Episode 58 — Footsteps of the King
～ Part 1 ～
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Even so, the difference in power between him and the enemies was overwhelming.
Although ‘Pawn’ was the lowest class, thanks to the black armor, they could obtain combat ability much more superior than the monsters around.
Moreover, there were 5 of those.
No matter how much a hit species, a hit ability he drew, it was impossible to overturn this difference in war potential. Without much struggle, they would be able to trample, step on him, and in fact, it really went that way.
“That’s why I warned you. What a useless waste of life.”
The heavy cruiser was floating offshore Delf Island. One of the Pawn who attacked there in order to recapture the Queen’s person, glared at the man falling flat in front of him who looked like a tattered dust cloth and muttered so.
This man who reincarnated as a pharaoh — a superior species of mummy — had been trying to obstruct their path by using preeminent telekinesis power. In fact, his power was quite significant. To break that invisible wall, it was almost impossible even with the physical strength of the 5 of them. If this was one-on-one, he would be pressed to a hopeless battle.
But in the end, this pharaoh only had in hand abilities of about the same as one Pawn at best. While he poured his power to maintain the wall, his body was mostly defenseless. It might have been a different story if he had evacuated himself on the other side of the wall, but by purposely exposing his body outside the wall, this pharaoh had assumed a position that induced the Pawns’ attacks.
Did he mean to buy time?
Or was he confident he could challenge 5 people by himself?
But whichever he was thinking, it didn’t come true.
Even when talked to by the Pawn, the pharaoh didn’t response. He was still collapsed, lying face down. The ornaments decorating his body had popped off, the bandages torn, blackened skin exposed. Only the golden mask was stupidly sturdy or something, it didn’t had a single crack.
“This guy, did he die?”
One of the Pawn, Asaake muttered.
“Who knows. But it’s certain he can’t move anymore. Let’s go inside the ship and look for the Queen.”
Recapturing her person was definitely their most prioritized objective.
The Pawns started walking toward the cabin, at that time, a terrific impact attacked them from behind.
“Guoo…!?”
“HIii!?”
When they looked back, the pharaoh was slowly rising up, exactly as if being strung by some kind of invisible thread. His expression wasn’t discernible due to the golden mask. However, the pharaoh raised the broken ankh in his right hand, and started attacking the Pawns with mysterious power.
“Th–this guy, is still alive…!”
Asaake’s scream jarringly echoed in the ears.
“Then we should just kill him!”
At the shout of one person, the other Pawns also nodded.
They converged blood energy, spinning it into a spear form.
The black armor, aka the Promotional Armor, was an armor that granted quasi-power of the other chess pieces to the Pawns who originally had no combat ability.
Physical ability of Knights, blood energy of the Bishops. And then overwhelming defense capability of Rooks.
What was especially user-friendly was this blood energy.
“……!”
The pharaoh already couldn’t even utter any words and just raised the broken ankh.
“Dieee!!”
One Pawn projected a spear. Faster than the pharaoh could fire telekinesis, that spear stretched straight ahead, piercing deeply into his chest.
“……!!”
Unable to stop the momentum of that spear, the pharaoh’s body was affixed on the wall of the cabin.
Continuing after that, other Pawns also fired blood energy spears one after another. All the spears hit the pharaoh. From his parched body, blood, didn’t even flow. His head wearing the heavy mask drooped down. His hand lost its strength, the broken ankh made a sound and rolled on the floor of the deck.
“Did, did we do it…?”
“This guy really gave us much trouble…!”
“Unnecessary waste of time…!”
The Pawns unanimously cursed, but still, they cautiously took distance from the pharaoh.
They beat him up, they killed him, he died, just as the moment they were convinced so, he got up and made a surprise attack on them, this wasn’t a one time occurrence.Not a single one in this place could be confident that he was really put to rest with this. However, they confirmed that the pharaoh had finally stopped moving entirely, everyone started inside the ship.
Rather than a strong enemy, he was an ominous enemy. They defeated him again and again, but he resurrected and got up. Undead monsters original had a tough image, even so, this pharaoh seemed to be outstanding among those.
After all the Pawns had entered inside the ship, there was no one left to notice that the pharaoh’s fingertip twitched again.
When they entered the ship, doors that seemed to lead to sailors room lined up on both side. The Pawns cautiously opened every single one of those.
“Strange…”
One of them murmured, the others also nodded.
“True, I can’t find any other monsters.”
Thinking calmly, it was hard to imagine that the only ones to strengthen the defense of this heavy cruiser were that pharaoh and incubus. Imps and such could be said as wild monsters being tamed by the incubus.
They had heard from Tokihara that a trade fair was going to be held in Albadanba soon, and the students of this heavy cruiser was going to participate in that event. A great majority of the students seemed to have been assigned over there, and the defense of the heavy cruiser would be lacking, it was with that prediction that they had attacked at this timing. Thinking about that, the fact that the number was few itself was nothing strange. But as expected, this was too few.
Did they sense the attack and escape, or are they holding their breath, looking for a gap? Whichever it is, we can’t be careless.
Cautiously advancing in the narrow passage, they opened the doors one by one. At such a time, one of the vampires suddenly raised his voice.
“Oya…?”
“Asaake-san, did you find something?”
“Ahh, no…. It looks like the captain room. A stupidly wide room.”
When they looked into the room Asaake had been peering in, it certainly took more space than the other sailor rooms.
The Queen seemed not to be here, but instead, they caught sight of a large amount of documents. On top of the deck was a map of this world which was more accurate than they thought, something was added to it in Japanese.
“This is…”
One Pawn picked it up and said.
“Their future planned route?”
“It seems they’re going to Werneus peninsula after leaving Albadanba.”
Peering in from the side, his comrade also muttered.
Werneus was a peninsula greatly protruded out southeast of the continent. It was far out of the dominated territory of the Empire, so a monster corps like those guys would be able to act relatively easily. Tracing drawn the arrow, it headed straight north from the peninsula, taking a route toward the woodland in the eastern part of the continent.
“The east? What are those guys aiming for?”
“Don’t know. Aren’t they just randomly running around to escape from us…?”
What Tokihara, ‘the Pawn of Albadanba’ had been instructed by Bishop Akeno, was to determine the future planned route of those guys. For a simple reason: as long as they know about those guys’ movement, it would be easier for the blood clan to act.
As long as they could seize the Queen’s person, this would be come a trivial matter, but there was no loss in remembering this information.
“There’s still a lot of documents I’m worrying about, but first is the Queen…”
Other Pawns nodded to those words. They left the room and started investigating the sailor room again.
Yes, it was the Queen.
The Queen of the blood clan, Akai Asuka. Her treachery would reach the King’s ears soon. However, the domination authority of the King had no effect on the Queen who was in a place far away from that castle.
The King who held the original of the blood clan factor, had overwhelming authority over all members of the blood clan who held copies of that factor. It was a chained curse one could try to strongly maintain their will to their best, but never could they escape. So to speak, the entirety of the blood clan was something like the offshoots of the King. The Queen was no exception. If she stood in front of the King, and if the King willed it, her free will would be snatched away, her body moved as the King’s desire.
Naturally, even this domination authority wasn’t perfect.
To dominate the opponent, the King needed to know their exact location. Speaking concretely, he had to clearly perceive their existence. Therefore, in a place far way like this, even the King couldn’t manipulate the treacherous Queen.
Basically, the King had been mandating the blood clan to present their blood to him. The King never forgot the taste and smell of blood he had drunk once. Wherever they were, the King would be able to accurately grasp the target location. The act of dedicating blood had the meaning of having one’s existence perceived by the King wherever they were in the world, and for the blood clan, it also had the meaning of putting on a collar they could never remove.
The only one who didn’t dedicate her blood to the King was the Queen. She was favored by the King. For that Queen who was so obedient to the King from the beginning, to betray him, even the King himself never thought of it.
For this reason, they were going to secure the Queen’s person. If they just dragged her before the King’s presence, the rest would settle by themselves. Using the King’s domination authority, he could have the Queen spit out information, force her to suicide, made her present her blood and thus putting her under complete control, everything was possible.
Naturally, she would resist as well. Her Blood Crave Illness would break out soon, even so, the Queen was the Queen. It would be difficult for themselves who was only Pawns, to capture her safely. They were equipped with knives charged with a werewolf’s saliva, but would that be enough to pin down her power?
In case securing her person was difficult, they would limit it to only collecting her blood. As long as they could deliver her blood to the King, the result would be the same. And in the case they had no choice but to use their trump card. Everyone looked at Asaake. The bottle of blood and the knife he had been entrusted by Tokihara was that trump card.
“We’re counting on you, Asaake-san.”
“Ha ha ha. Please leave it to me.”
The Pawns finally came in front of one room. There was a presence of someone inside.
Perhaps, it was this place? Thinking so, they tried to grab the doorknob, that instant.
Their entire body was attacked by a shuddering sensation. Strong hostility and malice turned into pressure and tightened their head, it was that kind of sensation. Their body stiffened. The chill made them want to escape even immediately. And the origin of that was clearly emitting from the other side of this door.
There was already no room for doubt. One Pawn shook off his stiffness and kicked open the door.
In there was a girl wearing sailor uniform, while seating on the bed, she was looking over here.
“We finally found you, Queen.”
“…What did you come here for?”
She said, with chilly voice containing a penetrating cold.
Straight long hair extending till her waist. But there was no neat and tidy impression at all, if pushed to say, her image would be aggressive. In the depth of her almond eyes swirled blood colored anger. The Pawns naturally floated a smile on their mouth. Their entire body felt like it was trembling violently.
“…You,”
That Pawn could barely open his mouth.
“We’ve come to deliver you to the King’s place.”
“Stop joking.”
She clearly said.
“I will never go to that man’s place ever again. If there’s ever a next chance to go there…”
The Queen stood up and glared over here.
“It will be the time to cut off that guy head in his sleep.”
Immediately following, black wave gushed forth from the Queen’s body, it easily blew away the Pawns. They, along with their armor, floated up and was immediately thrown against the wall. Is she really suffering Blood Crave Illness? That doubt flitted through their mind. It was power overwhelming to that degree.
But, that doubt was immediately shaken off. When they raised their head and looked at the Queen, her face was moist with sweats, rough breathing was being repeated. It was an appearance that the normal Queen would never show. Fatigue had attacked her at once by the use of power.
As they thought, the Queen right now wasn’t in a normal condition.
“Capture the Queen no matter what!”
To be continued…
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