CH 439

Spreading of Thoughts (2)

At that moment, those in the ship’s helm froze.

“Who was the idiot who did that?!” (Captain)

The captain shouted furiously as he had not ordered any attack.

He merely instructed them to maintain the ship so that they could use the armament just in case.

No matter how one might look at it, this was a preemptive attack with no room for misunderstanding.

Moreover, judging from the fact that they fired not just one shot, but several shots in rapid succession, it was clearly not a misfire from nervousness.

It was a foolish act that could not be justified by “I made a mistake”.

It seemed that the Emperor Yuki prevented the attack… but if the attack had hit the dragon, it would not have been surprising if this ship had already turned into debris.

“Quickly contact the other side and have them seize the idiot!!!” (Captain)

“Yes, we’ll do so right away!” (Crew)

One of the sailors picked up a sound tube to contact the compartment where the weapons were installed, but before he could do so, another sailor jumped into the helm, gasping for breath.

“Captain!?” (Crew 2)

“What happened?” (Captain)

“A member of the crew committed… Mutiny! And now he is confronting His Majesty’s wife!” (Crew 2)

At those words, the captain’s mind went blank.

***

Nell, who had been trained as a hero, acted quickly.

Before thinking about what had happened, she first went to the place where Yuki was heading to… The place where the attack was made from… Judging that the enemy was inside the airship, she drew the holy sword from her waist and released it.

Although she was relieved when she saw Yuki was fine, she concentrated and returned to a combat stance once more and took command.

“Escort soldiers, where is the location of this ship’s armament?” (Nell)

“It should be at the end of the corridor over there!” (Guard)

Yuki’s guards, who protected Yuki’s two wives, answered.

“Okay, then I’ll leave Lyuu to you! Lyuu, don’t leave this place! Something bad is happening!” (Nell)

“O, okay!” (Lyuu)

“Oh, wait! Hey, one of you follows me, the rest of you stay here and guard Mistress Lyuu!” (Guard)

Other guards responded with a salute.

Nell then ran out of the narrow cabin.

The attack just now may be a well-thought-out plan… No… It was most likely a spur-of-the-moment thing, done at the sight of the dragon.

Perhaps they wanted to provoke the dragon to attack her husband.

It was a suicidal, impulsive attack, with no thought of what would happen to the airship afterward.

Sometimes, an emotionally unstable person would do something like this without thinking about the consequences. They ended up mistaking that what they were doing was righteous.

Just like the situation right now.

“Stop it, what the hell do you think you’re doing!” (Crew 1)

“Don’t do anything stupid!” (Crew 2)

When Nell and guards finally arrived at the destination, they encountered what appeared to be a sailor using one of the other sailors as a shield and holding a knife to his neck.

Some of the sailors surrounding the attacker appeared to be bleeding, as if they had been cut, showing that the attacker was quite distraught.

“Shut up, you don’t know anything…!” (Man)

The cause of the commotion was a young man.

He was at least a few years older than Nell.

“Do you even know what you’ve done?” (Nell)

Hearing Nell’s cold voice, they finally noticed her presence.

“Wha, Mistress?” (Crew 1)

“What? Why you?” (Man)

“My husband was targeted. Then, as his wife, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.” (Nell)

Normally, she would have been an essential person who should have escaped from this place at any cost, but… the pressure in Nell’s words made everyone, including the culprit, unable to say anything.

As a Hero, the Emperor’s Wife… The woman certainly had the bearing of an Emperor’s wife.

Nell quickly checked her surroundings and assessed the situation.

The place was small, and the footing was poor… but Nell was within a step’s distance of the man. She was confident that she would be able to cut off the man’s arm before he could do anything to the hostage.

But… lives were at stake. She needed to move with certainty.

Therefore, Nell said.

“Do you understand the current situation? Do you know who you’ve been fighting against? And what kind of consequences that will lead to.” (Nell)

“Yes, I know, our country’s enemy! For our country, that enemy must be killed!” (Man)

“Are you a Rogardian?” (Nell)

“No, I am from the Ellen Coalition!” (Man)

Nell’s eyebrows furrowed in doubt at those words.

The Ellen Coalition was the victorious nation that fought alongside Yuki in the war.

The Ellen Coalition was able to make known the superiority of airships during that war, and they succeeded in improving their position, and although they were not a major power, they stood out from the rest of the human nations.

By selling airships and establishing trade routes to distant countries inhabited by other races, they could gain enormous concessions.

In addition, the position of Yuki, the current Emperor of the Rogard Empire, was significant in terms of ties with the other races.

The center of the current exchange was the Rogard Empire, and Yuki was also the main contributor in stopping the war, so a country might be excluded from the exchange if they aroused his displeasure.

Even if Yuki himself did nothing.

The influence of her husband, Yuki, had already become so great that he was not an enemy of the Ellen Coalition, but a guest of honor to be welcomed by the whole country.

Nell, as a Hero of the Allysia Kingdom, was deeply familiar with this situation.

“An enemy, huh? He is supposed to be an important person for your country now. I mean, what you are doing now is opposing the national interest.” (Nell)

Just a short time ago, they were on an airship when they went to visit the village of the Sheep Horn Clan.

Yuki was getting along well with the captain of the Ellen Coalition, whom she met at that time, and even from the side, she could clearly see that her husband had a good impression of the country of the Ellen Coalition.

This was the opposite of that.

Nell was actually feeling a certain amount of anger at this man’s behavior, which seemed to put a damper on Yuki’s feelings.

“Hmph, cut your crap! These days everyone is bowing down to other races with a smile! They don’t realize that they are destroying our country! The other races are cunning, and they want to eat us up!” (Man)

“You’re trying to be persuasive, but you are only seeing things based on your own personal bias and not looking at the whole picture, you know? I bet you would say the same thing if you were dealing with someone else. Did you even try to ask someone else what their nationality is, what kind of job do they have, etc.? No, you just don’t like the fact that they are from different races…. so you are just trying to discriminate against them for that.” (Nell)

The Man’s face distorted violently at the harsh, offending words.

“Shut up! You whore who sold your body and soul to another race! What do you know?” (Man)

“I know a lot more than you do. I am, after all, a Hero of Allysia Kingdom. What do you know?” (Nell)

“You’re the Hero…?” (Man)

The man was momentarily upset to discover that the girl was not only the Emperor’s wife, but something much more unexpected.

“Hey, tell me. What do you know about other races? Have you ever talked to them? Have you ever been to their cities? Have you tried to kill each other? Have you ever? I have. So, I know them deeply and can talk about them.” (Nell)

“Ah…” (Man)

The man could not say anything.

His mouth would not move.

“You don’t know anything. So, I’ll tell you something good. People like you are called [terrorists] in the world. No matter how noble and respectable your ideas are. When you get ordinary people involved, you are just a criminal. You will never really be called a hero.” (Nell)

Nell laughed, as if mocking him.

“~~! Shut up!” (Man)

Reaching the boiling point, the man with eyes bloodshot from rage pushed the hostage away and brandished his knife at Nell.

–Good.

Smiling inwardly as the target shifted to her, Nell took an offensive stance, but eventually, she did not get to make a move.

Before she could do anything, Yuki lunged at the man.

“What are you doing to my wife, you idiot!!” (Yuki)

“Aggi–!” (Man)

Apparently, he had returned to the ship before she knew it.

Yuki rushed in from across the aisle and, with the same momentum, kicked and broke the man’s arm as he raised his knife.

The man’s arm bent in an unexpected direction, and the bone popped out through the flesh.

The knife dropped to the floor with a clang.

“Ugh! My arm!” (Man)

“Shut up, you tried to kill yourself and bring along a bunch of other people with you, and now you’re complaining about your arm being broken!” (Yuki)

“Gugiii…” (Man)

Without any mercy, the man was next kicked hard in the abdomen, and he was easily blown away, crashing into the wall of the airship before coming to a halt.

The piping running along the wall was dented.

Yuki’s anger still seemed to be simmering, but Nell, who came to the conclusion that the airship would not hold if he continued his rampage, chuckled, sheathed her holy sword, and stopped him.

“Ah…Onii-san, Onii-san. Calm down. The damage to the airship is increasing.” (Nell)

“Ah, Oh… whew, you’re lucky that Nell is nice. If she wasn’t, I’d break every bone in your body.” (Yuki)

“I’m sorry, Onii-san, but he has already got the white eyes, so he’s not listening.” (Nell)

Nell then asked something else while holding Yuki’s hand in hers to divert his attention.

“Anyway, Onii-san. I think you left that dragon behind and came over here, is everything alright over there?” (Nell)

“Oh. Yes, that’s not a problem. That dragon is an old lady dragon that Lefi knows. She’s a very nice dragon, and I’ll introduce her to everyone later.” (Yuki)

“That’ll be fun, and thanks for your help, as well, Enne. I noticed that both of you were talking to that dragon, did you have a good time?” (Nell)

[Hmm… She was kind, funny, and a good old lady.]  (Enne)

Enne, who remained in Yuki’s grip the whole time, let her thoughts connect to both of them, perhaps thinking that she couldn’t let others see her like this.

Nell noticed that Yuki’s anger was finally fading, and at that moment, she started to give instructions to those around him who had been hit by Yuki’s anger and were frozen.

“Soldiers, please take care of that man. Sailors take care of injured people immediately. We’ll hear about it later, but for now, our priority is to treat everyone and clean up the mess.” (Nell)

Her words brought them back to their senses, and they moved to settle the situation.

Yuki muttered a few words at the sight of her.

“You’re so cool.” (Yuki)

“Hmph, thanks. Well, Onii-san, let’s go to Lyuu’s place for a while. I’m sure she’s anxiously waiting for us.” (Nell)