Side Story: Someday I'll Stay by Your Side (3)
“Bernoa.”
Eldacrad looked at the Saint with clear, unwavering eyes.
“It’s all right. You needn’t accept my feelings. For me, this is penance. If I can save you, my lord—if you can defeat Seto—I would have done far worse than this.”
If it meant saving her lord, she could do worse. She would have taken her own life on the spot if he had asked it of her.
“What possible repayment could I ever offer you?”
“Repay me with victory. Victory is enough.”
A future in which her lord still lived because of everything she had done. That single future was enough. That victory would be enough.
At Bernoa’s words, Eldacrad nodded.
“So be it.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
That alone would satisfy her. Afterward she would leave his side, live out her days in the forest, and content herself with occasional news of him.
“But this victory will not be mine alone.”
“Pardon?”
What did that mean? If it was not the lord’s victory, did he mean to hand the triumph to Seto again?
“It is also your revenge against Seto and the Demon King, who made a plaything of your life. In other words, this fight is not mine alone.”
“My lord…”
Not his alone. The Saint Bernoa would be fighting with him. She did not understand why those words struck so deep.
“We fight together. Let us go and take Seto.”
“Yes, my lord!”
And so the campaign of retribution against Seto and the Demon King began.
Bernoa did exactly as she had in the dream. Posing as Seto’s ally, she lured Eldacrad in.
Still. Not yet.
There was only one way to deal Seto a decisive blow. She had not told him the full details. She was sorry for that, but she had spent decades in battle herself. She was no stranger to strategy. Which meant that what she was about to do might hurt her lord a little.
“Advance on the Demon King’s castle!”
Eldacrad’s Ashtar army began its march. Up to that point everything unfolded exactly as it had before the regression—victory after victory. No Demon King’s force remained that could stop the army of Ashtar. Even if the other Heavenly Kings arrived, the castle would already be in ruins.
“The Demon King’s castle is ahead!”
A report came up from the vanguard: the castle had been sighted. The Ashtar host was the same size it had been before the regression. Nothing had changed. After what the Saint had told him, Eldacrad had expected as much.
Until a vast black wall erupted between him and the army that had been marching at his head, splitting him from his men.
“My lord!”
“Kyle!!”
Of all times to be cut off from the army. At this rate Seto’s forces would overwhelm them. He should have spoken to Kyle in advance.
“My lord. Forgive me.”
“What is the meaning of this? Bernoa!”
Had Bernoa betrayed him again? Had the talk of dreams been part of some greater scheme from the beginning?
No. That could not be. If she had betrayed him, she would never look at him with eyes like those.
While the thought still hung in the air, Seto appeared.
“Kuhahahahaha! Eldacrad! How does it feel to be betrayed by the one you trusted?”
“You bastard, Seto!”
So it was Seto after all. Seto had been behind everything.
“Kuhahaha. You should have held onto a woman’s heart a little better, Hero of the Empire. You can command soldiers well enough, but it seems a woman’s heart is beyond you.”
At Seto’s sneer, Eldacrad looked at Bernoa.
“Did you truly…”
“This was the only way.”
What did that mean? The only way? What had she been thinking? Why was she bowing her head? He could not see her face.
“What are you talking about?”
“In this situation, this was the only way to catch Seto. It was the best strategy.”
“Hahahaha! Huh? What did you just—”
The face that had been crowing with triumph a moment before twisted. Even Seto had not expected this.
“By now, the demon host I brainwashed should be tangled in battle with Seto’s army.”
“You—”
Only then did Seto realize the situation had gone wrong.
“Lord Kyle is effectively the second-in-command of the Ashtar army. By now he will have taken command and be slaughtering Seto’s forces.”
Yes. From the start this had been a plan to deceive both Eldacrad and Seto. A strategy built on decades of war experience as one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.
—How about we split the fake lord from his army with a black-magic barrier, then smash the Ashtar host with my forces and yours, Seto, while the two of us go after the fake lord?
—A fine idea.
The fool had actually believed it. Had he still seen her as a woman blinded by obsession with her lord? No—all of this was only possible because she had regressed. And so the plan had succeeded.
“Which means…”
“Yes. This place is Seto’s execution ground.”
“You damned bitch! How dare you trick meeeee!”
Even his howling looked ridiculous.
“A worm who couldn’t even beat my lord without a scheme like this!”
This time Bernoa did not simply take it. Seto had not anticipated her counterattack. No—he had never imagined this situation at all, and so Bernoa’s black magic struck him full on.
“Damn it. If I just kill you, it ends anyway!”
Seto hurled his spear of fire.
Thwuck!
Bernoa did not dodge. Impaled on the spear, she barely managed to seize the shaft. This much would not kill her.
“My lord. Seto depends absolutely on his weapon. If he loses that spear, he is no match for Lord Eldacrad and his sword magic.”
“Bernoa!”
“End it while I can still hold on.”
Eldacrad reeled at the reality shifting so fast around him. But one thing he understood clearly: Bernoa had arranged this entire board for his sake. She was begging him to defeat Seto no matter what.
He raised a brilliant blue mana blade forged of sword magic and walked slowly toward Seto, who could not leave the barrier.
“Seto. Leave this war.”
Before Seto he lifted the sword high once more.
“Damn it—no—I, Seto, can’t die in a place like—”
The blade came down on his neck.
Thwuck!
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
Seto’s head fell as he shrieked in a grotesque voice; then his face and body burst into flame.
“So he burns to death, of all things.”
Before long Seto was nothing but ash. All that remained were the Saint with a spear through her abdomen, and Eldacrad.
“Haa… ha-ugh… hhk.”
Bernoa pulled Seto’s spear free of her belly. It hurt more than she had expected. Still, she could endure it. Her lord had killed Seto—history had already changed massively. She would not die from something like this. With Seto dead, even the spear’s power had weakened.
“Bernoa, are you all right?”
Eldacrad caught the Saint in his arms in a rush.
“Yes. I’m fine. This much is nothing. I can offset the spear’s power with the demonic energy inside me and heal myself.”
Famous Saint or not, this was well within her ability. She would recover before they brought down the Demon King’s castle.
“Is that so? You weren’t planning to die, I hope.”
“No. I am still a Saint—I handle miracles well enough. Using black magic doesn’t mean I can’t work miracles. I can recover fully.”
She truly was fine. She only needed a little time to heal. She had to see the Demon King’s castle fall; she could not die so easily.
“I’ll buy myself a little time to treat my body. Please finish this.”
“Understood.”
In the meantime Eldacrad seized Seto’s spear where it had fallen from the Saint’s arms and snapped it with all his strength. The barrier Bernoa had raised dissolved.
Just as she had said, the main Ashtar army under Kyle’s command was slaughtering what remained of Seto’s forces. The battle did not last long. As expected, Seto’s army seemed thrown into confusion by the friendly assault, and Eldacrad’s Ashtar troops cut them down without mercy.
Of course Seto and the demon host had been numerous. The Ashtar army alone had trouble crushing them in a single stroke. Then, with a roar of war cries, a new force appeared not far away.
“Wait—Bernoa, who are they?”
At Eldacrad’s question, Bernoa—still treating the wound in her side—looked out at the distant soldiers in mismatched gear. Ah. She knew who they were.
“They are the militia I gathered from the villages I was originally supposed to massacre. Many of them are former adventurers who have fought monsters all their lives. They can handle Seto’s army well enough.”
The people she had been meant to kill had survived, organized their own punitive force, and charged onto the battlefield to fight for humanity. If another of the Four Heavenly Kings arrived it might be different, but the main force defending the Demon Realm was essentially Seto’s army. And now that army was dying by degrees.
“My lord, are you unhurt? One moment—why is the Saint…?”
“She sacrificed herself to kill Seto. She says she can heal herself, so for now I’ll reorganize the troops.”
Seto was dead. Now the real work began.
Eldacrad saw that Seto’s army had completely collapsed; finishing them off did not take long.
“Through the Saint’s sacrifice, we have slain Seto! Nothing stands in our way now! Soldiers of Ashtar—advance on the Demon King’s castle!”
The assault on the Demon King’s castle began. From the outside it looked magnificent in scale, yet no one could even say whether what lived inside was a living thing. Taking the garrison that held the castle should not be difficult. Eldacrad and every soldier of Ashtar believed as much.
A massive siege began. For a full week the fighting bled them dry. The Demon King’s forces fought with desperate ferocity—perhaps because the Demon King himself was there—and the Ashtar army’s casualties swelled like a snowball.
What in the world am I supposed to do about this?
They had killed Seto and marched all the way to the castle. How had it come to this?
“We have taken all seventy-two watchtowers and the outer walls, but we cannot enter further. The interior is sealed by a barrier.”
So that was how far they could go. At this rate the rear would be in danger. Of the Four Heavenly Kings they had only killed Seto. The other major figure was Clanis—would she bring an army?
“What of the other Heavenly Kings?”
“The traitor Clanis appears to be rushing this way with her forces.”
“We already silenced Seto, the one who liked to run his mouth. Fast reaction for her. Hmm. Hard to say.”
Clanis was turning her army around. At this rate they would be trapped and slaughtered in front of the Demon King’s castle. Casualties so far had not been light, but they had essentially wiped out the castle’s garrison. Clanis’s army would remain—yet even Clanis could not threaten a kingdom on her own. No matter that they were the Demon King’s forces, losses of this scale would keep them from any serious provocation for some time to come.
And what of Bernoa?