[Another Viewpoint] Arte’s Battle

It seems that the invasion of the Kingdom of Jiernetta was more severe than expected.

According to my research, villages and small towns along the border were being invaded in the blink of an eye, and I learned that they were closing in on the largest town, the castle town, in the shortest distance.

I suppressed my feelings of insecurity and set my sights on the castle town.

At last, I crossed the hill, and I was in the castle town.

My mind, a mixture of anxiety, anticipation, and fear, was about to make my body want to escape.

I could hear the cries of people and the sounds of things crashing into each other.

“…! Mother!”

I could not hold back. I jumped down from the carriage, almost in tears, and ran toward the front, weaving my way through all the adventurers.

“Oh, sweetheart!”

Someone tried to call out to me, but I didn’t hear them.

All at once we sped through and rushed up the hill.

When we reached the top, I saw the castle town in disarray.

Black smoke was rising from everywhere, and parts of the walls had completely collapsed. There were about 10,000 soldiers in the vicinity, and five wyverns were flying in the sky. Something is dropped from the sky, and a pillar of fire rises up to consume the castle town.

“…! Miss Arte! It hasn’t been long since the walls collapsed! If we go now, we can make it!”

I gasped, tears streaming down my face, about to sit up, when Ortho-san grabbed me by the shoulder and stopped me.

“Listen, Miss Arte! We don’t have time for this! Give me the command of this gang! Maybe now, we can work something out!”

Ortho-san’s desperate voice and words brought a slight calmness back to my heart.

I grabbed Ortho-san’s arm with both hands and looked up.

“No. It must be the Count of Ferdinand who will defeat the Kingdom of Jiernetta…gentlemen! Get your ballistas ready! I know this is a surprise attack from such a prominent place, but please help us!  Please help me and my hometown!”

I shouted desperately. I cried out in tears and shouted in a voice full of emotion that felt like it was about to explode. It may have been the worst words and attitude for a child of a noble family, but all the adventurers answered me with their arms raised in the air and their voices raised in anger.

“Leave it to me!”

“If that’s what Mistress Arte wants us to do, we’ll do it!”

“Hyah! I’ll show the Knights of Jiernetta the power of an adventurer!”

At those words, I burst into tears again.

“…….please! Please!!!”

***

[Countess]

A subordinate sent me a report..

The neighboring town was attacked. It was difficult for the resident knights to deal with them, and after evacuating the citizens, they evacuated to this town.

The enemy was Jiernetta, and not the usual skirmishes and maneuvers. The looting was minimal, and after resting in the villages and towns they had conquered, they reportedly marched in a straight line to this city.

The fact that they marched so fast gave us a good read on their strategy.

“…I never thought that the invasion of Scudetto, a key point on the border, was a decoy…”

I muttered and looked out from the castle lord’s room to the view outside. Black smoke rises and the screams of the people can be heard from here. The sound of soldiers running around with clanking armor echoes from the corridor, and I almost mistake the castle for a battlefield already.

It has been more than twenty years since I married the current head of the family, Bariat. I have imagined many times that a situation like this would happen.

As the daughter of a viscount, I thought I had long ago made up my mind that the aristocracy was ready for it. But when I finally see it in front of me, anxiety and fear take over me.

I am helplessly terrified.

How will I die in the end?

My son followed my husband. All of my daughters have married, leaving two daughters. I can say that I have fulfilled my role as a child of a noble family. But that does not mean I am willing to die.

“Oh, mother…!”

Perhaps my anxiety was transmitted to my daughter, who is now twelve years old, grabbed the hem of her dress and uttered a trembling voice.

I grabbed her shoulders and looked down at her as if to glare at her.

“Don’t cry! I will be the one who will die in the last moments, and I will make it look like a suicide! You will be known to have taken your life properly and gracefully, like a true aristocrat. Rest assured.”

When I told her this, the daughter made a pitiful face, but immediately pulled her chin back and gave a small nod.

“If this is the case, I should have just let you marry quickly instead of getting engaged.”

As she murmured this, her daughter burst into tears. I had trained her to be a bride until she was 15, and I had tried to send her off as a noblewoman without embarrassment, but I had no idea that this would happen.

But there was no point in whining.

Yes, it is true. In the end, I must die in a way that does not disgrace me as a nobleman. My last task is to die in a dignified manner that will not cause trouble for the Count of Ferdinand and my family.

The words, meant as a rebuke to his daughter, echoed in his own mind.

Outside the window, a wyvern flies over the city.

I felt that the screams and clamor were gradually approaching.

“…As a nobleman, as the wife of a countess, I have disciplined myself. I am not wrong. I am not wrong.”

She mutters in her mouth, as if telling herself.

“Ah, Mother…?”

She looked up at me anxiously, and I dubbed the image of my youngest daughter, who I had decided not to have.

“…Arte.”

I mutter the name and meditate.

I have risked my life to be told that I am a respectable countess in order not to be shamed. That is precisely what I did when I raised my first and second sons, I educated them with great care. The same was true when my eldest and second daughters were engaged to be married.

It was then that I learned of Arte’s aptitude for magic.

I was distraught, as if a thread of tension had been severed. Everything I had risked my life as a countess for 20 years would be destroyed by this one girl. I thought of that.

And so I pretended that my youngest daughter had never existed.

But now, at this moment when I know that I am going to die, I realize what a foolish choice I have made, being trapped by the rules of nobility.

I was so concerned about my appearance as an aristocrat that I locked Arte in my room and did not even see her.

What a terrible mother I must have been.

I know she must have hated me terribly, but I hope she is doing well.

I sent her off to a small village in the middle of nowhere that is not worth conquering. They have a much better chance of surviving than we do.

“…Hypocrisy. I’m not even allowed to wish…”

I said that and then shook my head from side to side.

Just then, I heard the footsteps of a soldier running into the castle lord’s room.

The door was thrown open roughly, and the older soldier looked at me and opened his mouth.

“Yes, reinforcements! A small but powerful reinforcement has appeared!”

I reflexively looked out the window at the shouted words.

A wyvern flying in front of me was hit by something that knocked it off-balance. The flying dragon, its wings folded forward to make its body smaller, fell to the ground powerless, like a puppet that had lost its manipulator.

“Wind sorcerer! How many reinforcements could have struck the flying dragon with a single blow…!”

I shouted out loud at the sight that happened in front of me. When I turned around, the soldier looked at me with a complicated expression.

“Well, I don’t know, but a flag with the coat of arms of our Countess Ferdinand has been identified! But it is clearly not a knighthood belonging to the count’s family!”

“What do you mean? No way, is it not my husband’s people!?”

I asked back, confused, but no one answered me.

Who could have foreseen the crisis of the Countess Ferdinand’s family and helped them?

In the midst of my astonishment and confusion, I clasped my hands together in front of my chest and prayed.