Chapter 14
After returning from meeting Hadem, I went straight to see Sharen.
Although I had made this choice for the sake of my territory and subjects, in the end, I had decided to treat my vassal as a weapon.
I thought it was my duty as a lord to explain that clearly, out of respect for my vassal.
It may sound like an excuse, but I really did try!
That lunatic Lü Bu bastard is the one throwing a fit!!
“Things have turned out this way, so I have no choice but to ask this of you. Sharen, please. Lend me your strength for the sake of my subjects—and for my sake.”
Sharen listened to me all the way through.
Then she quietly opened her mouth.
“It's all right, my lord. I understand everything.”
She smiled calmly.
She looked as though she already knew everything, even without me saying it.
“I understand that you have worked for the sake of your subjects, my lord, and that you hesitated to use my strength until the very end.”
She stood up, holding her red staff.
Then an enormous storm of mana began to rise, so powerful that even I, with neither mana nor a blessing, could feel it.
Wow... Even a mage like this gets attacked by bandits once every two days while traveling?
The bandits out there must have nine lives or something.
“And it is precisely because you are such a lord that I decided to become your vassal.”
She politely knelt before me.
It was the formal posture a vassal took before their lord.
“Give the order, my lord. Sharen the Red Mage is ready.”
She had steeled herself in her own way and become my mage—and the mage of our house.
If so, then as a beloved lord, it was time for me to live up to those expectations too.
“Sharen! Burn every one of those monsters that have invaded our territory to ashes!!”
At my words, Sharen raised her head and met my eyes.
Her red, glowing eyes shone more brightly and beautifully, as if aflame, than they had in the game.
“Understood, my lord.”
With Sharen accepting my command, I was able to begin Operation 『The Monster and the Lion』: hunting the Deep Rocks while keeping House Ryan in check.
Come on! Time to put on a good show!!
* * *
House Ryan was the first to sense that something had changed.
Lagos, Lord Hadem's right-hand man, was stationed at the border and smoking when he witnessed it.
“The knights... are increasing?”
Hadem's order had been to invade Kron's territory the moment they saw an opening.
And Lagos had found an opening after scouting for several days.
If the knights were moved to hunt monsters, it looked as though House Ryan's knights could set out through that opening and occupy the territory very easily.
But knights began being deployed in that opening with astonishing speed, and it started to disappear.
“How does he intend to deal with the Deep Rocks by deploying knights like that?”
Lagos had taken part in a Deep Rock subjugation campaign in the past.
Thus, he knew they were no easy opponents and believed it would take all of Kron's forces to defeat them.
As Lagos thought this, he saw two figures riding horses toward them from House Kron's side.
One was a white-haired girl, and the other appeared to be the knight escorting her.
When the girl reached him, she spoke without flinching.
“Hello. I am ‘Noah,’ a vassal of Lord Calix. I have come to deliver a gift Lord Calix sent to Lord Hadem.”
“A gift?”
“Yes!”
Noah took out a small box.
Inside were black sunglasses.
“Lord Calix said that another sun might rise today, so he thought it would be best to protect Lord Hadem's eyes with these and sent them as a gift.”
“I see. Understood. I will deliver them to Lord Hadem.”
“Yes! Then I'll be going.”
With that, Noah left.
Lagos thought he could somewhat understand the message Kron was trying to send.
It seemed they were warning them that Sharen's magic was so tremendous that they needed to prepare even something like this.
But Lagos had fought mages several times and seen high-level magic before.
It was certainly impressive, but he hadn't felt it was so powerful that they needed to prepare sunglasses.
“Still, just in case.”
Lagos's motto was ‘As long as I survive, that's enough.’
He valued survival above all else, and all his efforts to survive had borne fruit, bringing him to this position.
He quietly took one pair of sunglasses from the box, then returned to Lord Hadem.
* * *
The area near Rag Coast, where the Deep Rock horde was coming ashore, had already begun to look like a scene from hell.
“Auuuuuugh-!!!
“Augh!!!!
The grotesque fish-headed monsters known as Deep Rocks, with arms and legs sprouting from their bodies, were clustered in groups of dozens.
They were attacking and devouring fish, livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens, and animals such as rabbits and foxes near the coast.
“They really are disgusting.”
“Indeed, my lord.”
Hart and I watched from a distant hill, grimacing as we spoke.
Ugh, how can anything be that disgusting?
I liked sashimi, but after seeing those things, I didn't think I'd be able to eat it for a while.
While we were watching, a soldier ran over and spoke.
“The preparations are complete, my lord!”
“Good work.”
At the soldier's words, I mounted a horse and set out.
Then I felt the eyes of the knights and soldiers below the hill turn toward me.
They were waiting for my command.
Their eyes were filled with morale, but I could also sense fear in them.
It was understandable.
Since we had deployed all our main forces along the border to keep House Ryan in check, the soldiers numbered less than ten percent of the Deep Rocks—a very small force.
If we fought them head-on like this, it was certain that all the humans would die for nothing.
Feeling that fear, I inhaled and steeled myself.
Then I stepped before everyone and shouted so that all could hear me.
“Everyone must be afraid!!!”
Everyone's eyes turned toward me.
As the lord of Kron and the person responsible for proposing and commanding this operation, I said:
“There are too many of them and too few of us. On top of that, behind us are those hyenas wearing lions' masks, waiting for a chance to bare their fangs at us.”
The people here were the elite soldiers among the Knights of Kron.
So they knew the situation better than anyone.
But knowing something and overcoming it were separate matters.
For people to find courage, they needed a message that resonated in their hearts,
in a word, 『hype』 was needed!!
“But we must overcome it!!!”
I thought of my previous life.
Recalling the countless war stories I had seen in my previous life, I said the words that would give me the greatest hype.
“If we fall, our families and friends will be in danger. Our land will be toyed with by those fish bastards and lion cubs!!”
I pointed toward the territory and the border.
I reminded them of what they had to protect and the enemies waiting there.
“We are the only ones here and now who can stop them!!”
I felt the eyes of the knights and soldiers gradually begin to blaze.
Hype was swelling in their hearts.
Now it was time to finish this.
“But even when you are afraid, do not forget that I—the Silver Dragon of Kron—stand behind you!! For Kron!!!”
I had only recently learned that people were calling me the Silver Dragon of Kron.
Honestly, I didn't want a nickname that would raise such hostility.
But now was the time to use everything available to me.
At my words, their hype must have burst, because the knights and soldiers began to shout.
“For Kron!!”
“For our lord!!!”
“We will win!!!”
“Uooooooooh!!!!!!!”
They looked ready to charge the Deep Rocks at any moment.
Hmm... It was good that their morale had risen, but I hoped they hadn't forgotten that this battle was a decoy operation...
“Then from this moment, we begin 『Deep Rock Annihilation Operation』!!!”
“Let's go!!! Time to tear off those fish bastards' dicks!!”
At my declaration, Adjutant Brock, leading the knights in Rikain's stead, rode toward the Deep Rocks.
They were knights, but they had removed all their armor and armed themselves only with light gear, bows, and crossbows.
Brock rode toward the Deep Rock horde and gave the order.
“Fire!!”
Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh!!
Following Brock's command, everyone fired their bows and crossbows at the Deep Rocks.
Dozens of arrows descended upon the Deep Rocks that were hunting.
“Auuuuuugh!!!”
“Gurk!!”
The Deep Rocks, turned into hedgehogs by the arrows, stared at the humans who had attacked them.
Enraged, they began chasing after them.
“Good! Then we'll move on to the next group!! Giddyup!!!”
Along the coast, the knights shot at groups of Deep Rocks numbering in the dozens, then fled, luring them away.
The Deep Rock groups, recognizing them as enemies, began to pursue them.
The groups numbering dozens quickly became hordes of hundreds, then thousands.
“Don't stop!!! If we stop here, we'll be crushed to death!!!”
“Yes!!!”
Thus, the Deep Rock armies chased after them.
The Deep Rock horde, now a single mass, gradually began to accelerate.
To gain speed, they trampled over their slower kin as they advanced, and the knights rode their horses with all their might to avoid being caught.
Then they arrived at the final location of the operation.
“Everyone... scatter!!!!!”
“Yes!!!”
It was the widest valley in Kron's territory.
It was far from any homes, and its gloomy dampness and scattered marshes made it a place where even animals rarely lived.
At the entrance, the knights scattered, and instead of the humans dispersing in all directions, the Deep Rock horde saw a mountain of wild boar corpses.
“Auuuuuugh♥!!!
“Uuugh-uuugh♥♥!!!
At the sight of the delicious lumps of meat before them, the Deep Rocks ignored the knights who had attacked them and rushed into the valley.
The once-quiet valley was instantly filled with hundreds, even thousands, of Deep Rocks.
With that, all the preparations were complete.
I had arrived beforehand at a safe place some distance from the valley and spoke to Sharen.
“Sharen, I'll leave the finishing blow to you.”
“Understood, my lord.”
Sharen flew into the air.
Before she flew off, she looked at me and said:
“It's dangerous, so be sure to wear the sunglasses and stay inside the protective magic.”
“Understood.”
Following her warning, I put on the sunglasses and entered the protective magic.
Then, having flown into the sky, she began to chant.
Little by little, red mana began to roil around her.
“Domine Ignis.(Lord of Fire.)”
Sharen was called the Red Mage and was respected and revered by people, but what I knew about her differed subtly.
I learned the reason after taking Sharen as my vassal.
“Incarnatio Draconis.(Incarnation of the Dragon.)”
I had first encountered Sharen as a game character, and I knew her abilities.
So I knew how powerful she was.
“Supplico tibi.(I beseech you.)”
But the people did not know that.
Because Sharen had ‘hidden’ her abilities until now.
“Flamma diei ultimis orbis.(The flame that will burn on the last day of the world.)”
Sharen distrusted every lord and had apparently used her abilities as sparingly as possible.
Even when she hunted orcs, she had used only a truly weak basic fire spell, at least from her perspective.
“Descende. (Descend.)”
In other words, the moment Sharen truly used her magic in front of everyone was...
this very moment.
“Ignis Lanyx. (Flame of Lanyx.)”
『Flame of Lanyx』
It was the most powerful fire spell Sharen could use, drawing on the power of the fire dragon god Lanyx,
and a spell only the heir to the Red Magic Tower could use.
When Sharen finished chanting, red mana gathered over the valley and began transforming into the form of a fire dragon.
What must that sight have looked like to the Deep Rocks below?
While feasting, they looked up to see the sky on fire and an infernal fire dragon glaring down at them.
It was nothing short of a scene from the Cthulhu Mythos.
“Auu...”
“A...au...”
The only difference from Cthulhu was that the fire dragon wanted not corruption or mutation, but their annihilation.
The Flame of Lanyx fell straight down into the valley.
And...
Vwoooooom—---
Before my eyes, a nuclear blast erupted.
KABOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Aaaagh!!!”
Even though we were some distance away and Sharen had cast protective magic, an immense blast of hot wind struck me.
I barely came to my senses and looked toward the epicenter...
“…Good heavens…”
The pillar of fire that erupted from the valley rose hundreds of meters into the sky, forming a mushroom cloud.
I remembered that the description of Sharen's ultimate had said it possessed the power of a nuclear explosion.
But it wasn't a metaphor—it was an actual nuclear explosion.
That day, I acquired a nuclear button in another world.