Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

Well, yeah, I guess we do... Naden admitted.

The sea serpent race is said to have been descended from sea serpents that are also called kouryuu or jiaolong, so maybe they were ryuus just like you.

Yeah, that thought had occurred to me too.

The idea that Junas family, the House of Doma, were descended from something vaguely similar to humans like loreleis was one thing, but it had never sat right with me that the descendants of massive sea serpents were shaped like humans. Maybe those kouryuu sea serpents had been ryuus like Naden, and that was why they had human forms.

Excel chuckled and smiled. Maybe members of the sea serpent race arent half-dragons like the dragonewts, but half-ryuus instead.

But Im not meaty and voluptuous like you, Naden muttered.

Chalk that up to individual variance.

Its not fair!

And the two of them started arguing.

One was talking in my head, and the other was sitting on my lap, so it was pretty noisy.

Hal had Ruby in her dragon form come up next to us. Sorry to interrupt your fun, but its almost time for the operation to start.

Gotcha, I said. Lets get started then.

Looking around the area, there were several hundred wyvern cavalry hovering in the air and waiting for my command.

The time was ripe.

I gave the order to the woman sitting on my lap. Okay, Excel, make it flashy.

Understood, sire.

Erasing the smile from her face and putting on the look of a serious retainer, Excel removed her arms from around my neck, crossed them in front of her, and lowered her head. The speed with which she could change modes was like flipping a switch. It was little wonder she was renowned for how capable she was.

Now, let we show you my full power, the reason why I was once the talk of Elfrieden, and the reason why I am called the mage who is invincible anywhere theres lots of fresh water.

Excel clasped her hands in front of her and focused. As she did, her body tilted, so I hurriedly put my hand around her waist to support her.

As I held her surprisingly delicate hips, Excel giggled. Thank you, sire. Hold me just like that, if you would.

Murgh... Naden telepathically voiced her displeasure, but this was part of the operation, so she was going to have to deal with it.

Excel closed her eyes, holding her hands tight as if focusing. Then...

Splooooooooooosh!

Suddenly there was a swelling in the surface of the Dabicon directly below us, and five massive pillars that could have been mistaken for high-rise buildings rose up. They were so massive, the sight of them was overwhelming.

The droplets that splashed off the forcibly raised water hung in the air like smoke, and in an instant, we were in the middle of a light shower.

The scene in front of me shocked me silly.

This is Excel...when she gets serious...

It seemed what Excel had said about being invincible anywhere there was a lot of fresh water was no exaggeration. I was guessing the only reason she was limiting it to fresh water was that, at sea, all magic was difficult to use.

Fighting her in a desert would be one thing, but if I had to take on Excel over a river where there was abundant fresh water, Id have to be prepared to commit all the wyvern cavalry here.

Souma! Naden shouted. Look straight down!

Whoa... Doing as Naden said, I looked down and let out a gasp of admiration.

No river had a fixed width, and a rivers depth varied from place to place. That meant a place where any given river was thin and shallow made for an ideal crossing point.

Basically, that was the area right below us.

That said, the Dabicon was known for being a massive river, so even at a crossing point, the river was about 200 meters across, and the water was up to shoulder-level, even on a large man. It was just barely crossable on horseback.

However, Excel was pulling the water up now. That lowered the water level, making it so we could even see the rocks at the bottom. Excel released her clenched hand, then lifted it up.

Water God Calling, she whispered.

With those words, the five massive towers of water took on a shape like snakes with their heads raised. Then, when she brought her hand down, there was a loud hiss, and the five massive snakes of water dove into the surface of the river downstream.

The water from upstream was pulled up, and then flowed to the opposite side of the shallows downstream. This produced five great arches of water.

That caused a great drop in the water level beneath the arch, and the narrow area where it was shallow expanded greatly.

This was the plan Hakuya had come up with.

If the shallows we were going to cross were narrow, and it was difficult to bring a large army to the opposite shore, we could expand the shallows, and have the lizardmen on the opposite side come to us.

Hakuya had concluded that based on the information Id given him and sent me the number one water mage in the country, Excel Walter, along with many other water mages.

Incidentally, the other water mages were in little boats floating on the rivers surface, slowing the current of the water that would flow from upstream to downstream, and adjusting the current of the water Excel sent downstream so it didnt flow backward.

Thus, a shallow path across the Dabicon with five great arches of water over it was formed.

I felt like I was watching that one miracle from the story of Moses.

Hakuya sure came up with an amazing plan... I sighed in admiration.

Sire, this magic is extremely taxing, so I would appreciate it if you moved on with the operation, Excel told me with a pained look on her face.

Hearing the signal from the horns, Kaede stood on top of the watchtower they had built and raised her staff high. She was commanding from near the defensive fence that had been erected in the battlefield camp.

Thats the signal, she called. Everyone, the lizardmen are coming! First, stop the enemy! Everyone, form a wall!

There were earth mages gathered around Kaede.

When she gave the signal, the earth mages used their magic in unison, the ground swelled up before the front-line unit, and in less than a minute a long earthen wall was built.

For the lizardmen, who had been about to fall on the camp like an avalanche, they found themselves impeded by a dirt wall that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Gueh! Guh...

Because it was made of dirt, even if they hit it or clawed at it, they could leave a mark, but they couldnt break through it. They looked around restlessly, but there were no gaps to be found in this wall.

Even so, in order to secure the food on the other side of the wall, they began scaling it. They had incredible tenacity, but they were lacking the momentum theyd had before.

Archers, loose your arrows! Kaede ordered.

The archers all began firing their arrows over the earthen wall in unison.

The arrows were fired upward in an arc with no particular target, but the high number of arrows and closely clustered state of the lizardmen worked together to cause hit after hit. Some of those arrows were imbued with magic, exploding or cutting up the area around them to create even more dead lizardmen.

Watching that scene from up in the tower, Kaede let out a sigh.

This is completely one-sided. Its only because the lizardmen dont have the sense to do anything but charge in on their own that were getting off so lightly. I was concerned what might happen if there were a demon here and it took command, but it seems my worries were in vain.

Under Kaedes command, the front-line unit was able to stop the lizardmens advance. However, given the sheer number of lizardmen, they were not able to shoot all of them. Some managed to make it through the hail of arrows to climb the earthen wall. The earth mages were focused on keeping the current wall from breaking, so they didnt have the leeway to create another wall.

A good number of lizardmen were crossing the wall. It could be anticipated that they would attack the now vulnerable mages and archers.

However, on the other side of the fortification, the lizardmen encountered Aisha, whose power in combat was so overwhelming as to seem unfair.

One silent swing of Aishas greatsword was enough to slash several lizardmen who had scaled the wall and were about to land on the other side.

Gugih?! The lizardmen let out a death cry as they were cleft in twain.

Having been impeded by an earthen wall, and subjected to the ranged attacks of archers, the lizardmen could only cross the wall in small numbers. To ensure the few who did met with guaranteed death, and to ensure the safety of the long-range attack unit, Kaede had an elite unit on the other side of the wall. The countrys strongest fighter, Aisha, was included in this, of course, but...

Muh!

As the top and bottom halves of bisected lizardmen fell to the ground, Aisha effortlessly swung her greatsword to clean the blood from it. Despite having won handily, there seemed to be a dissatisfaction and frustration in her expression.

The cause of that was Jirukoma and Lauren, who were in the same squad as her.

Aisha could see the two of them helping each other as they fought the lizardmen coming over the wall.

Sir Jirukoma! shouted Lauren.

Lauren stood in the way of two lizardmen that had tried to attack Jirukoma from behind as he fought, knocking one away with her shield and impaling the other with her sword. When Jirukoma realized hed been saved, he cut down the lizardman in front of him using his kukri, then stood back-to-back with Lauren.

Sorry, you saved me there, Madam Lauren.

It was nothing. I will protect your back, Sir Jirukoma.

Then let me protect yours as well, Madam Lauren. I wont let you come to harm. I want to have three children with you after all.

Fwhuh?

For a moment, what hed said didnt register with Lauren. The moment she realized it was his response to her borderline self-destructive proposal, her face went a bright shade of red. However, she quickly recalled this was a battlefield, and the silly grin on her face was pulled tight.

Lets be sure we win this, Sir Jirukoma! she cried.

Of course we will!

Then a lizardman charged at the two of them, possibly in rage.

They readied themselves for it, but before they could do anything, a knife materialized from somewhere and buried itself in the lizardmans forehead.

The lizardman fell heavily to land face first on the ground.

When they turned back, Komain was looking at them in exasperation, throwing knives between each of her fingers.

Brother, is that anything to say on the battlefield? Could you have possibly chosen a more inopportune time?

Jirukoma looked away shyly. Im clumsy about these things. If it werent a place like this, I dont think I could ever say it.

Honestly... Madam Lauren! Komain exclaimed. I know my brother is hopeless, but please take care of him.

R-Right! Please, take care of me too!

What are you doing here, anyway? Jirukoma demanded, making sure no lizardmen got close to Komain. You could have just waited in the fortress with Sir Poncho.

I can fight too, she retorted. I cant abandon you when youre out fighting.

But what if you get scarred before youre able to be wed? Sir Poncho wont have you like that, you know?

Sir Poncho isnt that narrow-minded... Wait, no, were n-not like that!

Seeing her stammer, Jirukoma and Lauren figured out the situation.

It would seem there are more things well have to talk about once this battle is over now, Jirukoma announced.

Yes, Lauren agreed. We absolutely must get through this.

When the two who were now both her guardians said that, Komains face turned a bright shade of red.

Meanwhile, because she was watching the three of them from a distance, Aisha was frustrated. Not because she thought their behavior was inappropriate on the battlefield.

No, this is what Aisha thought:

Im so jealous of Madam Lauren!

That was all.

Im working hard because I want His Majesty to praise me too, but His Majesty is up in the air with Madam Naden. I want to fight back-to-back with His Majesty like that!

Souma would have only been a burden fighting beside Aisha, but that didnt matter. Having actions that were symbolic of two trusting partners shoved in her face, it was only natural she would think, I want that for myself...

Aisha swung her greatsword with frustration in her heart.

I couldnt sleep with His Majesty because I was the one on guard duty last night too. Ill slam this frustration into the enemy in front of me!

It had been the same when Souma was forcibly taken to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. When Aisha got agitated because of her feelings for Souma, some sort of limiter inside her broke, and her destructive power went up considerably.

When Souma had left her behind and gone to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, her sadness had turned her into a force that could overwhelm Halbert, Kaede, and Carla all together.