Volume 2 – The World Sneered
Mary and the group headed for the parking lot after eating in the hotel.
Elastis was still under restraint, but her arm was regenerated by Cutie.
From the way Elastis meekly said ‘thank you’ on the occasion, the others could tell that she was not a completely evil person.
The group bumped into the manager while walking through a corridor.
“Are you leaving already, my lady? I thought that you were going to stay the night.”
“Before I answer that question, you-”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Do you swear fealty to Majoram?”
“Of course, I’ve devoted my entire life to Majoram.”
“Yes, I hope so…… What do you think, Calaria?”
Calaria quietly gripped her gun after that question.
She turned the muzzle towards the manager.
“There’s a microphone on his chest under his shirt.”
“I use it for communication within the hotel.”
“I didn’t see one on the other workers.”
“……”
“Enough with the clumsy lies. Answer the question, whose orders are you under?”
The manager’s face became expressionless immediately after Calaria’s question.
His eyes looked as if his soul had left them, and he spoke in a cold voice.
“All targets are leaving the-”
He was telling someone that the group was about to leave the hotel.
Calaria pulled the trigger with no hesitation.
The bullet split the manager’s head open.
Mary also quickly transformed her arm into a mouth and skillfully swallowed the corpse while making sure blood did not stain the area.
Elastis frowned while hearing the sound of the corpse being squished and digested.
“That person wasn’t sane, right?”
“He was being controlled…… I can’t believe King Henry’s hands have reached so far.”
“This is weird, did we really just directly meet someone under his control?”
“My father’s powers work even from far away……”
He did not even have to see his target.
And he had complete control of his target’s mind.
There had to be strict conditions in place for a power so out of the norm.
“I’m going to use Majoram’s workers again, so we should at least do a security check on them.”
“I’ll give the order. I’m going to be on call while we’re on the move, so I’ll let you drive the car, Calaria.”
“If you’re okay with a bit of a rough ride, sure.”
“As long as you don’t turn the car into scrap metal”
They headed for the parking lot while cracking jokes.
Calaria sat on the driver’s seat, and Cutie sat on the passenger seat. Then, Elastis sat in the center in the backseat between Mary and Ami.
They left the hotel and headed for Lemingen.
Just as she said, Calaria’s driving was a little rough, and all the passengers started swaying around in the car when the car took off.
◇◇◇
“Yes, how many people can we trust? I want a mutual check. Even that hotel’s manager was being controlled.”
Cutie was sitting in the passenger’s seat with a comms device on her ear.
The manager’s betrayal, even though he was being controlled, was still shocking for Cutie and a little unpleasant.
Even ignoring that, however, they still had Elsatis in the car, who could not be completely counted as an ally despite her surrender. So the atmosphere was quite tense.
Mary and Ami were quiet, and the only sounds were Cutie’s voice and the engine.
It took around two hours by car from Luvana until Lemingen.
The sun had started setting when they arrived, and dusk approached.
Cutie told Calaria to stop the car a bit before entering the village.
A desolate farming village that resembled Ami’s home was visible through the car’s front windscreen.
“Now, we’re finally here – but this is where the real problem starts. I’m going to send workers into the village now and have them investigate it.”
“Aren’t you worried they might be controlled too?”
“Actually…… We caught one. He was an employee with a promising future, but, unfortunately, we dealt with him.”
Cutie spoke briefly, but she was really sad about it.
“Our foe is astute. He knew Majoram would oppose him and prepared in advance.”
“There’s no knowing when they might turn into angels, right? It’s scary to let them live.”
They did not know if there was a way to save the people being controlled.
But Mary and the group did not have the leeway to look for one right now.
Considering the risk of them transforming into monsters, the best way to deal with them was to kill them with no mercy.
“I’m going to ask again, Elastis. You’re sure that the ones in the village are General Ox and the arcana user of Chariot, right?”
“If they didn’t move, yes.”
“What’s the user of Chariot like?”
“His name is Cruz Arotam. I think he’s in his late twenties. I don’t like chatty people like him, so we didn’t talk much, but…… he said he was born in the Ganadia Empire.”
“Ganadia? That’s close, compared to the others.”
“That’s where Philicia said Devil’s arcana user was located, right?”
“Yes, that’s where Devil was killed. It’s the greatest nation after the Kingdom of Orvis, so it’s no surprise they possessed two arcana users.”
“I don’t know much about Ganadia, but he had a really nice car. The safehouse doesn’t stand out, but his car was really conspicuous.”
After Elastis spoke, the portable comms device in Cutie’s hand started ringing.
It seemed to be a call from a worker who sneaked into the village.
Cutie answered it while throwing in some interjections like ‘yes, mhm’, and turned towards Elastis after the call ended.
“There’s a really nice car parked on the outskirts of the village. And there are two men inside a cabin, as you said. One of them had a sword, so he should be General Ox. The other was a shallow-looking man with a coat, who must be Cruz.”
“Looks like Magician isn’t here, huh?”
Calaria seemed a little disappointed.
She must have wanted revenge, and a rematch of Captis.
“Should we attack now that we know their location?”
“We should go for a night attack. Also, let’s ask for the professional mercenary’s opinion. Calaria?”
“I think a night attack would be best too.”
“The sun will be completely down after a few hours, so let’s wait until then.”
“Copy that. It doesn’t look like Ox has soldiers with him. The village is small but there was an inn, so let’s rest there.”
The group got out of their car and headed for Lemington on foot to avoid drawing attention.
They also removed Elastis’s restraints for the same reason.
Even if she shot Cupid’s Arrow at someone here, the remaining three could instantly kill her.
But she had no such intentions anyway.
They safely arrived at the inn and everyone sat down to relax and rest their bodies as they refined their strategy.
“How should we take them down, you two?”
Cutie sat on the bed.
“The problem is we don’t understand his powers. Power gives someone crazy strength, and I guess Chariot has something to do with cars?”
Calaria sat on a wooden chair by a window.
Meanwhile, Mary sat on the couch and had Ami sit on her lap.
“I want to take them both down at the same time.”
“Should we burn the cabin?”
“I’ll block their paths of escape with bones.”
“Then I’ll light the fire.”
Elastis nominated herself.
“I’ll need a bow, of course.”
“We’ll have to use Lover’s powers anyway if things get bad, so…… Okay, I’ll give you a bow.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take her head immediately if she does anything strange.”
“A fire arrow, huh? Classic.”
“I don’t think that’s enough to surprise the enemy.”
“It’s a good start, but what about afterwards? General Ox’s powers might be enough to let him escape.”
“Power, huh? It’d be difficult to win a head-on contest of strength if it simply gives him crazy strength, right?”
“What’s his Sorcery Rating?”
“I recall that it was around 12,000.”
“That’s not so high, is it? Maybe we can just win head-on.”
“But he’s still an arcana user, right? Remember Hierophant. We can’t just go by his Sorcery Rating alone.”
According to Andre and Elastis, Digi had given Ox the right to command arcana users.
If he was being utilized as such an important piece, he was either so strong that his powers could not be measured by numbers alone, or the numbers were not correct.
He was the top officer of the royal army, so the group had to be on guard.
“Even if he flees, we still have the numbers advantage.”
“They have powers related to military use, so it’s possible the two might run away. I want to make sure that we can kill at least one of them.”
“Hey, Elastis, can’t you do anything with your Cupid arrow?”
Elastis looked at the floor after Cutie’s question and started to think.
“It’s difficult to attract two people to each other if there is no affection between them to start with. Those two especially have nothing in common, so even if I shoot them with my arrow, I think they’ll just think about whoever they’re already infatuated with instead.”
“In General Ox’s case, that would probably be my sister.”
“That’s so creepy!”
“What about Cruz?”
“In his case, I think he’d want to see his car parked outside.”
“He won’t be able to make calm decisions, and that’s good enough. There’s no going back for you after the fire arrow anyway.”
“Well…… It’s not as if I have any attachment to them, so I don’t mind.”
Elastis just wanted to go back to her country.
She did not care if Ox or Cruz died.
The group worked out the fine details after they decided on the general structure of their strategy.
◇◇◇
They finished discussing the main points by the time the skies were painted red, and had some extra time.
They did not have much to do, so Ami rolled on her bed while Calaria and Mary drank tea, and Cutie killed time by gazing at the scenery outside.
Then, Ami suddenly stood up.
“Cutie, did you reserve this inn just for us?”
“Yes, it was empty so I booked all the rooms. Only the second floor, though.”
“Oh.”
She got close to Mary who was sitting on the couch and grabbed her arms.
“Let’s go, sis.”
“Where?”
“The next room. I wanna talk to you in private.”
“Okay. You don’t have to pull me like that. Hehe.”
Mary couldn’t help but laugh at how forceful Ami was being, and left the room with her.
Calaria sipped on her tea as she watched the two leave.
“……Mary has a lot on her plate too, huh?”
She calmly muttered.
“Do you think this is about that thing?”
“I think so.”
“You sound unconcerned……”
“I didn’t cause this. Say it to Elistas if you have any complaints.”
Suddenly hearing her name come up, Elistas, who was sitting idly in the corner of the room suddenly stood up with a worried expression on her face.
“Wait, me?”
“Yes, you. Things got complicated because of you shooting Mary with Cupid’s Arrow.”
“……?”
Not knowing about the relationship between Ami and Mary, she simply tilted her head with curiosity.
Then, Cutie looked at Calaria, who looked strangely displeased, and spoke after smiling wickedly.
“Are you edgy because you’re jealous?”
“Of course not.”
“But you’re strong enough that you could have pushed Mary off of yourself, right? Maybe it wasn’t all that bad for you when you accepted what was happening?”
“Why is your face red?”
“Don’t talk about that!”
Cutie cackled while taking revenge for always being the one getting made fun of.
Elastis, not understanding the topic at all, tilted her head again.