Chapter 875: The Second Year of the Great Invasion 11
From where we stand overlooking Catalina, we’re roughly 200 meters above ground level. Higher would be harder to see, so a bit lower would be fine, but apparently being slightly higher gives you more leeway if you lose your balance. Besides, while 200 meters is pretty high by our standards, from a dragon’s perspective it doesn’t feel that far off the ground. So, from that position, inside the 『Sexroom』 Emma was holding, we watched Leda’s dragon body attack the monsters.
“Around here, the rock types are starting to mix in”
“Rock types?”
“Those slightly larger, bumpy ones over there. Those are rock turtles. They don’t really feel like a swarm yet……but during the mid-stage of the Great Invasion, they’ll mainly come to smash through the castle walls. They aren’t particularly fast, so escaping is easy, but defeating them is a hassle. Ranged users like me can’t deal damage to them”
I explain this to Princess Ran, who’s looking down at the ground with me through the gem window. I didn’t know much about this myself until the last Great Invasion, so I feel a bit guilty boasting about it. By the way, the princess cast a dark vision spell on me too, so there’s no light inside the 『Sexroom』 now. Charlotte has natural night vision, so she doesn’t need magic. Come to think of it, I heard that in the Northern Forest, they tend to use illumination magic instead of granting night vision to individuals. For Charlotte, too, this might be a rare experience watching everything in complete darkness, assuming everyone has night vision.
“To take one down solo, you apparently need combat power on par with an Ace Knight……or even a Red Arm. If we don’t deal with those things, they’ll smash through most city walls and let monsters invade. So units that’ve trained together attack them all at once to take them down. But the weapons that work on them feel like they need to be really heavy, right? But that won’t work against the fast-moving, carnivorous beast types like the ones we saw in Ghibli during the day. That’s why everyone is rushing out to try and reduce the beast types before the rock monsters become too numerous”
“If they can’t do that……it means total annihilation?”
“Unfortunately, yes”
Even now, with established tactics, it seems cities and fortress walls are breached and entire garrisons wiped out every few years. No matter how hard the soldiers fight, the monsters don’t always come in the numbers predicted. Soldiers get killed or wounded, others flee. Once the walls fall, the non-combatants supporting the soldiers are trapped inside, panicking and becoming prey. The soldiers lose their place to rest. Even if they try to flee to another town, those places are also swarming with monsters. It’s hopeless. That’s why, even though there’s no penalty for desertion, the soldiers fight desperately. Fighting is easiest while allies are strong. Cutting corners that deplete your comrades, only to push yourself harder later, is actually anything but easy. What awaits at the end is a hellish escape with nowhere to go, clinging to the flimsy hope that, if lucky, rescue might arrive from a well-supplied city……there’s no choice but to fight desperately.
“Reducing the beast types now would lighten the load considerably. It’s not as simple as saying we won’t die against rock monsters, but even just limiting the beast attacks to a manageable number for the Gauntlet Knights should significantly boost our survival rate”
“Rock rurtles……can’t they be defeated with dragon breath?”
“They can be defeated, but they don’t die as easily as beasts. Laila and the others ended up crushing them directly in the end”
“Then, those things over there too……”
“Come to think of it, Princess, have you ever seen a dragon’s melee attack?”
Breath attacks are spectacular in their own way, but a dragon’s melee combat with its massive body has a different, intense power. It feels a bit awkward to seem too excited about it, but since Leda and Emma are itching to show me what they can do, and we’re this far away, the gore factor fades. Maybe I could brag a little, I thought, folding my arms. Sure enough, after unleashing a blizzard breath on the swarm of monsters to thin their numbers, Leda delivered a stomping blow from the sky onto the rock turtle, crushing it in one hit. Shattered……well, since it was essentially a living creature, it was more like a brutal crushing where the innards spilled out in all directions. Then, ignoring the next rock turtle’s bite, she grabbed its neck and tore it off with a powerful jerk. For the one after that, she swung the decapitated rock turtle high above her head and slammed it down vertically, smashing it spectacularly. She was deliberately performing these flashy actions at an angle where we could see them. What they were doing was brutal violence, but knowing their true nature, it felt almost like children proudly showing off to their parents, making me smile. I whistled softly in admiration.
“Sc, Scary”
“It’s overwhelming. Even that rock turtle could easily be as big as this hut”
That was the sight of it being trampled. More terrifying than the monsters themselves might be the dragons crushing them like vermin, and me watching their brutal exploits with such enjoyment. I don’t feel the need to correct that perception. Sometimes, fear is the right distance to keep rather than feeling too close. If they find the courage, they might close the distance to the dragons eventually, but I don’t need to force myself to mediate and distort their understanding.
『It’s almost time for the shift change』
“Hmm……could you tone it down a bit, Emma? If you go as hard as Leda, we’ll wipe out the entire place”
『…O, Okay』
“Good girl. I like that you don’t brag about how many monsters you’ve killed”
Overdoing it is forbidden. Taking someone’s job just breeds conflict. Emma understands that logic. Still, her desire to prove herself without losing seeps through her phantom-mediated voice just a little. But I trust she’ll adjust wisely there. ……So, I handed the hut to Leda mid-air, and Emma resumed her breath attack.
『How was that, Master?”
“Well done. A bit overzealous, though”
『……W, Was that the rock turtle from earlier?』
“That too, but you’re slaying too many monsters. You need to let Emma have some too. It’s fine to show off, but you have to keep your word”
『Y, Yes……I’m sorry』
“…Well, just be a bit more careful next time. Once again, good work, Leda”
The colossal dragon, having finished its brutal slaughter, reflected in a subdued voice. For me, it wasn’t exactly an unusual situation, but Princess Ran and Charlotte’s gazes still felt a bit awkward. ……Even tonight’s events were merely experiences meant to nurture Princess Ran’s imagination, and Charlotte was just caught up in the flow of things. Yet, somehow, it still ended up looking like I was flaunting my own power, which felt rather uncomfortable.
“H, Hey, look, Emma’s trying hard too, you two!”
“Eh, yes……”
“……She’s being rather reserved, as expected”
“That’s Emma’s admirable point. She’s got plenty of power left to go wild if she wanted, but she sticks to the orders perfectly. Isn’t that cute?”
“……Well, maybe……it is”
“Cute……emm……”
Yeah, calling a giant beast’s slaughter scene 「Cute」 is probably pushing it.
『I hate to say this, but……Master, cute might be a slightly……inappropriate expression……』
“You think so……?”
No, I’m not calling the sheer horror of this scene cute. I’m talking about the mental aspect, purely. ……Never mind. Yeah. It’s fine as long as I think it.
By the time we returned to Rennesto, it was past midnight. Unlike yesterday, there was no physical strain whatsoever, and I didn’t shiver from the cold. I really felt that the 『Sexroom』 was a great invention. Being able to sleep was especially nice. Compared to desperately clinging to the horns yesterday, the difference in physical and mental exhaustion was like night and day.
“Should we do it this way again tomorrow?”
“I think that would be best. While it is a dragon’s honor to fly with my lord atop me, your well-being is paramount”
Leda agreed. Tomorrow’s plans would be discussed with Maia and Laila, but I’d ask them to arrange things that way.
“……So you did follow Andy after all”
Dianne, who had come to greet us, sighed upon seeing Charlotte. Charlotte hid behind my back, shrinking.
“If you like Andy so much, why not become his female slave?”
“H, Hold on……Dianne-san!?”
“Haa……you react the same way. You must realize she isn’t following him just to see the dragon’s great destruction”
Diane-san glared at Charlotte. Seriously.
“No, no, no”
Wait. Huh? Hold on a second?
“She’s been hanging around you constantly, hasn’t she?”
“Well, yes, but”
That doesn’t mean you can just jump to that conclusion.
“W, Wait a moment. ……Before that, what about me?”
“Princess, please calm down a little”
After soothing Princess Ran, I peeked at Charlotte. Her face was flushed red, visible even through her hair. ……Huh? Is she interested?
“If you’re okay with this harem situation, Andy would accept it”
“Wait, isn’t that something Dianne-san should be saying?”
“You’re too used to blunt women and too insensitive to normal affection”
Dianne-san said that and shrugged her shoulders.