Chapter 71: Battle station, Ready! Fire!
Now that Alicia knew this fortress might get attacked, she no longer slacked. She charged all the arcane stones in the fortress to full power.
“Thank you. We are glad to have you here, Alicia. Hah… I never thought we would be done in by monsters instead of humans.” The instructor sighed as he treated Alicia and Elidranthia to a cup of tea and stew. There were no cookies or dessert, as the fortress commander, in all of his wisdom, decided to hoard all flour and limit its use to bread. Every food was rationed.
“I assume this is over?” Elidranthia asked. The attack on the fortress the other day was brutal, but not fatal for the fortress. They could still rebuild. This assault was a seasonal occurrence for Shadowstep. If Shadowstep could handle it, so could this fortress, which had more men and supplies. But the commanding officer shook his head.
“No. We have similar attacks in the eastern forts. They come more than once a week. That’s why we have to recruit students to defend the fortress here.”
“Eh? More than once per week?” Eli gasped. That’s serious.
“Some even have it every day. That was awful,” the officer said with a grave face. “We need to find out how these monsters keep coming.”
“Of course! We need to form a specialized unit to scout the origin of this monster wave!”
“But it wasn’t approved by Duke Bron and the king.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t want to waste soldiers. Elite scouting units were all but in name. They were just normal, more experienced knights, not some omnipotent heroes. They thought this disaster would pass, just like the seasonal monsters that assaulted Shadowstep. Or maybe they didn’t want the monster wave to end.”
“Huh? People are dying!” Eli said. She soon connected the dots. It wasn’t just Althemer that was attacked by these monsters. The western front was attacked as well. The commanding officer nodded at her suspicion.
“I think both sides were trying to funnel the monsters spawned here to each other,” he said.
“That’s… but what if it failed?”
“We might have to use the reserve force,” he sighed.
“Ugh…” Alicia said.
“Oi! Bernard! Come here! The general is assembling a task force to determine the monster’s origin!” A soldier jogged through the restaurant. Bernard, the commanding officer, brightened up.
“Finally,” he smiled. “Apparently our duke hasn’t gone senile yet. Just slow. Let’s do it!”
“Alicia?” Eli turned to her.
“Hm…. Ah! I remember!” Alicia brightened up, as if she had finally figured out a complex algebra question in her head. “It’s probably a spawner!”
“A spawner?”
“Yes. A spawner is a ball-like crystal that could summon monsters! Elderan used it to attack Shadowstep in the web novel,” she exclaimed.
“I see. We should find it! That way, we could end this whole assault on the western front!”
“...” Alicia regretted talking about the spawner. She forgot that Eli had a sense of justice that was higher than normal people. She wanted to matter. But if she joined, not only would it be dangerous, but she might have to kill someone. Goddess Sistielle said killing monsters was fine, but there might be animals mixed in. Or, in the worst-case scenario, there might be enemy units in the mix. If that happened, she might get captured or forced to kill them instead.
“Um… But we are just students, Lady Elidranthia. I don’t think we should go against our superiors. They said they are going to do something, right?”
“But you are the only one who knew what a spawner is, Alicia. You know where it is, right?” Eli said. She mistakenly thought the birdbrained Alicia had finally remembered about the spawner in the web novel.
“Ah, spawners existed in the web novel. But as I said before, Elidranthia never went to the western front in the web novel. Naturally, the location of the spawner on the western front was never written. I don’t think my knowledge will matter. Let’s just stay here and do our job, Lady Elidranthia,” Alicia said.
“Ehh? I don’t want to stay here…” Eli pouted. “I want to end this thing.”
“But you can save countless people here. Isn’t that awesome? You always wanted to save people, right? It is better than going outside into a dangerous war.”
“Mu…” Eli pouted. Saving lives was certainly important. But she knew that things wouldn’t improve without stopping the cause. Someone needed to stop the spawner from summoning any more monsters.
At that moment, another alarm rang. Eli tilted her head; it was a bit different than the alarm yesterday. Eli went out of the restaurant and found the gate crowded with refugees and retreating soldiers. The fact that refugees were included in the mix could only mean one thing: a fort had fallen, and they were fleeing.
“Whoa, that’s a lot of people. Do you need any help, Lady Elidranthia? I could create warm water, at least.” Alicia twitched. Eli might be a rank-six mage, but she didn’t have unlimited mana. Even back in Shadowstep, she could only heal two dozen soldiers every day. She had improved much since she went to the academy, but not to the point that she could heal all these people. The best she could do was probably seal their wounds.
“I just have to do my best. I am not alone in the infirmary,” Eli sighed. She wanted to go searching for that spawner to end all this disaster, but she couldn’t abandon all these people.
Now that Alicia had some information, she went to the barracks, trying to find Bernard, the commanding officer she had befriended earlier.
“Are you nuts? Are you telling thousands of soldiers to die? There are millions of undead there!” Another commanding officer slammed the table when Alicia arrived before the door. Sensing juicy information was coming, Alicia stalked the door, pressing her ear against it, trying to listen in on the conversation.
“But that’s the only chance we have to end this.”
“We can’t. If we lose too many people, the western nation might take advantage of it. We would be powerless!”
“But the Arcane Initiator is there. We have to destroy it, or this whole place would be overrun with monsters.”
“We can’t. The western nation isn’t pulling back. If we sacrificed thousands of people for this, they would beat us soon after. We might even lose the whole western front.”
“Hm… If they aren’t going to do anything, why does the general even call them here?” Alicia pondered. Bernard seemed happy that he was called earlier, thinking the duke finally had a mission for him.
“If you aren’t going to do anything, why do you even call us then? I thought we could finally clean up this mess. Not only did you know the origin of these monsters, you even hid it from us and didn’t do anything,” Bernard scoffed. “You high-rankers and your chess games.”
“It is a fact that we must not let that Arcane Initiator run amok. We have two options. From what our scholars said, Arcane Initiators couldn’t create monsters indefinitely like this forever. They would soon fall into hibernation or break on their own. We could just wait until then.”
“Huh? So we aren’t going to do anything? When will this weird thing you mentioned stop working then?”
“We aren’t sure. Each Initiator was different. That’s what the scholar said. It could be days, weeks, or even months.”
“That’s bull. We would be overrun by then. Our supplies would only last a few days of determined assault, even if we have priority from the capital. Our men are barely hanging by a thread.”
“Our second option is to somehow destroy the Arcane Initiator. If we can keep the casualties below a hundred, the high command will allow this amount of loss. We wouldn’t get taken advantage of by the western nation.”
“That’s impossible! Are you telling us to sneak our way through hundreds of thousands of monsters with just a hundred men? These are undead. They don’t sleep, they don’t eat, they don’t betray. How are we even going to sneak in?”
“... That’s for you to figure out. You may use any tactics you wish. Suicide missions are not off the table for this one. As for supplies, we will allow you any supplies or magical tools you need. Of course, all participants for this mission will receive the highest commendations. The Golden Star Medal.”
“You can’t eat a medal. What good does it do if you die? These monsters wouldn’t even leave your corpse behind to mourn. You know that.”
“... That’s all we can offer. I shall leave you and the other captains to ponder this. If none of you take the mission, we will be forced to rely on the first plan.” The general sighed. “And that is to wait here to die.”
“Damnit.” The commanding officer cursed. Then the door was slammed open, kicking Alicia in the face.
“Ouch!!” Alicia fell on her butt, nursing her head.
“...”
“...” The general and Bernard stared at Alicia for a minute.
“I would normally put you into the brig for this, girl. But seeing as you wore the Royal Academy’s uniform, you must be a mage the capital sent us as reinforcement.”
“Yes, I am Alicia, the greatest mage of Shadowstep!” Alicia stood and puffed her chest.
“You shouldn’t be here, Alicia. Return to your post. If you are done with the enchanting array, you may rest in your quarters.”
“No! I want to be in your squad, Bernard! Let’s get that spawner together!” Alicia pumped her fist. If she could get that spawner, Elidranthia wouldn’t have to stay in this fortress much longer. She would be safer in the capital.
Little did Alicia know that it was much more dangerous inside the capital with the assassins and the Reapers Guild on their back. But of course, Alicia was too dumb to realize that.
“...”
“Oi! Bernard. You can’t be serious!”
“But she is a rank-seven mage. If there is one chance we could pull this off, it’s her,” Bernard said.
“She is just a kid! She can’t even hold a sword!”
“I can hold a sword just fine! I am the greatest knight in Shadowstep too!” Alicia interrupted. “I could beat all of your knights here!”
“I see.” Bernard smirked. “Let’s do some testing, shall we? If you can pass it, I’ll let you into my team.”
And so, Bernard guided Alicia to an empty training ground.