Steel and Mana

Chapter 207 – Heartache

After the last battle, the following weeks were silent of beasts and cannon fire as the only thing that traveled through the Pass was the cold, biting winter wind. But that didn't mean we had time to rest. With the Judgment above us, Father and I began dismantling the last spidery bastard, but every time we tore into it, egg sacks burst somewhere inside of it, making the newborn little monsters swarm out of it, making me squeal while trying to stomp on them. They were about the size of rats and cats, varying back and forth at every burst, but it was making me feel like I was in a nasty horror movie, just to be tortured.

"You want... a flamethrower? On a soldier?" Sasha asked, looking at me with a thinking expression while I met with her back in the castle one night.

"Yeah. If there are more abominations like these on the other side, we will need specialized units to deal with them. Purifying troops."

"Hmm... I can think of something that would give them a similar weapon... Even have a backpack, like the radio operators with CC in it. The issue is the heat. The mech's frame can withstand it, but a human body? I am not so sure."

"I guessed as much. But I'd like to try; maybe we can work something out."

It wasn't like in my old world. The flames created by magic were exceptionally high. The Lion's weaponry had to be scraped twice already, and new flamethrowers had to be installed as the constant usage melted the barrels and even deformed some of the armor plating on its body. Lucky us, we had spare weapons prepared for the winter. Still, if we could tweak it so my ground troops would have it, that would be great.

Because Sasha was the premier expert when it came to fire-based spells, I was confident she could figure something out. While she worked on that, I kept going back and forth between the corpses of the felled beasts with my Father and continued dismantling them one by one. Finally, extracting the core of the last one was big enough to be used in a mech. Thankfully, it wasn't ruptured nor cracked, so it was perfect, and we won't get out of this winter empty-handed after all.

While we were masquerading as giants, walking mortuaries, Merlin and Dorian investigated the armor plates we tore off from the corpses and tried to decide whether we could use them. Until Dorian nodded that he could work with the materials, we didn't really gather more because there was a high chance that if we started cutting the rest up, more sacks would burst open, flooding us with critters.

Well... It did happen anyway. One thing I learned is that if there is something you don't want, it WILL happen, no matter what. One of the larger corpses burst open one morning, letting loose a swarm of tiny monsters that we had to fight back. The only redeeming point was that being newborns, they were squishy, and we could exterminate them much more quickly. A simple punch from my soldiers blew them open, and regular swords could penetrate their bodies just as easily.

Nonetheless, anytime I thought we were done with these bastards... they kept coming out of corpses, giving me nightmares until the end of winter.

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"Enough!" Matilda shouted, ending the cacophony of cries and yells in the home of her three sons. Or as they called it, the prison for peasants. "Look at you! LOOK AT YOU!"

"You must punish them!" Maximillian pleaded, his eyes red from crying. "They can't do this to us! We are nobles! They don't even have an idea of what that means!"

"Yes!" Bastian agreed, echoing his brother's words. "Even if we are imprisoned, this is unacceptable!"

"Be happy you three still have heads on your shoulders!" She reprimanded them at once, her chest huffing and heaving. She felt pain behind his breasts, stinging her left side, forcing her to hold it. She couldn't tell which hurt more... Seeing her sons looking like cripples, their legs being broken, confined to their bed, or them being this stupid. Why couldn't they realize how lucky they were?! Yet, her sorrow turned into fury after hearing why they were screaming and yelling, seeing their attitude transformed back into how they were. Can they be saved? She didn't know, and the thought of attending their funeral sooner or later was becoming more and more of a reality. "Ugh..." She hissed again, squeezing the left side of her chest.

"You must do–" Reus started, but Matilda shut him down with a wave of her hand.

"You are no longer Zimmermanns! Your names have been struck out from the imperial registry. The Empress is here right now. I will take you three to her, and then you can start asking her to do something. If you have the balls!" She explained, trying to scare them. Her voice was shaking while she did so, but when her sons decided to take up her offer, she couldn't say anything anymore. They really thought that was a good idea?! Were they crazy?! Ultimately, she just turned around, leaving them there, exiting the house in a hurry.

"You look horrible..." Pion mumbled when she reappeared, and Matilda collapsed only after a few steps, losing her consciousness and falling into his arms without a chance to answer him.

When she woke up from her dreamless, dark sleep, she was at Pion's home, lying in his bed, feeling his scent fill her senses, the first thing after reawakening. She still felt dizzy, but at least her chest wasn't hurting anymore, feeling as if she had only a mild hangover while sitting up.

"What... where...?" She mumbled, licking her parched lips, feeling her throat squeezing together, making it hard to swallow.

"Welcome back amongst the living."

"Huh?" She flinched, turning towards the voice of a woman who looked back at her with a kind gaze. Her blonde hair reached down to her waist like an expensive cape, and her body wanted to burst through her silky white robe no matter how many times she tried fixing it.

"My name is Mikan, and you almost died... Your heart could not withstand the stress."

"What are you saying?" Matilda asked, feeling herself go pale, but the sudden scare only made her heart beat a bit faster instead of hurting it.

"I am not a good doctor..." Mikan blushed when answering, walking close and sitting down on the bed, taking Matilda's hand into hers. "What I know of our bodies is from my old studies and from my husband. What he said was that heartache and worry can wear out someone's heart to the point where it stops functioning. Two days ago, yours reached its threshold and gave up on you."

"I... It did what? I... Died?"

"Almost. Luckily, Pion and all of our soldiers were taught basic knowledge of how to keep comrades away from death's grasp on the battlefield, and he managed to keep you living until sending for me. You should be fine now, but I don't know how well my magic worked on your heart, so please... try to not worry too much in the future!"

"You are asking for the impossible..." She whispered, taking deep breaths, forcing her tears back. "I... I... Thank you, Lady Mikan."

"Don't! It is normal... and you were lucky I was back in the city for supplies... Goddess Orsi wanted it to happen this way! You should thank Major Pion instead; he did a great job when you collapsed; he did more to save you than my spell."

"I will... I will!" She nodded, looking around, realizing it was midday as the sun's rays shone through the closed slides of the bedroom's windows. "Where is he?"

"He will be back later; he was accompanying your sons to the castle and back. I think he is at the market, buying things for dinner."

"I see... Wait, what did he do?! With my sons?! What?!"

"Don't worry!" Mikan smiled reassuringly, patting Matilda's head like a mother of everything, trying to ensure she stopped worrying so much and could calm down. "They are now much more docile! Leon told me that if they keep it together, I can heal them too a year later. Until then, they will have to do with their wheelchairs~!"

"Wheel... chairs? What... I... I'm lost... W-what happened?"

"Nothing, he just took them to meet the Empress." She explained with a smile, "You need to stop panicking, Matilda. Your heart may not be able to take it. Please..."

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I was surprised to hear what happened back in Avalon when Pion came to make his report, bringing the three stooges with him. To think that Matilda had a heart attack that almost claimed her life... It was not something I had on my bingo list. If Mikan had not been back in the city, gathering medicine to treat the remaining injured soldiers who didn't require life-saving magic to be saved, she probably wouldn't have pulled through it. Or she might have fought it off, leaving her with a weak heart that sooner or later caused her to die anyway.

After Mikan healed her, we kept her sleeping while she made sure Matilda's body could recover before finally waking her up. While that was happening in Avalon, Pion and I brought her sons up to the castle's walls, letting them witness the monsters and even meet with Mirian. She was annoyed to be called away from her husband and only looked at them once, leaving an irritated comment before returning to her ship.

"Place them in the Pass; their scent will draw out the monsters hiding under the snow."

That alone was enough to make the three understand they were, at best, food for beasts. With that, we began wheeling them out, and it was the first time I saw people literally shit themselves... Well, I wasn't going to clean that up, so they got transported back to Avalon without any cleanup. After that, Pion's second report was only a sentence long:

"They finally learned how to shut their mouths."

I know he was a bit disappointed that I kept him assigned to guard Matilda, but he was one of my best officers, and if I want him to rise even higher, battles and warfare need to be mastered just the same as how to deal with people. Haah... Now, I was really waiting for the end of this winter because, so far, I hated the current one the most.

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"I am listening, My Emperor." Otto whined, kneeling in his chambers under the occupied brothel. By now, the floor and walls were filled with intricate magic formations while his half-naked body was glowing like a reddish light. It was diffusing through his skin, filling the dark chamber with a crimson hue. Looking at it, Leon would have immediately been able to tell that multiple runes were hidden under his skin, using techniques similar to his magic tattoos. The difference was that Otto's were invisible until activated.

"Beasts have appeared." Pascal answered, his ghost-like image materializing within the chamber, projected by the formations on the ground and ceiling. "Mirian has sent back a few as proof of why she is staying in the Frontier with the Judgment. This is troubling news..."

"Should I call back my agents? They did report that anomalies had been discovered in the north."

"No, I am telling you to focus on it more. I believe that beasts are coming through, which is also why I am suspicious. It would be her best reason to leave the city and avoid me... Not to mention, it gives her a place to work and plan ahead of me without us knowing about it. The Frontier has been neglected for centuries, which was a mistake, but we can still correct it."

"I will focus my efforts on it, My Emperor."

"Do it modified; don't let her discover us. Whatever she is doing, the best would be to let her do it and infiltrate her people! She is still an Ishillian and a good seed. Explore her discoveries and ideas before sabotaging them ."

"It will be done."

"Good. Don't let anyone discover you... I don't want to lose my most loyal brothers... and my expert-level disciples."

"You taught us well, Master." Otto answered, his head bowed even lower, smiling proudly, "Don't worry about the north. Even if the girl manages to spark a rebellion, it will be ours to control without her realizing it! We can't lose when we puppeteer both sides!”

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