Together

Chapter 38

The following four days were hell. The land was ablaze with fire as the corpses of the North Kingdom soldiers rid the ground. Fiore was down to but a mere million soldiers whereas the North Kingdom still had three million. Needless to say, both sides were exhausted.

"Why's the battle taking so long?!" a gruff man yelled out to his subordinates. "Against an inferior country like Fiore, their forces should've been wiped out days ago!"

"There's a mage on the battlefield," one of the soldiers replied.

"Then kill her!" he yelled at them, saliva spitting everywhere.

"W-We can't," another replied.

"You're all useless! It's just a mere mage!" he retorted.

"She possesses a high amount of magic and with the current strength of our soldiers, it's useless to defeat her. At this rate, we might not..." the soldier trailed off.

The man, who was a lieutenant in the army, raised his eyebrows at his subordinates and widened his eyes in anger. He spat his tobacco on the ground and began cursing at them. He raised his hand at them but before he could, a voice commanded him to stop.

"C-Commander," the soldiers bowed, including the Lieutenant.

"You guys may leave," he waved towards the soldiers. They obediently obeyed, leaving the Commander alone with the lieutenant.

"You're still as rash as ever," he smirked.

The Lieutenant said nothing but looked away from him in annoyance.

"Is there a reason why the highly esteemed Commander is talking to me right now?" the Lieutenant asked.

The Commander smiled. Despite his old age and wrinkled face, he was fairly handsome. His hair was white with still a few streaks of black in it. His eyes were the color of magnesium, a dull gray. But, there was an inexplicable light in those eyes of his. As if calculating every movement those around him made. The Lieutenant hated that look in his eyes.

"It's not anything specific. I just wanted to hear your thoughts about something," the Commander smiled.

"What would you need my thoughts on?" the Lieutenant asked.

"This war has been dragging on for four days, marking tomorrow the fifth day. Of course, this wasn't planned and it seems that that mage you were talking about is causing all this. I just wanted to see what you thought of it."

"With the way things are going, we're going to run out of provisions. We only bought the necessary amount since we didn't expect for the battle to go on for long," the Lieutenant replied. Despite his rash personality, he was a logical person. "With the way it's going, our soldiers will die of starvation."

The Commander smiled. "You're absolutely right. So, I think it's time we release that."

The Lieutenant laughed loudly. "So we're that desperate now? Do what you want," he turned around. "As long as it brings the North Kingdom victory, I don't care."

As the Lieutenant walked away, the Commander opened his eyes and smiled, his eyes glinting with evil. He walked the opposite way and back to the headquarters with a satisfied smile. Once they release that, their victory will be secured.

The following day~

Fiore was now down to but half a million and their numbers were dwindling by the second. However, the North Kingdom, too, was dwindling by hundreds of thousands with each passing second.

"Hibiki, how much more?" Lucy yelled.

"One million," Hibiki responded. "They're all in the mountain areas."