“IT CERTAINLY LOOKS INCREDIBLE, BUT WILL IT REALLY be useful? What do you think, Marquis Fertio?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it, but His Highness and Viscount Panamera have, and they understand its power.”

“Hmm…”

Count Ventury and Marquis Fertio were staring up at one of the catapults while the king and Panamera conducted their final checks. Paula stood at attention in front of the machine bow squad, which Van had left behind.

The king spoke to her directly. “Hmm. Are you the captain of this squad?”

“Y-y-yes!” she said, all nerves. “My name is Paula!”

The king smiled and acknowledged her with a nod. “I remember your face. I will be relying on the strength of your leadership.”

“Oh! Thank you very much!”

The king remembered her! Paula was dizzy with gratitude.

Panamera cut in. “Captain Paula, you and your squad are an essential fighting force. I will do my best to ensure you suffer no casualties before we return you to Baron Van.”

“Th-thank you, ma’am!”

But Panamera wasn’t done. “That being said, since you have been seconded to me, I will treat you as I would my own knights.” She grinned. “You will obey my orders.”

Paula’s face twitched a little, but she loudly replied, “Y-yes, ma’am! We will keep that in mind!”

The members of the machine bow squad, who had stood more or less at ease, tensed at the shift in atmosphere. The king nodded, looking them over. “Well done, Viscount. You’ve only just taken their reins and already they seem more disciplined,” he said quietly.

Panamera tilted her chin down, her expression unchanging. “Baron Van’s Chivalric Order is undoubtedly powerful, but they are too dependent on his weapons. If I may be frank, I judge them deficient in basic combat skills.”

“Hmm, true. This is Baron Van, after all. I doubt he spends as much time reprimanding them as he does training them in the use of their weapons, and not even the commander of his Chivalric Order, the Dragonslayer, could keep his eyes on everyone at once. For better or worse, their approach to battle is lax.”

“I concur. It would do them good to train alongside the other Chivalric Orders. Since we have them here, I propose we put them through their paces for two or three weeks.”

Panamera and the king smiled at one another. Their conversation was inaudible to Paula and the others, but those expressions alone were terrifying.

 

Panamera

“STAY IN FORMATION!”

“Yessir!”

“You! You’re half a step behind!”

“Sorry, sir!”

Endless shouting accompanied Paula and her squad as they brought up the rear of the marching line alongside the ballistae and catapults.

When Van led the march, he would have his men and women take turns riding, stop for a brief rest after an hour of marching, march for another three hours, then take a longer break. Basically, they had lots of downtime. But Panamera’s men walked for an hour, rested for five minutes, and repeated that process for the entire day. On top of that, meals were only provided in the morning and evening. This was standard practice for Scuderia, but for Van’s Chivalric Order, it was brutal.

In truth, the squads in Seatoh Village that fought with swords and spears did undergo rigorous training. Quite a few members of those squads had experience as knights, mercs, or adventurers, and everyone else was blessed with strength and stamina. But the machine bow squad was different. They had been brought together because they lacked that strength and stamina in the first place. Even Dee’s usual training leaned more toward target practice, honing their ability to defend Seatoh Village from a distance.

“C-Captain, we need to take a longer break…” one member of the bow squad pleaded.

“Th-there are no longer breaks…” huffed another. “Look, even my legs are getting stiff.”

“My legs are going to snap in half…”

This complaining continued throughout their five-day march.

That night, the forward recon squad returned to camp from scoping out the situation in Scudet. The captains gathered for a meeting.

Panamera’s Chivalric Order was small and highly skilled. Despite its size, it had more than ten captains, each an experienced warrior in their own right. Some already had their killing intent on full display, even though the fighting had yet to start.

Today, Paula was included among those captains.

“As the one captaining our vital reinforcements, you are key to this battle,”

Panamera said to her. “Come in.”

“Oh, r-right! Excuse me!” Trepidatious, Paula took her seat and raised her head, surrounded by large men clad in full armor.

A simple table stood in the center of the room, and everyone sat straightbacked around it. All eyes were on Panamera, who looked sharply back at her captains.

“First, let us share information. It seems our enemies are gathering supplies while they reinforce Scudet’s walls and gates. During the last, disastrous battle, the border knights and Marquis Fertio’s Chivalric Order were targeted by wyvern attacks and deadly flames from Yelenetta’s new weapon. During that battle, however, Baron Van and his troops engaged the enemy and defeated a number of wyverns.” Panamera paused and looked around the table. “In other words, until they receive wyvern reinforcements from their home country, it is unlikely they will set foot outside of Scudet.”

The captains nodded. Paula copied them a beat later.

Panamera continued, “Scudet’s location leaves us no means by which to cut off their supply line from Yelenetta. This means that our best, most effective option is to crush them before they can finish resupplying.”

One of the knights spoke up. “If I may?”

“Be my guest.”

The knight, having received permission to speak, glanced at her. “You mentioned that Baron Van was able to eliminate a not insignificant number of wyverns. Captain Paula’s machine bow squad possesses the same equipment and weaponry, correct? In that case, if Yelenetta brought in more wyverns, could we not dispatch them?”

Panamera raised a single eyebrow. She murmured thoughtfully, “You mean that as long as we can defeat the wyverns, we have the advantage, because it’s easier for us to concentrate our forces…” She trailed off, then shrugged and spoke at normal volume. “I believe that the losses Marquis Fertio sustained render our old way of fighting insufficient.” She drew her sword.

“Frankly, our Chivalric Order is weaker than Marquis Fertio’s. Not in terms of skill or quality, but in numbers. The gap between us is large, both for mages and for soldiers.”

She stabbed her sword into the ground, focusing everyone’s attention on it.

“The fortress city was encased in iron walls, protected by the border knights, and supported by Marquis Fertio’s personal Chivalric Order. Yet Yelenetta took it easily.”

Every face in the room turned grim. Seeing this, Panamera drew her sword from the ground.

“The era in which elemental mages could destroy the enemy with brute force ended ten years ago,” she said. “And now the era of introducing mages to the battlefield multi-directionally and intermittently is coming to an end, too.”

One of the knights objected. “Are you implying that Yelenetta holds all the cards…?”

Panamera grinned, sheathing her sword. “Either they hold them, or Baron Van does with his long-range ballistae and catapults,” she said cheerfully.

“Personally, my bet is on Baron Van.”

Everyone’s eyes turned again to Paula. For a moment she was flustered, but she fortified her resolve and sat up straight. “I too believe Lord Van’s weapons to be the strongest. I plan on proving that in the coming battle,” she stated faithfully.

The captain’s eyes widened slightly.

Panamera looked at her, fascinated. “I thought you a bit unreliable at first,” she said under her breath, “but now I see that your heart is strong.”

 

Five days later, Panamera and her forces arrived at Scudet. Shortly thereafter, the personal forces of the king, Marquis Fertio, Count Ventury, and Count Ferdinatto all took up their own roles in the operation.

“Do not break formation. We will lead the wyverns. Proceed with care.” These were the orders given to each of the Chivalric Orders.

Except Panamera’s. She said, “Do not attack. We have one role in this operation: protect the bow squad.”

“Yes, ma’am!” her knights cried. They drew their swords and held them before their faces.

Panamera, every inch the beautiful noblewoman, turned then to Paula and her squad. In a mere ten days, their skills had changed significantly. Their formation was rock solid.

Panamera, gazing at them, began to speak slowly.

“Doubtless you are aware of this, but you are key to this battle. We will risk our lives to guide the wyverns and protect you. In return, I ask you to do everything in your power to eliminate the beasts.”

Paula and her troops nodded deeply, their expressions grim and determined. “Leave them to us,” Paula replied, speaking for her entire squad.

Panamera looked pleased with this response. She cast her gaze to the troops standing behind their captain. “Baron Van lent me half of his bow troops, protectors of his territory. That means that you are highly skilled soldiers in whom Baron Van has utmost faith. He trusts that you will return alive. Be sure to reward that trust by winning and returning home safely.” The look in the squad’s eyes changed as they nodded.

 

Paula

WE KEPT FORMATION AS WHISTLES AND GONGS rang from inside the walls of

Scudet. Nothing could be seen from the outside, but the air seemed to become charged around me.

“Captain, preparations are complete!” one of my troops called.

“Okay, got it,” I called back. “Be ready to move at any time.”

Everybody returned to their posts: two people at each ballista and five at each catapult, ready to fight the moment they heard the signal.

Over the last ten days we had undergone the same kind of harsh training and discipline given to normal Chivalric Orders. I felt like I finally understood what it meant to be a knight, as well as the pride that came with holding such a position. Before, I’d cared only about completing the mission Lord Van gave me. Now, I realized that everything we did would bring glory to Lord Van’s name.

“We can’t lose, guys,” I told my troops. “We definitely can’t let ourselves die, either, but let’s go into this intending to win at all costs.”

“Yes, ma’am!” they shouted back. I turned my back to them and looked

toward the battlefield.

Up ahead at the front lines, from the center of the cavalry, Count Ventury cried, “Onward!” He began to lead the charge toward Scudet’s front gates.

As if they had been waiting for this moment, Yelenetta soldiers began pouring onto the top of the wall. Some of them wielded staffs, and tension gripped Viscount Panamera’s Chivalric Order. Even with our new battle tactics, elemental mages remained a threat. Utilized correctly, a few of them could rival thousands of soldiers.

Reversing his horse’s direction, Count Ventury raised his staff and cried to the heavens. “I shall riddle them with holes! Aqua Bullet!”

An impossible number of water drops gathered at the tip of his staff, turning first into a current and then a vortex. Count Ventury released the water vortex from his staff; it started small but grew larger and larger, eventually ripping through the ground itself to collide with Scudet’s gates with a loud boom.

The wall shook from the collision. Up top, soldiers panicked and crouched in place, trying to avoid being shaken off the wall.

“Follow me! This is our stage!”

“Yessir!”

The cavalrymen raised their staffs in unison, and within seconds their fire, water, wind, and earth magic was flying at the gates. This use of magic was unorthodox, but it worked: Scudet’s mighty gates crumbled to the ground. Even part of the nearby wall collapsed from the impact.

“Oooh!” exclaimed a trooper on the ballista team. I looked over at the group. “Just what you’d expect from Count Ventury’s infamous mage squad! I had no idea he had such first-rate mages…!”

“The ballistae are capable of attacks at this distance,” I reminded my troops, “but do not get ahead of yourselves. Our objective is the wyverns and the wyverns alone.”

They nodded silently.

Viscount Panamera hadn’t told me how the other Chivalric Orders would be operating, but Marquis Fertio and Count Ferdinatto were already on the move. The way their Orders spread out to the left and right resembled a pair of wings; despite the situation in which we found ourselves, the sight was unexpectedly beautiful. Not a single movement among them was wasted, and their form shifted as smoothly as if they were a single organism.

Yelenetta’s forces also began to move. The soldiers atop the wall peeked over its edges, gripping their bows tightly. But then, unexpectedly, a massive shadow appeared beyond the crumbled wall.

Unease rippled across the battlefield. Even at this distance, fear gripped my heart; I could imagine how the frontline soldiers felt.

Reddish-brown, stone-like scales. Four legs as large as tree trunks. Its giant body could barely squeeze through the gates, which were wide enough to easily accommodate a large carriage. Its sharp eyes and fangs embodied malice and savagery.

A dragon. It was a dragon on the battlefield.

“I-impossible!”

“Fall back! Attack with only bows and magic!”

“If you get close, you’ll be crushed!”

Desperate orders flew as the formation, which had sought to surround the fortress city, fell into disarray. It looked as if a wave had run through the formation as soldiers tried to put distance between themselves and the massive beast.

Of course there was panic. Nobody had anticipated doing battle with a dragon. Their equipment was inadequate to the task, never mind their mental readiness. The threat posed by a large dragon was entirely different to that of several smaller wyverns.

Count Ventury’s orders echoed throughout the battlefield. “It has no wings! It must be an earth dragon! Do not stand in front of it or you’ll be blasted by its breath!” Thanks to those orders, the formation didn’t collapse completely—but it hung on only by a thread.

“This is bad,” said Viscount Panamera, audibly frustrated. “If the left and right flanks are attacked now, they’ll be annihilated. Everyone is too focused on the dragon.”

No sooner had she spoken than angry voices echoed from the front lines of the left and right flanks. Those voices came from Marquis Fertio’s and Count Ferdinatto’s Chivalric Orders.

“The dragon is not our only enemy! Only the mages will stall the beast. Everyone else keep your eyes on the archers on the wall and the enemy circling us!”

“We will strengthen our defenses and keep on the move! Guide the beast away from our main forces!”

Each flank began to move independently, responding to the rapidly changing battlefield. Following suit, Count Ventury mobilized his own men. “If the wyverns appear, we will guide them! If Yelenetta’s army appears, we will engage them directly in combat! We will distance ourselves so that we’re available to move at a ​moment’s notice!”

Everyone present was a veteran fighter. Even in unexpected circumstances, following orders was second nature. Before long the dragon was encircled and the archers on the wall kept in check.

“…Hmm, well done indeed,” Panamera said in a low voice, as if to herself. “If this holds up, we will avoid having to withdraw. So…” She turned and approached me. “I have heard that earth dragons are almost as tough as the Zaratan that lives in the sea. No blade can pierce their hard scales, and over a hundred first-rate mages are needed to take them down… At least, that’s what they say. Can these ballistae pierce its scales?”

“I have never tried it myself, but I believe in Lord Van,” I said.

Panamera nodded and looked at the ballistae. “I am usually not the optimistic type, but…” She turned her gaze toward me. “I do as well.” The smirk she offered me was joyous.

 

Yelenetta

RELEASING OUR DRAGON ONTO THE BATTLEFIELD forced the enemy to quickly change its strategies. Still, they only really seemed to be putting distance between themselves and the dragon. Futile as it seemed, they were deliberately using their powerful mages as decoys while their troops surrounded the creature.

I smirked as I watched the chaos unfold below me. “I suppose there are few ways to deal with a dragon, after all.”

We had used an exorbitant number of black balls to slow down the dragon’s movement, then chained its legs. Only then could the marionette mages effectively control it. It was an expensive ordeal, both monetarily and in terms of human lives, in addition to the time it took to enact. If we couldn’t put it to use, all that effort would have been for nothing.

But, as I gazed down on the battlefield, I saw the dragon proving its worth.

The mounted mages were undoubtedly Count Ventury’s. They had destroyed the gates with strong magic in no time. Now they were showering the dragon with blasts of that same magic, but the beast was barely taking any damage at all. If anything, it was Ventury’s forces who were in trouble, cornered and needing aid from the other mages.

“I would have liked to have dispatched the wyverns and finished this in one go, but I cannot afford to let my guard down…” I said to myself.

If this was the same enemy we always faced, our new weapon would bring us a swift and glorious victory. But the last battle had come as something of a surprise. We did take Scudet as planned, in the end, but we suffered far more casualties than we’d anticipated. As a result, I’d dispatched a messenger to our support forces, asking that they expedite our resupply.

Leaving aside Yelenetta’s invasion of the capital city, thanks to my brother and our main military force—should the other two armies occupy their targets without taking significant damage, I would face harsh judgment for what happened in Scudet.

Enraged, I cried, “This is all because of that damned mysterious group of soldiers!” I turned on my heel.

Behind me, my vice commander, Freightliner, glared obstinately at me.

My little brother was a weak man. He had been to battle numerous times, but still served as an aide to myself and my other younger brother. He had no talent with a blade and no aptitude for magic, so perhaps this was unavoidable.

“Freightliner,” I said, “we are going to split our troops. You take the infantrymen and attack from the right flank. Use the black balls to keep them in check and force them toward the dragon. I will take the cavalrymen and do the same from the left flank.”

Freightliner nodded a few times, giving me an inscrutable smile. “Well done, Brother. Our enemies will have to deal with the dragon in the center of the battlefield as well as black ball explosions from both sides. I imagine you will dispatch the wyverns to finish the job?”

His tone and expression were meant to flatter me. Rage boiled up within me at the lack of pride and drive that his adulation revealed. I clicked my tongue. “Fool. Have you already forgotten the last battle? Whether I dispatched the wyverns or had them stand by on the wall, they were killed. Something or someone on the ground beheaded them, and the ones in the sky were shot down with some kind of spear. All dead.”

“Y-you won’t use them? Then what was the point of replacing them?”

“Dragons and wyverns are precious resources. To lose any more would be a massive blunder on our part. They would be best utilized in taking the capital city. We should conserve our forces until the final invasion.”

Freightliner blinked at me as I explained my plan to him. Finally it clicked, and he applauded. “I see, I see! Well done, Brother Buses. So all we need to concern ourselves with now is pushing back the enemy?”

“More foolishness! Our enemy has taken this formation because they fear the dragon. If we surround them and chip away at their forces, it will be an easy victory. I intend to have Marquis Fertio’s head no matter what. And in the ensuing pursuit, we will crush most of their forces.”

“I-I see.” Freightliner showed no indication that he understood my strategy, so his response came off as half-hearted.

“Enough of this! You need only do as I say. Now hurry up and take the men!” I shouted, making Freightliner panic and flee.

 

Fleeing his angry older brother, Freightliner led the cavalrymen into battle as Buses observed coldly from a distance. Then Buses turned to his own troops.

“It is time,” he told them. “If things begin to seem dangerous, use the black balls at your own discretion. We ride!”

Roused by Buses’s battle cry, the troops cried out in return and began their march.

Freightliner, watching his exuberant allies gallop toward the battlefield, sighed, irritated. “Everyone’s getting way too excited over their new toys,” he whispered to himself. “A bunch of idiots, the lot of them.” Then he shrugged and mounted his horse.

As Freightliner left Scudet, he turned his eyes to the battlefield, where

Scuderia’s army was scrambling to keep the dragon at bay with blasts of magic. He whispered to himself again. “It is true that, should things proceed as planned, this will be an excellent opportunity for us… But that one set of troops at the rear still hasn’t moved an inch. The enemy’s new weapons have a narrow focus, which increases their destructive power. It might be a good idea to split their forces up.”

He glanced at the nearby officers, then continued, “Using the black balls on a tight formation would be pointless. We should divide into groups of ten and pursue. We needn’t press them too hard, however. Our forces on the other side will probably lead an all-out chase against the enemy, keeping them from focusing their efforts on us. Let’s just see how this plays out.”

He said this last bit aloud, engendering disapproving glances between the officers. One of the middle-aged knights took it upon himself to speak for the rest of the group. “This is our chance to inflict serious damage on the enemy.”

Freightliner smirked. He summarized his thinking simply and concisely. “I understand why you feel that way. But remember, the enemy revealed new weapons in our last battle. They’ve also unleashed a large number of mages on the battlefield, and historically, those mages have been central to their tactics. With those facts in mind, do you really think this will be an easy fight for us?”

The middle-aged knight groaned. “You are correct, but this is different. In the face of our mighty dragon, their new weapons mean little.”

“Wishful thinking. Imagine if their new weapons had no effect on the dragon. Were it me, I would retreat to terrain where I could effectively draw in the beast and suppress it. After all, sending all my mages up against a dragon would end in my defeat—the enemy would pursue us and we would be forced to retreat. Do you really think Scuderia will fight so stupidly?”

“Hmm… You do make a lot of sense.” The knight thought for a few seconds, then came to a decision. He turned to his men and shouted, “These are direct orders from Lord Freightliner! Split into groups of ten and surround the enemy! Do not exert too much pressure. Pursue slowly and carefully!”

“Yessir!”

His soldiers, highly trained, promptly began to carry out their new orders. Freightliner exhaled in relief and rode away from the battlefield. “All that’s left is knowing when to push and when to fall back.” He narrowed his eyes. “How will this play out…?”

Just like that, the state of the battlefield changed. Freightliner might just as well have signaled for it himself. Yelenetta’s forces surrounded Scuderia’s troops and boxed them in, forcing them toward the dragon. As predicted, they swiftly changed tack, putting distance between themselves and Scudet.

The dragon turned its head away from Scudet and toward Scuderia’s main forces. A loud, vicious boom erupted on the battlefield.

It had come from the dragon.

With blood gushing from both of its eyes, the creature raised its head and cried in pain. This only invited further attack. By the time it fell to its side, flailing wildly, it was bleeding from its neck, chest, and stomach.

Flames leaked from its mouth, directed at Scudet. “Get down!” someone shouted. Freightliner didn’t need to be told twice: he leapt from his horse and hit the ground, and not a second too soon. Flames erupted from the beast’s mouth like magma, blasting away no less than a fifth of Scudet’s wall.

Freightliner clicked his tongue, watching the unfortunate troops atop the wall melt where they stood.

“We’ve lost this battle! Retreat!” someone shouted.

It had taken mere seconds for Freightliner to reach this conclusion. He tried to calm his horse enough to ride it to safety.