Volume 8 - CH 5

Chapter 5: Reunion with an Old Foe 

“Do not allow yourselves to falter!” Lauren, the captain of the Kingdom of Lastania’s soldiers, was shouting from on top of the northern side of the castle walls. “We mustn’t allow even one more monster past us!” 

Using her shield to bash a lizardman as it came over the walls, she was calling out encouragement to her comrades who were close to breaking. 

Having heard that several lizardmen had gotten through and were attacking the castle, Lauren wanted to go to their aid, but because Julius and Jirukoma were already on their way, she joined up with the defenders on the north wall and took command there. 

She was worried for Princess Tia’s well-being, but to defend the princess, as well as all the other non-combatants behind the walls, she couldn’t allow any more invaders through. 

“That’s good!” she shouted. “Everyone, push them baaack!” 

Lauren’s display of military prowess raised morale on the north wall. She had somehow managed to force a stalemate with the pack of lizardmen that were climbing up. 

Good. We managed to recover somehow. Now... 

Lauren was beginning to feel relieved, but then it happened. 

“Captain! Look at the sky!” One of the soldiers was pointing to the southern sky and shouting. 

When Lauren looked up, there were countless things flying in from the south. For a moment, she worried they were new monsters, but if they were, they must have come from the north. 

Eventually, as they approached, she realized they were wyverns with people riding on them. It was a unit of wyvern cavalry. 

A military force?! From what country...?! 

Then she saw the unit of wyvern cavalry drop something. The thing fell straight toward Lasta, and on the way down, something white opened. The moment the white thing popped open, its speed of descent rapidly declined. 

Finally, as it fluttered ever closer to Lasta, Lauren realized there was a person hanging down beneath the white thing. 

“Wait, people?!” she cried. 

Why would wyvern cavalry drop a person? This was something she had never imagined. Lauren was confused, but then the anti-air repeating bolt thrower opened fire on the person who was coming down. 

“Huh?! Oh, damn!” 

The anti-air repeating bolt thrower targeted incoming objects. By the time Lauren realized it, there were already a large volume of bolts flying toward the descending person. She thought the person would be shot down, but... 

“Tch?! Let’s do this!” The falling person shouted out in surprise, then knocked away the incoming lance-sized bolts one after another with twin spears. 

Lauren’s jaw dropped. He knocked down all the anti-air repeating bolt thrower’s bolts?! Is he a monster or something?! 

When that person got close enough, she could tell he was a young man with red hair. “Stop the anti-air repeating bolt throwers, please! We’re here as reinforcements!” he shouted. 

Reinforcements... Reinforcements?! Lauren repeated the word in her head, and when it finally dawned on her, she hurriedly gave the order to her soldiers. 

“Send the signal for the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on each of the walls to hold fire! Those are our reinforcements!” 

“Yes, ma’am!” 

The soldiers given the order rushed to send the smoke signal. Not long after that, the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on each of the four corners of the castle walls went silent. 

As if they had been waiting for that, the wyverns in the air unloaded person after person, and, just as before, the white things snapped open in midair. 

Most likely, those white things were devices meant to help with landing. But seeing over a hundred of those round, white landing devices open in the sky, they were like dandelion seeds dancing in the wind. 

While Lauren was thinking they seemed out of place in this violent war zone, she spotted the red-haired young man who had begun descending first now touching down. 

The red-haired young man cut himself free from the now-flat landing device, then rushed over to Lauren. 

“Wheeewww. I know I trained for this, but I thought I was going to die there,” the red-haired young man said, spinning his shoulders in a circle. 

Despite having shown off the incredible feat of knocking away the giant bolts that had flown at him, the young man seemed like he could still handle more. 

“Just...who in the world are you?!” Lauren asked in astonishment, and the red-haired young man stood up straight, saluting her in response. 

“I apologize for the late introduction. I am Strike Force Captain Halbert Magna of the Kingdom of Friedonia military’s special landing force, the Dratroopers. Are you the commanding officer here?” 

“Huh...? Uh, yes! I am Lauren Fran, the Kingdom of Lastania’s soldier captain. Um, Sir Halbert, did you just say you belong to the Kingdom of Friedonia’s military...?” 

She trailed off, starting to feel hopeful. 

Halbert gave her a firm nod. “Yes. Souma... King Souma Kazuya of Friedonia received a request from Sir Julius, the former crown prince of Amidonia, and I have come here under his orders to provide support.” 

“The reinforcements Sir Julius mentioned... Ah! Then is your main force getting closer too?” 

The Kingdom of Friedonia was the major power in the east now. It was unlikely they would have sent a force of fewer than 10,000 troops. That force had to be getting close now. 

Or at least, that was Lauren’s hope as she looked expectantly to Halbert, but Halbert awkwardly scratched his cheek. 

“Uhh, nope. We’re an advance party. It’ll still be some time until the main force arrives, so we were sent ahead due to our high mobility. We’re here to probe the strength of the monsters, and to support the local defenders so that the city doesn’t fall before the main force can arrive.” 

“I... I see...” So the main force was still a way off. Lauren’s shoulders slumped. 

Halbert put a hand on her slumped shoulders and gave her a grin. “Oh, don’t you worry. The Dratroopers are the cream of the crop in the Kingdom of Friedonia’s National Defense Force. Now that we’re here... Whoa!” 

Halbert jumped up onto the edge of the wall, impaling one of the climbing lizardmen with his right-hand spear. Then, at the same time, he burned the impaled lizardman with flame magic before kicking it down into a group assembled in front of the wall. When it hit the ground... 

Boom! 

...the burning lizardman exploded. The nearby lizardmen were sent flying by the blast wave. Not only that, the flames kept spreading to the rest of the nearby lizardmen, and they all turned into writhing fireballs. 

“““Gugyagyagyagyaggya...””” the lizardmen screamed. 

“That’s that,” said Halbert. “I’m not letting them over this wall.” 

With flames and smoke rising behind him, Halbert pulled the spear he’d thrown back to him with the thin chain that was connected to the base of both his spears’ shafts. He puffed his chest up in a way that made him look reliable. 

Lauren had been struck dumb by the speed with which he acted, but a complaint came down from the sky. 

“Don’t you say, ‘I’ve got this!’ Stupid Hal! What kind of knight jumps down alone and abandons his dragon, you dummy?!” 

“Whuh?!” Lauren let out yet another cry of surprise. 

Looking up in the direction the voice came from, there was a red dragon diving straight down from the sky at them. The dragon opened its mouth wide and spewed fire, cutting a straight line across the pack of lizardmen trying to scale the castle wall. 

Bwoooooooooooosh! 

While she was in that state, Julius kept talking. “Roroa. You are the head of the Princely House of Amidonia now. If you birth a child, the bloodline of the Princely House of Amidonia will be protected. You have a duty to produce heirs who will tell the stories of the Royal House of Amidonia’s military accomplishments. I implore you to make King Souma fall in love with you as soon as possible.” 

“Oh, geez! Lay off! Now I know how Big Sis Cia felt!” Roroa quickly hid behind me. Then she stuck out her face to hiss and give Julius a menacing look. 

Since when did she come from a cat beastman race...?