I Was Connected to Earth’s Black Market From Another World With The Skill [Market]! (WN)

Chapter 257

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Chapter 257 – The Battle is Deep in the Enemy’s Line

The test firing of the KPV, which had been expected, took place. The available weapons and ammunition were fully loaded, checked for safety, and placed in various locations. The firearms were handled by the Prince and the shrine maidens from inside the Casspir, while I handled the others outside the vehicle. There was only one thing left to do before the collision.

“You said the shrine maidens were behind the enemy lines on the left, right?”

“”””Yes.””””

“Do you know how many there are?”

“”””Three people.””””

…Are there that many?

I wondered if it made sense to take them out at all, even as a substitute for a communicator, but then I reconsidered whether mutual contact was necessary to supplement their position and coordinate the large army.

We have to rescue them before we start shooting at them; that’s what we have to do. As expected, there’s no way to get them involved.

“Well then, do you know where Kaienholt is?”

The shrine maidens shake their heads in confusion.

“Can’t you find him… is he hiding with magic or something?”

The girls shake their heads in confusion.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t know; it’s not like that.”

One of the calmest shrine maidens answers me.

Well… this girl is probably Milian. I recognize her, not by her figure, but by the small traces of blood on her clothes.

“We know, but…”

“”””He’s everywhere.””””

The shrine maidens cried in unison, their expressions grave.

“”””Nobody, nowhere.””””

Huh? What is it? A quantum Demon King? Like Schrodinger’s Demon King or something?

I’m a liberal arts major, so I don’t know much about it.

“Prince, what does it mean?”

“I don’t know. I feel something like Kaienholt probing us, but I can’t pinpoint its location either.”

“…..?”

Well, never mind. I don’t know, but it’s a basic rule for working people to deal with piles of problems from the most urgent and important ones, including the ones that can be cleaned up.

“I’ll go with the teleport and get the shrine maidens. Mir.”

Nojaloli-san jumps onto my back and puts her hands around my neck. It’s soft and light, but strangely, there’s not the slightest sign that it will fall off.

“Umu. Leave it to me to find the shrine maiden, grab her, and support her. You can do whatever you want.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Teleportation is convenient, but I can only fly as far as I can see and only in a straight line. If there is a barrier or obstacle along the way, I will crash into it. Although it is far from a universal device, as Myrril-san said, when it comes to battle, I have no choice but to fight with the weapons I have at hand.

I make eye contact with the person in question. She smiles broadly.

“Both your power and mine have their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. But the bottom line is that you have to use them. With the two of us, we can do anything!”

“All right, let’s go!”

In the first airborne teleport, we closed the distance, and in the second, we descended to the roof of a group of box carriages that looked like a transportation corps. The Imperial troops seem to have stopped, but there is no indication that they have seen our air teleport.

“They are lazy, even though they are about to meet the enemy.”

The soldiers, including the lookouts, all stare listlessly at the area to the west. There was bustle, shouting, and the sight of soldiers running around. The distance between the soldiers prevented me from seeing the details of the situation, but from the sight of soldiers’ lower bodies being carried out through the crowd and the charred wreckage of the carriages, you can probably guess what I saw.

“Is that where the KPV landed?”

“It looks like it. From north to south, dozens of people lie dead or wounded. This is the true face of the ‘Atrocious Magician.'”

It’s hard to react with such glee when someone says something like that, but if it was that test shot that stopped the enemy’s advance, then the result was fine. Let’s achieve our goal while we’re at it.

“Myrril, where’s the shrine maiden?”

“Over there. See that four-horse cart?”

“The one with the red cloth over the back half?”

“Yes, that’s it. They’re rolled onto the back of that cart.”

I nodded at Myrril’s whisper and teleported to the back of the cart. An Imperial soldier crouched, perhaps guarding or escorting the shrine maiden. The enemy soldier, who was either asleep or showed no sign of raising his head, was quietly shot with a Sturm Ruger Mk2.

“…Who?”

A shrine maiden wakes up and looks at us in response to a crumpled presence.

“We are here to help you on behalf of Prince Haidar. Are you hurt?”

“Prince?”

Oh, she is dressed in white and speaks like a shrine maiden. This is the shrine maiden.

“Can you take two more?”

“No problem. Come on, this way. It’ll just take a little patience.”

With a look of uncertainty on her face, the shrine maiden was pulled toward Myrril. When asked for the location of the nearest shrine maiden, the answer was that she was in the deepest part of the main camp. She was tied up next to the commander of this strike force.

“I wonder if we’re in the wrong order to retrieve her.”

“Maybe, but it’s too late now. I don’t see the shrine maiden, but I do see the main camp. The red flags are lined up there.”

The location of the main camp was about a kilometer behind the right flank of the vanguard. The main camp is, of course, about a kilometer behind. There appears to be a palanquin protected by a shield that looks like a mobile impulse stand.

“Before we go any further, let me ask you where the other one is.”

“More, much more, over there.”

“Are there any signs?”

“White tent.”

It seems to be the far end of this large force. I looked in the direction the shrine maiden pointed, but all I could see were soldiers and horses. I don’t know how many miles away they are, but I can’t see a white tent, not even a shadow of it.

“Yoshua, after we take these two, we will go up to the sky. While we are falling, we will find the place.”

“Sky… falling?”

The shrine maiden looked at us alternately with a worried look on her face. I was worried, too, but I had to calm her down with a smile.

“Don’t worry, we will bring you back safe and sound.”

I also removed her shackles and let her know that she was now free.

“Eh, this is…”

“Let’s make this quick and get to the others. The four shrine maidens and the Prince and the twins are waiting for you.”

The girl nodded, and Myrril held her in one hand.

Jumping to the top of the palanquin, I saw a tall man sitting on his haunches, shouting at his subordinates. He must be the commander.

“There’s no time to clean up your incompetence! Start marching now!”

“Shut up!”

I shot him in the eye and kicked him down as he bent over. I rescued the shrine maiden who was chained with a collar at his side, leaving his subordinate who remained rigid. After removing the collar and shackles, I set her free, entrusting her to Myrril. There was a gasp from the two shrine maidens, but time was short, and the follow-up would have to wait.

“Now… Shh!”

When the subordinate, who seems to have recovered from his stiffness, almost lets out a warning cry, I shoot him right in the eyeball. A pheasant would not be shot if it did not scream.

I also placed a napalm IED with a shock fuse in the commander’s chair and let the corpse sit down. After detonating several grenades, a soldier shouts from behind a pulse stand. I can hear them searching for someone.

“Ready to go, Mir?”

“I’m ready.”

Looking up, I move into the sky and slowly descend, searching for a white tent.

“There it is.”

Myrril pointed at the tip of her finger next to my face, and sure enough, I could see what looked like a white tent…

“Scary…!”

As we fell from several hundred feet, both the shrine maidens and I screamed.

“What are you doing, Yoshua? Hurry up and jump again.”

“”A-ah…””

When we landed on the side of the white tent with the teleportation, the two shrine maidens were shaking their heads in fear.

“I’m sorry. I’ll take you to a safe place right away.”

“Yoshua, you too. Get down.”

We hid behind a nearby wooden box.

Soldiers were constantly coming in and out of the big white tent. They were busy working at the end of the line, wearing military uniforms, but their physique was that of civilians, and they were armed only with daggers. From the wooden boxes and wagons that surrounded the tent, I judged that they must have been supply or relief troops.

“And the shrine maiden?”

“By the looks of it, she’s not here…”

“”Inside the white tent.””

With trembling voices, the two shrine maidens pointed. Although they were civilian officials and rear troops, there were more than ten of them at a glance.

Do we have no choice but to kill them? Or can we stop them? They weren’t a frontal force, so I didn’t want to take them out if I could help it.

“Yoshua!”

Myrril tapped me on the chest with a hand from behind.

“I know what you thought when you saw them, but it’s impossible. You said there were only two ways.”

Yes, kill your enemies or have your friends killed.

I didn’t grow up. I did not learn. Even though we were in the rear, we were in the middle of an army that was trying to kill us, hundreds and thousands of times our own strength.

“I understand. I’ll be right back, so please protect them.”

“…I trust you.”

Myrril, unusually, decided not to accompany me. In a heavily shielded environment, it is impossible to close the distance by teleporting. It would be risky and pointless to enter with the three of them on my back.

I stepped into the tent with my MAC10 with a sound reducer. The location of the shrine maiden was immediately apparent.

She was chained to a stake in the corner of the tent where the soldiers were standing and working. There was a collar around her neck. I realized how foolish I was when I saw her face swollen as if she had been beaten.

“You bastard!”

A short, ugly man who seemed to be a superior officer turned his head toward me, and the surrounding Imperial Army soldiers all looked back at me. The number of them was 17.

“…The Demon King has arrived.”

I laughed. I felt a churning in my stomach. For the weak who oppressed the powerless. And at myself for foolishly trying to show them mercy.

“Wha, bfuhh.”

The ugly man’s head exploded. He had been hit by a .45 caliber pistol bullet, and blood and brain fluid splattered the inside of the tent. The soldiers were unaccustomed to warfare, and their reactions were sluggish. They did not reach for the dagger at their waists but for the papers, pens, and oil lamps nearby. They probably don’t know what to do with them.

As I mowed them down with full automatic fire, the seventeen men collapsed in a heap, standing on sticks. The lamp fell and broke, and the oil ignited a nearby document. Immediately, flames rose and began to scorch the tent.

I stopped the shrine maiden, who was about to scream, with my hand and removed her collar and shackles with my hand.

“I am here to help. Your fellow shrine maidens are outside. Can you stand?”

“Help?”

“I’ll get you to a safe place in a minute. Come on.”

I helped her up and left the tent.

The two shrine maidens were protected by Myrril, who was watching the area with a UZI in his hand.

“Sorry to keep you waiting… Oooh!”

Behind Myrril, a mushroom-like firestorm erupted a few hundred meters away, and after a short delay, a fierce hot wind descended upon the area. Finally, the soldiers in the main camp were bitten by the IED trap. The unquenchable flames spread to the surrounding wagons and supplies, causing more damage than expected.

“All right, we’re leaving soon. Everyone, I need you all to stay together in one place.”

“””Yes.”””

The girls, perhaps accustomed to being told what to do, quickly gather in a hug. Myrril holds the three in her arms and helps me secure them.

“We will return immediately. If you’re afraid, just close your eyes for a while.”

“””Yes.”””

The oasis is still beyond the horizon, or perhaps not in my field of vision. The shrine maidens, who were tense, were lifted up by Myrril, and we teleported into the air for a long distance. As we fell, I made a second airborne teleport. We went a little too high, but with the third teleport, we arrived at Casspir’s side.

“I’m back, Prince!”

“Yes!”

“Take care of the girls. We’ll be on the lookout for any enemy attacks…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Myrril bracing herself, and I look back to the south. The distance to the Imperial Army must still be several kilometers. I don’t think there is any situation that would cause her to be so alarmed.

In the middle of the enemy line, which is still just a speck on the horizon, a huge shadow rose.

“What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, but that’s…”

The now seven shrine maidens (plus two former shrine maidens as guards) all let out a small scream.

“The Demon King, the presence is growing!”

The Prince’s voice gave me an inkling of the worsening situation. The shadow slowly looked at me. A huge horizontal crack ran across the place like a raised face. It looked like a mouth with a smile on it.

The twin guards looked at me. The seven shrine maidens nodded to no one.

“”As I thought, there he is. He noticed us. That’s…””

“””””””Demon King.”””””””