Chapter 363: Combat Engineers
The distance from my dungeon to Spica Castle was quite far.
I’d managed to connect portals all the way to the underground, but even accounting for that, the long trek was somewhat inconvenient. Not that it posed any real problem for me, though.
"Oh my, Master...?"
"Where is Meri?!"
Nimue, the fairy who greeted me in Avalon’s underground, gave an awkward smile and pointed upward.
"...She’s in the baronial castle. It seems she hasn’t been able to get out yet."
"Damn it!"
The sun had already risen above ground. Sneaking to the baronial castle under cover of darkness was far too risky at this point. And it wasn’t as if someone like me, a non-human, could just walk in and out of the castle.
"Lime, how did you get all the way to the dungeon?"
"Squeezed my way through...."
Lime immediately transformed into an amorphous liquid and began crawling across the floor. Underground passages or not, a fluid body could certainly slip through.
"Should I just form a rescue team? Ugh... but I can’t pull the soldiers out right now either...!"
The masterpiece of the entire operation was the capture of Spica Castle. If I ruined that, the whole grand plan would fall apart. But I couldn’t just leave Meri in the holy sword’s clutches either.
"There has to be a way... a way... ah!"
A good idea hit me. If moving above ground was impossible, I’d move underground.
"Nimue, bring me a map of Spica Castle right now! A full map showing the entire castle grounds! And my spare robe too!"
"Y-yes!"
Nimue hurried to the surface. In the meantime, I checked on the soldiers I’d stationed in Avalon.
"They’re... here!"
Thank Shaitan for moving the troops last night. While waiting for Nimue to return, I put together a quick plan with Lime. As long as I had the coordinates and direction, I could leave the rest to them with full confidence.
"Master, I found it!"
The door opened and Nimue appeared. In her hands was a fine sheet of parchment, and I gulped at the sight of a full map of Spica Castle drawn upon it.
"This is practically strategic-grade material, isn’t it?"
"After the Baroness killed the administrator, it came up as loot. Meri bought it with money from selling stockings!"
That’s my Meri. After silently thanking her, I took the robe that would adequately conceal my body. The spare robe I’d left behind just in case would be more than enough to cover me on the surface.
"Hm?"
"What is it?"
"This... isn’t the one I sent recently?"
It was a robe made from the material of the early prototype stockings, rather crude in quality. I was sure I’d crafted a fine robe and sent it through the portal for Meri to wear as well, but Nimue had brought the actual spare robe instead.
"Where did the other one go? The one with our legion’s emblem on it."
"Ah.... So that’s what that was...."
Nimue’s expression soured.
"Th-the Saintess took it without permission! She threatened Meri... demanded she hand over a robe for the big knight she keeps at her side!"
"What? The Saintess? Damn it. Every last one of those Church people rubs me the wrong way."
The Goddess had sent me Luna and Galahad and even shared an aphrodisiac recipe that would make the Demon King lose his mind, yet the Church, supposedly the Goddess’s own servants, were all getting in my way without fail.
"Honestly, they’d lose their minds if they knew the Goddess’s true will.... Wait."
A brilliant idea suddenly flashed through my mind. It wasn’t directly related to this war, but once the war was over, it would be an excellent scheme for infiltrating human society.
"...Hmm, oh ho. Indeed. Not bad at all."
"Master, now’s not the time to be thinking about other things...."
"Ahem. Sorry, Lime. But this idea is just too damn good."
"Even as we speak, Meri is... fighting the holy sword...."
"Right, right. I’m sorry."
I did feel bad, but once Meri heard this idea, wouldn’t she jump at it and take the lead herself? After calming down the anxious Lime, I gathered the assembled soldiers and the map.
"Alright then, Meri Rescue Strike Team, moving out now. Clian, Nifran!"
""At your command.""
The Slamia, the only ones of their kind in our legion. And behind them, Slime Dragons Units 3 through 10, split into groups of four.
"Starting now, you will work in two shifts... and tunnel your way to Spica Castle!"
I’d made up my mind to dig a tunnel all the way to the basement of Spica Castle, where Meri would be.
"This time, I’ll be directing operations personally."
Me, reading the map.
Lime, ensuring the construction was done right.
And the Slime Dragons, now far more powerful than before, led by the Slamia.
"Let’s go. To save Meri."
And so, our legion’s ultimate combat engineer team was born.
***
[Meanwhile, at the subjugation force’s outpost near Ras Vegas.]
"We’ve already lost fifteen percent of our forces... this is terrible."
Levis Ann entered the commander’s tent upon returning to the outpost, and her face twisted at the priest’s report. Some might simply tally the dead and hostages, but for humans, whose natural healing was slow, the severely wounded were effectively out of commission too.
Roughly one hundred and eighty. The ratio of dead, hostages, and seriously wounded had ended up almost exactly one to one to one. Most of the dead and injured were soldiers from the barony, while most of the hostages were adventurers.
"The only silver lining is that there’s a good chance the hostages are still alive...."
Hostages had been taken on both fronts, the city and the dungeon. As the situation grew increasingly complicated, Levis Ann wanted nothing more than to grab her lance and go on a rampage.
"Damn it, this kind of thing isn’t my forte...."
She was the commander of the knight order, but the battlefield ultimately relied on the work of strategists. If anything, Levis Ann was a general who overwhelmed with raw power and battlefield tactics, not someone who fought based on grand strategy.
"Even Sir Gray was kidnapped.... Damn it."
The only staff officer who could have supported her was now gone. He had done well leading the soldiers and ensuring no more people were taken, but he himself had ended up kidnapped by dullahans riding unicorns.
"He’d be better off dead. To be violated by monsters. Ugh... those orcs are bound to violate everyone regardless of gender. May the Goddess watch over him."
Levis Ann offered a moment of mourning for Gray. And the instant her prayer ended, she reorganized the subjugation force.
"If we scatter, we die. Rather than getting picked off one by one again, it’s better to take the city slowly and methodically."
The enemy’s skill at dividing their forces and defeating them in detail was infuriatingly effective. Therefore, retaking the city first and using it as a forward base might be the far better option.
"Right. The siege weapons should have already departed from the baronial castle. All we have to do is wait for them..."
"Commander, we have an emergency!!"
A priest burst through the tent flap. Levis Ann’s vision swam, dreading yet another crisis.
"What now."
"Y-you need to see this for yourself!"
"Whatever it is I’m about to see, at least give me a heads-up so I can brace myself."
"...Francis! Priest Francis!!"
Priest Francis. To Levis Ann, he was "Guinevere Pisces," the number one recruit she wanted for the Holy Knights.
"Is he alive?!"
"H-he’s alive, but...."
The priest, voice strained and breath ragged, recounted exactly what he had seen.
"He’s being violated by an orc on top of the wall!!"
"You’ve got to be kidding me!"
This was exactly why she’d wished he were dead instead. Levis Ann leapt out of the tent in a single bound and headed for the wall. A group of adventurers was already staring up at the top of the wall with grim expressions.
"...Goddess above."
There, the young man with a face as delicate as a girl’s, the very Guinevere Pisces she knew so well, was being held in an orc’s arms and violated. But the partner and position were nothing like what Levis Ann had imagined.
"Whoa... first time seeing a female orc. Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. If she just did something about the skin... tch."
"She’s lifting the guy up and making him thrust into her... damn, that’s actually possible, huh."
The female orc was in a face-to-face standing position with Guinevere, lifting her chin toward the subjugation force with an arrogant expression. It was not the face of a woman being penetrated by a human man. Guinevere had his face buried in the woman’s chest, still wearing his priestly robes, his hips rocking back and forth at the orc woman’s direction.
"...Why isn’t a male orc the one doing the violating?"
"Pardon? Commander, what did you just say?"
"...Ahem, nothing."
Levis Ann’s face flushed red, and she covered it with a cough, averting her gaze.
"Pull the soldiers back. This is a provocation by the enemy. The enemy is committing a taboo...."
"Commander, it’s too late. We’ve lost control."
"Holy shit. She’s insane. There are elves too?"
"What?"
Levis Ann’s head snapped around at the adventurer’s words. There, an elf with flowing golden hair had pinned a human man to the ground and was straddling him.
"Wh-why is an elf up there?!"
Levis Ann was genuinely stunned. It was shocking enough that a regular elf, not even a dark elf, was inside a castle crawling with monsters, but the sight of her riding a human man with an expression more seductive than any dark elf’s was overwhelmingly provocative and stimulating.
"...Holy shit. Some guys get kidnapped and end up doing it with an elf. Lucky bastard...."
A woman being violated would draw universal outrage. A man being violated should also draw universal outrage.
But the sight of beautiful, shapely women willingly working their hips on human men was enough to make some of the male adventurers hunch over.
"This is absolutely insane."
Levis Ann clutched her head and snarled.
"Why are these bastards so obsessed with sex...!"
Levis Ann honestly would have preferred facing the Demon King’s Army’s most elite soldiers, brimming with bloodlust and madness.
***
Meri’s life could hardly be called long.
Thanks to Solomon’s time magic, she had been born as if she had "lived" seventeen years, but her actual experience of the world amounted to barely two months. A great deal had happened in those two months, and Meri believed she had grown considerably through her encounters with many people.
[Think about it. I’m not asking you to stay a virgin until you die. I mean, I’m the one doing the asking here; would I really impose the original conditions on you? I’m just saying keep your virginity while you’re using me, that’s all.]
But the holy sword, which had lived hundreds of times longer than Meri, had a silver tongue beyond compare. Even Meri, who had firmly resolved to lose her virginity, found her ears perking up at the holy sword’s words.
[You say you’re determined to lose your virginity? Then that means you’re saving yourself for someone you love, right? I’ll help! Until the day you marry your beloved, I’ll make sure no man can lay a finger on you.]
"R-really?"
[Of course! I’m a holy sword and you’re the holy sword’s master. The contract is simple. If you vow to offer your virginity to the one you love on your wedding day, I’ll willingly end our contract. But when that time comes, you’ll need to introduce me to another virgin. Preferably a pure maiden who has never been touched by anyone.]
"What exactly qualifies as a virgin?"
[A pure woman who has never once had any romantic physical contact with a man since birth!]
"...."
Whether it was the holy sword or Solomon’s system, were these virginity-verification systems really okay like this? Meri couldn’t help but sigh, but she decided to let it slide. The important thing was that the holy sword was practically begging her, which meant Meri was, in its eyes, a genuinely pure virgin.
"One question. Is it okay if I do it with women?"
[...That’s fine! Every one of my past masters did things with women! You just have to keep your hymen intact!]
"I knew it. So as long as the hymen is technically still attached, even if it’s stretched to the absolute breaking point, I’m still a virgin? Even if a dick is pressed right up against it and cums all over it?"
[...The hymen isn’t torn, so biologically speaking she’s still a virgin, so... safe by a hair?]
Meri let out a deep sigh. This world was definitely messed up. When even the holy sword, supposedly humanity’s hope, was like this.
"Sigh. Setting aside the virginity condition, let me be honest. I can’t be your master."
[Why? I’m seriously throwing away all my old strict requirements and begging you here! Please! Be my master!]
"I’m on the demons’ side."
The holy sword’s body went rigid. Meri worried for a moment that she’d made a mistake, but she didn’t want to hide her true feelings from someone who was being sincere.
"I’m a member of the Demon King’s Army. I don’t have the right to be a holy sword’s master..."
[That doesn’t matter at all. As long as the conditions are met, celestials or demons can both become our master. We were never exclusively for humans to begin with. Humanity just claimed us as their own.]
"What? What do you mean?"
[We’ve existed since before the Zodiac Kingdom was even founded.... Oh, wait.]
In that instant, Meri got the distinct feeling that the holy sword before her was smiling.
[I’ll tell you the rest once you become my master!]
