Over the horizon, as the sun rose once more, one blond woman followed by three purple-haired women walked towards the town. The hero with her chainsword, her master with a halberd, and the two other girls. One dressed in men’s formal wear, the other dressed in a light summer dress. Three out of four carrying weapons.
The military commander went out to meet them after their watchtower sent out a report concerning them. The commander felt a bit nostalgic when he saw the way the one with the halberd was teasing the hero, but he buried his memory and greeted them on their arrival.
“Welcome back, were you able to fix the gun?”
“Yohan, there was nothing wrong with it, to begin with, it was just out of ammo.”
“Hans?”
He lifted his eyes from Mia to look at the one who addressed him by name despite the fact the hero never asked. The way in which he was addressed reminded him of his friend who’d died on the battlefield nineteen years prior.
“Ah, Hans, what an adorable little boy he was, always trying to copy me. Annoying little shit but cute in a way.”
“Who?”
“Yohan, this is Master. She’s come down from the mountain in a body that isn’t his.”
The commander, Yohan, looked between the two in confusion, certainly, he felt like he was speaking to an old friend, but he couldn’t tell why and then as if the meaning of Mia’s words finally set in, he gave a warm smile to match the familiar smile across from him.
“Did you tell her?”
“You always did know how to ruin a moment aye Hans.”
“Ah, but Hans died 19 years ago. Call me… hm… Adeliza? Yeah, that sounds fairly human. Call me Adeliza while I look like this.”
“Master? Were you the last hero?”
“Yeah, no one worth training showed up at my mountain that generation, but the people were so insistent I just went out myself. It wasn’t the best body, terrible reflexes, low fertility, but it was the best I had at the moment and frankly, the best humanity deserved at the time.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were the master himself?”
“Generations ago I got tired of explaining it to you bronze age idiots with a premillennial understanding of how magic works. So, I just started lying and it just kept working. Plus, half the time you idiots didn’t believe me anyway or demanded I let you into the mountain to teach you of the old technology.”
The man in a woman’s body began ranting to no one in particular about the stupidity and entitlement of ungrateful generations that demand more generosity from one who gave it freely in spite of their abysmal response to it.
“One generation, I was forced to lead a noble’s army up my mountain, they wanted to raid it for my artefacts but instead I threw my artefact of that age into the offering slide and killed myself in front of him telling him his entire generation would suffer for his mistake. Whatever happened to that man anyway?”
“I think I’ve heard that story, the other nobles got mad at him and lynched him for dooming them all. We lost several cities that century to the elves dwarves and demons.”
“Ha! Serves them right! To even be overtaken by dwarves.”
“Actually, the dwarves are our allies this generation, it was all we could do to keep from dying out entirely.”
He turned to Mia.
“Is that why you’re so short?”
“I-I’m not part dwarf!”
After their playful discussion, the master parted ways with the student and the student returned to the front lines with the commander. But the commander wasn’t pleased with this.
“You’re not coming?”
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“This body doesn’t have any battle prowess whatsoever, just enough strength to lift and swing around this polearm, I’d have picked a gun if this girl’s aim wasn’t so bad… there is a gun part to this, but I made it just in case a dragon shows up, unless the target’s massive these eyes are bound to miss.”
{I’m staying with master, fighting is scary.}
|I’m not joining your war no matter what you say. |
The third girl finally spoke up. Her eyes were filled with anger as if she was looking at someone who’d just finished killing her mother and eating her in front of her. The gun strapped on her back and a firm refusal in her eyes to give it back.
“And after I let you keep your memories. Lili, give the man my gun.”
|As you wish master… wait no.|
Her response was almost robotic handing back the gun as if it were only natural before she realized what she was doing and reached out for the gun that was already out of her hands. Before she could touch it again her master’s hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into a sideways hug. She pouted at the involuntary reflex of obedience firmly ingrained in her as her master laughed at her inability to completely control the programming within her.
After they parted ways Adeliza, Kathy, and Lili Introduced themselves to Mia’s parents as friends of hers she met in her five years away. Mia’s parents agreed to let them stay while they were in town and the three got settled in while Mia went back to the front to tear down their walls leading the charge on the elven camp.
The rank-and-file soldiers were given an order to capture any women they found alive. The explanation they were given, for why, was that they were going to revive a long dead tradition in response to the elves’ rejection of their peace treaty, offering the girls as living sacrifices at the mount of heroes.
With the battle plans drawn up and Mia at the front the elves standing around their fortifications In fear. Mia charged diagonally at the wall. A rain of arrows followed her as she ran forward. When she got to their wooden walls, she began running parallel to them dragging her chainsword across the walls as she did.
Three laps around the walls she ran as the army behind her pushed their walls forward. Very few arrows were aimed at the encroaching army at the back making their forward march easy. At the third lap around the walls, they began to fall inwards in the direction she was cutting. The people on top of the walls began falling and the people in the watchtowers began panicking.
As the archers perched on the walls fell the rest of the army behind Mia charged forward. From there the fight was more of a slaughter. Every fighting man died every injured man captured, all the women nursing the injured back to health bound and sent on their way to the mountain.
That evening the Humans rejoiced at the recapture of one of their old cities as a messenger arrived from the capital carrying with him a box on his back. The messenger reported the completion of the armour and received the commander’s report of their recent victory with glee.
Mia spent the evening drinking with her master, who began to tell her about her day as they relaxed around the excited soldiers in the bar.
“Kathy, and Lili helped me make your bed bigger today, turns out Kathy’s good with a needle and thread. Took her a while to work up the nerve to start though.”
{Ma-Adeliza you didn’t have to tell her that part.}
|Not like I can disobey an order anyway. |
“Why were you making my bed bigger… exactly?”
“Mia, your parents were kind enough to let us stay over. Don’t tell me you were expecting us to sleep on the floor.”
“N-no, no I’d never dream of inconveniencing you so, after all you’ve done for me… but why make my bed bigger and not make yourselves three beds?”
|Because she’s lazy and said it would just be easier to make one really big bed instead of cutting sewing and filling the cloth to make three. |
“Or are you telling me you hated sharing a bed with me?”
“That’s not what I… alright fine. Do whatever you want.”
“I always do.”
That evening Adeliza drank way too much started a barfight, won, and had to be carried home on Mia’s shoulder. Kathy also drank too much but she was pressured by Adeliza and couldn’t think of a good enough reason to refuse. Lili carried her back.
That night before going to sleep Mia tried talking to Lili.
“Hey, I’m sorry about what happened to Helmi. I didn’t know that’s what would happen to her when I brought her over. I just felt in my instincts that bringing you all over was something I should do.”
She waved her hand dismissively.
|There are plenty of cruel people on both sides that would have probably done far worse. She could have dressed us up as enemy soldiers and sent us unarmed into our own archer fire. But instead, she did this. |
She gestured at her own changed body. The drunkenly sleeping woman in question burying her face in her thighs.
|Besides, showing compassion for an enemy is the kind of thing that can get you killed on the battlefield. I won’t deny I hate what’s been done to me, but I can’t really do anything about it. And I can’t say I wouldn’t have approved of a similar thing being done to my enemies if I had the means to do so. |
“Still though she erased your friend’s mind right in front of you.”
|But she’s still alive. And right now, that’s the best outcome I could have hoped for. |
As she spoke, she began stroking the hair of the troubled girl in question and though her sleeping face was a bit uneasy it seemed to calm down in response. After a brief discussion the two changed into clothes more comfortable for sleeping and turned in for the night.