A large hole opened up in a section of the ship, and whiteish smoke billowed out. I wanted to go check on it, but if I got too close, those silver needle-like projectiles that could pierce even riding beasts and armor might come flying out. After
"
I turned slightly toward Ferdinand and replied with a "Yes." Asking "Why don't you enhance your own vision?" would serve no purpose here. If he needed to but couldn't, there had to be a reason. My role as his riding companion was to report back accurately on what was happening. I enhanced my vision and squinted, trying to make out what lay beyond the smoke.
"A figure that appears to be a man in silver clothing has emerged from the large hole."
"Lanzanave or Dunkelfelger?"
The man emerged while scanning his surroundings, then climbed up to the ship's smooth upper deck. Leaning forward to watch what he would do, I saw the man strip off his silver clothing and fire magic power from his staff.
"A staff! He's definitely a Dunkelfelger knight!"
Simultaneous with my report,
"That's the signal that the ship has been secured, Lord Ferdinand!"
It seemed the agreement was that a Lightroad meant a request for rescue in an emergency, while a simple discharge of magic power signaled the completion of the operation. The explosion had apparently been caused by Dunkelfelger knights who had infiltrated the ship's interior.
As Dunkelfelger knights around us called out "Well done," an orduance came flying in.
"The ship has been secured! We will begin hostage rescue. The hostages' magic stones for their riding beasts have also been seized, so the rescue will take some time."
Ferdinand heard the orduance's words, said "Good," and gripped the reins tightly. The lion flapped its great wings once with a whoosh.
"Squad Six, proceed to rescue the hostages and recover the seized magic stones. Squads Seven and Eight, attack the lead ship. Squads Nine and Ten, attack the trailing ship!"
"Yes, sir!"
Riding beasts were faster than ships. If they accelerated in pursuit, they would catch up. While carefully adjusting the distance so as not to fully overtake the ship—essentially driving it toward the Boundary Gate—they raced across the sea. The sky was brightening, and the color of the water was growing lighter too.
"Rozemyne, once the ship starts changing color, I'd like you to put the Aub's Shield on the lead ship. Do you have enough magic power?"
"Two more times, maybe... Any more than that and I probably couldn't manage."
I reported honestly. Lying here or underestimating how much magic power I had would be absolutely forbidden. The success or failure of the subsequent operation hinged on it.
"When the Border Gate was moved, and then when I colored thefoundation, I drank recovery potions back to back. If I drink any more, I'll probably feel sick and be unable to function. The next time I take one will be before sleep."
"As long as you can judge the amount of medicine yourself, that's fine. ...Still, two times, maybe, you said?"
Ferdinand's thoughtful tone made anxiety spread through my chest.
"Is something troubling you?"
"That ship changes from silver—which repels magic power—to black, which absorbs it. I only heard this from a knight stationed at the Border Gate who observed a ship returning to Lanzanave at the end of autumn, so I can't say for certain, but it appeared to absorb the Border Gate's magic power and then distribute it throughout the ship to achieve teleportation. In other words, it wouldn't simply be black—it would possess the magic-power-absorbing properties of a black magic stone. ...I was thinking it might require more magic power than the Shield you cast at the port earlier."
Having never been an Aub himself, Ferdinand knew it was a magic-intensive spell, but he had no way of knowing how much of a burden it placed on me. The power varied depending on how much magic power was channeled into the staff, so the consumption differed greatly from person to person.
"Furthermore, unless the enemy is a complete fool, both ships won't change color at the same time. The trailing ship will surely wait to confirm whether the lead ship can pass through the Boundary Gate and the Border Gate. After witnessing how they were subjected to concentrated attacks the moment magic power became conductive, they wouldn't dare change color."
Ferdinand said that if they couldn't change color, they couldn't pass through the Border Gate, and the moment they did, they'd be attacked all at once. They would end up in a standoff, unable to return to port either.
"With your magic power in a precarious state as well, how can we rescue the hostages quickly and safely while minimizing the time spent..."
If hostage rescue weren't a concern, they could simply drop some massive boulders as the Dunkelfelger knights had suggested. But that wasn't possible, and considering Ehrenfest's circumstances and Ferdinand's condition, they couldn't afford to spend too much time.
"Rozemyne, is there anything in your knowledge—drawing not only on
Ferdinand whispered in a voice too quiet for anyone else to hear. I understood perfectly well that being overheard would cause problems, but his breath near my ear was extremely ticklish and I wished he'd stop. Shouldn't the eavesdropping-prevention magical tools be used for times like this?
"Is there anything?"
"...It was indeed a world without magic power, but science was highly developed in its place. Whether anything can be done without prior preparation—I'll need to think carefully about that."
"Think it over. Call out to me when the Aub's Shield is needed."
...What was that silver ship made of, anyway? That silver color definitely didn't look like cloth. It seemed more like metal, didn't it? Which meant the silver was paint?
Scraping off the paint, or making the metal brittle so that impact could travel through it—that was all I could come up with on the spur of the moment.
...If I applied heat, wouldn't the paint melt into a gooey mess? But how would I apply the heat? And there was a chance the hostages inside would end up being cooked alive, wasn't there? Hmm...
While I was deep in thought, Ferdinand sent orduances to the knights at the Boundary Gate.
"The moment the Aub's Shield is applied, attack the ship with everything you have. We cannot allow them to flee to Lanzanave. Absolutely no holding back. Hostage rescue comes after the ship is heavily damaged."
"Rozemyne, I'm counting on the Aub's Shield. Squads Seven and Eight, Boundary Gate—prepare to attack!"
The ship, having moved close to the Boundary Gate, began to change color. Tiles flipping over, one after another—the color shifted from silver to black in rapid succession. Timing this exact moment of transformation was apparently when the Aub's Shield could be applied with the least consumption of magic power. I immediately drew my staff and channeled magic into it.
"Folcowezen!"
I swung the staff with a whoosh and fired the Aub's Shield at the ship. Unlike before, the range was narrow. Rather than a great yellow bird circling around the area, it flew in a straight line, diving directly at the ship.
"Go!"
At Ferdinand's command, Arendsbach knights burst out from the rooftop of the Boundary Gate's pillar on their riding beasts. In their hands, and in the hands of the Dunkelfelger knights who had already begun charging at the ship, were swords forged from staves glowing with complex, multicolored light. The magic power poured into them for the sole purpose of crushing Lanzanave made them blaze with dazzling radiance.
Ferdinand swung his staff and launched magic power at the ship. It was a small glow, much like a Lightroad. Using that as their signal, the knights all raised great voices in unison, swung their swords through, and released their magic power. Everyone's magic power twisted together into a rainbow-colored light, piercing into the now-black ship.
The instant the magic light—more brilliant than the sun—reached the ship, a deafening roar that seemed to numb the ears accompanied a massive explosion. The sea heaved violently, swallowing the ship entirely before a towering white waterspout shot upward. Countless fragments of the ship burst from the waterspout and scattered in every direction.
"Confirm the hostages' safety! Begin rescue operations!"
"Get them out while the Aub's Shield is still active! Hurry!"
Those draped in the light of the Aub's Shield were scattered across the sea surface. Dunkelfelger knights used light bands from their staves to single out the hostage girls—who wore bewildered expressions, clearly not understanding what had just happened—and began transporting them atop the Boundary Gate. The Arendsbach knights formed their staves into nets of light, hauling up everything floating on the sea in one go: wide-eyed noble ladies, magical tools adrift in the water—all of it.
"Screams!"
A cry rang out from within the net. A noble girl, scooped up alongside fish that had floated to the surface from the sudden, tremendous impact of the explosion, was flailing in a panic. It was rather pitiful, but they needed to move quickly, so she'd have to bear with it.
The Lanzanave soldiers who had been caught in the explosion but survived in relatively large numbers thanks to their silver clothing, which had protected them from magic attacks, were flailing about all over the sea surface. I could also see a lone Lanzanave soldier left behind on the water with arms raised, trying to cling to the staff-net.
"Lord Ferdinand, what should we do about the Lanzanave soldiers? If we capture them, we could obtain evidence and testimony..."
"If testimony is needed, we already have soldiers from two ships' worth. The rest of them are unnecessary."
Even as he spoke, Ferdinand turned his riding beast toward the trailing ship.
The trailing ship, which had been observing the lead ship's situation, appeared on the verge of being swallowed by the shockwave of the explosion and the massive waves it generated. Even now, it was being tossed about by the still-heaving sea. However, just as Ferdinand had predicted, its color remained silver—magic attacks were ineffective.
"Hm?"
A portion of the smooth, silver upper deck opened up like a submarine, and something was raised from below. It was also silver. It looked like a square box with numerous small holes.
"What is that?"
"That's the weapon that fires those silver needles!"
It was Heisshitze who answered Ferdinand's question. Apparently, even attacking that section from a distance with magic power was still ineffective. Despite preparing numerous magical tools, none had worked on the ship. They had devised countermeasures against the cloth, but they hadn't anticipated the silver ship, so perhaps it couldn't be helped—but still, honestly, it was frustrating.
"They're firing at us?!"
"Pull back a bit further!"
The knights who had been observing raised warning voices as the silver ship began launching attacks in various directions overhead. Attacks that could pierce both riding beasts and armor—they couldn't afford to get careless.
"Perhaps it's because they saw what happened to the lead ship."
Having witnessed their comrades' ship shattered before their eyes, knowing they couldn't pass through the Border Gate without changing color, and unable to return to Lanzanave—it was clear they would be captured even if they made it back to port. Ferdinand said it was no wonder the soldiers had fallen into a state of panic.
I worried about the hostages inside. I wanted to save them as quickly as possible. To do that, I had to strip away that silver coating. It had been flipping over like tiles, so there had to be a way—jamming a knife-like object into the seams and forcibly flipping the color over, or scraping off the paint. There had to be some method.
"If only we could at least seal up those attack ports..."
"Magic attacks don't seem to work, but do you have some other method?"
"If wearing silver clothing doesn't allow one to pass through white buildings or pierce through floors, then... I was thinking, what if we used Entwicken to create a cover just for that section? What do you think?"
When I'd been thinking about what I could do as Aub, the idea of being able to create white stone had occurred to me—but Ferdinand shook his head with a weary voice, saying, "You really do come up with the most unexpected, far-fetched ideas..."
"Huh? Is that no good?"
"Not 'no good'—it's impossible. You speak casually about wanting to make a cover, but who's going to measure the size of that section? How do you intend to draw up blueprints? You don't have the magic paper, ink, or gold dust needed to perform Entwicken. And you don't exactly have surplus magic power either, do you?"
...Well, that was normally true.
"If someone could just measure the size, I think we could manage! I have plenty of magic paper that
I produced the royal insignia from my storage, showing how parts of the chain had somewhat turned to gold dust. If I took gold dust from here, wouldn't it work? What I wanted to create wasn't a massive building—it was a cover to block attacks.
"Is this gold dust enough, Lord Ferdinand?"
"No matter how small the object being created, that simply isn't enough. If you turned this section of the chain to gold dust, it would probably suffice—but turning something given to you by royalty into gold dust would be far too disrespectful. If you're going to use gold dust, I'll give you a different magic stone instead. Use that."
Disrespectful was disrespectful, but the magic stones Ferdinand possessed couldn't be turned into gold dust. He only carried stones with massive magic capacity. Turning those to gold dust would require an enormous amount of magic power.
"This chain is nearly saturated with magic power, so it barely requires any magic power to convert to gold dust. Could you perhaps forgive me if I compensate in some way when I return it? Royalty wouldn't claim that a chain on the verge of becoming gold dust was more important than human lives..."
"You're a noble from a territory that rebelled against royalty. Whether royalty will prioritize human lives as you do is uncertain. Since we can't predict what response royalty will give, we shouldn't create unnecessary openings. Besides, I object to you going up there alone to perform Entwicken—from the standpoint of your protectors, no one would agree."
Being told to be aware of my precarious position, I fell silent. If Entwicken wouldn't work, I had to think of another method.
"...What about freezing it? If we sealed it with ice, the needles wouldn't be able to fire, would they?"
"It's a decent plan, but how do you intend to do it?"
"Ugh... If only I could use the Sword of
It was already spring. Here in Arendsbach, the climate was like early summer in Ehrenfest—it was in no way winter. One could argue that since the Blessing of the Season had not yet been performed, the divine protection of Frütlime was still thin, but it still wouldn't meet the conditions for using the Sword of Ewigeliebe.
"...I'm not entirely sure what you're struggling with, but couldn't we simply turn this area into winter?"
"Huh?"
"If we rewrote the Spring-Calling magic circle that was at
"Wha—?! Don't say that with a straight face! It's impossible! Normal people can't do that!"
Hardly anyone could perform the trick of rewriting such a massive magic circle to suit their own convenience—and even fewer would think to try. At the very least, given that I'd been told I had no sense when it came to improving magic circles, it had never even occurred to me to rewrite one into a Winter-Calling circle.
"However, even limiting the range to just the ship's portion would require considerable magic power. If you don't have magic power, you'd need a magic stone filled with it. Do you have one?"
"I do—one filled with magic power drawn from thefoundation."
"Why do you have that?"
I could say I'd forgotten to leave it behind because it was heavy, but that wouldn't be convincing if I didn't say it.
"You also mentioned having magic paper?"
"I do. Plenty."
I pulled several folded sheets of magic paper from my leather bag. Ferdinand murmured in an utterly exhausted voice, "Your capacity for the extraordinary is truly frightening."
"So, even if we could turn this area into winter, is there anyone other than you and me who can use the Sword of Ewigeliebe?"
Thinking about closing the Boundary Gate and the Border Gate, it seemed best to conserve both my and Ferdinand's magic power. I looked at the guardian knights surrounding me. It wasn't for nothing that I had them frequent the
"Because we were competing to see who could master the use of divine tools first, my guardian knights can all use them.
Impressive, right? I puffed out my chest proudly, but Ferdinand looked around at the guardian knights and let out a sigh.
"The people around you are far too extraordinary."
...Lord Ferdinand, who could call winter itself, was the most extraordinary of them all, wasn't he?
That got a bit long, so it's a mid-part. Master vs. disciple—the battle of the extraordinary. They're both extraordinary, aren't they? Next time will be the final part.