Not a Dog, But a Fox (1)
Tetman and Adora's conversation continued well after that.
Adora almost never spoke about personal matters. Most of what followed came from Tetman laying bare the things weighing on his mind.
"I still have no idea where that Dietz fellow has gone, and the Magic Stone Officer Corps is one step from being disbanded…"
That was why Tetman could never quit smoking.
"Yes. It must have been hard on you."
"Losing Battalion Commander Ronshstein especially — that one stings. The man had a reputation in the unit nearly as good as any admiral's."
"Battalion commander. At best that's a major, maybe a lieutenant colonel, isn't it?"
"You little brat — you graduated from the same school and you don't know Erihi Ronshstein? That friend of mine made First-Class Mage years ahead of you!"
Adora shut her mouth.
"He was a fine-looking young man. Tall, handsome, brilliant, and a decent human being on top of it. Do you know what Admiral Dietz used to tell me every single time? That someday he wanted to introduce the boy to his own daughter."
"And so?"
"I told him I'd claim him first."
"Father."
"Once the war's over, you're going to have to start looking for a match and get married yourself, aren't you?"
Adora's face twisted into a scowl.
"Yes, I've been saying this for years. I don't have the luxury of meeting men. If I absolutely had to name someone, it would be His Excellency the President. My body and my heart already belong to him."
"Don't go saying things like that. People will get the wrong idea."
With that, their conversation came to a close. Adora checked the quartz clock on the wall, offered a brief silent prayer, and turned to leave.
"I may be back here before long."
"On what business?"
"Classified for now."
"You can't even give your own father a hint?"
"No."
Adora pressed a hand firmly against her chest and let out a shallow breath.
"How's the body holding up?"
"Getting around is no problem. That, too, is by the grace of His Excellency the President. Yes. I'll be going, then."
"All right. Take care of yourself."
The door clicked shut.
After Adora left, Tetman heaved a long, flock-of-sheep sigh.
Long ago, Adora Gipold had suffered from a heart condition of unknown cause.
She had been given a terminal diagnosis.
But thanks to the secret arts of the President — a specialist in magical medicine — she had recovered enough that, aside from the occasional minor ache, her daily life was no longer impaired.
After the President came to power, Adora became one of his most fervent followers, and when war broke out she rose to become the Magic Kingdom's youngest general.
Watching his successful daughter, a father's smile was inevitable — but so was the worry.
That bright, bubbly girl of his seemed to have gone cold overnight, as if some switch had been flipped.
She still showed him affection, still played the doting daughter — so why did even that feel so forced?
"Hooo…"
No sooner had Tetman exhaled a plume of cigar smoke than his aide stepped in.
"The Major General said she forgot something after she left, and asked me to pass it along."
"What did she say?"
"A personal message. That you must ensure the success of this operation, avenge the humiliation of the Tatangcour Sea battle, push the front lines forward, and restore the Grand President's prestige…"
"Just the point. The point."
"…She asked you to salvage the army's honor."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, sir."
Tetman stroked his beard and rose from his seat.
"Assemble the officer corps at once."
The Phoenix — dispatched to the Tatangcour Sea both to search for the missing and to investigate the anomalous mana phenomena — had been overturned by a storm. And with it, the Holy Kingdom's high command had been overturned as well.
"The Saintess has ascended to heaven?"
"It isn't confirmed yet! If there's other land inside the barrier, she may still be within it!"
"…That's Magic Kingdom territory in there. Wouldn't that make things even worse?"
The Holy Kingdom, having thrown every scrap of intelligence and observation technology it possessed at the problem, already knew about the Magic Kingdom's suspicious movements. They also knew that something was being plotted inside that internal space called the "barrier."
"No matter what it takes, the Saintess must be rescued."
At the very least, they had to recover her body. Otherwise the very foundation of the Holy Kingdom — a theocratic state where church and crown were one — would be shaken to its core.
A shaken foundation meant shaken public morale. Shaken public morale meant the collapse of military morale. And when military morale collapsed, the war was lost.
"And after we assigned her that many escorts…"
"If we'd known it would come to this, we never should have sent her."
"What choice did we have? The only people capable of performing both exorcism and sea-cleansing rites at once are the Saintess and His Holiness the Pope… and we can hardly send the Pope."
"Given how things stand, we have no choice but to force a breach."
Shatter the barrier. Pour troops into the interior. Find the Saintess and every other missing person, no matter the cost.
That was the judgment of the Holy Kingdom's command.
And so the force that gathered was a certain engineering unit blessed by the Goddess of Crafting.
"Kids! We've got work!"
Directly under the Holy Kingdom Army Supreme Command:
The Sacred Engineering Unit.
"Time for us beastfolk to step up!"
The Sacred Engineering Unit was no ordinary corps of sappers. A substantial portion of its ranks was made up of beastfolk.
Beastfolk who carried the Goddess's blessing could accomplish with ease what humans never could. With their animal senses they threw up fortifications in the blink of an eye, spanned bridges across impossible terrain, and had long since mastered the art of wrecking Magic Kingdom hardware.
An elite unit that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Valkyries themselves.
Liyo was a fox beastgirl belonging to that unit.
"Hey! Get up! I said get up!"
Five in the morning.
An officer came crashing into the barracks where Liyo's unit was sleeping soundly and started bellowing at the top of his lungs.
A cat beastfolk sprang upright; a dog beastfolk fumbled with his blanket and stared blankly. The fox among them, half-lidded eyes barely open, simply pulled the covers over her head.
"Hnnnngh…"
"Stop lazing around and get on your feet! One! Two!"
Purple bobbed hair. Eyes so dark they were nearly black.
Ordinary enough so far — except that, unlike most of her kind, she had two tails.
"Grab your tools and move! The moment we reach the barrier, we start work!"
Liyo was the last to follow the officer's orders. Two multi-purpose axes, a tool set, and a stigma plate for dismantling the barrier — that was the full extent of her gear.
"All hands, assemble on deck!"
The weather was clear, and there was no sign of the Magic Kingdom's forces. Ever since the Battle of the Tatangcour Sea, the Holy Kingdom had held this stretch of water. There was no reason for the enemy to appear.
"Hwaaah… heh-heh-hnnngh…"
"Sleepy?"
"Maybe."
"You're so lazy."
Before long, the ship carrying Liyo was drawing near the waters in question.
"Huh."
A droplet landed on the tip of Liyo's ear.
One drop. Two.
What began as little more than a drizzle transformed, in an instant, into a full-blown storm.
"Why is it raining?"
"I was sure today was supposed to be sunny."
"I'm depressed. I wanna go inside."
"Woof! Woof! Rain! Rain!"
The officers were sweating bullets trying to keep the fully feral pure-blooded beastfolk under control. By comparison, Liyo was an incomplete beastfolk — cover her ears and tails and she looked entirely human — so she could keep her instincts in check.
"Yaaawn."
Of course, she was also just sleepy.
She was thinking about wrapping this up quick, heading back, eating some cherry pie, and going to bed — when it happened.
"Enemy attack!"
Liyo's eyes flew wide open.
From the southeast, the Magic Kingdom Air Corps had appeared.
Hundreds of unmanned suicide craft loaded with Baekrinseok and Chamcheongseok came swarming in, holding perfect formation even through the storm.
"Where the hell did those come from?!"
"They appeared out of nowhere! They didn't even show up on radar!"
"Don't tell me they came out of the barrier! You Magic Kingdom bastards…!"
An engagement no one had expected.
The Holy Kingdom had anticipated the possibility, of course, and had attached an escort fleet to support the Sacred Engineering Unit.
But prolonged fleet battles had left the Holy Kingdom short on warships, and more critically, the main fleet was entirely committed to holding the front lines.
A relatively inferior force.
Weather so dire the anti-aircraft guns were useless.
And a swarm of killer midges that flew on through the downpour as if to flaunt the very pinnacle of magical engineering.
"Barrier dismantling is postponed! Retreat! Retreat!"
Even as the officers screamed themselves hoarse, the situation spiraled to its absolute limit.
By the time Liyo came to her senses, she was in the water.
"…Huh?"
Why is the ship I was on sinking?
"Run."
This was no time to be thinking about anything else.
Beastfolk — no, even without being beastfolk — possessed a survival instinct that was absolute.
She had to get as far from this place as she could.
Liyo threw every ounce of her strength into swimming across the open sea.
The enemy female soldiers and I hit a snag while traveling by lifeboat.
A squall.
The sudden, violent wind and rain were far beyond anything oars could handle. Faced with nature's dirty trick, all we could do was cling to one another and pray the boat wouldn't flip.
"Hold on tight!"
"Bail the water, hurry!"
"O-O holy Lord… grant us the strength to overcome this trial…"
"Stop praying and start bailing!"
How much time passed like that, I couldn't say.
The wind and rain stopped. The fog rolled past. Sunlight returned.
Only then did we let out a collective sigh of relief. Thank goodness it had been a brief downpour — if it had been a prolonged storm, the three of us would have been fish food side by side.
"Ugh, I'm soaked to the bone."
"The firewood's all waterlogged too."
"We'll need to start a fire the moment we land. Mage — is that the island?"
The Saintess pointed, and sure enough, an island was visible.
Originally, we'd been heading for a pair of twin islands shaped like a dumbbell.
But that one over there…
"I think we've gone off course."
The storm must have blown us in a completely different direction. Sure enough, when I checked the Origin Stone, it was pointing somewhere else entirely.
"Nothing we can do about it. Let's rest there for a bit. We'll regroup and set out again."
At the Saintess's words, the Valkyrie and I both nodded.
And so, the moment we made landfall, we took off our clothes… yes. All of them.
Soaked to the skin, we didn't have much choice.
"Ah — th-this isn't even the first or second time — three times now I've ended up naked in front of the mage… It's over. My marriage prospects are completely ruined!"
"Three times…? Colonel?"
"Ah."
We'd had to dry our undergarments too, which meant full nudity.
I hurriedly built a campfire and laid the clothes out nearby. Fortunately, dry branches were easy to find on the island.
Next I wove leaves together with twine into grass skirts. Three of them, since three people needed to wear them.
"Whew, that's a little better. Don't look this way!"
"Fine. Once we're dry, let's decide what to do first."
From what I could tell, this island seemed decent enough. The terrain was manageable, I could hear animal sounds, and while there was forest, it didn't look like full jungle.
Maybe this was actually a stroke of luck?
I was thinking that when it happened.
Splash, splash, splash.
"…?"
The female soldiers and I turned our heads in unison.
Some purple mass was dog-paddling its way toward us.
"Hhhk — natives! Help! Help!"
"…A beastfolk?"
What the hell is that.