Volume 2 – The World Sneered
The hidden passage to sneak into the royal capital was next to the ramparts on the northeast side of the city.
They saw a man leaning back against the wall after Philias guided the group there.
“I knew you’d come.”
Clive looked at Mary and spoke with a sulky facial expression.
“Thank you for waiting for us, Mr. Clive.”
“I’d hear a few complaints if I wasn’t here.”
He walked towards Mary after saying that, and moved his face closer to hers while frowning his brows.
Perhaps wary of his lips, Cutie, Ami and Calaria all suddenly flinched.
“I’m impressed how chaotic you made things, including the Pupa affair.”
“It’s not like I wanted this.”
“It’s easy to talk. I want a word or two of apology-”
Clive almost looked like he was about to grab Mary by the chest.
But he was the one who sent them to Pupa.
Mary glared back at him, implying that he had no right to complain.
“Yes yes, that’s enough.”
Then, Philias stepped in and stopped it.
“Tsch, you’re equally guilty too.”
“I’m not going to let you make this my fault.”
“Yeah, yeah! We didn’t think things would turn out this way either!”
Clive seemed taken aback by Ami’s flat objection.
He laughed scornfully, ‘hmph’, and took some distance from Mary.
“You’re some disagreeable people. Let’s go, follow me.”
Clive wiped the dirt from below his feet.
Then, something resembling a handle was revealed.
He firmly pulled on it and opened the cover.
Inside, there was a crooked stairway going underground.
It was so dark that it looked like a path to Hell.
Edward peeked inside and loudly gulped.
“M-Maybe I should go through the front door?”
“The fight hasn’t begun yet. A unifying force of your grade will interrupt the evacuations.”
“My grade? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s the truth. Now, stop being scared and come.”
Edward was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and forced to walk in the front.
Mary and the others also followed behind in pairs.
After they went down the stairs, there was a long corridor with a low roof, dimly lit by lanterns on the wall.
The wall was bare and dirt-colored.
The ground was also definitely not easy to walk on.
“This is some secret path. Didn’t the army notice this?”
Calaria spoke calmly while touching the walls.
“The royal capital could easily be thrown into turmoil if this was used during peacetime.”
“The one in Captis was built using Majoram’s strength, so maybe this one was built with Pupa’s help.”
Clive reacted to Cutie’s remark.
“We dug it ourselves. We used an old canal, though.”
The unpaved road from the beginning eventually turned into a stone path.
This was probably where the old canal began.
“Then even Pupa doesn’t know about its existence?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Because you said you don’t trust them.”
“But you still led us to Yueri.”
Clive frowned a little after Cutie’s snide comment.
“……At first, this road was planned to go all the way to under the royal castle.”
The assassination would be a success if they could use a bomb under the throne.
In the first place, it was necessary to go even deeper because the royal castle also had a basement.
“Security would find it right away if it was directly below them.”
“Yeah, so we couldn’t do that…… Still, it’s a useful road for going in and out without the army’s knowledge.”
If they did not let Pupa know about this, and that meant their weapons trade happened in a different place.
It was a hidden path that no one other than the members of the liberation front knew about. It seemed useful for the future as well.
They arrived at the end of the path and saw another stairway to the side.
They went up and opened a sliding door, and……
“So it leads to an ordinary warehouse?”
From the surface, the entrance was camouflaged as a shelf.
Clive confirmed that everyone made it into the warehouse and closed the entrance.
“That door leads right outside. It’s highly possible you’ll be captured if you go out in public. Are you ready?”
“What will you do?”
“I want to fight, but I have other burdens. I’m going to regroup with everyone and help with the evacuation.”
“Can you take Edward with you then?”
Ami spoke without any ill intent.
Edward’s cheek twitched.
“S-She didn’t say my title…… Ami, aren’t you just a commoner?”
“Me and Mary are sisters. So you’re my stepbrother. That means I can call you by your first name, right?”
“What’s the meaning of this, Mary!?”
He instinctively grabbed Mary by the shoulders.
It was no wonder he was upset.
But Mary softly pulled his hands away.
“There’s no time to explain. Mr. Clive, my brother wants to help with the evacuation. Please let him come with you.”
“So I’m the cowardly prince’s babysitter?”
“What!?”
“C’mon, don’t snap at him my prince. Very well, please try to make him look favorable.”
Edward could not oppose it any more after Philias said this.
But this seemed to have worsened Clive’s mood.
He clicked his tongue and used abusive language.
“Tsch, it’s irritating to be used like this, but I’ll let it go for now. Let’s go, coward.”
“At least say ‘prince’!”
“Coward prince.”
“I said stop calling me that!”
“Damn selfish prince……”
Though he was not very loud, Edward couldn’t help but raise his voice.
He left along with Clive.
Mary looked up to the sky after stepping into the royal capital’s stone paving.
“Looks like dawn is near.”
Meanwhile, Ami pointed at something in the direction of the royal capital.
“There are large pillars in front of the castle. Were they always there?”
The others also looked there.
There were pillars of the same height as the royal castle on the sides of its entrance.
“Looks like it’s
High Priestess
’s power.”
“They’re being very careful, I suppose. Look…… there’s a bird approaching the castle.”
A bird who woke up along with the dawn innocently approached the castle while chirping.
Then,
snap.
They heard a faint explosive sound and the bird dropped to the ground.
“It looks like the royal castle is being protected well.”
“But I think we can go through without a problem between the pillars.”
This time, a different bird was about to go through between the pillars.
Unlike before, it seemed to have safely made it through, but the air burst open the next moment and a black ball emerged in the sky.
A massive arm came out of it and mercilessly crushed the bird.
“Well, they wouldn’t intentionally arrange a safe path, huh?”
Cutie spoke with irritation.
“Well, we saw
High Priestess
’s power now.”
“R-Really? Are you sure?”
“A barrier created by two pillars is surrounding the royal castle. They probably left a gap on purpose and heightened its intensity.”
“And the gap that was left because of the power’s restrictions is being protected by that giant, right?”
The tear grew even larger and its entire body manifested through it.
It was a male humanoid.
His color was white.
His height was even taller than the pillars.
His body was muscular, and he had wide shoulders.
His clothes looked like a monk’s robe, and Mary felt that his outfit definitely seemed related to a religion.
As a whole, his outer appearance looked like a giant stone statue moving around.
He stood in front of the pillars and waited in an imposing stance with his arms crossed.
“I think we can fight if he’s our only opponent.”
“I hear footsteps, let’s change location.”
The party moved to a tall building nearby with Calaria’s guidance.
Then, they looked down on the main street that continued until the royal castle’s front gate.
The area was filled with soldiers on guard.
“Those soldiers are all angels, right?”
“They’re the only ones standing there when no one else is. It’s a weird scene.”
The birds were shrieking all around after the giant’s appearance, but the main street seemed to be fully evacuated, and there was no one there other than the soldiers.
Perhaps the people were getting killed when they got close.
“I can see the sun now.”
The sunlight appeared from the other side of the horizon and signalled the dawn.
“Look, the soldiers are writhing in pain.”
The soldiers were standing straight, but their bodies all started twisting at the same time.
Their groans could be heard from even where Mary and the others stood.
Their armor broke from the inside and became full of holes.
Blood gushed forth.
Their skins ripped apart, and the exposed flesh changed shape.
The soldiers transformed into new lifeforms, almost as if shedding their skin.
Someone appeared on the royal castle’s balcony after their metamorphosis finished.
“Father.”
He was far away, but there was no mistaking it.
He was Henry Pulsherima, the main culprit behind all this, and the person Mary had to kill.
He opened his mouth to say something.
Of course, Mary and the others could not hear him without using a spell.
And they did not see any speakers nearby.
But Henry had arranged for something else.
“Can you hear me, Mary? This vain war is finally coming to an end!”
Henry’s voice repeatedly echoed through the royal capital.
It came from the throats of the angels lining up the main street.
They traced his mouth movements and the king’s words echoed through the light purple sky.
“Will the daughter-killing king win, or will the parricide princess win? Either way, only hell awaits. Now, let us suffer to the fullest. Let’s struggle in pain as unsightly souls burdened with sin!”
These were clearly no longer Henry’s words.
He proudly declared that this was a battle just to make Henry, and perhaps Mary suffer.
“I declare war right here, right now!”
Then, wings of flesh came out of the angels’ backs and they all flew into the sky in unison.