Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14
“Kairun.”
Early in the morning, Brother Philion pulled aside the flap of my tent, the guards behind him bowing their heads.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“How is your body?”
“My body is more than fine. It’s my mind that’s about to break. You’ve got me penned up in this tiny place so tightly I can’t move an inch.”
“…It’s for your protection.”
“I know. I know that. But don’t you think this is a little much? I should be getting praised for what I did, and instead I’m getting something close to confinement.”
“And your mana heart?”
Brother Philion ignored everything I had said in one stroke and asked after the condition of my mana heart instead, making me let out a sigh before answering.
“…It still looks like it has a long way to go before it recovers.”
“Come with me for a moment.”
***
I followed Philion out and climbed the wall with him.
“…Reinforcements?”
“What do you make of them?”
Standing atop the wall, roughly repaired as it was, I looked out toward the beastman camp in the distance.
At a glance alone, the army of other races looked to number well over a thousand.
“What do I make of them…. If it’s numbers, I’d say around fifteen hundred. I can’t be exact, but that should be close.”
I measured the size of the enemy force by eye.
“Yes. If we add our main force and the garrison together, our numbers should be roughly comparable.”
Philion went on, his breath misting in the frigid northern air.
“I’m asking about our odds. How do you think we should fight?”
I gave a snort.
“You’re asking the obvious. Naturally, we take advantage of our defensive position and fight a siege defense. How are the repairs to the wall?”
“They’ve been roughly completed.”
“Not bad. Supplies?”
“Plentiful.”
After a brief moment of thought, I tilted my head slightly.
“Then, well… I don’t really see anything that needs touching.”
“How do you think they’ll come at us?”
“They won’t use the same method again. This fortress held even when they tried to break through the straightforward way, and now that our reinforcements have arrived, it’s hard to imagine they’d repeat the same approach. We’ll need to keep a close watch on their movements.”
“Information warfare is the foundation of all tactics.”
Philion nodded in agreement.
“Do you think more reinforcements will come for them?”
“Fifteen hundred is already a bit of a strain on their side. They likely won’t get any more than this. It’s not as though they’re free of their own front against the monsters.”
“That makes sense. It is the season when monster activity picks up. Even on our side, the Grand Duke personally went to deal with that front because of the monsters.”
“What is certain is that time is on our side. If we wait, Father and the troops under him will arrive. The enemy will try to take the fortress before that happens.”
“…Is that so?”
‘He still doesn’t know Father very well.’
That much couldn’t be helped.
I had spent an entire lifetime with Father in my previous life, so it would have been stranger if someone knew him better than I did.
Father would likely use this battlefield to test Philion’s limits.
When it came to his own children, and especially to the eldest son meant to lead the family, he always held them to the harshest standard of all.
And there could hardly be a better battlefield than this one to test those limits. Even if he finished settling the monster front, there was a high chance the Grand Duke himself would not come to help us directly.
So that a small failure now could prevent a far greater sacrifice in the distant future.
That was the kind of man Father was.
Everything, to the very end, for the sake of the family.
“…When do you think the next battle will begin?”
“It won’t be long. It may even be soon. The period they promised has already passed.”
I answered while recalling the wolf beastman warrior chieftain.
The brief peace we had enjoyed was already over.
If I met him again, it would be on a cold battlefield.
“The greatest variable?”
“…My existence, most likely.”
Strength, numbers, terrain. All of it could be calculated.
Of course, even calculations that approached perfection became meaningless on a battlefield where anything could happen, but…
-The presence of a Sword Master changes a battlefield.
It was a saying that had been passed down since ancient times.
“If they attack again, my existence will probably be what irritates them the most. They’ll try to kill me first.”
“An uncontrollable variable is poison on the battlefield.”
Philion cast me a sidelong glance as he said it.
“In any case, I called you here because I wanted to gauge how your eyes read a battlefield.”
“…So I’m being evaluated. I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’s not something worth disliking. The fact that you’re already up for evaluation means your tactical sense is good enough on its own. If anything, it’s closer to praise.”
“…I see.”
I turned my gaze to Philion, who stood there with his breath fogging in the air.
“So what’s the verdict? There has to be a result.”
“You’re interesting enough to make me want to ask a great many things.”
“Why?”
“Because your tactical sense is so absurdly sharp that it feels like you’ve spent years rolling around on battlefields, and more than anything… that power of yours as a Sword Master.”
“……”
“I’m asking you. When, and how, did you awaken to the power of a Sword Master? You aren’t even twenty yet.”
At that moment, a low horn sounded in the distance.
It was a horn I knew all too well.
The instant we heard it, Brother Philion and I looked at each other as though by prior agreement.
“…That’s the beastmen’s signal to attack.”
“I know.”
As he hurried down from the wall, Philion brought the conversation to an end.
“You’d better think carefully about your answer. Father will want to know too.”
***
The first to meet Philion the moment he came down from the wall was Harel, the former commander.
“Your Highness, that horn—”
“I heard it too. The beastmen will attack this place before long. What of the reconnaissance?”
At Philion’s question, his adjutant Kern answered at once.
“Their front line is centered on infantry, with mage-type troops mixed into the rear.”
“…Split our lines.”
Philion issued his orders.
“The first defense line is the main gate. That is the point they are most likely to target. Concentrate the archers and mage troops on the top of the wall. Station the infantry behind the gate, prepared for a charge. We must also reinforce the sections of the wall where repairs are not yet complete.”
“And Lord Kairun?”
“…Keep him in the rear. However, if he truly judges it necessary, allow him to move on his own.”
“What is the reason for not placing him at the front? With the power of a Sword Master, he should be more than capable of dealing with the enemy—”
“We cannot rely on that power alone. It is an uncontrollable power. And for now, he is still an injured man.”
The inside of the fortress grew busy.
The soldiers took their positions, while the mage troops, under Elysia’s command, began inscribing reinforcement magic circles to keep the walls from collapsing easily.
Within the cold air, only the tension thickened more and more.
Then a brief, ominous silence.
And then—something moved beneath the wall, out by the forest.
A massive shadow emerged between the trees.
“…That is.”
Harel swallowed.
A wolf beastman.
No, to be precise—the wolf beastman warrior chieftain.
He stood a full head taller than the other beastmen, and the scars covering his body spoke of how long he had survived on battlefields.
However, the wounds he had suffered in his battle against Kairun had clearly not yet healed, and bandages were wrapped around his body.
Armor engraved with the symbol of the Red Moon.
And in his hand, a sword.
Each step he took made the ground tremble.
“He’s the commander.”
At those words, Philion nodded.
“…At that level, he’s no mere chieftain.”
The wolf warrior chieftain raised his head and looked up at the wall.
Then he lifted his sword.
And with that, a roar burst forth, loud enough to shake the entire forest.
“Hand over the Sword of Nordiar!”
“Otherwise—”
His eyes flashed.
“This fortress will be stained with nothing but blood.”
Murmurs rippled across the wall.
Philion’s hand went to the hilt of his sword.
“…A threat.”
“Or perhaps he wants revenge.”
“Revenge….”
Keeping his eyes fixed on the wolf beastman below, Harel continued.
“They are weighing Lord Kairun’s life against this fortress. And that is not really a negotiation, no matter how it looks.”
Harel’s voice dropped lower.
“They don’t expect us to agree. They’re creating a pretext to use when we refuse.”
“A declaration that they’ll drown this place in blood.”
Philion narrowed his eyes.
“So they were prepared for a full-scale battle from the beginning.”
At that moment—the wolf warrior chieftain slammed his sword into the ground.
Boom!
The earth shook, and a cheer exploded from the beastman lines.
“Warriors!”
His voice split the forest.
“They placed our blood upon their testing slab! Today, they will pay the price!”
The roar of the beastmen crashed forward like a wave.
Tension spread among the soldiers atop the wall as well.
Some swallowed hard. Others gripped their spears tighter.
Philion drew his sword.
A cold metallic ring echoed out.
“…All troops, battle stations.”
“Archers, prepare to target the enemy mage troops.”
“Mage troops, maintain the first defensive spell.”
The orders passed quickly.
And then—Philion added one final thing.
“Kairun.”
At his side, Kairun turned his head toward him.
“Do not come out yet. This is not a fight that ends simply because you step in.”
Kairun fell silent for a moment, then looked down below the wall.
The wolf warrior chieftain.
His eyes were a mixture of rage and certainty.
“…Understood.”
Kairun answered quietly.
“But.”
Without taking his eyes off the enemy, he continued.
“The moment he sets even a single foot inside the fortress.”
His hand tightened around the hilt of the black sword.
“That’s when I’ll finish it.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than—the enemy formation began to move.
Cutting through the cold air of the north, the curtain rose on a full-scale battle.
The beastman front line advanced slowly.
Their footsteps were measured.
The warriors’ breathing moved as one.
“Stay calm!”
Kern’s voice rang out atop the wall.
“Do not fire until they enter range!”
The wolf warrior chieftain raised one arm.
At that single motion, the warriors of the Red Moon stopped at once.
“…A signal.”
Philion muttered under his breath.
The next instant—drums sounded from the rear.
Boom— boom— boom.
They were not simple drums for raising morale.
They were war drums laden with mana.
The air in the forest trembled strangely.
“It’s mana amplification!”
One of the mage troops shouted.
“The beastman warriors’ physical abilities—”
“I know.”
Philion cut him off coldly.
“Archers.”
“They’ve entered range!”
“Fire.”
A rain of arrows poured down.
But the beastmen did not scatter.
The front line raised their shields, and the patterns engraved on the surface glowed red.
Ting—!
Ting—!
The arrows were knocked away.
“…Mana shields?”
Someone spoke in disbelief.
“No.”
Harel clicked his tongue.
“They’re individually enhanced. They’re aiming for a short, decisive battle.”