MTLNOVEL Chapter 25 - Grand Magic
Found you.
The one who kept interfering.
The one who kept giving me that unpleasant feeling.
But I can’t deal with him directly.
So.
Go forth, my beasts.
Tear him to pieces.
I faced the magical beasts with a contingent of soldiers who would guard the rear while the minimum number of soldiers needed to escort the refugees and the refugees themselves were evacuated.
These magical beasts were mostly low-level ones like wolves or goblins.
Weak magical beasts that wouldn’t even survive in this harsh northern climate.
But even with such beasts, when gathered in those numbers, my entire body tensed up.
“Young Master, wouldn’t it be better for you to leave with the refugees as well?”
Captain Dixon, whom my father had assigned as my aide, suggested this, but I shook my head.
“If I ran away with my tail between my legs, leaving the soldiers behind, my father would kill me.”
“Haha, if it’s the Count, he certainly would.”
Though we were exchanging jokes like this, as the magical beasts closed the distance, tension visibly rose among the soldiers.
There are many. Too many.
“Hold out until reinforcements arrive, or if that’s not possible, until all the refugees have evacuated! Steel yourselves!”
“Yes, sir!”
All the soldiers readjusted their weapons and shields in their hands, preparing for the horde of magical beasts.
I sincerely hoped the request for aid would arrive quickly.
Emilia Silbright was running.
Her goal was Arianrod Fortress visible in the distance; her purpose was to report the situation and request aid.
She had volunteered to take on this role herself.
Since childhood, Emilia’s physical abilities such as strength and combat skills had been lower than her peers, but she was confident in her running speed.
Above all, she had a strong desire to help her hometown village and the territory.
‘Just… a little… more!’
At first, she had summoned her Silver Wolf summon “Vent” and rode on it, but it seemed the summon lacked the magical energy to run for a long time while carrying Emilia, so it was unsummoned midway.
But since she had already succeeded in reducing the distance considerably, she continued on foot.
Fortunately, there was no sign of magical beasts pursuing her.
After running for quite some time, her breath reached her throat, but just a little more running would bring her to Arianrod Fortress.
She needed to report the situation and request aid.
Kyaaaak!!
Suddenly, the cry of a magical beast was heard.
Startled, Emilia turned around to see a large magical beast in her field of vision.
A Snow Troll, definitely one of the magical beasts living in the northern forest.
She had been slightly relieved after leaving the forest.
With her magical energy depleted, unable to fight with magic, Emilia decided to keep running.
The Snow Troll, having already spotted Emilia, pursued her with a threatening speed that belied its large size.
But by a very small margin, Emilia was faster.
Though urgent, Emilia felt a tiny bit of relief. If she could just reach the fortress…
But perhaps because of that relief, Emilia felt her body wavering.
Her body was tilting.
‘No way… when I’m almost there!!’
Feeling the cold touch of the snow-covered ground on her body, Emilia inwardly lamented.
If she failed here, her family, the refugees, and the young lord fighting the magical beasts would be in danger…
Just as Emilia was trying to get up, the sound of heavy footsteps from the large magical beast came from right behind her.
She had been caught up to. Immediately sensing this, Emilia tried to dodge, but at that moment.
“Get down!!”
Simultaneously with that voice, Emilia heard something like a wind sound above her.
Kyaaaak!!
Along with the beast’s scream, Emilia rolled on the ground several times with the momentum of her attempted dodge and promptly stood up.
She saw two people confronting the magical beast.
“A Snow Troll… why did this one come out of the forest?”
A black-haired boy was facing the magical beast with a drawn sword.
“Hmph, it would be good for you to become a sacrifice to my blood wind.”
A mint-haired girl was striking some incomprehensible pose behind him.
They must be reinforcements!
Feeling this, Emilia shouted:
“I-I am Emilia from the native village! We’re currently being attacked by a large number of magical beasts while evacuating, so I came to request aid…!”
As soon as she said that, the expressions of the two people changed immediately.
Among them, the black-haired boy’s expression became serious.
“Damn, if that’s the case, we need to finish this quickly… Kino, let’s end this fast.”
“Leave it to me!!”
The battle ended very quickly.
The problem was that the process was too violent.
“…Next time, tell me before you use it.”
The mint-haired girl took some strange pose and used magic to slice the Snow Troll in one go.
…With enough power that if the black-haired boy hadn’t quickly rolled to the side to dodge, he would have been sliced along with it.
“I calculated that you would be able to dodge, Asta.”
“…Let’s not talk about it.”
As the two were speaking like this, Emilia said:
“Th-thank you…f-for saving me!!”
“No, it’s fine, it’s what we should do… More importantly, is it true that you were attacked by magical beasts while evacuating?”
“Y-yes!! The soldiers are leading the refugees, and the young lord is holding back the magical beasts with the remaining soldiers.”
“Huh…? Brother?!”
The girl who had been speaking in a low voice with an imposing atmosphere suddenly spoke in a tone like that of an ordinary girl.
“What? …Could you possibly be…?”
“I’m Asta Wentos, the second son of the Count’s family. That one is Kino Wentos, my younger sister, though she’s making a strange appearance.”
“No, more importantly, you! Is my brother okay? He is okay, right?!”
The girl, Kino Wentos, asked with such force that she seemed about to pounce, and Asta Wentos restrained her.
“Calm down, Kino. Is brother the kind of person who would die so easily?”
“…I beg your pardon.”
“We need to organize reinforcements quickly. There aren’t that many soldiers left in the fortress, but it’s better than nothing.”
Emilia watched as the Count’s children immediately thought of countermeasures.
She felt inwardly relieved and sensed her body losing strength.
“Are both of you okay!? You don’t seem to be injured…”
And then, another person’s voice was heard there.
Strength returned to Emilia’s weakened body because the voice belonged to someone she knew.
“Is the person who was being chased okay… Huh…? Emi?”
“Riel…”
None other than Riel Ignis, who was in the same class at the academy and had become her friend on the way here.
She had been running toward them when she spotted Emilia.
Emilia was inwardly relieved, but then realized from Riel’s surprised expression.
That she was currently in a state where her ears and tail were not hidden at all.
How much time had passed since we became entangled in battle with the magical beasts?
It feels like we’ve been fighting for at least an hour, but surprisingly, none of the soldiers had died.
It’s an unbelievable situation, but there were circumstances that made it possible.
These magical beasts, for some reason, are only targeting me.
“Protect the Young Master!!”
The magical beasts ignored the soldiers and charged toward me, and the soldiers were desperate to protect me.
Because of this, though there were injuries from protecting me, there were almost no fatal wounds since all direct attacks were coming at me.
Though I was having a terrible time.
“Hyaah!!”
A goblin trying to attack me was killed by a spear thrust from a soldier charging from the side.
In the distance, a Forest Troll let out a roar and ran straight toward me, only to be impaled by arrows and javelins.
…I didn’t expect to see a Forest Troll rather than a Snow Troll in the north.
“Don’t underestimate a troll’s regeneration! Make sure to finish the corpse…”
“No, Young Master. Look at that.”
At Captain Dixon’s words, I looked at the troll’s corpse again.
There was no sign of regeneration at all.
“It’s frozen. In this cold, its regeneration ability is meaningless.”
…Indeed, that’s probably why there’s a separate species called Snow Troll.
And this applies to other magical beasts as well.
Most of the magical beasts that weren’t native to the north either moved sluggishly due to lack of adaptation to the cold or simply froze to death.
Even I and the soldiers were freezing despite wearing fur garments under our armor, so what could these naked creatures do?
But still, they charged in large numbers.
It’s like all the magical beasts from neighboring territories came rushing in together. Why is this happening?
At this rate, we won’t die at the hands of magical beasts but from exhaustion.
In fact, great fatigue was evident on the soldiers’ faces.
The state of the shield bearers was especially serious.
“Continue to hold back the enemy while retreating the line!”
As the evacuation of refugees progressed, we repeated retreat and defense.
But I could see that the sharpness of these movements was gradually diminishing.
I too was running out of stamina.
Honestly, I wonder if we can hold out for even a few dozen more minutes.
No, even if we hold out, it wouldn’t be strange if casualties started to appear.
That’s when it happened.
“Damn it! Why is that monster here?!”
Along with thundering sounds, a huge figure appeared.
An ogre.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a variant like the “Prison Ogre” that lives in the north, but still, an ogre’s destructive power is not something an ordinary soldier can block with a shield.
The only consolation is that since it’s not adapted to the north, its already sluggish movements are even more sluggish.
But we’ve also exhausted our stamina.
At this rate, there will be significant damage. It wouldn’t be strange if one or two casualties occurred.
That’s when I felt the movement of magical energy.
“Huh…?”
And not an ordinary movement at that.
It was the movement of magical energy seen when casting wide-area magic.
Several soldiers who knew about magic seemed to have similar thoughts as their expressions changed completely.
But this magical energy movement was coming from behind us, directed toward the enemy.
“Reinforcements have arrived!!”
One of the soldiers shouted.
Thank goodness. Have reinforcements arrived?
As I was thinking this and feeling relieved, the movement of magical energy grew even larger.
Wait a moment, could this be…
Not an ordinary wide-area magic, but an ominous amount of magical energy at the level of casting grand magic.
Having guessed the nature of the magic from the massive movement of magical energy, I immediately shouted:
“Evacuate! Evacuate immediately!! Damn it!! Could these reinforcements be…!”
“…And thus the raging winds… with the force of a surging tide, mercilessly strike my enemies with blades…”
“I knew this would happen!”
Simultaneously, I heard an unnecessarily long magic incantation.
Yes, I understand the desire to use it when so many magical beasts are gathered like this.
But if used incorrectly, that spell can also harm the soldiers, young lady.
“Everyone evacuate!!”
Sensing something unusual in my voice, the soldiers evacuated as if they had forgotten their fatigue.
It was quite a sight to see them evacuating in formation without a single collision.
I didn’t expect the proficiency of the soldiers trained by my father to shine here.
“With the storm of judgment, ravage my enemies! Tempest!!”
The completed magic mercilessly tore apart the magical beasts.
Tempest, one of the highest-tier wind magic grand spells.
A grand magic that generates a storm of cutting winds over a wide area, shredding enemies.
Due to its high power and range, I had been interested in it before, but I gave up because of its infuriatingly long incantation time and the ridiculous amount of magical energy it consumed.
However, as it was a magic with romance, that person took an interest and studied it diligently.
And with the unnecessarily genius talent inherited from our mother, she managed to master it.
“Kinooooo!! You really!!”
“Fuahahahaha!!! You weak magical beasts! Stain this pure white land with your blood!!”
With a pale face from the rapid consumption of magical energy, but wearing a satisfied expression, Kino Wentos was visible in the distance, shouting those words.