Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Bestia Mountain (Complete)
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That voice was definitely familiar.
The voice of the person she'd been waiting for, for so long.
No, that couldn't be right.
That person had died long ago.
"Ugh..."
The moment she opened her eyes, Cloe heard Lily's frantic cry.
Outside the tent where Cloe was lying, hell was breaking loose.
"What...?"
Cloe shook her groggy head and recalled the situation before she passed out.
After infiltrating the mountain for reconnaissance, they were ambushed by a dark sorcerer.
She didn't remember much after that, but from the circumstances, it seemed Rion and the Hero had saved her.
"What the hell happened? An assault?"
The disconnect between the situation before she fell asleep and now left Cloe disoriented amid the rapidly shifting battlefield.
Lily hadn't grasped the full situation either.
Sion, wary of Karl discovering her identity, had confined her to the tent.
"Has the reinforcements arrived yet?!"
"Gaaah!"
Turning her attention outward, she heard the fierce clashes of soldiers in battle.
"I need to join them... Urk."
Having suffered major injuries repeatedly lately and recovered just as often, Cloe's body was a wreck.
Her exceptional regenerative ability aside, pushing like this was eating away at her lifespan.
"I can't abandon my hometown..."
If the front line broke, the magical beasts would reach Prifre in an instant.
With forces concentrated at the front, Prifre was practically defenseless and couldn't withstand an assault.
Sion's orders were to stay hidden until she parted ways with the Hero.
But if Cloe was in danger, that priority could be flipped.
Flutter
Cloe emerged from the tent with Lily, now in bracelet form.
"What are the archers doing?!"
"We're almost out of arrows!"
"Damn..."
What met her eyes was a hellish battlefield where magical beasts and soldiers were tangled in chaos.
"Lady Olivia!"
Amid it all, Olivia fighting fiercely among the beasts caught her eye.
"Meyer... You're awake!"
In the desperate situation, Olivia lit up at the sight of reinforcements.
Her left arm seemed badly injured; she wielded her sword with only her right.
"Acceleration...!"
Stab!
Racing to Olivia's side, Cloe plunged her dagger into the neck of a beast targeting her back and asked,
"What exactly happened?"
"The magical beasts are mounting a full assault... Lady Rion and the Hero went into the mountain to destroy the gate."
That explained why Rion was nowhere to be seen.
"But... they haven't returned yet, so they might have fallen into a trap..."
Even so, the noisy mana fluctuations that had been raging earlier had quieted.
The two had succeeded in destroying the gate.
"Looks like they destroyed the gate... The mana waves stopped a while ago."
"Then we just need to—"
"Yes... hold out until they return...!"
The gate was destroyed.
The remaining magical beasts were all gathered here at the front.
"That's... not so easy, though."
Even so, their numbers were enough to annihilate the line.
Something... a way to turn this around...
They were holding on somehow, but the situation remained dire.
At this rate, the line would break before the two returned.
As Olivia racked her brain for a solution—
"Lady Olivia, do we have any more 'explosives'?"
Her question jogged a forgotten option to mind.
It definitely smelled like gunpowder.
Cloe recalled the thick scent of blood and gunpowder she'd smelled upon first arriving at the front.
Magical beasts were ultimately just large animals. Nothing was as lethal to them as fire and explosives.
"We have some left, but... we can't use them."
But that depended on the terrain.
In these wooded mountains, using explosives was tantamount to suicide for everyone.
They'd used them sparingly in non-flammable areas until now, but there was no leeway left.
"But we don't have any other choice, do we?"
If the line broke, Prifre was next.
Failing to stop them here would lead to countless civilian deaths.
"If there's no hope anyway, we might as well go down swinging."
She valued survival above all, yet knew better than anyone how to throw her life away like so much trash.
"...Haa, really..."
Olivia hesitated briefly at Cloe's willingness to bet her life so casually, but there were no other options.
"Alright. Let's do it—this crazy plan."
"Still, this should be..."
The number of explosives was fewer than expected, but sufficient against the beasts charging the line.
All that remained was for Olivia and the soldiers to herd them into one spot.
"When will Lady Rion come...?"
Despite the worsening situation, Rion showed no sign of appearing.
She who always extended a hand like a savior whenever Cloe was in peril was absent now.
Was she in trouble herself?
That worried Cloe.
"What if... she's in danger—"
Of course, to Lily—who knew Rion's true identity—it was needless concern.
She wouldn't fall into crisis in some rural town like this.
"Yeah... you're right."
After a lifetime alone, here she was, floundering without Rion after just a few days together.
Cloe found herself pathetic, dwelling on Rion's absence.
As she mocked her own pitifulness—
"Miss Meyer! Can you hear me?!"
"Yes!"
"We're about to gather the beasts in one place!"
Olivia's preparations were nearly complete.
"Got it."
The plan was simple.
Olivia would rally the scattered soldiers, use a phalanx to drive the beasts into one spot.
Then hurl explosives there and detonate.
A straightforward strategy, but highly effective against unintelligent beasts.
They'd even chosen a detonation point with low fire risk, ensuring minimal safety.
"Now, if I can just throw this right..."
Several explosives bundled with rope into one massive bomb pile.
A heap that would take several sturdy men to lift, to be tossed alone into the beasts' midst—but no problem.
The magic Rion taught her had greatly boosted her limits.
Gripping the pile, Cloe chanted.
Its effect would be double that of others.
'Strength Enhancement—!'
Cloe's innate mana was modest compared to average mages.
But her constitution, which repelled others' mana, made hers purely untainted.
"Miss Meyer! Now!"
"Hyaah!"
As a result, she achieved supreme efficiency—greater effects with less mana than others.
Unlike Sion's casting genius, Cloe was born with manifestation talent.
Fwhoosh!
Hurling the bomb pile into the beasts in one go, all that was left was—
"Archers! Fire!"
"Use up every last one!"
To ignite it with arrows.
Fiery arrows streaked toward the pile.
Everyone on the line believed without doubt that they would light it—
Whoosh!
'Wait... the wind...!'
If not for the sudden gust.
Of all times, right then.
Winds in mountains always came unannounced.
But the timing was cruelly perfect.
"Ah..."
"It's over..."
As the ace suicide plan failed, the soldiers lost their will to fight.
Even success meant slim survival odds against the inevitable wildfire.
The despair from a life-risking failure was beyond imagination.
"No... not yet—"
But not everyone had given up.
"Miss Meyer?!"
Cloe, torch in hand, leaped from the watchtower.
And hurling it at the pile, she shouted,
"Everyone, get down!"
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rocked the battlefield, tearing at the soldiers' ears.
"We... succeeded, though..."
Despite the variables, the plan worked.
Most beasts attacking the line were caught in the blast and wiped out; the rest were mopped up slowly.
Fortunately, no more beasts followed, and the line stabilized.
"Cough cough!"
"Ugh, I can barely see..."
But as flames engulfed the front, all their efforts turned meaningless in an instant.
"Damn... No way out..."
"Find a way to put out the fire!"
"Haa, how do you extinguish a mountain fire like this? Just give up."
Mountainous terrain ignited easily from a single spark.
With consecutive explosions there, spreading flames were inevitable.
Trapped with no retreat behind walls of fire, the soldiers sensed this was their end and mostly lost hope.
"...She'll come."
Death loomed before their eyes in utter despair.
Yet strangely, Cloe didn't feel she would die.
Not arrogance in her specialness, nor complacency in her luck.
Just deep faith that someone she knew wouldn't let her die.
Tap tap tap...
"...Huh?"
And her faith was rewarded.
A sudden downpour began under a cloudless sky.
Pour!
"Rain...?"
"W-We survived...!"
Heavy raindrops fell in droves, cooling the raging flames.
A divine salvation if there ever was one.
"...Luck? No."
Cloe had no intent to thank some dubious god.
Rain out of nowhere?
No, this wasn't coincidence.
Nor divine intervention.
"Lady Rion..."
It was you, right?
Wasn't it?
My savior.
Unique Grade: Master and Disciple
Achievement Condition: Disciple's trust reaches maximum
SUCCESS