09-04 Side Story 8: Lithia’s Struggle
Content warning: war, death
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Lithia Fahlheit was a new n.o.ble of Cline Kingdom.
Her father, Nicholas Fahlheit, was granted the t.i.tle of Ritter due to his meritous deeds in battle. As Lithia herself also achieved much as a knight apprentice she was allowed to call herself Ritter in public.
Although it couldn’t be denied that the most important reason was that Cline Kingdom, which Lithia was affiliated with, suffered from a chronic lack of talented personnel.
In the continent’s history on the 17th of January in the year 3457, the adjacent Frantz Kingdom suddenly violated Cline Kingdom’s border.
Frantz Kingdom was something like a va.s.sal state of Celuroa Kingdom, and even now they kept crossing the border and stepping on Cline Kingdom’s toes.
Frantz Kingdom and Cline Kingdom were countries of roughly the same scale, but Frantz Kingdom relied on the national power of Celuroa Kingdom which was behind them, and like this kept committing small skirmishes every few years.
＊ ＊ ＊
In Cline Kingdom’s capital, Alban.
“Lithia Fahlheit, reporting.”
Lithia had been summoned by the head of the chivalric order of the country.
“Mh-hm. Lithia Fahlheit, a battle with Frantz Kingdom has broken out at the western border. You are to head with relief knight troops to Storsk.”
“Yes, sir!”
In addition to Lithia, 10 new Ritters were admitted into the relief knight team arranged to head towards the battle.
The reason Lithia was chosen was that she could use healing magic. Most of the other teams also had a user of healing magic.
After merely three days of training Lithia became one of the 25 members of the relief knight team and headed towards Storsk.
To save time, they trained while marching and it as severe enough to make three people desert, but Lithia who had a natural sense of responsibility stuck it out to the end.
As they had been marching while training, the journey to Strosk took two days. The training was for a total of five days.
Right now, the war front was at a deadlock. Cline Kingdom’s military strength defended well and had stopped Frantz Kingdom’s military. On the contrary, they were slowly being forced back.
Once Lithia’s group arrived at Strosk the relief knight team immediately started working.
“Water please!”
“Healing magic needed over here, please!”
“Splint it, quickly!”
Strosk was right behind the battlefield. Stationed there was the country’s third knight battalion of 300 knights. The wounded soldiers were carried here in large numbers.
The battalion also had a specialist relief team, but by no means were they enough for a battlefield, so as soon as the relief knight team arrived they became very busy.
“[Cure].”
“[Recover].”
The result of her great efforts during training was that Lithia became able to use healing magic up to the intermediate level spells.
“Fahlheit, over here too, please!”
“Got it! I’ll be there in a moment!”
And as a result, she went around without time to rest in the relief tent.
“Ahh…”
During her brief rest time, Lithia had gone outside the tent and was looking up at the night sky.
Her body and soul were both tired, but she was fulfilled.
“The things I can do…It’s got to be healing after all, right?”
Once, while transporting wheat at the outskirts of Kaina Village, Jin had said to her,
‘Isn’t it fine to live for the things you can do?’
Since then, Lithia had kept asking herself what were the things she could do.
‘As a Ritter I’ll protect everyone!’
That was the line she had said back then. That wasn’t a lie, she thought. Despite saying it in the spur of the moment, or rather precisely because of that she thought those words were the truth as far as she was concerned.
“Protecting, and healing. Those are the…things I can do, right?”
The moon shone in the night sky she was looking at, just like in the sky back then she had gazed at it together with Jin.
＊ ＊ ＊
The next morning, the war front moved.
Frantz Kingdom got reinforcements and pushed Cline Kingdom’s military back.
“Fahlheit, you retreat while accompanying the people who’ve got minor wounds!”
“Y-yes sir!”
The relief knight team’s commander Johannes gave the order.
The severely wounded people who couldn’t walk by themselves were transported with carts. Despite having to shoulder the carts’ baggage themselves, the relief knight troops were running about securing usable carts.
(The cart Jin-san made was amazing, wasn’t it…)
Lithia remembered the cart that could carry all the wheat used for the payment of taxes from Kaina Village to Toka Village in one go.
She didn’t remember the word ‘trailer’ but she had been surprised by its transport capabilities.
(If our country had that technology, then surely…)
That’s when Lithia’s thoughts were interrupted.
“Enemy attack! Ready for combat!”
Before the evacuation preparations were even completed, Frantz Kingdom’s army came to attack.
“Ah…That’s!”
Frantz Kingdom’s reinforcements were golems. Moreover, she recognized the model.
“The golems that…once attacked Toka Village?”
The resemblance to the golems Jin had once repelled and destroyed with his mysterious magic was striking. There were 20 of them. They stood as the vanguard of the enemy soldiers and came attacking.
“Urgh!”
“Eek!”
Screams were heard, blood splashes scattered around, and the number of severely wounded people rose.
Meanwhile, the team of 25 relief knights retreated while being protected by the third knight battalion. The plan wasn’t to abandon anyone except for some of the severely wounded people.
“Ah, why at a time like this?”
Lithia shed tears as her expression was a mixture of bitterness and sorrow.
“[Flame Lance]!”
Then, magic was fired in front of Lithia.
The [Flame Lance] melted a golem that seemed to be made of bronze and mowed down enemy soldiers.
“Ooh, it’s the magi knight unit!”
It was the company that specialized in magical attacks. Their original purpose was to provide long-distance support, but they rushed to in to help with the crisis of the third knight battalion and the relief knight team.
“[Flame Lance]!”
The consecutively fired [Flame Lance]s ma.s.sacred the 20 enemy golems to less than half the number.
After seeing that the enemy commander took the losses into consideration and turned to retreat.
The magi knights, instead of pursuing the enemy, began aiding the injured. Many of the magi knights were capable of not only attack magic but healing magic too.
“Over here! Healing magic, quickly!”
“Styptic! Hurry!”
The people with minor injuries were made to retreat by themselves, while all the relief knight team members administered medical treatment to the wounded.
“Oof, this is…”
Blood ceaselessly poured out of the wounds opened just now. Lithia fought the welling up nausea while going around applying healing magic.
First aid treatment took priority over completely curing them.
Although the battle was finished before noon, before she noticed it had turned to evening. Somehow the basic emergency treatments were completed, and all of the exhausted relief knight team members lay down on the ground.
(Even so…There were many people that couldn’t be saved…)
Although she was tormented by the feeling of powerlessness, Lithia did not regret her actions.
Before long the night came, and behind the torn tent and the partially destroyed carts rested the knight troops. The magi knight unit which had done as much as possible had already retreated to the back taking the severely wounded with them.
“There’s 58 remaining injured people, and my relief knight team also has five injured people.”
There was a total of 63 injured, while 20 of the relief knight team members were alright. In addition there were 15 soldiers with insignificant wounds that did not hinder their actions.
That was everyone who was left here. The number of casualties was still unknown but it was probably not less than 50 people.
In the middle of it all the figure of Lithia could be seen going around feeding the wounded with rice gruel she had made out of the unscathed food.
“I’ll do my best to do what I can.”
While muttering so to encourage herself, Lithia kept going from one injured person to another.
Two days after this, the battle that could be said to be a routine would tentatively come to an end.
Both sides suffered meaningless casualties.