The pounding of thousands of military boots shook the very earth. The air was taut with tension, punctuated by the fearful groans of the soldiers. Before the castle walls, the twenty-thousand-strong army of the Kan Kingdom had amassed. Among them, Simon knew, were fifteen of his fellow Kizen students.
The massive army moved with unnerving speed, fanning out to surround the entire castle. They intended to strike all four gates at once.
"Do not be afraid!" a beastman adjutant bellowed, his voice punctuated by sharp clicks.
"Fight to the last man!"
The adjutants patrolled the walls, their voices raw as they bolstered the soldiers’ courage. Simon watched them for a mont before turning to irin.
"Are you okay?"
Her expression was a mask of stone. "I’m fine. I just... didn’t realize twenty thousand would be this many."
"Heeheehee!" Dick suddenly materialized beside them with a cheeky laugh. "Scared, irin? Getting cold feet?"
"Ugh! Can you please be serious for once!" she shot back, smacking him squarely on the back. But instead of his usual theatrics, Dick just laughed ominously.
"The tension only lasts for a mont. Once the war starts, you won’t know what’s hit you. It’ll be, in a word..." He leaned forward, his eyes wide and manic. "Pandemonium."
irin grabbed his face, her expression radiating an icy chill. "Your face is more pandemonium than anything, you lunatic."
"Owowarghla!" Dick yelped, his words garbled as he flailed in her grip.
Watching them, Simon allowed himself a quiet smile. This was Dick’s way of easing his friends’ nerves. It seed to be working; irin released him and, with an elegant gesture, produced a handkerchief to wipe her hands before turning to face the enemy. From the determined look in her eyes, she had regained her composure.
At that mont, the ground began to tremble with the sound of massive footsteps. The Kan Kingdom’s formation parted, and through the gap erged a colossal elephant pulling a carriage. Atop it sat a girl with pigtails, a white uniform coat draped over her shoulders. She was crossing her legs arrogantly, a fan fluttering gracefully in her hand.
"What the hell," irin muttered, her brow furrowing. "Is ’she’ on the siege team?"
"This is going to be tough." Leaning against the wall, Dick stroked his chin, his expression grim. "Special Admission No. 7, Elisa Celine of the Ghost Ship. We’ve never had a big na like her show up for a siege battle before."
’Thud!’
The elephant halted. On the carriage, Elisa uncrossed her legs. A Kan knight in attendance respectfully took her hand and helped her to her feet.
"Ahem." Elisa cast an amplification spell on her throat. "Ah— Ah—"
Across the tense, armored field, a girl’s clear voice echoed.
irin’s eyes narrowed. "Well, it’s not like she’d pass up a chance to play to her strengths."
"Strengths?" Simon asked.
"Have you forgotten? Her father is an active chancellor. She cos from a family of tenacious politicians."
Elisa’s lips parted. "I am Elisa Celine, Commander-in-Chief of the Kan Kingdom. As a Guardian sent by the Creator, I have joined this war to ensure the Kan Kingdom’s victory."
A shocked murmur rippled through the defending beastn of the Aon Kingdom.
"I thought we were the only kingdom with a Guardian!" one cried out, his voice a series of sharp clicks.
"How can the Kan Kingdom have a Guardian, too?!"
Elisa paused, letting the whispers on the wall die down before she continued. "Listen, people of the Aon Kingdom." Her words rang out, sharp and clear. "This is a pointless death."
A new layer of tension instantly settled over the battlefield.
"If you have eyes, then see. If you have a mind, then judge. Is this truly..." She spread her arms wide. "A gap in strength that can be overco?"
A heavy silence fell over the allied formation. In contrast, the soldiers of the Kan Kingdom let out a series of fierce, threatening roars.
"The anxiety you feel is correct. The fear you feel is reality. The outco of this war was decided the mont it began. That old, decrepit fortress cannot protect you, and the silver tongues of treacherous vassals who only incite patriotism will push you to your deaths. You have all been..." Elisa paused for effect. "Deceived."
She was a monster that fed on anxiety.
"And yet, you stand there out of patriotism? Patriotism is a tool of tyrants, the tongue of hypocrites. Why must the people pay the price for their king’s failed diplomacy? Why are you expected to sacrifice your lives for your country as a matter of course?" Her voice grew stronger, more insistent. "Surrender. Bring forth those who have driven you to this fate. If you do, we will annihilate those who have deceived you with wicked patriotism, and the lives of you and your families will be guaranteed. I, Elisa Celine, who have descended to carry out the Creator’s will, declare it!"
Her voice reached a crescendo. "No Creator desires the blood of their creation. Surrender and open the gates! That is the only way to reduce the bloodshed. Otherwise, our only remaining choice is annihilation."
As expected of a politician’s daughter. She was dangerously eloquent. Her speech alone was causing a stir among the allied soldiers. More frighteningly, she was redirecting their hostility away from the Kan Kingdom and toward their own leaders, subtly driving a wedge between them.
"Whoa, this is bad," Dick muttered, reading the soldiers’ uneasy mood. "No student has ever given a speech in these things before! It was always just so beastman captain shouting ‘Glory to the kingdom!’ before the fight!"
"irin," Simon said, turning his head. "Can you use an amplification spell?"
"Huh? Oh, well, I learned it in the Pure Magic Club, so I can..."
"What are you planning?" Dick asked.
A faint smile touched Simon’s lips. "Speeches are an important part of war, aren’t they?"
If their Commander-in-Chief was coming at them with a silver tongue, he intended to answer in kind.
"Dick, do you know any unique greetings or famous phrases from the Aon Kingdom?"
"Ah, I do. When Aon was defeated and the king was about to die, he said this..."
As Dick explained, irin created an amplification magic circle that floated in the air before Simon. He studied it for a mont, then placed his hand on it, letting a trickle of Jet-Black flow into the construct. irin’s eyes widened in alarm.
"Hey, wait! That thing only runs on mana! If you do that, it’ll—!"
A grating, high-pitched shriek tore through the air. The restless crowd flinched, covering their ears and turning toward the source of the sound.
"Hmph." As if he had been waiting for their attention, Simon stepped up to the magic circle.
"I am Simon Polentia, Commander-in-Chief of the Aon Kingdom."
Every eye on both sides of the wall was now fixed on him.
"I have descended under the Creator’s command to protect the Aon Kingdom."
This ti, it was the Kan soldiers who began to murmur. It seed they, too, had believed they were the only ones to receive a Guardian.
Elisa, who had been fanning herself with satisfaction, shot up from her seat on the carriage, her eyes wide with surprise.
’Simon Polentia!’ So he ca to the siege after all. But to dare challenge ’’ with a speech! She scrambled to her feet.
"I hear you’ve been urging surrender with the logic that patriotism is the tongue of the powerful," Simon’s voice bood, heavy and resonant. "That is an insult."
His ability to command the atmosphere and capture an audience was no less than Elisa’s. Her expression hardened as she recast her own amplification spell.
"Are you saying I’m wrong? This farce of driving your people to their deaths by invoking a hollow patriotism, solely for your own safety—"
"The will to protect," Simon cut her off, his voice ringing with conviction. "The anxiety and fear one feels before a war are perfectly natural. No one is free from emotion. But what do you think is the reason we are standing here now, having overco that anxiety?"
His voice gained power. "Our families." Each word was delivered with deliberate force. "Our friends." He spoke as if pouring out his very soul. "Our hos, our property, our way of life. We are here to protect them. We are not fools who will entrust what we hold precious to the enemy and lay down our arms. Your words are an insult to us, to Aon..."
Simon concluded, his voice like thunder. "An insult."
’Thump!’
A single soldier stomped his foot.
’Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!’
Soon, every soldier on the wall was stomping in unison, their expressions grimly determined. With flushed faces and bloodshot eyes, they glared down at the enemy.
"How dare your kingdom, which has plundered its way to our capital, speak of ‘guarantees’?" Simon roared.
’Thump!’
"We will not be deceived. We will protect what is ours with our own strength."
’Thump!’
Simon raised his arm high into the air. "Aium Aon!"
The soldiers were stunned that the Guardian from another world knew their rallying cry, but their surprise lted into elation in an instant. They raised their spears as one, their voices joining in a deafening roar.
"Aium Aon!"
"WOOOWW!"
A thunderous cheer erupted, shaking the very stones of the castle. The soldiers cried and laughed, their shouts a mixture of defiance and renewed hope. Their hostility toward the enemy and their will to fight soared.
"That’s our Simon!" Dick yelled, grinning from ear to ear. "The morale of our troops has skyrocketed!"
irin’s eyes were fixed on Simon. She watched him lower his arm and rub his throat. When his gaze t hers, he offered an awkward smile.
"Mm, that was a little embarrassing. Did I get too into it?"
"No." irin took a shallow breath, then gave him a genuine smile. "That was brilliant, Simon."
The cheers continued to echo.
"Y-You son of a...!" Elisa shrieked, her face crimson with anger and humiliation, but her words were completely drowned out.
"Aium Aon! Aium Aon!" the soldiers chanted, their morale climbing with every second.
"Elisa."
A male student with a large longsword at his hip and an eyepatch dropped onto her carriage. "Stop throwing a tantrum and co back. The commander is furious."
"Oh, co on!" Elisa pounded her chest in frustration. "Those beastn must have brains the size of rats! Are they idiots? What’s more precious than their own lives? How does that kind of talk raise their morale? In the end, what Simon Polentia said is just emotional rabble-rousing!"
"I am not well-versed in politics," Jull said with a deep sigh. "But I have heard that when a person stakes their life, they follow their heart, not their head. It is your loss for appealing to logic in a war speech."
With that, Jull grabbed the scruff of Elisa’s neck, lifting her effortlessly.
"W-What are you doing!"
"I am retrieving you before the Commander-in-Chief embarrasses herself further."
"Aargh! Let go of ! I haven’t lost yet!"
---
The war began. The Kan Kingdom, knowing they were short on ti, split their forces and launched an all-out offensive, attacking all four gates simultaneously.
"Here they co!" Dick shouted.
The enemy sward the south gate under Simon’s command. The sight of the Kan Kingdom’s beastman army rushing toward them like a black tide was deeply intimidating.
Still, the south gate had its advantages. Though now dry, a moat had once surrounded it. The deep trench forced the enemy to use large ladders to scale the walls, and more importantly, there was only a single, narrow path leading up to the gate itself. And right now, Simon was more confident than anyone in his ability to hold a narrow choke point.
"Let’s begin."
Standing on the wall, Simon raised his arms like a pianist conducting an orchestra. In perfect unison, his eight skeleton mages raised their staves toward the sky.
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