CH 168

Chapter 168 – Returning With A Vow of Revenge

“I’m sorry to bother you with this.”

“No, it’s my duty, after all.”

In response to my words, Ms. Zamir, who carried her mithril spear, the Meteor, on her shoulder, quietly shook her head.

Whenever possible, Ms. Zamir would keep a close eye on my security during the exploration of the Adol scriptures. She tried to protect me as much as she could, and if she couldn’t, she would make sure that Isla, Shumel, or Grande would be by my side to guard me.

As if she noticed my gaze, Ms. Zamir opened her mouth as she turned her gaze into the sky.

“Qubi once kidnapped Kosuke-dono due to my arrogance. I would never want to make the same mistake. I will never again violate the vow I made when I received this meteor.”

“Qubi, huh…? I wonder about that guy.”

I still don’t understand his actions. He’s been hiding in the Liberation Army for years, and what he ended up doing was kidnapping me. If he had wanted to, he could have assassinated Sylphy, Isla, Danan, and Sir Leonard, and he could have easily killed me instead of kidnapping me half-heartedly like that.

After all, he left me in the Merinesburg castle, only to have me escape and find the sewers.

If he had been better at his job, he would have been able to keep me captive. Even if it wasn’t Qubi himself, he could have stuck one or two of his strong men on me, and I would have been in jail until Ellen ― Eleonora, the saint of truth of the Adolian religion ― arrived.

Qubi himself had fled as soon as he heard that I had escaped to the sewers. What the hell was he trying to do? If I had been captured properly, would I have met Ellen without ever coming into contact with Lime and the others? What would have happened if Qubi had been there?

I don’t know. If that had happened, what would have been in Qubi’s favor? I don’t understand his motive in the first place. Qubi is a subhuman. He’s also a highly beast-looking subhuman who would be impossible to blend in with humans. What’s the use of such a guy getting involved with the Adol religion? Even if he’s used physically, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to gain any position, honor, or wealth within the Adol religion… or even within the Holy kingdom.

In the first place, if he was from the Holy Kingdom, what faction did he belong to? From the way Ellen was talking, it seemed that the guards who had thrown me in a random cell were from the mainstream. If Qubi and the governor were from the mainstream, would their treatment of me have been so careless?

It’s not impossible that the same faction simply didn’t take the words of the subhuman Qubi seriously, but if that’s the case, Qubi’s superiors would have arranged for Qubi to be in a position to properly speak to the governor or to prepare orders so that he could complete his mission without problems.

However, this assumption also falls apart because Qubi is a subhuman…? It’s still unnatural that the subhuman Qubi works for the Holy Kingdom.

What if he belonged to the same nostalgist group as Ellen…? It’s no good. No matter how much I think about it, it’s still a guess. At the time, I was filled with anger at being betrayed and kidnapped, but now that I think about it, that guy’s actions made no sense whatsoever. I don’t know what his purpose was.

Well, whatever his reason was, he deserves to pay for betraying Sylphy and me. I’m going to shave his whole body and expose him to the world. I can’t imagine what that would be like, but I’ve heard it’s worse than death for Beastman.

“I thought about it a lot, but I couldn’t understand it. When did Qubi betray me and why?”

“I’ll have to catch him one day and ask him myself. While shaving him.”

“Yes, while shaving.”

We both smiled wickedly as we imagined this scene. The people in the rear base were taken aback when they saw us, but we didn’t notice until the manager of the supply warehouse pointed it out to us and continued to smile wickedly.

It’s fun, isn’t it? It’s fun to think of the scene of punishing a traitor.

☆★☆

After filling up my inventory with the surplus supplies and magic crystals produced at the rear base, we started to head northward to leave the Great Omit Wilderness with the improved airboard.

It took us about three and a half hours to pass through the Great Omit Wilderness and another three hours to pass through Fort Alpha on the region’s border. In some places, we passed travelers and wagons on the road and received stares of astonishment, but we arrived at the town of Mayswood just as the sun was beginning to set.

I was afraid of driving at night, so I decided to park the improved airboard at the Liberation Army garrison in Mayswood and set up temporary accommodation in the corner of the garrison to rest for the day. At the pace we had been going, we should be able to reach Erichburg in less than two hours, but we didn’t want to risk it.

“At this speed, if we leave early in the morning, we should be able to run from the rear base to Erichburg before the sun goes down.”

“Hmm, I think we can. The efficiency of the magic crystal consumption is not too bad. It’s about 70% so far, so I think we can afford to have one each way.”

Magic crystal is a blue crystal about the size of a ping pong ball. With two of these, it is possible to travel back and forth between Erichburg and the rear base.

“Let’s just check every part of it.”

“Hmm, okay.”

I’ll be working with Isla to maintain the improved airboard. It’s a simple structure, and there seems to be no particular problem with the propulsion system. However, the Mythril-cooper alloy magic power conductor that flows magic power from magic crystal to each device has been heated because of the continuous flow of magic power, and some deterioration can be seen. This meant that either the amount of mithril added would have to be increased, or else the magic conductors would have to be made thicker.

As for the levitation device, the large single-shot one was fine, but the small four-point one seemed to be heating up a bit. There seemed to be no problem in operation at the moment, but the small four-point type was likely to have a shorter life as a part in a long-term operation.

As for the control system, there was no noticeable wear or damage. It’s a surprisingly simple structure. Can’t we simplify the operation a little more? I wonder if it would be possible to allow the control system to become a little more complicated and use the foot pedals to accelerate and brake, the steering wheel to turn left and right, and the shift lever to switch forward and backward. That way, it would be possible to drive with one hand while shooting with the other.

Or maybe the airboard itself could be armed? But if we arm the airboard, it better be able to move in all directions, rather than just sideways.

Technically, I think it’s possible. The thrust is managed by the foot pedals, and the two sticks are used to move, like in a certain robot game, and the sticks can be triggered like a… hover tank.

Yes, it’s romantic, but a technical airboard with an on-board machine gun is enough. Rejected. I think it’s possible to make one as a hobby, though. No, no, no, I’m getting distracted.

After finishing maintenance, we’ll have dinner at the garrison cafeteria and relax in the temporary lodging.

At this distance, I can use my personal Golem communicator without any problem, so I decided to try to contact Sylphi. The call sounded several times, and soon the communication was established.

“Kosuke, is that you? Since you’ve contacted me on this communicator, are you nearby?”

“We’re coming back to Mayswood. I’ve secured the scriptures.”

“I see, that’s fortuitous. But why Mayswood? Grande’s wing could get you back to Erichburg, right?”

“I managed to find some time over there to build a vehicle. I’m traveling overland to test it out. We left a little late today because of some things that happened, but if we start moving in the morning, we’ll be able to get from the rear base to Erichburg before the sun goes down.”

“Oh… you’ve made another interesting one.”

As we talked about the airboard for a while, Grande crawled out from a pile of cushions set up in the corner of the room. By the way, Isla is working on a report about the airboard and the scriptures at a desk placed right there. The Harpies are going to fly outside even though it’s dark, probably because they were stressed from riding the airboard all day without flying.

“Is that Sylphy?”

“That voice is, Grande, isn’t it? How was your trip?”

“Fumu, how was it, huh…? It was satisfactory. I was with Kosuke the whole time, he fed me good food, and most importantly, he made love to me.”

“Hey!”

What the hell are you talking about?

“Is that right? It was worth it to send you off with him.”

“Yes, indeed. Kosuke is a bit of a slob, isn’t he?”

That’s true, Colonel. Grande was more of a smart pet than a girl in my mind. I knew I wouldn’t be able to give up on her so easily.

“You said you got what you came for, but was there any danger?”

“The first ruins we entered were full of Ghouls, and there was a Lich at the deepest part. In addition to that, there were occasional undead-like creatures in the ruins, but Shumel and Ms. Zamir took care of them.”

“Kosuke was tearing apart the Lich with something called sabumashingan. His weapon looked weird, but it was strong.” [T/n: Submachine Gun.]

“Lich and Ghouls, huh…? I wasn’t worried because Zamir was with you, but it looks like it was quite a challenge. Did you read through the scriptures?”

“It was written in the ancient language of the Omit Kingdom, but I was able to read the contents with my ability. The contents seemed to be what the nostalgists wanted. I translated the contents, and Isla wrote them down. There are many other books that I have recovered, but I have yet to read them.”

“Well, that’s good to know. Tomorrow we’ll be able to bring good news to the saint.”

On the other side of the communicator, Sylphy’s voice sounded very relieved. If the content of the report were the same as that of the current mainstream, it would have been very bad. It was a blessing in disguise.

“If we leave tomorrow morning, we’ll probably get there early, before noon. Be amazed at the new vehicle that Isla and I have built.”

The problem with airboards is that they move in a very rough way, so they’re not very good at moving a little and then stopping. If you use it on the street, you’re bound to have a lot of accidents. I wonder what to do… Should I add a mode to limit the output of the levitation device so that it can brake immediately? Rather, it seems that the people in the surrounding area will be annoyed by the jet of the propulsion system when moving before that. It seems better to think about a mechanism to narrow down the diameter of the propulsion system, and if we supplement the diameter of the propulsion system, the wind will be a little better.

“I’ll look forward to it. We will be communicating with the saint through Lime and the others tomorrow afternoon, so please arrive before noon.”

“All right. We’re going to leave early in the morning, so we should be there pretty soon. From here, it’ll probably take less than two hours… it won’t take a moment.”

“Okay… See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

The communication is terminated. In fact, there was a large Golem communication device for long-distance communication in the rear base, but that was for the Liberation Army’s military service, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to use it for private communication.

I think I should make a more powerful communicator for me… No, they both need the same amount of magic wave output, so it’s not that easy. But I think it’s not impossible.

“For now, it’s tomorrow. I think we should go to bed early today.”

“Yes, I suppose so. I hope I can sleep early.”

Grande glanced at the entrance of the temporary accommodation. I also turned my eyes in that direction and caught the gaze.

“Hiee…”

Pirna and Capri were looking at me with glowing eyes.

I quickly turned my attention to the window, looking for an escape route.

“Hiee…”

Ygrett and Eyja were waving their wings at me from outside the window. And before I knew it, Isla was at my side…! Grande also grabbed my arm with her mighty clawed hand.

“You don’t have to act scared.”

“Yes.”

I knew from the start that this would happen. Yes, sir. I guessed it when they went to the trouble of making a temporary accommodation for us. Today is the last day, right?

“Fufufu… Don’t think that I’m always the one who gets beaten up!”

I’ve got a trick up my sleeve that I got at the Elven Village. With this, there is no way I could be defeated. Today is the day that I will be able to turn the tables on them all.