Volume 8 Side Story Part 1

Side Story: The Return of the Tentacle Mage

「We’ve been found out. 」

The meeting started with that sudden statement.

Two girls were sitting at the table. Although both of them were very young, both of them already possessed their own Crests.

「Uhm… w-what do you mean? 」

That was the only thing that Katarina Fargard could bring herself to say.

Katarina is one of the Lords of Fargard, a nation located in the center of the continent. In this country ruled by her younger brother Alois, she was in charge of assisting him. Her silver hair swayed back on her brown skin, which was a rare trait to have in the inland area of the continent. Her gaze, which usually reflected her strong will, was now colored with confusion.

Katarina was now in a room in an old castle on the border of Fargard. It is located in an unnaturally empty space in the deep forest, with no one living there or anyone approaching it. Therefore, this castle was always used when Fargard was in need of having secret talks with the neighboring country of Medinia.

Truth to be told, right now the people in the castle were in the middle exactly such a secret talk.

The girl sitting across from Katarina is Nina Nikitavna, Nikita, the Lord of the neighboring country of Medinia, who was also only fourteen years old.

Nina, clad in her strange, stubby armor that was only showing her young face, was glancing up at Katarina as if she wanted to stare a hole right through her face. It was a truly childish gesture.

「Um, I promise I won’t get angry, so can you tell me what’s this about, actually? 」

Katarina urges her to speak forward. Nina is a personal friend of hers, so even though she knows that they’re both the representatives of their respective countries, she broke down and ended up stumbling for her words.

「Um, yeah, I mean… you see, the thing is… 」

Nina twisted around for a while, then slumped her shoulders and finally managed to squeeze an answer out of her throat.

「The people found out that we managed to liberate the Demonic Realm. 」

「Wha…!!! 」

Katarina was speechless. That was the situation she feared the most.

Fargard and Medinia… although these two countries were neighbors, they were known for always being at odds with each other, as well as that there was no reliable method of travelling back and forth between them.

This was only because between these two countries there was the infamous Demonic Realm, The Tree Dragon Forest. This Demonic Realm, which is comparable to the Chaos Vortex of Sistina and the dragon’s lair in the northern reaches of the continent, has continued to reject humans for a long time.

However, about two years ago, a part of the Tree Dragon Forest was suddenly liberated. This story took place a little after 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」.

In response to the sudden situation, both countries ended up mobilizing their military. The two armies met in front of the old castle where Katarina and her friend were now. Both sides claimed the Demonic Realm area as their own territory, and a clash ended up breaking between them as a result.

However, it was all a trap set by the main projection of the Demonic Realm. The thing that has been sealed in the forest sensed that there was a war going on, and used it as a means of escaping its confinement. As a result, the seal that was placed on the forest was broken, and both Fargard and Medinia ended up being hit by the greatest Chaos Disaster ever recorded in these countries chronicles.
In the face of this crisis, Katarina and Nina joined forces in order to dispose of the demon and restore peace to their lands.

The revived Demon has been repelled by them, but it was done after many sacrifices.

Thus, the Tree Dragon Forest disappeared. However, neither country has made this information public. That was to avoid having both Fargard and Medinia getting caught up in the war, in the hopes that the two countries would never have to fight each other again. In the first place, Fargard is a member of the Fantasia Union, and Medinia is a member of the Factory Alliance, and the main reason why they clashed with each other was because they were 「enemy countries」, so if the Demonic Realm that acted as a natural border between the two of them would disappear, it would be inevitable that both countries would be caught up on the frontlines of the war.

In that case, the representatives of Fargard and Medinia decided that it would be in their best interest to avoid a needless battle by hiding the fact that the Demonic Realm has been liberated and pretending that things were going as usual. And so they made a secret pact and worked together behind the scenes to keep the secret going for as long as possible.

「So they finally found out, huh? 」

Katarina said while looking up to the heavens.

「Sorry, I’m so sorry… 」

「No, don’t be. There is no need for you to apologize. 」

Katarina started to panic as Nina lowered her head.

She was aware that this day would have to come someday. After all, the liberation of a demonic realm was not something that could’ve been kept hidden forever. She didn’t know whether it had been a long time or a short time since the release of the demon realm until this day, but now that this information came to light, they had no choice but to deal with it.

「So, who exactly found out? 」

「Waldrind, I’m afraid. 」

「Oh… Well, talk about the worst possible outcome. 」

They both sighed at the same time.

For Waldrind, a country that is the leader of the Factory Alliance and aims to unify the entire continent by force, the fact that Fargard and Medinia were able to open a road in the center of the continent is extremely important. Now that they know about it, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever leave them alone.

「Now, I will explain the circumstances of how it happened. 」

The girl who was waiting next to Nina stepped forward. She is called Sterif Strain. She looked like a maid, but she was actually a legitimate Mage.

In her mind, her job as a contracted Mage included taking care of those whom she was supposed to be serving, and that’s why she looked the way she did. She was also one of the people who fought in the Tree Dragon Forest and knew the relationship between the two countries well.

「It was a few days ago. A messenger from Waldrind suddenly arrived at our country of Medinia. To be honest, I had a bad feeling about them right from the start. 」

Sterif shook her head bitterly.

「The person who came to us as a messenger was Baron Dirk Dinkel, one of the Heavy Knights of Waldrind. He said the following thing to us. 」

Dirk began by saying that he was proud that there were no more famous Chaos Disasters on the continent, and that such a feat was accomplished by a member of the Factory Alliance. He also casually praised Medinia’s achievements as a whole.

However, after the obligatory praise came a number of demands. Now that the Tree Dragon forest was dealt with, he demanded that Medinia should start participating in the Great War as every member of the Factory Alliance should, that the ruler of Medinia should subordinate themselves fully to Marine Kraische and that they should give Waldrind and other countries allied with the Factory Alliance to pass through their country. He also demanded that Medinia should always have a steady amount of supplies prepared for everyone who’s be crossing through it. And of course, the last demand was that Medinia should mobilize all its forces and move out to attack Fargard, their neighbor from the Fantasia Union.

「He was behaving as id he was the Lord giving orders to his vassal country. 」

Nina was clenching her fists until they turned white. Katarina also nodded her head deeply.

「So, what is Medinia going to do about this? 」

Katarina asked Nina.

「And what do you think?! Having Medinia fight Fargard now is a ridiculous idea! 」

Nina screamed loudly.

「Katarina, you and the entirety of Fargard are our friends! You are a friend who made me realize what is truly important! I will never fight with friends like that again! Never! 」

Katarina felt that she was becoming teary-eyed. And then she remembered it again. That this is exactly the kind of girl that Nina was.

More than anything, she hates it when not only herself but her friends were being taken advantage of, so being faced with the demand to 「attack Fargard」 must have been the worst thing of all for her.