CH 44

[Let’s Kick Those Shitty Bastards’ Asses]

We had left the military city Berqua and were now about to cross the country’s southern border.

It seemed that before Lifia-sama had passed away, there were only a lookout at the border, but presently a base had been built among the mountains and entry into the country was considerably restricted.

But that too wouldn’t remain the case for long, as I’d heard that the regulation would be loosened, though it’d probably take some time until it took effect.

After all, if Berqua were to loosen its security all of a sudden, hostile forces might take advantage of that opportunity.

In our trip to Lastall this time, we carried a letter from King Zestgard, and after arriving there, the first thing we gotta do was to grasp its current situation—that’s out topmost priority.

With that in mind, we continued to fly southwards with my Fire God Form. Of course, all the while being concealed by 《Invisible Coating》.

Although Zana’s little sisters had seen through it, that was only because of the high sensing ability of 《Heaven Bow》 skill.

I didn’t think there would be many people with a skill that could match up to it.

“By the way, what kind of country ‘Lastall’ is?”

During the flight, Magmell suddenly brought up that question.

Certainly, that also got me curious.

Zana answered while making a pondering gesture, “Let’s see, in a nutshell— it’s a ‘dubious country’, I guess?”

“Ha, look who’s talkin’,” said Ophir while lying down and resting her cheek on her hand.

Magmell raised her voice as if to rebuke her, “Ophir-san!”

But I didn’t think Ophir said that out of ill will, and Zana didn’t seem to mind it, either. “No matter. Now as I’ve said, Lastall is a dubious country, which is the reason why we put our everything to increase our military power. That country is outwardly promoting diplomacy, yet behind the scene, it’s doing wicked deeds such as assassinating someone’s mother. Unbelievable, right?”

“But why are you so sure that it was the work of Lastall?” Arca asked.

Zana’s darkened and she said, “…Because I saw it with my own eyes. My mother being shot with an arrow by a man at Lastall Castle, that is. And I recognized the perpetrator. I recognized him because I had some interactions with him at the castle before the incident. I was still at around my younger sisters’ age at that time.”

“I see. It must’ve been painful.” I said.

“Thanks. But I’m fine now. Thanks to you all.” Zana smiled after saying that, and the air surrounding us became warm.

“Still, I don’t get it. Why did they go out of their way to infuriate Zana’s old man? The guys from that Last-something country, I mean,” said Ophir.

Magmell looked at her with half-closed eyes and said, “It’s ‘Lastall’. You’ve gotten half of it right, so please remember the rest of the name.”

Ophir shrugged her shoulder, “Yes, yes.”

“One ‘yes’ is enough.”

“Ye~s.”

A thought suddenly struck me, these two surprisingly made a good pair.

“This is just a speculation, but what if Lastall did it to make Berqua increase its military power? I mean, Berqua’s claim of its queen assassinated by Lastall ended up being taken as a false accusation and it gave Lastall’s higher-ups a justification to increase their military power as well, no?” Arca said.

“That’s certainly plausible. In fact, after we started strengthening our border security, I heard that Lastall also started expanding its military,” said Zana.

“So it’s safe to conclude that it was to create a pretext to invade, huh. By some chance, is Berqua’s Magical Engineering more advanced than that of Lastall?” asked Arca.

“Yes, that’s right. They must be planning to make us improve our technologies and take over everything in one single swoop. And their main goal should be—‘homunculus’.”

Everyone’s complexion turned grim.

If that technology were to fall in Lastall’s hands, it would surely cause even more tragedy.

I was really glad that its research had been abandoned. “The only mystery left is that Berqua has Zana—in other words, the ‘Bow Saintess’. If Berqua were to dispatch her to war, I don’t think Lastall would have a high chance of winning, but then why…”

“That’s where the ‘Giant’ that we’ve previously mentioned comes in. We believed that weapon boasts power which surpass even that of a saintess. Hence, their confidence in victory,” said Zana.

“A weapon that have power surpass even that of a saintess, huh… Honestly, what a troublesome country…” Arca said.

“But for them to create even such a thing, what humans capable of doing to satiate their greed is truly terrifying…” Magmell said with a sad look.

But then.

――Bam!

“Kyaa!?”

Someone hit her back with a considerable force.

“What’s the deal with the long face.” Needless to say, it was Ophir.

“W-why did you do that!?” Magmell screamed with a bright red face.

“‘course,” Ophir laughed daringly and said, “it’s ‘cause ya makin’ such a pitiful face. I mean, we’re ‘saintesses’, ain’t we? It’s a saintess’ job to kick the asses of that kind of shitty bastards, ain’t it?”

“T-that’s true, but..”

“Then, don’t fret it. Just wallop ‘em with that staff of yours, and beat ‘em senseless.”

“Ophir-san…” Magmell said, touched at being consoled by Ophir.

Arca then chimed in, “Well, that’s fair. The only problem is that the one who brought it up has never done a saintess’ job in her life.”

“Look who’s talkin’!? You yourself had only been screwin’ up martial arts tournaments before you met Exa!?”

“Fuh, I’ve forgotten all that, it’s all in the past. What’s more important is the present. Don’t you think so?”

“W-well, yeah…”

“No, how could you fall for that…

“Haah…” Zana sighed.

While finding their exchanges pleasant, I said to Magmell, “Well, don’t think too hard about it. If they’re walking down on a wrong path, we just need to correct them. We have been given the power to do so by the gods, after all.”

“…Yes. Indeed, it’s as you say.” Magmell nodded vigorously, making me soften the corners of my mouth.

Then, looking ahead, I exclaimed, “Oh, there it is. That’s our destination, the largest country on this continent—’Lastall’.”