Chapter 336
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The sound of army boots shook the very ground. The air was taut with tension, and the muffled sounds of frightened people could be heard.
Before the castle, the Karl Kingdom's twenty-thousand-strong army had gathered, black as ink. And within that army, there were surely fifteen Keyzen students as well.
In no time, the twenty-thousand troops moved swiftly, encircling the entire fortress. Soon, they would attack all four castle gates at once.
"Chiiik! Jjik! Do not be afraid!"
"Fight until the very end! Jjik!"
The beastman lieutenants moved along the walls, encouraging the soldiers stationed there. Simon quietly watched them for a moment, then turned his head toward Maelyn.
"You alright?"
Her expression was stiff, frozen.
"...I'm fine. I just didn't realize that twenty-thousand would look like this many."
"Uhehehe!"
Suddenly, Dick popped out from the side, letting out a teasing laugh.
"Maelyn, are you scared? Huh? Scared?"
"Ugh! Can you please take this seriously for once!"
Maelyn immediately smacked his back, but Dick neither flinched nor made a fuss like usual, he just chuckled darkly.
"The only moment you'll feel tense is right now. Once the war starts, you won't even have time to think. It's gonna be pure…"
Dick stretched his neck forward, eyes wide open.
"…madness."
Smack!
Maelyn, her face radiating icy cold, grabbed Dick by the cheeks.
"Your face is the madness here, you lunatic."
"Owuuarrrgh!"
Dick flailed, groaning in exaggerated pain.
Watching this, Simon quietly chuckled. That, in its own way, was Dick's method of easing his comrades' tension.
It seemed to be working, Maelyn gracefully pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her hands, then stared forward with a firm gaze. Her eyes now carried the focus of someone who had regained her mental composure.
Boom! Boom!
Then, a heavy, overwhelming sound of footsteps filled the air.
The Karl Kingdom's formation split in two, and between the gap emerged a massive carriage drawn by an enormous elephant. Seated atop it was a twin-tailed girl, draped in a white uniform coat over her shoulders, lazily fanning herself, legs crossed in an air of arrogance.
"Ah, what the hell."
Maelyn narrowed her brows.
"She's the siege team?"
"This game's gonna be rough."
Leaning against the wall, Dick stroked his chin with a serious look.
"Special Admission No. 7, Elisa Celine, owner of the Ghost Ships. We've never had a named enemy of this caliber show up in a siege before."
Thud!
The elephant stopped walking.
On the carriage, Elisa uncrossed her legs. A knight of the Karl Kingdom, who had been attending her, respectfully took her hand and helped her down.
"Ahem."
Elisa cast an amplification spell over her own voice.
"Ah— ah—"
Into the metal-and-blood battlefield, heavy with tension, her clear voice rang out.
Maelyn's eyes narrowed further.
"Of course, she wouldn't pass up the chance to flaunt her specialty."
"…Specialty?"
"You forgot? Her dad's a sitting Prime Minister. That's one hell of a political family."
Elisa opened her mouth.
"I am Elisa Celine, Supreme Commander of the Karl Kingdom. As the Guardian sent by the Creator, I have come to ensure the Karl Kingdom's victory."
Her words caused a stir among the beastmen of the Aoun Kingdom's defending side.
"Chiiik! Jjik! Weren't Guardians something only our kingdom had?"
"Why does the Karl Kingdom have one too…!"
Elisa observed the murmuring soldiers on the walls for a moment, then spoke again.
"Hear me, people of the Aoun Kingdom."
Her words rang out, crisp and piercing.
"You will die a dog's death."
"!"
In an instant, the tension on the battlefield deepened.
"If you have eyes, see. If you have a brain, judge for yourself, is this truly…"
She spread her arms wide.
"…a power gap you can overcome?"
A heavy silence fell upon the defending lines, while the Karl Kingdom's soldiers roared ferociously, as if to intimidate.
"The unease you feel is the truth. The fear you feel is reality. This war was decided from the moment it began. That old, decrepit fortress will not protect you, and the silver tongues of treacherous courtiers, who only stoke your patriotism, will drive you to your deaths. You…"
Elisa was,
"…deceived."
She was a monster that fed on anxiety.
"And yet you stand here. Is that patriotism? Patriotism is the tool of tyrants and the tongue of hypocrites. Why should the people die for the king's failure in diplomacy? Why must citizens be expected to give their lives for the state in war as if it's only natural?"
Her voice hardened.
"Surrender. Bring me those who drove you to this slaughter. Then, we shall destroy the ones who deceived you with vile patriotism and pushed you into a corner, and your lives — and those of your families — will be spared. By the will of the Creator, I, Elisa Celine, declare it!"
Her voice rose to its peak.
"The Creator does not desire the blood of his creations. Surrender, open the gates! That is the only way to lessen the bloodshed. Otherwise, the only choice left to us is annihilation."
Truly the daughter of a politician.
A master of words.
With a single speech, Simon could feel the unrest in their soldiers. What was most frightening was how she redirected their hostility away from the Karl Kingdom and toward the corrupt officials of their own nation, subtly sowing division in the ranks.
"Wow, this is bad."
Reading the soldiers' mood, Dick clicked his tongue.
"In past sieges, students never gave speeches! The beastman captain would just come out and shout, 'Glory to the kingdom!' or something, and then the fight would start!"
"Maelyn."
Simon turned his head.
"Can you use amplification magic?"
"Huh? Ah, well… I learned it in the Pure Magic Research Club, so yeah, I can…"
"What for?"
Simon gave a faint smile.
"A speech is also an important element of war, isn't it?"
If their Supreme Commander came out with a silver tongue, then he intended to answer in kind.
"Dick, does the Aoun Kingdom have some kind of unique greeting or famous phrase?"
"Ah— yeah. When Aoun lost and the king died, he said this."
Dick told him, and Maelyn created a floating amplification magic circle in front of Simon.
Simon studied the magic circle for a moment, then placed his hand on it, letting a bit of Darkness seep into it.
Seeing this, Maelyn's eyes widened in alarm.
"Hey, wait! That runs purely on mana, if you do that…!"
Screeeeeeeech!
Suddenly, an irritating, piercing noise rang out, and the people who had been restless all turned their heads toward the source, covering their ears.
"Hm."
As if he'd been waiting for it, Simon stepped toward the magic circle.
"I am Simon Follentia, Supreme Commander of the Aoun Kingdom."
All eyes naturally turned to Simon.
"I have descended by the Creator's command to defend the Aoun Kingdom."
This time, it was the Karl Kingdom's soldiers who began murmuring. It seemed they, too, had thought only their side had a Guardian sent down.
"?!"
Elisa, who had been sitting on the carriage fanning herself with satisfaction, suddenly raised her head in surprise.
'Simon Follentia!'
So, he had come to the siege as well. And he dared to try to oppose her with a speech!
She quickly rose to her feet.
"I hear you've been urging surrender with the logic that patriotism is merely the tongue of those in power."
Simon's voice dropped heavily.
"That is an insult."
The ability to instantly seize the atmosphere and draw everyone's attention was not Elisa's alone.
Elisa hardened her expression and cast amplification magic on herself again.
"Are you saying I'm wrong? That spouting hollow patriotism for the kingdom's sake, only to drive the people to their deaths, is—"
"Protective will."
Simon cut her off.
"The unease and fear one feels before war are perfectly natural. No one is free from their emotions. But what do you think is the reason we stand here now, enduring that fear?"
His voice gained weight.
"My family."
One word at a time, filled with power.
"My friends."
Pouring out emotion, as if releasing all that had welled up.
"My home, my property, my daily life — to protect them. We are not fools who would entrust our most precious things to the enemy and lay down our arms. Your words are—"
Simon concluded,
"An insult to Aoun."
Thud!
Someone stomped their foot.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Soon, every soldier on the walls was stomping in unison, faces deadly serious, eyes bloodshot as they stared straight at the enemy.
"Your kingdom, which has committed pillage all the way to the royal capital, dares to speak of 'guarantees'."
Thud!
"We will not be deceived, we will protect ourselves with our own strength."
Thud!
Simon raised his arm high and shouted,
"Aium Aoun!"
The soldiers were startled that the Guardian from another world knew their battle cry, but that surprise turned to rapture in an instant.
Every soldier raised their spears and roared until their throats could burst.
"Aium Aoun!"
"Waaaaaaaaaah!"
A thunderous cheer exploded forth.
The soldiers laughed and cried as they shouted with all their might, raising their hostility toward the enemy and their will to fight.
"As expected of Simon!"
Dick shouted with a broad grin.
"Our soldiers' morale just skyrocketed!"
Maelyn's eyes were fixed on Simon. She saw him lowering his arm, rubbing his neck. When their eyes met, he gave an awkward smile.
"Mm, that was kind of embarrassing. Maybe I got a bit too into it."
"No."
Maelyn took a light breath, then smiled at him.
"You were amazing, Simon."
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The cheers still hadn't stopped.
"Y-you…!"
Elisa's face flushed red with rage and humiliation as she shouted something, but the soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom didn't hear her at all.
"Aium Aoun! Aium Aoun!"
Their morale only continued to rise in real time.
"Elisa."
At that moment, a male student with an eyepatch and a large greatsword on his waist dropped down onto the carriage where Elisa stood.
"Stop throwing a fit and come back. He's quite angry."
"Ugh, seriously!"
Elisa pounded her chest in frustration.
"Those beastmen must have the brains of mice! Are they idiots? What could be more important than their own lives! How can they get fired up over something like that! In the end, Simon Follentia's words were just emotional manipulation too!"
"I may be poorly educated in politics."
Jule let out a long sigh, then continued,
"But I have heard that when a person risks their life, they follow not reason, but emotion. That is why your appeal to logic in a war speech has lost."
Saying this, Jule grabbed the back of Elisa's neck. Her body was lifted lightly, effortlessly.
"W-what are you doing!"
"Before the Supreme Commander embarrasses herself any further, I will be taking you back."
"Aaah! Let me go! I haven't lost yet!!"
* * *
The war began.
The Karl Kingdom was well aware they didn't have much time to spare. They launched a full-scale offensive, dividing their forces to attack all four gates at once.
"They're coming!"
Dick shouted.
Enemies swarmed toward the southern gate, which Simon was defending. The sight of the Karl Kingdom's beastman army flooding in like a black tide was highly intimidating.
Still, the south gate had some defensive advantages. Though dried up now, there had once been a moat.
Beneath the castle walls lay the moat's pit, so large ladders would be needed to climb up, and more importantly, there was only one narrow path leading up to the gate.
And right now, Simon was more confident than anyone when it came to holding a narrow hill.
"Let's begin."
Standing atop the wall, Simon raised his arms like a pianist preparing to play.
Eight skeleton mages simultaneously lifted their staffs toward the sky.