"Aw~yaw~..."
I yawn as my body is brought to consciousness. In front of me is a small boy with brown hair and red eyes wearing a pair of large glasses. He furrows his brow as I rub my eyes with my hands. I'm in my room in the Nuam Keep, its curtains are closed so it’s pretty dim, it's nice and cozy.
"Oh. She's come to, Alisson."
Behind him stands my master, staring worriedly at me.
"Thank you, Len."
"Hmph. You'd better not do that again, I'm not an expert in healing magic. Also, don't hit your apprentice so hard that she's goes into cardiopulmonary arrest, that'd help."
Alisson gives a stare at Len. Len shrugs.
"We'll, I'll leave you two be, both of you don't talk too much; and I'm supposed to be the introverted guy."
Len says as he adjusts his glasses and shuts the door behind him. Awa...what happened again? Oh right. This is awkward. We both stare at each other for what feels like a full minute.
Alisson sighs and sits down on my bed. Wow. He's actually voluntarily getting close to me. And wow, he's not wearing his usual cloak and armor, either. He's wearing dark long sleeve shirt with an orangey accent and black shorts with black stockings. Who wears stocking with shorts? And what kind of guy wears stockings? He's also still got that little orange hairclip on his right most bang. Seriously, how much estrogen does my master have. Oh, right, what am I wearing, they didn't strip me did they?
...Nope. They didn't. In fact, I don't think they even touched me; they just let me down on my bed, armor and all. Jeez.
"C-Celistine...I'm...I'm..."
Jeez. I open my mouth.
...
Ah! What do I say? What do I say?
"It's okay...Mas-...Alisson..."
She says while sitting upright.
That's the first time she's said my name...let alone even spoken informally to me. Now that I think about it, she doesn't talk much. I really don't know how I'm able to talk to her when I myself don't normally speak; I guess that's because I normally don't expect a response, like I'm talking to a wall or myself.
Alisson shakes his head.
"No. I must apologize, not only for your injury, but excessiveness of the past week..."
Celistine's eyes lit up with recognition, or perhaps hope. Alisson looked away with a shrug and closed eyes.
"My last two apprentices, both threw up their arms in resignation on the first day; I'm surprised to say the least that I was never able to make you quit. The easiest way to find someone's nature, and subsequently forge them, is to first break them down. But you...were scared to even show an ounce of any struggle."
Alisson scratched his head with a smile.
"I was exactly like you at the academy you know, never wanting to show weakness, not being the most sociable...I definitely wasn't as physically strong as you though, I guess the academy trains you a lot more for physical endurance huh?"
Celistine's mouth curved into a frown, though a new air of looseness was emanated from her, not like that odd aura she's been giving off over the time Alisson has known her.
Hah...that was really hard to muster up the confidence to talk like that...I guess I still can't talk so openly...
Celistine swallowed nervously
"I, um...-"
Suddenly, his body felt icy cold and shiver ran through it. It then felt as though a blue, icy fluid was poured into his head. It was so soothing, so-
Field Marshal Alisson Vi Nuam of the 51st Storm Brigade; You are to report to me at once with your apprentice.
Alisson flinched with shock as words echoed through his head, as if refracting off of his other thoughts.
"Huh? What's wrong Alisson?"
"It's, it's Sidonia, we're to meet with her at once."
Celistine flinched.
"I don't know what it's about, but I'd prefer it if you stay and rest, I'll go."
Celistine shook her head and started up off the bed.
"I'm f-fine master, really-"
After a brief moment of hesitation, Alisson shook his head and held out a hand in front of her face.
"No, you're not going anywhere, consider that an order, apprentice. I want you to rest."
She reluctantly sat back down.
That's the first time she's acted on her own volition, hopefully that means she's more comfortable around me. She never even once tried to say a single word in protest, not even during that last week. I don't wanna spend my whole apprenticeship with Celistine on a formal acquaintance level, that'd be way to draining; Yet I'm just too shy to close the gap any which way!
As he stood, Alisson gave Celistine a glance. He accidently let a small smile through. He turned and walked out of the room, closing the door to the dark room behind him.
...
"I'm glad you could come on such short notice, Alisson."
Alisson stood from his kneel.
"Please, any Nekomata would halt any action to abide by your word, my lady."
"I suppose so..."
Sidonia put a hand to her mouth with a smile. Alisson sat down on one of the smooth, pure white chairs that paired well with the similar table of pure white and thin design.
Come to think of it, I was really scared about the consequences of losing my last battle, but nothing happened to me, I even received an apprentice.
"If you're wondering why there hasn't been more reprimands regarding the most recent defeat, from what I understand you did the best you could from the situation you were in. And instead if fighting to the bitter end, you gave the order to retreat, a decision that saved two thirds of the army from obliteration including a company from your Storm Brigade."
Alisson let out a sigh of relief. He'd thought that it'd come and bite him later, but thankfully Sidonia had addressed his concerns without him needing to be a prude.
"Anyway, we've been tracking a whole host of human activity within our territory;"
That's never a good sign, our borders are perhaps the best defended of any land, it must be enemy saboteurs then.
"It's as you might expect; these humans appear to be saboteurs or spies from Andestine. We've long known about many of them, we've just been waiting to see if they'll do anything. The time has finally come for that, it seems as though their trying to get some sort item outside of our territory by passing on the item from hand to hand. Of course, every time they do this, we simply have the shadowing Sidonians kill the one without the object in order to more easily ensure these human ties in our land are cut. This has been happening for the past couple weeks or so, and thanks to our intervention, they're making miserable progress. The item and most recent carrier have halted their little relay at Qutrya, we expect them to be waiting for more powerful humans to escort them the last leg, or, the item has already reached its destination in Qutrya. I understand you've been meaning to take your apprentice out and shadow her on a simple task yes? Well, I'm giving you permission to do so; go to Qutrya and keep an eye out for anything; retrieve whatever this item is if you can, if not, kill whatever humans are related to it."
Alisson nodded.
"Then I assume we won't be getting any other support for this?"
Sidonia thought for a quick second.
"Well, Qutrya is on our border with the Caliphate, it's not a Sidonian town but there's a lot of our influence and infiltrators there, watching our border. If we are to believe that Andestine is meddling in our territory, then we can assume they've silenced the humans allied to us in one way or another to hide themselves. But no, you won't be getting any other assets unless a Sidonian infiltrator were to meet up with you. We're stretched too thin in the manpower department thanks to the 1st and the 2nd armies heading for the Far East. And I want your remaining Storm Brigade company to rest and be on standby, just in case I need them."
Manpower is always a problem in Sidonia. We've had to make up for it with high quality individuals.
Alisson nodded again.
"Then I'll make preparations for immediate departure, my lady."
Sidonia nodded.
...
Ooo! ~ I'm actually go to ride on a mage rail! He-he! So cool! When Alisson came back, he said that we'd been ordered to go to Qutrya and snoop around for something. My first official order from Sidonia, phew, I hope I can steel myself and pull out a success. We're right now waiting at the mage rail station outside the Capital. I'm right now staring in awe at the multi-car contraption suspended on white eerily green glowing beams. Finely crafted wooded carriages rested within the station; and a long beam shot out over the forest, stretching on for seemingly ever.
"Hmph. You'll have to get used to what humans make, their architecture is quiet depressing; no time seems to be ever taken on it except for the big cities, you won't see anything even a quarter of this mage rail for most of human towns."
Right. I'm gonna have to toughen up to the crappiness of the human territories, I'm pretty sure monsters and beasts run wild were civilization isn't. I don't know how they live like that, just huddling up in towns and villages all over the continent; it's much better to be like Sidonia, we simply cordoned off the top of peninsula with many dedicated patrols and forts, so nothing gets past into our land. Hence why we can bulid something like this magic rail line without fear of it being destroyed. Of course, some monster breaches from underground inevitably surface, but they're promptly put down, with extreme prejudice.
Me and Alisson step on to one of the rail cars, they're about as big as regular horse drawn carriages. The car bobs weirdly around in reaction to steps, since it's hanging. Thank god I normally don't get any motion sickness. An orderly steps in with us to escort us, and to make sure the car doesn't fail somehow. He closes the door. As we sit down the, mana starts flowing into the rails and the car starts moving along. It slowly picks up speed until we're soaring across the land suspended from the low-to-the ground rail. It won't be long till we get to Eldera now, then it's just a horse ride over to Qutrya. I wonder if me and Alisson will have to share a horse...I'm not exactly confident in my equestrian skills.
...
I stretched with a yawn as I step down out of the carriage, raising my staff above my head. Mr. Kalinfrye stepped down off the carriage with a thud on the sand ridden broken coble road.
"This town is not a pretty sight, yes?"
He grumbled while shielding his eyes from the light of midday. In front of us lay a barren, practically dying town. I have a sneaking suspicion that Sidonian interference is what caused this once humble and promising town to descend down to the depth of grave poverty. They were quite the 'Humans pure! Sub-humans bad!' sort of town after all. The struggling bazar in front of us clearly shows what they had to pay for having this mentality on the doorsteps of Sidonian Empire, perhaps the strongest non-human nation.
"Come on Mr. Kalinfrye,"
I raise my staff in a little gesture at him.
"The Sidonians probably got here before us; we need to find and save those Andestinians before the Sidonians slit their throats and take the summoning tablets."
Mr. Kalinfrye nodded, though he raised a finger in protest.
"It's Clarke. I told you, I don't want to be treated as some old fogey."
"Sure thing gramps."
I smirk back at him. As soon as we started walking through the town made up of sandstone buildings and colorful tents, I got a weird feeling. Something is here. I don't know where, but something incredibly dangerous is very nearby. It could be the tablets! Or a Sidonian...My heart dropped at the pretense of the possibility of one those things watching us.
...
"Alright, we're in enemy territory now, keep your wits about you and don't do anything dumb. I'll be around, try to find whatever Andestine is trying to smuggle out of our territory."
Alisson said in a hushed voice as we both hopped off our shared horse. That was actually a pretty soothing ride here from Eldera, having a presence behind me making sure I don't fall...
I nod back at Alisson in affirmation. He gives me a nod back and takes a step away. Then he-he-!? He's gone!? How'd he do that!? He just turned into a black void for a second and then vanished. What the hell. Yeah, I'm not gonna ask, I feel like it's one of those 'Since you know my secret you have to die now' kinda things. Calming down from my shock of my master disappearing before my eyes, I take a look around. What greets me is an extremely unfamiliar environment: A human one. They call us the sub-humans- Their town looks like dump! It looks like actual monster sub-humans would use this as a nest, but nope, a bunch of people are milling about, tilling soil and selling produce, the usual in the time of the afternoon.
Jeez. I briefly give my stilettos resting on the back of my hip a pat through my cloak. Affirming that I am indeed armed I sigh and start walking toward the towns main street. Where would I even start looking for some smugglers...Oh? That means 'GIN' in large Firrdu writing on that building if my language skills aren't failing me. This place has a saloon. It's pretty run down but, I'll try asking around there. If anything, it looks to be the only building stable enough to be a smugglers den. I stop outside of the bars doors as people and carts pass by behind me.
Do I really have to go in there and talk with strangers, probably old drunkards since they're in a bar in the afternoon?
Yeah. I have to...orders are orders...I feel like something bad is going to happen but...oh well.
I place my gloved hand on the shiny, yet creaky doorknob and push inward as I walk in. My eyes adjust to the extremely dim interior, an alcoholic and dusty smell assaults my nose. An audible whoosh of air and silence is heard as people halt their conversations and crane their necks toward me. Right...this probably looks really out of place, me, a supposed human child in a bar...I hope nobody comes and tells me I have to leave. I don't think humans really have child drinking laws though. Even if they did, I don't think this craphole of a town has any law enforcement to speak of. As everyone slowly and awkwardly returns back to conversing over drinks, I let out a sigh of relief.
Now, who to talk to...
You know, there aren't as many old drunkards as I thought there'd be, there's a lot of middle-aged men and women, even a few old juveniles. I guess since their situation is so crappy it's better to just hole up in here. I spot the largest, most drunk person I can see and trot over to them.
If you're under the influence, it's a lot easier for people to get what they want from you.
I briefly whip up a sentence, then spend a second translating in my head.
"Mister? Have there been any weird people from Andestine here?"
I try to sound as child-like and innocent as possible. If he suspects I'm older than I look, it'll probably raise a few flags pretty fast, even if he's drunk. The old, tanned man with a black beard and bald skull raised his head quizzically at me for a second. His expression immediately turned from serious to care-free as he glanced at my face.
Bastard! Filth stealing a glance of me, a Nekomata!
Whoops. Inner Nekomata, thankfully my instinct didn't change my facial expression, or it would have broken my façade.
"Ah-ha! Ha-ha...Mucharest akin, qran idiun erut." He laughs then speaks some Firrdu in a drunk lazy old tone.
I think he said: (Very funny little girl, there has been what you’re looking for.)
"Where?" I tilt my head, asking where in Firrdu.
He takes a swig of his golden, fizzed up glass, then looks at me with a smile showing white, perfectly arranged teeth. Odd.
"Soyden curso ea, restinujar sudi." My brow furrows as I translate as fast as I can.
(If you're so curious, look behind.)
He pointed his thumb backwards with another smile. He must think it's pretty funny for a child to be asking such a random thing in the middle of a bar, but oh well. I'm gonna assume by behind, he meant the building itself with that little thumb flick he did point back. The trouble of the language barrier, literal translations are impossible. I quickly say thank you and childly trot out of the bar.
I gasp for fresh air as the bar door closes behind me. I could barely breath in there, I'm not gonna purposely inhale toxic, human substances if I don't have to.
But wow, that worked out really well, now I have somewhere to look. Hopefully he wasn't just lying or setting me up or something; that'd be bad.
...
I spent a lot of my mana on that little disappearing act, even though it's only a mix between the Vanish and Teleport spells, it tends to throw off noobies.
Alisson sighed. Standing from his perch on one of the buildings in Qutrya, he expertly hid himself from view behind an extruding chimney. On one side of the building was his apprentice, approaching a door of in the back courtyard of the saloon; and on the other, two mages looking as though they were from Andestine were closing in on her. If things continued the way they were going, he'd have to interfere.
I don't think Celistine can even stand a chance against those Andestinian mages.
Behind the saloon was a single guard, an oddly out of place set of blue eyes and blonde hair: A racial Andestinian. He wore a plain white tunic and brown trousers. Although he appeared to just be a middle-class resident, Alisson could keenly make out the distinctive jingle of chainmail under his clothes. At his hip rested a thin scabbard. They were most likely related to the reason they were here, that mystery item. He was impressed how Celistine, despite her forward tepidness, managed to just ask for a lead, and then got it.
I guess it'd be a bit embarrassing if the top student were to be too shy to talk to humans.
Not that Alisson blamed Celistine, in fact he was just as inwardly timid as she was to humans; he just had more experience pretending.
Celistine paused in front of the angry looking man standing in front of the back door to the saloon. He yapped something at her with the wave of a hand, apparently suspecting her for only a peasant child. Alisson couldn't make out the whole sentence from the drone of the town, but he was clearly telling her off.
Cloaks really are useful. She and I are both wearing extremely expensive sets of protection, yet we're paid no mind to.
Upon seeing Celistine's refusal to leave, the man tensed up and shakily drew a thin sword, shouting louder at her to leave.
From this, it's obvious this is the right place, he's getting nervous because the thing standing in front of him might not be human.
The fact that the man instantly thought of the chance of a Sidonian was not only a testament to his experience, but to terror imprinted on the human society from the Sidonian infiltrators.
Celistine physically recoiled, obviously not looking for a fight. The man eased up, clearly relieved that Celistine wasn't going to challenge him.
"Mister? What --- y-- hiding -- --ere?"
Alisson could barely piece together what she'd said. Though it was simple enough to fill in the blanks-she was pushing for the item they we're sent to get.
The man’s relief evaporated as he lifted his left hand and shouted the incantation for an Andestine neutral element spell.
Alisson tensed, should he protect his apprentice? Or have faith that she can at least deal with one spell?
Before he could decide the spell had already been fired. Celistine deftly dived to the side, her training kicking in.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I still think sidestepping an attack is a much easier way of evasion, it get you closer and keeps you relatively stable; you just need to have confidence that you won't be hit. I should pound sidestepping into Celistines head next time we bout.
She got to her feet and lunged with two freshly drawn stilettos. The man stumbles back but is still glanced by one of the blades, and a cut opened in his shoulder. Ignoring the wound, the Andestinian quickly slashes back at Celistine. Instead of retreating, Celistine drops a knee and her height falls as the man’s sword passes over her. She strikes at his flank, completely exposed from him missing. However, Celistine's attack glances off. It seems that chainmail did its job. As Alisson was watching however, two figures clad in white turned the corner.
"Stop!" A female shouted in Andestinian.
An old guy with graying brown hair and a little magician with dull purplish long hair and silver eyes. These must be elite Andestinian mages. I only have enough mana for a single barrier spell...I'll have to make do.
Celistine backed away nervously, perhaps sensing the power gap in between her and the two mages.
"That might be a Sidonian," The senior said to his companion. "Let's not take any chances yes?" The girl with dull hair nodded and raised her staff.
Alisson sighed, then jumped.
...
"Obice!"
A boy in a pure white cloak with yellow hair was now standing in front of the little girl I just shot at, holding his hand out to where a blue film of magic had extruded and protected them from my spell.
"There's no doubt now, that spell was the Sidonian barrier spell."
Clarke whispered as he tensed up and clutched his staff tighter.
"Maybe we can reason with them."
I whisper back to him, then straighten my body and try to look as confident as I can. If I could speak Sidonian, I would, but they've done an extremely good job at not letting outsiders know their language. However, it's practically guaranteed that the at least one of the two Sidonians in front of us, speak Andestinian.
"Stand down. We out number you."
I say simply so they can understand. After a brief moment passes with no change in their posture, I lift my staff for another spell. Upon seeing this, the boy says something quickly to the girl next to him and she nods and backs away a good distance.
"Alright, it's three against one, let's end this as quick as possible."
Clarke says to both me and the agent next to us. Clarke raises his staff as well, apparently wanting to fire off a spell with me at the same time, the agent tenses his posture and takes a defensive position in front of us; he's not adept in magic like us, so instead he's simply guarding us since he's the only one with a melee weapon.
"Eiar'duun."
Both me and Clarke say simultaneously. From our staffs appear spears of orange, and after forming for a second, they fly's straight toward the boy.
He's either going to react with more magic of his own or evade.
Opting for the ladder, the boy sidesteps forward around the spears in a simple and magnificent display of evasion, he was clearly confident in his ability. The spears hit the side of a building and stuck into them with a thunderous clang, though after a brief moment they disappeared. The boy drew what looked to be a simple and skeletal rapier from the innards of his cloak and started running toward us.
"I'll stop his movement; you prime up a wide area spell."
Clarke orders to me. Even though technically we're the same rank in the Andestinian hierarchy, I'm not gonna be stingy in the middle of a clash. I nod to him and point my staff horizontally at the opponent closing in on us.
"Megakaszt."
Clarke spoke and a curved green film appears a meter in front of the rushing boy. Grasping whiffs of green thorn-like stems sprouted from the ground and attempted to hold the boy’s ankles. As I prepared to let lose my spell...he raised his rapier and thrusted at the barrier, the magic holds at his feet broke from his momentum. With his momentum, the barrier shattered like glass and he ran through it, straight toward the agent acting as our vanguard. The boy revved up another strike toward our fellow Andestinian. The agent lifted his sword and expertly parried the blade. The boy seemed shocked for a moment, but what he did next shocked me even more.
He let go of his rapier.
He spun and stabbed the agent cleanly through the neck with a knife he'd withdrawn from somewhere on his body. Blood splattered on my face and I yelped as our fellow Andestinian fell toward the ground.
...a deep rage filled in my body. Perhaps it was nationalistic, after seeing a fellow member of my ethnicity die, or maybe it was anger that he'd so easily broken through an extremely powerful restraining spell.
...Whatever it was, I regardless pointed my staff at the non-combatant little girl in the back against a wall. I wasn't able to use my spell against him because he broke through Clarkes restraining spell and was now too close to be used without risk of me and Clarke being caught in the blast. My staff glowed an eerie light blue aura and hummed with anticipation. Just as my mouth opened and the first syllable of the incantation came out of my mouth however...
"Rey-!"
An extreme force slams into my staff and it changes direction, toward the sky.
"-sarke!?"
...Unable to stop the incantation mid-way, the spell is fired off in a massive blue beam toward the sky. I turn my head to what just interfered with my revenge. The Sidonian boy stood in a hunched over posture with his left hand awkwardly pushing my staff away and his right hand pointed squarely at my neck with his rapier. I'm not sure how he got his rapier back into his hands so quickly but I'm not in good spot to theorize.
The boys hand revs back for a thrust...
"Reysar."
Suddenly interrupting his action however, a brilliant flash of white blinds me and something akin to an explosion is heard. I can just barely make out what happens in front of me. A white sphere comes shooting from Clarkes direction, straight into the Sidonian's exposed kidney. Clarke's spell detonates upon impact. A place between the boys’ hips and kidneys no longer existed. The boy stumbled backward clutching the gaping hole in his side with a pained expression. It was a surprise he could even stand, with that massive wound in his flank. Blood poured from his wound, down his side and covering his hand. The Sidonian started to slowly stumble back.
"Now's our chance!"
Clarke says in an exacerbated tone. As I was wondering what he meant by that, he rose his staff straight toward that little girl I tried to shoot at before. Getting the idea, I do the same. The Sidonian boy’s expression breaks into shock, he takes a large jump backwards and firmly plants himself in our line of sight of the little girl. Crap, there's no way we can break through his barrier spell if he's prepared. Though, just as I think this might divulge into a staring contest, the little girl behind him says something in a rushed and quiet voice. The boy bit his lip in an expression of resignation, and he sighed.
The both of them, slowly back away.
As they disappear behind some buildings, Clarke let out a sigh.
"It's a good thing he was protecting that little girl, or we wouldn’t have lived."
He shook his head with shrug.
"I don't think he was that powerful."
Clarke shook his head again.
"That wasn't any ordinary Sidonian, that was probably one of those Nekomata bastards, and a high ranking one at that."
I furrow my brow. Come to think of it, if he hadn't needed to protect someone else, he wouldn't have been in such an exposed place to have suffered such a large wound. Judging from how he only backed up after he took Clarkes spell...it seemed like he was planning to keep on fighting with that massive hole in him of we didn't make a show of threating the girl.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
"Now, let's get those tablets or the death of our comrade will have been in vain."
Clarke says, hesitantly looking away from our fallen ally. I nod my head. We open the door the agent was guarding to reveal a small, musty table and a weak candle within a small room. On top of the table rested a grey bag with protruding rectangular objects disforming it.
Clarke steps forward and hoists the bags over his shoulder with one hand.
"Now let's get the hell out of here before they come back, they must not know the identity of this bag from their reluctance to give chase, let's keep it that way."
...
I slowly drop Alisson on the side of a wall, and I dropped down next to him. I just had him on my shoulders for the past couple minutes. We're now at the very outskirts of the town, nobody should be here. Alisson looked at me dully. He's probably wondering 'What now?'.
This is just like that time-with brother. But this time,
...it's different.
I raise my hand.
"Heal: 2nd tier."
As I say the incantation, Alisson's eyes light up in shock. Yeah. I probably should have told him that the only real magic I'm good for is healing. I know some offensive magic, but's it's only weak stuff; nothing fancy.
"You should've told me you knew healing magic...and the second tier at such a young age..." Alisson coughed out. Yeah. I only told him that the instructors at the academy saw great potential in me becoming a magician thanks to my high mana and aptitude. Nothing specific.
"Anyway, thank you." I nod to him as I keep my hands above his wound. Over the course of a few minutes the blue aura and monotone hum radiating from my hands seals the tear in his flank, however his armor is still ripped up where the spell hit. Really though, he shouldn't be thanking me...I'm the reason he was hurt...just like with brother.
"I'm sorry for...for..."
Ah! Stupid! Stupid! Am I really so socially inept I can't even apologize!?
"No. It's my job to protect you know. This is our first clash; I know you'll get better and be able to fend for yourself in no time."
Alisson flashed a closed eye-closed mouth smile at me. Uwa... don't smile like that! You're gonna make me feel really bad for literally sitting off to the side lines!
Alisson patted his now closed wound. I wonder how many times he's been wounded in his three hundred years of life, probably a lot. He coughed again. Although the spell rejuvenated any damaged flesh, muscle or organs, his body is still in shock and hasn't realized that it's back to normal yet; as all healing spells work. He won't be able feel any nerves in that area for a few hours...
"Celistine, we need to get back out there and do as much as we can. We can't just sit idle while we have standing orders from Sidonia."
He struggled to get to his feet. I helped him up.
"I don't think I can be of much help with rooftop mobility in my state..."
I looked at him confidently, or at least, as confidently as I could.
"I'll go."
Alisson nodded.
"Please do not engage, just find out what they're trying to smuggle out of our land."
I nod my head. I'm not just gonna run at them suicide style after seeing the gap between me and those mages. I turn and clamber up on a wooden crate on the side of the building. From there, I jump up and cling to the frame of a boarded-up window. I pull myself up, then scramble onto the roof of the building. Once I'm on top the sandstone building, I jump, roll, and hop across and over buildings of similar status, heading for the place we fought the mages. After one last, large jump, I'm on a building overlooking the door where that guy was standing. The door is opened, and I can see and empty room, with only a table and a knocked over lantern. They must've nabbed that mystery item then.
But they seriously just left their ally's corpse where it fell? I guess they're far from their own territory, but...As a Sidonian, I wouldn't leave a single corpse of a comrade for the enemy to descend upon.
I stand tall and scan the area, looking for any trace of the mages. After a second, I see them, they're on the other side of the town, appearing to prepare to board a carriage. I need to move.
More jumping, rolling and diving across buildings, and I'm starting to realize that the training at the academy is really paying off, they put me through much harder obstacles than this. Within a few moments, I'm right above them, trying to creep as quietly as I can. I peer over the edge and stare.
"That went a lot better than expected yes?"
The old man said in Andestinian, placing a disfigured bag into the carriage. Crap. I'm not gonna be able to make it out. I'll do my best to remember the shape of it.
"Shush. Let's go, they'll be waiting for us at Foksly with that ship to the homeland."
Oh? Huh. I'll remember that too.
...
Creak. Creak. Creaaaaaaak.
After about 4 days of constant travel, we boarded a ship. We were ferried by the same ship on the way over but, I haven't gotten used to it by any means. The rocking is pretty annoying, but it's manageable. The creaking and rolling of the waves are actually pretty rhythmic if I ignore it.
But undoubtedly, the worst part, is the smell. Any ship, no matter if they're a merchant or military one, will be unsanitary and smelly. Sailors at sea don't smell great. In military ships though, where the only way to engage another ship is boarding, it comes down to how many marines you can stuff into a ship. Me and Clarke were lucky to get a four-person room with the first mate and quartermaster of the ship.
"So," Clarke asked, "What do you think about the heroes we're going to summon?" I look up from my book a bit annoyed. He didn't think to bring anything to read to occupy his time, so he's just been asking me a bunch of random questions like a little kid. We're both sitting across from each other in this cramped room on the stacked beds. We're also lucky we even have beds.
"I hope it works." I say scornfully and look down to my book.
"No, I mean about their personality." Clarke continues.
I hadn't actually thought about that prior to his question. I was really only hoping I'd be qualified for being the summoner. By being a 'summoner', we don't actually summon the hero, but their presence is maintained by a flow of mana; that flow needs to be constantly sated from someone, so, summoners are responsible for giving their mana to the heroes so that they may remain. My worry is that I won't have the passive mana regeneration needed for a hero to stay corporeal. That, or their demand cancels out my regeneration, meaning I won't ever be able to use magic until I'll have gotten stronger. The council seems to think the two of us are ready, but I think they're severely rushing how many hero-summoner pairs they can get on the field. It's really the only ace up the Andestinian military's sleeve: Seemingly un-killable fighters.
I know the logistics behind heroes but, I guess I've always glossed over that they're still people, human beings. The council keeps a firm lid on any and all information regarding their summoning process and origin. We can only theorize that it's some complicated magic ritual that the council doesn't want any other nations to have control of.
"I don't know." I say and continue reading my book. That's not a lie; I really don't know.
"I hope I get a guy hero; it'd be awkward otherwise." Please. An old man being 'awkward' with one of the opposite sex?
"...Mm..." I give an uninterested hum in response. Clarke looks down and massages his temples.
"Will you care at all that the hero won't know that you’re a noble?" I look up again, a fair bit more annoyed, because I didn't think of that either. I don't wanna say that in my mind everyone knew my lineage...but...I guess I didn't think reasonably.
"I'll make them know I'm a noble. Hmph!"
"...You certainly are a forward-thinking person yes?"
Did he just call me stupid? I'm gonna take that as him calling me stupid. Commoners sure love indirect disrespect.
...
"So, in conclusion; you were beaten, and let them run from our territory?"
A shudder passed through Alisson. Next to him was his apprentice, also kneeling, but it didn't reassure him when the one speaking to him was Sidonia. Sidonia stood with her hands on her hips, and Alisson swore that her last sentence had nothing but the tone of scorn. A wave of shame passed over him.
"But...I suppose it was to be expected. You were undermanned for what you needed to do, I'm sorry for sending only you, Alisson."
Alisson's mind quickly shot toward Celistine, who'd also been with him. However, after thinking it over, what Sidonia had said was correct:
Newbie apprentices were considered as simple extensions of a trainer. Nothing more than deadweight that needed to be protected. It was up to the person training them to make them useful. However, Sidonia had sent out Alisson before he was able to really make something of Celistine.
She'll be of use; she is brimming with potential. Perhaps Sidonia wants to quickly get Celistine up to speed by having her tag along with my usual errands. It's good experience too.
"So, unless you have anything else to report, you are dismissed."
Alisson eyed Celistine. She'd told him she saw what the bag that carried the items had looked like.
"Ara~? Have anything to saaay, Lady Regadonia?"
Sidonia said in a syrupy voice as her gaze set on Celistine. Celistine's body jumped in shock and she shakily raised her head.
She can barely speak to me. It amazing that she can talk to Sidonia.
"T-The bag that they had...i-it looked like there were two rectangular objects inside it..."
Her voice was soft and shaky.
"Oh?" Sidonia raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. So you said there were two mages?"
Alisson nodded. Sidonia's mouth curved into a devilish smile.
"Then we can assume those items are summoning tablets for Heroes; and those mages were the summoners."
A shock ran through Alisson.
So then my hunch was right. Damit! I could've killed them and stopped Andestine from gaining more heroes!
Simple bloodlust filled Alisson. If he'd gone all out, then he had more than enough power to kill both of those humans.
Just as quickly as it did curve into a smile, Sidonia's face turned to concern as she tilted her head motherly.
"Please, do not beat yourself up about it, it was my honest mistake." She rose her hands in a shrug and slowly shook her head. Alisson nodded, but didn't feel any better off.
"Anyway," She continued, "I forgot to tell you, but another one of your brigade's companies returned while you were away, it was Alieri's I believe."
A wave of relief flooded over Alisson, another one of his companies-his family- was alive. That in itself wasn't cause for celebration however, they might've suffered heavy losses for all Alisson knew. The logical part of Alisson's brain both spoiled his joy and shook him back into reality.
"Um...I..."
Alisson looked over at Celistine, struggling to speak.
"If you have something to say, do not mumble or stutter it in the presence of Sidonia." Alisson turned his head back away. As he did however, he realized his mistake. Celistine's body jumped.
Crap. That was on impulse, so I said that with no regard to Celistine on a personal level...
"The mages also said that they were going to Foksly." After a moment of hesitation, she continued, "...they said a ship would pick them up there..."
Sidonia brought a hand to her chin and her face scrunched in thought.
"Foksly...of course..."
Her eyes shot up as she realized she was speaking out loud and lightly whisked her hands towards him and Celistine, signaling for them to leave.
...
"So, how'd your errand go?" A guy to me and Alisson’s left, Daventdale, asked while he paced alongside us with his hands on the back of his neck. He's a lot...er...manlier...than Alisson. He's got massively broad shoulders and is about three inches taller than Alisson. He wore about the same thing as Alisson, only his cloak matched his hair color. He of course had the trademark of the Sabathi family, lightish steely blue hair and bright green eyes. He really makes me realize how androgynous Alisson is. I guarantee you, if Alisson grew his hair any longer, he could be mistaken for a girl. His hair is already pretty long, it goes down to his neck in the back and to his nose in the front if he didn't part it.
"Typical, I suppose." Alisson replied. We're all taking a walk through Rolaign over to the Brigade's barracks that Alisson commands. Alisson was in the lead with me and Daventdale, his apparent second in command, to his flanks. He apparently wants to check up on his team and introduce me, since we'll probably work together sometime in the future.
"So, it wasn't any trouble?"
"You could say that."
Alisson's way too nice, just say I'm deadweight! Although, I guess that's what 'typical' is for a fresh graduate...
Alisson stopped in front of an iron door with '51st ' inscribed in it. We passed another door awhile back with '50th ' on it. Alisson told me that units with the designations of 50 to 59 were the elite of Sidonian military. They reported directly to Sidonia-Hence why their barracks were in the Rolaign- and they were all said to be seasoned veterans. They weren't units that somebody could start their career in; the members were either handpicked by their commanders or transferred in by Sidonia. Because they were directly under Sidonia, there was an iron rule that no Houses could exert any sort of influence or control over them; such as seen in the 1st to 6th armies, where command positions were split between allied houses for organizational delegation.
Alisson opened the door for me and Daventdale. There weren't any locks in the Capital or any Sidonian city; A Sidonian who wasn't where they were supposed to be wasn't a Sidonian.
"Officers on deck!" One of the members of the brigade rose with a salute out of her chair. The rest of the brigade followed suit in a synchronized motion; it almost scared me how quick they were to drop everything and rise to a salute.
The barracks wasn't anything like I thought it'd be. There was a massive table with strewn out papers and maps in the middle of the room, on left and right were metal tables, shelves and lockers where bows, shields, swords, maces, arrows, and pieces of armor were laid out, sparkling with perfection. At the back of the room were a few openings to hallways which I assume lead to bunks and whatever else this brigade has. Some of the brigade members were standing from interrupted card games, paperwork or the polishing of equipment. They were all really unique in their looks, both the equipment and the members themselves that is. It just shows that this unit is made up of an extremely diverse set of noble families.
"At ease." Alisson said as he closed the door behind him and walked up to the table in the middle of the room.
"Gather 'round, 51st." Alisson said with a smile as he scanned the room. The brigade members complied and surrounded the large table; There were about 30 of them, but they only thinly covered the tables circumference. There were a few other Nekomata, they were evidently younger and looked much more timid and green, like me, that didn't bunch up around the table. I quickly shuffle over to Alisson.
"Unfortunately, it seems Harshel company is still out there, let's pray they make it back," He scanned the room with another small smirk and continued, "I'm happy to see Alieri and Daventdale companies return completely manned."
Fully manned?! Several questions pop up in my mind. How did they return from a losing battle with zero casualties? Sidonian armies either crush the enemy or-god help us-are crushed by the enemy. I don't wanna brag, but I can count the number of times that's happened on one hand; but with human armies...I might need a textbook... From what I've heard though, the 6th is still mostly intact. Of course, they have lost a third of their manpower, but that's still a 20,000 strong force- nothing to scoff at. But going back to 'fully manned', does that mean this is it? This is what Alisson commands? It's not more than fifty Nekomata! How are they so revered with so little manpower?
"Hmph." Alisson glanced at the younger, much more nervous and meeker Nekomata off to the side of the barracks. "I'm glad to see Sidonia wasn't kidding about beefing up our numbers, how many apprentices did we receive in all?" He looked at the Nekomata who had risen first and announced 'Officers on deck'; She was only a little taller than Alisson, with long, black hair and...and...she has two different color eyes...one purple and the other was white, like it had a cataract.
"We have been delegated 16, I have taken the liberty of dividing them across our two companies and letting the promising trainers pick out their apprentices."
She spoke in an elegant and refined voice; like Sidonia's but with no devilish or childish hints, this is somebody I can get behind. No wonder these apprentices look so much more diligent than I do, they're Storm Brigade Intiates! Young Nekomata that have shown a huge amount of sucess in their early career but haven't been picked like me right from the get-go.
"I hope my action is not infringing on your will, Field Marshal." Alieri says while bowing her head. That's right, I keep on forgetting that my not imposing at all master is a Field Marshal.
"Please," Alisson waved his hand with a smile, "You're just acting within the authority I've given you; I'd be disappointed if you didn't do anything, Alieri." He's right; command is a responsibility, not a privilege.
"Now, would you be willing to tell me the story of how your company got back?" Alisson asked, his eyebrow raised. Alieri nodded and inhaled preparing to project her voice.
"We heard the order to retreat before we'd made contact with the army, so pulling back shouldn't have been an issue but, we ran into a Caliphate recon-in-force operation of about 300 hundred soldiers just outside of Sidonian territory. So, I took it upon myself to engage them. We ran a few days of hit and runs and whittled them down to about 100, then we engaged in a head to head battle and obliterated them on the fourth day." She says in a strong voice whilst bowing her head.
...Three hundred. Defeated by a company of 16!? What!?
Half of the brigade members present around the table showed a prideful smile as they picked up on the gawking of the others in the room. They were probably all the members of Alieri company.
"Magnificent, Alieri." Alisson said in a hushed but plainly proud tone. "Crowd control is one of our flaws, but you made up for it with hit and run tactics, very nice indeed. Great job thinking for yourself, Alieri."
Alisson rose his hand and patted the top of Alieri's head a couple times. Her face turned a little red, but she didn't do much other else than scrunch up a little. Does that mean Alisson regularly rewards his brigade with head-pats...?
...I can see why they’re so loyal to him.
"Ahem." Alisson cleared his throat, "Going back to the topic of apprentices..." He shuffled away, exposing me to the brigade members since I was hiding behind him like a scared cat. There was a moment of silence of me timidly staring at everyone staring at me.
"Ugauh-!?"
Something grabs my belly from behind and nuzzles my shoulder, other than it scaring the crap out of me, it also hurts a little since whoever is grabbing is doing so really tightly. On my back I feel two large bulges.
...Those aren't what I think they are, are they?
"Oh~! Aren't you just the cutest widdle thing!" A soprano voice behind me says in what I can only interpret as a deprecating manner. I struggle furiously, but I don't even budge out of her grip. Am I really that weak?
"Easy there Claus, you're going to break her!" Daventdale says. Yeah, thanks for the help! I'm still being suffocated!
"Aw, fragile...and small." The girl behind me let's go of me and I turn while backing away with a red-flushed face.
Fragile. That comes with being one of the shortest here.
By small, she didn't mean my height, did she...
The one who grabbed on to me is about double my height, with long blonde hair and green eyes. Her face looked refined and motherly, but her demeaner is nothing but a devious child.
As I continue backing up, I accidently bump into Alisson, who's looking quite quizzical.
"Hmph. This is Celistine Regadonia. She'll will be my apprentice heading forward. I hope you all treat her as you would me. That includes intruding upon personal space."
"Look there Claus, you scared the poor apprentice to death, she's shaking in fear." Alieri says, frowning at me.
"You’re not the best with kids either Alieri so stop complaining~!"
Claus replies, shrugging. Kid. She just called me a kid.
"Silence. I'll have no quarrelling in the presence of all these young ones." Alisson said, for once actually sounding stern and command-like. Claus jumps, probably because Alisson doesn't get serious often, and salutes.
"Y-yes my lord!"
Alisson sighs.
"For the time being," Alisson inhales "We are to be on the highest of vigilance. An official declaration of war has come in from the Jedathari Caliphate just hours ago. Enemies now completely surround us. Andestine is likely to join the them in the coming future." Alisson looks down, "I expect all of you to train and steel yourselves, for yet another long round of the human game called war is starting."
The brigade members around him nod sternly.
...
In front of my room within the Nuam Keep, in the middle of the hall, Alisson and I just about to part ways to head off for bed.
"I hope the brigade didn't cause you too much distress, Celistine. You looked pretty scared and embarrassed..."
Alisson said, looking a little a guilty. He really overexaggerates small things. But, so do I, because I really was scared to death when I was embraced from behind!
What if that Claus lady is into girls...?
...the thought makes my body go hot when I think of her big-Stupid! Stupid!
"No. I'm a-alright Alisson. I was just a little startled was all..."
Aha! I'm actually conversing with someone! My master, Alisson, at that! How come it's so much easier to speak now?
"Mmm...well...-! Never mind." He shook his head. What could he possibly want to say to me? But, without saying a single word, Alisson places his hand on my head. My body jumps. He starts kneading his hand through my hair. Uwa! He's patting my head! He's doing it with a little embarrassed smile! This is pure bliss! His hands are so soft and warm! Within only a second, my body is burning hot and my face is red.
I don't think I've ever been like this more than I have in this past week.
"Mm... Even though it's been eight days since I met you...I feel a... kinship with you...If, you ever need help, just ask me...okay?"
Another minute goes by in silence, him just running his hand through my hair. I'm really burning up over here. But, as though something clicked in Alisson's head, his face turned to surprise and he recoiled with a massive blush. Aw...no more head pat...
"Ah! I'm-! I'm really sorry! I don't know what came over me, I-!" Alisson's really cute when he's embarrassed. I walk toward the nervously apologizing Alisson and hug him. It's a bit awkward, since I'm so much shorter than him, but his apologies stop instantly and his face goes blank, dumbfounded.
"It's okay, Alisson."
***