When the sun’s rays grew stronger as it headed to the west, there was a heavy knock on the door of Garrison Officer Zeist’s office which was located in the barracks inside the Castle. The White Elf, who was the master of the room, looked up from his paperwork and gave the young guard who rushed in permission to enter.

“…What’s going on?”

After bowing briefly while his commander gave him a pointed look, the young guard hurriedly delivered his report.

“A report came in from the Observation Platform, and the groups of armed Black Elves who are approaching the northern and southern gates of the Royal Castle from the east are believed to be members of the reform extremist faction!!”

“Haah, Lady Eliza told me that something like this could be expected, but… Looks like they really did it.”

Gist mumbled as he hung his head and released a tired sigh.

“How many rebels are there?”

“We have seen at least the equivalent number of people in a company unit on each gate, Sir.”

When the Elves fought against the Philland republic in the past, the standard number of people in a platoon would be 30, while those in a company unit had at least 300 men, and a battalion was composed of 500 men.

In other words, the number of rebels was roughly, but probably more than 300 per unit.

(I’m going to have to divide the guards into two groups. If that’s the case, then I’d have to call back the guards who have been assigned to handle the protest rallies…)

If I did that, then there is a risk of the mobs storming into the castle and causing an insurrection. 

“Looks like we’ll have to deal with them with just the soldiers inside the castle…”

Zeist rings a bell on top of his table and a messenger enters from the next room, quickly bows, and waits for his orders.

“Inform the first and fourth platoons who are on standby that they will be dispatched to the southern gate and tell the second and third platoons that they are to be dispatched to defend the northern gate.  Also, remind them to strictly adhere to the rules of engagement.”

“Yes, Sir!”

After repeating his orders, the messenger quickly turned on his heel and returned to the next room, where he informed his colleagues who immediately delivered the orders to the platoon leaders. As he listened to the flurry of sounds from the next room, Zeist once again turned to the young soldier who remained in the room and spoke,

“Tell the Prime Minister about the rebels and the soldiers’ deployment and return to your unit.”

“Yes, Sir!”

The young guard leaves the room in response, leaving the Captain of the Guard alone once again.

“The rebels on the southern and northern gates easily surpass our forces by a hundredfold… Defending is going to be hard even with the walls.”

The Elves’ city defense system was largely made up of a spiritual barrier called the “Forest of Wandering”, which attacks the mind of intruders. However, nobody from the castle thought that they would be attacked from the inside, so the construction of the walls was simple and not that strong.

Besides, magic to break down walls also existed, so they cannot overestimate the defenses of the walls.

(Well, I guess the rebels knew they had a chance of winning so they attacked, but… This is such a nuisance.)

Moments later, the armed reform extremists who had passed through the Bronze and White Elf residential areas gathered near the northern and southern gates, and the thunderous roaring of wind rang out… 

The first platoon leader in charge of defending the southern gate responded by firing several Fireballs as a warning to keep the rebels from coming any further, but the wooden gate burned down and exposed the rough steel structure underneath.

“Well, that was unexpected. If the gates burned down by a mere barrage of fire magic, then it’s a defective castle.”

He was just thinking about what would happen if he burned the gates when it happened, so Gregor moved on to the next step without dwelling on it and issued his orders.

“Adre, Bright, are you ready?”

“Yes, no problems here. We just finished all preparations.”

“Same here…”

A slender, Black Elf clad in light armor and a nervous-looking Elf man who peeked from under his deep hood and revealed silver hair and blue eyes characteristic of the Black Elf Clan nodded in unison.

After confirming, Gregor smiles widely and says,

“ALL HANDS, CHARGE!! BREAK DOWN THE CASTLE GATES!!”

“UOOOOOOOOOOH!!”

At his command, more than a hundred Black Elves gathered by the southern gate began to charge at the castle walls!

“D-don’t let them get close, start firing!!”

Naturally, the first platoon commander, who was in charge of defending the gate, gave the order to attack, and dozens of guards fired their arrows from the top of the castle walls, but… A strong gust of wind suddenly killed the arrows’ momentum and swept them out to the horizon.

“Captain, it’s wind protection magic!”

“I can see that! Prepare for the next volley, but this time, don’t fire all at once and shoot them in squads instead! Ruin their wind barrier one layer at a time!!”

Following the captain’s immediate orders, the guards aimed for gaps in the wind barrier where the concentration of magic was weakest and fired several arrows which mostly found their marks. 

Even though the concentration of the World Tree’s power was strongest around the castle, the burden of taking the earth’s life force into their bodies and converting it into magic at this scale became too much, and the Black Elves soon realized that they cannot continue using tactical magic.

“Gregor, we can’t hold out any longer than this!!”

Adre, who invoked the first layer of the Wind Protection barrier, shouted as he began to prepare for the next spell, while the other Elves in his squad turned their attention to the top of the walls and maintained the activated wind barrier.

“I won’t keep you waiting for long! Bright!!”

“On it!!”

The troops specializing in earth magic went near the 5 to 6-meter wall where the White Elven guards were stationed, thrust their hands to the ground, and activated the spell “Earth Flow” which made the earth beneath and behind the castle walls move vigorously.

“What!?”

“Whoaaaa!!”

As a result, a cavity was formed under the part of the castle wall where the Black Elves invoked the spell, and the wall collapsed under its own weight.

“Uwah, sto–, augh!!”

“Guh….. Augh, dammit…”

At that time, two of the guards who slipped and fell were immediately surrounded by the militants who killed and cut up the defenseless men with their sabers.

“Tsk, the second squad, shoot directly below!!” 

The guards directly fired their arrows at the earth magic users who continuously invoked the Earth Flow spell to expand the sinkhole they created just beneath the castle walls 

“Protect them, o wind!!”

In response, the wind users from the rebel group once again deployed their Wind Protection magic, but…

“Guuuh!”

“Kuoh!?”

“Uwaaaaah!”

They were not close enough to be able to break the momentum of the arrows, so most of the underpowered arrows pierced the limbs and torsos of the rebels who were trying to break down the walls.

Additionally, another dozen or so guards pointed their arrows at the bottom of the walls and attacked without pause, causing more and more of the militants to be injured.

“Dammit, don’t let them attack, prepare to fire!”

At Gregor’s command, the rebel side’s archers also returned fire, aiming for the guards positioned on top of the castle walls.

“Everyone, get down!”

At that time, the guards who were on top of the walls placed their shields over their heads and crouched down to stave off the attack, but… they could not remain completely unharmed, and while they were defending against the attack, the part of the southern wall the rebels were attacking finally collapsed and made an opening for the attackers.

“Shaaaaah!”

“CHARGE! FOLLOW ME!!”

Several dozen troops under Gregor’s command broke through and headed to the castle.

For his part, Gregor was concerned about the movements of the guards on the northern gate who were holding back the protesters. He also wanted to limit the loss and damage to the reformist militants accompanying him. Judging from the number of guards stationed at the southern gate, he surmised that there would be fewer guards inside the castle, so he prioritized seizing the central part of the castle first.

“Kuh, we won’t let you go any further!”

“Guaaaah!!”

“Ow… aaaah!”

From a corner of the collapsed wall, firebombs and wind blades were hurled at the rebels which killed several of the troop leaders who were trying to follow Gregor who had gone ahead of them.

As a result, the battle at the south gate stalled as Gregor and his men left, while the battle at the north gate, which had been more of a diversion since the main force had been sent to where the rebels attacked, faced a similar situation.

However, just before some of the radicals broke through the gates, a suspicious, masked Kobold was spotted watching the battle from the rooftops of the Bronze Elves’ living quarters…