Kuro no Maou

Returning to Sparda was a day that had just shifted to the moon of darkness, the last month of the year.

Good thing Mary the Immortal Horse (Nightmare) can keep running on her insomnia break, I ran between Asbel Sparda with all my strength and complete disease. In shame, the trip took twelve days to shorten the itinerary to six days and a half on the way home.

While we were dealing with Last Rose in the Asbel Mountains, it looks like a full-scale winter has arrived in Sparda. For the first time in roughly three weeks, the streets of Sparda were covered with thin snow makeup. Even today, when I arrive home, there is snow and shine in the city at night.

If the streets weren't even snowy, I could have shortened my itinerary for another day or half... well, I can't help but ketch on to that.

Anyway, this ultra-short itinerary was a possible havoc because it was me and Mary. Leaving Lily and Fiona in need of a real break... rather than two pushing my back "go to Sparda first," I was able to do it. Really, I can't get my head up for the two of you who draw my feelings everywhere.

Anyway, now it's about the ultimate problem that's finally happening.

"I read the letter sent. Still, I'd like to know more about the situation sooner… how far the Crusaders are now"

"Well, wait, calm down, Chrono, my soul ally"

Will answered with a seeping look of seriousness, albeit in his usual exaggerated tone. Me and Will are sitting opposite each other in the dorm lounge right now.

"Why don't you have a cup of tea first? I've been driving down this snowpath all night, and my body will be cold."

Beside Will, of course, the escort maid Celia refrains. I got a hot cup of tea from her. It seems to have a calming scent when I drink it.

And because of that effect, I never yelled, "What are you doing so long?"

That's right, calm down first. You believe my words, Will, which is why you must understand more about the Crusaders' sense of crisis than anyone else in Sparta.

"... sorry, Will"

I took a sip of the recommended tea and put it to words like that, it did feel like my heart was just a little rushed.

"What, never mind. This is the only thing that really calms your heart."

"No... and I had him come right out at midnight like this"

"Ha-ha, that's not what you care about."

It is also all thanks to his preparation that we are in a situation where we can meet Will and ask him what happened as soon as we get back to Sparta.

Celia was already waiting for me when I walked through the main entrance of Sparta with as much momentum as I did when I jumped out to Ischia to rescue her.

It is all unclear how he knew of my arrival and how long he had waited, but anyway, the report of my return to Will, the Lord, was to be delivered immediately by Celia. Will lives in a men's dorm for executive candidates, so he can come to my dorm as soon as he calls. Same seminary grounds, less than a five-minute walk.

Nevertheless, within less than an hour of diving through the main entrance, it is surprising that Will will be ready to explain the situation in this way. The hand that survived Ischia's caged castle is not Dade.

"Well, let's talk about the Crusaders' raid predictions first"

I nodded quietly and urged ahead.

As a matter of fact, the Crusaders are still no better off than Fort Alsace.

Or, if it wasn't more than a fantasy than I sent you this letter, it wouldn't be sooner. What, then, did you decide, with what, that the Crusaders had stomped through their invasion of Sparda?

"We started snow removal. The only route that connects Daedalus to our country, across the Galahad Mountains."

The snowy winter arrived not only in Sparda, but also in Daedalus, occupied by the Crusaders.

Geographically, they say there's more snow on the Daedalus side. It is the same principle as Japan, where there is a difference in the amount of snow between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific. The high Galahad Mountains are the walls that block the snow clouds.

"In this time of year, right around the fortress of Galahad, it's completely covered in snow, but the Crusaders are in the middle of making their way there on purpose"

What a hard thing to do.

If you ask me, they use a subspecies of Dorthos with the inherent magic of manipulating snow (extras) instead of snow trucks. Others, he said, were confirmed to have put in ice magicians who could manipulate snow directly, just like the Dortos subspecies, and flame magicians who melt snow with flames and heat. On boulders, it seems impossible for soldiers to just snow in scoops.

The Garahad Fortress is currently manned by some of the top summoners (Summoners) in Sparda, who release the bird demons (Servants) to be vigilant and defensive. The user demon (Servant) checked the snow removal directly, so there's no chance of false alarm, Will said.

"Can't we attack that snow squad right now?

"Unfortunately, that's not possible. For two reasons."

One is that the simple attacking sparda side is also closed with snow.

The other side is tearing the snow apart, and it's impossible to march without removing the snow the same way. On second thought, it was something I knew I couldn't do right away.

"The second is for diplomatic reasons. Our allies, including Avalon, can't stop Sparta from attacking Daedalus."

Sparda is one of the city states in the middle of the continent of Pandora, which I've known since I was an adventurer in the village of Iles. And by forming alliances with each other, this group of urban states has also maintained a time of peace for a long time.

Garvinal, the dragon king who once ruled Daedalus, has become what an understandable common enemy for a group of urban states, thanks to his prestigious posting of the ambitions of continental unity. The more often you have external enemies, the easier it is to come together within.

However, with the fall of Garvinal and the conquest of Daedalus territory by forces naming unidentified crusaders, there seems to be disagreement and disagreement among urban states over their response as well.

"If you ask me, I'm not a sweet enough enemy to discuss measures at length."

"Unfortunately, if we actually match the spears, we won't recognize their strength or their sense of crisis"

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,

"So you're just gonna wait for me to attack you like this"

"Hey, that's not such a bad response. He said he'd come all the way from the other side to the impenetrable fortress of Galahad."

This is an important advantage to defend against coming to the hardest part of our defense. If the enemy doesn't come, any sturdy fortress is a useless long object.

In that sense, Sparda's Galahad fortress is in the best position to defend itself. If we don't get through here, we can't break into Sparda. All we have to do is come a long way north or south around the continent or fly through the sky, but there is no route from the Daedalus side to Sparda.

"Well, sure..."

I manage to convince myself of my impatient mind. It would be a better situation than it was in Alsace, he said.

"How much longer will it take for the Crusaders to reach the fortress?

"Well, if we go at the same pace, it'll take a month. No matter how soon, it will take two weeks."

As the Crusaders attack Sparda, they will come in a large regiment that is not the same size as the occupying forces in Alsace.

As a matter of course, if the number of people moving increases, the march speed will drop only for that matter. With 10,000 or 100,000 people, it's a big business to just move around now. When we missed the evacuees, we planned to need to buy time for at least a week. That number is roughly 10,000, and the Crusaders will surely have more than this.

Besides, the situation is that the road is now closed with snow. Even though an army without children, the elderly and the sick will proceed, if such bad conditions overlap, is it still a natural consequence that it will take more than two weeks?

Or maybe he can get caught up in an avalanche already and wipe it out on his own...... no, it's most dangerous to have hopeful observations. This place should already be so minded that even tomorrow with the superpower of the new apostolate, the Crusaders' main army will arrive at the fortress.

No way, no matter how many apostles can imitate that...?

"Hey Will, what happens to the protection here (Sparda) when the siege battle begins at the fortress?

It would seem impossible to transfer from one army to another, but it is quite possible that the Apostle himself, or only a small number of people, could exercise such abilities as warp and teleport.

In other words, I am concerned about the situation in which the Eleventh Apostolic Mass appeared behind us at some point. In the first place, it is also entirely unclear to me how Mass had appeared on that occasion. There's no chance he's really teleported.

"Regardless, it would be a minimum defense... if there were enemies lurking around the city beforehand, and that could also happen if it was a war. Where some noise has occurred, there is enough readiness to suppress it easily, don't worry."

Oh, I see, you're saying that even if you're not an apostle, you're assuming a spy or a terrorist presence properly.

Whatever it is, I suppose you know more about corresponding measures in wartime than surviving as a single nation like this.

"Things like backward-looking worries and trends in peripheral states don't have to worry about it. All we need to focus on is just the enemies that loom in front of us"

In the end, I come back to that one point. Can the Spartans really defeat the Crusaders or not?

No, let them win, even if they can't. For that reason, it would be the protection (chicara) I got.

"So, Will, how am I supposed to fight?

"Don't go away, Chrono."

Apparent dialogue, but with an invincible grin on Will's face.

"We shouldn't be heading out to Fortress Galahad right now. First of all, you will need to prepare for battle."

Absolutely right. Instead of prepping, Lily and Fiona aren't even here. The three of us are the "Element Masters," if I were alone, I'd have less than a third of that fighting power.

"This is a future move in Sparta, but in the near future the Spartan government will announce a PR of wartime institutional transition, while the Adventurer Guild will announce an emergency quest"

To my mind, no information on the demise of Daedalus or the arrival of crusaders has ever been disseminated at all in Sparda.

The main cause of the information blockade will be the sudden emergence of the Crusaders, an uncontacted and unknown force. In the first place, there are no stories to tell in order to release the information.

But I can't help but conclude that I'm totally hostile anymore than I was in the act of actually sending out an army. Maybe even as a sparda I was exploring the path of peaceful negotiation to the critical point, but here we are, there is nothing better than fighting.

"By emergency quest, do you mean forcibly conscripting all the adventurers of Sparda?

"No, in the case of emergency quests for conscription purposes in times of war, compulsion falls less than normal"

That means if you pay the cancellation fee there, you can say no lightly.

Urgent quests are a system with strong aspects such as the duty of the adventurer, which basically cannot be turned down. That's why they charge a good amount of cancellation fees to say no.

But it's amateur thinking that we should be tougher than normal because it's a time of war.

"Adventurers have many people from other countries and streamers. Because the government has no right to impose military service beyond not being a citizen."

Protecting the freedom of adventurers, not so much, but in short, they can't be forced to do much because they risk being condemned by other countries if they conscript poorly. Besides, the Adventurer Alliance is not an organization that can absolutely subordinate adventurers beyond the country.

Most likely, a Spartan adventurer would normally be conscripted as a national even if he refused this urgent quest.

"Well, we're not gonna say no, that's fine."

It is easy to understand that you can enter the war simply by taking an emergency quest. Same as always. All you have to do is kill all the demons in people's skins so they can get rid of the goblins.

"Uhm, that's how the adventurer who took the emergency quest is integrated into a unit called the" Gladiator "of the Temporarily Founded Spartan Army 4th Squad, under our command."

It bears the name of gladiator (gladiator) because, during the founding of Sparda, troops centered on gladiators were braided and worked great.

Since then, professional gladiators, who still exist in large numbers as a traditional culture, have, of course, become a system for bringing together non-Knights forces, such as adventurers, as a single mercenary unit.

"Chrono also appears to belong to the Gladiator."

"... ostensibly?

"In fact, I intend to advance to my father Leonhardt to treat him as a guerrilla force allowed to act alone on the battlefield. No, if you necessarily attach a promise, let's declare it here!

Will make a hard fist grip and scream hot. I don't know what this means... thank you annoying, I guess.

"No, we're the only ones with special treatment because, uh... what about as an army, or is it okay?

"What do you care so much about, even though it's also a wacko to give command of the Spartan Knight? I'm just saying that we can make it through the battlefield without anyone bothering us."

Well, I'd have trouble getting a weird superior to engage in a meaningless operation order.

That's why sometimes, if you act too discreet, you put the whole army in crisis. Look, Will has a familiar analogy, too.

"Which way, Gladiators will be dominated by guerrilla missions. I'm not a regular knight, but I can't tie you up with steel discipline."

"In a defensive battle caged in a castle, you can't just open the gate and storm it yourself, can you?

But it's not forbidden to jump down the walls and stick them all over the enemy.

I can do that, or stop looking at the sparkling eyes you'd expect. Instead, I'm better at withstanding enemy attacks and being defensive. Even when he was shelled in Alsace, he was dragged into the blackened guild.

"Besides, there are other places where Rank 5 parties are allowed to treat you like that."

When adventurers get to the top of rank five, they get a lot of unusual, flying bastards. I guess it's more efficient for them to move freely and reduce their enemies than to expect coordination poorly from those guys.

"No, wait, we're sane enough to match the Spartan operation."

"There is? Even though you're in the mad warrior class?

"It's up to you!? I mean, my real class is Black Wizard!

"Huh? That? Didn't you name yourself the Black Nightmare Mad Warrior (Nightmare Berserker)?

"I didn't name it! Will named it himself, didn't he!?

Is that right? and will look seriously strange, driven by the urge to do even one shot of binta.

But Will has the eye that his favorite monocular (monocle) flies over and loses after being vintaged by that angelic Nell at Ischia Old Castle. I'll spare you that misfortune, and I'll forgive you here.

"Anyway, you don't have to shy away from anything. The strength of" Element Master "has already been proven, this is also a natural right as a Rank 5 Adventurer to receive"

Well, if there's no problem as an army, there's no part of me that cares. Now the thank you annoyance has become purely "thank you".

"Well, that means we need to be ready for battle before we can be called as gladiators."

Oh, what a happy thing to have time to prepare.

Speaking of greed, though I wanted time until I had achieved all the trials of protection. To the boulder, I didn't think Hannah would conveniently expect the Crusaders to wait that far.

Four of the seven and just cleared more than half, he would be superior.

"Sometimes, Chrono, if you have a secret plan for this battle..."

Lily and Fiona can't have divulged the information on the formation Reverse Cross (Anti-Cross). So... Simon?

Well, it wouldn't be a problem to talk to Will. Instead, it's this opportunity that you should know.

"Oh, then I'll let you hear it. This is an operation to kill the Apostle, no, only to kill the Seventh Apostle Saliel."

The decision to do this goes back about two months now.

Returning from Ischia, he was awarded a medal and rose to Rank 5, where Fiona, as an experimental opponent of the blessing, ordered a quest for the Rich Crusade, the day after that, it was the 10th of the month of the Pale Moon -