NO ONE COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED THE FEROCITY of Yelenetta’s invasion.

Our scouts reported that the border’s smallest towns and villages were gone, taken over like they were nothing, and that the army was closing in on the castle city—the largest and most populous nearby settlement. I had to get there as fast as possible.

Only one more hill to cross, and then I would be able to see the castle city. I was teeming with a mixture of concern, hope, and dread as we ascended. From beyond the hill, I heard terrified screams and the clatter of objects colliding.

I could hold myself back no longer. “Mother?!” I cried, leaping from the carriage, barely holding back a flood of tears. I threaded my way through the group of adventurers, getting ahead of them.

Somebody tried to stop me—“Lady Arte!”—but I paid them no mind. I dashed past them and up the hill. When I crested its peak, I found the ruins of the castle city laid bare before me.

Black smoke billowed into the air. Part of the wall had collapsed into rubble. More than ten thousand troops were in the vicinity and five wyverns circled in the sky, dropping their payloads down into the city below to create pillars of fire.

“Lady Arte!” Ortho exclaimed. He put his hands on my shoulders, steadying me before my legs could collapse under me. “It looks like the wall only just fell!

We can still make it in time!” I gasped and began to sob.

“Lady Arte, listen to me! There is no time! Please give us our orders! We might still be able to do something!”

Hearing these desperate pleas, I managed to regain some of my composure.

Not much, but enough. I grabbed Ortho’s arm with both hands and lifted my head. “I cannot do that. The enemy must be driven back by a member of House Ferdinatto. Everyone, prepare the ballistae! I know this is not the optimal spot for a surprise attack, but please lend me your strength! Please save my home!”

My cries were desperate and unsightly tears streamed down my cheeks. This was no way for a count’s daughter to behave, but when I gave words to the emotions threatening to burst out of me, the adventurers raised their arms and roared.

“Leave it to us!”

“Ain’t no way we can ignore a request from Lady Arte!”

“Yahoo! Time to show those Yelenetta bastards what adventurers can do!” Their words only made me sob harder. “Thank you! Thank you!”

 

House Ferdinatto

WE RECEIVED A REPORT FROM ONE OF THE messengers: a neighboring town had been attacked. It was impossible to push back the enemy with the town’s remaining knights, so we evacuated the citizens to the castle city.

The enemy was Yelenetta, but this was nothing like the small skirmishes we’d had with them in the past. They were keeping the pillaging to a minimum and taking over the towns and villages en route instead, stopping briefly to rest before continuing directly toward our city. Given the speed of their invasion, their true objective was clear to me.

“I cannot believe it. Their invasion of Scudet was a mere diversion…” I whispered to myself, looking outside from my vantage point in the lord’s hall. Black smoke billowed into the sky, the citizens’ cries echoed throughout the city, and armored soldiers ran through the hallways. The sounds of those soldiers’ movements were almost enough to convince me that the battle had already breached the castle.

Twenty years had passed since my betrothal to the current lord, Berriat. How often had I imagined these exact events transpiring in the intervening years? As the daughter of a viscount and a member of the nobility, I had thought myself prepared for this eventuality, but faced with it at last, I found myself overcome with fear and concern.

This was terrifying.

How would I die? My son was with my husband. I had two daughters, both betrothed. It could be said that I had fulfilled my duty as a noblewoman. But that did not mean I accepted death.

“M-Mother…!” My twelve-year-old daughter grabbed the hem of my dress. Her voice trembled. She must have sensed the fear in my heart.

I grabbed her shoulders and glared down at her. “Do not cry! When the time comes, I shall make it appear as though you took your own life. It will be known that you died a true, noble death. You have nothing to fear.”

A pitiable expression crossed her face, but she nodded slightly. Gentle tears began to fall down her cheeks.

“Had I known this would happen, I would have married you off as soon as possible, and not bothered with the long engagement…” I whispered. My plan had been for her to go through bridal training until the age of fifteen, so that I could see her off as a proper noblewoman. How could I have known she would never reach that age?

There was no point in lamenting what had passed. I must at least die a noble death. My final job is to die with grace, in a way that causes no hardship for House Ferdinatto or my home. The words with which I’d rebuked my daughter applied to me too.

Outside the window, the wyverns circled over the city. The screams gradually grew louder as chaos approached us. “I remained disciplined as a noblewoman, as the wife of a count. I did nothing wrong,” I told myself quietly. “Nothing.”

“M-Mother…?”

My daughter gazed at me with concern in her eyes. It reminded me of my youngest daughter, who I had decided to pretend never existed. “…Arte,” I whispered, closing my eyes.

I did everything I could to be a perfect wife. To not bring shame upon myself. I steeled myself when I raised my first and second sons. I steeled myself when my first and second daughters were engaged to their future husbands. And then I learned of Arte’s magic aptitude.

It was as if a thread within me snapped. Everything I had done for twenty years as a count’s wife was destroyed in a single moment by my youngest daughter. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. So I decided I did not have a youngest daughter.

But now, at death’s door, I realized that I had been foolish. I had allowed myself to be chained by the rules of noble society. I was so concerned about my reputation as a noblewoman that I closed Arte in her room and refused to ever see her.

I was certain she cursed the very ground I walked on, but I hoped she was well. We’d sent her off to a worthless little village in the middle of nowhere, a place with no strategic value to the enemy. She would probably outlive us all.

“Such hypocrisy. I have no right to wish for such things.” I shook my head. Then I heard a soldier running toward the lord’s hall.

The door crashed open and an older soldier looked at me. “Rreinforcements!” he said. “They’re few in number, but they’re powerful!”

I whirled to look out the window. Outside, one of the wyverns was under attack by something; it was losing balance. It folded its wings forward, making its body smaller, then fell to the ground like a puppet that had lost its strings.

“Wind mages? How powerful must they be, to have taken down a wyvern in one strike?!” I shouted, astonished by what I had seen. When I turned back to the soldier, I found him wearing a complex expression.

“W-we do not know, but we have confirmed that they are flying House Ferdinatto’s crest! But we also know for certain that they are not one of the house’s Chivalric Orders!”

“Wh-what does that mean? It isn’t my husband?” I demanded. Nobody could answer me.

Did someone out there possess foreknowledge of House Ferdinatto’s plight?

Had they chosen to come and save us?

Despite the confusion and doubt spiraling within me, I brought my hands together and began to pray.

 

House Ferdinatto’s Army Commander

I COULD HARDLY BELIEVE WHAT TRANSPIRED BEFORE me. I had been stunned to see wyverns in the sky soon after we spotted Yelenetta’s banners, but that was nothing compared to seeing those wyverns drop to the ground, one right after the other.

I had no idea what was happening. I thought I heard a sharp sound, like something slicing the air, followed by a loud boom, and then the wyverns began to act strangely. Then they fell.

They were under attack. By someone. Something. That much I understood, but who was the attacker? The men thought it was a first-rate wind mage, but that didn’t appear to be the case, and this wasn’t the work of an earth mage either.

“Commander!” one of my troops yelled. “Yelenetta’s troops have stopped moving!”

Another said, “The wyverns have been annihilated! All that’s left are the fifteen thousand infantrymen!”

The reports were coming fast and hard. I still couldn’t make sense of them, but I had no doubt the enemy was just as confused by the sudden appearance of reinforcements. We couldn’t afford to take our eyes off of the prize.

“Pay careful attention to the enemy’s movements and strengthen our defenses at once!” I ordered. “Our reinforcements are few in number! If they’re a squad of mages, they’ll be screwed if the enemy gets in close! If Yelenetta turns their backs on us, crush them from behind immediately!”

The soldiers responded in the affirmative and took their positions. Prior to the arrival of the reinforcements, we had been at a clear, near-insurmountable disadvantage, but at long last there was light at the end of the tunnel, and the troops were more driven than ever. With the threat in the sky taken care of, I could order my soldiers to charge from the front and expect them to act on it immediately. At first I had stationed all of the heavy infantry at the broken wall, but now I ordered the cavalrymen to take up positions behind them.

Castle sieges typically lasted months at a time, and reinforcements were the key to victory. Given that, as well as the power of our newly arrived backup, Yelenetta would take one of two courses of action: move in to crush the reinforcements, or retreat.

My primary concern was the portion of the wall that had been destroyed. If Yelenetta’s forces were confident in their ability to break through our defenses, they might march right through that hole. I climbed to the top of the wall, hoping to get a better vantage point from which to assess our situation, and reminded myself that we needed to consider either possibility.

It was then that a new report reached my ears. “Commander! Yelenetta’s forces have split into two groups!”

“What?!” I sprinted to the edge of the wall and peeked out through the antiarrow fencing. He was right. They had split into two groups, respectively ten thousand and five thousand strong—but what shocked me the most was that the larger group was heading for the hill upon which our reinforcements stood.

Had they decided that they only needed five thousand men to take the city?

“Don’t you dare underestimate us, you rat bastards!” I yelled, shaking with fury. Then I turned to my troops. “Listen well, swords of Ferdinatto! The enemy underestimates us! They think they can destroy us with a paltry five thousand men! Are we that weak? Answer me! Is our Chivalric Order that weak?!”

The expressions on their faces transformed to fury, then determination. I felt power emanating from the hand in which I gripped my sword.

The biggest problem facing us was the mysterious magical tool that had proven capable of destroying the wall. That weapon was still in the enemy’s possession. It would be foolhardy in the extreme to charge in without a plan.

I shouted orders to the archers on the wall: “Shower them with arrows. Do not hesitate!” Then, turning to my cavalrymen, I said, “We’ll pass the heavy infantrymen and charge the enemy. They won’t see us coming! But be sure not to strike them from the front. Remember, they destroyed the wall with some kind of projectile weapon, so we must corral them as quickly as possible. Based on their actions so far, their projectile supply must be limited! Make them waste what they have left!”

The men drew their swords and shouted affirmation. It was time to strike back.

“Heavy infantry, open the eastern bank! Western bank, prepare your shields and step back! Draw the enemy in!”

The goal was for our men to lead the enemy into a position that was more advantageous for us. Judging by the tactics they had used, Yelenetta’s commander was not experienced in combat. The state of the battlefield suggested that they were fatally slow at making decisions.

It was clear to me that without their wyverns or strange new weapons, they stood no chance against us.

I watched the cavalrymen ride off, then turned my gaze back to the battlefield. The enemy’s larger group was approaching our reinforcements head-on. Our reinforcements were countering with the same weapon that took down the wyverns, but this time it had little effect.

The enemy should have retreated after we broke through their formation of five thousand troops. They had lost both their main fighting force and their opportunity to take the city they were targeting. Pressing on was pointless.

But their commander had yet to issue the retreat command. I couldn’t understand it, and I had not expected it.

“The enemy is stupider than we anticipated!” I shouted. “Their morale can’t get any lower! We’ll leave a skeleton crew here and pursue them! If they still don’t pull back, you have my permission to run them through with your spears!”

I tried to hide my impatience, but it was probably obvious from how quickly I spoke. The most important thing was to save the men and women who’d come to our aid. My troops knew that and, shouting their acknowledgment, charged off in pursuit of the enemy. The ground beneath them shook as the enemy’s weapons detonated, but they heeded it not, striking furiously with their swords.

But then, unexpectedly, the tide turned against us. The cavalrymen’s horses stopped, spooked by the loud explosions. Our infantrymen lagged behind: they wouldn’t make it in time. Our mages were out of magic energy, and the enemy was way out of our archers’ range.

“Damn it all! They’ll crush our reinforcements! There must be something we can do!” I stared at the battlefield, my mind racing. The enemy was closing in on our saviors. There was no time left. Angling my horse toward them, I shouted, “Men, we need to back our reinforcements up! Try to keep their casualties to a minimum!”

But then the archers atop the wall began to stir.

“What? What is it?!” I yelled, awash with dread. Are they already…?!

The scene that unfolded before me looked almost like a twisted joke. Human beings were flung like dolls in every direction. Yelenetta’s armored soldiers were being batted away by what appeared to be a giant club.

Every few moments, the battlefield would echo with the sound of something slicing the air, and more soldiers would go flying. Whatever this was, it was not a normal attack.

“What the…?! Is it some sort of magic?!”

“No! There are two armored individuals moving strangely! They’re racing through the enemy formation!”

“What?!” I rode up the hill. At the top, my eyes settled on two large silver warriors swinging huge swords through the enemy’s ranks. As for why I was able to spot them amidst the enemy’s massive army… As reported, they were moving strangely.

Despite wielding swords as long as they were tall, the silver warriors leapt easily over the enemy and dashed through the crowded battlefield as if it were something they did every day. They showed no signs of slowing down, not even when they were hit by swords, spears, and arrows.

Everyone present, myself included, was in awe of their heroic deeds.

Yelenetta’s army fell into disarray; the foes they’d expected to handily crush at close range were tearing them apart. Their formation was in shambles and soldiers were fleeing in all directions.

Within ten minutes, Yelenetta’s army collapsed. They were annihilated.

 

Arte

“LADY ARTE! THIS IS BAD! THEIR MAIN FORCES ARE headed this way!”

“U-understood! There are no wyverns left, correct?!”

“That was the last one! The enemy’s changing course to take us down first!”

“We shouldn’t take their knights head-on, right?”

I placed a hand on my chest, trying to calm my racing heartbeat as I received reports from the adventurers. When I looked up, all I could see was the approaching enemy army. I wanted to cover my ears, which were blasted by their battle cries and their footsteps as they stomped in time.

“We will intercept the enemy!” I declared. “The confrontation will depend on our ballistae and machine bows! Everyone else, raise your shields and focus on defending our troops!”

“Yes, ma’am!” the men shouted.

Everyone listened to my words and did as I instructed. Instructions from someone like me… I was truly grateful.

“Lady Arte, should we delay the enemy with our magic?” Pluriel asked, checking in with me.

I nodded, turning to look at the approaching enemy once more. “Can you freeze their feet? If we can force them to stop in place…”

“The range will be limited, but we should be able to freeze the area in front of us. It’s not gonna last long against a group that large, though.”

“Please do so!” I replied, bowing my head. “If we can stop them for even an instant…!”

Pluriel nodded. Her smile looked pained. “And here I thought Lord Van was surprising. I swear, my impression of you nobles has been changing quite a bit recently,” she said in a low voice. Then she

turned to Ortho and the others. “Everyone, let’s do what we can to stop them in their tracks. If they get too close, we’re done for.”

“If our arrows can hit them, their arrows can hit us! There’s only so much we can do to stall them!”

“If only we had brought Sir Esparda with us…”

“Don’t ask for the impossible.”

Perhaps driven by their apprehension, the adventurers quickly began their preparations.

I wasn’t Lord Van. I lacked strategic skill, and I couldn’t stop myself from trembling.

So I had to do everything in my power to win. “Ortho! Please take command!”

“S-sure,” Ortho said, sounding surprised. “I can do that. But what are you planning?”

“I’m heading to the front lines!”

“Huh?!”

I turned away from him and looked up at the carriage nearby. In the driver’s seat was a member of Lord Van’s machine bow squad. “I need access to the puppets!” I called to him.

He smiled and opened up the wall of the carriage. “Understood! Which ones will you use?”

Resting in the back of the vehicle was a mithril puppet, but it required too much magic to operate. I wouldn’t be able to fight for very long if I chose that one. Next to it was a puppet made from wood blocks, clad in either iron or mithril armor; I could control this one for much, much longer. I could even wield two at once, though if I did that their movements would not be graceful.

“I’ll take two of these puppets! Please make their weapons as long as possible.”

“Two at once? Long weapons…” the man said, sounding thoughtful. “We have these long swords.”

I quickly thanked the surprised man and activated my magic. The two puppets moved a little more awkwardly than usual, but I managed to get them to equip their weapons and descend from the carriage.

“Thank you for your aid,” I said to the puppets. They gripped their swords and saluted me.

The man in the coach watched, looking stunned. I felt my face turn bright red. How embarrassing. He saw me speaking to my puppets…

“I’m off!” I turned on my heel and hurriedly led my puppets to the front of our formation, where I had a great view of the battlefield.

“Lady Arte!” Ortho appeared at my side, then glanced at the puppets behind me. “Now I get it. These ladies are headed to the front lines, right?”

“Correct!”

I got to work controlling the puppets then. They raised their swords and split off in opposite directions, one to the left and one to the right, disappearing into the enemy formation.

“Tear the enemy apart, my Aventador Doll Silver Knights!”

 

Yelenetta

A TENSE ATMOSPHERE GRIPPED THE INFANTRYMEN as they marched, their large shields raised. After all, the enemy they targeted was almost certainly a squad of mages. Two clashing groups of infantrymen were terrifying enough, but nothing was quite as frightening as being attacked at range by high-tier magic.

One might survive against regular foot soldiers, archers, and knights with a bit of luck, but magic was different. If you found yourself on the wrong end of a high-tier fire spell, there was nothing for it: you would burn to death. It all came down to whether you could reach the enemy before that happened.

That was why the infantrymen, who saw how quickly the wyverns were neutralized, were tense as they approached the enemy forces at the top of the hill.

One among their number spotted something strange. “The enemy is approaching!” he cried in a bewildered tone. “Alone?!”

“Without even a horse? That’s impossible!”

“Is it a diversion?”

Despite their confusion, the soldiers raised their shields and spears. The commanders doubted their reports, but one raised a hand and issued orders regardless. “They are foolish to charge at us alone! Vanguard, impale them with your spears. Rear guard, be ready for any bow or magic attacks. They are trying to slow us down!”

The soldiers hastily prepared to comply. Without context, the two silverarmored knights certainly looked like diversions. It was a known tactic in open combat, and not an uncommon one: two easy-to-spot soldiers would charge erratically into enemy ranks, causing confusion that would provide an opening for their mages’ magic attacks.

But what the enemy truly intended with their strange knights could never have been anticipated.

The instant the silver-clad knight smashed into the wall of spears, it was Yelenetta’s soldiers and their heavy shields that went flying. The impact made a sound similar to that of a battering ram colliding with another object at high speed. The way the soldiers were blown away was almost comical.

Both sides of Yelenetta’s army stopped in their tracks. They could not believe their eyes.

“Stop them!”

“What happened to the mages?!”

The commanders tried everything they could to stop the silver-clad knights. The soldiers who would have to do battle with them weren’t exactly thrilled with their orders, but they nonetheless steeled their resolve and thrust out their spears. Their weapons bent in half on impact with the enemy. When they tried to block sword strikes with their shields, those shields were split in half.

“Th-they’re monsters!”

“Damn it! They’re coming this way!”

“Out of the way! There’s no way we can stop them!”

One commander clenched his jaw against terrified screams filling the battlefield. Cold sweat drenched his body. “This is no war. This is a massacre at the hands of just two people.”

As he finished speaking, a slicing sound filled the air. It was followed by an earth-shaking boom. A hole opened up in his chest, his armor having been pierced as if it were paper.

The commander’s death was instantaneous. All will to fight drained from the soldiers who watched, horrified, as his body fell lifelessly from his horse.

“Damn it all! Let’s get the hell out of here!” one soldier shouted.

“You idiot, don’t push me!”

“Get out of the way, you bastard!”

These screams marked the end for Yelenetta’s army. It no longer functioned as a military force. When Arte’s team noticed this, they changed tactics: where before they were stalling, now they attacked with

magic, machine bows, and ballistae.

The silver knights continued to cut their way through the enemy, only now they had long-range support. Yelenetta’s army was done for.

Exultant cheers rang from the top of the hill as the enemy fled, scattering like rats.

 

Arte

“ARE YOU REALLY OKAY WITH NOT SEEING YOUR mother?” Ortho asked.

I gave him a pained smile. “If I went home, it would only cause problems.”

He gazed at the carriage trailing us with a complicated look on his face. It had no hanging, and two beat-down puppets rested atop it. Their armor had been mostly peeled off, making them look completely different, and their bodies were covered in scars.

Ortho sighed. “It was thanks to those puppets and ballistae that we were able to save the city. Wouldn’t your people be pleased if they learned that it was you, the lord’s daughter, who came to their aid? I’m sure even your parents would…”

“I doubt that. Mother abhorred my marionette magic… The only one who accepted my skills was Lord Van.” I cast my gaze down at the ground, and Ortho went quiet.

I genuinely did not believe that returning home would make anyone happy. I was satisfied with having flown House Ferdinatto’s crest and pushed back the enemy. I had achieved my objective.

“Now then, let us return home,” I said in a happier voice. “Lord Van is waiting, and as far as I am concerned, next to him is where I belong now.”

Ortho blinked at me several times, then began to laugh a jubilant laugh. “Is that so? Well, if you’re fine with it, then so am I. Time to report back to Lord

Van! He’ll probably celebrate with a barbeque.”

“Hee hee! Indeed! I cannot wait.”

With that, it was time to head home. Interestingly, I felt that a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. All the guilt I felt toward my mother, my selfhatred, my very reason for being… I felt so much lighter.

Some part of me did still want to see my mother. I wanted her to praise me. But mostly, I wanted to see Lord Van. I wanted to tell him that I’d done my best, that I’d accomplished my goal. And so, I headed straight for Seatoh Village without turning back.

 

Ferdinatto

A MYSTERIOUS ALLY HAD CRUSHED YELENETTA’S army, waving the crest of House

Ferdinatto, and then vanished into thin air. When reports of this arrived, the castle exploded in an uproar. All throughout the castle, knights, stewards, and maids were abuzz over the topic.

“Who in the world were they?”

“Perhaps a nearby territory wishing to join our faction?”

“Foolishness. They took down Yelenetta’s massive army and their wyverns.

That is not something that could be accomplished by just anyone.”

Elsewhere, Arte’s mother and older sister stared out the window in a daze. They understood that it was a miracle to still be alive.

Eventually, Arte’s sister opened her mouth and whispered, “Who could have saved us…?”

Arte’s mother continued to gaze out the window and did not answer. Part of the castle wall had collapsed, and black smoke still rose into the air. This was a far cry from the peaceful city it had been.

A knight who’d witnessed the retreating allied forces arrived to deliver a report. “Approximately one thousand members of the Chivalric Order who were dispatched to defend the city have perished. A further fifteen hundred sustained heavy injuries. Miraculously, however, we believe that civilian casualties were minimal.”

“I see…”

The knight saluted and started to leave the room, prompting Arte’s older sister to turn around. “Don’t we know anything about the allied forces?” she asked.

The knight stopped, appearing to hesitate. Eventually, he faced Arte’s mother. “We currently know four things. The first is that they flew House Ferdinatto’s crest. The second is that their armor and equipment had no uniformity. The third is that they vanished in the direction of Marquis Fertio’s territory. And the last…”

Arte’s mother turned her gaze from the window and gave the knight a sidelong glance.

“…The fourth thing we know is that the person who appeared to be commanding from horseback at the vanguard was a young girl with white hair.

That is all.”

The last part of the report made Arte’s mother’s shoulders tremble. She looked back out the window. “That’s…impossible…” she whispered, her voice unsteady.

She said no more. Arte’s older sister looked quietly at her back, not saying a word either.