Chapter 3
DIANE’S RED EYES opened wide in amazement.
Needless to say, it was Geo Margilus who floated in the air above her.
“Wha?!” She’d never heard of magic that allowed humans to fly in the sky. Of course, she’d also believed it impossible to make thirty warriors fall asleep at once.
“Are you a sorcerer? Are you Elisabel’s bodyguard?”
“Ahhh…well, something like that…” Geo scratched his jaw as he answered Diane, who leveled the tip of her shining, rainbow-hued sword toward him.
So, he could speak. Just that small piece of information put some of Diane’s fears to rest. It also helped that she didn’t sense any murderous desires in Geo’s expression.
In fact, after getting news of the ambush from Reyha, Geo had done everything in his power to make sure that the Schultz clan was disarmed without doing them any harm. He flew up using the Fly spell, then hid himself with Invisibility, and knocked them all out using Sleep. It would have been easy to slay the whole warband with attack spells, but he wanted to avoid loss of life, even if it took some extra effort.
Actually, his first plan had been to use Move Outer Plane to sneak around them, but he rejected that idea, figuring that some other innocent Filsand travelers or merchants might accidentally find themselves in the line of fire.
“I see,” Diane said. “So that means…”
“I’m sorry I took the first shot, but you were planning on ambushing us, right? If possible, I’d like to discuss—”
Naturally, Geo’s attempts at sweet-talking were pointless. Diane’s anger flared up, blowing away all hear fears. “Piss off!”
Diane took aim at the man flying above her head and stomped the ground. The stone pillars in Geo’s vicinity suddenly began to lift up at an incredible speed. The young warmaster, who stood on top of one of the rapidly rising pillars, kicked off her perch and flew even higher.
“Huh?! Whoooa!” Geo never would have expected something like this. He screamed like an idiot.
With absolutely no hesitation, the young girl aimed her divine blade at his abdomen, thrusting it forward in a mighty, flying lunge. But…
“What the hell?!”
Just before the sword would have pierced Geo’s stomach, it was stopped by something invisible. Diane felt like her hands were stuck between two pieces of hard meat. It was the work of an Invisible Demon, summoned by Geo and ordered to protect him from attacks.
“Ergh…! Damn it!” With her lunge deflected, Diane fell to the ground. She should have broken at least a bone or two, but like a cat, the girl deftly absorbed the impact and stood right up. Her red eyes hadn’t lost an ounce of their will to fight.
“J-just calm down for a second…”
“Shut up! I’ll kill you!” Diane ripped her dagger out of its sheath, preparing for her second attack.
“Such insolence!” This time, a dark brown shadow attacked Diane.
“Huh?!”
It was Reyha, ever ready to jump in and protect her master. The dark elf’s swift kick to Diane’s head…missed. Barely. Once again, the girl reacted with superhuman ability, thanks to her divine sword’s power.
“It’s a friggin’ dark elf?!” Diane dodged out of the way, using the momentum to carry her divine sword all the way around into a sweeping, circular counterattack. Her outstanding sense for battle was proof that her title as warmaster was no hollow honor. But then…
“Huh?!”
Reyha’s long, lean body had already vanished from the path of the sword, the blade leaving a rainbow trail through empty air. As soon as the elf’s foot came back from her kick to touch the ground, she swiftly flattened her entire body against the earth, nimble as a spider. She was so flexible, it was like she had no joints at all.
Diane snarled. “Ah! Argh!”
Reyha took a quick breath and jumped. She soared off the ground, high into the sky. Her kick hurtled nearly straight down—and knocked the divine sword right out of Diane’s grip.
“Damn it!” Diane gave up on her right hand, which was numb from impact, and instead nimbly hefted her dagger in her left hand. She was undoubtedly an extraordinary warrior. But in this world, an extraordinary warrior was still merely average in the face of Reyha’s truly unnatural ability.
“Reyha!” Geo called out. “Take it easy!”
“Urgh?!”
Reyha had her legs wrapped around the girl’s neck like a two-headed snake. She’d twisted her body and was slamming Diane’s head toward the ground. If Geo’s frantic cry had come even one second later, her head would have hit the sharp corner of a rock sticking out of the earth.
“Hey, hey. Is the girl okay…?”
“My lord, I beg your forgiveness for my delayed arrival! Please, punish your unworthy servant for her unforgiveable lapse!” Reyha stood in front of Geo with genuine worry on her face. Arriving late to the battle, seeing Geo suffer an attack—to her, it was a profound failure.
The whole thing weirded Geo out. From where he sat, he could see her eyes glistening with tears, to say nothing of her peculiar request for punishment. “Calm down. That won’t be necessary. Right now, I need your help.”
Reyha remained obstinate. “Unacceptable! This is an unforgivable blunder! I am the Si of the great Orly, he who is the Lord of Flow. I am held to a higher standard! You need but name the punishment, and I will abide by your orders, be it whipping or stoning or whatsoever you desire!”
“I said no!” Geo rubbed at his forehead, exasperated. “Pick up this child. I’ll call the others. Make sure the rest of her clan doesn’t wake.”
“A-as my lord wills…”
Geo left Reyha behind, flying swiftly above the pillars. She looked oddly disappointed for some reason.
✦ ✦ ✦
We arrived in the square to set up camp a little later than expected.
Thanks to Reyha’s scouting, we were able to prevent the Schultz clan’s ambush.
“Margilus!” Ted called. “We’ve got everyone tied and rounded up!”
“These barbarians must have a death wish if they’re willing to attack Lord Margilus,” said one of his subordinates.
I’d asked Ted and the dwarves to bind the Schultz warriors, still sound asleep, thanks to the power of Sleep. The others had started setting up camp, and I decided to parlay with the young girl, like the leader I was supposed to be.
I looked at her for a few moments. “She really does look exactly like you, Elisabel.”
“Yes. She’s probably the daughter of Cher, my mother Shayla’s older sister.”
We stood in front of the girl, still unconscious after Reyha’s strikes. Except for her light brown skin and silver hair, she could have easily passed for Elisabel.
Clara joined us. “Elisabel, your mother was the daughter of the Schultz patriarch, right? So that means…”
“Yes. My aunt Cher was a Schultz princess. After the clan fled south, she was supposed to be the wife of the new patriarch.”
“In other words,” said Ild, “this girl is the daughter of the current patriarch and your cousin?”
Reyha loomed nearby, watching the girl with the utmost caution and vigilance.
“So, let’s see,” I said. “The Schultz clan and the daughter of their patriarch were posted here, far away from their home in the south, waiting to ambush us. They must have been after Elisabel.”
“It’s hard to think of another reason,” Elisabel murmured. “But if they knew that I was in Axeholm, then they must have gotten their information from Filsand…”
The first thing this girl had said when she saw me was Elisabel’s name. All we could do was wake her up and see if she’d talk to us.
Reyha lifted the girl up to a seated position and shook her a little.
“Urgh…” The girl opened her eyes—eyes that looked identical to Elisabel’s, down to their specific shade of red. We’d taken her shining sword, which according to Clara harbored a terrifying amount of magic, along with her other weapons, but other than that she wasn’t restrained.
“I… Ah?! You?! You!” The girl, still not completely lucid, jumped up as soon as she saw me.
“Hold on.” Reyha grabbed the nape of her neck to keep her in place.
Diane hissed. “Rrrgh!”
“Whoa, just calm down for a second,” I told her.
“You bastard,” Diane snarled. “Mrgh!”
We waited for a few moments. Once the girl finally realized that she couldn’t get away from Reyha, no matter how she struggled, she looked ready to talk.
She plopped down on the ground with a thump and crossed her legs. Although she looked like a distinguished warrior, as an older man, I couldn’t help but say one thing. “Now see here, little lady. Is that any way for a girl of your age to act?” I hadn’t initially planned to scold her, but she reacted to my words exactly as I would’ve expected.
“Shut up, old man!” There was no reason that such a young girl and I would see eye to eye in the first place.
Reyha tightened her grip on the girl’s neck. “The next time you speak like that to our lord, I’ll rip out your tongue. You hear me, girl?”
“Ergh!”
“The lord is not an old man…even if he is slightly more aged than the clan might find ideal.”
“Enough!” I yelled. Right now, I needed her to calm down so we could talk.