The Commander's Token
Two hours later, the students who had finished surveying the castle—checking supplies and the condition of the walls—gathered once more in the meeting room.
It was a place the King had prepared for the Guardians.
"Is everyone here?"
Dick stepped forward and asked. One of the girls, who had been counting heads, answered him.
"We're still missing one."
At that, Meilyn glanced around the room and let out a small sigh.
Late again. Every single time.
The missing person was, of course, Simon.
"The Khan Kingdom is going to attack soon, so let's start without him. Everyone, one at a time, explain what you saw around the castle—"
"Hold on."
A male student raised his hand then. He had half his head shaved, thick eyebrows, and a generally heavy-set frame.
"Name's Yowu. Glad to be on the same team and all, but I've got one question."
He glared at Dick.
"Why are you acting like it's a given that you're the leader?"
The other students nodded along as if they agreed. Meilyn pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead, her mouth opening and closing helplessly.
I told you not to stick your neck out!
Dick quickly plastered on a smile and waved both hands.
"I'm not thinking about being anyone's leader. This is my third siege game, so I've got a decent grasp of the strategy—I was just going to act as an advisor."
"…You'd better keep that promise."
Yowu rose to his feet.
"First we pick a leader and establish a chain of command. That's the right way. And you said third time—surely there's no one here who hasn't done this before."
"Right!"
"This is my third time too."
Several students chimed in smugly.
A sudden sense of crisis washed over Meilyn, and she sidled up to Fitzgerald and asked in a whisper.
"Don't tell me you're experienced too?"
Fitzgerald pushed up his glasses.
"This is my second."
Apparently, anyone who'd tried the siege game once kept coming back—the room was packed with veterans. Finding the card on the castle walls had also seemed easier for those who'd done it before.
Don't tell me Simon and I are the only first-timers here?
While Meilyn worried, the mood of the meeting had somehow shifted entirely toward Dick.
"And you, Dick! Do you not remember how spectacularly you screwed up last defense? You concentrated all our forces on the north gate because you were sure they'd come there, and we got wrecked!"
"That's right!"
Dick, utterly shameless, barked back with a dismissive wave.
"You'll grab my tail over anything! Is there only one reason a war gets lost? I recognize every face in this room—want me to go through each of your mistakes one by one?"
"Silence!"
Yowu shouted them down.
In a meeting, after all, volume was the first thing that had to be established.
"We don't have time to fight over this. Let's pick the Supreme Commander first. Where's the Commander's Token?"
"Here."
Dick set the token he'd received from the King down on the table.
This was the very symbol of the Supreme Commander.
Inside Endolas's game, every crystal orb brought in from outside became useless. But whoever bore this token could communicate with every Guardian and gained authority over the entire army.
"No need to debate it—I want to be Supreme Commander this game."
Yowu said this and reached for the token.
"If there are no objections—"
"Not so fast."
Swish.
A foot that had appeared on the table slid the token aside.
"Trying to sneak it away, are we?"
The one resting a leg on the table was a long-haired male student. A textbook snake-like face, eyes set wide apart and narrow, as if perpetually half-lidded.
"The siege game always crowns an MVP. And this game has Endolas's fat rewards on the line, so the Supreme Commander's seat isn't something I can just hand over~ Name's Bwine."
This time, a hand burst straight up through the table and snatched the token.
"I'm called Fengel."
A girl then rose up through the table and perched herself on its edge.
"The virtue of a commander is survivability. Last game, the Supreme Commander holding command got captured early and the whole defense collapsed. Naturally, it should go to a Spirit Magic aspirant—"
"No. A commander's virtue is judgment."
Fitzgerald, appearing from who knew where, plucked the token from Fengel's hand.
Fengel's face froze. She couldn't move a muscle, as if cursed.
"I am Fitzgerald of Class M. I pride myself on matching anyone in knowledge and judgment."
"And who exactly judges whether your judgment is good?"
Now Fitzgerald's body froze too—his arm encased in ice.
He dropped the token, and Meilyn caught it from below, brushing back her sky-blue hair with a smile.
"Second overall in the school on practical evaluations. Twice in the BMAT top ten. They keep letting nobodies sneak in just because the Special Admission kids are absent, but the Supreme Commander should be someone with an actual track record. That's what I think."
Yowu, who had started the whole conversation, glared at her.
"Meilyn Villenne. How many times have you played the siege game?"
She flinched, then quickly looked away.
"…F-first time."
"Well, would you look at that. Look at that."
Yowu's lips curled up.
"Only the Supreme Commander can communicate with the other Guardians. We can't hand such a critical role to someone who knows nothing."
"Right! If you don't know the game, don't jump out front!"
"Ugh! Now that I'm hearing it all together, seriously—!"
Sparks flew in Meilyn's eyes too.
"It's not like I've played a ton! Why are you all so smug over playing a few more times?"
"Experience matters most~"
"Get out of here, Snake Boy!"
"I still believe I'm the most qualified!"
"No, me!"
Buzz-buzz-buzz!
The meeting had descended into total chaos as everyone brawled over the Supreme Commander's seat.
Watching quietly from the sidelines, Dick turned his back, took out a note and quill, and began scribbling something rapidly.
Then he pulled a skeleton out of his subspace and sent it outside. Everyone was too busy fighting to notice what Dick was up to.
CRASH!
Yowu slammed his furious fist on the table and roared.
"Argh, this is suffocating! Then before we start the siege, let's just settle it with a bout of—"
KRA-KOOOOOM!!
Out of nowhere, the meeting room door went flying. It shot clean through the wall right behind Yowu.
"KYAAA!"
"HURK!"
The whole room shook. Yowu, staring at the dust billowing up from the wall like smoke, stumbled backward with a strangled yelp.
Every head turned toward the doorway.
A leg was visible—the leg of whoever had demolished the door. Then the leg lowered, and the figure stepped inside.
Thud. Thud.
The sound of gulping echoed from every corner of the room.
The blue-haired boy who entered and silenced them all with a single appearance.
In the heavy silence, he spoke.
"Sorry I'm late. I'm Simon Polentia."
And so, the Supreme Commander of the defense was decided: Simon.
The hour of war drew near.
Every last soldier of the Kingdom of Aon had now been positioned along the castle walls, preparations complete. The outer wall held four gates.
Of those, Simon was to hold the south gate, together with Dick and Meilyn.
The tension in the air is suffocating.
A taut, strained atmosphere hung over everything. In the eyes of the beastfolk soldiers clad in heavy armor and helmets, countless emotions flickered.
Tension. Fear. Excitement. Dread. And resignation.
The sheer subtlety of those emotional expressions was enough to send chills down one's spine. It almost made him wonder if this world could truly have been created by a single person.
Simon gathered himself and looked down from the wall. It wasn't as forbiddingly tall as he'd imagined, but he thought it would be reasonably effective at holding back the enemy.
With a ten-to-one gap in military strength, they had no choice but to fight by squeezing every advantage out of the castle.
"Hey, Simon."
Dick called over to him as he enchanted the soldiers' quiver bundles.
"What were you doing that made you so late?"
"I set my Skeleton Mages back to fire magic, and I went around the castle setting things up here and there."
"Setting what up, exactly?"
"Well…"
Simon lowered his voice and answered in a hushed murmur.
Clink.
The arrow Dick had been enchanting slipped from his fingers and clattered to the ground.
"…Dude, are you out of your mind? You're planning to use that here?!"
"It is a last resort."
Simon smiled faintly. Dick shook his head in disbelief.
"I swear, you look perfectly normal, but then you go and plan stuff like a complete lunatic."
"Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"For a necromancer? Highest praise!"
With that, Dick went off to enchant the soldiers' weaponry. Simon, having finished deploying his Skeleton Mages, stretched his arms up with a long yawn.
"Ah."
He spotted Meilyn.
She was leaning fully against the wall, chin propped in her hands, gazing up at the sky. She looked oddly serious, so Simon sauntered over with an easy stride.
"What are you thinking about?"
"WAAH!"
She jolted violently, hunched shoulders shuddering. Then she spun on Simon and shouted.
"Agh, seriously! How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me!"
…She really does startle easy.
Watching her closely, Simon had noticed that Meilyn had a surprisingly skittish side.
He smirked and stood beside her, looking out past the wall. She puffed her lips into a pout for a moment, then turned her gaze outward as well.
And so the two of them stood there for a while, saying nothing, watching the sky.
"The sky's so pretty."
Meilyn murmured softly.
"Yeah, it is."
"Too bad Kami isn't here to see it."
"Mm."
"…"
"…"
Suddenly, an awkward silence swept between them.
Was it because they were alone together for the first time in a while? Was it awkward because they both felt it was awkward?
He wanted to keep the conversation going somehow.
"About what you were talking about with Serne earli—"
In an instant, the expression on her face—which hadn't looked displeased at all—blazed into fury.
Simon, thinking he'd like to punch his own mouth with his fist, hastily turned his head away.
"You're not bringing up that woman here too?"
"S-sorry."
Meilyn let out a long sigh.
"It was just some pointless small talk."
-Meilyn!
At that very moment, Serne's voice rang in her ears.
-If you bring Simon into the Ivory Tower, wouldn't the Elders start looking at you differently too?
-I couldn't do it, but you managed it, Meilyn. Didn't you?
Meilyn exhaled in irritation.
That attitude of hers—acting as if she stood at the very summit of everyone else's heads—was so, so infuriating.
"Second semester's almost over already, huh."
Meanwhile, Simon was sweating bullets, desperately trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"When we're second-years—"
This time, Simon's voice lost a bit of its strength.
"We'll all be splitting up, won't we?"
"Nothing we can do about it. Different majors."
And into Meilyn's ears came Serne's voice once more.
-I'm going into Summoning as my second-year major so I can be paired with Simon! If you ask me, first year—right now—is your one and only chance, and you haven't even thought of tha—!
"ARGH!!"
Meilyn raked her nails through her hair. Simon flinched and backed away, and only then did Meilyn realize what she'd done.
"No, that wasn't directed at you… ah."
"What's wrong?"
Both their gazes snapped forward.
A mass of pitch-black army had begun to advance.
"Enemies! The Khan Kingdom's soldiers have appeared!"
"Battle stations!"
Simon, all business in an instant, placed his hand on the Commander's Token.
"Everyone, get ready. Unless something unexpected happens, hold your assigned sectors—no one leaves their post."
Blue flags rose all around them.
The signal for roger.
…Oh, oh man, I'm so nervous.
The black army was closing in on the castle. Simon steeled himself, and the glowing eyes of the Skeleton Mages arrayed behind him flared to life.
Very soon now, the war would begin.