The Country of the Fallen Dragon King and the Perishing Witches Ochitekita Ryuuou to Horobiyuku Majo no Kuni Vol 1 Chapter 2.2

Chapter 2 – The Battle of Witches And Humans (Part 2)

After that, Cu advanced toward Naga and presented him a thick piece of cloth.

– Hm? This is?
– Dawn, cold, please take it.
– Ah, is that so? Sorry for causing you troubles.

After he bowed down lightly and received the cloth, Naga put it on his shoulders.

– Speaking of which, isn’t that outfit cold on you?

Hm? – Cu twisted her neck.

– It’s fine. These will retain warmth.

She pointed out the leather belts, which she was wearing on her.

– You mean for real?
– Yes. If you touch them, you will understand.
– Heh? Let me see.

I see – As soon as he reached out his hand and touched the belts coiling around her body, he muttered while feeling a little bit of warmth.

– Whoa, they are indeed warm. Should I say these are strange, or fascinating?

Naga began to touch all around Cu’s belts.

– Wow, here as well, and here too. Even here it’s warm!
– Ah, that place is, a little troubling.
– Just what are you doing!?

Whack.

Being hit by Harrigan’s thick bundle of hair, Naga’s body blew away.

– Aww… it hurts. Speaking of which, what’s with that hair of yours!?
– This is part of my magic. Rather than that, I’m asking what you are doing!

Naga, who was rolling on the floor, raised up and ma.s.saged his head while answering.

– No, that girl told me to check how warm her belts are, so I was just making sure of that?
– You, haven’t you been checking Cu’s body besides her belts?
– You’re just imagining things.

(T-this guy is…)

Facing toward Cu, Harrigan reprimanded her gently.

– You too, don’t let your guard down around this guy. That’s because he grabs people’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s out of nowhere, you see.

Cu tilted her head.

– In other words, Ane-sama, had her chest, grabbed, by that person?

The 3 other witches shifted their eyes toward Harrigan while listening attentively.

– Ah… Ahem.

Harrigan coughed unnaturally and told Cu.

– Just forget about our current talk.

Saying so, she glared at the other witches.

– You girls as well, don’t slack off and stand on your guard.

Once the witches returned to their post in haste, Harrigan directed her stern sight at Naga.

– You too, should feel more tension in situations like this.
– Ah, my bad my bad. Your appearance was somewhat stimulating, so I became a little merry.

Seeing Naga, who was laughing foolishly, Harrigan looked at him with an astonished expression.

(Indeed, he is a guy that doesn’t give out the feeling of tension in what kind of situation are we in. The battle won’t start immediately, still, if we allow him to do as much as he wants, it might affect the morale.)

At that point, Harrigan gave Naga a warning telling him to act more prudent.

– If you fool around much, I’ll push you off of that cliff.
– No, I got it I got it. I’ll act more carefully, and with that, I won’t do it again.
– I’ll appreciate it as long you can understand that.

Glaring at Naga, Harrigan returned back to her post.

– We can’t challenge them from here. We have no choice but to wait til dawn and let them make their first move.

After being told by Harrigan, Lela and Linna, too, wrapped inside their cloths and stood on guard while sitting on the platform floor.

Naga, as well, decided to sit down quietly and wait for dawn.

On the sky, which was still covered with the veil of darkness, there were only two moons – a big moon and a small one- appearing together with the stars. Nevertheless, he understood that the east side of the sky was slightly turning white.

After a while had pa.s.sed, the black night sky drew back 1/3 to the west, with the mid-air slowly turning into an ultramarine color. And then, the east side of the sky changed into a madder red.

7

Finally, the sun rose.

Naga stood up while slipping out from the cloth he was wrapped around with. As soon as the morning chill soaked inside his body, his drowsiness disappeared. What he sensed was a feeling of his body tightening.

Once he walked closer to the edge of the platform and gazed over the surroundings, the view that could be described as ‘marvelous’ unfolded before him.

Right in front of the wooden fence, there was a vast land stretching out. On the left and right side, there were cliffs that continued to sink perpendicularly, creating a 300-400 meter elevation. On the opposite side of that, a land consisting of vastness and protrusions stretched far away, below his eyes. Inside the vast land, there were several large rivers streaming like big snakes with their scales reflecting the sunlight. Thin dark lines were probably branches that separated from the large rivers. What divided the floating clouds in the blue sky and the large land was a high mountain range covered with snow remains. There was also a 40 degree inclined steep slope appearing before his eyes. The steep slope, which was illuminated by the morning sun, didn’t grow any trees, and on the lowest part, figures of people wriggling around were clearly seen.

Everything looked so splendid that it was incomparable with the country Naga had known.

Despite him not remembering his home country, a clear picture of a cozy countryside, forest, rivers, and ponds unexpectedly surfaced in his mind.

What kind of land was it? What kind of mountains and rivers were there? Naga couldn’t recall anything at all, but nevertheless, he sensed a strong feeling of homesickness at this image.

It seemed as though his heart was tightened by that dear memory, however, he quickly switched his focus to reality. For him, a different world, which he had never heard or seen, was already the reality.

Naga strived to grasp the current situation.

The enemy’s scouting troop, which charged ahead of the others, gathered at the bottom of the steep slope and were only peaking at the situation above. As far as one watched that, it seemed that the enemy were probably not planning to carry out an a.s.sault on the fort, just as Harrigan implied. Despite that, no matter how high the fort was to be built, one could probably antic.i.p.ate the enemy climbing the plateau, making the defending side unable to maintain and bear the a.s.sault.

If so, then what will they do in case the enemy decides to climb up? – Naga shifted his eyes toward Harrigan after drawing that judgement. Nevertheless, she was enthusiastic in her a deep talk with Lela and Cu. It didn’t seem like they planned to carry out any action right away.

As soon as Harrigan noticed his sight, she turned her head toward him. Lela, Linna, and Cu as well, directed their eyes toward Naga at the same time.

– What’s the matter? Is there anything you want to say?
– No, I was thinking that now is the right moment to strike the enemy, but… don’t you plan to do so?
– We will counterattack once they commence their attack. For that we have something prepared for them.
– Ha? You do? What’s that?
– That’s why, what I mean is a weapon used to fight them back.
– Is that so? I guess it would seem so. So, how do you plan to strike them? Do you intend to throw stones? No, perhaps, it would be simpler to drop logs from this position?
– Stones? Logs?

Because Harrigan frowned her eyebrows, Naga felt again being seized with anxiety.

– You don’t attack the enemies that climb up with stones or logs?
– I see, so there were such methods as well?

Seeing how Harrigan admired him with a serious face, Naga lost his spirit.

– S-So it’s something different?
– It is different. I think your methods are interesting, still, they are hard for us to execute.
– Why is that?
– However many trees we want to lumber, preparing logs for pushing off the enemy’s troops takes lots of time. With the number of people we have, making large quant.i.ty of logs is next to impossible.

Being told that way, indeed, it seems to be so – Naga smiled wryly while uttering these words inside his heart.

– In that case, how do you plan to attack them? There’s no way for you to shoot them with arrows, right?
– That’s what we will use.

Because Harrigan walked from the edge of the watchtower to the other side and pointed down, he hurriedly went there and looked at where her finger was pointing.

On the ground, there was a large cart placed in the middle of the fort. The cart, which was covered with a cloth, carried something which seemed to display a thick bulge while being surrounded by the witches standing below Ais. Judging from the bulged part that was covered with the cloth, the whole ent.i.ty seemed to be more than 3 yards (around 2.7 metres) of over-all length, and about 1 yard (0.9 metres) wide.

After Harrigan said ‘we will strike with that’, one would expect it to be some sort of a weapon, nevertheless, Naga had not the slightest idea about what it could be.

– It’s probably not a catapult.

Once he muttered, a smile appeared on Harrigan’s face.

– Are you interested?
– Well, of course I am interested.
– From now on, it’s time for us to make our move. I’ll give you a close up look.

Harrigan grabbed the handrail and shouted at the direction beneath her.

– Ais, take off the cloth. I’m coming down.

Looking up, Ais answered with a yes while waving with her hand.

Once Ais gave a signal, the witches quickly gathered around the object lying on top of the cart. As soon as the ropes were untied, the cloth was collected and folded.

8

– W…..What’s, that?

Naga, who opened his eyes widely, leaned forward vigorously, as if almost dropping from the handrail.

– That’s a wooden puppet.

Pulling back his upper body, Naga slowly turned towards Harrigan.

– A wooden…. puppet?

While having lots of questions floating in his head, Naga asked.

– What’s that for?
– To attack the human soldiers, of course.

He once again looked at the human-shaped puppet, which lay down on the cart.

No matter how he would look at it, it was just a large-sized wooden puppet.

How do they plan to attack the enemy with that? – Naga didn’t have the slightest idea.

– I don’t get the meaning behind that.

While he clutched his hair, his shoulders were tapped by Harrigan, who got closer.

– I’ll show you how it works. Hey, don’t idle and go down.
– Is that so? Understood. Well then, I’ll go down first.

While holding to the ladder, Naga descended ahead.

(What’s the matter? Doesn’t he seem overenthusiastic?)

Despite her thinking suspiciously, Harrigan placed her foot on the ladder.

– Lela and Linna too, go down. Cu will continue to stay on guard.

Harrigan, who gave the orders, started to go down, however, in the middle of doing that, once she looked below, she noticed Naga stopping midway while staring up zealously.

– What’s wrong? Weren’t you interested in the wooden puppet? Why did you stop midway? If you stop there, we won’t be able to get down.
– Well, it’s just that the view is so good.
– Aah? What are you talking… wait, Haaa!?

Harrigan finally realized the correlation between her own posture and Naga’s position. Despite her late reaction, she noticed that the inside of her long skirt was completely exposed when being gazed upon from below of the ladder.

– Doing that at a time like this, are you a complete fool!?

Following that, Harrigan kicked him. Once her sole sunk into his face, Naga fell off the ladder while giving out a shriek – Ugyaa. His back struck against the ground, hard.

Feeling irritated, Harrigan descended straightaway from the ladder and stood next to Naga, who was groaning and crawling on all fours while holding his back.

– Even though I told you to restrain yourself last night, JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?

– Ah, no, please don’t yell at me.

Crawling on his hands and feet, Naga directed his face toward her.

– Being able to see such a lovely view, when we were climbing, made me want to see it once again, you see.

Eh?! – Harrigan unintentionally held the hem of her skirt; nevertheless, she realized it was meaningless now.

– Youuu…..
Harrigan’s hair moved shiveringly and tied itself up into a bundle, changing its shape into something like a big hammer. In the next moment, it rose up.

– Try dying once!!

The big hammer-like hair was swung down vigorously, making Naga forget about the pain in his back and scream loudly while tumbling on the floor.

BAM!

The surface, on which Naga was lying a moment ago, had a circular indention. It wasn’t that much of a hollow, still, it was a terrific power, which was unthinkable of mere hair. Naga, who avoided the hit by a hair’s breadth, rose up with a desperate expression on his face and thrusted his finger in her direction.

– Just what are you doing?! If I hadn’t avoided it, I would be dead.
– I was planning to kill you?

In front of him, Harrigan was glaring him. Her grim face was indeed scary, but her big hammer-like bundle of hair, which floated and revolved above her head, was much more scary.

– W-wait. Calm down. You won’t gain anything from killing me, will you?
– Wouldn’t that make the worry of having the interior of my skirt getting peeked at and having my b.r.e.a.s.t.s groped disappear?

A cold sweat appeared on Naga’s forehead as he became stiff.

– Well, I don’t particularly think it’s something worth to be scolded over, still, it’s not like I care.

(No no, you certainly want to scold me. Rather than that, haven’t you come to kill me?)

– Aah, I understand. I’ll restrain myself.

Taking a deep breath so as to calm down, Harrigan released her bundle of hair.

– Because I’ve never worked together with a man, perhaps I too should have some responsibility for being somewhat defenseless.
– Right? It’s not solely my fault?
– Don’t turn on me like that, you pervert!

Harrigan glared at Naga with her sharp eyes; nevertheless, her expression suddenly loosened up showing a sign of pity as she said.

– You, if you do a stunt like this in front of Yuuki, you will surely be killed.

Naga, who previously witnessed things more amazing than ‘this stunt’, tightened his expression so as to show that he understood it while feeling a cold sweat circulating inside his heart.

– Yeah, I got it. I’ll reflect on my action, so please forgive me.
– Are you honestly reflecting on your action?

Harrigan asked with a doubtful face, but Naga closed one of his eyes and tapped his chest powerfully.

– I am, I am. I’m sincerely reflecting. Anyway, in terms of reflecting on oneself, there’s no guy more superior than me.

(T-This guy… he doesn’t seem to be reflecting at all. I give up. Was this man just an idiotic pervert? No, I thought that such thing wouldn’t be possible, but…)

Harrigan breathed out a small sigh.

– Uhm, ane-sama, if we don’t prepare it soon, the human soldiers might climb up…

Being called from the side by Ais, Harrigan remembered the situation.

– Ah, that’s right. We should hurry.

9

Naga and Harrigan stood next the cart surrounded by the witches and Ais who was on it. The big wooden doll was coiled with several thick layers of leather used for protecting its torso and limbs against bow and arrow attacks.

Naga, who looked at the wooden doll from a closer range, noticed that its limbs weren’t attached to its main body. What’s more, he also noticed that the hands and feet weren’t connected to the elbows and knees. However, if it wasn’t just that. Looking more closely, there were 3 sets of each part, such as the head, torso, both thighs, lower legs, heels, toes, both upper arms, elbows, wrists, and the fingers from both hands. Together they were divided into as many as 20 components.

(Are they going to a.s.semble it now? But, there are no hollows to which they can plug the parts nor protrusions sticking out from arms and legs?)

Noticing Naga’s sight and his confused expression, Harrigan nodded slightly.

– Yeah, I’m going to put the head and limbs together with this.

Harrigan comber her long black hair with her fingers.

What’s the meaning of that? – Naga directed his puzzled face towards Harrigan; nevertheless, she jumped onto the four-wheeled cart without answering him.

Once she squatted near the s.p.a.ce between the tip of the wooden doll’s right leg and its torso, she cut off several strands of her hair. Moving with her fingers, the hair’s both ends turned stiff.

Then she thrusted in one side of one of her hair strands into the torso and the other into the legs’ cross section. Repeating that action several times, Naga understood that the torso and right leg of the doll were attached using her hair as the medium. Watching her for a while, Naga could predict her next actions. He could tell, however, he couldn’t clear his doubt about whether it would work or not.

After repeating the same work again and again with a casual att.i.tude, all twenty parts were finally attached using her hair. Because it seemed that she was used to it, the labor didn’t take long.

– Well, this should do it. Lela!

Being called by Harrigan, Lela jumped onto the cart and pasted charms, which she had in her hands, on various places of the doll. To Naga, the charms’ handwriting looked like wriggling earthworms, making him wonder about what was as actually written on them.

Besides the torso, she also pasted the charms on the arms and legs. After she managed to attach around a dozen charms, both her and Harrigan jumped off the cart.

Harrigan ordered the girls who were gathering around.

– Step back.

Seeing how the other witches quickly withdrew, Naga also stepped back hurriedly.

Harrigan closed her eyes and concentrated her spirit. She muttered some words inside her mouth as if chanting something.

Clang.

A sound was heard on the cart. As Naga looked towards it, he opened his eyes widely.

Before one could notice, the gaps between the neck, limbs, and torso disappeared. The knees, elbows, and ankles also seemed to be perfectly united.

The wooden doll, with all of its part attached, certainly had a human form.

(Is that so? That Harrigan. She said that attacking with her hair was just a part of her magic. I see, is this the real use of her magic?)

In front of Naga, who was filled with surpris.e.m.e.nt and admiration, the giant wooden doll tried to move.

The doll lifted its knees and stretched its arms horizontally.

Slowly and steadily, the giant doll rose its upper body.

– Rise puppet, let my power bring you into life.

Making creaking sounds, the wooden doll’s upper body straightened perpendicularly; nevertheless, it’s movements wouldn’t stop. As if it didn’t weigh anything at all, the doll moved upward without any changes.

The doll’s lower back lifted.

The doll, which lifted its lower back without any obstruction, continued to rise while supporting its bending body with the soles of the feet and with an unnatural posture. Finally, it stood up on the cart. It was a movement impossible for a human being.

Naga could understand how enormous it was once it stood up.

He looked up at the wooden giant’s appearance with a dumbfounded face.

Soon, the doll stepped forward with its right leg.

Even if this huge doll was made from the wood, it was considerable heavy, making the cart look like it wanted to break.

The puppet put its leg down.

At the same time the sole of its foot reached the ground, Naga could feel the impact pa.s.sing through his feet.

The surface trembled once more as the puppet stept down with its left leg.

Naga gazed at the giant, which stood in front of his eyes, with a quite complex expression showing astonishment, surpris.e.m.e.nt, and disbelief.

– How is it? This is our weapon. Are you surprised?
– Well… I’m surprised… that anything can surprise me.
– Hahaha, is that so?

Harrigan laughed pleasantly.

– What’s moving it? It’s your magic… right?
– That’s right, as you can see, the limbs and the neck are connected to the body thanks to my hair. By transferring my magic into it, I can fasten each component of its body. What’s more, the hair that I planted in each part previously plays the role of supplying the doll with my magic. At the same time, they create a circuit flowing inside its whole body.

– This thing is amazing, really amazing.
– Yes, yes, be more surprised, praise me more.

(This woman, isn’t she just boasting about herself? Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, I guess.)

– Then, how many of them are you planning to sortie?
– No, just this one.
– W-What?!

At Harrigan’s reply, Naga couldn’t hide his confusion.

– Just… this one?
– If it’s against a force of around 100 enemies, then this one will be enough.
– No, well, if their number is around 100, it’s possible to kick them around, but a.s.suming you’re attacked by several hundreds of them, it won’t be that simple. Ah, could it be that this guy has some sort of a special attack? Like spewing out fire or bringing down lightning?

– It doesn’t possess such things.

Naga dropped his head.

– It’s possible for Lela to burn the attached charms using her magic, still, that’s the last resort attack. By doing so, we can plunge the burning puppet into the enemy. If we happen to do so by any chance, we still have spare dolls, so it’s not like we are unarmed.
– If there are spares, how about sortie them at the same time?

Harrigan gave a small shake with her head.

– When it comes to a large-sized puppet like this one, I can’t control many of them at the once.
– Then, you are sending just this one to the battlefield in the end? How do you plan to fight them?
– You’re asking this and that. With its big size, that doesn’t matter. It can blow away the approaching soldiers with a single swing of its arms.

(Hey, are you joking!? despite you being able to use such an incredible magic, your main choice is primitive hand-to-hand combat!?)

Naga couldn’t suppress the sense of discomfort gushing out from the inside of his heart.

– You seem to be somewhat dissatisfied.
– No, it’s not like that, but…

(Hm? A large-sized puppet like this one, she said?)

– Harrigan.
– What, Naga?
– If there’s a doll smaller than this one, then could you operate several of them at the same time?

Harrigan frowned her eyebrows.

– Why are you asking that?
– I just thought that it would become a good reference…or so, but…
– I wonder, perhaps it’s not like I can’t.

(So in other words, she has never tried it yet.)

– By the way, a.s.suming they are half as big as this one, how many can you control? Perhaps 2?
– No, if it’s half the size… that’s right, it may be 4 or 5. However, when it comes to operating several of them at the same time, I cannot move them freely.
– Ah, is that so? So this is the problem?
– That’s right, Therefore, I can’t use that tactic for the battle.
– Even if you tell me while thrusting out your chest, you know…n-no, wait. Then how about a quarter?

A quarter is after all a fourth part of the original size; nevertheless, it could be 1 yard tall (0.9m) as well.

– If that’s the case, then 10… no, perhaps more? I might be able to control as many as 20.

So that means, that the smaller the doll, the less magic is needed to control it.

– How about making them the same height as me?
Harrigan ran her sight from the top of Naga’s head to the tip of his toes.
– I wonder. With your height, probably 40 or 50 should be fine. I haven’t tried it or thought about it, so I can’t tell you exactly.
– And if they’re half of my height?

Harrigan finally had an astonished face.

– Even I’m able to perform that, what are you telling me to do? It may only serve as a playmate for kids, but….
– That’s why, I’m telling you it’s for reference.
– Hmm, a wooden doll which is half of your size, you say?

She c.o.c.ked her head repeatedly.

– I wonder about that. I might be able to control around 100 of them, but as I told you just before, the more the dolls number, the more restricted their actions become. If it’s such a number, it might be only be able to repeat any prearranged, simplistic movements. But that means it won’t be of any realistic use in battle.

Harrigan placed her palm on her waist level toward the ground and moved it left and right.

– With puppets of this size, it doesn’t matter how many we are able to make, they won’t scare or surprise the humans, right?
– Well, I wonder about that. I don’t quite get it, but somehow I understand what you mean.
– Which one is it!?
– No, sorry for interrupting you.

Naga waved his hand while saying – please continue.

As always, I don’t get his way of thinking. – Harrigan thought. As she turned towards the wooden puppet, Cu’s voice was heard from the watchtower.

– Ane-sama, the leading force of the human army has started to climb the slope!

Because the night broke into dawn, the human army began to move.

– Hm, so they’ve come. Fine, I’ll send the puppet out. Open the gate.

Receiving the order from Harrigan, Ais rushed to the fort’s gate

I see, so the reason why the gate’s scale was this big was because of the puppet. – Naga thought.

Pulling up the huge bar alone, Ais pushed open the big gate.

– Alright, let’s go!

As soon as Harrigan moved her hand, the giant puppet set out slowly towards the opened gate while making the ground tremble.

– Close the gate. Everyone, take your a.s.signed posts.

Ais pulled the gate, closing it as it was before. Once she lightly held the bar, which was as thick as a human’s body, and put it back, she reinforced the gate using a prop.

– Let’s climb the watchtower once more.

After Harrigan waved to Naga, he hurriedly run up to her.

– Hey, is it really fine not to operate the wooden doll?
– The visibility is much better from the watchtower. I can make the doll do more complex movements if I can watch it.
– I see. But, is it fine for it to distance itself?
– As long as it’s a distance in which I can see it, I’m able to control it at my own will.

Saying only that, Harrigan started to run.

Despite him being filled with surprise and admiration for their magic, which was a big deal, Naga had a sense of discomfort gushing up from his heart. While folding his hands and pondering hard, it didn’t feel like there was anything out of place in his or their way of reasoning.

Naga couldn’t quite understand what he was worried about, still, there were some thoughts which wouldn’t leave his mind saying that it was wrong.

– No, let’s just leave it. I better confirm with my own eyes how Harrigan plans to fight using the doll. Speaking of which, climbing the ladder, does it mean that I’ll be the last? So, once again, I’ll have the chance to peep?

He looked at the direction of the watchtower; nevertheless, while he was pondering, the witches were already done climbing.

(What? That’s boring. Even though I was thinking about trying to touch them apart from just peeping.)

Despite saying that he would reflect on himself, he wasn’t the sort of man to learn his lesson.

Grabbing hold of the ladder, Naga moved his limbs as he quickly climbed to the tower.

10

Harrigan moved to the watching platform, which was surrounded by a handrail, and looked below with a stern face.

Cliffs were running through from both the left and right side, however, only the front of the fort was made from a steep angled hill instead of a cliff.
Outside the fort, the giant puppet was facing toward the slope and about to advance.

As if pushing aside the witches that lined up near Harrigan, Naga stood next to her.

Watching the wide scenery which unfolded in front of him, Naga’s body suddenly trembled. That was neither due to anxiety nor fear, but joy. Or perhaps, due to his expectations.

He still didn’t know much about the current world.

What kind of people lived here? What kind of things existed? Naga couldn’t tell any of these things.

Just from looking at this extensive scenery, his chest gushed, naturally, with a certain type of a determination.

If he’s told that there’s no end to wars in this world, he will put an end to them.
If this world splits into multiple, small countries divided by conflicts, he will unite them.
If in this world, humans and witches can’t get along with each other, he will establish a society where they both can coexist.

In front of this s.p.a.cious world, not just his body, but also his heart trembled. Waa – As soon as shout of joys rose up from his surrounding, Naga’s attention was brought back. Directing his sight below of him, the giant, wooden puppet descended skillfully toward the middle of the acute slope, facing the human army that was preparing to release their bows near the slope.

Standing next to Naga, who was gazing at the doll he had never seen before, Lela became a bit mindful about his att.i.tude. Nevertheless, she decided to switch her focus on the battle by looking distantly at the scene as she deemed it to be more important right now.

It looked as though only half a dozen flying arrows were aimed at the puppet. However, half of those fell down to the ground without piercing through the leather belts coiling around the doll’s body. With most of the arrows that only managed to get stuck in the leather, the doll continued to approach, making it seem like it didn’t receive any damage.

A wooden puppet is a wooden puppet. It didn’t seem to make any difference whether the doll would get pierced or not.

Naga, who thought it was strange to put the belts around the puppet, faced toward Harrigan with the intention of expressing his doubts; nevertheless, she would frown her eyebrows and grit her teeth while looking straightly at the doll and murmuring something inside her mouth.

(Is that so? So she’s controlling the wooden puppet with her chant? Guess, I’ll be interrupting if I call out to her now.)

Not knowing what to do, Naga noticed Lela who was looking into the scenery next to him and poked at Lela’s shoulder frequently.
– There’s something I’d like to ask, but is it fine?
Naga thought that she would decline as she frowned a bit her eyebrows; nonetheless, she nodded.
– Fine, Wha-t?

As soon as he asked and pointed out at the direction of the doll, Lela, who got hooked, shifted her sight below, toward the puppet.

– That doll isn’t alive, right? In that case, why do you need to envelop it leather? Whether it’s. .h.i.t or not, it won’t change much?
– It do-es.

Lela murmured.

– It’s Ane-sama’s magic that allows it to mo-ve. The magic, which circulate inside its whole body, is distributed using her inserted ha-ir. One or two arrows won’t have any big effect, but if dozens of them manage to pierce through, the magic circulation will be disturbed and hinder-ed.
– Fuun, so it was because of that?
– That’s right. With the magic flow being obstructed, it will be more difficult to operate the doll swift-ly. In the worst case, it will cease to move at that place and be brought down.
– I see. Even a powerful weapon can’t be omnipotent.

TBC