When Alexa left the 1st Group Army to its devices, she wanted to continue on by grabbing the leadership of the 3rd Group Army by their necks and strong-arming them for a forced deployment.

  Unfortunately, news got to her first. While they were planning for their moves southward, Alexa found out that Henry’s forces were now attempting to move westward to Perlenstadt. Even if she expected that, there was no way in hell that she’d give up the Imperial Capital for nothing.

  Most of all, bloodshed was incoming. While she had ordered Wilhelm to focus on buying time and avoiding direct combat, even she knew that at some point, those orders would be null.

  This was one of those cases.

  Therefore, she packed up with Alfred, Phoebe, and Adele and raced westward, passing through the central region, which wasn’t fully controlled yet by the so-called ‘Free Republic Army’.

  In fact, before she reached the first town in the Rutherford Mountain Range, Alexa passed through the retreating columns of the XX Corps, an Imperial Army unit that belonged to the 2nd Group Army. While it took some convincing with their command staff, Alexa managed to take a few battalions of troops to support her while she moved to Rutherford.

  Upon arrival at Rumpalz, an area controlled by a Royal Guard ordo, the Azalea Ordo, it was already under chaotic battle. Looking out through her carriage’s side windows, her heartbeat thumped.

  I’m too late.

  War—it’s finally here.

  She felt her throat turning dry at that. This world was truly unforgiving, wasn’t it? First, the threat of demons was etched bone-deep into her; second, the embers of revolution finally reared their ugly head.

  While the old Alexa would whine and moan about her current fate, asking why she couldn’t have the romance part and the cake and everything else she should have in this story, she did none of that. Instead, her mind was filled with cold calculations.

  Her subjects were now torn between Alexa and Henry, and as a result, they were dying by the hundreds. No, perhaps, they were dying by the thousands. The scene ahead wasn’t pretty after all.

  Bombardment scarred the land. Spells and massive fireballs were being thrown around. The horizon was filled with arrows flying from both sides, and even from here, she could hear the screams and battle cries of her subjects.

  “Alexa,” Phoebe called out from behind, face pale from fear. “What…are we going to do?”

  “I’ll make an appeal to the soldiers on the other side,” Alexa said, conviction in her eyes. “They may be under the command of Henry’s lackeys, but they are my troops.”

  Alexa placed a hand on her chest as she turned to face the saintess.

  “Just protect me, and I’ll be what I should be to her,” Alexa explained. “I am their future Empress. They have to follow me, because if they follow me…”

  She paused, unsure.

  But then, conviction built up in her soul.

  “Then they won’t die.”

  Ultimately, that was all that mattered. She needed to diffuse this battle. If for nothing else, she wanted to make an appeal to her subjects on the other side who wanted out of this mess.

  Even if not everyone defects to her, if enough of them do that, the Free Republic Army would lose steam. Then, General Kurt von Keitel’s 1st Group Army from the east would force Henry to recognize reality and surrender.

  That way, bloodshed will be limited.

  Alexa gave one last cursory look into her stat window. She knew that being on the front lines was a dangerous task, so she needed something to protect her, besides her friends, of course.

  While it wasn’t much, she made sure to work hard on herself while they were running around in the academy and now, throughout the empire.

  Due to spellcasting a lot, alongside studying more of her new water and fire magic combination—ice magic—Alexa managed to raise her dexterity stat significantly. She also trained her body so that her speed, constitution, and strength weren’t so ridiculously low.

  Finally, with Wilhelm’s mild guidance, she managed to raise her [Glyph Drawing] spell to [Glyph Control]. That meant her spellbook, which was filled with a hundred glyphs made out of Archdemon blood, was something she could somewhat control remotely.

  It was why she set out with confidence.

  I’m sure I can pull this off.

  “Lady Alexa,” Phoebe looked down, still unsure about herself. “Don’t get into trouble, okay? Even if I’m strong, I’m not sure…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Alexa smiled. “So long as all of us do our part, it should all end up well.”

  Even Adele, who was squirming from fear on her seat, perked up due to Alexa’s words.

  To an untrained eye, they were just three silly girls together, trying to ride straight into the jaws of a beast. But, to Alexa, she had confidence in herself and her friends.

  Bring it on, Henry Richard von Hecker.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Let’s see what you’ve really got.

  +++

  “File in, knights! Her Highness is here!”

  The captain of the Azalea Ordo, Rosa Mary von Hecker, who introduced herself to Alexa as Henry’s little sister, shouted at her knights in the center of town.

  Rosa seemed a bit pale and panicked. Ever since Alexa met her earlier outside of the town, she was practically fumbling desperately to get Alexa out of danger.

  To be fair, one time, a fireball artillery spell nearly nailed their convoy. But Phoebe’s powerful holy magic made short work of it. She simply shouted [Dispel] at the skies, and the skies were cleared.

  That little act apparently managed to break the composure of the assaulting troops so that they pulled back from sending more soldiers into Rumpalz.

  Still, it was clear that everyone here was worried for Alexa’s safety as she strolled elegantly through the damaged streets.

  “W-why is she here?”

  “Shut it. Don’t speak.”

  “We should evacuate her now.”

  The knights of the Azalea Ordo were mostly young women. They were a bit older than Alexa, Phoebe, and Adele, yes, but rarely was any of them above the age of thirty. It was kind of strange to see, in Alexa’s eyes.

  Yes, she’d seen a lot of women knights in the Royal Guard, because unlike her old world, even women here could become as strong as men. But never had she seen a full-woman unit.

  That was until she noticed a few knights who were males standing on the far edges of town. Well, she supposed this ordo wasn’t as clear-cut in its membership.

  She cleared her throat.

  “Everyone,” Alexa stopped walking when she reached the end of their line, facing them all. “I’m sure all of you have brimming questions as to why I’m here.”

  No reply.

  “It’s simple. I am here to end the fight with your brethren. By my words.”

  Immediately, she watched as the faces of the knights around her contorted into worry, fear, and pity. The last one was the worst, because, quite frankly, even Alexa thought her idea was stupid.

  “And if that’s not enough, Saintess Phoebe right here will smooth things over,” Alexa declared, her voice resolute. “You’ve fought well today. You’ve held this position stalwartly and with gallantry. You made the enemy bleed.

  “But the ‘enemy’ are your brothers and sisters. Just as you are their brothers and sisters. As Lotharingians, this petty conflict should be below us.”

  Alexa shook her head, angry.

  “I refuse to accept that we will be killing each other so callously. So to make sure that the enemy will be receptive to my words, I will give them an offer they cannot refuse.”

  Alexa smiled before turning to Phoebe.

  “Say, do you think you can heal a few hundred, or even a thousand, injured men and boys today?”

  Phoebe seemed unsure, but, with a shy voice, she nodded.

  “I’ll try.”

  +++

  Crossbowmen.

  They were the bread-and-butter of any self-respecting army, alongside casters, of course. With the bottomless arsenal of enchanted arrows being produced by the Imperium to kill demons, the average crossbowman could technically murder even a three-circle mage in the right circumstances.

  Best of all, due to the system’s peculiarities, the [Crossbowman] class was the easiest to acquire. All a soldier needed was to train himself to form his first magic circle, then follow training on using a crossbow.

  And bam! You would become a crossbowman. It was almost like those civilian classes, like [Cook] or [Farmer], things that barely required education and magical capabilities to acquire.

  Even the [Soldier] and [Swordsman] classes, which were technically indistinguishable outside of their specialization routes, were harder to acquire.

  It was why, for every [Soldier]/[Swordsman] trained in melee weapons, there were at least two [Crossbowmen] in the Imperial Army and Defense Forces. They were capable of ranged combat, easily trained, and easily mass-produced.

  They were, in essence, the grunts of the empire’s martial arms. Corporal Max Conrad was one of those. He was just another young townsman who had no future outside of farming. The only luck he had was that he wasn’t the youngest child of his family, so by law, he wasn’t required to join the Defense Forces.

  Still, he joined the Imperial Army expecting a life better than what he would have in his hometown. The pay was good, there was honor associated with it, and he would only have to fight in the interior of the Imperium in the worst case scenario.

  Lo and behold, the worst-case scenario could be worse than his imagination. As if he were on the frontlines of the frigid north, he was now fully reminded of what he signed up for when he became a [Crossbowman].

  He was now nothing but fodder.

  “Forward! Do not even dare think of retreat, brothers!” The sergeant shouted ahead of them, standing on top of a crater. “The enemy are a bunch of sheltered girls. You will not be defeated!”

  As everyone around him shouted in agreement, Max was forced to charge forward through the scarred flatlands. He held his crossbow tight, trying his best to keep up with his buddies.

  Above him, explosion after explosion struck the town and its surroundings. Rumpalz was apparently guarded by female knights from the Royal Guard. Yet, for some reason, Max was now walking through mountains of corpses.

  He tried his best to ignore them as he rushed forward, jumping straight into cover in one of the craters with a few squad members. Then, as was drilled into him, he activated his main skill, a skill that every grunt had.

  [Fast Reload].

  Then, he aimed his crossbow at the enemy. With the skill, he was quickly reloading his crossbow, even when its draw was heavy. Almost every three seconds, he had a new arrow on his crossbow, allowing him to fire at the enemy with impunity.

  Not that he was hitting people. His aim was atrocious. A dangerous fog settled on the battlefield, making it hard to see his foes clearly. As a result, the best he could do was aim at the flashes he could see on the horizon.

  The enemy knights seemed to have a lot of casters in their ranks. As a result, each time they fired a spell from their staves, it was easy for Max to spot them and open fire in their direction.

  For nearly five minutes, that was what he did. More corpses piled around him as officers and non-commissioned officers rallied wave after wave into the assault. It was madness!

  But many of them were now reaching the enemy position. Even Max later charged in on one of the dug-in positions by the enemy knights, and he managed to throw a blast ball at them.

  Powered by simple magic, after a simple tap on its runes, the blast ball would explode brutally within five seconds. Even the knights who were armored and protected by magic emerged out of their hole dying and bleeding.

  As a result, Max finished the two young women’s misery by sending a crossbow bolt into their heads.

  That was when he was struck by a spell before he could dive into cover and breathe a bit. It was a simple fireball bolt, enough that it burned nearly half his body, his armor practically useless against it.

  Screaming for help, Max found himself in a grim realization.

  “My squad,” he looked at the rear of their lines. Soldiers were still charging forward, but none of them even looked at Max. “S-someone, help!”

  No one helped him. His squad had already been eviscerated. Everyone else was tending to their own teammates, trying to drag the injured and dying off, while others tried to keep pushing forward.

  Anything, just to make sure that the sacrifices of the worthy weren't going to be wasted. He felt like he should cry. This wasn’t what he expected at all.

  “Someone…” he croaked, the sting of his burns sending him to tears. “Someone help…”

  No reply.

  No response.

  No aid.

  There would not be salvation.

  That was when a voice spoke to his head. It was a very familiar voice, a voice he had heard many times already. It was the voice of their new enemy.

  “To all soldiers in and around Rumpalz, cease all hostilities at once! There cannot be further bloodshed; I will not allow it! Stop fighting, and the saintess herself will tend to everyone’s injuries!”