The war cries of the Weichsel Empire soldiers reach the ears of the soldiers stationed at the walls of Clermont. Some soldiers trembled at their opponents’ excessively high morale. At the same time, they know that this signals war.
The army charges towards Clermont. However, Clermont is surrounded by a moat, so the walls won’t fall easily.
To break through city walls, it is common to use mages or siege weapons. However, breaking through the walls with magic would require a large number of rather skilled mages. In the Weichsel Empire, such mages are often nobles. Because of this, the Weichsel Empire uses mages in a different way than other countries. High ranking nobles cannot be deployed to the dangerous front lines, and even ordinary soldiers can operate siege weapons such as siege towers, battering rams, and trebuchets.
However, the Weichsel Empire’s military has few units that possess siege weapons. Moreover, they’re positioned somewhat far back. It appears almost as if they have no intention to rely on siege weapons. This seems strange to a soldier watching from the walls.
Even if they send in soldiers, since the gates are closed, the walls will prevent them from invading. All they can expect is to receive a barrage of long-ranged attacks from atop the walls such as spells, ballistas and arrows. The Weichsel Empire is an advanced nation of magic, so soldiers have been stationed near the portal for an invasion by teleportation magic which was previously used in the battle to retake Clermont. Even if they teleport to the portal, thorough countermeasures have been taken.
Maintaining caution, the soldier continues watching from the walls and finds a group approaching the city walls ahead of the Weichsel Empire army. Nearly all of them are mages carrying staves. He can’t understand why a group of nobles, mages who are defenseless while casting and therefore need soldiers to protect them, would approach the walls ahead of the army. And even if they try to use magic to destroy Clermont’s city walls, it doesn’t seem like there are enough of them to be able to break through.
In any case, it seems that they intend to destroy the walls with magic. The soldier aims his bow. Within the group, there is a girl wearing a white robe. The girl looks only slightly older than his own daughter, and he unconsciously relaxes his pull on the bowstring. However, this is a war. Even if she’s a child, since she has set foot on the battlefield, she can’t complain if she loses her life. Persuading himself in this way, the soldier pulls tight on the bow and shoots the arrow.
The arrow flies towards the girl’s head. But the next moment, the soldier is shocked. Just as it gets close, the arrow which was flying towards her with great force suddenly decreases its speed until it merely bonks her in the head like a pebble. When he looks closely, the girl– no, the group is surrounded by a white barrier. The soldier has a feeling that this is what killed the arrow’s momentum. After lightly rubbing her forehead, the girl casts a spell. The color of the barrier changes. It seems that she is the one maintaining the barrier spell.
The girl raises her staff, and the surrounding mages all begin casting. The city walls are within their range. The soldiers attack in desperation, but the attacks are stopped by the barrier and don’t have much effect. The only ones that are effective are spells. However, there aren’t enough to stop the group.
When the casting is finished, several balls of light are fired from each staff which then hit the walls and explode. The impact is nothing like ordinary explosion spells. It’s so powerful that it even causes the soldiers on top of the walls to fall over.
When the smoke clears, there’s a giant hole in the wall. After the group of mages open a hole in the city walls, the soldiers behind them fill the moat with dirt. The Commune soldiers shoot arrows from the walls to try to stop them, but there are too many of them and they’re being protected by the group of mages. They’ve easily destroyed the city walls, and the defending side’s plan to hold the enemy back has been thrown into disarray.
Commune soldiers gather in front of the hole in the wall to fend off the invading Weichsel Empire soldiers at the water’s edge.
Filling in the moat completely, the Weichsel Empire soldiers rush forward. The Commune Soldiers also desperately fight back. If they break through here, they’ll end up fighting inside the city. The battlefield will become larger and more difficult to control, and most importantly, it would bring harm to the city, so they have to hold them back here at all costs. For that reason, they’re fighting with all their might. Even the dauntless Weichsel soldiers are slowly forced back by the cornered soldiers’ vigor.
However, in an instant, the Commune soldiers in the front lines fall all at once. Immediately after, blood splatters. Like a ghost, a female knight slowly reveals herself. With their enemies defeated, the fighting spirit of the Weichsel soldiers rises. At the same time, the Commune soldiers are struck with the fear of death.
“Monster…!” a Commune soldier who escaped the attack mutters. Even a vampire would be no match for her. The vampires also had swift movements, but this female knight is even more monstrous. How could they possibly defeat an enemy that’s faster than a vampire to the point that they can’t even perceive her movements?
As the female knight approaches step by step, the Commune soldiers want to run away. However, as soon as they turn their backs to her, she mercilessly strikes and runs them through.
A red-haired beauty, emotionless even before a scene such as this, her approach signaling death.
‘Ah, this is the Red Reaper,’ the soldiers realize as they lose consciousness.
“Man, why’d they have to attack?” Liam grumbles.
“Nothing we can do about it. We couldn’t have predicted that Weichsel would attack,” Havoc chides him.
To the general public, the war between the Weichsel Empire and the Allied Commune was a bolt from the blue. For the past several days, they also felt signs of unrest throughout the whole city, but they never thought anything like this would happen.
The Adventurer’s Guild has an obligation to cooperate with countries in the event of an emergency, but that’s only regarding fights with monsters, so there is no such obligation for wars between nations. However, it is possible for adventurers to take personal responsibility to participate in war. That is understood implicitly.
Internally, the branches of the Adventurer’s Guild set up in each country are already independent enough to be considered separate organizations, but if they side with a particular country, the Adventurer’s Guild’s survival may be put in jeopardy, such as their activities in other countries being restricted. Inevitably, they’re forced to take a neutral position. That is why they use sophistry by saying that the responsibility lies with the adventurers personally.
“Sorry for having you come with me, everyone. You could have just run away,” Cornelia meekly apologizes. Seeing this, Liam looks uncomfortable and Havoc makes a face as if to say, ‘See?’
To Cornelia, the Allied Commune is her homeland. Even if she has lived in the Castal Kingdom, that won’t change. She cannot allow the flames of war to spread to her hometown. If the Weichsel Empire is invading, it’s only natural that she’d volunteer to join the war.
However, this is Cornelia’s own problem, and it doesn’t affect her friends from the Castal Kingdom. Cornelia couldn’t get her friends involved, so she told them she was leaving the party. But they opposed it and even joined the war alongside her. Naturally, Cornelia objected, but in the end, they wore her down.
“Don’t worry about it, Nel,” Emilia says. “Even though Liam’s saying that, he’s not blaming you for it.”
“Yeah, we’re not really fighting just because of you,” Havoc adds. “We can make a ton of money in this battle, so don’t worry about it. Well, if we’re making money anyway, fighting for our friend doesn’t sound bad either. If it bothers you that much, then treat us to some drinks after the battle’s over.”
“Sorry. I was a little on edge,” Liam says.
Hearing her friends’ words, Cornelia weakly smiles back.
Alongside dozens of soldiers, they wait in front of the portal, prepared for the Weichsel Empire’s attack. The battle has already begun, and a mixture of screams and metal sounds, the noise unique to battle, reaches all the way to the area near the portal. When they hear a thunderous roar, naturally, those who are present are left shaken, but they proceed with their assigned role and don’t leave their post.
“Sounds like it’s getting closer,” Liam says, and sure enough, the noise is gradually drawing near. Perhaps the Weichsel Empire has broken through the city walls and moved the battle into the city.
“In that case, the royal palace is in trouble. Those guys will probably want to be recognized for their achievements, so I bet they’ll head over there.”
The princess is in the palace, so the soldiers will inevitably gather there as well. If they’re aiming for an achievement, then the royal palace would be the best place for it. The portal, on the other hand, is far from the center of the city. Havoc estimates that few soldiers would bother coming here.
“The Weichsel Empire has already invaded the city! Abandon this place and move to the royal palace! We must protect Princess Roseline!”
Although it’s late due to the chaos of the situation, a messenger finally arrives and gives them their orders. Havoc and the others also follow orders and begin to move.
The royal palace is already engaged in a fierce battle with friend and foe all jumbled together. Havoc and the others charge through the Weichsel Empire soldiers and enter the royal palace.
Injured soldiers are being carried inside the palace. There are so many of them that the clerics seem to have their hands full.
“I’ll heal this person’s injuries!” Emilia says, volunteering to heal an injured soldier. The rest of Havoc’s group protects the surrounding area so that their enemies don’t reach the injured.
“Looks like the enemy hasn’t invaded the palace yet, but it’s only a matter of time,” Liam says.
Commune is at a disadvantage, and the number of injured soldiers will only increase as time goes on. By having the soldiers gather in the royal palace, they’ve only just barely withstood the invasion of the palace. If anything had gone wrong, the royal palace could have fallen at any moment.
Suddenly, a pillar of light rises. Havoc and the others are blinded by the bright light it emits.
“Woah, what is that?!”
Perhaps as an aftereffect of the pillar of light, a strong wind blows, and Havoc looks beyond the fading light.
Amidst many collapsed soldiers, a single girl stands. Even with soldiers injured all around her, the girl doesn’t appear the least bit frightened. He realizes that this child-like girl is the mage responsible for that pillar of light.