CH 215

Chapter 215 – Yes, Happily Ever After! But That’s Not So Fast

We got rid of the evil enemy, and a peaceful era has arrived!

The reality is that it doesn’t work like that. Only in children’s stories is it possible to win a war and be happy with the outcome. In reality, it takes many times longer to clean up after a war than it does to fight it.

“Well, we still won the war, and since there were no casualties, not even deaths, the postwar cleanup was a piece of cake.”

“Only as far as the war with the Holy Kingdom is concerned. But more importantly, we need to settle the situation in the country.”

“That is the point, isn’t it?”

The night after the decisive battle with the subjugation army was over. 

This time, in order to intercept them before the Holy Kingdom’s subjugation army seized Merinesburg, we, the Liberation Army, went on a very strong march. We raided and defeated the Holy Kingdom’s army in the towns and forts on the road from Erichburg to Merinesburg and occupied Merinesburg, which was not well prepared for an interception.

Thanks to this, the supply lines of the Liberation Army were stretched to the limit.

“The supply lines aren’t all that stretched, though, are they?”

“That’s because Kosuke is here.”

“Kosuke is a mobile supply base. And he even has the ability to build a supply base in a very short period. It’s called unfairness. They call it a “cheat” in Kosuke’s world, right?”

Isla mutters with a glass of fruit milk I served her after the bath.　

“Well, it’s certainly a cheat.”

Where’s the worry about food for the troops? That would be something like that. If I can build a field, I can harvest a mountain of crops in a week or two, even if I don’t do anything to it. I can produce armors and houses in large quantities as long as I have the materials, and as for funds, I can easily obtain gemstones and mithril just by going to a rocky place and digging.

I can solve the problems of food, armor, and money for a military-level group by myself, and I can set up any number of facilities that can solve these problems. In a simulation game, I would be a “cheat unit” that can generate food, materials, and gold just by having me as a friend and also keep increasing the production capacity of the base. What’s more, I can create super-powerful military units that completely ignore existing military technology.

“No, it’s really cheating, isn’t it?”

From an ally’s point of view, it would be a great help, but from an enemy’s point of view, it would be like saying, “That’s a cheat! If I were your enemy, I’d take you out at any cost, wouldn’t I?”

“Stay out of the castle as much as possible. If you do, take Grande, Melty, or me with you if at all possible. I don’t feel that you’re safe with just Zamir or Isla.”

“Muu…”

Isla makes a disgruntled sound but does not complain anymore. Although Isla is a powerful magician, her physical ability is not so high. In a head-to-head battle, she could smash most enemies with her magic, but she was vulnerable to surprise attacks.

On the other hand, Grande, although smaller, is a grand dragon and has extraordinary strength and power, as well as the ability to fly. Melty is a variant of the demon species, and her power and speed alone are enough to defeat even Grande. And Sylphy is a kind of specialized elf fighting species with the same level of fighting ability as Melty. I’ve never seen Sylphy fight, but I’ve heard rumors that this is the case.

In other words, Sylphy must have decided that it would be dangerous to go out of the castle without one of the three of them.

Eh? Is it okay if I stay inside the castle, you say? There are three slime girls in the castle who are almost as capable of fighting as Melty, and they are always guarding me, Sylphy, and Sylphy’s family, the royal family, so there is nothing to worry about. By contract, they cannot leave the castle, but on the contrary, they are invincible inside the castle.

Their bodies are ineffective against physical attacks, they can regenerate even if wiped out by magic, they have physical destructive power that can destroy even solid rocks, they have magic abilities that can resist chorus magic by multiple mages, and they have the ability to generate poison gas in a sealed space. They are difficult to deal with in the limited space of a castle.

“Isn’t it okay if you can leave it to me to take care of it?”

“We can guarantee your safety if you stay inside the castle.”

“It is impossible for anyone to do anything to Kosuke as long as you stay under our watchful eye, you know-nodesu.”

The three slime girls appear from the corners of the room, the ceiling, and the gaps in the shelves.

They have many troublesome abilities for malicious intruders, but this is perhaps the most troublesome of them all. The girls have “duplicates,” or body doubles, stationed throughout the castle, constantly monitoring and guarding the castle from various angles. They are like a bio-security system. In other words, SLACOM. Or is it SLASOK? Either one is fine. [T/n: He may refer to SECOM & ALSOK .]

“Welcome back… have you already taken a bath?”

“Unfortunately not.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s not good to approach Danna-san in a dusty state, so we’ll go take a bath first.”

“Yes.”

The Harpies returned with Pirna in the lead. The girls had been working hard recently, but they were told to take turns and rest for three days starting this evening since they had driven off a large strike force. The four who have just returned are Pirna, the blue-feathered harpy, Pessar, the brown-feathered harpy, Capri, the brown-feathered harpy, and Rey, the black-feathered harpy, who are in charge of organizing the group.

The other Harpies will be coming back one by one. All I can do is entertain them to the best of my ability, so I will do my best to accommodate their wishes for the next three days. The Harpies have been so busy lately that we haven’t been able to spend much time together.

“I’m going to take another bath too.”

“Be careful you don’t get too excited.”

“Hmm, too many baths are poisonous.”

“I’ll be careful.”

I waved at Sylphy and Isla and headed to the bathroom to take another bath with Pirna and the others. I enjoyed the slender backs of the Harpies, the slender lines of their bodies, the feel of their wet feathers, and many other things. Yes. It was a good one.

☆★☆

The next day, after the Harpies came back one after another, and even Melty broke in, I finally collapsed in the bathtub.

“First of all, I had to replenish the ammunition that had been consumed and maintain the light machine gun.”

In the work shed I built in the corner of the courtyard, I filled the golem workbench and the blacksmithing facility with craft appointments, respectively.

Armed with air boards and light machine guns, the gunners are powerful but not invincible. They are limited in the amount of ammunition they can carry at one time, and after an all-out battle, they need to be replenished and serviced like this. The amount of ammunition they consume is also outrageous, and at present, if such a battle were to continue for three days, the supply of ammunition would not be able to keep up.

If it were as large as the subjugation force this time, they would have been able to repel the attack no matter how well organized the enemy was, but I shudder to think what would have happened if they had been forced to use a number of goods that exceeded their supply capacity.

“At that point, we would have had no choice but to give them a good whack.”

I let out a sigh as I check the magic sparkling stone bomb with a parachute in my inventory. Fortunately, this time we didn’t have to use it, but we don’t know what will happen next time. According to calculations, this magic sparkling stone bomb is powerful enough to blow up the entire Erichburg, according to Isla. If this bomb were to hit, it would be a blow to an army of tens of thousands of men.

“But this is indeed…”

With this, the armies of any country in the world would be defeated. With this magic sparkling stone bomb, you can blow up tens of thousands of soldiers in a single blow without leaving any survivors. There is no way to counteract the fact that all witnesses will literally disappear. However, I thought it would take an extraordinary resolve to use this.

“Indeed what?”

“Whoa!”

I shouted out at the sound of a voice suddenly coming from behind me. I turned around, and there was Ellen. She was wearing luxurious priest’s robes that made her look very saintly, and she had a high level of defense.

“W-why are you so surprised?”

“I was completely caught off guard when you suddenly called out to me, and I was startled. Have you been working this morning?”

“Yes, I’ve finished it. So, what is indeed you said before?”

Ellen stares at my face.

According to Isla, her eyes are a kind of magic eyes, which can tell when the person she is looking at is telling a lie. In fact, she used this ability to be revered by the people in the Holy Kingdom as a saint of truth, and conversely, she was resented by the evil priests and nobles who were exposed.

What I am trying to say is that there is no point in deceiving her.

“I’m just glad I didn’t have to use my trump card. This time we managed to get rid of 20,000 of the Holy Kingdom’s army with this, but I have something even more vicious, something that can blow everything up with a single blow.”

Saying this, I pulled out a heavy-barreled light machine gun from my inventory.

The weight of this light machine gun, which originally weighed more than 11 kg, had increased by about 30% to more than 1.5 kg as a result of the barrel and machine parts being made of black steel, a metal unique to this world. The weight increases even more when a drum magazine with 50 rounds is attached.

“Can I hold it?”

“Sure, but it’s heavy.”

“It’s only a little heavy.”

“Be careful.”

I handed the light machine gun to Ellen.

I can handle something like this without any difficulty because of my higher level or because of the achievement I received when I passed the level 20 mark, but this thing must be heavy for the slender Ellen.　

“Mm… It’s certainly heavy. Can a soldier of the Liberation Army wield something like this?”

Ellen, who managed to hold the light machine gun, frowned at its weight. The picture of a saint with a light machine gun has quite a strong impact. The combination of a pistol and a machine gun with a sister’s uniform is also a good one. It seems to have the same goodness.

“It is not a weapon to hit, though. Well, they seem to be able to control the recoil without any problem, so this is no problem at all.”

“It’s amazing. I can’t even walk around with this thing.”

“Probably.”

I took the light machine gun from Ellen’s hand and returned it to my inventory. The one that Ellen was holding right now was one of the items that I had stored in my inventory for safekeeping. It was brand new, never been used.

No matter whether you use it or not, it is a saga of a survivalist wanting to keep one of the weapons you have made in a usable condition, right?

“So, what’s your trump card?”

“A dangerous weapon that can annihilate an army of tens of thousands with a single blow. The details are a secret.”

“Secret?”

“It’s a secret. The less you know about it, the better. Only a few people in the Liberation Army know about it. It’s not something I’m willing to use.”

Ellen tilted her head.

“If there is such a thing, wouldn’t it be possible to bring the Holy Kingdom to bow down quickly if you use it proactively?”

“If I wanted to exterminate the existence of the Holy Kingdom, I would have done so. I don’t think Sylphy and I are that inclined to go that far.”

“I see… there must be a lot of grudges that have been building up.”

“It would be unrealistic to destroy the entire family and clan by wielding power out of spite, and the Holy Kingdom is far too large to do so. The resentment of Sylphy and the others are deep, but it is not enough to cloud their eyes to see the reality.”

“That was fortunate for the people of the Holy Kingdom, wasn’t it?”

“It sounds to me as if Ellen has more resentment toward the Holy Kingdom than Sylphy does.”

Ellen looked at me at my words and blinked. She looked as if my words had fallen on her heart.

“I guess so. I hate the Holy Kingdom. I even want it to be destroyed.”

“That doesn’t sound very peaceful.”

“I’m sure Kosuke thinks so too. If you see the reality of that country in various ways.”

Ellen let out a sigh and dropped her gaze to the floor. As a saint, Ellen must have had plenty of exposure to the inner workings of Adol religion and the Holy Kingdom. If she is so willing to go so far as to say this, then perhaps the corruption in the center of the Holy Kingdom is worse than I had thought.

“Well, I’m probably not going to actively destroy the Holy Kingdom, so please keep that in mind. I do believe they’ll have to pay for the firestorm that’s coming down on us, though.”

“That’s too bad. I would have loved to see that damn Pope and that damn Holy King crying and begging for their lives with my own eyes.”

“Hey, Saint-sama, you’re giving off a black aura.”

“Ara ara, ufufu.”

Ellen puts on her best saintly smile and hides the blackness that is oozing out of her. What the hell did the Pope of Adol and the Holy King of the Holy Kingdom do to Ellen if Ellen has such a grudge against them? I’d like to ask, but I’m too afraid to. Maybe I should ask Archbishop Deckard about it next time.

“What about Kosuke after this?”

“Well, I don’t have any definite plans until noon. If Melty or Sylphy give me something to do, I’ll probably focus on that.”

The POWs acquired in yesterday’s battle should have been taken care of in the POW camp that was built when we captured Merinesburg, so there shouldn’t be anything urgent I have to do. I finished treating the wounded and burying the dead of the Holy Kingdom’s army yesterday. I heard that the Harpies were going to spend the daytime sleeping, too.

“Then please accompany me throughout the morning. Kosuke is a little lacking in a lot of things.”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘lacking.’ Not sure what’s going on here, but I have a feeling that you are being rude to me, don’t you?”

“You’ll understand soon enough. Come on, let’s go.”

Ellen then walked behind me and started to push me back. I don’t know what’s going on, but it looks like I’m going to have to spend the morning with Ellen.