5.5.2 — Outbreak of War

Without any sound or vibration, a frame with a streamlined shape that emitted blue light left behind the scenery outside the window.

Using the new metal born from alchemy, <Mythril>, abundantly, the <Magic Light Train> ran by receiving the assistance of Psychokinesis. Because of how rare mythril was even now, this train was never operated except when it was operated privately during trials by the staff.

But the rare mythril was prioritized to be circulated for the Knight Order, so a [magic light train for military use] covered the whole country from Hokkaido to Kyushu. War roads for military use were spread out running parallel with the civilian Shinkansen . It could transport the knights to major cities throughout the whole country with a capacity easily surpassing 1000 people.

There was also criticism on the military’s monopoly of mythril, but an efficient transportation method was essential for the Knight Order that was few in number to deal with all the incidents throughout the country of Japan.

The total of 150 Knight Academy students led by Kanon-senpai also settled themselves comfortably and headed to Shizuoka garrison. There was no noise, no need to decelerate the speed in curves, using the special characteristic of magic light trains to always run at it top speed, even the distance between Tokyo to Shizuoka wouldn’t take more than one hour.

“We will arrive at Shizuoka soon after this. Let’s have a soak at Atsumi’s hot springs―✩”

Kanon-senpai raised a cheer, they had arrived at Shizuoka before they even realized it.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The Knight Order’s garrison at Shizuoka was a building that was once called Shizuoka prefectural police headquarters that had been expanded and remodeled. Once they disembarked from the military train, the building was located within immediate walking distance from the station.

After passing through a bombastic entrance made from stone, they were greeted with splendid buildings that were equipped with transmission towers and the like lining up, but in contrast with that splendour, they couldn’t feel any human presences in the area.

“Right now this place has been completely deserted. The main force of Shizuoka regiment had moved to the western prefectural border…In other words, the area close to the military demarcation line with Yamato. There they had already set up a temporary front line garrison and transferred there. It’s for the sake of defense. It’s just that we have to follow a track to reach there, so we are going to travel by bus from here.”

Akane-senpai explained briskly while leading Kazuki and the others to the destination. Cars and buses for military use were lined up in a huge parking lot. If it was in the old era then this place would be used to deploy tanks or armored vehicles without a doubt, but against magicians, the shells of tanks and armor of armored cars were nothing more than a pointless waste of expenses.

Vehicles were not a method of battle but merely a means of transportation for knights.

Because of that reason these military use cars and buses that were lining up here had almost no difference with the passenger vehicle of civilians.

“Cars are well used to assist us in dealing with incidents within the prefecture, but it’s the first time for me to use the bus.”

Akane-senpai whispered. It means that a big incident that is needed to collect and transport a lot of knights had never happened until now.

There was a driver that had been already on standby at the driver seat. The driver was not a specialist in magic battles but seemed to belong to the rear support unit. He was a little older compared to the usual knight. Magic power declined at the peak of 20 years old. The knight who had reached a certain age and even more didn’t manage to get promoted to management class would be reassigned to the rear support unit like this.

Kazuki and the others were pushed inside the rustic military bus that was painted in olive drab color traditional since the time of the Self Defense Force until they were packed tightly. They couldn’t possibly wish for a comfortable ride like the train that they had just ridden before this. This uncomfortable ride really made them feel the [sense of the actual scene] of the Knight Order’s work. The number of words the students spoke started to lessen naturally.

Divided separately into four buses, Kazuki and the others headed to the military boundary line.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Oh my, Kazuki. How pleasant it is to be able ride with you. I can’t help but feel a destined throbbing in my chest.”

Inside the bus that was packed tight like a crowded train, Miyabi-senpai was there at a distance where their bodies could easily touch each other.

“…Looks like the men of the Sword Division were provided with an exclusive bus for men and got crammed there, but you could ride in this bus couldn’t you? Fufuu, so this is the benefit of being a swordsman of the Magic Division.”

“There was a different bus for that? They were saying that it’s okay to just ride this bus and I was pushed inside from the back.”

“There are only girls that will welcome to get jam packed together with you here you know?”

“…That’s not true. I don’t welcome you here.”

A quiet voice came from beside Miyabi-senpai. It was Shinobu-senpai.

“So Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai also volunteered.”

“For the moment, we believe that we are quite powerful even among the upperclassman. It’s not like there is some laudable feeling inside me that wants to fight for the world and for the people. Fufufu.”

After chuckling refreshingly, she added one more thing. “Moreover, our hometown is also under occupation.”

So Miyabi-senpai was also from west Japan.

Miyabi-senpai had a past where she was persecuted by her surroundings because she became an elf. Miyabi-senpai and others who were in the generation of [the first elves] should have been oppressed even more severely than Koyuki.

Such a senpai talking about her feelings of her hometown…was surely the proof that she had overcome her past and let bygones be bygones. Even though her words of [for the world and for the people] were mixed with a joking tone, he could also feel the nobility in it.

“It’s fine even if that kind of place got totally destroyed.”

But Shinobu-senpai murmured such words vacantly.

“Don’t say such things like it’s okay for something to get completely destroyed Shinobu. With the passing of time, the feeling of ourselves and our surroundings will also change and we might be able to think that maybe we could just let it go, isn’t that so? If something got destroyed then that’s the end of it you know?”

In fact, the discrimination against elves was thinning as the years went by. It was because of the conjecture from telepathy scan that the elf’s mind structure was no different at all from normal humans, and also elves that became knight cadets capitalizing in their excellent traits in magic power or becoming famous as young alchemists had begun to appear here and there.

The product of human experiments―such a truth still hadn’t been made public to society yet, but a part of the politicians that knew the truth influenced the mass media, and indirectly began to form the public opinion to protect the human rights of these elves. From now on their situation would surely gradually become better in time.

Although she was not the person concerned herself, Shinobu-senpai also had a past that deserved her resentment. It seemed that resentment didn’t simply fade however…

“…There is nothing that's changed. Whether it's the surrounding bunch, or my own feelings…”

Shinobu-senpai rejected all change. Even the fact that Miyabi-senpai transformed into an elf had not been recognized by her. Inside Shinobu-senpai’s eyes, it seemed she was seeing Miyabi-senpai with black hair.

Denying reality―even in the case where the truth was really obvious, if accepting that truth caused a great uneasiness then that person would reject accepting that truth, it was that kind of mental state.

“You said that nothing changed. Don’t you feel a locked up feeling that choked your breath from that unchanged situation?”

“!” Against Kazuki’s question, Shinobu-senpai’s expression tightened rigidly with hollowness somewhere in it, then she glared at Kazuki. From the side, Miyabi-senpai embraced Shinobu-senpai’s face in her arms.

“…Kazuki, thank you. This child even now should be feeling it still. Also for a person to think of us and talk this much, in these ten odd years you are the first…”

“…Nee-sama, please don’t say such irresponsible things! This kind of guy is nothing!!”

Shinobu-senpai separated herself from Miyabi-senpai’s hand and tried to take distance from Kazuki. However she crashed against other students inside the cramped bus making “Wait” troubled voice coming at her.

“…If it wasn't for Nee-sama participating then I had no intention of volunteering for this kind of Quest either. To get stuffed inside like this.

“Please be patient.” Miyabi-senpai attempted to soothe Shinobu-senpai and embraced her head once more.

From there she moved her gaze outside the window.

“I’m looking forward to this. To fight as a knight, as a hero, like that.”

The early afternoon sunlight coming from outside was reflected at Miyabi-senpai’s moist red eyes in a glisten.

“…If I make a notable service in this Quest, then this me who is an elf, will be thanked by everyone…such a thing might also happen, don’t you think so?”

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Kazuki also looked outside the window. West Shizuoka―according to the signboard that they just passed they were approaching the area around Hamamatsu city. However the grave-like silence that was really unnatural didn’t show any sign of people.

Akane-senpai, who was standing beside the driver seat opened her mouth.

“The residents in the vicinity of the military boundary line have already been evacuated. This area has been emptied. Because we won’t know what kind of damage will happen if the other side invaded and it turned into a defensive battle.”

These urban areas might transform into a battlefield, it made Kazuki ponder once more. How much damage would come out in the coming battle? Even the public houses and the like might get toppled like dominos from offensive magic.

If Yamato really came invading, they would surely march to the garrison aiming for the Knight Order there. Exterminating the knights - making them retreat with their defensive ability lost, all for the sake of completing the occupation.

Where should the knights meet the enemy? Should they have unfolded the border war at the military boundary line, or should they hole up in the garrison and bring the battle into a siege battle, or else to reduce the damage to the surroundings should they lure the enemy skillfully outside the urban areas?

In this magic war where everything was still an unknown, tactics that could be called [established tactics] didn’t exist.

Suddenly the bus stepped on the emergency brake, the jam packed students staggered and pitched forward as if to fall.

When he peeked at the front glass far at the front wondering if something happened, four or five men and women carrying large baggage on their shoulders were walking this way from the opposite side of the road that was supposed to be empty from people.

Kanon-senpai disembarked from the bus and walked approaching those people and said a few words.

After senpai nodded with ‘uh-huh” listening to the people she returned. Then she explained the circumstances to the students.

“…Looks like people that got delayed in evacuating. Surely they have a lingering attachment to their city and homes and didn’t leave until the last minute. Even if they rebuild their homes again, the memories can't be recovered after all…”

Thanks to alchemy, construction costs for houses, buildings, roads and the like could be cut far cheaper than in the previous era. Actually, with Kazuki’s fight against Loki and the final match of the battle election, the fountain plaza had been destroyed twice, however he had witnessed how it was immediately repaired to be just like it was before being destroyed.

However, people who couldn’t feel good even though the broken things were restored as it was brand new existed in great numbers in society.

After seeing off those men and women passing through beside the bus, they departed once more.

―After that, for a while similar occurrences happened a few more times. When they had advanced just for a little, they would immediately encounter some people that were in the middle of evacuation. Just like the first encounter Kanon-senpai would get down from the bus and listen to their story one by one, but gradually the bus kept advancing forward without stopping even when they encountered more people without confirming each and every one of the refugees.

“…There are quite a lot aren’t there, these people that are late in evacuating.”

While pressing close to Kazuki more than she needed to inside the bus that was packed in like a can of sardines, Miyabi-senpai whispered in his ear. Certainly there was a lot. Even though the people who were evacuating didn’t necessarily need to use this road, they kept running into almost dozens of people here and there already.

“…Kazuki-oniisan!” Suddenly he heard a panicked voice, Lotte pushed her way through the jam packed bus and ran to Kazuki’s way. “What is it?” Kazuki embraced the girl.

“…It was the people who were evacuating just before, but it was from inside the bus so I can't really perceive it clearly and I don’t have much confidence in it desu but…”

Lotte prefaced her talk that she didn’t really have any confidence in what she was going to say, but as if she had conviction in the feelings that she harbored, anxiety and trepidation came to the surface in her expression.

“Those people from before…harbored hostility toward this bus desu.”

―Lotte was a prodigy in telepathy. Even without exchanging words, the girl could perceive the emotion of the people around her. …Hostility, she said? The refugees? Was it from how they had to evacuate so they harbored dissatisfaction toward the Knight Order? That was stupid.

…Then were they enemies? Were they secretly passing through the border and coming to this side for the sake of taking guerilla action inside eastern Japan? No, for dozens of sleeper agents to pass through the same route should be inconceivable.

Their aim was…to take the rear of the bus.

“Kanon-senpai! The refugees just now…!” Kazuki who became aware tried to call out in a loud voice but,

―Even earlier than him, Akane-senpai yelled some words in high emergency.

“Kanon! Magic power reaction from the front!! …Offensive magic is coming!!”

Kazuki whose attention was taken by his talk with Lotte noticed it too late. Magic power sprang forth from further ahead in the road, it swelled out as if rupturing―magic was invoked!

Several fire balls and rocks came flying from the road ahead. One moment, the front window of the bus looked like a screen of a shooting game. However they couldn’t evade like in a game. The fireball impacted the front side of the bus, the bursting heat and shockwave fused the glass and armor. Right there many rocks were launched one after another, easily penetrating inside.

“The driver’s protection-!!” Kanon-senpai yelled.

A fire ball struck the inside of the bus with explosive force, the bus was blown up and pulverized.

Inside the exploded remains of the smashed apart bus, countless blue lights of the students were shining. Just from having their vehicles blown up and getting thrown outside wouldn’t cause any damage to magicians who were protected by defensive magic power.

But, they fell into chaos―the students who were thrown onto the street couldn’t grasp the situation at all. They looked around restlessly in confusion while being enveloped in blue light inside the flame and smoke. And then from behind, of all things that could happen the following buses sent the students flying. Those buses were also bombarded with offensive magic from the front and went through the same fate as the first.

“Form the Heaven and Earth Formation!” Akane-senpai yelled with a desperate voice.

However the movements of the panicked students were sluggish.

Furthermore angry roars and footsteps of a charge that was as if an earthquake was happening came from further ahead.

What came was several dozens of <swordmen>. Young people with common clothing like shirts and parkas were charging this way holding Japanese katana in hand―Yamato’s army!

“Sword Division unit! Follow me!!” Kanae immediately reacted, she charged the enemy while yelling. “It’s okay not to think of anything, anyway just come with me!!”

Hearing that voice, the students of the Sword Division finally recovered from their confusion. A simple principle―remembering that it was fine to just follow the Sword Division’s strongest student council president blindly, they chased after her back.

Swordsmen and swordsmen clashed against each other. The sound of blades clashing informed the start of the engagement.

Yamato’s swordsmen were merely ordinary people with slightly stronger magic power that got incited by the politicians. When compared with the students of the Sword Division, they could even be said to be a disorderly mob.

However the enemy’s rear guard―Yamato’s Magica Stigma launched offensive magic one after another, the Sword Division students were blown away without even any time to bring the fight into a match of swords.

The Magica Stigma of Yamato chanted their Summoning Magic while being possessed by their Divas.

The chanting time of this <Possession SummoningDrive> was short.

The students of the Magic Division had to support the swordsmen of the Sword Division.

Akane-senpai yelled her commands to the Magic Division students who were still in a state of chaos.

“The students of the Magic Division come forward, chant defensive magic and low level magic to restrain the enemy!”

They had to come forward for the sake of confirming the enemy's figure by sight so they could invoke the Summoning Magic. If they didn’t settle the enemy into their <magic perception range> then the Summoning Magic couldn’t be chanted.

Summoning Magic that was borrowing the power of Divas need the [recognition] of the Diva by showing [ what their strength would be used for] by transmitting that intent in the shape of a spell. Only by earning that [recognition] could the Summoning Magic be invoked. For that sake, first the Magica Stigma needed to perceive the enemy’s existence clearly, and then they had to transmit the will to defeat that enemy to the Diva.

They had to catch the figure of the enemy. The students of the Magic Division advanced through the road that was still smoldering with smoke attempting to ascertain the enemy while being protected by the frontline swordsmen.

And then they were [sighting] the illegal magicians of Yamato. Their bodies were dressed uniformly with Japanese style Magic Dresses and they were accompanied with what seemed to be the avatars of Japanese Mythology’s Divas at their side.

The students of the Magic Division were also starting their chanting all at once.

“Burnt to ashes of all you touch…O scorching heat of rejection without any place to depend on! Self Burning!”

“First we start from hardening our defense right? …Mirror O mirror, lop off the gaze of the unsightly people and their craving hand! Mirror Shield of Moon CircleMoon Ring - Mirror Field!!”

“Hmph. …Thy wing bestowed by Belphegor, O , breaking Earth Snake's posture.

“…O Divine Protection of military men, double the Megin whirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to infinite battle, in this body! …Megingjord!”

What Kazuki immediately chanted was Beatrix’s magic.

Doubling the physical strength of his whole body, his second returning slash swung downward with twice the destructive power on Earth Snake.

“GUGAA!” Raising a scream Earth Snake rolled on the ground. “Guge…Land…” Realizing his failure in the assassination, he tried to escape using magic for going underground. “Esca…”

“…O divine protection of mermaid, stop the steps of the hateful enemy, please hasten the steps of the chosen person… O ice blade, run! Moves in the Field!”

Koyuki’s cool and clear voice reverberated, then the ground froze. The Earth Snake who was leaping to the ground face first crashed severely on the surface that had been frozen over with ice. Koyuki plundered his right of rule of the ground.

Koyuki launched a flying kick with feet clad in boots of ice blade toward Earth Snake rolling on the ground. Keeping her pace she stepped on him with complex footwork and minced him. Having an ice dance performed on top of his own body, Earth Snake opened his eyes wide in fear and fainted. “…Kazuki, are you okay?”

“Thank you, I’m fine already. …I can fight. We have to defeat that girl. If we don’t defeat Hayashi Shizuka from the very beginning then anybody else…I have a hunch that it would become very grave later on.”

Inside Kazuki’s head, that premonition completely filled him. There were emotions inside him that were really close with hatred and repugnance. However surpassing such individualistic emotions, a terrifying premonition welled up inside him.

“Retreat! Retreaat―!”

However contrary to Kazuki’s thought, that kind of voice was starting to appear from inside the enemy forces.

The enemy army simultaneously began to move in withdrawal. While receiving covering fire from the illegal magicians the enemy swordsmen turned their backs, like a retreating wave they were drawing back from this place.

In no time at all the figures of the enemies were no longer visible.

Why are those guys retreating―he soon understood why they were doing so.

From the other side of the road he could hear the sounds of engines, knights who were riding on military vehicles were rushing here one after another. The Knight Orders at the military boundary line’s garrison noticed the disturbance and finally came here. The enemy army noticed the reinforcements one beat faster and before they became the ones who met with a pincer attack this time, they retreated in a hurry.

However the sensation of having finally repelled the enemy couldn’t be felt for even a bit inside Kazuki and the others.

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