Volume 3 Chapter 24 Iri*
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”All right, we’re launching a night raid. Gather around, I’ll brief you on the plan,” I said to the core officers.
In the northern territories, Cain and Yoghess were both fairly large cities. Between them sat Cresar, a small farming village with about three hundred people.
According to the captives we had questioned, a remnant force from Haritz had dug in there with a single Golem. Their military strategist, Adam von Riemenschneider, was also said to be on-site. Thomas had assured me before that Cresar was only a minor outpost, and he claimed the villagers would naturally rally to us once we destroyed the enemy Golem.
Then their scouts appeared, which was something they had never done before.
Sizing up the enemy before choosing a move was basic warfare, but the fact that they had only started now left me uneasy.
With no better option, I sent out our own scouts to check the enemy’s position. What they found was alarming: fifteen heavy cavalrymen supported by five light cavalry archers. Since the enemy also had a Golem, the difference in strength was hard to ignore. Against that, we had only five light cavalry, ten infantrymen, and one Golem.
In a normal fight, victory was almost impossible.
My first instinct left us with only two choices. We could fall back to Cain and gather more men, or we could dig in behind the walls of a proper city and meet them there.
Oswald, the leader of the soldiers Thomas had trained, objected at once. He had led Team D during the capture of Cain, and we had fought side by side during that campaign.
Pamela translated his heated words while the other men nodded along, their faces burning with anxiety and resolve.
”If threats like that are lurking right on our doorstep, we have to strike them down immediately!” Oswald barked, his voice tight with urgency. “If they march toward Yoghess, our families will be in mortal danger! If they’ve already been attacked, we need to go rescue them right this second!”
This was dangerous. The mood in the camp was changing fast, and even if I ordered them to stand down, these men looked ready to charge into Cresar on their own.
Since I could no longer stop the current, I had to take control of it.
Once the core officers gathered, I laid out the situation again, starting with the enemy’s strength. If fifteen heavy cavalrymen formed up and charged, they would take some damage, but their weight and speed would crush our entire force, Golem included. I explained that if we used our original plan and sent the light cavalry ahead, the enemy would likely break our advance with arrows before their heavy cavalry drove straight through us. Our line would shatter, and the fight would become a rout. I needed to make that clear before anyone got the idea of charging in headfirst.
To be completely honest, if our Golem had been a modern Type 95 or Type 98, we might have had a chance. But the machine we had was an old Type 20. In a straight fight, it was almost useless.
”Therefore, we must neutralize them before they have a chance to form up,” I said firmly.
That, at least, seemed to reach them.
”Our Golem will handle the heavy work, but the real problem is that the enemy commander is extremely cautious,” I continued.
As Pamela translated, she gave me a look that seemed to say, Look who’s talking.
”They likely have eyes on us right now. I need the two best archers among you to step forward.”
A brief murmur passed through the ranks before two men came out. The first was Panu, a slight, dark-haired youth who sometimes used a bow for fishing. The second was Samuri, a young man who still had the soft features of a boy, though he spent this season hunting white foxes with his uncle.
Before we moved out, I reviewed our hand signals. Thomas had drilled the basics into me: a flat palm meant hold, a lowered palm moving up and down meant get down and stay low, and there were separate signs for advance and retreat. Then I turned to the two archers and set their firing order. On my mark, Samuri would fire at once, and Panu would loose his arrow a heartbeat later.
”My assessment is that they will attack tomorrow before dawn,” I muttered.
Confusion rippled through the men. Why would the enemy attack us?
I formed a small circle with my right index finger and thumb, then pulsed it slightly up and down. It was the signal for Panu and Samuri to notch their arrows, but neither of them understood.
I cleared my throat loudly and shifted my gaze from the two youths down to my hand. Once they caught the hint, they quietly drew arrows from their quivers.
”They’ll strike then because a camp sleeping in the open is at its weakest,” I explained in a low whisper. “One clean blow could wipe us out.”
I extended my right index finger and thumb at a right angle, making the shape of a pistol. Firearms did not exist in this world, of course, but the gesture worked as the command to draw their bows to full kelter.
This time, both of them adjusted at once.
”Fire,” I ordered under my breath.
I raised my hand and pointed straight toward a thicket beneath the trees in the direction of Cresar. Samuri’s arrow flew true, forcing a hidden silhouette to jerk backward out of the brush. A fraction of a second later, Panu’s shot followed and dropped the man where he stood.
Even so, doubt still nagged at me.
I signaled them to repeat the same sequence toward the same thicket, and another figure bolted from cover.1 Apparently, lightning did strike twice in the same place.
”Don’t kill him!” I barked.
Whether my voice failed to carry or the order was lost in translation, it made no difference. Within seconds, Oswald and his men had closed the distance and executed both wounded enemy scouts.
The language barrier was becoming a serious weakness. If we had kept the scouts alive, we might have pulled valuable information from them about the enemy’s current position.
There was no use crying over spilled milk, though.
Taking Panu and Samuri with me, I moved out to scout ahead with a fixed-wing drone.
Our main target was a stretch of woods near the eastern road, which made it a likely place for enemy lookouts. It sat roughly halfway between our position in the forest and the village of Cresar. After stopping five hundred meters out, at the very edge of the drone’s range, I launched the craft and began a careful sweep over the canopy. Sure enough, I found them.
Three men were perched on a rough platform built from sturdy branches near the roadside, passing the time in casual conversation. They looked bored with guard duty, which worked perfectly in our favor. I scanned the area to make sure it was not a trap, but the surrounding woods were clear.
To remove them cleanly, I sent Panu and Samuri in from opposite angles and ordered them to take out the three sentries at the same time. The plan went flawlessly. The lookouts were killed before they could fire a whistling signal arrow and warn the village.
Once the scouts were gone, I imitated an owl’s hoot to signal our main force forward into the woods. Then I swapped the amber power core on the drone and began a solo reconnaissance flight over the village itself.
From about one hundred meters up, Cresar looked like an oval-shaped settlement facing south. The road from Cain entered from the northeast, curved gently along the edge of the village, and then bent sharply south toward Yoghess.
A second path stretched straight east from the main gate, leading toward Dape, another village rumored to be sheltering Haritz remnants. Beyond those main roads, dirt farm tracks circled the settlement.
At the narrow end of the oval lay a central square. I guided the drone into a tight, descending spiral for a clearer look. Bonfires lit the plaza. The heavy cavalrymen had not yet put barding on their horses, but they were already wearing full plate armor without helmets, shields, or swords, ready to move at short notice. The rest of the garrison lounged around in leather armor and drank openly. To my disgust, several had stripped off their lower armor and were assaulting village women in the square. The sight made my stomach twist.
Keeping the drone in orbit, I counted the enemy. The heavy cavalry in full plate numbered fourteen riders, one fewer than the first report. The light cavalry numbered seven instead of five, and the infantry stood at fifteen.
The village was supposed to have three hundred people, but the streets were almost empty. The only locals I could see were those forced to serve the soldiers and the women suffering in the square.
I searched for our main target, the military strategist Adam von Riemenschneider. He had been described as a tall, muscular man with long silver hair and a clear scar on his face, but he was nowhere in the open square. Whether he was absent or inside one of the buildings, I could not tell.
Then there was the Golem.
It was not visible in the covered beds of their freight wagons, so it had likely been parked inside one of the village outbuildings. I widened the drone’s search in a slow orbit until I finally spotted a massive leg jutting out from a thatched hay barn on the southern edge of the village.
”There you are,” I whispered.
Storing a Golem in a hay barn made no sense, not when dry fodder caught fire so easily, but I lowered the drone to inspect the interior. The Golem sat slumped against piles of hay, its legs stretched lifelessly across the dirt floor.
I found myself praying that whoever piloted the machine was incompetent. But just as I prepared to climb back to a safer altitude, I caught sight of another massive shape resting in the shadows beside the first.
Was I seeing double?
Pamela and I had used mind-reading during the interrogations, so the prisoners could not have lied to us. Every one of them had said the same thing: the enemy had only one Golem.
For a moment, I wondered whether sudden astigmatism was making my vision overlap.
To make certain, I brought the drone around from the opposite direction and cut back over the village, aiming straight into the hay barn again.
It was not an illusion. A second Golem was tucked deep in the shadows.
Worse, the tip of a harpoon was still buried in the second machine’s right arm, the jagged metal left where it had struck. They must not have had the tools or the time to remove it.
A sick realization washed over me. I flew the drone back over the square and checked the women being abused by the infantry. Iri was not among them. Even so, the harpoon meant these men had almost certainly butchered Yoghess before marching here.
Oswald’s frantic warnings had been right. While I had hesitated and tried to avoid a direct fight, reality had caught up to us. Now we had to commit.
I flew the drone back to the tree line where my men were waiting and briefed them on what I had found.
”We are racing against the clock,” I told them, my voice tight. “If those heavy cavalrymen finish gearing up and deploy, we don’t stand a chance. Everything depends on how fast we can drive our Golem into their lines.”
The men listened with grim focus while Pamela translated, each of them nodding as the plan settled in.
”Fortune has given us one opening. They parked their Golems inside a hay barn,” I continued, tracing the attack route in my mind. “At the first chance, I want Panu and Samuri to loose incendiary arrows into that fodder and bring the whole building down in flames.”
Panu and Samuri nodded, their faces hardening. In Golem warfare, fire was basic strategy. Destroying valuable machines felt like a waste, but with the gap in our forces this wide, we could not afford restraint.
A normal Golem could operate for only fifteen minutes, but our amber cores had been packed with a special charging method, stretching our window to nearly thirty minutes. That difference was our greatest advantage.
Cresar was less than a kilometer away. If we started our Golem now and sent it forward at a full sprint, it could cover the distance in three minutes. Unfortunately, our control radius was only fifty meters, which meant we had to move almost beside it. If the approach took around four minutes, we would still have twenty-six minutes of active combat time once we reached the village.
If we could cross half the distance from the woods without being seen, we could drive our Golem straight into their camp before the heavy cavalry secured their gear. After that, we could tear them apart one step at a time.
With luck, we could take down half their mounted archers before our infantry even arrived. From there, our Golem could shield the men against the remaining cavalry while the infantry secured the village perimeter.
That was the path to victory. But if the opening move failed, the whole plan would break, and the result would be a disastrous rout. We were walking a razor’s edge.
I climbed onto the driver’s bench of the lead wagon. Our formation was set: the Golem would follow right behind us, with our light cavalry behind it and the infantry at the rear.
Because this was a night raid, I had ordered absolute silence until the moment we struck. Even so, when I looked back at the men lined up behind me, I saw fierce heat burning in their eyes. They were like a powder keg of raw fury, holding back their battle cries by a thread. It struck me then that in my past life, I had been an ordinary employee working quiet shifts in a hospital, yet now I was commanding men whose hearts burned with a terrifying hunger for battle. A sudden wave of heat ran up my spine, and I shivered despite myself.
I reached down and lightly tapped Panu’s shoulder as he handled the wagon reins, signaling him to set the horses into a slow, silent walk.
Then I turned back to the men one last time, raised my right hand high, and brought it down slowly toward Cresar.
Behind us, our Golem leaned its massive frame forward, keeping its profile as low as it could while it stepped into the dark.
Keep your eyes down. Do not let them spot us, I prayed, the thought hammering in time with my racing pulse.
We had less than five hundred meters left to travel, which meant we were already nearly halfway to our destination. Cresar lacked a proper stone wall and relied instead on a rough wooden stockade. Beyond it, in the flickering light of the bonfires, I saw a chaotic swarm of frantic movement.
Had they spotted us? It made no difference now. We had closed to under four hundred meters. I ordered the golems to charge forward and take the lead, while Panu whipped the reins hard to accelerate the carriage.
Our infantry still trailed far behind, but the cavalry kept pace along our flanks. I directed the golems to leave the main road and cut straight across the rough terrain toward the village. The short stretch from the main gates back to the highway measured only about thirty meters, and the carriage would move far faster on level ground.
Two hundred meters. One hundred.
A horrific, bone-rattling screech tore through the night as the carriage suddenly bucked violently into the air. We somehow avoided flipping over completely, yet the momentum died in an instant and the wheels ground to a halt.
I had no choice but to stop the golems beside us.
The moment I kicked the door open, the truth struck me hard. They had stretched a heavy rope across the road—a classic tripwire. I had completely botched the approach; our earlier scouting run had missed it entirely.
Fortunately, Panu’s razor-sharp reflexes had saved the horses from disaster, but the left rear wheel was now hopelessly tangled in the cords. I threw myself at the wreckage and worked frantically to hack it free, but the damage was already done. The precious element of surprise had vanished into the night air.
Once we cleared the rope, we pushed the battered carriage off the path and drove it hard through the muddy cultivated fields, staying close to the village stockade.
The instant our vanguard golems broke into the main square, I realized we were in serious trouble. Five heavily armored warhorses stood waiting inside, their riders already mounted and ready. We had messed up badly.
I tried to order our line to crash straight into them, but a squad of enemy golems cut us off and intercepted our advance with terrifying precision.
They moved fast—fast enough to show that whoever controlled them stood leagues ahead of any hedge-mage we had faced before. Yet if we allowed ourselves to become bottlenecked by these mechanical sentries, we would never see tomorrow.
The enemy constructs flowed smoothly, but they lacked any real grasp of close-quarters martial arts. One lunged forward and thrust its hands out to grapple me. I parried the clumsy reach, planted my feet firmly, and channeled the full kinetic force of my hips into a single brutal strike.
A lariat right to the throat!
Caught dead-on at point-blank range, the enemy golem flipped halfway through the air from the sheer power of the impact and crashed onto the back of its skull. For all their armor and efficiency, their frames proved surprisingly light.
Before it could recover, I drove my right knee down into its neck to pin it to the dirt. I wrapped both hands around its head, twisted with everything I possessed, and ripped the skull clean off the shoulders. One down, its combat ability fully neutralized.
But the situation deteriorated rapidly. A knight in full plate armor steered his heavy warhorse out through the gates and led a charge. I hurled the severed golem head like a boulder, yet the vanguard of five riders ignored the distraction and thundered past. If they broke into the open, we would have to annihilate the remaining ten riders still gathering inside just to survive.
I grabbed the headless golem by its iron leg, hoisted the massive frame like a makeshift club, and swung it in a vicious arc. The heavily armored soldiers were slowed by their thick plate, their movements sluggish and predictable. The improvised club smashed through their ranks and sent several riders flying from their mounts until they lay still in the dirt.
Next I turned toward the lightly armored scouts, but they were already scattering in every direction like panicked roaches. They proved too agile for our lumbering vanguard to pin down. Worse, their infantry had begun to mobilize and duck behind cover. As I swung the golem’s chassis one final time, the torso snapped off the leg and tumbled across the field, crushing three of the retreating light cavalrymen by chance.
I brought the remaining metal leg down like a hammer, smashing through a makeshift shack and flattening three hidden infantrymen beneath the debris.
Right on cue, our own cavalry crashed into the fray, cutting down two of the enemy’s light horsemen and riding over four foot soldiers in a storm of steel.
Then our time ran out.
Critical warnings flashed through the internal registries of our golems as their movements grew stiff and unresponsive. Their operational duration had expired.
Just as despair began to take hold, a volley of enemy arrows hissed through the air and flashed before my golem’s optical sensors. Deprived of the construct’s protection, Oswald—who had surged forward on horseback—took a stray shaft directly to his flank.
Panic flared in my chest, but my golem had become dead weight and dropped heavily to its knees, completely paralyzed. A horde of enemy infantry swarmed Oswald like starving wolves. Despite his frantic spear thrusts, they overwhelmed him through sheer numbers, dragged him screaming from his saddle, and pinned him to the earth.
Our surviving cavalry charged into the cluster of infantrymen who had brought down their leader. Yet with our golems out of action, the enemy foot soldiers regained their courage and turned back to repel our counteroffensive aggressively.
The battle was turning against us fast. If only our main infantry force could break through the perimeter and reinforce us…
I severed my connection to the now-blind golem and forced my consciousness back into my physical body inside the carriage. Peering through the narrow window toward the gates, my breath caught. Five heavily armored cavalrymen had formed a tight, impenetrable wall with their lances leveled directly at the path we had used to approach.
We were cornered.
Beyond them, a desperate line of eight of our own foot soldiers had formed a fragile spear wall, bracing themselves against the coming charge of the enemy’s heavy vanguard.
”Scatter! Get out of there!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
But the din of battle swallowed my voice whole. Or perhaps the sheer terror of the moment had frozen them in place, for they refused to break formation.
”Pamela! I need an interpretation, now!” I cried out.
I spun around to look inside the cabin. Pamela lay slumped across the floorboards, completely unconscious. I lunged in, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her vigorously until her eyelids fluttered open. It looked as though she had taken a nasty blow to the head when the carriage struck the tripwire. She stared back at me with unfocused eyes, utterly unaware of the unfolding disaster.
”We’re pulling back!” I shouted.
I scrambled onto the roof of the carriage, raised my right hand high, and pumped my fist back and forth in the universal signal for a tactical retreat. Not a single infantryman turned to look. Their eyes remained wide and glazed with paralyzing terror, locked onto the heavy cavalry looming before them.
At the center of that iron wall, a massive knight hoisted his broadsword high into the air.
The moment that blade dropped, the cavalry would unleash a devastating charge. Our infantry would be trampled into paste within seconds. And once they finished, we would be next.
Damn it all.
The warhorses shifted their weight, their hooves stamping the earth in an anxious rhythm that built tension like coiled springs ready to release. My eyes focused sharply on their gear. The heavy barding on the horses’ chests, the polished metal plates protecting their brows, the solid shields carried by the soldiers, and the centers of their full plate breastplates all bore a stark black cross.
A crest I had seen somewhere before.
Suddenly the flow of time seemed to warp and drag into a cruel, agonizing crawl. It felt as though the entire world had sunk into slow motion.
The central knight’s blade began its slow, inevitable descent.
This was it. It was over.
But just as the sword had cut halfway through the air, something horrific and sudden tore through the stillness. A jagged black spike erupted violently from the exact center of the black cross on the knight’s breastplate. The man’s torso bucked backward with agonizing slowness as his fingers loosened and the broadsword slipped from his grasp.
It was not only him. All across the iron line, cruel heavy shafts of iron burst through the chests and faces of the elite riders.
A deafening roar of battle cries shattered the silence, and the normal flow of time snapped back with jarring force.
Out from the muddy furrows of the agricultural fields flanking the highway, a sea of bodies surged forward. The local militia1 had ambushed the heavy cavalry from behind, driving massive heavy harpoons clean through their armor. The full plate might have resisted standard arrows, but against weapons forged to pierce the thick hides of whales and leviathans, the iron plating offered little more than parchment. The massive iron harpoons measured over a meter long, weighted with dense walnut stocks for balance, and weighed well over ten kilos each. The sheer kinetic energy behind the launches punched through tempered steel as if it were not even there.
Trailing behind the victorious, cheering mob came a familiar figure on horseback. It was Darius Yoghess, the third son of the Lord of Yoghes and a seasoned military commander.
A profound wave of relief washed over me and drained every ounce of tension from my aching limbs. We were going to live.
According to Darius, the city of Yoghess had been caught off guard by a sudden raid two nights earlier. Because the assault came without warning, the enemy had breached the inner city walls. However, the local defense forces had fought back fiercely with an arsenal of heavy harpoons and a vanguard of golems piloted by Iri. They had nearly turned the tide.
But the battle ground to a halt when both sides exhausted their mana reserves, leaving the golems completely paralyzed. With their harpoons spent, the militia could not stop the advance of the remaining heavy cavalry. The raiders secured the perimeter of the plaza, plundered the city, and abducted Iri along with Tiele—the daughter of the high steward who had refused to leave her side—and several other local women.
It was not until the following dawn that the garrison realized Iri and Tiele were missing. Rolandas, the high steward, had nearly gone mad with grief and fury. He immediately mobilized the town guards for a rescue operation and tracked the raiders across the wilderness until they cornered them here.
Shortly after the skirmish settled, a search of the enemy’s baggage train revealed Iri and Tiele, both deeply asleep under the influence of a potent status-ailment spell designed to suppress consciousness. The culprit behind the spell was the very mage who had operated the enemy constructs—an assistant professor from the Nurnhügel Magic School, the same academy the mage from Cain had come from. Though this one was a man, he confessed under questioning that this raid had been his first taste of actual combat.
Furthermore, the heavily armored infantry that had given us so much trouble were not mere remnants of the Haritz faction at all. They belonged to the Prooton Order, a powerful religious and military faction that held a tight grip over the northeastern territories of the old Kingdom of Larland. A stern interrogation of the lone surviving knight I had incapacitated revealed that they had slipped across the border by exploiting the neglected, snow-covered eastern passes of the Polotsk Principality during the dead of winter.
To manage the chaotic aftermath, we summoned Thomas from Cain to oversee the logistics. From there, our combined forces marched on the village of Dapa, the rumored stronghold of the true Haritz remnants. Stripped of their elite heavy infantry and golem support, the remaining rebels did not even bother to resist. The moment we breached the outer perimeter, they surrendered unconditionally.
Even Riemenschneider threw down his sword and surrendered without a single drop of blood spilled.
”If the Prooton Order is moving forces through the Polotsk Principality, we’re facing a massive security vacuum,” Thomas noted, his expression grim as we concluded our meeting. “I hate to impose, Larry, but we need someone who can actively pilot a golem stationed permanently in Yoghess to deter further incursions.”
To understand the weight of his request, one had to grasp the complex tribal layout of the region. The territories centered around Cain were primarily populated by the Valfin tribe, whereas the lands stretching south of Yoghess all the way to the Polotsk border were ancestral Sami domains. While their spoken languages were close enough to be considered mere regional dialects, their cultural identities stood starkly divided. The Valfin adhered to an ancient polytheistic faith originating from the Great Norden Island, while the Sami practiced an animistic faith centered around nature spirits, closely resembling the magical traditions of the high elves.
”For the time being, it makes the most tactical sense,” Thomas continued, his tone carrying that familiar calculating edge. “I’ll manage the Valfin territories, and you keep the Sami factions stable. Together, we can ensure neither side stirs up a civil war.”
It was a typically shrewd proposition from Thomas, but I had to admit his logic was sound. Pamela nodded in agreement and offered her own quiet endorsement of the plan. Thus, after wrapping up our operations in Dapa, we piled into our battered, half-broken carriage and began the long journey toward Yoghess.
The night we arrived, the Lord of Yoghes threw a lavish, sprawling banquet in our honor at the grand manor. After the festivities concluded, we were escorted to our quarters for the evening—a beautiful, secluded villa detached from the main estate, nestled against a tranquil, narrow bay on the far side of the peninsula, far away from the bustling noise of the commercial harbor.
Guided by a quiet retainer, we stepped through the heavy gates of the villa. The moment I pushed the front door open, I found Iri standing in the entranceway, waiting to greet us.
A sudden spike of suspicion hit me. The timing felt entirely too orchestrated.
”I say, I am informed this estate possesses a traditional sweat-bath2,” Pamela announced, her tone shifting seamlessly into an elegant, highly refined cadence. “Let us remove the grime and weariness of our journey without delay, shall we?”
As the words left Pamela’s mouth, I noticed Iri’s face flush a deep, vivid crimson. A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. (Wait. Don’t tell me…)
Before I could voice an objection, I was practically dragged toward the bathhouse by the sheer momentum of Pamela’s enthusiasm. I stripped down, rinsed off quickly, and stepped into the intense, enveloping heat of the stone sauna. A moment later, the door creaked open, and both Pamela and Iri stepped inside, completely nude.
My eyes darted away instantly as panic flared. Iri was completely undeveloped—her body still bore the soft, fragile markers of early adolescence, her chest barely beginning to shape itself into delicate points dammon. She was a child. Touching her would cross a line I had absolutely no intention of breaching.
I forced myself onto a slatted wooden bench and stared fixedly at the ceiling. (Focus every ounce of my mental energy on a single, desperate mantra: Do not react. Keep it down. Think about anything else. Absolutely anything else.)
”I’ve had enough of the heat,” I muttered hoarsely after a few grueling minutes, my brain feeling thoroughly scrambled by the rising steam. I scrambled out of the sauna chamber to find some relief.
Through the thick, heavy gloom of the outer room, their pale silhouettes shimmered like ghosts in the steam as they followed close behind me.
The adjoining chamber revealed a spacious bathhouse. Instead of the frigid plunge pool I had expected, a large, beautifully crafted tub filled with perfectly heated water dominated the center of the room, flanked by a pristine washing station.
”Oh, splendid. They have provided proper soap,” Pamela remarked, picking up a small, dense bar from a nearby tray with polished elegance. “Though it carries a rather distinct, primal musk.”
I took a breath and caught the faint, animalistic scent of the fat used to render it. It was a minor complaint; in a world where refinement techniques were still primitive, a completely odorless soap was an impossible luxury.
”Sit yourself down right there,” Pamela commanded, her voice maintaining an aristocratic poise as she gestured toward a low, polished wooden stool before turning her attention to Iri to begin.
”Listen carefully, child,” Pamela instructed softly. “First, you must work up a rich lather until your skin is entirely draped in white foam. Watch me closely.”
A few moments later, a slick, soap-slicked body pressed firmly against my bare back. Pamela wrapped her arms around me, her hands tracing slow, deliberate paths across my chest and shoulders.
Pamela, stop it. Don’t you think this is a bit much to pull right in front of Iri?
But Pamela completely ignored the mental link and fired back with her physical voice, ensuring every word rang out with crisp, theatrical precision through the tiled room.
”Whatever are you prattling on about? You are the one who constantly reminds me of your homeland’s customs,” Pamela challenged playfully. “Did you not say that one of your own wives was wed at thirteen, bore twins at fourteen, and became a widow by fifteen?”
She was talking about Monica. I had only mentioned that tragic history to her in passing once or twice, yet she’d retained every single detail.
That’s entirely missing the point. I’m talking about the blatant display you’re putting on right now!
”Nonsense,” Pamela scoffed, her voice dripping with an elegant, teasing authority. “Pleasure is a gift best embraced early in life. Come now, Iri, do not be shy. Join us.”
She stubbornly refused to use telepathy, shattering any illusion of boundaries.
Before I could move, a second, far smaller silhouette stepped out from the steam. A slender, delicate frame that hadn’t yet finished developing pressed against my flank from behind, her small arms wrapping tentatively around my waist.
”Um… does this… does it make you happy, mister?” a tiny, innocent voice stammered simply against my skin.
In her lumsy, halting Schweilitz, Iri asked the question. I simply couldn’t say no.
If I said yes, Pamela would get carried away and start rubbing up against me. Even while thinking this might be a bad idea, Iri’s body was already reacting. Inside her, a strange mix of lust, shame, and happiness welled up.
Whether Pamela knew how Iri felt or not, she only grew bolder.
”Look here,” Pamela said, “when you stroke it, it gets this haaard. Go on, touch it.”
”Wow, it really does,” Iri replied.
Even though her body was still so young, her curiosity was clearly there.
We should save actual s*x for a little later, I thought.
”See? Clear fluid like water is coming out of the tip. This is called precum.”
”Precum…?”
”That’s right. It helps make things nice and slippery between a woman’s hole and this c**k. Here, try licking it.”
Pamela took some of my fluid from the tip of my c**k with her finger and brought it to Iri’s mouth.
”It’s kind of salty… Hmm, it reminds me of the juice that drips when you grill fish.”
Ultimately it’s just salt and protein, so I guess that makes sense, I thought, but it still feels a little weird.
Pamela, seriously—don’t use my body for s*x education.
Even so, I could sense Iri’s curiosity and arousal swelling rapidly inside her mind.
After soaking in the bath, drying off, and moving to the bedroom, Pamela announced, “Well then, shall we begin?”
We sat on either side of Iri on the bed, with her in the middle.
Iri’s body, which had been relatively calm during the earlier “lessons,” flushed bright red again.
”Be gentle with her,” I said.
I turned Iri’s body toward me.
”Iri, there’s something you wanted to say, right?”
The girl looked up at me with a face as red as a tomato and opened her small mouth.
”Master… Please… ravish me as much as you want.”
What kind of line are you teaching her? I thought, even as fresh excitement surged through me.
Since we had all been naked together in the sauna, any sense of shame had already disappeared.
I placed my hand on her small shoulder. She flinched, straightened her back, and tucked in her chin.
My own self-control also jolted and flew right out the window.
My hand slowly pulled her stiff little body closer while caressing her innocent skin.
’What’s wrong? Why are you so tense?’ Pamela sent through telepathy.
’Look at your Master.’
Iri timidly looked up at me. I gently took her left hand, pulled her closer, and brought my face near hers.
The faint, sweet scent of a young girl filled my nose and stirred undeniable arousal.
Waves of nervous anticipation and anxiety poured from her mind. The moment our lips met, that anxiety vanished like a receding tide.
Iri’s right hand slid around to my back.
Has her awareness grown a little?
I kissed her small lips softly, sucking lightly. Her mouth gradually relaxed. When I slipped the tip of my tongue inside, a different, intimate scent mixed with ours. Her mind was already flooded with love and lust.
I ran my tongue along her neat little teeth. Her mouth opened wider and her slightly firm tongue came out to meet mine.
After we drank each other’s saliva, I pulled back. She looked up at me with an adult, almost dreamy smile.
Joy and desire overflowed from her consciousness.
I hugged her slender, fragile body. She hugged me back just as tightly.
When I gently nibbled on her earlobe, her mind flashed white for a moment before returning.
’Oh ho, it seems Iri is weak here,’ Pamela sent telepathically.
The girl shot Pamela a slightly sulky look.
I immediately breathed warm air into her ear. Once again her mind flashed white, and she squeezed me even harder.
Still in my arms, I laid her down on the bed and moved on top of her. When our lips met again, this time Iri eagerly pushed her tongue into my mouth.
I covered her small breasts with my hand. She clearly liked it—her tiny n**ples were already hard. When I pinched one gently, a soft moan escaped her.
’Don’t just enjoy yourself. Grab Larry’s c**k,’ Pamela instructed.
The small hand, guided by her, at first only touched me hesitantly.
’What are you doing? You were stroking it so well earlier,’ Pamela scolded.
A fresh wave of embarrassment rose in Iri, but Pamela showed no mercy.
It felt good to be touched, but right now I wanted to savor this young body.
’Oh? So in the end, you’re a lolicon too,’ Pamela teased.
That’s rich coming from you.
While watching Iri’s reactions, I touched and licked every inch of her body with pure desire. Soon both of us were fully ready.
With Pamela’s help, I spread Iri’s slender legs and licked her clit while gently sliding the tip of my index finger inside.
She was much tighter and firmer than Kenze. She was wet enough, but I moved my finger carefully, in and out, so as not to hurt her.
Inside Iri’s mind, the earlier excitement had settled somewhat. Her focus was now entirely on the sensation between her legs. With every push of my finger, I felt pulsing waves of anticipation.
But that night, I couldn’t penetrate her.
Even one finger was all I could manage to open her up.
For such a young girl, her reactions were wonderful—but she was still far too tight. Penetration without tearing seemed impossible.
’Well, there’s no need to rush,’ Pamela sent.
”I’m sorry,” Iri whispered.
”It’s not your fault,” I said softly, pulling her still-developing body close. “It’s still too early. Don’t worry about it.”
”That’s right,” Pamela agreed. “Sorry, Iri, but we can’t just leave poor Larry like this. I suppose I’ll have to take care of him.”
Pamela reached over and grasped my erect c**k.
”Iri, watch very carefully. Since Larry went to all this trouble, let’s enjoy ourselves to the fullest.”
I wasn’t sure what the “trouble” part was, but even though Pamela’s body was also petite, I felt no guilt embracing her the way I did with the innocent girl.
’Hey, no anal.’
’What? Don’t be so stingy.’
Round two.
I pulled Pamela close, kissing her deeply while pinching her n**ples and sending Mana into her. With my other hand, I sucked on her exposed clit. Immediately, a large amount of her slick SarahSarah fluid gushed out.
—
Summary:
Moving to prevent a preemptive strike from a heavily fortified Haritz remnant force, the protagonist organizes a high-stakes night raid on the village of Cresar. Utilizing a fixed-wing drone for tactical reconnaissance, he uncovers structural discrepancies in the enemy’s reported strength, including the presence of an unexpected second Golem bearing battlefield damage. Realizing the enemy forces have likely already laid waste to a neighboring allied settlement, the protagonist suppresses his own lingering hesitations and commands his deeply agitated troop to advance in absolute silence, leaving the volatile operational outcome hanging on a razor-thin opening gambit.
—
Trivia:
Cresar is a small agricultural settlement populated by roughly three hundred inhabitants situated between the larger hubs of Cain and Yoghess.
The protagonist’s tactical assets include older Type 20 Golems, which are structurally inferior to modern Type 95 or Type 98 variants.
The protagonist possesses a background as a former hospital employee from his previous life.
The tactical drone operates under a restrictive maximum control radius of fifty meters, requiring the operator to move practically alongside it in the field.
The modified amber power cores utilized by the protagonist’s faction extend a Golem’s operational lifespan from fifteen minutes to nearly thirty minutes.
The local militia used massive harpoons over a meter long weighing well over ten kilos.
The rogue assistant professor was affiliated with the Nurnhügel Magic School.
The heavy cavalry operators belonged to the Prooton Order from old Larland territory.
The Valfin and Sami tribes speak languages similar enough to be regional dialects but possess entirely different religious practices.
The detached quarters assigned to Larry’s party are located on the far side of the peninsula away from the harbor noise.
Monica was married at thirteen and widowed by fifteen in Larry’s previous homeland.
—
Translation Notes:
Notes:
• Al – Alberto (Al), a massive red‑haired man recently wed to Mary, lives near the Dish Basin. He’s a companion of Hans, helping intimidate and rally elders as a villager and leader.
• Yoghess – A frontier town of about one thousand residents, named after its ruling lineage. Its current lord, who shares the family name with his third son Darius, is a local ruler in the region. He maintains a strained relationship and is currently on bad terms with both Cresare and Mustobe.
• Cresar – A town on the defense line housing an enemy Golem.
• Cain – A town serving as the enemy’s home base.
• Riemenschneider – A rebel leader from the Haritz remnants who surrenders unconditionally once his elite heavy infantry and golem support are destroyed.
• Haritz – A town associated with a specific type of guard Golem used during a rebellion led by a now-deceased figure, whose remnants recently attempted to hijack the Cain estate.
• Thomas – Thomas Bauer is a hulking, middle-aged Schuberitz Major (called General by locals) with a wrestler build, red face, and scalp burns. Pragmatic, confrontational, and bluntly sardonic, this former General uses dummy catapults and improvised artillery against the Prooton Order. While handling logistics, tribal dynamics, and Cain territory campaigns, he secretly plans to establish his own lordship.
• Adam – Tall, muscular, and silver-haired with a facial scar, this military advisor and strategist for the Haritz faction was stationed in Celsal village, where he set traps for Larry’s forces and clashed with the Cain family steward before his execution.
• von – The noble particle ‘von’ indicates high social standing and ancestral roots connected to territorial estates within the Sabaski lineage. It marks the noble bloodline and full names of Annerose von Bülow, Walter von Riedel, and Marc von Harritz, establishing their shared aristocratic identity and familial relationship within the Kingdom.
• Oswald – A burly cavalry leader who fiercely protects his family and the soldiers he trained under Thomas. Known for his intense fighting spirit, he previously led Team D during Cain’s capture and now commands the troops accompanying Larry. In battle, he charges aggressively on horseback wielding a spear, but is ultimately overwhelmed by enemy infantry.
• Pamela – An arrogant, petite Elf mage, academy student, and Larry’s possessive, teasing Primary Wife. She hides her ears and a slave crest under elegant white Gothic Lolita fashion, maintaining a refined samurai register. As a cold, efficient Arsenal Bureau logistics head and tactical ally, she manages dungeon doors, prisoners, and supply chain issues. She uses mind-reading and memory manipulation for Golem operations and interrogations while mockingly challenging Larry’s boundaries and the Haritz family.
• Samuri – A young guard with the soft features of boyhood who serves as an archer and escort under the protagonist’s command. Skilled with bows and arrows, he hunts white foxes with his uncle.
• Panu – A slight, dark-haired youth who serves as a wagon coachman and guard under the protagonist’s command. With razor-sharp reflexes, he manages the carriage’s horses and steering during intense combat situations, while also providing protection as an escort. He is an archer highly skilled with bows and arrows, an asset he occasionally uses for fishing.
• Iri – Thirteen, soft-featured, and physically developing, this abducted Yoghess girl was sold to Larry, who considers a seaside future with her. Now at his base, she persistently stays by his side, managing awakening desires and Level 4 mana potential. Present at the palace, she serves as a fisherman, steward’s daughter, and mage tasked with the physical clearance, operation, and piloting of golems.
• Darius – The third son of the Lord of Mustope (formerly of Yoghes), this once callow and impulsive military officer has grown into a seasoned commander of the town guard and local militia. Armed with heavy harpoons, he balances a keen interest in military expertise with an evolving devotion to his family and people, leading his subordinates with newfound maturity.
• Ho – Ho, a comrade of the protagonist. A member of the military unit that defended Garao Village and was slaughtered alongside Marx-san.
• Tiele – The nine-year-old daughter of the high steward Rolandas and granddaughter of the late Lord of Cain. Recognized alongside Sanna as a future wife of Larry and a primary regional figure, she stays by Iri’s side. Bright and capable of complex-type magic, she is learning the Schweilitz language from her father and Mana control from Larry and Pamela, though a rogue mage cursed her with a status ailment.
• Rolandas – An articulate, cautious elderly bureaucrat and high steward of Yoghess. As the Lord’s eldest son and Tiele’s father, he manages regional trade, industry, and frontier diplomacy. Though later left behind during the protagonist’s journey, looking exhausted, he previously accompanied them as a guide and mobilized the town guards for a rescue operation after his daughter was abducted.
• Roland – he younger brother of Queen Cecile and the heir apparent to the Canaria throne. Clean, golden-blonde hair, same color as the Queen, innocent, beautiful face that could be mistaken for a girl but dressed in a boy’s formal wear.
• Principal – The mother of Line and the administrative head of the institution. She exercises authoritative control over research assignments and seeks to trade Larry for Ilse Klein due to interpersonal conflicts in her laboratories. The mother of Sabrina and Rhein who intervenes during Rhein’s violent corridor assault to break up the confrontation.
• Larland – A fallen kingdom with a royal lineage of eight princesses.
• Dapa – A town marked for potential conquest by Thomas.
• Larry – A 14-year-old Japanese reincarnated soldier and Golem pilot masquerading as Roberto de Calimen, salt merchant’s son. Now a cynical Magic Academy Associate Professor of unknown origin and overworked Fifth Sage candidate, this dark-haired youth commands a frontier military force and Bizan household. Married to Marie, he balances modern knowledge, diplomatic stakes, and tactical detachment.
• Monica – Sun-tanned and slender with a missing front tooth, this dark-skinned, tomboyish 15-year-old was Larry’s strong-willed wife from his past homeland. Wed at thirteen and a mother of twins (including Alisa) at fourteen, she was a free-born acquaintance of the protagonist’s sister-in-law and wet-nurse to her niece Maria. Widowed by fifteen after losing her first husband at Vod Fortress, she is now deceased.
• Schweilitz – A kingdom possessing an advanced magic academy and military arsenal. A person or entity whose current situation is deemed unfavorable by the protagonist, leading to fears of execution.
• Kenze – Denis is a muscular, agile former Tashkurgan intelligence agent wearing a niqab and slave crest. Traumatized by her homeland’s ruin and Boltechino, this emotionally unstable archer and crafter is fiercely attached to her master Earnest and Larry, but was tasked to kill the protagonist, likely by Marie. Left at the collapsed bridge, Earnest now wishes she were present for tactical assessment.
• Sarah – A heavily pierced Elf Mage and Second Lieutenant who commands the Magic Corps and controls specialized golem labor. Identifiable by her facial piercings, pointed ears, and long dark hair, this disciplined tactician and skilled pilot restrains Kenze and partners with Thomas in his strategic ambitions, despite having previously insulted Thomas’s intelligence by labeling him a brute-headed brawler.
• Mana – A non-commissioned officer and liaison who previously had their mana drained by Larry.
• Sara – A woman with numerous gold piercings in her ears, eyebrows, and nose, often wearing thick, aggressive makeup. She serves as the Second Lieutenant and Commander of the First Company.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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