Book 3: Chapter 21

Back to the Starting Point for Infinite Number of Times

I went back to where the prince and Left General stood frozen as the flaming knights surrounded them.

The imperial guards wanted to help the prince, but the flaming knights detained all of them.

Normally, if someone touches a flaming knight, they will burn up with inextinguishable fire. That’s why I purposely placed a thin coating of water magic on the flaming knights to prevent the person touching them from burning.

Being careful to this extent for the enemy—yeah, I also think I’m too soft.

“Y, you are of the human race, right? Why would you point your sword against your fellow humans?” The Prince asked with a taut face, but I’m pointing a spear toward him, you know.

“I already told you earlier. I’m the husband of the Second Princess of Alheim, as well as the Heroine Tina. What’s wrong with protecting my wives’ motherland?”

Besides, Glendale, my home country, isn’t allied with Apristos.

In this world where humans are in conflict with other species and within their own race, there’s no problem when I fight against non-allied nations.

“Alright, I already achieved one of my goals… So, what do you want to do now?”

“W, what do you mean by ‘what we want to do’?”

“Do you still have the guts to attack Alheim, knowing that you’ll be against me? That’s what I mean.”

“If we say yes?”

“You already know even if I don’t answer, right?”

The flaming knights pointed their spears closer to the Prince and Left General.

“Gu!”

“H,hiii!!!”

The Left General tried to remain brave, but the Prince let out a pathetic cry.

“Ah, but I don’t really like killing.”

As I said, the flaming knights retreated.

I’d been living in a peaceful country in my previous world, so I had nothing to do with murder. I was a bit reluctant to kill beings that look like me. But I’m not saying I won’t kill ever. If it’s to protect Tina and the other members of my family, then I don’t have any qualms doing it. I won’t be able to live if that’s not the case. This is the kind of world I live in.

“You will let us go?”

“If I let you go, will you pledge an oath that you will never attack this country from now on?”

I won’t be satisfied with killing fleeing enemies. I don’t plan on killing a single person as long as the Apristos army retreats.

“I swear, I swear! I will not lay a hand on this country! So please let us go!”

The Prince started to kneel on the ground.

“I also promise that I won’t get involved with this country, either.”

The Left General also said that but—

“But, even if you guys don’t come, other people might still come here, you know.”

“!?”

“Eh!?”

I turned the 10 000 [Flame Knights] back into magical power.

A huge mass of magical power floated over the grasslands.

I sent that magical power into something that I had prepared in advance.

The earth trembled.

A gigantic magical circle covered the prairie.

“H, hiii!!!!”

“What is that!?”

“Hey! Don’t break ranks!”

“I, impossible, Lieutenant!”

“It’s a magical formation! An atttack’s coming!”

“This is the end! We can’t run from this!”

There were screams and cries of despair from the 3,000 soldiers of the private army and the 100,000 soldiers of the national army.

“So as to reinforce to you that it will be a futile plan to invade this country, I’ll be offering you as a sacrifice.”

“D, didn’t you say you will let us go!?  I even went so far as to kneel on the ground in front of you!!!”

“Your groveling on the ground is worthless. Since you tried to annihilate my friend the Elves, it’s only natural that you receive retribution, no?”

The prince’s blood drained from his face upon hearing my words.

The Left General drew out his sword and tried to slash me. Maybe he thought that the magic wouldn’t be activated if he killed me.

“Die!!!!”

The Left General’s sword came toward me at top speed— 

However, that sword didn’t reach me.

“It’s my first time to be forcibly dismissed, so I’m really annoyed!”

Sylph stopped the Left General’s sword.

“S, Spirit King Sylph!?”

The Left General gasped in shock at Sylph, who suddenly appeared.

No wonder.

He heard from the former general that I had forced Sylph to return to the Spirit Realm.

The national armed forces confidently pressed on up to this point because they heard that Sylph, the guardian deity of Alheim, had disappeared.

“Sorry, it’s all their fault.”

“Hmmm.”

Sylph’s murderous aura overflowed.

The Prince and Left General, as well as those soldiers in the grasslands, were panic-stricken as they felt Sylph’s aura.

“Because you lot came invading, I was forced back. What do you think of it?”

The Left General, being the closest, received the full impact of Sylph’s fury. He couldn’t do anything except to tremble like a leaf.

“Sylph, that’s enough.”

Sylph’s murderous aura vanished with a sigh.

The Left General collapsed on the spot, the Prince wet his pants, and many of the guards fainted.

“Hmph! If Halt says so, then it’s fine. What will you do with this magic circle, Halt? Isn’t it to kill these guys?”

What a terrible thing to say with Sylph’s innocent face.

“Well, you’ll see. Preps done.”

I activated the magical circle, and it glowed.

Afterward, it turned black, beginning from the center and radiating outward. The soldiers who were touched by the blackened magical formation steadily disappeared.

“T, they disappeared!”

“Oy! Let’s run away!”

“U, uwaaahhhh!!!”

“S, stay away!!!!”

The Prince, the Left General, the private army, and even the 100,000-army were swallowed by the magic circle.

Sylph and I, too.

──＊＊＊──

“T, this is?”

“Didn’t we die!?”

“Weren’t we swallowed by that magic!?”

“L, look!!!”

“N, no way, impossible!”

The thing that the soldiers saw was—Apristos’ Royal Capital!

This was the plain where the army of Apristos had gathered prior to their march toward Alheim.

I converted the flaming knights back into mana and used that huge mass of magic to forcibly teleport Apristos’ national armed forces as well as the Prince’s private troops—a total of 103,000 people.

I came here with Tina’s flight magic earlier, as soon as I heard the news regarding the invasion of the Army of Apristos, before the conference with the ministers. I made the teleportation markings during that time.

Tina already knew that I planned to turn the army back through teleportation.

It’s not only Tina.

Elf King, Leaffa, Luke, Ryuushin, the others, as well as Sarion already knew this strategy.

In other words, everybody had been acting all along from the time I was taken up to now.

This was to prevent the devil’s escape.

When Sarion came to take me away, Luke’s ultimate magic almost reached me, so I panicked for a bit, but everything else flowed according to plan. This was strategy C, my true plan.

I rode on Sylph’s wind and flew above the soldiers.

I could see the whole army at a glance.

They were staring at me.

“Listen, soldiers of Apristos! I am Halt, the Sage of Alheim, the country you had wanted to invade!”

Thanks to wind magic, my voice could reach all the soldiers.

Turmoil spread among the soldiers.

“No matter how many times you attack, I’ll just send you back again like this! So come anytime!”

Of course, the strategy of how to fight the war was vital in this world, but the soldiers’ movement was more important than that. Especially in this world where there is no mass transportation available yet, it already took a huge amount of resources just to move an army of 10,000 soldiers. It will take approximately 20 days on foot from Apristos to Alheim. The energy expended and food consumed by the soldiers all went to waste.

The Apristos army was brought back to their starting point. Well, the food consumed won’t return, so that’s a minus.

And I have the power to bring them back to that point as many times as I want.

“But don’t forget, I teleported you back this time, but if I feel like it, I can also transfer all of you to the other world and kill you.”

Sylph and I teleported back to Alheim, leaving those words behind.