The joint army of Olmutz and Polesia led by Ludmila Lourie and Sofya Obertas advanced along the main road, heading straight for the capital Silesia. With Olmutz’s army fielding roughly 4,000 soldiers, and Polesia roughly 3,000, their joint army had 7,000 men in total.
These two armies had repelled the Muozinel army which had crossed Zhcted’s border, and furthermore defeated the military forces of Viscount Struve who had taken advantage of the domestic chaos to raise an army. Thus the disorder, which was about to swoop down on Zhcted’s south, was resolved surprisingly quickly by the two Vanadis.
The blue-haired Ludmila Lourie was 18 years old, holding the nickname 『Snow Princess of the Frozen Wave』. Her age was the same as Tigre’s and Elen’s, but she was slightly shorter than the two and was blessed with a small body build. However, she didn’t fall short to Elen when it came to her ability as warrior, and as for her pride as Vanadis, she surpassed Elen by quite a margin. But then again, after she met Tigre and fell in love with him, kindness and emotional dependence could often be seen dwelling in her blue eyes. She was well aware of her own change, and secretly welcomed it.
Mila wore a silver breastplate atop her bluish clothes, and her white skirt was concealed by metal pieces. Her outfit was so skimpy that you’d expect her to freeze in this cold weather, but the spear in Mila’s hand protected her from any coldness. It was Lavias, her draconic tool that was also called 『Piercing Horn of Evil Slaying』.
The one riding a horse next to her with her wavy, blond hair gently swaying was Sofya Obertas. She was four years older than Mila. She wore a thin overcoat above her silken dress that combined green and white colors. What Sofy was holding as if embracing it was a golden bishop’s staff. Its hue was beryl, similar to Sofy’s eye color and it was decorated with beautiful ornaments while linking several loops together. It was Zaht, her draconic tool with the alias 『Purifying Shell of Demonic Expulsion』.
Right now the two were traveling towards the capital to report their victory. But then again, this was but a pretext. Mila and Sofy’s true intention was to constraint Valentina. They couldn’t afford to let the black-haired Vanadis steal the capital.
And when they were just a little distance away from the capital, ‘that’ occurred above their heads. The azure of the early afternoon sky transformed into an odious violet.
“What’s this…?”
Mila glared at the sky with her eyes wide open whereas Sofy was covering her mouth with a hand, speechless. Mila’s Lavias released cold air from its tip as if to warn its owner while Sofy’s Zaht scattered light particles that covered Sofy in an attempt to protect her.
But, the sky’s azure color returned in the next instant. The change was so short-lived that one might believe they had possibly fallen for a hallucination, and no visible effect lingered in the vicinity either.
Yet, the tension didn’t vanish from Mila and Sofy’s eyes. Their partners, the draconic tools, had reacted strongly to this, so it was impossible for this to have been an optical illusion.
“What do you think?”
“It’s probably something related to Tir Na Fal.” Sofy knitted her slender eyebrows as she answered Mila’s question.
The soldiers behind these two had started to become noisy. They also had seen the violet sky.
“This reminds me of something unpleasant.” Mila’s face distorted in discomfort.
It happened back when they had investigated the archives in Brune’s royal palace. At that time she had spotted a writing about a frog fairy called Vodyanoy. The book also contained a picture depicting that fairy, but the picture also featured a violet ground and a green sea. The sun was black and the moon red. When she saw it, it felt eerie to her, but now Mila guessed that the picture had hinted at this kind of change.
“Would it be better for us to tell the soldiers something?”
“As long as it’d allow us to give them a peace of mind. I’m not confident that I could find the right words right now.” Sofy shrugged her shoulders atop her horse.
She had judged that, for the time being, they couldn’t do much more than showing their soldiers that they didn’t care overly much.
After traveling for another half koku on the main road, around the time when the wall of Silesia became visible in the distance, the two Vanadis had no choice but to admit their defeat. The cavalry unit they had sent out to scout the capital’s circumference had returned and reported following:
“Osterode’s flags are flying in great numbers atop the wall. The gates are open.”
Mila and Sofy exchanged a look, realizing that Valentina had taken the capital. Both thanked their soldiers and had them step back.
Mila sighed, “There’s nothing as frustrating as having been unable to prevent the enemy from achieving its objective despite having known about it in advance.”
“You know, you can also be honest about your feelings and show that you’re worried about Tigre’s safety.”
Having the worry, which she had pushed down into the deepest corner of her heart, pointed out to her, Mila grimaced. Just close to twenty days ago, Mila had confronted Tigre with the feelings she had carried in her heart for a long time.
“I have no doubt about Tigre being safe. It’s unthinkable that he’d let the likes of Valentina catch him.” It was a childish statement, but also what she truly believed. “Rather than that,” Mila changed the topic, “what are we going to do next?”
“We have no choice but to join up with Elen and the others first. Or, do you want to attack the capital?”
“Don’t be silly.” Mila rejected Sofy’s teasing suggestion with a laugh.
If they tried to attack the capital, they’d be regarded as enemies by the people living in the city, unless they had a very convincing, just reason to do so. Moreover, it’d just earn them the people’s animosity, regardless of whether they won or lost. Mila had absolutely no intention to burden herself with such a disgrace.
And even if they had such a convincing, just cause, they’d require a tremendous amount of soldiers and siege weapons to scale Silesia’s wall. Neither Olmutz’s army nor Polesia’s had made any preparations in that direction. They lacked too much manpower and resources to fight Valentina under such circumstances.
The two stopped their march, and dispatched several messengers to the capital. It was based on the hope that their men would be able to find some clue how to tackle this while reporting their victory to the court. Afterwards they set up their camps next to the road.
Around the time of the sun going down in the west, more than a hundred soldiers in either army fell ill. However, unlike the soldiers of Leitmeritz and Lebus who suffered the same fate on distant soil, the soldiers here were released from their unknown suffering after roughly half a koku. Sofy, who had guessed the cause behind this, had gathered those afflicted in a single place, and brandished her golden staff while standing amidst them, exercising her draconic artVeda.
“Petals, dance and purify the ground I’m standing onSliptayeh.”
Light particles gushed out of the tip of the staff she held up, forming large flowers above her head. The golden radiance originating from those flowers spilled over and fell onto the ground, melting with the soil while spreading. The soldiers, who got touched by that light, got healed within a moment.
This draconic art wasn’t intended to heal ailments. Its purpose was to purify evil. Thinking that this illness might be related to the violet sky they had seen during the day, she had tested how her draconic art would work on it.
“It’s great that it had an effect,” Sofy felt relieved from the bottom of her heart.
◆◇◆
The messenger they had dispatched to the capital returned late at night. Mila visited Sofy’s camp and carefully listened to their report while treating them to black tea as a display of her appreciation. It was at that moment that the two Vanadis learned of Eugene’s imprisonment and Miron taking over as proxy ruler.
“You didn’t see Valentina…Osterode’s Vanadis?”
“She was referred to as an aide of the first prince. We were told that His Grace the Grand Chamberlain, the current proxy ruler, and Osterode’s Vanadis were protecting the capital.” And then the messengers were sent back after Miron further passed on, “You shall be awarded an appropriate reward in the near future, so quickly head back to your own territory, break up your armies, and remain on standby.”
After they thanked the messengers once more and had them leave, only Sofy and Mila remained in the tent. They looked at each other. The one speaking up first was the Snow Princess of the Frozen Wave.
“The prince’s aide, eh? I suppose she has taken back the position from before her house arrest for starters.”
But then again, Mila guessed that the real circumstances were different. She had no doubt that Valentina had concentrated a stronger authority on herself when compared to before.
Sofy placed a hand on her cheek, and sighed, “Sir Miron is not a bad person by any means, but…his outlook is too narrow for a ruler. I feel that part of him is being used against him. I’m also worried about Lord Eugene’s safety.”
The other piece of news that cast a grim expression on Mila and Sofy’s faces was information about Tigre. The messengers had asked the bureaucrats working at the palace about Tigre on their behalf, but according to them, Tigre had one day suddenly disappeared. Hearing this piece of news, Mila suspected an assassination for a moment, and became deathly pale with her eyes wide open.
Sofy soothed her by gently tapping her shoulder, and gave her an explanation to give Mila a peace of mind.
“Just as we talked about before, Tigre has a lot of value. Before assassinating him, they’d rather steal his Black Bow and throw him into prison.”
Sighing, Mila could come to terms with that logic reasoning. However, this still didn’t answer the question of where Tigre had gone.
“Let’s first join up with Elen’s group and then think about the next steps together. We simply lack too much information to come to a conclusion on our own.”
Mila had no option but to agree with Sofy.
After waiting for dawn, the two Vanadis’ armies departed westwards under the pretext of “relieving Leitmeritz’s army.” Both of them came up with the fabricated story that Elen had requested help as she was struggling with Legnica’s army. This was the easiest means to join up with Elen while also answering Miron’s “Return to your principalities” with “We shall prioritize the kingdom’s peace and stability.”
And then two days after they had moved their armies away from the capital, a soldier came to give his report to Mila just after noon.
Having preceded the army as scout, he told Mila that he had caught sight of a group, which he judged to be bandits, consisting of several dozen people approximately one belsta ahead of their advance. Given that it looked like they were about to attack several travelers, he had assembled several soldiers on his own without reporting back first, and routed the bandits.
“Well done. Did you take those travelers under our protection?” Mila praised the soldier with a smile.
If her soldiers were to ask for their commander’s decision each and every single time, they might not be in time when it came to rescuing travelers. Subordinates capable of making their own decisions on the go were very valuable.
Even as he looked thankful, the soldier continued his report with a slightly troubled expression, “Yes. We tried to escort them to a nearby town, but…once they heard that we belong to the armies of Olmutz and Polesia, they insisted on meeting Your Ladyship by all means, claiming that they were acquainted with Your Ladyship… What should we do?”
Mila furrowed her eyebrows. It was a possibility if it was someone who had escaped the royal palace. She asked the soldier for the names of the travelers.
“They’re three Brunians. A young girl called Titta, and two Brunian nobles called Gaspal and Gerard. They’ve claimed to be acquaintances of Earl Vorn…”
After becoming dumbfounded, Mila mumbled under her breath, “It can’t be helped, I guess.” Leaving aside herself, only 2,000 soldiers had participated in battles together with Tigre among the soldiers of Olmutz. And furthermore, that was a story from two years ago during the civil war in Brune. It was inevitable that many wouldn’t know the maid serving Tigre. Gerard had been mostly working on logistics in the rear of the army, and thus didn’t really stand out either.
“Bring those people to me. Also, send someone to Polesia’s army, and have them call Sofya Obertas. ──Also, Damad too.”
Damad was a young Muozinel soldier. Due to various circumstances, he’d been acting together with Tigre, but when Mila and Sofy had been appointed to deal with the Muozinel invaders, Tigre had asked Damad to cooperate with Mila. And even after the battle against the Muozinel army had ended, he had accompanied her without going back to his homeland.
◆◇◆
After Mila and Sofy ordered their soldiers to set up camp and take a rest afterwards, they reunited with Titta, Gaspal, and Gerard in the supreme commander’s tent of Olmutz’s army.
Titta was 16 years old. She had bound her chestnut-colored hair into a ponytail on the back of her head. Her small body was covered by a red overcoat. Her face was stiff from tension and exhaustion, but once she saw Mila and Sofy, it loosened up, blooming into a smile that looked like she’d break into tears any time soon.
“U-Umm, Lady Ludmila, Lady Sofya…”
Tears welled up in Titta’s eyes, and immediately trickled down her cheeks as her emotions apparently broke through all at once. After calling the two Vanadis by their names, she seemingly became unable to form any further coherent words.
“It’s great to see you safe and sound.” Mila said with a smile, and Sofy gently hugged Titta so as to console her.
Seeing Sofy’s action, slight envy appeared on Mila’s face. Being able to act like that on the spur of the moment was doubtlessly one of Sofy’s strong points.
Gaspal and Gerard were, just like Titta, clad in traveling clothes. The two kept up their decorum as Brunian nobles, and bowed their heads at Mila and Sofy.
“You have my deepest gratitude for having timely rescued us. Since we are currently in the middle of traveling, I can only offer you words of thanks, but I would be delighted if you allowed me to express my gratitude properly in the near future.”
Mila generously nodded at their words of gratitude.
Gaspal was the second son of Earl Mashas Rodant while Gerard was Viscount Hughes Augre’s son and Brune’s Royal Secretary. Hence it was necessary for both to observe etiquette, even when giving their thanks.
Damad only commented, “You survived, huh?”, when he saw Gaspal and Gerard without so much as a change in his expression. Gaspal broadly grinned at that, returning, “Back at you,” whereas Gerard answered with a shrug of his shoulders, “I really wonder whether it’s your lacking vocabulary or the Muozinel language’s shortage of kindness that’s at fault here.” The young Muozinel snorted in amusement without taking any offense at all.
On the other hand, Damad said, “Well done to have prevailed,” to Titta, apparently taking her needs a lot more into consideration as a woman who was younger than him. Titta answered him with a smile, “Thank you very much.”
Mila instructed a soldier to get a meal ready. A little while later, hot water with a large quantity of honey, wheat porridge, fish soupukha, finely-cut cheese, dried apple which had been cut into bite sizes, and many other dishes were lined up in front of the three travelers. Steam rose from the soup and porridge, whetting the appetite of anyone looking at them. Of course, Mila hadn’t failed to also provide her personally brewed black teachai. As for jam, they had the choice between strawberry and apple.
“If you want to eat bread or meat, I’ll have it prepared. Please don’t hold back on telling me.”
Thus they began to dine in a harmonious atmosphere. Seemingly having endured their hunger, Gaspal and Gerard wolfed their porridge down within moments. Titta, on the other hand, slowly sipped on the soup so as to heat her body from within.
“I’m sorry to do this while you’re busy eating, but could you tell us why you’ve been in such a place?” Mila asked while drinking her tea.
Unable to answer at once, Titta looked at her two companions in hesitation. With porridge still stuck to his mouth, Gaspal clapped Titta’s shoulder to give her a peace of mind.
“If there’s anything missing in your explanation, I’ll supplement it.”
Titta bobbed her head, and turned back to Mila and Sofy.
“More than ten days ago Lord Tigre suddenly vanished from the capital. He left a note behind asking Mr. Gaspal and Mr. Gerard to take care of me, but it didn’t mention a single word about where he was going…”
Mila and Sofy stared at the small maid in surprise. They had heard about Tigre’s disappearance, but they didn’t expect for it to have happened that long ago. Pulling herself together, Mila told Titta to continue.
Of course, Titta and the two men looked for Tigre. But, even after investing several days into their search, they couldn’t obtain a single clue. Upon Gerard’s proposal, Titta tried to rely on Eugene. But once they headed over to the palace, they were bluntly turned away, only being told that they couldn’t meet him.
“We are formally requesting an audience with His Excellency the Earl as Brune’s special envoys,” Gaspal had told the guards, but they didn’t even announce their arrival. It was only later that they learned of Eugene’s imprisonment.
Moreover, with rumors about Julian Kurtis leading an army against the capital from Bydgauche circulating, the atmosphere in the capital teemed with anxiety. The travelers and merchants coming from the north reported that they had seen several thousand armed soldiers, and this piece of news spread in the city in the blink of an eye.
At that point, Titta and the two men had hit a dead end. Even when trying to gather information, most of the people were only talking about rumors of strange phenomena or their fear of Bydgauche’s army, and thus no one listened to their questions.
When the capital’s gates were closed, Titta had finally made up her mind.
“──I wondered whether Ti Na Fal couldn’t provide the answer we sought.”
A short silence settled between the six people. Mila breathed out, though it wasn’t clear whether out of admiration or shock.
“An oracle, huh? Quite the drastic measure you took there…”
Priests and shrine maidens would seek divine guidance by offering prayers to their gods. This was called oracle. Since only the medium would be able to tell whether the result represented the gods’ will, the answer they intuitively arrived at was regarded as oracle.
Mila and Sofy had heard from Titta about what you could describe as her having a strange bond with Tir Na Fal, but offering a prayer to a goddess who was seen as evil in Brune and Zhcted was definitely nothing that could be touted publicly.
“The temples facing the main streets were all crowded by throngs of people…so I had Mr. Gaspal and Mr. Gerard search for a temple that has many gods enshrined while being secluded. That’s where I offered my prayer.”
“Did Tir Na Fal tell you anything?” Sofy asked gently.
Titta nodded shortly with a tense expression.
“It’s not as if she used clear words, so it’s more of a vague feeling, but she told me to head northwest.”
“What is to be found northwest?”
Tittal weakly shook her head at Mila’s question, “I don’t know. But, going by the tone in her voice, it looks like I’ll find out once I get there…”
‘That’s quite ambiguous,’ Mila judged in her mind, but she decided to accept it based on her belief that oracles simply worked like that.
“You mentioned Bydgauche’s army, didn’t you? They were defeated by Lady Valentina’s army, resulting in all of the capital’s gates being opened again. As such we’ve been able to leave the capital only now…” Gerard reported while ransacking his dark brown hair.
“And then you were almost attacked after leaving the capital and heading northwest, huh?”
“Your soldiers saved us in the nick of time,” Gerard answered with a profound tone.
Mila and Sofy exchanged a look, and then Sofy spoke up, “If we’re talking about northwest from here, it’d be either Legnica’s north or Lebus. I’ve heard that countless temples of old eras are sleeping in Lebus.”
“Old eras…” Mila narrowed her eyes, not looking very amused.
It followed a certain consistency. It wasn’t as though the gods, beginning with Perkunas, had been worshiped since the beginning of Zhcted. When the kingdom of Zhcted was established, the gods of the various tribes living on its territory were consolidated to a certain extent, leading to the currently, commonly-accepted gods.
Mila folded her arms and pondered, but she reached a decision rather quickly.
“I understand. We’ll believe you. Sofy and I are going to head there as well.”
Titta felt flabbergasted by that declaration. The same applied to Gerard and Gaspal.
“U-Umm, I would be very delighted if you could accompany us on our travels, but…” Titta squeezed out in confusion while pointlessly flapping her hands.
Sofy smiled sweetly, caught her hands and tenderly put her hands on top of Titta’s.
“You don’t need to mind it. You see, we’re also worried about Tigre. Besides, I can’t believe that he’d leave the capital for a trivial reason during this season.” With those words, she released Titta’s hands, and shifted her eyes to Mila.
“What are we going to do about the soldiers?”
“We can’t take them along. That much is clear.” Mila shook her head.
First, provisions would become a problem. At present the armies of Olmutz and Polesia had food, water, and fuel for no more than a few days. So far they had also advanced along the main roads as much as possible for the sake of procuring all these things from the cities and towns along the way. This option would immediately become erratic if they continued advancing according to Titta’s guidance. After all, whenever they’d proceed away from the main road, they’d need twice the food provisions, if you included the way back.
The next issue would be what opponent was awaiting them. If this whole matter was related to Tir Na Fal, it was a feasible possibility for demons to show up. If that happened, it’d be foolish to challenge the enemy with numbers.
“In that case, it’d be best to carefully select a number of soldiers, and have them wait in a place close to the capital.” Sofy put a hand around her mouth as she brooded.
Her idea was based on the wish of wanting to station some troops close to the capital in preparation for the possibility of Valentina, who was occupying Silesia, to take some kind of hostile action towards them. However, if they were to station their soldiers there, they’d have to prepare food and fuel for them. And, since they didn’t know how much time this new endeavor would take them, they had no choice but to lower the number of stationed soldiers.
“Also, how should we inform Elen and the others about this?”
Mila answered Sofy’s question with a solemn expression, “We have no option but to dispatch soldiers to Legnica and Lebus since we don’t know the current location of Eleonora and the others. Since I only have 100 cavalrymen with me, four units of 20 cavalrymen each would be the limit. I’d like to keep at least 20 cavalrymen at hand, just in case.”
“I can send out around the same number of cavalrymen. Let’s firmly order them to immediately escape without any worry if it looks like they’d need to fight against Legnica’s soldiers.”
Mila had no objection to Sofy’s suggestion. Neither of them knew about the conclusion in the battle between Elen and Figneria as of yet. As such they had to always consider the worst-case possibilities in advance.
“I will also try to ask Tir Na Fal to pass on information about Lord Tigre to Lady Eleonora and Ms. Limalisha.” Titta offered in an attempt to be of assistance while tightly clenching her small hands.
Mila faced the small maid with an apologetic smile, and only told her, “Make sure to not go too far.”
In reality Mila thought that she should stop Titta, but she couldn’t. She had personally experienced the bitterness and mortification of not even being able to know about the danger looming over the man she cherished.
“Lady Vanadis, could you give me a moment please? There is something I would like to inform you about.” Gaspal spoke up, probably having judged that the conversation had reached a breaking point. “We spotted His Highness Ruslan in the temple we entered for Titta to pray to the goddess.”
“His Highness? In the temple?” Sofy furrowed her eyebrows.
Going by Titta’s story, they had chosen a remote, inconspicuous temple. Ruslan had collapsed from overwork, which led to Eugene, and then Miron, taking over the governmental duties. In other words, Ruslan shouldn’t have recovered yet.
Next Gerard spoke up, “Please forgive me for saying something that will very likely sound very rude. Back then, His Highness looked like he was terribly drunk. His hair and clothes were disheveled, he was tottering, he was singing a weird, disharmonious song, his body swayed, and even his head shook. Just as we were dumbfounded by that sight, a goddess servant, who was working at that temple, appeared and led His Highness away.”
“I’d heard rumors that he had been behaving just like that back when His Highness was affected by his mental illness, but…” Mila sighed, unable to prevent anxiety from showing on her face.
She suspected that the prince’s mental illness was gradually regaining its former dreadfulness.
“I’m worried about His Highness, but…let’s leave that part to Valentina for the time being.”
Hearing Sofy’s comment, Milla pulled a puzzled look, seeking an explanation from the blond Vanadis.
“The actions of Valentina until now were always based on having His Highness Ruslan in mind. Even when she attacked us. And also when she defeated Bydgauche’s army. She should try to protect His Highness, no matter what might happen.”
‘Ruslan should still have more than enough utility value to Valentina. If things developed into a situation of us and Valentina fighting, we’d politically be at disadvantage by her having Ruslan at her side.
After having this explained to her by Sofy, Mila nodded with her blue eyes gleaming.
“You’re right. Let us hurry over to Tigre.”
Seeing how the discussion between the two Vanadis had reached its conclusion, Gaspal looked at Damad.
“I’ve got a request. Won’t you help us with our journey?” He lightly placed a hand on Titta’s head, and continued, “I’d like you to protect this girl together with me.”
Damad looked back at Gaspal, and then shifted his eyes to Gerard.
“I guess this guy is of no use for that task.”
“Damn right, he’s a completely lost case when it comes to fighting,” Gaspal answered.
“You’ve got a point there, I suppose. Accordingly I have a request, if you allow,” Gerard lowered his head at the two Vanadis with a nonchalant expression despite having just been ridiculed from the side, “Would it be possible to allow me to join one of your armies?”
“That would be fine with you?” Mila asked Gerard with a stabbing look as if somewhat testing him.
Her eyes implicitly asked him whether he was alright with not accompanying them in their upcoming search of Tigre as Tigre’s subordinate since the time of Brune’s civil war.
Taking on her scrutinizing gaze, Gerard calmly answered, “It’s not like I came all the way out here to become a hindrance to my comrades.”
“I understand,” Mila nodded with a mean smile, “Your field of expertise was the management of supplies and finances, wasn’t it? You may work for my army for a while.”
Thus it was decided that Mila, Sofy, Titta, Gaspal, and Damad would head northwest as indicated by Tir Na Fal.
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