Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi Chapter 452: Decayed Ancient Castle

「Is that…… the enemy fortress? Celia!」

「Pardon me! It's the Meldora flag. Although small, I see a fence, moat, and a stone tower……being built.」

Celia climbs on my shoulders and reports back as she focuses her eyes into the distance.

「If they have a stone tower, it'll take some kind of plan for only infantry to bring it down. Let us convene for a war council.」

Agor stares at the fort with a rather stern look.

「Ah, do we really need it? They won't listen anyways.」

I don't think they were responding to Tristan's words, but their shouts fly back and forth from all over the place.

「I can see the fort. It's one I've never seen before!」
「Damn them, constructing a fort in such a place. What should we do?」
「Let's charge first and see what happens!」

Before Agor could ask Gildress to participate in the conference, the Aless soldiers ran off.

「……charge and see what happens?」

「Don't ask me. Get Gildress to tell you afterwards.」

I'm not fluent in Aless language.

Once again, the Aless soldiers run straight toward the fort.

Naturally, the enemy attempts to intercept with a rain of arrows, but the Aless soldiers group up on the fly, connecting their shields tightly with their neighbors, minimizing the effectiveness of the arrows.

「They're……getting closer. They're on the walls…… nuh, it was a trap!!?」

A cloud of dust suddenly engulfed the vanguard much to Agor's surprise.
Apparently, there was a pitfall next to the walls.

「Hahaha! They totally fell for that!」
「Traps are the best solution against beasts with low intelligence!」

The enemy's cheers can be heard from where we are.

「Chaos is inescapable now that the vanguard is completely caught in the trap. Let us also move forward and patch things up!」

「I don't think we need to.」

Tristan makes another lazy comment and the enemy's cheers quickly turn to screams.

「H-hey, they aren't dead! They're climbing out of the hole!」
「Impossible! We dug five meters deep and even laid spears at the bottom! T-throw rocks at them! Quickly!!」
「In that case, my spear…… hiih!? Noooo! Save me! Don't take my clothes off!」

The rearguard did not panic despite the vanguard dropping into the pitfall, and even they soon crawled back out and rejoined the battle.

「Eei, this pile of rocks is in the way.」
「Are we doing this, brother!?」

Some of the Aless soldiers stick their swords and shields into the ground and grab onto the stone wall with their bare hands.
Then, they start pulling out the rocks one by one, dismantling the tower.

Eventually, the tower crumbles and the enemy loses their footing.

Unable to stop the Aless soldiers with arrows, the walls get torn apart and the iron gate topples inward from the overwhelming pressure of the muscular men.

All of that happened in about one hour.

「Pulling the stones out with their bare hands……this is so different from the siege battles I know……」
「Don't think about it too much. If you don't adjust your the way you view them, it'll tire you out.」

Aless's attack did not stop there.

The next base is a fort stationed on a precipice of a cliff with only a single point of entrance and flaming pots of oil are being poured down the climbing path.

「It's a fortified camp and it's on top of the cliff. That sounds troublesome.」
「The fire is too strong. They have to deal with that first.」

Let's see what Aless will do. I have a general idea.

「Ah, I kind of expected it, but they're climbing.」

Tristan seems to have the same thinking as me.

The Aless soldiers start ascending the backward-facing cliff as a group.
Not anticipating anybody to climb up the rock face, they didn't have any defensive facilities there.

「It's quite striking seeing countless macho men scale the wall.」

「Yeah, there's nothing more disgusting.」

Rocks and other objects were being thrown out of the fortress windows, but that doesn't stop the Aless soldiers.
The fort was invaded in an instant, leading to an all-out melee, and the enemy no longer stood a chance.
It took a little longer this time. About two hours.

「Ooh, my friend! Compared to your enemies, Meldora is tepid. I almost fell asleep in the middle of battle!」

Gildress walks over to me carrying one woman on each shoulder, one wearing a beautiful red dress and the other wearing a white dress.

「Uuu……please don't kill me.」
「They said the fort was impregnable…… sniff, sniff.」

They must be the women of the head of the fort.
I direct a cold stare at Gildress.

「It won't be long until we reach the center of Meldora. The opponents should get tougher. I advise you to be careful.」

Gildress offers me the woman in the red dress.

「Thanks for your concern. I'm glad you didn't get hurt either.」

I happily accepted the woman.

Gildress's words manifested in reality as the combat started to change the next day.

「「「Guwaaaah!」」」
「They took out three people! Fall back. It came from that tiny boat!!」

During what I thought would be another easy victory, a bunch of fireballs came flying from a vessel hidden by some aquatic plants in the river.
It's the familiar fireball weapon of the smaller variety.
Even the Aless soldiers, who get engulfed in flames, won't come out unscathed.

「Those who can swim, circle around to the upper part of the river! Dive underwater and flip the boat from the bottom!」

Gildress gives an order that wasn't an order to charge.
The Aless soldiers quickly leave their weapons and armor behind and jump into the river.

He's a helpless idiot with a stifling presence but he's not a total moron.
He knows how best to fight when faced with an unknown situation.

「Just taking off your armor is fine! Why did you have to remove your pants as well!!?」

Celia yelled.

「amazing……」

Agor's attendant gulped. Is she going to be okay?

「Mu, here comes a new opponent!!」

Another ally shouted.

Our gaze shifts to the silver-colored wagon coming out of the enemy camp.

「That's…… a wagon…… no.」

Agor states in confusion.

「It's lacking the most important part, the horse.」

Tristan comments curiously.

Right, the wheels of the silver wagon-looking thing are turning despite not being pulled by horses.

「It's been one weird thing after the other.」

「Hey, what should we do!?」
「With wagons, we would usually kill the horses……now you're saying there are no horses!? Then I don't know! Throw rocks at it or something!」

For normal wagons, taking out the driver or the horses would normally be enough to stop them.
In this case, the Aless soldiers bombard the wagon with rocks from the side, but the body is durable and doesn't dent at all.

Furthermore, the horseless wagon launches fireballs at us as it approaches.

「Woah! It's shooting fire!!」
「Eeei, annoying! What now? Should we jump on it!?」

At this rate, it'll encroach deep into our formation.

I look around for a solution and find a chain the enemy used to construct their large tents.
I swing the chain and throw it toward the group of Aless soldiers.

「Have three people hold it and crouch down.」
「Yeah!!」

「I'll act as decoy!」

Celia throws a red-painted dagger at the wagon.
It was a special one that scattered gunpowder and exploded on impact, causing a loud boom.

After the cloud of smoke dissipated, the wagon was still its usual bright silver, without a single scratch.
Nevertheless, the wagon altered its direction and chased after Celia.

Celia pretends to run away for a bit before luring the wagon back toward us.

「Now!」

At the signal, the Aless soldiers and I pulled the chain taut.
The wagon continued charging.

Its momentum was powerful enough to send our bodies flying.
I hung on tightly and felt my body lift up into the air, but Mack grabbed my waist.
The three Aless soldiers on the other side also don't let go of the chain although their feet left the ground.

The chain gets tangled in the wagon's wheels and as it tries to keep driving forward, one of its wheels spins futilely in the air, tipping the wagon over on its side and sending it tumbling a few times before landing upside down.

「No matter what kind of vehicle it is, if it has wheels, we can trip it up.」

I give the spinning wheels a light kick.
After all of that, neither the wagon or the wheels broke.
This thing must also be from the Jirubiru or whatever.

In addition, the small boats carrying the weapons are capsizing due to the assault of the Aless soldiers in the water.

Although we struggled this time, we ultimately won again.

「Hey man! Behind you!!」

I turned around instantly at Gildress's warning and swung my Dual Crater.

It was a humongous fireball, which shattered with a soft crack disproportionate to its immense size.

「No way, the fire vanished!?」

Staring at me with his mouth agape was an enemy in the grass holding a spear with a rounded tip, almost like a staff.

「A magic user?」

My guess was wrong.

「F-fire!!」

Ten more enemy soldiers wielding the same spear emerged from the grass and shot at me.

Magic users are extremely rare and the magic they are capable of varies greatly.
However, what is being launched at me right now is the same kind of fireball. That's impossible.

「I don't know what's going on.」
「We can only press forward.」

I start running and slice two fireballs in half.
My blade thrusts into the shocked soldier's forehead, and I sweep through all the way to also take out the adjacent soldier, ripping off the first guy's head in the process.

At the same time, Gildress also rushes in and cuts down two soldiers, finishing off a third with an axe kick to the skull.

「B-bastard!」

The staff he pointed at me glowed.
But a fireball didn't come out. That's because the staff and his severed right hand were dancing in the air.

「The ones with the round tips are trouble. You can't do anything once they get close.」

Following up after slicing his right hand, I also cut his head off and ruthlessly slash the back of the fleeing soldier, then ready a final swing at the fifth person.

Gildress chops through the fourth enemy soldier and his staff in one stroke and grabs the neck of the last person, ready to snap it.

「「Mu!」」

Both of us realize simultaneously that our remaining opponents were females.

「I'm done for…… mother!」
「I don't want to die!」

I lower my weapon and soothingly pat the enemy soldier's head, urging her to abandon the staff.

「「It's alright now. I don't kill women.」」

Our voices overlap. Or was that just my ears playing tricks on me?

「「Calm down and surrender.」」

I comfort her as much as possible while disarming her and stripping her simple armor.

「「I'll release you soon. In exchange――okay?」」

I hug the woman close to my body and my hands squeeze her ass and breasts.
The battle is nearing its end. My next thought is night time fun.

「Uuu……I knew it, Aegir-sama is going to turn into 'him' in the future. If I don't stop him……」

Celia mumbles something to herself and gets distracted by the weapon dropped by the female soldier.

「So this is the magic staff? It's lighter than it――wah!?」

All of a sudden, the staff glows and hurls a fireball in the midst of some Aless soldiers.

「Dowah! What are you doing!?」
「Is this a roundabout way of seducing me!? In that case, I accept!」

Celia used magic?

「I-I don't know. All I did was grip the staff……」

「A weapon that allows anybody to shoot magic. That's what it seems like.」

Tristan, certain the battle is over, casually appears beside us.

「This is another different weapon.」

If all of these are in South Yuguria's possession, this doesn't bode well for us.
We have to discover a method to deal with them quickly.

――A Few Days Later.

「Not a chance.」
「No way.」

Agor and I share the same opinion.

In front of us is the city of Meldora―― the city state which is the center of our current conflict.
The Aless soldiers, who can't simply be described by the words powerful and brave, have brought down the enemy fort and breached the defense lines to get here.

If we capture this position, Meldora is done for.
Only a few kilometers and a single imposing stone wall separates us from the enemy.

「There's nothing we can do about this.」

Tristan sighs and shrugs his shoulders, spreading his hands like he's given up.
I grab his hand and pull him to the ground.
Almost simultaneously, a fireball flies above his head, soars past us and instantly disintegrates a large tree.

「It makes me smile, knowing how far we came.」

Countless fireballs and endless lights come at us, with a few soldiers occasionally appearing above the walls with their rounded magical staffs.

Ten Aless soldiers at a time bash the gates with a thick log, but the defense structure doesn't budge.
They must also be using the same unknown fortification method used in Trisnia.

「Nuuun.」

Gildress groans in frustration as no matter how strong the Aless soldiers are, it won't be a fight if they get blown away before they can get close. And even if they managed to slip past the attacks, they can't do anything against the walls that can repel cannons.

Such defenses won't crumble.
It's clear that we will get one-sidedly crushed if we attack.

「That's fine though. Our main objective is not to destroy Meldora.」

「You're right. What's important is the Jirubiru technical civilization's……historic ruins and whether we can find it.」

「Nuuuuun.」

Tristan says as he brushes dust off himself.
Hey, at least thank me for saving your ass.
And Gildress, shut up already.

「But the origin place of such a powerful weapon……surely it will be heavily guarded. Supposing it's in the middle of the city, it would be hard for us to go near……」

Tristan answers the concerned Agor with a joke.

「No, that probably won't be the case. We're talking about ruins that existed a thousand years ago. They won't be openly displayed in the city. It would most likely be somewhere underground or another hidden area……not in the center of Meldora.」

Tristan continues, his gaze moving away from the city.

「The suspicious locations are the mine, the dense forest where people can't enter, and……」

I hear a set of cute footsteps.
It was Agor's attendant, who ran over and saluted awkwardly, gasping for breath from the excessive exercise.
She's a disguised lover, but I guess she at least fulfills her duty as an attendant as well.

「I found a castle under repair on the outskirts of the city! It felt off to see guards being stationed there even though it looked like ruins of some sort!」

Tristan quietly lowers his hand.

「A castle or an abandoned fort……?」

「Gildress. Stay here and continue making it look like we're trying to conquer Meldora. You just have to occupy their attention until we achieve our objective.」

「Nuuuun!!」

Unhappy that our objective wasn't to fight, Gildress let out an extra loud groan.

――Night.

「Now then, is it time?」

Confirming that the sun has completely set, we peeked our heads out.
Next to me are Agor, Mack, Celia, who is clinging tightly to me, and behind me is Tristan, who is yawning.

The fort that Agor's attendant discovered was quite unusual.

Still, half of it is an old dilapidated castle about to collapse at any time and the other half is an abandoned building under construction with its insides exposed.

「There's rubble and dirt left on the side. Not much time has passed since work was halted.」

I was a little surprised by Mack's voice, who I haven't heard in a while.
He doesn't usually speak so it startles me when he does.

Anyways, as a military engineer familiar with public works, he must be right.

But there is one thing I can't accept.

「What a tiny castle. These are the ruins of an ancient civilization?」

This place would be fully packed after a few hundred soldiers enter.
It doesn't look like an important base at all.

「No, it wouldn't be out in the open. Look there.」

Tristan points a finger.
Guards light fires in the iron baskets, faintly illuminating the old castle in the darkness.

There is an alarm bell installed on the tops of watch towers, which when rung, could probably alert those all the way in the center of Meldora of a potential crisis.

「This worn out building, uncovered and being renovated, has no military value. Yet, in a war where every soldier is precious, they're still stationing guards here, meaning it's more unusual for nothing to be here. All the clues must be here. Now, go and infiltrate the place.」

「You're coming too.」

I drag Tristan by the collar and approach the castle.

「Alright, time to initiate the plan.」

「Sure……」

I give a half-hearted reply to Agor.
It's because I wasn't very excited about the strategy.

「It'll be fine, I'll follow through! Believe in my acting ability.」

Celia pulls the attendant by the collar and moves to the grass right beside the castle.

Then she pushes the attendant down into the grass with a high-spirited hmph.

「Ah, no!」

「You came all this way, what do you mean 'no'? Prepare yourself. You're going to become my woman!」

I can't clearly see it, but Celia is rolling around in the grass with the attendant.

「D-don't……look there……don't look……」

「Spread your legs more. I'll make you feel good.」

The attendant's legs poke out of the grass and quickly get held down by Celia's slender arms.

Her screams get gradually louder and the grass rustles more.

「N-noo……I'm cumming!」

It was when the attendant moaned especially loud.

「Who is over there!? Come out!」

Several soldiers guarding the old castle wave their torches in the direction of the sound.
Taking that as their cue, nearby soldiers swarm around with their spears.

I almost jumped out on instinct, but Mack bound my arms behind my back.
I guess that was according to plan. My body just moved automatically.

「Is it an Aless spy!? Oh, it's just a meeting between lovers……」

Celia submissively stands up with her hands raised.
Her chest area is greatly exposed and her pants rolled up to a risky height on her thighs.

Meanwhile, the attendant stood up blushing and hiding her breasts.
Celia really took off all her clothes.

That actually eliminated the guards' wariness instantly.
They didn't shout to notify others or run to ring the alarm bell.

「You two didn't watch what happened this afternoon? At least hold back a little…… huh, wait.」

「You're both female? It was two female lovers who met secretly……?」

The gathered soldiers looked at each other and nasty grins formed on their faces.

「This is an important place. Although this was a tryst, we can't simply let you go.」

「That's right. We have to investigate you two thoroughly but gently.」

「It's a waste for you beauties to know only women. Let us teach you the appeal of men.」

The relaxed guards reach out to grab Celia and the attendant to take them away, their eyes scanning the two women's bodies.
Of course, they aren't paying attention to what's behind them.

「Let's go.」

Agor, Mack, and I run as softly as possible.

Making sure that the enemy wouldn't scream, I pierce the back of his head with my Dual Crater.

Agor's sword slits the man's throat.

「――gyu!!」

Slightly delayed, Mack's warhammer smashes the head of the enemy.
Without a head, he can't make a sound.

That leaves only two soldiers.

「Shh!!」

Celia times her move with our attack, taking out a dagger hidden beyond the uncovered portion of her thigh and stabs one of the enemies in the throat, then proceeds to throw the dagger into the opened mouth of the other surprised guard.

「Agguh! Agh!」
「Ke……kehah……guah……」

It wasn't an instant kill, but they can't speak.
Agor and I slowly approach them, then deliver the final blows.

We swiftly snuff out the torches and abandon the corpses.
In the darkness, they won't be noticed. It won't be a problem if we finish up before morning.

Now, the area guarded by the five soldiers has cleared.
Infiltrating should be easy――

「Uuii, I'm back. Where are you guys~? Don't disappear on me when I'm taking a shit~」

Someone appears in a place we didn't expect.
We were caught off guard after the visible enemies were killed and were spotted by this guy.

「……」

He paused briefly, stunned by what he saw, then turned his heel around and started to run.

「Kuh!?」

Celia reaches for another dagger and throws, but her grip was poor and it missed.

「Not good, he's going to ring the alarm!」

If that happens, reinforcements will come from their headquarters.
If he shouts, then all the guards nearby will surround us.

「Huu…… some……one……?」

The soldier inhaled deeply and was about to yell for backup……but he froze in place.
He turned back once more to look at us, tilted his head cluelessly, then scratched his cheek, leaned against the wall and began to pick his nose.

「W-what happened?」

Agor, who chased after him with his sword drawn despite knowing he wouldn't make it, stops running.

Mack and I exchanged glances, then I signal for Celia to stop as she adjusts her hand on her dagger.

「Aaaah, what a pain. My stomach hurts too, can't this be over already?」

The soldier was complaining like he lost interest in us altogether.
Upon careful inspection, there was an arrow stuck in his ass.

「An incapacitating agent. It takes away the person's ability to think and induces a state of lethargy. That was close.」

A shadow dashes gallantly out of the darkness and removes the hood on its head.

Flowing locks of light green hair fall softly on the person's shoulders, and the uncovered hood reveals long eyebrows, the individual's beautiful face and most notably the long ears characteristic of a certain race.
It was the elven apothecary and self-proclaimed adventurer, Natia.

「I came as soon as I read your letter. Ruins of the Jirubiru civilization? I want to explore too!」

Oh right, I guess I included that bit in the letter to Nonna.
Natia must have seen it by chance.

「Well, you saved us, Natia.」

I smile and open my arms to receive her.

「S-sure. I don't know exactly what's going on, I just thought it wouldn't be possible to investigate if he caused a fuss.」

I pull Natia into my chest for a casual hug.
Thinking nothing of it besides it being a greeting, she doesn't resist.

「Ooh, that's hot. How nice.」

The enemy who was shot in the butt stretches and comments lazily.

「Will he be alright if we leave him alone until morning?」

「Yeah. Its effects vary depending on the person's constitution but it can last from three days to three years.」

I'll consider him lucky he still has his life.

「Um, you're done greeting right? Let me go already.」

Natia squirms uncomfortably in my arms.
Her embarrassed face is adorable, but it's her ears that are……

「Hham.」

I can't help biting down on those things flopping in front of my face.

「Hum!」

For some reason, Celia bites down on the other one.

「Nnaaah!?」

Woah! That was louder than I expected.

「……hey, did you hear an erotic moan from a girl just now?」

「Don't be ridiculous, like a girl would ever come to a place like this. You must be backed up.」

Phew, it didn't turn into anything serious.

As I cover the angry Natia's mouth and comfort her, we begin to search the ancient castle.

Our desired destination was found quite easily.
Natia's senses as a self-proclaimed adventurer far exceeded ours as amateurs.

We let the occasional patrolling guards pass or defeat them in order to move deeper into the castle.

「This was…… the supply storage?」

「It goes right through.」

The floor of the old moldy underground room had caved in.

「There's no mistake. The rubble has been moved and there are even stairs. There are also multiple traces of something heavy being dragged up carefully.」

After Tristan nods contently, he moves back behind everybody.

「This wind…… it's deep. It's unusually deep.」

On the contrary, Natia is at the forefront, panting and unable to hide her excitement.

I feel uneasy for a woman to be in front, but she's eager to explore, so I'll let her.

Natia sprightly leaps down the stairs, skipping two steps at a time.
She doesn't seem to have any issue not being able to watch her footing in the dark.
Obviously, we can't say the same.

「Nobody's coming after us.」

I look over my shoulder before lighting a torch and slowly following the leader.

The stairs seem to go on forever.
50, 100, 300, 500……

「Do they continue all the way to the bottom of the earth?」

「Aegir-sama.」

Celia becomes a little anxious and clings to my arm.
I look over at Agor and his attendant is also holding onto him.

After descending over a thousand steps, the stairs end.

「Let's see what we have here……」

I blow out the torch.
It wasn't needed anymore.

「I don't believe it. The walls and floor are glowing.」

Celia's jaw hangs open as she remarks.
A faint light is being emitted by the wall and floor, allowing us to see even without a torch.

「Is this steel? No, it can't be, there isn't any rust.」

Agor also stares in amazement.

「The ceiling, it's high. It's at least 30 m.」

The attendant is in awe as well.
The passageway is about 20 m wide and 30 m tall. I can't tell how far back it goes.

「This is beyond anything I imagined.」

I am also surprised.
If a civilization can create something like this underground, it's no wonder such incredible weapons originated from them.

A nimble set of footsteps return to where we are.
It was Natia who preceded us.

「I-it's amazing. I heard rumors that said the ruins of the Jirubiru civilization were completely decayed or that it was a hoax…… but this is definitely the real thing. This is the first time in my 75 years that I've seen something like this! L-let's keep going!」

The ecstatic Natia jumps forward, her ears flapping rapidly to reflect her delight.

「Let's continue on. Err, the center……no, the middle or whatever. Keep going in a straight line, in other words, straight ahead……a large distance. It looks like we're still far off.」

Tristan says as he stares at the characters carved in the wall with one hand keeping his book open as reference, which brings Natia running back.

「You can read them, those symbols!?」

「Read is too much of an exaggeration. I simply compiled fragments of different books and other resources to create a limited translation table. I use that as a basis to infer the general meaning of the characters.」

「That's still amazing!」

Natia's brings her face uncomfortably close to Tristan's.

「There are similar symbols over there too. Come decipher them!」

「Don't pull me…… I hate being in front by the way. I'm going to die first for sure.」

Damn it, Tristan. Were you aiming for Natia this whole time?

I look annoyingly at the wall.

「Hm? 1400 dal straight ahead to reach the central control room? It's not hard to read at all. Natia, I can read it too!」

「Liar! Do this next, this one Tristan!」

「Lord Hardlett, let's leave it to that one called Tristan.」

「People are cut out for certain things.」

「I-I believe you, Aegir-sama!」

Celia reassures me with averted eyes.

「Err, admit……no, authority, I guess? Human……this is front, maybe? The limit…… no, it means up to this point. Defense mechanism, activation warning…… I'm seeing unpleasant terms here.」

Unauthorized persons shall not pass. If you approach the entrance any further, take caution for the activation of the defense apparatus――
See, believe me. I can read it.

「I know, Aegir-sama. I'm on your side!!」

As I tried to make my case to them, I heard scraping sounds and footsteps.

「Hey, is anyone there? It's too early for a shift change.」

I froze momentarily, believing it was something strange, but it was just a Meldora soldier.
I guess I'll have to appeal to them again later.

Chapter end