The Fortress

A hole?

The Mardass Fortress capture route would start with simple work.

In this world thus far, that strategy did not exist.

And so, it began with simple work.

Now that were actually trying it, it certainly does seem like a good idea. How did her majesty come up with this?

Nevertheless, it was weird that even though using dugouts was already thought of, why hadnt this been developed? She wanted to demand the Japanese reincarnators to reflect their actions.

That was the reason, just digging normal trenches wouldnt be able to protect against things like fire and wind magic.

With the usual earth magic, it would be easy enough to make walls. But walls of that level wouldnt be able to defend against catapults.

Now then, Cordovas strategy was refined.

Even if they were familiar with the uses of weapons, they felt somewhat lacking in the improvement of their weapons. Technology was the only weak point in Cordovas military force.

And now that their losses were equal, how many they could recover became important.

Though she was a wielder of tremendous healing magic, Ria adjusted how much magical power Carla could use so that she would always have more than half remaining.

Even if right then she would be able to bring them back from deaths icy grip.

Viscount-sama died in battle!

Because of things like this.

The loss of a senior commander, depending on the circumstances, could be more of a wound to their forces than even the loss of a thousand soldiers.

Carlas magical power was reserved for times like this.

Death was gifted evenly on this battlefield. However, life was not.

Little by little, day by day, the fortress defensive strength was whittled away.

Should we use it?

What did she speak of? It was something that had been prepared before the siege battle, a weapon that hadnt been used in the in the end.

What was the weapon? Black powder.

Because this world developed through magic, the progress of its science went slowly. Even fundamental studies like mathematics were irregular.

Making black powder, adding a fuse, and including scraps of iron to improve its lethality, shed completed an imposing kind of bomb.

By using their catapults, it could be thrown directly into the middle of the enemys lines.

Be it fire magic or wind magic, by countering the magical power itself, the effect could be eliminated.

Even with magic that prevents all physical effects, as the magical defense is meant to diffuse magical power, it couldnt block a detonations ballistic shock.

And that little amount of time was more valuable than anything else on a battlefield.

Ria hesitated only for a short while.

After launching another volley of intense catapult and magical attacks on the enemy, put everything we have into charge.

As the ones that would be the spearhead, the ogre soldiers were pumped up.

Bellowing with their battle cries, they rushed out from the trenches.

The enemys archers pierced the soldiers.

Large ladders were placed onto the rampart. Soldiers that attempted to climb up them were doused with burning oil.

Even so, she reaffirmed her decision, and seeing the chance to win, there was no possible way she would raise the signal to withdraw.

Nee-chan, should I at least destroy the gate?

However, the problem was that that sort of magic would attract attention.

I get it. Thats all then?

Kay~

Thinking about it logically, it was important to think about his safety first and foremost.

Understood.

And so, Serge and Irina rushed out of the trench.

He looked at the fortress almighty gate. It had magical defenses, strong ones. Even if ten ordinary mages gathered to try, it wouldnt be damaged.

[Chant Annulment]

Amplification. Acceleration. Acceleration. Acceleration.

And then, Explosion Teleportation.

The current Serge was able to invoke magic with time to spare.

That imposing gate warped together with an explosive roar, opening.

Through that space, the daredevil soldiers rushed in.

Units could not come together to form a formation inside the fortress, so individual fighting strength meant everything.

With their sharpened weapons, blunt weapons, or even their fists.

Severed limbs flew through the air, teeth scattered about, and faces were bashed in.

Revved up ogres didnt discriminate between friend or foe. Everyone fled from them in a panic.

The enemys commander was a rational man.

The enemys head ran away!

Such voices came from the beastkin reconnaissance unit.

Even the forces that had still continued to bravely fight threw down their arms in hearing that.

I surrender, dont kill me!

Please, I surrender!

And as such, the Mardass Fortress capture had concluded.

Of course, dealing with the postwar processing was a serious matter. Starting with the damaged gate, there were many facilities that had become unusable.

Using the siege weapons as defensive weapons as is, their problem was what to do with the corpses.

Since Carla had also used a lot of her magical power, as expected she didnt have the luxury of reviving the enemys casualties.

She knew that she shouldnt hope for perfection from war, but she still felt that.

Or perhaps they should be called eight people?

Ria preferred it that way.

Several days were spent surveying the situation for repairing the fortress.

The provinces in this area were just recently annexed, so they might be having trouble gathering soldiers.

Call on the beastkin, well increase our scouting. If they find beastkin settlements, see if they could negotiate and see if they want to join us.

If there were something like a great meow meow march of cat beastkin carrying spears, even Ria didnt think she could be coldhearted enough to give cruel orders against them.

So that they wouldnt also start applying that sort of mental attack, she needed to liberate the beastkin as soon as possible.

Beastkin ran to the villages, with their forces dispatched close to the human villages as well. Ria, who had given them orders, decided to return to Manesh temporarily.

Although there would be more tales regarding her once again if assassins arrived, they reached Manesh with no problems in particular.

It was Carla.

In the battle this time, Carla used her magical power practically to the limit, to the point that the magic restoration medicines she took continuously lost their effect.

Of course, even Ria didnt have any objections towards healing enemy captives after the battle.

However, the enemy forces injuries this time had been too large, so her devoted treatment could be seen as a kind of self-sacrifice.

Thinking about it, Ria didnt know much about the person named Carla.

Although her features could be described using words, she didnt feel that could show Carlas true nature.

Carla was a person that didnt show her true self to others.

And she was strong.

Ria felt that she was a strange human.

She needed to know more about Carla.

Therefore, Ria needed to speak with Guinevere. That queen could be called Carlas best friend.

Facing a discussion that would surely be tougher than a battle, Ria casually smiled.