Chapter 198

The imperial castle of Drisdal, the capital of the Volmisian Empire.

The castle is magnificent, and despite its appearance, it is one of the most solid fortresses in all of Mekia. However, it fell in less than five minutes due to the assault of eight troops from the Yuri Empire, excluding <Water Lily>, <Nadeshiko>, <Kikyou>, and <Rindou>.

It was only the knights and soldiers outside the castle that had been eliminated in advance by the ancestral dragon's lightning strike, so there must have been quite a few troops still inside the castle.

In spite of this, it only took five minutes for them to fall… Of course, there is also the fact that the children of the Yuri Empire are incomparably strong. On the other hand, it seemed to speak eloquently of the fact that the army that the Volmisian Empire possessed was nothing more than a collection of weak soldiers.

After receiving the report “It's over” from Sakura, the captain of <Sakuraka> in the guild chat, Yuri got down from Lindworm's back and entered the castle. Just as she had said in her report, there was no more fighting in the Imperial Castle, and it was completely quiet.

There was not a single corpse scattered about, probably because the children of <Kuroyuri> had taken care of it beforehand. They have the ability to create and control the undead, so fresh corpses would be very useful material.

Yuri has ordered his vassals to take the lives of all the knights who were inside the imperial castle without mercy.

If there were any soldiers in the castle who resisted, he instructed them to kill them as well, but it seems that most of them took the initiative to surrender, so he was able to capture them without taking their lives.

The butlers, maidservants, and civil servants of the castle were also captured. Every single noble and royal family member was captured.

This included the monarch of the Volmisian Empire, Emperor Ludwin himself.

It is said that the emperor took his sword and made a show of resistance. I've heard that he easily lost, only to be knocked down by Lachesis, the second-in-command of the <Shirayuri>.

“Is there anything you would like to say to me in conclusion?”

“―――You ugly monster!”

Yuri asked Emperor Ludwin, who was being lassoed in the castle hall. He replied in a spiteful tone of voice.

In addition, he tried to spit at Yuri, but Yuri had no reason to accept it, so she turned his body away and avoided it without difficulty.

“My Lord~. Can I have this foolish thing~?”

Emperor Ludwin turned hostile and swore at Yuri until the very end.

Seeing this, the hostility and ill will of the surrounding children of the Yuri Empire was rapidly growing. Suddenly, Hotaru, the captain of <Red Plum>, said something like that.

“That's fine, but… What do you need it for?”

“I'm going to use it as a test sample for the ‘Endurance test’ of the wards.”

“…? Endurance testing?”

Yuri tilted his head, not quite understanding Firefly's answer.

With a rather happy expression on her face. ―――Hotaru explained.

“There are【 Life-Saving Wards 】that forcibly nullify death within their area of effect, right~? How many times do you think a single ward can be effective~?”

“What? Is there an upper limit to the number of times the effect can be used?”

Warding is something that remains effective as long as it is maintained by the user.

―――That's how Yuri understood it.

“Well, I don't know~ I don't know, so I thought I'd give it a try~”

The life of the explorers working in the cities of Yuritania and Eureka is protected by【 Life-Saving Ward 】, isn't it~? Don't you think it would be a big deal if there was a situation in which the ward was shut down when it was effective a certain number of times~?”

“Well, well… yes. It would be a big problem.”

“So I'm going to try to use this foolish thing to test the usefulness of the warding~.

I'm not sure if the【 Life-Saving Ward 】I've deployed will still continue to function without problems even after stopping thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of deaths within their area of effect.”

The expression on Hotaru’s face as she said this was a big smile.

However, that smile did not come naturally due to joyful colors.

On the contrary. ―――She is smiling because of her unbearable anger.

The【 Life-Saving Ward 】has the effect of ‘nullifying the death’ of the target who dies within its area of effect, and evacuating the target to a designated location.

Therefore, as long as the effect is applied normally, the target will never ‘die’.

―――This can also be said to mean that it is impossible to die.

This is because the【 Life-Saving Ward 】forcibly nullifies the death of the target, whether they want to or not.

And although the subject is spared the result of death. But the pain and fear they feel at the moment of death will be experienced in full.

In other words, Hotaru proposes to use Emperor Ludwin as a test subject to test the usefulness of the【 Life-Saving Ward 】. It's the equivalent of locking Emperor Ludwin in a【 Life-Saving Ward 】, a warded prison where he can never die, and making him experience the pain of death an infinite number of times.

“…You can do whatever you want. If Lydina tells me to stop, I'll ask you to stop at that point, okay?”

“Muuu… I understand. I'm going to stop quietly at that time.”

Lydina, the main goddess of healing, has an aversion to pain.

She doesn't like to be tormented by pain herself, and she finds it difficult to bear when others are tormented by it as well.

It didn't matter to Yuri how Emperor Ludwin was treated or how badly he was treated. Hotaru aims to make him experience the pain of death endlessly may displease Lydina.

The wishes of Lydina, to whom she owes so much, will always be her own wishes. It was necessary for Hotaru to comply with the restrictions as soon as possible if they were imposed by her.

“Princess. How will you deal with Emperor Ludwin's relatives, including his legitimate children?”

“All males who have the right to the throne, regardless of their rank, should be disposed of. There's no need to waste time and effort on the future.”

When Hera, the captain of the <Shirayuri>, asked her about it, Yuri answered immediately.

If the heir to the throne is left alive, he may be carried off in the future and develop into a rebel. It's not that I think it's a threat, but it's better to nip any unrest in the bud.

“Yes, I understand. What shall we do with your daughter, the queen, and the entourage?”

“We can have them trained by <Kuroyuri> to do what we want. They may be of some use to us, so have them imprisoned in the basement of Yuritania.”

When trained by the children of <Kuroyuri>, everyone is reborn as an obedient pawn.

It would be a shame to dispose of an existence that would benefit the Yuri Empire. At the very least, I will make effective use of them for the good of the country.

―――This is how the war with the Volmisian Empire ended three days after it started.

Of course, it was only the end of the war, not the solution to the problem of the mud wolves. As with the other cities we conquered, Drisdal was able to sell food quickly, so at least no one was suffering from hunger.

For Yuri, the goal was to save the starving people that Lydina wanted, and he didn't care about conquering the Volmisian Empire.

However―――now that she has conquered it, she has a responsibility to rule it.

From this day on, Yuri has been secretly worrying about the fact that he has become a nation with too much land for nothing.