Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

Chapter 569-4: Indifferent Reign – Maintenance of Public Order 6: Four Towering Pillars

Translator: Nat

「Stop your useless resistance!」

「Those who resist or run away will be mercilessly cut down!」

Fully armed knights flood noisily into the underground.

「Rebecca, you called them? No, with how fast they got here, they must have been waiting on standby.」

The need to rampage is gone so I sit down beside the fallen boss and watch the course of events unfold.

「I-I’ll probably be hanged after being captured anyways! Uooooh!!」

One of the thugs charges at a knight with a long sword, but his attack is blocked by the knight’s steel shield and he gets sliced in the side of his torso.

Another person attempts to thrust a spear at the knight, but the spear is deflected, unable to penetrate the knight’s full-body armor, and the wielder suffers a retaliation of two swords to his shoulders that causes blood to squirt out.

「Of course. You can’t hope to win against an opponent wearing full-plate armor.」

Skill is also important, however as long as the difference isn’t as wide as that of an amateur to a master, the difference in equipment can’t be overturned.

Seeing how my assistance isn’t needed, I poke the boss’s head with my foot, thinking that it would be fine if I just stayed here.

「Wait……not yet……a bit more……now!!」

While those putting up a fight are being slain and those who surrendered are being tied with rope, a few thugs stuff something into dirty pouches.

「Hey, don’t do anything――」

「Not yet……now!!」

The knight notices those thugs and points his sword at them, but the moment he does so, the pouches are thrown.

With that said, they are merely pouches.

They aren’t flying as fast as projectiles nor are they lit on fire.

「You guys intend to resist too!?」

The knight, on alert with his sword, easily slices apart a pouch soaring in an arch in the air.

「If you don’t know what it is, dodge it. Those things are suspicious as heck.」

My hunch is correct.

As soon as the knight slices the pouch, white smoke explodes out from it.

I don’t know if it’s lime or charred remains of coal, but the pouch was filled with the white powder.

Because the knight cut open the pouch with such force, the powder is sprayed everywhere.

Worse, this is an enclosed underground space.

「Guwa, what is this!?」

「I can’t see! It’s getting in my thro- geho geho!!」

The powder spreads through the air in an instant and obstructs the knight’s vision.

「Alright, let’s run! It’s over if you get captured!」

Several people bend down and head to the stairs.

「Hoh, it doesn’t seem like they’re pure idiots.」

I whistle casually, blowing away the dust, and stand up.

However, the stairs leading to the way out is where the knights descended and I don’t think it’s possible to slip through.

「I can’t see anything. Let’s go up for now――uwah!!」

「Hey, what’s wrong!? Don’t tell me――gyan!」

I hear two metallic clanks and yelps.

Most likely, a club or stone was used to hit the knights in the head.

Although not a fatal blow, the impact and sound is enough to make them stagger for a few seconds.

The other knights become aware of the situation and try not to let the thugs escape, but with the powder adding to the already poor visibility of the full-plate armor, they have trouble seeing what’s in front of them. Furthermore, this place is too cramped for the knights to move in bulky armor and many of them bump into pillars and each other.

「……could it be they aren’t used to wearing full-plate?」

Looking closer, those guys aren’t knights of the kingdom.

Which means this is a squad directly under the minister of intelligence Rebecca, who probably have limited experience in actual fights.

「Gyaa! My leg!」

「They escaped! After them, after them!!」

The thugs spectacularly made it out.

「Well, it’s nothing to be concerned about.」

Normally, a reserve squad should be standing at the top of the staircase.

Without a smokescreen, the knights, despite being a little inexperienced, should be able to take care of them.

「Kuh, chase! I can’t believe I had the whole squad rush in and gave them an opening to exploit!」

I hear Rebecca’s voice.

My shoulders slump as I rest my head in my hand.

「You didn’t leave any outside……oh, so that’s why they were bumping into each other.」

That reminds me, Rebecca excels in espionage but she has no experience in frontal battles.

「So they’re gone. Even if we chase on horses, what can we do if they run into the woods or a swamp?」

I call over one of the flustered knights.

「Hey, there are still survivors!? Why are you making that unrefined face!? Act properly!」

I punch the knight and borrow his sword.

A short sword for indoors, this is useless.

Bring me the iron ball that snapped off.

「Hg, hgnii!」

One of the confined girls rolls the ball to me.

Sorry, that must have been heavy.

「Err, what was it like before coming down the stairs again……?」

I close my eyes and try to remember the scene……it’s blurry because I was staring at Rebecca’s ass the whole time Aldo was guiding us.

「Hurry and run after them! If those who escaped inform the other bases, the infiltration we worked so hard for will be――funya!?」

I hug Rebecca and fondle her ass.

Good, good, it’s coming back to me.

I gaze up at the ceiling and breathe steadily as I imagine the picture.

The thugs reach the top of the stairs.

They see there is no rear guard and thank their luck.

They are pretty quick-witted.

Instead of carelessly running away, they head in a direction that would be hard for pursuers to find them――

I fix my swaying gaze on a single point on the ceiling.

「I could let you guys go for making such a fine getaway.」

A girl with traces of being violated dripping down her legs is slumped in the corner of the room.

「I can’t let you stay alive after all.」

I pick up the iron ball, turn my body halfway, and pause briefly in that position.

Then I take a firm step forward.

My foot shatters the part of the brick floor I stomped on and clears away a cloud of dust around me.

「Hmp!」

My body whips around and I launch the iron ball I’m carrying toward the ceiling.

The iron ball crashes into the ceiling and keeps traveling up, burying deep into the stone.

I thought I could hear someone shriek along with the rumbling.

「Did it hit?」

「Your Majesty, what are……hie, you pierced through the ceiling!?」

Rebecca looks up just in time for the lower half of a man to rain down.

It appears my throw was on target.

The parts around the hole also crumble, dropping a man whose back is twisted in the opposite direction and a man who lost a leg.

「Did you just hit the guys who escaped through the ceiling!?」

「No way, the surface of the ceiling……isn’t it made of stone!? The thickness must be at least dozens of centimeters……you’re practically a cannon.」

From here, the gasp of surprise changes to admiration.

I close my eyes and stick out my chest proudly, waiting for the praise.

「Y-your Majesty……」

C’mon, praise me.

「Your Majesty! Your Majesty!!」

Fall in love with me over and over.

「Your Majesty! Your Majestyyyyy!!」

I don’t mind if you get turned on and want to do it right here and now.

Doing it in front of the general public might be a nice thrill.

Rebecca pulls my hand, pounds my chest to no avail, and only when she kicks me in the balls do I open my eyes and realize.

Cracks are radiating outward to the rest of the ceiling from the hole I blew open.

Unsettling creaks and rumbling can be heard throughout the underground.

A few seconds later, the cracks spread from the ceiling to the walls and a pillar crashes down.

「Oh no.」

My remark sends the knights in a panic.

「Everyone, evacuate――!!」

「Gyaaaaaa!! The place is collapsing!!」

「Run!! You’ll be buried alive!!」

「That idiot!」

The knights rush up the stairs.

Sand trickling from the ceiling makes their visibility worse, amplifying the mess.

「Don’t abandon the kids and run. At least take the girls with you, and you call yourselves knights?」

They are disappointing in many ways, I’ll have to transform into Gildress and retrain them after this.

「You girls should go quickly too. This place is caving in.」

I call out to the girls who have been hiding in the corner so as to not get involved in combat.

「Funyi……but we’re not supposed to go outside……」

「We’ll get punished……we’ll get……hurt.」

I groan.

That’s the way children who have become slaves were taught.

Things happened way too quickly and they are also too young to understand that the situation is different now.

Not only sand but small rocks are starting to fall from the ceiling.

We’re at the stage where this place will probably be buried in less than a minute.

Even if I raise my voice, they’ll just cower and be more afraid to move.

If only the knights can each just take one, but they are all prioritizing escaping themselves.

「Calm down. Your master now is that person. Your master said to go outside, so you have to go.」

There is some childishness in the voice, but it doesn’t belong to a child.

The words were calm and easy for a child to understand.

「Funyi.」

「Got it, master.」

That finally got the kids to line up and start wobbling toward the exit.

「Search the room. Don’t leave a single person behind.」

The voice speaks again.

I stare at the stairs.

「Those stupid knights better open the way. If they jam up the path――oh, they’re gone?」

I notice that the knights already finished evacuating, and only Rebecca is there carrying a weakened girl on her back and also dragging along the fainted boss. Okay, I’ll leave that to you.

「Au au, my shackles……」

「Hiiu, I’m connected to the prison……」

「We can’t open the cage.」

「I am tied to the guard……」

I run over before they can finish their sentences.

I tear apart the shackles on the girl’s feet.

I yank the chain connecting the girl to the cage, pulling out the stake that pinned her in place.

I wrench open the iron bars of the cage holding multiple people with my bare hands.

I softly pat the girl attached to the unconscious guard by handcuffs, then rip the man’s arm to free her.

That eliminates all the obstacles for them to escape.

「Everyone, time to run!」

Smoke is blurring the identity of the person, but the girls quickly follow the voice of the female to the stairs.

However it’s too late.

They are too little, they don’t have the energy and some are injured.

They are incapable of running and are moving at a snail’s pace.

「At this rate, everyone will……I can only pray for the ones who have injured their legs.」

The ceiling is on the verge of tilting all the way.

There are only a few seconds left.

I reject the words said with an air of sadness.

「I’ll do something. All of you go.」

The moment the words leave my mouth, the ceiling comes crashing down.

They couldn’t escape in time.

「Your Majesty, this is the end! Please save yourself!」

Rebecca shouts, with the girl and boss in hand.

「No, It’s not over!」

I raise my arms above me like I’m cheering and catch the falling stone slab.

I support the load heavy enough to compress my arms down to my feet with all of my muscles.

「Hnrrggh!」

Flesh tears, bones creak, and I see hallucinations of blood boiling.

「Your Majesty――!!」

Rebecca’s scream trails off.

It’s not because I was flattened. It’s because I stopped the ceiling from falling.

「Gu……fufu, it was hard at first, but now it’s nothing. So light――hrgh!」

I lied, it’s in fact really heavy.

It’s more straining than my grappling match with Gildress.

Naturally, it is to be expected of stone that is dozens of centimeters thick.

Yet still, I put on a reassuring smile and jerk my chin to urge the children to run.

「C’mon now. Slowly, make sure not to trip.」

A boy carrying a young girl on his back joins hands with girls bound together by fetters, and a girl whose tendons in her leg have been cut bows and politely passes under my arm.

I hear my right arm make a weird crack noise.

Trying to compensate by shifting my weight only makes a weird noise come from the left arm.

The funny face I end up making by hiding my pain unintentionally makes the kid being piggybacked grin.

Alright, everyone is out.

Good, I held on.

「The question is what should I do now.」

I can’t escape like this. With that siad, I’ll be instantly squashed if I ease up.

Rebecca is looking at me in concern.

Of course, she can’t do anything to help.

「What are you doing, Your Majesty……this dull and boring place. Risking your life here……if I knew, I would not have infiltrated-」

「Don’t say that. If I wasn’t here, all the kids here would have died. It was not a bad decision.」

This reminds me of the final scene of an adventure drama where the protagonist dies.

「No, if Your Majesty didn’t open a hole in the ceiling, this would never have happened.」

「……I guess you’re right.」

If I died, it would be a comedy.

I can’t die for the sake of a few laughs.

What words bring out the most strength?

「It’s irritating. Disgusting. And frankly ugly. But in order to bring forth the power, I have to use it.」

I inhale deeply.

「Manly――!!」

「Power――!!」

Almost like he was summoned by my call, a mass of muscles emerges.

「That was a wonderful yell! I have certainly received the cry of your manly soul!!」

It was Gildress.

He adopts the same pose as me and supports the ceiling.

The ceiling is lifted slightly.

「I thought someone was keeping a lion underground, I didn’t expect the general to be there.」

Yakov slides in.

「Any dark-skinned……nope, just kids. Too bad.」

Mack’s giant body also jumps in.

Now the ceiling is visibly being pushed up.

「Heh, real heroes come late……uwaaaah!」

Christoph runs in, trips on a piece of debris and tumbles down the stairs, bumping his head and knocking himself out as he slides all the way to my feet. I lose a bit of strength and the ceiling lowers.

「Aegir-sama, I found you! The lecture can wait!」

Celia jumps down adorably and stretches up to prop up the ceiling but it’s too high for her no matter how much she hops up and down to reach it.

Nonetheless, her voice was enough for me to exert force beyond my limits.

She’s useful unlike Christoph.

Everyone roars as the underground room is destroyed.

Once the crashing ends and the dust settles, only we are left standing with the ceiling slab over our heads.

To be precise, Christoph is lying under us and Celia is also here hopping.

「This is what I call a sturdy manly pillar!!」

Gildress’s bellow shook the ground as sunlight peeked through the collapsed ceiling.