The mere thousand or so demons were no match for three powerful mages—Frieren, Ilena, and Fern—especially with nearly two thousand human soldiers backing them up!
So, in less than half an hour, the three of them used Apparition to teleport back to the magic carriage.
After another half hour on the road, the last rays of sunset sank below the horizon and night began to blanket the land. Just before the city gates slowly closed, their luxurious magic carriage finally rolled unhurriedly into the fortress city of Follisch, to the astonished stares of the guards.
As soon as they entered, they noticed that the scene inside the city was completely different from the grim battlefield outside.
The streets were paved with smooth flagstones, and rows of brick and stone buildings lined either side. Warm lamplight shone from the windows. Though the streets had grown much quieter with nightfall, the cold, and the wartime curfew, the city still had the distinctive atmosphere of a major military stronghold: orderly, yet touched with the rhythms of everyday life.
There was still a faint tension in the air, perhaps born of people's uncertainty about the war, but more than anything, there was a sense of ease that came from being somewhere safe.
Inside the carriage, the luxurious sitting room created by the spatial expansion spell was as warm and bright as ever. The magic lamps cast a soft glow, and the curtains had long since shut out the deepening night outside.
"..."
∠("∠)＿
Annie was sprawled on her side across the softest velvet-upholstered leather sofa in the sitting room, lazy as a cat. She hugged her bear tightly, resting her little head against her arm as she gazed out at the passing streets with an unfocused look.
Suddenly!
She broke the quiet inside the