Editing Zero no Tsukaima:Volume18 Chapter6

===Chapter 6 - Spirit Stone of Destruction===

The Pope's caravan was at slow pace towards Romalia, their arrival was somewhat delayed. Unfortunately for them, the travel took 3 days, compared to just a day if they used dragons for transport.

But one should take into consideration, that the Holy Pope's visit was not anything. He must respond to the devotion of all those believers of Brimir that lived in villages they passed by. This was a primary task for those who had given the title of ‘Pope’.

However, if the Pope stopped to give sermons in every person in his visit, the number of people would become endless. So, he only gave the blessing to babies, families who became faithful servants in the service of God and Brimir; and brave soldiers who served in the crusade.

For Romalia, they needed to continue with the developments of the crusade as soon as possible, so this visit of the Pope had a great and deep political gain.

So the fact that the Pope and his caravan were immediately surrounded by people at every village they stopped by, Saito and others found it extremely difficult to implement their rescue mission.

If they were to proceed in their plan now, not only did they have to deal with the Templar Knights, the people would also turn on them, and they would be immediately surrounded by enemies on all sides.

And besides, fearing a possible assassination, the escort staff of the Pope was in high alert not even an ant could slip through their impenetrable defense. Not even those rumored as Chevalier of North Parterre members seemed to made any move against the defense network of the soldiers assigned to directly guard to Pope.

It seemed that planning a move during the course of their journey was impossible.

Also, the guard of the Pope was always at the frontline, this would make impossible to prepare a trap in advance. Thus, attempting a surprise attack when they were in the vicinity of the forest would be unsuccessful due to low number of soldiers at their disposal, compared to the vastness of knights guarding Pope.

So in the end, the progress in rescuing Tabitha was still stagnant.

Two days had gone by since leaving Lutetia ...

So if the Pope's caravan continued with their pace, they would be able to reach the "Tiger Road" the next day... 

Meanwhile at an inn not far from there, Saito and his group held a meeting on how to continue the rescue mission.

“Soon in that place, a huge number of people will gather to see the Pope, so being dressed as monks,  and mixing within that crowd was just easy task. We cannot fail, failure is unacceptable...” Kirche said as she rested her elbows on the table proving it was a difficult task as she thought.

“But it has to be soon, we must rescue her before they reach Romalia or else, the rescue would be impossible,” said Reynald with a face completely seriously.

At the same time, Saito was desperately thinking of a solution but in the end the anxiety overwhelmed him. The idea of Tabitha just within his hand but couldn’t rescue her made him angry. Beside him was Louise, who kept her eyes closed, seemed to be really struggling thinking a solution to this dilemma, but still, she couldn’t think of any idea.

“Just as I thought, then we do not have any other option but to attack in the front, if we can attack with everything we have, in the end maybe one of us will be able to reach and rescue Tabitha,” said Malicorne while nodding at himself.

“That's impossible. But then if there is no other option. We must use the decoy plan.”

“Decoy plan?”

“Exactly,” said Saito.

“I will begin to make a fuss in close to them to get their attention, then you have to go after Tabitha...”

Without completing, suddenly a voice came from behind him.

“If you're the one to do it, then you won't get anything."

“Huh?”

When they turned back, what they found was a large muscular man standing near them. Immediately, all present, from within their monk robes, prepared to arm themselves with wands and swords.

“It's me Chikasui.” said the man.

“But you're a man?!” cried Louise.

“This person is certainly Chikasui!”

Behind him, Isabella appeared who was accompanied by another man. As expected, they wore monk robes whose hood covered their head and eyes.

When the man lowered his hood, Saito couldn’t help letting out an "Ahh".

It was the man during that time, on the river banks of Leilian, who pretended to engage in a duel with Saito in order to deliver a letter for Tabitha.

Then he turned his gaze to Saito, the man smiled.

“Long time no see.”

“You are...”

“The rose squadron commander, Barto Castelmorre,” Isabella said presenting him to all those present.

“The first time I heard it I still couldn’t believe it,” declared Castelmorre as he watched Isabella with a cold stare. “But, upon seeing that young girl who now bears the royal crown, I'm forced to believe it. She couldn’t be Charlotte-sama! We, at all costs, must recover the true Charlotte-sama and restore the throne that is rightfully hers! And so, because of all your invaluable help, I thank you deeply, Tristanian Knights.”

Castelmorre then addressed Saito and the others and offered them a bow.

Afterwards, Isabella started observing all those present around her.

“All right, then I shall begin to explain the composition of our men. First, considering the order of command of Chevalier of North Parterre, including myself and Chikasui, there were a total of 7 members. The rest of the order were now monitoring the caravan of the Pope to keep us aware on the situation. Also, the members of the Rose squad knights commanded by Castelmorre consist of 20 men."

“Our members don't have experience in actual battle, however... each and every one of them have sworn their allegiance.”

All those present then began to stir.

“We are also accounted. All belonging to Tristain Ondine Knights, counting commander Guiche, there were 4 members, and among them is the one who was named the "Hero of Albion", Chevalier Hiraga-dono. Also, those two were friends of her majesty. Thus, our total force combat consists of 33 mages.”

“I would say, it’s a very good number,” said Guiche with voice of complacency.

“Very well, then as for a commander... Tell me, there isn't any problem if I will be the commander, right?” Isabella said with a serious face. All those present gave their approval.

Certainly, no one within the group has any reason to object. Besides, leaving the command to the leader of the order of Knights of North Parterre, whose specialty was dirty work, was the best possible option.

“Alright, let's start with the planning.”

Isabella then spread out a map on the table.

“Right here, we will take our position and begin the assault against the Pope's caravan. Our sole purpose is the carriage of the Pope, who ever arrives first will be responsible for rescuing her majesty. After that, he must go on this path where we have already prepared a wind dragon. Finally, he and her majesty must then flee in the direction of Lutetia.”

Then with a skeptical face Guiche said:

“Are you trying to say that with only a handful of men, we will make a direct attack against two full companies of Templar Knights?"

“Precisely.”

“We will be annihilated! They will surely destroy us!"

“We cannot consider "team work" in this plan because all present here came from different nations with their own different ways of organization. So, running a precise and flawless plan was frankly impossible, the only possible option left is to buy time for someone to get into the carriage and perform the rescue, then that someone will take care to safeguard the Queen and bring her safely to Lutetia.”

“You might be right, we don’t seem to have any more options.” Castelmorre said while nodding to Isabella.

“We are a squad of knights, there is a different way for us to act on frontal attacks. We cannot lose here, if we fail we will end up making things worse, we must give all that we have to make sure that won’t happen.”

Saito then said as he raised his head thoughtfully.

“I’m against this plan.”

“What did you say?"

“This will result to unecessary sacrifices. We will all have to die first before being able to save Tabitha.”

Louise also agreed with those words.

“Saito is correct.”

“But then what choice do we have?” Guiche said as he bent head.

“There should be another way.” Louise then directed towards Guiche.

“If Tabitha was not rescued here, it is likely that a terrible war might break out. If that happens, a lot more people will die in the end, is that what you want?”

Taking those account, Saito then began to notice each one of those around him. All appeared to be quiet, however, in their eyes he could see a complete resolution.

Then after seeing the nervous faces Malicorne of Guiche, Saito finally understood:

"It seems that the one who is being naive...is me."

''Everyone here had already prepared themselves for what lies ahead.''

At that time, he desperately wanted to reach and take the hand of Louise, slowly moved his hand to her, but then stopped. It was a cruelty that he was about to commit, it was pretty obvious that everyone here also wanted to be able to hold the hand of his/her dearest, what he would do might be totally unfair.

''But then, are we really engaging in this battle?''

''Do we even have a chance of winning?''

Then from within his heart, Saito shook his head.

''It's useless!''

''We cannot beat an enemy that exceeds us 10 times in numbers, and moreover, they were not ordinary enemy, they were the Templar Knights. Considering the experience of all of us in real battle conditions, we are still weak and naive.''

''...Indeed, it would be useless to fight ... Before we can even approach the carriage, magic attacks would already be fired upon us, there is the possibility tha most of us survive. In that case, we can rescue Tabitha and run... But the Templar Knights have Pegasus, though we use dragons to escape they can still chase us mid-air, certainly it would be impossible to get rid of them... the chances of this might work were almost zero.''

''But still, even if the chances were zero, if at that time the luck was on our side, Tabitha could indeed be rescued. The only thing left is to go for that small gap that would open during that miraculous event. As expected to the Halkeginian nobles, when it comes to this, their resolution was unwavering.''

''But I...''

Saito looked at Louise.

And then watched his comrades as they had been prepared to die.

''I don’t want to die, I will not let them die.''

After thinking this Saito started to say:

“This is not right, it's not like I don’t understand what you’ve said, however, we will all die here: it may be true that the war would stop with our sacrifice but... it is more likely that we may not succeed, or rather we will surely fail. How is it that you agree with a bet so dangerous?”

“I never thought to hear that from the mouth of the man who faced the 70000 soldiers alone.” Guiche said in surprised voice.”

“The circumstances are completely different then, since I was the only casualty. At this time we are talking about the lives of everyone. Surely, I understand your reasons for we must do it to avoid greater evil, but, even after knowing that, I still don’t want to see my friends die in vain before my eyes.”

Again silence flooded in the room.

“Well then, what do you propose?” Isabela asked, breaking the silence in her own.

Then, at that time, Saito could remember those words spoken by Pope Vittorio.

"We must negotiate with the elves, and placed our power behind our backs."

Of course, if negotiation was not enough then it would be favorable to start a war.

But at that point the Pope thought there was still a room for negotiation.

So with this renewed thought, Saito started to say:

“Let’s try to negotiate.”

“Impossible! What position did you have to start a negotiation? You know that the only thing they really wanted to do was to start a crusade, it seemed that you don’t really understand them,” said Castelmorre, to which Saito became silent while pondering, then asked Louise:

“Tell me Louise, can you create a large army using ‘illusion’?”

“For that power, I could but...”

"Well," Saito nodded in satisfaction.





The next morning...

The assigned group to lead the of Pope's caravan, was none other than the order of Arieste Knights of the Church, which was commanded by Carlo Trobontino.

After spending almost an hour after they left the last village, they reached an area of land that seems like a vast wasteland. Shortly, they arrived at the foot of the Mountain of the Fire Dragons. And soon, they would travel to the route which joined Romalia and Gallia, the 'Tiger Road'.

Meanwhile, being in a state of a dream, Carlo recited a sacred hymn as he could almost see the illusion of the crusade that dwelt in his mind.

By his sacred magic, he imagined those hated elves burning until they were reduced to ashes; his chest dwelled with joy.

In this state, while immersing himself in his sick fantasies, his subordinates were already shaking and urged him to look in the location directly across from them.

“Commander!... See there!...”

“What? Behave vile worms! We are the distinguished gentlemen of the church!”

As he said this, Carlo then fixed his eyes in the direction pointed to him. He ended up losing his composure.

“What the hell? Are those...?”

In front of the about 500 mails away, he saw the ranks of several thousand troops, even at that distance, he could clearly distinguish the cannons from the cavalry.

“Stop! All Stop!”

Then, Carlo stopped advancing his own pegasus, all of his troops immediately halted. Afterwards, a messenger was urgently sent to the place where Pope was to inform him of the situation.

“What the hell, where did these morons came from? How dare they to stop the advance of his holiness the Pope...”

At that time, the sharp eyes of one of the subordinates of Carlo distinguished their banner.

“Is that ... The coat of arms of the lords of southern Gallia?”

“The Southern Gallian gentlemen you said!?”

''What the hell are they thinking, marching right in front of us and stopping our progress?''

''But the southern lords who fought at the frontlines in the previous war, were supposed to be allies.''

At that time, from within the marching army, the figure of 3 men on horseback came out to meet them, one was carrying a white flag and slowly approached the caravan.

“They were asking for a truce!”

“Truce? Did they seek a war? To wage a war against us, the army of God!? Repent, thousand times damn!"

While trembling with rage, Carlo prepared his troops as he pulled out his wand.

The suspected trio then stopped about 20 mails away, standing right in place where Carlo can clearly see them. One them, taller among the other two, dared to took a step in the front.

“I presume that this was the caravan of his holiness the Pope! I am the captain of the order of the rose knights, my name is Barto Castelmorre! And I have to proclaim to His Holiness the Pope that we demand for his immediate surrender! We must reclaim what is respectfully ours!”

While shaking with rage, Carlo responed:

“You dare to obstruct the passage of his holiness the Pope, this is BLASPHEMY! You have the guts of march all your troops behind our backs!? Are you stupid enough to start a war with us!?”

“My army has a sole purpose of getting back our master. So, if you don’t resist and returned our master, then we will immediately turn around and gladly escort you to the border.”

“Stop saying nonsense! No matter what petty reasons you have, by the time you bastards dared to raise your wands against us, we will immediately accused you of heresy!”

“Before accusing us of heresy, I would like you tell me who was the person currently sharing the carriage with his Holiness? Tell me, who  has given you the authorization to take that person to your country? Depending upon your answer, I’ll immediately give the signal to attack you any moment!”

“Is that even a threat? Bastards! Perhaps you're saying that you’re trying to threaten his holiness the Pope!”

Then, Carlo prepared his wand to make an attack, at the time he took a forward step, a voice was heard echoing behind his back:

“What’s the commotion here?”

“His Holiness!...”