Chapter 4 - II -
“Lily!”
“Hmm…what is it, Mister Kuro?”
“You can use fire and earth magic, right?”
“I can with Earth magic, but Fire spells are quite a challenge to me.”
“You can cast rock shield?”
“I can. What about it?”
“Can you cast the incineration spell?”
“That one? I guess I could. But why should I use those?”
“Ayt. Can you cast rock shield on the left side of our carriage, as well as to the flanks?”
“Well…” the Head Maid was having her apprehensions; but somehow, she yielded to my plan, “So, I’ll just cast it here, and there?”
“Yep!”
She did just what I said.
“Now, call back the paladins and the coach driver to take shelter inside our carriage.” I covered the sleeping Human Saint to avoid her being seen in her actual form.
“Huh? But this place is too small for all of us!”
“Trust me, I’ll get us through in this situation unscathed…if this works.”
“A-alright…” Lily then ordered the paladin guards and the coach driver inside our carriage. Fortunately, they’re ladies, so their relatively small size was just right, provided we fix our spots where we stand.
“Are you sure about this, Mister Kuro?” the Marquise of Monfort asked while she squirmed, “I think it’d be better if we just fight outside.”
“Don’t worry. It’ll work…somehow.” I said the last part under my breath.
If I remember, what I had just done was called a wagon fort—and ingenious defensive device employed by the Hussites during the Hussite Wars of Religion of 15th century Earth. Though we’re kind of short of men, I guess my friends’ ability to use magic could substitute for the lack of ranged firepower we had.
“Lily, can you ask the coach driver to remove the magic shield?”
“Are you crazy? The moment we remove it is the moment we die!” Everyone in the carriage was bewildered by my request.
“That’s what the rock shield I had you cast around our carriage fort is for.” I explained to placate their fears, “Not only our driver could rest, but it would also draw out our enemies into the open to attack us.”
“Huh? Wouldn’t we be dead by then? They’ll shoot at us from afar.”
“Nope. Those are bandits we’re fighting, right? They aim to loot our carriage and abduct any important person who they’ll find inside. Of course, they wouldn’t do something like obliterating us from a distance. I’m sure they’ll be showing themselves soon once they noticed we had our shield down.”
“Oh…” Lily was getting convinced, “That sounds plausible.”
“And when that happens, I want everyone who can cast magic to shoot down their horses first, then the riders or foot-soldiers second. Not only we’ll save ourselves; we’ll be able to wipe them off in one clean swipe.”
Everyone in the carriage, save for the two saints who were still deep in their sleep, gave their nods to my plan.
“Alright!” Lily raised her voice to take command once again, “Everyone heard Mister Kuro’s plan! Remove the barrier!”
The coach driver then stopped casting her magic. The shield immediately dissipated, and the first of the barrage of fireballs eventually hit our carriage, rocking us inside. It went on for several minutes, and then finally stopped.
“…” A few moments of tension-filled silence followed. It’s just like being bombarded by artillery in the movies that I watched.
“Is it over?” Someone asked; I think it’s the coach driver.
“Calm down, guys.” I reminded them, “They’ll be attacking any minute now!”
“…”
“!!!”
A loud trumpet blast was heard coming from the dense forest. This was followed by someone screaming the order to attack us. From the relative darkness of the trees, we heard hooves galloping in our direction. There were also war cries from our attackers.
Time to brace for the attack!
“Here they come!” I heard the Marquise of Monfort shout. Honestly, my heart was beating wildly at this moment. I didn’t know if we could make it or not. I’m not even sure if our wagon fort would hold. I would like to remove myself from the line of fire, but I’d want to watch the progress of the attack so I could decide correctly on the conduct of our defensive strategy.
“When in range, burn their horses!”
“Fireball!” a paladin fired her initial salvo.
I heard an explosion, and someone was screaming in agony. I peeked from my hiding spot and saw a bandit or two burst into flames. Their comrades, who were riding beside them, were shocked and veered away from them, messing up their charging formation. Turned out, my allies didn’t even have to aim for the horses. One shot of this fireball spell could incinerate both the rider and his horse.
To be honest, I just have goosebumps watching this terrible scene.
“Everyone, fire at will!”
The paladins and the coach driver then began their ranged magic attacks. As per my plan, they aimed for the riders, and those were incinerated the moment they came into our defenders’ range. The messed-up charge didn’t help their attack, which soon turned out to be a massacre in favor of us. Lily was about to join the mayhem when I saw her and stopped her from casting her magic. Though visibly surprised and confused, I had my designs for her later.
Soon enough, the bandits were reduced to attacking foot soldiers, but they were too afraid to come out into our view.
I heard someone from their side shout, “Those people are too few to continue in defending themselves! Attack, you dimwitted cowards!”
Heh. Looks like somebody’s getting desperate, eh?
I then turned to the head maid. This would be her defining moment, “Lily, will you please thoroughly burn that stretch of the forest before us.”
“Huh? That would require a lot of manas to do!” Lily had a horrified expression on her face, “Can’t we just continue with our defense? We’re holding up to them thanks to you!”
“Nah, this will be your defining moment.” I insisted, “You see, we have to send a message to everyone else about attacking us, should they have more comrades coming in to reinforce them. We drove them to a corner; it’s time we go on the offensive!”
The Head Maid was silent for a few moments, then she finally agreed, “That sounds plausible. Alright, I’ll trust your strategy, Mister Kuro.”
“Okay…I put my faith in you, Lilyhaven! Save us!” For some weird reason, I got the courage to pat Lily’s head. Maybe because it’s the first time that someone listened and believed in my suggestion that I got way too over confident and did what I have just done.
“…” Lily was utterly speechless at my gesture. And her cheeks blushed incredibly.
Seriously, Head Maid, do you always find my actions worth blushing for?
“!!!”
But I guess she didn’t dislike it at all…I mean…
“!!!”
Wow, I could feel that intense heat coming out of her hands. And she looked so fired up to do what I suggested, even though she was so reluctant to do it before. If I could describe her, Lily appeared to be a ‘super-s*iyan’ like that Japanese anime about some muscles, horribly spiky hairstyles that go blond when being powered-up, and dragon balls.
“Incinerate!”
In an instant, the entire forest—right before our eyes, became a bright sea of fire.
The Saints woke up eventually, but not until the forest fire that we created turned into a huge, uncontrollable one. By that time, the Marquise of Monfort and her fellow paladins had been mopping up the entire area to make sure that it was safe for us to come out of the carriage. Of course, these Chersean gods were surprised by the turn of events—from a peaceful journey to a blood-filled one, but it’s not like we could help it.
Either we burn those trees, or we die doing a last stand.
Her Holiness quickly cast a water spell (that’s her specialty magic) that extinguished the fire, and Her Fluffy Holiness joined the paladins in securing the surroundings. I thought that, with her help, we captured some bandits—all gravely injured by Lily’s fire. The Head Maid made sure that she burned them into oblivion.
“…”
“So, what shall we do with them?” it was the Marquise of Monfort, after meeting the rest of the separated companies of guards and maids. With the help of Her Holiness’ and Her Fluffy Holiness’ overwhelming powers, they quickly cleared the rockfalls as if it never happened. Thus, we reunited as a single convoy once again.
“Lay them over there; I’ll heal them.” Her Holiness said. She was referring to those bandits that were captured. They had severe burns on their bodies, and if not treated soon, they’ll surely die.
“Maddie, you can’t do that.” Her Fluffy Holiness stopped her, “If you heal these guys, they’d only come back to do more awful stuff. And what’s worse, they could also jeopardize your vacation if they knew you’re their Saint!”
“Nah, it’ll be fine Ruro…” she replied, her voice trailing unto the wind, “I think it’s better that I use this power from the gods to do something good than to let them suffer agonizing deaths.”
I was listening to the whole conversation. Even though these bandits did us no good, I felt guilty.
“Maddie hates violence, that’s why she’s like that.” it was Lily who spoke, explaining Her Holiness’ actions to me, “When she became a Saint, she endeavored hard to bring to the peace table the warring kingdoms of humans. And amazingly, she has maintained it ever since.”
Hell, I’m the one who caused this to them. There’s a difference between that feeling of wanting or needing to kill and the feeling of actually killing someone. What worse was that, I indirectly killed many people…bandit or not, it’s sickening.
Man, those anecdotes about the psychological effects of battles sure were true. Causing the death of someone else for the first time has profound effects on you…
“…”
Well, I may not fully understand Her Holiness’ reasons she’s like that. But I could also say that I didn’t want violence too; even if I live in the part of my country where it was relatively peaceful, I knew full well the horrors of war…and the agonizing death that comes to those who are victims of it.
Oh god, I think I’m going to throw up.
“Hey!”
“!!!”
“You alright?” it was Her Holiness. She came to me when she noticed I was unnerved by the experience.
“Yes, Your Holiness, I’m…good.” I answered, barely standing up, “But also check on Lily; she’s the one who did most of the fighting.”
“I just went over her and cast a recovery spell so that she can recover her strength fast. She almost exhausted her mana from that incinerate spell.”
The Human Saint sat beside me. Our journey was delayed because of what happened, and as a result, we had to stop for a while to rest and re-orient ourselves.
“I’m…sorry.” I couldn’t help but say it.
“Hm? For what?”
“Well, you know, I asked the Head Maid to burn the forest.”
“You did that to save us, right?” Her Holiness replied, “I don’t think anyone could help it, given the situation.”
“Well, I caused suffering for those people over there.”
“…” the Saint was silent for a moment, before continuing, “I, too, am to blame for their fates. I mean, I caused a stop to wars and conflicts. As a result, mercenaries like these people have mostly lost their way of living and turned into this kind of life.”
“Uh…I don’t think what you did is a bad thing, Your Holiness.” it’s my turn to console her, “Why sacrifice the lives of many for so few?”
“Haa…” Her Holiness sighed in exasperation, “You may be right. But hey, I’m the one who’s doing the consoling here!” She attempted to lighten the mood by joking…
…but I saw through her façade; she felt guilty as well, like me. I thanked her anyway.
Her Holiness is a brave soul.
“They’re bandits; I’m sure they know what they’re getting into. I mean, living a life like that? One should always expect a brutal death.” Her Holiness tried her best to smile, “And don’t underestimate me! I already healed them!”
“…”
I couldn’t say much; I’m exhausted as it was.
“Well, you know, this is what life is like in this world.” she said, with a sense of sadness in her eyes, “That’s why, when I finally gained the power of the gods, I tried my best to prevent conflict. Though of course, I can’t cover for everyone; I’m only a human.”
“You’re doing your best, no one should deny that.”
“And you did well yourself, considering the place where you came from.” Her Holiness patted my back, “Come on, Kuro, you just saved us. Don’t be downcast like that!”
“Thanks, Your Holiness!”
“Ah, here, let me cast some light recovery spell. At least, that would calm your mind.” Then the Human Saint uttered some words before a warm, gentle white light enveloped me.
I guess that’s one of the best feelings I have had in my life lately…
