Meeting of the Evil Organization (2)
Meeting of the Evil Organization (2)
The Iron Fortress of Eight Formations had no facility that could be called a jail.
The only things that existed were research laboratories divided into eight sections.
However, the humans who were taken prisoner and brought into the Iron Fortress of Eight Formations called this place a prison. From their perspective, it was no different from a penitentiary.
"Why... last time, if we came out this way, we were close to the outside..."
Kleis, who had been leading the escape at the front, trembled at the lips. She was clearly flustered.
Having been at the very front, she was conspicuous. The gazes of the six extinction-class magic beasts gathered in the conference room turned toward Kleis at once. The Great Machines of the Nine Heavens soon each emitted killing intent and tossed out a remark.
"You've been busy causing quite a commotion."
"Hmm, too much for you alone, so you tried to run as a group?"
"Stay still and you'd at least get half, you know."
There was no sign of agitation to be found among the magic beasts. As if by mutual agreement, the Great Machines of the Nine Heavens each took out a Mana Cigarette and placed it between their lips.
The hand movement was swift. There was insufficient time for Kleis or the other escapees to respond.
"Your Grace, this direction seems wrong!"
"Don't panic, assume an intercept formation! We'll lay smoke and break out another way!"
At Kleis's words, Rosemary's lips twisted.
"Intercept?"
It was a word that deserved a scoff.
Rosemary tied the handkerchief she had received from Jormungand around her wrist. Then she picked up the violin string she had dropped on the floor. Just then, Jormungand approached with arms crossed and spoke.
"A textbook example has just presented itself. So, what do you make of this sight?"
"Yes, truly an eyesore."
She still disliked the First Seat's indolent attitude, but she realized just how emotional and foolish her action of trying to launch a preemptive strike at Jormungand moments before had been.
To Rosemary, humans were beings to be taken as a cautionary example. Seeing humans who didn't know their place trying to use attack magic against an opponent they couldn't possibly defeat was utterly pathetic.
"Haa."
It was enough to make a sigh escape on its own.
"Since I caused the disturbance, I shall handle the cleanup."
The one with the greatest capacity for action among her comrades was Rosemary herself. She possessed a diligence that made her the first to take on even tedious tasks like crushing bugs underfoot, which was how she had risen to the position of Guerrilla Commander-in-Chief at such a young age.
That was, in fact, the reason she had blocked them even though Akasha was loading a railgun and Schudelgeiger and Entero were also preparing to attack. Rosemary was a workaholic who couldn't stand not handling things with her own hands.
"You are... Duke Blanton's daughter, are you not..."
"Yes, Duke Haspelt. You recognize me."
"Were you a magic beast as well?"
"Heh, you're slow to catch on, Your Grace. Come to think of it, we met a few times at social gatherings in the old days, didn't we? At that party at the imperial palace, I recall—I got a very good look at you making it abundantly clear you detested 'such ostentatious places.' Well... that expression isn't any less unpleasant than the face you're making right now, though. "
While thoroughly mocking Kleis, Rosemary observed the formation the mages had made.
A formation where the front rank loaded attack magic and the rear rank prepared to retreat. They were probably thinking of laying smoke and fleeing.
It was dense.
It was stupid.
It was utterly idiotic.
"I'd like to ask if Your Grace is attempting comedy. Do you truly believe you can flee while dragging along these wretches groaning behind you?"
Rosemary lifted her dress slightly. The hem rose to her knees, but no bare skin was revealed. The girl's two legs were not those of a human.
"Your Grace, you see, comedy is..."
She closed her eyes and slowly lowered her head. And when her eyes opened again, the irises that had held an aquamarine light had changed to topaz.
"This is what it's talking about, you lowly bitch."
It wasn't only the color of her eyes that had changed.
"A third-rate gag about escaping this impregnable fortress in such pathetic bodies as yours is nothing but a laughingstock. Understood?"
"Then..."
"Yeah, that's right. Your country has long since been finished. The emperor, the princes, all manner of ministers and institutions... they're nothing but empty husks, corpses. Even if by some miracle you break out of here and return home, you're still in the palm of my hand! Ahahahahaha—!!"
Who was it who once said,
The best of all victories is the one obtained without fighting.
"Ah, ahh..."
The first to collapse was the rear rank. The mages who could do nothing but flee because they were too weak lost strength in their legs and slumped to the ground.
Kleis rubbed at the dark circles heavily settled around her eyes and gripped her staff tightly.
"You... I'm going to kill you."
"What, why. Gonna go fetch a Flare or something?"
Rosemary also lifted her staff and grinned.
"Go ahead and try, if you can."
**
It wasn't even worth calling a fight. The situation was resolved in mere seconds.
Someone spilled blood from their mouth, someone fell into critical condition. Someone had likely already breathed their last.
Kleis leaned powerlessly against the wall and looked up. The seven-meter giant and Duke Blanton's daughter looked down at her as if she were a joke.
"I kept you alive because the quality of your mana alone is excellent... but three times now, this can't be helped. Start getting ready to meet your siblings."
"Still, it's a relief. You can close your eyes in peace before the world ends. I wonder if this counts as a mercy in its own way?"
It had been a truly wretched, damnable life.
Born to a prestigious family that managed the northernmost front lines, she had lived her entire life dedicated solely to combat magic. After graduating, she had spent years toiling on the front.
And she had lost countless people.
Her older sister. Her older brother. Her cousins and half-siblings. Aunts and uncles on both sides. Her brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Many academy colleagues she had even taken graduation photos with. And her mother, her mother.
Perhaps because she had seen off too many people ahead of her, the only peer left to her was naturally Meriga Herlein alone.
She had been thinking that her time was about due.
Next would be either herself or Meri.
If that were the case... at the very least, before she died, she had wanted to leave behind a magic capable of bringing down every extinction-class magic beast.
Even if it marred morality.
Even if it ultimately became a thing that gnawed away at her own flesh.
It was a cherished desire, precisely because she wished to achieve it.
"Without the Flare my eldest sister made, you can't do a thing, right? That's how you humans are. The empire is crawling with kids who can't even handle a single calamity-class without a scroll. Am I wrong?"
"Flare..."
Yes, Flare. That was it.
Even with Flare, it wouldn't have been enough. Petty tricks alone couldn't land a fatal blow on the extinction-class before her eyes. The best Kleis's unit-maneuver skills could manage against them was to leave a scratch. This was evidence of the fundamental gap in troop-type operations between the Demon King's army and the Imperial Army.
Kleis thought.
If only there existed a Magic Art stronger than Flare.
At the very moment she tried to recall the face of a certain girl, her body crumpled sideways. She heard a ringing in her left ear—she must have been struck on the head with something solid.
She struggled desperately to hold onto consciousness but couldn't manage it. Fainting twice before magic beasts would be a disgrace for a strategic-class mage.
As Kleis lay there, she was grabbed by the top of her hair. The platinum-blonde locks that had gleamed were seized in someone's hand, losing their light and form.
"Sis, what are you doing? That thing's filthy, don't touch it."
"Got to put it back where it was."
"No, I'm gonna kill 'em, alright? I'm gonna round up every last one of these bastards who tried to break out and put a nice bullet hole in each of their foreheads."
"Do whatever you want with the others. Not this human."
"Why?"
"Deciding what to do with this person is up to our eldest sister."
Unable to offer any resistance, she was dragged along, scraping the floor. It was the greatest humiliation a Four Great Duke could receive.
An inconceivable disgrace for a Four Great Duke. Harder to endure than having a wind-hole drilled between her brows. And so Kleis chose the path of losing consciousness on her own.
But her body would not obey.
"You're awake, are you?"
She ended up opening her eyes again in under ten minutes.
Kleis lay inside a cylindrical water tank cut in half. A viscous, freezing liquid touched her skin, and this area in particular stung fiercely.
The past two months... no, had it been three now?
She had forgotten exactly when it had started, but ever since being captured by the magic beasts, she had been forced to lie in this place with her limbs restrained and stare at the ceiling all day.
Given the circumstances, what came next was...
Thunk.
"Gnhk...!"
Something entered her forearm. An injection needle.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.
"......!"
She desperately suppressed the groan that tried to escape by reflex. The needle was much thicker than an ordinary one, so she could only barely endure by biting her lower lip until it bled.
Blood drained out through the tube connected to the needle. The crimson stream flowing along the conduit gathered in a large vat placed in the center of the basement, where it was separated into red blood cells and mana particles.
Having her blood drawn in this manner for days and nights on end made her energy plummet easily. And on top of that, proper meals or rest were a distant prospect.
She had no energy left to speak further.
So long as she remained alive like this, she could look toward the future. Kleis ground her teeth inwardly and turned her eyes.
The other mages who had tried to escape with her had also been dragged back here unconscious. They underwent the same process as Kleis and had their blood drawn. The basement filled with groans.
From the floor above, the sound of gunshots rang out from time to time. Several of the mages who had been in the rear rank did not return even after hours had passed.