Two armies on the same day.

As it turns out, I missed the first one while in the bath. The second showed up an hour later and attacked us, but failed miserably.

"They're retreating. Keep an eye out, in case they come back!" I heard the leader of the hunters yelling. Scanning the field from the top of the walls, he soon noticed me. A smug grin appeared on his face. "Nati, these things, your crossbows are amazing. The bolts went through the knight's armor as if it wasn't there. They didn't stand a chance."

I had mixed feelings about that praise. I did want to give them the best weapons possible for hunting and self-defense. Even if I wasn't a human in this life, being responsible for a whole bunch of them dying didn't sit well with me. It would have been the same if the enemy were orcs, beastmen, or any of the sentient species I have met.

But this world was an unforgiving place. Kill or be killed. I wanted those who were close to me to survive no matter what. It wasn't even close if I had to choose between humans and them. The village looked like a disturbed anthill, but nothing got damaged. The merchants and the newly arrived immigrants seemed a bit lost, just like me.

They took shelter in the old mess hall or the embassy but it seemed unnecessary. The hunters were on top of the situation. I ran into Charlotte the next moment. She was still not satisfied.

"What is going on?" I asked, but before answering, she grabbed my arm, dragging me along. "Where are we going? And did we win?"

"So far we did, but there is a problem." The chieftain claimed, heading towards the embassy. "This is probably the safest building in the village. I'd prefer if you went in, and locked yourself inside your room."

"Huh, why?" I was surprised. I already missed the battle, yet she wanted me to hide? "If something's going on, I want to help."

"There is too much going on. First, the Demon Lord's army, now the humans." She shook her head. I saw neither here, just the dwarf and the strange horses. He handed out swords and shields to the people at the moment. "It's too early to tell if we're already through the thick of it. Lambert couldn't contact the orc witch."

"I um, feel a strong presence too." The shaman of the village approached us next. I found him suspicious and strange so I usually tried to stay away. He kept following me around even more than Lambert, and now he was here again. "The humans have two mediocre wizards and two priests with them, but there is someone else."

"Did they run, or just hid themselves in the forest?" Charlotte asked him, not doubting his words for a single second. We stopped in front of the entrance of the embassy. "Can you also tell what's with Omerta at the crossroads? No telepathic messages could reach her."

"That is exactly where that strong presence is. And I feel a swarm of reptiles coming." He already looked like an emo among the orcs, but now he even started to talk this cryptic. It gave me the creeps, but the chieftain took him seriously. I did my best not to judge him either. "Last time I felt it right before you brought Hana and Omerta back from that fight. I think it is the Elder. It's the Inquisitorias."

"Well, that was to be expected." Charlotte scratched her head. She seemed to be pondering about the situation. I wondered, what happened with the Princess and that blue-haired paladin, and if the Inquisitorias was after me or the Goddess. "But reptiles? Don't you feel the pack animals, the New Order soldiers brought?"

"No, I talk about sentient beings and thousands of them." Gitaut seemed offended by the assumption. All I knew about him was that he was the tribe's shaman, and he handled tasks around the village before the other spellcasters came along. He had some useful abilities when in time of need. "They were drawn here by that strong entity, and it is fighting alongside them. The humans were not the real threat. The Demon Lord's men are soon overwhelmed."

"Lady Charlotte, please allow me to retrieve the wounded and treat their injuries." Now the other magician appeared, that freaked me out. Lambert made a formal request, bowing his head, but as far as I knew, we didn't have casualties. "As you probably want to protect all of the Lesser Races, allow me to save the lives of the humans too. And later you can use them as hostages if we ever needed to negotiate."

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"Right, I don't want a massacre either. But I can't have you leave these walls." Charlotte held up her arm. So he was talking about human injuries, it all made sense now. "Since they attacked us, we better assume that your Princess and the paladin failed to convince them. They could come to take you back or kill you. Order Tooth, the homunculus to send out the golems and gather the wounded. You can treat them here."

"Thank you, Chieftain." Lambert bowed again and ran off immediately. For the first time, I was glad he came up with an idea. I didn't want blood on my hands either, after arming this tribe. Fortunately, the homunculus in question was within the village's premises. The remaining golems were working exclusively on building more housing. They laid down the foundations of the new smithy as well. With the road done, they no longer had to mine stone in the quarry far from here.

"I will follow your guidance." The homunculus bowed his head. He already started running towards us, once Charlotte uttered his name.

Tooth looked eerily similar to Fenna's dad. His voice sounded like a cheap knockoff of Fang's too. Their build was nearly the same, though it seemed unnecessary, to give a tail and wolf ears to an artificial life form. Alexandra was adamant about making him lifelike, but the face was relatively generic and featureless. She probably didn't want to go all the way with him, in case the fox girl would be offended by it.

"Golems, gather around, and march out in formation." He gave the order in an emotionless voice. The creatures in question were still working on the new apartment building as if nothing had happened. Now they followed his instructions instead.

They were all completely lifelike and looked like real orcs and beastmen, but they were made of clay, their skin matte and dark blue. Their movements were mechanical though, except for the homunculus. He had to eat and sleep but could think independently, and even talk. But if I ever saw something uncanny, it was his speech. It reminded me of the AI-driven androids of my world, fooling nobody about being a human. And to make it worse, he was a real slavedriver too.

"Collect the wounded humans outside the walls and bring them back here." He said, and his minions ran immediately. More than half of the golems put in his care broke down. He kept pushing them to their limits. It seemed like he treated himself as a real beastmen, albeit strictly underneath us in the ranks, but he had no respect for the orc types, seeing them as dispensable tools. "Hurry up, golems."

Well, the poor moving statues had no intellect or feelings. They indeed followed his orders, until they fell apart. I wanted to bring this to Alexandra's attention later, but not while under attack. Until now, I had too many things going on to talk about them all, and she has been away for so long.

To be fair, I couldn't think straight, whenever she was around, just thinking about her made my heart beat faster. Being a part of a battle did nothing in comparison, although I couldn't claim to be in one just yet. I wasn't longing for it either.

"Good job. They returned with twelve wounded, and two dead." The homunculus reported, by the time I sorted out my thoughts. The golems didn’t handle the humans with care, as if they moved logs around, they loaded them up, multiple ones at a time, but followed the orders to the letter. "Should they continue building now?"

"No, keep them on standby," Charlotte ordered the creature, while the golems unloaded their cargo. The attackers looked like hedgehogs, cast iron bolts sticking out of their bodies. They wore decent armor, but it did nothing to stop my crossbows. Lambert wasted no time to start treating them. Seeing the two corpses and all these wounded was disturbing, but I didn't want to leave.

"Can I help you somehow? We have healing potions, right? Do you have any on you?" I asked, and Lambert seemed surprised. The least I could do was to treat the surviving humans after inadvertently causing them harm. That's, what the Goddess said too: she might have made some mistakes but always did her best to correct them. And she saved my life too. "I'll help with the bandages. I hope they will survive."

"Fine, Nati, I'll leave you here then, just promise me, if it seems dangerous, you'll hide in the embassy," Charlotte told me after a long sigh. She probably had places to be. "Not like last time. When you were just standing there, staring at the danger. All right?"

"I'll try my best," I promised, though I probably wasn't too convincing. She left either way and suddenly, I was alone with the court wizard. Plus a bunch of wounded enemies. Well, not entirely, since the creepy beast-bot was still with the golems. "Tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I did have a first aid certificate, but never treated anyone. Should we take their armor plates off first?"

"Um, no, leave that to me," Lambert answered, acting bashful now. I had to think for a moment to realize, to him, it's like being left alone with a girl. "Just make them drink the potions, and maybe pour some on their wounds too. Don't remove the bolts before it's their turn to be treated. We can't have them bleed out, but I can heal them through the armor too. It doesn't seem to be resistant to magic."

"The barrier I erected is attuned to your magic, so you go ahead." I heard Gitaut all of a sudden. Where the hell was he until now? I thought he left long ago, and now he was here again. And what kind of barrier he was talking about? I saw nothing of the sort. "If you need a hand, I can ask the spirits to help with the healing, but they are not keen on the humans, let alone the Inquisitorias."

"These are not from the Church. The color on their armor belongs to the Royal Company." Lambert noted. "I have no idea, what's going on."