House of the Wolves

"There comes a day when the fledgling chick must leave its nest, to face the wild and all its tests. From here on out it can hardly rest, till it nourishes a home upon new branches."

- King Salvador Franco, Kingdom of Cattleya

A poem from his memoirs "Dreams from an ostrich pillow"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Madame, your tea and biscuits are here."

"Oh! Thank you very much Martha, sorry to bother you with this."

"No need to apologize, madame. It's my work as the head maid."

Today is a quaint and calm day in the Bougainvillea manor. While the maids and servants are performing their routine work, little Syrene was taking a break from her daily classes, and the tamed baby direwolves are play-fighting at the meadows of the estate house, the madame of the manor was performing her work at the manor's sunroom.

"Are these the reports from House Dahlia's Stella settlement?" Martha spoke before skimming through the documents that piled Selena's worktable.

"It is. They work really fast and communicate faster. Just three days ago, they broke ground in Belgram's mining spots and yesterday, they already excavated enough ore to send back to Stella. I'm beginning to wonder if magisteel is really that abundant there or they just work at such a ridiculous pace."

"Hmm… it does seem strange, but I guess they have their own means especially when they have those Logical Calculators with them."

"I agree. The impossible starts to become possible when magic and its formulas are put into the mix… Thankfully, they're on our side." Selena spoke before taking a sip from her teacup.

"I'm relieved about that too."

Martha was about to close and place back the folder onto the table when something in the document caught her attention.

"Madame, may I ask why they included ambrosia into the shipment?"

"Hm? I don't know either but somehow, they wanted to bring it over too and Jonathan agreed. They were pretty secretive about it too, I believe that except us, only the acting marquis know about it."

"Is… that so? I guess the young master— I mean Baron Jonathan, must've his own reasons."

"Heh! Baron, huh? Even now, I still can't believe that he managed to nab a peerage for himself. If Joseph is still alive, he'd probably be bawling his eyes out in joy."

"Ahaha! Knowing him, master Joseph would really do that out of nowhere."

"Apologies for the intrusiooonnn—!!!"

The pleasant conversation between the madame and the head maid was cut short by the entrance of a young maid into the sunroom while heaving out heavily.

"A-Are you alright?" instantly disregarding her sudden entrance with no prior permission, Selena stood and helped the maid to catch her breath.

"Haah… haah… I'm sorry for intruding madame, but I bear letters from both the Marquisdom and young master Jonathan!"

"Alright, hand it over."

The maid took out the letters whose authenticity was proven by the crests pressed onto the wax seals. With the help of Martha, she opened it and read it silently… Soon, Martha noticed that Selena went pale.

"M-Madame! Why did you suddenly—"

"J-Joshua… Marquis Taiga's army was almost wiped out from the latest offensive in Irma Island. Joshua is alive but if this goes on, he's likely going to die…" Selena's sudden nightmare is yet to end as after she let go of the letter sent by the Marquis, she read the letter sent by Jonathan which just has this to say.

[Dear Mother,

 Joshua needs our help as soon as possible. Tell Gunther that with my authority as their lord, I'm ordering for the Wizard Corps to immediately fly towards Irma Island to come to Joshua's aid. I'll leave the paperwork back there in Serafina to you while I handle for its repercussions here in the capital. Do not worry about me, I will be fine here.

Sincerely, your second son]

"M-Madame, if Jonathan-sama is sending his own personal forces there, it must mean that—"

"I know… Khh! That reckless idiot again—!"

While she was enraged that Jonathan is once again dipping his toes into the battlefield, Selena knew that Jonathan's concern for his elder brother is something that they both shared. With that, she took her quill and a piece of paper to write a formal letter to House Dahlia that serves her family.

"Have this sent as soon as possible to the Dahlias! Come on now, tell our messenger to take a direwolf cart and don't delay!"

"Y-Yes, madame!" As the same young maid from before departed along with the still ink-wet letter, Martha assessed the expression on Selena's face and found it to be just as nervous as it was when Jonathan brought the fight to their enemies despite her warnings.

"Let's pray that all of our loved ones would return safely, madame."

"Yes… let's do just that to at least let the heavens hear our pleas."

While Selena forced herself to forget about what just happened so that she can return to her work, Martha walked back to the kitchen while thinking about the person who changed the most after everything that happened just months before.

"Young master…" she mumbled worriedly.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 Back in the Imperial capital, the staff of Marquis Kazuto was preparing for their return to Serafina after all the business that they have in Tenki city has ended.

While the maids tended to the lighter loads like clothing and personal belongings, the male servants tended to the heavier loads that has to be taken back to Serafina.

"I guess this is a goodbye for now, Jonathan."

"It is. But given what we learned last night, probably not for long."

"Heh! I guess you are right." Kazuto spoke as he threw a key that Jonathan caught.

With the departure of Kazuto and his entourage from their estate in the capital, he turned over the mansion where he was lodging to Jonathan and his staff, letting them use it during his absence.

"By staying here, you guys can have a bit more leg room and lot more to do. I have some house rules though. First of all, no parties. The last thing I want to hear to have happened here was that you invited over a bunch of brats and turned it into a frat house."

"Oh please, do I look like someone who has enough friends to invite over?"

"I'm just saying it for the sake of saying it… Second, don't let any weirdos to sneak into here and snoop around. Since I'm handing its care to you and your servants, feel free to declare it a non-trespassing zone and shoot any intruders."

"You can leave that to my men. Some of them are hunters from birth."

Kazuto's last rule was something that made Jonathan sigh in exasperation.

"Third, I want you to attend Senator Zeynep's hearing where she invited you to testify about the events that happened during the war between your family and the Demesne. I believe that given what we learned last night, it would do both of us well to not invite their ire."

"I'm kind of pissed about it but sure, I get your point."

With that, Kazuto turned on his heels and began to walk towards his carriage when he remembered something that he needed to tell Jonathan.

"By the way, if push comes to shove and the empire decides to mobilize the imperial army to the eastern battlelines, I'll make sure to have your brother be among the first of the returning forces."

"May I ask why you decided to do that all of a sudden?"

"Setting things straight, I guess. All of this happened because our hands were tied against the Penne Earldom." Kazuto ended his statement as he walked away. "It would be improper for us to continue torturing you as those rotten nobles did."

"Heh… That's plenty coming from you."

Later that evening after Jonathan and his entourage moved their belongings and tidied up the mansion to suit their means, they dined together like a big family, a sight that isn't usual in many noble houses.

"Did you see the poster for that theater play tomorrow?"

"Yeah! Do you plan to watch it too? Let's go together then!"

"Let's do it then!"

Quiet yet friendly conversations transpired between the maids and servants, showing a glimpse of their daily lives as well as their excitement about being in the capital.

"Spica, are there any news about the production of magisteel and ambrosia fuel from Stella?"

"There are, my liege. Gunther has mentioned that the magisteel we've produced are of higher quality than those sourced from merchants and thus, we've managed to turn a quarter of our need for magisteel into local production."

"Is that so? What about selling it outside our lands?"

"Sadly, we haven't contracted a licensed trader or a merchant alliance to do that yet. As you may already know, the trade of magic-infused metals is tightly regulated to make sure that it wouldn't be sold to enemy states."

"I know… Well, there's no need to rush into it. If anything, this gives us an excuse to further isolate our trading networks from the rest of the empire. The less we are dependent on outside trade, the more we become stable and self-sufficient."

Jonathan was about to return to eating his dinner when the brooch on his chest glowed faintly and the same went for Spica and the other servants who has the same brooch as him. This made their pleasant conversations to be cut off as they looked towards Jonathan.

"…Well, that's unfortunate." Jonathan mumbled as he took off the cloth on his lap and gently put down his utensils.

"Please, my liege. Leave this to us."

"No, no. This is exactly what the marquis told us about. Ever since the end of the five-week war, Serafina attracted a lot of attention, and these "trespassers" are here to poke their nose into it." Spica interjected but Jonathan remained adamant about handling this matter himself. "Lucius!"

"Yes, master!" responded a man who stood up from his seat.

"Wake up our pets. I'll personally feed them tonight."

Outside the mansion, a team made up of six men covered with dark, heavy cloaks blended with the darkness as they approached closer and closer to a window where there is no light.

"We'll boost you. Open it for everyone else."

"Got it!"

With highly practiced movements, the men skittered towards the mansion's exterior wall and formed a series of human platforms to help one of them to climb up to the window. With a hop over his fellows, the one tasked to open the window reached it and stuck a sheet of paper on the glass pane before hitting it with a hammer, causing it to break but cause minimal noise.

"Alright!" Once he removed the sheet of paper carefully to make sure that it won't spread the shattered glass, he climbed into the room and moments later, let down a rope which the rest of his group used to climb into the building.

"Okay, you heard what was ordered from us. We're here to take vital documents and that new baron from the boonies. If the informant is right, he must be sleeping at one of the guest rooms."

"What about his servants?"

"Keep out of their sight but if they catch you, "silence" them before they can scream. We're not here for an assassination mission, keep it clean."

The men exited the room where they infiltrated in and saw that the entire mansion was already dark and silent. There was only the noise of the blowing wind from outside and the singing crickets that managed to get inside of the mansion.

Since they are not sure about where their target is, the men split up into three teams made up of pairs. One went to the left wing and the other the right while the remaining two went down to the first floor where the marquis' office and their documents are located.

"Hey, Miguel! Are you sure that this job is clean?"

"Heh! When did we ever do a "job" from a clean client? As far as things go, we're all expendable to them."

"I know that. I'm just concerned since our client right now is one of "them". Who knows if this would affect our jobs later on."

"I get your concern, but zip it for now. We have mouths to feed and doing this work is way better than working in the imperial army."

Once they reached the marquis' office, they picked the lock of the door and entered it effortlessly. There, they quickly located the file cabinet which contains the document asked from them.

"Got it. It's the internal report about the dissolved noble houses."

"Hah! That explains why the client wanted it regardless of how difficult it would take."

The pair placed the folder into their bag and was about to turn around to leave when something dropped behind them from the ceiling.

"Wha—"

*BYIIIIIIII———!!!*

A flash of blinding light and a high-pitched noise filled their senses, overwhelming them until they lost their consciousness from sensory overload. After which, two figures emerged from the dark corners of the room to drag them towards the cellar of the mansion.

A few minutes later, Miguel and his companion awoke to the smell of astringent citrus fruits and dried fish. It only took them a few moments to realize that they are inside a dimly lit underground cellar.

"Mmm… Mrg? Hrg—!" Miguel was the first to notice that their mouths are tightly tied with a cloth wrap, inhibiting their ability to speak. They both tried to untie it but to no avail. "Grgh—! Khh—!"

"Good evening gentlemen… We didn't expect visitors, tonight so I apologize that this is the only accommodations that we can offer." From the neighboring room, a person whose face was familiar to the two of them appeared and caused them panic.

"Since you were sent to get me, I guess you don't need any introductions. Well then, let's get you guys reunited with your buddies." As he said those words, the chains that tied up the hands and ankles of the two slid towards Jonathan's hand who forcefully yanked it as he dragged them to the room next door. There, they saw a maid sitting in front of a table while writing on a paper and a male servant was tossing buckets of flesh towards a dark hole.

"Alrighty, let's get this started." Jonathan spoke and took off the mouth gag of the other trespasser while Miguel sat behind watching. "I already got the gist of it from your other fellows so let's jump right into the things that they didn't get to talk about… Who sent you crooks here?"

Jonathan's intimidating yet mild question wasn't met the same way by the intruder.

"F*** you, you son of a b****! I'm not telling you squat!"

"Oh? Are you sure about that? Do you wanna know what happened to your friends who said the same thing?"

"Huh?"

"Lucius, show him what's on the next bucket." As Jonathan turned to his servant who had just thrown the contents of a bucket into the hole, Lucius raised and showed what those buckets contained.

"W-W-W-What the…" the sight made the man's face to go pale and cold sweat to form on it.

"With that done, let me ask again… Who sent you here?"

"Y-Y-Y-YOU ANIMAL—! H-How can you stomach to do this! M-Monster—! MONSTER—!!! WAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"Wrong answer… You've had your chance and you blew it." The man kept shouting in a mixed feeling of fear and anger until Jonathan kicked him into the hole. "Now then, you're my last hope of getting the answers I need. Come on, speak."

"You inhuman beast! Do you think I'd squeal like them lot! I might be a lowly crook, but I know enough to not compromise the identity of my clients!"

"Huh… that's a shame then. I was thinking of giving you the same treatment as the three who admitted what they knew, but I guess you're one of those who call themselves "professionals". Truly a shame, I say." Just as Jonathan spoke, Lucius poured out another bucket and for a moment, he saw the decapitated head of one of his men mingled together with other bits of his appendages.

"My lips are sealed. Kill me if you want, I'm not squealer!"

"Oh yeah? Even if you hear these voices?" Jonathan replied and placed a blindfold on him.

"Voices?"

"P-Papa…"

"YOU—!!! How did you—!?"

"It's a small world, mister Miguel Moreno. As soon as I got your name from the others, I knew where to make my men look and found you have a child staying with you at a nearby inn."

From behind him, the familiar voice of a child sounded that immediately made him burst out in rage.

"Papa, I'm scared! Uuu…"

"Maria! Don't cry darling! Everything is going to be alright!"

"Your papa is lying, little girl! He's about to die while I'm forcing you to watch after all, Hahaha!"

"YOU BASTARD! Leave my child out of this!"

"Oh yeah? Then give me what I want! Give me a name, Miguel! Come on or I'll toss you in with your daughter!" With a maniacal voice not so different from a demon to Miguel, Jonathan threatened his captive whose mind began to race between keeping his work values and saving his and his daughter's lives.

"Lucius! Grab the brat!"

"PAPA!!! HELP MEEEE—!!!"

"Khh—! WAIT!!!"

Even for a professional killer like him, the weight of breaking his principles is nothing compared to his child's life.

"Hold it, Lucius! Mister Professional over here is ready to squeal out a name."

"Yes, sir…" Lucius replied and Miguel heard his daughter sobbing softly.

After recomposing himself, Miguel spoke the bare truth to his captor.

"We didn't meet the specific person, but the amount of money and the person we were meant to hand you and the documents over, belong to the imperial inner circle nobility…"

"And that means?"

"…Someone from the four duchies called for this job. And if what I saw inside the documents are related to it, it must be someone who had connections with the dissolved noble houses."

"Hmph! I see, they must be cleaning up their mess after what happened back there… That's good, if you went with this from the very start, things would've been easier."

Hearing those words from Jonathan, Miguel hung his head in relief as his blindfold was undone and he turned to where he was hearing his child's voice…

"We've got it— I mean, we've got all of it in writing, my liege."

…and found out that it was just the maid who was using voice modulation magic.

"Good job, Spica. Bring it upstairs and prepare a copy to be sent to the Marquisdom."

"As you command." With a curtsy, Spica left the room as Miguel finally connected the dots and understood what just happened.

"You… How did you—"

"…Ever since you entered the estate's courtyard, we were already aware of your presence. By the time that you and your group climbed into that window, we've already set the trap for you crooks and were only waiting until you're isolated enough to catch… It's during the moment when you mentioned "having mouths to feed" that I knew you have a child and bet that it was a little girl. I thank my luck that it was right on the mark."

As Miguel heard that explanation, he slowly realized how much of a mistake it was to take this job and tears began to form on his eyes.

"Say, do you want to go back to your daughter knowing full well of how much danger you're subjecting her by doing this job?"

"T-that…"

"If a mere, lowly baron like me can find and abduct her, can you imagine what someone with greater means and authority can do?" Jonathan leaned in and with a devilish expression, hammered fear into Miguel's heart and mind. "You're right, mister. Your kind is expendable, and to many who has bigger fish to catch, one less Miguel and Maria Moreno from the imperial census means nothing."

"Ghhh… Kuh…!" As those words cut deep into him, Miguel began to cry as he saw his impending doom. And yet, it wasn't his own end that he was concerned about but that of his precious child.

"Forgive your fool father, my child..."

Those were his last words before Jonathan loosened off the chains on his limbs, making him fall into the hole filled with carnivorous direwolves.

"…" Jonathan expected to hear his deafening death throes, yet there was nothing to hear other than the growling and gnashing of the teeth of the direwolves below. With that, he left the cellar and met up with Spica who had a basin of warm water and clean cloth for him to wash off the blood splatters on his hands and face.

"Spica…" Jonathan spoke while wiping his face using the cloth.

"Yes, my liege?"

"…Find this Maria Moreno and hand her over to House Robinson for adoption, after that, inform them that her father died from a wild animal attack."

"May… I ask why, my liege?" Spica mused while turning her head in wonder.

"Nothing significant. I just want to do things more cleanly with no loose ends."

After hearing that reply from him, Spica nodded gently with a polite response.

"I'll see to it that the child will be well taken care of and her father's death would be officially recognized."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Back in east Serafina, the First Wizard Corps of House Fenris Bougainvillea, assembled at the crack of dawn at village circle of the Stella settlement and was being headed by their commanding officer, Gunther Dahlia.

"Men! From here on out, we will be operating on imperial soil but outside of the imperial forces' command structure. That means that under no circumstance are you obligated to follow the commands of officers save for me and your wing captain!" He shouted towards the 45 men that belongs to the battalion-sized Wizard force.

"Our orders from our master are clear! We will assist lord Joshua during his remaining time of deployment in Irma Island and make sure to bring victory to his battles to the best of our abilities! Am I f****** crystal clear, gentlemen?!!!"

"""YES, SIR!!!"""

"Alright! Deploy out!"

The First Wizard Corps of the Fenris Bougainvillea Barony deployed out with each soldier bringing heavy bags with them. These bags and cans, filled with supplies and munitions tailor-made for their specialized equipment, basically matched each Wizard's body weight, doubling the required power needed to let them fly.

Normally, no Logical Calculator in the world that is made for personal and portable use would be able to take on the sheer amount of power and computational requirements needed to cast the flight magic formulas for this work. But these Wizards are not saddled with such a limitation.

["Eighth and Ninth Wings, you two seem to be lagging behind. What gives?"]

["I apologize for the Eighth, Commander Dahlia. Some of us are still greenhorns not used to our Soul Cores."]

["The same goes for us in the Ninth, sir. These bad boys are a whole other beast to control."]

Once Gunther heard those replies, he simply smiled and told them to relax and get used to it.

["No shame in being too cautious, gentlemen. Those Soul Cores are the pride of my people, we understand why you're trying to be as careful as possible with it."]

Only eleven minutes into their flight, they passed by the Bougainvillea manor where some who were looking down saw the mansion's staff already starting their day's work. Those who saw them flying by waved their handkerchiefs and hands towards them to bid them well. From within his own wing, Gunther heard his men talking about what they're gonna do after their short deployment.

"Heh! What a sight… Once we get back from Irma Island, I'm definitely gonna go the manor and try my luck with the maids."

"Oh? You're saying that fully aware that you have sh*t for luck, right?"

"He's right, dude. What possessed you to think that you have a chance?"

"Oh, come on! The worst she can say is no!"

Hearing his men's calm attitude about the entire matter reassured Gunther that everything will be alright.

However, his expectations of the frontlines' status are far from reality, for right now at the group of islands in the middle of the Silesia Ocean, the very tool that made Jonathan's war against the Demesne is the only thing that is keeping Joshua alive.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

["Baronet! Another wave is coming!"]

["Got it! Get all the wounded out of the combat area! Second and Seventh Wing! On me, NOW!!!"]

Before the ramping up of skirmishes against Atlanterra, the Ostadonian Imperial forces deployed in Irma Island numbered around 40,000 men. After the so-called "SCS Mc Douglas Incident" where the Confederate states blamed Ostadonian spies for bombing and sinking one of their airships, and promptly used it to justify the increase of deployed soldiers, ships and airships in Silesia, the Irma Island's garrison grew to as much as 70,000 with another 40,000 coming from the reinforcements of the Serafina region.

"This one got a bullet lodged on his shoulder!"

"Okay… this will hurt a lot even with anesthetic magic, but it will save your life! Alright, here we go—!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH! F***—!!!"

However, even the more than 100,000 soldiers of Ostadonia were but a drop in the bucket against the forces deployed by Atlanterra that easily exceeded half a million.

"Anyone that still has strength to spare, rehydrate and take mana infusion pills! Get another gun and as much grenades as you can carry and fly with me!"

Despite having his face covered with soot and dried bloodstains, this man was renown in the battlefield as a savior to many of his comrades and a true hero of the empire.

"""Yes, Baronet Bougainvillea!"""

His name is Baronet Joshua Bougainvillea, the sole nobleman who volunteered to enter the highly dangerous position of a Combat Wizard where he was made to take command of a Wizard Brigade.

"Baronet! I'm glad you made it out." While he was cleaning his face, Joshua was met by none other than Marquis Taiga who was taking a long puff from his tobacco pipe. With a crisp clacking of his heels and salute, he faced the old man and began to report.

"Sir! What's left of the 351st Combat Wizard Brigade has returned for resupply and recuperation! We've handed another 13 heroes to the Valkyries and 32 others are expecting their invitations to Valhalla!" Joshua reported to the elderly noble, masking the losses that his unit sustained by using idioms.

"Hrm… That's concerning. Are the "invited" willing to accept or ignore their summons?"

"I've commanded them to turn down their invitations, Marquis! It's not time for them yet to join their friends in having a drink with the Valkyries!"

"Heh! Is that so?" Joshua's sharp and half-joking reply made Marquis Elmor giggle, but it was soon replaced by an expression of worry for the young man.

"Young Joshua, after this battlefront cools down, I will be sending you to the rear."

"…Sir?"

"I've received letters from both your mother and your brother. They're asking to have you placed at the rear as soon as possible."

Joshua was pleased about hearing that his family is looking after his safety, but as a soldier and a man, he didn't want to lay back while his comrades are shedding blood and losing their lives here in the frontlines.

"With all due respect, Marquis! I wish to remain here and fight!"

"Don't be hardheaded, young Joshua! This is for your own good! I don't want to admit it, but we are losing not only men and supplies, but ground in this war. I can never face your father in the afterlife if you're going to be there too shortly. My decision is final, you are going to the rear as soon as possible."

The news quickly spread among the remaining 6,000 men of the Serafina Feudal army and soon, groups of soldiers who both believed in Joshua's skill and braveness, and wanted for him to lead them, came in front of Marquis Taiga's tent and shouted their protest.

"We implore you, Marquis! We need the baronet to lead us!"

"He's the best among all of us! We can't fight without him!"

Marquis Taiga understood the sentiment of his soldiers about wanting to have such a talented officer around to maintain morale and cohesiveness, but he thought about his departed friend and the family that he left behind and decided that he will not rescind the order for their sakes.

"Joseph might have been a hardheaded man, but he was never a fool… I believe that even if young Joshua doesn't want to leave his comrades, he knows deep inside that he must return alive to his family."

As days went by and both sides in this war began to mount lesser and lesser offensives and counterattacks, the impending return of Joshua to the rear drew closer too… that was until one night, the skies above the shores of Irma Island became covered with flashes of light and thundering noise.

["EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT! EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT! ENEMY AERIAL FLOTILLA DETECTED IN THE WEST SECTOR! EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT! EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"]

All across the imperial military base, loudspeakers blared for the emergency deployment of every available soldier to defend against the incoming enemy fleet. Even though he only had 2 hours of sleep, Joshua quickly equipped his combat equipment and faced the remaining 85 men in his Brigade that can still fight.

"At attention for the brigade commander!"

"""Hut—!"""

His men who were already wearing their combat equipment and clutching their rifles, faced him and eagerly waited for his command. From there, Joshua gave his command and activated his own flight formulas.

"351st Combat Wizard Brigade! It's my honor to lead you once again to and from the jaws of hell! For the sake of our departed brothers and for the empire— Launch out!!!"

At Irma Island's western sector, what met the Serafina Feudal army was not an airship flotilla that only contains 24 airships but an entire aerial armada numbering over enemy 100 ships and countless enemy Combat Wizards.

"B-Baronet—!"

"Damn! It's like they're not running out of soldiers!"

"Do these Atlanterran scum grow from trees—!?"

Some of his men were rightfully intimidated by the size of their enemy's force while the others were simply baffled about having to fight another ridiculously sized force after all the damage that we inflicted onto them.

"Second Wing! Come with me to reinforce the central fleet!"

["Aye! We will be behind you, baronet!"]

For hours, the battle raged and countless ships and men were lost from both sides. Even with the Atlanterran armada's numerical superiority, their lack of cohesiveness and a strategy that depends largely on "strength by volume" either in number of personnel or firepower, ended up giving the imperial force a weakness to exploit.

Joshua's brigade led harassing attacks and distraction maneuvers against both enemy airships and Combat Wizards. While they managed to save their comrades, many of his men sustained injuries and some were even shot down and met their death at the cold, unforgiving ocean below.

"COME ON, YOU FOOLS! DO YOU WANNA LIVE FOREVER—!?"

Still, they charged and fought with their all, giving up their lives for a chance of delaying or hopefully stopping the Atlanterran forces' advance right here.

["JO— PA—"]

"Hm? Come again, Marquis?"

After Joshua and his Wizards just sank an enemy airship, he heard a crackle from his headphones which was connected to their headquarters. He recognized the voice to be Marquis Taiga's who seem to be in a panic.

["JOSHUA!!! Paller is---!"]

"—!!!"

From the ManaCom line that came from Marquis Taiga, Joshua heard him shout about Viscount Paller who was leading the airship fleet, making him turn around towards where the airships are.

"NOO—!"

*TYAAAG—!!!*

That is when he saw the turrets of the enemy fleet's faraway aerial battleship pointed towards the Viscount's airship and fired out shells infused with magic formulas that struck and caused the flagship to blow up in several places.

"T-T-T-That…"

["Jo…shua…"]

"Viscount—"

With the last of his strength and the remaining power in his ManaCom console, Viscount Paller who was among the friendly nobles that fought bravely alongside him all this time, gave Joshua his final wishes.

["I leave everything… to your shoulders now…"]

Hearing those words just before the line crackled and their flagship blew up completely, Joshua was filled with an unimaginable sense of rage, and he did what was thought to be unthinkable.

"Aaaahhhh… AHHHH… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!!"

With an enraged scream, Joshua's Soul Core was filled to the brim with magic particles and in an instant, the entire battlefield was filled with blinding light bright enough that it seemed like a second sun emerged in the sky.

"YOU PESTS—! YOU F****** PIECES OF S***!"

The Soul Core, overloaded with magic power and with no other outlet available to it other than letting it out as magic spells, accessed all of the magic formulas in its repository and activated all of the high-level spells which no normal human can ever produce alone.

"YOU WILL PAY!!! YOU WILL ALL PAY WITH YOUR F****** LIVES—!!!"

Within the Soul Core, all eight of the computation cores abandoned their prior spell formula calculations and dedicated all of it to the computation of a spell that would end this battle once and for all.

"GO TO HELL! YOU F****** DEMONS—!!!"

*CLAK-!*

With the pull of a trigger, a beam of light shot out towards the Atlanterran armada which instantaneously vaporized them. It didn't matter if it was human, metal or whatnot, it all disappeared against the unrelenting beam that came from Joshua's rifle.

I will not let anyone else to lose their lives meaninglessly like this!

Joshua spoke within himself as he continued to be the conduit between the surrounding magic particles and the overloaded Soul Core, a very deadly action to a mere human body.

I will not let them take anything from me again!

His flesh felt like it was being torn… His blood feels like it is being boiled.

I will not them past me… I WILL NOT LET THEM GET THROUGH ME!!!

Yet he didn't succumb to the pain as he kept holding down the trigger until he has swept all across the enemy formations and vaporized them into nothingness.

"Haah… haah… haah…!"

After he let go of the trigger, Joshua looked around and saw nothing but the burning husks of the Atlanterran airships and the countless debris and corpses that floated at the ocean below.

"Urgh—!!! GWAAAAA—!!!" moments later, all the pain and exhaustion that he sustained from letting out that spell struck his body and his Soul Core broke, making his levitation spells to deactivate and make him fall to the ocean.

"Baronet—!!!"

"Commander Dahlia! We've located the Baronet!"

Thankfully, he was caught by a group of Wizards whose LogiCals was quite like his own.

"Y-You guys are…"

"Baronet Joshua! We're here! Hold on and don't—"

He wanted to see if he was only hallucinating but before he can ask them and they can tell him who they are, he lost his consciousness and was flown by the Wizards to Irma Island headquarters where he was treated for both "mana deficiency syndrome" and the internal burns that he sustained from directly conducting that enormous amount of magic power from his LogiCal to his weapon.

Days later, Joshua would wake up but would be unable to speak for another two days and walk around for a week. Further tests were conducted, and it was found out that his body's mana conduits, special nerves that carries magic around the body like blood vessels, were badly damaged and need a lot of time and medicine to recover.

At the Marquis' office, the old noble poured out a shot of his imported Albion Sherry to a glass with a few ice cubes before sliding it towards Joshua who raised it in appreciation before knocking it back. With that, the two men conversed about what happened.

"You've done a good job, young Joshua… and thank you for toughing it out too and staying alive. I could never face your family if I had to return you in a box or urn."

"No need to sound apologetic, Marquis. It was my fault for losing control like that."

"Yeah… by the way, you must've heard of the headlines by now, right?"

After Elmor mentioned that part, Joshua scoffed for a moment before answering.

"I did. Can I ask for help with fending off the "busybodies" and the "locusts"?"

"No need to ask, young man. I've already sent my men to handle it." Elmor replied as soon as Joshua referred to journalists and politicians by calling them as such.

"I see. Thank you for that. I have another question by the way."

"Yeah? What is it, young Joshua?"

"…When did I become a viscount?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Days earlier while Joshua was still in a comatose state, the First Wizard Corps of House Bougainvillea conducted a strike mission that would've been impossible for any other Wizards to perform.

"Third and Sixth Wing! Don't let them regroup and reclaim control of the pillboxes! Rain lead on those motherf******!"

["""Yes, Commander!"""]

"…Seventh Wing! Guard the rescue airships out of the combat area! Second Wing! Open up a path for them!"

["""Affirmative!"""]

With information from both spies and enemy prisoners of war, they located a floating island where Imperial soldiers are being kept as slaves to work in its magic stone mines.

"We're gonna teach 'em to not mess with the empire now!"

"Launch out!"

One by one, such places were raided, and its beleaguered inhabitants were rescued and returned to Ostadonian soil. However, the Wizards of House Bougainvillea was not limited with raid and rescue missions, one operation that they conducted basically crippled Atlanterra's ability to strike Irma Island and the other isles in Silesia that belongs to the empire.

"S-S-SHOOT! DON'T LET UP! GIVE THEM EVERYTHING YOU GOT!"

"Have you located where they placed those ether bombs yet!? Where on promethea did they plant it?!!"

At a small and remote floating island covered with clouds, the Atlanterran army has been using it to gather and supply their troops that are assailing Irma Island. Learning about this and knowing only one group that can handle it, Marquis Taiga sent out the Wizard Corps alongside an enormous number of explosives.

To say that this mission was "instrumental" to their victory would be putting it lightly. Instead, this mission was the reason why the war which was expected to rage for years ended in a matter of months.

And because of that, even if formally, Joshua isn't their master and he isn't present in these operations, some of the credit fell on his lap and he was awarded a promotion on his peerage.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Hah! Jonathan is crazy. Sending his men out here for my sake? Why would be do something reckless?" Joshua's quip might have been a half-joke, but for the old noble, he knew that something was up with it.

"Actually, I don't think he sent his Wizards to you only because he's worried about your life… You see, I received this letter from my son, and it speaks about something that young Jonathan found out from an assassin that was sent after him."

"May I see it?"

Elmor took out the letter from his desk drawer and showed it to Joshua who stood up in shock after reading only the first few lines.

"T-That idiot… what is he planning now?"

"I wonder too, young Joshua… I wonder about that too."

The letter's contents can be summarized by the attached postscript message.

[I don't care if they're high nobility, powerful politician or even demons in human skin. If they stand on my way, I will kill them.]