Fairy Tale Chronicles

Chapter 19.3

The coup d’État would be remembered in history as Katrina’s Revolt. The historically relevant part of the story was kicking into motion around sunset.

「…They’re coming.」

「We got everythin’ together just in time, it looks like.」

Picking up on the mass-transportation into the courtyard from the Alfemina Temple, Layotte and Hiroshi whispered to each other. The Japanese members each tightened their expression. On the record, they were here as bodyguards, but were actually called here by Alfemina’s divine calling. Currently, the royal family (excluding the Queen and the two concubines since they were not suited for combat nor baiting Katrina and Barold) were standing by in the Temple, partially to be ready to evacuate, but also as bait. The Queen and the concubines had already evacuated to the workshop, and the only member of the royal family left here without any skillset in combat was Aearis, in the middle of a ritual. However, It was doubtful that Elena was well enough to fight, so she was on the side of being protected today.

Douga and Rayna were standing by in the front entrance of the castle as red herrings. In their stead, Julius and a few of his men were here to guard Elena and Aearis, along with Elena’s servant, in order to take care of her while she was here. Naturally, all of the priests were in the Temple itself, but the Head Priest was the only representative of the Temple in the large room they were in.

「Mark, how’s the evacuation going?」

「Everyone who isn’t afflicted has been evacuated. Haruna’s tune really sped things up for us.」

「What about the afflicted?」

「They are all detained in the dungeon for the time being. Although, we haven’t been able to pick out anyone with brainwashing who wasn’t affected by her song, and we didn’t have time to weed out those afflicted beyond the point of return. We could only separate them by sex. We’ll have some trouble brewing for us.」

「It’s an emergency. Besides, anyone passed out from hearing the song would be safer in the dungeon then a make-shift evacuation site.」

Layotte replied with what could be taken as an excuse. They had been making preparations under the surface for a while, but no plan falls into place without fail. Roano acting up quicker than they had expected was a contributing factor, but the real issue was that there were too many people to deal with. He wasn’t wrong that the dungeon was safer. It was one of the most durable structures in the castle in order to keep criminals in during emergencies.

「Brother.」

「The dolls are on. All soldiers are in place. You impressed me again, Grand Craftsman. Even we couldn’t tell that they were fake.」

「If ya did, there wouldn’t be a point to it.」

Hiroshi retorted to Avin. The party looked at Hiroshi, exasperated. Naturally, a marionette intricate enough to trick family members wasn’t something that could be whipped up because there would be no point to it otherwise. Of course these were magical items, but even Mio couldn’t craft one that could deceive the subject’s family members. That might illustrate the difficulty of this feat.

「In any case… Elena, how are you feeling?」

「I have enough strength to run and hide, if need be. I have my secret weapon, too. And my magic is unaffected by my illness, you know.」

「Good to hear. Julius. Mark. Take care of Elena if need be. Avin, look after Father.」

「Roger that.」

Since picking up on the transportation, Layotte had been calmly going through the final details. Along with this, Hiroshi directed Mio:

「Like we planned, ya back up Princess Elena when she’s gettin’ out of here. We’ll stay back and hold ‘em back.」

「I know.」

「The thin’ is, we might have ya stay dependin’ on what’s goin’ on here. Stay on ya toes.」

「Got it.」

And so, they went over their roles as discussed. All the while, the Transportation spell was continuing, indicating the possibility of a mass-transport. It was going on long enough for a high-level Cancel spell to negate an ordinary spell, but a large-scale Transportation spell like this was extremely difficult to interrupt. Trying to stop it by brute force like that could warp the area into another dimension, or the destination itself being evaporated. In any case, it was bad news.

The unwritten rule was to never mess with an active Transportation spell, even when they expected a slow emersion of a massive army.

Ordinarily, no one outside of the royal family could activate a Transportation directly inside the castle wall. Katrina’s involvement allowed for such a direct attack. No nation in history has fended off an attack like this.

「Then…」

「Of course, Your Grace.」

The Head Priest activated the spell he had loaded up, on the King’s command. Amplified by the items planted throughout the Temple, the spell immediately covered the entirety of the castle.

「Hm… Most of them resisted it, it seems.」

「How many did we get?」

「About a thousand. The rest won’t be at their best, however.」

There were two spells planted in the Temple of Alfemina. The first forced individuals below a certain power level to sleep. The second exerted pressure to those recognized as hostile by the royal family and/or the Temple of Alfemina. These prepared in preparation to defend against direct attacks to the castle (like this one) but this was only the second time these spells had ever been activated. This was the first time they had any effect.

It’s worth mentioning that, if the Temple of Alfemina had been evidently corrupt or if the royal family had been blatantly abusive against its people, these spells were rendered useless. During the king before the last king’s rule, the royal family triggered this condition, preventing the spells from activating altogether. This time around, the spells seemed to go off without a hitch since neither of those conditions were an issue, now.

So, the Head Priest had said that about a thousand had been put into a sleep. It seemed that most of them were properly trained soldiers, which made sense since they were gathered on such short notice. Despite their training, the best men of the lords could not beat the worst men of Wull’s Knight’s Order. With the added home-field advantage, there wasn’t a chance of the knights losing if both armies were close in numbers.

「I didn’t expect to take down much, judging by their numbers. A thousand is plenty.」

The King said. Layotte nodded, activating the magical item to see what was happening outside. This was an artifact that was collecting dust in the castle’s treasury for a few centuries.

「We just have to leave it to the team outside. Let’s see how Ernest and Rayna do.」

Showing the brawl in the courtyard and the showdown in the front entrance, Layotte was oddly relaxed.

「Thought you’d be imprisoned by now, but seems you whored your way through, huh, She-Man? I’m surprised anyone could get it up to that. I’m happy you found such a freak.」

Odenell Martoon, leader of the Mazlack knights, started taunting Rayna as always. His face, which could have been mistaken for Hiroshi’s (if seen from afar under dim lighting) was illuminated with a beastly grin that would revolt any woman (let alone Rayna). His character seemed as incompatible as it could get from a leader of knights. The only characteristics he had in common with Hiroshi was the vaguely lame vibe to his body language, and the inexplicable aura of spinelessness emanating from him.

His subordinates behind him chimed in with similar grins across their faces, throwing vulgar insults at Rayna. Some of them were too vulgar to even put to writing; these men were below beasts. An ordinary woman could not have been blamed for losing all hope in men.

These insults were so horrendous immature, and confined to the subject of genitalia, that if Tatsuya were here, he would have slammed an Oxygen Ring or something before they could finish them. Any man with any sense of decency would have taken serious offense to be categories as the same species as these goons, let alone the same sex. Some thugs on the street had more class than them

「Are you done?」

After letting them shout for a while, Rayna asked in an icy monotone. The Mazlack knights were left feeling off. Rayna used to be enraged by cheap insults like this, and they were expecting another show.

「Aha. I can see how you would hate men after dealing with them… The likes of them all the time.」

「I’m embarrassed that I was expecting all men to be like them.」

「It’s all in the past.」

It was only natural that a woman, like Rayna, who possessed immense power would not have fit in well within the male-dominated world of knighthood. Of course, some of them were disproportionately prideful for their skills. One couldn’t really expect them not to throw insults based on sex or basic human characteristics.

Naturally, anyone who would try to feel better about themselves by putting down someone’s appearance rarely put in the work to improve themselves above the pack. If they had enough talent, they would have mocked Rayna for desperately putting in the effort to improve herself as a knight. Unless they were born with enough talent for it, these runts were left to denying their obvious shortcomings in combat and finding solace in mocking what aspects of Rayna they could.

They had continued to willfully lack self-awareness, until now, when they were about to be dished some cruel self-awareness.

「One question.」

「What does the She-Man whore who bedded her way into knighthood want to know?」

「Well, since even a woman who bedded her way to knighthood could take on a Berserker Bear solo without armor and just a knife, I’m sure each of you could do the same.」

The faces of the Mazlack knights crunched in humiliation. Despite their title as knights, their combat prowess was barely on par with class-7 adventurers. They could only put up a good fight against a Berserker Bear if they were clad head-to-toe in high-quality armor. While people like Douga or Rayna who could insta-kill a Berserker Bear with a knife only wearing casualwear were in the definite minority, every one of the knights based in Wulls could easily take down a Berserker Bear with ordinary leather armor and an average sword or lance.

While their armor set them a head above normal soldiers, the Mazlack knights were the weakest knights in Farlane.

「I’m sure you all have the strength to back up your insults. Why don’t you stop flapping your jaws and show it?」

Today, it was Rayna’s turn to taunt them. Anyone who knew Rayna would have been surprised to hear her do so. No matter how painful a life lesson the ordeal with Hiroshi was, there was only so much self-reflection and improvement she could do in the month since then. If it were that easy, Rayna would never had acted the way she did in the first place.

The truth was, she had a trick up her sleeve. When they decided on this strategy, Rayna had begged Hiroshi to craft her a one-shot item that could cool down her temper, in order to withstand the hurling insults that were sure to follow. It was an embarrassingly low-self-esteem strategy, but it paid off. She completely ignored the storm of insults that could have sent anyone over the edge.

「What’s wrong? You have an army, and you’re afraid of a whoring abomination and her senile mentor?」

「You little…」

The thugs enraged at their target using their words mockingly against them. The Mazlack knights seemed to have forgotten that the two fighters in front of them could eat take on three Cerberus without breaking a sweat, as they charged, praying that outnumbering them would do the trick.

「No matter how strong they are, it’s only the two of them! Let’s teach that senile geezer and She-Man a lesson!」

Responding to Odenell with a battle-cry, the knights charged with no formation or anything. Scoffing at their lack of discipline, Douga and Rayna simple swung their weapons, once.

「Woah!」

「Gagh!」

「Aggh!」

The nonchalant blow sent bundles of the Mazlack knights into the air. They had no idea that, in this world, when there was this much of a discrepancy in combat skills, the outcome would have been the same if they had outnumbered the pair by the thousands.

「Knocked out by a senile geezer, eh? It’s too easy.」

「It doesn’t matter how impressive their armors are when they’re worn by them.」

「They could Bind me like they did for Piaranork, at this rate. I don’t have a shred of doubt of taking them down.」

That single blow was all it took to absolutely cripple the moral of the Mazlack knights. Terrified by the pair’s comments, they attempted to flee. Exasperated for a moment at the men scrambling to flee, discard their duties and everything they supposedly stood for, Douga decided that he wouldn’t let them get away.

「Stand your ground, cowards!」

Discharging a formidable force of will, Douga pressured the private soldiers to stay where they were. He had pressured them with Outclass, the wide-range taunt (essential for tanks) that he had taught Hiroshi, earlier.

It had finally dawned on the Mazlack knights that they had no chance of leaving the castle grounds alive.