The Doomed Fief’s Dying Lord (32)

As the endless armchair strategizing went on for minutes, Ronari’s patience finally ran out.

“The Barni unit must move immediately! No, they should have moved long ago! Officer, aren’t you just afraid the headquarters will be attacked?”

“Have you finished speaking now!?”

-Thud!

The young officer slammed his fist down onto the operation map.

But Ronari did not back down at all.

“The tactic I proposed at first was a depth breakthrough. Even if the Arenta unit gets pushed back a bit, as long as the energized Astrier unit can punch through the enemy’s thin line and penetrate, that’s enough.”

“Then shouldn’t you just do that!”

At the young officer’s reply, Ronari tore at her hair in frustration.

It’s so frustrating, really! So frustrating…!

“I’m telling you because the Astrier unit alone isn’t enough. The enemy has more numbers than expected. The deeper we push into their lines, the more they’ll naturally be!”

“This is the lord’s force. If it’s the lord, he’ll surely manage the troops well and achieve the objective!”

‘Ah, he really won’t listen!’

“I know the lord’s mercenary tactics are good. But the Astrier unit has been digging in for nearly an hour now! Even superhumans would be exhausted to the point of collapse. Yet we’re just keeping the reserves waiting because we’re afraid the main base will be attacked!”

The older officers were taken aback by this side of Ronari.

‘Why is she acting like this all of a sudden?’

It must have seemed strange to them.

Their usually mild-mannered staff officer was causing such an uproar.

But Ronari couldn’t help it either.

‘What can I do, I have to shout. There’s no one here to back me up right now!’

Pietro had just gone out to support the Arenta unit,

Alejandro had gone to command the Astrier unit in the first place,

and Shane… was probably resting.

Pushing her opinion alone without them was overwhelming.

“You are merely an adviser in an improvised post. I will not tolerate any more insubordination.”

“I see…”

Ronari lowered her head at the table.

After the long meeting she realized something.

The real variable wasn’t the battlefield but here.

‘What to do! What to do! What to do!’

She had to do something!

She quickly looked around.

She looked for her grandfather but he wasn’t there.

Pietro had left earlier. Right.

‘Damn!’

Then something caught Ronari’s eye.

A few horses tied to a tree.

They had been prepared for the liaison officers.

Whether aware of the battlefield’s urgency or not, the horses were leisurely picking up fallen fruit and eating.

Seeing that suddenly cleared her head.

“…Fine. It’s fine.”

She looked at the other officers.

“I’m leaving here.”

“What did you say?”

“You may have a point. You might actually be right. But I don’t think so.”

“Are you still thinking of mutiny!? Ronari, strategy analyst!”

Ronari smirked at that title.

“Strategy analyst. Yes, that’s right. I am the strategy analyst. An improvised honorary post. But I have never mutinied. I don’t have the right to mutiny. I have no rights or responsibilities over the Denabi corps, including you. So there can’t be any mutiny in the first place.”

“What…?”

“So whatever happens from now on, it will be neither an overreach nor a mutiny.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Ronari ran toward the horses.

She stepped on the stirrup and vaulted into the saddle.

She was surprised at herself.

Was I this nimble?

“Ronari!”

“Giddyup!”

She kicked the horse’s belly.

The horse began to run.

The officers’ voices grew more distant.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

The wind was refreshing.

“Ha-hah!”

Only now did Ronari begin to understand.

She had wondered what Shane’s habitual saying meant.

‘It’s meant to be used at times like this.’

“What can you do to me! Ahahaha!”

What could they do.

Other officers would probably chase after her to stop her.

But no matter how fast she rode, Ronari had no pursuers.

“What the?”

While Ronari said that, the staff had already forgotten all about her.

The young officer muttered.

“They’re already here?”

“Ughhh…!”

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

It hurts!

Was Guan Yu like this when scraping poison from his bones?

I was taught that if you’re going to say it hurts, it’s polite to explain why beforehand.

Honestly, I didn’t have the luxury of manners.

I was stabbing the Mana crystal protruding from my arm with an awl.

Clearly it’s just a Mana crystal, so even if I scraped it with an awl I shouldn’t feel anything.

But a pain as if raw flesh were being torn came.

My bitten lip felt like it would split.

I couldn’t bear it and threw the awl away.

-Ting! Clatter

“Ugh…! Gasp… Huff…”

‘Damn! I can’t do this!’

Normally that’s what I would have shouted.

But now it didn’t seem like it.

I was completely drained and had no strength to scream.

It’s the first time. This kind of pain.

I wiped the cold sweat from the back of my hand.

Then I picked up the awl again.

The book I was looking at had a magic circle drawn in it.

The pattern was truly complicated.

“Damn it… Couldn’t they have just drawn it cutely as a star shape or something, ma’am…?”

-Ughhhhh…!

Are those sounds even coming from my mouth?

I couldn’t tell properly.

My mind was that scrambled.

But even so, I had to maintain concentration.

If I got the shape of the engraved magic circle wrong, it would all be for nothing.

But why was I doing this ridiculous thing?

‘Because obviously this is how you use magic! Aaaaargh!’

First, I decided to temporarily forget the details surrounding Beatrice’s death.

Anyway, what matters now!

Magic. Magic.

From Beatrice’s magic research I drew the following conclusion.

‘That Mana crystals sprouting on the body help with using magic.’

They allow you to omit magic tools, magical knowledge, casting rituals, and so on.

But does that mean I can use magic right away?

No, it doesn’t.

I know nothing about magic.

In the original story I saw some magic being used.

But that original novel wasn’t a magic manual, was it?

So I pondered.

How could I use magic with the minimal amount of magical knowledge?

I leafed through Beatrice’s papers.

But surprisingly, there was an answer for me.

It was this very procedure.

Engraving magic into the Mana crystals inside the body.

Like inscribing a spell onto a magic scroll, you carve the spell into your body.

‘What, it’s easy! I should try it right away!’

…I thought.

Why did I think that way?

Hehe.

“Aaaaargh!”

I never imagined it would be such agony.

How should I describe it?

It’s like I’m a statue and a sculptor is carving my body into something else.

“…Aaaah!”

-Ting-ti-ding

I dropped the awl again.

The hand holding the awl trembled.

‘Mana crystallization isn’t called “-ization” for nothing.’

What does that mean?

Mana crystals aren’t just things that pierce the body and sprout out.

They seem to replace the diseased part of the body with Mana crystal.

So I’m literally carving part of my own body away.

Otherwise there’s no way to explain this pain.

“I really should respec the tech tree. Rely on talent, easy-mode domain clearing…”

This magic-learning tree.

Should I just scrap it for real?

I was seized by that impulse.

“If it’s a domain novel… huh? Shouldn’t it be like a game, this way and that?”

Is it right to go through this for learning a single magic?!

Working hard all day,

Going away and risking my life,

And running around persuading people.

‘And now I’m tearing flesh to inscribe a spell onto my body?’

I looked at the Mana crystal on my arm.

How far had I gotten?

A glance showed roughly how far I’d progressed.

The magic circle I’d carved was about thirty percent complete.

If it had been any more complex, I probably would have given up.

“Right… at least they’re not making me draw moons like some X-thing X-dopter.”

I comforted myself.

And resumed the work.

That utterly horrible task.

I hated my decision to produce beer.

Why did I suddenly regret that?

If it had been distilled liquor, even in small amounts I would have made and sold it long ago.

‘Then I could have been like those old men in the bear country, drinking vodka and doing this!’

This pain is really something I couldn’t endure without drinking.

“Eeeek… Please… I must finish this today…!”

-Aaagh!

In the loftiest part of Denabi Castle.

My screams echoed from a corner of the academy.

“Barni unit, sortie! Barni unit, sortie! Objective: support the Astrier unit! All troops, advance!”

Ronari shouted as she passed the Barni unit on standby.

The soldiers tilted their heads in puzzlement.

‘Wasn’t our unit’s mission to support the Arenta unit if they were pushed back?’

The questioning soldiers’ eyes followed Ronari.

Of course Ronari did not answer.

‘This is clearly an overreach right now!’

If she explained, the road ahead would be bleak; if she made excuses, they’d stretch on endlessly.

Ronari simply hoped the Barni unit would follow her.

She shouted.

“We’re in a hurry! Come quickly!”

Gerard, commander of the Barni unit, was equally astonished.

He asked his adjutant.

“Was that Ronari, the strategy analyst, just now?”

“Y-yes, I think so…?”

“Then why is the strategy analyst acting as a liaison officer?”

“I don’t know.”

Gerard and his adjutant tilted their heads at exactly the same time.

It was a perfect synchronized breath.

“Ah.”

The adjutant spoke as if he had remembered something.

“Ronari is the Arenta commander’s daughter, right?”

“That’s right. It’s strange. She doesn’t resemble that man at all.”

“That’s why I remembered too. I was relieved she didn’t look like her father at all.”

“But how is that important right now?”

“It’s not really important.”

But the adjutant said,

“But if the daughter isn’t telling them to go to her father’s unit and instead tells them to go to the lord’s unit, doesn’t that feel like something urgent? Like the lord might be in danger.”

“True. She did charge into the apple orchard alone.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

“Hmm…”

Gerard and his adjutant looked at each other.

And simultaneously began to run.

They shot forward like bullets.

Their timing was perfect again.

But the rest of the unit wasn’t.

‘What’s with them?’

The soldiers stared blankly at their commanders who had suddenly begun running.

Gerard turned and yelled at them.

“What are you doing, you lot! Run! They’re already that far ahead! Sortie! I said sortie, idiots!”

Gerard pointed ahead.

What he pointed at was the rump of the horse that had already run that far away.

They began to move, following the horse’s rear.

The entire unit’s footfalls pounded the orchard’s furrows.

Their bewilderment hadn’t yet faded.

But they felt a strange exhilaration.

They were boiling over.

Soon the heat of battle surged over them.

They too were brave Denabi warriors.

“It’s a fight! Let’s go!”

“Waaaah!”

“Go! Go!”

The temperature of the battlefield was rising.