Ashtar's Fury (2)
No way. Did he actually choose between Cyria and Ella? At least the bastard was old enough to finally make a decision.
“Who is it?”
Yeah. That’s what I wanted to know, too.
“The Duchess of Ashtar.”
What?
The only Duchess of Ashtar here was me. For a second I thought my ears had gone bad. No, they must have. There was no way that idiot would spout such garbage.
“Ah, you mean that Duchess of Ashtar?”
“That’s right. Olivia Lapa Ashtar.”
A confirmation shot. One lunatic successfully hooked.
“Isn’t that woman supposed to be violent? You saw it yourself. Her personality’s trash, and when I looked into her, I found out she’s secretly raising nuns from the church as private soldiers and skimming money on the side.”
This bitch. She was openly badmouthing me to my face.
“Well, every noble daughter has a few flaws. Besides, she defeated Pector, and her face is perfect. Everything about her is flawless.”
“Be honest. You fell for her chest, didn’t you?”
I was starting to think I should have made it smaller.
“Not entirely wrong, but… whenever I see the Duchess of Ashtar around here, I feel strangely good. Yes. My heart actually races.”
I now had a perfectly valid reason to rip his throat out someday. I was definitely going to kill him. Who the hell did he think he was, saying he liked me?
“Weren’t you planning to use her just a while ago?”
“That was then. This is now.”
What a lunatic. I’d rather bite my tongue and kill myself than be used by him. He was clearly just simping over her looks anyway. Come to think of it, this wasn’t the first or second time he’d pulled something like this.
“Is it really impossible?”
“Fine. I like men who like me, too.”
Oh? She was backing off more easily than expected. That was unusual for Noel.
“Y-you’re not thinking of leaving the hero’s party over something like this, right?”
“Of course not. But—”
The mood had turned strange. Before anything else, though, I was furious.
I fired a mana bullet I’d formed in my hand straight at his skull.
CRACK!
His body crumpled.
“Kek?”
“You’re going to forget that confession.”
THUD!
Right as the hero collapsed, Noel drove her fist into his solar plexus, knocking him out cold. Physically.
Under our combined assault, the hero lost consciousness on the spot. I even cast a strange spell on his head for good measure.
After thoroughly screwing with the hero, Noel came back inside the mansion. She looked a bit pathetic. Who could have guessed she’d get rejected by that hero?
As her older brother, I did my best to laugh at her.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t work.”
At my mockery, Noel quietly stared at my chest.
What? Why? What?
“Sigh. That idiot really has no eye for quality. What’s so great about breasts this small? Honestly, a woman should have a big heart. Shouldn’t he be looking at that? A heart as vast as the sea! That’s what matters, right?”
Your heart doesn’t seem all that big either.
Well, if she was that desperate for a man and wanted to spread her seed across the Land of Destruction, there were other ways.
“If you’re that thirsty for a man, I’ll find someone suitable for you, so stop.”
“No, even so— Is that hero out of his mind? How many women like me exist in this world? At the very least, he could’ve thought about it once, right?”
Noel wasn’t bad. When viewed as a potential marriage partner or even a girlfriend, she wasn’t bad at all. She wasn’t my lover anyway, so what did it matter?
“Did you actually like him? That piece of trash?”
“Are you crazy?”
Good. That settled it. If she really needed a man, I could just find her another one.
“Anyway, what are we going to do about the party now?”
“We’ll have to keep going with the hero until we take down the Four Heavenly Kings, won’t we?”
I agreed with that. But where did she plan to go next? The hero had probably received orders from the kingdom to hunt the Four Heavenly Kings. Unless Pector showed up, there was no one to go after first.
“If we stay like this, where are we heading?”
“Since you— I mean, since Eonni already dealt with Pector, it doesn’t seem like there’s much point anymore. By the way, you managed to repel Pector without the Holy Sword?”
Was that something to call a successful repulsion?
“What do you mean?”
“Historically, only the Holy Sword has been able to defeat the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings. Then again, that’s why you were able to defeat the Demon King.”
“I didn’t kill him, though.”
I hadn’t killed him. We’d simply reached a suitable compromise.
“Still, repelling him was impressive.”
“Then what if someone other than the hero kills the Demon King or the Four Heavenly Kings?”
“Uh, I’m not sure about that? But what’s certain is that only the Holy Sword can kill the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings.”
Was that all?
“Are you sure about that?”
“Before joining the hero’s party, I saw records in the ruins from the Warring States period.”
So even in the distant past, it was accepted history that the hero with the Holy Sword had slain the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings. Over such a long period, there had been countless Demon Kings and Four Heavenly Kings. Had they really all been defeated only with the Holy Sword?
“Doesn’t something feel off? Is it really possible that for such a long time, only the hero holding the Holy Sword was the one who killed the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings?”
Even now the hero was weaker than me and weaker than the Seven Stars. There was no way history only had one such person.
“What are you thinking, Eonni?”
“The Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King haven’t been singular entities throughout history. Whenever they appeared or reincarnated, there were always a Demon King and Four Heavenly Kings. But the hero has always been only one.”
In the end, if the hero was meant to finish the story, it meant the hero had to cut off the heads of the Four Heavenly Kings with the Holy Sword. The Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings weren’t that stupid. It would be better for them to all gang up on the hero together. Yet no such records could be found.
“That makes sense. So what do you think, Eonni?”
“It’s all just a repeating cycle.”
Telling Noel wouldn’t solve anything. What was certain, however, was that if someone other than the hero took down a Heavenly King, there would be some consequences to bear.
“Oh, what? You two were here.”
The Mad Sword had come looking for me while I was talking with Noel in the corridor.
“Ah, Sir Mad Sword?”
“I was originally planning to tell only Olivia, but since a member of the hero’s party is here, it’s better to say it now.”
What was he going to say?
“What is it?”
“Olivia. The Ashtar Duchy is currently preparing for war to subjugate Berna.”
“Pardon? At this time?”
What the hell was this all of a sudden? A subjugation war against Berna? Wasn’t that practically declaring they would march into the Demon King’s territory? They were trying to do what even Eldacrad had failed to accomplish.
“Of course we won’t depart immediately, but it will probably be around summer break at the academy.”
“Summer? What if the glue on the bows all melts? The Demon King’s territory has a completely different environment from the empire’s lands. It’s awful there.”
Even with mages’ help, would it be easy? There was no way the new weapons could be deployed that quickly. Even if mass production of the weapons was possible, how would they handle training? Wouldn’t it be better to finish training first?
“We’ll use bows that don’t require glue. From the start, we’re also pressuring the Holy Kingdom to deploy a large number of priests and a mage corps, so there won’t be problems with supplies or epidemics. The Ashtar Duchy has already been training soldiers while testing the new weapons for a while now.”
“How many troops?”
The number of troops was crucial. Honestly, there might be a chance of victory. The Demon King’s territory had such a terrible environment that sending a large army was impossible, and they couldn’t procure food from occupied lands. The supply lines would stretch too far, making a prolonged war impossible. It wasn’t for nothing that Eldacrad’s attack on the Demon King’s territory was considered legendary.
“Twenty thousand from Ashtar itself, plus ten thousand from nearby noble territories, for a total of thirty thousand.”
Even in Eldacrad’s time, they hadn’t sent twenty thousand. They were scraping together every last man. I could only imagine how furious the current head of Ashtar was. This was probably the absolute maximum. The real question was whether they had enough priests, mages, and supplies to support thirty thousand troops holding out in the Demon King’s territory. Even if the Holy Kingdom and the kingdom helped, would it be enough?
And what about me?
“I see. Then what about us?”
“The hero’s party must remain in the Ashtar Duchy for now. Olivia, you need to return to the academy.”
Was that even possible? They were planning to enter the Demon King’s territory with just the hero’s party and the Seven Stars? I wasn’t insulting the duke, but did he think he was on Eldacrad’s level? It wasn’t just Ashtar. Among all the noble families, even the imperial family had never dared to touch the Demon King’s territory. Even if the Demon King was dead, the Four Heavenly Kings remained powerful.
“Do you think there’s a chance of victory?”
The head of Ashtar didn’t seem like someone who would pick a fight with no chance of winning.
“The current generation of Ashtar’s people revere the mausoleum and treat Eldacrad as a saint. The soldiers are the very next generation after those who died in the Demon King’s territory back then. Their grudge against the demon army must run deep.”
In that case, the troops’ morale would certainly be high.
“They’ll probably foam at the mouth trying to slaughter the demons. But isn’t the objective different this time?”
“It’s the Four Heavenly Kings.”
“Then it will be even harder. We don’t even know where Clanice and Pector will appear from. In the end, you’re only targeting Seto and Berna.”
It was impossible. That was.
“Those two can’t be ignored either. To take them down, all the Seven Stars would need to gather. Your father seems determined to conquer the Demon King’s territory.”
“You can’t. What if tens of thousands die?”
There were millions of demons in the Demon King’s territory. Even the ones that formed legions were far from ordinary. During Eldacrad’s time, the plan had been to capture the sealed Demon King and destroy the Demon King’s castle, but aiming to capture the Four Heavenly Kings essentially meant intending to exterminate all the demons across the entire Demon King’s territory. It wasn’t a hit-and-run on the Demon King’s castle. They would have to search everywhere to catch the Four Heavenly Kings.
“In your view, does it look completely impossible?”
“No matter how good the weapons are, that’s too much.”
Once inside, they would win every battle until they encountered the Four Heavenly Kings. If they pressured the kingdom and the Holy Kingdom over the Berna incident, they could secure enough mana potions for a long campaign. Moreover, since Ashtar was personally stepping up to catch the Heavenly Kings, the kingdom and Holy Kingdom would have no choice but to help whether they liked it or not.
“What does Noel think?”
“The hero’s party still isn’t strong enough to face two of the Four Heavenly Kings. The Seven Stars’ help would be useful, but we can’t be certain.”
Could the Seven Stars even handle the Four Heavenly Kings? Berna’s Authority of Corruption and her curses could not be taken lightly.
“But you landed a blow with a mana bullet. The head of Ashtar wants to seize that opening. You still think it’s impossible?”
“Yes. We don’t even know if we can catch Berna and get out safely.”
If they could definitely catch Berna, maybe. But—
“Then are you saying there’s no way at all to catch Berna?”
“It’s not impossible, but…”
The chances were close to zero. Because it would mean using Eldacrad’s corpse.
“Then you have to stop it.”
“Pardon?”
“If you think about it, isn’t this whole mess your fault?”
“Pardon?”
Why was it my fault?
“You should have mixed truth and lies appropriately. You told the truth as it was, so of course the duke lost his mind. Go tell the people about what happened to Eldacrad right now. They’ll foam at the mouth. What about his own son, the duke?”
“Ah, that’s…”
It couldn’t be helped. Still, it was his own father’s story. How could his child not know? I never expected him to go this far.
“Well, since it’s about his father, it can’t be helped. I also think this war is unwise. So try to persuade him.”
He wanted me to stop the war? Well, someone like the Mad Sword would certainly know how reckless this war was. Ashtar had the power to wage an independent war from the empire, but could they really guarantee victory?
“Will he listen to me?”
Whether he’d listen was the problem.
“He’s a daughter-obsessed fool, so he might.”
“That man is a daughter-obsessed fool?”
Would he really? I doubted it. Hadn’t he slapped me across the face last time? No matter my age, a noble lady acting cute? He might hit me again. Maybe because I was a saint he wouldn’t, but still.
“Why don’t you try it, Olivia Eonni?”
Noel poked my side and spouted nonsense.
“What?”
“I think it would be quite a sight to see a noble lady acting cute toward the duke~?”
The way she laughed mockingly made me want to smack her. This damn girl was using this against me?