After Retirement, Living a Stud Life in Another World - 70

Chapter 70: Beatrice’s Turn

“Yeah, I’ll do my best. It’s the first time Lutz has relied on me, after all.”

Though the reasons for giving it their all might be subtly different, if Beatrice is motivated, I have no complaints.

“Everyone, retreat as quickly as possible deeper into the forest! Dark Clan, take the lead, sorry, but I’ll rely on Gretel for the rearguard!”

“Yes, leave it to me!”

With a spirited voice, Gretel psyches herself up, and a platinum aura shines on her body and the mid-sized sword in her hand. Judging from her meticulously tied strawberry blonde hair today, she must have been prepared for close combat. She mentioned something about not wanting to be caught by the enemy.

“Gretel’s turn is still to come. My job is to ensure she doesn’t get her turn.”

As Beatrice said this, she chanted some mysterious incantation in a low voice, and the surrounding scenery changed. For some reason, the trees on the side facing the enemy in the forest all began to stretch their branches horizontally and intertwine with each other. In an instant, they formed a thick lattice of trees, serving as a soft but firm barrier blocking entry and exit.

“This should buy us some time. But unlike Mother’s earthen wall, wood can be chopped down with an axe and is weak against fire.”

Beatrice’s somewhat self-deprecating words weren’t wrong, but the thick intertwined branches, thicker than a person’s leg, made breaking through the wooden barrier not so easy. Beatrice made one about a hundred meters wide, then stepped back and created another wall about fifty meters behind. She repeated this process of moving a bit and creating a wall, moving deeper into the forest.

This was the battle strategy utilizing Beatrice’s wood attribute magic that I suggested.

Beatrice’s mother… the Queen’s earthen wall was indeed a powerful barrier. However, seeing that, the enemy would likely not even consider trying to destroy it and would simply circumvent it. Ultimately, it would be necessary to extend that barrier endlessly left and right, which would be a heavy burden on the caster.

However, what if the wall in front of you looked like it could be easily broken through with a little effort? As a psychological aspect of fighting humans, wouldn’t you want to break through it and move forward?

Thinking about that, I proposed setting up Beatrice’s branch barrier, which seemed easy to break through at first glance but was actually quite troublesome, in multiple layers. And Beatrice, who has been unusually affectionate lately, swallowed that suggestion without hesitation… and has already constructed a five-layered barrier between us and our pursuers.

“Your Highness’s magic is amazing; we might be able to escape with this!”

“We can’t be sure about that; if the enemy gets desperate…”

When Mother and I exchanged words like that, we heard Gretel’s panicked cry.

“Whoa! Are they idiots? Using fire magic in the forest!”

Yes, normally, using fire magic in the forest is unthinkable. If you’re not careful, the fire could spread to the trees in the forest, causing a large-scale forest fire. If that happens, both enemies and allies would be at risk of burning to death.

However, it seems that the Imperial soldiers, who witnessed Mother’s transcendental magic annihilating thousands of allies, were in a sense driven to a desperate psychological state. They must have thought that if they were to return to their country, they couldn’t afford to keep such a dangerous mage alive and must eliminate her at all costs.

Probably released in such a panic state, the Imperial fire magic burned down Beatrice’s constructed tree barrier and gradually whittled it away. And you can feel the enemies, who should have been quite far away, steadily approaching.

“In this case… should I unleash another big one?”

“No, Mother, if you use your magic, we’ll all end up burned to death.”

I hurriedly tried to calm down Mother, whose thoughts are often shortsighted. Mother’s magic is powerful, but she’s indiscriminate, so she might end up burning down the entire forest.

“Lord Lutz, if I may be so bold, could you leave this to us?”

Turning to the calm voice amidst this situation, I saw Mifuyu from the Dark Clan, looking at me with a serious expression.

“It’s not right to sacrifice your own life to buy time to escape, you know.”

“No, this is a proposal for all of us to survive. In this situation, there are aspects that we, the Dark Clan, should utilize.”

With unwavering confidence, Mifuyu-san said this. She wasn’t a beauty that everyone would turn to like Ayaka-san, nor did she exude sensuality like Saya-san… but at that moment, she appeared incredibly attractive and radiant to me.

I’ve had experiences like this before in my previous world. I remember feeling my heart race when a disheveled girl with glasses, who I hadn’t paid much attention to, pulled an all-nighter during finals week to fix mistakes at work. I wonder if that girl with glasses is still working overtime now.

Oops, I shouldn’t be indulging in such trivial reminiscences. I quickly listened to what Mifuyu-san was proposing, took twenty seconds to think about it, and then came to a conclusion.

“Please, go ahead, Mifuyu-san.”