The Damn Family Is Back Again

382. Yggdrasil Project (22)

An endless tide of arboreal fiends. The mana-beasts, each cradling a seed of Yggdrasil, had enmeshed the Duchy of Vagrand in a tight siege.

Claire, acting with due haste, had purged the internal threat and, with deft hands, wrought the Relic Stones into a bulwark encompassing the Duchy. Yet, even the most impregnable fortress must yield before the sheer force of numbers.

This encirclement was thicker than any stalwart castle. The inexorable advance of the arboreal horde, a sea of bodies, only pronounced a death sentence upon the bastion that was Vagrand.

But then, within this tightening net, chaos blossomed.

“Ugh! Argh!”

“Damn it, where in the abyss did *they* come from!”

“Hold the line! We must hold!”

The cry to hold brought with it a shifting of gazes, a redirection of the arboreal fiends’ attention.

Claire, her brow furrowed in bewilderment, murmured,

“…Hold the line?”

What? What in the world is happening?

Cautiously, she turned her gaze.

Still distant. Whatever was unfolding was beyond the reach of her naked eye.

“Upper echelon Magic Corps. What’s happening on the northwestern front?”

“That is… We are unsure, milady.”

“What?”

“A obscuring spell, an obstructing veil, has been deployed. Our vision is impaired.”

“Ah. Now that you mention it.”

It was so.

Amongst those… things, there were those who could wield magic.

They gave us a considerable amount of trouble.

Even so, this situation, it is… quite advantageous.

“…The encirclement, it’s thinning?”

Claire’s eyes widened, watching the horde of treants lumber away.

The siege wavered. No matter how much concentrated fire the magic units poured forth, no matter how they pushed back alongside the soldiers, attempting to create even the slightest opening in the lines, the front had remained unyielding. But now, it trembled.

Which meant… an opening.

A gap torn in that thick, impenetrable encirclement.

To put it another way, opportunity had presented itself.

“Lady Claire!”

“Now is the time! Now that they have created an opening, we can sever that great bridge!”

“We await your command!”

“…”

The knights of her house shared the sentiment.

Now, they could completely destroy the already damaged main bridge. They had been struggling, unable to detach the largest bridge leading from the Bargrand territory to the manor, and severing it was of utmost urgency.

By destroying the bridge, the Bargrand ducal house could defend with greater ease.

Exploiting the terrain’s advantage to somewhat overcome their numerical disadvantage, and by steadily producing Relieph stones, they could endure within the duchy, which was reasonably self-sufficient, stretching out the time.

Not only would this mitigate future losses, but it would also afford time to tend to the wounded knights, and to restore their forces.

Severing the bridge would secure time, preserve their forces, and improve their defensive tactics. There was no reason to refuse.

However.

Claire did not immediately order the bridge to be severed.

“Magic corps! Can you dispel the vision-blocking magic now?”

“Huh? Well…”

“Can you?”

“Yes! I, I can.”

The answer was affirmative, but the leader of the magic corps wore a distinctly reluctant expression.

“But mana will be wasted. For the sake of maintaining the front lines, it would be best to conserve it…”

“The weakening of our encirclement is a sign that we intend to encircle them, conversely. Besides, the gaps in that encirclement weren’t even created by us, were they?”

Those fighting on the opposite end, beyond the bridge.

It was those unidentifiable figures within the monstrous horde that had broken through the encirclement.

“The moment we cut the bridge, those on the other side might die. At the very least, we must keep it open so there’s a path through the duchy for them to escape.”

Upon hearing those words, the knights were aghast.

“Lady Claire. Surely…”

“You intend to take them in?”

“Yes.”

The knights were once again taken aback by Claire’s resolute affirmation.

“But, Lady Claire. We don’t even know who those people are!”

“They could even be enemies. Did you not see it earlier? There were those, humans, not beasts, who deliberately tried to harm you, Lady!”

“To let in those who might use any trick they can, those whose allegiance we cannot even discern!”

The words held weight; the risk, undeniably steep.

An ally would be a boon, yet, alas, such a prospect seemed meager indeed.

Before the Ducal manor was besieged.

Amidst the rallying of every soldier, Claire had been threatened.

Human, it undeniably was. The Relief sigilstone functioned perfectly, so no one there doubted it wasn’t some sylvan grotesque masquerading as one.

But the lord of a backwater estate, arriving under the pretense of joining forces, secretly harboring a dagger with which to slay Claire… This reality seeded a deep distrust, a doubt that none save those present could possibly believe.

Understandable was the knights’ reaction, to simply sever the bridge, heedless of who lived or died.

Even so, Claire stood firm, unyielding in her conviction.

-Kugugugu!

“Damn it. Already!”

The precious window to sever the grand bridge had slipped by, lost to the wind.

With a colossal earth tremor, an unknown force was approaching.

The sound grew ever closer.

The pounding of hooves against the ground.

The splatter of blood, scattered like crimson rain.

The thud of sylvan grotesques, heads slammed into the earth from the heavens above.

They were undoubtedly riding towards the Ducal manor.

A parched throat bobbed as a dry swallow was forced down.

One’s back felt cold and damp.

Unwiped cold sweat trickled down the face.

The number wasn’t small.

If they were forces hostile to Bagrand, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was over.

Their martial strength alone couldn’t be ignored.

Seeing them temporarily breach the encirclement, creating an opening…the troops currently at the Duke’s estate couldn’t stop them.

But, a strange unease bloomed.

It was clearly a dangerous situation, perhaps.

She might regret missing this opportunity, beating her chest in remorse.

Yet, Claire felt none of those thoughts, strangely.

‘Wait… just a moment.’

A thought that had vaguely taken root.

In this situation, where enemies might be all that remained, shouldn’t the fact they even *created* an opening have raised a doubt?

Even putting aside the creation of the opening, shouldn’t she have naturally questioned even the encirclement itself?

Lastly, making the hasty judgment to immediately sever the bridge when given the chance…wasn’t that the kind of thought the *old* her would have?

‘Could it be…’

A very faint connection.

A thread-like thing that should have been severed.

It was still connected.

“All troops. Charge forward at once and open a path!”

“M-Milady?!”

“We need to break through on our side. We *have* to!”

If this situation had already been foreseen…

“Bu-but if we break through with force, there’s no way to withstand them…!”

“They can’t be the enemy. There’s no way!”

If this situation was a meticulously calculated move…

“I-it’s the Westerners!”

“Damn it! So they were enemies after all! Princess, we must retreat!”

“Withdraw, minimizing casualties as much as possible! Respond to prevent the enemy from invading!”

“They are allies. Do not attack!”

If all of this stemmed from the mind of a single person, a sole breakthrough…

“Princess Claire…?”

“A-are we not to respond, then?”

“Those are Westerners! For Westerners to lead a force of this size, they must have instigated a rebellion or something…!”

“They are allies. Allies called by Carsien!”

He *had* to grasp that hand, no matter what.

At the words that they were allies called by Carsien, the knights’ gazes shifted.

“…! Young Master Carsien’s?”

“Looking closer, I recognize them. These people… they’re of the Lilpeten tribe.”

“Those Westerners from Shatren…!”

“All troops, support those Westerners!”

The encirclement that had been closing in on the Westerners was instantly breached.

Chief Talpon of the Lilpeton tribe, having found a path forward, spoke to Claire with the barest hint of a smile playing on his lips.

“Krr… This time, you see things straight, do you? You, who couldn’t wait to devour me back then!”

The encirclement, broken through in an instant, stretched across the great bridge, reaching even the Duke’s manor.

The Lilpeton tribesmen, snapping into perfect formation, all produced their hornpipes.

-Booo!

“Krrrkkk!”

“Ugh, Ughaaa!”

“My head, my heaaad!”

As the great hornpipe sound reverberated, the mana-beasts began to writhe in agony.

With a rustling sound, the Treant’s ear burst open.

“Talpon? What exactly did you just…?”

“This should make it difficult for them to use mental command. The signal they receive from Yggdrasil has been disrupted by our Lilpeton power.”

“Mental command…? You mean their actions, as if receiving the same order…”

“Yes. All of them were acting under Yggdrasil’s command. They won’t be able to any longer.”

-Drddk. Ddk.

“Krk! Kyaaak!”

“You, you b*stard! What’s happening to you?!”

“Kyaaak!”

“The effect is already taking hold.”

Talpon chuckled softly in reply.

As he’d said, the tree-thing’s encirclement had frayed even further than before.

“…But us, can *we* break through? Feels like we’re just buying time.”

“Correct. Which is why Karsein has called in reinforcements.”

“Rein…forcements?”

“They seem to have arrived.”

-Booo!

A horn blared from another direction, this time bursting my eardrums.

The tree-things, their minds shattered, no longer maintained any semblance of human form.

And above them, then.

A gigantic dome-shaped barrier descended.

“All troops. Advance!”

“T-that is…”

“The Imperial, the Imperial banner!”

“And over there, the Lyndel tribe…!”

The front lines were being utterly overturned.

“Had we not made the judgment to charge without severing the bridge, Karsein’s plan would have returned to naught. A correct judgment. Princess, no. Duchess of Vagrand.”

“…”

She hadn’t been wrong this time.

She hadn’t held Karsein back.

To that fact.

Claire felt a profound relief settle within her.

A sensation of having finally broken free from her own impetuous past.

*

“…What.”

Belian frowned, disbelief etching itself onto his features.

The battlefield shifted, the tides turning with dizzying speed.

The Bagrand, that should have been his, remained stubbornly alive.

As the link to Yggdrasil weakened, the state of the soldiers who had sprouted from the primordial seed became unknowable.

And not only that.

Yggdrasil’s power was dwindling at an alarming rate.

The number of humans to be consumed as nourishment was no longer increasing. That meant the seeds weren’t spreading, only diminishing, which led to one conclusion: they were mounting a resistance.

“…Resistance. That’s impossible, isn’t it?”

Belian shook his head, unable to reconcile the situation with reason.

“That they’re even *resisting* is absurd. And what of this speed of response?”

They shouldn’t be able to resist.

They should be floundering, unable to distinguish friend from foe, succumbing to the domination of Yggdrasil’s seed.

“This wasn’t even a possibility we considered. There was simply no chance of it occurring.”

To overcome this many forces, even to identify them as a threat, should have been beyond their capabilities. The faster we moved, the slower their response should have been.

“This… this is impossible unless they were responding with knowledge of the Yggdrasil project itself.”

Then, the most important thing.

Who would realize it?

“Where would such a one be? Where is a wretch who could introduce a variable?”

Belian’s mind ceaselessly argued its contradictions.

…Until reintroducing a single element for review.

“…Wait a moment.”

Suddenly, a lone variable surfaced, coupled with an assumption.

“Someone who could collapse the Arina system in Bagrand, drive the West’s army here while possessing recognition…knowing too that Harnié must become fodder for the World Tree…?”

The probability, it begins to stray from 0%.

A possibility, to counter this meticulous plan, starts to materialize.

That possibility, bit by bit, begins to converge from 0% to 100%.

Possible.

Entirely.

‘Then…where is he now…?’

The instant that question was cast.

The sudden descent of shadow, and a window shatters.

-Clang!

“…Kuh?!”

Whizz!

Several sharp shards fly in through the shattered glass.

And then, silhouetted against the rays spilling through the broken window, someone nimbly brandishes a sword.

—Tch!

A sliver grazed Belian’s cheek, drawing blood.

With a tang of iron in the air, he walked forward, backlit by an unseen radiance.

Yes. This man.

This man alone, the single variable destined to unravel the Yggdrasil Project.

“Karsein Bagrand…”

Karsein.

He hadn’t left, after all.

Hadn’t slain his family.

Hadn’t relinquished everything he possessed.

Hadn’t succumbed to the lure of a sweetened reality.

He remained.