Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 8

by Funa

  “C’mon, sir, it’s not like you have to leave this place behind forever! The royal troops and our neighbors’ forces will come to help us, and also, the imperial army will be here soon!”

  “I-Ish that sho, shonny…? Will I really be able t’ come back to thish place? My wife’s grave ish here… I can’t help but think it would be better if I just shtayed here and died right beshide where my wife ish buried…”

  As they rode along in the wagons, the old-timers had to be reassured of the same things again and again. It was a routine by now—just like gathering food or taking out the trash.

  All of the watering holes were either concealed or rendered temporarily unusable. With some time and effort they could be re-dug as good as new, but no invading force was going to take the time to do such a thing.

  “Hurry! The imperial army…no, the ‘Albarnian bandits’ will be here soon!”

  Fiends who had not so much as issued a declaration of war could not be recognized as an army. ‘Bandits’ was a good enough term for them. Juno thought so, at any rate.

  In just a few days, the imperial army would likely be on the move again. There was a chance that reconnaissance troops and other advance units might even start out before then, ahead of the main corps. Just like those units before… At any rate, whenever it was that they finally encountered the enemy again, Juno would not be surprised.

  It was a little while after they had finished up evacuation preparations in one of the villages and were on the move again, helping to transport the villagers’ things to the capital, that the first incident occurred.

  “Sir Juno! We’ve lost sight of the children!”

  It was a small fief, protected by a small army. There was hardly a citizen around who did not know the face of Juno, who often visited each settlement for the sake of training or assisting with other heavy labor. Several ashen-faced villagers had come to him to deliver this report.

  “What?!” Juno shouted.

  Upon inquiring further, he learned that a few of the naughtier children had suddenly vanished—and there was a very good chance that they had not gotten lost but run away on purpose.

  “My daughter told me that she had forgotten something important back at home, so it’s possible that they went back to the village…”

  Hearing this, Juno summoned his deputy, Roland, at once.

  “Roland, have half of the men continue on to escort the villagers. I will take the other half and search for the children.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  By this point, Roland knew well enough that there was no point in wasting any time trying to stop Juno. There was not a member of the Ascham army who did not know that.

  Juno and the fifteen men under his command headed back to the village, finally finding the five children. Just as they started to head back to catch up with the main troops, however—

  “Soldiers of the kingdom! Don’t let a single one escape! Make sure you bring a few in good enough shape to talk!”

  With these words, several dozen imperial soldiers appeared.

  Judging by what was said, the men intended to capture some of Juno’s men and slaughter the rest. They would likely be tortured for information about Brandel without ever having a chance to send back word of their own circumstances.

  If the enemy soldiers had been riding on horseback down the highway, they probably would have spotted them sooner, but they appeared to be recon troops or some other sort of forerunners, lying in wait and preparing a trap for the Brandel soldiers, so were moving quietly on foot. With their attention fully focused on finding the children, Juno and his men took notice of the enemy soldiers just a little too late.

  With the children in tow, it would be impossible to simply make a run for it. They had no choice but to stand and fight it out. Surrender, of course, was never even an option.

  “Keep the walls of the buildings at your backs and protect the children! If we can each take down—what, two or three of the enemy?—then it’ll be over in a jiffy. Nothing to it!”

  “You got that right, sir!” the soldiers roared.

  There wasn’t a soldier around who would be afraid of a skirmish like this one. Grinning at his subordinates’ hardy reply, Juno plunged forth into the enemy ranks, a handful of his men following behind him. The remainder stayed behind as guard, keeping the walls and the children at their backs.

  In the battle that would come to unfold, the Ascham forces were vastly outmatched. In battle, Juno was a lion, but fighting against real, trained soldiers—ones who were skilled enough to have been selected as a vanguard, at that—was not the same as fighting against bandits, and no matter how fired up his men were, they were nowhere near the level to take on several men at once.

  What left them at even more of a disadvantage, however, was that they were forced to split their resources in twain.

  If they were to group up all as one, keeping the children in the middle, then the enemies would simply surround them and pick them off at their leisure. So there was no choice but to leave behind one portion of their forces to defend the children, while the other group went flying into the fray, whipping up a frenzy among their enemies. However, this meant that the men who were guarding the children could not move from where they were, and for now, the imperial soldiers were free to completely ignore them. Thus, the wrath of the imperial soldiers came down on the fragmented forces with full force, and it seemed clear that both would be quashed in their turn.

  The Ascham soldiers’ assumption—that the imperial forces would plan to target the children as hostages—had betrayed them.

  It would have been one thing if the imperial troops were only a little over twice their numbers. However, here they were facing four or five times as many men, and they quickly found themselves at a complete loss. Juno managed to take down several of the imperial soldiers, and the other men gave everything they had as well, but they were outnumbered. Now they could only pray that the enemies would not lay a hand upon the children once they were through with the men.

  After all, the men of Ascham reassured themselves, the enemies they faced were not truly bandits or cutthroats, but trained soldiers just like them. They were under the charge of a legitimately appointed commanding officer, and as such, it was unthinkable that they would act barbarically. And yet…

  “We don’t need those brats. Kill ’em all.”

  “What?!” the Ascham men shouted.

  Anywhere in the world, there were good people. Likewise, anywhere in the world there were people who could best be described as human trash.

  After felling the men who fought alongside Juno one by one, the imperial commander now ordered an attack on the soldiers who guarded the children. Naturally, the scope of that attack would include the children as well…

  “You can’t! I won’t let you! Graaaaah!!!”

  Juno raised a battle cry and swung his sword with all his might, but Lanchester’s linear law was a cruel mistress. In a battle of blades and arrows, the results all depended on the difference in numbers between each of the sides—in a harsh, linear function. The only thing that could upset this was…

  “Fireball!”

  “Ice Needle!”

  “Wind Edge!”

  Indeed, the only way to combat such a reality was to introduce into the fray combatants who had the means to rain certain death indiscriminately upon a group of enemies, regardless of their numbers. This was certainly the case with a rifle or machine gun. In such a case, one side was operating on linear law versus another operating on square law. The two sides were so fundamentally different that there was no point in even trying to formulate an equation.

  Magic suddenly began raining down on the imperial soldiers.

  The men who had been heading toward the soldiers guarding the children flailed as they were bathed in a mass of fireballs, while the men who were keeping Juno’s team in check were pelted with icy needles and scythe-like whirlwinds.

  “Hell, are you all amateurs?! They’re
mages, just get there and knock ’em down before they can finish their next spells! Go!”

  In close-range combat there was no hope for a mage who was attacked without time to cast their spells. However, that was only the case if they were attacked and if they were a mage.

  “Wind Edge! Wind Edge! Wind Edge!!!”

  “Wha?! She can cast without an incantation? More than once?!”

  As far as Mavis herself was aware, her “Wind Edge” was not magical. It was merely a sword attack that utilized her spiritual energy, so as long as she could swing her sword, she could cast it as much as she liked…

  Surely, this was breaking the rules. That said, the power of the Wind Edge was not enough to cleave through the trunk of an armor-clad enemy in a single stroke. Still, as the imperial soldiers’ numbers diminished, and they tried to plunge toward the mages…

  “EX True Godspeed Blade!” Mavis shouted.

  Thinking that the power of her normal True Godspeed Blade would be insufficient against most trained soldiers, she had already popped a capsule of Micros… Just one, this time. She couldn’t risk ruining her body at a time like this, when Mile was not present.

  The imperial soldiers fell left and right. Luckily for them, she held her power back, striking them with the flat of the blade so as not to kill them.

  “Impossible! How could a mere mage…?” the man who appeared to be the commander began to shout.

  Mavis proudly replied, “I am a knight. A Magical Knight!!!”

  While the imperial soldiers fell back, the Ascham troops took the opportunity to mobilize. Their enemy’s numbers had been greatly diminished, and now, impeded by the magical attacks…they were sitting ducks.

  Disregarding some more extraordinary exceptions, there was little difference in strength between most top-class soldiers. Thus, if one side had their strength lowered by even 20 percent, they were already in an untenable position. Imbued with new confidence, the soldiers defending the children repelled the enemy forces as one, swearing that they would not allow even one man to slip past them.

  In the disarray, Reina and Pauline were able to wrap up their next spells, Reina launching another attack and Pauline providing healing to the injured Ascham soldiers. Anyone who approached either of the two were sent flying by the flat of Mavis’s blade. As the number of enemy soldiers continued to decrease, the number of battle-ready soldiers on the Ascham side was steadily increasing, thanks to Pauline’s healing.

  The match was quickly settled after that. After pinning down the enemy commander, who attempted to flee, Juno left his capture to his subordinates and headed over to where the three girls stood.

  “This makes twice now that you’ve saved us,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough. Also…”

  He trailed off in the midst of his thanks, looking around nervously.

  “Wh-where’s Lady Mabel…?”

  Ah.

  The three girls’ faces fell.

  “Unfortunately, she had a letter to deliver.”

  At Pauline’s reply, Juno could not help but think, Ah, she’s sending a message to the gods up in Heaven. It gave him the utmost regret that he was unable to meet her, but if she was on errand to the gods themselves, then there was little to be done. However, he could yet feel the depths of her love and grace in leaving her servants behind to protect them. So Juno mused, until…

  “We just so happened to be able to help you this time, but please don’t expect our assistance every time hereafter. That kind of dependent thinking offends the Goddess, and those who comport themselves in that manner will be denied her protection,” the busty girl decreed, appearing to have guessed exactly what he was thinking.

  Quickly, Juno bowed his head, amending his flawed, “dependent” train of thought.

  “Now then, we shall depart.”

  With those words, the three girls left. Juno and his men watched, as they disappeared over the horizon.

  ***

  “Mile told us to take it easy and get some food in a nearby village or something until she comes back from delivering that letter. And yet, here we are working for free!” Reina sulked.

  Apparently, the fact that the trio had been present for the rescue mission was truly coincidental—in this instance, they had not planned on coming to the Ascham army’s aid.

  Of course, though Reina was vaguely sullen about it, they all knew that they had not intended to earn any money during this particular job in the first place.

  “It may have been a coincidence, but I think it’s still good that we could help. Let’s recall that we saved an acquaintance of Mile’s, the soldiers who technically work for Mile, and a bunch of children, who all live here,” replied Mavis, ever the optimist.

  “That’s quite right. Besides, if the commander of the Ascham army died in a place like this, that would really put a kink in our plans. Still, this misunderstanding has really made things strange between Mile and that man… I get the feeling that the more they see each other, the worse Mile’s going to feel, so perhaps this is all for the best.”

  And then there was Pauline, calm and collected to the last. “At any rate, it seemed like the Ascham forces were already well equipped in terms of food and water, and once they read that letter they’ll have a surplus, which I think we can expect them to use their discretion in distributing. At this point, I think it’s safe to say we can leave Ascham to them. After we reconvene with Mile, we can head toward the county south of here, which has already been invaded by the Empire.”

  Pauline spoke with a smile, but it was one in which there was not an ounce of mercy to be found.

  ***

  Their task of escorting the villagers complete, all of Juno’s men had returned to the capital. Now, with everyone back together, Juno once again took charge of the force. As they got into formation to repel the approaching imperial forces, a soldier approached Juno, carrying a message.

  “A silver-haired girl asked me to deliver this letter,” the man said.

  “A message…?”

  That well-developed brunette had said something about this, hadn’t she? If Juno recalled…

  “Unfortunately, she had a letter to deliver…”

  Juno snatched the letter from the man’s hands. The contents of the message read:

  The imperial forces have lost all of their supplies, including their food and water. In addition, all of their attempts at resupply have been interrupted. The following measures have been undertaken to prevent them from receiving any further supplies…

  Below this were spelled out various methods of surprise and rear attacks, and instructions for making incredibly wicked traps…

  The name of the sender was not written, but Juno did not need a name to know who it was from. Anyone who read this letter, who had been vexed by Lady Mabel’s mischief and the clever traps she had set in her youth, would immediately recognized the methods outlined in this letter as exactly the sort of thing Lady Mabel would do when fired up.

  At the end of the letter was inscribed a single line.

  “Oh, my…”

  Juno gripped the silver-haired girl’s letter tightly, tears flowing down his face.

  “Oh, my word!”

  Just as the people around him began to worry that there was something wrong, Juno shouted: “It’s a divine decree! For now on, we of the Ascham army are the foot soldiers of the Goddess herself, under her command! We are a chosen army! Beginning at this moment, we are a divine force! The winds of justice, the will of the divine, and the Goddess’s own protection flow through all of us!”

  The men let out a roar, the likes of which only a howling storm could rival.

  Juno was not the sort to stir his men up with empty lies, and by now, everyone had heard the tale of how the Goddess’s servants had helped them stave off the imperial ambush just a few days prior—and furthermore, how those same servants had come to the aide of Juno’s squad and the children after that.

  Lady Mabel had ascended to heaven in order to p
rotect her people. Now she was visiting her blessings upon them—and she had three divine soldiers accompanying her as well.

  They could win. No, they had to win. The will of the universe could never permit a divine army under the Goddess’s command to fall to the forces of evil.

  And so, the spirits of vengeance began to multiply.

  “Now then, we shall begin to enact our plan, as directed by our goddess. Thanks to her divine punishment, the imperial army has lost all of its supplies, down to food and water, and all further routes of resupply have been cut off. We shall obstruct the enemy from trying to produce any of their supplies locally and then retreat to wait until they are weak and exhausted.

  “If we enter the battle at all, it will only be in small reconnaissance groups or as independent agents. The Goddess has made the lives and safety of the citizens of Ascham her priority, and we must never forget that you soldiers are her citizens as well. There will be no pointless deaths in this conflict. Do you hear me?!”

  “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

  Another valiant cry rose from the men.

  “All right, then! While we retreat, we’ll hunt all of the jackalopes and orcs that the imperial army might be able to use for food. Let’s store up as many wild fruits and vegetables growing on the side of the road as seem edible, too. Now, let the preparations commence!”

  The army hurriedly began the task of packing up camp.

  ***

  “…And so, we’d like for you all to entrust your food and your barrels to the Goddess just for a short while. We’ll be sure to return them afterwards, and if you don’t comply, the Empire will certainly steal them away. Do you really think that those soldiers, who have lost everything—who are citizens of an enemy nation—are going to look kindly on you citizens of Brandel and leave you your seed crops for next year? They’re going to take everything from you, force you to carry your own goods to the front lines, and demand women—perhaps even young children—to serve them. Hide everything, and then conceal yourselves in the mountains. It’s for your own safety.”