Chapter 105
With all his strength, he hurled the Demon King toward the royal castle.
“Whaaat?! W-what are you doing, Kagami-san?! Dad!”
“Alice, you go toooo!”
“Huh? Wait, whaaaaaa—!”
Next, Kagami gently picked Alice up and, just as he had with the Demon King, hurled her toward the royal castle.
The two flew in a beautiful arc, unobstructed by the soldiers, and reached the royal castle in no time.
“Heeey! The Demon King is one thing, but you can’t just throw Alice-chan! What if she gets hurt?!”
“You’re next, you know?”
“Huh? Wha—?”
“This is Plan B.”
“Huh? Wait! What is Plan B—?!”
Next, Kagami grabbed the large backpack Tina was carrying and, with a gentle smile, hurled her toward the royal castle.
“I-I’m going to craaash!”
Tina screamed as she, too, traced a beautiful arc through the air and reached the royal castle.
Tina had feared she would crash straight into the castle wall from the force of the throw, but as soon as she reached the castle, a windlike yellow-green glow cushioned her and gently lowered her to the ground without her hitting the wall.
“A-are you all right, Tina-san?”
“I-I thought I was going to die. That man... I’m definitely punching him someday.”
Kagami had thrown the Demon King first because he figured the Demon King could catch them all with magic. As it turned out, he was right: the Demon King used wind magic to land safely, then caught Alice the same way.
“Ah... Here comes another one.”
A short while later, David and Menou came flying in, landing almost where Tina and Alice had. The Demon King caught them with magic in the same way.
Finally, Takako came flying in—but for some reason, she was headed for a different section of the castle wall than the others. She slammed into it with a loud crash!
“He definitely did that on purpose.”
“He probably did. Kagami-dono was furious when Takako-dono threw him somewhere completely off target in the city of Varman. That’s Kagami-dono for you... getting revenge at a time like this.”
Watching the scene, Tina and Menou murmured, gazing into the distance.
In fact, as he threw Takako, Kagami had called out, “Goodbye, Takako-chan!”—throwing her own words back at her from that time.
Though his timing was a little off, the Demon King had managed to cast wind magic just in time. Takako, who had crashed into the wall, crawled out looking completely unharmed, then immediately rejoined the others.
“Well... sorry about that. My hand slipped.”
After throwing everyone ahead, Kagami used his overwhelming physical abilities to fight his way through the soldiers and quickly rejoined the Demon King and the others, who were waiting in front of the royal castle. He said this with an utterly innocent expression.
“Heehee... It’s all right, isn’t it? If your hand slipped, it couldn’t be helped.”
Takako was smiling. Seeing her, everyone instinctively sensed that this ugly feud would continue for some time to come.
After that, they stormed into the castle. Many soldiers were already waiting inside, perhaps having heard the commotion and predicted their arrival.
Worried that they would eventually be cornered if they searched the vast, fortress-like castle at random, Kagami had David—who knew the castle particularly well—lead them to places where Kururu and Rex might be.
They had already checked the cells and private chambers where Kururu and Rex might have been, but found no one. The only other likely place was the throne room on the castle’s top floor. So now, much like outside, they were fleeing from the soldiers as they made their way there.
“Hah... hah... The first king of the Kingdom of Hexaldoria was definitely an idiot. Making people climb these ridiculously long stairs to reach the throne room... An idiot. That’s the only word for it. Normally, you’d put it on the first floor so it would be easy to reach.”
The throne room was on the castle’s top floor, and the only way to reach it was to climb a circular spiral staircase that connected every floor.
A huge shaft in the center of the spiral staircase ran all the way from the first floor to the top, allowing people to look down through the entire castle. But the stairs seemed impossibly long, and Tina—who wasn’t confident in her stamina—had gone pale at the sight just a few minutes earlier.
“Normally, anyone with magic power could use the elevator in the center of the spiral staircase. But given the situation, the elevator itself has been shut down. We’ll just have to keep climbing.”
“Ugh... I want to punch whoever shut down the elevator!”
Tina was already nearing her limit. The climb was exhausting enough as it was, and the closer they got to the throne room, the stronger the soldiers they had to fight became.
Now, huge numbers of soldiers with powerful Jobs and an average level above 80 were blocking their way, forcing Kagami and the others into a tough fight.
“Ughhh... They’re still coming?”
Kagami muttered, looking thoroughly fed up.
The poor footing on the spiral staircase made it difficult even for Kagami, with his superior physical abilities, to move freely. The soldiers were positioned to block the way up, making it hard to get behind them and use the stun baton.
“Kagami-dono! A large group is rushing toward us from ahead!”
“Kagami-sama! A large number of them are coming up from below, too! What should we do?!”
Enemies were closing in from behind as well, making it even harder to fight.
“We’re going to get surrounded! What do we do, Kagami-san?!”
Alice, who was moving behind Takako for protection, seemed to realize just how bad things were and cried out in a panic.
It would be difficult to force their way through this situation without killing anyone. Realizing that, Kagami closed his eyes with a troubled expression, stopped, and began to think.
“...Assuming Takako-chan can do it, Menou, David, Demon King! Can you take a shortcut up this spiral staircase?”
As if he had just thought of something, Kagami opened his eyes wide and shouted.
Tina and Alice had no idea what Kagami meant, but Menou, David, and the Demon King understood his intention. They immediately grew serious and nodded.
“All right... then it’s Takako Bazooka! No, since I’m the one throwing, it’s Kagami Bazooka.”
That was the Plan B he had come up with.
“Wait a second. Who’s getting launched?”
“Tina-tan and Alice-tan.”
“I must decline. Besides, where exactly on this spiral staircase are you going to throw us?”
“We’ll lean out over the railing and throw you straight up. Everyone except Tina and Alice will take a shortcut on their own and push ahead, so we’ll be able to move quickly even in this situation.”
Tina and Alice were left speechless, their faces twisting as if to say, “What is this man talking about?”