Chapter 84: 79 – The Inquisition that totally absolutely nobody expected [2]

"Instead, I will [Railgun] their vice-commander to death!"

"S- So", I stuttered nervously as I looked at the gun Aryl was holding in her hands. "You'll shoot them to death?"

"Tch! It sounds a lot less cool if you put it that way"

"But how will killing their vice-commander solve anything?", Jake suddenly interjected.

"It's simple, really", Aryl said as she slung the gun on her left shoulder. "I'll put my all into 1 shot, pulverizing their vice-commander immediately, making the commander put his army on hold out of fear"

Although Aryl's plan's effectiveness was questionable at best, both Jake and I kept silent, not questioning her idea. After all, everything thus far had worked out when we listened to her, so this time would be no different, right?

It was then that I could hear sound of horse's hooves kicking against the ground.

Peeking over the wall, I saw a man, presumably a messenger, holding a flag and approaching us. Stopping at a certain distance from the wall, he shouted.

"CITIZENS OF ASCURT TOWN! HAND OVER ARYL MYRSKY - THE CRIMINAL, LEST YOU WANT YOUR TOWN TO BE DESTROYED!"

Aryl shouted back. "NO!"

"IS THAT YOUR FINAL CHOICE?", the messenger shouted with a frown.

"TELL THAT BASTARD UQAS TO GO FUCK HIMSELF!"

The messenger chuckled at the prospect of someone daring to insult the viscount for a bit before regaining his composure.

"VERY WELL! REMEMBER THAT THE BLOOD SPILLED IN THE FUTURE WILL BE ON YOUR HANDS"

Turning away from the departing figure of the messenger, Aryl commanded Jake to get all the guards on top of the walls.
...

After a while, viscount Uqas' army finally moved.

About 1,000 men were detached from the main army, and they moved to surround the town in a loose half-circle.

"It seems like the commander is underestimating us...", Aryl muttered. "They're not even trying to block our escape and reinforcement route... well, it's not that they know that the Churches are going to help us though"

Meanwhile, on our side, Aryl placed 200 men right outside the gate to counter the battering ram; Though, I wasn't sure how effective it would be.

With the archers on their side aiming at our ramparts, and their infantry reading the battering ram, the battle commenced. 

FWOOOOOOOSH—!

Arrows flew over my head like rain.

WOOOOOOOSH—! CRACK—!

Occasionally, some mana-reinforced arrows were shot, chipping part of the sturdy town walls away.

Unlike most archers on our side, I ran around the wall, taking aim and shooting with my crossbow whenever possible, while sometimes supplying the others with arrows.

After I've done 3 laps around the town walls though, Aryl finally noticed what I was doing.

"Fucking hell, Celi! What are you doing?"

Hearing Aryl's shout, I stiffened on the spot. As I was running at a relatively fast speed mere moments earlier though, the inertia pushed me to the ground.

"Ouch!", I let out a wince of pain as I massaged my head.

Completely disregarding my pain, Aryl scolded me again.

"Why are you running around like that? No one can hit you, remember!? You're better off standing in one place!"

Heeding to her words, I stood straight on the walls and attacked with my crossbow.

'S- She's right...', I thought as I saw that more of my shots were hitting now.

Of course, being the coward that I was, I deliberately avoided shooting any vital places.

However, something was strange. Even after an hour of our side continuously firing arrows at them, their numbers didn't really dwindle. No, more specifically, their numbers was exactly the same as before.

That was when I realized that the archers on our side were... weak, absurdly so. 

Most of the town's militia was at merely <G> rank, and the average soldier was at around <F> rank. Not to mention the knights who were <E> ranked at minimum.

As such, even if the arrows could pierce the soldiers' armors, they would simply bounce off their skin with maybe a couple of bruises since they weren't arrows that were imbued with a sufficient amount of Mana.

This continued for a while before the battering ram got close to the gate. 

All 200 men Aryl stationed outside the gate were lying on the ground since God knows when, unable to move a muscle.

BAM—!

The ram ran into the gate once.

BAM—!

Twice! This time, the wooden gate sho0k violently, as if it was one step away from breaking down.

It was then that Aryl finally intervened in the battle.

<[Gale force]>

With a simple chant, the battering ram flattened immediately.

Shocked, the soldiers ran back under the cover of their archers.

Looking at the men on our side lying on the ground though, I couldn't help but to glare at Aryl.

"Why didn't you help them earlier!?"

"Celi, I need to hide my strength as much as possible", Aryl said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "All those knights know about me is that I killed Uqas' son, nothing more. And I plan to take advantage of that fact"

And with those words, Aryl turned away from me and started commanding the militia again.
...

The battle continued until dusk. At which point, I could see the soldiers retreating back to make room for the knights.

Seeing that the knights had apparently gotten into her shooting range, Aryl grinned. "Celi, see those guys over there?"

I followed the direction her finger was pointing towards, only to see 3 people on horses in the middle of the formation. 

"I do..."

"That's the commander", Aryl said as she readied her gun. "And those two besides him are the vice-commanders. I'll be shooting the blonde one first"

I nodded and turned my gaze towards the blonde vice-commander. However, I couldn't help but to widen my eyes in surprise upon laying eyes on him.

'CHARLES!?'

Bzzzzzzt—!

At the sound of electricity violently crackling, I snapped my head towards the direction of the sound.

There she was, Aryl, aiming the gun at Charles, whilst electricity coiled around her right arm and gun.

<[Railgu—

"WAIT!", I screamed as I threw myself in front of the barrel of the gun, blocking Aryl's attack.

With red lightning still crackling around her, Aryl glared at me with molten-red eyes that were glowing. "What? You'd better give me a good reason for stopping me or else I'll make you regret living, whether you're untouchable or not"

Gulping a mouthful of saliva, I stuttered. "I- I have another plan!"

"Go on..."

"W- We should take the vice-commanders as hostage, not kill them! There's no guarantee that the commander will be scared!"

"And how can you be so sure that the commander would care about his subordinates?"

"Th- That's because... the blonde vice-commander is his brother..."

Aryl looked at me with a shocked expression upon hearing my words. Her eyes filled with suspicion, clearing wanting me to tell her where I got the information from.

Knowing full-well what she wanted me to do, I continued. "I- I obtained this information while I was infiltrating the viscount's estate!"

Aryl fell into thoughts for a while before nodding. "Alright, if that's the case then your plan might have a better chance of working than mine"

She then continued. "It's a relief that you could come up with another plan. To be honest, I wasn't too confident with my original plan"

Before I could voice out my surprise at the fact that Aryl was betting the lives of the townsfolks on the plan that didn't have a high chance of working even according to she herself, she had already channeled electricity into her gun again and aimed it at the commander this time.

Bzzzzzzt—!

"You kidnap the blonde vice-commander. I'll distract the commander"

As soon as she finished her words—

<[Railgun]>

BOOOOOM—!

—A loud sound could be heard as a streak of red light flew out from her gun's barrel like it was shot from a cannon, making its way directly towards the commander's head.

Being too late to dodge the beam of red lightning that seemingly ruptured the air with the mere heat it produced, the commander instinctively raised his hands up to block.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!

An explosion of dust and lightning occurred right where the commander was. The shockwave it released was so strong that I could feel it even all the way from here.

It took a while, but the dust finally settled. And with it revealed the figure of the commander, basically unscathed except for the blackened skin of his arms where Aryl's [Railgun] struck, standing right above his horse which had been reduced to a smoldering mass of flesh and blood.

"Tch!", Aryl clicked her tongue in annoyance as she agglomerated Space mana and reached her hand into thin air. "I knew that this isn't enough to kill that <C> ranked bastard"

<[Alternate storage]>

She then took out a sword, a normal handgun, and a blue potion from seemingly nowhere.

I widened my eyes in surprise at the sight of the potion. "A Mana potion!?"

"Yes. I've just used more than half of my Mana in that one attack...", she said as she chugged down the potion and threw the empty vial to the ground.

Wiping her lips, Aryl readied her sword in her right hand, her gun in her left hand, and looked towards the commander once more.

"Celi, you have 15 minutes. Yell for me once you're done capturing him. I'm going back after the time's up regardless of whether or not you succeed"

After Aryl finished her words—

<[S - Monarch of the Storms]>

—Huge bursts of Wind and Lightning mana exploded from her making her seem a little... stronger.

With her hair fluttering wildly, and red electricity coiling around her entire body as if wanting to eat her up, Aryl lets out a sigh before she disappeared from the spot, and—

"...Why am I even bothering to do this?"

<[Splice]>

—Reappeared right behind the commander.

CLANG—!

Seeing that Aryl had gone to work, I quickly pulled out the standard issue armors from my backpack and put it on. I then used the moment where every knights had their eyes on Aryl to jump down the wall and approach Charles.
...

When I got down to the battlefield, the knights had already formed a circle around Aryl and the commander, none even daring to intervene in their fight.

After a while, I could see Charles' back. As I was about to approach him though, a knight stopped me.

"Hey you!"

I nervously faced the knight upon hearing his voice.

He then continued with a frown. "Where's your coat-of-arms? Whose side are you on?"

"I—"

Before I could answer his question, the knight suddenly turned around to face a familiar blonde man.

"Vice-commander!", he exclaimed.

"What's going on?", Charles asked.

Briefly glancing towards me, the knight reported with a straight back. "Nothing, sir! Just some woman in armors claiming to be on our side"

"Woman?", Charles widened his eyes in shock. He then pushed the knight aside. "My lady, you shouldn't be in this battl—"

However, he widened his eyes in surprise upon seeing me. "Oh, it's the lady knight from before"

"Yes, haha...", I laughed nervously. "...I'm glad you still remember me"

"Indeed, I would never dare to forget such a pretty lady as you", he puffed his chest in pride. "Although... I didn't see you when we did the sortie... must have missed you considering how short you are. That or you were just lost in the huge estate after I left you"

Although I wanted to smack him on the head right now for daring to call me 'short', I knew better not to. Thus, I still kept a polite smile on my face. "Yeah... I was lost..."

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Oblivious to my thoughts, Charles continued. "Say, why are you carrying a shovel around here though?"

At his words, I briefly glanced at the shovel I was holding in my hands; It was one that Aryl bought for me not too long ago. 

Apparently, she thought that I was proficient with a shovel... which I was, but it was just for digging the ground, not fighting!

Pausing my thought there, I stuttered as I answered Charles' question. "I- It's to bury the dead... I feel bad for the town's militia, being forced to fight with knights like us"

"I see...", he nodded his head as he smiled at me. "...You're really kind. However, you needn't to bother yourself with such things"

Seeing that I was looking at him with a frown, Charles hurriedly continued. "I- I didn't mean it like that! What I'm saying is that there won't be many people dying!"

"How so...?"

"Well, the viscount's batshit insane for ordering us to murder everyone just to capture a supposed 'criminal' that actually did a good thing by killing that son of his, and everyone knows it! So the commander has ordered the troops to not kill if possible. You probably didn't hear it since you weren't there at the time..."

"..."

"Well, no one has died on either sides as far as I can tell"

"N- Not even those 200 men at the gate?", I looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Yes, they're just knocked out, at least according to the reports"

Hearing this, I heaved a sigh of relief.

After a while, Charles spoke up again. "Want to watch the commander's fight?"

"Yes..."
...

Arriving at the crowds circling Aryl and the commander, I couldn't help but to widen my eyes in surprise.

"Wh- What kind of battle is this?"

After all, the ground was cracking apart everything Aryl and the commander attacked, sending shockwaves that could knock any untrained people flying away.

"Cool, right?", Charles suddenly spoke with a smile. "Our commander's at <C> rank, while Aryl is at <C-> rank, though her power is fluctuating for some reasons. Being able to bear witness to these kind of high-leveled battles is an honor for us mid-tier knights"

"..."

"Well, I don't recommend joining the battle personally though. Even I will get pulverized instantly if I try to recklessly intervene"

I nodded my head and focused on the battle.

CLANG—!

A loud sound rang out as the commander's sword met with Aryl's gun.

Dashing a couple of meters back, Aryl fired several [Railgun] at the commander, who barely dodged them.

The commander then rushed towards Aryl, who countered by throwing her sword at him, which exploded as soon as it got close.

Seeing that the commander was still mostly unharmed, Aryl clicked her tongue and pulled out another sword. She then hurled several [Lightning spear] at him.

However, he dodged them with a bit more ease since they are slower than [Railgun].

The fight continued like that, with Aryl shooting guns, exploding swords, and hurling magic, effectively covering all ranges and forcing her opponent to either dodge, block, or simply take her attacks. She was indeed occupying the commander in every senses of the word, just like she said she would.

However, as time dragged on, Aryl's breathing became more ragged, and her movement became sloppier. Soon, wounds began to form on her previously spotless face.

It was then that Charles' voice took my attention away from the battle.

"Nervous, huh?"

'I guess I am worrying about Aryl...'

And with that though, I nodded to him.

He then continued with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, although it might look like that they're evenly matched, I can actually tell that our commander is slowly pushing her back"

"R- Really?"

"Yes. It has been 10 minutes already. Maybe she'll go down in 5, who knows?"

Hearing Charles' words, I couldn't help but to facepalm myself.

'FUCK! HOW COULD I FORGET!?'

I was supposed to be capturing Charles, not whatever this is that I was doing!

It seemed that Aryl noticed that I had forgotten about my mission too, as she was occasionally sending glares in my direction throughout the whole fights. Glares that I... somehow didn't register until now.

As such, I turned towards Charles with my grip tightened on the shovel and my Mana agglomerated on it.

"Hey, I know that I'm handsome and all but why are you looking at me like tha—"

BAM—!

Charles was struck on the face by my shovel.

With Charles knocked out cold on the ground, I didn't wait for the surrounding knights to recover from their surprise and shouted on the top of my lungs.

"ARYL! I'M DONE!"

Instantly, Aryl jumped back and formed a mocking grin at the commander. "Well, Ray, was it? It looks like our fight ends here"

<[Splice]>

Aryl suddenly appeared right besides me. She then grabbed the blade of my shovel with Charles slung over her shoulders.

"SEE THIS?", she shouted at the commander, Ray. "I HAVE YOUR BROTHER! IF YOU DON'T WANT HIM TO DIE, PUT YOUR ARMY ON HOLD, NOW!"

Not waiting for Ray to answer, Aryl then turned towards me with an exhausted expression that she had been desperately trying to hide from the enemies for the past several minutes.

'So even she can look like that too...'

"Hold on to the shovel if you don't want to fall", Aryl shouted as she concentrated Wind mana on her hand.

I instinctively carried out her words.

<[Wind burst]>

Soon after, pressurized air was released from the palm of Aryl's hand, sending us flying over the castle wall.

As soon as she saw that we were on the other side of the wall, Aryl released her grip on my shovel and used another [Wind burst] to slow her fall down.

I, however, was not so lucky.

BAM—!

With a loud sound, I plunged to the ground with my face buried in the dirt.

Casually landing and walking towards me, Aryl dropped the unconscious Charles onto the ground and crouched down as she looked at my pathetic position.

"Hey Celi, are you alive?"

In response, I slowly lifted my head up and glared at her. "I would have died if I didn't have <D-> ranked power! What would you have done if I had really died!?"

"Celebrating, that's for sure. This is your punishment for forgetting about your damn mission!"

And with that weird rant, Aryl grabbed Charles' foot and dragged him to the town's jail.
...

It was night.

Unexpectedly, just like what I had made up without much thoughts at that time to save Charles from being killed, Ray - the commander actually put the army on hold and stopped attacking the town.

Having nothing else to do with my free time, I decided to join Aryl, who had stopped sulking at me, to hear Jake's report. As such, I was now in a meeting room adjacent to the jail Charles was in.

"Reporting!", Jake briefly skimmed through the paper he brought with him before speaking up again. "There has been no movement from the viscount's army for the past 2 hours. And we still have enough supplies to go on for a week"

"I see...", Aryl muttered as she fell into thoughts. "...What about the casualties?"

"Well... it may seem unbelievable but... no one died on either sides"

Hearing those words, Aryl's jaw dropped as she stared at Jake in disbelief. "Wh- What!? No one died? N- Not even those men I placed at the gate?"

"Yes, they were merely knocked out. The commander decided to give us 50 men back, while they took the other 150 as captives"

Aryl suddenly burst into laughter. "Pffffft! HAHAHAHA! THIS IS GOING TO BE EASIER THAN I THOUGHT!"

"What do you mean?", I looked at her in confusion.

"My dear Celi—", she grinned. "—It means that those bastards there aren't taking it seriously. Tell me, if they saw this as a life-and-death battle, they wouldn't even bothered to try and knock our militia out"

"Well... it's not that I can't understand them. I mean, even with them wasting their energy trying to knock us out, no one on their side died either", she continued.

I thought about Aryl words deeply. 'Maybe she's right...'

After all, considering what Charles said, it seemed that they weren't taking this whole thing seriously at all. 

"And... maybe they're reluctant to kill townsfolks also...", I inadvertently muttered out loud.

"That's right", Aryl leaned back on her chair and put her feet on the table. "And we can use it to our advantage. The commander also probably doesn't want to lose his brother over something he didn't even take seriously until now. Good job, Celi!"

My mood was brightened up by her praise. However, I soon turned serious upon hearing her next words.

"Now... what shall we do with our prisoner?"

"I- I think w- we should leave him alone until the siege is over"

My instant answer made Aryl frown at me in suspicion. "Celi... I've been meaning to ask, why are you so fixated on this blonde bastard?"

"I- It's nothing", I stuttered as I nervously smiled at her.

Seeing that I wasn't willing to say anything, Aryl shrugged her shoulders and continued speaking. "Well, since he's the vice-commander, he's bound to know some secrets. I'll force them out of him"

As soon as she stood up though, I jumped up from my seat and blocked her. "L- Let me do it!"

"Sure", Aryl replied instantly, leaving the room.

"Huh?", I was confused.

'She gave up that easily?'

"I know what you're thinking", Aryl suddenly stopped in her tracks and spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I'm just too tired to deal with you right now. You can do whatever you want as long as you don't free him. Don't bother me for the next..."

She then stared into thin air, presumably at her Status, before sighing. "...10 hours. Don't look for me for the next 10 hours"

And with that, she immediately left the room and walked back to the inn.

Now being tasked with 'extracting information' out from Charles, I walked into the jail cells with shaky steps.
...

"So... you're a spy, huh?", Charles said as soon as he saw me.

Flustered, I tried to make up excuses.

"W- Well technically I'm n- not a spy but... yes...", I hung my head down low in shame as I realized that I was just validating my disgusting actions. "...I'm disgusting, aren't I? I lied to everyone I came across and walk away like it was nothing"

"Nah, you're fine"

"Huh?", I looked at him weirdly.

Smiling at me, he continued. "I mean... I heard what you said outside"

"..."

"That girl, Aryl, was it?", he chuckled. "Although I'd definitely want an absolute beauty like her to have my son, she acts like a street thug. And I could tell that she was really going to make me regret living if you hadn't volunteered to take the role of 'torturing' me"

"..."

"So don't be too harsh on yourself", he smiled reassuringly. "You're a kind girl. I can even bet that you did all that infiltrating stuff for the sake of the town"

Seeing that my mood has improved, he chuckled yet again before sitting down in his cell.

"So, care to have a talk with this prisoner?"

"Yes..."

'It's the least I could do for him after all...'

And thus, I sat down on the dusty floor of the jail, keeping Charles company for the whole night.
...

The next day went by with not much happening besides Ray sending messengers demanding Charles in exchange for the men they've captured. 

But knowing that the commander didn't want to harm civilians, Aryl denied the trade every single time.

Thus, the third day arrived. And with it came the Inquisition that totally, absolutely nobody expected.

"BY THE NAME OF GODDESS LUMARIA AND GOD VINDUR, CEASE THIS SIEGE IMMEDIATELY!"

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