308: Departure
Everything was moving quickly. And at the same time, it was progressing rather smoothly. The Sixth Army, even with its increased numbers, was still a small unit, but then again, Listrea itself was a small nation.
The preparations for the reinforcements to Fort Litalside were almost complete. I didn’t know how many would return—or if they would be able to.
Strategically, it was a delaying action, but it was also a fact that the only defensible locations were there and the capital.
Honestly, we were running out of time. A scorched-earth tactic was just a theory, if you couldn’t buy time. And even then, if the enemy had enough supplies, it might not be a significant blow.
There were a few small fortresses, but they were more like shelters against magical beasts. They wouldn’t buy much time, whether they were ignored or taken one by one, so they would have to be abandoned.
Messengers were sent to all corners of the land, volunteers were recruited, and a proclamation was made. —Abandon everything.
I hoped there would be no bloodshed. But there would be chaos. With winter approaching, it was only natural to want more supplies. That, too, was difficult, but we had to prevent the enemy from getting their hands on our food.
Even with the help of the dragons, it would be a tight schedule, and you couldn’t just carry a building. With limited time, we might not have the luxury of burning everything, and I had suggested that it might be a good idea to leave the roofs and turn them into a hotbed of traps. They seemed to have considered that as well, and I had left the advice to the disinformation unit that had remained in the capital.
We, who had accumulated such experience as a field operative unit… had documents that, except for His Majesty, had not been shown to anyone outside of the Sixth Army. With Liz’s guidance, our experience in the use of anti-personnel traps, refined through actual combat, was unmatched, not just in Listrea, but on the entire continent.
And if we destroyed the bridges after we had crossed them, we should be able to buy a considerable amount of time.
…And besides, honestly, the timing of their invasion was already late.
If you wanted to attack the Listrea Demon Kingdom, spring to summer was best… and autumn was not so different from their winter. And by my Japanese standards, it was already winter. I wanted a coat, and I wanted to get out my winter socks. I might even want gloves and a scarf.
Without magic equipment, I was confident I could just hole up in a mansion with a fireplace. To launch a large-scale invasion in this weather… was madness.
I thought, with a profound sense of resignation, that war was something that fools did, but as one of those fools, I couldn’t just be cynical and complain.
Five giant wooden crates sat in the open space in front of the Lord of Disease’s mansion.
The crates, which were as sturdy as they could be, were wrapped in chains. These were not for securing them, but were welded in place. Since they were to be destroyed on the other side, sturdiness was the top priority.
About one hundred and twenty people per crate. A balanced mix of skeletons and wraiths, packed in as tightly as possible.
Six dragons, led by the silver dragon, Lital-sama, were resting on the ground, their wings folded.
When the preparations were complete, Lital-sama spoke.
“Are you sure I am to carry nothing?”
If I were asked if I had wanted to ride on Lital-sama’s back, as originally planned, then of course I had. I had wanted to fly on the back of a dragon, and since His Majesty and the Old One, Listrea-sama, had also ridden on her, I had wanted to share in that experience.
But…
“Thank you, Lital-sama. But I have a griffin and the best griffin rider, who has come all the way from the Third Army, to fly me.”
—At my words, Aithys and Leaf looked pleased.
In truth, there was also the problem of the saddle. Flying with a person on a dragon’s back had not been considered in Listrea. There was no particular reason to reduce a dragon’s flight performance to carry a person. Leaf had a saddle and a harness for the number of people, and while it wasn’t fur, the feathers were warm. Well, a dragon was also hot, so the warmth was not a problem, but its scales were as hard as armor and weapons, and some of them were sharp.
“Then, shall we go, Lital-sama?”
“Yes. You all, do not drop them, no matter what.”
The dragons, with their golden-red scales, grumbled, not in human speech, but in a growl. The dragons other than Lital-sama couldn’t speak human language, but they seemed to understand it. The reason Lital-sama had deliberately given the order in human language was probably so that we could understand.
“Then, a word, if you would.”
“Huh?”
“You are the commander of this place. It would be appropriate for you to say a word before we depart.”
“Um… isn’t Lital-sama the senior officer?”
“The plan was devised by the Lord of Disease, and we of the First Army have only been requested to provide transport. Therefore, while we have the freedom to state our opinions and the right to refuse an order, the supreme commander of this place is you, Lord of Disease.”
In terms of the military chain of command, she was completely right. …Well, basically, everyone around me was older and more senior.
I placed a hand on my throat and used an amplification spell. I spoke clearly, so that those in the wooden crates could also hear.
“This will be a joint mission of the First and Sixth Armies. I thank Lital-sama and the other six dragons. I expect all of you to fight to the best of your ability.”
For now, a standard greeting. And I smiled. At times like these, all you could do was smile. Sad, angry, and in pain. And yet, if you were to say that you would not break.
I grinned, baring my teeth. I exhaled, as if breathing out the heat from the bottom of my throat.
“—Now, let’s go to war! The war isn’t over until we get back alive! Even if you get separated, don’t die!!”
It was a high-risk mission. A long-distance flight of this distance was unprecedented, and the information on the enemy territory would quickly become outdated. Their main forces should not be there, but there were no absolutes in this world, and our numbers were small.
But we were not going to die. We were going, to survive in the end.
“Let’s go. I will lead the way.”
Lital-sama spread her wings and, with a lightness as if gravity had willingly released her, she soared into the sky.
The other five dragons followed, and after they had taken to the air, they smoothly grabbed the chains with their short forelegs, and though they were pulled down for a moment by the weight of the wooden crates, they soared into the sky with a powerful beat of their wings.
With Lital-sama in the lead, and the other five following in the shape of an arrowhead, they would probably look like a flock of migratory birds from a distance.
In the vicinity of the Listrean capital, the migratory birds were disappearing. They spent the winter in the warm south. We, too, like migratory birds, were heading south.
We had mounted Leaf and were waiting at a distance, so as not to be caught in the dragons’ takeoff.
“We’re going, too.”
“I’m counting on you, Aithys, Leaf.”
Leaf, too, let out a high-pitched cry and, pushing off the ground with his lion’s hind legs, he took to the sky with his eagle’s wings. He took up a position behind Lital-sama and the others, in the line of the arrowhead.
I looked back, and the mansion, and the capital beyond it, were growing smaller. And my eyes met Liz’s.
“…Are you worried about the house?”
“A little. …But it’s fine. I have fond memories of it, but what’s important is not the place.”
Liz smiled, and I smiled and nodded back, then turned my gaze forward.
I didn’t know if I would ever return to that mansion. I intended to return alive, but it was doubtful whether the mansion would still be ‘alive.’ The food stores were empty, and the mansion was full of traps. And they were Liz’s special, lethal traps. Well, I thought they would have learned by the time they reached the capital, but just in case.
The Sixth Army emblem had also been removed, and it had been made to look like an ordinary, suburban mansion. The enemy’s upper echelons might know it was the Lord of Disease’s mansion, but the rank and file probably didn’t.
I thought about the operation we were about to carry out in enemy territory, and the battle in our own country.
We would win.
…But there would be things we couldn’t protect. I probably wouldn’t be able to bring back all of the subordinates in the wooden crates. Many had already died in Litalside, and even if everything went well, many more would die on the Itria Plains, the expected site of the decisive battle. …There was also the possibility that the Dark Forest would become a battlefield, and we would have to rely on a small guard force and the desperate struggle of the people.
That—for the non-combatants of this country to die—was the future I most wished to avoid. And at the same time, it was the future that we would be bringing to the humans.
And yet, the fact that there were only five of us on Leaf’s back—Aithys, myself, Liz, Rebecca, and Samarkand—was what drove me to an act that would leave a deep scar on history.
Compared to when we had gone to Wessphia, Clarion, Bridget, and Harken were not here. To lighten the load, Clarion, who had transformed into a squirrel, and Harken, who had returned to his spine form, were one thing.
But Bridget was not here.
If she was alive, I would leave a country for her to return to. If she was not…
I gritted my teeth and suppressed my emotions.
There were kind people in this world. But this world was not kind. That was why a being like me was born.
I was the Lord of Disease.
Species: Human.
Objective: Human extinction.
My objective had not changed. From the time I had cried, wrapped in a blanket, in that barn, I had been the enemy of humanity.
