Chapter 114
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Request for Support - 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone who's experienced war knows it.
You don't follow the tunnels dug by the enemy.
Because no one knows what traps might lurk in those narrow passages, or how many foes could be lying in ambush.
But I couldn't just sit on my hands, so I came up with a brilliant scheme.
If the enemy's tunnels are dangerous, then dig new ones.
"Excuse me."
"Gyaaah! What the hell is this madman?!"
Thanks to the Nymph's Grace from Helen, I had more leeway with my mental energy than before. I freely spammed Vitality Enhancement.
"Where'd you hide Camilla?"
"W-What if it were you? Would you spill to the enemy?"
"If you don't answer, I'll kill you."
"You'll kill us anyway, right?"
"Sure, but it'll hurt less."
I swung Robera with all my might.
Slicing through Hardron's bandits in one stroke.
"So, what's the answer?"
"Gyaaaaah!"
Of course, I didn't kill them yet.
I still needed info from them.
"Y-You'll get your answer now!"
"You know the most excruciating pain a human can feel is burning agony, right?"
Since they weren't talking easily, I dangled pure Hestia's flames right under their noses.
"Once your skin chars, muscles burn, and nerves melt down, you'll talk. Right?"
"W-Wait..."
"By the way, only the first one to speak gets mercy."
"?!?"
At my declaration, Hardron's bandits spilled everything without hesitation.
"Th-The most recent woman captured would be in the deep prison."
"Deep prison?"
"Yes... That's where they keep women snatched from the surface."
"Why there?"
"Haha, well... Living in an underground city gives a man all sorts of frustrations, doesn't it? The city lord made sure we could satisfy our needs easily."
"I see."
"Th-Then me..."
"Yeah, I won't burn you."
"Th-Thank you... Gyaaaaaaaah!"
Lightning shot from my hand, turning the chatty bandit into a shapeless pile of ash.
"Wh-What's that?"
"New power I picked up. Testing it. Pretty good, actually."
The periodic lightning on Storm Hill was an unnatural phenomenon from a forgotten god's legacy.
'Good thing I absorbed it. A direct hit back then would've been bad.'
Compared to the fully absorbed divinity of 'The One Who Walks the Very Bottom', the lightning's essence was minor—easy to digest.
No wonder it depleted after just a couple uses.
"Gotta investigate this properly later."
After incinerating the rest, I followed their directions into the underground city and marveled.
"This is the underground city?"
It was breathtaking.
Larger than Lugadrian, with clean streets and waterways.
But as a fortress city rather than a trade hub, it felt rugged.
Even so, impressive.
'Viscount Ishur really was lazy.'
A city dirtier than an underground one!
The closest city to the village being this shithole bothered me.
"Alright, time to find her."
To rescue Camilla, I stormed the underground city.
...
'What was that?'
Regaining consciousness, Camilla sensed with her sharp instincts that everyone around had vanished.
'Did they drug me?'
Anxiety surged over suddenly blacking out, but true to her holy knight nature, she showed no disarray.
Just...
'One person's still here.'
She felt a gaze boring into her naked body.
Like a snake slithering over her skin—something that should disgust any woman, yet strangely didn't.
Why?
'Imagination? This person smells... familiar.'
Camilla's sense of smell was exceptionally keen compared to most.
As a child, she'd often tracked her busy adoptive mother Helen's scent amid apostle duties just to see her.
That honed her ability to discern personalities by smell—and now, the thick scent of someone who shouldn't be here.
The figure ahead froze briefly at Camilla's odd sniffing, then approached.
As the scent intensified, bewildering her.
"Kyaa?!"
He reached out and groped her breast.
But Camilla knew instantly who it was.
"Hero, such a mean prank."
"Not me?"
He calmly kept fondling, then pinched her nipple between his fingers.
The skilled touch sent a jolt of pain through her; Camilla recoiled.
"Hng... Only the Hero among those I know would do this."
"Maybe you're drugged and imagining me."
"Could be, but where else is a pervert who handles a woman like me so tenderly besides the Hero?"
"Don't sell yourself short. Camilla, you're a beauty."
"Most don't get horny like the Hero. And trained women like me aren't men's favorites."
Camilla was right.
In this world, muscular women held no appeal for men.
Women knights weren't seen as spinsters for nothing.
"And I'm not exactly young."
"Pretty's what counts."
"The Hero indeed."
Camilla figured men hot for her fit two types.
Degenerates like bandits, starved for women—or pervs like Sian, mad for any female.
"Anyone'd think I'm some rutting stud."
"Aren't you?"
"No, it's not women I like."
"Hiya?! H-Hero, what're you—"
The hand tormenting her breasts now went for her armpits.
"What else? Tickling the captive Camilla. And I said I'm not Sian."
"I-I never... Hyaa! Said the Hero's... Hng! Name!"
"Camilla, you're so ticklish."
"Don't deflect."
"Fine, you win. I was grumpy from the hellish trip here."
"Is Helen alright?"
"Of course. She'll arrive soon."
"Thank you."
"Save it. Know how much I suffered saving you?"
Grumbling, Sian removed Camilla's handcuffs and blindfold.
Revealing his current state.
"Hero?"
His body bore sword gashes everywhere from fierce combat, black blood streaming thick from his left eye.
"Camilla, you need a talking-to. Only ten 2nd Order Knights on the continent, right? So why's one parked in this underground dump?"
"2nd Order Knight?"
"Yeah. Thought I was goner."
Camilla hadn't felt it—time frozen by 'The One Who Walks the Very Bottom''s divinity—but Sian had battled nonstop for two days, shaking the city.
The 2nd and 3rd Order Knights stationed in this fortress city had been lying in wait for the intruder.
"Entry was a breeze, but I never dreamed guys like that were waiting."
Utterly spent, Sian collapsed before her.
"Hero, you can't die."
"Then let me grope your tits."
"...Do as you please."
"Now I can live."
Permission granted, Sian fondled her breasts and blacked out.
Puzzled why he wanted them, Camilla hugged the exhausted man tight.
"Hero, thank you for the rescue."
Thus, she shared her warmth with Sian until reinforcements came.
...
Three days after Sian's underground raid, as Peredil—captain of the Holy Kingdom's 1st Holy Knight Order—arrived, order began restoring. The Black Heaven Knights showed up late.
The nobles of the former Anitul Earl's faction, gutted by Sian's roar during their clash with the 2nd Holy Knight Order, fell easily.
"D-Do you know who we are?!"
"Mercy! I'm innocent!"
"Our house is ruined because of you!"
The rebel nobles were executed to the ninth clan by the Black Heaven Knights.
Ringleader Hardron, predictably, slipped away like an eel.
But Sian's swift strike let them nab Sir Andrew, Hardron's ace 2nd Order Knight.
"Impressive. Such prowess so young."
"No wonder the First Knight took notice."
Despite feats for the history books, Sian drew wariness from the Black Heaven Knights.
But the real issue was elsewhere.
"Lugadrian has fallen?"