Chapter 3

“The World Word is nothing but a rumor. They don’t actually exist.” “Then these two aren’t worth much, are they?” The skeleton, silently taking in Regnejee’s ridicule, picked up the spear at his side but remained sitting. “……” “Uh… Whoa, now. Let it go, Shalk. Don’t go picking fights.” Lana hastily restrained the skeleton. Shalk the Sound Slicer had a bellicose temper. “I’m supposed to stop? Someone’s got to teach this Regnejee guy the truth about that evaluation of his.” “That’s just how he is. He’s like this with everyone.” On the other hand, the other mercenary, Higuare the Pelagic, stayed as he was, looking down to the floor. Higuare was awfully quiet, unlike Shalk, but Lana still found it unsettling. Regnejee’s orders to the army echoed. “Grrrrk… The feral ones are here. Don’t let up. All you’ve done is finish off some lousy raiders.” His interest appeared to have already drifted away from the mercenaries in the carriage. “You fool! Attack! Prepare for air-to-air combat!” The air burst open with a crack. The electric, thunderous sound came from the wyverns each flapping their wings and taking to the skies at the same time. Those on the ground watched the two great airborne hosts fly next to each other. One consisted of feral wyverns. The other was a military force. As the glaring gaps between trained soldiers and amateurs were evident among minia, so, too, was the difference in fighting strength between the two wyvern flocks clear from the start. The wild wyverns that led their group forward to challenge the soldiers, despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers, had their necks severed by the soldiers, whose advance remained unhindered. Some of the feral wyverns ignored the soldiers entirely and tried to eat the people on the ground. In the middle of their descent, they were attacked from their blind spot overhead, falling to the ground with their skulls gouged out. A flash of conical red light wove multiple times through the flock. Wyverns along the flash’s trajectory burned up and dropped to the ground, and though the giant clumped-together flock slowly fragmented, there were only feral wyverns falling from the sky. It was precisely managed Word Arts, performed at the speed of battle. “That red light? That’s Regnejee’s Thermal Arts.” “…Is Master Regnejee a wyvern?” “Yeah. There’s always a leader in every wyvern flock. Regnejee’s theirs.” “I’ve been thinking he seems to be the very cautious type, yes? He’s always within a close-order formation and manages to keep his exact position hidden.” “…Higuare, you haven’t looked outside the carriage at all, right?” “That’s right. I could tell by the sound.” Only the flowers scattered across the quietly seated mandrake’s body showed any movement. “Anyway, with them protecting us, the New Principality’s defenses—” Interrupting her words, a sizzling roar of the air igniting echoed. Lana stuck her small frame outside the canopy and squinted up at the heavens. Unsurprised, she caught what she assumed to be Regnejee’s incanted Word Arts incinerate one of the feral wyverns from behind as it tried to escape. Lana the Moon Tempest, a spy for the New Principality of Lithia, was long familiar with Regnejee’s way of doing things. Relentless and thorough in his wiles. “…The defenses are flawless. There has never been a city in all of history that’s made use of wyverns’ airborne might before. Soldiers capable of seeing everything from a bird’s-eye view and who can maneuver around and cut off a force from any direction… On top of that, how are you supposed to handle their dragonkin strength individually, let alone a whole army of them? They’re invincible.” “……Why did those raiders attack?” the skeleton Shalk asked, butting in. “Unlike my empty skull, they’re supposed to have a brain stuck between their eyes, right? If the New Principality really is invincible, even raiders wouldn’t think to attack the city with a group that small.” “……You’re right. To make a long story short…Shalk, Higuare, therein lies the reason why the New Principality needs you.” “You’re saying the real enemies behind this aren’t some piddly raiders—is that it?” There was someone inciting the brigands’ misjudgment. Someone who served to benefit from the raiders’ movements and from indirectly attacking the New Principality of Lithia. Higuare mumbled again. “The lord of Lithia… You said Master Taren was a self-proclaimed Demon King, yes?” The famous general Taren the Punished had seceded from the sole kingdom of the minia races—Aureatia. She made the bountiful provincial canal city her own, declared independence, and gave it the name of the New Principality of Lithia. Her actions threatened control of Aureatia’s frontier and served as a major military provocation. The appearance of a new Demon King in the age after the True Demon King’s demise. “Oh, I see. I think I understand what’s going on now.” The sound in the pearl-white mercenary’s voice sneered at the anticipated fires of war that seemed to be closing in. With their invincible army, Lithia was trying to fight the strongest power among all minia races. “We’re taking on Aureatia, then.”