To the Maslantia Battlefield (5)
Uwoooaa—!
Kicking up clouds of dust, the demons charged furiously at the fortress.
As if they'd been waiting for it, the fortress gates swung wide open, and the resistance soldiers drew their swords with grim, resolved faces.
"Our Sacred Covenant will never bow to demon filth!"
"Cut down those filthy demon bastards and claim Maslantia for our own—!"
"Uwooo—!"
The reason they'd thrown the gates open was simple.
They'd lost a good number of their ranged soldiers and mages in the skirmish two days prior, which meant dragging the fight into close quarters worked in their favor.
If the two armies were tangled together in a melee, the demons couldn't launch ranged attacks either — a way to claw back a sliver of advantage from a losing position.
"Die—!"
"Gwak!"
"You son of a bitch—!"
The two armies collided head-on.
A human at the very front slashed his blade diagonally with a desperate look on his face.
The demon twisted aside to evade, then drove its sharp claws straight through the man's heart in a single motion.
Crunch!
But the triumph of victory lasted only a moment.
Another human, as if he'd been waiting, lopped the demon's head off with a horizontal swing.
Swish!
With a clean, crisp sound, the head dropped to the ground.
The demon's comrade kicked off the earth and leapt into the air.
The human immediately raised his sword to block — and squinted as the sunlight washed out the thing's silhouette.
In that instant, the man's body slid apart, cleanly bisected.
"Guaaah—!"
"Don't fall back! Kill them all!"
The battle was pure pandemonium.
Soldiers fought a bloody melee, and every time one fell, another stepped up to fill the gap.
In the swirling chaos where neither side could afford to give a single inch, no one retreated, and the corpses piled up on the ground like hills.
"Die, you primitive humans!"
The opening phase of the battle tilted toward the demons.
The reason was simple enough.
For nearly two days, the resistance troops hadn't gotten a moment of rest.
On their commander's orders, they'd spent the entire night digging traps, deprived of sleep, then stacked watch duty on top of that.
There was no way they'd be in fighting condition.
The demons, meanwhile?
On Gerard's orders, everyone except those assigned to watch rotations had taken two full days of rest — their bodies felt so light they could practically fly.
And there was more.
'The Lord is watching.'
'We have to show him we're worth something!'
'This is my chance to get sent to the front lines!'
The influence of the single figure watching the spectacle from the rear was powerful enough to drive their morale to its absolute peak.
"Guaaah—!"
"Don't let a single fleeing human live—!"
Shhhk shhhk shhhk!
Blue skin glinting in the light, the demons butchered the human soldiers without mercy.
Screams echoed everywhere like a chorus of the damned.
The resistance was steadily being pushed back.
At this pace, overrunning the stronghold would take next to no time at all.
That was what they believed as they kicked off the ground and surged forward.
Meanwhile, the man watching the whole scene — Robert — was beginning to lose color.
"This can't be happening. It's not supposed to go like this! Fuck!"
—BOOM!
A massive boulder, launched from a catapult, carved an arc through the air and slammed hard into the fortress wall.
Krrrrr-crack!
Shards of shattered stone rained down like a storm.
The siege weapons had been resistance property until mere days ago.
"Damn it—! Those demons, even the catapults…!"
Under the continuous bombardment, the fortress's protective magic was peeling away bit by bit.
It was self-evident that if this went on, they'd be crushed without any room to maneuver.
Robert began pacing restlessly atop the fortress, his face tight with anxiety.
"Just what the hell are you…!"
With murder in his eyes, he glared at the silhouette of a man in the far distance, small as a dot.
He couldn't make out the details, but he knew.
That one was the commander directing this entire battlefield.
It made no sense to him.
His own tactics had been flawless.
And as far as he could remember, the man had never deployed anything remotely special.
So how — how could a battle he'd had firmly in hand mere days ago have flipped on its head?
"Pfft. Whining like a dog with a sore ass, are we? Robert, how many times have I told you? Swallow that pathetic pride of yours and beg. me. for. help!"
At that moment, a woman beside him shouted the taunt, a sneer plastered across her face.
Robert answered with his features contorted in disgust.
"Shut your mouth, Grace! You're only here because Count Galbert couldn't be bothered — what could a bitch like you possibly…"
The words died in his throat.
A blade of cold had suddenly come to rest against his neck.
"Wh-what is the meaning of this…!"
"I'm just kindly demonstrating what I can do, Robert. So accept my terms."
"…Never! I won't hand a recommendation letter over to some scheming woman!"
Count Galbert's army, originally scheduled to arrive, had for whatever reason never shown up.
Instead, Grace — the lunatic even within the Sacred Covenant known as their most vicious psycho — had come as his replacement.
—BOOM!
Another boulder slammed into the fortress wall.
The defensive magic must have finally given way, because this time the stone itself caved inward.
Grace glanced at the damage and smiled a smile that crawled under the skin.
"You stand to lose a lot if you lose this battlefield, you know. Confident you won't regret it? Better start scheming like the little rat you are — and figure out which option actually benefits you."
Just as she said, Robert's mind began spinning rapidly.
Then he opened his mouth.
"…Promise me one thing. Don't kill our own people just because they get in your way."
"I can't guarantee it, but I'll try."
"You'll try? You absolute madwoman…"
—THWACK!
Grace slammed the pommel of her sword into his nose.
He crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
"Well then — shall we go make this a finale worth remembering?"
She gave a light hop and dropped down onto the ramparts.
—THUD!
Rolling her neck as if loosening up before a stretch, she approached the demons.
But it was her own kind — humans — who blocked Grace's path.
"Sorry, but you're in the way."
Shing!
It was nothing more than a casual swing.
But the force behind it was anything but simple.
With a single arc of her blade, the dozens of humans before her were mowed down like bamboo before a scythe.
Blood geysered in every direction, splattering across Grace's face.
"Ugh. The smell of blood is disgusting."
Humming a little tune, she scrubbed her face in it as though washing up.
These people are truly hopeless….
I sat in the seat of honor, arms crossed, watching the battle unfold.
At first the two sides had seemed evenly matched, but at some point the tide had swung entirely to the demons.
I'd handed them opportunity after opportunity to win, and this was what came of it.
The resistance — they didn't even deserve to win.
What should I do.
Then again, it felt wrong to just sit here and watch.
Should I really go full gremlin and start shooting my own troops like some kind of troll?
I was still agonizing over what to do when it happened.
"It's thanks to you, my Lord."
Sirius beside me spoke in a low voice.
"What is?"
"This war, my Lord. Without you, we might well have been defeated long ago."
"……."
He was looking at me with a faint smile, his face radiating genuine gratitude.
"…I haven't done anything. And the war isn't over yet. The outcome stays unknown until the very end."
"You're right, my Lord. It isn't over yet. Which is exactly why I wanted to offer my thanks now — because I never know when some completely unforeseen variable might put the soldiers' lives and my own on the chopping block."
…….
Sirius's words pricked at my conscience.
He was offering me his gratitude without a single trace of pretense.
Completely unaware of how twisted my heart really was.
"When we first met, I assumed you were no different from the other Lords. But it didn't take long for me to realize what a colossal mistake that was. You are a warm person, my Lord."
He kept going, wearing the sheepish expression of a man who didn't quite know how to say what he wanted to say.
'Why is this guy suddenly getting sentimental on me.'
I clenched my jaw.
Sirius's words felt like they were hollowing out my chest.
High Mental Fortitude or not, I was still human enough that the guilt was impossible to ignore.
But Sirius, knowing nothing of the storm inside me, pressed on.
"Forgive me for being blunt, but at first I took you for a ruthless man who used his soldiers like pieces on a game board and discarded them the moment they bored you. But after spending these past days at your side, I've come to see that you constantly worry for their safety, and that you struggle harder than anyone to bring this campaign to victory."
"That's enough."
I thrust my hand up to cut him off.
If I kept listening, the last scraps of my conscience were going to force a full confession out of me.
"My apologies, my Lord. My unworthy mouth ran away with itself."
Sirius bowed his head deeply.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a sigh.
Stay strong. Don't waver.
Demons are bastards, all of them.
—BOOM!
Then it happened.
A thunderous crash rang out, followed by the terrible screams of demons.
Sirius and I both sensed that something was deeply wrong and snapped our gazes toward the source of the sound.
—!
And in the same instant, our eyes went wide.
One person.
A single woman was carving through a horde of demons like a blade through wheat.
"Th-that woman…!"
"Sirius. Do you know her?"
"Yes — her name is Grace… I've faced her exactly once. She was an utterly nightmarish opponent. I hoped I'd never see her again, yet of all places she had to appear here!"
He continued, his face darkening.
"…One reason we've never won a single battle until now is the sheer number of troops we lost to that woman. This — this is not a good situation."
If I hadn't been able to see her level, I might have written his panic off as an overreaction.
LV. 353
— Grace —
But with Sight Maximization active, her level was plain as day.
A human sitting at that level meant one thing: she was genuinely, maddeningly strong.
'Wait a second. If that's the case…'
…then it was possible the demons might actually lose this battlefield.
I stole a glance at Sirius.
He was still wearing that grim expression, watching the soldiers being swept away with worried eyes.
'…Damn it.'
I'd spent this entire war praying for the humans to win.
But now that the tide had actually turned, I couldn't quite summon the cheer I expected to feel.
How should I put it — a lingering unease, maybe.
I was thinking exactly that as I watched Grace.
"!"
Our eyes met.
No doubt about it.
And I had good reason to be sure — she was staring right at me, mouthing something.
'…Wait. right. there? I'll. come. kill. you. after. I'm. done?'
Having said her piece, she went right back to slaughtering demons.
Brrrrr.
Chills crawled up my arms. A woman saying that sort of thing with a sword in her hand?
Why was it that every woman in this world had a few screws loose?
Try as I might, I couldn't make sense of it.
—Die!
The demons kept throwing themselves at Grace like waves against a cliff.
But it was hopeless. Face utterly composed, she advanced one measured step at a time, butchering them without discrimination.
'Why won't they fall back?'
Their faces were brimming with terror. And still they charged without hesitation.
If you can't win, you retreat — or you draft a plan, or you do something.
Why did they keep swarming like a pack of dogs only to die like dogs?
"My Lord."
Then Sirius spoke quietly.
Don't tell me he's about to ask me to step in?
"What is it?"
"There is something I must ask of you."
"Speak."
"We will manage on our own. Please, don't involve yourself."
I was stunned. The words came completely out of left field.
As if it weren't already too much that they hadn't begged me for help.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like — that we are more than enough, even alone."
"So… you're asking me to leave my post?"
Sirius gave a bitter smile.
"Let me be honest with you, my Lord. I cannot bear for you to witness us being utterly crushed. Look at their faces. Every one of them — knowing full well they're marching to their deaths — is throwing themselves at her, all so they can leave you with one final image worth remembering."
I stared at the dying demons, dumbfounded.
Their faces were drenched in fear, yes — but there wasn't a trace of regret on any of them.
It looked idiotic, and at the same time, strangely fitting for who they were.
Fighting to the last, gloriously, just so they could look good in front of me until the very end?
Really.
Where else on earth would you find romantics this absurd?
I could say with certainty: nowhere.
And was there anyone alive who could just sit back and watch it happen?
That answer was also no.
Expression blank, I rose abruptly from my seat.
"…My Lord? Where might you be going?"
So then.
I might regret it later, but just this once — I'd help them out.
No more, no less. That woman, and that woman only.
"Going for a little walk."