“Miss Baraja, I trust dispersing some troops around the area is meant to intercept any demihumans from the camp who are trying to flee with intelligence about this battle? If anyone gets away, then even if you win the battle, you will lose in the long run.”
“That, that’s it! It’s just as you say!”
He had seen through the paladins’ tactics with such ease. The only thing Neia could say about him was that he was amazing.
Still, that raised a question. Where had the Sorcerer King learned such tactics from?
A being with a demihuman’s tough skin would not wear armor on top of it. With sharp claws, one would not need swords. Humans wore armor and carried swords because of their fragile bodies.
If there was no need to rely on one’s wits, then tactics would naturally be unnecessary too. Why did the overwhelmingly powerful Sorcerer King know of siege tactics?
“Your Majesty, may I know where you acquired such knowledge?”
“Hm? By knowledge you mean— ah! My predictions just now? Umu.Those tactics were taught to me by one of the friends I mentioned before. After that, I tested them out in live combat. Well, I learned a lot of things, but I didn’t expect them to be put to practical use here.”
“...Since he was Your Majesty’s friend, surely he must have been very strong too?”
“Oh yes. Well, his strength was not in melee or magic, but in another field. In that sense, I have not yet attained his level of strength yet.”
Huhu, the Sorcerer King laughed happily. It was the kind of laugh one had when reminiscing about the past.
Right now, he seemed just like a human being.
Could it be that the Sorcerer King was once human...?
Perhaps he had transformed himself into one of the undead with the power of magic, but that would be a perplexing matter. That should not have been possible. To Neia’s knowledge, the undead were naturally occurring things. However—
The world is large, after all.
Neia’s journey with the ambassadorial delegation had let her realise how tiny the world she once knew had been.
Across the ocean, beyond the mountain, and in the depths of the forests — there ought to be something out there. The sages who could scoff at Neia’s problems and tell her the answers ought to be out there too.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Ah, my, my apologies.”
“No, I am not blaming you. I was a little worried when I saw you spacing out on horseback… the battle is about to begin, and I understand if you’re uneasy.”
“Th-Thank you very much, Your Majesty.”
Just then, Remedios planted her banner in the ground and drew her holy sword.
“Everyone! The first battle to save this land from Jaldabaoth is about to begin! Justice shall triumph!”
There was a heated response of “Justice shall triumph!” to Remedios’s shout. Once they gathered, they began their charge.
“So it’s begun. Miss Baraja, would it not be better to move up if you wish to fight?”
“No, my duty is to accompany you, Your Majesty. Abandoning Your Majesty to fight—”
Is something I cannot do, Neia shook her head.
“Hm, mm, is that so? Then, then let’s talk about something else… You haven’t lent that weapon to anyone else, have you?”
“Not even once! This is a weapon I borrowed from Your Majesty! I would not dare allow anyone other than myself to touch it!”
“Ah… really now. Umu, I suppose. I thank you.”
His tone sounded a little depressed, but there was no way to divine his intentions from it.
Have I done something to offend His Majesty? ...I’m not too sure what’s going on, but perhaps I should apologize?
While Neia was waffling, the Sorcerer King changed the topic.
“Ah — this is a rare opportunity. I looked around our surroundings, but I did not discover any demihumans hiding with invisibility magic. Perhaps we should move forward a little to observe the battlefield conditions. I doubt there’ll be any problems with leaving the priests here… What do you think?”
“Understood.”
It would be very disrespectful to tell the Sorcerer King — who possessed might which far exceeded her own — that moving to the front would be dangerous.
As the sound of bells rang through the prison camp, she stayed close to the Sorcerer King as he moved up. That was when the fighting began.
The angels attacked the watchtowers on top of the gate, and the Bafolk there met them with their spears.
The archer towers launched arrows. They were not aiming at the angels, but at Remedios as she led the charge. It was only natural to aim for her, given that she was not carrying a shield and there was no chance of hitting friendlies.
However, her strength was far removed from the others.
She easily cut down all the arrows coming at her with her sword, maintaining her speed as she ran.
As if to counterattack, several angels rushed the archer tower. Shortly after that, three Bafolk corpses fell from the tower.
This was when the paladins reached the gate and began pounding on it with the battering ram.
The log doors began to shake, and there was a faint sound of cracking from inside, along with the cries of the paladins going, “One more time!”
The gate shook again, more violently than before.
And then the battering ram struck again.
One of the logs making up the gate bent heavily, and they could hear the paladins’ cries of triumph even from here. While the gap was not yet big enough to let people in, they ought to be able to break the gate down completely after several more tries.
Several angels flew past the gate. Neia could not see what they were doing from here, but they were probably trying to hold off the Bafolk defenders.
“—Get back, all of you!”
All eyes went to the source of that shout.
It came from a watchtower above the gate. The angels should have taken that place. Yet, a single Bafolk appeared there. However, the problem lay in what the Bafolk was carrying.
“Get back!” the Bafolk shouted again.
The Bafolk was holding a girl, aged around six or seven, and he had a sharp blade to her throat.
“If you don’t back off, I’ll kill this human!”
The girl was dressed in filthy clothing — her face looked dirty too — and her body shook from side to side. Was she still alive? They could not detect any signs of life from her. It seemed to speak for how everyone inside the camp had been treated.
“You’re despicable!” one of the paladins shouted.
“Hurry up and back off! Look!”
There was a commotion among the paladins. What had happened? Even Neia could not see what was happening at this range and at night. However, it was different for the Sorcerer King.
“...The child’s throat seems to be bleeding.”
“Could it be!?”
“It was just a nick; she is not dead yet. Otherwise her value as a hostage would—”
“—Everyone, fall back!”
The paladins obeyed Remedios’s command and moved back.
Although the priests in the rear had a hard time grasping the situation, they still understood what was going on, and they pulled the angels back. At the same time, the priests ran up to Neia and the Sorcerer King. They had probably come closer to see what was going on.
“Further! Go further back!”
After the Bafolk said so, the paladins began retreating slowly.
They could see the Bafolk hurriedly swapping positions atop the watchtower. They swapped the people who had been wounded in the earlier battle with the angels for fresh fighters.