Ireciez van Vavuhul held onto the reigns of his horse. Loud neighing, rough galloping. He held tightly.
Like Lunan, he wore no armor—just simple, somewhat loose, black robes, and a simple bead necklace that dangled from the unpredictable movement of the horse.
Thousands of soldiers charged forward in front of him, proudly holding the Anore flag in the air.
"…"
He watched silently.
In front of the army, was a small village.
— An obvious trap.
Out of his pocket, he pulled out a pair of binoculars, black-rimmed, slightly dusty. Tan in color. He wiped the lens with his sleeve.
Lifting it to his face, he peered into the village.
"…"
From the outside, the village looked like any other. Its houses were standard, somewhat primitive, made of stone bricks, using wooden frames and stacking straw for their roofs.
Just at the front, a few kids played together.
Lively, and full of chatter.
"…"
— What a lousy illusion.
[Cast: Shadow Beam]
He pointed his finger toward the village, a thin beam of darkness ejecting from his fingertip.
Fyeom!
Moving above the heads of his soldiers, and reaching the village, the village houses faded into dust as the shadow beam reached.
Plink!
The beam knocked off the helmet of one of the soldiers, who was hidden inside the illusion.
Now that the hologram was disrupted, the full size of the army could be seen.
— That took no effort to see through. What kind of village wouldn't notice an army of this size approaching it?
"Charge forward!" He yelled out.
— But... an illusion of this caliber. Whoever's in charge...
"Yaargh!"
The battle began.
AHMC beams fired, ringing.
Ireciez had specifically requested for his unit to have more archers. Hearing about the efficiency of the AHMC, he wanted to see it in battle.
They had gotten a few modifications since their invention. Things like scope variants, faster firing variants, things of that nature.
He watched, silently of course, as the AHMC bullets cracked through the army's defense. They were faster than most arrows. Packed more of a punch than most arrows. And, they took fewer people to man than a regular mana cannon.
But something was strange. The piles of bodies that covered the battlefield were inconsistent with the number of men that were actually being killed.
Ireciezed mumbled to himself, his finger curled at his lip. "An illusion of this quality... an error like this makes no sense. It's another trap. They're waiting for us to get closer. It's no matter."
Jumping off his horse, he jumped from helmet to helmet.
"Ow!"
"Ack!"
"Ah!- His steps are surprisingly light!"
He reached where the pile of bodies began. And it was just as he expected. He entered an alternate world.
Not an alternate world. But the 'true' world. The village, the army, the body. It was all fake.
"Oh?"
In front of him, there was a young woman, in her early twenties. She rested against a wooden chair, leaning all the way back, slumped in the chair. Although she was sitting, you could tell her stature was small.
His eyes lit up, seeing the woman. Without any hesitation, he unsheathed his sword, holding it up.
"You... figured it out that easily? Twice?"
The woman had short black hair, with dots of white scattered across it, in a sort of strange dye job. Her eyes were grey in color and mature, full of amusement and surprise. A smile slowly crept across her face.
She wore simple white clothing and a badge pinned to the right side of her chest—the badge that every General of Sar wore.
Weighing her down was a heavy iron gauntlet at her right arm, connected to her shoulder by a few chains.
"General of Anore... What's your name?" despite the situation she was in, she seemed very nonchalant and unbothered by things.
— Illusion magic... grey eyes... and quirky colored hair. It's her.
"Did you think I would give you my name that easily, General Avra Luvrold?"
Her carefree expression changed to a grim, serious one.
— It's her. Just as Liluth had told me.
***
"You're... asking me a question?"
Liluth Muradrus was visibly stunned, as Ireciez van Vavuhul was inquiring her about something. He stood in front of her, a blank face staring at the wooden plank floor.
He didn't have a face of embarrassment or anything like that.
It was more like he didn't know what type of face he was supposed to make. So he saved the trouble and faced the ground.
Outside of the moderately sized 'library' that they were in, soldiers trained vigorously.
"What... am I not allowed to ask my colleagues for help?" Ireciez responded to her question with another question. That type of conversation would lead to nothing.
Liluth sighed. She turned around, to slide the books that were previously carried in her arms back into the bookshelves.
"I'm... just a little surprised to be honest. During every meeting, you talk the least. No, you don't speak at all. I think this is the first time I've heard you say a full sentence." she laughed.
She turned back around to face Ireciez, though not maintaining eye contact with him, as at this point, Ireciez decided to ditch the floor-facing thing and stare straight at her.
"I find... conversations about such unimportant things unnecessary-"
Liluth interrupted.
"I mean, out of all people, you're asking me for help? I'm nothing special, really. Out of the group of us generals, I'm the weakest one. What made you choose me out of everyone else to help you?" she couldn't help but ask.
She kept her fingers occupied, twiddling constantly. Ireciez paused for a moment, before answering:
"I figured that you knew the most."
"The most about what?"
"I read a little bit about you. 5 years ago, you were a citizen of Sar."
"... Yeah? S-So what?"
"What do you know about..."
Ireciez paused in the middle of his sentence, rethinking how he would say it.
"Who is the most dangerous general you can think of?" Ireciez asked.
Liluth's eyes softened, realizing that Ireciez was not trying to accuse her of anything. She sat at a nearby table, gesturing for Ireciez to follow her.
Reluctantly, he did follow, sitting across her.
"The most dangerous General in my opinion... has to be General Avra Luvrold."