My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 109: Death's White Light

Chapter 109: Death’s White Light

The day of the final battle had come.

Across the wasteland, the two armies stood facing each other, locked in a silent glare.

Overhead, a blue sky stretched wide enough to smother the red earth below. At the far line where the horizon met heaven, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Castelia could be seen, ringed by towering walls. A single white cloud drifted lazily over it, passing by as if none of this had anything to do with it.

Rectangular formations spread across the wasteland. The Kingdom of Castelia fielded roughly a hundred and fifty thousand troops.

Compared to the three hundred thousand they had started the war with, their numbers had been cut in half, a stark reminder of just how savage the fighting over the past six months had been. Every soldier wore that exhaustion plainly on their face.

At the beginning, Castelia had fought as a coalition of many races, but after defeat piled upon defeat, many of those races had apparently chosen to withdraw. That was also a major reason the enemy’s numbers had fallen so drastically.

Facing them, the noble alliance army had four thousand mercenaries and twelve thousand slave soldiers, for a total of sixteen thousand, meaning they had suffered only around twenty percent losses from their initial twenty thousand. Even by casualty figures alone, they held an overwhelming advantage over the Kingdom of Castelia.

Naturally, a major reason those losses had been kept so low was the work of the strongest mercenaries of all, the Black Kirin. If not for them crushing the enemy’s strongholds and relentlessly driving the front forward, the battle line would have stalled long ago. And if that had happened, the casualties would surely have been far worse.

What was more, thanks to the Black Kirin’s achievements, the noble alliance army had managed to preserve its twenty thousand regular troops.

That too was only because the tide of battle had always been decided before the regulars ever needed to be deployed. From the opening of the war until now, those regular troops had not gone into battle even once. Only now, at the stage of the final decisive clash, had the noble alliance finally decided to commit them.

“Only showing up for the final battle so they can enjoy the festival atmosphere, are they?”

“If everything were settled by mercenaries and slaves alone, I suppose it would be bad for appearances.”

The two muttering that with exasperated looks were the Black Kirin, the strongest mercenaries.

For the past six months, the regular troops had remained far to the rear, content to watch from a safe distance. If they had entered the fighting, the army’s total losses should have been much lower. To the mercenaries who had desperately held the front this whole time, the honest question was simple: What exactly do these people think they’re doing, sauntering in now of all times?

The targets of those cold stares were the assembled regular troops gathered beneath splendid military banners.

The noble alliance was made up of thirteen packs, and so thirteen different flags flew above them, each embroidered with a crest bearing its master’s name and title. They all wore dragon robes of the same colour and design, but each group served a different master.

With their respective masters at the front, the dragonkin women beneath them stood in formation and offered salutes of loyalty.

Their faces were dignified and beautiful, and the way they stood tall with pride in their masters was almost divine. They were untouched by so much as a scratch, much less a speck of dirt, and carried themselves with lofty pride. Their crisp dragon robes looked as though they had just been taken off the rack.

On this gruesome battlefield, the sight of such saintly rulers, untouched by the stink of blood, drew a cold snort from Kuren.

“They disgrace the warrior race. Pathetic lot.”

“The larger a pack becomes, the more conservative it grows. That said, I have not the slightest intention of defending them on that point.”

The mercenaries who had fought alongside the two of them this whole way nodded in agreement. They took pride in the fact that they had carved open the front lines with their own bodies on the line.

It was only natural for them to resent regular troops whose grand plan was to join in only once the battle had already turned into a sure victory, and the air around them had already begun to grow tense.

Then…

“Um… I feel like I’m the only one here who doesn’t belong.”

At the very front of the frontline unit, in the place reserved for the elite even among mercenaries, a single girl muttered that in discomfort. The one dragon robe she owned had been worn down by six months of fierce fighting and frayed nearly white. The mercenaries were grimy too, of course, but she looked especially shabby.

Hunched in on herself, long spear in hand, the girl’s eyes wandered anxiously over the ground of the coming decisive battle. Kuren placed a hand on the head of the visibly uneasy girl and spoke to her gently.

“Koharu, you’re too much of a worry. I’ll protect you today, so don’t you go wandering off.”

“Eh, but… I couldn’t possibly trouble you like that, Kuren-sama…”

“There is no need to hold back, Koharu. I am granting you permission to rely on us as much as you like.”

“Huh? Huh? What’s gotten into you too, Kirin-sama?”

Once you stepped onto the battlefield, protecting your own life was common sense.

The two of them had completely ignored that basic rule, and Koharu only grew more confused.

“The regular troops are here today as well. There will be no issue even if Kuren is not beside us.”

“Yeah, that’s the idea. Though keep it a secret that being told by my wife I wasn’t needed stung a little.”

At Kuren’s joking tone, the surrounding mercenaries burst into laughter.

Burly men clutching their weapons offered their praise one after another.

“Good for you, missy. The Black Kirin’s accepted you as one of their own.”

“Protecting the pack is a dragonkin man’s duty. That doesn’t change just because we’re on a battlefield.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a daughter back home about her age. This is getting me all choked up.”

Normally, different packs would never grow this familiar with one another.

Even so, the reason they could speak to her so casually was surely because they had fought through these past six months together. Even if only temporary, there was no doubt that a sense of comradeship had taken root among the mercenaries.

Faced with so many warm words, Koharu lowered her head, eyes brimming with tears.

Kirin took the hand of the wordless Koharu, whose small shoulders were trembling, and softly enclosed it in both of hers. It was a small hand. Had those countless cuts come from the battlefield, or from burying her comrades?

Feeling that warmth at her fingertips, Kirin slowly closed her eyes.

“When this war is over, I will introduce you to your new comrades. So just a little longer. Please endure just a little longer.”

Tiny Koharu, so small and so thin.

The girl who had fought all this time in lonely isolation tried her hardest to smile through the large tears spilling from her eyes. But she could not quite manage it, and what emerged was a strange tearful smile.

Kirin slipped an arm around her head and gently drew her close.

“It’s all right. Kuren will absolutely protect you.”

The face pressed against her chest gave a small nod.

◇◇◇◇◇

At the commander’s order, the battle began.

Towards the Kingdom of Castelia’s army of a hundred and fifty thousand, standing motionless with the royal capital at their backs, a great host came surging forward with light-blue dragon robes fluttering.

There was no strategy worth a damn. Mercenaries, slaves, regular troops, the entire army was making a full-blown banzai charge.

They had won the opening battle despite a disparity of three hundred thousand against twenty thousand, and after that they had continued from victory to victory. Now that the enemy’s strength had fallen so far, there was no need for petty tricks. That was the judgement of the upper command.

However, by this point the enemy had also begun adapting to Kuren’s wide-area attacks, and the surprise strike that had worked at the start of the war no longer would. On top of that, Kuren had been tasked with protecting Koharu that day, so he would not be unleashing any grand opening move. That had to have been a miscalculation on the upper command’s part.

The noble alliance army thundered towards the enemy ranks, the ground itself rumbling beneath them.

At the very front of it, Kirin ran at full speed.

Kuren and Koharu should have been behind her, but the clouds of dust kicked up by the mercenaries hid them completely from view. Kirin stopped looking back and fixed her eyes only on what lay ahead.

The distance closed rapidly, until the enemy vanguard became clearly visible.

The distance was roughly one kilometre.

There Kirin frowned. The giants had been placed in the very front line.

“How strange. Why have they positioned the giants at the very front?”

The giant race, proud of their huge bodies and brute strength, certainly possessed the power of a hundred men each. Against dragonkin, they could be expected to produce more than enough results. But because of their enormous size, coordination with allies was difficult, and there was always the danger of friendly fire. As a rule, they were kept away from melee.

What possible intent lay behind a deployment that ignored that principle?

“…A shield? No, if anything, that’s more like…”

One step faster than Kirin’s thoughts could catch up, the giants stationed at even intervals split apart to the left and right as though yielding the way.

And from the gap that opened between them, a flash of light shone.

“——–!”

She leapt left on reflex.

Something white shot through the space where Kirin had been moments before at the speed of light.

She landed. A searing pain tore through her grazed shoulder. She came to a stop and turned around, only to find that the comrades who had been following right behind her were gone.

“…………”

The ground had been gouged out deeply. A semicircular trench roughly three metres across had been carved in an instant all the way to the distant rear, and the allied troops who should have been standing along that line of fire were simply not there. A portion of the mass clad in light-blue dragon robes had vanished without a trace.

That absurd blank space had appeared all at once. It felt as though someone had casually drawn a single white line across a light-blue canvas, carving a hole straight through space itself.

Even those who had escaped the blast had stopped short in shock, confusion plain on their faces. The comrade running right beside them had vanished in an instant. Their horror needed no explanation.

Kirin shouted into the middle of that whirl of confusion.

“Kuren! If you’re alive, answer me!!”

But no reply came.

Only the mercenaries’ uproar reached her ears.

Given their starting positions, Kuren and Koharu should have been right behind Kirin as well. The fact that she could see neither of them sent a surge of panic through her.

Then the wall of mercenaries who had stopped in place split to either side. A little beyond them, a figure who had been collapsed on the ground raised himself up and thrust his thumb towards the sky. The moment she saw the small girl in his arms, the relief that washed through Kirin was almost enough to bring her to tears.

However, the fact that he could not get up straight away made it obvious that Kuren was injured. He had most likely thrown himself aside to shield Koharu and hurt his leg in the process.

“A wound of honour, I suppose. You really are hopeless. Leave the rest to me.”

She turned back to the front.

There, a gigantic siege weapon shaped like an enormous cannon had revealed its full form.

It was a siege weapon she had never seen before. A new model.

The distance was just under a kilometre. Neither Breath nor sorcery had the effective range from here. The mercenaries at the front fired one Breath after another, but dragon breath weakened by distance was easily blocked by the magical barrier spread across the enemy formation.

At this rate, the noble alliance army had no move left, nor any means of stopping the new siege weapon’s long-range fire. The only paths left to them were a charge prepared for annihilation or the disgrace of turning tail before the enemy.

As the allied troops stood frozen in despair…

The cannon’s aim shifted slightly, turning as though it had locked onto Kirin. Particles of light gathered inside the barrel, and she knew by instinct that a second shot was about to fire.

If it struck her directly, not even dust would remain. Even knowing that, Kirin smiled without the slightest fear.

“My Breath is greater than any cannon.”

She clenched her fist and took the stance of a straight punch. Dense [Ki] filled the space around her. Crack. Crack. The air snapped around her. Then, twisting at the waist, she drove her fist forward.

“[Thunder Spear].”

From the palm she thrust out in a palm-strike shape, a bolt of lightning burst forth in a straight line. At the very same moment, the giant barrel in the distance flashed with light as well.

The zigzagging lightning ripped through the atmosphere in an instant and propagated horizontally. A heartbeat later, a thunderous roar like a lightning strike rolled across the battlefield.

In a single instant the lightning reached the enemy formation, blew away the cannon from its base together with the massive volume of light-attribute energy it had released, and burned a straight path through the enemy ranks.

A hole had been punched through the rectangular enemy formation.

Black smoke rose.

Enemy soldiers fell silent.

Cheers rose from the allied troops.

“Well done, other half of the Black Kirin! We shall reward you handsomely.”

As if throwing water over that burst of joy, a vulgar, raspy voice struck Kirin’s ears.

A commander with a tiny moustache appeared from who knew where, barked that out, and then shouted his orders at the top of his lungs.

“What are you idling for?! Now is our chance. Charge!”

Perhaps shaken by the attack just now, the regular troops had already begun showing signs of retreat. Were they seriously planning to use the mercenaries and slaves as decoys while they escaped? Kirin clicked her tongue inwardly. Just as she began entertaining the ominous thought that perhaps she ought to dispose of them amid all this confusion…

“——–Eh?”

Behind her, death’s white light ran.

She turned around. She saw the instant allied soldiers were blasted away without the slightest means of resistance. The faces of her comrades, eyes wide with shock, vanished as though washed away by particles of light. Only the arms they had stretched out as if begging for help remained behind for a brief moment before dropping to the ground with a plop.

“That’s absurd. I definitely destroyed the siege weapon…”

Flash! Flash!

Then the enemy ranks flashed one after another, and as though cutting off the momentum of the mercenaries who had resumed their charge, they gouged open the earth and turned her comrades to dust yet again.

The white light continued to tear through the noble alliance’s thirty-six-thousand-strong assault force.

In an instant. In a single instant, hundreds of lives were blown away.

The slave girls Kuren had protected all this time were scattering in vain.

Even if she reached out, she could not save them.

Mercenaries, slaves, even regular troops. It bestowed death equally upon them all without distinction, and Kirin felt pure rage towards that instrument of civilisation. Grinding her back teeth together with all her might…

“Damn you inferior race, unable to do a thing without relying on tools.”

There had not been only a single great cannon deployed in the enemy formation. There were five in all, set at even intervals a hundred metres apart. The one in the centre Kirin had already destroyed, but the remaining four mercilessly unleashed their full firepower.

Even dragonkin, with all their high resistances, were no match for those high-output laser cannons. Faced with such absurd power, the mercenaries faltered, and one after another began to lose their nerve and stop.

“Do not falter! Spread out so you do not enter their line of fire, and charge!”

“Shut up! Be quiet, you idiot.”

“Wha… i-i-i, idiot!?”

Hurling abuse at the commander who kept calling for a suicidal charge, Kirin thrust out both palms and released two Breaths at the same time. With flawless precision, she pierced two of the cannons at once.

Cheers rose from the allied troops, but they did not reach Kirin’s ears.

Her consciousness lurched. The rapid consecutive use of Breath had caused the [Ki] inside her body to plummet sharply. It had triggered deficiency symptoms.

Her sense of balance was slipping away. The feeling of the soles of her feet pressing against the earth vanished, and her vision threatened to black out. Even so, Kirin held herself upright through sheer force of will alone.

If she collapsed here, even more sacrifices would follow. There were five cannons, and every last one of them had to be destroyed here and now. Forcing her tilting body back into place by sheer will, she then opened her mouth wide towards the heavens and let out a roar.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!“

Squeezing out every last scrap of [Ki] in her body, she fired two more Breaths.

Lightning that pierced through and burned everything raced just above the ground, tore through the newly deployed triple-layered magical barriers, and sharply pierced and destroyed the remaining two gun emplacements.

Leaving a total of five great claw marks in the enemy formation, Kirin was finally spent. She collapsed to the ground from her knees.

“Hm. I cannot forgive that insolent mouth of yours, but I shall praise you for neutralising those. Good. Now that the enemy’s trump card has been broken, this is our chance to win. All troops, charge!”

The incompetent commander, whose favourite phrase was charge, bellowed at the top of his lungs, but Kirin no longer had even the strength left to condemn him.

The Breath Kirin used was a special kind of Breath that directly released the [Ki] inside her body rather than attribute energy. Its power far surpassed normal Breath, but in exchange the consumption was severe, and overuse was forbidden. After firing five shots of that near-taboo Breath, there was now hardly any [Ki] left within Kirin’s body.

Her eyes dimmed, her vision blurred, and she could no longer focus. Unable to rise, she lost her balance. Mercenaries, slave soldiers, and then the regular troops ran past her side.

From where she lay on the ground, she could feel through the earth the rumbling advance of the dragonkin rushing forward in a great mass.