The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

The demihumans dumped boiling water on them through the murder holes. However, the paladins already had 「Protection Energy Fire」 cast on them in anticipation of this, and so no matter how much water got on them, the paladins were unscathed.

Of course, since this was winter, things would be troublesome if they were drenched and then the temperature fell, but it was fine for the moment.

If they had used boiling oil instead of water, their swords would have slipped easily from their hands. Perhaps oil was precious to the demihumans but they did not make such preparations.

The slowly-advancing civilians carried the wooden walls which they had brought along to use as shields. While it would have been better if they had been made out of metal, it could not be helped given their lack of proper arms. It might not have been terribly sturdy, but it was better than nothing, and the citizen-soldiers hidden behind them began spinning up their slings. They were aiming at the demihumans fighting with the angels. Of course since they were not used to combat, the stones they threw struck the angels more often that not.

Even though they were taking friendly fire, the angels were resistant to unenchanted attacks, so it was not a problem for them. Of course, it was merely damage reduction and not immunity, but still, the citizen-soldiers did not do that much damage to the angels. It was simply because the sling stones would hurt the demihumans more if they hit them.

Every time an angel fell, the priests would summon a new angel and throw it into the fray. While there were very few of them, this inexhaustible and untiring supply of fresh troops kept pouring on, and the demihuman resistance began to falter.

“...Mm. After considering the opposition might use defensive magic, they ought to have splashed cold water on them. Combined with the cold of winter, it would make their opponent’s body temperature plunge… after all, most people would cast spells to protect against fire.”

As the Sorcerer King looked at the battlefield, he muttered to himself, as though he were conducting a calm analysis of the fighting.

It was hard to respond to those words. While nobody had died yet, there were those who were already wounded, so she could not bring herself to speak.

“Speaking of which, is it really all right if you don’t participate in the battle, Miss Baraja? You ought to be able to make a good accounting of yourself with the bow I gave you.”

Neia was assigned to stand watch by the Sorcerer King’s side. Using her own body as a shield for him was her duty. Therefore, she had not been ordered to fight.

However, just like before, the Sorcerer King seemed very eager for her to use that bow of hers.

Does he want me to use the weapon he lent me? I could try taking a shot from here, but missing the first shot with a borrowed weapon would be a little too—

Just as Neia was hesitating over how to answer, a mighty noise came from the vicinity of the city gate. Looking over, it would seem the portcullis had been broken down. The noise was a combination of the paladins’ rejoicings and the demihumans’ anxious cries.

Once the city gate went down, the paladins would flood into the city like an avalanche.

After seeing Remedios’s superb skills, the shaken beastmen grew more and more frantic.

After that — the paladins retreated amidst a great clamour.

Neia’s keen vision saw within what was inside the narrow aperture of the gates before the paladins had made it there.

It was the same as before.

A Bafolk was clutching a child, even younger than before, and issuing orders to the paladins on the other side of the city gate. While his voice did not carry over to them, one could imagine the orders which had been given.

The paladins began falling back and leading the retreat were Remedios and Gustavo. After that, they told the priests to “Have the angels fall back, otherwise they’ll kill the child.”

“Here we go again. I can’t listen in from over here, I want to go over there and take part in their conversation. How about it?”

“You have no need to seek my opinion, Your Majesty.”

Neia and the Sorcerer King walked towards Remedios, who was stationed some distance — between the Sorcerer King and the city gates — and discussing something under the eyes of the uneasy citizen-soldiers.

“We should negotiate with them, after all,” Remedios said, but the one who was frowning after taking off their helmet was someone else. Perhaps it was because they knew what had happened at the first prison camp, but all of them had How can we approve of this? written on their faces.

Even after the Sorcerer King came, they still had not found an answer.

No, everyone was trying to think of how to talk Remedios down from her position of “In any case, we need to save that child,” but that seemed unlikely.