More than two months remained until the showdown with Croyance on Island No. 39. The preparations for the battle progressed, albeit slowly.
There was a thunderous, earsplitting roar. A little later, a large hole appeared in a distant stony cliff, accompanied by a magnificent dust cloud, shockwave, and explosion.
“Impact confirmed, arms 8-26-5!”
“Confirmed, arms 8-26-5!”
Standing some distance from the large cannon that’d just fired, technical officers were removing their earplugs and shouting strange, complicated numbers at each other. They were conducting operational inspections of a variety of gunpowder weapons that had been gathered from other floating islands.
These past few years Regule Aire had been largely at peace, and the Winged Guard’s (gunpowder) weapons were pretty much never brought out. That wasn’t to say maintenance and other things didn’t happen as scheduled, but even then, a genuine tuning was needed before their first real battle in a long time.
“Whoa…it sure does pack a punch…”
Tiat staggered as the shockwave swept through her body. She’d kept her distance and covered her ears, and yet it felt as if she’d just slammed into the ground from high up.
Once upon a time, this kind of high-caliber cannon had been wielded by lizardfolk warriors standing on the front lines alongside the leprechauns in the battles against Timere. Tiat herself hadn’t been on any of those battlegrounds, but as an adult faerie soldier, she’d attended test firings many times. The echoing roar of the cannons felt like a congratulatory salute to the fact that she was now a grown-up.
“As one might expect, they’re supposed to be placed on the ground when they’re fired…”
If any of the surrounding soldiers had heard her mumbling, they’d have stared in bewilderment, or maybe laughed at her ignorance. If one fired a cannon that wasn’t nailed to the ground, the recoil would severely destabilize it. Using common sense, suppressing that sort of backlash with the strength of one’s body alone would be impossible for a typical person.
However, if they possessed atypical, superhuman muscle strength, that was a different matter entirely.
“Limeskin, I wonder what you’re up to these days…”
Tiat muttered the name of the leader of the Winged Guard’s 2nd Division. Right now, he was fighting his own troublesome battle, in a different manner than Tiat and the others. They weren’t told the details, or rather, they were told something like “You wouldn’t understand, even if you knew what was going on.” In any case, he was almost definitely fighting for the future of the entire Winged Guard, the faerie warehouse included.
The cannon fired once again.
“Ooooh…” Hearing that reliable roar, Tiat shivered excitedly.
Obviously, regardless of how many powerful cannons they had, it wasn’t necessarily the case that they’d be useful on the battlefield. After all, their opponent was Croyance, the Eleventh Beast Who Remains Rooted, which assimilated anything that touched it. Hammering it with all the ammunition they had on hand wouldn’t leave the slightest injury—not to mention all the shells fired at it would turn to black crystal, so in the end they’d just fatten up the Beast.
That was why the objective of the battle was merely to “prevent contact between Island No. 38 and Island No. 39.”
Croyance can be defeated if I open the gates to the faerie homeland. Naturally, it’ll be impossible to destroy the Beast, island and all, but if I destroy just the section that would touch Island No. 38, the goal will be accomplished…
The island which had become a Beast coming into contact with Island No. 38 and beginning its encroachment…as long as that situation was avoided, they would overcome the immediate danger they faced. Afterwards, Island No. 39 would continue to exist in the sky, and perhaps one day would threaten some other floating island, but that bridge could be crossed in due time. After all, to everyone still alive and fighting right now, the most important thing was surviving today to see tomorrow.
For me alone to open the gate and manage that…that would probably be for the best? Collon and Pannibal could return safely, Lakhesh would surely be fine too, and even the higher-ups would see that faerie soldiers can still be useful…
Sometimes Tiat had selfish thoughts like these, although she felt such a thing was probably impossible in the first place. She knew well that her disposition was suited for igniting venenum on a small scale and deftly manipulating it—on the other hand, she was unsuited for igniting large amounts of venenum for impressive, powerful displays. Even if she exceeded her limits of venenum ignition, the power she could unleash would be far lower than Lakhesh, or even Collon.
As a price to buy victory, Tiat’s life alone was cheap.
Since only venenum-using attacks are effective, that means our dug weapons might actually break if we hit it normally. What’s more, if even Ignareo ends up being absorbed, that would really make things hopeless…
“Hey.”
Someone flicked her forehead. “You looked like you were thinking about something dumb again.”
Collon had appeared next to her at some point, looking annoyed. Despite what’d happened, it seemed like she’d started to cheer up somewhat. Even if her cheer was just fake, it was far better than seeing her gloomy and depressed.
“It’s not dumb. It’s serious, constructive thinking. Stuff like ‘hey, would it work if we cut it with our swords?’”
“Huh? Would that work?”
“I dunno. But there aren’t any previous cases of fighting Croyance with a dug weapon that’s got venenum flowing through it, right? It might be risky, but if everything goes well, you all can fight without opening the gate. I think there’s value in me giving it a try.”
“Huh? Hmm…”
Collon thought about it a little.
“…Just now, did you casually go and say you’d be the one to test it out?”
“Ah…well, I mean, come on, it’s the way the world works for the one who suggests it to do it, right? And to start by using up the things you’ll miss the least is a basic rule of resource management—”
“You idiot!”
Collon’s arm shot forward smoothly. Tiat couldn’t react in time. One split-second after she felt fingers on her shoulders, somehow the earth and sky had totally switched places. In this reversed posture, her shoulders on the ground, her butt in the air, her limbs locked in a complicated position, Tiat was utterly helpless.
Across the blue sky, a nameless white bird flew by.
“Ow, ow, owwwww! Collon, y-you’re hurting me!”
“It’s a new technique I created to take on the world!”
“I don’t know what world you’re taking on, but even if you can do it to me, you won’t be getting anywhere!”
Once again, the cannon’s great explosion rang out. A single sound that assaulted every inch of your body like an enormous hammer. Collon screamed out in surprise, and in that opening Tiat somehow wriggled out from her ensnarement. The two of them rolled onto the grass, arms and legs outspread while dazed by the shockwave.
“Amazing, isn’t it?!”
Tiat’s ears, ringing so badly they were nearly useless, just barely picked up Collon’s voice. “Yeah, I know, it’s really an amazing sound…”
“It’s romantic!”
“Yeah…wait, no, I don’t get that…”
They said silly things back and forth for a bit, just like that, gazing up at the sky.
The sound of cannons eventually stopped. Maybe some sort of problem had come up with them.
“…Will you hear me out?” Collon said quietly.
“About what?”
“Yesterday…when Lakhesh woke up, you know? She looked at me, and…maybe it was anger, maybe it was hate, but she only looked at me like that. Even though the three of us were together, she practically didn’t look at Pannibal at all.”
“Ah…”
“When she was fighting us…she was only attacking me…” Her words stopped coming out. “I think…maybe the Lakhesh she was at that time…remembered someone who looked like me. She hated that person enough to want to kill them and held on to that hatred all this time. I think…definitely…if I showed my face to her as she is now, she’d remember that same anger over and over again. That’s…t-that’s why…”
Collon sounded like she might burst into tears at any moment. “E-even if Feodor brings Lakhesh back, I feel like—I have the feeling t-that I won’t be able to see her again.”
“I see…” Tiat extended her arm, taking a hold of Collon’s small hand. It felt warm. “Have you told Pannibal about…”
“Yeah. I told her yesterday.”
“Feodor?”
“Not yet.”
“Then maybe it’d be good for you to talk to him, even as soon as tonight. Since it’s someone like him, at the very least he’ll figure something out. That’s probably the best way to improve things between you two.”
“That’s…true.” Collon laughed weakly. “If you say so, Tiat, then you’re probably right.”
Hmph… Somehow, she felt dissatisfied by that trust. Still, for the sake of cheering Collon up, Tiat felt as if she shouldn’t take back what she’d said, but at the same time, it was the kind of thing she couldn’t just leave alone…
“Heeey! Tiat, Collon! So here’s where you were.”
They could hear Pannibal’s voice from afar.
“Eh?” The two slowly raised themselves up, looking at the quickly approaching Pannibal.
“If you’re in that state, I take it you haven’t heard?”
“Pannibal?”
In a truly rare sight, the other faerie was completely out of breath. That thin, somewhat sardonic grin she usually had was gone.
“What’s up? Did something happen?”
“Did Ryehl do something again?”
Tiat and Collon started questioning Pannibal together. Catching her breath, she shook her head.
“You two, calm down and listen to me.” She tightly grabbed onto each of their shoulders and told them the news.
“Just now, Fourth Officer Feodor Jessman was imprisoned for treason.”