It was only after the representatives of each side took the front that movement stirred in the two facing camps.
At first, neither Gracia nor Elza had been expected to step to the forefront. But once the two of them suddenly showed their resolve, they advanced with more fighting spirit than anyone had shown before.
Around them, those who had been traitors and opportunists lined up on each side.
Overcast skies.
On the battlefield along the rugged border, Gracia sat atop her horse, her right hand gripping a spear as tall as she was. The grip was long and protected by a small shield.
The lords around her looked to Gracia, who radiated fury.
"Acting Duke, isn't it dangerous to take the field without an escort? Members of the ducal house have always been at your side before."
"Even if you're going to charge out, that leaves us with no part to play—"
Gracia glared at one of the lords who was laughing with a troubled expression. Killing intent filled her violet eyes.
"So what? You lot can fight too, can't you? Or have you forgotten that you kept shoving me to the front while you yourselves sat back?"
"Th-that's..."
Gracia addressed one of the lords.
"...Don't worry. I'll hold that witch in check. You just fight the enemies in front of you. That's all there is to it, right?"
Sensing the atmosphere that left no room for argument, the lords nodded—just this once. Among them, some even wore crass smirks.
It seemed they planned to flee once Gracia started fighting, citing the danger.
Watching those lords, Gracia fixed her glare on Elza, visible in the distance.
In response to Gracia glaring her way, Elza positioned herself at a slightly higher vantage, looking down from above.
Shouldering her staff atop her horse, she tapped her own shoulder a few times with it—treating the staff as a mace.
The soldiers around her were bewildered by Elza, whose demeanor was different from usual.
"Lady Elza?"
Elza remained expressionless.
"You lot — fight the enemies right in front of you. You volunteered for this, so at least do that much."
The soldier in charge of the men went pale.
"No way! If you get caught up in the battle between Lady Elza and the witch—!"
He pleaded that getting caught in the crossfire between Elza and Gracia would get them killed, but Elza's expression didn't waver.
"So what?"
She wasn't listening in the slightest. Both Elza and Gracia knew that pitting turncoats from both sides against each other was Laiel's plan. Even if the other side turned traitor mid-battle, neither intended to change anything about it.
"N-No..."
When the soldier-leader who had been conspiring with the enemy fell silent, Elza's hair stirred in the wind. She brushed the strands from her face with her left hand, and her violet eyes gleamed coldly.
"I won't forgive this. Not today. Gracia..."
Elza and Gracia. The fighting spirit of both women had reached a height it had never known before—.
—Hearing the signal to charge, Miranda grabbed Shannon by the back of her collar from the top of Porter. Shannon was clinging to her from behind without even looking ahead.
"Shannon, confirm Novem's position. Let me know if Aria is there too."
Seeing Miranda's smile, Shannon nodded her head vigorously. It wasn't that she could see Miranda's face — she felt through the flow of magical energy that Miranda was genuinely furious.
Shannon wasn't stupid enough to resist someone like that.
Nearby, Clara sat atop Porter, cradling her massive staff, and pushed her glasses up with a fingertip to readjust them.
"So Novem is blaming this on Miranda? Actually, the ones who failed to notice Laiel had disappeared were Novem and the others, weren't they?"
Shannon said nothing, watching the battlefield that had erupted into desperate motion, but Miranda — who had been keeping an eye on her — turned to Clara.
"I'm sure Laiel is fine given who she is, but if that messed up the plan, then Novem needs to be punished. If Laiel won't hand down that punishment, shouldn't we be the ones to do it?"
Clara spoke flatly.
"I wouldn't go so far as to call it correct, but I am curious why Novem said something like that. Also, are you planning to have me provide support too?"
Miranda replied with a smile.
"Of course. I can't handle this on my own."
The fact that she stopped short of saying she couldn't beat Novem said plenty about Miranda too. Clara sighed and decided to side with Miranda this time around.
However.
"Well, the biggest problem is the fact that Laiel has disappeared, isn't it?"
Clara murmured that, and then Shannon shouted.
"There! She's there! I found her, big sister! She's coming straight toward us!"
When the flustered Shannon said this, Miranda turned to Clara.
"Right. Aria isn't here, then. So, Clara... could you get close to Novem?"
Clara moved her staff, and Porter lurched into motion. With his armored vehicle-like form, Porter drew attention even on a battlefield.
Miranda was certain that Novem was coming their way.
"Now then, time to reflect on what you've done, Novem!"
Perhaps she heard Miranda's furious voice, for Novem was riding straight toward them on horseback——
——Gracia leapt from horseback, sweeping her spear horizontally.
Amid the flames engulfing the surroundings, a pillar of ice had materialized before her. The only one who could produce ice that even Gracia's flames couldn't easily melt was Elza.
Gracia caught Elza's strike with her spear as the latter swung her staff down from atop the pillar of ice.
Elza's blow — delivered with a fighting style that hardly seemed befitting a mage — sent Gracia crashing toward the ground.
However——
"You traitor!!"
As Gracia opened her palm toward the ground, flames erupted violently, their force diminishing to push Elza back instead.
Deflecting the strike with her spear, Elza spun her body once in midair before regaining her footing and landing. The ice she had created melted, flooding the ground with water. However, the surrounding flames also weakened.
In the chaotic battlefield, battered by hot winds and biting cold, the two faced each other.
Elza pointed her staff at Gracia and—
"You were the first to betray us!!"
Hundreds of ice spears materialized around her, appearing in the air to encircle Gracia. Their tips were terrifyingly sharp, wreathed in cold that trailed white mist.
They all surged toward Gracia at once, but she stood her ground with legs slightly apart, unleashing a blaze from her own body.
Pale blue flames enveloped Gracia, and the ice spears evaporated before they could pierce her.
As the vapor spread into mist, Elza leveled her staff, froze its tip, and conjured a massive ice sword. Sweeping it back with one hand, she cleared the fog.
That was how Elza blocked Gracia's serious, killing blow aimed at her back.
Elza's ice blade melted, but she ignored it and swung the great ice sword down at Gracia—.
"...Fire Bullet."
Bullet-class magic, which even novice mages could wield, was also one of the hardest spells to use for a lethal blow. Think of it as hurling a small magical mass.
However, for someone of Gracia's caliber, bullet-class spells were highly practical due to their swift activation.
From Gracia's outstretched left hand, several fireballs several meters in diameter were launched.
Clicking her tongue, Elza—
"Tch... Ice Wall!"
Swinging her left arm to the side, she created a wall over ten meters thick right in front of her eyes.
When the giant fireballs struck, white smoke erupted as the wall began to erode.
While that was happening, Elza began moving to flank her, and when she glanced at the ice wall she'd created, her eyes went wide.
There was Gracia, having burst right through it.
In a panic, Elza hastily conjured an ice shield, but it couldn't fully stop the momentum, and she was sent flying. The wet ground had turned to mud, leaving Elza coated in it. The splattered mud froze mid-air, creating numerous brown pillars of ice around them.
Elza rose to her feet and looked down at her clothes.
"You brute!"
A surge of freezing air exploded outward from her, with enough force to freeze the entire waterlogged area solid. As Gracia's vision was obscured by that storm of cold, she felt the ground beneath her feet begin to freeze.
"You magic idiot!"
Cranking up the output of the blue flames enveloping her, Gracia melted the ice around her in an instant.
The battlefield was covered in a cold exceeding midwinter for this region, yet at times an impossible heat that surpassed summer would strike—an utterly absurd situation.
—Meanwhile, elsewhere, Novem was locked in a duel with Miranda.
No, Miranda was receiving support from Shannon and Clara, so it wasn't strictly a one-on-one fight.
Novem had shaped her staff into a great scythe and was battling Miranda, but the moment she moved to cast a spell, Shannon—riding Porter—
"Next is fire coming our way! It's a huge pillar of a spell!"
—would announce what was about to be fired before Novem could even begin her incantation. To disrupt that action, Miranda would move to intercept.
Unable to use magic, Novem was forced to fight Miranda in close combat.
Miranda, wielding two daggers with skill, caught the downward swing of Novem's scythe on both blades and immediately launched a kick.
Novem leaped back and muttered a single phrase.
"Your legwork is rather dirty."
Her expression was emotionless, unlike usual, as she spoke in a flat tone. Miranda, meanwhile, kept her smile firmly in place.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that. Still, I keep disrupting your actions before you can even start, yet you don't seem to be faltering at all. Aren't you getting impatient?"
Novem sensed Clara circling around behind her and immediately began moving.
The scene lacked the spectacle of Elza and Gracia's battlefield, but soldiers who had tried to rush Novem and the others lay scattered around them.
Soldiers from both sides had closed in, thinking they could take down Novem and her companions. That was why they were now sinking into the muddy ground.
Miranda had once sunk deep into the mire before bursting forward in a single burst of acceleration, and behind her, mud sprayed through the air.
Novem parried Miranda's rapid succession of blows, and as the distance between them closed further —.
"Do you happen to know where Lady Rael is?"
That was all Novem had been asking since earlier. Miranda let out a laugh.
"I don't. But, I see... Novem, your composure is completely falling apart, isn't it!"
"Ngh!"
Novem felt her expression shift ever so slightly. Miranda was not the type to let such a gap in a flustered Novem slip by, and she sprang into action immediately.
She thrust her short sword forward, but Novem dodged. However, Miranda tossed the short sword aside, grabbed Novem's side ponytail, and forcefully drove her head into the ground.
She added a leg sweep as well, and Novem, her opening exploited, was slammed into the dirt.
But —.
"Sister, get away!"
At Shannon's words, Miranda immediately leaped back, and a vortex of wind was swirling around Novem. The water on the ground began to move in unnatural shapes carried by the wind, spiraling around Novem at its center.
Then, as Novem placed her hands on the ground and pushed herself up, snakes made of mud appeared one by one around her — one, two, and finally nine of them.
Without even wiping the mud from her face, Novem transformed her staff into the shape of a spear. One of the great snakes placed Novem upon its head and lifted her aloft.
"As expected of you, Lady Miranda. I am grateful that you wield that power in service to Lady Rael. However... don't get carried away."
It was different from the Novem they knew. Different, too, from the calm, detached voice she had been using just moments ago. That voice, heavy with emotion, sent a chill down Miranda's spine.
But that was all.
"You don't actually think you're the only one hiding your true strength, do you? How about this?"
The ground beneath Miranda's feet swelled upward, and from the earth, the form of a massive feline creature slowly emerged.
Seeing that spell, Clara clicked her tongue.
"Tch... So you can create and control golems after all. You could have told me sooner."
Shannon kept her distance from an even scarier Clara than usual, shrinking back amid the battlefield that had become a clash zone between colossal golems.
Novem watched Miranda.
"A cat? How cute."
To the utterly composed Novem, Miranda declared:
"Who said this is as far as it goes?"
With a grin, the four-legged feline golem made of mud rose up on two legs, sprouting a mane, baring its fangs, and then grew six thick arms from its back. Each arm gripped a weapon, its body was clad in armor, and a lion warrior stood revealed.
The serpent and the lion warrior locked eyes, their presence growing just as conspicuous as the battle between Gracia and Elza—.
May and Eva.
On a hill away from the battlefield, the two of them and I sat watching the war unfold.
Surrounding us were the elves Eva had brought along, eagerly scribbling notes about the state of the battle. Some of them were even sketching pictures.
May sat eating bread, while Eva stared at me with a strained smile.
I watched the battlefield.
"It's like a storm. On Novem's side, it looks like giant monsters fighting each other. Don't you think it's quite the spectacle?"
I smiled at Eva and brushed my hair back. Eva shook her head.
"Lyle, why are you even here?"
To Eva's question, I gave a simple answer.
"Because I came with May."
"Why aren't you commanding on the battlefield?"
"There are various reasons, and besides, this is more interesting."
"Why are the Two Great War Maidens and Novem and the others fighting for real?!"
"They're doing it for my sake!"
The fact that these beautiful women were fighting on my behalf made me feel like a terrible person. But it was necessary, so I wouldn't intervene. Not yet. Not yet.
It wasn't time to step in yet.
"Do you even realize you created this whole situation?! How are you going to sort it out later?!"
I gave a shrug to Eva, who was worrying as always — cute as ever.
"Don't worry, Eva. ...I'm confident I can take the best part of this. While we're at it, don't you think a War Maiden ought to confess on the battlefield?"
Eva covered her face with her left hand.
"I figured you'd end up with more, but two at once? You're hopeless. Besides, if you pile up this many and then become emperor, you'll only get even more."
I let out a hearty laugh.
"Fuhahaha! Don't worry, they've already fallen for me. All I have to do is pick them up. And one more thing... once I become emperor, I'll spend the rest of my life with you all and with the people."
When I put on a serious face, everything I said turned into a picture — probably because of my good looks. The surrounding elves would surely pass down stories of my divine presence for generations to come.
"...Nihil's daughter — she hasn't been captured by some weird man, has she?"
"But someone like that would be more fun, wouldn't they? Although it'd shatter the holy knight image, so I'd rather not watch too much."
"Someone a little flawed is more interesting than someone perfect. You know, it has that element of surprise."
Those around me couldn't accurately assess who I was. I already knew that, but I really was alone at the top.
"Heh, solitary even before becoming emperor. I truly am a man born for the role!"
Those words of mine drew a single remark from May, who had just finished her bread.
"Lyle, I feel like that's a completely different kind of solitude from the one I know."
Apparently I needed to teach May what true solitude actually meant. Eva was ignoring me entirely, scribbling notes about the state of the battlefield. I noticed her cheeks were slightly flushed — so she really was using that as a cover for her embarrassment after all.
"Well, putting that aside. The question is when to charge in... timing is everything."
I contemplated the perfect moment to make my entrance.