kscans

Chapter 199 - Episode 13: Destination

The horse-dragon’s two legs kicked off from the rock. It climbed the slope, scattering stone fragments, then leaped over a ledge and landed on a slab of rock with a commanding view. The vista opened up, and the scent of grass reached them.

This was a mountain on the eastern edge of Mardrass, the very limit of what could barely be called human territory. With his subordinates following behind him, Dagobard looked down upon the plains stretching to the east.

Smoke rose from the flatlands, a place where humans were not supposed to set foot. Following the smoke with his eyes, he saw a group on horseback. Countless flying lizards danced in the sky above them.

Looking closer, he could see several people in familiar robes. All told, there were only about thirty of them. It was an impossibly small number. The logical assumption was that they must have lost most of their party on the way here.

"Prince Dagobard. What is this. We must rescue them at once."

Princess Lisabet, who had arrived in a horse-dragon carriage protected by his men, spoke in a panic as she followed his gaze. In her eyes, she must have seen a swarm of wyverns about to attack a tiny group of people. But Dagobard shook his head.

The flock of wyverns formed a circle in the sky. There were about ten squadrons of five or six, totaling fifty wyverns, a massive flock. Not even when the Empire came down the great river were there records of an attack by a flock of this size all at once. Moreover, the distance from the northern mountains where the wyverns nested was about half of what it was to the great river. This meant the wyverns had incomparably more energy to spare.

Indeed, the wyverns surrounding the group of humans circled leisurely in the air. But that was only until they had fully assumed their hunting formation. He could see two squadrons from the north and south simultaneously lower their altitude. The triangular beasts, with wings spread and beaks thrust forward, approached the ground like arrows. Just as a red light emanated from the membranes of their wings, they suddenly changed their angle, shifting their course horizontally without losing any speed.

The kingdom’s envoys were caught right between the two formations.

It was a brilliant pincer attack, enough to make Dagobard, who knew well the difficulty of controlling a group in action, grunt in admiration. Their speed and unity marked an attack unlike any humanity had experienced in living memory. It created the illusion that their entire bodies had become arrowheads. If those beaks were to strike, not even a dragon’s scales would escape unharmed. Wyverns were known to hunt wild horse-dragons. The carcass of a horse-dragon with a large hole in its torso had been found before.

But…

Lines of fire, like tracers, shot out from the left and right of the cavalry. A total of ten beams were absorbed into the wyvern formations that were closing in at a furious speed from both sides. He heard a popping sound, and then some wyverns fell, trailing smoke from their wings and scraping against the ground, while others were thrown up into the air. The attack formation, which had looked so perfect moments ago, was cut in half in the blink of an eye.

The remaining four closed the distance in an instant. But more lines of fire intercepted them as if taking aim. Another three were eliminated.

The lone survivor shot up into the air in desperation. But two lines of fire converged on it, and it was shot down before it could rejoin the flock above.

Were they angered by the first wave’s helpless defeat. With shrill, grating cries of gyaa gyaa, double the number of formations moved to attack. The assault from four directions was, once again, magnificent. But the first volley, more accurate than the last, shot down ten, and the next brought down eight. The flock of fifty had lost more than half its number in an instant.

The wreckage of the wyverns was scattered like a fan around the kingdom’s troops, who were supposed to be the prey.

The remaining flock began to dive. They were not shifting to low altitude flight from a distance as before, but heading straight for their human targets. Their angle suggested they did not care if they crashed into the ground. Their quarry had likely transformed from prey into an enemy that had to be eliminated at all costs.

But from the small staves pointed skyward, intermittent red lights shot out. The lights were smaller than before, but they were apparently enough to break through the magic protecting the wyverns’ scales and deliver a shock to their bodies. The desperate charge was swiftly repelled.

"What in the world is that…"

Dagobard muttered in a daze.

He could see the remaining wyverns fleeing north. Only seven were left. One of them lost its strength, and he saw it fall in a spiral, smoke trailing from its wings.

That was likely the Spiral Flame sorcery he knew. Indeed, the ones using it with particular skill were the few robed mages on the flanks of the cavalry. The word betrayal crossed his mind, but he quickly realized this was no time for such thoughts.

Its speed, accuracy, and range were all enhanced. At this point, it had to be judged as something militarily different. No matter how little recoil it had, it should never have been possible to aim with such precision while on horseback. He knew that all too well, as he had been the one to implement joint operations between the horse-dragon units and the mage units, taking advantage of Maytyl’s absence and the shock of defeat.

◇◇

The party, flying the kingdom’s flag, approached Dagobard, who had come down the mountain. They were covered in the dust of their journey, but showed no signs of having passed through a domain of dangerous monsters, which included the recent encounter. The cavalry unit, positioned far below his own men, looked strangely imposing.

At their head was Craig, whom he knew. The kingdom’s envoys, who had crossed the wyverns’ territory with a small force just as they had declared, seemed like an aberration. His own fifty horse-dragon knights, which he had assembled, seemed comical by comparison.

Five people dressed as Imperial mages were with them. He spotted his former rival, Maytyl. Receiving Dagobard’s gaze, Maytyl shrugged. He thought he saw a hint of pity in her expression, and it irritated him.

As the delegation drew closer, his subordinates moved to surround them. The action could not be helped if it was called intimidation, but Dagobard realized his valiant men were faltering.

Through their midst advanced the next king of the kingdom and his retainers. Just as Dagobard was about to find himself impressed by their dignified bearing, he noticed the presence of one out-of-place man. Beside Craig, he was clearly fidgeting, his restless eyes darting from side to side.

That man was a symbol of misfortune for Dagobard. His name, if he recalled, was Ricardo Vinder. He ludicrously called himself a merchant.

"I am grateful for your welcome, Prince Dagobard."

"You have come a long way, Prince Craig. To be honest… I am astounded that you truly came yourself."

"Well, the road was quite harsh. I am glad we could arrive as planned."

Craig must have realized that Dagobard’s word "astounded" was not a taunt. He laughed. Dagobard regained his composure. He suppressed his earlier diffidence and spoke.

"Indeed, it seems the kingdom must be in dire straits."

No matter how much power they displayed, there was a reason the kingdom had gone "this far." As the Empire’s representative, he had to ascertain that reason.

"Ricardo-dono. No, it was Special Envoy of the Kingdom, wasn’t it. Welcome to Mardrass. As promised, to my homeland…"

In the corner of his eye, Princess Lisabet, who had disembarked from the horse-dragon carriage, was approaching a young man in plain clothes.

"First, I would like you to rest from your journey at my mansion. Since you have taken the trouble to come all this way, I wish to extend every possible welcome. Do you have any requests."

Princess Lisabet’s voice was barely free of a fawning tone, but it was tinged with guilt for having deliberately made them take such a dangerous route.

"Thank you. This is a bit different, but. In that case…"

A somewhat listless voice reached Dagobard’s ears. Ricardo, with his out-of-place attire and demeanor, looked less like a civil official and more like a mere commoner. But Dagobard had now seen that unchanging appearance three times. Each time this man showed his face, he had been subjected to unforeseen setbacks. He kept his gaze warily fixed on Craig, but his ears strained so as not to miss Ricardo’s words.

"I’d actually like to see a little farther in, but like His Highness the Crown Prince said, there’s no road, so it’s difficult. Would it be possible for us to borrow that horse-dragon carriage."

The man spoke while looking at the horse-dragon carriage Princess Lisabet had arrived in. Dagobard could not believe his ears. Princess Lisabet was speechless too.

"And, um, how far in would you like to go."

"That mountain over there, um, was it Wyvern Mountain, at the foot of it."

To the bewildered Princess Lisabet, Ricardo pointed at the mountain cloaked in a crimson forest at the farthest end of the wyvern’s domain. It was a place separated from the Mountains of Despair by only a single river.

"There are some ancient ruins there, you see. I’d like to have a look at them…"

At this attitude, as if he were continuing a sightseeing trip, Dagobard was utterly stunned.