After Retirement, Living a Stud Life in Another World - 73
Chapter 73: Beatrice Awakens
“Silent lives, grant unto me the promised land!”
Beatrice’s luxurious golden hair, thick with magical power, billowed around her. Her porcelain doll-like beauty, once described as pristine and cold, now exuded even more awe. After chanting a long incantation that I couldn’t quite comprehend, Beatrice, with her emerald eyes shining brightly, suddenly shouted in a sharp tone.
As far as the eye could see, nothing seemed to happen. At least, that’s how it appeared at first.
However, Beatrice’s magic was quiet and gentle, yet steadily effective. Confirming the thin green aura enveloping her body, I became convinced of the success of our plan.
“What’s that? The color of the castle walls seems to be changing?”
“Come to think of it, doesn’t it look like something is growing on top of the walls?”
“Indeed, Heath, it’s sprouting more and more on top of the wall.”
That’s right. Beatrice’s magic, indiscriminately, began to grow moss and then weeds on various parts of the enemy castle walls, turrets, and watchtowers. The pellets scattered by the kingdom’s archers were various seeds and spores of plants. The water magic unit provided moisture, while Beatrice used her magic to promote growth… This was the siege method I proposed.
And finally, saplings began to emerge from the undergrowth. They rapidly grew taller, stretching their branches into the sky and spreading them sideways. Clinging to the tops and middles of the castle walls without discrimination, they rapidly grew, resembling eerie new magical creatures.
Naturally, the trees growing upwards and outwards would send their roots into the ground beneath them… If there were any gaps in the brickwork, the roots of the trees would find their way in, penetrating deeper and deeper. The roots of the endlessly growing trees gradually widened the gaps between the bricks, eventually attempting to eliminate the bricks themselves as intruders.
“Wow, look at that!”
As soldiers pointed to the corner of the castle, almost simultaneously, there was a rumble, first like a rattle, then like a crash. The sturdy brick turrets, which had been guarded against outside threats by vigilantly watching and launching projectiles if enemies approached, were torn apart by the roots of the trees, breaking from the middle and collapsing into the castle. While it was pitiful for the soldiers inside the falling tower, they were the ones who invaded and perpetrated atrocities in other countries; they should have been prepared for such a fate… Probably.
“Amazing, those big towers were smashed to bits by the trees!”
“Not just the towers, look over there!”
Indicating where the female magician was pointing, large trees with red fruits had grown on the uppermost part of the dark red castle walls… No, that wasn’t the issue; the roots had finally broken the solidly built walls, and the dislodged bricks were falling apart. Enemy soldiers, who had been arrogantly looking down on us from the top of the walls and occasionally shooting arrows, now lost their footing and scrambled around in confusion.
“All right, Beatrice, one more step. Do you still have enough magic power?”
“No problem. It doesn’t take much power to nurture plants.”
Seeing no signs of distress on Beatrice’s face as she responded, I felt relieved. Well, according to what I learned from books, if you only accelerate the growth of plants for survival and reproduction, the consumption of magic power is minimal. It’s when you force plants to grow in directions they wouldn’t naturally or do things they wouldn’t want to do that they consume a lot of magic power. Do plants have something like will? The plants in this world really seem somewhat like magical creatures.
And in front of us, red bricks collapsed one after another, swallowed up by the trees. Enemy soldiers who rushed out became perfect targets for the kingdom’s archers, and they fell one after another, unable to do anything. After two hours, there were no buildings higher than two stories inside the castle… No, it was already hard to tell what was inside the castle; it had turned into a strange jungle.
“I can’t believe such a thing can be done with wood attribute magic…”
“No, it’s because of Princess Beatrice’s S-class magic power!”
“That’s right! Hail Princess Beatrice!”
“All hail Princess Beatrice!”
“Princess Beatrice!”
Soldiers praised Beatrice one after another. Surprisingly, the magic users seemed to be more impressed by her achievements. For them, wood attributes were something that enriched the people, not something that led the charge in protecting the people during war.
“Even I can do something like this…”
“Look, everyone is praising Beatrice. You should respond.”
“Y-yeah.”
It seems like Beatrice, who was lost in her own world, snapped back to reality with my voice, climbing up the command tower and energetically waving to the entire army. Her appearance was not that of the usual porcelain doll, but rather that of a sixteen-year-old girl with rosy cheeks.
“Hilda, your son seems to have come up with another strange idea. Truly, he’s quite the troublemaker.”
“It’s embarrassing indeed…”
Well, I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, though?