Empire of Ice

by Hyougetsu

  It’s little wonder that the citizens formed a more favorable opinion of the demon army after seeing so many of these plays. The plays were also a great way of getting people to understand the demons’ circumstances. There’s no doubt that this is just one of the many strategies the Commonwealth is using to expand its influence.

  I really was a fool if I didn’t even realize the strategies the Commonwealth was using. However, my mage corps are unsuited to spying in the first place. They’re used to moving in coordinated groups, so splitting them up into tiny units and having them infiltrate various cities wouldn’t have been possible. No, that’s not quite right. I was just scared of letting my troops leave my side.

  Either way, the end result was that the Commonwealth was free to do as they pleased in any city I wasn’t present. Furthermore, the Commonwealth had eight viceroys and various demon army generals they could deploy. Meanwhile, I was the only one capable of political maneuvering on the Rolmund side. I should have been more aware of my disadvantages. As frustrating and pathetic as it is to admit it, I’ve come to realize something. The Meraldian Commonwealth isn’t an enemy I could have ever hoped to defeat on my own. I should have nurtured goodwill and forged alliances between the members of Meraldia’s northern cities, but I didn’t. That’s why I failed. I smile sadly to myself.

  “Princess, is something wrong?”

  “No. I’m just thinking, what a farce this was.”

  “Umm, what exactly do you mean?”

  Natalia is the daughter of a bishop. It’s not in her nature to doubt others. If I tell her we might have won if we’d spent more time spying and manipulating people, she’d just blame herself. So I shake my head and say, “It’s nothing. More importantly, you said we have permission to walk outside?”

  “Ah, yes. They’ll be assigning someone to watch over us, but we’re free to go wherever we want. I was thinking since you have permission to explore the city too, we might be able to go see a play together.”

  Damn Black Werewolf King, you must think nothing we can do would hurt you. We’re just pawns to you now, huh? Not even a threat.

  I leave Natalia behind in my room and head out alone. I want some time by myself to think right now. The lizard-headed demons who’ve been assigned to guard my room crisply salute me as I leave. I salute back, impressed by how orderly they are. I suppose I should have expected as much from the Black Werewolf King, but the troops he’s trained are nothing like the barbarians we’ve been led to believe demons are.

  I step outside my prison, and Ryunheit stretches out before me. It truly lives up to its name as the demon capital. Nowhere else would I witness a sight as bizarre as a Sonnenlicht bishop chatting with a lizard-headed demon. As I’m watching, a demon with the face of a dog and a human child weave between the priest and lizard. Aren’t that child’s parents worried about letting him play with demons?

  All I can say is, this is quite a peculiar city. But at the same time, it’s quite a peaceful one. I just stand there for a while, gathering my bearings. Natalia said there’d be someone monitoring me if I went out, but I don’t sense anyone nearby. I’m guessing my chaperone either has a werewolf’s senses or is using magic to observe me from afar.

  As a test, I start heading toward the city’s outer gates. The moment I do, a familiar woman draws near. She’s one of the Black Werewolf King’s lieutenants. She passes by me, pretending as though she didn’t even see me. But as our paths intersect, she whispers, “Aha, are you testing me? I wouldn’t recommend that.”

  With that single warning, she vanishes into the crowd. I’m too annoyed by the ease with which she caught me to turn around, but I doubt I’d catch sight of her even if I did. Looks like I’m being observed after all. This town is peaceful, but it’s also a birdcage trapping me in.

  As I wander the streets of Ryunheit, I ponder why the Black Werewolf King is treating me like this. It doesn’t take me long to come to a conclusion. He’s giving me freedom of the city because he thinks I’ll be more likely to yield to him once I’ve seen it. Unfortunately, he’s right. The people I pass by, both human and demon, look happy. There are no beggars in the streets or corpses in the alleyways.

  As I begin to grow tired, I find myself in an open plaza with a fountain. There are a few stalls set up around the fountain, as well some benches. I pick an empty one and sit down with a weary sigh. I should have accepted that I had no hope of winning this campaign long ago. But I was too afraid of changing my plans once I’d made them.

  While I’m relaxing, an unfamiliar demon wanders over to me. He looks like a cross between a human and a rabbit. And he seems to be in an awful hurry.

  “O-Oi! You over there! Can you hide me for a bit, missy!?”

  Before I can even reply, the rabbit hides inside my cape. I think of refusing him, but I am still a captive here. If I cause problems, it’ll be my subordinates who suffer. Holding my tongue, I watch as three dog-faced demons run into the plaza. Their faces resemble hunting hounds.

  “Ryucco! Ryucco!”

  “Come on, let’s eat together!”

  “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”

  One of the dog-faced demons sniffs the air, then suddenly shouts, “I smell grilled meat!”

  “With that special sauce!”

  The three demons temporarily halt their search for the person known as Ryucco and run over to a nearby stall. They buy four skewers of chicken meat and walk away, satisfied.

  “Phew, I finally shook ‘em off.”

  The rabbit-faced demon crawls out of my cape. Context would suggest that he’s Ryucco. After glancing about a few times, he sighs in relief.

  “Those damned mutts, baring their canines at me. How dare they look at my tail like that.” The rabbit then turns to face me and bows in an exaggerated fashion. “I am in your debt, young lady. Err... just making sure, but you’re not secretly a werewolf, right?”

  “Nope.”

  I may be a foreigner, but I’m still human. Looking visibly relieved, the rabbit-faced demon plops down next to me on the bench.

  “Then I think I’ll take a break here.”

  The rabbit takes a cigar case out of his pocket. With practiced movements, he taps one out of the box. But to my surprise, it’s not a cigar that comes out, but rather a dried, cylindrical vegetable.

  “Want one?”

  I shake my head. I’ve been trained since a young age not to accept any food or drink offered to me by an unfamiliar face.

  “Ahh, that hits the spot. Tastes like home. I only got here two days ago, but I’m already missing it.”

  The rabbit lowers its ears and closes its eyes. He’s clearly relaxed. From the looks of it, he’s not a demon army soldier. If he only arrived two days ago, then he probably wasn’t involved in the battle to defend Ryunheit either. This might be a good opportunity to converse with a demon not part of the demon army.

  “Your name is Sir Ryucco, correct?”

  “Yeah, I’m Ryucco. Who’re you?”

  After a moment’s hesitation, I decide to answer truthfully.

  “Eleora.”

  Fortunately, it seems he’s completely unaware of the battle that took place a few days ago. Nor does he seem to know who I am.

  “Did you come here on business?”

  “Yeah. I’m an artificer, and one of my master’s fellow disciples called for me. He looks like a brute, but he’s a good man. There’s no way I can turn that guy down.”

  He doesn’t seem to be lying. I guess he really has nothing to do with the demon army. Relieved, I decide to ask him about Ryunheit.

  “What do you think of this city, by the way?”

  The rabbit thinks for a moment, then says, “It’s a damn fine city. Even a defenseless demon like me is safe here. No one’s attacking me or tormenting me. Honestly, I’m kinda surprised.”

  “I see.”

  It seems harmony between humans and demons really has been achieved in Southern Meraldia. Hard as it is to believe, it’s true.
The scholar in me wishes to try and preserve this miraculous peace. And the strategist in me realizes just how difficult conquering the south would be knowing that humans and demons are truly unified.

  For a long time now, Rolmund has been waiting for the political situation in Meraldia to destabilize. Unfortunately, the moment it did, the demons swooped in to strengthen their influence before we could. There’s no doubt that Black Werewolf King is the mastermind behind the demon army’s movements.

  As I fall silent, the rabbit turns to me and asks, “You’re a soldier, aren’t you?”

  “You could tell?”

  “Sorta. Only soldiers get that tense. Plus, the way you talk is all stiff, and you’ve got the look of someone who risks her life on a daily basis.”

  Do I really look like that? He puts another stick of dried vegetable in his mouth and winks at me.

  “Us lagomorphus ain’t cut out to be soldiers, and we don’t much like ’em anyway. Oh, but I don’t hate you, since you smell a lot like me. You some kinda military engineer or something?”

  He’s not wrong, so I nod.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Hah, knew it.”

  I ask him another question.

  “What do you think of the demon army?”

  “Told you before. I hate soldiers. They’re scary as all hell. But...”

  “But?”

  “The strongest guys in the demon army are really humble. They ain’t anything like most demons, but that’s why I can trust ‘em. Cause they’re willing to protect us weaker demons.”

  Though it’s only the opinion of a single person, it seems even demons not in the demon army support it. The rabbit-faced demon points to a corner of the plaza.

  “Look at that. The demon army built that.”

  I turn to see a brand-new stone monument with flowers and fruit lying around it. The flowers and fruit are probably some kind of offering, though in Rolmund we don’t honor the dead like this. Curious, I walk over to the monument. Inscribed into the stone are these words: “We pray that the brave men and women who tragically lost their lives during the battle of Ryunheit find happiness in the afterlife.”

  On the other side of the stone are the names of 19 members of Beluza’s landing force, 4 members of the Azure Knights, and 34 members of the 209th Mage Corps. The Black Werewolf King erected a monument not just for his allies, but his enemies too. I can’t help but be shocked. Why’s he honoring his enemies? What’s in it for him? Is this another ploy to win me over? If it is, why didn’t he say a word about it to me? I don’t understand. As I gaze at it in confusion, the rabbit-faced demon calls out to me from behind.

  “For most demons, it’s just common sense that the dead died because they’re weak. But this guy’s honoring not only his dead comrades, but the enemies he killed too. Surprising, ain’t it?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  It really is. Is this normal in Meraldia? No, I doubt it. At the very least, I haven’t seen anywhere else in Meraldia where they put up memorials for their enemies. The rabbit takes another dried vegetable out of his case and leaves it at the foot of the monument. He then brings his hands together and closes his eyes.

  “I wonder why we even do this. It’s not like the dead can eat any of these things. But you know, it does feel nice to remember them like this.”

  I copy the rabbit. The only thing I have on me is a Rolmund silver coin, so I make that my offering. Inside my heart, I apologize to my subordinates. But I can’t bring myself to wish for my enemies’ happiness in the afterlife. Those feelings impress upon me just how generous the man who built this epitaph must be. The rabbit artificer looks up at me.

  “As long as the demon army’s erecting things like these, I think I can trust them. But what do you think, human?”

  “I’m inclined to agree.”

  “Right?”

  The rabbit nods in satisfaction, then stretches his legs.

  “Alright, I better get outta here. I got work to do. See ya, Eleora.”

  “Take care. And thank you, Ryucco.”

  I watch the rabbit hop away. Looking up, I’m surprised to see the sun already setting in the west. I am still technically a prisoner, so I should get back soon. I need to have a good long think about what to do next. There’s a lot I have to take into consideration. I may have lost, but my life’s not over yet. So long as I’m alive, I can continue fighting.

  * * * *

  “Take aim!”

  At my command, 56 werewolves took aim with their Blast Canes. Half were on their knees; the other half were standing.

  “Back line, fire!”

  The 28 standing in the back fired simultaneously. Of the 30 rotting wooden pillars I’d set up as targets, half were so riddled with holes that they snapped. The reason I’d decided to have the rear line fire first was to prevent them from accidentally shooting their allies. Since the front line would be closer to the enemy, it’s possible some of them would panic and stand after shooting. If the rear line hadn’t fired already, they might end up getting shot at point-blank range by their own allies.

  “Front line, fire!”

  This time the kneeling werewolves fired. Most of the remaining half of the pillars were destroyed. Only three pillars remained standing.

  “Front line, charge!”

  The kneeling werewolves transformed and loped forward. Meanwhile the rear line was reloading for another volley. Training ended once the transformed werewolves finished knocking over the last three pillars.

  “That’s enough! Good job guys, you’re getting a lot better.”

  I smiled, and my werewolves smiled back. At my request, Ryucco had modified the Blast Canes to be usable by werewolves. The term “Cane” didn’t really seem fitting for werewolves, so I’d renamed the weapons to Blast Rifles. Personally, I thought my name sounded a lot cooler too. Ryucco scratched his cheek and said proudly, “You werewolves can only circulate mana within your bodies, but you’ve got a lot of it, so I just modified the weapons to suck mana out of their wielder.”

  I turned to him and asked, “Just to make sure, but you can load up to two shots at once, right?”

  “Yeah. They’ll suck enough mana initially to fire two shots at that level of power. But for your werewolves, it’ll take ‘em...from breakfast till lunch before they’ve recovered enough mana to fire another shot.”

  A few hours, huh? Since they only got two shots to start with, it’d be difficult to fight consecutive battles with these.

  “You can’t increase their shot count at all?”

  “I can, but then they’ll be so exhausted they’ll barely have the energy to transform.”

  For us werewolves, our human form was our energy saving mode. It also helped us blend in with human society, so we’d evolved to only transform when necessary. Contrary to popular belief, werewolves weren’t a super strong race that also had the ability to transform, but rather a normally docile race that only fought when absolutely necessary. Our base energy reserves weren’t that high, so if we put too much into the Blast Rifles, we’d have none left to transform.

  But at least now my werewolves had a way to fight at long range. Plus being able to fight without transforming would come in handy for future planning.

  I smiled in relief, and Ryucco tugged at my cape.

  “Oi, aren’t you forgetting something?”

  “Oh yeah, the reward. Don’t worry, the demon army’ll pay you.”

  Ryucco sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

  “This is why I can’t stand werewolves. That’s not what I’m talking about, you big lug. Here.”

  Stretching as high as he could, Ryucco held out an apple.

  “Is this for me?”

  “No, you blithering moron!”

  Irked, Ryucco started thumping the ground. Oh yeah, now I remember.

  “Could it be you want that?”

  “Finally, you get it! Now hurry up!”

  I took out a knife and sliced the apple into eight piec
es. I then made a few incisions into the skins of the pieces, making them look like little bunnies. I’d first made them for Ryucco back when we were both studying at Master’s place. He’d kept his distance from me, so I’d made them in the hopes he’d open up a little. The first time he’d seen them, he’d been so excited he’d hopped around the room for a full hour. It seemed cutting apples into bunny shapes wasn’t a custom that existed in this world. Meaning I might go down in history as the inventor of the bunny apple. It makes me kinda happy knowing that.

  “Is this good?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I wanted. Now hand them over.”

  Ryucco hopped into the air, pawing at the apple slices. I put them on a plate and handed them to him. He sat down on the spot and started staring at the apples with great intensity.

  “Hoooh... They’re beautiful...so, so beautiful...”

  “Hey, Ryucco, why do you always ask me every time? You can make them yourself too, can’t you?”

  Biting into one of the slices, Ryucco shook his head in exasperation.

  “You just don’t get it, you ignorant werewolf! They’re that much tastier when someone else makes ‘em for you!”

  “Really?”

  Well as long as he’s happy, I’m happy. Ryucco had a foul mouth, but he was always helping me out, so the least I could do was cut him some apples.

  Of the Blast Canes I’d confiscated from Eleora’s troops, I’d had 60 or so modified into Blast Rifles. Modifying one was already quite a feat, so I was amazed Ryucco managed to do all 60. The job was made a little easier by the fact that the design for the Blast Canes was relatively simple, but by the end of the project, I often found Ryucco dozing off in his chair, a carrot dangling from his mouth.

  Grateful to my fellow disciple, I continued training my werewolves. Unfortunately, everything I knew about guns came from video games, movies, and airsoft, so I wasn’t sure what the best way to train them was. I could have asked the mage corps to help out, but most of them were either cavalry or snipers, so they used their weapons in a different way than us. More importantly, the mere existence of these modified Blast Rifles was classified information. While I was planning on enlisting the 209th Imperial Mage Corps’ help temporarily, I wasn’t going to divulge military secrets to them.