by Dojyomaru
Is there some deep reason for it...? Jirukoma wondered, then pushed the thought away. He couldn’t sense any intellect from the lizardmen out there. There was likely no deep reason, and the reason why was probably incredibly simple.
For instance...
“Perhaps we look tasty to them? Maybe that’s why they rush to us?” he suggested.
“Like they think we’re a delicacy?” the soldier asked.
“Who knows. Please, ask the lizardmen.”
While they were talking about that, there was a shout from a soldier near the west gate.
“Sir Jirukoma! They’re close to pushing through on the north side of the western wall!”
The moment he heard that voice, Jirukoma readied the twin kukris that were his favored weapons.
The man who had been asking Jirukoma questions steeled himself, placing a hand on the hilt of the sword slung over his back.
“Strike team, let’s go,” Jirukoma said simply to the volunteer soldiers around him, then took off running toward the northern side.
About five volunteer soldiers followed behind him.
When they eventually reached the point where the lizardmen were close to pushing through, Jirukoma simultaneously severed the heads of two that had just climbed up the wall. Those who had followed him each took down the lizardmen near them, securing the wall.
When Jirukoma saw that they were done, he gave an order to those who had followed him. “We’re lightening the load here. Follow me!”
No sooner had he said that than Jirukoma leapt down outside the wall where lizardmen were swarming.
Using wind magic to land safely, he spun himself around, cutting apart the lizardmen around him. Then he cut his way through the middle of the pack, taking down one target after another.
The members of what was called the strike team did likewise, cutting down any lizardmen they could get their hands on.
Being a fighter by nature, Jirukoma couldn’t command the whole force as well as Julius might. However, as a single warrior, he was better than anyone in this kingdom. Because of that, when there was a point in the western defense that looked like it may fail, he and his men would jump in and use their rare combat ability to push the enemy back.
In addition to the martial prowess of Jirukoma and his men, it raised morale whenever Jirukoma displayed his power, so the western wall’s defense was sturdier than any other.
“That’s enough,” he ordered. “We’re going back.”
Whenever the number of lizardmen near the wall dropped off to a degree, Jirukoma immediately ordered a retreat. Though the six of them could launch sneak attacks, they would eventually be surrounded and pulverized.
It was also true that, because they had to keep moving around to avoid being surrounded, they couldn’t keep it up for long. Regardless of the reasons why, it was unwise to stay long.
Jirukoma and his men found indentations in the wall that had to be over ten meters high, quickly bounding up it to return.
“Still...there’s just no end to them, is there?” one of the volunteer soldiers complained as Jirukoma wiped his own sweat from his brow.
Jirukoma slapped that volunteer soldier in the back to encourage him. “We’ve come to this land to return to our homelands. If you let something like this make you whimper, going home will never be anything more than a dream.”
“I-I know, but...”
That was when it happened.
There was the sound of a bugle from the middle of Lasta.
This was the sign to check for smoke signals, and the soldier on lookout shouted, “Sir Jirukoma! There are smoke signs from the east gate!”
“From Madam Lauren, huh?” he called. “What do they say?”
“It’s a sign for the commanders to gather!”
The smoke signal was calling for the commanders, which was to say Jirukoma and Julius, to gather. That must mean that Lauren had something to discuss with them.
“Understood.” Jirukoma nodded sharply. “I will be leaving this place briefly! Everyone, hold your positions! You must hold out until I return! Understood?!”
“““Yeahhhh!””” the soldiers roared.
Jirukoma nodded, then jumped onto a horse prepared and waiting on the inside of the wall.
When Jirukoma reached the center of the city, Julius and Lauren were already there.
“Madam Lauren, has something happened?” Jirukoma asked as he dismounted his horse.
Lauren took off her helmet and stuck it under her arm, then suddenly cried, “I’m sorry!” and bowed her head. “I just received the report, but from what the person managing the castle’s armory says, our supply of arrows is about to run out.”
“No arrows...” Julius murmured.
This was a serious issue. It was only because they had ranged weapons like bows and arrows that the conscripts were able to fight. Without enough arrows, their ability to defend the walls would take a big hit.
Julius squeezed his temples. “It’s only been six days since we settled in for the siege. Did we not have reserves?”
“It’s because the number of regular soldiers we had was low to begin with. We should have had enough to last for two weeks with our current numbers, but the enemy offensive has been intense. Not to mention that many of the men aren’t used to using a bow and arrow, so I think that made us burn through them faster. We currently have the blacksmiths in town making more, but at the rate we’re going through them, they can’t keep up.”
“It’s hopeless then...”
“I’m sorry.” Lauren bowed her head in despair.
Jirukoma put a hand on her shoulder. “Raise your head, Madam Lauren. Surely this isn’t your fault. I believe the people of this country are doing well to hold out while at a disadvantage. If it comes to it, we’ll drop bricks from the rampart, scatter oil, and fend them off with spears.”
“Sir Jirukoma...”
Lauren’s eyes were moist, and Jirukoma patted her on the shoulders to calm her down.
Once he could see Lauren had regained her composure, Jirukoma spoke to Julius. “Still, if it’s come to this, we really are going to be relying on reinforcements. I don’t suppose any of them might happen to be nearby already?”
However, Julius shook his head.
“With us surrounded like this, there’s no information coming in. There’s little hope of reinforcements from inside the Union of Eastern Nations, so...I guess it’s up to the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom.”
“What about reinforcements from the Kingdom of Friedonia? You said you sent a request there, didn’t you?”
“Even if Souma is sending reinforcements, this country is a long way from there. If we consider the pace their troops would move, I can’t see them arriving today or tomorrow.”
“I see...”
The two men frowned, then it happened.
One of the soldiers rushed over in a hurry, taking a knee as if he’d stumbled and fallen over. Looking closer, he had gashes on his arm like he’d been clawed.
“I-I have a report, Captain!”
“Where did you get those wounds?!” Lauren cried.
The soldier kept his head bowed and rapidly gave his report. “The lizardmen rushed the north wall, and they have broken through in places! More than ten of them have headed for the castle and are now fighting the guards!”
Before the soldier could finish his report, Julius had started moving.
“Julius!” cried Jirukoma.
He ignored his fellow soldier, mounted his horse, and raced headlong toward the castle. He couldn’t sit still once he heard the castle was under attack.
Princess Tia...
The royal couple and Princess Tia were in the castle. The princess, the girl who had set Julius’s hardened heart free.
Rushing down the cobblestone road, Julius reached the castle to see lizardmen crawling around the castle like geckos.
“Dammit! Haaaaaa!” he shouted.
Deciding to ignore the lizardmen o
utside the castle, he rushed into the building still on horseback. Not far inside, he found three lizardmen feasting on the bodies of what must have been the guards. He raced past them, making an angry swing and severing one of their heads from its body as he did.
With an effort, he calmed himself down and thought, If they’ve made it inside the castle, Princess Tia and her family will have fled deeper and deeper inside. There were refugees inside the castle too. In that case, they will have headed for...the great hall!
If one needed a place deep inside that could hold many people, the great hall was about the only one that would be apt.
Having come to that conclusion, Julius raced down the corridors with their high ceilings. He encountered one lizardman along the way, but he calmly dispatched it with his sword. Then he spotted three lizardmen clustered around the door to the great hall. They were clawing at the door, trying to get in.
“Move it!” Julius dismounted from his horse and put his hands on the ground.
In the next moment, spikes of earth erupted through the corridor floor, impaling the three lizardmen at once. It was the same earth-type magic his father Gaius had once used.
The lizardmen let out a muffled cry, then moved no more.
Julius didn’t so much as look at them as he rushed to the door of the great hall. He tried prying the door open, but...he couldn’t.
Julius pressed his body to the door, knocking on it and calling out to the other side. “Princess Tia, are you all right?! It’s me! Julius!”
“Lord Julius?!”
He heard a young girl’s voice from inside. The moment he realized it was Tia’s, Julius was so relieved that his legs nearly gave out beneath him.
There were, however, still quite many lizardmen left, so Julius turned his back to the door and stayed alert.
Most likely, a barricade had been set up inside. He heard movement inside for a while, then eventually the door opened, and Tia burst out to hug him.
“Lord Julius!” she cried.
“Princess Tia... Thank goodness you’re safe.” Julius hugged her back gently.
Beyond the door, he could see Tia’s parents and the refugees. Some were relieved to see Julius, while others were scared witless and unable to comprehend the situation. Their responses varied greatly.
Julius separated himself from Tia and addressed the rest through the door.
“Please, wait in this great hall for now. There are lizardmen wandering around the manor. Our allies will be here soon, I am sure.”
While Julius was calming the people in the great hall, Jirukoma caught up with him. “Julius, it was too reckless for you to come alone!”
“Hmph, you were simply too slow.”
Julius made a snide remark, but Jirukoma pulled on Julius’s arm as if he had no time to care about that.
“Just come. There’s something strange going on outside.”
“Strange?” Julius asked, alert.
He told Tia and the others to close the door tight once more, then cut his way through the lizardmen along with Jirukoma to get back outside.
When they looked up to the sky, they saw a formation of well over a hundred wyverns passing over Lasta. They must have been flying high, because they looked awfully small.
They were likely flying at a height where the anti-air repeating bolt throwers wouldn’t target them.
These clearly weren’t monsters. It was an air force on the side of mankind.
Jirukoma squinted. “Are those...Nothungian soldiers?”
“No, Nothung wouldn’t use wyverns... Besides, they’re coming from the south.”
When Julius said that, he saw something fall from a wyvern. As they squinted up into the skies, some uncountable number of the things suddenly popped open like flowers blooming.
White, round objects were scattered through the sky. They were almost like a swarm of jellyfish.
As they fluttered toward the castle walls, it became clear that there were armed soldiers hanging beneath those white, round things. Then, at that moment, threading between the floating white objects, a big, black shadow descended to the ground.
Swimming through the air like a fish in water, a creature like a massive black sea serpent landed in front of Julius.
It had long whiskers, and horns on its head. It held something resembling a gondola in its hands.
Seeing it was unlike a wyvern or dragon, Julius and Jirukoma both feared it was a new monster attacking and readied their weapons. When they did, the monster shrank before their eyes.
At last, before it shrank away completely, a figure jumped down from its back.
That person in a military uniform with a black cape turned to them and said, “It’s been a while, Jirukoma. You too...Sir Julius.”
Julius was more taken aback. “Sir...Souma, huh.”
This was the first reunion between the current King of Friedonia, Souma Kazuya, and the former Crown Prince of Amidonia, Julius Amidonia, after a whole year.
Chapter 5: Reunion with an Old Foe
—Minutes before Souma and Julius Were Reunited—
“Do not allow yourselves to falter!” Lauren, the captain of the Kingdom of Lastania’s soldiers, was shouting from on top of the northern side of the castle walls. “We mustn’t allow even one more monster past us!”
Using her shield to bash a lizardman as it came over the walls, she was calling out encouragement to her comrades who were close to breaking.
Having heard that several lizardmen had gotten through and were attacking the castle, Lauren wanted to go to their aid, but because Julius and Jirukoma were already on their way, she joined up with the defenders on the north wall and took command there.
She was worried for Princess Tia’s well-being, but to defend the princess, as well as all the other non-combatants behind the walls, she couldn’t allow any more invaders through.
“That’s good!” she shouted. “Everyone, push them baaack!”
Lauren’s display of military prowess raised morale on the north wall. She had somehow managed to force a stalemate with the pack of lizardmen that were climbing up.
Good. We managed to recover somehow. Now...
Lauren was beginning to feel relieved, but then it happened.
“Captain! Look at the sky!” One of the soldiers was pointing to the southern sky and shouting.
When Lauren looked up, there were countless things flying in from the south. For a moment, she worried they were new monsters, but if they were, they must have come from the north.
Eventually, as they approached, she realized they were wyverns with people riding on them. It was a unit of wyvern cavalry.
A military force?! From what country...?!
Then she saw the unit of wyvern cavalry drop something. The thing fell straight toward Lasta, and on the way down, something white opened. The moment the white thing popped open, its speed of descent rapidly declined.
Finally, as it fluttered ever closer to Lasta, Lauren realized there was a person hanging down beneath the white thing.
“Wait, people?!” she cried.
Why would wyvern cavalry drop a person? This was something she had never imagined. Lauren was confused, but then the anti-air repeating bolt thrower opened fire on the person who was coming down.
“Huh?! Oh, damn!”
The anti-air repeating bolt thrower targeted incoming objects. By the time Lauren realized it, there were already a large volume of bolts flying toward the descending person. She thought the person would be shot down, but...
“Tch?! Let’s do this!” The falling person shouted out in surprise, then knocked away the incoming lance-sized bolts one after another with twin spears.
Lauren’s jaw dropped. He knocked down all the anti-air repeating bolt thrower’s bolts?! Is he a monster or something?!
When that person got close enough, she could tell he was a young man with red hair. “Stop the anti-air repeating bolt throwers, please! We’re here as reinforcements!” he shouted.
Reinforcements... Reinforcements?! Lauren repeated the word in her head, and when it finally dawned on her, she hurriedly gave the order to her soldiers.
“Send the signal for the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on each of the walls to hold fire! Those are our reinforcements!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The soldiers given the order rushed to send the smoke signal. Not long after that, the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on each of the four corners of the castle walls went silent.
As if they had been waiting for that, the wyverns in the air unloaded person after person, and, just as before, the white things snapped open in midair.
Most likely, those white things were devices meant to help with landing. But seeing over a hundred of those round, white landing devices open in the sky, they were like dandelion seeds dancing in the wind.
While Lauren was thinking they seemed out of place in this violent war zone, she spotted the red-haired young man who had begun descending first now touching down.
The red-haired young man cut himself free from the now-flat landing device, then rushed over to Lauren.
“Wheeewww. I know I trained for this, but I thought I was going to die there,” the red-haired young man said, spinning his shoulders in a circle.
Despite having shown off the incredible feat of knocking away the giant bolts that had flown at him, the young man seemed like he could still handle more.
“Just...who in the world are you?!” Lauren asked in astonishment, and the red-haired young man stood up straight, saluting her in response.
“I apologize for the late introduction. I am Strike Force Captain Halbert Magna of the Kingdom of Friedonia military’s special landing force, the Dratroopers. Are you the commanding officer here?”
“Huh...? Uh, yes! I am Lauren Fran, the Kingdom of Lastania’s soldier captain. Um, Sir Halbert, did you just say you belong to the Kingdom of Friedonia’s military...?”
She trailed off, starting to feel hopeful.
Halbert gave her a firm nod. “Yes. Souma... King Souma Kazuya of Friedonia received a request from Sir Julius, the former crown prince of Amidonia, and I have come here under his orders to provide support.”
