The place where they fought Caligula was actually already very close to the capital of Rome. Even on foot, it wouldn't take much time to arrive.
As for why they didn't ride horses, Nero could only say that her uncle's Noble Phantasm was truly egalitarian. After being shone on by that moonlight, the horses on both sides were in no better state than the humans.
Anyway, every single one of them was acting incredibly abstract, not looking like they could be ridden.
Only a few horses that weren't affected were led back by Nero's men.
Approaching the capital city of Rome, Takumi realized that this place wasn't peaceful either. Scattered armor fragments, bloodstains, and quite a few unprocessed severed limbs were everywhere at the foot of the city walls.
It looked like a fierce battle had taken place not long ago.
"Seeing this, you should have guessed it. My army is undoubtedly at a disadvantage right now. We've been pushed back all the way to the capital."
Looking at the mess under the city walls, a trace of fatigue flashed in Nero's eyes.
"If you regret it now, I can let you go find a Lord more suitable than me. Mmh, the official position will be reserved for you at any time."
Nero quickly tidied up her expression, turned back to look at Takumi, and said jokingly.
But having come this far, where was there room for Takumi to retreat?
"If I ran away at a time like this, wouldn't I just be scolded bloody by your soldiers?"
Takumi looked helpless.
"Besides, I originally came to help Your Majesty Nero. So, before this war completely ends, as long as I am not dead, I will always protect Your Majesty by your side."
Takumi's voice was calm but powerful.
Anyone could feel the unalterable will of the speaker from it.
And the reason Takumi was so certain wasn't just because Nero was the existence he absolutely had to protect on this trip, but more because of his love for the character from playing the game in the past.
—If pressed, Takumi actually liked Nero a bit more than Jeanne before he met her.
(Eh! Here I have to mention Jeanne's biased referee performance in a certain anime plot.)
Takumi's words hit the bullseye for Nero, striking directly at her weak point.
"Umu! As expected of my Guard! Just by saying two sentences, even I feel an excitement as if I can face thousands of troops!"
Nero's small face was flushed red, and she seemed much more jubilant.
"Speaking of which, could it be that my Guard also has the talent to command an army?"
Nero stroked her chin seriously.
"I feel like I don't have that kind of talent at all..."
Jeanne also had charisma, but Takumi showed absolutely no sign of inheriting it. It was clear that even if he had talent in this area, it wouldn't be very high.
"How do you know without trying? Everything needs practice. Once we return, I will assign a small unit to you!"
"Sigh..."
Takumi sighed wearily.
Nero was highly recognizable. The soldiers on the wall saw Nero from afar, and joy appeared on their faces one by one. Disregarding the fatigue of long vigilance, they hurriedly opened the city gates.
Everyone entered the city one after another.
Nero took Takumi and naturally walked up onto a wooden platform under the gaze of all the soldiers.
"Umu! Soldiers, you have done well! Just seeing the results under the city wall, I know your persistence and effort. The enemy indeed came fiercely. Presumably, persisting for so long under such an offensive, you must be very tired, right?"
"Protecting Rome, serving Your Majesty, is our wish!"
The defending soldiers seemed to sweep away their previous fatigue, looking at Nero with shining eyes and roaring in unison.
"Good! Very spirited! regardless of whether you had thoughts of not being able to persist, at this moment, you need not worry anymore, because I—have returned!"
"Ohhh—!"
"And I also brought back a quite outstanding Guest General. He will also join this war as my Guard, to seize the dawn of victory for us!"
Saying this, Nero raised one of Takumi's hands.
"Ohhh—!"
Takumi awkwardly greeted the crowd of soldiers with his other hand.
"Umu! Next, let us blow the horn of counterattack, wield deadly weapons, and completely reclaim our Rome from those False Emperors!"
"Before us lies only victory! Even if we drain the last drop of blood, we must seize the final fruit of victory for Rome. So—For Rome!!!"
Nero raised her fist high, looking around at the soldiers below the platform. What responded to her was an even more passionate roar.
"For Rome—!!!"
"For Your Majesty Nero—!!!"
No one felt this was deceptive chicken soup for the soul.
After all, although Nero was the noble Emperor and managed many affairs, in the current battles, Nero charged even further ahead than these soldiers.
Coupled with that unique charisma belonging only to Nero, how could one not follow such an existence with fascination?
Moreover, this was a war to defend the country.
So they firmly believed that the path they were treading right now was the most correct one!
In this enthusiastic red "ocean," the silent Takumi seemed a bit out of place.
'Is this the existence known as Nero...'
Takumi took everything in front of him into his eyes, feeling somewhat dazed.
He wasn't clear what kind of person Nero was in actual history, but in this Type-Moon world, the Nero appearing before his eyes—seemed to be truly shining...
After confirming the rotation of patrol soldiers, Nero's group, who had been running around for days, finally had time to rest.
Returning to her magnificent palace, Nero stretched lazily in relaxation.
As Nero's "boudoir," the decorations inside were also quite recognizable. While maintaining luxury, red, gold, and rose patterns were all present.
"Umu, finally home. Living in tents during this time, my sleep quality couldn't be called good..."
Looking at her soft bed, Nero dove straight into it, revealing an expression of enjoyment.
"Hm? Do you want to try it too? This is a treasure created by the top craftsmen in the country I summoned. Even compared to items used by gods, it is by no means inferior!"
Nero turned her head to look at Takumi, who was standing at the door without entering, and invited him without minding.
"Let's forget about it..."
Takumi felt Nero was being a bit too nice to him; anyway, he was a bit flattered.
"Let me say this in advance, my grace is only for this one time. If you miss this chance, I won't easily grant it next time!"
Nero propped her head up with one hand, smiling and patting the bed beside her.
This is a temptation!
"Even if you say so, this kind of thing is inappropriate..."
Takumi said helplessly.
"Bad news, Your Majesty! Enemy troops are attacking outside again!"
Without giving the two time to pull back and forth, a panicked voice suddenly came from outside the palace.
"Hah? Is their military strength so abundant? We fought to this extent, and they still have spare energy to attack the city?"
Nero lost the mood to tease Takumi. With a whoosh, she jumped up from the bed.
Her face was full of disbelief.
Theoretically, this was Nero's era. She was the Emperor of this Empire, so her military strength should be more dominant.
But reality wasn't like that. Not to mention anything else, just on Nero's trip back from the front lines, she encountered two or three waves of legions with more soldiers than the ones she brought back. Plus the losses from sieges...
Nero wanted to ask, Are your soldiers free of charge?
The two hurriedly returned to the city wall and looked down from a high place.
Well, it was a sea of people. The siege equipment was quite complete too, having already surrounded one side of the city wall tightly.
"Sigh, my Guard, it seems there is no time to rest for now..."
Nero rubbed her head, feeling a headache.
"I'm actually not very tired right now. If it's just ordinary soldiers, it's not really trouble for me."
Possessing the physical fitness of a Servant, Takumi's endurance for sustained combat wasn't bad either.
And since coming to this Singularity, Takumi had only assisted Nero in fighting Caligula once, so the consumption wasn't large.
"Very good! That is exactly the mentality I want!"
Nero gave Takumi a thumbs up.
Takumi officially joined the battle.
Takumi regretted it.
Standing on the city wall, Takumi looked numb. The Runes he drew in the air looked like the scribbles of a student copying texts late at night—somewhat abstract.
It was already dark. A crescent moon hung high, and scattered twinkling stars hung in the bright night sky.
Who knew how long Takumi had been drawing repetitive Runes here?
From noon to afternoon.
From afternoon to evening.
And now to the present...
Takumi never thought that just drawing Runes could make him experience the feeling of sore hands.
If I have the ability, I will absolutely never draw Runes by hand again—
Takumi rubbed his slightly trembling palm, full of resentment.
Now Takumi had the same doubt as Nero: Where on earth did these soldiers come from? Wave after wave without stopping.
Did they spawn from the ground?
If he hadn't seen the corpses truly scattered around, Takumi would really have thought so.
However, the enemy wasn't just mindlessly piling up soldiers. Occasionally, they used Skeleton Soldiers to siege the city.
Takumi was overly familiar with these things. Compared to ordinary soldiers, the strength of Skeleton Soldiers wasn't much higher.
But another type of unit was very annoying.
Clay Golems, clearly the handiwork of magi. Their bodies were made of rock, each tall and burly.
They didn't run up to attack normally either; they just stood far away in the enemy formation throwing rock projectiles.
This thing wasn't really much to the current Takumi, but the soldiers defending on the wall couldn't handle it.
When solid rock cannonballs smashed down one by one, any soldier hit would be either dead or injured.
This led to Takumi having to jump off the wall from time to time, rushing into the opponent's formation to take out those Golems.
Like this, another hour or two passed.
Watching the enemy troops still trickling over to attack the city, Takumi finally couldn't hold back anymore.
Takumi leaped down from the city wall, simultaneously activating a summoning spell he hadn't paid much attention to.
A Wyvern appeared below, and Takumi landed right on its back.
The Wyvern, having received its passenger, flapped its wings repeatedly. In just a few seconds, it carried Takumi high into the sky.
Takumi's Riding rank was only enough to control tamed mounts. Theoretically, he couldn't command a mount of Wyvern rank.
But Takumi also inherited the [Dragon Slayer] skill from Siegfried! Even if the rank wasn't high, handling a single Wyvern was simple.
'I'm going to see if you guys are really spawning from the ground!'
Takumi thought somewhat irritably, holding a Far-Sight Rune in his hand and carefully observing everything below.
"Haha, found it!"
Humans all need light. In the pitch-black night, Takumi was situated high up.
The enemy soldier encampments filled with firelight could be easily found without even looking carefully.
Oh, looking from afar, there were also quite a few magi manufacturing Golems!
Without a word, Takumi rushed down and burned their barracks clean one by one.
Magi like these scum, burn every single one I find!
Although it sounded violent, these soldiers indeed weren't spawning from the ground. After such a long battle of attrition, there weren't many left.
After dealing with everything, Takumi circled the area twice on the Wyvern to confirm there were no gatherable enemy forces before returning to Rome.
Leaping from the Wyvern's back, Takumi landed steadily on the city wall.
He then dismissed the summoning spell—whose principles he didn't understand at all—letting the Wyvern return to wherever it was before being summoned.
Takumi tidied his clothes, which had been messed up by the wind. A soldier who looked familiar greeted him with surprise upon seeing the returning Takumi.
"Lord Guard! Thank goodness you returned in time. I've been looking for you for a long time!"
"Uh, enemies are attacking again?"
Takumi, who had been fighting for almost a day, asked subconsciously.
"Haha, my Lord jests. With your help, the enemy forces have been completely repelled. We haven't seen a large number of enemies for a long time."
"...That's good. Looks like I found the right people when I went out just now."
Takumi breathed a sigh of relief. This seemingly endless battle had finally come to an end.
"Oh—! So Lord Guard actually went to destroy the enemy's main camp? As expected of you, my Lord, always able to find the key to breaking the deadlock!"
The soldier understood Takumi's meaning after a little thought and immediately looked at Takumi with adoring eyes.
'Are Romans all this fond of praising people...'
Takumi was a bit embarrassed by the praise.
Perhaps for Takumi, he merely did what he should do. But for the ordinary soldiers struggling on the battlefield, it was different.
During the time Takumi joined the city defense, the soldiers not only felt much more relaxed, but they also shockingly discovered that even though the enemy's offensive was many times stronger than usual, under Takumi's seemingly airtight protection, only a few dozen soldiers were injured.
Not a single one died.
If Takumi went to patrol the military camp now, he would definitely harvest a large pile of reverent gazes.
"It was nothing... By the way, you seem to be the one His Majesty Nero said she would appoint as Intelligence Officer?"
"My Lord's memory is indeed excellent. Just a short while ago, His Majesty officially appointed this humble one as the Imperial Court First Battlefield Intelligence Officer!"
The Intelligence Officer revealed a simple and honest smile.
"That's pretty good..."
Takumi's gaze was a bit subtle. This Majesty Nero really likes giving people official titles.
"Speaking of which, what did you come to find me for?"
Takumi shook those random thoughts out of his head and brought the topic back on track.
"Actually, it's nothing much. Just calling my Lord back to rest. The room has already been prepared—actually, this is also something His Majesty urged several times."
"It's just that seeing my Lord busy resisting the enemy earlier, this humble one didn't have the nerve to disturb you."
The Intelligence Officer said awkwardly.
Hearing the word "rest," a sense of fatigue suddenly surged into his heart.
He was indeed tired.
"Thanks for your hard work. Let's go."
Takumi didn't say anything more, just signaling the Intelligence Officer to lead the way.
"Alright!"
After walking a few steps, Takumi suddenly realized someone seemed to be missing.
"Right, where is Your Majesty Nero? Why don't I see her?"
"Oh, about that. In the afternoon, seeing that my Lord could easily handle the enemy forces, His Majesty went back to rest first."
"Is that so..."
"Uh, please do not mind this point, my Lord. Actually, His Majesty Nero rushed back with us from the front lines and has been running around for days. Her rest time is even less than ours, which is why she went back to rest first."
Just in case Takumi misunderstood, the Intelligence Officer hurriedly explained.
"...Do I look like the kind of person who cares about such things..."
Just as Takumi said at the beginning, even if they were useless, as long as they were partners fighting together, Takumi wouldn't dislike them.