The fighting had stopped, but Aesc and Shiomi's work was far from over.
Gloucester had recklessly marched out to confront the northern fairies and suffered devastating losses. The surviving troops had retreated back into the city, barely capable of holding the walls.
If not for Shiomi and Aesc breaking the enemy's formation and securing victory in such an unusual way, Gloucester would likely have fallen first.
"So Gloucester's Wing Clan can't be counted on anymore?" Shiomi asked Baobhan Sith, who had just arrived.
Since the start of the war, she had followed Shiomi and Aesc's orders—observing from beyond the battlefield, memorizing everything she saw, and reporting it to them.
"Yes..."
As a member of the Wing Clan herself, Baobhan Sith felt a faint sense of shame.
"Don't dwell on it. It isn't your fault," Aesc said, patting Baobhan Sith's hair. "What matters now is reuniting with our allies."
"It's not just the Wing Clan. The Earth Clan has also lost almost all fighting strength."
The Black Knight Ector caught up with them, heading in the direction of the Great Calamity's aura.
"They were dragged out of the city by the Wing Clan to fight?"
"Had I fulfilled my duty properly, I'd have no face to see either of you," Ector said apologetically.
Shiomi smiled faintly. "That aside, can you still fight, Black Knight?"
"No problem. Even if a giant Mors appears, I still have the strength to face it." Ector lifted his iron hammer, his resolve clear.
"That's enough," Shiomi replied, glancing toward the southwest and then east. "Any word from the two fronts that drew off the northern fairies?"
Suppressing the Great Calamity didn't require the armies of the fairy clans. Shiomi only wanted to gauge how much Mab's war had drained the southern fairies' strength.
"Forget the Wind Clan. They're a mess," said Grímr, emerging from the forest. He looked like he'd been waiting for some time.
"A mutual slaughter, or... are they finished?" Shiomi asked.
"Not finished," Grímr said, sitting down on a large rock. "But they've been pushed all the way back to Salisbury. If the northern fairies chasing them had been the main force, they'd have lost their home by now."
"I thought as much." Shiomi helped Aesc sit on a roadside log and gestured for everyone to take a brief rest. "This northern fairy army had a lot of human soldiers mixed in."
Aesc nodded. "So the northern fairies have finally realized how strong humans are?"
"Well, it's not surprising," Shiomi said. "Plenty of fairies left their clans long ago and started living with humans. They even built their own villages in the southeast."
These were fairies who refused to side with Mab in the north but also didn't wish to remain tied to any clan. A rare few who lacked the will to fight had begun new lives alongside humans in lands belonging to no one.
But their numbers and settlements were so small they were hardly worth notice. And since such departures had been happening for a long time, the fairies no longer found it strange—just something trivial and dull.
"What's on your mind?" Grímr sensed a subtle shift in mood.
"The fact that the northern fairies have swept through most of Britannia with human soldiers will spread sooner or later," Shiomi said, looking at Aesc. "Perhaps in time, humans will break free from their role as vassals to the fairies and gain a true foothold on this island."
"That wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it?" Aesc knew Shiomi was asking for her opinion—curious how she viewed the idea of humanity rising as a power of its own.
"Human or fairy," Ector said, "so long as we can live peacefully without conflict, I see no problem. I followed the two of you and accepted the title of Black Knight because I wished to see Britannia reach peace as soon as possible."
"Indeed." Baobhan Sith nodded. She didn't fully grasp the depth of the discussion, but she thought that if peace came, the Sage and the Witch wouldn't have to work so hard anymore.
"What are you all talking about?" Totorot called out as she returned from the east. "Wryneck of the Fang Clan repelled the northern fairy pursuers. The enemy withdrew first, so Wryneck and his clan couldn't completely wipe them out."
Totorot, Baobhan Sith, and Grímr had each been assigned to monitor a different direction of the battlefield.
Shiomi hadn't allowed them to directly participate in combat. Everyone accepted that role—everyone except Totorot, who had voiced some dissatisfaction.
"Having a Sub-Bell with them makes a difference. Since they didn't face the main force, they performed far better than the other clans," Shiomi said with a faint smile, giving Wryneck a neutral sort of praise.
"You flatter me, Sage."
Wryneck, who had come alone after leaving Totorot, knelt respectfully before Shiomi.
"You left your clan behind to come here?" Shiomi asked casually as he brushed blood from his robes. "For a clan leader, that seems rather inappropriate."
"An ominous aura is emanating from the direction of the Great Hollow," Wryneck replied evenly. "I came to seek the Sage's guidance. Could it be that—"
Shiomi smiled slightly. "You guessed right. The Great Calamity, which occurs once every thousand years, is about to begin—and this time, it seems to be emerging from the Great Hollow. Since it's a rare opportunity, I'll let you take part in this suppression."
"Yes, Sage." Wryneck held back his battle fervor and accepted the order without hesitation.
Aesc glanced around. "With this many allies, we should have more than enough strength to face the Great Calamity."
"We'll camp here tonight," Shiomi said. "Tomorrow, we head toward the Great Hollow to confirm the calamity's form and state—then begin the usual suppression."
With that, Shiomi concluded their next course of action.
[History]
In the year 2000 of the Fairy Calendar, Queen Mab launched what would later be known as the "Summer War," a full-scale conflict between the northern and southern fairies. With the intervention of the Savior and the Sage, the war came to an abrupt end.
The Wing Clan, Wind Clan, and Earth Clan suffered devastating losses, while the Fang Clan's damage was minimal. Yet since their chieftain, Wryneck, was defeated by the Sage, the Fang Clan failed to preserve its power and did not rise further.
Meanwhile, the Mirror Clan's inaction during the war planted seeds of resentment among the other clans—seeds whose growth would come in time.
Mab, "betrayed" by her husband, withdrew with the northern fairies to Edinburgh. Following Aesc the Savior's proposal, she established the "Clan of the King," becoming Britannia's new Sixth Clan.
After the war, the millennial Great Calamity appeared once more. Through the hands of the Savior and the Sage, it was suppressed, and Britannia entered a time of peace after the war.