Chapter 26 - In Need of a Toothpick

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Once back inside the city I went to the city guard barracks again. When I arrived I asked the guards at the door if the branchmaster and Viscount Granger were still inside. They told me the guard captain had moved with the city guard to coordinate the operation in the field while the branchmaster had returned to the guild, on the other hand Lord Granger was waiting for me on the roof of one of the wall's tower.

A guard escorted me all the way to the tower and inside, up to the wooden ladder that lead to the roof. After saluting me, which I found a bit awkward, he left, leaving me alone in the dark room inside the tower. I climbed up the ladder and, when I opened the trapdoor that lead to the roof, found something I was definitely not expecting. Viscount Granger was sitting in front of a small table, ready to have lunch on the roof,  giving his back to the gate and its towers further down the wall and accompanied only by an old butler with white hair and light blue eyes, who looked more like a bodyguard than a butler.

When he saw me he said, "Hero Fortuna, please, sit. You haven't had lunch yet, have you?"

Still a bit baffled I said, "no, I haven't."

"Well then, I hope you won't mind eating here with me."

"I gladly accept your invitation." I said, sitting on the chair opposite to him.

The butler poured me some vilam and took the silver cloche from the large plate that was in front of me, letting me see what was on it. In the center of the plate was a salad topped with dried tomatoes, nuts and thin slices of a citrus-like fruits and dressed with oil and vinegar. Around the salad there were thin, rolled up, slices of cold cuts, separated from each other by sticks of either raw or steamed vegetables. A line of a beige sauce wet the plate between the salad and the rays of this delicious sun.

"I though a light meal was appropriate for this hot day. Especially considering what has to come later in the afternoon." Said Lord Granger as the butler lifted the cloche over his plate.

"Speaking of which, should we really occupy a tower of the wall during, well... that" I said, pointing at the treats that were falling in the moat, pushed by the ones coming after them.

"Oh, there is no problem, two mages are stationed on each of the three towers on either side of the gate. With the three of us here we more than meet the quota."

I took the glass full of vilam and said "I didn't know you were an user of the arcane arts, Viscount Granger," before drinking.

"Oh, my knowledge is only limited to a few air and fire magic spells, but Genji here is a real prodigy, especially when it comes to ice magic." He said, before he started eating.

"Genji doesn't sound like a name from the Olivedias Kingdom." I said and brought a forkful of salad to my mouth.

"If I may, Milady." He said, with a light bow.

"Oh, please, speak freely."

"I am actually from the ice wolf tribe. I was born during dis so I look almost like a human."

"Oh, I totally didn't notice. There are a quite a few humans with blue eyes in my world after all."

Lord Granger laughed at my words and said, "humans with blue eyes, I heard them all now."

"Some even have green, yellow or, very rarely, purple eyes." I said, leaning forward and looking him straight in the eyes.

"Those people must be difficult to distinguish from the other races."

"There is no need to."

He stared at me baffled for a few seconds, before looking at his plate with a bitter smile and saying, "a world without discrimination and differences between the races... It must be a wonderful place to live in."

"No, sorry, I didn't explain myself well. There are only humans in my world... And discrimination between groups still occurs."

"And here I was, thinking that discrimination between the races of light was barbaric."

"Big words from someone who owns a demihuman s-" I couldn't even finish my sentence that the butler stepped towards me and, looming over me with an unexpected anger in his eyes, said, "milady, I'd prefer you didn't offend my master further."

"Genji!"

To the words of his master the butler stepped back and bowed towards me and said "I'm sorry for the interruption, Lady Fortuna."

"What is the sentence for a slave threatening a noble, again?"

I heard them both gulp before Lord Granger said "torture, death or both, depending on the situation."

"Very well then," I said, got up from my chair, took my longsword from my storage and stood in front of Genji.

"On your knees."

Viscount Granger shoot up from his chair and said "Lady Fortuna, I'll see to his punishment later, please, let's finish our lunch."

"I'm sorry, Lord Granger, but I'll see to this myself. I won't have someone else dirty their hands for my honor. On your knees, Genji."

The two exchanged a resigned look that seemed to tell much more to the two that I could grasp, before the butler finally went down on his knees in front of me.

I lifted my sword and slapped him with the side of the blade with such a force he ended up hitting the battlements of the tower.

"The offence was threatening of a baroness by a slave, the sentence was torture. The punishment was dealt in accordance to the laws of the kingdom. You can testify this, Viscount Granger?"

Still baffled by what happened he said, "y-yes..."

"Let's resume our lunch, shall we?"

"Yes, of course."

We both sat back on our chair as Genji slowly got back on his feet.

"You almost gave me an heart attack there." Lord Granger said, before emptying his glass.

"You should be more careful if you care for your slave, and he should care for his life more."

"I promise we will do so."

"Good."

"I have to say it though, that was the shortest torture session I saw in my entire life."

"I hope it will be the longest you'll see from today onward."

He laughed a bit and said "yes, I hope so too."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

We kept eating without much talking afterwards. As we ate we could sometimes feel the tremors caused by the treants falling in the distance. Once we finished eating we moved to the battlements to observe the battle unfolding beneath.

Some treants were finally managing to climb on this side of the moat while others had already circled it and were coming towards the city.

"I certainly did not expect my first battle to involve digging and watching everything from afar as if it was a play." I said to Lord Granger who was next to me.

"Are you disappointed?"

"Honestly? Yes, I am slightly disappointed."

"Has no one ever told you that the best battles are those won without having to fight?"

"Even if you say that I still feel useless here."

"If this keeps going like this it will come the time to act even for you." He said, pointing at the treants that were about to charge at the army.

In that moment the earth beneath the treants trembled and raised itself, sending them back towards the moat. As soon as the treants fell back inside it I saw two people collapsing on the field.

"Those earth mages are sure working hard."

Lord Granger only nodded to my statement as his gaze shifted to a group of soldiers equipped with large shields encircling the treants that were passing on the right of the moat. In the front of the group there was a man who, from his armor, seemed to be the viscount's son, though the distance made it impossible for me to be sure about it.

"Isn't that your son leading those soldiers?"

"Oh, I see you already met. Yes, he thought about a tactic to delay them further without killing them."

"Really? What does it consist of?"

"Look, they are about to put it in act."

I kept watching as the soldiers placed themselves in an half moon shape around the group of treants waiting for the right moment, which came when most treats were stepping forward, leaving them with only one giant wooden foot still on the ground. All the soldiers moved at once, clashing against the moving trees with their shields, tipping them over and causing a few of them to falling in the moat, over other treants.

"Remember me not to anger your son and his soldiers."

He laughed a bit and said, "they are indeed strong but that was possible only because there is an expert of body strengthening magic with them."

"Oh, I think I can see him behind their lines."

"We were lucky he was in town."

"Honestly, between all these mages and the fact that those elves are soon to arrive it really looks like luck is on your side."

(Don't laugh at your own shitty puns, don't laugh at your own shitty puns)

I took a deep breath as he said, "it sure does," not noticing I was holding in my laughter.

Soon after another group, this time made up by mismatched soldiers and adventurers, met the treants on the left side of the moat. Unlike the other group though, they started a fierce battle, hacking at the branches and roots of the treants with axes, halberds and even swords while the treants stomped on them and sent some men flying.

I looked at Lord Granger next to me who just said, "we got lucky we had enough men and a mage for applying that tactic on one side."

"I didn't say a word."

The battle kept going for hours, every time a large group of treants managed to climb over the moat the earth mages somehow managed to push them back while the shield strategy seemed to keep being effective, though at the loss of a few men. The left side, on the other hand, was a disaster, the treants kept advancing over the bodies of adventurers and soldiers alike, though severely slowed down. Now they were finally reaching the rearguard stationed at the center, which forced the earth mages to retreat.

"I think it's time we start to do something ourselves." Said Lord Granger, rolling his sleeves up his arms.

"With pleasure."

"You shouldn't be so happy to hurt magic beasts."

"I'll try to hurt them as little as possible then."

I started collecting water around me and freezing it into two ice lances that I kept hovering over me, waiting for the right moment. Genji seemed to be doing the same, but at the last moment, instead of compacting the droplets to form a solid shape he froze them as they were, forming a raging snowstorm over his head.

Seeing a treant braking through the line of soldiers I threw my lances at it. One missed the target while the other impaled its leg. On impact it spread, freezing most of its leg and all of its foot, anchoring it to the ground, while the one that missed shattered in hundreds of shards that flew to the leg of a treant on the other side of the line of soldiers, freezing it in a similar manner.

At the same time Genji sent his miniature storm behind the treants lines, against the ones that were coming in to help their floral comrades, to stop their advance and relieve a bit of pressure from the soldiers and adventurers. When the swirling cloud of ice crystals met the ground behind the first line of treants it suddenly expanded in a wall of raging winds and ice.

A few mages from the other towers started attacking too, mainly aiming at the treants' legs with ice and fire magic. From one of the towers on the opposite side of the gate I could even see lightning strikes shooting towards the treats army.

No longer being stopped by the earth mages, the treants in the moat were finally able to climb up and reach the other being stopped by the stormy wall. The soldiers equipped with shields lead by the viscount's son made a last effort to push a group of treants in the moat. After the tactic succeeded once more, they turned around for a retreat before they'd end up being cut off from the rest of the army. A hole opened in the wind and ice wall to let them pass and they managed to successfully regroup with the rest of the army.

The treats that were on this side of the wall were rendered inoffensive over the course of dozens of minutes, some had their branches and roots cut to the point they could no longer move, other were encased in ice or earth prisons, others still were burning and had thrown themselves to the ground trying to stop the flames, some died. Right when it seemed like the army had finally time to breathe, though, the storm that was blocking the main force from advancing subsided.

I looked at Genji next to me and saw him breathing heavily, resting his back against the battlements.

"Sorry, I'm completely out of mana." He said, looking at me and Lord Granger.

"Sit for a moment, drink as many potions as you need and try to be back in shape as soon as possible. We need you here." Said the viscount.

"Yes, master."

"By the way..." I started saying as I prepared another ice spear, "aren't you going to help?"

"They are still too far for me. I don't have the control you two have, I might just end up hitting our soldiers."

"You will be able to continue watching the play for a little longer then." I said, as I threw a spear to the leg of a treant that had managed to breach through the front line.

"I fear it will soon be time for me to step on the stage too."

"I'll be looking forward to your performance then." I said as two ice spears struck the ground in front of two treants and foze it and their feet with it.

"It won't be as astounding as yours."

"Please, my magic is nothing extraordinary."

"No need to be modest when you're hitting enemies hundreds of meters away with such a good control."

“I’m still not able to do something as complex as Genji’s wall.”

He laughed and said “If a human was able to do such things with ice magic after less than a year of training it would hurt the pride of every ice wolf on Kis.”

“I have a lot to learn ahead of me then,” I said, hitting a treant, that was about to swing its massive arm against a group of soldiers, with an ice spear thrice the usual size on its shoulder, making it fall on the ground and freezing its upper body.

“There is something that has been bothering me for a while now about your magic…”

“Feel free to ask.”

“I was quite certain that Lady Raphael was an expert of lightning magic and I thought you too would have followed her path and yet, I’ve seen you use almost every kind of elemental magic but it. Even the day of your match in the capital. May I ask you why?”

I stopped forming the next set of ice spears and turned towards him before saying, “I… I’m not really good with lightning magic.”

“So there is something even the mighty hero can’t do.”

I just nodded and went back at throwing my ice spears against the treants, letting silence fall between us. I couldn’t tell him the real, embarrassing, reason after all.

The battle kept raging for hours after that, every time Genji recovered he would raise his wall again, giving time to breath to the army below, until he ran out of mana again. Slowly the trants made their way towards the wall and Lord Granger joined us too with his fire magic. I was so used to being surrounded by expert who used chant-less magic that, when he suddenly started chanting next to me, I almost lost control of my own magic.

When the treants had gotten to a hundred meters from the wall, part of the guards fighting in the frontline retreated inside the city and soon I could see them bring barrels, urns and bottles over the wall.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing at them.

“One last defense before the barrier, one of the finest spirits of our kingdom. It’s a pity to waste it like this but dead men can’t drink, can they?”

I turned around to Genji who was resting again on a chair and yelled at him, “bring me as many potions as you can spare!”

“Are you finally going out of mana?” Lord Granger asked me.

“Not yet, but I’m going to speed up.”

“It is good to see you are finally fired up.”

At that moment the trap door that lead to the tower opened and a soldier came out of it. He ran up to us and said “My Lord, My Lady, the elves are here.”

“It seems like we will be able to save the alcohol, Lady Fortuna.”