In Redwing Kingdom, in the capital, in the throne room…

A few minutes later, Straf returns to the throne room with a large sheet of paper in his hand.

「I'm back!…」

He declares, and approaches the throne in a hasty step. The situation in the throne room seems to have calmed down in the moment of his absence, and the footmen have let go of the king.

「…Here, sign this.」

Straf puts the sheet into Cycelia's hands, then hands her a prepared quill out of his inventory. She looks down at a signature line, skipping over the lengthy chunks of texts, then signs it.

「Wow… That's a long contract… And it looks like you took special care into writing it, the script is very clean.」

She returns the quill and takes a good look at the contract's text, admiring the clean lines. Her eyes move to the first paragraph.

Sshwnk…

「Eh?」

「Yeah, 'cause I wrote it with a pen…」「A pen?…」

Much to her surprise, with a faint rustle of paper, Straf deftly tugs the contract paper out of her fingers' grasp, and turns around to approach the king.

「…Sign it.」

He demands, glaring at him with the quill and contract held out for the fat man.

「Give me a moment to read through it-」

「Tsk… Seriously? You have to be like this?…」

The king reluctantly takes the contract into his hand, and begins to read through it. Frustrated, Straf loudly clicks his tongue and scrunches his mouth to the side.

Straf shrugs, then takes a few steps away, pacing idly before stopping with his fists on his hips and impatiently tapping his foot on the floor.

King Parnatau reads and reads, every now and then peeking his wary eyes out from beyond the paper's top edge.

「…Written with a… Pen, was it? May I sign it with this pen too?」

He asks with his brows inquisitively furrowed as he lowers the contract.

「No. Sign it with a quill. People in the future will be questioning whether or not this contract is real, so at least the signatures should leave no mistake.」

Straf bluntly replies and holds the quill out for the fat man. Displeased, he takes it into his thick fingers, then scribbles his name onto the opposing signature line.

Sshwnk.

「Okay, there we go. Now you're contractually obliged to do as Lia says, and the war is officially over…」

Straf pulls the paper and the quill away, and holds the contract up so that Cycelia can see.

「…This stays with us, so we can point to it whenever you're being an asshole.」

He adds, and throws both items back into his inventory.

「With that done, am I free to return to my kingdom, then?」

King Parnatau asks, spreading his hands while looking at Cycelia with inquisitive eyes.

「Ah, um… Yes. I will arrange a wagon for you.」

She nods, briefly distracted by Straf as he's approaching the throne with his hands in his pockets.

「A wagon!?… Surely you have a carriage to spare?」

Outraged and shocked, the king spreads his arms brows heavily furrowed.

「Not for someone of your stature…」

With his mouth aslant, Straf replies over his shoulder before Cycelia can. She slowly lowers her raised finger.

「…Anyway, don't worry about his transport, Lia. I have some unfinished business in his kingdom, so I'll take him on my way back there… But tomorrow. I'm waiting for a letter right now.」

Straf shrugs, turning his attention back to Cycelia in front of him, standing right beside her.

「A letter? From who?」

She tilts her chestnut head, blinking her emerald eyes up at him.

「Some subordinates. It's just a report on stuff, nothing interesting…」

He replies, shrugging his shoulders again, this time with a little grimace and a brief tilt to his head.

「…I'll be in my office if you need me. But first… Don't you think it's the time to give the empire rebranding a serious consideration?」

Straf asks with a smirk on his face.

「Eh?」

Cycelia's head perks up in surprise, and she quickly glances at the fat king standing before the throne below.

「I mean, a sovereign ruler ruling over two kings…」

Straf spreads his arms as his smirk becomes more and more smug by the minute.

「One. I am sovereign.」

King Parnatau chimes in, glaring at Straf.

「Tsk… Shut up about the little details or you're walking back! She tells you what to do, so she rules you!…」

Straf clicks his tongue and barks back, likewise glaring back at him.

「…Anyway, sleep on it. Give it some thought. Let me know if we're an empire or not when I'm back.」

Shrugging his hands, Straf says to Cycelia, then descends down the steps. He places his hands back in his pockets, and glares at the fat man as he walks past him to the exit.

「Ah!… Warriors, please take the king to a maid, so that she can arrange a room for him!… Treat him as a noble guest!」

She points her dainty hand to the king while looking at the armored men standing around him.

「Yes, your highness. It will be our pleasure.」

One of the soldiers nods, bowing. He then gestures his helmet-covered head to the door while glaring at the fat man, and they escort him out. Cycelia lets out a long sigh of relief.

「Ahhhhh… That could have ended badly…」

Krrkrkk…

She mumbles under her breath, and absentmindedly lowers her hands to her lap. Paper rustles.

「Hm? Ah…」

Her chestnut head perks up, her gaze drifts down, and only then does she remember that she dropped a map into it.

「…This thing.」

Cycelia says quietly, furrowing her brows as she picks it up and gives it another look. Her emerald eyes glance at Telas Kingdom, virtually indistinguishable from Redwing Kindom if not for the text marking it as such, due to the lack of visible border on the map and a similar color. She looks at Parnatau Kingdom, noting the lack of border at the Parnatau Gap again.

「Heh… Hehe…」

A smirk appears on her face as she begins to stifle a chuckle. It very quickly begins to slip out faster and faster, when she lowers the map a little and takes a good look at the entire region.

「…Hahah… Hahahaha… Hahahah!…」

Cycelia's chuckle transforms into outright laughter when she looks at the two vassal kingdoms, and finds their colors nearly impossible to tell apart.

「…Ahahahaha!… Hahahaha!…」

Seemingly growing self-aware of her laughing fit, she covers her gleeful mouth, palm towards the throne room, still laughing.

「…Haha!… Ha!…」

The plumed guards exchange concerned looks, then turn their gazes to Cycelia, who is still cackling upon the throne, staring at the map with an unusual gleam in her emerald eyes…

…

Late in the evening, in Straf's office…

Knock knock…

「Enter!…」

With his arms behind his head, Straf calls out towards the door, dangerously reclining in his chair with his boots on his desk.

「…Minister? It seems we have received a letter for you. It's labelled as… Fanmail?」

A maid sticks her frilled head into the room, and looks at Straf slovenly seated in his office. She holds an envelope up, showing it to him, before quickly reading the text upon it.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

「Yup, that's for me alright… Hand it here, I know what it's about.」

Straf stretches his hand out towards her, and wiggles his fingers. She enters, and gives his waiting hand the envelope, bowing her head.

「Then… Excuse me.」

She bows again, and backs away out of the office.

After a quick grimace directed at the envelope in his hand, Straf drops his boots to the ground.

Thud.

The chair's front legs slam onto the ground, and he rips the envelope open, unfolding the contents within…

…

[AFTER-ACTION REPORT]

Operation Dungeon Master's Fury

3E14, 18th of Nive

Commander,

As instructed, we began with civilian reconnaissance. Well within the allotted timeframe, both teams quickly identified the enemy strong points, as well as their weaknesses. Captain Bear deemed the reconnaissance value exhausted, and suggested a return. The suggestion was followed, and the team returned within the kingdom's borders. Approximately an hour before the Zero Hour, we located, approached, and retrieved the equipment cache from the location. All documentation was, of course, previously destroyed.

Within minutes of the Zero Hour, Team Bear dismounted and proceeded towards the phase one objective. They encountered setbacks, but were ultimately in place on time. Team Wolf proceeded to phase one objective by autowagons, which were then hidden away in a forest by the objective. With plenty of operational time to spare, another reconnaissance was tasked, lead by Sergeant Bull. Sergeant Bull noted the enemy forces in the state of a pseudo-siege around a friendly fortress, but also saw a supply caravan leave unmolested by the enemy.

The ballista was assembled at the phase one objective, upon spotting the enemy forces pass by the objective, and into the kingdom. Team Wolf then proceeded with the task of observation of the road, and assessing the enemy stance towards our forces. Captain Bear remarked that the onager was assembled at his team's objective「with only minutes of delay」and was directed towards the apparent field of battle, which was unfolding.

Upon hearing the sounds of the battle, Sergeant Bull was tasked with verifying the enemy stance and confirming that a battle is in fact taking place. On his return, Team Wolf readied to wither down military targets incoming or outgoing. We spotted retreating enemy infantry, and an order to attack was given. At approximately 13 hours into the operation, Team Wolf reports heavy enemy losses, estimate numbering in the lower hundreds, but no larger than three hundred.

After firing the onager towards the enemy, a black dragon emerged from a hitherto unnoticed cavern in the mountain face. It appeared to be intent on killing Team Bear, but then abruptly took flight. Captain Bear reports that his team managed to strike the enemy on the battlefield once, but is unable to estimate the enemy losses due to the dragon distraction. The dragon ultimately landed back on the mountain, considerable distance away from the team. Captain Bear gave the order to cease bombardment for the time being.

After receiving a signal from Team Bear, Team Wolf proceeded to phase two of the operation. The ballista was disassembled and packed back onto the autowagons, and the team proceeded to relieve the now-besieged friendly fortress, as suggested by Captain Bear's signalman.

Before proceeding to the besieged fortress, Team Wolf decided to strike a target of opportunity, which was the enemy field encampment upon a hill. Team Wolf utilized the speed and silence of the autowagons to deliver infiltration element, with the intent of spoilage of enemy supplies, as well as elimination of vital enemy assets. Captain Wolf and Sergeant Bull had the same idea to locate and eliminate the enemy commander, and proceeded to encounter each other just in front of his tent.

The enemy commander was no less than a general. Captain Wolf and the Sergeant quickly and silently eliminated the enemy commander, but a previously slain sentry revealed the infiltration. The enemy supplies were set on fire, which caused a panic in the camp, and allowed the team to safely extract back to previously agreed-upon points into autowagons. The team then proceeded onward to relieve the fortress.

Team Wolf used the supplied signal torches, which combined with Team Bear's idea of using a load of smaller rocks, proved fatal to the enemy. Team Wolf reports low enemy casualties, but estimates an immense blow to morale. The enemy retreated in droves, apparently abandoning the siege camp's supplies.

Captain Wolf ordered his team's signalman to give a cease attack signal, which Team Bear acknowledged. Team Wolf reports high confidence of no friendly casualties, despite the close proximity of the onager bombardment. Team Wolf then proceeded inward into the enemy kingdom, and used signal torches once again upon the first target enemy fortress encountered. Team Wolf then continued onward, while Team Bear intermittently struck each fortress within range.

With combined onager bombardment and the use of demolition IEDs, we report complete destruction of no less than 15 fortresses, 3 outposts, and severe damage to the first fortress encountered, before the commander gave Team Bear the order to cease, and proceed onward. Team Bear abandoned the onager at the phase one objective, and proceeded to move to phase three. As planned, Team Wolf stole a collection of horses from a destroyed enemy camp.

Both teams proceeded to regroup point one, and falsely hitched the horses to the autowagons. With the team posing as merchants and the enemy unaware of the kingdom's advance, the team was allowed into the city, and concealed the autowagons in an alleyway, before preparing for completing the phase three objective. Upon noting that the gates were lowered and the garrison was panicked, the team slipped in with ease into the portcullis room, encountering only minimal resistance. We report elimination of 8 garrison guards in the process.

The team then raised, and promptly jammed the portcullis, leaving the gates open for the kingdom's forces. Captain Wolf declared the beginning of the final phase of the operation. The team quickly evacuated the gate area to avoid encirclement, but the garrison fled towards the palace before that could happen. The team returned to the autowagons, and proceeded to the palace walls. Due to his prowess, Sergeant Goat volunteered to scale the wall and lower the rope for the rest.

The team then scaled the wall via the rope, retrieved it, and upon agreeing to a top-bottom split team search for the target, proceeded to the objective. Team Wolf made their entry by the main door, which was left unguarded due to the garrison being distracted by the kingdom's forces, while Team Bear made their entry through a window on the top floor. Team Wolf reports that they have accidentally mistaken a room for empty, and made entry into the maids' room. Captain Wolf decided their elimination unnecessary at this stage.

Upon meeting at the central floor, the team encountered the royal family, albeit without the target present. Sergeant Fox was tasked with guarding them, while the rest of the team continued their search through the last remaining rooms. The final room appeared to belong to the target, but was seemingly empty. Disappointed, the team was set to leave, but Sergeant Bull aptly noticed that the team had neglected to search under the bed. The target was, indeed, hiding underneath the bed.

Upon retrieving the target, Captain Wolf then ordered a retreat, but the team was interrupted by an interloper of an unknown origin. A woman armed with a magic dagger injured Captain Wolf, then after a brief battle, Captain Bear as well, though Captain Bear's injury was superficial. The dagger allowed the woman to duplicate it, and reappear at the duplicate's location at will. The effort to contain her movement proved to be exceedingly difficult.

A call was made to send the target fleeing for the door, as the team believed at the time for the woman to be an assassin, and after the target. Captain Bear and Sergeant Bull nearly had cornered the mage woman, but without the team noticing, she threw a dagger outside through a window before she was cornered, which allowed her to intercept the target. The team made a great effort to get to the target first, but it was folly. Captain Bear caught her at the moment of taking the target hostage, and the team encircled her.

After a brief negotiation, the woman then revealed, that she intends to deliver the target「to the invaders' commander」which the team took as an opportunity to delegate the task to her. Captain Wolf suggests that the woman may have been an element of the disgruntled population, hostile to the target, or their sympathizer. The woman threw the dagger over the palace wall, and escaped. The team used a demolition IED to make way in the wall, and escaped towards the autowagons.

Upon reaching them, the team had realized one of the autowagons was stolen, presumably by the woman. It is unknown at the time how she knew how to operate them. Captain Bear suggests luck, while Captain Wolf suggests that it may have been through magic means. The team then left the city with remaining autowagons by creating another hole in its walls, and observed the city gate for the lost autowagon. Upon seeing that it was recovered by our forces, as well as spotting the target in the friendly wagons, Captain Wolf declared Operation Dungeon Master's Fury to be successful, and ordered a full retreat into the kingdom. The way back was uneventful, and the remaining autowagons were stashed at the nearest operational fortress.

Captain Wolf remarks that the team faced significant difficulty when opposed by a mage. The captain suggests procuring countermeasures at high priority. Captain Bear notes, that the team's loss of the autowagon could have perhaps been prevented by first retrieving the keys, and keeping them on the team members at all times. Captain Wolf disagrees, however, citing the possibility of a permanent autowagon loss by the chance of a team member's death in action.

Final operation summary:

KIA: None

WIA: 2, one being light injuries

Material losses: 27 of 30 demolition IEDs expended, 1 hammer lost, nearly all pitons expended, 1 autowagon lost and recovered by friendly forces, all signal torches expended…

…

「Heh… She gave them magephobia without even being a mage.」

Straf grins, lowering the sheet of paper with an amused grin on his face. He throws it up, sending it floating to the ceiling.

Fssh.

A tiny orb forms in front of Straf, and a needle-thin ray hits the floating paper, setting it on fire. It burns, gently floating downwards.

Fwwsh!…

Without a warning, a small blur appears in front of Straf, then shoots forward towards the paper. It fans the flames and knocks the paper back up, before it can descend to the floor.

With a bored look on his face and his cheek on his fist, Straf watches the paper crumble out of the air into black ashes…

…

At the same time, late at night, beyond the Eastern Ranges…

Falcon and Willow are sitting, kneeling at a low table. The young swordsman is staring down at the table with his curved sword sheathed, and lying down on the woven mat beside him. Willow is stroking his short beard, thinking, while absentmindedly staring at the steaming green tea in a gripless mug in front of him.

「…Two dead, and the rest of the fifty unaccounted for… We can safely presume they all met the same fate…」

Willow remarks, and lets out a long sigh. Falcon simply returns a weak nod in silence with a serious, and visibly frustrated expression on his face.

「…This wasn't my idea, but I approved of it. This is my failure, as much as it is anybody else's. It appears we have greatly underestimated the threat, and that's after all the caution applied.」

The old mage adds, and takes his mug into his wrinkly hands with a somber expression, slurping a small sip.

「It's my fault, Willow… I should have seen them coming. Somehow.」

Falcon says with his brows furrowed in anger, balling his hands up into fists on his thighs. Willow shakes his head, lowering his mug back down.

「…No, Falcon. I know full well what you're capable of. You're clueless at magic, but you're second to none as far as swinging a sword around is concerned.」

He swallows, then replies, looking the young man in his angry eyes with his calm, tired ones.

「And what good is that if the demons slaughter our people behind my back? I didn't even see one.」

Falcon asks, spreading his hands in exasperation, and turns his gaze away.

「Hm… With your blessing, you see far too many things, Falcon… But have you ever stopped to think about whether you should?」

The old man nods, briefly looking down at the table. He then turns his weary eyes to the swordsman, grimacing slightly as he asks.

「What?」

Crossing his arms, Falcon turns his eyes back to him.

「That's not normal, you know?… You're expecting something above normal out of yourself. Maybe it's better not? You know… In a way, I envy you…」

Willow remarks, shrugging his shoulders as he looks up at a stylish painting of a flower in all-black, long brush strokes.

「How so? You're a mage, and one of the greatest, if not the greatest in the world… What's so worth of envy in a man who can't even do his job right?」

Falcon asks, shrugging his armored shoulders with eyes narrowed in confusion.

「Well… You're only expected to see a few seconds into the future. I envy the simplicity of your tasks. It'd be refreshing to brutishly cleave a demon open with a sword without much thought…」

Willow shrugs as well, lightly smirking as he speaks, causing Falcon to narrow his eyes further.

「…But being a mage, I'm not expected to see just a glimpse of the future, Falcon. I have to predict days, weeks, months, years… Centuries into the future. It's not exactly easy…」

He continues, lifting the mug of tea up to his chin.

「…And this time, I was simply wrong. People died. That's not easy, Falcon. From my point of view, it's me who can't do my job right. You just didn't get to do yours.」

The old mage adds, and shrugs his robed shoulders again with a somber look on his face. He blows a little onto his tea, and takes a sip.

「Pft…」

Falcon scoffs, shaking his head as he turns his gaze away. Willow lowers the mug down to the table.

「…You may scoff, but I know you, Falcon. There's a good reason why the demon lord wants to poach you. I'm sure if the demons were to face you, they'd regret it.」

The old man gulps, and replies, smiling a little through his wrinkles.

「…What happened to the woman? How is she doing?」

Falcon asks, and his eyes return to Willow, who lets out a long, troubled sigh.

「…She gave birth not long after you brought her here. Physically, she's fine, just some scratches.」

He replies with a greatly discomforted face.

「You don't look like she's fine.」

「Mh…」

Falcon remarks, and Willow nods, grimacing heavily.

「…And the child?」

The swordsman asks, inquisitively furrowing his brows.

「…Demonic origin, of course.」

Willow replies, staring at the mug's contents.

「What?」

Falcon's eyes widen, and his head perks up.

「What did you expect, Falcon? A woman somehow surviving all that slaughter all on her own, and her story ending happily? Don't be naive. You know what fiends are like…」

Willow asks, then lightly shakes his head and takes another sip.

「…Now the question remains, what to do with the child?」

He adds, setting the mug down.

「And what are they saying?」

Falcon asks with furrowed brows.

「…Everyone is leaning towards killing it, of course. It's a demonic abomination. Even the mother doesn't want it.」

Willow replies, causing Falcon to wince and look aside with his teeth clenched.

「It is what it is, Falcon. That's why people like you are so important. You can't save and protect everyone, but things would have been much worse without you. Don't be too hard on yourself.」

The old mage adds, and stands up, then heads for the sliding door of paper while Falcon grits his teeth…