Chapter 348: The Tin Knight and the Kingdom of the Underground (13)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 348: The Tin Knight and the Kingdom of the Underground (13)
One hundred years.
At the words the King of the Underground uttered so casually, Dorothea could only react with sheer disbelief.
Even 100 months was enough time for an ordinary human to call it their youth.
Even 100 days was a time that could be called an eternity for a busy traveler.
And for those as impatient as the Tin Knight and his party, even 100 hours was an absurdly long period.
But not months, not days, not hours—years.
From Dorothea’s perspective, it was no different from being told to stay stuck here for the rest of her life.
“That sounds like you have no intention of letting us go.”
To Dorothea’s blunt remark, the King of the Underground replied indifferently.
“For a human lifespan, I suppose so. But do not misunderstand. It is not I who blocks your path, but those bastards from the heavens.”
“What?”
“With a scheme using my eight generals, they have thrown all the troublesome forces from the surface—that is, the strong like you—down into this place. From their perspective, the best outcome would be for us and you to annihilate each other, but there is a chance that may not happen.”
The brilliant Dorothea understood what the King of the Underground was about to say before he finished.
“You’re saying that because we might cooperate with you, they’ve blocked the path entirely?”
Instigating conflict through the collection of the sacred treasures, ruining the surface with the resurrected eight generals, sending the powerful individuals who stopped them to the underground to induce mutual destruction, and even blocking the path in case things went awry.
At a glance, one might call it thorough, but in truth, it was something that should be evaluated as wasteful and obsessive.
Preparing a contingency plan in case the main operation failed sounded plausible, but the resources and effort to prepare that contingency didn't just spring from the ground.
To put it bluntly, if the plan to incite war on the surface by searching for the sacred treasures had succeeded in one go, all the subsequent plans would have been an over-investment.
As Dorothea saw it, it would have been far less wasteful and more rational to simply send down the angels at an opportune moment and end things by force.
“—That is a line of thinking possible only for you, who are so decisive. The heavens are filled with cowards.”
Dorothea flinched.
She hadn't said a word, yet the King of the Underground spoke as if he had read her mind.
Ignoring Dorothea’s questioning gaze, the King continued to speak calmly.
“Despite having sufficient power, they are reluctant to step forward themselves, preferring to incite conflict among others while keeping their own forces intact.”
“If you know that so well, why didn’t you just aim for the heavens from the start instead of wasting your strength fighting the surface?”
“Hoh? And would you people simply accept it if we said, ‘We will now invade your front yard, use it as a foothold to attack the neighbors upstairs, and after the invasion, we’ll keep your yard as our own’?”
“…”
“More importantly, do you think I haven’t tried such a thing?”
“What?”
Dorothea’s eyes widened.
Although she knew the story of the ‘previous’ knight, she couldn't recall anything about the underground attempting to negotiate with the surface.
As if to clear up any misunderstanding, the King of the Underground waved his hand.
“This isn’t a story from a thousand years ago. It’s from the generation before that.”
Casually revealing that there had been another conflict before the last war, the King of the Underground stared into the empty air as if recalling the past.
“There was a time I attempted to negotiate a non-interference pact. Our main enemy is the heavens, so if you just didn't interfere, we wouldn't attack. They seemed to understand, so I left them be, but then they formed an allied army and stabbed us in the back. There was also a time I joined hands with the powers of the surface. We agreed to divide the land along a certain border. It seemed to be going well at first, but before long, the alliance itself became a total mess due to all sorts of political maneuvering and trickery. Naturally, the expedition failed.”
No particular emotion could be felt in the King of the Underground’s voice.
He was detached and aloof.
In other words, he seemed incredibly worn and withered.
“I do not know how much of it was the heavens’ intervention and how much was the surface’s own intent. I only learned that as long as I treated the surface with half-measures, there was no way to achieve our goal. So, I decided it would be better to just wipe them all out. That way, there’s no need to distinguish friend from foe, nor is there a need to be suspicious of those who call themselves neutral or allies.”
Dorothea frowned.
The King of the Underground shrugged.
“You must think it unreasonable. Well, I have no intention of making excuses. We are invaders and usurpers, after all. No matter what grand cause we spout, from your perspective, we’re just damned trash.”
“So, you’re going to gather your strength and invade the surface again?”
“It will take longer than you think.”
The King of the Underground waved his hand, gesturing to their surroundings.
“As you can see, this land is quite barren. The people who have endured this harshness and survived are strong, but fundamentally, the conditions are not ideal for building strength. The circumstances are different from your fertile surface, and from the heavens, which suck the lifeblood of that surface to build their power. The offensive a thousand years ago was nearly the maximum strength this land could raise and maintain. And yet, we were still stopped.”
His gaze shifted to the Tin Knight.
The Tin Knight offered a simple interpretation.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ understands this to mean he’s hit the unit production cap!]
“Hmm, how strange. I am clearly hearing words, but I cannot comprehend their meaning.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ adds the supplementary explanation: 200/200!]
The King of the Underground turned his eyes to Dorothea.
Dorothea scowled and said, “Don’t ask me to interpret.”
“An interesting master and servant. Truly different from those two.”
Though he called them interesting, there was no smile on his face.
Just as Dorothea was about to speak again, the King of the Underground muttered, “They’ve come.”
The question of what had come was meaningless.
The shadows that appeared in their vision, the vibrations that shook the ground, and the powerful mana, palpable even from a distance, announced ‘their’ arrival.
To the west of the underground was a horde of beasts.
Werewolves, centaurs, man-faced birds, merfolk, and more.
Beings possessing both beastly and human features ran toward their king, following a giant tiger.
To the north of the underground was a swarm of fairies.
Fairies with fluttering wings, dryads dwelling in trees, kobolds covered in dirt.
Beings with both magical and biological characteristics gathered before their king, following a rainbow-colored fairy.
To the east of the underground was a group of demi-humans.
From elves, dwarves, giants, and lilliputians, to vampires.
Those who had generally human forms but were driven from the surface for their non-human traits answered the king’s call, following a female soldier.
Finally reaching the place where the Tin Knight, Dorothea, and the King of the Underground stood, they bowed their heads in reverence to the king without a moment’s hesitation.
“““Great King, we have come in response to your call.”””
The tiger spoke calmly, the fairy cheerfully, the female soldier sternly.
Their intonations were different, but the will contained within was resolute.
Absolute trust and loyalty toward their king.
He was a king who sat on no throne, adorned with no crown or scepter, yet they seemed not to care in the slightest.
It was the same for not only the generals but also the other people of the underground who followed them.
At a glance, their forces numbered in the thousands.
This was not the full might of the underground, but only those who could answer an emergency summons, yet it was more than enough of a threat to terrify the remaining people of the kingdom.
The only silver lining, if one could call it that, was that the other party members who had come with them were not bound by ropes or held at knifepoint.
“Wow! Dorothea! I’m so glad you’re safe!”
…Well, strictly speaking, Gale seemed to have been treated as a prisoner, as she was tied up with a knife to her throat, but she herself was so nonchalant that she didn't seem like a prisoner in the slightest.
Could it be that her madness is even worse than the Tin Knight’s? The thought crossed Dorothea’s mind unbidden.
The pointy-eared female soldier frowned at Gale’s appearance, then was appalled to see the other surface-dwellers standing idly in the ranks without any restraints or sanctions.
“You fools! Why have you left the invaders from the surface unattended!!”
The tiger, who had returned to the form of a lean young man, answered simply.
“The King only commanded us to bring them; he did not say to treat them as prisoners. That is all.”
“If you intend to bring dangerous individuals before the King, you should have obviously neutralized them first!”
“I wonder. Are you not the one causing unnecessary conflict and hindering the King’s will?”
“What did you say!?”
While the two generals growled at each other (or more accurately, one barked while the other brushed it off), the rainbow fairy casually spoke to the King of the Underground.
“King! King! These guests want to go back to the surface. Is it okay to show them the way?”
“That is not something that can be decided right now, so I would appreciate it if you would wait a little.”
“Okay! Sorry! Big Sis Sophia! He says we have to wait!”
“Then it can’t be helped. Thank you for asking.”
Watching the chaotic scene unfold, Dorothea’s mouth hung open.
Is this… right?
She had seen the fierce war of a thousand years ago.
She knew the pandemonium, the suffering, the desperate lives.
But the scene before her was so peaceful and ridiculous that it shattered such preconceptions.
“What, feeling your resolve soften? Even so, it’s best not to open your heart too much. Whatever impression you may have, we will sweep across the surface again once we have gathered enough strength.”
As if piercing through Dorothea’s thoughts, the King of the Underground snapped his fingers.
“Huh?”
“Ugh?!”
“Wh-what!?”
What happened next was something that could only be described as a miracle.
The armies led by the generals of the underground.
The humans from the surface, who had been awkwardly wedged among them like guest generals, were in the next instant transported to where the Tin Knight and Dorothea stood.
The less skilled were startled by the phenomenon itself, warriors like Adelaide were horrified that their senses had not detected any precursor, and the witches, including Dorothea, stared wide-eyed at the fact that they could not analyze how the mana had been manipulated at all.
While the power used by the people of the underground was difficult to analyze in a logical, mathematical way, the power the King of the Underground used was on an entirely different level.
“Now then, since everyone is gathered, as the king who rules this underground, I ask you.”
His voice was by no means loud, yet it held a power strong enough for everyone present to hear it clearly.
With all eyes on him, the king asked.
“The path between the underground and the surface has been blocked by the schemes of the heavens, so you must remain here for at least a hundred years. If you declare yourselves my people, I will forget our past grudges and accept you. However, if you insist on belonging to the surface until the end, then as the monarch of the underground, I must strike down and annihilate these ‘foreign enemies’.”
The humans from the surface looked around.
By the mysterious power the King of the Underground had displayed, they had been neatly gathered in the very center of the underground army.
The risk of being picked off one by one was reduced, but conversely, it meant they were completely surrounded with nowhere to run.
The difference in military strength was truly overwhelming.
The humans from the surface swallowed hard, and the people of the underground maintained their silence, as if to say they would follow their king’s judgment.
It was hard to believe these were the same people who had created such a boisterous atmosphere just moments ago.
That was how absolute the king’s judgment was to them.
“Now, what will you do?”
The king’s gaze was fixed on Dorothea.
Dorothea gritted her teeth.
She had not a shred of intention to meekly surrender to the underground and live as one of their people, but the circumstances were too dire to say no.
It was at that moment of agony.
Thud.
A skull suddenly fell from the sky.
It rolled over and over, righted itself, and its jaw opened.
《─This level of bullshit has reached a new plane of existence. How dare you disgusting maggots prattle on about who becomes your subjects?》
At the sudden outburst, the air in the entire area froze.
To the king, the skull—
No, the strongest witch of the era declared.
《You would be wise not to lay a single finger on my foolish disciple. I will cut off the head of your minister here and slaughter you all, with his skull leading the charge.》
The corner of the King of the Underground’s mouth twisted up into a faint smile.