“Hah… hah… hah…”
I was out of breath, and my vision blurred.
“I told you again and again that this was reckless! You kept running with wounds that severe…!”
Three bullets in the abdomen and one in the right leg.
A total of four bullets had passed through my body.
“The bleeding from your abdomen is terrible… There’s a limit to how long you can force your body to move with magic!”
There were many kinds of non-attribute magic.
Some could regenerate lost blood as quickly as it escaped. Using such spells made it possible to keep moving for a while even after being shot.
An anti-magic barrier couldn’t stop a spell already operating inside the body.
“I still have enough blood, don’t I?”
“Not for much longer! Replacing blood with magic is nothing to be proud of. Blood made by magic is only an imperfect imitation. It’s useful for only the briefest emergency treatment… Yet you have used it continuously. It’s a miracle you’re still alive.”
“Colonel Kernel. You’re a fire-attribute mage, correct?”
“I’m, but that’s irrelevant now. Please stay still. I’ll stop the bleeding with bandages—”
“I don’t need bandages. Burn the wounds with magic instead.”
“What!?”
“That will stop the bleeding.”
“What are you saying!?”
“Order the anti-magic barrier lowered for a short time.”
Three hours had passed since I arrived at the front.
The Lunoa army had been forced to flee from the enemy’s counteroffensive, but with my contribution it had successfully counterattacked and retaken the trenches that had once been occupied.
“A-Are you sane!?”
“Perfectly.”
Supplies still remained in the trenches.
The enemy had taken about a quarter of them, but what remained was more than sufficient compared with our previously meager equipment.
“We still have to move. We have only retaken our position.”
There were enough supplies to launch an offensive.
“Their trenches are thinly held now because they lost men in the attack. We can do the same thing to them. This is our only chance.”
“That’s reckless! We should be satisfied that we prevented the front from collapsing. The soldiers are exhausted!”
“But that won’t win the war! We have little time before the Rosha Empire completes its mobilization. We must defeat the Kingdom of Friez.”
In this world, Lunoa had never held a coronation in the royal palace of Friez.
The Kingdom of Friez therefore had no deep desire for revenge against Lunoa. Forcing it to surrender early was realistic; we might not even need to reach the capital.
“…If the war drags on, we lose. That’s why we must end it quickly, and why we must attack. We have to do it now.”
That was right.
War had to be ended. Then I could return sooner, and Sister Shia wouldn’t have to be lonely any longer… Now. It had to be now.
Yes. I wasn’t mistaken.
“Ngh.”
I rose and left the command tent.
If Colonel Kernel wouldn’t act, then I would.
“You there.”
Outside the tent, I stopped a soldier running busily through the trench.
“Sir!”
“Have the supplies checked at once. We’ll launch another offensive immediately.”
“…What? An offensive, sir?”
“Yes. Lower the anti-magic barrier once as well. My bleeding must be stopped. Find someone who can use fire magic—”
“Lord Noah!?”
Colonel Kernel hurried out of the tent, calling my name as I calmly issued orders.
“You—carry out Lord Noah’s orders without fail. This is a decision of the high command. All of you, listen! We return to our original objective. We’ll crush the Kingdom of Friez! Prepare yourselves!”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers responded more readily to Colonel Kernel, who had long been their superior on this front, than they did to me.
“Now, Lord Noah, return to the tent… We’ll stop your bleeding there.”
“…Even that would take too much time.”
The reputation of House Willard had already fallen once.
Troops had been drawn away from this front to compensate for House Willard’s early collapse, allowing the recent counterattack. The soldiers here could fairly be said to resent our family.
I believed I had restored our reputation to some extent by running ahead of everyone else and fighting on the battlefield.
But it wasn’t enough. I hadn’t yet won enough trust to secure the soldiers’ morale for another offensive and another victory.
I had to show them. I had to let them see me fight and see my resolve.
“Come, hurry… It would be better for them to see their leaders make sacrifices as well, wouldn’t it?”
I sat down where I was and lifted my uniform.
“What…!?”
The soldiers around me stared in horror as they saw for the first time the terrible condition beneath my clothing. I looked straight at Colonel Kernel.
“Quickly.”
“Understood…”
He nodded, then held a hand over one of my wounds.
“Prepare yourself…”
“I know.”
The anti-magic barrier had already been lowered.
Flames danced.
“…Aaaaaaaaaah!?”
I tried to suppress my scream, but after biting it back for a single instant, I could bear no more and it escaped my mouth.
My sight fell into darkness and sweat poured from me. The foul smell of burning flesh stabbed my nose.
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
“L-Lord Noah… There are still two more.”
“Just hurry!”
My sight returned slightly.
I glared at the shaken colonel and urged him to finish quickly.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!?”
My screams echoed, and the soldiers stopped working.
“Ngh!”
Seeing them from the corner of my eye, I pushed Colonel Kernel away after he finished cauterizing the second wound and called out to those around me.
“Men! Don’t stop! For the Kingdom of Lunoa! We’ll win! We ourselves will win! We’ll become heroes! Now hurry!”
My consciousness was beginning to fail.
But still… we had to win. We had to win and end the war.
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