While I was talking with my friends, two elves, Finola and LeFania, came up to us.

Finola stood in front of me and held out her slender, elf-like hand towards me.

'William, it is truly fortuitous that you have come to our aid. I can't thank you enough. If we elves had fought alone, this warband would have been destroyed. But we were able to destroy this many orcs without any casualties... we had a priceless ally.

Not only Finola and LeFania, but all of the Elven warriors present were watching our group with respect.
I took Finola's proffered hand and shook it.

'Ah. I think I'm doing at least as good a job as I was paid to do. With her help, of course.'

Finola then turns to Irene and shakes her hand.

'I heard you're a princess of a human country. I can't thank you enough for helping us, even though you weren't hired by us.

'I'm only acting in accordance with my own justice. I'm not acting on behalf of my country. But humans and elves are important neighbors. I hope we can give each other a hand when we're in trouble.

'Oh. We'll never forget this favor. If there's anything you need our help with, please don't hesitate to ask. We'll help you as much as we can.'

'Yes, thank you. I hope we can build a good relationship with each other. But I think it's too early to say that. Things are not over yet. We're just about to start ......, aren't we?

'Oh. ...... Oh, yes. You're absolutely right.

When Finola and Irene finished shaking hands, they both turned to me with serious faces.
I nodded at them and began to speak.

'Irene is right, the current battle is only a prelude. The real battle will be the one after this. If we were not here, would the elves have been able to win with their strength alone?

'......No, I'm ashamed to say that we didn't have anything that could be called a plan. ....... I've just been reminded that we were planning to fight the orcs based on wishful thinking and the mentality that we had no choice but to do it, without an accurate understanding of their strength.

'Okay, I get it.

I didn't want to blame Finola for her lack of thoughtfulness.

Anyone can get emotional and lose sight of their surroundings.
Of course, it's not good for a commander to be like that, but if I were in her position, I'm not sure I could stay calm if my neighbors, such as Satsuki, Mee, Cyril, or Irene, were going through something like that.

I am only able to remain calm to some extent because I am far away from the victim.
That's why I couldn't bring myself to strongly blame her.

And now I should think about the next best thing.
There's value in remorse, but there's nothing constructive about regret.
We should be talking about the future.

And to talk about the future, I decided to first share a problem.

'There's one problem. It's about how much mana I have left and when the next mission starts.

I say this mainly to Finola.
I make sure she nods and urges me to go on, then I continue.

'Without wasting any modesty, my magic will be an indispensable and tactically crucial factor in the next battle. But even though I've tried to avoid wasting as much as possible in the course of the current battle, I've still lost more than 30 percent of my total amount of mana. It is not advisable to go into the next battle with this amount of mana remaining. But...''

'In order to recover the magical element (mana), you need to spend a large amount of time resting. But if you leave that much time, there's a good chance you'll alert the enemy ......, right?

It was Cyril who took over my words from beside me.
I nodded towards her.

'Yeah. I'll need at least two hours of rest to recover my mana, but if the troops I sent out don't return for that long, the Orc general might get suspicious. If we attack without giving the enemy any information, we will need to go on the offensive immediately.

'And...'

This time it was Mee who interrupted him.

'It's very bad for the enemy to be wary of our strength. There are plenty of elves out there who can be taken hostage. If they take hostages, we're screwed. You can't do anything about it, or you'll have to abandon the hostages.

'Hostages. ...... Indeed, if they do that, we'll be helpless.'

Satsuki made a bitter face as she said this.
The other members of the group all had a gloomy expression on their faces.

A hostage is always a troublesome thing.
Once a hostage is taken by a hostile force, it is almost impossible to defeat the hostile force without abandoning the hostages, unless there is an overwhelming difference in strength.
In such a case, there will be no choice but to abandon the small and take the large.

For example, it may be possible to respond to a certain extent with a sleep spell, but only to a certain extent.
The hostages may be killed when they witness the chanting of the spell, and even if the spell is successfully used, if there are multiple hostages, it is impossible to save all of them unless all of the captured enemies are completely put to sleep.

It's a battle, and sacrifices are inevitable, but...
But this is not so easy to say when you consider that the victim is your neighbor.

If Satsuki, My, Cyril, or Irene were to be killed as hostages, I would not let any of them be killed by words like 'sacrifice is inevitable'.

And for Finola and the other elves in the village, the elves in captivity are their neighbors, so it is not a problem that should be solved with bloodless words like 'sacrifice is inevitable'.

Still, we want to save them, every last one of them.
It is human to think so.

But if that's the case, what we need is...

The only way to do that is to attack the enemy while they're still on alert, rescue the hostages before they use the 'hostage-taking tactic', or destroy the enemy... right?

Irene looks at me.
I nod to her.

'Yes. Or we can rescue all the hostages secretly by some means, and then launch an attack. Either way, we need to move before the enemy is alerted.'

'But then, Will's mana won't be able to recover.

'Oh. That's how it works.

I nodded towards Irene again.
You can't stand on your own.
That's what I mean when I say we're in a bind.

But to be honest, I think it's not impossible to fight reasonably well with the current amount of magical elements.
However, you will inevitably be required to conserve, and there is a possibility that you will not be able to make moves that you should have made.

Against an opponent who is believed to have about two platoons left under the Orc Emperor, not being able to challenge them in a perfect state is still a concern.

And in the unlikely event that I were to lose a valuable comrade because of it, I might regret that for the rest of my life.

But on the other hand, I don't want to abandon the elves here, if at all possible.

I'm stuck on all sides.


I don't know if I'm at a point where I need to cut something loose...

But then...
The group of elven warriors listening to the conversation exchanged glances and nodded at each other, and one of them stepped forward as a representative.

'Then use this.

What the elf warrior handed me was a liquid in a glass bottle.
The liquid was a highly transparent young leaf color, and seemed to be glowing faintly.

'Is this ...... an elven potion?'

It was a kind of magic item that I had seen during my time at the Academy of Magic.
It is a secret potion said to be refined from the nectar of the world tree, and the process is a secret handed down only to a few elves.

Its effect is that by drinking it, you can quickly recover a certain amount of magical elements in your body.
Although it is a consumable item, it is extremely valuable, and if you buy it at a magic shop in a human town, you can spend no less than fifty gold coins per bottle.

'Ah. I brought it back from the treasury in our village for emergencies, but it was a good decision. It's best if you use it. It's for the good of my people.

'...... I see. Then I'll feel free to use it if the need arises.

I take the potion from the elf and put it in my pocket.

I now have a powerful item.
I feel a quiet confidence that I can do this.

I look in the direction of the elven settlement.

We're ready.
All that remains is to strike at the enemy's stronghold with all our might.