.
The sky over the southern wall of the valley flashed silver for an instant, then the sheet of mana that had been guarding the valley vanished.
On the other side, a small army hovered, arrayed above the line of peaks. My eyes took it in as quickly as possible, to assess the military situation. No mounted troops, just fairies. But significantly, a smaller group than I had expected, given the blasts that had been hitting the barrier.
A dozen fairy knights stood before around a hundred warriors, mostly lesser fairies. Glaring at us from their center, an imposing man in animal furs stood mid-air with his arms crossed, wingless just like Oberon.
The ancient Greek satyrs didn’t have goat legs. That’s an idea that medieval artists came up with, by blending them with the half-goat god Pan. They had horse tails, snub noses and elongated ears, and that’s what I was seeing here, along with the first facial hair I had ever seen on a fairy, an elegantly sculpted beard hanging from his chin. This was the only thing that would explain the name I had heard him called, ‘the old goat’.
Curious I looked around for other male fairies. I only saw the King and the challenger. Gelon was nowhere to be seen, but of course, most of the royal family was also elsewhere. Beyond myself, I only saw the King, Manlon, Amana and Lady Molore, who was outfitted as a fairy knight, and four of my female cousins. So I had no other males to compare them to. Did male fairies perhaps not grow wings? I honestly didn’t know.
It was certainly not strange for most of the royal family to be elsewhere, of course. It would be foolish to group all of us together during an attack. More than likely, their escorts had taken the rest to various safe locations.
“Looks like the old goat brought the whole family,” Manlon commented. “How many daughters does he have again?”
“All those knights are his daughters?” I retorted, surprised. That would be more fairy daughters than Oberon had.
“Um… no. A couple of them are, I think, but I’m talking about the lesser fairies. He has a hobby of making lesser fairies and mortals bear him children. His warrior flock is mostly made up of his own offspring.”
I suspected I had just learned why he was known as the ‘old goat’.
“Villain!” the satyr thundered, bringing the glaring contest to a close. “Hand over my wife!”
His voice had been amplified considerably. The words echoed multiple times through the valley.
“Are you perhaps not aware of what she did, Lâsin?” Oberon responded, equally amplified. “I’ve imprisoned her for serious crimes.”
“I have information that it was a duly challenged and convened trial by combat! Your eldest son approved it! Is this the crown’s new strategy for eliminating its detractors?”
“Can he really get away with being this rude?” I asked.
Manlon chuckled. “As clan chieftains go, Lâsin is the most powerful. You can think of him as ranking equal to a duke. He is the closest thing to an independent fairy crown, as well. He rules his own territory without any competition.”
I had never heard of a place exclusively ruled by fairies, unless you counted Mother’s duchy. “Where is it?”
“The Eastern Continent, in the wilds beyond your kingdom’s borders. The only mortals who have ever seen his primeval forest are the pets he brought there himself.”
During our conversation, Oberon had been responding, “Lord Lâsin, at least try to be diplomatic. You have already made a massive nuisance of yourself, interrupting festivities and sending thousands of mortals to shelter on a night they would normally be enjoying.”
“Blame that on the fool who closed my clan entrance! How else shall I come in to confront you for your insult to my clan?!”
“Wow,” I commented, shaking my head.
Manlon chuckled. “He’s not known for decorum.”
“My daughter Tenre sealed only the private entrances, you pompous idiot,” Oberon declared. “There was nothing to prevent you from using the public portal at the valley mouth!”
My brain caught up to what they were saying, I asked, “Private entrances? There’s private entrances into Tëan Tír?”
Maybe that was how Lady Serera had planned to bring me in?
Meanwhile, Lâsin demanded, “Your Majesty, do you expect the Lord of the Old Grove to come through the public entrance like some common mortal?!”
“Of course there’s private entrances!” Pasrue responded. “Every major clan has their own tunnel to keep their movements private. How do you think Mára went in and out of the valley with that demon inside her? It would never have survived the purification field!”
I felt like an idiot, having not realized the problem with the purification field and Mára’s possession. Especially after having endured that field myself. No way some bottom-tier demon like a gidim could have survived that passage.
After Oberon let Lâsin’s question finish echoing off the hills, he declared, “I expect the Lord of the Old Grove to have the wisdom to recognize that the security of the valley required the private entrances be sealed, and the maturity to accept that dangerous situations require sacrifices. Even sacrifices as severe as having to fly a few miles out of your way to use the main entrance.”
The anger on Lâsin’s face deepened. “Is that mockery in your voice, O King?!”
I could see a very alarming level of mana ramping up in the vicinity of the fairy lord.
“Mages, prepare yourselves,” I heard Pasrue say into a low voice into an object that appeared to be a cosmetic compact.
Manlon calmly told his disciples, “I trust that all is ready?”
“Absolutely, Master!” Talene chirped. Pasrue followed with, “I just alerted the mages to draw their mana.”
It seemed Manlon was in charge of some of the defensive forces. This boat was his command center.
“I mock who I will, Old Goat! Do you have the strength to stop me?” Oberon laughed as he raised his hand once again.
With a bellow of fury, Lâsin charged at the king, and his entire skirmish line surged forward with him. In the same moment, Oberon’s hand dropped.
“Shoot!” Pasrue ordered.
The sky behind them suddenly blazed with fireworks… no, they were [Explosion] bursts, and several of the attackers lurched in their paths and plummeted, felled by the unexpected attack from behind. The arrows from the mounted magic archers flew at the same time, forcing the advancing knights to slow their charge and put up shields to protect the warriors they led. Only the fairy lord continued charging, throwing a mighty right hook into a shield raised by Oberon.
I hated the feeling of just standing on the deck of this boat, but as long as Serera held her position and putting up a screen to protect us, I felt obliged to stay. I remembered telling Rod, “Me, knight. You, prince.” I knew exactly how Serera would feel if I didn’t stay put.
It was really frustrating, being on the other side of that equation.
“Senior, I’ll send you new targets,” Talene said.
Her lips moved as she chanted almost silently. Her eyes began glowing with light mana. I suspected it was some kind of [Guidance] spell, but from the length of the chant and the fact that she was forming a magic circle in the air in front of her while she did it, it had to be at least level four magic, when the [Guidance] I knew was level one.
As the shocks from all the magic attacks buffeted the shield cocooning the boat, a tremendous clamor rose up behind us. I turned to see another battle taking place back at the palace.
“You can ignore that,” Manlon told me. “Big Brother will have those fools chased off in no time.”
Prince Gelon was in the midst of it, swinging a great sword in giant arcs, along with a quartet of fairy knights with lesser fairies. Their opponents were a larger team of lesser fairy warriors but only a pair of knights.
“Relay complete! Shoot!” Pasrue called.
In my fairy sense, I felt a second volley of [Explosion] rip across the southern sky, knocking more of the attacking forces down, but I kept watching the mana waves coming off Gelon’s blade with every swing. He was holding off dozens of the attackers by himself. All the waves were heading directions other than toward us, but they had enough strength to make me want to keep a close eye out for any stray shots coming our way. I wasn’t sure the boat’s shield would handle it without the extra protection from Serera.
“What are they trying to accomplish down there?” I wondered as the two began coordinating a third strike.
Manlon answered, “Obviously, they wanted to sneak in from the back to free Mára while Lâsin’s group had us all distracted. The main force is a diversion. But we knew they were coming. The plan failed before it started, you see. We’ve already moved her.”
I turned my attention back to the main battle. “You knew this was going to happen?”
And we just went ahead and held that little moon-viewing party anyway?
Over the previous five days, I had been rapidly coming to the understanding that I just don’t get fairies.
It was already clear that the attackers were being overwhelmed. The infiltration unit would have to break and run at any moment, and it was time for the main force to do the same. I felt like apologizing to Durandal; he would see no action tonight.
I wanted someone to apologize to me. There was this great fight going on, and I was stuck on a boat. This was not what I trained so hard as a knight to do.
Clearly, the clan chieftain had expected to overpower a much smaller, much less prepared defense. He couldn’t be an idiot, so the defense I was seeing must have been far larger than the valley could normally put up. Just like the old adage says, forewarned is forearmed.
“Wind spirit taming is Lady Serera’s family specialty,” Manlon explained. “Her clan has been relaying Lâsin’s movements to us for the last three days, and they managed to discover the battle plan as well.”
“Master,” Talene reported, “The main force has stopped its advance. Half its number have faced the rear in order to target my mages.”
“They’re preparing to clear a retreat path. Send in our reserve.”
Talene produced a hand mirror and stared at it while speaking in quiet tones. She looked up and reported, “I’ve alerted our warrior company and I’m launching my toys, Master.”
“Master, can you spot targets for me?” Pasrue wondered.
“Tell your mages to switch to defensive spells,” Manlon said instead. “You should save your pneuma for healing and start organizing the search and rescue.”
He glanced at me. “You can assist with that as well, Your Highness.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
Then I wondered, “Toys?”
“My toys are wonderful!” Talene chirped. “And it’s time for them to play! You should watch!”
Manlong chuckled. “She’s quite a magic engineer, our Little Talene.”
In the air behind the stalled attacking force, I saw a line of objects rising into the air. They didn’t appear to be people, but they had a humanoid outline of sorts.
At first, I refused to believe what I was seeing. Besides, the scale wasn’t right for what I was seeing.
Because what I was seeing were freaking gundams.
Actually, unless they were much, much farther away than I believed them to be, they were human-sized, or not much larger. Was it just a coincidence, and they were just bizarrely designed suits of armor?
No, the ‘helmets’ were much too small for the bodies, and my many years of model building told me that whoever designed these had also known gundams. The design was too similar. I looked over toward Talene with considerable suspicion. Had I found the mystery reincarnator? Even though she was so young…
“Aren’t they beautiful?” she beamed with a proud tilt to her chin.
“Flying golems?” I guessed as they began flying toward the attacking force. Even though the term ‘flying golem’ sounded ridiculous.
“Flying puppets,” Manlon correct. “But the puppeteers’ control lines are replaced with light magic. They can control them from the ground, and Talene has even worked out how to relay sight from the puppet’s point of view, so the puppeteer can stay hidden out of view.”
She’s invented the magic UAV, and built it in the shape of a gundam.
“Can they fight?”
“Their weapon skills are limited to the puppeteer’s own knowlege, but they can deliver magic attacks for offense.”
As if to demonstrate, the line raised their fists and blasted forth a volley of fireballs. The action looked just like…
It took every ounce of my willpower to stop myself from facepalming.
