After declaring the end of the banquet, the count left the party hall with only a select few. As Erika climbed onto the dais and calmly began guiding people either home or to the shelters within the castle, Noel spoke.
“This shouldn’t be possible….”
“Right?”
It was such a bewildering situation that I found myself agreeing with Noel.
Monsters could appear anywhere, and attacking people or villages was only natural for them.
But even if they looked like mindless beasts on the outside, they were still living creatures, and plenty of them could judge advantage and disadvantage.
In short, they might attack a small village or a rural estate, but no monster would look at a properly equipped castle and decide to assault it.
But judging by how urgently the knight had delivered that report, and in front of so many people no less, it definitely wasn’t a joke or a lie.
“Professor Reina will tell us what happened and what we’re going to do next.”
Mina spoke quietly, as if telling us not to act rashly.
This was a place where nobles using magic and taking to the front lines was considered a virtue, but if we stepped forward on our own when the count hadn’t asked for help, it would damage his dignity.
Professor Reina, who was a former knight and had come with us as something like our chaperone, would hear the instructions and let us know what to do.
“We should get changed first.”
“Yeah. We’ve accomplished the goal of showing these off.”
“I’ll take you.”
We couldn’t move around as we pleased, but since we didn’t know what might happen, it was better to make ourselves as ready to move as possible while things were still relatively safe.
There was a space on one side of the banquet hall for fixing or changing outfits if something went wrong with them, so they could change there.
Apparently, both of them had clothes there as well, since storage was available too.
I escorted the two of them to the room, and while they went in to change, I began hearing the conversations around me.
-“For one of Count Phoenix’s knights to be that alarmed… could it be quite dangerous…?”
-“No. I heard military discipline is strict here because it’s close to the front lines. They say they report even the slightest irregularity. I doubt it’s anything serious.”
-“Monsters, all of a sudden? Come to think of it, I heard the rate of giant monster appearances has gone up a lot lately….”
Most people seemed to trust Count Phoenix and assumed things would be all right.
However, perhaps because something so unusual had happened, more of them were chattering as if trying to solve a riddle.
Overall, there didn’t seem to be any sense of crisis.
‘Should I go take a look at the Cyclops?’
Once Noel and Mina returned, and if Erika and Professor Reina allowed it, it would be best to go.
I was also curious how much of it had been assembled by now….
“Lord Aizen?”
“…That was fast.”
Just as I was thinking they had changed surprisingly quickly despite both having been in dresses, Professor Reina returned.
“So you were here, Aizen. You two as well. Follow me for a moment.”
“Please tell us exactly what’s going on.”
“I’ll explain as we walk.”
Professor Reina answered Noel’s demand.
As we followed her, she spoke quietly.
“If what I was told is correct, monsters are currently swarming toward the castle. It’s not a situation we can’t respond to, but by now the attack must have begun, so things will be chaotic.”
“Monsters can’t conduct a siege, can they?”
“They can climb over walls or fly, though.”
Or swarm in to break down the gates.
At first, they had thought a large number of monsters were simply passing nearby, but Galed had sensed something suspicious and gone out himself to investigate. When he realized their direction was the castle, he had hurried back to report it.
Because he had insulted my golem, I didn’t have very good memories of him and had been referring to him rather carelessly in my head, but it seemed he was unexpectedly diligent when it came to doing his job.
“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Not necessarily. We’re short on troops.”
Reina spoke cautiously.
“There are defensive troops here, but the main force of Count Phoenix’s territory is naturally stationed at the border, so their numbers here aren’t very high. Recently, the empire’s movements have been somewhat suspicious, so they say this place has been maintained at only a slightly higher level than what’s needed to preserve public order. After hearing the report, the count judged that he would have to personally take to the front lines, so I doubt the situation is one we can be optimistic about.”
“Wait, are you saying that many are swarming here?”
Professor Reina nodded.
It seemed this was less a monster attack and more a large-scale invasion.
“So they avoided calling it a grand invasion to prevent panic.”
We, too, had been on the verge of brushing it off, thinking the Phoenix count’s household would surely handle it.
More importantly, I felt like I understood why Professor Reina had come to call me separately.
“You need the Cyclops, don’t you?”
Reina hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“I said I would step forward, but they said what they need right now is firepower more than a single knight. The defensive area is wide, so they called up as many mages as they could mobilize, but it still seems they’re short.”
“The main force is at the border, and this place is relatively in the rear, so the mages must be concentrated at the border too….”
At some point, Erika had arrived and joined the conversation.
With the margrave’s vast and powerful forces away, what remained were effectively only part of the garrison troops, close to reserves, and the count’s personal guards.
I understood why the count had said he needed firepower more than knights.
“Aizen. The count said you do not have to participate. However, if you do, afterward….”
“Shall we go?”
I answered without even listening to the rest of Professor Reina’s words, and for a moment she stared at me.
Then, in a serious voice, she said,
“…This is not something I should say while relaying the count’s words, but this is not your territory, and you are not a member of Count Phoenix’s household.”
“That’s true.”
It wasn’t my hometown either, so strictly speaking, I had no particular reason to help.
“Helping does not necessarily lead to good results. If you help, then because you helped, rumors may spread that you are practically a member of the Phoenix count’s household. And when it actually matters, the count’s household may not extend a hand to you.”
“That could happen.”
The price of helping might instead block my future from now on.
Goodwill didn’t always come with a reward.
“You have no reason to help, so why are you saying you will help the count’s household? It has nothing to do with golems, does it? In fact, it may even hinder what you want to do later.”
“That would be a bit troublesome.”
I like mecha—golems, I mean.
But how should I put it?
“It’s a pain to explain, so if I just say it… I guess it’s something like this.”
I wasn’t exactly good with words, so after thinking for a bit, I opened my mouth.
“If a golem I made ends up saving people too, wouldn’t that be nice?”
I was making it because I liked it, and if it could also help people, then wasn’t that a good thing? It was just that simple a thought.
****
Tension hung over the castle wall.
Since this was a region where war was frequent, the knights and soldiers’ faces were calm, but that did not mean they were not tense at all.
The count, who had been attending the party until just moments ago, immediately changed into armor and used a far-sight magic tool to observe the monsters swarming toward them.
“There are too many.”
When monsters attacked a territory or village, it was usually when they had formed a group.
Most of the time, it was because they needed food or had some other reason to seize human dwellings in order to survive, so a monster invasion was practically the same as saying a large-scale group was coming.
But to the count, that was precisely what was most puzzling.
“We definitely cleared out the monsters in the area once, so for that many to come swarming in… It makes no sense.”
“We were negligent.”
At the words of Galed, who had once been thrown over Aizen’s shoulder, Count Phoenix smiled and shook his head.
“I do not believe my people would do their work carelessly, Sir Galed. Though there are times when you act on your own.”
His temper was quite hasty, and sometimes when the blood rushed to his head he caused incidents, but Galed himself was someone the count could trust.
The conflict he had caused with Aizen had been an unpleasant matter even from the count’s perspective, but when the count sternly warned and punished him, Galed had accepted it without excuse and afterward had not gotten involved with Aizen, continuing to go out on external combat missions instead.
“Sir Galed, do you perhaps have any thoughts?”
“If something like a hunch is acceptable.”
When the count gave permission with only a turn of his eyes, Galed quietly spoke.
“I have a feeling this may be a scheme of the empire.”
The instincts of knights developed over long years spent in battle were inaccurate, yet accurate.
In particular, the knights of Count Phoenix’s household had suffered from unexpected tactics while fighting the empire and had been caught up in them more than anyone else, so when something seemed related to the empire, they were astonishingly good at sniffing it out.
In other words, Galed was not the only one feeling that way.
“No matter how I think about it, there is no reason for that many monsters to come here in such large numbers.”
The territory was periodically cleared, so there were hardly any monsters, and even the last cleanup had been recent.
For a group of that scale to gather, every monster hiding deep in places where subjugations were rarely conducted would have had to be mobilized.
And the only entity that would go so far as to cause such a thing and attack the castle was the empire.
They did not know the method, but the situation was more than enough to raise suspicion.
“What is the state of the defensive troop formations?”
“We have placed around five mages on each section of the wall, divided the knights as well, and stationed the soldiers on the walls, leaving only a small number behind.”
“Good work. We can’t use a tactic where we draw them in and fight them.”
The count had occasionally used tactics where he deliberately drew enemies inside the castle and forced them to fight at a narrow entrance before repelling them, but this time, he could not do such a thing.
That was a tactic used only when an elite force definitely existed inside the castle and the enemy’s spirit could be broken and driven out in one stroke.
Such concepts did not apply to monsters, so they could not be allowed through at all.
That was why he was uneasy.
‘If this is the empire’s doing, then they must certainly be hiding somewhere, whether inside the castle or elsewhere.’
But in the current situation, it was impossible to conduct a large-scale search.
Even the troops needed for that had to be mobilized to stop the monsters.
“What can’t be helped can’t be helped, so let’s cleanly give up on that and make good use of this opportunity in our own way.”
“Opportunity, sir?”
“It’s a chance to see just how well that golem can keep up with the tactics we had in mind.”
At the count’s words, Galed merely nodded quietly.
Whether he still disliked it or his spirit had been dampened, the count could not tell. But at least, just as he was thinking he felt no hostility from him—
-Thoom, thooom.
The sound of a massive object moving reached them, and the count lifted his head, pointing in that direction.
“There it comes.”
Looking where the count was pointing, Galed’s expression darkened slightly.
He disliked it, but it was the footfalls of a reliable ally.
A steel giant carrying a machine gun was walking toward them, its red single eye gleaming.