“That large black contraption must be the so-called Sun Flower. It’s huge,” Sir Anthony remarked.
It was Thorsdale’s new weapon. From what our covert operatives had learned, it was as tall as a five-story building and was a similar shape to a sunflower. The reason information about it had spread despite it being a secret military weapon was because its size made it practically impossible to hide. Gossip even spread from it being the talk of the town it was built in.
However, the weapon approaching us didn’t seem to be in the shape of a sunflower. Rather, it was being brought in several, very large parts, each one needing tens of people to pull the cart carrying it. The flower of the weapon was split into four pieces, which along with the main base, made five parts total. It was clearly built to cause massive destruction.
Sir Gino’s original plan was to have the golems that were equipped with resistance to area-of-effect spells go and destroy the weapon. However, he’d been so busy with other preparations that he hadn’t had time to make enough of them, so all they could do was help defend the fort. Only our scouts, which were some distance ahead, were out of their protective range.
Though our golems might not have been able to attack the weapon as planned, I might have come up with a solution. The weapon had yet to be assembled, which meant that if we could destroy it before it was, it’d be worthless. My magic could reach it at this distance. I wasn’t confident I could be accurate enough to hit it, but at the very least, the potential was there. I must try. It’s the job of the commander to keep casualties to a minimum.
“Please send a message to the enemy forces. They are currently intruding on Sevensworth territory and they should retreat immediately. If they do not do so in five minutes, then we will launch our attack.”
“Madam Anastasia, it might not seem so from how high up we are, but their forces are still five kilrometres away. Neither our arrows nor our magic can reach them yet,” Sir Anthony said with worry.
“It’s okay. I have a way to attack them from here.”
“We must simply pass on the message, right? In that case, allow me to do so,” Lady Ekatarina said. In the next moment, she received an object resembling a trumpet from a servant and told everyone to plug their ears. “Forces of Thorsdale, you are currently trespassing on Sevensworth territory. Leave immediately! If you do not do so, we will take this as a sign of invasion and commence attacking in five minutes’ time.”
I couldn’t believe how loud she was able to make her voice. Even after covering my ears, they were still ringing. That trumpet was most likely a magic tool for this purpose.
“It doesn’t seem as if they have any intention of retreating. If anything, they are laughing quite hard.”
“It does seem that way.”
“You can see that?!” I exclaimed, exasperatedly.
They still looked like ants to me from this distance, but both Sir Anthony and Lady Ekatarina were talking like they could even see the faces they were making.
“It’s thanks to this magic tool. It helps me see far,” Lady Ekatarina said.
“Everyone in my family just has good eyes. We like looking at the stars, so compared to that, it’s easy to see faces,” Sir Anthony said.
I hadn’t noticed the other magic tool Lady Ekatarina was holding, but I was extremely surprised that Sir Anthony was able to see that far with nothing but his eyes. House Treves really was impressive. I could barely believe they were human just like us. Though I’d been in the same class as Sir Anthony since elementary school, I never knew he possessed such sharp eyes.
Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye as we spoke, and Lady Ekatarina informed me when the time was up via yet another magic tool that could precisely track time. As expected of a family that specializes in magic tools, she has so many different ones.
“I-I’ll begin the attack!”
I raised my hand into the air, casting ember. My summoned fireball hurtled past the enemy forces and hit the middle of the mountain. After a few seconds, there was a large thundering noise from its impact. Oh, how embarrassing. Everyone’s watching and yet I completely missed the target. However, I’m only just getting started. If I shoot enough, I’m sure I’ll hit at least one of the parts. I’m going to do my best!
After about an hour of my repeated attacks, the enemy was in full retreat, completely abandoning the huge parts of the Sun Flower. Though I was aiming for the weapon pieces every time, I had yet to hit any of them even once. There was no technique with which to precisely aim ember; it was a spell that simply shot off a ball of fire. It was already a difficult magic with which to hit a target. It would’ve been best if I could use a spell with more directional control, but ember was the only one I was capable of at the moment. Even so, I was surprised by how I hadn’t hit my target even once. In the meantime, everyone was standing around me as if in a daze. I had no doubt that they were very disappointed by how poor my aim was. This is so embarrassing. But I’m still going to do my best! I’ll work hard to keep casualties low!
“I did it! I hit it!” I couldn’t help but jump for joy because I’d finally hit my target. Oh, this is certainly not the behavior of a proper lady. It’d taken two and a half hours, but I’d finally been able to hit one of the parts.
“It...melted,” Lady Ekatarina said, using her magic tool to see into the distance.
“Judging from its color, the exterior of the Sun Flower is made of adamant, right? It’s supposed to be hard enough to withstand physical attacks, and that’s probably why they left it behind...” Anthony said, exasperated.
“I finally hit one! I’m going to keep going to see if I can hit the other parts as well!”
“Oh, madam, your objective was to destroy the Sun Flower?” Mary giggled.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“In that case, I think it may be better to have the puppets do it. All right, centaurs, please destroy those large black objects.”
“Affirmative.”
At Mary’s command, the four golems whose lower halves were horses charged from the fort toward the Sun Flower parts with their spears. The spears seemed to possess very powerful magic, and they released straight beams from them. In the next minute, the area became filled with light and a violent wind blew past us even at this distance as if there’d been a large explosion.
“This is the power of House Sevensworth... How fearsome...”
“I can’t believe it... They have enough power to change war itself.”
Both Lady Ekatarina and Sir Anthony were muttering these words.
“Eek! D-Demon!” Meanwhile, Sir Kevin was still screaming after the golems had appeared from under the cloths we’d been using to hide them.
After the smoke cleared, there wasn’t a trace of the Sun Flower left. How amazing! Their magic uses up a lot less mana than my ember, but they were able to produce a much more powerful and efficient magic than I did.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have tried so hard. I should have deployed the golems to begin with.”
“That’s not true. Those puppets seem to have a set amount of time that they are able to operate for, and nobody else here has the power to melt away entire areas with a single spell. The fact that you could continuously fire off that devastating spell without running out of mana is the reason the enemy retreated in despair. It’s all thanks to you,” Mary said, cheering me up.
As Mary noted, the area where the enemy forces had once stood was now a ruin of glowing red and black. I hadn’t been able to hit the dismantled Sun Flower at all, so I’d continued to fire off spell after spell, resulting in the scene before us.
“Yeah, I’m surprised too. I never knew you could use magic, especially not of that power and speed, and for over two hours straight. The enemy must’ve been scared to death,” Sir Anthony said, also trying to cheer me up.
“Precisely so. Lady Anastasia, you are truly impressive. Even the court sorcerers couldn’t have accomplished what you did here today. You will no doubt go down as the strongest sorcerer in history,” Lady Ekatarina said, overjoyed. “Of course I’m happy. I have a friend whose name will be in the history books, her legend being passed down for centuries as a great sorcerer. I’m going to begin recording all the conversations we have at my house from now on. I’ve no doubt they will be very important in the future.” She gripped my hands excitedly.
“Um...it might be troublesome if you record all of our conversations...”
“Madam, you should be happy. You’ve done much more than even Sir Ginorious predicted,” Bridgette said, smiling.
That’s true! I’m sure Sir Gino will praise me! Heh heh, I’m so happy! I wonder what kind of expression he’ll have when he praises me. Oh, I can’t wait!