The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

I moved No. 1 and No. 2 to attack Demiway from the left and right. At the same time, I positioned No. 17, 18, and 19 behind me.

Demiway lightly struck away the sharp legs thrust by the dolls with his sword and ran.

The degree of damage is… none.

Fortunately, despite glaring at me fiercely, he seemed to not forget the fact that this was a test.

As expected, the target is me.

Seeing him move differently from a monster’s behavior patterns, it seemed he quite wanted to land a hit on me.

“If that’s the case, it’s more convenient for me.”

I pressured Demiway’s back with No. 1 and 2 that were pushed back by his sword, and blocked the front with No. 3, 4, and 5.

At the same time, I positioned No. 6 and 7 a little further back.

Confirming not the No. 3, 4, and 5 in the front but not No. 6 and 7, Demiway slightly turned to the right and threw his body towards an empty spot.

Matching that, I swung the leg of No. 5.

“Hmm, maybe I should have been a bit faster.”

Demiway’s clothes were slightly torn, caught on the leg of No. 5.

I intentionally induced his movement and sent an attack signal in advance, but Demiway’s movement was faster than No. 5, which was acting according to the signal.

Still, it’s within the calculated range.

Aiming for the moment Demiway was surprised, finding the unexpected attack strange, No. 6 and 7 bombarded mana bullets at Demiway.

As Demiway tried to dodge, No. 3, 4, and 5 shot spider webs from their buttocks.

Whether spider webs or mana bullets, it was impossible to hit Demiway, but it was enough to hinder his movement.

“No chance!”

Demiway cut through the mana bullets with his sword and leaped.

Of course, the landing spot was a position without sticky spider webs. A place I induced.

I had No. 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 take positions as if surrounding him, creating a kill zone.

While No. 9 spewed spider webs, No. 10, 11, 12, and 13 relentlessly bombarded mana bullets.

“Oho!”

Perhaps not expecting me to move this tactically, Demiway let out an exclamation.

Any ordinary monster would be finished with this strike. But Demiway was no ordinary monster.

Demiway swung his sword in mid-air, bending the trajectory of the mana bullets with sword energy.

Then he sent sword energy to the ground, churning up the dirt floor and killing the adhesiveness of the spider webs laid on the ground.

“Hmm, the cleanup will be tough later.”

Demiway briefly commented and stuck his mana-imbued sword into the ground.

The mana loaded in the sword spread out in all directions through the ground and exploded under the No. 9 to No. 13 dolls.

Due to the aftermath, the dolls bounced up from the ground and flipped over.

Demiway smoothly escaped through the flipped dolls and ran towards me again.

“He’s really a monster.”

I clicked my tongue, looking at him.

The time it took him to reach from one end of the cavalry training ground where I was to the other end was a little over 25 seconds.

It’s that time, he covered about 2,000 meters, breaking through the dolls’ attacks.

And even that felt far from his full power, which felt quite absurd.

I tried to stop Demiway, who had reached right in front of me, with No. 14 and 15 while righting the flipped dolls, but it only bought a very brief moment.

I immediately had No. 20 that I was riding leap high, and Demiway, who had pushed aside No. 14 and 15, tried to cut down No. 20 along with me.

No. 20, which had leaped up in the nick of time, avoided Demiway’s sword.

However, it couldn’t completely avoid it, so a large scratch was left on the lower armor.

Good, I’ll have to charge for the cost.

“Oho, this is the first time I’ve seen it jump this high. Is it a newly added function?”

“No. It’s an original function, but it’s not very useful for automatic combat, so it’s probably the first time you’re seeing it.”

Demiway immediately leaped tens of meters, following me.

“Goodness, you’re so persistent.”

Is it because I got on his nerves?

Thanks to that, it’s easy to read his movements, which is good.

No. 17, 18, and 19 that I had positioned behind me fired mana cannons, aiming at Demiway.

Kwaaaaa-!

“Whoa!?”

Perhaps feeling slightly threatened by the attack that consumed about half of the loaded magic stones, Demiway tried to respond.

“If you break the dolls, I’ll charge you for repair costs!”

At my magical shout, Demiway flinched for a moment, and his response to the mana cannons was delayed.

He cut and extinguished two of the three streams of mana cannons with his sword wrapped in strong energy, but he couldn’t cut the mana cannon flying from behind in time.

Still, as expected of a superhuman, he didn’t get hit directly and twisted his body in mid-air to dodge.

However, without a foothold in mid-air, Demiway, who couldn’t completely dodge, was sent flying as if bouncing from the aftermath.

“Lock on! Fire!”

All the dolls scattered on the ground fired mana cannons at once, aiming at Demiway.

The magic stone charge amount that appeared on the interface rapidly decreased.

“Commander!”

The knights who were watching shouted in surprise as their commander was fiercely attacked.

They’re unnecessarily worrying. Who is that monster for them to worry?

Rather, they should worry about me, who is falling alone without being fixed to a doll.

“Navi.”

-Meow!

Wind wrapped around my body, and I slowly descended, defying gravity.

Demiway, who had extinguished all the mana cannon streams with the strong energy spewing out from where he was directly hit by the mana cannons, lightly landed.

“Ah, spider webs.”

Demiway landed on the spider webs I had scattered in advance, and his feet were momentarily bound.

“Second fire!”

Dolls with surplus magic stones fired mana cannons, and those lacking bombarded mana bullets.

Dust rose around Demiway as his sword clashed with the mana cannons.

Just before the dolls’ mana was completely depleted, they stopped attacking.

As Demiway created sword energy to blow away the dust and took a stance, I boldly shouted.

“Surrender!”

The dolls were already depleted of mana to the point of being unable to continue combat.

Hearing my shout, Demiway clicked his tongue regretfully, as if unable to bury me, and sheathed his sword.

He only had a slightly torn piece of clothing from No. 5 and minor abrasions from No. 17’s mana cannon, otherwise he was totally unharmed.

“The total combat time is 38 seconds. How was it? Are you satisfied with the doll performance test?”

If he had moved with his full power, before 10 seconds had passed since the start of the battle, he would have cut all the scattered dolls in half, beheaded me, and would be leisurely maintaining his sword.

But this was only a performance test, after all.

There were many excessive movements for a test, but Demiway went easy in his own way.

At my question, Demiway looked at me with interest.

“For now, you pass the test. But what was that mana cannon? I’ve never seen it before.”

“Of course, it’s not a technique to be used in automatic combat. It depletes the magic stones in one shot, rendering them unable to move, and it’s dangerous if allies get caught up in it, right?”

In the automatic combat system, mana bullets are rarely used out of concern for friendly fire, so there’s no way mana cannons would be used.

“Other than that, there are dangerous techniques or equipment, but I didn’t use them since they’re not suitable for use inside the castle.”

“Dangerous techniques or equipment?”

“Like poison smoke or poison needles.”

Demiway seemed to understand my answer and nodded.

He didn’t criticize me for not using them even if there were no spectators, as they weren’t things to use in the first place.

Demiway seemed satisfied, as my puppetry skills exceeded his expectations.

“Since I passed the test, I’ll consider the Silverbloom as the minimum investment for the Red Eyes subjugation.”

Now he can’t use the excuse of medicine costs.

I won’t give a single penny discount on the doll maintenance invoice.

Demiway, who looked pleased at my words, frowned.

“Ahem! I’ll decide that after seeing the monster subjugation test.”

At his words, I giggled and replied.

“Well, suit yourself.”

If it were me, I would have attempted negotiations right away before conducting a proper test.

How foolish. It’s probably because of his pride.

At that moment, Demiway approached me and whispered in my ear.

“But do you have no intention of giving a discount? Honestly, it’s too expensive.”

At that question, I snickered.

“Depends on your performance.”

After Demiway left to attend to his duties, the knights, including the Special Forces Captain, showed interest in me and flocked over.

“That was amazing, Sir Yuan! To inflict a wound on the Commander, even if they are Sir Geor’s dolls!”

“Your doll-handling skills were truly remarkable! If it wasn’t the Commander, it would have been difficult to survive those tactical moves that were several steps ahead!”

“In the past 10 years, you’re the only one who made the Commander bleed even a single drop, even though he was moving leisurely!”

It was burdensome to have people who used to look at me like a passing dog suddenly flock to me.

“No. I just handled some 20-year-old dolls, that’s all.”

The design was over 30 years old. Of course, since they were dolls made by a sage, they could be used in active duty for three or four generations if maintained well.

As I tried to escape, saying it was nothing special, the Special Forces Captain clasped my hand.

“Until now, no one has properly handled those dolls! Sir Yuan! Please, stay in Blantzberg!”

“What? N-No…!”

Why is this person saying to me what he didn’t even say to Precia?!

In terms of talent or skill, shouldn’t he persuade Precia first?

“It wouldn’t be a bad offer for you either! To be honest, your physical abilities are not even usable as a soldier.”

Well, that’s true.

“Even if you return to the capital, your growth as a knight, let alone promotion, will be limited. But not here! The Commander is a reasonable person! He may grumble verbally, but he will undoubtedly treat you importantly!”

No, I can’t trust that.

“Actually, just being able to maintain the dolls is enough to prove your worth. But if you can utilize them properly like this, it can’t be expressed merely as having value!”

Certainly, if the dolls are properly handled, the damage to the dolls can be minimized while greatly increasing the survival rate of the soldiers.

Come to think of it, with the Special Forces Captain’s skills, he probably couldn’t properly assess Precia’s abilities, so it was natural for him to cling to me.

I would have also tried to win me over somehow if I were him.

“So please!”

The burly Special Forces Captain sparkled his eyes and leaned his face towards me in a burdensome manner.

Precia! Save me!

As if understanding my distress signal, Precia squeezed through the knights and grabbed the Special Forces Captain’s arm.

“Let go of this. Isn’t it hurting him?”

At Precia’s words laced with killing intent, the Special Forces Captain was startled and let go of my hand.

“Ah! I’m sorry! I must have unintentionally used force.”

Actually, it was a bit numb, but it didn’t hurt.

Precia hugged me as if guarding and raised her momentum, driving away the knights.

“Phew, thanks.”

“No. It’s something I should have done.”

As I escaped through the knights, Gilbert looked at me with a resentful expression from behind the crowd.

“Young Master! This is too much! You said you would be in the doll storage! You should have at least left a note if you were going somewhere! I was worried!”

Gilbert, who belatedly took a shower and got rid of the blood smell, made a tearful face as if he had been searching for me for a long time.

“Ahaha, sorry. I forgot.”

“Young Master!”

I patted Gilbert’s back as if hitting him and said,

“I’ll buy you something delicious, so stop it. Come on, let’s go eat meat!”

I should feed them well since we’ll be fighting a fierce battle in a few days.

The sound of drums resounded from all directions.

“All troops, attention!”

The Special Forces Captain, who also served as the deputy of the Blantzberg commander, shouted in a loud voice.

“Salute to the Commander!”

“Loyalty!”

At the salute command, the soldiers of the 13 Thousand-Man Units, 3 Mage Corps, and 5 Knight Brigades saluted with a resounding voice.

I also lined up 6,000 magic dolls and saluted, standing in a corner of the training ground.

As Commander Demiway returned the salute from the podium, the Special Forces Captain turned around and shouted,

“At ease!”

Standing in front of the disciplined army, Demiway said,

“I won’t make a long speech. We are now going to end the legend of the Red Eyes! Move out!”

“Waaah!!”

At his words, the soldiers let out a war cry. There was no need for miscellaneous words to boost morale.

To them, the commander was already a symbol of victory and faith.