LIGHTNOVELONLINE Book 6: Chapter 17
Burning Town
「The main force has moved. We’ll start our part now.」
「「「Oooooooo!」」」
At various places in the desert town Cutlass, the Cruzian people of Riezan Family responded to the words of the dark elves who hid their face under the hood with war cry.
The “dark elves” in this town were divided into two kinds.
One was the people who were born in this town or desert and their mentality wasn’t that different from forest elf.
The other dark elves were people who originated from the evil race country. Even if they were away from their country, they considered themselves as proud [evil race] from the evil race country.
The dark elves were stamped as “evil” by the [holy church] that crossed the ocean to arrive in this Thurs Continent in the past. They were persecuted and driven out from their bountiful land. Because they couldn’t forget that history, the dark elves used the disparaging term [evil race] to introduce themselves and went into war many times against the countries and the people that adopted the teaching of the holy church.
The majority of evil race people were still soldier of the evil race army even if they left to other country. Even if they had migrated to this town, formed friendship with human and poured drink for each other, shared happiness and laughed together, their hand would lift up their blade as a “soldier” if the evil race country ordered them to.
The Cruzian people of Reizan Family couldn’t comprehend that.
Riezan Family’s objective was to grasp the control over this town. They brought in the evil race as mercenary and whittled down the other faction’s power. They believed that there was no one who wouldn’t move for money, even if it was the evil race. They didn’t understand the true nature of the evil race.
The evil race army’s objective was to make this town into a military base as foothold to invade Carlfan Empire. Riezan Family was also aware of that, but they never received any higher education like politic and fell under the impression that the evil race would just make a base here.
The evil race made use of that misunderstanding and formed an empty agreement with Riezan Family. The evil race was using them to lockdown the town. And then the evil race gave Riezan Family some evil race weapons and men and instigated them to attack the town and the bases of the other three organizations, claiming that it was necessary for their objective.
.
(Fools, all of them……)
One dark elf scoffed seeing the smoke rising up from the town far away.
The dark elves in this town were taking command in the attack to the town, but several military officers of the evil race army were mixed among them for negotiating with Riezan Family too. One of them Giba was a rank 3 sorcerer. He took position at one of the main road at the wall surrounding the town along with the men of Riezan Family. There they were attacking the caravans and townspeople who tried to escape.
But even that only lasted until the main force of evil race army arrived. Giba’s role was to secure the path for the main force to enter into the town.
Riezan Family was under the impression that the evil race army would eliminate their enemies inside the town for them, but in actuality when the main force arrived, the armed Riezan Family would also become nuisance to them, just like the other organizations.
「Oi, you think you can run away from heree?」
「S-sto──」
The men of Riezan Family attacked a caravan that tried to run away. The blood of the adventurers guarding the caravan who were cut down was scattered around and absorbed by the dry ground.
They were blockading the town so that no information would leak out to Carlfan Empire.
Even if they turned this place into frontline base, there was a risk that Carlfan Empire would counterattack before they could put their force in order. This caravan and adventurers were also people of Carlfan Empire, so the evil race army couldn’t allow them to escape.
Riezan Family too was taking the initiative to loot the town to fill their pocket. Furthermore Riezan Family that was controlling the red light district wasn’t satisfied with just that. They were starting to search and kidnap good looking young women.
The townspeople who had lived in this harsh desert area also weren’t exactly helpless, but there was no way they could contend against fully armed rank 2 and 3 warriors. The townspeople who tried to escape from the town had their private belonging and family snatched away from them. Those who fought back had their life taken away mercilessly too.
「A-at least spare the children……tsu」
「Nn~? What should we do boss-!」
A young mother was begging for mercy while hugging her crying baby tightly. Young human could also be used as slave labor, but the baby would be just in the way. The man of Riezan Family asked Giba for order. Giba looked down at the mother and child with annoyance and spat out his words coldly.
「A nuisance. Kill anyone that can’t work.」
「Hehe, that’s the breaks. You got no luck.」
「N-no way……」
The mother fell into despair. The man lifted up his single-edged blade.
A proper army would never do anything like this. But the people here were the men of Reizan Family who were nastier than even a lowly mercenary. Giba too had no sympathy to give to people who would die soon, he had no interest at all outside that.
「Shut up that urchin alrea──」
The man tried to tear away the baby from the mother forcefully. It was then──.
「……Oi, what’s that?」
Someone muttered such question.
.
The sunlight that was blazing down on the desert warped the air and made the desert looked blurry. A single silhouette was sprinting through it.
The cloak the person was wearing was flapping like the wings of a strange bird. Just how fast one had to sprint to make it flap like that? The silhouette was approaching this way before their eyes. The unrealistic sight made the watchers wanted to doubt their eyes for a moment.
The dumbfounded men came back to their senses from the sensation of trickling sweat on their forehead. But, that shadow had already closed the distance greatly and slashed the neck of a man with a black blade before he could lift up his spear.
「……Ha?」
There was almost nobody who could even make such short voice.
A lot of blood spurted out from their comrade who suddenly got his neck cut. The majority of the men there couldn’t even understand right away what just happened. Only those who could barely understand that “they couldn’t understand” could make a voice. The moment they could understand that it was “enemy”, the five men at the perimeter were spilling out blood while collapsing after the spear user.
「Enemy attackkkkk!!」
Giba returned to his senses before others could and raised his voice with a bit of quavering in his tone.
The men of Riezan Family hurriedly readied their weapon. Giba too started to chant his specialty fire sorcery. But before he could cast it, the shadow cut its way to the middle of the men with terrifying speed.
『──!?』
A flash──it was too fast that he even hallucinated that the space was distorting.
The shadow’s cloak was flapping so energetically that it didn’t seem suitable to be worn for fighting, but it concealed the figure underneath it. It invoked instinctual fear inside him that made him questioned whether that “enemy” was really human.
「Gugah!?」
Fear caused their legs to stop and their movement to dull. The black blade was swung at that moment of weakness. Every time the jet black sword flashed, the men who were trying to use their weapon got their eye or forehead stabbed, or their throat torn up, losing their life.
「Yaaaaaaaaaaa!!」
「Dieee!! Fire Javelin──!」
The men finally came to their senses at that point and swung their axe, thrust their spear, and fired flame spear that would even hit their own allies. They thought that no matter how inhuman that “enemy” was, they would definitely lose their life against these many attacks.
「──tsu!」
But, that “enemy” made decision in an instant and stepped on a spear to jump to the air, then a shield of light deflected the flame spear. It didn’t stop there, there was sound of something slicing through wind at the surrounding of the “enemy”. The men around got their skull smashed, their throat pierced, and their artery torn apart. They were sinking into a sea of blood in the blink of eye.
「Gah……」
The sight was so out of reality that Giba’s movement stopped for a moment, when a throwing knife pierced between his eyes. As his sight was getting enveloped by darkness, the radiance of “blonde hair tinged with pink” that he caught a glimpse of for just an instant was burned into his eyes until his life vanished.
It was less than a minute──that girl annihilated the dark elf and Riezan Family’s men in just that much time since she appeared. She pulled out the knife from Giba’s head before turning toward the people who were in a silent daze because of how shocking the spectacle was. There wasn’t any chance in her expression.
「The evil race army is coming. Run or return……decide by yourself how you guys are going to “live”.」
***
The town was enveloped in a strange atmosphere. The dark elves and Riezan Family’s main force that I happened to see that time had finally moved.
The townspeople who lived in this desert also weren’t weak. But, the evil race was attacking the base of each organization that was controlling the people, and they were also setting fire all over the town to foster even more chaos.
Building that was made from stone wouldn’t collapse even if it was set in fire, but the town was using a lot of cloth or grass fiber as door or blind. Those things catching fire caused people to be scared and the people involved with each organization were attacked by taking advantage of that confusion.
「…………」
I couldn’t do much about this chaos. After all war wasn’t something that could be stopped by an individual, nor should it be so.
Even so…….
「You’re in the way.」
「Gah!?」
I lightly clicked my heel while running on the street. Using the blade that snapped out, I kicked the face of a man who seemed to be a member of Riezan Family attacking the residents.
「Y-you bastard──」
A nearby dark elf turned around. I crushed his skull with my weighted pendulum.
What reason was there for me to overlook you guys?
.
I avoided the street where people were running around and sprinted on top of the stalls that weren’t burning. I attacked the men of Riezan Family who I saw on my way using all-purpose type and slashing type pendulums.
One man who noticed that pointed his spear at me who was on a stall, but I entangled the tip with my cloak’s bottom and took the spear away from him, then I pierced his heart using that stolen spear.
I didn’t have spearmanship skill but, that didn’t mean I couldn’t use spear at all when I had martial art and other close range combat skills. But, I didn’t know whether I would be able to replenish my weapon from here on, so I tried to kill my enemies using weapon I stole from them as much as possible.
I jumped from above a stall to a roof and tossed away the short sword and spear I stole. I used the bow and arrows that I picked up midway and shot the head of a dark elf chanting his sorcery at the other side of the street.
I had also gotten attacked several times, but I still hadn’t gotten any injury that needed Heal or Cure to treat when I arrived at one of my destinations.
There was a small shop inside an alley. In this situation it was highly possible that the owner had locked themselves inside or ran away, but when I pushed aside the cloth that was hanged up as a door and entered inside, a Cruzian old man with pure white beard who seemed to be the shop owner was there leisurely smoking using something like a smoking pipe.
「……Are you shopping at this kind of time? Or perhaps you’re a thief, young miss?」
「You too, are you still opening your shop at this kind of time? I heard that a dark elf called Kamil ordered fire element magic stone here. Has he come here?」
Even my cloak had gotten dirty with blood and soot from the battles on my way here. It couldn’t be helped even if he thought of me as a thief. Even so when I mentioned Kamil’s name, the old man lightly raised an eyebrow while waving his smoking pipe.
「……Miss, are you that boy’s friend? Sorry but I haven’t seen him for several days. ……Also, if you’re a woman then it’s better that you run away too miss.」
「You say that but aren’t you going to run away too?」
「The dark elves and Riezan Family bunch are scheming something right? At this point an old man like me won’t know how to live even if I run away to outside.」
「I see……」
I couldn’t tell someone who had resolved himself to run away.
This was how this world worked. If you don’t have the freedom to live, at the very least you mustn’t allow your freedom to die to be taken away.
It was only his pride that was beyond anyone’s ability to violate. I bowed my head to him at the end before leaving, but the old man called out to me for some reason.
「Wait, miss. Bring this with you.」
「This is……」
The old man handed me a large magic stone that was wrapped in oil paper.
「It’s the thing that boy ordered. You need it right? It’ll just get stolen anyway even if I keep it here. I also already got paid so don’t worry.」
The old man stopped talking at that point and suddenly stared straight into my eyes under the hood.
「……Miss, you aren’t someone from this town right? Perhaps you want to do something seeing this town getting attacked by that dangerous bunch but, you don’t need to feel anything like that.」
The old man blew out smoke from his mouth and focused his eyes at the far away.
「This town is our town. We who are born and will die in this town already made our resolve. Miss, you don’t need to bother about us and can just do as you like. Don’t you have more important thing to do rather than worrying about this town?」
「…………」
What did this old man saw in me that he said something like that to me…….
I wonder what was the important thing for me? I don’t really know right now but, I thanked his concern to me and bowed my head deeply once more before leaving the shop.
.
Kamil wasn’t here. I would go to another place where I thought he might be. If he also wasn’t there then I wouldn’t search for him anymore.
Should I search for Kamil until I found him, or gave up at some point to return to Elena and others?
If possible I wanted everyone to survive including Kamil. Was I wishing like that because I too considered them as comrades?
Important thing. Not my priority as adventurer, but the true “wish” of “me” myself, what could it be…….
I started running through the town again. I told the people I passed by that the evil race army was coming while heading toward my last destination.
Most likely that place was dangerous right now. I rushed through the town that was on fire and headed there. That place, the adventurer guild was burning and under attack of Riezan Family.
Looks like the guild couldn’t last with its main force absent. I saw the dark elf and Cruzian people surrounding the guild and instantly switched mentality for battle.
「──Illusion──」
Instantly, the flame burning the adventurer guild swelled up greatly and enveloped the attackers.
「「「──!?」」」
The illusion that also gave off the feeling of heat pushed the men of Riezan Family into panic and they ran about trying to escape. At the same time I rushed forward to kill the men who let their guard down, but real flame instead of illusion suddenly swallowed the Cruzian people along with me.
I quickly jumped back and sacrificed my cloak to evade the flame. Then a dark elf appeared from the other side of my vanishing illusion.
「……Melsenian woman. Are you an adventurer too?」
He was a dark elf who looked like a young ma in his twenty. But, the black armor he was wearing and his presence were at different level compared to the other dark elves I had seen until now.
「……Evil race army’s soldier huh.」
「Hoo……you seem different than the other adventurers. This place is disappointing with how weak its resistance was after all the veterans were lured outside but……looks like I’ll be able to have a good fight with this.」
The young man started walking while still empty handed. He kept putting on a daring smile while powerful mana was filling up both his arms.
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▼Young Man From Evil Race Army Race：Dark Elf♂・Rank 4
【Magic Power：２６１／３１５】【Stamina：２１５／２１５】
【Overall Combat Strength：１１０８（Sorcery Attack Power：１３３０）】
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A rank 4 sorcerer……furthermore this aura, he was the same like Carla and Samantha who could use sorcery even at close range, a “magician” who had learned martial art.
Most likely he was dispatched from the evil race army to supervise the dark elves in this town.
He seemed to be very confident of himself. He burned Riezan Family’s men who were his allies to death, found joy in battle, and didn’t show any sign of retreating at all even after seeing my combat strength.
「…………」
「You won’t come? I’ll teach you that combat strength isn’t everything in battle. My name is Grohl. I’ll have you show me your strength!」
*GROOOOOOOOOO!*
The evil race soldier Grohl unleashed Fire Breath completely chantless without even using the activation word. It dyed the surrounding crimson. The sorcery’s strength wouldn’t go up like that, but he must be confident that he could deal lethal wound even with that because it was a rank 4 sorcery.
「──Shield──」
I had predicted this from the magic particle’s color and mana amount and used Shield to divert the flame while using my martial art to dodge.
「A human is using that “shield”-!?」
Grohl was raising his voice in delight even though his sorcery was dodged.
I was dodging while throwing a scorched short sword that I picked up from the ground toward the young man. But he intentionally slapped it away using his iron gauntlet, then he closed the distance and unleashed a kick that clashed against my own kick.
「Not bad! Then how about this!」
In that moment, nearly ten Fire Arros appeared around him. It was chantless again and they were fired immediately after appearing.
This time I also didn’t use shield and dodged using only martial art and obstacles. Some grazed me but just that much didn’t damage me greatly.
「You aren’t calling your friends here? You come here because of evil race army’s order right?」
「We the evil race respect the strong. Even our fellow evil race is nothing but a bother if they’re just small fry. Do you think there’s anything with higher priority than fighting you in this place?」
「……I see.」
So this was what it looked like to not have something important.
Human no matter who was living while harboring wish. Other people couldn’t measure the value of that, even so there was the minimum thing that had to be protected no matter what.
Wish and desire were similar, but they were fundamentally different. Grohl was prioritizing his own wish to fight strong enemy over granting the wish of the evil race and evil race that he belonged to.
But, what meaning was there to that wish?
What lie ahead of that wish?
I had protected Elena and moved aside everything that would hurt her. For that I sought strength and I even threw myself into a fight that could be avoided.
I was scared. Scared of being weak, and scared of Elena getting hurt.
But with that, even if I could protect her physically, I couldn’t protect her heart.
I thought that I was protecting her heart, but I didn’t protect her wish.
Grohl was talking about the pride as an evil race and seeking battle, and yet he didn’t have a pride as a member of the evil race. Seeing him made me felt that I could understand just a little about what that old man said.
Something like an important thing……that was obvious from the start.
「Now, show me your strength! It looks like you’re good with dodging, but can you dodge this-!」
Grohl grinned and emitted great mana from his magic stone.
「──Flare Brid──」
Grohl used an activation word for the first time. In that moment, nearly a hundred small fire bullets filled my surrounding.
「With this you won’t be able to dodge even with your illusion! It’s a shame to end this so quickly, but it’s over!」
The young man lifted up his arm and then swung it down pretentiously.
You should……shut up already.
「──Shadow Walker──」
The fire bullets that were fired all at once scorched the ground. I pierced Grohl’s heart from behind while he was full of opening from feeling sure of his victory.
「Gahah……ho…w…」
Carelessness, overconfidence……the girls who I knew wouldn’t commit such mistakes.
The young man who looked at me with a disbelieving gaze collapsed. I put on a spare cloak while looking down on his fall coldly and gave him his last words.
「Thank you. I can remember something important thanks to you.」
I wouldn’t let Elena die no matter what.
***
It was only several people but there were still some dwarves alive in the adventurer guild.
I thought that the guild allowed itself to be attacked easily because there were only low ranked adventurer remaining there but, there were only guild staffs remaining while most of the low ranked adventurers had apparently run away.
The staffs didn’t run away partly because of something like loyalty for their fellow dwarves but, mostly it must be because of Jesha and Jilgan’s good leadership until now. They said that even if the organization called the adventurer guild was gone, they remained behind as members of Hogros Company that protected this town.
Some people still lived with pride even in this kind of lawless town. They had their own reason to fight. I too left behind the adventurer guild for my own objective.
「It’s burning……」
Fires were rising from many spots inside the town. Looking at the many smokes rising from afar, I could also see a considerable number of dark elves mixed inside the scene. Most likely with Riezan Family included there were more than several hundreds of them.
The merchants and townspeople running about in confusion. But, there were also some townspeople who counterattacked against those attackers with weapons like hatchet or hammer.
「Gyah!?」
One of the Riezan Family members fighting the townspeople dropped his weapon after my pendulum slashed his arm.
There was nothing that I could do for this town. I could only drive away the sparks of trouble that splashed on us, even so, I used my pendulums to wound the members of Riezan Family and dark elves who I caught sight of while running through the town so that the surrounding townspeople could gang up and took them down.
Seeing them fighting made me felt like they had shown me the strength of the desert people.
They would decide the fate of their town by their own hands.
I……we would escape from this desert.
That was the only way to save Elena’s life and support her wish at the same time in this situation.
But before that, I would at least do what I could.
.
Cutlass Town was surrounded by walls just like all other towns in general, but there was a part of wall that had crumbled and became connected with dangerous area where monster appeared. Orphans like Chako and others and the destitute people were living there.
I climbed over the ruined wall and headed to one of the watchtowers near here.
There were multiple watchtowers that were build surrounding this town. There were some that were about to crumble just like the one that we turned into our base, but around half of the towers were still functioning. I heard that they would give warning to the town if something happened at the direction of the ruins.
Those remaining watchtowers still weren’t ringing the alarm meant that the stampede hadn’t come until visible range, or Jesha and others had suppressed it successfully……or,
「You bastard-, if you come any closer──」
「Begone.」
A dark elf tried to draw his bow. I ran while throwing a throwing knife that lodged into between his eyes.
The dark elf wore black armor……as I thought, the evil race army had occupied the watchtowers. I collected my knife from the expired dark elf and used my slashing type pendulum to slash the eyes of a Riezan Family member who jumped out from the tower when he heard the ruckus. I continued closing the distance and used my blade to stab the heart of the man who followed behind that man.
「E-enemy attack!!」
Death throes resounded inside the tower. I leaped inside while Cruzian people who belonged with Riezan Family came down from upstairs at the same time.
If combat between equally strong people happened in close range, it would be more advantageous to have the higher ground where it was possible to use their weight. But even that changed when “magic” came into play.
「──Pain──」
「Giah!?」
The man who came down last──he was last because he was carrying a heavy weapon and wearing heavy armor. Pain sent him into panic and he fell from the stairs, dragging his comrades along with his fall.
Several men got pushed down by the falling large man. I ran up the wall of the spiraling staircase and broke the large man’s neck by stomping on it to be my foothold.
I finished off the enemies who were still breathing before running upstairs at full speed.
「──Stone Shot──!」
「──Dark Mist──」
The moment I ran up to the top floor, I activated my magic at the same time with a dark elf who was lying in wait.
You could determine the target of sorcery with your senses but it wouldn’t necessarily hit. The Stone Shot that was fired by sight for only an instant went through the darkness, while I had leaped up until the ceiling using my running momentum. I kicked on the ceiling and then kicked through the face of the man who opened his eyes wide in shock using my heel that had a blade attached.
Even if he was just a rank 3 it would be dangerous for me if he used wide area sorcery like Water Ball just now, but his weak heart that was fixated with bringing certain death rather than using sorcery with weak power resulted on this defeat for him.
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I mopped up the enemies occupying the tower before reinforcing my eyes to look toward the ruins. I could see the sand cloud blurring the scenery far away and the black armored group wriggling inside it.
「…………」
So Jesha and others failed……. That was what it meant for the evil army to have approached until this near. It was also possible that they had taken flight and survived, but based on Jesha and Jilgan’s personality, they must have fought to the death. Even if they were still alive there was no way they were still in alright condition.
Even so I couldn’t really see the stampede from here. It must be the result of the adventurers’ fight. But the fate of this town had been mostly set in stone the moment the adventurers of Hogros Company were defeated.
From what I saw the evil race army numbered around 2000. The number wasn’t that big compared to a powerful country’s army, but the evil race’s army true worth wasn’t its quantity but “quality”.
The soldiers of human country would have strength around rank 1 to rank 2, while experienced soldier or knight would be around rank 3, but when it came to a large scale battle, human country’s army would be largely made up from conscripted militia who didn’t even have any decent combat skill.
But there was no weakling in evil race army. The majority of their troops consisted of warrior and sorcerer who were rank 2 or higher. They wouldn’t even retreat from battle because of their high fighting spirit. Human race feared them like they were demons.
「This is bad……」
A drop of sweat trickled down my cheek when I saw their marching direction. At this rate……the evil race army would pass nearby the tower that we were using as our base.
I looked at the surrounding. I found what I was looking for inside a basket at the back.
What I was looking for was the method to contact the town. It would be inefficient to send a runner for every single thing. That was why there must be something here and I searched for it. And sure enough I found a lot of dried fiber of succulent plant and also several porcelain jars.
Without hesitation I tossed a bundle of fiber into something that looked like hearth. Then I lit it with daily life magic. I also splashed the content of a jar on it and as expected, dark red smoke started to rise up.
This was most likely something like a smoke signal. My objective coming to this tower was because I thought that perhaps I could convey the situation using the method here to Kamil even if he wasn’t in the town. If Ron who was in our base noticed it too then he should be able to understand the situation in the town with this.
Besides, the townspeople could evacuate if they noticed that an attack was coming from outside──.
「──tsu!」
I suddenly felt a chill and turned my gaze outside the tower. The marching evil race army……from the sand cloud that was rising behind them, a tremor that shook the air reverberated and a gigantic sphere of fire was shot out toward this watchtower. The attack blew away the sand cloud on its path.
In that moment, I threw my body to the air from the watchtower’s window. The height from here must be about the same like a five-storied building.
Right after that the highest floor of the watchtower I was just inside got burned by the fire sphere. The floor was destroyed with a thunderous roar and fragments scattered everywhere. I kicked on the outer wall to dodge those before spreading out my cloak to decrease my speed while landing on the desert’s sand. I rolled on the ground many times in order to neutralize the momentum and impact. I could finally lift up my face after rolling quite far from the tower.
「…………」
The tower that was made just from piling up rocks couldn’t endure the impact. Its upper half was starting to crumble.
I too would have died if I choose to go down from the staircase. It was just a coincidence but the blast that blew me away also helped me reducing my speed well, and if I didn’t fall on the soft sand then I would have been seriously injured.
The attack just now……it was most likely the earth dragon’s breath attack.
That dragon’s flame was fired from behind the evil race army……? It didn’t look like they were getting chased by the dragon. In that case, was that dragon being manipulated by the evil race army…….
「──High Heal──」
I spat out the sand that was mixed with saliva inside my mouth and treated the damage from falling with High Heal.
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▼Aria (Alicia) Race：Human♀・Rank 4
【Magic Power：１７８／３３０】【Stamina：１９５／２６０】
【Overall Combat Strength：１４９７（With Body Strengthening：１８５３）】
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My remaining mana was around sixty percent……. Even if I counted on my natural recovery from now, it would only recover until seventy percent at best.
Consuming any more mana recovery potion than this wouldn’t only give me diminishing return, it would become a bother for me at the critical moment. I took out a nutrition replenishment pill from my pouch and crunched it under my teeth. I put back my cloak that had gotten ragged from arrows and blood before running again through the desert.
It would be dangerous to run away even through the sky if the evil race army possessed long range attack of such might. It would be great if I could neutralize it but, I couldn’t mistake my priority.
If we were going to escape then we wouldn’t make it in time unless we started immediately.
If it was needed in order to do that……what I had to do was already decided.
***
The sand cloud that the evil race army’s march caused had started to come into view far away without even needing to go to higher ground.
I ran for around half a hour through the desert before I finally managed to return to the watchtower we were using as our base.
「Aria-!」
It seemed that Elena had been waiting for me. She ran toward me the moment I entered the tower.
Elena jumped as though to hug me but, she remembered her position and hesitated. She stopped her feet.
「I’m back.」
「Welcome……back」
Elena looked like she choked up when I said that. She stared on my face.
No matter how much nearer our heart had gotten, there was the wall of our position standing between Elena and me. Even though we were running on paths that were side by side with each other, our path wouldn’t cross no matter what.
Even in this kind of hard situation……no, exactly because it was this kind of situation that she controlled herself and prioritized her duty as princess. I too had wielded my blade and risked my life for her until now because she was someone like that.
「「…………」」
We stared at each other’s face without being able to speak the words in the bottom of our heart.
She had gotten……a bit thinner.
Her lovely and lustrous golden hair and white skin were dirtied by sand and dust.
She also couldn’t fully recover from her mental and physical fatigue. She couldn’t even sleep soundly in this environment. It was faint but there were dark circles that couldn’t be hidden fully under her eyes.
She was raised in a palace so it was only natural. Her battlefield wasn’t in a place like this. Even so for these two months, Elena had conducted herself firmly without uttering a single complain even though she was living in this environment that was no different from a slum.
I enveloped Elena’s cheek with my right hand and wiped away a sand from under her tired eye with my thumb.
Elena’s eyes moistened from my unexpected action. She placed her left hand was placed over mine.
.
『────────────!!』
.
「「tsu!」」
A tremor that was like a roar came from far away. We lifted up our face at the same time.
「Where are Ron and the children?」
「They are above. The children are also already inside the hot-air balloon. ……What about Kamil?」
「I didn’t find him. I fired a smoke signal from other tower. I hope he saw it.」
「We also saw it. Ron started preparing to leave when he saw it. Though as expected, it seems that our fire element magic stone will only be barely enough.」
「I managed to secure some more of it. The situation……」
「Yes, I understand. The long range shooting……it was most likely the dragon’s breath. To think that such thing really exist……」
「……Let’s hurry.」
「Yes.」
The weakness from before was already gone from Elena’s eyes. Even so I once more thought that I wanted to protect her who was forcing herself like this.
「Aria-」
「Aria-san-」
We climbed up to the top of the tower. Ron and Chako raised their voice when they saw me. I took out the magic stone from my Storage and tossed it at Ron, then I patted the shoulder of Chako who was looking pale.
「The children?」
「Y-yes, they already got in but……」
The hot-air balloon’s basket could be boarded by five or six adults along with the necessary equipment and food. It was already filled with the food that we had gathered in this one month. There would be no problem with water too if Elena was with them.
Inside the basket was the older Noi who was hugging Rana and Nar while looking scared. Perhaps the dragon’s roar had reached until here even with the distance. Dragon’s roar caused the weak to feel scared. It seemed Chako was also scared, but she touched the shoulder I patted and color was returning to her face along with relieve.
「Aria. Where’s Kamil?」
「I didn’t find him. Will he come back here if he saw the smoke signal?」
「I don’t know. But……my guess is, the “evil race” won’t kill that guy.」
「I see……」
.
『────────────!!』
.
The tremor resounded once more. Chako and the children screamed.
It should have approached until very near. It was hard to imagine that the evil race army would overlook this tower if they passed nearby. They should notice the sign of people living here if they approached close to here.
If that happened then it would be like my first worry, we would lose our way to escape from this desert even if we managed to get away from here.
「Let’s hurry and leave this place! I’m filling the balloon with heat, help me out Lena and Aria-」
「Yes-」
「Roger.」
Ron was already turning up the heat since some time ago, but he cranked up the heat even more using the magic stone that he received from me to attempt to quicken the process. Elena and I pulled the rope of the hot-air balloon that was starting to expand to spread it so it had easier time to become inflated.
「The balloon’s strength?」
I asked what was in my mind in the middle of the work. Ron kept working while shaking his head.
「There are spots where the glue still haven’t dried up completely. But there should be no problem for several days. Get in already Lena-. Aria, cut the anchoring rope when you see it’s time.」
「Got it.」
Elena looked back worriedly even while getting on the balloon. The balloon started to float and I cut the rope so the balloon wouldn’t graze the inner wall.
「We’re flying-. Get in Aria!」
I cut the last rope and jumped to grab the basket’s edge.
The balloon was gradually going up through the broken ceiling and left the top floor that became the rooftop. The balloon’s speed was picking up with tantalizing slowness, even so everyone’s eyes were shining with anxiety and hope of leaving this town.
But──
The moment the balloon went higher than the broken tower wall, my eyes that I had been straining while hanging on the basket’s edge saw that the evil race army had marched until visible range. I noticed that among them there was the earth dragon with its jaws opened and flame gathering inside it.
「Everyone, hold on something-!!」
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──*GOU*──!!
.
「Kyaaaah!?」
The fire globe that the dragon shot out hit the highest floor’s outer wall. The fragments of the smashed wall hit the balloon. Chako and the other children screamed.
「They found us-! Ron, the balloon-!?」
「I don’t know-. But, its rising speed is slow-!」
The balloon part was made from monster leather to resist monster. But, perhaps there was air leaking out from it because of the impact just now or the fragments.
「…………」
I turned my eyes toward the dragon while kept holding on the edge.
As expected it wouldn’t overlook us huh……. But there was also something that I noticed from the attack just now.
I once heard that dragon’s breath didn’t come from an organ inside the dragon’s body that spouted out flame, that instead it was a [dragon magic].
Dragon could fly in the sky with that huge body and unleash breath attack were because the dragon was using magic with their roar just like how human was using spirit language.
But, when my “eyes” saw the breath attack just now, it felt like the attack was the same like the [Battle Skill] that was a monosyllabic non-elemental magic.
In that case, there should be an interval before dragon could use its breath again just like when human used Battle Skill. Battle Skill couldn’t be used continuously. How long it would take until that heat cooled down? Would it be dozens of seconds, or hundreds?
In that case……what I had to do was decided.
「Aria-, wait-!」
Elena seemed to sense something and raised her voice in a scream. She strongly grabbed my hand that was holding on the edge.
「What are you thinking-!?」
Her yell and question were filled with grief from knowing the answer already.
「Let go……」
「No……you must not-! Why are you-」
Elena was holding on my hand so strongly her hands were turning white when I tried to shake her off.
「Everyone’ll die at this rate.」
「And, so what!? For you alone to do such thing……」
「Understand」
「I don’t understand! Why is it Aria has to-!」
Even Elena had actually understood.
Now that the enemy had noticed us, our chance to survive was exceedingly low even if we remained in this place.
Even if we could fly away, we would only be able to rely on luck to survive from the dragon’s breath.
To be able to survive, someone had to stay behind to attract their attention and hold them back. And the only one who could do that before the dragon could unleash its breath attack again was me who had the highest combat strength.
「In that case I will also stay behind-! You are my……」
Elena swallowed back that word that she almost said.
It was something that she should not say. She couldn’t say that words as a princess.
Because that day when we were little……the two of us “promised”, we swore to each other that even if our path differed, we would never stray from the thorny path that we had decided on our own to walk.
「Elena」
「──tsu」
I called her with her actual name instead of her fake name. Elena lifted up her tear-streaked face.
「I want Elena to live.」
「E-even I──」
「I don’t wanna Elena to die. I wanna make Elena’s dream come true. I wanna make everything Elena believe to be true.」
「Why……are you……such thing……」
Elena’s eyes widened hearing me suddenly changing my way of speaking. I placed my other hand on her hand that was still holding on my hand.
.
「Because……cause Elena is my best “friend”.」
.
Her blue eyes kept widening without blinking. My innocent smile from my childhood that I should have forgotten how to make was reflected on them.
「────tsu」
Elena’s hand loosened for a moment and I shook it off. I gently pushed myself off from the hot-air balloon.
Elena leaned forward after me and tried to grab my hand, but that white hand only grabbed empty air.
「──Aria……ARIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!」
.
I didn’t say farewell.
At the end I smiled and squinted my eyes at Elena who was getting further away. Then I bent back to turn a sharp gaze toward the evil race and the dragon.
.
「──Iron Rose──」
.
My pinkish blonde hair changed color to ashen steel color that was like burning iron.
Light scattered and spread out from it like a pair of silver wings. It left a trail behind me like a comet. I kicked on the outer wall and ran down it. My hand touched the dry land as I landed and I glared at the evil army race that was approaching this way.
.
「I’ll show you my battle.」