“Now that it’s broken, there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ll just paint it over with the power of the magic sword.”
The man who said this chanted a small incantation of some kind, and something black gushed out from the magic sword in Anna’s grip and clung to her.
Thereupon Anna slowly reached for me. Then.
──── A……lle…n
I felt as if Anna had said so.
It wasn’t that Anna actually said that out loud.
Anna’s eyes were unfocused, and it was hard to believe that she was seeing anything with them.
But sure enough, Anna reached out her hand towards me, even though I was supposed to be invisible with my 【Concealment】 skills.
It’s like knowing I’m there.
And as if she was saying that she wanted my help.
I really wanted to know how to undo it, but I couldn’t take it anymore!
I can’t let them do anything to Anna anymore!
I fired two rounds of Kalashi, each, into the Crown Prince and the other man I thought was the mastermind.
The Crown Prince got hit in the left chest and neck, and the other man got hit in the flank and left shoulder.
“Gah, ha~tsu. When, did you?”
The man was surprised to see me, who he must have recognized as suddenly appearing. The crown prince, on the other hand, collapsed in a pool of blood and didn’t move an inch. He would probably die instantly.
Tan
I shoot the man in the right knee.
Tan
Then I shoot him in the left knee.
Tan
Then shot in his right shoulder as well.
There should be no resistance at all now.
Besides, this man is also bleeding profusely. I don’t think he’s going to last much longer.
Once I had secured my safety, I rushed over to Anna and stripped off the magical sword that released something black in my hand.
“Anna! Hold on! Anna!”
But Anna’s eyes only looked at the void and did not respond to my call.
“You! What did you do to Anna?!”
I pulled out the dagger at my waist and pointed it between the man’s eyes.
“Hahaha. What the hell. You’re that thing’s boyfriend, Allen? Unfortunately, you’re too late. There’s no will left in it.” “Answer the question!”
“Hmm. I just broke its heart to let the magic sword control it. It seems that it liked you a lot, but you came too late. Well, okay. It’s all yours now. However, it can only be used to the extent of conceiving offspring. Hahaha.” “You!”
In a fit of rage, I slashed this man across the face with my dagger.
“Guh, hahaha. But you can’t get out of here anyway. Why don’t you just give it a shot as a souvenir of the underworld?”
When he said that, I realized. Apparently, the gunshot was heard.
I can hear the footsteps of someone coming down the stairs.
“Ha~tsu. You killed His Highness. So be proud. Such a good dark side to be here, why….that…”
That said, the man lost consciousness. Perhaps he had lost too much blood.
I shot him in the heart to finish him.
Then, using wind magic, I decapitated them and stuffed them into the magic bag I had brought with me.
I’m sure I’ve killed too many people already.
Even though I know that, my emotions don’t even fluctuate.
I feel as if I’m dismantling a monster.
There’s only one thing I have to do.
Taking Anna back safely. That’s it.
I must never mistake the order of what is important.
That’s what my mom said to me, and it’s what’s pushing me forward.
Then, using the surrounding walls as a material, I process a sheath, or perhaps a wrapping, that would enclose the entire sword and lower it to my waist.
It could be dangerous to carry it around.
But this way, I don’t have to touch the magic sword directly, and thanks to that man’s death, the black stuff that was emitting from the magic sword is already gone.
Besides, if this is left behind in the Empire, Anna might be targeted again.
So to prevent that from happening, I should take it.
As I was just about to run away with Anna …… a soldier arrived.
“His Highness! Günther-sama!”
Yeah, it can’t be helped.
I take out the Saiga and shoot at him.
With the soldier down with a single blow, I took Anna on my back and ran as fast as I could.
As I ran up the stairs, I saw that many soldiers had already gathered there.
I shoot them or blow them away with wind magic to clear the enemy soldiers and look for an opportunity to use 【Concealment】.
But there were so many enemy soldiers that there was no room for that at all.
Of course, if I didn’t have Anna on my back, I could definitely get away with leaving her behind.
And so, little by little, by force, I made my way to the backyard.
It was just then.
“Dra, Dragon!” “What? Why are the dragons in the Imperial Capital?” “Hey, half go to subdue the dragons!”
Oh, yeah. It’s Melissa-chan and Jerome!
Thank you!
I switched from the Saiga to the Kalashi to sweep the area. Automatic rifles with an excellent rate of fire are easier to control.
Thanks to the reduced number of people, I easily suppressed the enemy soldiers, and when I re-carry Anna, I activate 【Concealment】.
Finally, I reached the backyard where the Buitor Rev. was buried, taking Anna with me.
But from my movements, they seemed to have expected me to come to the backyard.
There were quite a few soldiers waiting for us there.
However, since we are not visible, the situation is more favourable for us.
I used my 【Alchemy】 skills to create a hand grenade version of the bomb I had been dropping from the Buitor Rev. and threw it at the middle of the soldiers in the backyard.
I crouched down, covered my ears with one arm, then open my mouth and closed my eyes. Then, I used my other hand to cover one ear of Anna and covered her other ear with the soil deformed through【Alchemy】.
The compressed air in the hand grenade exploded as it hit the ground and shattered.
I looked up and saw that the soldiers in the courtyard had been caught in the explosion and collapsed, looking rather grotesque.
I did another sweep with the Kalash, kicking out any soldiers that got in my way, and then ran with Anna on my back to the backyard where I had buried the Buitor Rev.
“【Alchemy】”
Instead of taking out the Buitor Rev., I first built an earthen wall about three meters high.
These will block the enemy soldiers’ view and prevent them from attacking at the moment of takeoff when it’s most vulnerable.
Thereupon, I took the Buitor Rev. out from the bottom of the ground, put Anna on it, secured her, then I climbed aboard so that she gets covered from above, then activate the wind magic engine to start takeoff.
Yeah, come on! Me! Don’t rush! Calm down!
Vertical takeoffs are especially nerve-wracking.
I gradually increased the power while balancing the output of each engine, and then the Buitor Rev. with Anna and me on board softly floated into the air.
“Where are the bandits!” “Captain! There is a strange wall in the backyard!”
The altitude of the Buitor Rev. soon exceeded the height of the wall.
“What! That is!” “Hey. I don’t know what it is, but shoot it down!”
In my haste, I start the propulsion engines.
I felt a sideways G-force, and the Buitor Rev. started to move forward little by little.
However, the enemy soldiers were quicker to shoot the arrows.
“Fall down!”
With such a call, the arrow flew straight at me, the pilot, or rather at Anna, who was underneath me.
I twisted my body to take the arrow.
“Gu, u u~u!”
The arrow hit me in my left hip, and I felt a tremendous pain from there.
But it’s okay. I’m still alive.
I’m bringing Anna home, no matter what!
Keeping the wind magic engine running with my resolve, Buitor Rev. with us onboard began to gradually increase its altitude and speed.
But there was no way the enemy soldiers would just sit back and let that happen.
“Don’t let him get away. Shoot him!”
With such a shout, a large number of arrows were shot into the air.
Crap!
At the moment when I intuitively knew I was going to be shot down and prepared myself, a huge black body appeared in front of me!
The black giant caught all the flying arrows with its body.
“Jerome-kun!” “A, Allen-san, are you okay? Wh-where’s your precious woman?” “I managed to get her back.” “Then, then, should we go home? Or should we destroy everything?” “No, that’s not the point. Jerome-kun, what about the arrows? Are you okay?” “It, It’s okay. I mean, my scales are still hard.” “All right, then let’s get out of here.”
Buitor Rev. with us on board was gaining speed and altitude rapidly.
We were soon out of the reach of the Imperial Guard’s weapons and successfully escaped to a safe zone.
When I had enough time to spare, I turned around and looked at the Imperial Capital.
There, a large amount of fire is rising around the area where the palace and large mansions, which were probably aristocratic districts, were lined up.
In addition, the tall building in the center of town, which used to have several huge spires, has had all of its spires cut off and remodelled into a flat-roofed square building.
Apparently, Jerome-kun and Melissa-chan went wild, flashily.
“What about Melissa-chan?” “Oh, over there.”
In response to my question, Jerome uses his head to point in a direction. When I look over there, Melissa-chan is flying towards me at a very fast speed.
Thank God. She is safe.
“Allen-san? I’m so glad. You got her back …..hmm? What’s wrong with her? Isn’t her appearance strange?” “Actually……”
I told Melissa-chan and Jerome about what happened.
“So I couldn’t make it in time…..” “I, I, I can’t forgive them. I knew it, destroying half was not enough. I should have destroyed it all.” “Right. I agree.” “Sorry. You can destroy it later. I need to get Anna to a doctor first. Also, my bad, but when you do it, give me a call.” “…..that’s right. I understand.”
In this way, I rescued Anna and headed for Wishen, the territory of the Duke of Ramslett.