Volume 8 Side Story Part 4

「Hmm, so you think we won’t be able to win next time they’ll come at us? Do you think so as well, Orca? 」

「Yes. I also feel like it was just a coincidence that things went well this time. 」

Orca shrugged his shoulders, and Nina crossed her arms on her chest.

「Lady Katarina, Lady Nina, please don’t worry at the castle gate. It will make the soldiers uneasy. 」

Marta chided the group.

「Please leave the information gathering to Marta. I’m ready start whenever you’ll need me. 」

「Are you… sure about that? 」

Katarina had a bad feeling because of how Marta said that just now.

「Marta, are you really sure that’s what you want to do right now? 」

Nina was worried as well, but…

「Thank you for worrying about me, Lady Nina, but I won’t need to venture out of the castle. I took advantage of the confusion and captured one of the enemy knights. 」

Marta replies with a big smile. She is a Torturer, which means that extracting information out of people by inflicting pain upon them was her specialty.

「Uhm… whatever you’ll end up doing, make sure to not go too overboard, okay? 」

「Of course. I’ll make sure that he’s going to confess everything as fast as possible. 」

Katarina made a silent prayer for the knight’s safety in her mind, since that answer didn’t satisfy her at all.

「In addition to myself, Big Sister Protea is also infiltrating the enemy’s camp under the guise of the missing knight, so I’m sure that she’ll be able to collect many useful information from the other side as well. 」

「Protea! 」

Protea is an Arts user who has the power to change into any form she desires. She met Nina a while ago, fell in love with her, and settled in Medinia in order to always be close to her. She is also one of the comrades who survived the battle of the Tree Dragon Forest along with the rest of Nina’s and Katarina’s comrades.

Furthermore, for some reason, Marta calls her 「Older Sister」 but Katarina didn’t know what was the reason behind her doing that. She only knew that Marta was supposed to be older of the two, which made it even more strange in her eyes.

「Ugh! Why did he do something so dangerous without consulting me about anything first?! 」

「I’m sure it’ll be okay. 」

As Nina growled, Katarina tried her best to calm her down by speaking kindly to her.

「Everyone is working hard, so we need to do whatever we can as well. 」

「… I see. Yes, that’s right. 」

Nina gave a nod and turned back to face the other Lord.

Yes, Waldrind’s attack is not over yet, so they need to be fully prepared for anything they might try tom pull off.

A few days later, Katarina and the others were meeting together in a conference room in the royal capital of Medinia. Excluding Protea, who was still infiltrating the enemy ranks, the main members of the meeting included all the key figures from both Fargard’s and Medinia’s side – everyone who fought in the liberation of the Tree Dragon Forest.

The content of the military council was how to prevent another invasion of Waldrind. According to the information gathered by Marta and Protea, it has become clear that the re-invasion will take place sooner than everyone was expecting.
The known military strength is in the thousands. 200 heavily armored knights. It’s several times as many as last time.

When Nina heard this, she decided to abandon her front line castle. She chose to gather all of Medinia’s forces in the fort in front of the royal capital. She has dispatched as many troops as possible from Fergard and has begun loading support supplies that her soldiers would definitely need.

「In terms of numbers alone, we have more than twice as many soldiers as our opponent. However, what he learned from the previous battle was that this numbers advantage simply wasn’t enough wasn’t enough. 」

「We’re always a step behind Waldrind. That’s the true reality of our current situation. 」

After explaining the whole situation, Stia concluded as such.

「What about the Artuk Treaty? Are they going to help us? 」

「Yes. In the letter that we sent to the leader of the Treaty earlier, he responded that they would gladly help us, but it might take some time for the reinforcements to reach us. 」

Even if the Artuk Treaty did sent reinforcements as quickly as possible, it would still be several to up to 10 days before they’d arrive, Stia further explained.

「Even if we do our very best, I don’t think we’re going to be able to last more than a few days. 」

「Not to mention that even though Orca and I are strong, we still have our limits. 」

Ink said while she and Orca looked incredibly bitter about it.

But no matter how strong an Arts user can be or how strong the two of them are personally, it’d still be difficult for the two of them to deal with an entire army by themselves.

Ink then thought for a while and finally said:

「Stia. Should we ignore the rest of the enemy’s army and aim for their general’s head instead? 」

「You can’t do that. Heavy Knights of Waldrind value their pride above everything else. If we kill their general, they’ll risk their face and come and destroy us with everything they have. 」

「All that just to get back at us? Talk about being serious to a fault. 」

「Ugh, it seems like there’s no other way for us to get reinforcements .What about the Fantasia Union? I remember hearing that there were people fighting against Waldrind in the northern part of the continent? 」

「There are, infact. Kurt Gallas, the Earl of Leclerc. I heard that he’s having a tough time, and now he’s in trouble, so there’s no point in asking him to send reinforcements towards us. 」

Because of that series of negative opinions, the atmosphere of the meeting only became heavier. At that time, Orca suddenly said.

「Hey. Since we’re pretty much out of options now, then how about bringing Null back? 」

「Eh?!!! 」

Katarina couldn’t help but raise her voice. Null – that’s the name that she couldn’t forget. He was a Mage who also fought alongside her in the Tree Dragon Forest. He was a noisy man who appeared out of nowhere and kept telling Katarina that he was in love with her.

「That guy can summon a kraken, right? With a creature of that size, wouldn’t it be able to take on an army by itself? 」
「Indeed, that man has a method of attack that is effective against an army… but besides that, he’s all shades of annoying. 」

Marta’s voice was tinged with thorns. She continues to keep Null in check in the name of protecting Katarina, but she didn’t seem to hate him from the bottom of her heart.

「No, but Null is… 」

Katarina remembered Null’s fate.

In the final battle, Null used great magic to banish the main Projection of the Tree Dragon Forest to the dimensional rift. However, in exchange for that, Null himself was also banished to the same place.

He used that magic fully knowing this fact. He dared to sacrifice himself in order to settle the battle.

Even remembering him now, he was a frivolous man. He didn’t approach anything head-on, and Katarina wasn’t even sure if he was serious when he was courting her.Even when he left this world, he did not show any sadness on his face. But that Null is no longer here with them.

When Tarina was about to say it…

「There is a way to bring him back. 」

Orca said.

「That’s why I’ve been traveling around the world this past year. 」

「…To be exact, I could already predict the method to bring her back. 」

Stia took over.
「If you’re in the gap between dimensions, you should be able to use summoning magic to bring him back. I know that magic myself, and he does. But… 」

「There must be a catch. Otherwise, you would’ve done this sooner. 」

Stia nodded weakly at Ink’s point.

「That’s right. There are two problems. One is that we don’t have enough information about Null. 」

「 Summoning magic requires a detailed image of the target to be summoned. For this reason, the Mages Association locks up mythical beasts from another world, and sometimes even performs dissections to deepen its knowledge of them. 」

「Even though we fought together, we didn’t spend much time together with Null, and so we don’t have enough information to form an accurate image of him. So… 」

「I was traveling around the continent investigating Null. 」

Everyone’s expectations were now focused on Orca.