Arc 27: The Reverse World
Chapter 292: The Third Day, Evening till Night
「... no other moves」(Doran)
Once Doran-san says that in resignation, the Paluf camp stands up from the audience seats and raises cheers of joy all at once.
Before anyone knew it, everyone from Paluf is now pping hands with no reserve with the Boy King’s elder sister, Princess Lucienna, and the King of Rynie next to them.
As for Rachel, she begins to cry like a broken dam, so her father, Duke Rembrandt, soothes her. Is she crying because she’s that d that her fiance (the Paluf king) is victorious?
The person himself leans his whole body against the chair with a nk face, lookingpletely exhausted. It’s the feeling anyone gets when they did all what they could without holding back. He’s a kid, so it probably can’t be helped.
Meanwhile, Doran-san folds his arms, sighs heavily, and closes his eyes in apparent regret.
It was certainly bad luck for him to be defeated, but he’s still the runner-up in this tournament. I believe that he’s plenty amazing, but he probably has things to think through.
「... at the beginning of a year」
「Eh?」
Doran-san opens his eyes and starts talking quietly to the boy king in front of him. Thetter than affixes his sitting posture in panic, likely in response to Doran-san’s approach.
「We’ll be holding a shogi tournament in the town of Leaflet at the beginning of the year. Won’t you participate in it as well? The tournament that time won’t be in a showy festival like this one here though. How about we settle our score at that time?」(Doran)
「Ah... ye-YES! Let’s do this again another time!」(Ernest)
Doran-san then presents his hand, which the boy, Er, strongly grips.
You don’t know this Doran-san, but you’ve just gone and invited the king of a whole country in your hometown.
Still, it seems to me that a mysterious bond was born between those two people during their confrontation, a bond that doesn’t differentiate between age or social standing. I probably should lend the badge for the time of the tournament in Leaflet as well.
In any case, the long battle is now settled. The assembly will thus be switched to the award ceremony as it is, and I will present each contender with a shield and amemoration medal, just like the time with the baseball tournament.
An overall champion is Er Palus, who’s King Ernest of Paluf. The runner-up is Doran-san from Leaflet. Third ce goes to a man from among themon folk who has be victorious by his own sheer will.
Each one of them has a shining medal hanging from the necks. The King of Paluf has his made of orichalcum. He then holds it and gazes at it with sparkling eyes.
He must be greatly overjoyed. This medal is a proof he didn’t borrow anyone’s power and attained a championship with just his own power. Now he can be confident in his own strengths at least a little bit.
「Congrattions on your victory」
「Aah, thank you very much! I’ll treasure this for the rest of my life!」
Above all, he has received it with pleasure.
The award ceremony finishes, and everyone starts leaving the stage when Rachel runs up very fast, thrusts herself at Er and clings to him. Uooo.
「You did it! I-I believed that Er can win!」(Rachel)
「He.... R-Rachel, it’s painf...」(Ernest)
Gyuuu~! The boy king’s face bes blue in response to Rachel clinging to him in delight. Yee-ep. I don’t know if it’s a heartwarming scene or a horror scene. Still, how beautiful it is to have good friends.
Now that the shogi tournament is finished, all that’s left is just the martial arts tournament which will take ce tomorrow. After that is done, the festival will end with a closing ceremony conducted on the night of thest day.
Comparing to how hurriedly the festival was decided upon, it seems like it’ll finish pretty much without a problem.
“Yeah, right!” As if waiting for this exact moment, my smartphone in my breast pocket starts ringing in silent mode.
The caller is Guild Master Rerisha-san. I only have a bad feeling about this.
Having said that, there is no way I can ignore the call, so I tap the phone icon.
「... Yes, hello?」
『Is this His Majesty The Dukedom King? It’s Rerisha. A perception tablet managed to detect signs of the frazes’ arrival. The ce where they will emerge is somewhere in the eastern parts of Yuuron. Their numbers seem to consist of about 500-1000 mid-range types. There’s no reaction towards the advanced sses』
「What about the towns and viges closest to the ce?」
『A town called “Feihang” is closest, around 50 kilometers, to where they’ll arrive. However, the town turned into a ghost town since the civil war in Yuuron. As such, there are no people live in it, or so I’m told. Even if there are still people there, they are probably just thieves or theirpatriots』
「What’s the expected time of the arrival?」
『It’s this evening. They’ll likely arrive five hours from now』
Damn! How impertinent of them. She said “five hours from now”... so it’s around 10 pm this evening, huh?
Their numbers are in between 500-1000 and there are no advanced sses. Will 30 frame gears be just enough this time?
Based on our experience thus far, the number of intermediate sses within an invasion is probably ten to twenty percent at most, even if their total number is 1000.
It should be alright if we sortie out with a line-up which includes the “Valkyries” consisting of Yumina and the girls.
I convey my consent on understanding the gist of things to Rerisha-san and hang up the phone. I then immediately call Rosetta and Monica from Babylon and ask them to prepare for a sortie.
Say, isn’t this the first time that we’ll fight a night battle against the frazes? If I’m not mistaken, the “Warehouse” of Babylon should have an artifact which can be used in situations like this. Should I make a call to the manager Palshie as well?
Looks like the night is going to be long.
~=~+=
『Your Majesty, the deployment of the frame gears has beenpleted』
「Roger. Please stay on alert at the location until signs of their impending arrival show up」
So I respond to the transmission sent by Knight-Commander Rain-san and look up. The whole sky is filled with stars, and not a single cloud is in sight.
With Linzie and Helmwige patrolling the skies for the flying types, I just gaze at this starry sky. Now that I think about it again, there isn’t a single constetion here that I know of.
A bleak wastnd in the eastern parts of Yuuron, that’s the predicted ce of the frazes’ arrival, spreads all around us.
Just in case, I’ve sent reports about the current situation to the rulers of each nation. Not a single one of them raised an objection about us doing the subjugation, considering the location.
After thatst grand invasion of the frazes, which was followed by a civil war between the subsequent heavenly kings, Yuuron is left on the road to ruin.
In response to that, people left the central areas and began establishing towns and viges near the borders of other countries as a way to restore their lives.
However, it’s said that the majority of those people are migrating to Hanock in the west, and to Rodomea in the south while only a few are heading towards the north or the east.
The northern Zenoasu is ruled by demonkins, so their unwillingness to associate with other countries is understandable. If I am to talk further, the northern parts of the continent are severe for people to go and live there. Though the harshness of that ce probably doesn’t matter for those people like the demonkins with their strong bodies.
However, there’s the Nokia Kingdom to the east. I wonder why the people from Yuuron didn’t head that way.
After I voice that question, Linzie starts to talk from the seat next to mine.
「That’s because the Nokia Kingdom and the Yuuron Heavenly Empire didn’t have a very good rtionship between them from the start. It’s said that in the olden days some people fled from the tyrannical rule of Yuuron and established the Nokia Kingdom in the easternnds of Yuuron」(Linzie)
They say that a steep mountain range stands towering over the border between Nokia and Yuuron, and that thend itself protects those who have fled from Yuuron, a so-called natural fortress.
In the bygone days, Yuuron hadunched multiple invasions, but all campaigns ended up in failures.
Given a rtionship like that, I can ept the citizens of Yuuron not trying to seek help from there.
Well. I get that Nokia is a country in istion same as their neighbor Zenoasu. Did it be a closed-off country from the north then? No, Elfrau is different from Nokia.
「The winds are considerably cold here. I wonder if Yuuron is now in the middle of a full-blown winter?」(Touya)
Due to the workings of the Soul Spirits and Land Spirits, the climate in this world is an utter mess, but it seems that Yuuron has the same four seasons as with Ishen with Brunhild.
Shaking off the coldness of her head, Linzie hands me a warm drink out of a canteen.
Her preparations are good. This level of attentiveness is Linzie’s strong point, I guess.
「I’m thinking of leaving the flying types during the battle this time to you Linzie. Are you okay with that?」(Touya)
「Yes. I’ve already received the crystal de and the scattering crystal bullets, so it’ll be okay. It’s said that the transformation speed has been reduced to 0.5 of a second as well」(Linzie)
Ooh? So the professor is properly doing her work.
She has been devoting herself to the dimensional gates all the time throughout the festival, so I thought that she might’ve forgotten about the frame gears.
「More importantly, a personal machine for Touya-san is not yet finished, right?」(Linzie)
「It looks like the design is almostpleted though. But even if I say that, I have plenty of war potential as I am right now. Besides, the professor ispletely absorbed in the work regarding the dimensional gates」(Touya)
It means that we’re just saving that stuff forter. Oh well. I won’t say anything if I can get her to build something good while being careful about it. Still, I just want to be prepared in case something happens.
「Touya-san’s personal machine... its name would surely be... Reginleif... isn’t it?」(Linzie)
「I suppose. It’s a simr name to the ones wherein your machines are named after, the ones called the “Valkyries”」(Touya)
I was thinking of naming it “Odin” at first, but I then considered that giving it the name of a chief god is a bit of a stretch. So, I changed the name.
The current name also means the “person who will seed the gods”. While that may be the case, the machine itself will bepleted by next year or so.
While I think about this, I sip on the coffee Linzie gave me. A call then immediately vibrates from my smartphone.
『Master. A signal for the arrival of the frazes has been confirmed. A crack will appear in the sky in about five minutes』(Palshie)
A voice resounds from the high-speedbat boat “Gungnir”, which is on standby in the rear.
The “warehouse” manager, Palshie, has been tasked to help us out this time as part of the intelligence support team. The main advisor though is Shesca from “garden”.
I didn’t hand over the role of analyzing the battle to this clutz on a whim. The ero-maid is many times more troublesome than this clutz, despite her nature.
「Alright, tell everyone to start activating their machines as usual」(Touya)
『Roger~s』(Palshie)
The night battle this time has no moon in the sky either. The vague brightness is being provided only by starlight. The Valkyries are equipped with night vision devices, so Yumina and the others won’t have a problem with low visibility. Despite that, the ordinary old-type Chevaliers are yet to be installed with night vision capability.
Hence, the old-type Frame Gears have been equipped with external night vision equipment that was in “Warehouse”. In terms of their appearance, the knights look like they’re wearing visors. Thanks to that, they should be able to see their surrounding brightly even though it’s dark.
However, I thought it would be fine to use “Light” from the Light Magic category if it’s just to brighten the surrounding areas, but it could’ve made us an easy target since we would only brighten our immediate area within the darkness. Therefore, the idea was rejected.
The surroundings certainly remain dark for me who’s not riding in a frame gear, but I can see in the dark without a problem if I lightly channel divinity into my eyes. I’m bing more and more like a superhuman, that’s for sure.
Under the veil of starlight, Linzie heads towards the cockpit of Helmwige. A roar rises up here and there, notifying the activation of the frame gears.
Aftering down from Helmwige into the darkness, I stare forward into space as if ring at it when a loud cracking sound reverberates all around.
「They’re here」
Space begins to divide all over the ce and insect-looking and sparkling frazes appear one after another under the starlight.
As I thought. They’re onlyposed of lower sses and intermediate sses.
「Don’t get yourselves isted as much as possible, and crush everyst one of them. Leave the flying types to Linzie, Rin and Yumina. Luu, you respond ording to how the situation develops.」(Touya)
『Roger』
Rin’s Grimgerde, Yumina’s Brunhild, and Luu’s Waltraude have long-range equipment. Though in Luu’s case, she needs to do a transition.
「Let’s see here. I guess I will start with unleashing a “Meteor Zapper” first to theoretically decrease their... 」
Numbers? I noticed something strange happening the very moment I thought about opening a gate in the empty sky.
The movements of the frazes are weird. Their usual behavior is toe straight at us.
Those guys hunt people by instinct. If I’m going to be urate, they act with the intention of making a person’s heartbeat stop, which is why they’re supposed to go towards the nearest ce with popted with people as soon as they arrive on this side. In other words, they’re supposed toe at us.
And yet, only now are they scattering in all four directions like baby spiders. There are some who areing in our direction, but there are also some who are running in the opposite direction.
「The hell? Are you saying that there are people living here?」(Touya)
It’s very possible. In fact, there was a case when a “Golden Association” had managed to steal a thoroughly wrecked frame gear in a previous battle. Based on that unit, it allowed them to create a replica called the iron machine soldier.
An artifact with a function to conceal one’s appearance was used at that time, so it may be possible that someone is using an object with simr capabilities this time.
If that’s the case, I probably just can’t carelessly use “Meteor Zapper” here.
But whatever the cause may be, I can’t just allow the frazes to run away.
「Linzie, go and take out those that are running away first! Yumina, take care of those that were left behind! 」
『R-roger』
『I understand』
Following my orders, Helmwige soars into the sky at high speed in its aerial form.
Underneath it, the frazes are having their cores shot from behind and get smashed into pieces while they’re trying to run in the opposite direction.
Brunhild shoots with a sniper rifle from the camp in the back. The crystal bullet flies urately straight through the cores one after another.
I can definitely say that it lives up to its designation as an exclusive long-distance sniping machine.
「Even so, their movements are indeed absurd... They are creatures who don’t have any leader reigning over them to begin with, but that only makes them more pitiful」(Touya)
Within this free-for-all fight, the crack in space starts closing up. Looks like this is the end. Alright, then I will also...
『Master! A second wave ising!』(Palshie)
「What?!」(Touya)
A voice resounds in the smartphone from Palshie, who’s analyzing the battle from “Gungnir” right now.
At the same time, a fissure appears once more and begins cracking in a grand manner.
A new batch of frazes makes its appearance as if creeping from the darkness filling with the tter.
「What’s this...!?!」(Touya)
If it’s just size alone, they would be no different from lower-ss frazes. However, their bodies aren’t transparent like a crystal, they emit light with a muddied gold color. They also have an oval appearance. It’s probably fitting to call these guys as fraze “variants”.
I couldn’t turn my eyes away from that form which faintly glowed in the darkness.
Why? Because even if the light they emit is dim, those variants are d in divinity.
In other words, their aura is a proof that they’re dependents of a god.
「That bastard... He has gone and created something troublesome...!」(Touya)
Obviously, these new arrivals aren’t just any ordinary fraze, but they’re probably something born from the evil god that had eaten the subordinate god. Although what they’re d in is divinity, it’s probably not as powerful as the real thing. However, it seems that it‘s vastly different frommon frazes.
Given that they’re born from the evil god, does it mean that it has alreadye out from its cocoon?
As if cutting my thoughts short, the mutated frazes start to move. Are theying at us?!
「What?!」
The pointed arms of the fraze variants extend and pierce through the lower-ss standing next to them. Those arms precisely extract the cores of the lower-ss.
Nevertheless, the lower-ss didn’t get smashed. Before long, the regr frazes starts to undergo a strange mutation.
“It melted” would’ve probably been a fitting expression like ice turning into water, or not. Simr to a starch syrup, it changed into something sticky.
Eventually, it’s taken in by the variants, leaving only the core which then falls down and breaks. I have a hunch that the variants will grow bigger now that they’ve absorbed the lower-sses.
It just went and ate the frazes from before. I felt this intuitively.
What this variant is doing is “cannibalism”. Could it be that the frazes which appeared earlier were escaping from those variants? They may have felt that they couldn’t defeat this opponent by any means?
Even while I’m having those thoughts, the variants attack the regr frazes one by one. They disregard us, not seeing us as opponents.
The reason frazes attack humans is to find the core of the “King”. That’s their mission, an instinct drilled into them. However, this variant doesn’t seem to share that goal.
Does that mean that they’re totally the apostles of an evil god?
『Touya-san, what the hell is going on?』(Linzie)
「I don’t know. However, it doesn’t look like our opponent has changed. Yumina, can you aim at the variant from where you are?」(Touya)
『Hmm... Okay. I can do it』(Yumina)
「Please do」(Touya)
The next moment Yumina responds to my words, the variant receives an impact from a crystal bullet after it has absorbed themon fraze.
A small crack appears on the muddied gold body of the variant as it slightly inclined forward. My divine amplified eyes have clearly captured that moment. That thing is hard.
The skin fissure immediately starts to regenerate, but it’s then urately and quickly pummeled by a second and a third shot faster than its regeneration could heal itself up. Hey! That Yumina is really amazing... Is she simr to that fellow from the pinhole shoots?
Being wrapped in a muddied metallic golden color, the variant isn’t letting its core get exposed. Nevertheless, Yumina is probably shooting at the are where she predicts the bullet would hit based on her experience up until now.
If we call themon type a “crystal apparition”, then the variant is totally a “metallic devil”. Once the fourth bullet hits the metallic devil, it starts changing for the first time.
Raising ck fumes, its oval body starts to dissolve. The body slowly melts like an ice cream and copses, leaving only the chipped core that was damaged by Yumina’s bullets to be seen by me.
Looks like even the variants stop moving when their core gets damaged. Though it certainly is ominous when theypletely dissolve like that instead of just breaking apart...
「So they can be defeated... right? Everyone, don’t be negligent and subjugate the enemy in groups. Sakura, I’ll leave the support magic to you」(Touya)
『Got it』
Sakura’s Rossweisse then starts broadcasting an amplified song magic.
The melody is... that, huh? The one that’s performed by a four-man band from Liverpool of Great Britain? They were my grandpa’s favorite band. Amongst the stock that I have, their songs are the most numerous.
「Still... why did she choose that song...?」(Touya)
Well, Sakura doesn’t understand the lyrics in English, so she has probably chosen it purely because of its rhythm and melody.
The frazes’ movements be slower as they hear the music whose theme is “Save me!”. I see. It restricts the movements of our adversaries —— If I am to describe it, this song has an effect of decreasing their agility.
『Let’s go! Brunhild Knight Order, Attack! 』
『『『『『YES！』』』』
Knight-Commander Rain-san starts an assault with her Shining Count in the vanguard while leaving behind the supporting machines.
Apanying her, Elzie’s and my other fiancees’ Valkyries push into the ranks of frazes and start a melee.
『Pulve-rize!』
Gerhilde’s pile bunker shoots into a variant’s body. However, she then receives a counterattack from its sharp arms, being unable to defeat her enemy because she didn’t manage damage the core.
She finally breaks the core with the third strike and jumps back from the dissolving fraze variant.
『Yuck. It looks gross』(Elzie)
I agree with her on that. That thing is a fraze and not a fraze at the same time, it’s something else.
However, if those variants are dependents of an evil god, then why are they attacking the regr frazes? Isn’t that evil god-beast, who ate the subordinate god, being controlled by a Ruler-ss with a name Yura or something?
「Does that mean that something is... happening on their side?」(Touya)
It’s a wee sight if it’s a case of a friendly fire happening right now, but it’s more like a one-sided rtionship between a predator and a prey based on how things look like. I probably shouldn’t expect anything.
For now, clearing out both sides don’t seem to be a problem.
『Master! Another crack is appearing!』(Palshie)
「Wha~...?!」(Touya)
I didn’t have any time to be surprised at the news when that has jumped down from the third fissure.
A human-type monster d in transparent-like crystals all over its body.
「This is the worst...!」
A ruler-ss. Life-forms which reign at the top of the frazes, even higher than the advanced sses.
Furthermore, I remember that bastard. We fought once in the castle of the demon kingdom Zenoasu. Was his name Gira or something?
As his name suggests, this guy pinpointedly res at me with his bright red eyes and shows a war-like smile.
(a word pun: name – ギラ (Gira), to re – ギラつかせ (Giratsukase))