Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon Vol 3 Chapter 52

Is it here?

Finally?

Point Allocation (Next Generation)

Four beams of light swept through the sky.

They came from the four-gun cannon of the galley charging straight toward the Musas.h.i.+.

The ether cannon used its power to burn through everything in a straight line and the speed of its deployment allowed it to use its full power.

Two of the beams scorched the sky and turned the thin morning clouds to steam. One of them struck the rear of s.h.i.+nagawa, but several gravity barriers appeared around s.h.i.+nagawa to detonate the white cascade.

The final beam pierced directly through the area the Technohexen had occupied.

It eliminated everything there.

At the same time, the galley arrived above Musas.h.i.+no.

A voice filled the galley’s bridge.

It belonged to Takigawa Ichimasu. She barked orders while petting or tossing aside the Djinns and Garudas that appeared to control the s.h.i.+p.

She looked ahead to where Katsuie was already about to leave the area below the enemy bridge.

This was their only chance to fire, so…

“Front starboard gunners! I know you’ve been trained to take aim in an instant! So fire around the vice chancellor!”

As Ichimasu gave her orders, the side of the galley transformed as it flew in toward Musas.h.i.+no’s bridge.

The turret-less cannons jutted out and they rotated ninety degrees to the front.

The cannons released their inner connections and then connected front to back in groups of eight to combine into a single long cannon.

Three such cannons were created. Behind them, the non-homing eight-gun high-speed cannons also rotated their barrels to link together.

The non-homing high-speed cannons formed the base and the homing cannons attached to the front to create three high-speed homing cannons.

Small forms appeared at the front and back locking portions of the individual pieces making up these cannons. They were Mlasi-style Mice. The spell-controlling artificial spirits were known as Djinns. The super deformed Garuda Djinns cried out and the cannons produced a harmony of sound as they locked together.

The galley continued on.

It tilted diagonally as it charged into the square area below Musas.h.i.+no’s bridge.

At the same time, the three front starboard cannons were fired.

Light was emitted from the back and tracking light trailed behind it as it raced through the sky.

There were three shots in all. The high-speed homing sh.e.l.ls had solid cores and flew toward Musas.h.i.+no’s bridge.

Katsuie saw the accelerating galley fire.

After locking onto its target locations, it fired homing sh.e.l.ls from the front starboard side.

A few Garuda Djinns flew alongside the three lights for a bit.

And the lights accelerated as the Garudas vanished.

The sh.e.l.ls were coming.

They were wrapped in distorted air as they flew in behind Katsuie.

Musas.h.i.+’s gravity barriers opened over his head to protect the bridge, but…

“My Testamenta Arma will stop them for an instant.”

As soon as he spoke, the barriers stopped. Static ran through them like a slight hesitation and the homing sh.e.l.ls slipped through the gaps this created.

Katsuie decided to continue ahead and finish this, but then he heard three explosions in the air.

He saw three bullets of light pierce through the homing sh.e.l.ls from the side.

Katsuie saw the destructive sh.e.l.ls break apart.

The final sh.e.l.ls in their plan to damage the Musas.h.i.+’s bridge were destroyed.

…They got us!?

The enemy’s homing bullets had broken straight through the solid core of their homing sh.e.l.ls. Not just anyone could fire something like that. If anyone, it would be…

“The Technohexen!”

He turned around and saw the gunner beyond the galley.

It was indeed the Technohexen.

Musas.h.i.+’s Technohexen was alive. The galley’s four-gun secondary cannon had supposedly hit her, but she stood on the steeple of a church in Musas.h.i.+’s city and she held her s.h.i.+p’s hull in her arms.

“Ichimasu! What the h.e.l.l are you doing!?”

Taki: “Eh? Huh!? How!? But we shot her down!”

Ichimasu answered him with a question and her answer was found in the white s.h.i.+p’s hull the Technohexen held.

The front end had a large half-circle torn into it.

It had definitely been hit, but not by the galley’s cannon. It can’t be, thought Katsuie. But, he added as the corner of his mouth rose.

“Did you fire one of your four homing shots at yourself!?”

“I’m a Technohexen. We excel at harming ourselves.”

Standing on the steeple, Naruze held Weiss Fräulein’s hull and sighed.

…Honestly, you made me take some pretty drastic measures there.

As Katsuie had said, she had chosen to attack in order to evade.

Normally, homing shots had a time lag until the homing activated to ensure they did not lock onto their firer.

But she had quickly altered the settings on just one of them to begin homing immediately.

It had locked onto the front of Weiss Fräulein’s hull. The bullet had just barely made it in time, but it had supplied a powerful strike to the front of the hull.

“I was shot down, but I managed to avoid your cannon fire so I could interfere here.”

She smiled toward the galley flying below the Musas.h.i.+’s bridge.

“I made high-speed homing bullets using all of the spirit fuel Orei Metallo that Margot didn’t take with her yesterday. They can’t be fired right away, but you can’t ignore the firepower that destroyed an enemy s.h.i.+p during the armada battle.”

She lowered her hips. Blood was still flowing from her right arm, so even standing was difficult. However, she set Weiss Fräulein’s hull on the ceiling to sit on.

“I’ll have to send it in for repairs again, but I can’t complain too much. After all, I traded my speed for the Musas.h.i.+’s safety, so…”

Yes.

“Margot is sure to praise me.”

As soon as she muttered that, she heard a single sound.

It resembled shattering gla.s.s and it filled the area below the bridge.

She recognized the sound.

…That’s a barrier being destroyed!

“Tonbokiri smashed the enemy Testamenta Arma’s barrier from outside, didn’t it!?”

“Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor is still alive!?”

Katsuie raised his voice as he ran.

Three actions occurred in sequence.

First, Ichimasu fired another heavy barrage.

Three high-speed homing rounds were quickly fired from the front starboard side of the galley and all of the port cannons plus the rear starboard ones completed their preparations and joined the volley.

This sent a ma.s.sive amount of light racing forward.

The solid reverberation of the long cannons tore into the air as if filling every inch of it.

But before the striking light could reach its targets, the second action arrived.

Musas.h.i.+no’s surface and the inner side of the bridge’s legs suddenly filled with light.

It was the ether light of a shattering barrier.

The Testamenta Arma’s barrier had been destroyed by Tonbokiri, so its ether scattered light and vanished.

That light meant Musas.h.i.+no’s bonds were gone.

And that led into the third action. Musas.h.i.+no’s gravity barriers all reactivated. With nothing obstructing them any longer, countless torii-shaped emblems appeared below Musas.h.i.+no’s bridge.

The galley’s sh.e.l.ls exploded against those barriers.

There was a great cacophony of mutual destruction.

Light roared, sound blossomed, shockwaves blew through, and the wind rumbled, but…

“It isn’t getting through!?”

Katsuie’s yell was answered by the destruction of light flying upwards like the splas.h.i.+ng created by pouring rain.

The stern of Musas.h.i.+no’s surface was filled with the fragments of gravity barriers and ether cannon blasts and the light was brighter than the morning sun.

The sky turned white and lost its color as if it had been purified.

That light meant the bombardment had not reached Musas.h.i.+no and the bridge had been protected.

…Not bad!

Katsuie continued to run as he looked up at the bottom of the bridge and the galley flying past.

His Testamenta Arma’s barrier had been broken, so the galley’s sh.e.l.lfire was now meaningless.

Just as Ichimasu had let her guard down about that Technohexen, he had let his guard down about Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

“I never thought she would survive a direct hit from my smas.h.i.+ng.”

But…

…My Animus Caritas – Novum has an effective range of about fifty meters around me.

She would have had to attack from outside that, she had to have been injured by his smas.h.i.+ng attack, and it could not have been easy to catch up to him.

With that in mind, he shouted to Ichimasu and Narimasa.

“Ichimasu! We’re going to withdraw now! Come over to the right! …You can let Narimasa fall!!”

“I knew you’d say that!” shouted Narimasa.

I know how to meet people’s expectations!! he praised himself while running to the right. He was heading to the closest edge of the s.h.i.+p. Once he pa.s.sed the bridge’s leg, he would jump from the outer edge of Musas.h.i.+no’s deck.

But he let Narimasa go on ahead and followed at a more casual pace while checking on Kamewari by how it felt in his right hand.

It was almost at a full charge, so…

“I can’t just leave empty handed.”

The surface city came to its end, so there were no more roofs to run along.

Instead of simply jumping down, he used his speed and angle to land and continue running without slowing.

His target was the port bridge leg. He would take a large leap from the edge of the deck and toward the back end of that leg.

…I’ll activate Kamewari in midair to destroy that leg!

Kamewari could cut five meters deep, which was not much use against a s.h.i.+p as large as the Musas.h.i.+. Not only did it have thick armor, but it had a double hull structure to stop any damage and allow any impacts to safely escape.

But he still ran through the scattering and vanis.h.i.+ng light.

For Kamewari’s attack to reach the vital parts inside the Musas.h.i.+, he had to leap in close and throw his momentum behind the slash. He raised Kamewari in preparation.

He would jump from the edge of the s.h.i.+p at the end of the bridge leg, so he had another seventy meters to run.

Each of his steps took him eight meters, so he adjusted his pace to reach the very edge on his ninth step.

“I need to hurry!”

He accelerated, but…

He detected a presence approaching through the light and wind behind him.

A swift enemy approached from behind and to the left as if prepared to collide with him.

As they charged forward with the wind and light wrapping around them, Katsuie saw the shape of their weapon.

It was a spear.

He reacted by strengthening the smile on the corner of his mouth.

“So you’re here, Musas.h.i.+ Vice Chancellor!!”

As he called out to his enemy, Katsuie used Animus Caritas for a s.h.i.+eld attack.

But as soon as he did, the enemy coming in from the left suddenly threw the spear into the air.

He saw the discarded spear was not a spear after all.

In fact, it was not even a weapon.

It was one of the steel beams he had smashed apart earlier.

“I’m in the process of ensuring my future employment, so I hope you can be of some help.”

Something stood on the s.h.i.+eld Katsuie had swung backwards. It was the individual he had thought was Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

“Unneeded #1. Sarutobi Sasuke. …Should I say ‘long time, no see’, Lord s.h.i.+bata?”

It was a ninja.

“Curse you!”

Without slowing, Katsuie looked to his enemy.

He was definitely surprised, but he was also aware he had a joyous smile on his face.

“A ninja disguise!?”

The ninja standing on the s.h.i.+eld on his left arm had crudely altered his appearance.

He had not actually changed his physical build. All he had done was tie his hair in a high ponytail and wrap a Far Eastern boy’s uniform coat around his waist in place of the skirt. But that was not the only reason Katsuie had mistaken him for Honda Futayo.

“What a pain. The people who can keep up a transformation for very long sure are amazing. …Of course, my specialty is using martial arts to mimic someone’s movements.”

Sasuke had disguised his form as well as his presence and behavior.

Anyone who took part in combat would react to the surrounding actions, sounds, and movements of the air before a visual form.

Sasuke had taken advantage of that.

Katsuie did not feel he had let his guard down.

As a demonic long-lived, he was blessed with armor and great strength, so an attack on the level of a divine weapon was needed to defeat him. The only weapon capable of that on this battlefield was Tonbokiri.

It was his caution over that weapon that had led him to mistake the enemy.

In that case, he immediately thought.

“I thought you withdrew after charging in with Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor!”

“You have good intuition, Lord s.h.i.+bata. That’s exactly what you should think a useless Unneeded would do.”

Sasuke crouched down on top of Animus Caritas – Novum and tried to place his hand on the edge.

“How about I swipe this to earn some points!?”

“Those would be negative points, you idiot!!”

Katsuie swung his left arm and Sasuke used the momentum to flip through the air.

But the ninja did not stop there. He kicked off the discarded steel beam he had used as a spear and jumped even higher. He then drew a sword from the back of his waist as if to show it off.

“Negative points, you say?”

He used his other hand to remove the coat from his waist and spread it out in front of Katsuie.

This blocked Katsuie’s view, but he simply looked away from Sasuke.

He was running, so if he sped up, the attack from beyond the fabric would not reach him.

His goal was to attack Musas.h.i.+no’s bridge leg with Kamewari and he was about to reach that leg. He was within twenty meters of the deck’s edge and the small fry turned back toward him.

“s.h.i.+bata! The enemy’s coming!”

Shut up. I already know about Sasuke, so don’t worry.

“It’s Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor!!

Say that part sooner.

Narimasa looked to the enemy that ran in between him and Katsuie.

It was Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

However, she was not alone.

When she rapidly spun around to face Katsuie, Narimasa saw a woman supporting her back.

…Is that…?

Before he could say anything, a composed woman’s voice reached him.

“Unneeded #2. Kirigakure Saizou.”

As Katsuie faced forward, he saw the wind spirit woman seem to spin through the air as she pulled Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor along.

She was a spirit who could move with the speed of the wind and she had previously accompanied Sasuke to a.s.sist his movements.

…Yes!

That’s right, thought Katsuie. Even Sasuke’s disguised attack was a diversion.

The attack had turned his focus left and back toward the s.h.i.+p and the attempt to steal Animus Caritas – Novum had made him force the ninja off of it.

What happened when he swung the large s.h.i.+eld Testamenta Arma outwards and continued to run forward at full speed?

“My body is left wide open!”

His arms and s.h.i.+eld were not protecting him.

He could try to swing Kamewari down to intercept, but he was holding it in preparation to strike the bridge leg to his right. He would need to adjust its position to intercept Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor as she blew in from the front and a bit to the left.

…No one would normally be stupid enough to leave an opening this wide!

The enemy only had to strike during this defenseless instant.

To help with that, Saizou released Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

The girl spun through the air and prepared Tonbokiri in one hand.

Her hair was a mess and her right arm hung limply down, so she was in no state to fight.

But…

“Bind… Tonbokiri!”

She activated the cutting power.

Katsuie made a definite decision in the moment that would decide this confrontation.

Kamewari was charged, but he could not turn it toward the enemy in time. Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor was coming from up ahead and Sasuke was coming from overhead behind him.

He made his decision with that in mind.

He held Kamewari out in his right hand and he moved only his wrist to point it further to the right.

Musahino’s bridge leg was there.

However, there was too much distance between him and the leg. Even with the weapon’s thirty meter range, only the very tip would hit.

However…

“I can still take out the outer hull!”

Damaging the outer hull would not be a fatal blow to the Musas.h.i.+, but they could not use their gravitational cruising in that state. They would certainly repair it quickly, but they would lose their mobility in the meantime.

Until those repairs were complete, they would be unable to force their way out of M.H.R.R.

He chose damaging the Musas.h.i.+ over defending himself.

…Offense is better than defense!!

One could say that was his style, but…

“Get them, Kamewari!”

Even as he shouted, he asked a silent question to Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

…What is your style, Musas.h.i.+ Vice Chancellor!?

As soon as Katsuie shouted and asked his question, Kamewari activated.

Power swelled up within the blade. The weapon briefly attempted to contain it, but it grew too great and was released.

In that instant, he realized his prediction had been correct.

Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor had been directing her cutting power toward him, but…

“You’re going to cut my smas.h.i.+ng power instead!?”

His enemy’s style was different from his own.

She chose the Musas.h.i.+’s safety over defeating her opponent.

The smas.h.i.+ng power produced by Kamewari was cut down the center.

The power was emitted from the fixed shape of the blade, but it was thrown off balance when it was cut partway through its expansion from that blade.

The cutting power was split between the tip and the hilt and the two pieces lost their appropriate directionality and exploded.

The power torn from the tip bent like a whip and burst. The movements of Katsuie’s hand continued to control the power on the hilt end, so the remaining power expanded and exploded as it traveled straight forward.

Some of the severed power did reach the bridge leg, but it was weak. After sweeping by right above Narimasa’s head, a gravity barrier neutralized it.

The power that exploded right in front of Katsuie was also weakened, but it covered a large area.

The smas.h.i.+ng power created an explosion that covered both Katsuie and Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

An explosion blew many things away and broke many other things.

However, something moved unconcernedly within it.

It was Katsuie.

He was injured. The right half of his clothing was almost entirely torn to shreds and he had lacerations on his side, but he took a powerful leap forward and raised Kamewari.

The large sword was not charged with its smas.h.i.+ng power, but he still decided to make his attack.

“Musas.h.i.+ Vice Chancellor!”

That girl had been blown away by a second hit from his weapon’s power. She had defended with Tonbokiri in her left arm, but that arm had a large gash in it and her body was doubled over.

She was obviously badly injured, but she was alive.

That honestly irritated Katsuie.

He was vice chancellor of both M.H.R.R. and P.A. Oda. If she had survived two hits from his attack…

…She understands how Kamewari works, doesn’t she!?

Kamewari was a divine weapon sent to P.A. Oda from Mikawa. It was one of the weapons developed at the same time as Tonbokiri, so they could be called brother weapons.

Its activation system would smash anything reflected in the blade, so it was identical to the activation system for Tonbokiri’s cutting.

That gave it the same weaknesses.

Most likely, began Katsuie. She realized I was pointing the blade at my targets and held Tonbokiri’s blade toward Kamewari’s blade.

If all she had to do was hold up her blade, it did not matter if she could not hit and she could continue after the instant in which her defensive action was stopped.

That had allowed her to survive.

She was an excellent enemy.

You really don’t find people like this often, he thought deep in his heart. And you don’t often have a chance to take out such a skilled warrior.

So inside the remaining blast from Kamewari, he gave up on destroying the bridge leg.

He did not worry about the smas.h.i.+ng power. He would simply slam his weapon and strength into his opponent.

“Here I go!!”

He swung Kamewari toward Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor as a simple sword.

As he did, he saw her eyes looking straight at him.

“Now that’s the look of a warrior!”

His enemy could no longer move. He could tell her left arm was broken too, so he would cut through her body as she glared at him.

He made his attack.

Narimasa tried to leap from the outer edge of the s.h.i.+p and into the sky.

Overhead, a giant form descended headfirst.

It was Ichimasu’s galley.

The white galley was tilted vertically to plunge between Musas.h.i.+no and Tama like a blade.

Narimasa was supposed to jump aboard in the instant it pa.s.sed by.

Katsuie would run over after cutting down Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor.

Narimasa poured acceleration into his legs, but…

…Ah?

Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor flew toward Musas.h.i.+no’s stern.

She had been sent flying after blocking Katsuie’s attack, but Narimasa questioned that.

“What is going on!?”

This made no sense.

The girl should not have had the strength left to block Katsuie’s strike. Both her arms were broken and she was covered in blood.

…So how did she raise Tonbokiri with both arms to defend!?

He then found the source of the oddity.

The girl’s injuries had healed.

“Eh? What just happened?”

A girl spoke from atop the steeple of a church on Musas.h.i.+no’s surface.

It was Naruze with her white outfit and black hair and wings.

She held up her right arm after applying a new hemostatic spell.

“Eh?”

She widened a tear in the sleeve along the eye of the protective fabric.

Some slightly sticky blood was stuck to her arm, but as for the skin below…

…There’s no wound?

She tried touching the arm. The wound that had felt so hot before was gone and the bleeding had stopped. The pain had also vanished from the rest of her body.

Her injuries were gone.

And it seemed she was not the only one. The surface had calmed down with the enemy gone, so the warriors defending various locations opened the doors leading underground and emerged. They were all tilting their heads.

“Ohh!? What is going on!? I cut my finger when filing down a divine figurine to give it a flatter chest, but it’s healed!”

“I-I burned my divine area when frying tempura in the nude last night, but that’s healed too!”

“I was smoking in the nude yesterday and burned my divine area when I accidentally dropped it, but it’s better now!”

Just as Naruze hoped all of them would die, a great roar descended from the sky.

Ichimasu’s galley was diving between Tama and Musas.h.i.+no.

As Narimasa ran toward the descending galley, he looked back to Katsuie who was two steps behind him.

“s.h.i.+bata!”

He called out to his uppercla.s.sman, but Katsuie was not looking forward or into the sky.

He was looking at Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor whose injuries were rapidly healing as she flew away.

…It bothers him, doesn’t it!?

His attack should have been a sure thing. The girl had been injured and unable to move, so she should have been sliced in two. But for some reason, she had pulled off a defensive stance to catch the strike.

The enemy was alive, which meant she had endured three attacks from Katsuie.

And…

In the instant before he jumped down from the edge of the s.h.i.+p, Narimasa realized Musas.h.i.+’s vice chancellor was looking their way.

There was no more hostility in her eyes and that may have been why Katsuie reacted the way he did.

“Ha.”

He gave a quiet laugh.

“Let’s go, Narimasa. I understand the general trick here. Someone dangerous has shown up. They probably came up from Magdeburg to welcome the Musas.h.i.+. …But only after making sure Musas.h.i.+ was willing to fight us.”

“You mean…?”

Narimasa made his leap as he spoke.

He took a powerful leap and Katsuie made a light jump. As the wind from Ichimasu’s descending galley reached him, Narimasa looked back to Musas.h.i.+no’s stern.

A woman stood in front of the gate leading to the thick rope pa.s.sageway connected to Okutama.

She had demonic horns, she wore an M.H.R.R. women’s uniform, and she held a large silver s.h.i.+eld in her left arm. However, the feet supporting her were not those of a normal person. They were the fading ones of a ghost.

She was a demonic long-lived ghost.

“Narimasa, you’ve never seen her before, have you? That’s M.H.R.R.’s secretary, the only Protestant on M.H.R.R.’s student council, and an enemy of the Catholics. She’s the ghost of Martin Luther, who created the foundational ideals of Protestantism about a century ago, and she still protects the Protestants. Her real name is…”

Katsuie gave his explanation while digging into the vertical deck to land.

“Tomoe Gozen. During the Genpei War, she was an eastern warrior on the Minamoto clan’s side and yet she became Yos.h.i.+tsune’s enemy. When Yos.h.i.+tsune travelled to the continent, she pursued her to take revenge.”

Futayo realized she was safe.

Honestly, she thought, but another thought followed.

…I am too inexperienced!

She had been unable to strike back at her enemy and had simply taken damage.

She had quite a few thoughts on her failures, but another question rose to the forefront.

“Why?”

“Are you wondering why all your injuries fully recovered?”

She suddenly realized a demonic long-lived woman was standing next to her and looking down at her.

“Well, you did well to survive two or three clashes with that reckless idiot. The rest of you can be proud enough of your results here and you can rest now. I, Tomoe Gozen, allow it.”

With that, the woman named Tomoe held up the s.h.i.+eld modified for use in the left arm.

“This is the Testamenta Arma: Animus Caritas – Vetus. This defensive Testamenta Arma can fully heal anyone who is injured once per day.”

Futayo realized pale ether light had risen from below.

I can walk, she thought while feeling impressed and relieved. And I will be able to fight again.

In order to thank the woman, she placed Tonbokiri against the deck to prop herself up and tried to walk toward Tomoe.

But she could not gather any strength and she fell to her knees.

However, even the sensation of her knees. .h.i.tting the deck was unclear.

…Am I tired?

A weary feeling rapidly filled her and sleepiness seemed to drag her to the deck.

“Do not force yourself to move. You required a lot of tension to remain conscious with your nearly fatal injuries and with the pain, so being released from that will hit you hard. Also, this cannot restore your lost blood. So sleep, Musas.h.i.+ Vice Chancellor. You have already arrived.”

Futayo heard a breath and a laugh before the final words she heard before falling asleep.

“Welcome to Magdeburg, the site of the worst defeat in the Thirty Years’ War.”

Upon arriving at Magdeburg, the Musas.h.i.+ moored itself above the city while distantly surrounded by M.H.R.R.’s warriors and aerial fleet.

Musas.h.i.+’s crew began repairing the damage to Musas.h.i.+no’s surface early in the morning and they hurried through the planning and details for evacuating the people of Magdeburg.

During this, Guericke spoke.

“It has finally come. The M.H.R.R. Catholics carrying out the siege sent a notification that they will begin the Sack of Magdeburg tomorrow at 8:00 PM. They likely plan to finish their battle with K.P.A. Italia today and then complete their preparations.”

“Has M.H.R.R. decided that the Musas.h.i.+’s arrival has changed the situation?”

Masazumi and the others were worried about that, but Guericke simply said the following.

“Let us stay positive. The best we can do is reduce the damages as much as possible. It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

“The same?”

“For us, it is Magdeburg. For you, it is the Apocalypse. …Isn’t that right?”

He smiled a little as he spoke.

“Our best is on a smaller scale than yours, but it is important to me and it is right in front of us. That is why I want the Musas.h.i.+ to begin evacuating Magdeburg’s citizens as we continue towing it.”

Masazumi nodded and they quickly decided to evacuate twenty five thousand of Magdeburg’s thirty thousand citizens. Before the early morning’s end, they had decided to use Musas.h.i.+’s deck and transport s.h.i.+ps and to take the people to a city on the northern border with Holland.

Musas.h.i.+ would leave at 8:00 AM and it was expected to return by 6:00 AM the following morning.

After a discussion, they made another new decision.

Masazumi would go to the Maurice Cathedral in central Magdeburg for the secret anti-P.A. Oda meeting at 5:00 PM.

“I’ll be speaking with Luther aka Tomoe Gozen, Anne of Austria, and others there. It should be a short meeting out of concern for any movements from the siege, so I need to do things right.”

“Heh heh. Pus.h.i.+ng yourself is fine, but don’t force yourself, flat-chested politician. But why are they holding a secret anti-P.A. Oda meeting in enemy territory and when surrounded by a battlefield? Are they stupid? Do these VIPs like making things unnecessarily exciting?”

“I would a.s.sume they were only surrounded after already planning this event,” commented Horizon.

“Probably,” said the others while hanging their heads, but Asama frantically spoke up.

“A-anyway, we have allies here and we might be able to gain more allies from these VIPs. Um, Masazumi? I will remain here with you for divine transmission a.s.sistance, so let’s do our best, okay?”

“There it is! This lewd shrine maiden has brought out her motherly services! If you don’t watch out, she’ll make you her child!”

While Asama raised her right arm and Kimi fled, Mazarin brought them a report on the constantly changing state of the battle in K.P.A. Italia. Nes.h.i.+nbara examined that report and made a certain prediction and decision.

“M.H.R.R.’s actions may change quite a bit depending on the outcome in K.P.A. Italia. It would be best to hurry the evacuation. No matter which side wins, it will definitely influence our enemy’s actions.”

With that, they began the evacuation with Guericke’s cooperation.

Some remained behind for the meeting in Magdeburg, the Musas.h.i.+ started toward Holland, and…

“What will happen to Toori-sama and the others? The plan was for them to obtain Great Chancellor Carlos I’s memo from Rudolf II and then meet up with us in Magdeburg, but that is looking difficult.”

Below the rising sun, Horizon muttered to herself aboard the Musas.h.i.+ as it began to leave Magdeburg for the evacuation. Her eyes were turned toward Hexagone Française in the southwest.