Episode 23: “Operation Start”
Max, along with the rest of the villagers, pressed their faces to the windows, trying to catch some glimpse of what was happening outside.
“Fiine. I’ve got every last villager inside now.”
“Thanks, Bianca. Could you put up a barrier around the fields? It’d be bad if they caught fire, or got splattered with monster blood.”
“…You really work people hard, don’t you?”
Grumbling all the while, Bianca traced a complex magic circle on the ground and began chanting a barrier spell.
White light burst from the barrier, wrapping the entire field in a dome shape.
Once the light faded, Bianca looked over at Fiine, breathing hard.
“Done.”
Barrier magic was a type of light-attribute spell. It took time to activate and consumed a tremendous amount of magic power.
Because of that, it wasn’t well suited for use in the middle of combat. But for advance preparation, like today, it was ideal.
(For someone with her personality, Bianca’s actually really good at this kind of support magic.)
Bianca herself seemed dissatisfied with her own aptitude for it, but whether or not she was here changed the difficulty of this fight considerably.
“Alright, next up… Yuria.”
“Yes, ma’am! Finally my turn, huh?”
I’ve been waiting forever, Yuria said, stepping forward.
“I need you to handle something that takes a fair bit of physical stamina.”
“Perfect for me, then.”
Fiine opened her bag and pulled out roughly ten fist-sized round stones.
Each one had a magic circle carved into its surface.
“What are these?” Bianca asked, peering at them with her head tilted.
“Improvised magic tools. Only work once each, and all they do is trigger a spell remotely.”
“‘All they do,’ she says… when did you even make these?”
“Just now, up in the mountains, after I made Conrad.”
She glanced briefly toward Conrad. He’d helped her hunt down stones of just the right size.
“Huh. Didn’t realize magic tools could be made that quickly.”
“Only for this monster over here.” Bianca sighed. “So what exactly are you planning to do with them?”
“Light up the inside of the forest.”
Monsters generally made their homes deep in the forest.
Depending on the species, their habitats varied, but only low-ranking monsters tended to stray anywhere close to human settlements.
According to sighting reports, the monsters that had been attacking Schnee Village had also been retreating back into the northern forest afterward.
The most effective way to drive them out of the forest entirely would be to burn it down. But that wasn’t an option this time.
Burning the forest would harm the plants and animals along with the monsters — and that would only cause trouble for the people of Schnee Village in turn.
“Light it up, how…?”
“Monsters hate light-attribute magic, don’t they?”
Light was the one attribute monsters couldn’t use themselves. Because of that, they instinctively hated it.
“If we flood the forest with light-attribute magic all at once, the monsters inside should come pouring out.”
“…I get the logic. The logic, at least.”
Once Bianca had accepted the plan, Fiine handed the stones over to Yuria.
“I need you to go place these around different parts of the forest. I’d go myself, but if the monsters sense me, it’ll get complicated.”
Some monsters were capable of detecting magic power directly.
If Fiine herself entered a forest thick with monsters, there was a high chance she’d be sensed immediately.
Today’s goal was to make the monsters understand: attacking Schnee Village comes at a price.
Which meant the fight itself needed to happen as close to the village as possible — not deep inside the forest.
“Got it. I’ll go for a quick run, then.”
“Okay.”
Tucking the stones into her own bag, Yuria set off out of the village at full speed. As tireless as ever.
“I’m counting on you, Fiine.”
Bianca clapped her on the back.
There was nothing left to do now but give it everything she had.
◆
“Conrad-san. Just as we planned. I’ll adjust the finer details myself, so please don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Right.”
Yuria had placed the stones throughout the forest.
Bianca had guided the villagers indoors and raised the barrier over the fields.
Preparations were complete. All that was left now was to execute.
Conrad raised his sword-bearing right arm high into the air.
The instant he swung it down, ten pillars of light burst up from within the forest.
The light spread in an instant, engulfing the entire forest. The glare was so intense that both Bianca and Yuria had to shut their eyes.
Conrad alone stared straight into the light, unflinching.
(Casting magic through a magic doll is horribly inefficient. From inside the houses, the villagers probably can’t see much of what’s happening, and even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this and me casting the magic directly myself.)
She knew that. She knew it perfectly well, and still chose to do things the harder way anyway.
Monsters came pouring out of the forest in droves. Mixed in among the low-ranking ones, shaped like giant insects, was a single higher-ranked monster.
A cockatrice — a massive creature with the upper body of a rooster and the lower body of a serpent.
With wings, it could take to the air; like a snake, it could also slither and crawl along the ground. Worst of all was the searing flame it could unleash from its mouth.
“…I’ve never seen this many monsters gathered in one place.”
“You’ll be fine. You’re a hero, after all.”
The cockatrice was almost certainly the closest thing to a boss the northern forest had.
It probably didn’t command the other monsters in any organized sense, but its influence over them was likely considerable.
If Conrad could bring it down, he’d become a genuine threat in the eyes of every other monster as well.
“Let’s clear out the small fry first.”
“…Right.”
Tension plain on his face, Conrad muttered to himself, running through the plan again and again.
Fiine glanced briefly toward Yuria and the others.
In this battle, the role of the three of them — Fiine included — was to support Conrad. Bianca would spend the entire fight maintaining the barrier over the fields. Yuria would stay close to Conrad in case anything went wrong — a rear guard.
(The tricky part is that I can’t afford to stray too far from Conrad-san myself.)
She would have preferred to focus calmly on operating the magic doll from somewhere free of monsters, but that wasn’t an option here.
Which meant Fiine would have to protect herself while simultaneously operating the magic doll, right in the thick of the battlefield itself.