abcnovels
Book 8
Book 8: Chapter 5
—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.”
“The reinforcements Sir Julius mentioned... Ah! Then is your main force getting closer too?”
The Kingdom of Friedonia was the major power in the east now. It was unlikely they would have sent a force of fewer than 10,000 troops. That force had to be getting close now.
Or at least, that was Lauren’s hope as she looked expectantly to Halbert, but Halbert awkwardly scratched his cheek.
“Uhh, nope. We’re an advance party. It’ll still be some time until the main force arrives, so we were sent ahead due to our high mobility. We’re here to probe the strength of the monsters, and to support the local defenders so that the city doesn’t fall before the main force can arrive.”
“I... I see...” So the main force was still a way off. Lauren’s shoulders slumped.
Halbert put a hand on her slumped shoulders and gave her a grin. “Oh, don’t you worry. The Dratroopers are the cream of the crop in the Kingdom of Friedonia’s National Defense Force. Now that we’re here... Whoa!”
Halbert jumped up onto the edge of the wall, impaling one of the climbing lizardmen with his right-hand spear. Then, at the same time, he burned the impaled lizardman with flame magic before kicking it down into a group assembled in front of the wall. When it hit the ground...
Boom!
...the burning lizardman exploded. The nearby lizardmen were sent flying by the blast wave. Not only that, the flames kept spreading to the rest of the nearby lizardmen, and they all turned into writhing fireballs.
“““Gugyagyagyagyaggya...””” the lizardmen screamed.
“That’s that,” said Halbert. “I’m not letting them over this wall.”
With flames and smoke rising behind him, Halbert pulled the spear he’d thrown back to him with the thin chain that was connected to the base of both his spears’ shafts. He puffed his chest up in a way that made him look reliable.
Lauren had been struck dumb by the speed with which he acted, but a complaint came down from the sky.
“Don’t you say, ‘I’ve got this!’ Stupid Hal! What kind of knight jumps down alone and abandons his dragon, you dummy?!”
“Whuh?!” Lauren let out yet another cry of surprise.
Looking up in the direction the voice came from, there was a red dragon diving straight down from the sky at them. The dragon opened its mouth wide and spewed fire, cutting a straight line across the pack of lizardmen trying to scale the castle wall.
Bwoooooooooooosh!
A wall of flames rose up, scorching the lizardmen before their eyes. In the middle of that incredible scene, Halbert was bowing his head to the red dragon.
“Hey, Ruby, sorry! It looked bad down here, so I couldn’t help myself...”
“No, do help yourself! Don’t scare me like that, you dummy!”
The red dragon turned its head away, pouting like a young girl.
Lauren could no longer recognize the scene before her as reality. Her mouth hung open. “I-Is the Friedonian military this...ridiculous?”
“I wouldn’t want you thinking of our family as typical, you know,” a beastman girl with fox ears and a tail said as she jumped down from the deep red dragon’s back. The fox-eared girl walked over to Lauren and extended her right hand. “You must be the commander. It’s a pleasure to meet you, you know. I am Hal’s superior, as well as the operational commander of the Dratroopers, Kaede Foxia.”
“...Oh! I’m Captain Lauren!” Lauren hurriedly took Kaede’s hand. But even as they exchanged a firm handshake, Lauren eyed Kaede dubiously. “Um... Since you descended from a dragon, does that make you a dragon knight, Madam Kaede?”
“No. Ruby... That red dragon’s knight is Halbert, you see. Halbert and I are engaged, so she lets me ride her under the reasoning that the spouse of my spouse is kind of like my spouse too.”
“Huh...? You are Sir Halbert’s spouse and superior, and that red dragon is his spouse too?” Lauren was getting confused.
Kaede smiled wryly. “I can explain the details later, you know. There are more important things for now.” Kaede looked toward the castle as she spoke. “I’ve been ordered to have our 200 Dratroopers cooperate with the defenders from each of the walls to keep the monsters out, you see. The first order of business is to secure the walls.”
“I’m grateful for that, but...if you have 200 troops, then that’s fifty per wall, right?” Lauren asked. “No matter how elite all of you are, is that going to be enough to break through the current situation?”
Lauren was worried, but Kaede grinned at her. “It’s true, the number of troops we landed in the castle is 200 strong, but...you’re forgetting something important, you know.”
“Forgetting something important?”
Kaede raised her index finger and pointed straight up.
Lauren followed where she was pointing, and...finally, it dawned on her what Kaede was trying to say.
“That’s right... We still have a force that’s super strong against land-based troops up there, you know,” Kaede said with a grin.
Meanwhile, around that time, there was an energetic voice on the southern wall.
“Ookyakya! The cavalry’s here! Time to let loose!”
“Young Master, why are you so eager?!”
It was Kuu and Leporina, the master and servant duo from the Republic of Turgis.
The two of them had descended along with the Dratroopers.
When Kuu, participating as a visiting general, had learned of the existence of the Dratroopers, he’d asked Souma to let him parachute in too.
Naturally, Souma had been hesitant at first. “I told you not to do anything dangerous, didn’t I?”
“Come on, Bro! If it makes a difference, I can make my own parachute!”
Kuu’s words had put Souma in a bind. The parachute was a matter of life and death during a drop, and even if an amateur could make one themselves, it wasn’t a thing they should try. However, if he refused, Kuu may make one himself and drop in anyway, so Souma had relented in the face of Kuu’s enthusiasm and begrudgingly given the okay...on the condition that, along with Leporina, experienced Dratroopers would also accompany them.
Like a skydiving instructor with a novice skydiver, the Dratroopers had fastened themselves to Kuu and Leporina as they dropped, and now they were joining up with the defenders on the southern wall.
In contrast to Kuu, hyped to experience his first drop, Leporina still seemed frightened, because her face was pale, and her bunny ears were down flat. “I think...this may be the most I’ve ever regretted being in your service.”
“Ookyaya! Then you’ve never been all that dissatisfied before, huh?”
“Yes, I have! I’m saying this is the worst!”
“Well too bad for you, huh? Now then.” Kuu jumped onto the edge of the wall, looking at the pack of lizardmen swarming toward it beneath him. The massive force pressing against the walls was an unusual sight for Kuu. “There sure are a lot of ’em. You’d never see this in Turgis.”
“H-Hey? Who’re you people?” one of the defenders hesitantly asked as Kuu was peering over the edge of the wall.
Kuu tapped his shoulder with his favorite cudgel, then smiled at the defender. “Didn’t I already say? Reinforcements. That’s what we are.”
“Reinforcements?! It was reinforcements that fell from the sky?! Wh-Where are you from?!”
Kuu grinned. “Where, you ask? The Republic of Turgis.”
“The Republic of Turgis? That country way to the south sent us reinforcements?”
“Yeah. Only two of us, though.”
“T-Two?!” The defender was blinking, no longer able to make heads or tails of the situation.
It was already hard to believe that the Republic of Turgis on the southern edge of the continent would send reinforcements to this little country in a corner of the Union of Eastern Nations, so when he was told they were just two people, the soldier must have felt like he was being tricked.
Satisfied by the soldier’s befuddled reaction, Kuu jumped down from the wall to slap him vigorously on the shoulder. “I’m kidding, man. We’re really here on behalf of the Kingdom of Friedonia. We just happen to be visiting generals from the Republic of Turgis.”
“S-Sure...”
“Well, now that we’re here, you’ve got nothing to worry about!” Kuu jumped onto the edge of the wall again, clubbing two lizardmen who had climbed up, knocking them back into the swarm below. “Hah... Hoh... Alley-oop!”
Bouncing along the bumps of the edge, whenever Kuu found a lizardman attacking someone, he whacked it with the cudgel Taru had specially made for him and sent the monster flying.
“Hey, guys! You ever hear this before?” Kuu shouted to the defenders from the edge of the wall. “They say a Turgish soldier’s worth a hundred men! That means me and Leporina are worth 200 reinforcements! Ookyakya!”
Seeing Kuu laugh heartily, all the soldiers felt a little more relaxed. This boy might be exaggerating, but from the rampage he’d just gone on, it might not be a total lie. When they looked at his baseless smile, it made them think, We can’t let him beat us. We can keep going.
The soldiers, who had been hanging their heads before, now raised their faces, their morale restored.
Then an especially big lizardman appeared behind Kuu. Unlike the others, the surface of its body was red too. The red lizardman swung the claws from both its hands at Kuu.
“Whoa!” Kuu caught the claw strike by holding his cudgel up horizontally. However...
“Kishaaa!” the lizardman hissed.
“Urgh...”
In the back of the lizardman’s open maw, Kuu could now see red flames.
Oh, crap. Some of them can breathe fire too?!
Kuu already doing his best to fend off its claws. If it breathed fire at him now, he wouldn’t be able to dodge. Kuu broke into a cold sweat. Then...it happened.
Whoosh!
“Gugyaah?!”
The arrow flew in and struck true, stabbing into the lizardman’s right eye.
The lizardman’s face aimed up and away, and the ball of fire it spit flew off in a completely different direction.
Kuu turned his neck to look, and Leporina was on the opposite edge of the wall with bow at the ready. She immediately nocked another arrow.
“I won’t let you kill Master Kuu!”
Leporina’s second arrow flew, this time piercing the left eye.
The red lizardman held its eyes and flailed around.
“Here’s a little something extra. Eat this too!”
While his enemy was faltering, Kuu spun his cudgel around and bashed its jaw from below. There was a snapping sound, and the red lizardman fell limply over the side of the wall.
“Whew...” Having escaped from a close shave, Kuu wiped the sweat from his brow. “Ook... You saved me there, Leporina.”
“Really, now. Worth a hundred reinforcements? I’ve never heard anything like that, you know?”
“Well, duh? I’m going to make sure everyone knows it from now on!” Kuu made a big show of spinning his cudgel around before tucking it at his side. “It may be an exaggerated boast, but we can make it real. If I crush a hundred of these things, it’ll start sounding believable!”
“Don’t say that like it’s easy!”
“We’re doing this, Leporina! Let’s show the northern lands just how strong Turgish warriors can be!”
No sooner had he said that than Kuu raced off in search of his next target. His promise to Souma that he wouldn’t do anything dangerous was long since forgotten.
“Ookyakya! Hey, soldiers of Lastania! It’s time to hold your ground! If you think you can’t win a fight, call for me! I’ve got this!” Kuu boasted as he beat down the lizardmen close to him.
It was as unclear as ever what basis he had to say any of this, but his energetic voice felt invigorating somehow.
“Yeah! Let’s do this thing!” the soldiers called.
“Heh! We can’t let our Turgish guest hog all the glory!”
“This is our country! We’ve gotta defend it ourselves!”
The soldiers’ morale rose even higher, and everyone on the walls got fired up.
Leporina, who could sense the heated atmosphere as she followed Kuu, smiled. This is it. This is the young master’s charisma.
He was a bit of an idiot and had a way of flying off the handle occasionally, but Kuu always led the way, taking risks himself, and roused those following behind him.
There were kings like Souma who were skilled at using people. There were empresses like Maria who drew the respect of their people. Even so, the one Leporina wanted to serve was Kuu, and Kuu alone.
Though...if he could refrain from being quite so reckless, he’d be even better...
While Leporina was thinking that, Kuu pushed her to hurry up. “Come on, Leporina! We’ve still got another ninety or so to take down!”
“When you said you’d defeat a hundred, you were serious about that?!” Leporina cried out incredulously, and then it happened.
From far in the sky above Kuu and Leporina, there was the sound of trumpets. Bwoon! Bwoon! They blared several times, as if warning them to be careful.
Hearing that sound, Kuu and Leporina’s faces grew tense.
“Oh, crap! It’s starting! Hey, you people! Get away from the walls for a bit!”
“Everyone!” Leporina called. “The wyvern knights will soon commence bombing! Things are expected to go flying, so move away from the outside of the walls, and get down!”
Indeed. The trumpets were a signal from the wyvern cavalry that they were going to start bombing.
“B-Bombing?!” a soldier yelled.
“Hey, hurry and get away from the walls!”
The defenders hurried away from the outside of the wall, getting down on the cobblestones.
Then the 200-wyvern cavalry that had been standing by in the air since dropping the Dratroopers suddenly swooped down and dropped their barrels on the packs of lizardmen around the castle walls. The barrels were packed full of explosives. The explosive barrels, which had their explosion time adjusted with fuses, exploded just before falling into the packs of lizardmen.
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!
The explosions went off continuously, occurring in all directions horizontally. The blast waves and vibrations even hit the soldiers who were ducking and covering on the wall.
When they finally raised their faces to look around, pillars of flame were rising outside the walls to the north, south, east, and west. The spreading fireballs cooked the lizardmen packs, and a strangely savory smell wafted through the air.
The wyvern cavalry who had dropped the explosive barrels dove again, scorching the remaining lizardman packs with their fire breath. Those flames set off the explosives that had been scattered around by barrels reaching the ground without going off, and they turned the outside of the walls into a sea of fire.
The lizardmen simply burned away, unable to do anything.
“Ook. Wyverns are sure amazing, huh...” Kuu said in admiration, peering out through a crack in the wall.
The currents in the air were violent, and the Republic of Turgis was too cold to begin with, so his country had no air force of its own, and no country had ever used one against them.
The first air raid he had witnessed was beyond anything he’d ever imagined.
There must have been 5,000 lizardmen, and in an instant, seventy to eighty percent of them had been incinerated.
The lizardmen who were fortunate enough to escape the flames were crawling, and he could see them scurry away into the nearby forest.
If similar scenes were unfolding at each of the other walls, there were maybe only 1,000 lizardmen left. They wouldn’t attack until their numbers were replenished, at the very least.
Kuu stood up and dusted himself off. “Ookyakya! At the end of the day, I only managed to get about ten of them, huh?”
“Then why don’t you give chase? Alone.” Leporina asked, exhausted.
Kuu just shrugged. “I’d love to, but I can’t see a thing through all the smoke. I’ll let ’em off for today.”
“...You will, will you?”
“Well, I’ve got more important stuff to do, anyway.” Kuu slammed his cudgel down on the cobblestones, then shouted to all the Lastanian soldiers who were dumbstruck from the aerial bombardment. “Okay, the attacks been knocked back! Let’s hear you shout! Victoryyyyy!”
“Victory.” Hearing that word, the soldiers of Lastania finally got the sense that they had won.
Thrusting their shaking hands toward the heavens, they shouted from the bottom of their lungs.
“““Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”””
The soldiers’ cheers echoed through the evening skies of Lastania.
They heard explosions from the north, south, east, and west walls, and then black smoke rose in all four directions.
That was most likely the result of aerial bombardment by the same wyvern cavalry that had dropped the Dratroopers.
The lizardmen had no means of launching an anti-air attack and defending against aerial bombardment, so they were being unilaterally bombed to death. Even if it wasn’t enough to exterminate them completely, it could be expected to lower the pressure from Lizardmen pressing in on each wall.
Meanwhile, around the same time, the battle near the castle was reaching its conclusion.
Hearing the situation from Julius, I ordered Aisha and the few royal guards in the gondola Naden was carrying to work with Julius and Jirukoma to exterminate the lizardmen attacking the castle.
While it went without saying that Aisha was strong, the royal guards were confident in their skills too, and together they could make short work of the ten or so Lizardmen in the area around the building.
“Naden, there’s another one over there!” I called.
“Roger that! Unaaaa!”
Crackle!
Naden, still in her young girl form, let loose an electric shock, piercing a lizardman on the roof of the castle.
The lizardman who she struck went rigid, unable to utter a sound, and then collapsed to the ground, twitching. It was apparently still breathing.
“Why, you!” Aisha raised her greatsword to deal the finishing blow.
“Hold on, Aisha!” I held out my hand and stopped her. “Take that one alive.”
“Huh? We’re taking prisoners?”
“It may teach us something about the ecology of the monsters. I want to catch one, at least.”
“Understood. Phew... Take this!”
Aisha thrust her greatsword into the ground, then landed a hand chop on the back of the twitching lizardman’s neck. The lizardman’s back arched for a moment, and then it went limp and stopped moving. Its eyes were rolled back, and it was foaming at the mouth.
...I dunno, even if it was a monster, I felt bad seeing that happen to it.
I hesitantly asked Aisha a question as she dragged it over by the tail. “There was a nasty noise there. Are you sure you didn’t kill it?”
“I held back a little, so it should be fine...probably.”
“O-Okay then...”
Looking closer, the monster was out cold and didn’t seem to be dead, so I had a royal guard bind its mouth and body, then lock it inside a tower near the castle.
That was it for enemies outside the royal mansion.
Jirukoma came rushing over. “The royal family and refugees have been left behind inside the royal mansion. I want to rescue them, but there may still be lizardmen inside the building. I would like to request help from the royal guard.”
“Okay.” I nodded and gave the order. “Work with Jirukoma, search every nook and cranny to eliminate any lizardmen, and save the royal family and refugees! They may be hiding in the shadows, so exercise due caution!”
“““Yes, sir!”””
The royal guards saluted me, then went inside the castle with Jirukoma.
Only Aisha, Naden, Julius, and I were left behind. Time drifted by as everyone remained awkwardly silent. Julius was looking toward the castle, and Aisha was cautiously watching him. I guessed it was time for me to say something.
“I hear there were people left behind, but are they okay?”
“I decided that rather than try to move them out, it was safer to have them stay in one place until things settled down,” Julius said. “They were in a place deep inside, and the entrance was tightly sealed, so they should be all right.”
“I see.”
“Yeah...”
...Yeah, this was awkward.
Julius and I had met leading opposing armies on the field of war.
Julius had invaded the Elfrieden Kingdom together with his father Gaius VIII, who had lost his life during that war. He should be trying to take revenge against me, as his father’s killer, but I was also engaged to his younger sister Roroa, so things were complicated.
On top of that, he was the one asking for reinforcements, and I was the one providing them.
While we were both unable to find the words to say, Aisha eyed him warily. Her hands had not left the hilt of her greatsword, as if she were saying, “If you make even one wrong move, I’ll kill you.”
We were enveloped by an air of tension.
As the only one unacquainted with Julius, Naden sensed the uneasiness in the air, and her eyes darted busily back and forth between our faces. “Wh-What? Why’s everyone so tense?”
“Bro... Big Brother...” Roroa said hesitantly.
Turning toward her hesitant voice, I saw that Roroa and Tomoe, who had been told to stay in the gondola where it was safe until things were settled, were getting out. Behind Tomoe was her bodyguard Inugami.
Seeing his sister, Julius’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, it’s Roroa...”
She walked slowly over and stood beside me. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but she couldn’t quite find the words, and her mouth just bobbed open and shut. I couldn’t blame her.
My relationship with Julius was complicated, but hers was too.
They were brother and sister by blood, but they had also been political enemies. She had driven him out for the sake of the people of Amidonia, and then protected them by marrying me and bringing her country with her.
No doubt she felt guilty over driving her brother out.
Meanwhile, Julius had used his connection to Roroa to save the Kingdom of Lastania. In a life-or-death crisis, Julius had relied on the little sister who had been his enemy.
“Roroa,” he said at last.
“Ah!”
Julius walked forward to stand in front of Roroa. That naturally meant the petite Roroa would have to look up at him. Before the uncertain Roroa could look up, Julius quietly lowered his head.
“You did well to bring King Souma here. Thank you.”
Roroa’s eyes went wide. “Brother...I...”
“I no longer have my position as the crown prince of Amidonia. Now I’m just a guest seeking refuge in this country. You needn’t be polite with me. You speak in merchant slang with Colbert and the others, don’t you?”
Julius raised his head.
“...Oh, fine! I get it.” Roroa scratched her head, then crossed her arms as if she’d come to terms with it. Then, she faced Julius straight on. “So, uh...it’s been a while, huh? How’ve ya been?”
“Well, I’m healthy enough, as you can see. The people of this country have been treating me well, and thanks to your reinforcements, we were able to deflect today’s offensive. Let me thank you again for passing my request for aid on to King Souma.”
“H-Hmmph. You’d better be grateful.” Roroa looked away and pursed her lips. “I wasn’t expectin’ it to be like this when we met again.”
“Heh, I could say the same.”
“I’m not gonna apologize for havin’ ya run out of the country,” Roroa added aggressively. “That time... it was all I could do to protect the people of the principality.”
“I failed as a ruler, so I’m not in any place to complain,” Julius said. “If you acted in the interest of the people, be prouder of it. You needn’t feel guilty about it.”
“I-I’m not really feelin’ guilty about it!” Roroa said, flashing her teeth at Julius. “Nyahh!”
I dunno... Watching from the side, they looked like any brother and sister talking.
According to Roroa, they had only spoken the bare minimum that was necessary in Amidonia. She’d been playing innocent out of concern for how her father and brother would see her. Now that that was over and she was being open about her feelings, I was surprised just how much they looked like a normal brother and sister.
Julius shook his head in exasperation. “You’re childish as ever, I see. It’s been a year since you went to be with King Souma, hasn’t it? Shouldn’t you have conceived a child by now?”
“Wha?!” Roroa panicked. “What’re you sayin’?! Me and Darlin’, we haven’t...uh...”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t even laid a hand on her yet?” Julius said in exasperation, having apparently picked up on what Roroa meant.
Roroa turned so red that I thought her face might start shooting flames. It seemed she wasn’t good at having the matter addressed directly. It wasn’t a reaction I saw from her often, so I thought it was a little cute.
While she was in that state, Julius kept talking. “Roroa. You are the head of the Princely House of Amidonia now. If you birth a child, the bloodline of the Princely House of Amidonia will be protected. You have a duty to produce heirs who will tell the stories of the Royal House of Amidonia’s military accomplishments. I implore you to make King Souma fall in love with you as soon as possible.”
“Oh, geez! Lay off! Now I know how Big Sis Cia felt!” Roroa quickly hid behind me. Then she stuck out her face to hiss and give Julius a menacing look.
Since when did she come from a cat beastman race...?
Now that Roroa had hidden, I faced Julius again. “I’ve come in response to your request for aid. It will still be some time before the main force arrives, but I’ve brought 200 Dratroopers as an advance party.”
“I am deeply grateful for your assistance.” Julius knelt and bowed his head.
The man I’d once competed with during the negotiations with Madam Jeanne was now bowing down to me... It was a strange feeling.
“This feels weird. Please, just stand up and talk normally. Or else...”
“Or else?”
“I’ll call you ‘Big Brother.’”
“...I’ll ask you to spare me that, if nothing else.” Julius stood up and looked me straight in the face.
There wasn’t the grimness that had once been there, and he looked relaxed, as if something that had been possessing him had moved on.
Then Julius moved the discussion along. “I know it’s odd for me to say this as the one making the request, but why did you respond to my call for aid? We fought each other before. You could have ignored me, couldn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to put Roroa through any more pain than she’s already been through.”
“How soft...is what the old me would have said, but now...I think I can understand. Is Roroa that big of a deal to you?”
“Roroa’s family now,” I said. “I’ll protect my family, come whatever may.”
“Family...huh.”
Julius and I eyed one another. Like we were each probing the other’s intentions.
I could hear Aisha and Naden talking behind me.
“Madam Naden, you and I are His Majesty’s family too, right?”
“You bet we are. And when we include everyone’s little sister Tomoe, we’re a family of seven.”
“Then, do you suppose that makes Sir Julius my brother-in-law?”
“No, I don’t think it works that way.”
I wanted to say, Um... Could you two take the relaxed conversation elsewhere...? But, no, it was reassuring to have the two powerful ones close by. That way, I didn’t have to be afraid of Julius.
Julius pulled his sheathed saber from his belt and offered it to me.
I narrowed my eyes and asked him, “What’s this supposed to mean?”
“When I sent the request, I said I was willing to offer you my head. If you want it, let me do as I promised.”
“...You were serious?”
“Of course. If you strike me down, that will be one less worry regarding your rule over Amidonia. In exchange, I’d like you to look after this kingdom to the end.”
There was no indecision in Julius’s eyes. He’d already made up his mind, it seemed.
I slowly took the saber, and Julius bent down and extended his neck so it would be easier to cut.
“Darli—”
Roroa was about to say something, but then forced herself to stay silent. Thinking she shouldn’t say anything, she swallowed the words.
Now, what to do...
“Lord Julius!”
A young girl coming out of the castle with Jirukoma raced over, putting herself between Julius and me. She hugged Julius, who was still hanging his head.
The young girl looked up at me, her eyes filled with a strength of emotion that belied her charming appearance.
“I see you are King Souma Kazuya of the Kingdom of Friedonia. I am the princess of this country, Tia Lastania.”
“Oh, right... I’m Souma Kazuya.” I was thrown by the girl’s intensity and responded in the way I normally would. So, this was this country’s princess, huh?
Princess Tia made a desperate appeal to me. “We are very happy, and grateful, to receive reinforcements from the Kingdom of Friedonia. However, though I hesitate to say this as the one receiving assistance... I must ask you, please, be magnanimous and forgive Lord Julius!”
“Princess Tia! This is dangerous! Please stand down!” Julius barked.
“I will not let go! I don’t want to see you killed!”
Though Julius tried to tear her off him, Princess Tia held on tight and wouldn’t let go. She was putting her life on the line to save Julius.
“I’ve heard the situation from Lord Julius! I know that Lord Julius risked his head to make this request for aid! But he did that for us, the Kingdom of Lastania! I do not know what kind of man Lord Julius was during his time in the Principality of Amidonia. However, in his time here, Julius has led a force of volunteer soldiers, striking down the monsters that attack, and serving this country. He is irreplaceable to this country! And also to me!”
Seeing Tia speak quickly and try to persuade us...
Oh, that makes sense...
Roroa and I got it. The reason Julius seemed to have grown as a person was likely thanks to this princess here. I could read between the lines and see her love for Julius. Her feelings for him, and his for her, had made Julius who he was now.
Though, hold on, I never meant to cut Julius down in the first place.
It wasn’t like taking his head at this point would change anything, and, more than anything, I didn’t want to make Roroa sad. Besides, it felt like Julius had offered me the sword knowing I’d think that way. It was probably a symbolic formality, like we were cutting off our past relationship.
But Princess Tia, who didn’t know that, was desperately trying to protect Julius.
Now, how am I going to get this situation under control? I wondered. Then, suddenly, it came to me. josei
“...Very well. If you will accept a certain condition, I will refrain from bringing retribution on Julius.”
“If it is something I can do, then anything!”
“Princess Tia!” Julius hastily tried to make her take it back, but Princess Tia stubbornly refused to listen.
“Now then, what might your condition be?” she asked.
“I wish for you to take the name of Amidonia from Julius by your own hands.”
“Take his name away? Um, do you suppose that is something which I can do?”
“Yes, and if it’s you, it can be done quite easily, I think.”
“It can?” Tia was nonplussed.
Meanwhile, Julius, who understood what I was saying, immediately took on an angry look and glared at me. Oh! There was still some semblance of his old face there.
Then, having apparently figured it out, Tia clapped her hands. “Oh, I see. I just need to have Sir Julius marry into my family. If he does that, he’ll be Julius Lastania, not Julius Amidonia.”
“Princess Tia, this is the sort of thing you need to think through carefully...” Julius said hurriedly.
But Tia agreed with a smile and a nod. “I will accept your condition. I know my mother and father will accept Sir Julius.”
“...Urkh.”
“Wahahah!” Jirukoma laughed. “Looks like it’s time for you to pay the piper, huh, Julius. Congratulations. Well, from the looks of you two, it was just a matter of time anyway.”