Read Novel Full Chapter 399 & Chapter 400
Chapter 399 & Chapter 400
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Chapter 399 – Burning Fort
“Thank you for your hard work, Captain Rinko. I’m going to take a look around town, so could you wait for me there?”
“Roger.”
“Well then, Marquis Yerkel. We’re going to scout around the castle walls.”
“If it’s no problem, I’d like to go too. I can get around on my own, so I won’t be a burden to you.”
I see; the Marquis can fly. I feel that flying magic, which can be used for aerial reconnaissance, is more convenient than teleportation, which can only connect two points. However, I probably wouldn’t be able to use it.
“As the ruler of a kingdom, is that possible?”
“Well, it could become a detached territory of the Demon King’s territory of Casemaian, or it could become a republic, or a free trade port, or a joint administration. I have no intention of interfering or obstructing, but in any case, it is a key point that the kingdom should also keep an eye on.”
Myrril nods.
“Everything is as the Demon King wishes.”
“No, don’t throw that back at me. I’m not the one who needs a coast for Casemaian.”
It’s three hundred miles from Casemaian, with the Dark Forest – the territory of the magical beasts – in between. It’s four hundred and eighty kilometers, so it’s not very easy to use it like this. Or rather, it’s impossible. It’s too far away to be an independent territory, so it can’t be used.
“It depends on where the largest power currently controlling this area is.”
There was a cough from somewhere, and something fidgeted in the Marquis’ pocket.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot, but I was holding this for you.”
The Marquis handed over the “Sword of the Blood Oath” that Surz had dedicated to Mead.
“It seems to be trying to tell us something, so Lord Rui asked me to give it to you.”
I see. I also brought the scroll that makes Mead visible to everyone but me.
I understand that, but even if it’s a spirit, it’s not good to have it in a woman’s cleavage. When the sword was handed over to me, the ghost of the bald old man who was only visible to me appeared, but he was also very embarrassed.
“What’s wrong, Mead? I saved the people of Surz.”
“Yes, thank you, brother. I feel bad for depending on you so much.”
“It’s too late for that. If there’s anything, just say it.”
“I have a strange feeling about about half of the people who were crammed into the gun emplacement. It’s like they’re all connected somehow.”
I only know what a “Magic Compression Gun” is from its name, but I think it uses the collected magic power as a warhead. The thirty-two people from Surz were tied to the magic circle as a source of supply for it. If there’s something connected to that sacrifice, there’s no need to think about it.
“It is an external power source for the backup. But it’s not electricity.”
“Yoshua, what’s wrong?”
I explained to Myrril and the Marquis in simple terms what I heard from Mead.
“Mead, do you know where the people who are being held, other than in the gun emplacement, are?”
“I can tell you roughly where they are.”
“Hey!”
I feel my blood drain as he points to the tower that collapsed from the frigate’s bombardment.
“It’s okay, brother. There’s nobody in that building. It’s just connected to this place.”
When I told her this, the Marquis Yerkel nodded as if she understood.
“I see. There is a flow of magical power centered on this building. It seems that there was a mechanism to send the collected magical power to the magical compression cannon.”
The Marquis pointed to the white-walled buildings near the castle walls. Three locations: north, south, and west. So, is the magic power collected from there and sent to the cannon on the east side?
“This is bad. It’s my fault, but I cut off the flow of magic power connected to the people of Surz before sending it to the ship. The fact that the people controlling those ‘bound’ people were exposed to the people in the gun emplacement.”
“I see. But it’s too late now. After blowing up the spire in the center of the fortress, there’s nothing left to do but wait for the enemy to attack.”
I smile and call Mead.
“So where do we go first?”
“Are you going to help?”
“Of course I will. This is the Demon King’s war now.”
Chapter 400 – The Silent City
“Yoshua-dono, I need to check something out, so I’ll go first. Let’s meet at the western building at the far end.”
“I understand. Are you sure you’ll be okay without an escort?”
“I may not be as good as you, but I can still protect myself. Just in case, I’ll give you this.”
Marquis Yerkel handed me a scroll with the formula for a teleportation spell and jumped off the city wall.
I looked over to see if she was going to jump and saw her flying nimbly over the rooftops. She wasn’t as fast or agile as the winged races, but she was quite agile and fast. The little elf Hjelmar also flew low…
“Could it be that flying with magic doesn’t allow you to fly high?”
“The higher you fly, the more magic you use. But the Marquis’ low flying is inconspicuous. If it were enemy territory, they might shoot you with an arrow.”
I see. It’s like the terrain-following flight of military aircraft in my former world.
“Are there any enemy soldiers positioned inside the castle walls?”
“No, there are no enemy soldiers. There are no commoners either.”
After all that cannon fire, when the tower of the castle in the center of the city is blown up, the only thing to do is to run or hide. And there is nowhere for the people of this city to run to.
“Myrril, take this.”
I ask Mirill to put the “Sword of the Blood Oath” that Mead has enshrined―or rather, possessed―into her bag. I tried to put it in my bag, but it disappeared without a sound or a trace. Now Mead lies in the air, floating slightly out of her backpack.
There is no tension.
“Brother, be careful. That whitewashed building is probably a military facility.”
“I know.”
The gun emplacement on the city wall we are now on faces the sea and is on the east side when viewed from the center of the city. As Marquis Yerkel said, the buildings housing the people being exploited for their magical energy are to the north, west, and south. After listening to Myrril and Mead’s opinions, I decided to investigate the building closest to us, in the north.
“Sending magical energy to the gun emplacement is fine, but why from so far away?”
“I don’t know.”
“And why gather them all in the center of the city? Wouldn’t it be better to send them directly to the gun emplacement?”
That’s true. Is there a reason for that? It’s like in my former world, where you have to go through a substation to get to the power plant.
Me and Mead, not being from that world, don’t really understand magic, and even from an engineer’s point of view, Myrril says that sending magic over long distances is inefficient because it’s attenuated.
“If there’s no problem sending it from a distance, then there’s no need to stuff people into the cannon… Hmm?”
Myrril-san looks somber as if she thinks the story might be the other way around.
“The other way around, you mean…”
“At first, they sent magic power from a distant source, but it didn’t reach well or the efficiency didn’t improve, so they ended up stuffing the ‘magic power source’ directly into the cannon… or something like that.”
That’s possible, but I have a bad feeling about it. More specifically, it’s an uncivilized solution that makes up for inefficiency, lack of technology, and intelligence by wasting resources. In that case, would they have kept the old supply lines?
I don’t know if it was done by the Emperor’s order or by his vassals acting on their own in the Imperial Capital, but it seems that the general populace became the energy that summoned the heroes from another world. It’s possible that the same thing happened here, and in any case, if we’re going to open the city as “Demon King of Casemaian,” we need to understand the situation.
“What we want is a port, not a city. Wouldn’t it be better to just give it to the Republic or the Kingdom?”
Myrril, who had been looking at me, nodded with a clouded expression.
“I feel the same way. Well, if there’s something we can throw at them, then so be it.”
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