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After the meal, we had a meeting with the feudal lord of Ra.n.a.litta, Afule.
Keeping Ellen with me, I returned Setsuna and the others to their room.
Our current agenda is not about a.s.saulting the Dioral Castle tomorrow, but about what should happen after defeating the Dioral king.
The world isn"t so sweet to make everything go well after defeating a great evil. Rather, what should happen after defeating him might be more troublesome.
Exactly because the Dioral Kingdom exists, people were able to maintain peace, without warring against other humans. … I don"t want to recognize it, but this is the truth.
Without the pressure of a powerful ruler like the Dioral Kingdom, it"s clear that people with strong desires will begin acting violently. That"s not a problem that falls within just one or two countries. With one wrong step, wars will probably spread throughout the world like flames.
Humans are greedy. I know that more than anyone.
If you expect good intentions from people or expect people to have a sense of reason, the only thing that awaits you is destruction. After the Dioral king is defeated, we need something to hold down these greedy people.
For that, we have a plan to immediately enthrone Freya and make a Reborn Dioral Kingdom.
Although it"ll be the Reborn Dioral Kingdom, the Dioral Kingdom will still remain.
Since we can"t be as reckless as the current Dioral Kingdom, people will eventually underestimate it and the control won"t work, but it"ll buy time.
However, very many problems occur from doing that.
After using his black power in public, the Dioral king killed all the va.s.sals that opposed him. The remaining few people broke away one after the other, leaving the Dioral Kingdom.
… Its function as a country is already broken. Apparently, they can"t even collect tax or execute the law.
Even if Freya is enthroned, the Dioral Kingdom wouldn"t have any proper management because of its extreme shortage of capable people. Taking people from other countries would be necessary. However, finding humans that are trustable is very hard.
Feudal lord Afule a.s.serted that he would cover that part.
As the feudal lord of Ra.n.a.litta, he has influence across places all over.
The conversation unexpectedly proceeded smoothly.
Ellen opens her mouth.
"We need a method to hold down the other countries. The Reborn Dioral Kingdom that loves peace will eventually allow the opposition of other countries with strong desires. … The current Dioral Kingdom"s support requests that are close to begging, is an excellent system in its own way. It moderately holds down other countries, exhausts them and steals their remaining war power. Since the Reborn Dioral Kingdom will have to protect its clean impression, it will be tough, since we can"t copy that. This is troubling." (Ellen)
She"s thinking the same thing as me.
Ellen also feels that it"s insufficient to just set princess Flare and I in high positions to create the Reborn Dioral Kingdom.
"I agree. The Dioral Kingdom"s begging was due to selfishness, but it excellently performed the task of pulling out the sprouts of revolt." (Kearuga)
To protect humanity from demons, the Dioral Kingdom collected funds, resources, capable people and techniques from every single country.
It made sense for that to happen because they need to uphold peace.
By doing that, it created a situation where other countries can"t revolt.
"What about this? We declare 『Humanity should take each other’s hands. The Reborn Dioral Kingdom declares that they will eradicate war for the sake of peace. We will hand down the iron hammer of justice to the country that caused the war, the Dioral Kingdom.』We can deter revolts by displaying our power. With three heroes, we can surpa.s.s a whole army." (Kearuga)
"We would be beaten by multiple other countries with one mistake, but it seems we have no choice but to go that route. … Once the Dioral Kingdom belongs to Kearuga-niisama, I would want to instigate a country from somewhere to rampage, and then crus.h.i.+ngly defeat them as an example of what happens if they oppose you, Kearuga-niisama. Stupid people will not understand through just words." (Ellen)
Ellen smiles sweetly.
That gesture was too much of a mismatch with her words, that it"s bizarre.
Feudal lord Afule has a stiff expression.
"… I should make sure to not make you guys my enemies no matter what. Although you are extreme, I can cooperate as long as it"s rational and our interests match." (Afule)
"Feudal lord Afule, I cannot forgive people that steal from me, but you wouldn"t be able to steal anything from me." (Kearuga)
That"s my rule.
To the end, I"m only a person that takes revenge, and I need to be right.
Otherwise, I would become the same as those pieces of trash.
"Hero of【Healing】, Kearu-sama, I understand what we will do from now on, but how do you plan to a.s.sault the royal castle with such a small amount of people?" (Afule)
"We"re going to break in through the royal castle"s escape route. In a royal castle, there are always hidden escape routes to let the royalty escape, no matter what. It is the same for the Dioral castle too. And princess Flare, who is royalty, knows of that escape route." (Kearuga)
… To be exact, it"s me who knows about it, since I got it from Freya"s memories with【Recovery Heal】.
I erased her own memories, so she doesn"t remember it.
If we go through the escape route, we can sneak into the royal castle with minimum waste.
"Would it not be dangerous? The Dioral king is fully aware that princess Flare is accompanying you, so he should be guarding the escape route." (Afule)
"He probably is. However, a king shouldn"t want anyone to know about the escape route, even his own soldiers. Even if he does dispatch soldiers, he would only place a few, trustworthy soldiers. On top of that, the width of the escape route is narrow, so the soldiers under the king"s control can"t use numbers to their advantage. It"s several dozen times safer than cutting across the castle town and pa.s.sing through the gate." (Kearuga)
Ellen nods beside me.
This is something we have already discussed thoroughly.
"I see, now that you mention it, you are completely right. I have one more concern. There is no proof that the Dioral king is in the castle. There is no point in occupying the castle without being able to defeat the Dioral king." (Afule)
I make a small smile.
Feudal lord Afule has a fundamental misunderstanding.
"That is wrong. My number one priority is to destroy that absurd forbidden spell before the【Philosopher"s Stone】reaches him. If he activates the forbidden spell, that’s the end. Fortunately, moving the device to activate the forbidden spell is impossible. The fact that it has to stay in the Dioral castle is a major point. If I just destroy the forbidden spell, we can deal with the Dioral king afterwards." (Kearuga)
It"s not that threatening if there are only black knights, same for the Dioral king himself.
And although I didn"t say it aloud, it would be impossible for the Dioral king to be absent.
The Dioral king is fixated on a certain forbidden spell, so it"s impossible for him to leave the royal castle in this situation.
"Certainly. … I am still inexperienced. I had overlooked the first priority. Hero of【Healing】, Kearu-sama. I am carrying out things that I can do in my own way. Like an ordinary person, I will tread on the ground and support you people. So, please save this country, no, humanity." (Afule)
"Please leave it to me. I am a hero after all." (Kearuga)
After confirming a few more things, we ended our meeting.
I"ll go back to my room and sleep restfully.
I gave them plenty of love in the bath so I won"t have any more s.e.x with Freya and the others.
The next morning, we eat breakfast, come out of the residence and leave the town.
While we were leaving Ra.n.a.litta, many people sent cheers to us.
It"s been a while since I experienced such a hero-like event.
In the first world, I experienced various things because I was like an extra of Flare and the others, but I had almost none in the second world.
The only one I can remember is when princess Flare came to pick me up, and everyone in the village sent me off.
"Kearuga-sama, I received strength from everyone"s cheering." (Freya)
"Nn. Setsuna is into it now." (Setsuna)
"I feel like I don"t want to lose from the bottom of my heart." (Kureha)
"Kearuga-niisama is very popular." (Ellen)
"Guren prefers meat over cheers." (Guren)
Everyone had their own thoughts, and are making good faces.
We meet up with the dragon knights outside of the town and straddle the dragons.
"Did you replace the dragon?" (Kearuga)
It"s not the dragon that took care of us for two days.
Its face and size are different.
"You realized well. The truth is, this guy was selfishly saying that he wants Kearuga-sama to ride him. He must have wanted to repay you." (Dragon Knight)
"ＧＲＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹＹ" (Dragon) (TL Note: Actually says this in the raws)
The dragon roars.
Guren"s fur stood on end from surprise, as she had transformed into her kitsune cub state.
"We"re the ones that want to thank you for looking after us. I"m counting on you for this last job." (Kearuga)
Instead of a reply, the dragon spreads its wings.
Rather than words, it’s talking to me with actions.
I don"t hate that kind of thing.
The dragon powerfully flaps its wings and flutter about in the sky.
… Once this battle ends, I would like to ride it as a rider, instead of being a guest.
I would probably be able to fly through the sky well with this guy.
The dragons flutter about in the sky.
And then, they go past the Dioral Kingdom.
The destination is past it.
The Dioral Kingdom has a gigantic waterfall behind it, and we have the dragons let us off there.
Walking through the forest near the waterfall, I dig the roots of a plain, large tree and find a cover with a handle that was ingeniously hidden.
I unlock it with alchemy magic and step into the underground entrance.
The exit of the hidden pa.s.sage is on the other side of the waterfall, where tremendous splashes of water occur in front of me.
And on the opposite side, there"s a tunnel that continues to the castle.
"Kearuga-sama, I am surprised it comes out to a place like this, that connects to the castle"s underground." (Freya)
"It"s the royalty"s emergency escape route. They devoted schemes to make it not able to be found." (Kearuga)
They use escape routes when the castle is about to fall.
Even if pursuers from the castle find the escape route, they would only think you jumped off the waterfall.
In reality, they actually don"t suspect that there"s a hidden route to the forest from here.
For that sake, they have multiple splits in the hidden route.
"Guys, don"t separate from me no matter what happens. There are so many splits from here that it"s shocking. The routes other than the correct ones are storms of instant death traps." (Kearuga)
This is a standard trick for escape routes.
It buys time and decreases the number of enemies by creating a mountain of splits and traps.
To protect the lives of the royalty, the best engineer in this age made many traps with the best of his abilities. If I challenged it properly, it"s questionable whether even I would make it out safely.
Incidentally, the alchemist that made this escape route was killed by the king.
The reason is simply that he knew all the correct routes and traps.
Fortunately, princess Flare"s memories were correct, as we haven"t seen a single trap even after walking for thirty minutes.
"Kearuga-niisama, it’s amazing how you found out a top secret of the Dioral Kingdom." (Ellen)
"It was hard, but I got it somehow. Well, I thought we could preserve our power until we reached the castle without meeting any enemies, but it doesn"t seem like it will go that way. One of my colleagues seems to have appeared." (Kearuga)
Even the designer was killed to protect the secret of the designer, but my hope of the king not dispatching soldiers to protect the secret was naive.
Living corpses wrapped up in a black haze are obstructing the path.
There"s nothing to worry about for secrets to the black knights. Since he has absolute control over them, the secret wouldn"t leak outside.
And the reason I said colleague, is because the opponent is a hero.
On that conspicuously standing out, muscular giant"s hand, the crest that signifies he"s a hero is still s.h.i.+ning, even after being engulfed in darkness.
"Guren, lend me your flames. He"s a formidable enemy." (Kearuga)
"Can"t be helped, Guren will lend you her power. Goshujinsama really can"t do anything without Guren." (Guren)
While complaining, Guren"s flames engulf my sword.
The weapon the hero in front of me specializes in is the axe.
He"s the hero of the【Axe】, huh.
This will probably be just right for warming up.
If I can"t easily beat one immortal hero that lost his sense of reason, I can"t beat the hero of the【Gun】who retained his sense of reason while being immortal.
I"ll instantly kill him and get some confidence.
Grasping my burning sword tightly, I strongly step forward.