“We know, but—”
“Commander. Please calm down… The enemy is over there.”
Gustav checked Remedios, who had raised her voice in frustration.
“No, Lady Custodio, you don’t know. Once he learns a hostage is effective, he’ll show you he wasn’t only bluff—”
As if those words were the signal, the bufolk slit the girl’s throat. Even from a distance, the spurt of bright-red blood was visible. When he let go of her body, it crumpled to the ground.
Silence.
As if everyone’s brains were refusing to accept what had just happened.
Remedios returned to her senses first, and her shout roused Neia.
“How could you do that to a hostage?! We did as you asked!”
“Hmph!” Next the bufolk held up a boy. “That’s why I brought another one! Now stay back!”
“You cowardly bastard!”
“Heh. You’re such a fool. You didn’t think I’d have another one waiting?!”
Remedios’s clenched fists shook violently. Then she spat an order. “Everyone, pull back!”
“Order the ones who circled around on horses to gather up, too! Now!”
Neia could hear Remedios’s teeth grind. The noise was so loud it was a wonder they didn’t crumble and fall out of her mouth.
“Gustav, order them to come back…”
“B-but!”
“If we don’t, that boy will die! Hurry!”
“That’s a bad move. Now that he knows hostages get results, giving him any more time will only reduce our morale and end in more losses.”
Remedios, red in the face, glared at the King of Darkness the way she would an enemy.
“If we keep this up, there will have been no point to the sneak attack. And I can hear them carrying something to the gate. If they create a barricade, it’ll take longer to break through—”
“Shut up!” Remedios roared, and the King of Darkness closed his mouth. “Does anyone have a good idea?! A way to do this where nobody dies?!”
No one said anything.
There couldn’t possibly be such a convenient way out of this. Maybe things would be different if they had someone with stealth skills, but they didn’t.
And Remedios surely knew that. If it didn’t occur to her, with her animal instincts in combat, then it didn’t exist.
So why can’t she accept that?
Why is she so hung up on no one dying?
The King of Darkness’s words crossed Neia’s mind—Is this a necessary sacrifice? Without a huge power gap and a lot of luck, there was no way no one would die.
“Commander Custodio.” Neia’s voice sounded unnaturally loud. “Can’t we finish this now with fewer sacrifices?”
Remedios’s fierce eyes turned on Neia.
The strong warrior’s passionate gaze nearly had Neia trembling, but she knew she wasn’t wrong.
“There’s no justice in that!” Remedios yelled.
Justice? What even…?
All the paladins in the area had clammed up; they apparently didn’t intend to comment. She suddenly felt surrounded by hostile forces, but when she began to back up, a hand wrapped around her shoulder.
When she looked, it was—as she thought—the King of Darkness.
“I support Miss Baraja.”
He agreed with her in a low voice. But to Neia, it was like having billions of allies.
“Shut up!” Remedios yelled again. That was no way to talk to a king who had come from far away to aid them. There was forgivable behavior, and then there was unforgivable behavior.
Fury welled up inside Neia.
“What we need here is to break through the situation, not get irritated with one another… Well, since we have no other choice, I’ll change things,” the King of Darkness murmured. Then he strode away from the group—toward the gate. It was so sudden that before anyone could stop him, the bufolk shouted a warning.
“You in the mask! I told you to stay back!”
“Nonsense! How much value do you really think a single human life has?!” he shouted back in a voice just as loud.
“Wh-what?!”
“Our objective is to kill all the bufolk here! We don’t care what happens to the humans! Widen Magic: Fireball!” With that shout, he thrust out an arm and sent the ball of fire that appeared in his hand flying toward the bufolk atop the gate and the boy.
The watchtower was engulfed in a massive explosion of flames centered on the two figures.
Everyone there crumpled from that single attack. The bufolk and the boy he had grabbed fell in a headfirst tangle toward the ground.
“Max Magic: Shock Wave.”
In the follow-up attack, the half-destroyed gate was blown away. The barricade the bufolk behind it must have been putting up was also busted through, so it was as if a gaping hole had opened up.
“All right! Paladins, charge! Kill every last bufolk you find inside!”
His voice seemed to shake Remedios out of it.
“What do you think you’re—?!”
“Commander!”
“Nnnngh… Charge!”
At Remedios’s command, the paladins began to move. Or more accurately, they gave up on thinking and simply did as ordered.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Gustav said before racing off.
The other paladins and priests—those who were reasonable—sent the king looks of gratitude. Only Remedios was upset.
The King of Darkness spoke to Neia in a low voice. “Miss Baraja. Did you think I was going to save that boy with a spell you people could never have imagined?”
She did, a little. But she was sure there was a reason he did what he did.
“Oh y-yes, I did.”
“Hmm. I’m sure you did.” He shook his head.
Neia simply listened in silence.
“Sure, it was possible. It would have been easy to save this single boy with all the various spells I’ve acquired. But I couldn’t. Saving the boy in front of the bufolk would have been disastrous.”
For the first time, Neia looked puzzled by something the king said, and he kindly explained.
“If they had learned hostages were useful, they would have employed all the prisoners inside as cover. They would probably have been literally used as shields in combat when they felt threatened. That would have made the paladins hesitate, which could have resulted in many of them getting injured or worse. We don’t have a huge force, so losing even one paladin would be painful. That’s what Lanchester’s laws say…”
The King of Darkness walked toward the gate, and Neia followed.
“If, on the contrary, the bufolk learn there’s no
