Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume4 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 3===


Smoke had entered the room and there were noises that sounded like the walls were shaking as they were hit by a quick succession of fire arrows. Neville's group cried out in fear, but Lord Leo glanced at the window with about as much interest as he would have if a strong wind were blowing, and got up from his seat.

“Once the ground floor is blocked because of the fire, we won't have any escape route. We'll go down.”

“H-Hold on,” Neville called out, feeling that he needed to gain some control over the situation. However –

“If you want to end up burned to a crisp, by all means, do as you like. But we have no reason to stay with you. Oh, right, we need to call the servants in the mansion. Since they're also caught up in this, it obviously means that they weren't part of the plot,” Leo started to leave, accompanied by his unarmed guards.

“Wait. We'll go first. Neville and the others will follow at the rear,” Godwin just barely managed to gather his wits.

Leo's group and the servants would be placed between the two halves of the Dytiann delegation, so that they could not escape. Leo, who had stopped walking away to listen, now shrugged.

“I'm fine with that too. Oh... don't forget the weapons. I'm sure you'll need them.”

He pointed to the casket as he said that.

It was embarrassing, but there was no point in hiding it now, so Neville and the others opened the casket, and handed out the various weapons to their companions.

Neville was holding a halberd, his weapon of choice. In addition to the sharp pike at its tip, there was an axe-head and a claw-like thorn mounted on the spear shaft. It was, of course, far heavier than an ordinary spear and could be used in far more ways when wielded with skill and discernment, but there were not many who had mastered the weapon to that degree. Neville took pride in being one of the few such masters, but who knew if that would be of any use in this situation.

''We're being chased by fire and the one guiding us away from it is the target we were supposed to kill. And on top of that, he's saying that someone other than us is aiming for his life, and that we were also supposed to die here.''

This had all been planned.

Neville understood that very well.

And he could easily guess that Baal and Oswell had secretly conspired together and were going to lay the entire blame for Leo's assassination on the soldiers of the old Holy See.

''But what I don't get...''

...Was Leo Attiel.

He had attended the meeting despite being fully aware of everything. And he must obviously have known that Neville's group has been given the task of murdering him. What was he trying to do by being so stupid as to face the danger of being cut down, on top of the risk of being burned alive thanks to Oswell?

Leo stopped at the entrance hall on the first floor. The building was still sound there, but the fire had already closed in to the point where the flames could be seen from where the group stood. Heat and thic smoke were starting to fill the area. At this rate, they were likely to suffocate before the fire had a chance to reach them.

Leo turned to Neville, who had arrived last, and jerked his chin towards the entrance.

“Break it down,” he said. Seeing Neville's surprise, he explained: “The doors are probably locked. You took a lot of trouble to bring those weapons along, so you might as well put them to good use.”

From his tone of voice, it sounded like he was spelling things out for a fool, incapable of understanding reason. Neville had gone beyond surprise and was now so literally dumbfounded that he could no longer speak, but the other soldiers were still highly excitable.

“Does a princeling from a tiny little country think that he can order us around?” they brandished their weapons, but before Neville and Godwin had time to stop them, Leo barked with laughter.

“Are you still talking about murdering me, at this point? You're so simple-minded it's almost cute. Then go on, tell me, what reason do you guys have for killing me? And once you've killed me, what exactly will you have achieved?”

“W-What!”

“The one who set you up to all of this was Bishop Baal, right? Who used to be your enemy. Baal was going to use you to get rid of me, and there was no way he was going to let you live after that. The names of those who murdered Lord Leo would be made public one after another, and you would have been held entirely responsible for the crime.”

Neville and the others had no way of knowing that right then, Leo was taking another gamble. He still had no definite proof of their real identities. But given that Baal was using them for his own ends, it meant that it would not harm the current regime in Dytiann if their names were openly revealed. Based on those facts, he speculated that they might well be part of the Holy See, and thus enemies of the government now in power.

Whether it was Neville, Godwin or the other soldiers, none of them were able to utter a word.

They had defended the Holy See to the bitter end. When the nobles and all those eminent clergymen with their impressive titles had fled before the fires of war, only the soldiers like them had remained among the flames, risking their lives to fight.

Their heavily wounded friends had smiled at them and said: “Well then, we'll be seeing you. With God's guidance, our souls will be safe in Heaven, so let's meet there again one day.” And with those words, they had gone charging in the lead to fight enemy units that outnumbered their own two or three times over. Their backs had stood in front of Neville and the others, who remembered each and every one of them.

At some point, the corner of Neville's eyes had grown hot. If their names were stained like this, they would never be able to face His Holiness the Pope, who had already left this world, nor their companions who had bravely gone their deaths. Better by far to perish in the fire.

No, he corrected that impulse. They couldn't die here. Even if they hadn't touched him, if their corpses were found with the dead prince, the crime would be pushed onto them.

“Guwah!” Neville swung his halberd and started to hack at the door, the axe-head crashing into the solid wood.

Godwin followed suit, using his longsword, and then other soldiers joined in after that. Before long, they had smashed the door to pieces. Before the fresh evening air could even blow in through it, Neville and his companions caught sight of a group of fully armed soldiers.

Oswell's handpicked men, no doubt. Unlike the unit which had been left to guard the road, this lot knew about the plot to assassinate Leo. And their mission was to kill every single person who attempted to escape from the mansion.

Upon seeing that the door had been hacked open, they had quickly readied their spears and shields yet, even though their faces were entirely hidden beneath their helmets, it was clear that they were shaken. It had been within their expectations that some people might manage to break out of the mansion, but they would never have imagined that Lord Leo would emerge together with the very group from the Holy See which was supposed to have already killed him.

Before the soldiers had time to get over the shock, Neville and his group launched their attack. These were men who had once born the duty of single-handedly defending the Holy See; and as was to be expected, their skill was outstanding. Neville's halberd was as swift and decisive as the wrath of God. He had already taken down one, then two soldiers before anyone had time to even blink.

Watching that from behind, Camus roared and picked up a spear which one of Oswell's fallen soldiers had dropped.

“I'll help you too. So I'd appreciate it if you don't mistake me for an enemy!”

With that, he stood next to Neville and added his spear to the fray. Kuon, Aqua and the other Personal Guards also grabbed weapons from the enemy and stood in ranks, guarding Leo as he made a leisurely exit from the broken door.

Friend and foes alike were being cut down. In the middle of that hard battle, Neville glanced back just once to where Leo was.

Surrounded by guards on either side, the prince was observing the fight with interest. That soldier who looked like a child was far stronger than Neville could ever have imagined. If an enemy started to get anywhere near the prince, he drew up to them as fast as the wind and struck them down with the speed of lightning.

In the middle of those frantic, hectic surroundings, only Lord Leo remained standing still, as the fighting had absolutely nothing to do with him. Appearance-wise, he was very thin, with sunken cheeks and haggard looks. Yet far from seeming frail, the atmosphere that enveloped him was somewhat detached, almost transcendental even. The fire blazed behind him, twisting and leaping like some huge dragon.

Neville's heart was shaken. He felt that he had just seen something that was far out of the ordinary.

He quickly turned back around and dealt with an enemy spear, hooking it by the claw of his halberd. He gave a sharp yank, and the spear was wrested out of his opponent's hands. Seizing that chance, the tip of Camus' weapon pierced the soldier's throat.

Godwin was also in the middle of an intense struggle as he swung his remarkably large sword. Every strike he took was so fierce that it almost seemed to raise a storm, and not a single one of Oswell's soldiers could find an opening to attack. As they staggered back, they soon got caught up in the tempest and their helmeted heads went flying.

But Neville and the others were only able to overrun the enemy for a short space of time. Even though the soldiers had initially been bewildered by the unexpected development, they still held the overwhelming numerical advantage. Platoons which had been stationed at different exits came running one after another to join the fight, until the small group was encircled by a net of enemies that was two or three rows deep.

The soldiers who had once been part of the Cruciform Army were all unflinchingly brave, but overturning this situation was all but impossible. Several of their companions had already fallen, and the net was slowly but surely tightening around them. If their numbers decreased any further, their hastily constructed formation would crumble and they would be trampled to the ground.

''At this rate...''

A hint of unease flitted across Neville's ascetic-looking face but, next to him, Camus was still wielding his spear like a man possessed and didn't show any sign of anxiety. Neville felt a strange sensation; it was looking at themselves, back when they had fought in the name of God without fear of death.

Just then, from the other side of the encircling net of soldiers, another group came hurrying. If those had been Leo's Personal Guards, it would have led to a dramatic reversal, but unfortunately, those were more of Oswell's men.

It was over.

Yet just when Neville was grinding his teeth, an astonishing thing occurred.

“Your Highness!”

“We'll save you!”

For some reason, the new group had started to break the encirclement from the rear.

These were the guards who had been blockading the road until just a while earlier.

─ Perhaps  the simplest way to explain it would be to say that this was Oswell Taholin's one mistake.

It was absolutely normal that Oswell didn't tell too many people about his plan to assassinate the prince. The soldiers on guard had only received orders not to let anyone approach the mansion, to which he had added the strict injunction not to move from their posts no matter what happened, since it would be a problem for him if they moved into action upon seeing the mansion go up in flames.

But it was then that the unexpected happened. A great crowd of townspeople converged there and, on top of that, a different set of guards slipped in among them and shouted for the gates to be opened...

Correct: they were Leo's Personal Guards. While the prince had been bedridden, the Guards had collected the same kind of uniforms and equipment that Oswell's soldiers used. Among the chaos caused by the townspeople's outcry, tthey pretended to urge their fellow soldiers to open the gates. And so, what was the first thing that the soldiers on guard had seen when they rushed into the estate?

That goes without saying: it was the sight of Lord Leo surrounded by armed men. And just as naturally, they deduced that: “The armed group set fire to the mansion and is trying to kill the prince!” Which was how the situation developed in a strange and – as far as Oswell was concerned – remarkably unfortunate way, with soldiers who had originally been serving him now fighting against soldiers who also belonged to him.

“W-Wait!” Oswell's soldiers cried out in confusion.

“Don't bother arguing!” Those of Oswell's soldiers who had been in charge of guarding the roads were desperate to kill these bandits. They felt that in a way, the fire at the mansion was their own fault. True, Oswell and Lord Leo would probably reprimand them later, but, at the very least, they were determined that they would take down this band of villains themselves and protect the prince at all cost.

Now that things had come to this point, Oswell's soldiers had no hope of winning. They had already been having trouble with Neville's group, even though it wasn't a large one, and now they were being attacked on both sides.

Assailants, guards, soldiers of the Holy See and Leo's Personal Guards... there was a wide range of soldiers in that fight, but the flames shone on all of them equally, and the shadows they cast overlapped with one another, then disappeared one after another.