Side Story 44. Anemone Smiled Brightly (20)
It had already been 15 days since we left the holy land.
We were heading west toward Enharayton, the capital of the Imperial State. If we had traveled in a straight line, we would have already reached the border. However, we still had a long way to go before getting there. Following the method of Lutein ahjussi’s subordinate, the balding priest, we visited here and there, spreading the good words, which made us late.
Well, I had never traveled like this while living in the empire, so personally, I was enjoying these past few days.
"Knock knock! I'm here to spread the good words." As he said this, Doomstone knocked on the tightly closed gate.
Boom-!
The gate was utterly smashed and torn down by the light knock.
"Oh my! How can you be so kind? To open the door as soon as you hear the knock- how generous of you,” I said.
The soldiers or knights who were on guard atop the gate shouted, "You, shut up! When did we open it for you?!"
I looked up at the gate and drew a line across my neck with my thumb.
"Heuk!"
When I made a sound with my tongue, Doomstone pretended not to hear and stretched.
Kwang!
A gust blew from Doomstone’s outstretched hand, and the place where the guards were standing collapsed.
"Ha-am~! Did something happen?"
When Doomstone asked skillfully, I replied with a shrug. "Who knows~? Don't you think they’re telling us to come in so they can treat us?"
"As expected, right?"
Doomstone and I smiled at each other and casually bumped our fists. Hundreds of knights and thousands of soldiers had gathered when the gate opened.
"Wow, they must have collected all the troops in this territory. As expected, someone at the level of a marquis can assemble division-level forces at the very least."
At my assessment, Doomstone asked, warming up lightly, "I can do it like last time, right?"
"My mouth will hurt if I have to say it again."
With my consent, Doomstone entered the gate. The knights and soldiers in the castle tensely clenched their weapons.
"I'm Doomstone Blade! I'd like to express my deep thanks for gathering here to play with me!"
After greeting politely, Doomstone said with a big smile, "Let’s see how many minutes you can keep me happy here.”
As he spoke, Doomstone rushed toward the division-level troops. It was a ridiculous fight where one person stood against thousands, but it was so one-sided that it looked like a wolf running toward baby lambs.
The soldiers fell to Doomstone's fist, lost their fighting spirit at Doomstone's martial aura-filled cry, and crawled around. At least the knights tried to fight back, but their swords broke soon after and became stuck in the ground.
I glanced at the clock; the time was 11 minutes and 34 seconds. It was a pretty good record. When I remembered that the territory next to us was in the 7-minute range, it seemed that these knights were persistent.
So far, the highest record was 28 minutes, with 10,000 army-level troops receiving support from the imperial family. According to Doomstone, this record was about half that of the Consecrated Paladins, so I could see why knights- no, superhumans, were important in the war.
"Hahaha! Is this all?! Show me some more grit!”
Doomstone was running wild, but he did not seriously injure the soldiers and knights. The reason for this was simple. That's what I requested. They were important resources to be used later in the war against the Imperial State. The troops in the earlier friendly visits were also not seriously injured.
Of course, the lords' wealth was likely to have been seriously damaged. The funds collected during the friendly visits were used for Doomstone's meal costs and the creation of an information agency. Whether he noticed this or just didn’t want his power to go to waste, the Blood Emperor also supported this matter at one point, but he did not send any more support after that.
"Okay, should I start doing my business?"
While watching Doomstone playing, I was looking at the castle’s structure and trying to figure out the location of the secret treasury. Yet, as I was doing this, an arrow flew at me.
Doomstone quickly stole a soldier's spear and threw it. The spear soared through the air and hit the arrow, becoming stuck in the ground.
As if his excitement had died down, Doomstone said in a cold voice, "You dare…! You guys are dead."
Ah, shoot. There’s trouble. He seems to be genuinely angry. Even a martial arts illiterate like me could see that his soft hand had turned rough.
In one blow, the full-body armor of the knights exploded, and they vomited blood. Beyond the bounds of only being thrown away, with just a single hit, the soldiers were sent flying back several meters. At this rate, there's going to be a hole in this territory’s military. Still, it didn't seem bad since he was angry for my sake.
Doomstone destroyed the spires surrounding the castle by launching a human-sized strong aura. This was a natural course of action since the arrow that was shot at me came from one of these spires.
Doomstone then passed through the fallen soldiers and gathered mana in his fist. Even for a general citizen like me who had no sense of auras, I could feel that it was about to get serious.
"Wait!" My shout came too late, as Doomstone had already punched at the castle.
"Enlightenment! Breaking Ice!"
Doomstone's fist left a sizable hole in the vast castle. The attack didn’t just breach the wall but created a hole all the way to the opposite side of the castle as if it had been pierced through by a massive awl.
Doomstone growled, saying he let them off easy. "If I had it my way, I would have destroyed it, but I held back...”
Crack!
Even before he finished talking, a crack appeared from the hole, and the castle began to tilt. The people in the castle started to freak out and escape. By the time everyone left, the marquis’ castle had completely collapsed.
“... So why did it collapse?”
Doomstone scratched the back of his head, saying it was a mistake, and the marquis, the owner of the castle, sat on the ground hopelessly and stared at the collapsed castle.
"Uh, I'm sorry."
The marquis shed tears at Doomstone's apology.
It's none of my business whether the marquis cried or not, but now it had become bothersome to try taking the treasures from there. Should I just give up? It wasn’t too bad if we left the treasures behind because it would cost money to rebuild the castle and hire new knights and soldiers.
Of course, I should get something else instead. I consoled the marquis by tapping his shoulders and smiling at him.
"Hiik!" The marquis ran away in fear when he saw my smile. I didn’t even do anything.
Do I have no conscience if I say that?
* * *
I couldn't get the treasure buried in the rubble of the marquis’ castle, but I was able to somehow dig out the management documents and secret ledgers of the territory. As a bonus, we’d also excavated some vaults, but they were probably the latest magic vaults, so if we forcefully opened them, there was a risk that the things inside would be damaged.
It was a waste, but our wagon was full of items that we stole- no, that was given to us as presents as they asked us to leave. I couldn’t help it. I'll have to leave them behind.
"Okay, shall we go?" I said.
Doomstone connected Wheat Crepes to the wagon and asked, "To the next territory?"
"No, we’re really going to go to Enharayton now.”
Doomstone smacked his lips as if it were regrettable. It seems he had quite the fun time destroying the castles.
"There's nothing to be disappointed about. You can fight with all your might without having to control your power when we cross over to the Imperial State."
At my words, Doomstone was surprised. "Really? Even though they’re this weak?”
"Yeah. For my king-making plan, the Imperial State needs to be weakened."
Before the king-making, where we overthrew the Blood Emperor and established the crown prince as the emperor, we had to first make Glont ahjussi a hero of the country. If an absolutely undefeated hero, a great general who stabbed a dagger in the heart of an enemy country, sided with the crown prince, it would be a won game.
Of course, this was only possible because Glont ahjussi was an unprecedented elite who made a brilliant contribution in the war to recapture the holy land and became a general in his 20s.
"Beyond the border, you can abandon your gentle heart of not wanting to kill enemies. The opponent's determination and the size of the army will also change."
The Imperial State would not consider alliances like the Blood Emperor would. As such, they would try to kill us thoroughly.
At my words, Doomstone laughed like a mischievous rascal. "I like that. If I’m lucky, I might be able to fight with the Dragon Tribe, right?”
"It might be possible if we go to the capital city of the Imperial State?"
I heard that the Dragon Tribe actively traded with the Imperial State as they were located in the Mephisto Canyon on the outskirts of the Imperial State. Even if their relationship wasn’t the same as the empire and the Crow Tribe’s, it should be akin to the connection between the empire and the Butterfly Tribe.
"Okay! Then let's go right away!"
Doomstone took the driver’s seat, and I sat behind Doomstone after stepping over the treasure bags piled up in the wagon. When Doomstone was about to start driving the horses, petals suddenly began to scatter and fly about, which was an odd event for the current time.
"Petals? Are they dangerous?"
When I was wary, Doomstone swung his arm casually and touched the petals. Then the petals disappeared like smoke. "Don't worry. It's just an illusion. It's only a cheap trick with no danger."
At Doomstone's evaluation, a man flew through the sky from a distance, his feet standing on a magic wand. "Ahahaha! It’s too much to say that it’s only cheap tricks!”
It would have been easier to just sit down and fly, but he seemed to be flying on both feet to look cool. He’s a weirdo.
"If I were to talk about myself, ack!"
When the man was about to introduce himself, Doomstone swung his fist and dropped the man with a gust of wind. "Don't buzz around like a fly, Magician."
At Doomstone’s words, the man, who fell to the ground, stood up and shook off the dirt. "A fly?! That's too much! To receive such treatment even though I brought General Glont's message!”
"Huh? Are you Ahjussi’s subordinate?”
Upon my question, the man once again showed off his healthy teeth while magically scattering flower petals with his illusion.
"If you ask who I am, it's natural to answer! As for me, I am a member of the court magicians! Honorary member of the Blue Magic Tower! Dane Walker, the cool magician!”
After shouting this, he pretended to be cool and showed off a rope around his neck with the mark of the court magician. At a glance, I could see that the rope was genuine.
"He’s a weirdo."
"So it’s a weirdo."
Due to Dane Walker's self-introduction, Doomstone and I gave the same comment.
"A weirdo! You guys have started being so mean for a while now! General Glont said I'm older than you guys!”
At Dane Walker's cry, I looked closely at his face. He was covered with dirt, but he looked younger than us at first glance. He only seemed like an adult if you looked closely.
"How old are you?"
At Doomstone's question, Dane Walker said, scattering the illusion magic, "If you ask me my age, I'll answer, ugh!"
Dane Walker made a noise that sounded like a pig as he fell back from Doomstone's remote flick.
"Why don’t you just answer my question?”
"Sob sob! So mean! I'm a precious human resource that’s not treated like this in the capital!"
When Doomstone clenched his fist, Dane Walker kneeled and answered right away. "I have recently turned 22 years old. So please loosen your fists."
Aside from being older than he looked, it was amusing to see him submit to violence. But if he looked at Doomstone's actions in the newspaper, he wouldn't have been able to mess around like this. Did he not know who we were?
"What's your relationship with Glont ahjussi?”
Dane Walker immediately answered my question. "I was transferred to the barracks under General Glont when I was forcibly conscripted in the war to recapture the holy land. Since then, we've known each other."
After the war, he would have returned to his original affiliation, but he seemed to be quite trusted enough to be sent as a messenger. Of course, that is only if his words were true.
The court magicians were the hands and feet of the imperial family. To be more specific, the emperor. Since he acted quite showy on his way here, there was a good chance that the Blood Emperor sent him as a spy using Glont ahjussi as an excuse.
"Really? What did Glont ahjussi have you relay?"
"Ah, he asked me to relay that what he was requested of was successful. Although I don't know what the request is."
There was only one request. That was to persuade the crown prince to cooperate with the rebellion. It seems this magician really was sent by Glont ahjussi.
"That's a relief.”
Now I can truly make a mess with my heart at ease.
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