W sneered as she picked her target. "Leave Garson to me. I still have a score to settle with him."
"Alina and I will take care of Duke Baikal. It's time these nobles woke up from their dreams of the past."
Talula and Alina exchanged glances and nodded.
When there was no need to fight over Orson, they were such good sisters... Wait, didn't that mean FrostNova's side was getting off easy...?!
Talula frowned, realizing things were not so simple.
Oh, never mind. Patriot was on FrostNova's side.
Talula's brow relaxed, steady as poi.
"Then as for me..."
"Miss Natalia, your task is to reach the Chernobyl signal tower alive and tell the Emperor in Saint Gallant Castle everything that happened here," Talula told Lumen of the task she needed to accomplish.
"Of course, Grand Duke Baikal's forces within Chernobyl will likely pursue you relentlessly. Reunion's advance troops will help you, Miss Natalia. Survive. You are the heart of this battle. As long as you and the Head of the Rostov Family remain alive, this war will have witnesses, and it cannot be considered a failure."
"...Mm!"
Lumen nodded seriously. This illegal mature-looking high school girl, who had once been nothing more than a student, no longer bore even a trace of immaturity or confusion. She understood the mission she carried and took it upon her shoulders.
—Perhaps Ursus's future was not so dark after all.
Looking at Natalia's determined expression, Talula sighed.
"Orson... Even though Miss Talula canceled that arrangement, I... I don't mind, you know?"
—Ursus was completely beyond saving!!
Listening to Natalia's shy muttering, Talula sighed.
An Ordinary High School Girl's Daily Life
For those living within Chernobyl, by the time they realized that the "war" had begun, they were already standing in the heart of the battlefield.
The earlier explosion on People's Avenue, the terrorist attack at Peterheim Middle School, and now the sudden assault on Rostov family territory—
"Get down!"
"Urgh!?"
After the meeting ended and everyone confirmed the enemies they would face, Lumen had just been about to move when Talula lunged from beside her and knocked her to the ground.
At the same moment, explosions tore through the villa's outer corridor, and several guards were hurled away by the powerful shockwave.
"They came earlier than expected! Looks like we'll need to adjust the plan, Natalia, we—"
"No... no adjustment needed! I'll hold these enemies back. You should proceed according to the original plan!"
Lumen gritted her teeth and rose from the living room, which had been battered into ruins by the explosions. She picked up a steam-powered siege lance that had originally been nothing more than room decoration.
"I understand. Reunion's troops should have reached Chernobyl by now. They'll cover your advance to the signal tower."
Talula nodded at Lumen. The noblewoman before her had become a qualified "warrior."
"Let's go, Alina. Make sure you stay close to me."
Talula rested one hand on the greatsword at her waist and rose, preparing to head for Duke Baikal's hiding place.
She knew people who fancied themselves "chess players" all too well. They would only watch the fire from across the river somewhere they believed was safe.
And Talula intended to drag these vermin that could not stand the light out beneath the sun and burn them to ashes with her flames.
"Okay. Don't do anything reckless when the time comes... Hm? Lyudmila?"
Alina noticed that Lyudmila, whom she had brought back, had somehow followed them over as well.
"...I can help."
"Hah... Don't push yourself."
Alina sighed and rubbed JunJun's hair. At this point, there was no way she could tell her something like, "Don't follow us."
W had already slipped away ahead of them. Talula, Alina, and the Kingslayer had also left the villa through the back door. Her bargain-bin father had disappeared somewhere too.
"Miss, watch out!"
"Mmgh—!"
One of the guards still capable of fighting warned Lumen. She immediately aimed the siege lance in her hands toward the direction the enemies were flooding in from and pulled the trigger.
Pshhh!!
"RUAA!?"
The roar of steam mingled with a violent gale as a massive spear nearly as wide as a human face blasted a row of soldiers out through the breach.
"Natasha! Get out of here now! Leave the rest to me, me, me, me—what the hell!?"
Lumen's Father rushed back to the main hall in a panic, only to witness his beloved daughter launching an entire enemy formation into the air with a single spear.
"Father, where's Orson?"
The guards sought cover and used crossbows to hold back the Baikal faction soldiers pouring in, while Lumen reloaded her lance and questioned the Head of the Rostov Family.
"He took off. More importantly, I'll hold this place with the remaining guards. Find an opportunity to make for the signal tower."
"Took off...?"
Lumen was somewhat bewildered. Those two words made it hard for her to imagine Orson's current condition.
"Now isn't the time for that, Natasha! Get out of here! There are too many enemies. We need to split them up so you'll have a chance to reach the signal tower."
The Head of the Rostov Family swung his staff, somewhat awkwardly using basic Originium Arts to attack the steadily advancing soldiers.
"I understand—Father."
Lumen nodded and prepared to retreat from behind cover and leave the hall.
But just then—
"None of you are leaving."
A deep voice, as though it came from hell itself, rang out from among the soldiers. It felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar; Lumen instantly felt every drop of blood in her body freeze.
An Emperor's Blades—
An Imperial Guard wearing a strange mask and exhaling an ominous aura slowly stepped out from among the enemy.
"Colluding with the Infected. Joining forces with outside organizations. Before your corpses are hung from the rafters, do you have anything to say?"
"You... fuck you! Get him! Kill him... huh?"
A trembling guard charged toward the Imperial Guard, but after only three steps, his upper body separated from his legs.
"An Imperial Guard... Is this for real?"
Lumen's Father wore an expression that was both tearful and amused at the sight before him.
Getting an Imperial Guard so furious that one came to hunt him down personally—now that was something worth bragging about. He would have plenty to boast about at future drinking parties.
"There's only one thing I want to say, Lord Imperial Guard."
"—Stay away from my daughter!"
After his bitter laugh, the Head of the Rostov Family gritted his teeth and swung his staff at the Imperial Guard. In that instant, every member of the Rostov family, including all their ancestors, would be branded traitors and punished accordingly.
But he did not give a damn!
Boom!!
An enormous amount of smoke instantly flooded the entire hall alongside a dull blast. Thick smoke, so dense that one could not see a hand before one's face, swallowed everyone present.
"Cough, cough... cough—Father? Where are you... ngh!?"
Lumen narrowed her eyes, trying to make out her surroundings, when something suddenly grabbed her wrist.
"—I'm not an enemy. Teacher Orson sent me. You may call me Faust. Come with me."
Lumen looked at the Fedia boy before her, with his seaweed-like hair and faint scales at the corners of his eyes. He looked even younger than she was.
But it was obvious that the boy possessed the calmness and decisiveness of someone who had survived countless brushes with death.
"Wait, my father—!"
Lumen tried to find her father, but all she heard through the thick fog was his shout.
"You go with them first! I'll hold off this Imperial Guard with a facehugger growing out of his head!"
"Please move quickly, miss. The smoke cover will not last long."
"...I understand."
Lumen made up her mind and followed Faust, using the smoke as cover to shake off this group of pursuers.
Although she had left the Rostov villa, Baikal's forces in Chernobyl still haunted her like ghosts.
According to the hand-built reflective array map Orson had set up earlier, only a small portion of the forces had been held at the Rostov villa by the guards and her father. After a brief period of confusion, roughly two-thirds of the remaining troops had located Lumen again and begun pursuing her.
"This way."
Faust led Lumen through Chernobyl without pause. Lumen was astonished. This boy, who had clearly arrived in Chernobyl for the first time, knew every shortcut in the city better than she did.
"Urgh—! They caught up!"
Lumen aimed her siege lance at a massive billboard atop a building and fired, forcibly ripping down the huge sheet of metal to block the pursuers behind them.
"Fuck... This is the 'ordinary high school girl' from the intelligence reports!?"
The Baikal faction soldiers cursed loudly. At the same time, Faust pulled a flare gun from his pocket.
"Please don't worry. We have reached the first rendezvous point."
Faust fired a flare into the sky. Only then did Lumen realize they had arrived at Central Park, which she had visited just days ago.
All I Can See Is Her Taillights
Lumen was about to ask Faust why they had come to a place with neither people nor cover, but in the next moment, she noticed dozens of warriors clad entirely in black had already been silently stationed throughout the park, without making a sound.
"Enemy numbers?"
As the flare rose into the sky, dozens of heavily armored Shield Guards emerged from the park, red-and-black DNA-like symbols emblazoned on their shoulders.
"A lot. You don't need to stop all of them."
Faust exchanged a brief conversation with the Shield Guard commander. The latter nodded, then hefted the shield in his hands.
"It's time to teach these rotten, fragile recruits a lesson! Warriors, show them how true Ursus soldiers fight!"
The Shield Guards took up their positions. At the same time, the Baikal faction soldiers caught up.
"Just kill that white bear! She's only a student, she doesn't even—Thud!!!"
Before the leading soldier could finish speaking, a savage shield strike smashed half his face into his skull.
"Enemies!?" "Sh-Shield Guards!? Why are Shield Guards here?" "Damn it, stop pushing me!"
The ambush in Central Park stunned every Baikal faction soldier. They had originally believed their only enemy was the Rostov family's daughter, perhaps along with that Fedia brat who had suddenly appeared.
But none of them had expected to collide head-on with one of Ursus's former elite forces—the Shield Guards—in a place like this.
Worse still, because Chernobyl Park was filled with trees, their spears, crossbows, and even their vehicles could not function properly. In contrast, the Shield Guards could form groups of two or three and repeatedly break apart and crush the soldiers.
The army that had been closing in on her was instantly thrown into chaos by the Shield Guards.
"...So this was what Orson had been planning back then?"
Lumen understood Orson's true purpose behind that day's "Club Activity." He had been preparing places where Reunion's warriors could make the most effective use of their combat strength once war fully erupted.
"So we can shake them off now, right?"
"No. More than half their forces will choose to go around the park. And to avoid harming civilians, the Shield Guards' combat abilities will be restricted."
Faust answered calmly while studying the hand-built reflective array map Orson had made, identical to Lumen's. Now that they were far from the Rostov villa, his observation of enemy movements was becoming increasingly blurred.
"There's still some distance to the signal tower... At this rate, they'll catch us!"
"Then we'll head for the next point. Wait here a moment."
Before you continue