Drums on the Blue Wall

"I heard the whole story from my sister. Thank you. Truly."

Ser stood before me and bowed as she spoke. She had always watched Greg and me with open suspicion, but this business seemed to have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rewritten her opinion of us. Her manner toward me was nothing short of courteous.

"That's enough of that. I've already had more thanks than I know what to do with."

Sar had already come by and worn me out with gratitude. Whether Ser sensed as much or not, she only bowed her head once more.

"More to the point, I hear you'll be guiding us."

"That's right. But I won't be a simple guide."

With that, she held out a letter. It was a missive from the village chief.

Ser, who carried it, was serving as something of an envoy as well. I welcomed that. I would have to report to the ducal house regardless, and it was better to have proof in hand.

"Then I'll be counting on you."

I offered my hand. Ser took it lightly. Just as I thought that settled the matter, her voice went on.

"Young Master. There is something I wish to ask."

"What is it?"

"Do you intend to take part in this battle yourself?"

Her orange eyes rested quietly on me. It was hardly a question that needed asking.

"Of course. If I, the eldest son of the ducal house, sit this out, who else is supposed to go to war?"

"Then may I stand with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I want to repay the debt."

She wanted to answer me for saving Sar. I had rescued the only family she had, and she meant to fight at my side and make herself useful. It wasn't a bad offer. Beastkin alone would be a considerable force inside the Great Forest, and the strength I had seen from her against the trolls had been more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than respectable even among her own kind.

"...One moment."

Even so, a résumé still wanted checking. I used Insight on her.

"Hm?"

One look at her status window and my eyes flew open. Her attributes sat around the level of an average two-star knight—nothing remarkable. Her traits, though, were another matter entirely. The Blessing of the Forest that every beastkin carried, I could set aside.

S-rank? What is this?

The two traits beneath it were S and A respectively. In the knight order, finding even a single A-rank trait had been hard enough, and here was something higher still.

"......"

On the off chance, I checked every beastkin in sight. As expected, not one of them carried an A-rank trait, let alone an S.

Is Ser simply that exceptional?

I hadn't gone looking, and talent had rolled in of its own accord. I couldn't just let her walk away.

"Then how about becoming my escort knight?"

I made the offer then and there. The post happened to be open, and Ser was someone well worth raising. She had potential that wouldn't merely match Greg's. It surpassed his.

"If I were an escort knight, what exactly would I do?"

"In simple terms, it's the post of someone who protects me. This Greg here is my escort knight as well."

"Ah...!"

Once ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I gave her a concrete example, she seemed to grasp the shape of it and nodded.

"That is what I hoped for. It should be more than enough to repay the debt."

"Good. We'll hold the investiture the moment we get back."

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the escort knight's seat was filled. If Walter had been here, he would have lamented that an appointment was never meant to be slapped together so carelessly.

"Well now... this worked out perfectly, Young Master. Looks like I've got a junior of my own."

Greg said it with a bright grin. He seemed simply delighted to have gained a coworker.

"All right. Let's head back."

And so we returned to Wind Fortress.

"No..."

In the council chamber of Wind Fortress, Serena read the letter Ser had brought and lost her words. The chief's missive set down the alliance terms I had negotiated, the number of beastkin who would take part, and even the precise date on which they would join the ducal house.

"You... how did you even do this?"

Serena, recovered from her injuries at some point, asked it outright. From the look of her, she had long since assumed I had failed. When I still hadn't returned after more than a fortnight, she must have decided I was off amusing myself somewhere and put the whole matter out of her mind.

"It just... turned out that way."

"What?"

"More importantly, are you going to just stand there?"

"Ah—!"

Serena hastily summoned the knights. Wind Fortress would prepare to receive the beastkin, of course, and the Blue Wall at the center had to be told as well.

After that, beastkin from the Great Forest began joining the ducal house in steady succession. The house that had welcomed them at first soon turned uneasy. Far more of them had come out of the Great Forest than anyone had expected.

"How many is this, exactly?"

I muttered it as I watched another band pouring into Wind Fortress. Hundreds of them. Yesterday there had been just as many, and they weren't even from the village I had visited.

"I only told them that a friend worth trusting had appeared."

When I asked what on earth was going on, the chief I had negotiated with answered just like that. It seemed that the moment I left, he had sent messengers to every beastkin tribe in the Great Forest. The message itself, as he said, was nothing grand. But to people standing at the crossroads of survival, it must have looked like a lifeline. Thanks to that, nearly every beastkin in the Great Forest was making for the walls of the ducal house.

I hadn't anticipated it. And its reach ran far deeper than I had expected.

"They say a pack of ogres, two hundred strong, has been spotted on the outskirts of the Red Forest."

"Some have already spilled out of the Great Forest. Two thousand elite orcs have made camp to the west."

"The Lord of the Forest and the Branded Monsters are slowly pushing north!"

The intelligence the newly joined beastkin provided was beyond imagination. Not only the kinds, the scale, and the precise locations of the demonkin inside the Great Forest—they volunteered for reconnaissance and refreshed all of it in real time.

And the result—

"The situation is grave."

Compiling those countless reports, the ducal house could only be appalled. The Lord of the Forest, who appeared once every few decades, and the demon host advancing behind him, far exceeded every estimate.

"According to the records from forty years ago, and from a hundred years ago, the combined number of all demonkin never exceeded twenty thousand."

"But this time it approaches fifty thousand! This is plainly unlike the past!"

"At this rate, the wall may be breached!"

The commanders who had collated the beastkin reports shouted as much. Which meant Duke Keiser, who bore responsibility for the Blue Wall, had to act. Sword Master or not, before violence on that scale he was still only one man.

Before long, the duke made his decision.

"Father has requested aid from the imperial court."

It was the first request—and the first warning—House Roenheim had ever sent the throne since its founding. A warning that the southern wall might fall. Word was, the imperial court had been thrown into chaos. No one had imagined the south, thought quiet until now, could be in such straits. Someone even circulated the wild suspicion that House Roenheim was scheming something.

"If they meant to commit treason, would they be mad enough to invite the emperor's army onto their own land?"

A perfectly obvious rebuttal, and the talk died on the spot. Soon word came that the empire was formally mustering a large relief force.

"A regular army, mages included. I hear the vanguard will reach the wall next month."

Greg said it, having run himself ragged gathering news.

"Hm..."

Watching events turn so suddenly, I let out a low sound. I had brought the beastkin in to create a variable in the war. That much was true. But the variable was producing a far greater change than I had expected—in a good direction, of course.

At this scale, we can actually fight it.

When I first heard how many demonkin were lurking in the Red Forest, I was sure we were finished. It was no accident that the south collapsed in the Crius Saga scenario. Their numbers were vast, and most of them weren't some ambiguous grade of lesser demonkin. They were mid-grade and above. But with the beastkin joined and imperial support on the way, we wouldn't be easily overwhelmed in raw strength.

"Greg. Any news from the north?"

So I asked not about the south where I stood, but about the north. If things were this chaotic here, I wanted to know what state that side was in.

"The north?"

Greg shook his head. Aside from the margrave being replaced last time, there was still no word.

"And the Saintess?"

"Ah. I heard the Goddess Church has found several candidates for Saintess."

I nodded. The appearance of the Goddess Church's Saintess belonged to the early scenario. If a formal Saintess had not yet been chosen, then there was still time before whatever was going to happen in the north.

"...Good."

Then the order of things was to hold the line here first. All that remained for me was to fight well when the real thing came. Waiting for that day, I honed my blade alongside Greg and Ser.

The opening of the war was nearly upon us.

Doom. Doom. Doom. Doom.

The long, towering Blue Wall split humankind from the wild. Across the broad plain before it, war drums were rolling.

"Hah..."

Looking down from atop the wall, Duke Keiser let a sigh escape him before he knew it. As if foul water were seeping from the woods, demonkin crawled out of the dense Great Forest. He had already heard the numbers. They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were still monstrous.

"No... what is this...?!"

A groan came from beside him. It was the commander of the relief force the emperor had sent. He had arrived with the vanguard at the head of a considerable host, and since reaching the Blue Wall he had been quietly looking down on House Roenheim, convinced that Roenheim had failed the duty of a border noble charged with guarding the empire's frontier. Faced at last with the demon host, that same commander could not hide his shock.

"Everyone, pull yourselves together!"

The relief knights, who had been muttering that it couldn't possibly be that bad, startled upright and snapped to attention. Duke Keiser looked at them with open disdain, then turned his gaze back to the demonkin. Common orcs and gnolls, of course, with large demonkin such as ogres and owlbears mixed through the ranks more than sparingly. The Lord of the Forest, who ought to have stood at their center, was nowhere to be seen.

"......"

Duke Keiser stared into the deep Great Forest, eyes wide. Behind the demon army, something was there. He could not see it, but its immense presence pressed on him with perfect clarity. He was not the only one who felt it. The knight order of Roenheim, veterans of the fight against the Great Forest, and even the knights and soldiers seeing the south for the first time, all drew their brows tight beneath that pressure.

"Their numbers have grown. Has their master changed with them?"

Duke Keiser narrowed his eyes. The thing had done nothing yet, and already its mere existence weighed this heavily. But the duke did not shrink before it.

His presence erupted. The refined aura of a Sword Master scoured away the pressure crushing the knights and turned it back upon the demonkin. And his sword left the sheath.

In the same instant—

Shing!

Every knight of Roenheim drew sword or spear, and the archers leveled bows and crossbows.

"Prepare to fire!"

As the demon host closed on the wall, the front-line commanders burst into motion. That was also when the mages who had arrived with the relief force began their chants.

"Fire!"

At the shout, arrows, bolts, javelins, and spells tore through the air. The foremost rank of orcs, which had been advancing at the head of the host, collapsed in a crashing heap.