Chapter Chapter 30.4: Side Story 4 (1/2)
RATH Side Story 4
TL: Eevee
Side Story – A certain princess’s memories (4)
#8 Their story: The sword princess’s story
“Now, my soldiers, you will be divided into my and Ast’s troops and we will be conducting a war game!”
The tiny princess shouted in a loud authoritative voice that didn’t suit her small frame.
Her Highness’s personal mage corps.
Only Her Highness has this much power as her bodyguard forces among all the members of the imperial family.
That’s how important Her Highness is in the imperial palace.
But His Majesty didn’t give her a battlemage brigade for this!
Although more accurately it’s because of what I said!
I’m sorry, sir mages!
“Now then, Reia. Lead my army.”
“…Huh?”
“I can’t do it myself.”
“But, but still…”
“It’s alright. If it’s Reia I can trust you with them.”
“Your Highness…”
Her Highness was trusting me. Yes, Her Highness trusted me enough to lead her army in her stead…
“If Ast is right, this is a technique that will obliterate my base, if it’s Reia you can survive, right?”
“…Yes.”
Ah, so it was that kind of faith.
I held back the tears that were about to leak out.
Yes, Her Highness trusted me. As a good shield.
But I still spent five years with her, but she only trusts me that little!
“Very good. If Sir Reia’s the target, then it won’t matter if I fire everything without holding back.”
“Wait, Your Highness? Mister Ast said a target just now? Does that mean I’m the target?”
“Hm? Of course. What we were discussing earlier was Ast using his hidden mage corps to annihilate the enemy base with a magic bombardment while taking out all the enemy leaders with it. So of course the leader Reia would be the target.”
“Understood, Your Highness. Then mister Ast? What exactly do you mean by firing without holding back?”
“Exactly what I said. If it’s Her Highness then I need to scale back the firepower, but if it’s Sir Reia you can defend against any attack no matter how powerful, no? You’re the famous ‘Sword Princess’ after all.”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
It’s embarrassing. What Sword Princess! Who the heck came up with that name?
After mister Ast heard that name he teased me for a week, to think he’d still make fun of me for it even after a year!
“A princess in front of the imperial princess, how cool Reia.”
“Y, Your Highness…”
“As expected of a nickname I came up with. It suits her, right Ast?”
“Indeed. I can only applaud Your Highness’s naming sense!”
“Her Highness was the culprit!”
Kukoom! By body quivered at the feeling of betrayal by the princess that I’d believed in.
The culprit was Her Highness!
Well of course because of that I became the subject of admiration by all the female knights!
Aside from how older unnis come up to me with this gaze that really gives me the shivers asking me “can I call you unni?”(1) I was still somewhat acknowledged by my family! But it’s still embarrassing! The culprit was Her Highness!
“Just what am I to Your Highness?”
“My sole pleasure in life?”
“You, you thought of me like…”
“So you see her as a toy.”
“Mister Ast! Don’t destroy my feelings! The relationship between Her Highness and I is something that mister Ast would never…”
“Yep, my toy and the sole pleasure in my life.”
“Just how low is Your Highness going to drop my loyalty!”
Uuwuuu, Her Highness has been extremely mean to me lately.
Before she would just indirectly tease me a lot but lately she’s just been doing it directly.
It’s too much.
Is it all because of mister Ast? Or was Her Highness always like that.
“Why am I the target…”
“Well, Her Highness can’t do it herself…”
As I grumbled along holding back my tears, a mister soldier beside me answered.
Ah, I know that.
It just feels kinda unfair… just something like that.
“Even so, there’s zero possibility that this would work. It makes absolutely no sense. And in a state where we know a magic bombardment is coming, it can never succeed.”
The person who said this with confidence, was a Sergeant of this mage brigade. Considering he was a veteran of the war with the former Harken Kingdom, he should be trustworthy.
“Now, see, Sir Reia. No matter how much you hide the presence of your mana, since magic spells need to be fired off with magic power anyway, the mana reactions will be detected no matter what.”
“Indeed.”
I nodded as I saw the magic power detection device glowing red.
Wow. This is quite interesting. Even though I can’t see anything with my eyes, there’s a red light shining from it.
Her Highness was right!
Since Her Highness said she was going to scold mister Ast big-time for this, this is going to be a good show!
And I’ll secretly ask Her Highness to give him a big punishment as revenge for everything till now!
“Now, look. They’re probably going to fire off a spell while hidden in the clouds, but if we carefully raise a magic barrier then we can easily defend against it.”
Now to the point where we could see with our naked eyes, the mages began casting barrier spells to defend against the ice magic falling at high speeds.
That ice made with magic would never get through the barri…
Shatter!
“It can?”
Very easily, the first barrier was destroyed, and scores of barriers began to tear apart like paper afterwards.
Hm. What’s. That.
“Um, mister mage? What are we going to do when it’s falling like that?”
“…It’s an emergency! Bail!”
“Ehhht?!”
The mister mage whose face turned sheet white yelled to the mages nearby and as expected of a veteran mage, they quickly cast teleportation magic and escaped…
Wait a second!
“Wh, what about me?”
The target was definitely me.
Meaning that those things were all falling towards me, which meant…