Side Story â A certain princessâs memories (3)
#4 Their story: A certain villainâs story
âIs there a problem?â
âThere isnât.â
Why? Why was there no problems?
Iâd done something that might have been a bit dangerous but then she went and said oh-so-casually that there werenât any problems.
Seriously, for personal profit I fooled the palace office workers and sold out the name of a member of the imperial family to make a herb field?
Starting from the finance department, I chose locations, made a farm to raise herbs in, and even had personnel assigned to look after it, and all that was actually done just so I could drink my favourite tea!
And thereâs no problems!
If this was a democracy it wouldnât be weird for me to get impeached!
âEither way, Reiaâs back yet. Go and soothe her a bit.â
âYour Highness, people are beings that cry more when someone tries to get them to stop. Sir Reiaâs a simple person so if we wait sheâll calm down on her own and come back.â
So I say, but if Iâm seen next to a crying Sir Reia and misunderstood, thatâs a big problem.
Seriously, I thought she was just some barony or earlâs daughter, or a countess or baroness as the princessâs personal bodyguard.
But oh my god! It turns out sheâs a daughter of one of the famous Ten Great Families of the empire, a daughter of the Areista Marquisate!
And the most famous up and coming prospect of that family at that!
She was one who held overwhelming authority within her family that even the next marquis had to show deference to her!
And if word got out I made her cry?
The Areista family could just off me without anyone the wiser.
No, before that I could get stabbed by the female knights that all respect Sir Reia.
So letâs leave the teasing Sir Reia to within the princessâs rooms. Of course Iâm not going to stop.
Thatâs my only joy in this palace life and I canât give that up, too!
After a moment of silence, whether she didnât like that moment of quiet the princess said with a dry voice.
âIâm bored.â
She could be.
âSince Your Highness is free most of the time it canât be helped.â
Other members of the imperial family have personal tutors, and experience assorted duties, but our princess is doing nothing.
âIf you know then do something fun.â
âHow do you wish for me to do something fun?â
At my question the princess thought for a bit before she said with a smile.
âStrategy and tactics, are you good with those?â
Well, a bit of Sta**raft back in the dayâŚ(1)
#5 Their story: a certain bodyguardâs story.
âSniff. But Iâm still Her Highnessâs bodyguard.â
âYes. Sir Reia is a splendid knight!â
âYou can do it!â
âWe believe in you, Sir Reia! If we donât believe in you, who else can we believe in!â
As I rubbed my reddened eyes, I came out from the nearby maidsâ room and headed to Her Highnessâs room.
Her Highness was being much too mean lately.
Since mister Ast came along, Her Highnessâs teasing has only gotten worse.
She keeps making fun of me as if to say she wouldnât lost to Ast, but I would really, really like it if they wouldnât play games with me.
âAndâŚâ
If nothing else, I still have the chance for growth!
The maids said.
The size of a girlâs breasts do have to do with genes, but they can also be grown with effort.
And among the 208 secret techniques of the imperial palace there were also techniques to make your breasts bigger.
âThree massages a day, drink milk with blended strawberries.â
I looked at what Iâd written and nodded with resolve.
Yes, itâs not over yet. Iâm still nineteen! My growth period might not have ended!
ââŚRight?â
But tears spring to my eyes again.
Although my fatherâs a unique exception in our family as one of the advisors in the palace, but whether it was a specialty in our predominantly combat-orientated family, most of the women in my house had small breasts.
I think my youngest sister has the beginnings of sprouts, but theyâre about as big as mineâŚ
âItâs overâŚâ
The fire of hope died once again.
When I think that Iâm the same size as my twelve year-old sister, I think Iâm done for.
If I head back to Her Highnessâs room I think either she or Ast would tease me how my breasts are as big as a twelve year-oldâs.
Yep. I donât wanna go back. Should I run awayâŚ
âSob⌠no, I need to go.â
But I still need to protect Her Highness. Compared to her my br⌠my breasts arenât much⌠of a problem.
Yep. Compared to Her Highnessâs fate my breasts wouldnât even be worth comparing to.
âYour Highness, sorry Iâm late⌠huh?â
âNo, itâs impossible! Never! Even if youâre being pushed back isnât your argument seriously impossible?â
âI believe that Your Highness is the one that should be admitting that your commanding forces are destroyed.â
But inside the room that Iâd steeled myself to enter were Her Highness and mister Ast engaged in a fiery debate.
Considering the assorted types of pieces on the table, I think they were holding a mock war game.
It seemed that it was because they were at odds over a particular opinion.
And⌠I have a bad feeling about this. Really!
âReia!â
âSir Reia!â
In the middle of their argument the two of them turned to me and shouted.
Yep. As I thought. Iâd had a bad feeling about this. They were probably going to ask me, werenât they?
âDo you think this is possible? This rascal, no matter how much he hates losing heâs arguing something impossible.â
âI am simply arguing that what can be done can be done. Sir Reia, I understand Her Highnessâs desire for victory, but she also needs to know when to acknowledge defeat.â
Seeing Her Highness and mister Ast run towards me I tried to run away but even before I could open the already-closed door, all I could do was turn my back flat against the door, unable to retreat any further.
âReia!â
âSir Reia!â
Hiiik! Scary! Her Highness is scary, mister Ast is scary too!
Logically I would listen to both sides and choose one, but in that case the other would tear into me.
Her Highness is scary like Her Highness, and mister Ast is picky like Ast is.
Uwaah. I donât wannaâŚ
I just got myself sorted! Iâm about to cry again!
But mister Ast always said that even if the sky were to fall, there was always a hole to escape through.
And now is the time to find that hole in the sky!
âCa, canât you just prove it?â
âProve?â
âYes! Try it out in real life and if it doesnât work then mister Ast is the loser, and if it does it would be mister Astâs victory, wouldnât it?â
At the perfect answer that would bring even a famous judge to tears Her Highness and Ast drew back from me.
I clutched my shocked chest and sighedâŚ
âHic, theyâre smallâŚâ
As I calmed my shocked chest another wound opened up and I had to calm myself again.
But I didnât know then. That this one line, would mark a turning point in history.
#6 Their story: a certain empire army(soldier)âs story (sky episode)
âItâs cold.â
âIt is.â
âNo matter how I see this I donât think this is rightâŚâ
Even as I shivered in the clouds 4000 metres above sea level I continued to cast magic.
But itâs cold.
Even if I do wear warm clothes when Iâm out flying, if I was called up suddenly for something like this then of course Iâd be underprepared. And it just had to be ice magic at that.
Damn it, Iâm freezing here, and I have to make ice!
âAst, was he? Damn him. For an asshole that sits warm and dry in an office he makes people pointlessly suffer. I will remember this.â
âDonât be like that. Heâs âthat imperial princessâsâ personal retinue, you know? Look at Sir Reia. Sheâs always suffering there.â
âNo, from what I heard from a reliable source, I heard he tears into Sir Reia with Her Highness as well? And apparently heâs pretty skilled at it too.â
âHa? You sure of your source? Someone in their right mind would bully Areistaâs Sword Princess? Is that even possible unless youâre a lunatic? Is it?â
âYeah, to think an ordinary commoner would tease a swordsmaster. Thatâs actually scary itself.â
âHey, itâs dropping. Donât let it fall!â
Although we were all talking like this was part of our daily routine, this task was something that demanded oddly specific requirements.
Firstly, we needed to suppress our magic output to the point that the soldiers that Her Highness led couldnât detect us, and we werenât casting ice magic like we normally did, but drew in the water vapour in the air and froze it just like that.
It took longer to do this than youâd think, and since weâre producing normal ice it doesnât even float in the air like normal magic, so we needed to keep a normal chunk of ice floating in mid-air and hence the mana drain was intense.
To the extent that because of this, we had three experienced mages on a team for this job.
âWhat was next?â
âLetâs see. Cast protection magic and a magic barrier, acceleration magic, gravity magic, as much of these as possible?â
âIt might have been harder if it was ice magic, but since itâs a chunk of ice this shouldnât be too bad. It might be fun to draw a magic formation after using all those support spells?â
âBut was there anyone who said that this was possible?â
âThere wasnât. itâs been nearly a thousand years since battlemages were first used, you guys all know just how much developmentâs gone into anti-magic bombardment spells since then, right? Unless that enemy is either a retard or under conditions of a perfect ambush the likelihood of success isnât very high.â
I answered my subordinateâs question who was still diligently casting magic.
Now that I think about it, isnât this, actually quite a serious problem?
Although I thought it made absolutely no sense at first, but once we actually tried it the preparation steps were successful.
And if this actually worked, then the use of mages would change foreverâŚ
âRight, letâs drop it.â
âYes, sir.â
Once all the magics have been cast, the completed lump of ice was dropped.
The method was simple. We just had to undo the levitation magic weâd been maintaining and it would just fall on its own.
The gravity magic and acceleration magic let it hit the ground instantly.
âSo then. What happens if this works?â
As I watched the block of ice fall to the ground at a high speed, my subordinate asked me.
If this works? Well then.
âAll hell breaks loose.â
#7 Their story: a certain empire army(soldier)âs story (ground episode)
âWhy am I the targetâŚâ
âWell, itâs not like Her Highness can do it herselfâŚâ
Who would believe that the beauty whoâs making a teary face beside me, is actually said to be the most likely swordswoman to succeed the current Sword Star, the Sword Princess famous throughout the empire.
If the many female knights that dreamed of her knew this truth, theyâd all be running to kill that man named Ast.
Although of course theyâd fail because of Her Highness.
âEven so, thereâs zero possibility that this would work. It makes absolutely no sense. And in a state where we know a magic bombardment is coming it can never succeed.â
What is the flower of war?
Itâs magic.
The power of a magician brigadeâs large-formation spells that could overturn the results of a war thought to have been set in stone was known by every soldier out there.
And the methods to block this damage were diligently researched even in the age of peace where war was absent.
And because of that, the magesâ bombardments which used to be the number one danger on the battlefield, were faced with defensive tactics and skills where they only worked in an ambush, no, maybe not even an ambush any more.
âNow, see, Sir Reia. No matter how much you hide the presence of your mana, since magic spells need to be fired off with magic power anyway, the mana reactions will be detected no matter what.â
âIndeed.â
I showed the mana detector device that was blinking red to Sir Reia, who nodded as she looked at it with curiosity.
No matter if there was a specialist mage that interfered with our ability to detect magic use, the limits to that were very, very fixed.
Meaning that even if you couldnât detect a mageâs mana output from a distance not visible to the naked eye, once they fired it off the magic would be detected as it came to our location, and so the moment we noticed it, we could set up a magic barrier at any time.
âNow, look. Theyâre probably going to fire off a spell while hidden in the clouds, but if we carefully raise a magic barrier then we can easily defend against it.â
My subordinates were already casting layers upon layers of magic barriers up to as high as their spellcasting could reach.
Now, look.
Using these magic barriers we will stop that magic bombardmeâŚ