Volume 6 Chapter 4 Part 3
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Translator: Kell
If the enemy was focused not on killing me, but on reducing my mana, I was going to give up on retaking the royal palace and concentrate my efforts only on rescuing the king. However, it’s unlikely that would happen, and I was fighting to make sure they couldn’t do that.
If an opponent who could use powerful magic fought only using weaker spells, many would realize that they were cautious of running out of mana. But who would think that a person firing large-scale spells in rapid succession was actually scared of exhausting all their mana? No one, normally.
If there was a plan that would grant the enemy a higher chance of winning, a plan to kill me directly, they would choose that.
Even before I came here, my strategy, to get the enemy to overestimate my magic and avoid a head-on collision, had already begun.
“It’s a trap! There’s adhesive magic on the floor!”
“Damn… Sticky Bomb, huh? Use the men in front of you as a foothold! Even monsters can’t cast magic on our backs!”
“Yes, sir! Go on! Step on me!”
I can’t even tell who’s the real villain around here. Sacrificing oneself to let your comrades go ahead and pave the way to victory. If this was some sort of a novel, this move would grant them victory, but unfortunately this ain’t no fairy tale.
Make the right preparations and win accordingly. That’s all we need right now.
“Fire Bomb. Flame Circle.”
Nothing but ordinary, offensive magic spells. But they’re enough to put an end to enemies who had received burns and their numbers reduced. The men who were fearlessly trying to make their way to me fell one by one.
“Number 14, down!”
“Number 17… down…”
Even as they fell, they reported their status to their fellow soldiers. In a situation where visibility is poor and there is no time to look at other allies, it might be natural to report this way. But I must say, practically reporting your own death so calmly sounds awfully creepy.
“Fire Arrow”.
I fired a spell at the last one of the enemies who could still fight—the man who was giving orders near the entrance of the hall. It’s absolutely unavoidable at this distance, now that he had limited mobility, the area around him consumed by Flame Circle. Whether he knew that or not, I didn’t know. The man, however, didn’t try to dodge my spell. Instead he shouted behind him, down into the hall.
“Target number of casualties reached! Code 6! Execute Plan B!”
The pain of being burned alive should be unbearable, yet the man didn’t scream in agony. He just gave his final orders while seemingly unresponsive to the flames.
Perhaps I was wrong in thinking they were highly trained soldiers. They were brainwashed, or something similar. It’s not a strange thing to do for an empire that’s working with the Garden of Despair. In any case, I don’t want soldiers like them for sure.
“Plan B, got it!” a voice came from inside the hall.
Steam Explosion is almost off cooldown. Maybe it’s time to end it all before they do something ridiculous.
As for the strategy that the enemy can use in this situation, hostage-taking comes to mind first. In that case, using powerful spells might hit the hostage as well. Then again, the king said only enemies were left inside the palace. Maybe it’s safe to blow them all up then.
I tried to move to a position where I can crush the enemies in the entire hall with a single blow of Steam Explosion, when I heard a voice coming from inside.
“We have the king’s sister! We wish to negotiate!”
“I knew it.”
Apparently I was right. The king did say that there were only enemies left in the royal palace, but there’s a chance that he’s not completely right. We’re not sure if he’s been informed about a hostage. Another possibility is he knew about the hostage, which means he basically said to kill them as well.
If I were to stand down for the sake of the hostages and fail to retake the royal palace or rescue the king, the situation would worsen significantly. In that case, it would be better for the king to just wipe them all regardless of who was being held hostage. If someone worth saving was being held hostage, the king would have informed me.
As for me, I could just use Steam Explosion, but it’s not like I have to do it right now. I can just cast it the moment the enemy makes suspicious movements.
I suppose I can just ask them what they want.
“Sachylis, if the enemy makes suspicious moves, tell me right away,” I said. “When the hostage comes out, please do what we discussed prior.”
“Got it.”
We had already considered the possibility of the enemy taking hostages, and we already came up with the appropriate strategy for it. In fact, there was a chance that the king himself was held hostage, but thanks to his fast thinking, we didn’t have to use it back then.
I set up a barrier at the entrance of the hall. This will prevent the enemy from launching any surprise attacks on us.
“Before we enter negotiations, let me just say one thing,” I said. “If you damage the barrier, we will consider it a hostile act. Same goes if someone tries to escape. In short, don’t do anything funny.”
There was a brief silence before an agreement came from the enemy.
It wasn’t just empty threats, of course. The moment someone acts strangely, I’m going to annihilate everyone in the room including the hostage.
“Then let’s hear what you want,” I said. “Bring out your negotiator and the princess.”
“You could take the hostage back by force. We want to send only our representative.”
“No can do. We can talk inside the hall if you want. How can we enter negotiations if we don’t even see the hostage?”
There was no response. Apparently, they were discussing what to do. After about thirty seconds, I spoke.
“Then I’m going to call off the negotiations. Steam…”
“O-Okay, okay!” said a panicked voice. “We’re sending them out now.”
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