Raid on Ratstein Island! (1)
The quiet evening of the capital, Dunholm.
The grand cathedral of the Pantheon, pressed into service as a temporary shelter, was filled with the desperate breaths of those who could not sleep.
"We pray to the great Lord of the Hamster Wheel...."
"Goddess Rodentia...."
The rodent beastman girls who had fled from Hamster Wheel Village knelt upon the cold stone floor. Hands clasped tight, eyes squeezed shut, they murmured without pause.
"Please let Village Chief Loti and the Rat Rangers strike down the evil...."
"Punish those wicked bastards!"
"Please, let everyone come back alive without a single wound...."
Pure, desperate prayers spilled from the lips of little girls. Perhaps those untainted wishes truly reached the heavens. Faint wisps of power the supplicants themselves never saw slipped over the cathedral roof, rode the dark night sky, and flew far toward the northern border lake.
A full moon hung bright over the border between the Winster Kingdom and the Adlerheim Empire.
Small rowboats cut silently through the water of a vast lake thick with mist.
"The fog's too heavy. If the powder gets damp from the moisture, we're screwed."
Mani, crouched in one of the boats, anxiously wiped her needle rifle over and over with a cloth.
"Relax. We waterproofed everything properly."
I whispered low from my position flat against the bow.
In the pitch-black dark, beyond the fog, the jagged silhouette of Ratstein Island's pointed spires flickered grotesquely into view.
Splash!
In that instant the still surface of the lake heaved violently. Something pitch-black began swarming up the wet wooden sides of the boats.
"Eek! Wh-what is that?!"
"Water ghosts? Squeak!"
The already-tense Rat Rangers startled hard and raised their bowguns.
"Don't shoot! Lower your weapons!"
I flung up a hand and stopped them at once. An Apostle's keen senses had already pierced the true nature of the things climbing the gunwales.
"Squeak! Squeeeak!"
What had swum across the water and clambered aboard were hundreds of wild field mice. Soaking wet, they gathered in a dense cluster on the boat floors and, like soldiers greeting their commander, raised their front paws toward me in perfect unison.
"Squeak! C-Captain! These are...."
"These little ones came to help us."
I stroked their damp heads and let the corner of my mouth lift faintly. Wherever the authority of the Lord of the Hamster Wheel reached, there were mice. Even this desolate border lake was already our perfect domain.
"The mice are on our side!"
"The Lord is with us! Squeak!"
Not long after, the bow scraped onto the muddy shore. We disembarked without a sound into the dark woods at the island's edge.
"Urgh...."
The moment we pushed into the forest, Sena, following close behind, gagged and clamped a hand over her mouth.
"What's wrong, Sena?"
"I-I don't know. Suddenly I can't breathe, and this awful smell makes me want to throw up...."
The face of the girl who handled holy power had gone deathly pale. Hilde, equally sensitive to magic, scowled in disgust and fanned her nose with one hand. Mani and the Rangers, far less attuned to mana, only tilted their heads in confusion. I, too, felt the nauseating metallic stench prickling my nostrils and scanned our surroundings.
After training, once I grew familiar with mana and holy power, I began to notice such things. This was the reek of thick, polluted mana.
"This is...!"
On the trunks of trees and the faces of massive boulders throughout the fog-shrouded woods, the source of the stench revealed itself. Crude, grotesque sigils scrawled in dark-red blood. Ominous, evil totems woven from animal bones stood planted sparsely across the entire forest. It was the same work the cultists in Oakwood had done when they tried to summon a great demon.
Squeak! Apostle!
Ominous miasma is boiling furiously up from beneath the earth!
The projection of Rodentia that burst from my chest was trembling like an aspen leaf.
"Demon worshippers. They've truly crossed the line this time."
I clenched the grip of my bowgun until my knuckles whitened and ground my teeth.
"Smash them all first!"
The Rangers reduced every totem to splinters and flung the pieces aside. Under the dense fog and the silent escort of the wild mouse swarm, we carefully worked our way toward the rear of the towering Ratstein mansion.
Brilliant chandelier light spilled through the enormous plate-glass windows of the first floor. We flattened ourselves beneath the sills and carefully peered inside. The moment I confirmed the scene beyond the glass, rage surged up in me.
"...You pieces of trash!"
Clank! Clank!
The first thing that struck my ears was the heavy, rough sound of something rotating. It resembled a waterwheel or a windmill, yet was somehow grotesquely different. Inside the spacious, luxurious hall, dozens of enormous hamster wheels had been installed like abominations.
The instant we grasped the situation, every face among us drained into horror.
"Waaah! It hurts!"
"Squeak! Please stop...!"
Kidnapped beastman children, thick iron chains around their necks, were running the wheels with faces soaked in tears! The axles of the wheels were connected to bizarre mechanical contraptions bristling with gears.
"What the hell is that?"
At my question Mani answered in a tiny voice.
"Generators!"
"Generators?"
"Yeah! Latest imperial tech... but why is something like that here?"
The question resolved itself in the most horrific way. When one squirrel beastman girl, exhausted, stumbled and her pace slowed—
Zzzt!
"Hieeeek!"
A blue flash suddenly crackled from the bottom of the wheel. The girl convulsed under the electric shock, screamed, and tumbled across the floor. Burly mercenaries swaggered over, clubbed her, then dragged her by the collar like luggage and flung her into an iron cage.
How dare they! Our sacred hamster wheels!
Rodentia's projection seethed with fury. My own hands shook with rage. Hamster wheels were meant to be the sacred labor and joyful play of us rodent beastmen. These villains had corrupted them into the most horrific instruments of torture.
"Why the hell are they doing something like this?"
I closed my eyes and secretly sent one of the horned mice of the shadows up to the second-floor outdoor terrace of the mansion. Beneath the brilliant lighting, high-ranking nobles in the finest formal wear clinked champagne flutes while gazing down upon the first-floor hall's ghastly "hamster-wheel race" as entertainment.
"Hahaha! That little hamster on wheel number seven has some sturdy legs. I'll put a hundred gold on that one lasting the longest!"
"Come now, Councilor. It's already frothing and gasping. I'm putting my money on that mouse over there."
Disgusting conversations treating living beings like racehorses for wagers.
These vile humans. They brought people here and turned them into a horse-racing gambling den!
Through the horned mouse's eyes I carefully burned every face into my memory. The arrogant ambassador of the Adlerheim Empire I had seen at the villa last time, the great merchant guildmaster who ruled Dunholm's back alleys, and even influential members of the Winster Kingdom's parliament. The names from the secret ledger matched these greedy faces with spine-chilling precision.
One figure stood out above the rest. The man to whom Baron Schwarzenstein was bowing and scraping, sweating profusely as he curried favor. A red-haired man of the most arrogant bearing, draped in a cloak heavy with the finest gold ornaments.
"Your Highness."
The baron fawned as he refilled the man's empty glass with champagne.
"For today's splendid hunt I specially selected only the swiftest top-grade specimens from the back alleys and released them into the forest. I am certain you will be satisfied."
"I look forward to it, Baron. State affairs have been so tedious lately that my body has been aching for a good stretch."
Your Highness?
Beyond the horned mouse's vision, the elaborate crest on the man's chest came into view. A silver shield with two lions crossed. When I withdrew the shared sight and quietly described the crest to Hilde, her large eyes went rigid for an instant.
"That's the crest of the Winster royal house!"
"A royal crest? Then that man is actual royalty?"
"Yes! A collateral line, but... he must be one of the dukes. The rumors that the baron had sticky ties to the royal family were true!"
I sucked in a sharp breath without meaning to. Even true blood of the Winster royal house was tangled up in this horrific hunting ground.
So that's why even the Inquisition investigators couldn't touch this island and had their hands tied.
Who would have thought the royal family that ruled the nation itself was involved. The Winster Kingdom was finished. These were its leaders?
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The mansion clock belched out the heavy toll of midnight. The rear door of the first floor slammed open roughly.
"Run! Get moving!"
Rodent beastman girls and gaunt human elderly poured out toward the forest as if driven. A subordinate of the baron who seemed to be running the event shouted vilely at the people trembling like aspens.
"All right! Everything until now was merely a light appetizer. From this moment we will properly test the survival abilities of you inferior creatures!"
From the terrace behind him, nobles armed with ornate weapons could be seen strolling down at their leisure.
"If you survive until dawn without being discovered, we will safely send you home! However, you would do well to abandon any thought of fleeing the island!"
The subordinate snickered and tapped his own throat.
"Those collars around your necks are tracking devices! Try to leave the island and you will immediately receive a siren and a terrible electric shock. Anyone who breaks the rules and attempts escape will be executed on the spot!"
At that cruel declaration the people sank to the ground in despair.
"Instead! In the spirit of fairness, we shall give you weapons to fight back!"
At the word "weapons" a faint glimmer of hope lit the dull eyes of the people. Guards immediately dragged over a battered wooden crate and roughly dumped its contents on the ground.
Clatter!
What rolled across the floor were nothing more than ladles with broken handles, rusted frying pans, and dented pot lids.
"All right! Now it truly begins! I'll give you exactly one minute!"
Weeping, the people clutched those pathetic objects and fled desperately into the pitch-black forest. By contrast, the hunters who would pursue them were a sight to behold.
"Shall we begin the wagers? Who bags the first and the most."
At one noble's excited voice the merchant guildmaster cackled and worked the lever of his ornate long gun.
"Heh heh.... I acquired a rather expensive item just for this hunt. A new Valois repeating rifle! It holds a full six rounds!"
"Oho! Quite the investment. Still, my Adlerheim air gun will prove far more accurate!"
"Hahaha!"
I clenched the grip of my Ratpid Bowgun until my teeth ached with revulsion.
"They call it fair... but this is nothing but a vicious deception and a torture of hope, playing with human lives."
Every human who had joined the party was armed with the finest weapons. They had even brought servants and savage hunting hounds that drooled and snarled. There was no chance of survivors.
Fwoosh!
Not long after, a blood-red signal flare burst into the pitch-black night sky. The signal that the true hunt had begun.
"Hahaha! Run! Run, you little mice!"
"Anyone we catch, I'll skin alive and stuff as a trophy!"
The nobles' mad laughter and the baying of hounds filled the fog-shrouded island forest with a chilling din.
"We have to avoid the hounds' noses. Everyone remember to apply the scent-canceling ointment?"
"Of course!"
The Rat Rangers quickly checked the camouflage soot and special perfume that masked their body odor on their faces and exposed skin.
"And... dark cats. Lend us a hand."
"Myaaow."
At my quiet call, the black cats Felicia had dispatched spread a dense curtain of shadow wide beneath our feet. We melted into that perfect darkness and slipped soundlessly into the deep heart of the forest.
"Squeak...! No...!"
In a gloomy clearing of the forest, a young rodent beastman girl whose legs were bloody from thorns gasped for breath as she fled. An old frying pan trembled in both her hands.
"Grrr!"
"Where do you think you're running, pretty little mouse?"
A noble, leading a savage hunting hound, strolled leisurely out behind the girl. He was a sly-faced human man with a carefully styled mustache. The man smiled vilely as he watched the girl back away in terror.
"Run harder, little one!"
"P-please save me...!"
The girl sobbed and forced her legs to move with everything she had. The noble cackled as though savoring the sight and casually adjusted the distance.
Ping!
A bullet deliberately fired wide grazed the tip of the girl's foot. When she finally reached her limit and collapsed exhausted onto the dirt—
Bang!
The man pulled the trigger of his long gun without a shred of mercy.
"Kyaaaaah!"
The bullet tore mercilessly through the girl's calf. She screamed and rolled across the dirt. Her round ears and thin tail trembled, then went limp. The child raised the old frying pan like a shield toward the approaching mustached man with hands that would not stop shaking.
Click.
The man worked the loading lever and let out a sneer.
"Puhahaha! Go on, try blocking my bullet with that pathetic frying pan! It'll make a wonderful show!"
The noble burst into mocking laughter and set his finger on the trigger once more. The girl squeezed her eyes shut in terror.
Please... someone help me!
In that exact instant.
"What's so funny?"
"Wh-what...?"
From the dense darkness of the forest no one had noticed, figures in deep-green cloaks dropped vertically from the trees as silently as leopards. The man never even had time to be shocked. Bolts from the Rat Rangers punched through the throats of the furiously barking hounds in a single strike.
"Kyiiing!"
At the same moment I dropped onto the mustached noble's head and drew the shortsword from my waist without delay.
Shhhk!
The cold blade traced a perfect line across the man's throat.
"K-kh...!"
The arrogant man's laughter turned into the sound of hideous bloody foam. He collapsed onto the dirt, clutching his throat and convulsing, the long gun fallen from his grip.
"G-ghlk...!"
I flicked the blood droplets from the shortsword into the air with casual indifference and slowly rose. The little girl, still gripping the old frying pan, stared up at me blankly through a face soaked in tears.
I tipped my red beret slightly and smiled gently at the terrified child.
"You must have been so scared. It's okay now."
I took the frying pan from her shaking hands and tossed it carelessly onto the ground. Sena rushed over and began emergency treatment on the girl's leg. Even then, mad gunfire and the baying of dogs continued to echo through the fog-filled forest in every direction.
"Trash humans."
How many innocent comrades had died for this cruel amusement until now? Heavy responsibility and rage swirled together in my chest. But tonight was different. Now it was our turn to hunt you.
I faced the deep abyss of the forest where the darkness lay thickest and declared in a calm yet unyielding voice.
O Hamster Wheel, sing of your wrath!