Chapter 265
Side Story – Memories of a Certain Princess (40)
#52 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Certain Mage
“Aren’t we going to die?”
“That may or may not be the case.”
The Squad Captain didn’t show any emotion in response to the question.
He was just carrying out orders as a member of the military.
“Wouldn’t it be better to move together as an entire division to keep them in check?”
Even within the military, those who can use magic power are extremely valuable personnel.
Even if they aren’t Sword Masters or Archmages, Knights, Mages, Warlocks, and Summoners were still excellent elite forces.
That’s why even though it was called a division, the Mage Division had smaller numbers than even a battalion of regular soldiers.
And yet they were dividing that Mage Division into groups of just 4-5 people to operate them.
It was absolutely crazy, but,
“That may be the case.”
The Squad Captain just kept moving forward as if it were nothing.
“Then wouldn’t it be best to voice your opinion?”
“We are soldiers. When orders come down, our role is to carry them out.”
“But the orders didn’t come from Her Highness, they came from Ast.”
“And it was approved by the Commander.”
“But still….”
“We should have spoken up before being deployed. It’s too late now. Since we’ve received orders, we have to carry them out.”
“Understood.”
With the Squad Captain saying that much, there was no need to say anything more. We just had to take action to carry out orders.
“We’ll soon arrive at the enemy supply line. Consider everything on that supply line to be attack targets and prepare yourselves.”
“Understood.”
The 5 squad members responded to the Squad Captain’s words.
Our mission was simple. To attack the enemy supply line.
Our rules of engagement were also simple.
First, we would attack enemy supply goods, but we didn’t necessarily have to inflict damage.
Second, accuracy wasn’t important so we would focus on long-range attacks.
Finally, if bombardment from enemy mages started or enemy mages pursued us, we would unconditionally retreat.
In other words, don’t fight, just pretend to attack.
“I wonder how effective it will be.”
I nodded in agreement to another squad member’s words.
Severing the enemy supply line would surely be a good attack, but if we were just pretending….
If the goal wasn’t to force the enemy to allocate more personnel to defend their supply lines, reducing the number of troops on the front lines, then it would end up being a useless endeavor.
“Ast is a man even the Commander praises highly. It’s probably best to keep trying until he judges it a failure.”
However, the Squad Captain was adamant.
He even admonished us to conserve our magic power and minimize talking.
It wasn’t bad advice.
This was enemy territory. And since we were operating at high altitudes, we had to use magic just to have a conversation.
It didn’t use a particularly large amount of magic power, but we definitely needed to conserve everything we could.
Maintaining our silence, we arrived at the enemy supply line and very slowly moved while confirming the movements of the enemy from above.
“3 o’clock direction. Large scale movement confirmed.”
There was only one reason mages moved at high altitudes.
To prevent their location from being identified by enemy mages or magic tools by staying above magical detection range.
Conversely, it also meant that mages couldn’t use magic to identify enemy locations either.
In other words, the method we used to spot the enemy was very primitive.
“I can’t see anything though?”
“Use your telescope, idiot.”
Rather than magic, we used pure tools.
Telescopes originally developed for celestial observation had been miniaturized as much as possible for issue to individual mages.
However,
“It’s still hard to see clearly.”
“Look for lights.”
Because they had to be shrunk down while keeping costs reasonable, you could just barely make out human-like shapes if you looked closely enough.
“Is that it over there?”
“It’s not an animal, right?”
“Squad Captain, can you confirm?”
The higher the rank, the better the performance of the telescopes issued.
Of course there wasn’t a huge difference between a basic mage’s gear and a Squad Captain’s, but his was undoubtedly slightly better than ours.
“The number looks to be around a hundred. I don’t see any mages.”
With that, Squad Captain took a magic recovery potion out of his pocket and gulped it down.
“Ugh…. I can never get used to the taste of these potions. Can’t they add some alcohol to improve the flavor?”
“You want to drink on duty?”
“I said the taste. It tastes so bad.”
“We can make it taste better, but then the cost rises.”
“Damn cost.”
“Our salaries come from that cost so deal with it.”
One bottle, two bottles, three bottles. He diligently drank the magic recovery potions provided.
Two bottles immediately replenished magic, while the third increased the rate of magic recovery.
With this, the magic used flying here had been completely restored, guaranteeing we could safely retreat after attacking the enemy.
“Prepare to attack!”
Following the Squad Captain’s order, we took out small wands.
They may have been small wands, but they had tremendous firepower specialized for long-range magic.
According to the supply officer, they cost more than our lives so make sure to return the wands even if we died. That showed just how expensive these wands were.
“What magic will we use?”
“If this was an assassination mission I’d use wind magic, but given our task is to cause chaos, we’ll go with explosive magic.”
“Understood.”
I gathered magic in my wand and prepared an explosive spell.
The further away the target, the more magic used for these kinds of long distance spells and the weaker the effect.
To minimize wasted magic, spells were typically compressed to facilitate transmission, but this time was different.
“Make it as big as you can!”
“Yes sir!”
Compression wasn’t possible for these explosive spells.
Using spells like that for long range sniping?
Unless it was the joint magic of groups of mages, it would deteriorate into fireworks.
An approach we would never normally use.
Yet that was what Ast, who held authority over us, desired.
“Fire!”
Following Squad Captain’s order, 5 red flashes shot forth, glimmering.
“Just looking, this is prettier.”
The distance was too great to hear the explosions, but the flames blazing in the distance were clearly visible.
“Burning nicely.”
“How much damage did we inflict?”
“Hmm…. It’s hard to see clearly, but it looks like there are no casualties.”
“Supplies?”
“Some wagons caught fire but it seems to have been quickly extinguished. Doesn’t look like there was any effect.”
“Is that so?”
After confirming the enemy’s status through the telescope, we swiftly began returning to our base.
There was no pursuit.
That alone provided intelligence that the enemy had no mages present.
Ten days passed like that.
“It’s meaningless.”
No, it was harmful.
No matter how cheap the magic recovery potions we drank, we attacked the enemy at least once a day.
Which meant drinking at least 3 bottles of the cheapest magic recovery potion every day.
The ingredients needed to brew magic recovery potions were items not even the Empire could dismiss as cheap.
Even if greatly diluted to make the lowest grade magic recovery potion, if hundreds of people drank 3 bottles every day the costs incurred would be astronomical.
“Would it not be more beneficial to share potions with the mages on the frontlines?”
If we give them top-quality potions for that money, they could use large-scale magic at least three times more.
“What on earth is Sir Ast thinking to be executing such a strategy?”
The silent Captain raised his head to look at me.
“Do you really think it’s meaningless?”
“Yes.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t get promoted.”
“Huh?”
I was perplexed by the Captain’s sudden words.
“W-what does that have to do with anything!”
I just failed my promotion exam last time, and now I have to hear this!
“That’s too much, Captain!”
Although I was angry, the Captain didn’t answer and just smiled faintly.
Seeing that smile sent a chill down my spine.
The Captain rarely smiled, not just within the military but also when enjoying his private life outside.
Yet now he was laughing like this!
“Sir Ast… What an amusing guy.”
Moreover, even the commander rarely compliment anyone, yet he was praising this Ast character whom he just met.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean exactly what I said, he’s an amusing guy.”
“Why….”
“Think about it. If you’re going to live and die as an average soldier, that’s one thing, but if you want to become someone greater, you need to be able to see more broadly.”
“I see….”
I thought about the Captain’s words for a moment, but nothing came to mind.
Seeing me like that, the Captain sighed briefly before making an ominous prediction that I would fail the next exam as well.
“How were the enemies today?”
“They looked very angry.”
“Yes. Some mages chased our formation and got shot down.”
“That’s true.”
The captain watched me silently for a moment before sighing again.
“To be so dense.”
You’re guaranteed to fail the next exam 100%.
After making such an ominous remark, the captain explained why he said that.
“Mosquitos are annoying in the summer, no?”
“Yes.”
Mosquitos, the unwanted guests of summer. They’re so tiny yet make such loud buzzing noises.
They’re hard to see so you want to ignore them, but before you know it, they’ve sucked your blood and made your body itchy. They were insects that are hard to ignore.
“If a mosquito bites you once, it’ll itch.”
“That’s true.”
“But you won’t die. They say mosquitoes can carry disease, but in that case you die from the disease, not the mosquito itself, right?”
“That’s right.”
“You won’t die from one mosquito sucking your blood. At most it’ll just itch. Same if ten mosquitos bite you.”
“Yes.”
Whether one or ten mosquitoes bite me, it’s just annoying and itchy, nothing more.
“Even if a hundred mosquitos bite you, no human has died from lack of blood due to mosquitoes.”
“That’s true.”
As I nodded, the captain smiled that bizarre smile again and said,
“The Merdeah Kingdom is in that state right now.”
“Huh?”
“We’re the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes sucking the enemy’s blood. Noisily flying around, annoying them, that’s what we’re doing.”
“What does that….”
“Even after explaining this much, you still don’t get it? There’s no way you’ll become a captain this year or next year.”
It was as if he could see my future.
“You have the ability but lack judgment.”
“Captain!”
As I yelled loudly, a colleague who had just finished showering glanced over as if asking what was going on.
“He’s stupid.”
“Ah, was that it?”
The passing colleague made me feel strange, acting as if it were no big deal.
What the…? That matter-of-fact reaction?
“When you first went out on duty, you said it yourself. Wouldn’t it be better if the whole division moved together?”
“That’s true.”
“What was your reason? To attack decisively and put together a powerful strike, that was your opinion, right? But Sir Ast?”
“Splitting and splitting again….”
He split a squadron in half, giving the captain five and vice-captain five to command separately.
“Could it be….”
“That’s right.”
The captain looked at me as if asking if I finally understood, but I couldn’t answer him.
“Are you saying the enemy is still continuously being bitten by mosquitos?”
“Yes. And not in just one spot either. When they go to swat their head where a mosquito bites, it bites their leg, and when they go to swat their leg, it bites their back.”
While making our presence clearly felt here and there, we weren’t able to inflict actual damage.
“Then what happens?”
Naturally,
“They’ll get annoyed.”
“And when they get annoyed?”
“They’ll come charging out.”
“And when they come charging out?”
That’s very simple.
“We can catch and eat them.”
“Right. Now we just have to get ready to catch them.”
And as expected, the enemy forces concentrated their strength in one location.
In order not to be bitten by mosquitos, not allowing a single mosquito to come in, they began gathering densely.
When that happened, Ast, who held our command authority for the first time, showed himself before us.
“You’ve worked hard up till now. Preparations are complete, so shall we properly bombard them?”
Ast, summoning the mages and explaining his plan to them.
Seeing Ast like that, a passage from a novel I read long ago came to mind.
<And so the cruel demon laughed contentedly after holding his gruesome festival.>
Ast, laughing a smile perfectly matching that passage, carried out the empire’s first artillery bombardment on the heart of the Merdeah Kingdom.
