The Pursuit Team Forms
Marquelon’s pursuit team was formed. Now it was time for some exciting loot. Why not ransack the dead lord’s castle? But no matter how hard I looked, there wasn’t a single gold coin or anything valuable in sight. At best, I only found a few stingy silver coins. The only things that looked remotely expensive were some silver cups and tableware, and compared to what I’d looted from Trupers Castle, it was downright pathetic. I needed gold bars or expensive jewels, damn it.
> [Would you like me to purchase the loot?]
“You had that function too?”
> [All the loot you obtained when you cleared Trupers Castle was converted into gacha currency. Do you not remember?]
Oh, right. I’d blown all the money I earned back then on mindless gacha pulls. The ironclad airship got wrecked, but at least I pulled a performance character from the gacha, so that was a relief. Yeah, let’s think positive. Luck’s on my side. It’s not like I fell into some dark fantasy world with no dreams or hope, or got isekai’d into a revenge story. Of course, instead we’ve got a bunch of Nazi-obsessed lunatic elves and a group starting a communist revolution. Actually, this side might be even weirder. No matter how I look at it, this world has gone insane.
Transmigrators showing up and stirring up trouble is something I’ve seen plenty of in fiction, but I never dreamed the world would get this messed up and that I’d be the one experiencing it. Who could have imagined it? The madness of ideologies that once plagued the modern world had crossed over into a fantasy realm too. If another transmigrator saw this, they’d probably freak out.
“Comrade Pyotr, you’ve arrived at just the right time.”
“What’s going on?”
“We found a warehouse in the castle basement, but it’s locked tight and shows no sign of opening.”
Of course! What kind of noble doesn’t have a hidden treasure vault in the basement? Following the revolutionary army’s guidance, I went down to the basement and saw a massive door secured with a huge padlock. The door itself looked like it was made of steel or some other metal, so it wouldn’t open with ordinary strength.
“Tirga, think you can smash that?”
“Of course. Leave it to me, Master.”
Tirga struck a stance like a martial artist. Lightning energy erupted from her entire body, and she charged straight at the door in an instant. Her fist, carrying her full weight and the power of lightning, slammed into the door. With a sound like an explosion, the door flew off its hinges. Not just me, but everyone watching stood there with their mouths hanging open, speechless. It made sense—they’d just watched a human woman single-handedly destroy a door that even those monstrous beastmen and the Fury couldn’t break. Of course, she was an SSS-rank summon, the strongest of the strong, but that was a fact only I knew, so I let it slide.
After the dust settled, what filled the warehouse wasn’t gold, silver, or jewels… it was food. Why the hell wasn’t there any money? Money! Instead of sparkling, expensive things, the place was packed with preserved rations. Had they been preparing for war or some apocalypse? Or maybe in this cold region, food was worth more than money.
“Info window, will you buy this too?”
> [It is possible. However, you will not receive as much money as you would like, Marquelon.]
Guess it doesn’t value anything that isn’t precious metal. Makes sense—if it bought everything, people would just grab random junk and sell it for gacha pulls, so this was their way of balancing things. How long would it take to repair Solaris at this rate?
“Comrade Pyotr, what shall we do with this food?”
“First, we feed the starving people. Don’t forget why we’re fighting—to create a world where everyone is equal and well-fed.”
“Ooh, understood! Comrade.”
Tamara looked at me with reverence. It was the kind of expression a fan might have when meeting their idol in person. I couldn’t help but wonder how her face would change if she ever found out I’d once worked with elves and thrown dark elves into concentration camps. Still, up close, dark elves were pretty attractive in their own way. They had a different charm from regular elves—maybe that healthy, mature vibe from their bronze skin? Anyway, the food hidden in the lord’s castle basement was distributed evenly among the villagers and the revolutionary army. The cold and hungry residents were overjoyed to have food and began praising the revolutionary army.
“Form a line! A line! We’ll distribute everything fairly, so wait your turn and keep order!”
“Thank you so much.”
“Long live the great revolutionary army! Long live the Red Army!”
It felt strange doing something good after all the bad things I’d been up to. I felt like some kind of hero, like I was saving people as if I’d become a god. The Red Army was probably thinking the same thing. But I had to remember—I was only acting. I had no intention of actually becoming a communist and starting a revolution. What I wanted was money, sex, and gacha. Drop the chosen-people complex and hero complex, Marquelon. You’ve seen plenty of that in modern society—idiots who brag about having superior ideologies and claim they’ll change the world. Their endings don’t need to be explained. I’m just a villain. No, dividing things into good and evil is meaningless now. In a war of ideologies, splitting things into good and evil doesn’t make sense. The winner becomes justice and good.
“Thanks to you, Comrade Pyotr, I feel like we’ve already accomplished our great cause. I’ll report this achievement to the Party right away.”
“This was all thanks to you, Captain Tamara.”
“What are you saying? This is all your achievement, Comrade Pyotr……”
“Have you already forgotten? Comrade Blanov doesn’t even know I’m here. So if you carelessly write about me in your report, you’ll be sent to a camp for leaking classified information, got it? Make sure the other comrades keep their mouths shut too.”
“Ah, understood.”
“And you, Captain, need to earn merits too if you want to be recognized as a proper Party member.”
Something about it didn’t add up and the scale of the lie had grown ridiculously large, but whatever would be, would be. I’d set up this weird situation to face Blanov, but there was no helping it. Pretending to be some high-ranking figure was still better than suddenly asking the revolutionary army to let me join the Red Army as a bottom-rung grunt. Tamara nodded repeatedly and headed inside the castle to make her report. Did this world have communication devices? Or maybe they used magic.
This was Trupers Castle. An elf army wearing black trench coats and spiked helmets from who-knows-where entered the castle. They were another unit of the Imperial Guard dispatched from Ermania, the capital of the Silvareich Empire. They had come in person to congratulate Ranea’s army on occupying the castle and to award them. Guided through the city, they entered the inner castle and easily met Ranea and her adjutant Richel in the office.
“Heil Fridica.”
“Heil Fridica. You did well, Ranea. Or should I say Second Lieutenant now. You and your men will be appointed as commanders of other armed SS units.”
“Understood.”
“I also received Sergeant Richel’s report. She said a human male mercenary performed exceptionally.”
“That is correct.”
Richel had given a detailed report to her superiors about Marquelon’s abilities and achievements, strongly emphasizing that the Empire needed to recruit him. The Silvareich Empire committed all sorts of atrocities against other races like dark elves and orcs, claiming they tainted elven blood, but dwarves and humans were treated differently. Dwarves were valued for their technical skills, and humans were considered necessary for racial reproduction and posterity. In other words, rather than scouting humans as talent, they were treated as potential husbands or pseudo-sex slaves. Simply put, a gender-reversed world was unfolding within the Empire. From the elves’ perspective, where most were born female, they needed other races to marry and continue their lineage. The most convenient and easy choice was human males. Their appearance was relatively similar, making them suitable as husbands, and their population was the largest. That was why some Imperial elves wandered the world kidnapping human men for forced marriages. It got to the point where human men said that if you saw an elf woman traveling alone, you should be suspicious, and if she was wearing black, you should run without looking back.
“By the way, where is that mercenary, Sergeant?”
“I’m sorry. He said he was looking for other work and left the Empire……”
The previously warm atmosphere instantly turned cold. It was like being scolded for failing to secure such a talented individual. Richel had nothing to say, even if she had ten mouths. She should have held onto Marquelon no matter what, but her own incompetence and weakness had prevented it.
“There’s nothing we can do. How can we stop someone who’s already left? So after discussion at the top, we’ve made this decision. We’ll promote Sergeant Richel to First Lieutenant and assign you a pursuit team. Go capture that human named Marquelon.”
“Understood.”
The Empire’s Imperial Guard leadership had judged Marquelon to be an excellent human male and concluded they needed to capture him to obtain both his abilities and his seed. They didn’t want a talented individual who could wield lightning and command a giant straight out of myth and legend to fall into the hands of another faction. Thus, the elves reached the conclusion that they had to capture Marquelon immediately and present him to Führer Fridica.
“Achoo!”
“Master, what’s wrong?”
“Did you catch a cold, Captain?”
“No, it just feels like someone’s talking about me.”
Marquelon, who had been feasting on the food looted from the lord, felt an inexplicable chill. He had no idea that an Imperial pursuit team from the elf empire was already on his trail. He brushed it off as just a feeling and stuffed more food and drink into his mouth.