Fairy Tale Chronicles

Volume 1, Chapter 19

Translator: Adam Seacord

Editor: Weasalopes

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「It was more dangerous than we thought.」

The next morning. Layotte had said this after making sure that Hiroshi had recovered (more mentally than physically).

「Dangerous? She was that bad?」

「Without your ridiculous resiliency, the fight would have been over as soon as she took a hold of you from behind. If Haruna was in your place, she would have been killed, eight of out of ten. If it was Ernest in your place, it would have been really dangerous when his defensive move expired. 」

Hiroshi cinched his face upon hearing this. Who could blame him for being a little startled after knowing that the ice he was walking was much thinner than he thought?

「What you fought against was an assassin, not intended for rehiring either way, specialized in night-time infiltration and human combat. They’re called Killing Dolls. A particular drug is used to grind out most of their senses, emotions, and personality. They are made to have no cognitive or decision-making capabilities other than completing their mission. Dolls indeed.」

「Is that why she was moanin’ all sorts of…」

Just recalling the scene sent shivers down Hiroshi’s spine. That alone nearly caused him to hurl out the contents of his stomach, but he persevered.

「The drug was the problem. One of your traps last night was the mist of all-purpose potion to neutralize any poison, right?」

「Yeah.」

「The all-purpose potion neutralized the drug, causing a sort of withdrawal symptom. Which was…」

「What? Increased libido or somethin’?」

「Close, but not quite. All senses were enhanced, and pleasure reception amplified. They seemed to have cut corners by using cheap drugs, since they are meant to be disposable. Once the withdrawal hits, they can’t control themselves whatsoever.」

Hiroshi didn’t know how to respond to this info, that was honestly too much, especially considering his phobia. Hiroshi felt like he would puke up blood if he heard any more of this. Was he living in a hentai game, now?

If any other man was in Hiroshi’s place, that scene would have turned out X-rated, for sure.

「So, what happened to miss assassin?」

「She flipped. Helped in raiding the Assassins’ Guild, in fact. Since her brainwashing was undone from last night’s shocking experience, coupled with the fact that she had a weak sense of self to begin with, it was very easy to flip her onto our side.」

「Y’all think that’s safe…?」

「She came right back, and went back into her cell without a fight. I don’t foresee a problem.」

Hiroshi couldn’t help but gaze at the distance, holding back the urge to scream. What was with the utter sloppiness? With assassins, nonetheless.

「The drug constantly administered to that assassin is called Alparanon. Quite unique. They’re the only ones who know how to make it. That being said, apparently the ingredients and recipe aren’t the hard part, just need a little knack to get it done. Even so, most spells and potions have no effect on it. For all they knew, the only way to neutralize the effects were to wait for the drug to wear off. Our potion maker, court magician, and even the Head Priest had the same conclusion, in fact. Which class was the all-purpose potion you used?」

「Class-4.」

Layotte couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

「I can’t say I’m disappointed. You always find a way to blow people’s minds sideways, don’t you?」

「Hang on, ya don’t even need ingredients that rare for a class-4 multi-purpose. It won’t be a 100% success rate, but Mio can make it, too.」

「Do you understand that even Mio is a better potion maker than the one we have?」

「For real?」

「Yes. So even if we had the ingredients, making a class-4 multi-purpose potion would not be easy. Our court potion maker fails making even class-5 potions a significant portion of the time, and we’re lucky if he can yield one class-4 potion out of ten tries.」

According to Hiroshi’s estimation, the potion makers in this country had the skills equivalent to a player halfway through Intermediate. So, he nodded to Layotte’s explanation that backed up his theory. In fact, Hiroshi had not seen anyone with Intermediate (equivalent) skills in this world until he met Layotte and the other members from the castle. He assumed that even having Intermediate skills meant placing in the top tier of that profession.

Actually, the nation of academia, Lorren, was about the only country that could produce class 4 potions. All-purposes potions were especially difficult to produce, and only a handful of vials of class-4 all-purpose potions were exported from Lorren each year. Naturally, no would expect such a substance to be used against an assassin.

The effects of Alparanon would normally last about two weeks, and potions of class-5 and lower (even multi-purpose potions) could not detox the subject. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been impossible for an assassin to be detoxed and recruited, if the drug was administered shortly before the assassin were to be sent out on a mission.

Like Alparanon, many poisons and specialized drugs only required a Novice skillset to craft, but disproportionately high-level spells or potions to neutralize. Of course, Emilrad was one of them.

「Come to think of it, if y’all can whip up class-4, y’all wouldn’t be freakin’ out ’bout Venomous Wolves.」

「Very true. So even assassins would never think to prepare against any potions above class-5. Normally the pawn on the mission doesn’t have much information to offer, and no one would use a high-level all-purpose potion just to crack a pawn. Of course, you were using it in self-defense.」

Which didn’t make the situation any less abnormal. Not to mention that, although there may be some out there that might take the potion beforehand to prevent attacks, no one would think of filling the room with it to prevent the enemy’s suicide.

Because in that case, the potion would have to be above a certain level, which were inaccessible to most, and too expensive to use like that to the 99% of those who could attain it.

「Still, aren’t they just a little too careless ’bout it all?」

「I agree. It looks like they had been pulling this off for so long, that they felt utterly complacent. Even the leader (albeit of only few years) seemed to suffer from over-confidence, perhaps conjured by his own skills in assassination. Didn’t seem like the type to lead an organization to begin with.」

「Yikes. Folks in the shadows can’t afford to lose that sense of danger.」

「You’re absolutely right. In any case, thanks to you guys, we have a nice surprise on our hands. They didn’t seem to expect that their selfless doll would come back to bite them. It was almost disappointing how easy the arrest was.」

「Won’t they make a run for it?」

「With all their fingers cut off, actively being healed here to keep them alive? I doubt it. Of course, we force-fed them the potion you gave us to prevent suicide. Although we already have their secret books, client lists, and order forms. Any testimony by the higher-ups would only serve as a little confirmation.」

Layotte said, slipping in some gruesome details with nonchalance. The Prince had some dark tricks up his sleeve.

「So. What’s gonna happen to that assassin?」

「Currently, she’s under our protection. She’s still lost in lust, so it isn’t hard to control her. She still hasn’t regained much of her cognizance, so she’ll do as we say. To be honest, there’s no reason for us to rush to execute her.」

「…Sleep with one eye open. That’s all I’m sayin’…」

「I would say the same to you, actually…」

Hearing Layotte mumble this under his breath, Hiroshi guessed how Layotte was keeping the assassin under their thumb, and shuddered. Assuming that Hiroshi imagined correctly, he was further astounded by the Prince’s ruthlessness. It was bordering on ungrateful.

「Right. I wanted to ask if I could get something to eat, soon.」

「…Changin’ the subject again? What’s up?」

「Pretty soon I’ll have to start being ready at a moment’s notice. Who knows when my next meal would be.」

「Things lookin’ tense?」

「Some cornered rats are about to get desperate. We haven’t gone through everything, but now that we have irrefutable evidence, their only option left is to revolt. Prepare yourselves for that.」

Hiroshi crunched his face in response. He wanted to shout to the heavens, to “keep civilians out of this mess!”

「Can a revolt pop up that easily?」

「Depends on what Barold does. He could immediately call ten thousand to the scene with a Summoning spell. That being said, the maximum they could pull would be about three thousand on the spot, five thousand if they were ready for this, and even if they go crazy to make this happen, the most we expect his eight thousand.」

「As if that ain’t a scary number, already.」

「Scary? Even if he summons them all inside the castle, it wouldn’t be a problem. Don’t underestimate Farlane’s national defenses.」

Layotte declared with confidence, leaving Hiroshi with a pinch of doubt. Looking at the structure of the castle, an army of five thousand or so (without even the element of surprise) would be nothing to worry about. But what about an army of twenty or thirty thousand?

「Hey, Lay.」

「What is it?」

「How many people they got, total? Without time constraints.」

「Roano has the largest force at twenty-five thousand. The second biggest would be about five thousand (at the cost of bankruptcy) so less than seventy thousand total. The thing is, most of them would be farmers with minimal training. Farmers are busy now that harvest season is coming to an end, so they couldn’t force many of them to show up. This is the same for any Lord or Lady. That leaves them with mercenaries, but the amount of coin is there limit. And actually, while Farlane is rich in adventurers, we actually don’t have many mercenaries.」

Layotte disclosed the figures from the back of his mind, not mentioning that Hiroshi may be acting a little paranoid.

「If they hired as many mercenaries as they can?」

「We only have a total of about a thousand mercenaries in the country, tops. That would be about the ceiling of their finances, too.」

「Alrighty. And if all of them waltzed into the castle… What are ya gonna do?」

「We won’t have a problem. Fifty-five to sixty thousand of the seventy thousand in that army would be farmers. A spell from the Temple would neutralize all of them. Only about a tenth of them would even stand a chance against a knight. And we have at least eight thousand knights that remain in the castle at all times.」

「That many, huh…?」

Hiroshi was taken aback by the large number, but come to think of it, the population of Wulls (just on the record) exceeded a million. Even if 3% of the population were full-time soldiers, that would mean that thirty thousand people were full-time fighters. A third of that number dedicated to the castle (the center of political power) didn’t seem out of the question.

「Still, it doesn’t hurt to put all of our ducks in a row. If you can eat, eat quick and come to my office.」

「Alrighty. It does look like we got some plannin’ to do.」

Acknowledging that both sides of the battle possessed a trump card to turn the tables, it didn’t hurt to perform preparations expecting those cards to be used. The cards were Hiroshi and Haruna against the existence of the Dark God Templar.

「So, where can we eat?」

「It’s already prepared. Eat as much as you can, quickly.」

「Ya got it.」

As soon Layotte said so, the servant (who had been waiting outside) brought in meals almost too extravagant for lunch. The final battle was approaching.

「Mio, stop making that face.」

「That bad?」

「It’s on all of us.」

In the large room of the Alfemina Temple, Makoto was consoling Mio wearing a contentious (or, rather, concerned) face.

「For real. I’ve never screwed up this bad before…」

Haruna let out with a sigh, as she drew the magic circle according to Mio’s directions. She had said this at least a dozen times (by Makoto’s count). She was devastated that she didn’t think of it until the end, despite having the most time to check. Haruna felt like she had let down her partner, whom she had spent an intense, meaningful (albeit short) time together. Knowing Haruna, she would not let this go easily.

At the moment, though, they were working on constructing a stage to draw out everyone who was afflicted. The fact that they could not track everyone’s status of affliction (especially when it came down to the servants) combined with their plan to keep the enemy, now most likely with decreased decision making skills, in the dark from even a strategy as obvious as this one as long as possible, fueled them to avoid using Haruna’s singing for anything, and holding back on constructing the stage in the Temple so far, although that was a critical component of the plan.

To prepare, they had been setting up magic circles (as speakers) in as many places as they could think of while they were out and about giving away Japanese treats, and had tested them while no one was around. Now, they were checking the speaker placements that they had missed before, placing microphones, and constructing/linking magic circles and testing the speakers, all in a hurry. But Hiroshi’s recovery had put a dent in the pace of these things, leaving the girls without much time to wallow.

「It’s on all of us, Haruna.」

「I mean, you’d expect him to think of it, with everything he’s been through…」

Tatsuya said, and Makoto nodded in agreement. No one had expected Hiroshi, who had prepared all sorts of traps and contraptions, to not expect the possibility of the assassin being a woman at all. In hindsight, it would not have been a problem if Mio had stayed with Hiroshi. They all had to admit that they had overestimated Hiroshi’s defenses and mental strength.

「Get it together, Sensei…」

「Cut him some slack. I’m impressed that he didn’t let it get worse. This time around, and the time with Rayna.」

Tatsuya pulled back Mio from going solo and criticizing Hiroshi. When he had heard from Layotte that Hiroshi’s phobia hadn’t worsened, Tatsuya was thoroughly impressed. He wasn’t there during Rayna’s incident, but remembering Hiroshi’s stories from his past (which he had been told before in the real world) Tatsuya was legitimately concerned that Hiroshi would be unable to rejoin human society at all.

All things considered, Mio’s comment was out of line, and worthy of reprimand, but Tatsuya had decided to take a more diplomatic approach, thinking that scolding a teenage girl outright would only cause resistance.

「He can’t just keep…」

「Mio, I get it. Just don’t rush it.」

The two elders of the group pulled back Mio’s rushed response while still understanding her half-adoration and half-admiration (or more accurately, her infatuation with the thought of love) for Hiroshi.

「Just like the thing with the underwear, just because he stopped showing signs of his phobia from living with a girl for a couple of months, I think it’s still too risky to have him do anything that emphasizes the opposite sex.」

「If he won’t do it, he won’t get better.」

「That’s why I’m telling you not to rush it. It’s all for naught if he relapses. At the very least, wait until someone here, or like, Elle could be standing next to him without triggering him.」

「…I don’t want to see Sensei like this anymore. Pathetic. And in pain…」

With an expression of lost disappointment, Mio still stuck to her guns. Tatsuya and Makoto knew that Mio wasn’t just being selfish, so all they could produce were sighs. Without Mio saying anything, they knew that it was very likely for some of their enemies to be female, and for them to have to fight them directly. If that time comes without Hiroshi making any improvements that would put Hiroshi’s life in danger.

But as of now, even Haruna (the woman he could trust the most) could not come within three feet of Hiroshi without stressing him out. That was close enough for Haruna to take a step forward and touch him, but far enough that Hiroshi had to approach her for them to make contact without Haruna moving. Much improvement was needed.

Since the Mental Endurance stat didn’t necessarily translate to the same skillset in real-life, Hiroshi had to be the one to conquer his wounds on his own, and they shouldn’t try to put their hands in it. Because they understood this, Haruna kept her distance as she tried to maintain her independent normality, and Aearis searched for the right distance as she purposefully continued to show her affection.

Their concern and devotion was impressive, but asking Mio to do the same would have been cruel.

「In any case, Hiro’s the one who has it the worst. We can crack jokes about other stuff, but no matter how you feel, don’t you tell any of this to his face.」

「…I know…」

Mio knew already that she was saying things that maybe she should not have been. Still, she couldn’t grasp her emotions, causing her to blurt out almost aggressive words.

「Alright. The clock is ticking, so let’s hurry it up. Mio, what’s left?」

「Tatsu and Mako, place the finished product where they’re supposed to. Haru, the angle’s off there. And speed it up.」

「Okay, I’m on it!」

Under Mio’s direction, Haruna focused on preparing the chapel, an integral part of the plan. Tatsuya and Makoto left to place the small magic circles that would act as speakers in their place. They were worried that they were running out of time to finish the other preparations, but Hiroshi had joined them just in time to brute-force everything together in an astonishing speed.

「It seems that the Assassins’ Guild did not live up to its expectations.」

Hearing the news of the Assassins’ Guild falling first thing in the morning, Barold had relayed the news with an exasperated tone.

「I had expected them to fail, but captured alive and giving away information? And now the guild itself has been taken down. How pathetic.」

「As if you had nothing to do with it. With that much evidence, the King would surely come after us now, no matter how much the atmosphere in court discourages the royal family from exercising executive power. What are you going to do?」

「Naturally, we take the royal family down by force.」

Barold declared the impossible so casually that the nobles were left speechless.

「…By Force? We can’t gather enough man-power to take down the castle of Wulls on our own. Marquis Roano is the only one with a significant force to wield.」

「Besides, its harvest season. Many villages have planned their harvest festival for the end of the month. There’s a limit to conscripting farmers.」

「Besides. The farmers have received decent training, but they fall behind the soldiers of Wulls in equipment, skillset, and moral. It almost doesn’t matter how many of them we can gather up.」

The nobles jumped to explain how preposterous it was to take down Wulls and the royal family. Even though they were already backed into a corner, and had no loyalty for the royal family, none of them had the guts to back this particular horse.

「What if we could send all the soldiers we gathered into the castle?」

「…Still no good. Any soldiers we get from an emergency conscription will be useless inside the castle walls.」

Roano answered after pondering Barold’s idea for a moment.

「Why?」

「The power of the Alfemina Temple. Using Alfemina-sama’s blessing, everyone who hasn’t received a specific training will be rendered immobile. If we go in with a flood of soldiers, even the best men among them would be trapped in the sea of bodies. Unless you have some way to neutralize that power, Barold-dono?」

It was Barold’s turn to ponder. The best case scenario was the knights to start massacring the farmers on the spot, but he knew that was wishful thinking. For the same reason, even the trained soldiers will most likely be neutralized without many casualties. And while the affliction in the land was still low, Barold would be hard-pressed to kill all of Wulls’ knights at once.

「Hmm. If they are neutralized, kill them on the spot. I don’t know how many of them you can bring together, but if three thousand or so die overall, I can play one of my cards.」

「Are you mad!?」

After consideration, Barold had reached the selfish conclusion to replenish the affliction in the land by killing the nobles’ men. Naturally, his proposal was met with a disgusted shout. While he wasn’t too concerned about the lives of peasants (in fact, as long as they didn’t snuff out too many, they would replenish the population on their own. How convenient!) but killing their own men? They could kiss any reputation they had built up goodbye.

「Don’t act so surprised.」

「Marquis Roano…?」

「We all knew for a long time how insane this man is.」

With a long, sunken sigh, Roano said, giving up. He had no idea that he was afflicted beyond the point of no return.

「But we can’t kill thousands of men for no reason. I will only mobilize my private army, without conscripting any peasants.」

「How many would that be?」

「I can move two thousand of them, now. I had gathered that many yesterday. Beyond that, I would have to gather my men from all around my land, so they won’t be here in a day.」

「I see. We don’t have much time, so that shall do. As for everyone else?」

After hearing Roano, the nobles jumped to declare their contribution.

「Combine those with Mazzarack’s army, and we’ll have just about seven thousand…」

「Where is Count Mazzarack, speaking of?」

「After receiving word that we are to take the castle of Wulls, he seems to be preparing something.」

「To betray us?」

「Never. He could divulge everything he knows to the royal family, and it wouldn’t put a dent in his predicament with the law.」

Barold said. The rest of the nobles there could not say a word, as they were all in the same predicament as Count Mazzarack.

「Now, I would like to act tonight, if possible. Is it?」

Wincing at Barold’s deadline, the nobles still nodded, reluctantly. If they postponed their attack until tomorrow, everyone here would be arrested before they would have a chance to attack. The Assassins’ Guild had collapsed only that day, so confirming and researching the information given would take the royal family at least a day, according to Barold’s estimation, since he figured that even Layotte couldn’t detain nobles without complete documents of verified information.

「One last thing, Katrina-sama.」

「What is it?」

「In the worst case, this nation will never be the same again. Do you have any reservations?」

「A country that didn’t accept me? It can be reduced to dust, for all I care.」

With a sickening smile, Katrina responded with astounding self-centeredness. Her words were all the go-ahead they needed to push the revolt into motion.

The coup d’état would be remembered in history as Katrina’s Revolt. The historically relevant part of the story was kicking into motion around sunset.

「…They’re coming.」

「We got everythin’ together just in time, it looks like.」

Picking up on the mass-transportation into the courtyard from the Alfemina Temple, Layotte and Hiroshi whispered to each other. The Japanese members each tightened their expression. On the record, they were here as bodyguards, but were actually called here by Alfemina’s divine calling. Currently, the royal family (excluding the Queen and the two concubines since they were not suited for combat nor baiting Katrina and Barold) were standing by in the Temple, partially to be ready to evacuate, but also as bait. The Queen and the concubines had already evacuated to the workshop, and the only member of the royal family left here without any skillset in combat was Aearis, in the middle of a ritual. However, It was doubtful that Elena was well enough to fight, so she was on the side of being protected today.

Douga and Rayna were standing by in the front entrance of the castle as red herrings. In their stead, Julius and a few of his men were here to guard Elena and Aearis, along with Elena’s servant, in order to take care of her while she was here. Naturally, all of the priests were in the Temple itself, but the Head Priest was the only representative of the Temple in the large room they were in.

「Mark, how’s the evacuation going?」

「Everyone who isn’t afflicted has been evacuated. Haruna’s tune really sped things up for us.」

「What about the afflicted?」

「They are all detained in the dungeon for the time being. Although, we haven’t been able to pick out anyone with brainwashing who wasn’t affected by her song, and we didn’t have time to weed out those afflicted beyond the point of return. We could only separate them by sex. We’ll have some trouble brewing for us.」

「It’s an emergency. Besides, anyone passed out from hearing the song would be safer in the dungeon then a make-shift evacuation site.」

Layotte replied with what could be taken as an excuse. They had been making preparations under the surface for a while, but no plan falls into place without fail. Roano acting up quicker than they had expected was a contributing factor, but the real issue was that there were too many people to deal with. He wasn’t wrong that the dungeon was safer. It was one of the most durable structures in the castle in order to keep criminals in during emergencies.

「Brother.」

「The dolls are on. All soldiers are in place. You impressed me again, Grand Craftsman. Even we couldn’t tell that they were fake.」

「If ya did, there wouldn’t be a point to it.」

Hiroshi retorted to Avin. The party looked at Hiroshi, exasperated. Naturally, a marionette intricate enough to trick family members wasn’t something that could be whipped up because there would be no point to it otherwise. Of course these were magical items, but even Mio couldn’t craft one that could deceive the subject’s family members. That might illustrate the difficulty of this feat.

「In any case… Elena, how are you feeling?」

「I have enough strength to run and hide, if need be. I have my secret weapon, too. And my magic is unaffected by my illness, you know.」

「Good to hear. Julius. Mark. Take care of Elena if need be. Avin, look after Father.」

「Roger that.」

Since picking up on the transportation, Layotte had been calmly going through the final details. Along with this, Hiroshi directed Mio:

「Like we planned, ya back up Princess Elena when she’s gettin’ out of here. We’ll stay back and hold ‘em back.」

「I know.」

「The thin’ is, we might have ya stay dependin’ on what’s goin’ on here. Stay on ya toes.」

「Got it.」

And so, they went over their roles as discussed. All the while, the Transportation spell was continuing, indicating the possibility of a mass-transport. It was going on long enough for a high-level Cancel spell to negate an ordinary spell, but a large-scale Transportation spell like this was extremely difficult to interrupt. Trying to stop it by brute force like that could warp the area into another dimension, or the destination itself being evaporated. In any case, it was bad news.

The unwritten rule was to never mess with an active Transportation spell, even when they expected a slow emersion of a massive army.

Ordinarily, no one outside of the royal family could activate a Transportation directly inside the castle wall. Katrina’s involvement allowed for such a direct attack. No nation in history has fended off an attack like this.

「Then…」

「Of course, Your Grace.」

The Head Priest activated the spell he had loaded up, on the King’s command. Amplified by the items planted throughout the Temple, the spell immediately covered the entirety of the castle.

「Hm… Most of them resisted it, it seems.」

「How many did we get?」

「About a thousand. The rest won’t be at their best, however.」

There were two spells planted in the Temple of Alfemina. The first forced individuals below a certain power level to sleep. The second exerted pressure to those recognized as hostile by the royal family and/or the Temple of Alfemina. These prepared in preparation to defend against direct attacks to the castle (like this one) but this was only the second time these spells had ever been activated. This was the first time they had any effect.

It’s worth mentioning that, if the Temple of Alfemina had been evidently corrupt or if the royal family had been blatantly abusive against its people, these spells were rendered useless. During the king before the last king’s rule, the royal family triggered this condition, preventing the spells from activating altogether. This time around, the spells seemed to go off without a hitch since neither of those conditions were an issue, now.

So, the Head Priest had said that about a thousand had been put into a sleep. It seemed that most of them were properly trained soldiers, which made sense since they were gathered on such short notice. Despite their training, the best men of the lords could not beat the worst men of Wull’s Knight’s Order. With the added home-field advantage, there wasn’t a chance of the knights losing if both armies were close in numbers.

「I didn’t expect to take down much, judging by their numbers. A thousand is plenty.」

The King said. Layotte nodded, activating the magical item to see what was happening outside. This was an artifact that was collecting dust in the castle’s treasury for a few centuries.

「We just have to leave it to the team outside. Let’s see how Ernest and Rayna do.」

Showing the brawl in the courtyard and the showdown in the front entrance, Layotte was oddly relaxed.

「Thought you’d be imprisoned by now, but seems you whored your way through, huh, She-Man? I’m surprised anyone could get it up to that. I’m happy you found such a freak.」

Odenell Martoon, leader of the Mazlack knights, started taunting Rayna as always. His face, which could have been mistaken for Hiroshi’s (if seen from afar under dim lighting) was illuminated with a beastly grin that would revolt any woman (let alone Rayna). His character seemed as incompatible as it could get from a leader of knights. The only characteristics he had in common with Hiroshi was the vaguely lame vibe to his body language, and the inexplicable aura of spinelessness emanating from him.

His subordinates behind him chimed in with similar grins across their faces, throwing vulgar insults at Rayna. Some of them were too vulgar to even put to writing; these men were below beasts. An ordinary woman could not have been blamed for losing all hope in men.

These insults were so horrendous immature, and confined to the subject of genitalia, that if Tatsuya were here, he would have slammed an Oxygen Ring or something before they could finish them. Any man with any sense of decency would have taken serious offense to be categories as the same species as these goons, let alone the same sex. Some thugs on the street had more class than them

「Are you done?」

After letting them shout for a while, Rayna asked in an icy monotone. The Mazlack knights were left feeling off. Rayna used to be enraged by cheap insults like this, and they were expecting another show.

「Aha. I can see how you would hate men after dealing with them… The likes of them all the time.」

「I’m embarrassed that I was expecting all men to be like them.」

「It’s all in the past.」

It was only natural that a woman, like Rayna, who possessed immense power would not have fit in well within the male-dominated world of knighthood. Of course, some of them were disproportionately prideful for their skills. One couldn’t really expect them not to throw insults based on sex or basic human characteristics.

Naturally, anyone who would try to feel better about themselves by putting down someone’s appearance rarely put in the work to improve themselves above the pack. If they had enough talent, they would have mocked Rayna for desperately putting in the effort to improve herself as a knight. Unless they were born with enough talent for it, these runts were left to denying their obvious shortcomings in combat and finding solace in mocking what aspects of Rayna they could.

They had continued to willfully lack self-awareness, until now, when they were about to be dished some cruel self-awareness.

「One question.」

「What does the She-Man whore who bedded her way into knighthood want to know?」

「Well, since even a woman who bedded her way to knighthood could take on a Berserker Bear solo without armor and just a knife, I’m sure each of you could do the same.」

The faces of the Mazlack knights crunched in humiliation. Despite their title as knights, their combat prowess was barely on par with class-7 adventurers. They could only put up a good fight against a Berserker Bear if they were clad head-to-toe in high-quality armor. While people like Douga or Rayna who could insta-kill a Berserker Bear with a knife only wearing casualwear were in the definite minority, every one of the knights based in Wulls could easily take down a Berserker Bear with ordinary leather armor and an average sword or lance.

While their armor set them a head above normal soldiers, the Mazlack knights were the weakest knights in Farlane.

「I’m sure you all have the strength to back up your insults. Why don’t you stop flapping your jaws and show it?」

Today, it was Rayna’s turn to taunt them. Anyone who knew Rayna would have been surprised to hear her do so. No matter how painful a life lesson the ordeal with Hiroshi was, there was only so much self-reflection and improvement she could do in the month since then. If it were that easy, Rayna would never had acted the way she did in the first place.

The truth was, she had a trick up her sleeve. When they decided on this strategy, Rayna had begged Hiroshi to craft her a one-shot item that could cool down her temper, in order to withstand the hurling insults that were sure to follow. It was an embarrassingly low-self-esteem strategy, but it paid off. She completely ignored the storm of insults that could have sent anyone over the edge.

「What’s wrong? You have an army, and you’re afraid of a whoring abomination and her senile mentor?」

「You little…」

The thugs enraged at their target using their words mockingly against them. The Mazlack knights seemed to have forgotten that the two fighters in front of them could eat take on three Cerberus without breaking a sweat, as they charged, praying that outnumbering them would do the trick.

「No matter how strong they are, it’s only the two of them! Let’s teach that senile geezer and She-Man a lesson!」

Responding to Odenell with a battle-cry, the knights charged with no formation or anything. Scoffing at their lack of discipline, Douga and Rayna simple swung their weapons, once.

「Woah!」

「Gagh!」

「Aggh!」

The nonchalant blow sent bundles of the Mazlack knights into the air. They had no idea that, in this world, when there was this much of a discrepancy in combat skills, the outcome would have been the same if they had outnumbered the pair by the thousands.

「Knocked out by a senile geezer, eh? It’s too easy.」

「It doesn’t matter how impressive their armors are when they’re worn by them.」

「They could Bind me like they did for Piaranork, at this rate. I don’t have a shred of doubt of taking them down.」

That single blow was all it took to absolutely cripple the moral of the Mazlack knights. Terrified by the pair’s comments, they attempted to flee. Exasperated for a moment at the men scrambling to flee, discard their duties and everything they supposedly stood for, Douga decided that he wouldn’t let them get away.

「Stand your ground, cowards!」

Discharging a formidable force of will, Douga pressured the private soldiers to stay where they were. He had pressured them with Outclass, the wide-range taunt (essential for tanks) that he had taught Hiroshi, earlier.

It had finally dawned on the Mazlack knights that they had no chance of leaving the castle grounds alive.

「Shall we make our next move?」

「I’ll allow it.」

Katrina permitted Barold. With the formality of Katrina’s permission granted, Barold moved on to the next phase.

「Let the symphony begin.」

With a crazed grin, Barold cast a spell at the crumbling coup in front of him. In an instant, the courtyard was engulfed in a cacophonous hellscape.

Some were engulfed in a pillar of fire, and others rotted away in an instant. Some were swallowed whole by a gaping mouth in the air, and others suddenly sunk into the ground as it turned into quicksand. Still, none of them died quickly from these calamities, but instead were driven to the point of madness from sheer agony.

Most of the rebelling soldiers were just a group of men who were conscripted by the lords without any explanation before finding themselves facing off against the official Knight’s Order in the castle’s courtyard. To keep face to their lords and commanders, they had been pretending to engage in combat after the first call to surrender, but their morale was non-existent. A second call for surrender would have been met with immediate compliance. Most of them believed that, if they would surrender, their crime would be non-significant since they were practically forced to be there without any awareness of their alliance.

Almost all of the soldiers that were just tortured to death belong to the category of unfortunate civilians. Did any of them deserve such a gruesome fate? No. Of course, there a few abusive lords in the coup, but the royal family’s strong policing over the last decade or so had prevented much abuse from prevailing. While a few of the soldiers there had played some small part in these unlawful practices, the vast majority of them were soldiers who simply protected their land from monsters and criminals.

So, in a just world, none of them would have met such a fate.

「W-What the?」

「What’s happening!?」

Even the knights were shocked by the sudden eruption of carnage. This battle wasn’t personal to any of them. With the exception of a few rebels that were wholeheartedly involved in the battle, the knights had never planned to kill the majority of the soldiers who were putting on a show. In fact, many of the rebel soldiers near the outer edges of the group had been disarmed after a few moments of combat, knocked out with a careful blow (as to not leave lasting injuries) before being dragged out of battle. Those were the lucky ones who escaped the nightmare that ensued.

「You may call us traitors, but is this what your knight’s code demands? A massacre!?」

One of the surviving rebels started shouting. The knights, brought back to reality from this, shouted back their retorts:

「What would we gain from killing you like this!?」

「If we wanted to massacre you all, we would have done it in a flash!」

「If that’s our endgame, explain why those fools lying over there are still breathing!」

Confronting the battleground’s force and rage, the knights continued roaring to defend their honor. The accusation that they would have used such a sadistic method to take down these weaklings was nothing short of an insult.

「There! Whoever you are, you got your wish. The rebellion is suppressed! Show yourself!」

The commander of the royal guards, who had been commanding the battalion in the courtyard shouted at the unseen foe, when the commander of the rebellion had surrendered.

「Of course it’s you…!」

「I made things easier for you… Why the long face?」

「Why should we kill them with such an abominable method when we can simply knock them out!?」

「How admirable. But the punishment for treason is death. Have they not earned any demise that may come their way?」

「Our laws will not execute soldiers who had no option to refuse!」

The commander of the Knight’s Order felt genuine rage against Barold’s self-centered interpretation of law. The commander of the rebellion chimed in:

「You were the one who sent us here in the first place! How could you slaughter your own men!?」

「My men? What nonsense is this?」

Barold replied with a genuinely startled expression. Although, one didn’t even need to pick up on the sinister giggle in his tone to see through his intentions.

「In any case, you are a criminal! No excuse will get you out of this one! Your head is mine!」

「Oh, how terrifying.」

Barold said, playing scared. The knights enraged at his attitude, and their anger was reaching a boiling point. When they had moved to attack, Barold said:

「I still have some tasks left to do. I shan’t be taken out under false pretenses. It seems I have no choice but to defend myself.」

And activated a spell. In an instant, dense affliction filled the courtyard, morphing the corpses and unconscious bodies of the rebels.

「What!?」

「I will make you pay for your mockery of human life!」

「Mockery? I’m just helping the helpless souls you’ve massacred take revenge… Against all living creatures, that is.」

Barold said with a grin, before summoning a dozen Cerberus before walking away in strides. What was left behind were revolting Undead monsters, rebels turned into half-Mutants through the forcefull morphing and ejection of their sanity, along with Cerberus (which spread the contamination of affliction by their mere presence) facing off against the Knight’s Order, gritting their teeth as they were forced to take care of the hellscape in front of them.

Hiroshi, again, was the first one to detect the problem.

「It don’t feel right.」

Layotte heard this mumble, and looked at Hiroshi with a stern expression.

「What’s wrong?」

「Not sure yet, but somethin’ don’t feel right.」

「I would ask you for details, but I suppose you can’t give any. What should we do?」

「Can’t be too sure yet, but anyone who’s supposed to be outta here better get movin’. We’re jumpin’ into battle any second, now.」

Hearing this, the King and Elena begin walking to the secret passageway after making sure they’ve packed the essentials. They didn’t seem to have a shred of doubt in Hiroshi’s assessment.

「Mio too.」

「Okay. Be careful, Sensei.」

「Right back at ya.」

As planned, Mio followed the evacuating royalty out. Their destination, like the Queen, was the workshop. Surprisingly, the defenses of the workshop surpassed that of Alfemina Temple. From the outside, the Azuma Workshop was a lonely building (rather old and large) surrounded by a fence. It’s defenses, however, had been bolstered to the point of deflecting any sieging weapons without a scratch, and it’s Magic Defense and Resistance were now on-par with Hiroshi’s. Even some Ultimate Spells would be canceled. Their workshop had been turned into a fort. They had even built in a system to purify poisons and curses before it could reach the ground, and to top it all off, those with malicious intent could not even step foot near the workshop because of a deterring barrier. By this world’s standards, the defenses of their workshop had been perfected by any stretch of imagination. Most would not even consider applying so many layers of defenses.

According to Hiroshi and Mio, this level of defenses were only possible because of the workshop was small enough. It wasn’t just its defenses that elevated the workshop to a fortress, though. The size of the storage room of the workshop, which had been expanded over and over again as they gathered ingredients, played a major part. All of the food supplies obtained through quests and harvesting trips, as well as all of Hiroshi’s passion projects (mostly spices) were plentiful enough to easily maintain a lock-down for two months, even if everyone in the Temple now had evacuated to the workshop. As long as a few members could slip away to bring in food once in a while, they could stay in that workshop until they have died of old age (barring an attack from something like an Elder Dragon).

Of course, this overkill of a defense system was the fruit of Hiroshi’s hobby-brain going haywire with some leftover materials. This wasn’t the initial intention, but as Hiroshi performed small renovations upon renovations during brisk breaks in his work, the workshop had seemed to lose its original purpose, morphed on the inside without any change to its appearance. It didn’t help that, instead of keeping him in check, Tatsuya and Makoto (who were secretly into these kinds of evil-hidden-layer contraptions) kept encouraging Hiroshi.

In that case, why weren’t they kept in the workshop from the beginning? In order to let Barold sense their presence in the Temple, anyone who could bait him were kept in the Temple as long as possible. It helped that everyone there (save for the servant girls) had some sort of combat training.

「Hm?」

Watching the royal member evacuate, Haruna noticed that one of the evacuees wasn’t moving at all. Oria, Elena’s right-hand-woman and head-servant, stood there with a hazy look, ignoring her mistress. Despite a nasty curdle in her gut, Haruna decided to approach Oria anyway.

「It could get dangerous here. Please hurry out.」

Turning to Haruna, Oria cracked a chilling grimace and stepped closer. A shiver ran down Haruna’s spine.

「That way, please!」

Suppressing her terror, Haruna insisted. Alarms were blaring in her head. Something wasn’t right. She considered knocking Oria out and having her carried away as she reached for her rapier, which she had practiced with enough to consider it an extension of her arm.

「No, Haruna-sama! Get away from her!」

Aearis yelled, jumping out of the Ritual Room. Reflexively, Haruna jerked away. Surprised by Aearis’ scream, the royal family turned around to see a shocking sight.

「Haruna-sama!?」

They all saw it. Although Haruna had jerked away, Oria was still inches away, now with a mad grin across her face, sticking a knife in Haruna’s side. The knife was oozing of nefarious aura.

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