The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Great Claw watched with great disappointment as the sun went down.

Their all-out assault on the walls had been a mistake.

He had opined as such many times, but no one listened to him anymore.

After their failure at trying to flood the city, they had nearly cast him aside. He might as well have been exiled for the damage the dryads had taken from trying to build the dam. Even though it was not his fault!

His idea had been sound- it was the fault of those underlings for not being able to complete his project! They were useless hunks of bark with not a single coherent thought between a dozen of them! If only the others were as smart as he was, no, if they were even half as intelligent as he was, they would've succeeded and been feasting on human blood right now!

As a matter of fact, he had a feeling that some of his underlings might've damaged the dam on purpose. Yes… clearly they were envious of his brilliance and sought to undermine him! He would not put it past lesser creatures like normal dryads to do so.

And even if they had failed with the dam, they shouldn't have given up after only one try and attempted another time. This idea of his, however, was shot down.

Yes, the others just did not share his foresight. There were other mistakes that had been made during this campaign. They should not have killed all of the humans that they came across - they should have taken some of them as slaves.

They would have been better workers - actually able to complete his grand vision! Not only that, but they could've used the humans as hostages or shields against the human's magic. However, the ordinary dryads could not see beyond their thirst for blood and did not leave anything that they came upon alive.

Yes, it was the others to blame for not having the ability to carry out his vision.

Now, their numbers had been whittled down to less than half as their forces withdrew from the city walls, after having been unable to so much as dislodge a single stone. That was why he had warned those idiots against this idea! Now what were they to do?

Their army was broken now, and they did not have the numbers for another assault.

With the darkness now enveloping the world, they could do nothing but retreat for now. There was still no sign of the shadow that had led directed them here in the first place - it had clearly abandoned them, or even sent them all here as a trap! They had been foolish for following its directions.

Part of him wanted to feel joy, knowing that the others hadn't succeeded in this assault and he had been right to say it was a bad idea all along, but what was the use of that? They had come here as a group, and would most likely be annihilated as a group as well. Saying 'I told you so' might feel good, but it would not do him any good.

He was left with nothing save for the bitter feelings in his heart.

He would have to run now, the only question was, where to?

A strange memory came to me while I was atop the wall.

It was a time when I had fallen asleep in the backseat of my car after a long trip. I had somehow magically found myself in my bed the next morning - though of course, there was no magic to it. My father had carried me there from the car.

And with that memory, my eyes jolted open. I wasn't in bed - I was still on the hard floor - or rather ceiling, of the wall that surrounded Arconia.

How long had I been out? I took a look at the sky - it was dark now, but didn't feel like anything longer than an hour had passed.

The fighting, thankfully, had stopped for now.

"Ah, Master Stefan! You're awake!" the same Rank Three Liberomancer who had taken over for Drake said when he found me. "I was just about to have someone carry you somewhere safer - well, you already chose a rather nice place to take a nap safety-wise, but I wanted you even further away from the line of fire if possible."

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I immediately felt a deep sense of shame creep over me.

When I had been younger, I'd had fantasies, like all boys did, of fighting in some kind of intense battle against all odds. And hey, had it been in some fantasy world with swords and magic, it would've seemed even cooler in my mind.

In none of these fantasies was I lying on the floor, having passed out, and still reeking of the inside of a frog's mouth.

I felt like a failure - when the fighting had gone tough, it had been too much for me, and I had ended up nearly blacking out. What kind of soldier was I? I knew that I hadn't been trained for anything like that, but I had still wanted to somewhat distinguish myself in battle, or at least not embarrass myself.

What were they thinking of me right now? As a weakling who couldn't handle stuff and passed out? And what's worse, they might've even needed to get someone to take me away after I had passed out if I hadn't come to like I was some sort of damsel.

"How long was I out for?"

"Just around twenty minutes or so," he answered. "I had checked you for injuries earlier, and didn't notice anything life-threatening, so I had held off on healing you. But, the fighting is over and they've retreated, allow me to fix your injuries."

"No," I said waving my hand. "My mana's coming back, and I know a minor healing spell myself. I can take care of myself. Please go take care of those who are more badly injured."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

He didn't leave right away though. "I just wanted to let you know, Master Liberomancer - I had harbored some doubts about your… position earlier. But upon seeing the valor that you displayed, risking your life to rescue Sir Drake… giving you that job was clearly the right choice! Already, tales of what you did have spread all over the wall." He then bowed before moving on.

Once I felt like I had the strength to get up, I did. I took a glance across the horizon and saw the dryad army, now significantly smaller, out in the distance, moving away from the city. So it looked like we had really won…

The dryad army might try another assault, but they didn't have the numbers to last very long anymore. If there was fighting in the future, it would not be as intense as it was today.

I didn't feel like celebrating though. My stomach growled, and I found a place where they were serving food.

They let me skip to the front of the line upon seeing who I was - which told me that this was likely set up for normal soldiers only, but at this point I couldn't care, and wolfed down whatever I had been given.

I then found my carriage and took a nap in there - at least this way people would know where I was if they wanted to find me.

I woke up early the next day, before the sun had even begun to rise. But, I felt refreshed, if not sore.

However, I would probably feel sore all over for at least the next week or so given how much I had exerted myself unless I used healing magic.

I must've looked - and smelled like crap, but wherever I went, people were in a jovial mood and while before maybe one in three to one in four people bowed on seeing me, it looked like that included everyone now. I wasn't actually sure what to do now, had some instructions been given overnight on what we were supposed to be doing? Should I stay to man the wall further, or go home and take a bath?

My mana was almost full by now, so I felt if there was something I could do to make a difference, I may as well. With the enemy army seemingly broken, I could even use [Fish Haul] to make food if that was what was called for.

I didn't have to wait for long though, as a messenger told me that Governor Lance wanted to talk.

It was probably about Drake - and I couldn't help but think of several things I'd done wrong. For one, the armor I had rented out was damaged - and I would need to pay for its repair and any pieces I had lost. Two, I had passed out in the middle of battle - people didn't seem to be too enraged at that as they chalked it up to 'battle fatigue' and overlooked it given the other things I had done, but Lance was probably going to give me an earful about it. Three, I had lost a very valuable grimoire in the fighting - though he would probably have no reason to be mad at that, after all, it was mainly my loss.

I cast [Fragrance] on myself and tried to clean up as much as I could with a wet rag before going to meet him. He wasn't in his palace, but in a room on the interior of the wall.

"Good morning," he said. He looked exhausted - he might've even been awake all night for all I knew. He had been fighting near the gate, where the battle had been even more intense than where I had been stationed from what I'd been told. If it was not for his [Inferno] the gate wouldn't have held till now.

"Good morning," I said weakly. "How is your son?"

"Doing well, thanks in large part to your heroism," Lance replied, giving me a weak smile. He motioned for the guards and other officers in the room to leave, so that we were alone.

A chill crept down my spine - what was this about? I had thought that he either wanted to thank me or reprimand me, but neither of those things required any kind of secrecy.

"I wanted to speak to you in private," Lance said. "First of all again, thank you for saving my son. I do not want you to think that I don't appreciate all that you did for us. Your contributions during the fighting almost rivaled my own, especially with that unique tactic of yours involving the spider. They say you were responsible for the deaths of over six thousand enemy dryads in yesterday's fighting alone. I can also appreciate that you performed your job as mediator very well in these past few weeks." He then sighed; the smile from his face faded and was replaced by what was unmistakably a snarl. His demeanor changed considerably as his words carried a feeling of intense ire as he spat them out. "I do not however, appreciate you lying to my face!"