“It looks like the first district was wiped out,” Noah said, moving her eyes away from the binoculars.
Alan, the Dwarven boy, gave a whistle, as if impressed. Maximum Abrams, the captain of the order, punched him over his spikey, silver-haired head.
“We’re in the middle of a covert operation,” he chided Alan.
“C’mon, no one knows we’re here! Besides, Captain, why are we hiding? Let’s charge them! We can beat the Gelmed Empire, right?!”
Maximum pressed a finger against his own forehead. Recent events had plagued him with migraines. The same could be said for Noah.
“Alan? If you’re going to be noisy, I’ll have to send you back to the carriage,” Noah warned him.
“C’mon, if we’re scouting, I could charge in and run wild for a bit! Whaddaya say?”
...He actually would do it, Noah thought to herself dryly and sighed.
Maximum clenched his fist, preparing to land a second iron blow over Alan’s head, but Noah raised her hand to stop him.
“...I guess now’s as good of a time as any. We’ve spent days simply watching over the situation. It’s about time I explained everything to you.”
Noah gathered the entire group, and they all sat in a circle in the forest. Noah was currently clad in a black outfit. It was open around the chest, making it perfectly clear she was a woman. This wasn’t an evening dress, though. It was sorcerer’s armor, meant to enhance the power of the wearer’s magic. And while it looked like it was lacking in defense, it emitted a barrier that made it stronger than a suit of full plate mail.
Before now, she had played the role of a duke or general in Lyferia, and dressed accordingly. But right now, she knew titles and status wouldn’t be of much use. Looking around at her comrades’ faces, Noah parted her lips.
“...It seems half of my estimates were correct, while the other half were off. I was right in that the Gelmed Empire would try to destroy Lyferia.”
“And they did a splendid job of smashing this country to dust,” Maximum nodded.
He was a Human male with black-rimmed glasses. His black hair parted to one side, giving him the face of an intellectual researcher. The body his head was sitting on, however, was a hulking mass of muscle. Currently he was following Noah’s orders, effectively making him the sub-leader of this group.
Sitting next to him was the white-haired Dwarf, Alan. He shared his name with the ancient hero, but he wasn’t related to him in any way, as many were named after this hero. While he was still young, however, his skill made him lauded as the second coming of the hero. He’d never lost a one-on-one match against the other members of the Order of Palace Knights.
“Hey, if you let me fight a Magimatic Sol head on and go all out, I wouldn’t lose!” he insisted.
“Stop being stupid, you doofus.” Another member of the order, a Demon girl, snapped at him mockingly. “You might be fine, but the rest of us wouldn’t. You saw how that horned Demon, Diablo, defeated them, didn’t you?”
She was identical to a Human except for the tattoos running along her face and body. This was the group’s magi gunner, Daisy. She was a major supporter of Noah and often butted heads with Alan. And as always, Alan retorted at her.
“That’s just him being weak.”
“God, you’re stupid. He fired a Lightning Storm spell without a magical circle! Do you have any idea how high an elemental sorcerer’s level has to be to pull that off?!”
“It’s fine, I’ll just whack them until they go poof!”
“You dumb hero!”
A Pantherian woman with a tall, finely-toned body tried to calm the two of them down. This was the group’s lancer, and her spear — which was three times her height — was thrust into the ground next to her. Pantherians traditionally preferred short, simple names, and Chobi was no exception. She didn’t have a surname, since her family wasn’t of any particular repute.
“Alan’s plenty strong without knowing anything about magic, so it’s fine,” she said.
“Stop spoiling the idiot, Chobi!” Daisy spat at her.
Realizing that the conversation would come to a standstill with these two arguing, a young Elf man motioned for Noah to continue. He had a crimson long coat and a black longsword — the warrior who introduced himself as ‘Thanatos the Undying.’
“So what part did you get wrong, Noah?” he asked.
“The Gelmed Empire is far too strong. I didn’t expect the castle to fall that quickly. And then there’s that Magimatic Castle...”
“We gotta fight them!” Alan interrupted Noah’s words only for Daisy to clasp both hands over his mouth. “Mgmgmgmg...?!”
“How dare you interrupt Lady Noah! Now shut up, or I’ll shoot you in the mouth!”
They were clamoring loudly. And while they were a long way from the enemy, they were still technically operating in secret... Exasperated, Noah kept talking.
“But if I made one major miscalculation, it was that I assumed Emperor Gelmed would have either died of old age or lost his powers by now.”
“It seems he’s quite old,” Maximum added. “Over one hundred years old.”
“Which means he’s almost at the end of his lifespan, so long as he’s not an Elf. But the Emperor is looking for the Girl of the Vessel, and that’s a major issue I didn’t predict.”
“What do you mean?” Maximum asked.
Someone else answered his question — a Grasswalker girl, seated atop the carriage’s roof and swinging her legs. Her white rabbit ears were hidden under a small hat and her body was covered by a robe, making her look like a Human child.
Her name was Utata. Having names that repeated the same sounds was a long-running Grasswalker tradition.
“See, the Girl of the Vessel is the secret to rejuvenation, I guess,” she said.
“Rejuvenation...?” Maximum repeated the word.
“Well, technically, you could call it rebirth, I guess? People are born as pure, unblemished souls, but as they mature, their souls become blighted and polluted. Normally, when you die, your soul gets purified in Heaven, and your memories get wiped in the process. Then you’re born again as a baby.”
“Hearing you talk about religion is unusual, Utata,” Maximum said.
“Well, the Church twists the story in a way that’s convenient for them, I guess, but sorcerers acknowledge the validity of this theory. But then there’s the Girl of the Vessel. She’s probably capable of containing large, heavy souls within her body. Wowzers.”
Maximum nodded, humming to himself. He wasn’t a sorcerer, but he understood quickly enough.
“So Emperor Gelmed is trying to use the Girl of the Vessel so she can give birth to him again... Is that what you’re saying?”
“So it seems,” another feminine-voice hummed.
A large man got off the carriage. He was a former Paladin and a master Summoner — Gewalt, now operating as a member of the Palace Knights. He was recently gravely injured, but thanks to healing magic and a period of rest, he had returned to the fold.
“The summon I sent to scout out the battlefield picked up on the Emperor’s words. ‘Conceive me, give birth to me, grant me new life.’ Assuming he wasn’t making something up, Utata’s guess seems to be right on the money.”
Noah nodded.
“Waiting for the Emperor to pass away wasn’t a good idea,” she said.
The others nodded. Maximum, Alan, Daisy, Chobi, Thanatos, Utata, and Gewalt. Those were the current ranks of the Order of Palace Knights, and while they had other members, this was an emergency, so Noah didn’t have the time to call for them. The earth dragon-drawn dragon carriage they used was large, but it only had room for eight people, and Noah didn’t want to move in large numbers if it meant slowing down the speed of their retreat.
There was strength in numbers, but letting their only chance of winning pass them by would only seal their defeat. And the greater their numbers, the slower they’d be, so rather than relying on large numbers, she picked the elite few who would be capable of adapting to the changing situation.
“I didn’t know Emperor Gelmed would be that eerie, though,” Utata said, scoffing.
“Though I can understand the Emperor’s motives,” Thanatos agreed.
That comment earned him cold gazes from the rest of the group, especially the women.
“Go away,” Daisy snapped at him.
“W-Wait!” Thanatos hurriedly corrected himself. “I did not mean this talk of giving birth! I merely meant I understand the desire to become younger!”
But everyone’s attitudes remained just as cold.
“Really now?” Daisy cocked an eyebrow. “Well, whatever. Let’s leave it at that. Just... don’t look at me, got it?”
“Now, now...” Chobi said with a bothered expression. “Though, I’ll admit I don’t want to give birth to Thanatos, either...”
“I never asked you to!”
“Gahahaha!” Alan pointed at Thanatos, laughing. “You’re such a freak!”
“You don’t even understand half of what we’re talking about!” Thanatos shouted at him. “Go on, explain the situation again!”
“Erm... We gotta beat the Emperor, right?!”
“If we could do that, we wouldn’t be in this bind, now would we?!” Thanatos howled, but then...
Alan’s expression changed. His face strained with bloodlust, and he dropped his stance low, his hand flying to his sword. For a second Thanatos thought everyone present was going to kill him, but then Alan shouted in the direction of the woods.
“Who’s there?!”
†
A figure strolled out of the woods, approaching them composedly with a gait so calm the Palace Knights wondered if they were villagers living nearby. But it was a child — a child with horns, brightly-colored hair, and a tail.
“It is I, this Demon Lord,” Klem introduced herself.
Behind her was Edelgard, who was leading her earth dragon by its harness.
The Fallen?! Noah rose to her feet.
“I never would have expected to run into Fallen here...!” Maximum said, stepping forward.
“Back off, Maximum, they’re mine! I’ve been sitting on my hands for too long!” Alan called out.