by Dojyomaru
“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!
A wall of flames rose up, scorching the lizardmen before their eyes. In the middle of that incredible scene, Halbert was bowing his head to the red dragon.
“Hey, Ruby, sorry! It looked bad down here, so I couldn’t help myself...”
“No, do help yourself! Don’t scare me like that, you dummy!”
The red dragon turned its head away, pouting like a young girl.
Lauren could no longer recognize the scene before her as reality. Her mouth hung open. “I-Is the Friedonian military this...ridiculous?”
“I wouldn’t want you thinking of our family as typical, you know,” a beastman girl with fox ears and a tail said as she jumped down from the deep red dragon’s back. The fox-eared girl walked over to Lauren and extended her right hand. “You must be the commander. It’s a pleasure to meet you, you know. I am Hal’s superior, as well as the operational commander of the Dratroopers, Kaede Foxia.”
“...Oh! I’m Captain Lauren!” Lauren hurriedly took Kaede’s hand. But even as they exchanged a firm handshake, Lauren eyed Kaede dubiously. “Um... Since you descended from a dragon, does that make you a dragon knight, Madam Kaede?”
“No. Ruby... That red dragon’s knight is Halbert, you see. Halbert and I are engaged, so she lets me ride her under the reasoning that the spouse of my spouse is kind of like my spouse too.”
“Huh...? You are Sir Halbert’s spouse and superior, and that red dragon is his spouse too?” Lauren was getting confused.
Kaede smiled wryly. “I can explain the details later, you know. There are more important things for now.” Kaede looked toward the castle as she spoke. “I’ve been ordered to have our 200 Dratroopers cooperate with the defenders from each of the walls to keep the monsters out, you see. The first order of business is to secure the walls.”
“I’m grateful for that, but...if you have 200 troops, then that’s fifty per wall, right?” Lauren asked. “No matter how elite all of you are, is that going to be enough to break through the current situation?”
Lauren was worried, but Kaede grinned at her. “It’s true, the number of troops we landed in the castle is 200 strong, but...you’re forgetting something important, you know.”
“Forgetting something important?”
Kaede raised her index finger and pointed straight up.
Lauren followed where she was pointing, and...finally, it dawned on her what Kaede was trying to say.
“That’s right... We still have a force that’s super strong against land-based troops up there, you know,” Kaede said with a grin.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, around that time, there was an energetic voice on the southern wall.
“Ookyakya! The cavalry’s here! Time to let loose!”
“Young Master, why are you so eager?!”
It was Kuu and Leporina, the master and servant duo from the Republic of Turgis.
The two of them had descended along with the Dratroopers.
When Kuu, participating as a visiting general, had learned of the existence of the Dratroopers, he’d asked Souma to let him parachute in too.
Naturally, Souma had been hesitant at first. “I told you not to do anything dangerous, didn’t I?”
“Come on, Bro! If it makes a difference, I can make my own parachute!”
Kuu’s words had put Souma in a bind. The parachute was a matter of life and death during a drop, and even if an amateur could make one themselves, it wasn’t a thing they should try. However, if he refused, Kuu may make one himself and drop in anyway, so Souma had relented in the face of Kuu’s enthusiasm and begrudgingly given the okay...on the condition that, along with Leporina, experienced Dratroopers would also accompany them.
Like a skydiving instructor with a novice skydiver, the Dratroopers had fastened themselves to Kuu and Leporina as they dropped, and now they were joining up with the defenders on the southern wall.
In contrast to Kuu, hyped to experience his first drop, Leporina still seemed frightened, because her face was pale, and her bunny ears were down flat. “I think...this may be the most I’ve ever regretted being in your service.”
“Ookyaya! Then you’ve never been all that dissatisfied before, huh?”
“Yes, I have! I’m saying this is the worst!”
“Well too bad for you, huh? Now then.” Kuu jumped onto the edge of the wall, looking at the pack of lizardmen swarming toward it beneath him. The massive force pressing against the walls was an unusual sight for Kuu. “There sure are a lot of ’em. You’d never see this in Turgis.”
“H-Hey? Who’re you people?” one of the defenders hesitantly asked as Kuu was peering over the edge of the wall.
Kuu tapped his shoulder with his favorite cudgel, then smiled at the defender. “Didn’t I already say? Reinforcements. That’s what we are.”
“Reinforcements?! It was reinforcements that fell from the sky?! Wh-Where are you from?!”
Kuu grinned. “Where, you ask? The Republic of Turgis.”
“The Republic of Turgis? That country way to the south sent us reinforcements?”
“Yeah. Only two of us, though.”
“T-Two?!” The defender was blinking, no longer able to make heads or tails of the situation.
It was already hard to believe that the Republic of Turgis on the southern edge of the continent would send reinforcements to this little country in a corner of the Union of Eastern Nations, so when he was told they were just two people, the soldier must have felt like he was being tricked.
Satisfied by the soldier’s
befuddled reaction, Kuu jumped down from the wall to slap him vigorously on the shoulder. “I’m kidding, man. We’re really here on behalf of the Kingdom of Friedonia. We just happen to be visiting generals from the Republic of Turgis.”
“S-Sure...”
“Well, now that we’re here, you’ve got nothing to worry about!” Kuu jumped onto the edge of the wall again, clubbing two lizardmen who had climbed up, knocking them back into the swarm below. “Hah... Hoh... Alley-oop!”
Bouncing along the bumps of the edge, whenever Kuu found a lizardman attacking someone, he whacked it with the cudgel Taru had specially made for him and sent the monster flying.
“Hey, guys! You ever hear this before?” Kuu shouted to the defenders from the edge of the wall. “They say a Turgish soldier’s worth a hundred men! That means me and Leporina are worth 200 reinforcements! Ookyakya!”
Seeing Kuu laugh heartily, all the soldiers felt a little more relaxed. This boy might be exaggerating, but from the rampage he’d just gone on, it might not be a total lie. When they looked at his baseless smile, it made them think, We can’t let him beat us. We can keep going.
The soldiers, who had been hanging their heads before, now raised their faces, their morale restored.
Then an especially big lizardman appeared behind Kuu. Unlike the others, the surface of its body was red too. The red lizardman swung the claws from both its hands at Kuu.
“Whoa!” Kuu caught the claw strike by holding his cudgel up horizontally. However...
“Kishaaa!” the lizardman hissed.
“Urgh...”
In the back of the lizardman’s open maw, Kuu could now see red flames.
Oh, crap. Some of them can breathe fire too?!
Kuu already doing his best to fend off its claws. If it breathed fire at him now, he wouldn’t be able to dodge. Kuu broke into a cold sweat. Then...it happened.
Whoosh!
“Gugyaah?!”
The arrow flew in and struck true, stabbing into the lizardman’s right eye.
The lizardman’s face aimed up and away, and the ball of fire it spit flew off in a completely different direction.
Kuu turned his neck to look, and Leporina was on the opposite edge of the wall with bow at the ready. She immediately nocked another arrow.
“I won’t let you kill Master Kuu!”
Leporina’s second arrow flew, this time piercing the left eye.
The red lizardman held its eyes and flailed around.
“Here’s a little something extra. Eat this too!”
While his enemy was faltering, Kuu spun his cudgel around and bashed its jaw from below. There was a snapping sound, and the red lizardman fell limply over the side of the wall.
“Whew...” Having escaped from a close shave, Kuu wiped the sweat from his brow. “Ook... You saved me there, Leporina.”
“Really, now. Worth a hundred reinforcements? I’ve never heard anything like that, you know?”
“Well, duh? I’m going to make sure everyone knows it from now on!” Kuu made a big show of spinning his cudgel around before tucking it at his side. “It may be an exaggerated boast, but we can make it real. If I crush a hundred of these things, it’ll start sounding believable!”
“Don’t say that like it’s easy!”
“We’re doing this, Leporina! Let’s show the northern lands just how strong Turgish warriors can be!”
No sooner had he said that than Kuu raced off in search of his next target. His promise to Souma that he wouldn’t do anything dangerous was long since forgotten.
“Ookyakya! Hey, soldiers of Lastania! It’s time to hold your ground! If you think you can’t win a fight, call for me! I’ve got this!” Kuu boasted as he beat down the lizardmen close to him.
It was as unclear as ever what basis he had to say any of this, but his energetic voice felt invigorating somehow.
“Yeah! Let’s do this thing!” the soldiers called.
“Heh! We can’t let our Turgish guest hog all the glory!”
“This is our country! We’ve gotta defend it ourselves!”
The soldiers’ morale rose even higher, and everyone on the walls got fired up.
Leporina, who could sense the heated atmosphere as she followed Kuu, smiled. This is it. This is the young master’s charisma.
He was a bit of an idiot and had a way of flying off the handle occasionally, but Kuu always led the way, taking risks himself, and roused those following behind him.
There were kings like Souma who were skilled at using people. There were empresses like Maria who drew the respect of their people. Even so, the one Leporina wanted to serve was Kuu, and Kuu alone.
Though...if he could refrain from being quite so reckless, he’d be even better...
While Leporina was thinking that, Kuu pushed her to hurry up. “Come on, Leporina! We’ve still got another ninety or so to take down!”
“When you said you’d defeat a hundred, you were serious about that?!” Leporina cried out incredulously, and then it happened.
From far in the sky above Kuu and Leporina, there was the sound of trumpets. Bwoon! Bwoon! They blared several times, as if warning them to be careful.
Hearing that sound, Kuu and Leporina’s faces grew tense.
“Oh, crap! It’s starting! Hey, you people! Get away from the walls for a bit!”
“Everyone!” Leporina called. “The wyvern knights will soon commence bombing! Things are expected to go flying, so move away from the outside of the walls, and get down!”
Indeed. The trumpets were a signal from the wyvern cavalry that they were going to start bombing.
“B-Bombing?!” a soldier yelled.
“Hey, hurry and get away from the walls!”
The defenders hurried away from the outside of the wall, getting down on the cobblestones.
Then the 200-wyvern cavalry that had been standing by in the air since dropping the Dratroopers suddenly swooped down and dropped their barrels on the packs of lizardmen around the castle walls. The barrels were packed full of explosives. The explosive barrels, which had their explosion time adjusted with fuses, exploded just before falling into the packs of lizardmen.
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boom!
The explosions went off continuously, occurring in all directions horizontally. The blast waves and vibrations even hit the soldiers who were ducking and covering on the wall.
When they finally raised their faces to look around, pillars of flame were rising outside the walls to the north, south, east, and west. The spreading fireballs cooked the lizardmen packs, and a strangely savory smell wafted through the air.
The wyvern cavalry who had dropped the explosive barrels dove again, scorching the remaining lizardman packs with their fire breath. Those flames set off the explosives that had been scattered around by barrels reaching the ground without going off, and they turned the outside of the walls into a sea of fire.
The lizardmen simply burned away, unable to do anything.
“Ook. Wyverns are sure amazing, huh...” Kuu said in admiration, peering out through a crack in the wall.
The currents in the air were violent, and the Republic of Turgis was too cold to begin with, so his country had no air force of its own, and no country had ever used one against them.
The first air raid he had witnessed was beyond anything he’d ever imagined.
There must have been 5,000 lizardmen, and in an instant, seventy to eighty percent of them had been incinerated.
The lizardmen who were fortunate enough to escape the flames were crawling, and he could see them scurry away into the nearby forest.
If similar scenes were unfolding at each of the other walls, there were maybe only 1,000 lizardmen left. They wouldn’t attack until their numbers were replenished, at the very least.
Kuu stood up and dusted himself off. “Ookyakya! At the end of the day, I only managed to get about ten of them, huh?”
“Then why don’t you give chase? Alone.” Leporina asked, exhauste
d.
Kuu just shrugged. “I’d love to, but I can’t see a thing through all the smoke. I’ll let ’em off for today.”
“...You will, will you?”
“Well, I’ve got more important stuff to do, anyway.” Kuu slammed his cudgel down on the cobblestones, then shouted to all the Lastanian soldiers who were dumbstruck from the aerial bombardment. “Okay, the attacks been knocked back! Let’s hear you shout! Victoryyyyy!”
“Victory.” Hearing that word, the soldiers of Lastania finally got the sense that they had won.
Thrusting their shaking hands toward the heavens, they shouted from the bottom of their lungs.
“““Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”””
The soldiers’ cheers echoed through the evening skies of Lastania.
◇ ◇ ◇
They heard explosions from the north, south, east, and west walls, and then black smoke rose in all four directions.
That was most likely the result of aerial bombardment by the same wyvern cavalry that had dropped the Dratroopers.
The lizardmen had no means of launching an anti-air attack and defending against aerial bombardment, so they were being unilaterally bombed to death. Even if it wasn’t enough to exterminate them completely, it could be expected to lower the pressure from Lizardmen pressing in on each wall.
Meanwhile, around the same time, the battle near the castle was reaching its conclusion.
Hearing the situation from Julius, I ordered Aisha and the few royal guards in the gondola Naden was carrying to work with Julius and Jirukoma to exterminate the lizardmen attacking the castle.
While it went without saying that Aisha was strong, the royal guards were confident in their skills too, and together they could make short work of the ten or so Lizardmen in the area around the building.
“Naden, there’s another one over there!” I called.
“Roger that! Unaaaa!”
Crackle!
Naden, still in her young girl form, let loose an electric shock, piercing a lizardman on the roof of the castle.
The lizardman who she struck went rigid, unable to utter a sound, and then collapsed to the ground, twitching. It was apparently still breathing.