Fall of the Fortress
It had been about four days since the Alicetia Army abandoned the Domain Capital and began their march.
They were now camping in the wilderness, having opened up the treasure vault for the night.
“I still can’t believe this is just a lump of mana.”
Mai kneaded the cheek of a clone, squishing it with her fingers.
“Nuuh… I’m busy.”
“You’re the one who hasn’t even made time to talk to me after we finally met again.”
Despite finally reuniting, the clone had been keeping its distance from Takuto and the others. Or rather, it was just hard to figure out what kind of distance was appropriate. The same probably applied to the original as well—though she was currently sleeping.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t touch Her Highness so casually…”
“Don’t move, Alicia!”
As soon as Alicia moved, the clone standing behind her snapped at her.
“Sorry…”
Ever since invading the Empire, Alicia had been undergoing constant treatment. Her tail had drooped lifelessly.
Right now, five clones—each with a craftsman’s face—were inspecting Alicia’s tail, trying desperately to revive it with magic combs.
“Ugaaaah! Why won’t it heal?!”
“It might be hopeless.”
“Don’t move!”
Scolded again, Alicia drooped her head, looking dejected. Alicia’s tail was a work of art—the supreme masterpiece Alicetia had spent her life perfecting. And she was still in the process of refining it. This was war. A war to restore her tail’s luster. If someone told her she had to kill a god to get it back, she would, without hesitation, attack the goddess herself.
“O Fluffy God, grant us strength…”
Eyes brimming with tears, the clone threw away the ineffective magic comb with all her might. It shattered against a nearby wall.
Seeing that, Alicia thought she might cry herself. In fact, she already had, many times. That shattered comb was the 24th to be discarded without effect.
Magic combs were treasured enough to be considered national treasures by beastfolk. And here they were, being tossed away like trash.
(If the beastfolk back home find out about this, they might actually kill me this time…)
That night, the clones told Mai and the others about how Alicetia had lived up until now. Iris had originally been interested only in herself and her immediate surroundings, but Mai, Kazuhito, and Takuto were a little surprised to learn that Alicetia had interacted with far more people than Iris ever had. At the same time, they were happy—because it meant she was accepted. Back on Earth, Iris had almost no allies at all. As a result, the three concluded that Arland seemed like a fairly comfortable place to live.
Despite the thorough treatment, Alicia showed no signs of improvement. The clones lay sprawled out like fish with dead eyes. Incidentally, the only one who knew her tail would naturally recover over time was Alicia’s mother. But even if she knew, she would never tolerate her supreme work of art withering, even temporarily.
On the afternoon of the fifth day since leaving the Domain Capital, the Alicetia Army spotted a fortress atop a cliff in a gorge.
“Judging from the scale and the number of flags, I’d estimate close to two thousand men.”
Using a telescope, a knight made his estimate based on experience—something Alicetia herself couldn’t do, having no such background.
“Why would they station that many troops in a place like this?”
The strange part was that, despite mobilizing almost the entire Imperial Army for the Arland war, the Empire had still left over two thousand soldiers here.
This area had no rivers, was dry, and unsuitable for agriculture. They hadn’t even seen any villages nearby—though that might simply be because they hadn’t passed close to one.
There had to be a reason for the Empire to keep that many troops here.
“But we can’t pull off that traveling merchant disguise again, right?”
“There’s no way they’d let us into a fortress. We’d be captured as suspicious persons.”
The clone pondered for a moment.
“If we used golems, we could just take it by force, couldn’t we?”
The clone nodded at the knight’s suggestion—but with a clearly annoyed look. The knight, noticing this, asked if there was a problem.
“The most we can field right now is two thousand golems.”
“… Eh?” The knight blinked in surprise. The first time he’d seen the golems, there had been just under ten thousand of them.
In fact, after repairs and new production, there were currently around 8,200 Golem Soldiers and heavy assault-type golems in total.
So why could they only deploy two thousand? The clone explained:
“We’re already attacking another fortress, so that’s all we can spare.”
The knights were shocked to learn they were attacking somewhere else entirely without permission. Alicia, however, reacted differently.
“Please wait, Your Highness! In the Granzur Empire, only one fortress bears the Granzur name. All the rest are called forts.
So—what fortress are you attacking?!”
“…...”
The clone made a sour face and looked away.
“Where are you attacking?”
“… It’s not my fault. The original’s the one who’s a tyrant.”
With that excuse, the clone finally revealed the truth.
It wasn’t the original who had decided to invade the Empire—it had been the clone. The first thing the clone did after freeing itself from the original’s control was seize the supplies in the Treasury. Most of it was metal, magic gems, or alchemy materials—but what the clone truly sought was the vast stockpile of sweets stored there alongside military rations.
The original was a tyrant. She never gave the clones breaks or meals. Clones could eat—they gained no nourishment from it, but they could enjoy taste. And their tastes mirrored the original’s.
In other words, the clones tried to steal the sweets the original had hoarded.
But Alicetia had foreseen this. Knowing that war and mass clone production might lead to a rebellion, she had secretly ordered a group of elite clones loyal to her to move the sweets far from the vault’s warehouse. Eventually, the stash had been found.
It was the Invincible Fortress Zaigas—named after an old comic she’d once read. Its walls were made of Alice Steel, a material rendered obsolete by the discovery of Dark Matter alloy, making it an extremely sturdy fortress.
Now, most of the clones were leading golems in an assault on it.
“Surrender!”
“Ha! You lot should just work like draft animals and be grateful!”
A puffed-up clone in a gaudy military uniform refused the surrender demand while eating a long, cigar-shaped cookie.
The clones guarding the fortress were elites—they were issued one cup of tea and one cookie a day. They looked down on the labor-type clones.
Not that the slave-like treatment was much different. But the clones on the original’s side had perks, and they would never surrender.
And so the standoff continued.
“...…”
“This is an unavoidable battle to secure strategic supplies. But with 2,000 troops, we’ll manage just fine.”
“To assault the fortress properly, I’d want three times that number of soldiers…”
“For someone like you, I have just the solution!”
The knight was shown a magnificent trebuchet.
Arland’s army was primarily defensive and favored field battles, so siege engines had largely fallen out of use. Still, the knowledge existed.
“Hoho, a fine trebuchet indeed. Though it’s common sense to remove any rocks that could be used against the fortress when building one,” the knight commented.
Trebuchets weren’t uncommon in the central continent. Naturally, any nearby rocks that could be hurled would be removed when constructing a fortress. Thus, there were no usable rocks around this one.
The treasure depot contained a large pile of earth from constructing the underground dock, and that would serve as the ammunition this time…
“Here we go!”
Five clones, dressed in flying squirrel costumes, saluted.
By the time the war council ended, the sun was starting to dip.
The fortress, seeing a flag similar to Arland’s (the viceroy’s flag) suddenly appear, closed its gates and prepared for a siege.
“As expected, they’re countering Teleportation and Flight,” one clone noted.
“Yes. According to intelligence from the shadow division, the Empire is thorough about this. Apparently, they’ve been attacked in the past by soldiers teleported into the fortress, so they’ve taken precautions.”
The clone sneered at Alicetia’s words.
“But there are plenty of other flying magic methods besides Flight. They haven’t prepared for those.”
Teleportation can be universally blocked. Flying, however, can be done in various ways—floating via wind magic, propelling oneself with fire magic, etc. The fortress only blocked Flight. A limitation no one could avoid; blocking magic is high-level work, and trying to counter multiple magics consumes enormous mana. The fortress magicians likely did their utmost just to handle teleportation and flight.
As night fell, the Empire soldiers inside remained calm.
“Do you think they’ll attempt a night assault?” the fortress commander asked his staff officer.
“We both lack complete information. However, since they’ve already sent alerts for enemy attacks elsewhere and requested reinforcements, if we hold the fortress, we can win.”
The staff officer answered reasonably, also reminding the commander to avoid reckless maneuvers based on limited intel.
Outside, the suspected Arland forces began assembling trebuchets. Completion would take some time. Yet there were no rocks nearby for ammunition, and no transport units in sight. The staff officer sensed something was off.
Where did this unit come from? Why no transport?
From experience, the staff officer considered this unlikely force a threat—everything about it felt wrong.
Reinforcements from nearby noble territories were unlikely. The Arland campaign had already drawn heavily from regional forces. While reinforcements would take time, delaying them would not be difficult, since the opposing forces numbered about the same as theirs.
“As far as I know, the Arland army has never used trebuchets before. Their training is insufficient. In fact, assembling one right in front of us is unusual… but without securing rocks, a night attack is improbable. Darkness will soon fall, and night-time trebuchet attacks are rarely effective even for our troops.”
“We should destroy the trebuchet with a night strike of our own. Hit only the trebuchet, then retreat into the fortress. After that, hold the fortress.”
Yet no night attack occurred.
As darkness fell, a vigilant fortress soldier noticed movement in the Arland army.
“Hey, isn’t that trebuchet moving?”
“Seriously? I can’t see well… alert the magician and have them use Far Sight.”
The sharp-eyed soldier, trying to confirm movement with magic, was interrupted when the trebuchet suddenly launched something.
“They fired!”
“All units, alert! Magician, cast a light spell!”
The magician halted the Far Sight spell and launched a light spell into the sky. Fighting in near-darkness with only torchlight was difficult.
As the magical lights floated, something spinning through the air became visible.
The Empire soldiers saw it and… the object unfolded like a flash: a flying girl!
“Captain! A little girl is coming from the sky!”
“Shoot her down!”
“How despicable to send a child!”
Arrows were fired, but despite the sudden launch and light magic, it was still dark. The clone landed inside the fortress boldly.
Three clones entered. One hit the wall and walked back to the Arland forces, another veered left and fell into the canyon beside the fortress.
“Surrender!”
“If you surrender peacefully, your life will be spared.”
The clone delivered the surrender demand with a smug expression. Of course, there was no compliance. Armed soldiers surrounded the three clones, though they were spread out, leaving them completely encircled.
“They’re children, but also Arlandian soldiers… restrain them without letting your guard down!”
The commander, alerted that intruders had entered, rushed out. But even seeing the clones, he couldn’t regard them as soldiers. Still, as an Empire citizen, he had been taught since childhood that Arland was a land of demons.
Even costumed little girls could not be underestimated. The soldiers, however, just smirked. Perhaps they were perverts. Likely, they were simply desperate in this empty, female-less fortress.
“I sense an evil gaze…”
“Just like the look our older brother sometimes gives. We need an exorcism.”
“But the Empire’s church is under the Holy Order, so the church itself needs exorcising.”
“Then we shall educate you! Dance, Dance!”
From the feet of the three clones, huge magic circles spread. Soldiers standing atop them began dancing involuntarily.
On one clone’s circle, pairs danced the Swan Lake. On another, soldiers performed Thriller. On the last, they danced the Sōran Bushi.
Dancing is a puppet-type magic. It uses the caster’s mana to initiate, but maintains itself by forcibly drawing mana from those dancing within the circle—causing both physical and magical fatigue.
Ignoring the pleas of the exhausted soldiers, the clones blew apart the fortress wall with magic. Soldiers were still present, but the sudden dancing chaos prevented organized resistance, and the clones reached the gate unopposed.
Once the wall was destroyed, the Golem Soldiers advanced.
Remaining fortress troops resisted as best they could. Soldiers atop the walls were not dancing, but unfortunately, the magic circles reached the stairways below. Soldiers unaware that stepping on the circles forced them to dance fell into disarray.
By sunrise, the fortress had completely fallen.
Meanwhile, the clone that fell into the canyon spotted a rock.
“It’s gold!”
The rock contained high-purity gold ore. The fortress had been built by the Empire to protect mining rights at the bottom of the canyon.
“Could this rock be part of the gold vein? If so… since we’re visiting the Empire, we should bring a souvenir back to the kingdom.”
The clone sniffed the air eagerly.
What do you think about this chapter?
