Seirei Gensouki, page 6
Could these people be...
It was at this moment that Sara finally caught on to who these assailants could be. Lucci and the others she had previously fought with flashed through her head. “Be careful! These two are fast! They both have enchanted swords. The other intruders might be similarly equipped. Use magic to block the corridor with a barrage of spells!” she shouted at the two female knights.
“R-Right!”
No mercenaries had approached from the direction of the dining hall yet. The two knights who had been protecting their end while watching Sara’s fight nodded firmly.
Meanwhile...
“...”
At the end of the corridor leading to the entrance foyer, Ven and the other mercenaries were silently watching Sara from the shadows.
Fighting indoors as a group was extremely difficult. Weapons that were tricky to handle had the risk of getting caught on walls and furniture, movements had to be minimized as much as possible, and the layout of the building could be used to gain an advantage. All of these factors had to be considered when fighting strategically. As mercenaries that had fought many battles before, they understood this well.
“There’s no need to send everyone here down such a narrow corridor. But they’ll suspect us of something if we don’t send some reinforcements... Two of you go down the corridor and back them up. The remaining three of you will come with me. We might be able to get in from a window outside,” Ven decided immediately.
“Roger that.”
“Let’s get this party started!”
They quickly decided who would stay and who would go outside, then commenced their plan.
“There they are!”
“This way!”
The corridor team yelled loudly to draw Sara’s attention. Then they ran in to help their comrades.
“All right, we should head off too.”
Once he confirmed that, Ven led the remaining three mercenaries outside the mansion.
◇ ◇ ◇
Around the same time, the battle outside the mansion was growing intense.
The trigger was the appearance of Alma’s contract spirit, Ifritah. The beast, which was large enough to fit two or three people on its back, had materialized out of nowhere, so those in the dark about its identity were astounded.
“Grr!”
“Whoa!” The mercenary beside Ifritah recoiled at its appearance. Ifritah used that chance to tackle him, sending him flying. It then proceeded to chase after the man at a speed too fast to follow with the naked eye.
“Grrrah!”
“Oof...” The mercenary that had fallen on his back had his stomach stomped on. Although his body was enhanced by an enchanted sword, it wasn’t a hit that could be withstood safely. The damage to his internal organs was severe enough to render him unconscious.
“What is that monster?!”
The remaining mercenaries stopped attacking Celia’s barrier to focus on Ifritah.
“Grr!”
Ifritah rushed at the next mercenary, but the enemies were more vigilant now that they had lost one of their group. The target of the attack reacted swiftly, distancing himself from Ifritah with quick movements.
“Tch, we’ve gotta deal with this monster first!”
Thus, the main focus of the mercenaries shifted to Ifritah.
“Wh-What is that beast...?”
“Where did it come from?”
“It seems to be attacking the enemy, but...”
Louise and the other knights inside the barrier were equally confused. Only the mercenaries were being attacked so far, but there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be next. It was only natural for them to be wary. The only person other than Alma who knew about Ifritah’s identity was Celia.
“Alma...”
The existence of spirits must not be revealed to anyone. If there was a need to inform someone about them, that person had to be extremely trustworthy. Even if someone was trustworthy, they were not to be informed about spirits without necessity.
These were the rules the elders placed on Sara and the spirit folk girls when they left their village. The spirit folk had long held distrust of humans because of the way they were discriminated against and persecuted by them. That was why the spirit folk departed from the Strahl region before the Divine War commenced, relocating to the depths of the Wilderness. They participated in the Divine War when necessary, but they left Strahl again as soon as it ended.
There were also records of the spirits in the Strahl region moving to the Wilderness with the spirit folk. They had also given up on humans. According to the legends left in the spirit folk village, humans had once used forbidden spells to enslave the spirits.
That was why in modern-day Strahl, spirits were even rarer than enchanted swords. There was literature that mentioned spirits existing in the world at some point, involving powerful secret arts, but it was all lost ancient sorcery now.
No human alive had ever seen a spirit—not even royalty. There were some spirits who still lived in Strahl, but those spirits would never approach humans of their own accord. Even if they did show themselves, they were always mistaken for some kind of animal.
Alma had chosen to expose her spirit in front of humans. Humanoid spirits like Aishia would be assumed human when appearing before others, but Ifritah was a mythical lion beast. It was only natural for others to assume it was a monster—Celia was the only person who knew she had summoned it.
“Tch, what a pain... Did you summon that monster here?”
Lucci hadn’t realized it was a spirit, but he suspected it was serving Alma in some form. He questioned her out loud while crossing weapons with her.
“...”
“The silent treatment? C’mon, it appeared out of nowhere at a time like this and just started attacking us. There’s no way it isn’t your pet! We’ll dispose of it quickly!”
“Do you think I would let you? Hmph.”
Alma swung her mace with all her might, knocking Lucci back bodily. Lucci instantly leaped back, killing his momentum. But Alma was immediately in front of him again, aiming a follow-up strike.
“Tch!”
He clicked his tongue, and darkness flowed out of his black sword.
“Huh?!” Alma was wary of the mysterious darkness coming from the sword. She immediately poured magic essence into her mace, releasing a shock wave of pure light.
“Rah!”
Lucci lunged forward, slamming his sword at Alma’s mace. As a result, light and darkness clashed, offsetting each other.
“Ngh...”
The power of darkness overpowered light, swallowing the shock wave and pushing Alma back.
“I wanted to capture you alive if possible... But this is the way it must be.”
With a grating sound, her mace met his sword. Now that Ifritah had been summoned into the situation, Lucci had no choice but to change his plans.
“You were trying to capture me alive...?” Alma asked dubiously. His wording made her suspect she was part of their goals.
“Heh... Unfortunately for you, I still haven’t got the hang of this sword’s abilities. Don’t blame me if I hit the wrong spot, yeah?” Lucci grinned, pushing his sword back against her mace.
“What are you...” Alma frowned in suspicion, when she suddenly felt an ominous flow of magic essence near her stomach. She looked down reflexively.
But it was already too late. She should have jumped aside as soon as she felt the essence. There was no helping it, though—the attack was impossible to avoid without prior knowledge. Rio was the abnormal exception for being able to deal with such a nasty move at first sight.
“Huh...?” Instead of pain, Alma felt a source of heat. She looked down to see a jet-black sword stabbed through her from behind.
“Move it.” Lucci kicked her mercilessly.
“Aah!” Alma screamed in pain. The kick came from the front while the sword was stabbed into her from behind, so she had been forced backwards onto the sword.
“Oops, my mistake,” Lucci sneered, apologizing mockingly. A moment later, the sword in Alma’s stomach disappeared.
“Urgh...” Alma slumped face-first against the ground.
“Tch. The blood loss will be an annoyance, but at least I didn’t get the heart.” Lucci chose to leave Alma lying there, not bothering to stop her bleeding. Instead, he turned his attention to Celia.
“A-Alma!” Celia shrieked from within the magic barrier.
“Gwaaark!” With its contract master defeated, Ifritah roared furiously. It abandoned the other mercenaries to lunge at Lucci.
“Damn it, leave the monster to me! Bring that barrier down right now!” Now, Lucci had no choice but to face Ifritah.
“Guh...” Alma took that chance to secretly cast healing spirit arts to stop her bleeding.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, inside the mansion, shortly before Alma was stabbed by Lucci...
During times of war, the group holding the castle had to pay particular care to secure their field of view. Holding the castle meant they were protected by the building itself and could hide themselves, but at the same time, it meant their view of any incoming enemies was obstructed.
Defenselessly exposing oneself to incoming enemies by monitoring the outside was a problem, but hiding away out of fear of being discovered wasn’t good either. At worst, it was possible for the approaching enemy to invade without notice.
However, short of constructing forts intended for battle, it was difficult to design buildings with securing a field of view or preventing invasion in mind. Rio’s mansion was constructed with a focus on aesthetics, so it wasn’t suitable for holding during a siege.
Presently, right beside the drawing room where Satsuki and the others were hiding, Ven and his group of mercenaries were sneaking closer. They communicated to each other with hand signs while checking inside each window for their targets.
Then, they hit their jackpot: they could see Miharu and Satsuki inside the room. Farther inside the room was a passage that led to a safe room.
It’s here.
One of the mercenaries signaled with a hand sign. There were a total of four men outside the window, including Ven. They decided on their roles and silently began their invasion.
“Magicae Murum.”
One of the men activated a spell to set a magic barrier in front of them and started charging towards the window.
“Haaah!” Latifa, who had been hiding in the corner of the ceiling above the window, fired a ball of magic essence at the unguarded mercenary’s head.
“Wha?!” Taking an attack to the head was enough for even a physically enhanced body to fall unconscious. The first mercenary who entered collapsed to the floor. However, they had accounted for the possibility of an ambush. Seeing one of their men go down wasn’t enough to shake the others outside, and they responded rapidly.
“Above the window!”
“Photon Projectilis!”
One of the mercenaries aimed above the window, hoping to eliminate Latifa from the other side of the wall.
“Aah!” Latifa backed away from the window immediately. She spun midair and landed on the floor.
“The enemy’s here! Miharu, go back into the room!”
“R-Right!”
At Satsuki’s order, Miharu promptly headed for the safe room.
Satsuki’s side was naturally aware of the possibility of an outside attack. They could have all hidden in the safe room to remove the risk of being spotted from the window, but there was no way of hiding the passage to the safe room itself. Considering the likelihood of the enemy coming inside to check, they decided to set a trap. Miharu had been placed in the drawing room on purpose, to act as though they were defenseless.
“Next!”
“Magicae Murum!”
Another mercenary cast a magic barrier, attempting to enter again.
“I won’t let you!”
However, Satsuki was waiting with her Divine Arms. She fired a wind bullet of materialized magic essence from the end of her spear, hitting the barrier of the mercenary at the front.
“Whoa!” The mercenary who received the attack was sent flying several meters back out of the mansion.
“Get inside!” Ven and the remaining mercenary entered the room.
“Haaah!” The first to move was Latifa. With daggers in both hands, she leaped at one of the invading men.
“Tsk. Whoa, there...”
The mercenary immediately lifted his sword to take Latifa’s attack. She followed up with several swings of her daggers, but they were all parried away.
“...”
Latifa retreated with a light step, putting one meter of distance between herself and the man. Her expression was stiff, and her hands clutching the daggers were trembling.
“She’s fast, but...” The mercenary instantly perceived that she either had little experience when it came to killing another person, or felt some kind of aversion to it.
“Don’t let your guards down. She’s stronger than the knights outside,” Ven warned his men as he faced Satsuki.
“I know. But who’s the target?” The man facing Latifa no longer looked like he was underestimating her.
“Any of the ones at the back will do. These ones will just get in the way, so eliminate them.”
“Roger that.”
Having exchanged the necessary information, Ven and his men prepared for battle.
“Barging into someone’s home like this...” Satsuki muttered, her body trembling.
Ven furrowed his brow. “Huh?”
“...means you’re willing to be treated as intruders, right? This is justified self-defense!”
“Huh? What are you... Whoa!”
Satsuki suddenly accelerated, closing in on Ven. She then swung her spear with all her might. Ven reflexively went to block the spear with his sword.
“Haaah!” Satsuki swung her spear through, knocking Ven away bodily. In response to her anger, her Divine Arms boosted her physical body far more than an imitation enchanted sword.
“Ngh...” Ven was blown backwards with great force. He crashed into the window and toppled outside of the mansion.
“Are you serious...? Hey, Ven, you okay?!” the remaining mercenary in the room yelled.
“Y-Yeah!” Ven staggered to his feet and yelled back. He had received some damage, but he was fortunate enough to block most of the attack itself with his sword. As he was rolling backwards, he was able to adjust his landing to fall safely.
“Get out of here already!”
Satsuki charged at the remaining mercenary in the room.
“Tch.”
The man seemed to realize there was no good in remaining in the room. He retreated through the window.
“I won’t let you get away!” Satsuki chased him out the window.
“W-Wow, Satsuki...”
Latifa was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. But she soon snapped to her senses and rushed over to the window to check on the situation.
Ifritah’s out in the open! A-Alma!
She must have realized Ifritah was going wild from the sound of its roars. Latifa watched on as Ifritah lunged at Lucci, while Louise ran with Alma in her arms.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, far above in the skies where no griffin could reach, Reiss manipulated bullets of light to provide support to Arein and the others on the ground as he observed the battle. Although he could control their trajectories, he was quite a distance away from his targets. His accuracy was low, but it was enough to keep the kingdom’s aerial knights back.
I knew there was a bird mid-class spirit here, but I hadn’t expected any others... They must be demi-humans of the Wilderness after all, Reiss thought, guessing Alma’s identity. He had previously seen a bird mid-class spirit patrolling the area when Rio was escorting Christina to Rodania.
Giving that sword to Lucci was the right decision. That sword is great against spirits. It should be able to take on a mid-class one easily. Though he seems to be struggling... And I don’t see the other two outside either.
The “other two” that Reiss was thinking of were Sara and Orphia. If Alma was contracted to a mid-class spirit, it made sense that one of the other two was contracted to the bird spirit.
If two of them are contracted to mid-class spirits, then the third is likely to have one as well... I could deal with the bird one if it appeared in the sky, but another mid-class spirit on the ground would be troublesome.
With one of them materialized with no regard for the human witnesses, it wouldn’t be strange for the other two to appear at any moment. Reiss hummed in thought as he focused on the movements taking place near the mansion.
The Heavenly Lions were all experienced fighters. They didn’t have any secret abilities, but they were all equipped with imitation enchanted swords that could enhance their physical bodies, an effect stronger than magic. They had enough strength to take on a mid-class spirit as a group. Most importantly, they were here to avenge Lucius, making their movements sharper than ever.
However, although the two most dangerous people—Rio and Aishia—weren’t here, the people around Rio were formidable as well. A hidden weapon had just appeared outside the mansion in the form of a mid-class spirit, and Ven’s group had gone through a window just moments ago, but was promptly chased back out. The situation everywhere was changing by the moment.
There’s a spirit’s presence outside the capital? This is...the second mid-class spirit? But why is it outside?
Reiss redirected his attention from Rio’s mansion below to the edge of the royal capital. Then, he cast his gaze over to the mountainous region a few kilometers away from the capital, where he saw a huge bird several meters in size flying.
Things involving this boy never go according to plan... I’ll have no choice but to use my trump card. That, and a number of the revenants remaining on the ground...
Reiss returned his gaze to Arein and the others below, ceasing his support fire to hold his hand at the ground instead. But nothing visible happened. After a few seconds of maintaining that pose, Reiss began to fly towards the outskirts of the capital.
Moments later, the remaining revenants on the ground all started charging for Rio’s mansion at once.
