CH 248

I blew away the enemy commander-in-chief, but this isn’t the end, is it? There are still 100, or 200 enemies left, and that insane monster that can knock down those cannonballs is still alive and well. After all, the high-ranking aristocrat who claims to be a magnate and the commander is just for show. Then, I should think that the battle is not over yet, right?

“Jan-zic-ka dear? Long time no see~,” Mother trilled.

“Hii!”

For some reason, when my mother spoke to the monster that was crouching down, he raised his sword and stood up. Does he still want to fight? If this guy is an enemy that my mother has fought with many times, he has to be a tough opponent. Is this building up to a 1-on-1 fight between my mother and this guy?

“You don’t have to be so hostile to me, you know~,” Mother said. “… Well, that’s fine. Umm, then… you all are the stragglers, but if you accept my request, I’ll spare your lives.”

Huh!? What? What did Mother just say …… is this it? Are you negotiating in advance what to do after the single combat? Is it something like, the one who loses obediently disarms and follows the winner’s demand?

“-! Wh-What should I do?” Janzicka asked.

Gulp……. I swallowed unconsciously. What in the hell is my mother going to say…?

“You fight my dear daughter Flora,” Mother said. “If you win against Flora dear, I’ll let you go, and even if you lose, Flora dear isn’t sure to kill you in the fight. But if you don’t agree to my request, I will kill you all here and now. So, what will it be?”

“………… Hm? What did my mother just say? Didn’t she mean I’m going to fight that monster?

“Hold, hold a moment!” I said. “Mother!?”

“Isn’t that the same as telling me to die no matter what I choose?!” Janzicka yelled. “Are you a demon!?”

And for some reason, the enemy monster was also screaming. Well, I feel the same, but… why do I have to fight such an insane monster in such an advantageous situation for us?

“A choice to die with absolute certainty, or a choice that might possibly allow you to survive, which should you choose? I don’t think you need to hear the answer… or do you want to settle things with me?” Mother said.

“-!? I, I understand! Fight! I’ll fight that girl!”

When my mother told me so, the enemy nodded his head. Why are you so motivated…? Go easy on me……. why is this happening?

“Flora dear… she has no experience fighting humans to the death directly, so it’s dangerous. If it’s you, Janzicka dear, she won’t break you that quickly, so play with her for a bit. This is all so she can gain experience in single combat.”

“Huh…?”

Something is wrong with my mother… well, even if I lose and I’m about to be killed, I’m sure they’ll come to my aid… but why do I have to go out of my way to take risks…? Wouldn’t it be better to win more safely and reliably…?

“Here I go!”

“Huh? Hey!?”

As I was thinking about that, the monster suddenly attacked me without question. I hurriedly grabbed my sword… I don’t have time to spare. He closes in while I draw. If that’s the case, I’ll close the gap here as well…

“-!”

“Hoi.”

""

I slam the flat edge of the blade with my palm. I don’t do dangerous imitations of stunts such as blade catching. Judging from the speed of the sword, it seems easy to grab it, but there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to stop its momentum. If the sword veers irregularly, there is a possibility that the maneuver will fail, and even if it is possible to catch it in both hands if the opponent’s physical strength is higher, there is a possibility that the cut will continue and slice me anyway.

That’s why I carefully deflected the flat side of the blade with my palm… and drove the other hand into my enemy’s unprotected flank. I don’t mind hitting it with my fist, but I don’t know what the opponent’s armor is made of… I don’t know what my mother’s spear is made of, but I can’t destroy that spear with my bare hands. If I did that, the hand I punched with would end up more injured.

In a world where such mysterious materials exist, there is a possibility that this guy’s armor is also that though. So don’t hit from the front, hit with the palm of your hand and only make an impact. In the worst case, if the opponent is blown away and gains distance from me, that’s fine. That’s what I thought, but…

“Buh!?!?”

“Oh no!”

The armor the sole of my palm impacted was easily crushed, and the monster spat out something from his mouth. It might be poisonous fog or something, so I backed off in a hurry. I didn’t expect such an attack to come. But… something red… it felt like blood was gushing out his mouth…

You’ve got to be kidding me……. my opponent is a monster that Mother has had many fights with. I don’t think he was injured to that extent. Even if I put all my effort into fighting my mother, she would endure it normally. If it’s an equal opponent to her, then at this level…

“…………”

“…”

“………… Umm?”

The monster that was blown away rolled on the ground with a big bang, collapsed, and stopped moving. Is this some kind of trap? Is he inviting me to come closer while he seems defenseless?

“Flora dear… that was a good show… but it’s not a special training…” Mother said.

No… you were trying to say that it wasn’t that entertaining? Are you putting your daughter in danger because you think it’s fun or not?

“Mmn, geeze! It can’t be helped… well then, my darling Flora won, so you who are left should choose whether to resist and I’ll kill everyone or you all surrender.”

“Su-Surrender! We will surrender! Please let us surrender!”

Thus, for some reason, the remaining Polsky Kingdom Army surrendered.

The soldiers who surrendered were taken into custody, and the field officers and above were held in separate rooms and interrogated. Everyone is interrogated separately so as not to let them collaborate lies and cover stories. It seems that the nobleman who I almost beat to death is Mikalojus Lazicki. By the way, I’d been informed that the opponent who fought one-on-one was General Janzicka.

It’s an age when the general of the army is going to fight in single combat… it’s a narrow world for a strategic general who specializes in mental labor like me.

I restrained the POWs, extinguished the large fire that was approaching Koenigsvelg with Water magic, and managed to free the galleon ship from the river while cleaning up various things. There are still enemies left, so if there is a galleon ship in a narrow river, there is a high chance that it will be targeted. We also used up most of our ammo. The galleons now are just big ships.

When I climbed up to the top of the ramparts and was doing fire extinguishing activities outside… I heard the bell of a galleon ship and turned around to see a ship approaching from the direction of Lake Vistra. I remember seeing that ship. That’s a Polsky Navy ship. I’m pretty sure because they have a flag.

“-! Everyone!”

When I saw the enemy ship approaching, I ran along the ramparts. My wives are still on board a galleon. I thought it would be too dangerous for those who planned to go deep into the river, but I thought it wouldn’t be so dangerous for those who were going to fire from the west side of the town, in the lake.

If they landed and Koenigsvelg fell, everyone would be in danger. That’s what I thought, so I left everyone on a ship that didn’t go deep into the river… but the Polsky Navy was coming from the front… if I had interrogated the officers earlier, I would have found the rest of the enemy…

Perhaps that ship saw the wall of flames burning here, heard the sound of artillery and Earth magic bombardment, and noticed something unusual. It was probably heading southwest through Lake Vistra. I defeated only the fleet that was patrolling the Hulk Sea and the fleet that was blocking the mouth of the river, and didn’t search for enemy ships in Lake Vistra which became new reinforcements… even though I didn’t have time for that, I should have thought about enemy approaches.

It’s a bit of a detour, but I run over the city’s ramparts, and when I reach the end, I jump from the top of the ramparts toward the galleon ship. I first landed on another galleon that had advanced deep into the river. From there, run to the edge of that ship and jump to the flagship, the “Santa Maria”. It’s quite a distance, but it’s within my reach. I called out to everyone as I landed on the deck.

“Are you all safe!?”

“Let’s go, Louisa!” Mikoto said.

“Right!”

“Ready, set…” they both said, “Fire! Burn it up!”

“”Ooooouuuuhhhh!!””

When I turned around after landing on the deck, what I saw was… Mikoto and Louisa were about to shoot Fire magic at the enemy ship. Everyone is casually clapping and cheering.

“Umm…? The enemy is coming, right?” I said as I stood up slowly and looked at my father nearby.

“Yes,” he replied.

“You’ve almost run out of cannonballs, haven’t you?” I asked.

“That’s right… It seems to be around 80% to 90% depleted.”

That’s dangerous! It’s almost out of ammo. Isn’t it difficult to fight in self-defense like this?!

“Is it okay for you to be so carefree?” I asked.

“We’re preparing to fire,” Father said. “In the worst case, we’ll set fire to everything below deck. But there’s no need to worry about that. It’s enough to leave it to those girls.”

Setting fire there means that the Caan cannons are stored below, not on the upper deck, so they will attack from there. That’s fine, but everyone’s calmed down a lot, so is it okay to just leave things to Mikoto and Louisa? To be honest, I think that the two of them are improving but their magic is nothing more than a minimum self-defense measure…

“Oh? The flag of surrender has been raised,” Father said.

“Huh?”

If you look at the enemy ship, the flag of the Polsky Royal Navy that was there earlier has been lowered. Instead, the sailors took off their clothes and waved their cloaks to call out to us. The navy flag was lowered and the plain white flag was about to be raised. Apparently, that was the signal to surrender.

“Oh, Floto, what’s wrong?”

“Claudia… you’ve calmed down a lot… are you okay?”

“Hmm? As you can see, the enemy surrendered because of Mikoto and Louisa’s magic, they didn’t even get close to us.”

Well… I saw that, too… huh? What is war like here? Two girls around 15 years old can easily make a warship surrender.

“Floto! Did you see it? What I just did!” Mikoto said.

“Mikoto… it’s a little bit much if you’re hugging me in a place like this…”

""

Even though it’s still bright and there are many people around, if we have extremely intimate contact, our relationship will be suspected. For a long time, homosexuality was absolutely forbidden in strict religious denominations, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to show it too openly in this world.

I myself have nothing to be ashamed of making everyone my wives, but it becomes troublesome when religion is involved. The influence of being excommunicated by the church seems to be great, and no matter how many religious extremists you end up defeating to continue living as you please, there will be an endless number of assassins that will be made martyrs. I don’t mind hugging Mikoto, but at least it’s a little more discrete…

“Floto… I did my best too.”

“Louisa…”

Louisa also clings to me and presents her head as if she wants me to praise her. She is probably asking for head pats. I want to refrain from doing it because I’m worried about the gazes of the people around us, but I can’t ignore Louisa offering her head with that look of anticipation.

Fuh, both of you were amazing…” I said.

“Fu-fu~hn! Of course, I was!”

“Eheheh. It was worth the effort,” Louisa said.

When I patted the heads of Mikoto and Luisa, they looked very comfortable. Ah… but I wonder if the surroundings are quite suspicious of our relationship… I hope this doesn’t lead to trouble, but…

I worry about it and looked around…”

“”Mm, mm.””

For some reason, everyone nodded with warm eyes. What is this……?

Good for you… I don’t have any way of fighting at long range so I wasn’t much use…” Claudia said.

“I can’t fight at long range or short range, but? Still? Flora…” Alexandra said.

Claudia and Alexandra also approached me as if they wanted me to pet them. When I was about to reach out to the two of them!

“You can’t, Floto! This is the reward for our hard work! Right now, it’s just us!” Mikoto yelled.

“I know you’ll end up giving everyone head pats later… but for now, I want it to be just us,” Louisa said.

“Uuu!” I groaned.

When I tried to pat Claudia and Alexandra’s heads, Louisa and Mikoto both grabbed my hands and hugged me to immobilize me. If they say this much, I can’t oppose it. In the end, they know that they will all be given head pats later, and it seems that they will forgive me for that, so at least for now, I’ll give priority to the two of them.

Come to think of it, I should have thought that an unexpected battle would occur, but before I knew it, we were just showing off our silliness in front of so many sailors…