Chapter 364: Subjugation of Executives (1)The mission Aela asked us to do was scouting.
Among them, information collection played a particularly large role.
Asil, who returned after exploring the location I specified, said there was a cave there.
It was said that there were many monsters, traps, and extremely strong demons in the cave.
The appearance of the demon described by Asil matched the appearance of Esq, the demon king army officer we were looking for.
It was exactly what I heard about the appearance of SQ. Why didn't Asil recognize it as Esq on the spot?
Well. I may have been so distracted that I didn't even think about it... Maybe it's just that Asil was a bit blind and forgot what he heard.
In any case, by combining this information brought by Asil with the information we experienced and picked up at the mansion, we were able to construct quite high-quality dictionary information.
After completing the preparations, we sent a signal to Aela through Flora's crystal ball.
Even though she is quite far away, she can still send a signal. Flora's crystal ball seemed to have many useful functions.
I even asked how many features it had, but I just laughed and moved on.
What on earth?
Anyway, it's been a few days since I sent that signal.
After receiving a reply that she was almost there, we headed out of the city and waited for Aila.
"Hungry. Flora. When will it arrive?"
"They say it'll be here soon." "Just wait a moment."
"You said that when I asked you earlier~"
Asil whined at Flora, unable to control her boredom.
I took out a potion that was lying around in Asil's inventory and handed it to him.
"If you're bored, would you like to play with this?"
"Oh. What is this?"
"Hmm... It's called 'compressed water.'"
"What did you see and read just now?"
"The label that was attached. "I got it a long time ago."
"Compressed water. It won't be that dangerous. Where... Wow?!"
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When Asil opened the potion cap, water poured out of the potion bottle like a fountain.
As the name 'compressed water' suggests, tens of liters of water gurgled out from a potion bottle the size of my fist.
"Ugh, oops... Ahh. "You're all wet!"
Asil, who was trying to deal with the problem by drinking it, got hit in the face with a water cannon and ended up looking like a wet rat.
Undine, who suddenly materialized next to Asil, who was panicking and jumping around even though it would have been soft with just one clean spell anyway, laughed and imitated her actions.
Tak, degurr...
The potion bottle, which fell from Asil's hand during the chaos, only squirted enough water to create a puddle in the surrounding area before its momentum diminished.
That's interesting. How did that amount of water get into that small bottle? Neither volume nor mass makes sense.
What. Since it was a world like this, how could I have done well with magic and alchemy?
The one I gave to Asil was a potion I received from Sophie a long time ago as a reward for taking her with her on a trip to the lakeside.
I made a lot of this and that for alchemy practice, but it was given to me under the excuse that it would be difficult to dispose of.
But perhaps it was true that it was for practice purposes; most of the potions Sophie made were much more effective when purchased at the store.
In the end, they were just sleeping in my inventory without ever being used.
The exceptions are potions with subtle effects, such as the 'compressed water' just handed to Asil.
It's not that the potion itself has an effect that makes it impossible to use it, but the marketability of the potion is limited because there are not enough people looking for it to stock it in large quantities in stores.
For example, the 'compressed water' just mentioned may seem useful when traveling, but in fact, there is a magic that creates drinking water among everyday magic such as clean magic.
The only thing that can be made with that magic is drinking water, so the amount is small, but if you need a large amount of water anyway, you can just hire a wizard.
The point was the ambiguity of whether 'compressed water' should be made into a potion.
Like this, the potion bundle that Sophie gave included many subtle potions that made you think you would have to request it directly from the Alchemist's Atelier to purchase it.
Still, if you look closely, wouldn't there be something more usable?
With that in mind, I was rummaging through my inventory, Asil was playing with Undine, and Flora had taken out a mat at some point and was nibbling on a snack sandwich... No, where did you get that? I don't remember taking it out of your inventory?
Anyway, after spending some time like that, Eila finally appeared with a group of people in tow.
"Flora~!"
"Sister!"
As soon as they joined, Aila got off the horse and hugged Flora, loving her. After that, I was able to recognize several people belonging to the mercenary group, including Keren and Justitia.
He was a veteran who had fought alongside Eilane's mercenary group for several weeks.
"Is it okay for everyone to come like this?"
That question naturally arose.
Eilae Keren, Justitia, and Flora from our party.
All survivors of the Vale royal family were here.
If it were to be annihilated, the country called Veil Kingdom would disappear into the other side of history.
Of course, that didn't happen as long as I was here. Even if I get wiped out, I will load the save file and do it again.
But they don't know that situation.
"It's okay."
It was Justitia who answered.
"If you leave a little bit of extra power, you won't be able to do anything. "ESQ is not such an easy opponent."
"That's right. That's right. Do you know how hard it was for us to bring this many people here?"
Ayla, who enjoyed Flora, spoke with great vigor.
The number of people Aila brought with her was a little over 30 people, including herself.
Under normal circumstances, it would just be a relatively large group, but now we are at war.
It didn't seem like crossing the border would normally be difficult.
"It must have been difficult. No, how on earth did you bring him here?"
If we weren't careful, we could have been mistaken for enemy scouts and chased down.
Aila simply smiled mischievously and answered by saying it was her secret.
What. If you're a princess of a country, you probably have a secret route or two.
I took Aila and others to a place where she could not be seen while investigating the surroundings for several days.
You can hide in a moderately dense forest, and the terrain is flat, making it a good place to set up a campsite.
However, there is a reason why there is no owner in such a nice place, and monsters stronger than those nearby often appear.
If the monsters around here are level 50, then the monsters that come out of this forest are around level 60.
Still, in my opinion, a member of Eila's mercenary group was enough to solve the problem without any problems. That's right, they're the kids who came to raid the Demon King's Army executives, so we'll have to deal with that on our own.
While listening to the sound of the camp being skillfully set up, we entered into a strategy meeting.
"The location is here. There is a hidden cave that goes underground..."
"How wide is the cave? How high is the ceiling? The risk of collapse is..."
"What is the atmosphere in the city like? Do you think there is a possibility that troops will come from the city? Just in case..."
"Then, from the supplies we have prepared..."
All kinds of stories are presented and then disappear.
At first, I participated in the discussion, but as the conversation progressed, words that were difficult for me to understand began to appear.
They were all royals who grew up receiving elite military education, so it was difficult for me to get involved. Moreover, the three of them, excluding Flora, were people who had personally led the team in battle, so this was even more so.
I left the table where the discussion was taking place and sat next to Asil.
Asil left earlier than me and sat down in the corner of the tent.
"Soira, welcome back."
"Is that corner seat a bit comfortable?"
"Ah. "I have to tell them why they are so dead."
"What are you talking about?"
Asil often says things that cannot be understood.
When I search later, I see that it was a meme that was popular decades ago, but no matter how much I do, there's no way I know all the memes from decades ago.
I shared some snacks taken from the inventory with Asil and waited for the meeting to end.
I thought it would be more fun to go outside the tent and help set up the camp, but I still felt like I had to watch the meeting go on, so I couldn't go out.
Just wait for a while to listen to the half-incomprehensible content.
"Good. Let's go like this!"
With Aila's declaration, the meeting ended.
"... Ugh! Uh, huh? "Are you done?"
I tapped Asil, who was dozing off, to wake him up and joined him at the table again.
"Sorry. Was it a little boring? So, how does the operation work..."
The details of the operation that began from there were quite complex.
Even as a warrior with experience in commanding small units, I found it difficult to understand half of it.
But that's because the commander heard everything he needed to know, and what the three of us in our party had to do was simple.
Should we call it a separate unit? It was a matter of supporting the places that needed to be supported based on one's own judgment, without receiving separate commands.
In fact, it was no different from just saying I wouldn't care and just take care of it.
No. They said it would allow them to be delegated command in an emergency, so it might be better than that.
I thought I knew why it was divided this way.
We have never worked hand in hand with Aila's mercenary group, so if we tried to cooperate clumsily, we could have ended up in trouble.
Of course, we are not so weak that it holds us back.
However, they are a mercenary group in name only, and many of them were originally soldiers of the Kingdom of Vale, so they must have their own formation.
"The operation will begin tomorrow morning. "Get some rest today."
Aila said so.
Since you must have worked hard to get here, the members should rest for about a day, so they can get back to their best.
We also returned to our lodgings in the city.
Since he said he was going to the mansion to meet a friend for a day, there was no need for the man to be suspicious.
I have no intention of going back.