Alma narrowed her eyes. “Are you talking about the Hope’s Brigade?”
“Of course. Raid had a ton of troops.”
“Let’s see... We’ve got five hundred in Vegalta’s Magic Regiment and five thousand in Altane’s Special Combined Forces. It would certainly be a problem solved if I could summon them all at once. But, Eluria, what do you think will happen if I do that?”
“You’ll probably run out of mana in thirty seconds, then collapse.”
“Correct answer,” Alma deadpanned. “Listen, I’m pretty confident in my mana capacity, but summoning everyone? We’d be lucky if they could do anything before I run dry. So I shouldn’t be counted as a—”
“Then you just have to chug down a drink every thirty seconds.”
“I’m telling you that’s downright impossible!” Alma snapped. “Remember when I summoned almost a thousand troops to siege the capital? Well, I just barely managed that by chugging a crap ton of mana recovery drinks! How could I do that every thirty seconds?!”
“Chug, chug, chug! Chug till you drop!” Eluria chanted, clapping her hands to the beat.
Alma instantly paled and began trembling violently. “S-Stop! Stop looking at me like that! Nooo!”
Ariel looked between them, feeling a little lost. She had no idea what happened during the siege, but whatever it was, it seemed to have severely traumatized Alma.
“Anyway!” Alma clenched her fist. “My task for this operation is to dispatch members of the brigade to each unit and monitor the chain of command! So no chugging this time around!”
“Aw... I wanted to see you chug,” Eluria mumbled, pouting.
“Well, too bad, so sad!” Alma said, swiftly bringing an end to the topic. “Anyway, the plan now is to discuss one possible solution for this lack of manpower: recruiting help from the Second World.”
Ariel nearly froze in her tracks. “Wait,” she said. “Is that...possible?”
“Of course,” Alma replied. “We’re never short on mana—Divine mana, even—with His Excellency around, and Eluria can set the landing coordinates nearby. This was always on our to-do list once we’d secured a base of operations.”
“I... I see.” Ariel hung her head, brow slightly furrowed.
Seeing that, Alma sighed and gave her a pat on the head. “I know what you’re thinking, and I understand. A huge sacrifice was paid just so Dian and his men could cross over to the Second World. It can’t feel good to learn it’s actually possible at so little cost.”
“Yes,” she mumbled weakly. “The order to invade the Second World, all the soldiers and vassals who paid with their lives... The very meaning of our existence as Heroes... I can’t help but think about it all.”
With the sword Viteos had brought to their world, three new Heroes had been born. They had been entrusted with the power to protect the people and to save their world from ruin... Alas, reality was cruel; the Heroes found that they were powerless where it mattered.
“Fending off the Calamities was the best we could manage; subjugating them was another matter entirely. That was how the Second World invasion plan came to be... In the end, we had to sacrifice the people we were meant to protect, all because we were ‘incomplete’ Heroes. But if that’s true...why did we become Heroes to begin with?”
With their power, the Heroes had managed to slow the advance of the Calamities and the polluted mana, but not without cost. A real Hero, however, would never have allowed any sacrifice.
Nauvis Videre, the last Hero who had sacrificed himself to send the Demon Lord to the past, once protected the eastern front on the central continent by himself. “Take others with me, when I’m marching to my death? Hah! I’d rather die a thousand times over!” he’d said with a laugh before making it all the way to Old Vegalta and executing his plan.
Raid Freeden of the Second World could single-handedly defeat Calamities without any sacrifices, be it from his comrades or even from his enemies. The only death he’d allowed—since fending off Dian’s invasion on the Second World and taking over the empire in the First World—had been Viteos’s. Every single one of his plans had been executed without any unintended loss of life.
Whenever Ariel thought about them—about the true Heroes—she couldn’t help but wilt at her own powerlessness. “If only... If only we were real Heroes, then perhaps we could have made a difference,” Ariel muttered, her deepest vulnerabilities tumbling from her lips.
Eluria watched her with a thoughtful gaze before slowly reaching out—and tugging her cheeks.
“Yowww!”
“A punishment for you,” Eluria said, pouting. “There’s no point in brooding over the past. Besides, it’s not your fault you’re incomplete Heroes and not as capable as you’d hoped.”
“Argh! So blunt...!”
“And most importantly,” she continued, still pinching and pulling Ariel’s cheeks, “whether a Hero is ‘real’ is up to the people to decide. You’re a Hero not just because of the spell, but because the people saw what you did with that power and decided you were their Hero. At least...that’s how I see it, after watching Raid for so long.”
Eluria’s gaze dropped to the soldiers outside the city walls taking a break. “Those people followed you because they believed in you, and to this day they remain as your subordinates and give their utmost to fulfill your orders—all because of everything you’ve done and shown them, and all the effort you’ve put into protecting them.” Eluria turned back to Ariel with a smile. “To them, you are a true Hero. So don’t waste your energy on comparing yourself with others. Instead, direct your efforts to working hard—so you can keep being their Hero.”
A small smile formed on Ariel’s lips. “Yes... I think you’re right, Lady Eluria.”
“Mm-hmm. I’ve been watching Raid for over half a century, so you can trust my judgment,” Eluria preened, nodding proudly as if she were bragging about herself.
Ariel couldn’t help but think, with much interest, that it was in times like these that—contrary to her actual age and vast experience—Eluria looked no more than a young maiden.
“We’ll be counting on you and your troops from here on out,” said Eluria.
“Of course.” Ariel smiled. “Should the chance come, I must meditate on your advice and think of how I can convey my gratitude to my troops for—”
Before she could finish her words, however, a loud voice suddenly boomed from outside the city walls.
“Now that Lady Ariel has left, it’s time to begin our breaktime routine: the Lady Ariel Acronym Exercise! First set—go!”
“‘A’ is for ‘arugula’! She hates it but doesn’t want to look picky in front of us, so she eats it while getting teary-eyed!”
“‘R’ is for ‘routine’! She tries to greet us every morning but always gives up so as not to pressure her subordinates!”
“‘I’ is for ‘intellectual’! She uses big words even when she doesn’t know what they mean to look impressive as our boss!”
“‘E’ is for ‘expressions’! She never realizes that she wears her heart on her sleeve!”
“‘L’ is for ‘lapel’! She fiddles with hers whenever she’s alone and bored!”
“Well done! On to the second set!”
“Um, Ariel...” Eluria muttered. “You think everything’s all right back there? Sounds pretty lively.”
“Pardon me, Lady Eluria, Lady Alma,” Ariel said swiftly, her face carefully blank. “I believe we must hurry to the meeting with our ears covered, please.”
Eluria nodded. “I recommend stir-frying arugula. It helps with the bitterness.”
“I can eat it raw, I swear! It’s just... It’s just a little bitter, that’s all!” Ariel shut her eyes and desperately pushed the two down the hall, as far as they could get from her subordinates’ embarrassing yells. She didn’t doubt that they looked up to her as their Hero, but she had an odd feeling that there was something else mixed into their feelings of admiration.
Likely sensing her thoughts, Alma wore a cheeky grin and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Hey, what’s so bad about it? Heroes don’t need to be perfect, you know? Stressing over a greeting and hating bitter food—sounds to me like you’re a perfectly relatable human.”
“Urgh... Th-That may be so, but...!”
“Take Valtos, for example. He doesn’t exactly feel like a Hero, does he?”
Ariel hummed. “I suppose he does feel less like a Hero or a prince and more like a spoiled aristocratic child. He’s more muscles than brains and hardly has anything good going for him...”
“Oh, wow. Talk about merciless...”
“Hmph, of course. He pushed all the work to me and Dian while he remained in the capital, lounging around while boasting about being a Hero.” Her brows creased in frustration. “Are we really including him in the operation? Even if you can restrain him with the scepter, his personality is hardly...desirable, no?”
“Oh, your worries aren’t unfounded,” Alma acknowledged. “But trust me when I say His Excellency is an expert when it comes to wrangling and reforming people like him. Besides, he brought along the perfect assistant.”
“The perfect assistant...?” Ariel cocked her head just as they entered the throne room.
Immediately, several loud and boisterous voices reached their ears.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? It’s Raid’s tenth victory in a row! Would you look at that!” Millis threw her head back with a hearty laugh.
“Urgh... That doesn’t count!” Valtos screamed. “I am undefeated in shogi! Does it make sense that I lost every match...against a handicapped opponent?!”
Raid shot him a withering gaze. “I mean, come on... You’re so easy to read. What you’re trying to do, which piece you’re aiming for, how you plan to move next... I just have to counter your every move before you make it, and that’s that.”
“Oh me, oh my, could it be? You said you were undefeated...but have you only been playing against toddlers, perchance?” Millis snickered. “In that case, let’s have a word from the king of the tots, shall we? Sir, how do you feel after losing every single match against an adult for the first time?”
“Shut your mouth, you little brat! Have you forgotten that you haven’t won a single match against me?! Where do you get the gall to mock me?!”
“Splendid! Thank you very much for your salty little comment, Mr. Sore Loser!”
“Wait, hang on! Get your hands off that scep— Aaaagh!”
Wisel looked at the guffawing girl with a conflicted blend of admiration and exasperation. “You’re always happiest when ridiculing others, Ms. Millis.”
“Well, nothing gives her more confidence than leverage and a safe place to wield it from,” Raid remarked.
“I can think of so many historical records that need to be revised,” Norn mumbled glumly.
Millis’s hysterical laughter and Valtos’s piercing screams echoed off the walls of the throne room as three exasperated gazes watched on in resigned silence. With such a scene playing out right before her eyes, Ariel found a dry chuckle spilling from her lips as she finally decided to cast all her worries to the wind.