novelraw Chapter 352
Chapter 352
Chapter 352
A fierce wind grazed my face. Not a sliver of moonlight reached us, so we had to run by relying on Magic Power and the ground. Even though we'd installed Sound Insulation Magic along the path we ran, I couldn't help feeling anxious about whether the sound of us cutting through the air would reach the enemy.
The people running with me now included Leo and Mecklenburg along with the entire 98th Class Team A—plus the Papal State's Divine Power mage assigned to them—and Alexandra Schumacher of the 91st Class A. The rest of the 101st had merged with the 91st A.
Alexandra Schumacher and the others were trailing behind at a distance, prepared for attack, while Mecklenburg, who had the most field experience, led the way directly ahead of me, and Leo was at my left.
I slowed slightly and asked Alexandra Schumacher, who had been following behind.
"Your Excellency Schumacher. Can you move oxygen separately as a unique ability?"
"Hmm, I don't understand the academic principles behind this ability well enough to intentionally do that, but… my ability likely has a strong connection to oxygen among the gases that make up the atmosphere. I've occasionally blown up the training grounds, so that probably confirms my guess, doesn't it?"
Blown up the training grounds? What a headache of a student that must have been…. The meaningful point was that she could generate wind like Adelbert, so even if she couldn't isolate individual gases, it wouldn't be a major issue—but if she could, it was naturally all the more advantageous, so this was a welcome development. Then Alexandra Schumacher asked in a serious voice.
"I've caused enough incidents that I rarely use my unique ability. Outside of special operations, even my comrades often forget about it. So how did you know about my ability?"
"I learned of it from materials provided in advance. One needs to know everyone's abilities to plan strategy, wouldn't you say?""Her Excellency Hohenzollern's judgment wasn't wrong."
I gave a brief smile and returned to my original speed, moving forward. The distance from those behind widened considerably again. Only the sound of wind remained at our side. After a while, Leo, running beside me, spoke in a low voice.
"The wind has been blowing north continuously. They must have predicted we'd target the northern part of this coordinate system."
"That's right."
"What if they deliberately went in the opposite direction of the wind?"
This wasn't a question. It was decidedly not a question.
Thinking through it carefully—yes, that was possible. If they had someone with an advantageous unique ability, they could deliberately act contrary to our predictions. But if not, there were areas where variables could be placed and areas where they couldn't. From their perspective, if they succeeded at concealment alone, they could utterly defeat us, so letting Magic Power drift into the air and reveal their actual position would be unnecessary. Unless they were leaking Magic Power at a false position.
Leo surely knew this too. He wasn't someone who couldn't think of what I had thought. He simply wanted to seek confirmation from me, and I could understand why. Having already experienced the worst, he had no choice but to be wary of every possibility.
"That won't happen. Are you convinced now?"
"……."
"Your Highness."
The moment I said that and demanded an answer, Leo started and brought his hand to his mouth, staring at me. I gave a soulless smile and immediately shut my mouth.
'…Ah~ goddamn it.'
Right, a person really should live under a single identity. I was relieved that Leo's need-to-control-variables mentality seemed to have been properly washed away by another shock, but the problem was that the honorific I'd used for Leo in another life had been on my tongue for so long that it moved before my brain did. At least it wasn't a catastrophically damaging slip—but the moment I thought that, Mecklenburg, who had been running ahead, leapt at me and clapped his hand over my mouth.
"Wh— what— just now…! You…! There's a limit to joking around! How much do you joke! On a daily basis! See me after we return!"
"……."
"Captain?! What's suddenly—!"
Several from the 98th A running behind cried out in alarm at his booming voice. Trying to help in his own way, I suppose. Well, he was bellowing into the artifact at the top of his lungs, so what else could it be…. Since there was nothing to transmit to command, I'd already turned off the send function, and he would have too, and the other six were running at a distance from us anyway, so they couldn't have heard. Setting aside that overreacting like this only made it look worse, and also setting aside that my ears were ringing, the thought itself was appreciated. If my slip had truly been serious enough to be a problem, I'd have resolved to turn back time afterward. Leo was beginning to scowl at him like he was looking at a madman, so I quickly peeled off his hand and retorted.
"It was just a slip, Your Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke. And all units, halt at this position!"
"…?!"
I'd take advantage of the fact that there was another person here addressed similarly. I shoved the inexplicably flustered Mecklenburg away with Magic Power and stopped in place, raising my hand. The mages following behind halted simultaneously. Having reached a certain point, I switched both artifacts' send functions back on and spoke to Mecklenburg.
"Now, can you feel anything from this point? Please search for people."
"……."
Mecklenburg looked at me with a face that asked when he'd ever explained the range of his ability in detail.
Having a water-related ability didn't guarantee intimate knowledge of the properties of water flowing through all things, but he could certainly distinguish between water in the ground, water in trees, and water in people. At the very least, I knew that was possible for him. Mecklenburg didn't ask me about that question and quietly pressed his hand to the earth.
"There's no one within at least 500 meters in any direction from this point."
"Good. Wittelsbach."
"No traps either."
Leo, who had been channeling Magic Power through the plants, pulled it back at a certain point, stood, and spoke. Good—no people, no magic laid in wait. I looked far into the distance, down below the gentle hill, and spoke.
"For now, there's still distance, but we've gotten somewhat closer to the forest."
We had split the northward route into two paths—we'd take the east, and the 91st A would enter from the west—and the forest lay on the eastern side. We were heading toward it.
Let me lay out some theory here. What lay before us was: wetlands with some streams, plains, and forest. And a sky that was anything but clear.
For wetlands, it was best to avoid attacking if possible and find a detour. Because it was terrain that favored the defender. However, this didn't particularly apply to mages who could pass through wetlands by deploying barriers.
In combat, truly absolute advantages are hard to find, and even within a single terrain type, various advantages and disadvantages arise, but now wasn't the time to discuss each type exhaustively, so I'll omit that. Now consider the forest. If the defenders had the forest at their backs, it became quite favorable terrain for them. If the defenders had the forest in front of them, that was the worst case for defenders. If the defenders were inside the forest, the gains and losses roughly balanced out, generally making it a suboptimal choice. And if the defenders had the forest behind them, that became the defenders' best choice. Because attack, retreat, and resource procurement could all proceed smoothly. Of course, if either the defensive or offensive side held warp coordinates, all these theories became moot.
And given that the council of bishops' objective was to remain undetected and stall for time until their stamina recovered, and the theory above was from the Old Human era, it seemed clear what mages—who enjoyed relatively free movement compared to non-mages—should choose.
[Found them!]
Right on cue, a transmission from the 91st B came through.
In other words, hadn't it become extremely clear where we'd be if we were the bishops? The council of bishops would be stationed in the forest, and specifically near its edge.
Therefore, the first order I gave command was to find every forest in this coordinate system. We were moving key personnel north but couldn't abandon the south, so I'd moved the 91st B there to conduct the search.
"Good. Now only we remain. The problem is that we're in the field, and the reason they didn't bother setting traps is that if we move further north from here, they can observe us with their own eyes. With grass this tall, stealth magic has its limits."
No matter how dark the sky was due to clouds, it was a fact that the forest's interior was darker than this field, and the field was brighter than the forest. I spoke to Leo.
"Wittelsbach. We begin from here."
The strategy had already been devised while traveling here. He would now channel Magic Power through the earth and pinpoint the bishops' exact location in the forest.
One hand on the ground, the other raised in the air, Leo began folding his fingers one by one. 5. 4. 3. 2….
"Reached."
The Magic Power Leo had channeled through the plants had reached the forest. That statement was the signal. I called out the coordinates I had calculated based on our travel distance.
"Corniviano 795:348:494!"
The instant Leo seized my wrist, I opened my eyes at a point roughly 400 meters from where I'd been standing—on ground closer to the forest. A bizarre noise erupted.
CRASH—
A mud-like black barrier surged upward from the forest line far away, rising toward the sky. Only by craning my neck could I see its top curving inward. It was now certain the council of bishops was inside. Ah, so that was how they intended to keep us from entering.
[Ten in total. All ten of Munich-Freising's council of bishops are here.]
Leo's crisp voice came through the artifact. He had warped me, then warped himself one step closer and slammed his Staff into the ground, counting the number of Magic Power signatures snagged by the plants. I gazed at the Vitriol barrier stretching in the distance and thought quickly. Break through or don't. If we broke through, the forest lay beyond, but the instant we breached it and entered the forest, the Vitriol would reconstitute and envelop it, and the council of bishops would rain attacks on us, trapped like rats in a barrel. Unless we fled to the adjacent coordinate—which had expanded to an enormously distant 200 times the original spacing—we could never survive against ten Vitriol users. The paths remaining to us were: 1. be attacked, 2. flee, or 3. wait until this barrier dissipated—meaning until the council of bishops fled elsewhere. Truly a bleak picture, and they must have painted it too… thinking that, I shouted at the top of my voice.
"All units, commence!"
CRASH—
Far away, Mecklenburg, who had been staring down a small stream, slammed his Staff. The air grew humid, choking my breath. A massive barrier unfurled before us and across the ground, and one member of the 98th A raised his Wand skyward, sending a thin line of light shooting upward. From the south, where we hadn't gone, a similar thin burst of light someone else had fired also appeared. Signal flares marking the forest's location.
At this point, who needed to know where the forest was?
FLASH—
"…!"
"Ugh!"
Gasps rose around me. A column of light incomparably larger than the Wand's glow tore across the black night sky and plunged down upon the forest. Light that had erupted not from the ground but from the sky coated everything in an eerie white.
RUMBLE— CRASH—!!
My blood ran cold. The ground lurched. I clenched my teeth, poured all my strength into the Staff, and absorbed the vibration coursing through my entire body. Lightning. This was the first time I'd seen Tsheringen's unique ability in person. A power that belonged in movies—my initial impression hadn't been wrong. Instinctive fear swept through me. It felt as though the electricity were conducting through my own two legs, and I shouted, grateful that Tsheringen didn't also possess the unique ability to make electricity run through Magic Power.
"Schumacher!"
CRASH—!
The surroundings, which had darkened again after the lightning, flared red. With a detonation, the amplified fire engulfed the trees, and sparks flew on the wind in every direction. The forest was consumed in flame.
Alexandra Schumacher of the 91st, who had been poised to spring at any moment with Staff thrust out, caught her breath and swept the sky lightly. Immediately, wind rushed in from behind, and breathing posed no issue whatsoever. The plant stalks in the forest were still moving vigorously through all of this.
[Four.]
Leo said quietly. His voice reached me layered through both the artifact and the air. Walking toward me from the distance, Leo continued.
[Of Munich-Freising's ten bishops, six remain.]
"……."
Success. We weren't the only ones with unique abilities.
If they were going to give us headaches with their unique abilities, then we'd simply counter with ours.
The mages around me, who had been catching their breath with tense faces, turned their heads toward me. When our eyes met, the rigid corners of their mouths slowly climbed upward. Someone standing behind let out a long breath and murmured.
"…Four bishops in one blow…."
"Haha… phew…."
The sound of laughter trickled out. Sorry to spoil the mood, but the time to bask in victory wouldn't last long. I stared at the blazing forest and spoke.
"Six out of ten. The remaining six likely possess unique abilities optimized for survival."
[Commander!]
Just then, Narce's voice from the opposite team pierced my ear. It took me a moment to register that was addressed to me, but his next words jolted all of us awake.
[Four bishops have appeared at the 2 o'clock direction from the starting point!]
The sound of someone swallowing. Someone gripped their Wand tight.
Good. So they'd flee in that direction.
"Warp?"
Calculating the coordinate system was standard, but naturally, it wasn't easy. Narce shouted after about ten seconds.
[Corniviano 794:354:495!]
"All units, move!"
CRASH—
The moment we relocated, a powerful gust of wind scattered my hair. Pitch-black Vitriol was right before my eyes.
CLANG— CRASH—!
I deflected the Vitriol flying through the darkness and spoke to Mecklenburg behind me.
"Let's try matching our rhythm once more."