Satsuki I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! Volume 3

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7183-0184-9
Verlag: J-Novel Heart
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 297 Seiten

Reihe: I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!

Kiara and her companions have set out on their quest to take back the kingdom of Farzia from the invading Llewynian forces. The clock is ticking as they race to stop Llewyne's march on the royal capital, recapturing the various castles and forts along the way. It's up to Kiara to use her newfound skills as spellcaster to turn the tide of the war, save Prince Reginald from an untimely death... and be careful not to take a toll on her body while she's at it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Satsuki, Kanata

Weitere Mitwirkende

Fuji, Mitsuya

Quinn, Tara

Leseproben

Chapter 1: The Battle of Cassia Castle

Rays of summer sunshine beat down upon the gray stone of Cassia Castle’s walls. The sky beyond the spire was clear and blue, completely detached from the turmoil unfolding below.

As I stared up at it, I was struck with the strange sensation that I was seeing a live-action rendition of an RPG cutscene I’d watched long before I was born.

But this was reality.

I was born into this world with the name Kiara. It took me until I was fourteen to realize it, but one day, I had the epiphany that I was living in a world nearly identical to an RPG I’d played in my past life. That game was called .

The protagonist was the heir to the Margraviate of Évrard, Alan. If his life had proceeded according to the RPG, he would have lost his father in the prologue along with his best friend and my guardian, Prince Reginald of Farzia—also known as Reggie.

In order to change their fates, I’d been fighting as a spellcaster.

That said, I certainly didn’t have the power to lead an entire country. The best I could do was defend Alan’s hometown, Évrard. In the meantime, we were invaded by the kingdom of Llewyne, whose forces were closing in on the royal capital.

Fortunately, forewarned is forearmed, so I’d gotten us off to a more advantageous start than in the game.

And yet... why had cast me aside, deliberately keeping me away from the front lines?

My mouth drawn in a thin line, I listened alongside Alan and Cain as Lord Reinstar’s uncle, General Edam, recounted everything that had happened thus far—and how Reggie had stormed the castle standing before us.

???

Cassia Castle was occupied by the Llewynian viscount Lord Weber. There were about 3,000 soldiers inside.

Edam postulated that the scant numbers were due to Fort Clonfert’s unexpectedly swift fall. The soldiers who abandoned the fort were supposed to join up with the forces here, hence why there were so few men stationed around the castle town; the majority had been assigned to Clonfert.

Unfortunately for them, Farzian forces had arrived at the castle faster than they’d anticipated.

Panicked as he was, Lord Weber still had a chance of holding out through a siege... or he have, if not for two things. First, the castle was part of the kingdom of Farzia. Second, his opponent wasn’t the straightforward, orthodox Alan; it was Reggie.

By the time Reggie sent out his scouts, he had already set his plan into motion. He had about ten men dress up in Llewynian military uniforms and make a show of escaping back to the castle. Once they had infiltrated the grounds, they spread a message among the residents of the castle town:

The downtrodden victims of Llewyne’s sudden invasion jumped at Reggie’s proposal, and when they flung open the gates, Évrard soldiers came flooding through.

Lord Weber scrambled. Word didn’t reach him until after the gates had been broken down. All he could do was fortify the castle’s defenses and call for the heads of the prince and any other nobles of interest. But Reggie, the man of the hour, kept out of sight as he extended his reach into the castle.

The plan had been for Reggie and his knights to infiltrate the castle, take the viscount’s head, and bring the battle to an end as quickly as possible.

Edam had initially objected to the prince himself leading a group into the castle. However, Reggie had already taken measures of his own to put the Llewynians out of commission: the soldiers he’d sent in earlier had poisoned the food provided by the merchants of the castle town. When Edam learned of this, he surrendered his argument.

The attack was to be launched in the afternoon so there would be enough time for the poison to kick in.

The Cassian knight Aubrey directed Reggie to the baron’s emergency escape route. He had learned of the hidden passageway when he was helping the baron’s son, Charles, escape the castle.

Edam didn’t know what had happened to Reggie after he snuck into the castle. He and his men had managed to bring the surrounding area under control, as they were ordered, so they were just about to head in after him.

I wanted to join them, but first, I had to talk Cain into letting me go.

“His Highness ordered us to wait outside. Stay here with Lord Alan,” he insisted.

Alan tried to stop me, too. “Don’t worry. Reggie won’t be taken down so easily—even if there are defective spellcasters in there.”

“But there’s always a chance he could be caught off-guard! What is he supposed to do if he runs into someone who can shoot flames? If I were there, I could protect him!”

A protest died on the tip of my tongue: Of course, I couldn’t say any of that—not when they were just concerned for me.

“I’ll bring you along.” Surprisingly, Edam was the one to cut in. He placed a hand on my shoulder.

Both men (particularly Cain) were thrown for a loop. Edam explained himself in no uncertain terms. “This young lady is a spellcaster. And that aside, I can’t say I approve of treating a young woman like a helpless child.”

“Without her magic, she’s nothing more than an ordinary girl. She can’t cast her magic without proper warning, which means she can’t adequately protect herself.” Cain’s assessment stung.

“This is something she’s chosen for herself,” Edam asserted. “If she’s hurt badly enough to crumple, she’ll accept the responsibility for it. It’s up to her what she takes away from the experience. Regardless, I’ll keep some of my men by her side, and they’ll be sure to make an opening for her to use her magic. Just wait here and have faith.”

Cain hung his head. As a mere knight of Évrard, he couldn’t disobey the general. Alan held a higher rank, but he seemed to have taken Edam’s speech to heart; he gave up on arguing.

Master Horace, who had been quiet for a while now, started to chuckle deviously. “Sometimes you have to let the kids run wild. Making mistakes and learning from disgrace is just another part of life. Besides, you won’t see a girl Kiara’s age changing her mind any time soon!”

“Precisely,” Edam agreed. Perhaps the two old men had more in common than it seemed. Something about Master Horace’s comment didn’t sit well with me, but with that, I was allowed to go after Reggie.

“Thank you, General Edam.”

“You chose to hold the power to sit at our war council, so I figured you ought to have the power to carry out your will; that’s all it was. But as your knight says, I saw for myself in our last fight how vulnerable you are. Keep in mind that people are going to worry about you.” His gentle lecture made him sound like a schoolteacher. I dipped my head in a bow.

Edam and I set off toward the castle. Cain watched me go with an unusually nervous expression. I’d always had someone to act as my personal bodyguard in the past, so perhaps he wanted another knight to accompany me, if nothing else.

Having picked up on that, Gina stepped forward. “My frostfoxes and I will go with you, Kiara. Animals have sharper instincts than humans, after all. Why don’t you take a break, Sir Cain? Let me go earn my pay.”

Gina clapped Cain’s shoulder with a smile, and he stumbled forward, taken by surprise.

“How about you and I have a nice, long chat?” Girsch sidled up to Cain, who went pale and retreated to where Alan was standing. It looked like Cain was fully preoccupied with guarding himself from the mercenary now. Of course, it probably helped that he knew I had other people looking out for me, too.

A little relieved to see that, I pushed onward. Then, I turned to Gina beside me and asked, “By the way, is Girsch attracted to men?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, it’ll never come to anything. Girsch only falls for men who are into women.” Gina heaved a sigh.

If the target of Girsch’s affections was someone with the same preferences, the two could walk hand in hand. Sadly, the mercenary’s tastes sounded like the equivalent of screaming alone into a barren wasteland. How tragic.

“I guess people can’t change what they like...”

“The first person Girsch ever loved was a married man. Those feelings faded eventually, but the type stuck. The poor thing’s always complaining about it.”

“No one can make themselves fall out of love, no matter how hard they may try. Nor can you force anyone else to change how they feel about for the very same reason.” Edam cut in with a few words of wisdom.

We all set foot inside the castle together. I could hear the distant clashing of swords. Still, thanks to Reggie’s poisoning tactics, the fighting wasn’t as fierce as it could have been. The sounds of conflict weren’t all that frequent, and things were just about settling down.

A knight of Edam’s, who had joined up with us along the way, told us the current state of affairs.

A few of Lord Weber’s men had caught on to the poison....