“But can you go by yourself?”
Lawrence knelt down in front of the anxious Hilbert and pounded his chest.
“If you command it, I, as your vassal…
“I don’t care about that! I’m not going to tell you whether or not you can do it alone, how likely you are to be able to do it! Tell me objectively.”
Lawrence, admonished, thought for a moment and then expressed his opinion in a way that was difficult to put forward.
“I’m sorry to be so ungrateful, but if I’m being honest, I think it’s less than a 50-50.”
“Then use the same tactics that you used when you defeated her the other time.”
Hilbert said as if it were a matter of course, but Lawrence’s face turned surprised.
“… Are you sure? The rest of the team will be stretched thin. That could be dangerous…”
Lawrence looked concerned.
The more forces that were assembled in anticipation of a victory for the strike force, the less protection they would have in an emergency.
If Hilbert were to be killed, it would be meaningless.
But Hilbert was not desperate.
He had a ferocious expression on his face, like a cornered beast baring its fangs.
“There’s still that one, Lawrence.”
“!!”
“Even though it was a loan from the Federation, no one would complain about using it under the circumstances.”
The words were also in a tone of warning to Lawrence, who was the one in charge of the matter.
“B-but is it okay…”
“What, using weapons discarded by the enemy on the battlefield? Or would you be unhappy if I just painted over the Federation emblem?”
“No, I have no objection! With the Sword of the Federation, we will strike down those who have given the Federation their support. I see, this will be a wonderful revenge. Then I leave the protection of His Majesty to you.”
＊ ＊ ＊
From the bell tower of a small temple in the southern part of the city, René looked toward the castle.
This small temple had been abandoned and uninhabited, so she used it as a temporary command center. There was nothing to protect anyway, so all that was needed was a place to spread out a map and lay out call marks. It was enough to protect against wind and arrows.
The temple seemed to René as eerie and disgusting as an underground sewer, but it did not have enough holy energy to interfere with her activities.
Sometimes a single temple in a city was not enough, especially in a city as large as the royal capital.
There were a number of small temples in the city where citizens could go and pray on a daily basis. These were also called minor temples or churches. In some cases, they specialized in the worship of deities who cooperated with the Great God.
Whatever the case, religious buildings were second only to military installations in sturdiness and splendor. Not bad for a temporary base.
Looking a little higher up, there was a hippogriff, on fire from the wyvern zombie’s flames, crashed into the ground.
The battle in the sky was coming to an end.
Fighting for a long time in the air was an impossible situation for humans to be in. The undead, who never got tired, were killing the living ones one after another, whose movements were beginning to lose their vigor. The competition had been so fierce that once their numbers began to dwindle, it was just a matter of time before they were all out of the fight.
“Oh my?”
René suddenly noticed that the drawbridge of the castle gate, which had been closed, was being lowered.
“It doesn’t look like a welcoming or an empty castle plan.”
One person came out from across the drawbridge, someone who looked like a knight, although he was too far away to see clearly. And after that, dozens of people in one formation.
She had seen this formation before.
–So, finally, you’re here…!
René kicked off the roof and jumped down, grabbing onto the ledge of the second-floor window and hanging from it. She was a little unsteady as she forced her body to support herself with her head in her left hand and her right hand holding her sword.
“Alastair, the Commander of the First Order is coming out!”
Alastair, who had been inside the room with his map spread out, stood up and opened the window.
“That was quicker than I thought it would be.”
“Yeah. I’m going to hit the wall.”
René let go and kicked the wall, this time landing on the ground. She did not forget to hold her skirt down.
After passing through the garden where they were growing medicinal herbs, René stepped into the cemetery adjacent to the church.
The cold graveyard with only a row of gravestones was lined with oddly shaped figures hanging out in the shadows.
Skeletons and ghouls in knight’s armor. Skeletal sorcerers in robes with eerie glints in their eyes, Liches. Zombies dressed like adventurers. An elite unit that had been attached to guard the palanquin all along. There is also a “local procurement team” of undead dead members of the Order mixed in.
The undead change their abilities depending on their capabilities before death and the power that had been put into them. This elite unit was a fierce group that would not be inferior to the remaining members of the First Order in Lawrence’s forces.
The undead soldiers lined up in an orderly fashion, kneeling in a single, unruffled movement, and bowing to René in a vassal’s salute. Seeing this, René smiled.
“Come on…, let’s go destroy Ciel-Terra!”
＊ ＊ ＊
A deformed army approached the royal castle from all directions.
They filled the main streets, blocked even the alleys, and squeezed the encirclement so tight that not even a mouse could crawl out to escape.
Soldiers who had been controlling the walls and those who had been doing their jobs in various parts of the city all gathered to join in the attack.
“By the way, I heard that there is a magical weapon attached to the walls that can cleave an entire boulevard?”
René asked Alastair over the call mark while walking at the head of the army on the southern boulevard.
“If used, it will leave the walls unprotected for a while. It is not something that should be used when fighting a transcendent magician like you, Princess.”
“I see.”
“If they wanted to used it, it would have been over in an instant at the expense of a few soldiers. But there is no sign of that.”
On the walls of the castle, there were geometric lines of bluish-white light. It was a magic defense system. The energy was provided by the magic of the land and the magic stones set in the walls. Unlike the previous holy magic barrier, it only had the power to “prevent magical destruction”, but it was a solid defense that even René would have a hard time breaking through.
In a place like this, offensive magical weapons were installed, but where would the enormous amount of energy consumed, which could not be provided by people, be sourced from? It was the magical power of the land.
It seemed that because of this, when they went on the offensive, the defense was neglected. If the castle walls were of that level and had zero magical defense, René would probably be able to destroy half of them with a single blow.
Of course, to compensate for this, a secondary defense mechanism driven by a large amount of magic stones was installed…, but that was the limit of the small country of Ciel-Terra…
“Then we just attack normally, right?”
“Yes. Therefore, please be aware that they will probably use at least a fixed cannon that shoots ≪Fire Ball≫. Since the enemy airborne cavalry was almost completely wiped out, it will probably be used for anti-airborne fire.”
“I’ll be careful.”
René headed towards the group of knights in high spirits.
But on the way, she noticed something strange.
The castle gate was left open.
Now that Lawrence was thrown out, there was no reason to leave the gate open.
But the walls were still wide open.
–What are they doing?
“Put all the remaining charms on there! These guys don’t need the reinforcement buffs anyway!”
Suddenly, a loud voice, which seemed to be coming from the gate tower of the castle gate, resounded. The voice was amplified by magic.
It was probably spoken from within the gate tower.
–Is this the voice of the front line commander …? Or perhaps Hilbert himself?
Zum, the ground trembled.
“Dreadnought-class Mithril Golems, Unit 1, “Phoenix”! Unit 2, “Naghfar”! Launch!!”
A huge humanoid figure appeared.
It stooped down and passed through the open gate, which seemed to be about 4 or 5 meters high, looking as if it were cramped.
It looked like a huge full-body suit of armor in motion. Its form was massive and sharply angled. The grayish silver body shone brilliantly in the sunlight.
The perspective got out of order. Two huge bodies, so large that the drawbridge over the moat threatened to snap off. They appeared from behind the knights.
” … Giant robots?”
“Golems, Princess.”
Alastair corrected over the call mark.
“From the names, I’m guessing they are large golems loaned by the Federation for use in combat.”
“Hmmm… You’ve been yammering on about being anti-Federation, and now you’re taking advantage of it.”
On the shoulders of the two golems, there were traces of what looked like paint or something applied to them. It seemed that the national emblem of the Federation had been covered up.
Ciel-Terra’s former ally (suzerain state?), the Federation of Gireshtal, was famous for its combat golems.
Although Ciel-Terra was the source of the Glacelum used in the circuitry of high-grade golems, it did not manufacture advanced golems on its own. This was partly a matter of the cost of manufacturing and maintenance, and partly a matter of technological capability.
It was often said, “We need a domestically produced golem!” However, only the common golems that any country produced were realized. Most people agreed that it would be cheaper and better to borrow or buy golems from the Federation with the money from the sale of the Glacelum.
The Federation’s battle golems, which called themselves “the fortress of humanity”.
Among them, the high-end model was said to be a major force to be reckoned with, even comparable to a high-ranking adventurer.
Mithril was relatively lightweight, but its huge body would have the mass to blow away more than a dozen undead soldiers with a single shot of the lariat.
In addition, Mithril itself was resistant to magic attacks, and with the charms on it, it would have a hopeless magic defense.
“I’m not sure how effective a charm would be on a golem. That’s absurd…”
“Yes, it does work. So in this case, you should use physical attacks to destroy them.”
“Can it be done…?”
“It’s an unknown, but there is hope.”
She didn’t think she could manage something that heavy with a physical attack, but Alastair’s answer showed no sign of doubt.
“At the very least, it should stop them in their tracks.”
“If you say so, I’ll leave it to you. I’ll lure Lawrence out to fight, and leave the castle to you.”
“Understood. …Princess, good luck.”
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