Chapter 102

Chapter 102: Raided

「Your Majesty, we received news from the vanguard squad of General Gribear. Their force has already occupied the majority of harbor city. It will be occupied before the arrival of our main force.」

「Hah, naturally. It is just a small country, after all. Those guys alone are plenty enough.」

A girl replied as she stood on the deck of the ship advancing without hindrance.

The human continent was right before her eyes, and they would arrive in less than an hour.

「Kukuku, those human must be trembling in fear upon witnessing the power of our beatfolk right now.」

The name of the girl who showed a belligerent smile as her silver hair was fluttering in the air by the sea breeze was Meriadel.

She was also the one who broke the nonaggression treaty between human and beastfolk that had been kept for a long time. In short, she was the Beast King herself. [TL: Meriadel was referring herself with “オレ” (ore) instead of watashi.]

Her appearance was that of a beauty in her twenties.

Despite her rather muscular body, it belonged to a sporty and slender type—definitely not the kind of body that one would imagine from a battle junkie.

But there was no doubt that she was the strongest warrior of the beastfolk.

She, who was born in the tiger beastfolk clan—a group that supported going to war—had ascended to the pinnacle of her own clan at the tender age of 15. From then on, she proceeded to swallow the other clans with her power, forming a large force.

And finally, a few years ago, she defeated the previous beast king, whose strength was among the strongest, and took the throne as the newly crowned.

Thus, she became the supreme ruler of the continent, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy her growing appetite for battle.

For that reason, she set her sights on the human continent where humans resided.

A long time ago, the ancestors of the beastfolk crossed the sea to invade the human continent which was rich in natural resources, but all of their attempts were met with failure.

Moreover, those who got exhausted by repeated mobilization ended up facing the threat of humans invading their continent.

Thus, their ancestors had no choice but to apologize to the human and sign a nonaggression treaty for both sides.

Ever since then, the successive generations of beast kings protected the treaty, but―

「Those humans were just small fries. What’s so scary about them? The reason for the failure of the invasion is the sea that separates the two continents. Since the ship-making technology was really poor back then, our ancestors had to give up everything just to cross the sea.」

The Beast King spoke with a ferocious voice.

「But it won’t be a problem anymore. We made sturdy ships that won’t break by mere storms. Thanks to that, we can increase the number of troops and supplies too. And now, it’s time to fulfill our ancestor’s wish.」

At that moment…

Her surroundings became noisy.

She frowned, wondering about the cause of the uproar and suddenly raised her face upon detecting an extremely terrifying pressure swooping down from the sky.

「What the hell… are they?」

She saw the shadow of two streamlined giant lizards.

Their shadows grew bigger and bigger as they approached the ship. One after another, the beastfolk with sharp intuition were trembling like newborn calves.

A chill ran down into the Beast King’s spine as she took a combat stance while looking at the sky.

「Tch, this ain’t a joke… Why the hell did those two dangerous monsters choose to attack us?」

And not to mention it happened when the important invasion on another continent was just around the corner.

She hoped that the two monsters were only passing by.

And yet, her hopes were dashed. Soon enough, the two monsters were close enough for her to see their identities.

She confirmed that it was none other than two dragons.

And obviously, they were not any average dragons.

Each of them was a giant dragon with a total length that exceeded fifty meters.

The mere flap of their giant wings was enough to create a local storm on the surface of the sea. The sea surge was enough to shake the ship.

Moreover, the beastfolk who were exposed to the gargantuan amount of magical power released by the two were starting to vomit one after another.

And the most baffling thing about them was the fact that both dragons were clearly from different lineages. One had shiny golden scales that reflected the sunlight, while the other had jet-black scales that seemed darker than night.

Normally speaking, two dragons of different species wouldn’t form a group.

…Even more so for extremely powerful ones like the two before her.

Even the fact that they were flying side-by-side was against commonsense.

『This one.』

『Hm, not bad.』

And for some reason, the two dragons descended right in front of the beast king and looked at her as if appraising her value.

「…Who’re you?」

The Beast King had no idea about the intention of the two dragons, so her fur stood on end.

The next moment, the golden dragon opened her mouth and then fired her lightning breath.

「?!」

The Beast King kicked the deck immediately, jumping in the air to dodge the breath attack.

The breath attack landed straight on the deck along with an explosive sound.

Although the ship was sturdy and reinforced with bulky metal, it melted immediately.

The beastfolk onboard were electrocuted by the lightning. The Beast King landed on another nearby ship, baring her fangs at the two dragons.

「WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SUDDENLY ATTACKING OUT OF NOWHERE… DRAGONS?! DON’T THINK THAT WE WON’T FIGHT BACK! KILL THEM!!」

And then, she called her comrade.

「LET’S GO!! WE’RE GOING TO KILL THEM BEFORE THOSE HUMANS! THEY MIGHT BE DRAGONS, BUT THEY’RE NOTHING BEFORE US!!」

「「「UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!」」」

Thus, the two dragons clashed with the beastfolk on the open sea.