CH 196

Chapter 196 – The Pulverized Dog and the Awakened King

“Battlecry! I need you to escort the Cassmeer Guard and the council members in this room!”

“Copy that.”

“Don’t you need the vanguard… Mir?”

“Sorry, Louis, if it’s indoors, it’ll block our line of fire.”

“Deputy Captain.”

I called the commander of the Cassmeer Guard to the edge of the room.

“I think they won’t move since I warned them repeatedly…”

“The council member?”

I nod my head. Initially, the main cause of the rebellion was thought to be the conservative forces within the council. We were told that was the majority, but only two of the nine members jumped. I would rather have all the pus removed than have potential adversaries.

“Is it possible to show them an opening after we’re out?”

The deputy captain shook his head in dismay.

“I’ll try, but don’t get your hopes up too high. Your threat to kill them has worked too well.”

We leave the conference room and call out to Tig and Louis. They are guarding the door in front of the room as the vanguard, and they are very enthusiastic.

“Leave this to us; we won’t let anyone through!”

“We’ll take care of this. But…”

Myrril chuckled.

“No one will come, though.”

As we exit the conference room at the back of the second floor, we find ourselves in a short corridor followed by a corridor-like passageway with a central stairwell. I saw the rebel forces that had rushed in through the main entrance, split into two staircases on either side and run up to us.

The number… Huh?

“Three hundred or so. They seem to have increased in number.”

“There are more shield-bearers and armored soldiers. Are there reinforcements?”

“No, a hundred or so is within the margin of error.”

Myrril made eye contact with me and told me that she would be in charge of the left side. I nodded and installed a light machine gun with a seventy-five-round drum magazine, and took charge of the enemy on the right side.

With a muffled “plop” sound, the grenade launcher launched a 40-millimeter grenade. Two shots fired in rapid succession landed on the left and right sides in front of the main entrance, blowing up the firing positions that the following troops were in the process of constructing, along with the archers. Screams, shouts, blood splatters and pieces of flesh are scattered, replaced by grunts and cries for help. With armor, it is not an easy death.

Perhaps looking back at the tragedy, some in the lead group were frightened. They are pushed and dazed by the surge, but they still try to stay, and the current stalls at the stairway. The soldiers were obviously of low morale and skill level as if they had been scraping together the remnants of a defeated army rather than reinforcements.

“It’s not looking good.”

I dropped two more grenades from my M79 onto the crowded staircase landing, and the blasted soldiers tumbled to the floor below and stopped moving. Even so, many of those advancing were imperial soldiers dressed in black. I was impressed by the fact that soldiers who are prepared to die are indeed not shaken.

When the UZI gunfire began, they were mowed down with no regard for their high morale or momentum. They were probably going to die anyway, but in another country with nothing…

“Takifu!”

“Oh, sorry.”

Right. Thinking in the middle of a battle is crazy.

The soldiers rushing forward from the right are an Eastern territory soldier holding a large tower-shaped shield and a Northern territory soldier with a spear in their hands. They were of varying skill levels, but since they were in the lead, their fighting spirit was high, and they had no hesitation.

I fire a light machine gun with a fully automatic fire. The large tower-shaped shield made of thick wood and metal seems to be effective enough to weaken the power of the 7.62mm rounds somewhat but not enough to stop them.

When the shield-bearer was shot down, the light infantrymen equipped with hand spears, who had been standing in the shadows of the shield-bearer, made up their minds and rushed forward. The distance between us and the lead group was now only about 15 meters. I fired 75 rounds before the lead group was completely defeated. Giving up on changing magazines, I took an assault rifle out of my storage and set up a barrage of fully automatic fire. Despite the poor skill of the shooter and the low accuracy of the gun, there was no way I could miss at ten meters or less.

“You bastard!”

After stepping over the dead bodies of their allies, the next group comes toward me. With the MAC10, known for its high rate of fire even as a submachine gun, thirty rounds of .45-caliber pistol ammunition are scattered in about two seconds. Only twenty or so remain. I took another AKM out of my storage, and this time, I made sure to take them out with single shots.

Meanwhile, on the left side of the room, Myrril is changing magazines and knocking down enemies one after another. The occasional roar is the sound of a revolver being used to kill heavily-armed infantry.

“Well, it looks like we’re all clear here.”

“This one is just a little more… Alright, done.”

I turned around and saw Myrril pointing behind me with a look of dismay on her face.

“Not yet.”

“Uoooo!”

I saw a bloody blue cloak rise up with a spear and thrust it toward me. The distance was about seven meters. I pulled my Browning Hi-Power from my pocket and shot him twice in the chest, just to be safe.

“Why don’t you check the neutralization from the beginning? You are still not ready for this.”

“…It’s disappointing.”

Just as I was about to return, I saw Louis peeking out from the shadows of the hallway and shaking her head.

“I knew it; everyone’s down.”

“Well, we did our best, after all.”

“I’d like to say well done. But you know, we hardly work at all. It’s a little hard to get paid, isn’t it?”

We laughed and looked at each other.

“What are you talking about? That’s fine. You’re the escort. When things go wrong, it means that the people you’re supposed to protect are in danger.”

“Oh… I can understand that logic in my head.”

She’s not convinced. It may be so, but I’m not willing to let the enemy go with their feelings.

When we returned to the conference room after storing the corpses with their equipment, Lord McKin, protected by the Battlecry, greeted us with a wry smile.

“That was quick. If it were up to the Demon King and his wife, the remnants of the rebel army would be no match for you.”

“Not quite. There were about three hundred reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements?”

“The soldiers we saw before entering the council chambers were mainly imperial troops, but when we entered, the number of soldiers from the northern and eastern territories had increased. They must have pulled up the troops they had deployed in the capital and put them into the final battle.”

“I see. But thanks to the Demon King and the Queen, the enemy forces aiming at the Republic will not appear for a while.”

I nodded vaguely at Lord McKin’s words. We only eliminated the current antagonists. To be honest, we don’t know who their enemies are or how many of them are left.

I approach the deputy captain of the Cassmeer Guard and whisper to him to check the situation.

“No movement?”

“No. I’ve shown them my back quite a bit. The board chairman, who is the leader of the conservative faction, is not moving. He may have realized that he had no chance against the coalition of the Southern Territories and the Demon King and began to resolve the situation.”

“If possible, I would like you to keep an eye on him for a while.”

The deputy captain says, “That’s good,” and takes me over to the big table where everyone is gathered around.

“We’re going to stay here for a while. If there are any unusual movements, we will inform you via the southern lord. In the meantime, could you please send a message to Cassmeer for me?”

The deputy captain handed me a scroll of documents. I heard that it was an official document for transfer orders and reassignments that had been prepared on short notice. It’s like a company letter of resignation.

“Who has the authority to make these decisions?”

“It’s me, Your Majesty the Demon King.”

“Board Chairman.”

Kjell Merlot, Board Chairman of the Council of the Republic of Hagwai. Surprisingly, he was a relatively young and slender man among the council members. He was not so dignified, but he wore a strong air of supremacy and had a probing light in the depths of his eyes. He looked like a man who might be in a major trading company.

Is this the leader of the conservative faction? Considering that he is the head of the conservative forces that tried to destroy the Southern Territories, it is better to consider him as a potential adversary.

“The guards of the central territory who were in charge of defending the capital have suffered considerable damage. We will be checking on casualties from now on, but it will be a while before we can reorganize, so we have decided to borrow some of Cassmeer’s elite.”

After receiving the explanation from the board chairman, I took over as liaison. It’s not a big problem. I’m on my way home anyway.

“Demon King, will you be back anytime soon?”

Lord McKin offered me a chair. I let Myrril sit down first, and then I pulled out the chair next to mine and sat down.

As expected, I was tired. I’ve been driving close to 500 kilometers and fighting here and there for what seems like two whole days now. I was able to keep moving because Moff had sucked away my fatigue. There was no way I could keep up that kind of rough work indefinitely.

“Shall we leave in the morning?”

“I have a room ready for you. This way.”

“Woof.”

I stood up and leaned against Moff’s back. Myrril casually put her hand on my waist to support me.

“…What’s wrong with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You look strange.”

Mir-san, you are terrible. I guess that means I’m tired. I’ve seen in the bathroom mirror many times during my days as a company employee how tired and stern a middle-aged man looks after staying up all night.

“That’s not the case.”

Was she reading my mind again, or was it written on my face? Myrril looked at my face and tilted her head curiously.

“You have the face of a king. The face of a man who has done what needs to be done. But the strange thing is…”

Yeah. I felt it, too, somehow. I’d be happy if the girl I love said, “You’ve got a nice face.”

“Why now?”