“Wow. This actually works?”
Danil looked down over the battlefield in admiration.
“To think every one of them succeeded. Honestly, I thought a few would fail.”
Sleep was an easy spell, one even a 2nd Circle mage could use. But once the range increased, it was a different story. It required precise mana control.
Beyond just two meters, failure was common, and even if it activated, its effect was weak.
For an ordinary mage, about one meter was the limit.
And yet right now, Danil was succeeding one after another from more than ten meters away.
It was thanks to the hellish special training he had undergone with Titania, which had sent the precision of his mana control through the roof.
“All that suffering was worth it.”
Feeling satisfied, Danil poured out spell after spell in rapid succession.
The warhorses of the Bima tribe struck by his magic toppled one after another.
“Graaagh!”
“Wake the horses, the horses! Get the warriors up!”
“Like hell!”
“Aim for the legs!”
“Neighhh!!!”
“You damned bastards!”
“Push them back!”
Danil’s Sleep spell turned the hellish battlefield into a hellish slaughterhouse.
The soldiers swung their spears and blades at the legs of the horses that had fallen asleep and collapsed. The horses’ mournful screams burst out one after another.
A horse with an injured leg was nothing more than a slab of meat waiting for euthanasia.
The soldiers who had clashed with the highland peoples dozens of times knew that fact better than anyone.
“Without their horses, they’re nothing but a rabble! Strike them down!”
“Waaaah!”
“Graaagh!”
“You damn dirt-eating bastards! Come on, come—ghk!”
At the knight’s impassioned shout, the soldiers charged fiercely.
The mounted Bima tribesmen had been terrifying foes, but Bima tribesmen without horses were no more than ordinary infantry, and there was nothing to fear.
Their powerful cavalry tactics had now become clumsy individual brawling, and attacks like that did not work at all against the battle-hardened soldiers of the north.
The battlefield had turned.
The soldiers who had been hard-pressed only moments ago were now overwhelming the Bima tribe.
Screams from the Bima tribesmen erupted everywhere.
“Drive out the Bima tribe!”
“Waaaah! Reinforcements are here!”
“Kill the barbarians!”
“Graaagh!”
“Captain!”
“Damn it! Retreat! Retreat!”
Before long, when reinforcements came pouring in, the faces of the Bima warriors turned ashen.
Realizing that the tide of battle had completely turned against them, they tried to retreat, but it was not easy.
The knights and soldiers had already anticipated it and were blocking their escape routes.
“Damn it! Group up! We’ll break through at one point and open a path of retreat!”
“Shit!”
“I’ll beat you to death, you dirt-eating bastards!”
Killing intent gathered in the eyes of the Bima tribesmen as they clustered together.
They were prepared to fight to the death.
The soldiers swallowed hard, and the knights clicked their tongues.
A cornered rat would bite a cat.
Everyone thought finishing off those men with their backs to the wall would prove quite difficult.
Everyone except one person.
“Lightning Chain.”
—Kwa-kwa-kwang!
“Aaagh!”
“Graaagh!”
“Huh?!”
Blue lightning fell from the sky.
The bolt struck precisely in the middle of the group, and the Bima tribesmen foamed at the mouth as they collapsed to the ground, convulsing.
Everyone’s eyes turned to the sky.
“They have no experience whatsoever in anti-magic warfare. Against a mage, they should have scattered, if anything, yet not only did they bunch up, they even dragged it out?”
Danil chanted once more.
Another streak of lightning struck the ground, and screams burst out.
“Graaagh!!!”
“What can you do? If you don’t know, you have to learn the hard way.”
“A-attack! Attack!”
“Waaaah!!!”
At one knight’s command, Kazan’s soldiers rushed at the Bima tribe.
The Bima tribesmen, stunned by Danil’s magic, could not put up any meaningful resistance.
Despair and resignation appeared in their eyes as they helplessly watched the spears and blades falling toward their heads.
“We’ve defeated the Bima tribe!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!!!”
The knights and soldiers, who had achieved the great feat of wiping out all the invading Bima tribesmen, embraced one another and roared in victory.
*
“Phew.”
‘It ended more easily than I thought. What a relief.’
Looking down at the battlefield where his allies had claimed victory, Danil fell into a strange mood.
‘I think I can confidently call myself a magus now, wherever I go.’
A magus was an honorific title for a 5th Circle mage.
Most used it to introduce themselves, but Danil had not.
Because he knew his own skills were lacking to call himself a 5th Circle Magus.
Except for Imps, his magical ability was only at the average level of a 4th Circle Master. If he carelessly called himself a magus and his shortcomings were exposed, there would be no greater humiliation.
So every time he introduced himself, he called himself a mage.
‘I don’t have to worry about that anymore.’
Today’s achievements said it all.
They told him that now, wherever he went, he could introduce himself proudly as a magus.
‘Thank you, Department Head Titania.’
Danil offered his gratitude to the superior who had made him into a true 5th Circle Expert Magus.
“Our hero has arrived!”
“Wooooaaaah!”
No sooner had Danil descended from the sky than the soldiers came crowding around him.
“Lord Mage! Thanks to you, we survived! Honestly, I thought we were going to be trampled to death under the Bima tribe’s hooves!”
“This is the first time in my life I’ve ever dealt with the Bima tribe so easily!”
“That was truly timely support. I would like to fight alongside you again next time.”
“Right. Which mercenary corps are you with? Or are you an adventurer?”
“There’ll be a reward from above. Please tell us your name.”
“Hahaha. Please, calm down.”
The attention of the excited soldiers poured onto Danil. That was how impressive Danil’s contribution had been.
Danil answered calmly.
“My apologies for the late introduction. I am Danil Norman, a 5th Circle Magus dispatched from the Magic Tower. I look forward to working with you.”
“From the Magic Tower?”
“Really?”
Surprised gazes poured in from every direction.
They had never imagined that the precious talent whom even the Northern Grand Duke could only hire four of would be the hero standing before them.
But their surprise lasted only a moment, and the soldiers smiled even more brightly.
These were veterans who had defended Kazan and grown seasoned in battle.
That was why, after fighting alongside someone once, they could quickly judge whether that person was a hindrance who would get in the way or a comrade who would help in battle.
Danil was clearly the latter.
“Hoho. What an honored guest we have here.”
“This year might be easier to defend than last year, eh?”
“The Magic Tower’s reputation was no empty name. Sir Danil. Thank you once again.”
“Haha! It’s reassuring to fight alongside Sir Danil. Isn’t that right, everyone?”
“That’s right!”
“Highland bastards! Come at us anytime. We’ll beat every last one of you to death, just like those Bima sons of bitches!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Danil! Danil! Danil!!!”
The soldiers’ roars and praises of Danil rang throughout Kazan.
*
‘How can this be?’
Rainer and his vassals, who arrived at the scene belatedly, could not hide their astonishment.
That was how shocking the report they had received from the walls had been.
“The Bima tribe attacked with a hundred riders?”
The first thing they had heard was bad news.
The Bima tribe. Lunatics obsessed with horses to the point that they insisted on waging cavalry battles even in siege warfare.
In terms of danger, they were a tribe that ranked within the top ten among the highland peoples.
Whenever they appeared, soldiers usually died in droves, so the people groaned.
But the report that followed was the complete opposite of what they had expected.
“What? The damage is only this much?”
“Is that true?”
The damage was so small that it was impossible to believe more than a hundred Bima tribesmen had attacked.
How in the world? The answer to that question was astonishing.
Rainer’s gaze turned toward the mage mingling with the soldiers and savoring victory.
“I was surprised when he was the first to rush to the scene, but... his skill is even more surprising.”
Rainer was stunned by Danil’s tactical judgment.
He had neutralized the Bima tribe and reversed the tide of battle with support magic, not offensive magic.
For an ordinary mage, that would have been unthinkable.
“Are all mages from the Magic Tower like that?”
“Of course not. That man is special.”
“I thought so.”
At Cyril’s answer, Rainer rubbed his chin.
The records on paper, which he had half believed and half doubted, were not fabrications but the truth.
Having grasped the skill and value of Danil the mage—no, Danil the magus—Rainer’s eyes gleamed.
His calculations were complete.
That man was a tactical asset capable of changing the flow of a battlefield.
In other words, he was a producer of merits that would make Rainer’s position as successor even more secure!
There was no reason not to get closer to him.
“Cyril. Send someone to the castle.”
“For what reason, sir?”
“The party must go on. Look over there. Isn’t there a perfect stage for a victory party to replace the interrupted welcoming ceremony?”
“...I will proceed at once.”
Admiring the speed of Rainer’s calculations, Cyril bowed his head.
After changing his clothes with the help of the servants, Rainer approached Danil.
The soldiers, who had been swept up in the heat of victory, recognized Rainer and quickly straightened their posture.
“You truly did splendidly, Sir Danil! To think you repelled the infamous Bima tribe so easily. As expected of a magus from the Magic Tower.”
“I was merely fortunate.”
“Haha. How modest of you.”
After shaking hands with Danil, Rainer looked around at the soldiers.
“Now, soldiers. Shout Sir Danil’s name once more! Loud enough that every citizen of Kazan will know the name of the hero who allowed us to claim victory tonight!!!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Danil! Danil! Danil!!!”
At Rainer’s incitement, the soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs once again.
Rainer could not take his eyes off Danil, who looked flustered yet not displeased by the reaction.
No one noticed, but the look in his eyes... was astonishingly similar to the look Titania had worn when she coveted Danil.