a golem with Master Horace fixed atop its head. I built it a little wider than usual, knowing that extra girth would be vital to this particular strategy.

“The carriages and foot soldiers will still need to get past him, so that should do it. Go on, Master Horace! Do your thing!”

“Eeeheehee!”

Cackling, Master Horace plunged straight into the enemy lines, skewing a little closer to the center of the pack from the right-hand side—all so that he could break open the gate of men packed across the high road.

Most of the enemy soldiers managed to make a run for it, but a good number of them were still sent flying. It probably didn’t help that I had rushed Master Horace into action since speed was of the essence here.

As he cut through Llewynian lines, Master Horace sprinkled copper ore all around, just like we’d planned. I followed after him on Cain’s horse. While the two of us galloped ahead, I built walls about twice the height of a person along either side of the road, shutting the Llewynians out.

“Onward!”

Then, the Farzian troops went on the move. Charging down the high road as it was walled in, piece by piece, the knights at the vanguard mowed down whichever Llewynian soldiers hadn’t managed to get out in time.

The Llewynians clearly hadn’t anticipated that this was how we would try to break through. Panicked, they sent soldiers to block the front and back exits of the newly walled road—only for those men to be greeted by Master Horace, who kicked them away like pebbles on the side of the road.

The Thorn Princess backed me up, too. She took control of some nearby vines to stop the soldiers in their tracks, occasionally even tossing them out of the way.

Once the Salekhardians had slipped inside the walled area, I sealed off the back entrance.

Rather than attempting to tear down the wall, the Llewynians simply let their arrows fly. They managed to hit a good handful of our men. If nothing else, however, the rampart meant that having our soldiers hold up their shields was all it took to cut down on casualties.

As we rushed toward the exit, Llewynians started to gather on that end of the tunnel. Hoping to leave their forces as disoriented as possible, Master Horace stomped straight through the center of the enemy ranks to take them down.

To give us one extra push, I manipulated the soil around some nearby Llewynian soldiers, grabbing them by the ankles. Once it was clear they were trapped, a squad rushed out from within the walled path to strike them down.

There was no time to sit back and watch as the enemy soldiers were picked off.

“How many enemies do you think are left, Sir Cain?”

“Around eight thousand, probably. If Sir Horace keeps it up, I imagine we could bring that number down to seven thousand.”

We hadn’t trimmed their numbers nearly enough. If we left too many of them alive as we forged ahead, the Llewynians were bound to give chase. Too much fighting would bring our march to a standstill.

“Defective spellcasters!” came a shout.

I turned to look, only to spot a gale kicking up near the front lines. The defective spellcasters were clearly wielding wind magic.

“It’s hard to see it from here, and even harder to do much about it,” remarked Cain.

I was starting to feel a little drained now, but nonetheless, I crafted a second golem so I could take a better look at what was happening in the distance. After I’d hopped onto its shoulder and gotten a better view, I went straight to work flattening those men one after the other.

There had been five of them in total, and I didn’t get the sense that their numbers would be multiplying any time soon. Thus, I chose to focus on how to whittle down the enemy troops even further.

Master Horace was heading back toward us, kicking around as many enemies as he could along the way. Just as I was about to join him in his rampage, I heard Reggie call out to me. “Come here, Kiara!”

I immediately knew what he wanted to do.

“We ought to make use of His Highness’s power,” said Cain. “That should take some of the burden off of you.”

Opting to take his advice, I returned to the center of the Farzian troops, hopped down from my golem, and rushed over to Reggie’s side.

“It’s up to you, Reggie!”

When I reached out and touched his shoulder, Reggie raised his sword up high. His target was the dead center of the enemy troops. There weren’t any of our men mixed in there, so he wouldn’t have to worry about friendly fire.

Reggie let his lightning fly. The bolt crashed down from the heavens, sending ripples through the air and tremors through the ground. Even braced for it, I couldn’t help giving a start.

Now that Master Horace had made it back to the rest of us, he lifted one of our knights in the palm of his hand and let him survey the current state of the battlefield. According to him, we had brought the enemy’s numbers down to around 5,000.

“By this point, their losses should be getting too heavy for them to give chase,” posited Groul.

The entirety of the Farzian army had made it through the walled path now. Reggie gave a nod of agreement at his knight’s assessment, then trailed after the rear guard, away from the battlefield.

Unfortunately, some Llewynians refused to give up. A total of about 2,000 enemy soldiers—infantry and cavalry alike—followed in hot pursuit.

Isaac, who was part of the rear guard, had a proposal for us. “You lot are in a hurry, no? Once they’ve caught up to us a little farther down the road, my men can deal with them. With those numbers, we should have no problem handling them on our own. Go ahead and take the lead, prince of Farzia,” he said, spurring his horse onward.

Reggie nodded. “I’ll leave them to you, then. Once you’ve dealt with them, come catch up to us. Chase them too far and you might end up paying for it, so do be careful.”

“I won’t go after them that hard. If I don’t watch myself, I might need a certain someone to heal my wounds again. The last thing we need is for you to end up bedridden.”

I had more mana left in the tank than I’d honestly expected, so I figured I was still good to help him out.

I started to say, “I mean, if you need it—”

“Now, now, don’t push your luck,” Isaac said, cutting me off. “I’ll see you later.” With a laugh and a wave of his hand, he galloped off toward the rear.

Gradually, the Salekhardian troops slowed the pace of their march. Once they had engaged the enemy, the rest of us took the opportunity to make our way down the high road—until eventually, the Llewynian troops disappeared from sight.

◇◇◇

That night, we halted our march at a point even farther down the road than we had planned. Plains stretched and rolled across the valley of the Leun River, which ran alongside the royal capital. We camped out in a corner of said meadow.

Given how hard we’d rushed to get here, the Salekhardians had yet to catch up to us. They had informed us via messenger bird that they had made it out alright, but due to the moderate number of casualties sustained, they had been forced to slow the speed of their march.

The area around the royal capital was Llewynian territory in all but name; we had to stay vigilant of our surroundings. Though Jerome’s men were stuck on patrol, they were still allowed to rest in shifts, which left everyone looking a little more bright-eyed.

We had gained one new advantage, too: reinforcements.

We had received a report that two territories upstream of the Leun River, along with the remnants of the Farzian royal army who had fled there, would be coming down the river to launch an attack of their own. From the sound of it, troops were marching to the west of the royal capital from the northwestern territories of Hunavall and Lounès, too.

When we gathered for a meeting upon hearing the news, Lord Enister gave a derisive snort. He wasn’t impressed that it had taken the northwestern territories so long to make their move.

“Now there’s a slow start for you.”

Jerome tried to pacify him. “Now, now. If you consider that all the bordering territories were aligned with Llewyne, it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to risk a concentrated attack. We should consider ourselves lucky they chose to enter the fray at all.”

That didn’t seem to sit much better with Lord Enister. Still, perhaps he had to acknowledge that some support was better than none; he didn’t say anything more on the matter.

Alan, who was leading the discussion, continued, “Based on the reports of our reconnaissance unit, there are about twenty-five thousand men stationed near the bridge over the Luen River that leads to the royal capital. The breakdown is around ten thousand Llewynian soldiers, plus fifteen thousand soldiers from the Farzian nobility still backing the queen.”

“There isn’t much of a gap in our numbers,” said Reggie. “With the backup coming from the north and the west, the Llewynian troops will be left with no choice but to disperse.”

Alan nodded. “It seems a handful of Llewynian ships have gone out to sea. I assume that means a good number of officers and soldiers have fled. If anything, I find it strange that so many are staying behind to defend the royal capital now that the floodgates have opened on desertion.”

“Perhaps she threatened to turn them into defective spellcasters. Or maybe her monster is the problem,” Reggie mumbled.

The Thorn Princess nodded. “That seems most likely. Even in the other futures I saw, there were far more soldiers on her side than I would have expected. Supposing she doesn’t have the means to turn them into defective spellcasters, they might see the monster in her entourage as a trump card.”

“Perhaps they believe they’re winning in terms of raw firepower,” Emmeline suggested. “All they have to do is destroy our forces, and Llewyne will be free to occupy Farzia for as long as they please.”

A dry laugh escaped Reggie’s lips. “True. If we go down, no one else among the Farzian nobility would dare to take a stand. It’s difficult to gather men when your leader is no more.”

There, the Thorn Princess told us of the future that should have come to pass. “Fair point. In one future I saw, Farzia was left in shambles after its leader—Alan Évrard—went down in a blaze of glory. The former princess, Beatrice, was the only person left with a claim to the throne. A staggering number of soldiers had been lost in the war. Salekhard, which had chosen to stay out of the war, forced unreasonable demands upon the nation, and yet another country tried to invade. Despite coming out victorious, Farzia found itself in no less of a quandary.”

That made sense. Though Alan—the king-to-be—had died, that didn’t mean Lady Évrard could step up to replace him just like that. If things had played out the same as in the RPG, she would have been in the throes of depression. Hearing about the death of her son would have sent her spiraling even further into despair.

Even hearing the story now was enough to make Lady Évrard purse her lips. Meanwhile, Alan’s only reaction to being told of his own death was to heave a sigh. “But we’re not on the same track now, are we?”

“Of course we’re not. In the future you saw, did the monster come all the way over the bridge to attack us?” Reggie asked the Thorn Princess.

“It’s an avian monster, so it was a simple matter of making the flight. In yet another future I’ve seen, it attacks as soon as you cross the bridge to lay siege to the royal capital.”

“A bird, hm? Are arrows effective against it?” Alan asked.

“Not quite,” the Thorn Princess replied. “Its magic is that of flame. Any arrows fired were swiftly dropped back to earth. Ordinary soldiers would do better to focus their efforts on dodging its attacks. You’ll have to watch out for attacks from enemy soldiers in the meantime, too.”

“Oh, but it gets worse. This time around, even if we were to fight it head-on and win, the citizens of the royal capital would be getting slaughtered while we had our hands full with the birdie. Eeeheehee!” Master Horace cackled.

Battles always took their fair share of time. Not only did they call for moving on foot and fighting with spear or sword, but depending on how things played out, there was the risk of having to fall back and start again from square one. If we wanted to settle it in as little time as possible, we would need magic—my golems, for example.

“I could always take it down with my magic,” I muttered. “But while I’m busy with that, the queen might realize she’s at a disadvantage and start murdering the townspeople.”

Reggie said, “But if it’s clear that you and I are absent from the start, that could put us in an even worse position. If she figures out that we’re attempting to sneak in and confront her directly, the queen might kill the citizens of the royal capital regardless. Let’s stand and fight for a time. Then, when we spot our chance... we infiltrate the royal palace to kill the queen and her monster, now isolated from the rest of their army.”

“Good idea. So long as the monster doesn’t come out to play, it’s a fight between fellow men. If you can use your magic to whittle down their forces, that will put us at an advantage. Even if the monster were to attack, we have the perfect counter for its fire magic—our frostfoxes. Besides, once our assassination squad has confronted the queen, she ought to call it back to her side. When that happens, the only ones left behind will be the cornered Farzian traitors and the Llewynians who missed their chance to run back to their homeland. We can make short work of them, no doubt.” There, Alan paused to ask Reggie, “So, who’s going? If we’re fighting magic with magic, we’ll need Kiara, the Thorn Princess, and knights to guard them. And I assume you want to go with them, right?”

Alan looked a little nervous about that, but Reggie only nodded. “It’s a fight against the queen and her magical beast. We need as many magic users on hand as we can get.”

The Thorn Princess murmured, “I think it would be fine for the prince to stay behind. Having myself, Kiara, and a dozen knights and elite soldiers should be all the firepower we need.”

That comment gave me a start. The Thorn Princess is worried about Reggie. She’s seen him die too many times now.

Rather than dragging him into the final battle, she probably preferred to keep him on the front lines, where we at least had a plan to keep the monster at bay. It only made sense, considering how long and hard she had worked to keep him alive.

But of course, Reggie didn’t know about any of that. “If I get in on the action, I can take my knight-guards with me. Rather than handpicking a squad of knights to send out, it would be more efficient to throw me into the fray while Alan takes up command of the troops. Besides, I have better knowledge of the secret passages through the royal palace.” He shot the Thorn Princess down instantly.

He did have a point. As the prince, Reggie ought to know of a few paths into the royal palace from the outside. We were better off having him there as a guide.

“I suppose so... I can’t claim to be particularly familiar with the ins and outs of war. I’ll trust your judgment.”

“Thank you. Well then, Alan, we’ll be counting on you.”

“I’ll just do what I always do. Write the reinforcements a note instructing them to follow my orders, will you?”

“Of course.”

With that, our plan of attack on the royal capital was decided. We were given the remainder of the day to rest up. Everyone promptly exited the tent where we had held our war council.

The Thorn Princess left as though nothing of note had happened. When I saw that, I knew I couldn’t afford to be dawdling around myself. As I rose to my feet, however, Reggie called me to stay. He asked the soldiers who were still hanging around to wait outside, too.

“What’s up?”

I mean, he wants to tell me something private. I can figure out that much.

“Say, Kiara. About the Thorn Princess...” Reggie faltered there, his voice growing quieter. However, he quickly thought better of that and came out with his question. “Rather than seeing the future, is her real power the ability to go back in time?”

I hesitated. How was I supposed to answer that question?

After some dithering, I responded, “Why do you ask?”

“She knows far too many specifics about ‘what should have been.’ Besides... if my hunch is correct, she’s been inside the royal palace before.”

“Huh?”

“How did she plan to get inside without me? While it’s true that I could simply pass down that information verbally, she didn’t seem interested in asking about it whatsoever.” He went on, “I doubt she’s the type to let something like that slip her mind. In which case, she should have said, ‘You don’t have to go, but draw the location of the secret passages for us on a map.’”

Reggie had gotten hung up on that detail, it seemed.

“The way I see it, she didn’t ask because she didn’t need it. Thus, it follows that her power is not that of seeing the future, but that she has experienced that future once before, and that she explored the grounds of the royal palace after the war had come to an end. It only makes sense to assume she can go back in time, then, no? I don’t recall her ever coming near the royal palace, after all.”

Now I got where he was coming from. If she’d merely seen a glimpse of the future, there was no reason for her to know about the hidden passages in the royal palace, considering her personal history.

Of course, I was pretty sure the actual reason she knew was that she was the former queen. What’s more, I figured that she’d been so preoccupied with Reggie that she hadn’t thought to obfuscate what she was saying. She hadn’t asked about the secret passages for the same reason, I bet.

I fretted. This was Reggie we were talking about, so if I tried to lie, I knew he would see right through it.

“You’re right. But she has her own reasons for saying she can see the future instead.” I attempted to get out of this with the vaguest of affirmations. “Once the war is over, I’m sure she’ll tell you the whole story. There won’t be a reason for her to hide it anymore.”

Worse yet, I worked to put off the issue. My implication there was, You should wait until she decides to tell you. That way, I wouldn’t have to be the one to spill the Thorn Princess’s secret.

Laughing, Reggie gave me a pat on the head. “Yes, yes, I get the picture. You can’t tell me. When the war has come to an end, I’ll ask her about her secrets myself. I’d feel bad if I forced you to break a promise.”

He totally knew I was lying.

Ugh! Did I go about it wrong? Or is Reggie just too sharp to get anything past?

When he saw the way I was losing my cool, Reggie chuckled. “You wear your heart on your sleeve, you know.”

That settled it. I had to work on my poker face.

While I was setting that new goal for myself, he added, “Even if you lie to me, I know you would never work against my best interests. I don’t know what you’re hiding, but I’ll trust that you have a good reason to keep it from me.”

“Thanks.”

I was so happy to hear how much he trusted me that I couldn’t help breaking into a smile.

◇◇◇

We spent the following day trekking through the Roylegart Plains. Faced with a force of nearly 20,000 men, the Llewynians in the nearby town chose to keep their heads down, making no effort to impede our march.

Just before dusk fell, we stopped not far from the Leun River, which ran parallel to the royal capital. Tomorrow, reinforcements would be arriving from upstream. We had decided to wait for them to join us before pushing forward. Though the reinforcements were rushing to get to us, we had come earlier than anticipated, so it was going to take another day for them to arrive.

Nevertheless, it was the eve of the final battle. Now that we had some time to catch our breath—though we had to remain vigilant, of course—the soldiers all seemed vaguely antsy. They weren’t chatting as much as usual. The silence that had fallen over our army was making me anxious in turn.

At the same time, however, I felt a rush of emotion. If everything went as planned tomorrow, I would finally come face-to-face with the queen.

From beside a stone platform I’d erected for patrolling the area, I gazed out toward the royal capital. The city shone even in the dark of night; I could faintly make out lights in the distance.

I had brought Lila along with me as a bodyguard. It seemed Master Horace had finally gotten used to being around her; he was there too, and he wasn’t even clamoring at her to stay away.

“Getting cold feet?” he asked.

“Nah. It just feels so strange, thinking about how we’re about to kill the queen and finally put an end to all this.”

That got a cackle out of him. “What, you’re that sure you’re going to win? Now that’s what I call hubris! Eeeheehee!”

“What?!”

That comment came as a shock, but thinking about it, that really was how I’d been thinking about it. Part of me had felt that if this were the world of the RPG, we just had to win.

But now...

“When I realized we would be going to war, I was afraid that Reggie might die. I was so desperate to stop it from happening... but thinking back on it, some part of me was a little complacent, too. ‘If we follow the plot of the RPG, we’ll win.’ But once the situation changed, and the enemy ended up stronger than ever before, and we ran into foes who were never supposed to show up in the first place, I started to worry a little. The time I got most anxious about losing was when I was captured by Isaac, I think.”

The Battle of Trisphede never could have happened in the RPG. It was a fight against Salekhard—and the final showdown with Lord Credias.

It was once we’d gotten past that, after we’d had to call on Reggie’s magic, that I’d started thinking about things differently.

“If anything, I’ve started thinking of it more like I’m wielding the knowledge of another person who went through this war, just like the Thorn Princess did.”

“So it’s more than just a fairy tale to you now.”

“Exactly.”

This wasn’t some fairy tale we were destined to win. It was reality—but one shaped by someone who had peeked into our history and saw fit to change it.

What had allowed me to finally acknowledge that was slaying Lord Credias, who personified all the nightmares of this world... as well as Reggie staying by my side and telling me he loved me.

That was all the more reason it was so hard to register that defeating the queen would put an end to all this.

“There won’t be any moving forward unless we take her down, of course. It’s just hard to believe there’s a true reality waiting for us past that point.”

“A ‘true’ reality, eh? Well, no one will be able to go back to their old lives until this war ends. In that sense, we are pretty disconnected from reality right now. Either way, I can’t wait to see what your reality shapes up to be. Heeheehee!” Master Horace gave a delighted laugh before adding, “Still, knowing how you are, I never imagined you’d leave his side today of all days. There’s no telling what might happen, considering you’re going up against the woman who took out the margrave’s kid. It’s hard to imagine anything could kill that boy.”

He had every reason to be worried. Whether Lord Credias was the reason behind it or not, the Thorn Princess had always acted independently up until Sestina. If she had determined she needed to come along now, there was probably some real trouble in store for us.

“I mean, we were just together. Besides, he’ll be by my side all day tomorrow.”

Even if we were to lose, I’d be with him in my last moments. If we’d been planning to go our separate ways, I bet I would have been terrified to leave his side for even a second—but knowing that we would be together, there was no reason to be so loath to part.

“Tch! Get a load of this sap.”

Master Horace’s grumblings drew a laugh out of me, and together we spent the remainder of the night in peace.

The next day, around noon... the battle began.