"What's going on!"
Ernest, who had been watching Cain and me spar, called a knight over to hear the report, and his expression quickly turned grave.
"Good work. So there's no doubt others are heading toward the royal castle as well? Then, you'll explain the situation right here in my tent. Albert, Cain, Lion—each of you, bring whoever holds a commanding position in your respective units to the central command post. Tenma, I'm counting on you too. Tida, take Luna back to the royal castle immediately! Have the guard detail prepare a carriage!"
Hearing Ernest's words, Tida immediately sprang into action. Luna seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation as well, and followed along without protest.
"The rest of you, return to your posts at once and stand by so you can move the moment orders come!"
After those follow-up orders were issued, Albert and the others relayed instructions to their respective subordinates and sent them back to their posts.
"Lina, I'm entrusting you with coordinating the adventurers. If anything comes up, don't hesitate to use my name."
"Understood."
Ernest then designated Lina as the adventurers' temporary coordinator. Perhaps it was because Lina had been paired with Jin as part of Lion's group—meaning Lion's participation only required Jin alone—or perhaps because among the Dawn Sword, the core of the adventurers, Lina was the only one of noble birth, and Ernest judged her well-suited for the role of temporary leader.
"Cain, I no longer have the patience to overlook your selfishness. If you still want to return, then... be prepared to have the Marquis family name stripped from you."
"I'm terribly sorry for the trouble I've caused. Later, I'll also apologize to Tenma—"
"No, there's no need for that with him. It seems this has fallen under my commission, so it's work-related. More importantly, you picked a fight yourself, took a counterattack, and now you're throwing a tantrum over it... Make sure to tease him about that later. That'll settle it."
When Ernest called Cain over to speak with him, I strained my ears to hear what they were saying—only to find out I'd be the one getting teased. Well, I had to admit I'd done something questionable there myself, so I couldn't really complain... Albert and Lion would probably pile on too, wouldn't they? If that actually happened, though, I'd have a few words for those two.
Once instructions to each unit were complete, everyone filed after Ernest toward the so-called central command post. Tida and Luna were heading back to the royal castle at this point and came to say goodbye to me. Luna understood it was an emergency, though she still looked somewhat displeased—until I handed over the pudding I'd been planning to have as today's snack, which immediately lifted her spirits.
After seeing Tida and Luna off and walking for a while in the direction everyone else was headed—
"Command post or not, it's really just a huge tent."
A rather massive tent came into view. Everyone was filing inside, so that must have been the command post.
Considering the costs of transportation and construction, a tent was probably the best option, but honestly, the name made it sound far more impressive than it actually was.
"Well, I get what Tenma's saying. My first impression was that it looked pretty underwhelming too."
At some point, Jin had sidled up beside me, nodding along as he said that. But... I just thought it was kinda lame...
...thought...
...that's...
...all...
...just...
...it.
Unlike Jin, I didn't say it out loud.
On top of that, when Lion heard what Jin had said, he chimed in with a "Yeah, totally~" and drifted over, so now our little corner had gotten lively—despite me trying to subtly distance myself from the two of them, they just followed along anyway—and we were drawing exasperated looks from everyone around us. Still, even those two quieted down once we reached the entrance to the command post. Well, I still thought they were slow about it, though.
"You're late! Get to your seats immediately! Time is of the essence!"
The moment all three of us stepped into the tent, Ernest's roar came flying at us.
At the sound of that voice, we scrambled to our seats (apparently each unit had roughly assigned areas, but since I had no clue where to sit, I just plopped down near Lion for now). There were still squad members who hadn't made it into the tent yet, though, so those words had clearly been meant for everyone—not just us.
"Tenma, I hate to do this, but rather than over there—could you come over here instead?"
For some reason, I was moved closer to Ernest. It might've been because I'd be in the way when he issued orders to each unit, but judging from how Ernest was acting, I had a feeling that wasn't the real reason.
"Good, everyone's here. Time is precious, so I'll get straight to the point—five days ago, the Empire broke through the front lines in the Houst border territory."
Apparently, a force of over tens of thousands was currently marching toward the Royal Capital.
"Due to their sheer numbers, the Empire's advance isn't particularly fast, by all accounts... but our estimates put their arrival at roughly ten days."
Ten days might sound like there was still some time, but considering the kingdom's defensive preparations, there wouldn't be nearly enough. However, what caught my attention even more than the time crunch was—
"Ernest, if the estimated arrival from the border territory to the Royal Capital is ten days—"
"...that's..."
"...too fast."
"..." "Isn't it?"
Albert was right — it was just too fast. If this were horseback travel, ten days would feel a touch slow, but the enemy was an army, and there was no way tens of thousands of soldiers were all moving on horseback.
"As Albert said, ten days would be impossible for a normal army. Our enemy this time... the Imperial forces are made up of monsters. Not figuratively — literally."
Ernest's words filled me with an overwhelming sense of dread. At the time, I didn't realize it myself, but I'd been clenching my fists with considerable force.
"What do you mean by that?"
At the question from the team members who hadn't quite grasped Ernest's meaning — some, like the Three Idiots and Jin, had imagined monsters on the level of Chaos, but just as many seemed to have no clue — Ernest glanced at me for just a moment, then:
"The Imperial Army... no, the forces invading from the Empire — the vast majority of them are said to be composed of zombies."
So he said. Apparently he went on to say more after that, but I lost a few seconds of memory around that point. When I came to, Jin was shaking me by the shoulder.
"Tenma, are you back to your senses?"
That was the first thing Jin said that I registered. Wondering if I'd done something, I looked around and saw that aside from Jin, only Albert, Cain, Lion, Ernest, and a handful of others remained — everyone else had retreated to near the tent entrance, or outside entirely.
"What did I do?"
"You don't remember? ...The second the word 'zombies' came up, you let off some seriously terrifying killing intent."
Now that he mentioned it, I vaguely remembered the sensation of blood rushing to my head the moment I heard "zombies," but I couldn't recall it clearly.
"Tenma, I understand how you feel, but may we continue the discussion?"
Ernest called out from behind his escort knights. The few others who had stayed behind were the knights positioned to guard Ernest — four of them — plus Garat and Menace. Quite the scene: only acquaintances and Ernest's personal guard had remained. Well, there was one more person I knew still in the tent... who had made a thorough evacuation. My
Familiars
carried her
away...
"You lot, get back to your seats already! If you panic over something like this, you won't be able to protect anyone!"
When Ernest told the evacuated squad members to take their seats, most of them returned while carefully avoiding looking in my direction. On the way, Lion, who had been standing near me, was about to head back to his seat when—
"Still, with that kind of killing intent, you can't really blame anyone for running, can you?"
He said this to Albert and Cain, but they ignored Lion and went back to their seats. Presumably to avoid responding and getting an earful from Ernest.
"First, let me say this—this will likely become the front line, but none of you will be standing on it. The only time you'll fight is if the enemy breaches the Royal Capital, or if we've been pushed to the brink of that happening. Bearing that in mind—Tenma, what can we do right now?"
Many of the squad members who had returned to their seats shot glances that clearly read, "Why are you asking him?" But Ernest explained, "He's the only person here who's fought a horde of Zombies, and I want to know if there's anything we can learn from that experience," which put everyone at ease.
"The first thing that comes to mind is building fortifications. At Kukuri Village, we were able to hold our own by strengthening our position and fighting defensively—right up until the Dragon Zombie showed up. Next is securing an escape route. Since we're dealing with an army that doesn't fear death, you should assume that simply holing up won't hold forever. The position will eventually be broken through. To prepare for that, we'll need a second and third
position.
That's what we need."
When Kukuri Village was actually attacked, apart from the Dragon Zombie that turned the tide in a single blow, we'd been able to fight from a position of advantage in the reinforced knights' fortress. If we'd had other places to hunker down and fight like that fortress, the damage would likely have been much less.
"What size of fortress are you thinking?"
"At minimum, it needs to be large enough for two to three hundred people to shelter comfortably, with walls around two meters high that people can climb up and move along on top of... Ideally, walls that can withstand several attacks from Monsters like Ogres, and a dry moat about a meter deep."
"Wouldn't it be better to make the moat deeper and fill it with water?"
"If it's too deep, it'll be a hassle for us to get out when we need to retreat. And since fire magic is effective against Zombies, I think it's better not to fill it with water."
At Kukuri Village, we'd used magic to reinforce existing structures, but this time there's no time and we'd be building from scratch, so even if the construction is rough, it'd be better to build several of them.
"So fire magic really is the way to go, huh..."
"With fire magic, even a single attack can deliver wide-ranging, sustained damage through the spread of flames. That said, if you have the skill to aim with at least some degree of precision, any elemental attribute will be effective. Of course, against an army of tens of thousands, targeting them one by one would be pretty inefficient."
Unlike Kukuri Village, this time we actually have more allies than the Zombie horde, but even so, there's probably no way to minimize casualties other than defeating them efficiently.
"Then, everyone except the squad leaders and those I'm about to call—return to your respective units and explain the situation to your members."
Ernest then called out several names, and those not called immediately left the tent. The ones called were me, Jin, and a handful of other adventurers.
"Very well, then. Starting now..."
"Ernest, I know you just told me to stay, but I'd like to head back to the mansion first."
"Why is that?"
"I'll bring my grandfather along. When Kukuri Village was attacked, Grandpa was at the center of the chain of command, so he'd know more about what happened back then than I do."
"That's true. It certainly is. My apologies, but could you hurry and bring Merlin here?"
When we fought the zombies at Kukuri Village, I was certainly one of the people at the heart of the battle, but in terms of the chain of command, I was at the bottom, basically moving under Grandpa's instructions. The King and the others might try to summon Grandpa, but I needed to get him here before that happened. Well, it was a rather selfish reason, but... I figured Grandpa would probably think the same way I did, so I couldn't afford to fall behind the King.
After getting Ernest's permission, I set off for the mansion using flight magic.
I flew even faster than usual, completely ignoring the knights guarding the entrance to the Royal Capital as I headed straight for the mansion. I'd probably get complaints from all sides and might even face charges, but I could just dump everything on Ernest and it would be fine.
"Grandpa, come with me to the guard post right now!"
"W-What's gotten into you, out of nowhere?"
I burst into the mansion and grabbed Grandpa's arm. He was so startled his eyes went wide, but he quickly seemed to grasp that something extraordinary was happening.
"Everyone, it's an emergency! Primera, Jeanne, and Aura—get ready so you can fight or flee at a moment's notice. Amour, go to Uncle Mark's place and let him know the Ootori family mansion can be used for evacuation at any time."
I fired off rapid-fire instructions to Primera and the others, who had come to see what was going on, telling them to prepare, and asked Amour to pass along the evacuation notice to Uncle Mark. Meanwhile, Grandpa headed to his room to grab the things he needed.
If we were making preparations anyway, it might have been better to send Jeanne or Aura to Uncle Mark's place instead of keeping Amour behind, but considering speed, Amour was the best fit. More importantly, if I sent Amour to Uncle Mark's, he'd likely come into contact with the Southern contacts stationed in the Royal Capital along the way there or back. There wasn't time to share detailed information right now, but I needed to make sure they were prepared to head south at any moment.
"Tenma, we're ready!"
"Then let's go. I'll fly us there, so keep up!"
I left the rest to Primera, and Grandpa and I took to the sky, heading toward Ernest.
As we soared into the air, I caught sight of the familiar royal carriage heading toward the mansion from a distance, but I deliberately pretended not to notice.
"Ernest, what in the world is going on!"
"Yes, well, you see..."
While Ernest was explaining the situation to Grandpa, I went ahead and asked Albert and the others who had stayed behind to fill me in on everything that had happened while I was gone.
"What was decided in the meeting just now was where to establish our positions, how large to make them, and what role our guard unit will play."
They had selected several locations that took advantage of the terrain's elevation changes, with walls roughly two meters high spanning fifty to one hundred meters. However, the walls would only be built along the front and sides, with the sides using stakes and similar materials. The rear wall was intentionally left open—if enemies drew near, they would fall back to the next position before being overwhelmed. At first glance it might look like they were cutting corners, but building multiple fortifications in a short time was impossible, and more importantly, they might interfere with the Royal Army's operations, so the design was kept simple enough to tear down at a moment's notice.
"And as for our guard unit, until formal orders come down from the military, we will follow Ernest's instructions—continuing to patrol the perimeter while also working on constructing the positions. Once the knights arrive, the guard unit will shift to defending the Royal Capital and providing support to the knights."
That was the explanation I received.
"I've got the general idea. Now, separate from that—there's a favor I'd like to ask. Could you lend me one of the Sanga Duchy's people currently attached to the guard unit?"
"That's fine, but what for?"
"The truth is, I'd like someone to deliver a message to Primera and the others. I ran off without really telling them anything, so they're probably worried."
Hearing this, Albert immediately called over one of the Sanga Duchy's knights who was waiting outside the tent. I gave the knight an explanation limited to what could safely be shared outside, along with a message that Grandpa and I might not be able to return for several days, and asked him to rush to the Otter household.
"Hey, wouldn't it be faster for Tenma to fly back and explain instead of sending a Duchy knight on horseback? Even if you say there's no time, Tenma doesn't belong to the guard unit, so being away for an hour or two shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"That's true. If we're not doing that... does that mean there's some other reason?"
At Lion's question, Cain looked at me with a skeptical expression. His tone was a bit sharp, but he had mostly calmed down by now.
"Grandpa, do you have a rough understanding of the situation?"
"I do. I grasp the circumstances, and I've offered what advice I can... but in the current situation, I'm not sure how useful my input will be."
When we fought at Kukuri Village, he had been giving on-the-fly instructions as zombies appeared one after another, so he wasn't sure how applicable that experience would be to this battle. Well, honestly, my real reason for bringing Grandpa along was more of a pretext. The actual plan was—
"So, why don't we go take a look for ourselves? We can attack while we're at it and test how strong the enemy is. Both you and I have plenty of thoughts about those zombies, right?"
"Hmm? ...I see, that does make sense. Very well—let's go!"
"Now hold on, you two! You can't just go running off on your own!"
Just as Grandpa and I were about to head toward the zombie horde, Ernest rushed over to stop us.
"Who exactly needs to give us permission? We live in this country, but we don't serve it. Besides, isn't this exactly the time when every moment counts? With Tenma and me, we can locate the Imperial Army far faster than horseback and launch a surprise attack. If we don't go, what do you think will happen to the villages and towns along the Imperial Army's route of advance? Don't tell me you're planning to send out the guard unit to buy time?"
At those final words, Albert and Cain both shook their heads in unison, clearly thinking that wasn't an option. Well, Lion, for his part, looked raring to go.
However, the threat that had failed to impress Grandpa seemed to work on Ernest, who began muttering to himself as he started to think things over.
"If you have no further objections, Tenma and I will be leaving."
When Grandpa said that and turned his back to Ernest,
"No, wait! I understand, so just wait a moment! Tenma, this is a request from me. I want to task you with a 'reconnaissance in force' against the Imperial Army. I'll be late, but I will also advise His Majesty to dispatch the Order of Knights."
"Hmph! If you'd just said that from the start and sent us off pleasantly... trying to hold us back unnecessarily is what causes extra expenses! And we don't need the knights. They'll just get in the way."
This was what Grandpa was saying to Ernest,
"You fool! A war between nations... and one where we are being invaded, at that! How can you, even as the strongest fighting force in this country, send out civilians just to buy time? And you suggest only the two of you go... From anyone else's perspective, that's tantamount to throwing away pawns! How could I allow that! Well, dispatching the knights is only a formality, but even if they don't arrive in time, having sent them gives us an excuse. For example, the two of you, exasperated by the slow-moving knights, went on ahead without orders..."
That would put about half the blame on me and Grandpa, but since it was our own selfish request to begin with, we didn't really care about the responsibility. However, Ernest seemed to think he absolutely had to do something like this, otherwise the royal family's reputation would be utterly destroyed.
"Then, do as you please! That's enough. Tenma, this time we're really going!"
While Grandpa and Ernest were arguing, I was asking Albert and Cain for their predictions on the Imperial Army's location, and decided on their general direction of advance. Most likely, at our speed, even accounting for rest, we should be able to find them in one to two days.
As I told Grandpa this and burst out of the tent into the sky, I heard Ernest's voice from behind yelling, "We're not finished talking!"... but time was precious, so I ignored him and accelerated. It was probably to discuss the details of the commission, but since we didn't need a reward if there wasn't one, we could sort that out once we returned safely... at least, from our side of things.
The names of the Tamer's Guild Familiars weren't shown in the manga upon their first appearance, but I have them written down, so I'll list them here. (There's a slight possibility they might change.)
(1) Name (Individual Name)
(2) Age
(3) HP and MP
④ Species
⑤ Special Skill
Grappler Ape × 3 (Agri)
1. Jack, Alec, Mike
2. 15 years old (all three are brothers)
3, HP15000 MP1000
4, Grappler Ape
5, Close Combat
Thunderbird (Ted)
1, Quill
2, 14 years old
3, HP8000 MP10000
4, Thunderbird
5, Wind Magic, Lightning Magic
Hard Lynx × 10 (Light)
1, ? (Haven't given them individual names)
2, 1–8 years old
3, HP3000–6000 MP1000–2000
4, Hard Lynx
5, Group Tactics
Mountain Turtle (Sakarat Brothers)
1, Aaron
2, 23 years old
3, HP20000 MP10000
4, Mount Turtle
5. Earth Magic
Flame Tiger (Sakarat Brothers)
1. Frau
2. 5 years old
3. HP18000 MP5000
4. Flame Tiger
5. Fire Magic
And that's the full lineup.
Whether these names will actually appear in the main story is still undecided.