Kasim knelt to the ground due to the attack he received. Fresh blood was starting to pool beneath his feet. The shadows that surrounded the queen just a moment ago vanished immediately after he was attacked.
“A-are you serious…? How, were you able, to tell which, were the shadows, and which was the real one…?”
Kasim asked so as he glared at me.
“Uhm, intuition?”
When I gave a noncommittal answer, it was the queen who commented.
“Just intuition…? I trusted him and moved without hesitation, but it was all just…”
The queen’s voice trailed off.
“Splendid work, Your Majesty. We’ve suppressed everybody else.”
Ganzasu-san remarked as he rushed to the queen.
When I glanced back, I saw that all the sand raiders had collapsed to the floor, and the only ones standing were the Enbala soldiers.
“Ok, I’ll be making a jailhouse now, so please put them inside.”
<<Jailhouse: a jailhouse that’s hard to escape from. You will pay for your crimes!>>
Kasim and the sand raiders were surprised by the sudden appearance of secure jail cells. They were put inside right away. At that moment, Philia-san who was with another unit came to us to report something.
“Luke-dono, we’ve almost gained full control of the palace.”
“Then, that just leaves those in the city. I’ll have the sand raiders on our side spread the news.”
If the sand raiders in the city were to know that Kasim had been beat and that the Enbala forces had taken back the palace, perhaps some would surrender. That way, we could prevent unnecessary sacrifices.
◇ ◇ ◇
Around the time the main force led by the queen had defeated Kasim and gained control of the palace.
Many sand raiders had gathered in front of the palace gates after receiving urgent reports. Yet despite them having assembled there, not one one of them were able to pass. The reason for that was the muscle monster that stood in the way.
“Ahaan, if you want to pass through, you gotta defeat little old me ♡ ”
Yes, it was none other than Goritiana.
The sand raiders in the area boldly charged at her but each one of them were dealt with in an instant. Against that overwhelming show of strength, none of them even wanted to try again. They simply kept their distance and shivered with fear.
“Oh my? Is no one going to approach me? That’s boring, you know. Tell you what, I’ll offer something too good to be true to the first ones to approach me now. And that is my being showered with my love.”
Goritiana said so and then winked, to which the sand raiders took a step back.
“This has got to be a joke, right…? How are we supposed to defeat a monster like that!?”
They were already hesitant to fight, but when they heard a certain piece of news, they lost the will to fight completely.
“O, oi, listen to this! It looks like the palace has fallen…!”
“What did you say!? The boss is in the palace, you know!?”
“I heard the boss was defeated!”
“For real!?”
“It sounded like every enemy that attacked the palace was as strong as this monster!”
“““Every one of them!?”””
The sand raiders collectively turned ghostly pale.
“It’s true, you know ♡”
Goritiana nodded and winked.
“Now then, since things seemed to have wrapped up inside, I guess I should clean up here too.”
“““!?!”””
“If you’re ever going to surrender, this is your last chance.”
In the next moment, each of the sand raiders in the area prostrated themselves.
“““We surrender!!!!!!!!!!”””
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Kasim’s trusted retainer, Zel, was headed toward the hidden oasis to attack the remnants of the Enbala military.
He had about 500 sand raiders with him and all of them were stunned in place.
“Oi, oi, oi, what’s going on here? Why is there no one here?”
Without meaning to, he raised his voice after finding out that not a single person aside from them was in the oasis.
“Was our information wrong…? …no, there are traces of people living here not long ago. So, does that mean they learned of our arrival and escaped? Or…”
And then, they heard a thunderous sound. At the same time, they saw before their eyes massive walls rise up and encircled the oasis.
“W-what!? What’s going on here!?”
Those walls enclosed the oasis but had nothing that looked like a gate they could use to exit. Moreover, on closer inspection, the walls were so smooth and flat that there wasn’t anything they could use as foothold to climb over it.