CH 91

Chapter 91 – She Saw The Liberation Army’s Commotion

Slime Girl’s POV

“Damn it! They’re everywhere…!”

A man was cursing in his office, which is a step into the luxurious… no, the bad taste of the rich. The man’s name is Barrington-Seil-Ortlinde. He is a priest who wears white silk vestments embroidered with gold thread. He is one of the cardinals who wield authority in the Holy Kingdom, and he is one of the people who want and are seeking that position.

In fact, he is a commoner and believes in money more than anything else. Although he pretends to be a devout follower of the Adel religion, it is an open secret that he is a man who values money above all else.

Barrington-Seil-Ortlinde is in a horrible mood these days. There is no need to think about the reason. The reason is that he has been tormented for the past few months by the Liberation Army, which has suddenly appeared from the Black Forest, far beyond the Great Omit Wilderness.

☆★☆

It all started with a series of raids and desertions that took place in several remote villages and rock salt mines. Someone took advantage of the shadows of the night and attacked the Holy Kingdom’s holy soldiers, killing them all. The village was looted, and every single subhuman who had been working there was taken away.

At first, it was thought that a large group of mercenaries or bandits had drifted in from somewhere else. The question arose in my mind, “How can they treat a mercenary group and a bandit group in the same sentence?” I wondered, but to the clergy of the Holy Kingdom, both were similar.

A little while later, as the reality of the damage became more apparent, his ugly, pig-like face became even uglier. No, it would be disrespectful to the pig to say that he looked like a pig. But his name is too long, so I will call him the White Pig Bishop from now on. That’s better.

The reality of the damage was enough to make the white pig bishop furious. It seems that the sub-humans were not taken away but left by themselves. It turned out that the village had not been looted but that the sub-humans who lived there had taken everything with them.

In other words, this was a rebellion of the sub-humans. That was the conclusion of the white pig bishop. The people around him had also come to that conclusion.

There had been another rebellion about three years ago, and he had managed to put it down. The damage was not small, though.

“Not again! Those subhumans! I’m going to discipline them so that they’ll never dare to rebel again!”

The white pig bishop immediately sent out a retaliatory force. It seems that they killed a few dozen soldiers, but they were only slaves without proper weapons. If he sent well-armed troops, they would be able to destroy them in no time. That seemed to be his thinking.

However, only the commander of the army, who was a subordinate of the white pig bishop, had a difficult look on his face. That was to be expected. The report from the scene indicated that there was a high possibility that someone trained in the art of killing soldiers was involved in the escape.

“I think it’s dangerous to think of it as just a simple slave rebellion, sir.”

He was laughed out of the room. What a foolish thing to say.

There may be some armor taken from the soldiers, but these are just slaves who have been forced to work hard. They would be exhausted, and their morale would not last long. The commander of the holy knights, who was not on good terms with the soldiers’ commander, said so. The white pig bishop agreed with the holy knight’s words, and the commander of the soldiers had no choice but to hold his tongue.

That was the beginning of it all.

No one doubted that the escaped slaves had been defeated, but an unbelievable report came back from the fortress guarding the border between the Great Omit Wilderness and the Merinard Kingdom.

All the pursuing troops were wiped out, the damage was extensive, only a few survived, and they were begging for instructions. That’s what it said in summary.

The white pig bishop was puzzled. Even though the number of escaped slaves had swelled to about one hundred, how could they wipe out an almost equal number of fully armed soldiers? He wondered.

It’s true that some sub-humans exceed humans in physical ability and magic power. However, the difference is enough for a human with magic power to counter or even overwhelm them in some cases.

And yet they were defeated? And wiped out? What kind of joke is that? And. I also thought the same.

But since the report was sent to him in an official document, he couldn’t help but believe it. It was hard to believe without seeing it with his own eyes, but there was no way he could see it. The white pig bishop instructed the commander of the soldiers and the commander of the holy knights to organize an army and destroy the escaped slaves.

It would take time to organize the army, gather supplies, and move a large army of 5000 people. This alone required a great deal of money to be spent, apparently. The white pig bishop was not in a good mood. But if he had to send over 5000 troops, there would be nothing to stop him. He muttered to himself. I also thought the same.

The result was disastrous.

To his surprise, most of the more than 5000 soldiers he had sent did not return. Of the few who did manage to reach the fortress on the territory’s border, most of them were so weak in body and mind that no one could explain the situation properly.

What he learned from the questioning was that a splendid fort had been built in the middle of the Great Omit Wilderness, that some people claiming to be the Liberation Army had been in the fort, and that the fort had caused a huge explosion that wiped out the Holy Kingdom army.

What happened after that? When he asked about it, he was told that the surviving soldiers were all delirious and could no longer speak properly.

When the white pig bishop heard the report, he collapsed. He would have been happy if they had just died, but it seems that the world is not so easy.

From there, the “Liberation Army” began its rapid march. Fortresses on the territory’s border were taken down one after another with lightning speed, and in the south, rumors spread, and subhuman slaves escaped one after another. The movement was not only in the southern part of the Liberation Army’s sphere of influence but was now spreading throughout the Merinard Kingdom.

The damage to the Holy Kingdom’s forces stationed in opposition to the Liberation Army is so great that it is only a matter of time before the white pig bishop is dismissed as governor of the Merinard Kingdom. It seems that the white pig bishop is desperately trying to keep information about the current situation in the Merinard Kingdom from reaching the Holy Kingdom, but he cannot put his foot in everyone’s mouth.

One day, when the white pig bishop was sick to his stomach with stress, a carriage appeared from the south and entered the royal castle in the royal capital of Merinesburg. The people on that carriage were spies from the Holy Kingdom. They were not the white pig bishop’s subordinates. They were the subordinates of a certain cardinal of the home country.

There was one Fox Beast man who had infiltrated the Liberation Army, twelve human men, and one human man who had been detained and packed in a box.

The Fox Beast spy said that he was an important figure in the Liberation Army. The details were not disclosed, but the saint, a subordinate of a certain cardinal, would be coming to pick him up soon, and he was asked to make sure that he would not be captured by the Liberation Army by mistake or escape himself.

The white pig bishop, dripping with sweat, agreed to do so. The saint who visited him soon was said to be a person called the “Saint of Truth” who had received the grace of falsehood detection from God. Also, her superior, the cardinal, seems to be a political rival of the white pig bishop.

In other words, he’s dead in the water.

As for me, I was curious about this important figure of the Liberation Army, so I sent one of my duplicates to the cell where he was taken.

The Fox Beast spy had insisted that if they were going to detain him, they should never take off the blindfold, restrain him so that his hands and feet were out of sight, and keep a lookout on him at all times. He even said that if he couldn’t do that, he and his subordinates would keep watch.

However, the white pig bishop refused to do so. Using his position as an umbrella, he silenced the Fox Beast spy and his subordinates, who tried to protest and put him in a cell like any other prisoner, saying that he was an important person. He had no regard for the advice of the Fox Beast spy.

He was probably more concerned with how to get past the coming saint.

When the packed man was put in the cell, he observed the room for a while, made a gesture as if he was searching for the presence of people in the surroundings, and then immediately went into action.

I don’t know how he did it, but the shackles that bound his hands and feet disappeared in an instant. There seemed to be no flow of magic. How on earth did he do that?

Next, he stripped the wood from the shabby bed, pulled the straw from the straw pillow, and gathered the stones from the stone wall of the cell. And before long, he had a crude stone ax in his hand. I couldn’t make sense of it. How did he do it? When did he make it? The questions almost filled me up.

“Hey, is there anyone else here? This is the new guy, Kosuke.”

Apparently, his name is Kosuke. He seemed to have called out to see if there were any prison mates, but unfortunately, there was no one else in the cell except for him and me. The officer who had thrown him into the cell probably didn’t come here often either.

Perhaps satisfied with the lack of response, he began to pound the stone floor with a crude stone ax. It made a rather noisy sound. The officer, however, has left this cell and moved to another cell. There was no one here to condemn him.

But still, what the hell is he doing?

“Well, it’s a scenario that won’t work for me.”

He muttered something like that. What the hell is he talking about? I don’t know.

While I wondered inwardly, he kept pounding the floor with his stone ax and finally started to destroy it. I don’t understand. There was no way he could break the floor with such a crude stone ax.

He continued to dig through the floor, completely dismantled the bed, turned off everything in the cell, built a fire for some reason, and went back into the hole. Before I knew it, he even had a magnificent torch in his hand. When did he…?

After a certain amount of digging, he blocked the hole with a stone floor, though I don’t know how he did it. Oh no, I’m left behind. Perhaps he will reach the underground passage. I had to track him down… I managed to catch up with him in the underground passage and made contact with him.

It’s been about a week since then.

He and I have been getting along well. He has created various things with his magic powers and is ready to escape.

☆★☆

“Gnunu… It feels bad; it’s terrible! What should I do…?”

The white pig is dripping fat and sweat. To be honest, I don’t really want to watch him, but since he is the leader of this place, I can’t neglect to monitor him. However, it seems that he won’t be able to stay at the top for much longer.

With the expansion of the Liberation Army, the southern part of the Merinard Kingdom has completely escaped the control of the Holy Kingdom. The subhumans have been escaping one after another, and they are heading to the south one after another. And from time to time, the people of the Holy Kingdom escape from the south as refugees. There are not many of them, though.

The Fox Beast spy and his men left for the north as soon as they discovered that Kosuke had escaped. I don’t know if they went to meet up with the saint, to report to the cardinal, or if they fled because they feared revenge from Kosuke and Her Highness the Princess.

It was determined that Kosuke’s escape destination was the underground passages of the castle. That’s right, if part of the cell floor was a brand new stone floor, anyone could see that it was suspicious.

No one seemed to be able to figure out how it was done, but when the new stone floor was destroyed, it led to an underground passage, so it was determined. And they think that he would have been killed by us long ago.

Incidentally, the hole has already been sealed up by a mage who uses earth magic.

“If this continues… If I don’t do something about this…”

He lost control of the southern part of the Merinard Kingdom to the Liberation Army, half of the troops entrusted to him by the Holy King were destroyed, and he lost an important figure in the Liberation Army who the cardinal’s spies had kidnaped. He seems to think that he can somehow get away with this failure, but it will be impossible.

The saint who is about to visit him is a saint of truth who can see through any falsehood. Moreover, it seems that the Holy King, who grasped the current situation through the report of her superior, the cardinal, took the situation seriously and ordered the saint of truth to hold a hearing against the white pig bishop.

If the saint holds a hearing, the white pig bishop will undoubtedly become a mere white pig, and the pig will be dealt with like a pig. There’s a lot of dust that will come out if you hit him, and he has some suspicious documents with him. It might be interesting to put them in a place where they can be seen quietly.

I don’t know what the Holy Kingdom will do after that. But I don’t think they will just leave it at that. I’m sure they’ll make a move.

In the meantime, we have to get the man back to where he belongs. And as soon as possible. But it’s too bad, really bad. We don’t know why, but we are strongly, strongly attracted to him. It must have something to do with the fact that he is a marebito.

In fact, he plays a little trick on us, just a little, while he sleeps.

He feels uncomfortable, or rather, he is dimly aware of it, but he doesn’t say anything. He probably thinks that since he has a relationship with the princess, the court mage, and the Harpies, it’s no big deal to have three more of us. And we’re taking advantage of it.

There was a knock at the door, and the white pig bishop shuddered. It seemed that the time had come for the white pig bishop to become just a white pig.

I’ll have to keep a close eye on the situation and report back to Kosuke. And today, I will be the only bedding provider. Kosuke loves my pillow, so I’m sure he’ll be happy with it.