The next day, I was on a date with
The location was the wasteland north of the Caron Fortress — a potential main battlefield.
No, of course it wasn't a date.
If I were going on a date, it'd be with
I didn't dislike Zanoba, but I already had two wives and one husband.
Sorry, I can't return your feelings.
Jokes aside, though.
That morning, Zanoba had shown up saying he wanted me to do something for him, so I followed along without question, and this was where he'd brought me.
Honestly, I was on edge.
This area was a combat zone.
We could run into an enemy unit at any moment.
"Hey, are you sure this is okay?"
"Hm? Master, why are you so jittery?"
"Well, enemies could show up, you know… They're going to be attacking soon, aren't they?"
"And if they do, we simply defeat them. Hardly the words of a master who dared to challenge the Dragon God
"Dauntless" wasn't really a word that suited me.
It fit
Well, I was wearing the MK. II Magic Armor, so even if a stray enemy ambushed me, I could probably handle it…
"In any case, enemy scouts wouldn't come to a position visible from the fortress."
"Isn't it the other way around? If they don't go where the fortress can see them, they can't fulfill their role as scouts."
"There's some logic to that, but according to our company commander Gallic, the enemy already has a clear picture of our strength. A scout or two might be watching our movements, but they wouldn't be leading an entire unit."
Fair enough, then.
Having the enemy know our strength wasn't ideal, though.
"So, Zanoba, what exactly did you bring me out here to do? A confession of love?"
"Ha ha! I am fond of you, Master, but I have no interest in men. Not unless you were an Asuran noble — oh, wait, you are of Asuran noble birth, aren't you."
"…My family tree has perfectly normal tastes."
I don't swing that way either.
Or are you hoping I'll throw my arms around you?
We'd both just end up feeling sick.
"Jokes aside… This area is roughly where the enemy forces would set up their formation once fighting actually begins."
"Oh?"
I looked around as he spoke.
It was a barren wasteland. Undulating terrain with tall grass and boulders as big as a person scattered about.
There was also a slope. Looking toward the Caron Fortress, you'd be gazing upward — it was a gentle downhill grade.
The river also flowed from south to north.
"It would be a favorable position for us, but it's within range of enemy archery."
"Huh…"
I thought the distance was pretty far, though…
So they could still reach us here.
Well, our archers could probably shoot even farther than that.
"So, let's reshape this terrain into something they can't establish a position on."
"I see."
If we altered the terrain here so the enemy couldn't deploy, they'd be forced to set up their formation closer to us.
That would put them within our archers' range while keeping them outside theirs.
And if the terrain itself made advancement difficult, we could pick them off from the fortress with ease.
Taking preemptive action would be a solid move.
"All right, Master — go wild."
"Got it. What shape are you thinking?"
"A mountain, or a valley."
"Then let's make a valley so deep they'd need a bridge to cross it."
And so the entire day was spent reshaping the battlefield.
We carved multiple pits into the wasteland — roughly ten meters deep, five meters wide, and twenty meters long each.
As a bonus, we covered several of them with lids to serve as pitfall traps.
These wouldn't be easy to fill in, and even if the enemy brought catapults, getting them within range would be difficult.
We also built stone walls and a moat on the far side of the river surrounding the fortress.
With this, even if the enemy set up a position, they'd have trouble seeing what was going on inside the fortress. And even if they pushed through the pitfall zone, storming the fortress itself would be a tall order.
The work was done.
It had taken half a day, but with all of this in place, the enemy wouldn't advance so easily.
We'd turned things into a one-sided shooting gallery.
"That should give us some peace of mind, then."
"Not quite. Master, you could destroy the fortress with magic from beyond this trap, correct?"
"I could."
The fortress was within visible range, and more than close enough.
"Then we should assume the enemy's mages can do the same."
I wasn't sure what the typical range of a mage was.
But if even one of them had someone capable of it, we had to assume they could reach us.
It was very likely the Human God had
"Also, there's a possibility the enemy mages will try to fill these traps in."
This time, we'd focused on pitfall traps.
But in the end, they were still just pits.
If the enemy had a Saint-class Earth mage, they could fill them in with a single spell.
"In the early stages of the battle, your and Lady Roxy's main role would be to counter such magic."
"I see."
Even if the enemy tried something, we had two Saint-class mages of our own.
If they tried to alter the terrain, we just had to resist it.
Counter-spells.
"I'll explain the finer details later, but for now, that's the meaning behind today's traps."
Right.
The enemy would see the traps and deploy in front of them.
Then their first priority would be figuring out how to deal with the traps.
Whether they used mages or brute force, if it was magic, I'd counter it, and if it was manpower, the fortress archers would harass them.
This felt solid.
We wouldn't fall so easily.
And I might even have some breathing room.
---
About three days passed after that.
The magic armor arrived, so I assembled it.
Since it was primarily designed for close combat, it wouldn't see use until the enemy actually reached the fortress.
It also consumed a lot of magic power, and there'd be an actual fight afterward, so for now I planned to fight without it.
I couldn't forget that there was a possibility I'd end up facing one of the Seven Great Powers.
Once the magic armor was complete, I did exactly as Zanoba asked and worked on reinforcing the fortress.
Filling in gaps, strengthening walls.
At this level, the magic power consumption was negligible — no problem at all.
While I was busy with that, Roxy had apparently been teaching magic to the fortress soldiers.
Not just the mage corps — regular soldiers too.
Being able to cast even basic magic in a pinch versus not having that option could mean the difference between life and death.
Roxy was popular, but I'd started being avoided by the fortress soldiers.
It wasn't hostility, exactly.
In short, they were afraid of me.
Probably because I'd reshaped the terrain in a single day.
When I walked through the fortress, the soldiers hurriedly parted to let me through, and whenever I asked them something, they answered with exaggerated politeness and deference.
But they almost never talked to me of their own accord.
It made me feel a little alienated.
Here Roxy and Zanoba had already started earning the soldiers' respect…
Was this the difference in communication skills?
Should I make more of an effort to strike up conversations?
No, well, it wasn't like I'd come here to make friends. I could live with it.
The soldiers might be stiff around me, but the food was excellent.
That was because the Wandering Dragon Kingdom was backing this war.
They apparently weren't sending troops, but they were sending supplies.
Food, especially.
Sanakia rice — a staple of the Wandering Dragon Kingdom.
It was also eaten in the Shirone Kingdom, but here at the fortress, it was the main course.
It tasted slightly different from the
Honestly, I'd been experimenting with Aisha rice to make it suit my own palate, so Aisha rice tasted better to me.
But in the end, it was the same grain.
If I could eat this every day, I wouldn't mind enlisting as a soldier of the Shirone Kingdom.
What bliss.
Being one of Pax's men, on the other hand — no thanks.
Then, on the fourth day, a report came in from our scouts: the enemy force had departed from their fortress.
---
The enemy was almost here.
It would take roughly five days for an army to march from the enemy fortress to ours.
I didn't know how many days it took scouts to make the round trip, but five days of marching couldn't be covered in one.
Three days, maybe two.
The enemy would arrive in the blink of an eye.
The fortress erupted into a flurry of activity.
Zanoba, alongside Gallic, began reorganizing the troops. Roxy started drawing a magic circle on the fortress rooftop.
The soldiers sharpened their weapons, checked their armor, and recounted their arrows.
Some had even begun writing their last wills, preparing for the worst.
I was left with nothing to do.
There seemed to be tasks, but not really anything for me.
What I could do had been mostly wrapped up over the past few days.
At best, I could help Roxy with the magic circle she was drawing.
According to her, this was a magic circle for the Fire Saint-class spell "Flashover."
Roxy hadn't formally mastered this spell. She wasn't proficient in Fire magic and couldn't control it.
But by using a magic circle, she could cast it.
That said, this particular magic circle wasn't for Roxy's use.
It was designed for multiple mage-corps soldiers to channel their mana into.
Roxy herself intended to use a Water Saint-class spell.
Fire magic was generally not used against monsters.
Its power was immense, but inside a dungeon it could deplete the oxygen, and stray sparks posed a danger to allies, so it wasn't favored.
Against humans, however, it was extremely effective.
After all, ordinary people were generally weak to fire.
Once the battle started, I'd be on the fortress rooftop alongside Roxy, unleashing spells at the enemy.
We had a rough plan, but basically it came down to blasting them.
That was my role.
But there was one concern.
Could I do it?
Ever since coming to this world, I'd beenhesitant every time it came to killing people.
I wasn't going to suddenly pretend killing was wrong or try to be some virtuous role model.
And I wasn't going to try to be an adult about it, saying things like "I won't be able to tell my children that killing is wrong with a straight face someday."
If anything, the thing that nagged at me was that I'd once told
In the past, I'd killed someone exactly once.
The High Minister Darius.
And well, technically I'd killed Auberrath too.
I hadn't delivered the final blow, but I'd cornered and killed him.
The aftertaste was awful.
But he was someone who needed to be taken down.
This time, the enemy was fundamentally innocent.
There was no need to kill them.
There was no greater cause.
If anything, it was for Zanoba's sake, but…
Either way, I'd be killing a large number of them from a distance using wide-area magic.
It was different from the Auberrath situation. It would be one-sided.
When it came to whether I could or couldn't — I could.
Whether I would or wouldn't — I would.
But after it was over, would I be okay?
Would I suddenly feel sick and throw up?
And if the Death God attacked afterward, would I be able to fight properly…
"…………"
"What's wrong,
While I was lost in thought, Roxy was looking up at me.
There was ink on her cheek.
Come to think of it, she seemed remarkably calm for someone facing a war.
Roxy had been an adventurer, so she'd never participated in a war before.
Had she ever killed anyone before that, though?
I didn't think I'd ever heard her talk about it.
"Roxy… um, well…"
It was awkward to ask, though.
Have you ever killed anyone?
If I'd blurted something like that out in my previous life, people would've thought, "Is this guy a…?"
"Ah… I see. Honestly, you're impossible."
"Huh?"
"I've heard that men calm their restless hearts before battle by sleeping with a woman.
I wouldn't want you to be completely unable to stand afterward, but as your wife, I'd prefer to handle it myself rather than leave it to someone else."
"No no no, that's not what I mean."
"Oh? It's not?"
Even I wasn't that constantly in the mood.
And hey, Roxy looked a little disappointed.
If she wanted to, I'd be more than happy to…
No, let's set that aside.
All right. Time to ask.
"Roxy… have you ever killed anyone before?"
"I have."
The answer came back without hesitation.
It caught me off guard.
That Roxy — the same Roxy who befriended the fortress soldiers almost instantly…
"I was an adventurer for a long time, so it's not all that surprising."
"Um… who was the other party?"
"My first was back when I was adventuring in the Demon Continent.
They saw that our group was mostly children and tried to trick us, so it turned into a fight… and it ended in killing."
It must have been a situation where things spiraled out of control.
"Just that?"
"There were a few times when I was adventuring alone…
Oh, and when I was traveling by myself, I was often targeted by bandits.
Looking like this, I probably seemed like easy prey.
I turned the tables on every last one of them, though."
Well, yeah. That made sense.
This was that kind of world.
Nobody got to live a clean, untouched life.
"Roxy, you seem remarkably calm about this…
This is your first time in a war, right?"
"It is. But I've faced death more times than I can count."
Her answer was crisp.
"This time, the enemy probably won't be right in front of me, and if things go badly, I have room to fall back. I'll be fine."
"You'd retreat?"
"Yes. If the worst comes to worst, I'll throw Rudeus over my shoulder and run."
"I came here to protect you, after all."
Roxy raised the hand holding her brush and flexed her upper arm in a show of strength.
It was a soft, plump arm.
Reassuring in its own way, but…
"Are you afraid of killing people, Rudeus?"
"Yes, I am."
"Why?"
"I don't know…"
Roxy nodded thoughtfully ("Hmm") and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.
The ink from earlier must have gotten on her sleeve, because now there was ink on her forehead too.
"You've always been a timid one, Rudeus. You were afraid to even ride a horse…"
Ah.
Come to think of it, fifteen years ago, I'd been afraid to even go outside.
Those were the days.
"What exactly don't you understand? Tell me about it."
Somehow, it felt like old times with Roxy in teacher mode.
"When I try to kill someone… something puts on the brakes."
"The brakes. What do you think is causing that?"
Why.
If I knew that, I wouldn't have to agonize over it.
But I couldn't stop thinking there. I had to push through.
Why had I not been able to kill people, back in the day?
"…Ever since traveling the Demon Continent, I'd been adjusting my magic — trying not to kill, trying not to kill."
Right. The reason I'd once adjusted the power of my Stone Cannon was so Eris could gain experience fighting monsters.
But eventually, I'd started adjusting my power to non-lethal levels even against humans.
With Ruijerd… and with the Dead End party, we'd decided not to kill.
"As party leader, I felt I had to set an example…"
Because I'd kept doing it for so long, the habit had become ingrained.
Just like someone raised with strict rules in childhood develops an aversion that persists into adulthood.
It was a kind of trauma.
Or maybe if I'd done it on my own at least once along the way, I wouldn't be agonizing over it now.
I'd failed to act, and here I was.
"I see."
Roxy pushed her bangs aside.
Now there was ink on the tip of her nose too.
"What do you yourself think about these brakes?
Do you want to get rid of them?"
"…No. I'm actually more afraid of what would happen if they disappeared."
In this world, I had power.
Power enough to kill most people with a single finger.
Power enough to kill someone who annoyed me, and then kill anyone who tried to hold me accountable.
If the brakes came off, I'd become the kind of mass murderer my diary-self was — killing indiscriminately.
That… I didn't want.
"Then isn't it fine as it is?"
Was it, though?
There might be tough situations down the road.
"I could say something like 'This time it's not Rudeus doing the killing — it's Prince Zanoba having you do it,' but you'd probably get angry about that."
"…"
In wartime, individual killings were sanctioned by the state.
The responsibility lay entirely with the organization — the nation.
So whatever I killed in this war was on the house.
All of it fell on Zanoba — or rather, on Pax.
It was nothing but an excuse.
"Rudeus, if you feel like you won't be able to use magic this time, I'll do my best. And if I run out of mana, throw me over your shoulder and run."
"…Well, you carrying me versus me carrying you — the latter probably makes more sense."
"Right?"
Roxy smiled, then reached for a fresh ink pot.
That was when she noticed the ink on her sleeve and scowled.
"Rudeus… is there ink on my face?"
"Yes. So much that it looks like magic could erupt from it at any moment."
Hearing that, Roxy pulled a handkerchief from inside her robe and scrubbed furiously.
Her face was bright red.
She was shooting flames instead of magic.
"Where is it?"
"Your cheeks, your forehead, and the tip of your nose."
"…Wipe it off. If it stays like this, I'll never be able to get married."
"You're already married."
Saying that, I took the handkerchief from Roxy and dampened it with water magic.
Roxy closed her eyes and turned her face toward me.
I wiped her forehead, the tip of her nose, and gave her cheek a little peck.
"……"
"…………"
At some point, Roxy had opened her eyes and was giving me a flat, unamused look.
Her face was still beet red.
"I-I'm almost done with the magic circle. We'll continue after that… at a leisurely pace."
"Okay."
So I was being granted a continuation.
After that, I waited like a dog for Roxy to finish the magic circle.
Then we went back to our room together and enjoyed each other's company.
This war.
I didn't know if I could be useful.
But with Roxy by my side, it would be okay.
---
The next day.
A report came in: the enemy force would arrive today.
Tension surged through the fortress as every soldier scrambled to their position.
I made my way to the fortress rooftop as well.
Roxy's and my job was to receive instructions from the mage company's captain and unleash spells accordingly.
Until that moment arrived, all we could do was wait.
I was wearing the MK. II Modified magic armor.
The MK. I was positioned against the back wall of the fortress.
A quick jump would get me there instantly.
The Human God still hadn't made a move.
Would he do something once this battle was over?
Or would he take advantage of the battle to make his move?
Were there Apostles on the enemy side?
Were there Apostles inside the fortress?
Would Pax and his men attack from behind?
All these anxieties swirled through my mind when something moving caught the corner of my eye.
"Hm?"
Behind the fortress.
The opposite side from the incoming enemy.
A group in armor was leaving the fortress, crossing the river, and heading into the forest.
About a hundred, maybe.
Please don't let that be deserters.
"Excuse me — do you know what that is?"
"Hah!"
I asked the company commander, a man named Billy.
He looked toward the armored group outside the fortress and nodded.
"A unit Prince Zanoba recently organized. Their orders are to eliminate enemy soldiers emerging from the forest, and depending on the situation, to launch a surprise attack on the main enemy force and take the enemy commander's head."
"What!?"
What the hell?
"I wasn't told about this!"
"Hah… Well, the thing is, if Lord Rudeus were to come along, the fortress's defenses would be too thin…"
"That's a completely different thing from not telling me!"
"If we told you, you'd insist on coming. And if Lord Rudeus came along, Lady Roxy would follow."
Well, the thoughtfulness was appreciated, and I understood his reasoning.
If Zanoba had led a small sortie, I absolutely would have jumped to the conclusion that it was a Human God trap and followed him.
And then Roxy probably would have come too.
Spells could be fired from anywhere, sure.
But firing the right spell at the right target from deep inside a forest, adapting to the situation in real time? I doubted that was feasible.
I understood the logic.
But then what was the point?
Did Zanoba have any idea why I was even here?
I'd come to protect him.
At least give me a heads-up before you leave.
What if I accidentally hit the wrong target?
And more importantly — if the enemy found out that our supreme commander was inside the forest, that could be catastrophic.
I should go after them right now…
"HK!"
But before I could act, tension erupted inside the fortress.
A bell clanged, signaling an enemy attack.
Every gaze snapped toward a single point.
On the horizon, dust clouds blurred the skyline.
The enemy had arrived.