“Yes, Your Lordship,” Barth’s retainer replied. “The enemy has shown no intention of attacking the encampment.”
“Well, we must hold onto Klax’s Hill, no matter what it takes. If it falls, we might end up with two enemy forts on our doorstep!” said Barth. Knowing how quickly Canarre’s force had raised a fort on Heine’s Hill made protecting Klax’s Hill feel all the more vital to him, and he gave the order to defend it with no small amount of panic evident in his expression.
“There’s one other development you should know about, Your Lordship,” said the retainer. “It seems that Canarre have begun moving their airship. Its destination, most likely, is the fort they’ve built on Heine’s Hill.”
“The airship…? Hmm…”
Barth had a bad feeling about that piece of news. He had no idea what the airship was capable of, but it being able to fly outside of his mages’ range was a prospect that he’d dismissed. He’d been operating under the assumption that his troops would be able to shoot it down.
But what if I was wrong? What if its performance defies my expectations…?
A bead of cold sweat ran down Barth’s brow.
“It could be that their airship is a more powerful weapon than we’ve been anticipating. We should destroy it, just to be safe. It’s made of wood, so a well-placed fire spell should burn it to ash without issue. See that it’s done,” Barth ordered.
“Yes, Your Lordship,” said the retainer. “I should note, however, a cause for concern: it seems that Braham’s unit is among the airship’s escort. They’re known to be a group of elites, even by Canarre’s standards. I would expect the airship to be very well-guarded, with them around.”
“Braham’s unit… Does transporting this ship really mean so much to them…? My concerns are only growing.”
Barth was aware of Braham and his unit’s reputation for being composed of the cream of the crop from Canarre’s already exceptional military. If soldiers of their capabilities had been tasked to guard the ship, it seemed more likely than ever that it was powerful indeed. Barth was starting to believe that the airship Canarre had created was, in fact, capable of far more than he had assumed.
“Just see to it that the ship is destroyed─that’s all that matters. Assemble our spies, and instruct them to sabotage it at all costs,” ordered Barth.
“It shall be done, Your Lordship!”
○
Our march to transport the airship from Fort Coumeire had begun, and on the very first day of the trip, things took a turn.
“Flaming arrows!” someone in our party shouted. We were under fire from a great distance, and the enemy was using incendiary munitions.
“Not an issue,” said Pham, who was traveling with us. He began calmly flinging a series of throwing knives, striking the arrows out of the air before they could make any impact. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The sheer skill it must have taken to hit an arrow mid-flight was mind-boggling.
Apparently, our enemies had decided to burn the airship with arrows rather than through magical means. Spells tended to have relatively short effective ranges─shorter than an arrow’s, at the very least, and especially one fired from the bow of an expert sniper. With enough skill, an archer could deal damage from an incredible distance.
Needless to say, however, expert snipers were few and far between, and a single flaming arrow wouldn’t be enough to destroy the airship. A bucket of water is all it would’ve taken to nip that issue in the bud. A single offensive spell at close range, on the other hand, had the potential to inflict irreparable damage in the worst case. We were anticipating the possibility that enemy mages would try to approach in the guise of allied soldiers, and were taking extra care not to let anyone or anything suspicious get near the airship.
Before long, a report came in. “Lord Ars! We’ve apprehended a suspicious soldier!”
I used my Appraisal skill on the spot to investigate, and found that the soldier in question’s listed birthplace was indeed Seitz. I’d brought plenty of people into my service from duchies far and wide during my personnel-hunting excursions, but as a general rule, I only hired people after appraising them. In other words, if there was someone in my army who was from somewhere other than Canarre, I should have appraised them at some point in the past, and that’s something I would remember. This soldier’s face, however, rang no bells whatsoever.
“You’re from Seitz, aren’t you?” I asked.
“H-How could you possibly know that?!” the soldier replied.
“Well, regardless, I’m afraid we have reason to believe you may be a Seitzan soldier. We won’t kill you, but we’ll have to keep you tied up for the time being. I hope you won’t hold that against me.”
A pained expression came across the soldier’s face. A moment later, he pulled something out from his pocket. I recognized it instantly: it was a small catalyzer. No sooner had I come to that realization than Braham, who’d been standing guard next to me, drew his sword and lopped off the soldier’s head in one swift motion.
“Guess he was a spy,” said Braham. “Close one, huh? We might be better off not just relying on your power for this sort of thing from now on.”
“M-Maybe so,” I stammered.
It had happened so suddenly I was a little taken aback, but seeing someone die in front of me didn’t bother me anymore, in and of itself. I’d seen enough death at that point that I was used to it. It wasn’t something that I enjoyed witnessing, but it wouldn’t send me retching anymore. I’d changed since then.
Our enemies made a few more attempts to destroy the airship over the course of the trip, but between the Shadows and Braham’s troops, every one of them was thwarted. I got the impression that Purledo’s spies were quite experienced in their field, but they still paled in comparison to the Shadows. Spies of their ability, it seemed, were very hard to come by.