That said, her own ears felt a little hot too.
“…Miss Baraja. Your men have made a great deal of progress since last time. Surely that must be due to your hard work as their leader.”
His pleasantries both embarrassed Neia and left her at a loss for how to answer.
It would be embarrassing to say that they got nervous and can’t show their full ability because Your Majesty arrived. They would think so too.
Therefore, Neia decided to take his words as they were given. However—
“No, it’s nothing of the sort. I hardly taught them anything. They could have done that by themselves.”
“Is that so? Well, if you say so, then it must be true.”
In other words — the Sorcerer King did not think so. Which meant that the Sorcerer King thought very highly of Neia.
Neia raised her voice a little to try and hide her desire to skip in delight.
“In, in that case, Your Majesty, does your presence here mean that the meetings are over?”
“Ah, yes. They’re done for the day, but that said, I did not make any special suggestions.”
Right now, this city had a mountain of problems, all of which stemmed from the increasing population. The small city of Lloyds had originally been home to less than 20,000 people, but after gathering the people from the liberated camps, there were more than 150,000 people here now.
The most recent of these overpopulation problems was the slimes used in the sewers — the Sanitary Slimes — whose own population had surged due to an abundance in food and had thus caused a panic when they erupted from the waterways.
When the slime population grew, they were typically burned back down with magic items, but the unexpectedly rapid growth meant that this was not done in time and several men and women had been attacked.
When these men and women were surrounded by the slimes, a group of rubbish-clearing monsters called the Filth Eaters appeared from the sewers to help them.
Unlike how they appeared, the Filth Eaters were intelligent monsters, and they knew that humans could produce a great deal of their food, and so they saved the people with their acid-resistant bodies.
However, the people were not grateful to the Filth Eaters. That was because Sanitary Slimes were not infectious themselves, but the Filth Eaters who helped them were masses of disease. Thus, the people they had helped had fallen ill and were in a very bad state, particularly those who had contracted encephalitis.
In addition, it was winter now, so firewood and other fuels were scarce. Then there was the fact that there had been delays in the construction of housing. While there was no food shortage yet, that would become a danger in the future.
The Sorcerer King had been invited to many of the meetings to deal with these problems, possibly because they were counting on his prodigious knowledge to solve their problems.
While the Sorcerer King had simply said that he did not know that much and had merely sat aside to listen, such a person could not have been summoned to meetings time and time again.
The fact that he conducted himself so humbly despite being the king of a nation only deepened Neia’s respect for him.
“What do you intend to do next, Your Majesty?”
“Umu. I had intended to see if the transportation of logs was going well… Are you busy with practice, Miss Baraja? If you don’t mind, would you like to accompany me?”
In order to solve the lack of fuel and housing, they were using the Sorcerer King’s undead horses to transport logs from a distant forest. Initially, many people had been averse to using undead horses for transport, but now there was a steady stream of praise for the merits of these undead horses.
“No, please allow me to go with you! I am Your Majesty’s Squire, after all!”
The knowledge that she would be able to perform her squirely duties at long last and her delight at being alone with the Sorcerer King caused Neia to unconsciously speak faster and louder.
As a result, Neia’s ears burned.
“Is, is that so? Then let us proceed.”
“Yes! Please—”
Then, as though to interrupt her, a sky-scorching inferno erupted in the distance.
For a moment, Neia wondered what was burning.
But that was wrong. She had been too far off. That could not have been caused by any form of natural combustion.
That fire seemed to be enveloping the city. In other words, it was a wall of fire ― Neia’s mind immediately recalled what the members of Blue Rose had said.
“—Your Majesty! That’s—”
“Ah, it is as you are thinking, and the same as what I heard from Momon… the time has come at last. It’s Jaldabaoth. He’s attacking at last. Miss Baraja, I’m heading out.”
Had he anticipated this series of events? As though influenced by the Sorcerer King’s calm attitude, Neia’s heart calmed down as well. Or no, it would be better to say that the presence of a supreme being like the Sorcerer King gave her peace of mind.
“Where to!?”
“Ah ― hm. Jaldabaoth’s aim is still unclear. So, ah ― he might just be here to slaughter indiscriminately. However, if he has an objective, he’ll either be targeting me or the Holy Kingdom’s leadership, so it would be best if we met up. Tell your men to get ready for battle and then have them flee to a safe place.”
“Eh!?”
“They’ll be of no use against Jaldabaoth. In that case, it would be better to have them prepare to deal with any demons which might appear. Since the city will probably be in chaos now, once you form up your unit, won’t it be better to have them head outside the city?”
While his words had been unclear at first, perhaps he had organized his thoughts later on, because the middle part onwards was a nonstop series of instructions to Neia.
“Yes! Thank you very much, Your Majesty! Alright, everyone!”
While they had made plans in case Jaldabaoth led an army against them, they had not expected a blaze to surround the entire city. Another big problem was the fact that they did not know the extent of the preparations that the enemy had made.
Neia gave her instructions. There was only a single squad here and they could not do as they pleased, but as a team leader, she had a responsibility to do several things before her orders came.
The instructions went roughly like this:
Everyone in the squad was to take their families and head to the east gate, because if the enemy attacked, it was more likely that they would attack from the west gate. After that, they would form up at the east gate, and if there were demons outside the east gate, they would climb the walls near the east gate and attack them. In addition, they were to listen to Neia’s adjutant until she arrived and adapt to changes in the battlefield conditions.
Neia’s subordinates obeyed her instructions and moved swiftly into action.
“Your Majesty!”
After giving her orders, Neia turned back and saw that the Sorcerer King’s eyes were on his hands, while he had used a flight spell to rise to somewhere around the level of Neia’s head.
“Your Majesty! Let me go with you!”
Perhaps he was startled by Neia’s shout, but the Sorcerer King suddenly closed his hand and a quiet sound came from within.
“Hmm… well, all right.”
The Sorcerer King cast a flying spell on Neia as well. In that moment, she realized the greatness of magic as she learned what it was to fly.
Neia and the Sorcerer King moved as though they were skimming along the ground. They did not leave the surface except to soar over crowds of people, who had descended into chaos, because they could not get a grip on the situation. The reason for that was because flying in the air without cover made them very obvious, and if there were demons about, they might be subjected to attack spells from all directions.