Chapter 50: A Prodigy Among Prodigies

The thought had barely formed before he remembered that Mana Affinities were not something he could simply ask someone to teach him. Then again, he had acquired several things that should have been nearly impossible to obtain during the past few days, so he decided not to completely abandon the idea.

The Sergeant must have noticed the way he was studying her because he warned, "Whatever you’re thinking, don’t."

"I’m not doing anything."

"You had that same face before you asked whether someone with Artifice Mana Affinity could make a cupcake machine."

"That was a legitimate question, though..." Zishan said, shrugging.

The Sergeant chose not to continue.

Elinox reached the officers waiting for her farther down the road, which gave Zishan a better look at the people traveling with her. Several were powerful enough that he could feel the Mana around them even without using Appraisal, yet they maintained enough distance from the High General that nobody could mistake who led the group.

The Lieutenant resumed his explanation while watching the receiving officers salute her. "Major guilds began scouting her years ago. Some of the offers were difficult for ordinary families to refuse, especially once organizations outside Olmost started showing interest. The Holmes Family rejected all of them."

"Why?"

"Grand Duke Holmes didn’t want his daughter tied to the political struggles between the largest guilds in Cyrune. The family has enough influence without giving one of those organizations control over where she goes or what she fights for."

Zishan could understand that. He had known about Cyrune for less than a month and had already seen enough people trying to use strength, status, and military position for their own purposes.

The Lieutenant added that guilds were not the only ones interested in her.

Princes had approached the Holmes Family. Heirs from noble houses had done the same, along with young men from distinguished families whose names carried influence across several kingdoms. Some proposals had offered political alliances, territory, artifacts, wealth, or connections that most noble houses would have spent generations trying to obtain.

Elinox rejected every one of them.

There had even been stories of families repeatedly returning with better offers after convincing themselves the previous proposal simply had not been impressive enough.

Her answer had not changed.

She had once made her position clear enough that people eventually stopped pretending they misunderstood it. If she ever married, she would meet the right person when the time and circumstances brought them together. She had no interest in choosing a husband because he was a prince, an heir, or somebody whose family wanted access to a talented Mage. Whoever that person turned out to be would have to care about Elinox herself rather than the reputation attached to her name.

Zishan thought that sounded reasonable.

Cyrune seemed to disagree, since people had turned it into another famous part of her life.

"Why does everyone know who proposed to her?" he asked. "Do people here have nothing better to talk about?"

The Sergeant almost answered before another group of officers hurried past them toward the command area, forcing the three of them farther from the road.

Once they had moved aside, the Lieutenant said, "When the daughter of a Grand Duke becomes the youngest High General in Olmost, people pay attention to nearly everything she does."

Zishan glanced toward Elinox again. "Did a Magic Cube assess her too, like you did with me?"

That question made both officers look at him.

He had spent enough time being insulted by one of those things this morning to wonder what kind of remark it had given somebody like her.

The Sergeant answered, "Yes. The Holmes Family used a high-grade Cube when she was younger."

"And what did it say?"

The answer came after a brief pause.

"A prodigy among prodigies."

Zishan remembered the glowing words that had appeared after his own assessment.

[Remarks: AN ERA-DEFINING PRODIGY]

He decided there was no reason to compare them out loud.

The arriving officers began moving toward the largest command tent, and Elinox went with them. Several soldiers in her group separated from the procession and headed for the medical section instead, which brought Zishan back to something he had noticed earlier.

They had been fighting.

One of the men walking toward the healers still had dried blood across half his armor, while another had tied part of his uniform around a wound on his forearm. Their equipment carried dust that looked different from the mud covering the western battlefield.

Zishan pointed toward them. "Where did they come from?"

The Lieutenant understood what he meant. "Enemy territory."

That removed the remaining amusement from Zishan’s face.

The Kingdom of Degenerates had attacked the Western Defensive Line with a stampede while another force took advantage of the diversion to capture the Eastern Reserve Station. Several soldiers had died in the west, the eastern position had fallen, and the military still had not launched the operation to retake it when Zishan entered this tent earlier.

"What happened?"

"The upper command received the full report about the eastern attack last night. High General Holmes was already operating in the region, so she was given authority to respond."

Zishan looked toward the command section, where Elinox had already disappeared inside.

"Respond how?"

The Sergeant’s expression told him the answer was probably not going to involve a polite letter.

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Several hours before Elinox Holmes entered the western encampment, one of the Kingdom of Degenerates’ military stations had received word that an Olmost force was approaching its territory.

The report caused little concern at first.

The recent operation had worked. Olmost had been forced to split its attention after the Western Stampede, and the Eastern Reserve Station had fallen during the confusion. Supplies captured there were already being moved deeper into friendly territory while the commanders responsible for the offensive prepared for the Olmost counterattack they knew would eventually come.

Then, another scouting report reached the station.

The approaching force consisted of fewer soldiers than expected. A third report narrowed the number even further. A small unit. The final message included the identity of the person leading it.

Elinox Holmes.

The entire station went on alert.

Mana barriers rose along the perimeter while artillery crews loaded their weapons and Mages filled the walls. Officers ordered every available soldier into defensive positions, and several messengers were sent toward nearby formations requesting reinforcements.

Nobody inside the station treated her age as relevant.

They knew her Level and her monstrous strength.

More importantly, several of them had already heard what happened to people who assumed the youngest High General of Olmost had received her rank because of her family.

Elinox stopped several hundred meters from the outer wall while the soldiers who had accompanied her remained much farther behind.

An officer beside her had tried arguing when she told them to stay outside the station’s attack range. He stopped after she reminded him that their assignment was to confirm the destruction of the target and return with her, not follow her into a place where she could no longer guarantee they would survive.

The first artillery barrage answered before she took another step.

Mana shells crossed the distance from the walls and came down across the field in a spread designed to cover every direction she could move. Elinox watched them approach without drawing her sword.

Gravity changed around the first shell.

Its path dropped several meters before it reached her, and the projectile struck the ground hard enough to disappear beneath the soil. The shells behind it were pulled off their trajectories in different directions, some crashing into the earth while others collided in the air and filled the field with explosions.

The remaining artillery crews fired again.

Wind spread around Elinox before the next barrage reached her. The force caught several incoming projectiles and pushed them sideways, redirecting them toward empty ground while she continued walking toward the station.

Lightning came next.

It crossed hundreds of meters in a flash and struck the nearest artillery platform, jumping through the Mana conductors built into the weapon before tearing across two neighboring platforms. Soldiers abandoned the machines as smoke rose from their damaged components.

The Mages on the walls began casting before Elinox reached the first barrier.

Fire, stone, blades of compressed air, and concentrated Mana attacks filled the space ahead of her until the field became difficult to see through.

Elinox raised her hand.

Light gathered in front of her palm before spreading into a broad layer.

Several attacks struck it and broke apart. Wind caught the fragments of Magic that passed around the edge, sending them away from her as she crossed the remaining distance.

The first defensive barrier stood several dozen meters high.

She studied it while walking. Then, something entered her mind.

A memory.

Elinox remembered standing in this same field with blood running down the side of her face.

She recalled attacking the barrier from above and watching three reinforcement points activate beneath the eastern wall. She remembered forcing the structure until the station transferred more Mana from its central formation, then discovering that the western anchor could not handle the change in pressure.

None of it had happened.

Elinox knew that much. She had never attacked this station before. She had never stood in this field with blood running down her face, nor had she tested the barrier from above and watched the reinforcement points activate beneath the eastern wall.

Yet the memory was there.