All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 267: The Measure of a Spar

Two days before Dreth’s advance, Hajin found Orin planting six survey rods across the drained irrigation basin east of town.

The western evacuation line stood behind them, while the eastern watchpost watched every approach beyond the practice ground.

Mila’s assessment packet identified Orin as a senior route-control Ranker, making the prepared field part of Hajin’s sustained review.

Juna waited beside Loccy near the boundary stakes, and Vella kept her burned arm supported beneath a clinic wrap.

"Yenna requested a sustained comparison," Orin said, connecting blue mana between the rods, "I requested somewhere a failed turn will not kill anyone."

Each rod projected three crossing lines, creating a prepared lattice that tracked movement without changing the ground beneath it.

Small launch cups beside every intersection held chalk pellets, allowing Orin to mark openings he could have struck with steel.

A brass route token hung from the central rod, and the western boundary waited twenty paces behind Orin.

"Take the token across that line," he said, checking the final cup, "a chalk mark on its carrier ends the attempt."

"Can I break the rods?" Loccy asked, resting her hammer against one shoulder, "they look easier than chasing him."

"The southern road uses them tonight," Orin replied, moving away from the central rod, "please leave my equipment functional."

Loccy lowered the hammer with visible disappointment while Hajin kept the damaged Chain inside his inventory.

The first attempt began without Wings, Rings, barriers, or any attack that crossed the marked basin.

Hajin reached the nearest intersection before Orin finished turning, then followed the open diagonal toward the token.

Two blue lines changed direction beneath Orin’s hand, warning a launch cup beside Hajin’s unprotected shoulder.

He changed course before the pellet fired, but the safer turn carried him away from the central rod.

Orin used that lost step to take the token, passing it behind his back before another lane opened.

Hajin closed the distance through baseline speed, forcing the pathfinder to abandon three prepared intersections within several breaths.

A pellet struck Hajin between his shoulders when he reached for the token across the fourth crossing.

"Nineteen seconds," Orin said, stopping the field while blue chalk marked Hajin’s coat, "you pursued me instead of controlling the route."

"You kept watching the token," Juna said, studying the launch cups, "the rods told you where he stepped."

She entered alone for the second attempt, moving toward the eastern edge instead of approaching Orin directly.

Her tail crossed one blue line while her body stayed outside it, triggering a pellet toward empty ground.

Juna crossed behind the shot and reached the central rod before Orin could reset that intersection.

He removed the token ahead of her fingers, but she followed his actual scent instead of his changing mana lanes.

Three turns carried him toward the southern boundary, where another pellet marked her hip during the final reach.

"Twenty-seven seconds," Orin said, rubbing the wrist she had nearly caught, "your senses remove half my false routes."

"Half still leaves too many," Juna replied, looking toward Hajin, "his field punishes whoever carries the token."

Loccy entered next, waiting until Orin returned the brass strip before raising her hammer beside the eastern stake.

Her first strike landed within the marked boundary, sending a narrow ridge through the packed soil beneath the central rod.

The token jumped from its hook without damaging the equipment, turning above Orin while every launch cup tracked Loccy.

Vella formed one violet barrier from outside the field, catching the falling strip before pushing it toward the western line.

A pellet struck her barrier instead of either woman, staining violet mana blue while the token continued behind it.

Orin redirected two intersections toward the moving barrier, forcing Vella to slow before her injured pathway pulled against Hajin’s contract.

Hajin carried golden mana through their bond until the strain eased, letting her hold the barrier for another turn.

Orin caught the token three paces before the boundary, though Loccy’s next ground ridge forced him to jump over its path.

"That attempt used two entrants," he said, returning the token while Vella lowered her arm, "the next one should use everyone."

"You changed the rule after losing your clean field," Vella replied, checking blue dust across her barrier hand, "I respect that professionally."

Orin reset every cup without answering, although the corner of his mouth tightened while Loccy laughed beside him.

Hajin entered with Juna plus Loccy while Vella remained beyond the boundary where her barrier could support them.

Loccy lifted the token through the same narrow ground strike, but Orin sent three pellets across its expected path.

Vella caught two inside separate violet panels, leaving the third for Juna to cut with one restrained solar line.

Juna crossed the opening and drove Orin away from the token, following his scent whenever the mana lattice offered another direction.

Hajin called one Ring around his right wrist, feeling its rotation multiply the force available through his next step.

The basin narrowed into one visible route as his speed carried him past two pellets before their cups finished releasing.

He caught the brass strip above Orin’s hand, crossed the western line, and stopped before the Ring damaged the boundary stake.

Orin turned the sand measure beside the first rod, finding less than four seconds fallen into its lower chamber.

"Three and seven tenths," he said, recording the result beneath Hajin’s provisional rank, "one Ring removed my prepared pursuit advantage."

"What would two Rings measure?" Hajin asked, dismissing the rotating halo before checking Vella’s burned arm.

"Whether these rods can survive you," Orin replied, closing the comparison page, "that answer will not improve tonight’s watch."

He recorded Hajin’s baseline failure, Juna’s route detection, Loccy’s bounded displacement, and Vella’s remote interception separately.

The group result showed Orin could defeat any unsupported approach here, while one coordinated opening left him unable to stop Hajin.

A guild rider reached the watchpost before Orin finished sealing the page, carrying several notices removed from eastern trade boards.

The top sheet bore the Flint Patriarch’s seal beside another House mark Hajin did not recognize.

Orin read the posting date, then handed Hajin the public copy without placing it inside his comparison packet.

{House Flint announces the contracted betrothal of Lady Uriel Flint to Lord Rovan Dask, with household transfer following restoration of Flint authority across the Sixth Region.}

{The union settlement assigns Lady Uriel’s western estate rights to the joined household, while House Dask recognizes Flint’s eastern territorial claim.}

A final line claimed Uriel had consented, although her personal seal appeared nowhere beneath either House signature.

Hajin remembered the page rescued beneath her floorboards, where she had written that three offers were measured against estate payments.

"House Dask controls grain credit along the western border," Orin said, indicating the second seal, "this posting turns the campaign into their collateral."

"Do you think she agreed?" Juna asked, keeping her attention on Hajin while solar heat left the practice field.

"Her last letter said they intended to move her," Hajin replied, folding the notice around its route stamp, "it never said she chose anyone."

He gave the rider a receipt directing one copy toward Lana’s office as a public Flint claim rather than Uriel’s testimony.

Hans received another copy for every household wagon route, including the western road named inside Uriel’s recovered warning.

"We could reach the Flint estate before their army reaches town," Juna said, watching the eastern horizon, "if you decide to take her out."

"Dreth expects me to leave these posts," Hajin replied, fastening the notice beneath his coat, "we watch her routes until she answers for herself."

Orin planted the sealed comparison beside the watch ledger while Hajin kept Uriel’s unsigned consent claim against his chest.