CH 55.2

Chaos in Ostland (1)

The destination I jumped to was the audience hall. Unusually, my parents were dressed in formal attire and my Big brother was also sitting in the Crown Prince’s chair. They seemed to be receiving an audience from a ragged, noble-looking person.

This was very rare. Speaking of Kings, having an audience hall is necessary, but it’s not really used that much. There is also a conference room, and basically, my Father is either there or in his office, or in one of the bars in the Royal Capital.

“I beg of you. Please send reinforcements to our country!!”

Apparently, the person who came to the audience didn’t notice me. I mean, he was pretty beat up and the people who seemed to be his guards were considerably wounded.

“We have no reason to refuse to help, but with the Empire attacking our border fortresses, we can’t afford to lend a helping hand to other countries.”

An envoy from some country came to ask for help, but the bad news is that the Empire is meddling with us again, so we can’t afford to send help. Will that country really not be ruined by that a rebellion?

In the end, they said we couldn’t provide reinforcements, so the envoy was about to be sent to the castle to receive treatment for his injuries.

I don’t know what is going on. I had no choice but to treat the envoy and his escort with healing magic.

“You are?… You have my gratitude.”

Well, I am a recluse who has become famous for some reason, and there is no way that people from other countries would know my face. He thanked me in the usual way, but left the audience hall with a drooping head.

But then I saw them. I saw the crest of Ostland engraved on the tattered armor worn by his guards….

“What is the meaning of this!!”

“……”

Father looked reluctant and didn’t answer. The people around him were scurrying around to head to the border fort for reinforcements. I guessed that Father and the others would be also moving to the border area from now on.

But I could not overlook it either. That was an envoy from Ostland. And there was no way they would be so battered and bruised just by coming here. Something must have happened in that country. There were a lot of suspicious parts, but if I had thought about it a little, I would have understood. Soldiers were running around in the streets. How could I think it was peaceful…

“… You will act again if I tell you.”

“… I won’t deny that. But were you going to hide it from me? Were you going to make me abandon my friends and tell me after all was said and done!?”

“… 2 million. A Stampede on a scale unparalleled in history has occurred. Ostland has 150,000 men, and they’re not even close to being well-trained. There was no way to win.”

Defeating monsters is difficult. If you are an adventurer, you need three people to safely defeat a monster of the same rank, or you may be killed. Furthermore, unlike adventurers, soldiers specialize in fighting against people, so it’s difficult for them to defeat monsters unless there are at least five of them. Only Arland boasts the skill level to subjugate monsters with fewer soldiers. Therefore, this gap in strength is hopeless, as Father said. Furthermore, Ostland, which has been peaceful for many years, has low skill levels, and they already have fugitives. Moreover, the city walls of Orthoa weren’t that solid. They were rather old and were currently undergoing renovation.

Is there a way for Arland to help? In the end, it all depends on the power of the Royal family. The Royal family of Arland, who sought for strength, has been continuously marrying talent. Therefore, they are potentially much stronger than ordinary people. My magic power is not that impossible because there were many Royalty of the past who had strong magic.

However, with the Empire attacking Arland, there is no room to send the Royal family to other countries.

“The Empire may not let us go out at this time. Arland has no diplomatic ties of that extent with any country at the moment. They probably don’t want us to help Ostland and allow us to form an alliance against the Empire and the Imperial State.”

In other words, I have to abandon my friends because of the Empire………… I’m fed up with the Empire.

“I’m off!!”

I turned on my heel and left the audience hall. My family, sensing my disquiet, rushed after me, but they could never touch me. They must understand my strong rejection.

I arrived at my old room. Strong soldiers stood guard on both sides of the entrance.

—Are we going to do this?—

The Spirit of Darkness asked me. This child was guarding this room. He’s basically with me most of the time, but this is his territory in a way.

“I break thy seal.”

The door opened by itself without my touching it. This room was the first automatic door. Touching the doorknob to open it was not the right way to enter. Doing so would cause the traps to activate.

“Quick Change, gather around.”

Quick Change, that’s the spell that I have sealed away for many years, as it was a spell that took away Alicia’s job. Well, it’s just a magic spell to change clothes in an instant. With this, I called up the rest of the battle dress from the Treasury and changed. And the slime-like ones were installed on their own as gauntlets, greaves, and breastplates. They were thin enough to be considered lightweight, but they were still quite heavy for me. But I would not be able to protect myself without this much. In fact, I use Physical Enhancement, so it’s not a problem in a real battle. If I can’t react fast enough to avoid an attack, then I at least have protective gear that will protect me. Apparently, repeated kamikaze attacks with healing magic were not good for the heart, to the extent they made the people around haggard.

“I never thought I would use this myself.”

What I called up with Quick Draw was a pochette. It was an ordinary(?) pochette with an embroidery of a fox on it. And in one of the small boxes by the wall was a……… Colt Python.