Chapter 452: 452

The Aless army heads straight to the center of Meldora via the shortest distance .

They literally move in a straight line, not taking into consideration the terrain or the enemys defensive encampments .

Is that the enemy fortress? Celia!

Pardon me! Its the Meldora flag . Although small, I see a fence, moat, and a stone towerbeing built .

Celia climbs on my shoulders and reports back as she focuses her eyes into the distance .

If they have a stone tower, itll take some kind of plan for only infantry to bring it down . Let us convene for a war council .

Agor stares at the fort with a rather stern look .

Ah, do we really need it? They wont listen anyways .

I dont think they were responding to Tristans words, but their shouts fly back and forth from all over the place .

I can see the fort . Its one Ive never seen before!

Damn them, constructing a fort in such a place . What should we do?

Lets charge first and see what happens!

Before Agor could ask Gildress to participate in the conference, the Aless soldiers ran off .

charge and see what happens?

Dont ask me . Get Gildress to tell you afterwards .

Im not fluent in Aless language .

Once again, the Aless soldiers run straight toward the fort .

Naturally, the enemy attempts to intercept with a rain of arrows, but the Aless soldiers group up on the fly, connecting their shields tightly with their neighbors, minimizing the effectiveness of the arrows .

Theyregetting closer . Theyre on the walls nuh, it was a trap!!?

A cloud of dust suddenly engulfed the vanguard much to Agors surprise .

Apparently, there was a pitfall next to the walls .

Hahaha! They totally fell for that!

Traps are the best solution against beasts with low intelligence!

The enemys cheers can be heard from where we are .

Chaos is inescapable now that the vanguard is completely caught in the trap . Let us also move forward and patch things up!

I dont think we need to .

Tristan makes another lazy comment and the enemys cheers quickly turn to screams .

H-hey, they arent dead! Theyre climbing out of the hole!

Impossible! We dug five meters deep and even laid spears at the bottom! T-throw rocks at them! Quickly!!

In that case, my spear hiih!? Noooo! Save me! Dont take my clothes off!

The rearguard did not panic despite the vanguard dropping into the pitfall, and even they soon crawled back out and rejoined the battle .

Eei, this pile of rocks is in the way .

Are we doing this, brother!?

Some of the Aless soldiers stick their swords and shields into the ground and grab onto the stone wall with their bare hands .

Then, they start pulling out the rocks one by one, dismantling the tower .

Eventually, the tower crumbles and the enemy loses their footing .

Unable to stop the Aless soldiers with arrows, the walls get torn apart and the iron gate topples inward from the overwhelming pressure of the muscular men .

All of that happened in about one hour .

Pulling the stones out with their bare handsthis is so different from the siege battles I know

Dont think about it too much . If you dont adjust your the way you view them, itll tire you out .

Alesss attack did not stop there .

The next base is a fort stationed on a precipice of a cliff with only a single point of entrance and flaming pots of oil are being poured down the climbing path .

Its a fortified camp and its on top of the cliff . That sounds troublesome .

The fire is too strong . They have to deal with that first .

Lets see what Aless will do . I have a general idea .

Ah, I kind of expected it, but theyre climbing .

Tristan seems to have the same thinking as me .

The Aless soldiers start ascending the backward-facing cliff as a group .

Not anticipating anybody to climb up the rock face, they didnt have any defensive facilities there .

Its quite striking seeing countless macho men scale the wall .

Yeah, theres nothing more disgusting .

Rocks and other objects were being thrown out of the fortress windows, but that doesnt stop the Aless soldiers .

The fort was invaded in an instant, leading to an all-out melee, and the enemy no longer stood a chance .

It took a little longer this time . About two hours .

Ooh, my friend! Compared to your enemies, Meldora is tepid . I almost fell asleep in the middle of battle!

Gildress walks over to me carrying one woman on each shoulder, one wearing a beautiful red dress and the other wearing a white dress .

Uuuplease dont kill me .

They said the fort was impregnable sniff, sniff .

They must be the women of the head of the fort .

I direct a cold stare at Gildress .

It wont be long until we reach the center of Meldora . The opponents should get tougher . I advise you to be careful .

Gildress offers me the woman in the red dress .

Thanks for your concern . Im glad you didnt get hurt either .

I happily accepted the woman .

Gildresss words manifested in reality as the combat started to change the next day .

Guwaaaah!

They took out three people! Fall back . It came from that tiny boat!!

During what I thought would be another easy victory, a bunch of fireballs came flying from a vessel hidden by some aquatic plants in the river .

Its the familiar fireball weapon of the smaller variety .

Even the Aless soldiers, who get engulfed in flames, wont come out unscathed .

Those who can swim, circle around to the upper part of the river! Dive underwater and flip the boat from the bottom!

Gildress gives an order that wasnt an order to charge .

The Aless soldiers quickly leave their weapons and armor behind and jump into the river .

Hes a helpless idiot with a stifling presence but hes not a total moron .

He knows how best to fight when faced with an unknown situation .

Just taking off your armor is fine! Why did you have to remove your pants as well!!?

Celia yelled .

A-amazing

Agors attendant gulped . Is she going to be okay?

Mu, here comes a new opponent!!

Another ally shouted .

Our gaze shifts to the silver-colored wagon coming out of the enemy camp .

Thats a wagon no .

Agor states in confusion .

Its lacking the most important part, the horse .

Tristan comments curiously .

Right, the wheels of the silver wagon-looking thing are turning despite not being pulled by horses .

Its been one weird thing after the other .

Hey, what should we do!?

With wagons, we would usually kill the horsesnow youre saying there are no horses!? Then I dont know! Throw rocks at it or something!

For normal wagons, taking out the driver or the horses would normally be enough to stop them .

In this case, the Aless soldiers bombard the wagon with rocks from the side, but the body is durable and doesnt dent at all .

Furthermore, the horseless wagon launches fireballs at us as it approaches .

Woah! Its shooting fire!!

Eeei, annoying! What now? Should we jump on it!?

At this rate, itll encroach deep into our formation .

I look around for a solution and find a chain the enemy used to construct their large tents .

I swing the chain and throw it toward the group of Aless soldiers .

Have three people hold it and crouch down .

Yeah!!

Ill act as decoy!

Celia throws a red-painted dagger at the wagon .

It was a special one that scattered gunpowder and exploded on impact, causing a loud boom .

After the cloud of smoke dissipated, the wagon was still its usual bright silver, without a single scratch .

Nevertheless, the wagon altered its direction and chased after Celia .

Celia pretends to run away for a bit before luring the wagon back toward us .

Now!

At the signal, the Aless soldiers and I pulled the chain taut .

The wagon continued charging .

Its momentum was powerful enough to send our bodies flying .

I hung on tightly and felt my body lift up into the air, but Mack grabbed my waist .

The three Aless soldiers on the other side also dont let go of the chain although their feet left the ground .

The chain gets tangled in the wagons wheels and as it tries to keep driving forward, one of its wheels spins futilely in the air, tipping the wagon over on its side and sending it tumbling a few times before landing upside down .

No matter what kind of vehicle it is, if it has wheels, we can trip it up .

I give the spinning wheels a light kick .

After all of that, neither the wagon or the wheels broke .

This thing must also be from the Jirubiru or whatever .

In addition, the small boats carrying the weapons are capsizing due to the assault of the Aless soldiers in the water .

Although we struggled this time, we ultimately won again .

Hey man! Behind you!!

I turned around instantly at Gildresss warning and swung my Dual Crater .

It was a humongous fireball, which shattered with a soft crack disproportionate to its immense size .

No way, the fire vanished!?

Staring at me with his mouth agape was an enemy in the grass holding a spear with a rounded tip, almost like a staff .

A magic user?

My guess was wrong .

F-fire!!

Ten more enemy soldiers wielding the same spear emerged from the grass and shot at me .

Magic users are extremely rare and the magic they are capable of varies greatly .

However, what is being launched at me right now is the same kind of fireball . Thats impossible .

I dont know whats going on .

We can only press forward .

I start running and slice two fireballs in half .

My blade thrusts into the shocked soldiers forehead, and I sweep through all the way to also take out the adjacent soldier, ripping off the first guys head in the process .

At the same time, Gildress also rushes in and cuts down two soldiers, finishing off a third with an axe kick to the skull .

B-bastard!

The staff he pointed at me glowed .

But a fireball didnt come out . Thats because the staff and his severed right hand were dancing in the air .

The ones with the round tips are trouble . You cant do anything once they get close .

Following up after slicing his right hand, I also cut his head off and ruthlessly slash the back of the fleeing soldier, then ready a final swing at the fifth person .

Gildress chops through the fourth enemy soldier and his staff in one stroke and grabs the neck of the last person, ready to snap it .

Mu!

Both of us realize simultaneously that our remaining opponents were females .

Im done for mother!

I dont want to die!

I lower my weapon and soothingly pat the enemy soldiers head, urging her to abandon the staff .

Its alright now . I dont kill women .

Our voices overlap . Or was that just my ears playing tricks on me?

Calm down and surrender .

I comfort her as much as possible while disarming her and stripping her simple armor .

Ill release you soon . In exchangeokay?

I hug the woman close to my body and my hands squeeze her ass and breasts .

The battle is nearing its end . My next thought is night time fun .

UuuI knew it, Aegir-sama is going to turn into him in the future . If I dont stop him

Celia mumbles something to herself and gets distracted by the weapon dropped by the female soldier .

So this is the magic staff? Its lighter than itwah!?

All of a sudden, the staff glows and hurls a fireball in the midst of some Aless soldiers .

Dowah! What are you doing!?

Is this a roundabout way of seducing me!? In that case, I accept!

Celia used magic?

I-I dont know . All I did was grip the staff

A weapon that allows anybody to shoot magic . Thats what it seems like .

Tristan, certain the battle is over, casually appears beside us .

This is another different weapon .

If all of these are in South Yugurias possession, this doesnt bode well for us .

We have to discover a method to deal with them quickly .

A Few Days Later .

Not a chance .

No way .

Agor and I share the same opinion .

In front of us is the city of Meldora the city state which is the center of our current conflict .

The Aless soldiers, who cant simply be described by the words powerful and brave, have brought down the enemy fort and breached the defense lines to get here .

If we capture this position, Meldora is done for .

Only a few kilometers and a single imposing stone wall separates us from the enemy .

Theres nothing we can do about this .

Tristan sighs and shrugs his shoulders, spreading his hands like hes given up .

I grab his hand and pull him to the ground .

Almost simultaneously, a fireball flies above his head, soars past us and instantly disintegrates a large tree .

It makes me smile, knowing how far we came .

Countless fireballs and endless lights come at us, with a few soldiers occasionally appearing above the walls with their rounded magical staffs .

Ten Aless soldiers at a time bash the gates with a thick log, but the defense structure doesnt budge .

They must also be using the same unknown fortification method used in Trisnia .

Nuuun .

Gildress groans in frustration as no matter how strong the Aless soldiers are, it wont be a fight if they get blown away before they can get close . And even if they managed to slip past the attacks, they cant do anything against the walls that can repel cannons .

Such defenses wont crumble .

Its clear that we will get one-sidedly crushed if we attack .

Thats fine though . Our main objective is not to destroy Meldora .

Youre right . Whats important is the Jirubiru technical civilizationshistoric ruins and whether we can find it .

Nuuuuun .

Tristan says as he brushes dust off himself .

Hey, at least thank me for saving your ass .

And Gildress, shut up already .

But the origin place of such a powerful weaponsurely it will be heavily guarded . Supposing its in the middle of the city, it would be hard for us to go near

Tristan answers the concerned Agor with a joke .

No, that probably wont be the case . Were talking about ruins that existed a thousand years ago . They wont be openly displayed in the city . It would most likely be somewhere underground or another hidden areanot in the center of Meldora .

Tristan continues, his gaze moving away from the city .

The suspicious locations are the mine, the dense forest where people cant enter, and

I hear a set of cute footsteps .

It was Agors attendant, who ran over and saluted awkwardly, gasping for breath from the excessive exercise .

Shes a disguised lover, but I guess she at least fulfills her duty as an attendant as well .

I found a castle under repair on the outskirts of the city! It felt off to see guards being stationed there even though it looked like ruins of some sort!

Tristan quietly lowers his hand .

A castle or an abandoned fort?

Gildress . Stay here and continue making it look like were trying to conquer Meldora . You just have to occupy their attention until we achieve our objective .

Nuuuun!!

Unhappy that our objective wasnt to fight, Gildress let out an extra loud groan .

Night .

Now then, is it time?

Confirming that the sun has completely set, we peeked our heads out .

Next to me are Agor, Mack, Celia, who is clinging tightly to me, and behind me is Tristan, who is yawning .

The fort that Agors attendant discovered was quite unusual .

Still, half of it is an old dilapidated castle about to collapse at any time and the other half is an abandoned building under construction with its insides exposed .

Theres rubble and dirt left on the side . Not much time has passed since work was halted .

I was a little surprised by Macks voice, who I havent heard in a while .

He doesnt usually speak so it startles me when he does .

Anyways, as a military engineer familiar with public works, he must be right .

But there is one thing I cant accept .

What a tiny castle . These are the ruins of an ancient civilization?

This place would be fully packed after a few hundred soldiers enter .

It doesnt look like an important base at all .

No, it wouldnt be out in the open . Look there .

Tristan points a finger .

Guards light fires in the iron baskets, faintly illuminating the old castle in the darkness .

There is an alarm bell installed on the tops of watch towers, which when rung, could probably alert those all the way in the center of Meldora of a potential crisis .

This worn out building, uncovered and being renovated, has no military value . Yet, in a war where every soldier is precious, theyre still stationing guards here, meaning its more unusual for nothing to be here . All the clues must be here . Now, go and infiltrate the place .

Youre coming too .

I drag Tristan by the collar and approach the castle .

Alright, time to initiate the plan .

Sure

I give a half-hearted reply to Agor .

Its because I wasnt very excited about the strategy .

Itll be fine, Ill follow through! Believe in my acting ability .

Celia pulls the attendant by the collar and moves to the grass right beside the castle .

Then she pushes the attendant down into the grass with a high-spirited hmph .

Ah, no!

You came all this way, what do you mean no? Prepare yourself . Youre going to become my woman!

I cant clearly see it, but Celia is rolling around in the grass with the attendant .

D-dontlook theredont look

Spread your legs more . Ill make you feel good .

The attendants legs poke out of the grass and quickly get held down by Celias slender arms .

Her screams get gradually louder and the grass rustles more .

N-nooIm cumming!

It was when the attendant moaned especially loud .

Who is over there!? Come out!

Several soldiers guarding the old castle wave their torches in the direction of the sound .

Taking that as their cue, nearby soldiers swarm around with their spears .

I almost jumped out on instinct, but Mack bound my arms behind my back .

I guess that was according to plan . My body just moved automatically .

Is it an Aless spy!? Oh, its just a meeting between lovers

Celia submissively stands up with her hands raised .

Her chest area is greatly exposed and her pants rolled up to a risky height on her thighs .

Meanwhile, the attendant stood up blushing and hiding her breasts .

Celia really took off all her clothes .

That actually eliminated the guards wariness instantly .

They didnt shout to notify others or run to ring the alarm bell .

You two didnt watch what happened this afternoon? At least hold back a little huh, wait .

Youre both female? It was two female lovers who met secretly?

The gathered soldiers looked at each other and nasty grins formed on their faces .

This is an important place . Although this was a tryst, we cant simply let you go .

Thats right . We have to investigate you two thoroughly but gently .

Its a waste for you beauties to know only women . Let us teach you the appeal of men .

The relaxed guards reach out to grab Celia and the attendant to take them away, their eyes scanning the two womens bodies .

Of course, they arent paying attention to whats behind them .

Lets go .

Agor, Mack, and I run as softly as possible .

Making sure that the enemy wouldnt scream, I pierce the back of his head with my Dual Crater .

Agors sword slits the mans throat .

gyu!!

Slightly delayed, Macks warhammer smashes the head of the enemy .

Without a head, he cant make a sound .

That leaves only two soldiers .

Shh!!

Celia times her move with our attack, taking out a dagger hidden beyond the uncovered portion of her thigh and stabs one of the enemies in the throat, then proceeds to throw the dagger into the opened mouth of the other surprised guard .

Agguh! Agh!

Kekehahguah

It wasnt an instant kill, but they cant speak .

Agor and I slowly approach them, then deliver the final blows .

We swiftly snuff out the torches and abandon the corpses .

In the darkness, they wont be noticed . It wont be a problem if we finish up before morning .

Now, the area guarded by the five soldiers has cleared .

Infiltrating should be easy

Uuii, Im back . Where are you guys~? Dont disappear on me when Im taking a shit~

Someone appears in a place we didnt expect .

We were caught off guard after the visible enemies were killed and were spotted by this guy .

He paused briefly, stunned by what he saw, then turned his heel around and started to run .

Kuh!?

Celia reaches for another dagger and throws, but her grip was poor and it missed .

Not good, hes going to ring the alarm!

If that happens, reinforcements will come from their headquarters .

If he shouts, then all the guards nearby will surround us .

Huu someone?

The soldier inhaled deeply and was about to yell for backupbut he froze in place .

He turned back once more to look at us, tilted his head cluelessly, then scratched his cheek, leaned against the wall and began to pick his nose .

W-what happened?

Agor, who chased after him with his sword drawn despite knowing he wouldnt make it, stops running .

Mack and I exchanged glances, then I signal for Celia to stop as she adjusts her hand on her dagger .

Aaaah, what a pain . My stomach hurts too, cant this be over already?

The soldier was complaining like he lost interest in us altogether .

Upon careful inspection, there was an arrow stuck in his ass .

An incapacitating agent . It takes away the persons ability to think and induces a state of lethargy . That was close .

A shadow dashes gallantly out of the darkness and removes the hood on its head .

Flowing locks of light green hair fall softly on the persons shoulders, and the uncovered hood reveals long eyebrows, the individuals beautiful face and most notably the long ears characteristic of a certain race .

It was the elven apothecary and self-proclaimed adventurer, Natia .

I came as soon as I read your letter . Ruins of the Jirubiru civilization? I want to explore too!

Oh right, I guess I included that bit in the letter to Nonna .

Natia must have seen it by chance .

Well, you saved us, Natia .

I smile and open my arms to receive her .

S-sure . I dont know exactly whats going on, I just thought it wouldnt be possible to investigate if he caused a fuss .

I pull Natia into my chest for a casual hug .

Thinking nothing of it besides it being a greeting, she doesnt resist .

Ooh, thats hot . How nice .

The enemy who was shot in the butt stretches and comments lazily .

Will he be alright if we leave him alone until morning?

Yeah . Its effects vary depending on the persons constitution but it can last from three days to three years .

Ill consider him lucky he still has his life .

Um, youre done greeting right? Let me go already .

Natia squirms uncomfortably in my arms .

Her embarrassed face is adorable, but its her ears that are

Hham .

I cant help biting down on those things flopping in front of my face .

Hum!

For some reason, Celia bites down on the other one .

Nnaaah!?

Woah! That was louder than I expected .

hey, did you hear an erotic moan from a girl just now?

Dont be ridiculous, like a girl would ever come to a place like this . You must be backed up .

Phew, it didnt turn into anything serious .

As I cover the angry Natias mouth and comfort her, we begin to search the ancient castle .

Our desired destination was found quite easily .

Natias senses as a self-proclaimed adventurer far exceeded ours as amateurs .

We let the occasional patrolling guards pass or defeat them in order to move deeper into the castle .

This was the supply storage?

It goes right through .

The floor of the old moldy underground room had caved in .

Theres no mistake . The rubble has been moved and there are even stairs . There are also multiple traces of something heavy being dragged up carefully .

After Tristan nods contently, he moves back behind everybody .

This wind its deep . Its unusually deep .

On the contrary, Natia is at the forefront, panting and unable to hide her excitement .

I feel uneasy for a woman to be in front, but shes eager to explore, so Ill let her .

Natia sprightly leaps down the stairs, skipping two steps at a time .

She doesnt seem to have any issue not being able to watch her footing in the dark .

Obviously, we cant say the same .

Nobodys coming after us .

I look over my shoulder before lighting a torch and slowly following the leader .

The stairs seem to go on forever .

50, 100, 300, 500

Do they continue all the way to the bottom of the earth?

Aegir-sama .

Celia becomes a little anxious and clings to my arm .

I look over at Agor and his attendant is also holding onto him .

After descending over a thousand steps, the stairs end .

Lets see what we have here

I blow out the torch .

It wasnt needed anymore .

I dont believe it . The walls and floor are glowing .

Celias jaw hangs open as she remarks .

A faint light is being emitted by the wall and floor, allowing us to see even without a torch .

Is this steel? No, it cant be, there isnt any rust .

Agor also stares in amazement .

The ceiling, its high . Its at least 30 m .

The attendant is in awe as well .

The passageway is about 20 m wide and 30 m tall . I cant tell how far back it goes .

This is beyond anything I imagined .

I am also surprised .

If a civilization can create something like this underground, its no wonder such incredible weapons originated from them .

A nimble set of footsteps return to where we are .

It was Natia who preceded us .

I-its amazing . I heard rumors that said the ruins of the Jirubiru civilization were completely decayed or that it was a hoax but this is definitely the real thing . This is the first time in my 75 years that Ive seen something like this! L-lets keep going!

The ecstatic Natia jumps forward, her ears flapping rapidly to reflect her delight .

Lets continue on . Err, the centerno, the middle or whatever . Keep going in a straight line, in other words, straight aheada large distance . It looks like were still far off .

Tristan says as he stares at the characters carved in the wall with one hand keeping his book open as reference, which brings Natia running back .

You can read them, those symbols!?

Read is too much of an exaggeration . I simply compiled fragments of different books and other resources to create a limited translation table . I use that as a basis to infer the general meaning of the characters .

Thats still amazing!

Natias brings her face uncomfortably close to Tristans .

There are similar symbols over there too . Come decipher them!

Dont pull me I hate being in front by the way . Im going to die first for sure .

Damn it, Tristan . Were you aiming for Natia this whole time?

I look annoyingly at the wall .

Hm? 1400 dal straight ahead to reach the central control room? Its not hard to read at all . Natia, I can read it too!

Liar! Do this next, this one Tristan!

Lord Hardlett, lets leave it to that one called Tristan .

People are cut out for certain things .

I-I believe you, Aegir-sama!

Celia reassures me with averted eyes .

Err, admitno, authority, I guess? Humanthis is front, maybe? The limit no, it means up to this point . Defense mechanism, activation warning Im seeing unpleasant terms here .

Unauthorized persons shall not pass . If you approach the entrance any further, take caution for the activation of the defense apparatus

See, believe me . I can read it .

I know, Aegir-sama . Im on your side!!

As I tried to make my case to them, I heard scraping sounds and footsteps .

Hey, is anyone there? Its too early for a shift change .

I froze momentarily, believing it was something strange, but it was just a Meldora soldier .

I guess Ill have to appeal to them again later .