Chapter 23: Imperial Guards
“Claude-san!”
Seeing the thief she thought was dead, Emma cried out with joy. As if to show he was safe, Claude waved his hand in response.
“Thieves, you say? I’ll give you all the money you want later. Right now I don’t have time to deal with you lot.”
With this new uncertain element added to his rebellion, Garnets was irritated.
“Money isn’t something you receive, it’s something you steal. That’s the thief’s way.”
Claude and Murakumo slid down the cylindrical side of the airship.
Yuri made the markings on his arm glow and cast magic toward Garnets’ faction soldiers.
The soldiers tried to fight back with rifles, but unsure whether it was acceptable to damage the airship, their counterattack became sporadic. This was exactly what Claude and the others had aimed for.
Claude and Murakumo seized the moment to attack Garnets and his men.
Most of the soldiers were being suppressed by Yuri’s magic, but some soldiers unhesitatingly discarded their guns, drew the swords at their waists, and began to fight back.
Their swords were sharp, and one could feel their natural talent and accumulated training.
“Damn it! Are these guys knights?!”
Even though it was multiple people against them, they didn’t retreat a single step when facing Claude and Murakumo.
Claude’s plan to get the upper hand once they closed in for melee combat had been thwarted.
“Now then, princess, would you come this way?”
Garnets took Emma’s hand and tried to board the airship, but Emma shook off his hand and resisted.
“No! I won’t do as you say!”
“…I see. Then excuse me.”
Garnets lifted the reluctant girl’s waist in his arms, easily picking her up and leaping toward the airship’s entrance.
“Tch, for someone who’s been a Prime Minister, he seems to have quite a bit of strength!”
Seeing this, Claude gritted his teeth, but even as he tried to chase after them, the soldiers desperately resisted.
Claude had superior physical abilities, but the soldiers’ coordination was also magnificent. Even when he managed to weave through their swords and knock down an opponent, they would stand up again with indomitable will.
Meanwhile, Murakumo was surrounded by three skilled knights, but still cut down his opponents with overwhelming swordsmanship. However, instead of the sensation of cutting flesh, a metallic sound rang out.
“Armor under their clothes? And that metal is?”
Murakumo recognized that metal. It was similar to that of the Grim Reapers’ armor.
“Yes, a special metal that can even stop bullets. This too is from ancient civilization. Murakumo, who is praised as the knight among knights. Even you cannot interfere with our plans.”
Probably armor worn in anticipation of being shot with guns. They had prepared with the resolve to fight the Imperial Army.
“What are you guys? Why do you follow that bastard to such an extent?”
Claude was confused by the soldiers’ resolve.
“It’s not for thieves like you to know!”
The female soldier who had been guarding Emma earlier shouted.
“Those without ideals cannot understand anything about us!”
“Does having ideals mean you can do anything?!”
Angered by the female soldier’s words, Claude accelerated his movement, circled to her side, and mercilessly delivered a roundhouse kick to her temple, knocking her unconscious.
With a vicious expression on his ordinary face, Claude approached the remaining soldiers. He felt unusually angry.
Murakumo also targeted the arms of soldiers not wearing armor, making them unable to hold weapons and putting them out of combat. The situation was about to tilt in Claude and the others’ favor.
Then soldiers who had rushed from the castle came flooding into the factory.
These were soldiers who hadn’t received orders from the Emperor, but had rushed over upon detecting the disturbance.
“Where are the bandits?!”
The soldiers raised their voices threateningly.
“Those two! There’s another one on top of the airship!”
Garnets pointed at Claude and the others.
Beside him, Emma was struggling, crying “Let me go!” and the cat on her shoulder was raging, but no one paid attention to that.
“These people are thieves! They kidnapped princess and attempted to steal the airship and escape! We noticed this and stopped their crime! We will now eliminate the thieves’ accomplices who have infiltrated the airship!”
“What?!”
Claude and the others stopped moving, shocked by this unexpected false accusation.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You’re the one who kidnapped Emma and targeted the airship! Hey, you guys! It wasn’t us! Garnets and his men staged a rebellion!”
The soldiers were momentarily confused by Claude’s words, but quickly made a calm judgment.
“Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way Prime Minister-sama would stage a rebellion, you thief!”
They didn’t yet know that the Emperor had already noticed Garnets’ rebellion. It was a natural course of events.
The soldiers who had rushed over were elite troops selected to guard the castle.
With precise shooting, they aimed at Yuri on top of the airship and drew their swords to challenge Claude and the others to battle.
“Listen to what we’re saying, you Imperial dogs!”
Claude’s curses only served to amplify the Imperial soldiers’ hostility, and he was subjected to fierce attacks. Seeing this, Garnets smirked and, holding the struggling Emma under his arm, boarded the airship.
Garnets’ subordinates also helped the fallen ones to their feet and entered the airship one after another.
Inside, a black knight greeted Garnets.
“How did it go?”
Garnets asked briefly.
“Almost ready. I have the Betas supporting the engine output. I’ll go deal with the magician on top.”
“I’m counting on you.”
With those words behind him, the black knight fluttered his cloak and headed to the top of the airship.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
From Yuri’s perspective, the battle situation was not favorable. The newly arrived soldiers were numerous and wore white military uniforms instead of green.
Yuri was using magic while trying not to involve Claude and the others, but the enemy soldiers dealt with it skillfully. They dodged, defended, and counterattacked from blind spots. Their skill level was clearly different from the soldiers they had faced at the fortress.
“As expected of the Emperor’s home base. They’re probably Imperial Guards.”
Imperial Guards were directly under the Emperor and were required to be knights. Although the appearance of guns had meant knights were no longer the main players on the battlefield, they were still far stronger than ordinary soldiers.
The Emperor had gathered knights to form a powerful army corps.
“Should I blow up the whole airship with large-scale magic?”
Getting annoyed, Yuri was tempted to use magic that would devastate the entire area.
“I’d prefer you didn’t do that.”
Before he knew it, someone was standing on top of the airship.
Black armor, black mask. Even the blade of the sword he held was pitch black.
“A Black Knight?”
Without pause, Yuri fired a beam of light from his finger. It was a simple yet advanced spell that concentrated lightning, but the Black Knight blocked it with his sword.
“As expected of the greatest magician of our time. It’s a basic spell, but to cast it with such high density and without incantation…”
“If you’re going to praise me, I’d rather you just let it hit you. That armor of yours can probably block it anyway, right?”
“I can’t be careless. You might just be making it look that way.”
Yuri clicked his tongue mentally. The current spell wasn’t a direct attack but aimed for indirect damage through electrocution. The Black Knight’s reading was correct.
Moreover, Yuri was being targeted by guns from below, so he had the disadvantage of having to continuously deploy defensive magic. Taking a magic stone from his sleeve, he casually tossed it into his mouth to replenish his magical power.
“Then how about this?”
Again without incantation, making only the patterns on his body glow, he fired light beams from all five fingers of his right hand. Though they should normally only travel in straight lines, they curved and approached the Black Knight from different angles.
“Hah!”
The Black Knight exhaled sharply and cut down the light beams one after another with his sword. It created afterimages, making it look as if there were five swords.
“So there’s another idiot who can pull off tricks like Murakumo.”
With a bitter expression, as Yuri tried to cast another spell, the Black Knight instantly closed the distance between them.
The black blade diagonally bisected the white magician from shoulder to hip.
“Hmm?”
The Black Knight let out a confused sound. The body of the magician he thought he had cut disappeared.
Looking around, he saw Yuri’s figure at the very rear of the airship.
“That was close. Good thing I deployed illusion magic at the same time. Otherwise I’d be dead.”
Yuri’s voice didn’t carry the tension his words suggested. However, it was his honest feeling.
Then, bringing his hands together, red patterns emerged all over his body, and with a short incantation, magic was activated.
It was a powerful heat ray reminiscent of a tree trunk. It was provocative magic, as if daring the enemy to try blocking it with a sword if they could.
“I can’t block this.”
The Black Knight immediately judged and leaped. He drew a sharp parabolic arc toward Yuri.
“This is bad!”
Sensing danger, Yuri didn’t hesitate to jump off the airship.
It was quite a height, but he instantly deployed wind magic, making his body float gently as Yuri landed gracefully.
The Black Knight confirmed this from atop the airship. Finally, the last obstacle was gone.
Then the airship began to make sounds unlike anything ever heard before. The multiple blades attached to its sides began to rotate. After thousands of years, the airship was about to take flight.
TLNOTE
While waiting for the next chapter, I encourage you, dear readers, to explore other masterpieces written by Daken-sensei :
- Monster Meat Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Wicked Princess and 12 Eyes – The Strongest Squires and the Legendary Evil Woman, the Second Time in Her Life
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
- The Last Magic (translated by my friend narwhal)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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