Gacha Kingdom Building

-This Chapter is written using Anna's POV-

Angelica: "...He might not be that dumb after all..."

We imagined Edmond would be blinded by his desire to save Sabrina and that he would use every soldier he could get his hands on to punch through Evretis' territory and rescue her, but...

Surprisingly, he was more cautious than we predicted.

Earlier reports this week told us that smaller forces had been spotted probing the defenses of other castles, but still believing in Miwen's prediction, we assumed those were meant as distractions or attempts to keep those troops busy.

However...

Ellie: "They are around two thousand, I think..."

Bea: "Half the expected number... Perhaps they have divided their army..."

Thankfully, it seems like the brunt of their army still came for us.

It was a little different than what we imagined, but it should work fine.

Anna: "This shouldn't be a problem. We've confirmed Edmond is among them so let's just stick to the plan."

There was a chance the rest of their men were up to something, but even if they were to try to ambush us, we had prepared ourselves to face the entire army anyway.

It shouldn't be cause for alarm...

However, that was only the start of our worries.

The very first spell cast against the castle was met and stopped by the magic barrier, but not before cracking it.

Vines and roots sprawled wildly from the ground to whip ferociously against the barrier.

The perpetrator was definitely Terith's court magician, a man said to possess immense prowess with both [Earth Magic] and [Green Magic].

The rumors might even have underplayed his power a little, but thankfully, it seemed like he had put his all into the first spell and couldn't do it again for a while.

As for the following attacks... They were nothing to scoff at as well.

Thankfully, they had arranged for mages of the same element to cast together to prevent a situation where they got in each other's way.

This meant we never had to face their entire mage corps at once, but it left us worried about what could happen if they managed to coordinate an attack that combined multiple elements.

Bea: "See? I told you there was no need to hold. It will hold just fine..."

The only one who didn't seem too concerned about it was Beatrice.

Although I couldn't tell her true feelings, or if her confidence came from pride or not, one thing was for sure.

The last-minute changes she made to the barrier were showing results.

I still don't believe her words about being able to stop a thousand mages, but how much more effective at gathering and using mana the barrier had become was irrefutable.

The fact that it could auto-repair and reinforce itself for incoming attacks by using the mana of those in the castle was also incredible.

It decreased the workload of our mages who could then focus on stopping the strongest attacks without paying too much attention to the barrier itself as it would passively regenerate.

It's a shame that because of their suspicion, she only had a day to work with it, but it does make me wonder how strong the Kingdom's barrier is since Elizabeth and Bea are always messing with it...@@novelbin@@

In any case, after testing our defenses for the entire day and frustratingly only being able to crack the barrier, Terith gave up their attack and returned to their camps.

Having finished the day without any casualties on our side, the soldiers in the dining hall were in the best of moods.

I wish I could say the same about us...

Anna: "Everything alright, Ellie?"

Ellie: "Hmm... Their formation doesn't allow me to target their mages... Either Edmond knows what he's doing, or he has a good man advising him..."

Angelica, Anna & Bea: "Probably the latter."

Most of us refused to give him credit for anything slightly competent.

It already took every ounce of sympathy Angelica had to admit he was not completely braindead, so anything more would be too much of an ask for her.

As for Bea and I... We were still undecided about whether or not he was capable of rational thought, and we were leaning towards not.

Ellie: "Hah... I just wish Miwen hadn't prohibited me from causing a disease outbreak... I could knock all of their mages out of the fight just by getting a few of them..."

In front of me, with a disappointed face, sat an incredibly cute girl

The most adorable face in the world lamenting she was not allowed to cause a continental-level disaster...

It was surreal, to say the least.

And perhaps the worst part was that she didn't even seem to notice how fear-inducing her words were.

Now that I think about it...

Even though we have a witch and a dragon, isn't Ellie the scariest in this group?

I can only hope she doesn't trigger her Gift by mistake when attacking me in her sleep...

Anna: "Well... Miwen is certainly crippling us, but I think it's best this way."

Leaving disease outbreaks aside, Miwen asked us to cause as few casualties to Terith as possible.

It's unlikely Edmond will choose to continue sieging a worthless castle like this when he is notified of the fall of Terith's capital, so our job is simply to keep him busy until Miwen finishes his plan.

When Miwen defeats Edmond, he will use Terith's army to fight against Hamperlon, so while it's a little annoying, it's easy to understand why he wouldn't want us to kill more than what's absolutely necessary...

Well... His soft side and the promises he has with Licia might also play a part in his decision, but I can't tell for sure...

Bea: "Such a slave driver... Maybe I need to put him in his place again..."

It's a little funny to hear Bea say that.

While she is seductive enough to bring most men to their knees, and she has this attitude of being willing to use her body to get what she wants, whenever she tries this tactic with Miwen, she's the one who comes out a little more meek for a while. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire

He usually comprises a little bit more too, so it's not like there's zero effect, but... Everyone at this table is well aware of who stands above who in their relationship.

If I had to guess, part of her frustration is because she misses his touch...

Which... Yeah...

I kinda do too...

Anna: "It's disappointing, but... You're also interested in their court magician, right?"

Bea: "Hm... Can you blame me? ...It's rare to meet a mage who uses [Green Magic] offensively... I tried asking Lily to show me how she would fight with her magic, but..."

Anna: "I can imagine."

Lily is an excellent [Green Magic] and [Earth Magic] mage.

But she is not a fighter.

It's a bit tragic since almost every well-versed mage in the Kingdom agrees that her potential with those elements is as great as Claire's with her fire magic, but...

Miwen doesn't seem interested in forcing her to fight.

She's our respected and trustworthy farmer, and until now, I thought no one asked her for anything besides that.

I can't blame Bea too much though...

I would also love to see what Lily is capable of...

Bea: "Such a good opportunity too..."

Although we had our reservations, we could hardly complain about our first day's result.

But when the second day came... It proved itself way more challenging.

Edmond's army had prepared a different approach.

Instead of the usual magic barrage, they coordinated their mages and bowmen.

The strategy was simple, yet effective.

Using the strongest magic a mage could prepare, they would strike the barrier, creating a crack that would allow an arrow to pierce and reach us.

If done correctly, the arrow would follow the magic almost instantly, reinforced with the bowsmen's magic, although weaker thanks to the resistance the barrier still provided, they managed to target and hurt our archers within the castle if they were not taking cover.

Combined with their strongest mages helping the magic reach us by counterattacking our mages, this strategy allowed their swordsmen to charge at us while not having to worry as much about enemy fire.

Bea: "This... We have a problem."

To hear that from Bea was a little worrying.

But it also helped me realize why Miwen prefers to have me join military discussions.

While Bea is a magic genius, her ideas tend to revolve around it.

That is to say... She was completely focused on answering magic with more magic.

Her idea was to drain more mana of the soldiers in the castle to reinforce the barrier, something I was almost sure wouldn't work.

We would lose the ability to deal with their best mages without our mana reserves, and for the swordsmen in the castle, while we weren't as reliant on magic, having some mana was still necessary for many to answer to certain situations.

Anna: "...I'll handle them."

Bea: "What? Are you insane? If the barrier breaks-"

Anna: "I'll flee to the Kingdom, don't worry."

Even if a situation was dire, there was always one last resort we could rely on.

Angelica: "Let's go then."

Anna: "Hm? No, you stay-"

Angelica: "No... I want to help you."

No matter how much I tried to argue, Angelica was unwilling to let me go alone.

It was true that my already high defense would benefit a lot from her healing so I couldn't argue on that front.

But she also won the argument about focusing her healing abilities on the other soldiers.

Since they were only suffering light wounds or poisoning, the healers prepared by Evretis were more than capable of dealing with the situation.

And so, without much choice, Angelica and I descended to the frontline.

Using my sword to perform sweeping strikes, I could make the enemies lose their footing, and render them unable to continue attacking.

I was also surprised to see Angelica using her dragon breath to push enemies away and burn the field.

It was the first time I had seen her fight, but she seemed quite good.

Angelica: "It's just a basic dragon breath... I should be able to pair it with my halo's light to create a light dragon breath, but... I'm still unable to do it without using mana..."

Oh...

So it gets better...

The cute girls in this group never stop scaring me.

And speaking of which, Ellie had a good idea of how to circumvent Miwen's orders.

While we were preventing the soldiers from breaking the barrier by attacking them from behind, we noticed a few of them were causing a lot of problems for each other.

They were fighting their own allies, and it looked like they were in a state of frenzied rage...

Anna: "That's... [Berserk], right?"

Angelica: "I believe so..."

Some warriors have access to a skill that inflicts this... Well, some consider it a buff, but it could also be seen as a debuff.

Basically, the one afflicted by this state receives a bonus to his strength in exchange for losing his sanity.

If the effect is strong enough, more stats might be boosted, but they might end up losing the ability to think and differentiate enemies from allies.

Since close to them there were only allies... It was a brilliant move on Ellie's part.

The confusion on the frontline basically stopped their attack, and they must have decided it was not worth continuing, as soon after, they started to retreat.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, we secured the castle for the second day.

However... I couldn't help but notice that this was just another test for them.

The people we were fighting against... Their levels were too low.

Edmond and his generals... They were still searching for a way to break us.

And if they were to go all-out, with their strongest men at the front...

I could only hope we would be strong enough to defeat them in the next few days.