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Several faces went pale around me. I might have faced more powerful enemies, but to normal mortals, even normal mortal soldiers, an asura is already in the ‘unimaginable threat’ category.
Describing her as a monster tamer had completed the identification to my mind. The asura named Trisiagga had sent many powerful monsters and demonic beasts at my party when we encountered her in Ilim Below near Cara Ita.
Colonel Vincridge shook his head. “None of our mages have detected any demonic mana in her, My Lady.”
“It would be reasonable for a Class A demon to wield Class A stealth, Colonel,” I noted. “Typical army mages might not be able to penetrate it.”
The confidence of the officers around us had collapsed, due to a second fairy knight telling them about a powerful demon threatening their lines. A fairy knight threatening their lines already constituted a threat, but a demon signified an escalation in this war. So far, it was being fought by mortal combatants on both sides, with the demons acting in the background.
“I can detect the demon with this,” Aenëe insisted, holding up her wrist, where she wore an ornate bracelet. “This is how I knew that it was necessary to take My Lord and escape.”
I frowned. “A magic device?”
“It’s a fairy treasure,” she corrected in prim tones, as if it made a difference. In truth, the term ‘fairy treasure’ just means a magic device made by a fairy.
“Your fairy sight isn’t strong enough?” I wondered.
She blushed. A fairy would normally be a little embarrassed to rely on a magic device. Mother had been a little scornful when Tiana bought her ‘crown of light’ tiara and her water stone, although she finally accepted it as a necessity, due to her lack of skill at spell magic. And a half-fairy should have at least some fairy sight, and if Oberon acknowledged her knighthood, hers should be of respectable strength.
Then I belatedly remembered that, during my first meeting with Aenëe, she had not been able to see through disguises presumably cast by a lich, a class B demon. An asura was class A, the same level as an Elder Lich.
Aenëe’s brows formed a peak as she admitted, “After you saw through that lich’s stealth when I couldn’t, I asked my mother to make it for me. She’s very skillful at crafting treasures. This treasure penetrated the asura’s stealth when I couldn’t.”
I noticed a couple strained expressions among the officers. A ‘fairy treasure’ could be made by any fairy with the skill, but mortals associated that term with rare artifacts of great antiquity. It wasn’t like fairies went around peddling their services, so mortals didn’t think in terms of someone just popping out to have a new one made.
It’s not the only treasure on her person, My Lady, Durandal noted. She is carrying several powerful toys. She arms herself for a mighty battle, even as she stands here.
I concentrated my spiritual sense on her and saw what he meant. That brand-new cuirass, a bustier-style strapless fairy steel bra that only just barely rose high enough to conceal her areolae, was brimming with condensed mana and densely packed with magic circuits, as were her sabatons, her gloves and three items attached to her belt.
She is probably keeping herself ready to flee with that child at a moment’s notice, I mused. If I were in the same situation, I would keep all my fighting tools on my person at all times as well.
I told her, “My Lady, I arrived here on my king’s orders, but it was my mother who requested me to be sent, with the Fairy King’s knowledge. My mission is to assist you with this issue. May I take up your fight, so that you may remain and protect your young lord?”
Her face filled with conflicted emotions. “My Lady, it is deeply appreciated, but for me to fully retreat from the fight…”
Didn’t you already do that? I did not retort, because it would be completely unfair. It was one thing for her to pull back in order to protect the little baron, but a very different thing for her to stay back while a different fairy went forward to take up her fight.
I nodded understanding, “That’s a problem for you, of course. But do you not understand that it is unthinkable to these mortals for you to bring a child up to the front?”
Her eyebrows peaked again, in an anxious way that left me feeling guilty to be doing this to her. I decided to offer another option.
“What if you were to leave the young lord in the hands of someone sufficiently powerful to defend him in an emergency?”
“They may not even see the threat!” she retorted, unconsciously pulling the boy slightly closer to her side. “And any mage strong enough to deal with her has already gone forward with the prince!”
I glanced at Nandi, then noted, “Except one. Isn’t that right, Captain?”
She licked her lips and frowned. “You’re making assumptions about my abilities, My Lady?”
“Hm,” I responded, then looked at the colonel. “Sir Vincridge, allow me to take the captain and My Lady aside for a few minutes.”
He nodded, his brow wrinkling a bit. “As you wish, My Lady.”
I brought the other two and the young baron aside, toward the chairs where they had been seated before, as the only area without people to overhear. It wasn’t that the discussion was particularly secret, just that it was going to involve some personal information.
Looking at Nandi, I noted, “My memory isn’t photographic, but it is quite good. I remember your ability to detect miasma without a tool or a spell. That’s nearly impossible for a mortal.”
She pursed her lips, then nodded. “My methods are a family secret, My Lady.”
“Mm,” I nodded. “I don’t need you to divulge your methods. You called it a ‘charm’, but a true charm would involve casting magic, which you didn’t do. My fairy sight would have seen such a thing.”
Her forehead bunched up a bit, but I waved my hand. “I said I don’t need you to explain. I simply need you to understand that I understand what sort of thing that it is. My own observations tell me that you have training in arts which mortals rarely know about.”
She didn’t have a spiritual vessel, at least not one big enough for me to sense, but she had cultivated extra helpings of spiritual energy. At her age, she had to have started in childhood, training in that ‘family secret’ art.
Huadean mortals normally couldn’t hope to build up enough strength to use spiritual strength for martial arts, but they can cultivate enough to use for sensory purposes. Just like Ryuu, Nandi’s family was cultivating something akin to fairy sense. And at the time I had gone on patrol with her, it had been more powerful than mine. I was far stronger now, but I had been by no means weak at that time.
“You can sense miasma, which means you can sense demonic mana, right?” I deduced.
“But if our mages can’t detect her mana…” she countered.
“They are using detection spells which Dark magic stealth can interfere with,” I stated. “The method which I believe you are using doesn’t rely on mana, so it is much more difficult to fool.”
“But My Lady cannot detect the demoness, either, when using her fairy eyes,” she noted, glancing toward Aenëe. “She needs her fairy treasure.”
I was pretty sure that the reason for Aenëe’s handicap was the same reason that Mára and Feraen couldn’t see demons. But that wasn’t something I could discuss here.
“That problem has a different cause,” I said. “But that’s something private that I must discuss with My Lady Aenëe alone. Right now, we’re discussing your abilities. You were a strong enough mage for Ged to put you in First Squad, and you can directly sense demonic mana and demonic corruption without having to stop and cast a spell. Assuming that we will be going after the main demoness, can we count on you to protect the young baron from any underlings she sends after him? At least, to be able to see them coming and flee?”
Her lips bunched up into a small bundle and her forehead creased deeply. “Although I should be able to…”
As she hesitated to say that she didn’t want to, I said it for her. “You need to keep yourself out of danger, right? For the same reason that they didn’t send you to the front.”
She immediately looked wary. “I haven’t said anything about that reason, My Lady.”
I dimpled and patted her arm. “Is it something you are keeping secret? I won’t say it.”
“Ah… no. I mean, I stayed behind because of army regulations, after all.”
Aenëe had grown baffled while listening to us. “What are you two talking about?”
“My Lady Nandi was held back from the front because she is with child, My Lady,” I told her. Then I asked Nandi, “Was that the real reason you married, as well?”
“I told you the true reason, My lady,” Nandi said with a slightly annoyed frown. “We didn’t know I was pregnant then. I was less than a month along at the time.”
“Congratulations, anyhow, My Lady,” I told her, keeping my smile warm. “This would be a good opportunity to practice caring for a child…”
“I haven’t agreed to it!” Aenëe protested. “If they are hiding, waiting for me to leave My Lord behind…”
“Has your tool detected any demons around here?” I wondered.
“Well, no…”
While looking at the young baron and pretending to be thinking deeply, I asked Durandal, Can you detect any tracking charms on the child, other than the one on the back of his neck, Old Man?
I had already scanned him closely, but Durandal’s spiritual sense seemed to be stronger than mine.
Why other than that one? I was going to mention it.
It’s exactly like the one Mother used on me when I was little, I explained. Aenëe put that on him in order to locate him in the event he was abducted.
I see nothing else, My Lady.
I told Aenëe, “My Lady, I can see nothing on this child that they can use to detect him. The charm you’ve placed on him should only be detectable to another fairy. Unless they somehow have a countermeasure against its built-in protections, it is unlikely they will be able to find him. Without you by his side, he is just another mortal child, so they would actually have trouble finding him.”
Her eyebrows bent into a peak again, struggling with the choice I was offering.
“You are seriously expecting me to drop my duties and babysit this child?” Nandi demanded.
With a crooked smile, I said, “With two fairy knights demanding it of him, do you think the colonel is going to refuse?”
She scowled, looking frustrated, but didn’t retort.
I returned my gaze to Aenëe. After all, for the reason I had just stated, the person I had to convince wasn’t Nandi. Aenëe, though, was another matter.
If I went ahead to the front without her, fairy honor could drive her to ignore the mortal rules and carry the young lord to the front with her so she could fight by my side. And the front line was no place for such a young child. I had to prevent this possibility.
Aenëe looked down at the little boy whose shoulder her hand was resting on, then asked, “My Lord, I would go to fight your enemy, but what is your will? I can go to fight her while my allies defend you, or I can remain by your side.”
Somehow, I didn’t roll my eyes. This child was way too young to be making decisions like that, to my mind. Even if he was ‘her lord’, he was only around five years old.
“As the closest thing he has to a parent right now,” I said when the stumped child didn’t respond, “it would be normal for you to decide for him, My Lady.”
Then I crouched down so I could look the child in the eye. “Do you understand what she was asking you, My Lord?”
“I… I think so,” he said, but then asked, “But what should I tell her?”
I smiled an apology to him, and told him, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to tell you. She is your knight, so you have to decide what she’ll do. But it’s okay for you to ask her for her advice, as her foster child.”
He looked up at Aenëe, who was giving me a Tibetan fox-like stare in reply to the bit of sophistry I had just used to toss the ball back to her. I felt not a lick of guilt, though. She shouldn’t have punted in the first place.
The young lord asked, “What should I answer, My Lady?”
She sighed, then admitted, “It would be best in this situation to send your knight into battle, My Lord. But you must listen obediently to the big sister who will take care of you while I am gone.”
