[V12C36] Inexperienced Lord and the Great Witch

The lord of Rainfield, Elliott Howard, ran his fingers through his neatly combed hair, disheveling it in frustration at the series of tragic reports.

A herd of earth dragons was currently rampaging through the forest just outside town, in the direction of the temple.

The wind spirit known as the Envoy was engaging the dragons, and Elliott had deployed the town’s soldiers as well. However, the dragons were pushing them back.

They had already evacuated the residents of the temple, but the townspeople were panicking at the possibility that the dragons would target them next.

(I’ve sent rescue requests to my father and the capital, but will they reach us in time? Or will they even come in the first place? How many combat-ready men do we have left? What should I do if the dragons enter the city? Do we have the evacuation routes ready? How am I supposed to ensure my orders reach everyone?)

Elliott tried to read the documents again, but his eyes glazed over, unable to process the numbers. His growing anxiety was stripping him of his ability to think clearly.

If this was a game of chess, he would be given plenty of thinking time, and his opponent was not allowed to make moves on his turn. Unfortunately, reality would not be kind.

By the time Elliott formed a countermeasure for one subject, the situation had already taken a turn for the worse.

“Your Lordship, perhaps you should consider evacuation now…”

One of Elliott’s subordinates approached him with a suggestion.

This made Elliott furrow his brows, but he quickly gritted his teeth and forced his mouth back into a smile.

(You want me to evacuate? And abandon this town?)

Elliott knew that there were plenty of people who could replace him.

The lord’s job was to take command, leading the townspeople and issuing evacuation orders… but it didn’t necessarily have to be him. There were plenty of people who were more experienced and more capable.

Even so, the Lord of Rainfield was Elliott Howard, not any of those other people.

“A lord who runs away first won’t have anyone following him,” Elliott countered.

He knew that if he fled now, he would never be able to claim his title again.

That was why he continued gritting his teeth and staring at the reports. He needed to find the best move he could make.

“Your Lordship, it’s terrible!”

A girl with fluffy blonde hair shouted, rushing into his office without knocking. She was the current Songstress of the temple, Rosey Moore.

Since the Shefield temple was located in dragon-infested forest, she was among the temple residents who evacuated into this mansion.

Elliott lifted his face from the reports, glaring at Rosey.

“…Things are already awful,” Elliott muttered. “It can’t possibly get any worse.”

“You’ll regret those words,” Rosey replied. “Two fire dragons have shown up on the other side.”

“What!?”

Elliott stood up and looked outside the window, letting out a gasp of astonishment.

Black smoke was billowing out of the forest. The trees were on fire, likely due the breath of a fire dragon.

Elliott quickly turned to his subordinates.

“Cut down some trees to prevent the fire from spreading!”

“B-But those trees are required to contain the mana concentration. Cutting them down may cause a spread of mana contamination…!”

The center of Rainfield’s forest had very high mana concentration. It would normally be more spread out, if not for the special trees growing there. These trees possessed the property of storing mana, allowing them to act as a sort of buffer zone.

Cutting down the trees would release all of the mana stored in them, causing the mana to spread and contaminate the town.

If that were to happen, the entire town of Rainfield would turn into a region uninhabitable by humans.

(But if we don’t do anything, they’ll burn down either way!)

Even as they argued, more and more smoke was rising from the forest.

Elliott went out onto the balcony and glared in the direction of the forest.

It wasn’t visible from the window, but after stepping onto the balcony, Elliott could see multiple dots of red across the forest. The fire was spreading.

“Dammit…”

Elliott contemplated his options.

(Do we have enough water for firefighting? And manpower? I’ve gone through town several times after the festival, so I remember where the water sources are. The problem is the manpower. If we can’t get enough people to help, then we have no choice but to cut down the trees…!)

It was then that Elliott spotted a black dot in the sky, hidden behind a screen of smoke. He contorted his face in further despair.

As the black dot grew closer, it turned into the silhouette of a large creature with wings. This was a wyvern.

“Earth dragons, fire dragons, and now a wyvern…!”

They already had their hands full with the earth dragons, yet now they had to deal with firefighting and even a wyvern.

Elliott felt his legs wobbling. He wanted to collapse to the ground and just give up. But his position would not allow that.

It was the duty of the lord to struggle until the bitter end.

“There’s a wyvern approaching!” Elliott shouted. “Evacuate everyone into buildings with roofs!”

Despite giving the order, Elliott had a concern about this approach.

Hiding indoors would save them from the wyvern, but what if the fire spread into town? What if they failed to put out the fires fast enough?

How could they defend themselves from the earth dragons, the fire, and the wyvern at the same time? Was it even possible?

The problems just kept showing up one after another. Elliott felt like his head was going to explode.

He was responsible for the lives of his people, and the heavy weight on his shoulders made his legs tremble.

(We just have to solve our problems one by one! Top priority is the fire dragons. We have to drive them away and put out the fire before it’s too late. Then we can focus on the other…)

“Watch out!!” Rosey screamed from inside the room.

Watch out? For what? Elliott fell to the ground in surprise as a large shadow descended upon him.

(An even larger wyvern! There was another one!?)

This was the first time Elliott had seen the thick claws of a wyvern in person. Each one was as big as the tip of a spear.

Those enormous claws were about to snatch him off the balcony. Once that happened, Elliott was as good as dead. Even if he somehow managed to avoid getting torn apart, he would be crushed in the wyvern’s grasp.

When was the last time he had felt death so close?

(Oh right, back when that damn servant strangled me…)

How ironic that he would remember his most detestable memory right before the end.

Literally anything else would be better… for example…

Elliott closed his eyes and imagined a monotone voice.

“Bocchama, time to wake up.”

In his childhood, he had heard these words practically every day.

“…Nanny,” Elliott muttered unconsciously, before he realized that the voice was wrong. He remembered the voice of his nanny very well, and this wasn’t it.

Elliott opened his eyes to see a dead wyvern with its wings torn off, and a beautiful blonde maid floating above the railing of the balcony.

“Good morning, Elliott-bocchama.”

It was the wind spirit Rynzbelfied, and she was cradling an unfamiliar woman in her arms.

The woman had her reddish-brown hair tied behind her head and wore no makeup. She was wearing a mage’s robe and equipped with the staff of an advanced mage.

She smiled and waved at Elliott.

“Hey there. Sorry for being unable to give a proper greeting, Your Lordship. I just recovered from an illness, you see, so I’m not in perfect condition.”

Elliott was too stupefied to respond to the mage’s casual greeting. Meanwhile, Ryn continued in her usual monotone voice.

“As much as I would like to prepare your morning tea, I have some urgent business to attend to. Please wait one moment.”

Ryn flew off with the mage still in her arms. Then, the mage pointed her staff in the direction of the forest.

After a swing of her staff, large balls of water began raining down on the forest fire. Her second swing created a barrier to immobilize the fire and earth dragons.

She continued chanting and swung her staff for a third time. This fired a volley of wind blades, shooting down the approaching wyvern.

During this, her water and barrier spells remained active.

(Did she just use three spells at the same time…? No, that shouldn’t be possible…)

Elliott could only watch as the forest fire disappeared before his eyes.

Then, the woman began a longer chant. This created a large magic circle at the tip of her staff. White particles of light started converging at the center of the magic circle.

“Rubelmeria, please evacuate the people in the forest,” Ryn said in the direction of the forest.

“Uwooogh! Roger that, Rynzbelfied-niisama!”

A powerful wind blew through the forest.

The next instant, a young blond man in priestly attire flew out of the trees. He was the greater spirit known as the Envoy, and he had a slight resemblance to Ryn.

The spirit raised his hands, and a large number of people floated into the sky, wrapped in his wind. These were the soldiers and firefighters sent in to deal with the earth dragons and forest fire. All of them seemed incredibly surprised at the wind spirit’s sudden appearance.

“Rynzbelfied-niisama! I’ve got all the humans under my protection!”

“So it seems, Carla.”

“Good, my chant is complete too.”

The woman in Ryn’s arms turned her head to look down at Elliott.

“Sorry about this, but I have to blow up part of the forest along with the fire. A high-powered spell is the quickest and most effective way to make the dragons retreat.”

The woman’s words left Elliott dumbfounded.

Blow up the forest? That sounded incredibly unrealistic, but it would be problematic even if possible.

“W-Wait!” Elliott shouted. “Those trees there absorb mana! Knocking them down runs the risk of spreading mana contamination!”

“The mana here won’t spread very quickly. I confirmed that in my previous investigation. And don’t worry about the trees, I’ll contact House Roseberg to help you regrow them.”

After the casual reply, the woman adjusted her grip on the staff.

There were six magic circles in front of her; a large one in the center surrounded by five smaller ones. Then, the woman pointed her staff at the forest, creating a seventh magic circle at its tip.

The condensed light transformed into the shape of a spear. Perhaps it was too large to be called a spear, since it was as wide as a log.

Meanwhile, the witch behind this spell uttered the trigger in a completely unadorned voice.

“Pierce through, Starspear.”

The spear of light shot forward at an incredible speed, slicing through the forest. Then, it exploded, engulfing the earth dragons, the fire dragons, and the burning trees all at once.

The dazzling explosion forced Elliott to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he couldn’t believe what he saw.

The flash of light had left nothing behind. The dragons, the fire, and the trees themselves were all completely annihilated.

The only sign that something had once been there were the few light particles shimmering in the air. But those quickly dissipated as well.

(Such power…)

Elliott stood frozen, mouth agape, as Ryn descended before him. Her arms still cradled the witch responsible for this grand display of magic.

He approached Ryn and muttered, “Oi, don’t tell that mage is…”

“Oh yes. Allow me to introduce her,” Ryn said with a nod. “This is your Nanny’s significant other.”

“I’m the Starspear Witch, Carla Maxwell. Nice to meet you.”

Carla overwrote Ryn’s introduction with a wry smile.

She seemed very relaxed, lacking the presence characteristic of someone who was once a Sage. That said, her unwavering composure during this emergency was something that Elliott lacked.

“Rainfield is a land that sees few dragons,” Carla mumbled as she observed the town. “It’s only natural that you don’t have many weapons or soldiers.”

She was right; Rainfield was incredibly lacking in anti-dragon measures and experience. Their response could have been much faster and thorough.

Unlike Carla, Elliott failed to make a prompt decision to cut down the trees and stop the fire.

Elliott clenched his fists, realizing this was the fault of his own incompetence. However, Carla smiled at him like a cat dozing in the sun.

“But I have to say, you did a good job hanging in there.”

Elliott raised his head, looking up at the great witch who praised him.

Meanwhile, the wind spirit carrying her nodded in agreement. Her face was completely expressionless, but it seemed to have a hint of pride.

“Of course he did, that’s my Bocchama.”

“…By the way, who is this ‘Nanny’?” (Carla)

“That refers to me.” (Ryn)

“…What about ‘Bocchama’?” (Carla)

“That refers to Elliott-bocchama.” (Ryn)

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