The Generously Giving Army Mom
But seriously, if I smash the rift to pieces like a total bastard, doesn't that make the beast army go berserk?
I scraped together every scrap of firepower from the main base to put this strike force together, so if a phase 2 kicks in I'm completely fucked.
What if these bastards just leap the moat and ignore the traps?
“Young Master, h-how on earth…? How did you bring down all those beasts?”
Rina’s headpiece was askew, her maid uniform thoroughly rumpled, and tears had even begun to gather faintly in her eyes as she asked me in a trembling voice.
To think the head maid of the Termin household—who always maintained such a flawless appearance—would look this disheveled.
Ordinarily I would have teased her, but right now Rina seemed far too fragile for that. One little poke and she might burst into full-blown sobs.
Well, of course. Until moments ago she had been stretched to the absolute limit, staring death in the face. This reaction was only natural.
If Rina cried, the only person left in the Termin household who could comfort her was me. So instead of teasing, I gave her the answer she wanted.
“I destroyed the Abyss of the Army.”
“……What?”
All I got back from Rina was a dazed echo.
Hmm. Maybe that answer was too abstract for her to grasp. Understanding worse than even the gallery bros of Crack Kingdom? Rina, you little… I’d have to sit her down for a proper study session later.
I kindly added a more detailed explanation so that my knowledge-deficient maid could follow along.
“Those beast armies lying there came from the Abyss of the Army. You know that much, right?”
“Y-yes. I know that. The messenger told me so.”
“But those beasts, you see—killing them doesn’t actually kill them. Cut their throats and they instantly turn into mana particles, leave no corpse, and return straight to the Abyss of the Army. Then they re-form as a beast army and march right back at you. That’s possible because the beast army is linked to the Abyss of the Army.”
“……What? Th-that’s… what do you mean…”
“So if you destroy the Abyss of the Army, the entire beast army dies with it. They can’t even turn into mana particles. They just collapse on the spot and leave perfect corpses behind.”
“Eh?”
“Just like when a person dies and every organ shuts down, the beast army stops completely once its main body—the Abyss of the Army—is gone.”
“Ah, uh, uweh?”
“There. That clear enough?”
Rina blinked blankly at my kind, thorough explanation. Then she turned her head toward the window, confirmed the corpses of the beasts, and looked back at me.
“W-well, after hearing Young Master’s explanation, I understand why the beasts suddenly all collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.”
“Mm.”
“Then… how did you destroy the Abyss of the Army…? The previous lord said it was a hundred and fifty kilometers from here. Even on horseback that would take at least three days…”
“Well, about that.”
I met Rina’s eyes and answered with a bright smile.
“It’s a secret.”
Honestly, launching a nuclear warhead on a short-range ballistic missile wasn’t much of a secret. Explaining what a missile even was to Rina, though—that was pure hassle.
Would a maid from a medieval fantasy world even understand if I tried to describe a missile?
Besides, the free sample service was already over, so I couldn’t show her one anyway. So I just decided to play it off as a secret.
Once I met the conditions and could manufacture missiles again, I could show her then. No rush.
“……What? Why? Please tell me, Young Master!”
When I sealed my lips with “secret,” Rina lowered her brows and started coaxing me for the answer.
Rina throwing a tantrum? Today really was full of rare sights.
But explaining would only waste my vocal cords on something she couldn’t grasp.
“Tsk. No. Knowing would only hurt you.”
I refused her again, stern, solemn, and completely serious.
“Ugh… Yes, sir.”
Only then did Rina stop her coaxing and droop her shoulders, looking thoroughly dejected.
Looking at her now, she really was two years younger than me. Yeah—at twenty-three she was allowed a childish side like this.
This was the real Rina I was seeing. Ever since the previous head maid died a year ago and she took the post at twenty-two, she had been playing the adult and rarely showed emotion. Facing the terror of death must have cracked that mask.
Good. People should live their age.
Watching Rina, so relaxed during our conversation that her lower lip even jutted out a little, made the corners of my mouth lift on their own.
“All right, nerves settled? Come outside with me for a bit, Rina.”
“What? Ah, yes. But why outside…?”
“Why else? To collect the loot.”
“Loot? D-don’t tell me you mean those beast corpses?! How are the two of us supposed to handle that?! There are so many you can’t even see the end!”
She was right. The number of beasts that had formed the army was truly endless. Enough that you could easily believe there were tens of thousands of them.
But even if tens of thousands of beasts really were lying dead in front of the walls of Termin Territory, I wasn’t worried in the slightest.
“It’s fine.”
“Fine? What do you mean…”
“I’ve got a way.”
I lifted my gaze slightly and looked up into empty air.
To the player who achieved an impossible feat, the reward of ‘Army’ is granted.
No matter how many times I checked it, the reward glittering right before my eyes made my heart race.
To the player who destroyed the Abyss of the Army alone, the reward of ‘Army’ is granted.
The player may now use a portion of the power of ‘Army’.
Objects under your ownership can be converted into mana particles and stored in the subspace of Army.
Only inanimate objects may be stored.
The activation words for the power of ‘Army’ are ‘Store’ and ‘Summon’.
What I received after feeding the Abyss of the Army a taste of human malice was, simply put, an inventory.
An inventory that could store any object I owned—infinitely.
An infinite inventory? Knowing just how garbage this game’s resource management was, there could not possibly be a better reward.
And the rewards didn’t stop at the inventory.
“Whoa, there really are a shit-ton of them.”
I climbed onto the wall and looked out over the endless carpet of beast corpses. Beast-type, insect-type, giant-type, reptile-type—every variety imaginable.
Because the Abyss of the Army had been destroyed and the link severed, the corpses were completely unharmed. Not a single wound. They looked ready to open their eyes and charge at any second.
In other words, tens of thousands of perfect-condition beast corpses were lying right there in front of me.
True to its nickname, Army Mom—the Abyss of the Army—really was a Great Rift that gave without holding anything back.
Of course, in the game you could only tackle it in the late stages, and by then beast corpses weren’t particularly useful and just took up space. But now, so soon after the Great Rifts had opened, it was a completely different story.
Every single corpse was materials, resources, and money.
How much was all that worth? I wouldn’t have to worry about money for a good long while.
Utterly thrilled, I stretched my hand toward the perfect-quality beast corpses.
“Yes. There are a lot. There really are a lot. The two of us could spend our entire lives and still never clear all those corpses.”
Beside me, Rina immediately started throwing up roadblocks again.
“So we should contact the royal family right now, Young Master.”
Rina suddenly began spouting complete nonsense.
The royal family? Absolutely not. I was the one who took them all down—I wasn’t handing over a single scrap of the spoils.
Before she could say anything even more dangerous, I quickly opened my mouth and spoke the activation word.
“Store.”
Woooooom—
At once, the beast corpses that had filled my vision began to shine and transform into particles of mana.
It was the exact same effect I had seen countless times while playing Crack Kingdom—the moment a slain beast returned to the Abyss of the Army.
Every time I watched those particles make a break for the Abyss of the Army I had nearly lost my mind with rage. Now, though, I felt no anger at all.
I was excited.
Because the place they were heading wasn’t the Abyss of the Army—it was the palm of my hand.
Shrrrrrrrk—!
Through my palm, the particle-ized beast corpses were stored in the subspace.
The time it took to store every last one of the 35,900 beast corpses that had filled my vision: a mere ten seconds.
Grinning at this miraculous inventory ability, I turned my head to look at Rina.
“W-woaaaah…”
Rina had completely forgotten her dignity as head maid. Her mouth hung open, her eyes were round as saucers, and she was utterly stunned.
“Ahahaha! See, Rina? I told you I had a way! I don’t do things that can’t be done!”
That reaction alone made me so happy I threw out my chest and laughed triumphantly.
Destruction of the Abyss of the Army. Awakening of the inventory ability. Acquisition of 35,900 pristine beast corpses.
All of it from pressing the red button just once.
What else could be sexier? The Red Button mode was sex itself.
“General! Urgent report—the territories of House Tarpen, House Sarion, House Jermang, and House Arigus have all been annihilated by a single glacier giant that emerged from the Abyss of the Elements! If we cannot stop the glacier giant’s advance, the damage will only grow!”
“General! Urgent report—the Immortal Subjugation Force led by General Dain of the Ten Swords, the Immortal, has been wiped out after failing to subjugate the Abyss of Magic!”
“General! Contact with the units isolating the perimeter of the Abyss of Erosion has been lost simultaneously!”
Benos Kingdom Intelligence Bureau.
“……Ugh.”
Acting as temporary director in place of Intelligence Chief Akila—who had been carried off that very dawn with a stomach ulcer—Rien of the Gale, one of the Ten Swords of the Kingdom, understood in a single day exactly why the chief had collapsed.
If you had to listen nonstop to news that your glorious homeland, the Benos Kingdom, was walking the path of real-time destruction, even the most iron-willed warrior would have their spirit broken in an instant.
“Is this… the end?”
Yes. Just like herself right now.
“No. No, it isn’t. It’s not over yet. We’re still a long way from finished.”
But even if her heart felt ready to snap, a knight’s duty was to hold firm until the very end and fulfill her responsibilities.
“Hup!”
Crack!
Rien slapped both gauntleted hands hard against her own cheeks, snapping her faltering mind back into place.
“Recruit every mage capable of fire magic and form a glacier-giant subjugation force! Put in a request to the Mercenary King as well! Her Ghostflame will be a tremendous asset!”
“Leave the Abyss of Magic alone for now! Maintain distance and monitor only!”
“The isolation units were likely taken by the Erosion entities! Immediately notify the surrounding units and order them to heighten their vigilance!”
Once her mind was clear again, Rien delivered precise, gale-swift orders to the intelligence staff just as she always did.
“G-General. Urgent report from the direction of the Abyss of the Army. But this one is… a little strange.”
In the middle of it all, one staff member approached Rien looking completely dazed.
To look dazed in a situation this urgent—normally Rien would have tightened discipline on the spot, but this was an emergency.
“Whether the content of an urgent report is strange or not is for me, the person in charge, to decide. Explain quickly.”
Even enforcing discipline would be a waste of time right now, so Rien simply memorized the name on the staff member’s badge and pressed for the report.
The staff member’s lips moved a few times before he finally spoke.
“Th-the Abyss of the Army… has been destroyed.”
“……Uweh?”
From Rien’s mouth slipped a thoroughly unfitting, utterly vacant sound for an emergency.