CH 327

C327 – The Last Defense / Jean

I ordered all troops to retreat to the center of the base, but it was difficult. A large number of magicraft were destroyed during the retreat.

“Iron Knights! Cover our retreating allies! We need to save as many as we can!”

Despite saying this, I knew that the members of the Iron Knights were quite exhausted. Even so, I bit my lip at the situation where I had to give such an order.

“Jean! Tris magicraft is badly damaged! We’re going to retrieve it and retreat!”

Brünnhilde reports that to me. I can’t tell her to leave it alone and hold on, so I accept it. More bad reports follow.

“Yukiha’s and Arthur’s magicrafts are damaged! We’re going to have to retreat.”

“What the hell, Emina? What’s going on?”

“An elite force of the enemy came in. We returned fire and killed dozens of them, but we also took a lot of damage.”

……is already getting out of hand.

“Alana, Kiyone, where are you?”

“Engaging Valkyrie Empire troops at the west gate! They’re pretty strong, so we don’t have time to talk!”

“Nanami, Lorgo, what’s going on over there?”

“We’re falling back, covering our allies! I’m afraid we’re getting flooded with more and more enemies…….”

I’m not sure what to do.

In my impatience, even though I knew it was impossible, I urged Yuta and the others to come to my rescue.

“Yuta! Where are you? We can’t hold on much longer!”

Perhaps because I was feeling impatient, I had sent a direct communication to Yuta’s spirit box instead of Fugaku’s. I thought he was not on his magicraft, but Yuta replied. However, there was a gurgling noise and I couldn’t hear the contents clearly.

“What’s going on?”

“……Jean……now…………here……a little……”

I don’t know what’s going on……and I’m bewildered by the situation.

I was about to check with Fugaku, but here the war situation changed further, and I received an urgent call.

“Jean! Our allies in the west have been destroyed! Alana’s magicraft is wrecked! It looks like the one who did this to Alana is the High King Curelles of the Twelve Heavenly Masters. Curelles is leading an elite force towards you! I’m retreating with the injured Alana!”

“What? Is Alana okay?”

“She’s unconscious, but her life is not threatened.”

I am deeply relieved to hear that. However, the current situation is the worst. Our friends in the west have been destroyed. Alana was hurt, and Kiyone was retreating, so there was no one to stop the enemy in the west.

If the High King Curelles has made it this far, it’s over…….I don’t know how many elite troops Curelles is leading, but I’m sure it’s quite a few, since Kiyone doesn’t hesitate to call them elite. We no longer had the strength to compete with them.

Just when I was beginning to feel a little resigned, Nanami said to me in an excited tone,

“Jean! Look up in the sky!”

“Up in the sky?”

I did as I was told and looked up at the sky through the small window on the side of Musashi’s bridge. Then I saw an object flying towards me at a great speed. If I look closely at the object, it seems to be a magicraft.

“It’s…….”

There were three magicrafts that flew in, one of which I recognized.

“Viktor! So the other to must be Yuta and Nagisa new magicrafts!”

To my surprise, I received a transmission from Yuta. The noise is gone and I can hear it clearly.

“Jean, we’re back early!”

“Are you alone? What happened to Fugaku?”

“We heard about the bad war situation, so we flew in alone.”

“That’s a good decision! We’re in desperate straits with Alana down.”

“What? Is Alana okay?”

“She’s fine! I need you to do something!”

“All right, I’m on it!”

Yuta says so simply. But his words reassured me more than any powerful reinforcements. I knew from the bottom of my heart that everything would be okay.