Although I did not expect the commander to be such a muscle-brained idiot, it kind of worked out in my favor. How so? They were to act as our perfect decoys! Or rather, 'decoy' was too kind a word. They're more like canon fodder, I thought with a devilish grin that made Sarde flinch. Don't worry. I'm not thinking about you, Sarde.

  Just then, the fliers and other troops from Company 317 C started gathering around me. I thought they wanted to collect supplies, so I was rather shocked to see them stand there looking at me. W-what is this? Is something on my face? I wondered, but that was when the same Mercenary Kimmel and I talked to walked up to me and said,

  "We recognize that you were the one responsible for our victory at Fort Turion." Kimmel and the others must have been quite vocal about it, I thought to myself as he continued, "I don't know what these guys are pnning, so, I, no, we would rather have you take command."

  "This decision may put you in hot water with the Kingdom authorities, so are you sure about this? " I asked them, testing their resolve.

  "Well, that makes two of us," He answered with a fearless smile. I knew I was disobeying orders and that this could potentially lead to some serious trouble for me. But it certainly beats a meaningless death, I thought to myself with a fearless smile. The Mercenary extended his right hand, saying, "The name's Geiter..."

  "Daphne," I said as we shook hands. From there, we collected the necessary supplies and waited in the forest patiently until...

  "They're moving!" One of my soldiers excimed. This time, I would be expining everything in detail so no one would be confused. I wish I had a microphone, I thought to myself as I cleared my throat. I'd be addressing many soldiers and adventurers at once, so I needed to be as loud as possible. That was when it occurred to me.

  "Lucia!"

  "W-w-what is it, Daphne?"

  "Sorry for startling you like that, but you can use wind magic, right?"

  She answered, "Yes," and I rejoiced internally.

  "Is there a spell that can amplify sounds?"

  "Yes, but it requires precise control over the air currents around us." Right. I'm guessing that's to ensure the wind carries my voice through longer distances...

  "Can you do it?" I asked the million-dolr question and after some brief hesitation on her part, she said,

  "I'll try."

  Hooray! So, with my improvised microphone ready, I began, saying, "We're going to let those idiots march to their deaths." Judging from all the looks I was getting, everybody heard me loud and clear!

  "B-but why?" Kimmel asked, and many seemed to share the same sentiment. For this one, I believed the scene they were about to witness would speak louder than any expnation I could give them, so I turned to the battlefield and said,

  "Watch." I chose a spot in the forest that gave us a nice view of things so that they could see the pathetic dispy for themselves. Warriors, Mercenaries, Cavalry, and pretty much every other css were sughtered in the blink of an eye by a combination of arrows, ballistae, and magic. To think that they've already fortified their defenses to this point. We were facing a scary enemy. That's why we can't pull punches here or get too sentimental. It'd only ruin everything, I thought as I clenched my fists.

  "This is horrible," Geiter remarked as our soldiers began to retreat. The Empire, however, did not miss their chance. They used that moment to unleash some of the most powerful elemental spells in their arsenal, causing further casualties. Is the muscle-brained commander and his fraud of a tactician still alive? I wondered, but we needed to take action soon, so I turned to the Company and addressed them, saying,

  "They walked into this. I tried to warn both their tactician and the commander, but they didn't listen and now, this is the result." I turned to my Company and continued, saying, "You don't have to feel responsible for any of this. I mean, even if you went out there, you'd only succeed in adding another corpse to the battlefield, so... yeah, not much you can do there."

  "So, what can we do?" A flier asked with panic written all over his face. After seeing all those troops get destroyed like that, it was understandable, but I couldn't let the morale drop like this.

  "We'll win by thinking outside the box." Phildina fshed a proud smile at my comment, but I pretended as if I didn't see it.

  "What do you mean?" The flier asked.

  "Instead of thinking about how to get in, we should think about how to lure them out."

  "Lure them out? Is that even possible?" This time, it was Geiter who asked the question, and I was happy to answer him,

  "Yes! With their defenses fortified, they have an unfair advantage over us. We need to get them to py on our terms, and we can do this by relying on our most powerful unit."

  "Most powerful unit? Who could that be?" And other such murmurs could be heard from the Company. Apparently, no one knew who I was referring to, even the person I was praising looked completely clueless! I sighed and said,

  "Guys, it's Lucia." Then, I grabbed her by the hand and lifted her for all to see. It was probably embarrassing for her, but it was the truth. "She will unleash one of her most powerful spells on the Fort, alerting the Empire to our position. From there, if they choose to do nothing, we'll destroy the Fort, but if they send a force after us..." I continued with a smile, "We'll turn this forest into their graveyard."