Ch.614Back to the Barrier

Not long after the Blue Banner Army had left the battlefield, a force of ten thousand soldiers carrying the flags of Landenburg and the Empire entered the field of corpses that had turned into ruins.

The wall defense forces left as reserves and the Imperial reinforcements promised by Leopold. Though all were mounted on horses, their awkward postures suggested most were infantry rather than cavalry.

Perhaps they had simply strapped ten thousand infantry to saddles to disguise them as a cavalry force.

The number ten thousand was mere bluster. Most had neither cavalry training nor horseback tactics, so if actual cavalry combat had occurred, they would have fallen like autumn leaves…

But since Orhan retreated after falling for the bluff, this gamble of a deception had succeeded brilliantly.

—-

“I was deeply concerned when I heard you single-handedly held off Orhan and the Blue Banner Army… but fortunately, I wasn’t too late. Are you alright?”

Ludwig, who had led the troops onto the battlefield, didn’t pursue the Blue Banner Army retreating eastward.

He must have judged that pursuing them now would make it difficult to catch up, and even if they could, they would only suffer losses from the enemy’s rain of arrows. After all, even while retreating, they could fire arrows in perfect order.

“Well, more or less…?”

I tossed my finished cigarette to the ground and used Durandal as a cane to stand up.

My body was covered in bruises and my cracked bones ached, but compared to previous battles, the injuries weren’t that sev-

“Kuhak.”

…I guess not. Come to think of it, my internal organs were damaged too.

“Miss!”

“Lord Haschal!”

Startled by the sight of me coughing blood, Nigel and Leonore rushed over to support me. Jahan also seemed to want to help, but the other two were so quick that he awkwardly stood there with his hand outstretched.

“…We need to treat you first. Wait a moment. I’ll call for a healing priest.”

Leaning on the shoulders of the two, I received treatment from the priest Ludwig had brought while tending to my injured body. Until the bruises covering my entire body gradually subsided and the abdominal pain that throbbed with each breath slowly faded.

“I can’t believe this. You said you’d buy time and then retreat, but you nearly departed from this world entirely. Did you not listen to a word I said?”

Leonore, who had my left arm over her shoulder, poured out all kinds of reproaches throughout the treatment.

What was I thinking staying behind alone? Did I know what would happen if I lost? We were fortunate that the Margrave of Landenburg arrived on time; otherwise, it could have been disastrous.

All valid points, so I had nothing to say in my defense.

“Well, I did intend to…”

Before I could properly buy time, Orhan evolved into a flying type.

Once Orhan became a flying middle-aged man, he was an opponent I simply couldn’t shake off. His flight efficiency and instantaneous charging speed were superior to mine.

If I had turned my back to flee, his fist would have smashed into my back, causing me to crash. My spine would probably have snapped right then and there.

—-

A few minutes later, when Ludwig deemed me recovered enough to ride a horse, we returned to the wall.

Despite mobilizing an army of ten thousand, their only achievement was killing a hundred or so enemy scouts, but lingering here would only result in certain defeat if Orhan returned with an equal force.

Unable to summon Cascador for the time being, I mounted a horse provided by one of the knights and rode alongside Ludwig, discussing the recent events.

“You came faster than I expected. I thought it would take at least a few hours, even at top speed.”

I had been spewing pillars of fire like signal beacons during the battle so they could gauge our situation, but given the distance, I thought it would take a good three hours at worst.

“I anticipated arriving today, so I had already advanced the ten thousand troops in case you couldn’t shake off pursuit. Thanks to that, we just barely made it in time.”

“I see. You saved my life.”

“If the pursuit force had been a large army of ten thousand, we might have been annihilated instead… but it seems Orhan didn’t have that luxury either.”

Ludwig lit a thick mana herb with style and smiled.

Though I had gone through hell, the end result was that we had captured thousands of Ka’har with minimal sacrifices and even forced Orhan, who had personally led his army, to retreat. For him, it was a satisfactory outcome.

It would have been a tremendous loss if I had died, but in the end, he was able to rescue me safely as well.

“By the way, regarding what I saw while marching here… if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, it seemed like you and Orhan were flying through the air…”

His tone suggested he wasn’t sure if what he had seen was real or an illusion or hallucination.

Fair enough—if a Westerner were flying around, one might assume they were a mage and move on, but the sight of a Ka’har flying would be incredibly difficult for him to believe.

Even for mages, free flight is only possible at the level of accomplished high mages.

“Oh, that? Yes, we were flying.”

I nodded straightforwardly and briefly explained how I flew and how Orhan flew.

“Flying using the recoil from fist strikes and propulsion from fire magic…? Is that even possible?”

“It worked when I tried it.”

“Well…”

Ludwig let out a deflated sigh as if dumbfounded. To be fair, even I had never thought such a thing was possible for humans until I saw Orhan flying.

There were several characters capable of flight in the original work, but most flew using levitation magic or flight abilities from powers or heroic tales. Or they had wings on their backs.

Searching through all my memories, there were no warriors who gained flight abilities through unconventional methods like Orhan or myself. So it was only natural that Ludwig couldn’t believe it.

“My goodness, now you’re even flying?”

Even Leonore, who had been listening, reacted as if questioning whether I was still human.

“The fuel efficiency… that is, the stamina consumption over time is enormous though.”

While it can’t be directly equated, if the mana consumed by levitation magic were 10, my flight method would consume close to 50 karma in the same amount of time.

It was faster, but even accounting for that, the efficiency was terribly poor.

Considering that even high mages prefer to fight on the ground because levitation magic’s mana consumption is burdensome, one can get a sense of how inefficient my flight method is.

The fact that all that murder karma was depleted in just an hour says it all.

“No, efficiency is a secondary concern. If one can freely fly through the air, that alone expands the range of available tactics tenfold. Except in cases like this one, it means you can safely return from any battlefield.”

Ludwig’s eyes gleamed with admiration. I imagine strategists witnessing the birth of air forces must have had similar expressions. He looked like new tactics for utilizing me were sprouting vigorously in his mind.

“That’s true.”

As he said, even I thought the ability to fly had tremendous utility.

Unless I faced a powerful opponent who could fly at a similar speed or was in a situation where retreat was absolutely impossible, I could leave any battlefield at will.

If I were so inclined, I could blow up the Imperial Palace and escape with ease. Archers trying to shoot me down would be useless due to my blessing, and most magic could simply be cut down with Durandal.

Even a hero-class knight couldn’t catch me, unless they had awakened a heroic tale capable of shooting down flying beings.

—-

Hours later, I was finally able to return to the Wall of Berengaria. But that didn’t mean I could relax and rest easy.

“Sisteeeeer!”

Lena, who had been waiting in my room, started pounding on my back as soon as she saw me instead of hugging me. She demanded if I knew how worried she had been.

I don’t know where she heard it from, but she already knew that I had stayed behind alone to fight the Blue Banner Army to protect the retreat. That I had nearly died, and though I survived, I had sustained considerable injuries.

Any visible wounds had disappeared during the return journey to the wall, so I had thought it fortunate and planned to keep it secret from Lena… but someone must have revealed it while I was bathing.

Probably Leonore, who was snickering beside us. Her mouth was stretched into a grin as if encouraging Lena to scold me more.