Nothing is as dangerous as pride and complacency.

A strong team being overturned by a weak one.
The Hero King defeated by a high school student.
A celebrity brought down by a single mistake.

Aren’t these proven facts from various stories and histories?

That’s why I always put in the effort to avoid being complacent.

I tried to erase any thoughts that this was sufficient and prepared as much as I could out of fear.

Who knows how much stronger the enemy has become over the past decade?

With our current power, we might not even be able to compete and could easily get crushed, so I need to be cautious.

However, I now had to acknowledge something.
Sure, the enemy might have gotten stronger in these ten years, but the companions I’ve gathered aren’t exactly pushovers who could be easily taken down.

“W-why! Why isn’t it working?!”

A figure that looked like a mage yelled from afar.

The formula etched in front of him was Dispel—so in other words, cancellation magic. Its execution was quite decent, indicating he was skilled.

But sadly for that mage, that didn’t mean anything for us right now.

Click.

A pleasant sensation.
And with that, a missile was launched.

Of course, I don’t know how to make gunpowder.
I’m not some protagonist from an alternate history tale.
There’s no way I’d been memorizing how to make soap and gunpowder, right?

But I do know the principles.
How it works, its rough structure, and what kind of knowledge is applied.

Of course, logically thinking, it would be impossible to implement such a complex weapon based solely on principles…

But apparently, that was enough for the dwarves.

The refreshing sound of propulsion.
The culmination of magic engineering and modern knowledge beautifully arcs through the sky.

“O-Don’t come! Stay back!”

Is this the power of a wildfire scene?
Like a flash of enlightenment, a more impressive spell than before. That one could surely handle a fireball from a 6th-circle mage with ease, but…

BOOM!

Unfortunately, it was all futile flailing.
In this age, it was expected that the kind of objects capable of achieving such feats wouldn’t be understood through means other than magic.

But that wasn’t magic—it was  science.

An entity that was beyond comprehension through their common sense.

The panicked mages lost all rationality. In that state, establishing their spells would surely be impossible.

Masters of magic towers or the twelve wands directly under the royal family.

The mages I had worried about were effortlessly neutralized with just a few button clicks from the dwarves.

Of course, it’s not just the mages guarding the palace.
The Imperial Guards.
A group made up of the most elite geniuses. A gathering of humans chosen by the blade. Such a monstrous organization had set out to protect the palace.

Though they hadn’t transcended humans like Swordmasters, many beings had approached the limits of humanity.

However, that also didn’t matter.

Thinking about it, it was quite natural.

Screams echoed.
The Black Wolf reduced everything to mere flesh, and the crazed murderer painted everything red with blood.
The knight repenting for his mistakes silently cut down the enemies. Curses and evil. The stench of blood stung the nostrils.

If we talk about monstrous groups, this side was just as much.
No, we were definitely a level above them.

One by one, the Imperial Guards fell. Now, it had become harder to find living guards than to count the dead ones.
With core forces continuously being taken down, was the Empire getting desperate? They seemed to be pulling in Imperial troops from somewhere to attempt a war of attrition.

They pressed forward with numbers.
A simplistic yet powerful assault stemming from sheer brute force.

Coupled with self-destructing engravings etched into their necks and hostage-taking tactics, they were indeed a threat.

‘This is of no major concern.’

When you think of elves, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Archery, right? If dwarves are natural blacksmiths, elves are born archers.

And I handed that archer a weapon.
In this point of time where technology hadn’t advanced, it was practically a cheat. The most universal and powerful weapon of destruction.

In other words, guns.

The kind of insane marksmanship that could accurately hit targets kilometers away… no, several tens of kilometers without a scope.

What happens when the elves, charged up with the energy of the World Tree that I generously scattered, packed their magic into bullets and fired?

There wouldn’t be an opponent to stop them.
Even if they tried to self-destruct, they wouldn’t be allowed to approach.

Sometimes, assassins appeared to take down the snipers, but that was just futile flailing.

It wasn’t just unlikely for them to sneak up unnoticed; even if by some luck they reached the snipers…

“W-wait! I’ll surrender, I’ll surrender…!”

The elves gathered here were warriors before being snipers. They were superior beings in every aspect compared to humans. There’s no chance they would fare well in close combat.

Just one individual.
There was someone I was worried about.

“Help me! If we can take down that red-haired commander, we might be able to reverse the situation. I can’t sense any magic from him, so maybe we could get him easily…”

“Are you insane?! They’re the ones directing those monsters, aren’t they?! It’s not that you can’t feel their magic—they’re simply hiding it!”

“H-hide it?! Hiding one’s magic from a 6th-circle mage? That’s just not logically possible…”

The man, who had been speaking such things, soon shut his mouth.
Common sense didn’t apply to the enemy he was facing. That realization hit him hard.

Seeing that, Lien offered a very meaningful smile.
A smile like she was disappointed for missing her prey. The man trembled in fear as if he had almost become the enemy’s toy.

Contrary to my worries, Lien seemed to be doing just fine keeping herself safe. She had nearby guards with her, so there shouldn’t be any issues.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Victory was tilting our way.

It was my mistake to think our strength might still be insufficient to turn the Empire into our foe.
A most delightful misconception.

A smile naturally crept onto my lips, but… it didn’t last long. Complacency is a no-no; I could feel it from afar.

An ominous energy pervaded the air.

Thinking back, it was strange. The reinforcements sent by the Empire were all on the level of commoners who had only a little sword training.
It was hard to see them as properly trained troops. They were likely gathering genuinely useful forces separately.

Heinrich.
The enemy’s maximum forces were probably over there.

‘Is the real fight starting now?’

The sea I had hoped for.
I repeated that to myself and shook off my tension as I directed my steps toward the front line, where thousands… perhaps even tens of thousands of troops were rushing in.

*

“Damn it, damn it, damn it.”

While suppressing the curses that almost slipped out, the commander of the Imperial Army’s 30th Division moved with heavy steps.

There’s a limit to bad luck.
Of all people to mess with, it had to be the brat favored by the Second Prince, and it had to be the stupid subordinates who caused him humiliation in the training last week.

Now, not only was he forced to swear loyalty to that fledgling who just had a lucky talent for mana, but here came the Black Fangs?

Of course, I knew the Black Fangs opposed the Empire. I knew they sought a revolution. But why did they have to invade at this moment?

The 30th Division is the closest to the palace.

With that, if the Black Fangs attacked, there’d be no way to back out. It meant being pulled to the front lines first.

Sure enough.
The worst concern came true.

Heinrich’s crew has invaded.
It seems the Black Fangs have assaulted the palace, and they want that crazy terrorist dealt with quickly.

I want to run away right now.
After all, they are those Black Fangs.

The only group that can remain alive while turning the Empire into an enemy.

No matter how confident one might be in their abilities, if asked if they could defeat the Black Fangs, they’d probably recoil in horror and shake their head.

But… I can’t run away.
Heinrich is standing right next to me.

In such a situation, to break from the front line? That would virtually guarantee losing my head. Running would equal death.

The worst of choices.
Each option was horrifically terrible.

The commander’s face darkened to the point of resembling a pig being led to slaughter. Others looked the same.

However, lamenting about reality wouldn’t change anything. The battlefield drew closer.

In the end, there was only one remaining choice.
“Damn.”

This is no joke.
If fleeing was out of the question, the only option left is to win. If I could somehow take down the Black Fangs in a desperate fight, my future would be guaranteed.

There’s a chance… isn’t there?
Reinforcements from the 45th Division and the 38th Division would soon arrive. Their troops, including him, were no pushover either.

All of them were capable of freely wielding their swords.
The commander himself had, in his prime, reached the level of almost a Swordmaster.

Gathering together, they could easily bring down a kingdom. Surely, they wouldn’t be weak enough to simply fall to the Black Fangs.

…In the distance, I see a man clad in a black hood.
In this situation.
What he had to do was clear.

“All troops, charge!”

I shout with all my might and charge forward. I intend to swing my sword at the guy who looks to be an associate of the Black Fangs…

“…?”

His face was painted with confusion.
A boy who shouldn’t be here at all stood right before the commander.

An awkward eye contact followed.
As I looked at the boy sweating coldly, he flashed an utterly mischievous smile and said,

“Looks like luck’s on my side.”

*

“I’m glad things are going better than expected.”

Such thoughts filled Heinrich’s mind as he observed the scene unfolding before him.
He’d heard about the corruption in the 30th Division. He worried about whether such guys could truly put up a fight against the Black Fangs.

Turns out the greatest conversational tool was intimidation.
Just giving them a little scare had them all soldiering up and charging quite decisively. Just look at them now.

The determination in their faces.
The desperation that if they don’t kill, they’ll be killed is very evident. Their fighting spirit was at its peak.

Thinking this, Heinrich laughed…

And then realized something very simple yet bizarre.

The Black Fangs were right before him.
Therefore, to capture the Black Fangs, the 30th Division had to charge forward. But if they charged forward…

Why were those faces visible?
Why do they seem to be getting closer rather than farther away?

…Huh?
Huh-huh-huh?