6
“I’ll walk on my own feet from here. It feels like we have a fight coming up. I’d just get in your way if you had to carry me.”
“It’s a little late to try and convince me that you’re low-maintenance… There’s someone here.”
As we approach the castle’s main gate, I notice someone fighting.
“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! None shall pass! Die by the hand of Flame Zapper the Third!”
Snow is enthusiastically burning the stuffed animals and zombies approaching the gate.
“Grimm, I’ve got an eye on our guy. I’ll leave the zombies and dolls to you. I’ll go capture the puppet master responsible.”
“Of course, leave them to me. Please make sure you apprehend the culprit,” Grimm responds in a low voice as she approaches the zombies.
“You two are too late! I’ve already claimed all the credit! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, look around you! All this speaks to my contribution! But this is only the beginning. The enemy leader is a cat-shaped stuffed animal. The knights are currently looking for it. On my command! No doubt it’s only a matter of time before the enemy commander falls!”
With an ecstatic Snow in front of us, Grimm and I exchange nods.
“Raaaah! Surrender, you villain!” I grab the cackling Snow.
“Wha—?! Six, how dare you!”
“Commander, hold her like that for a bit! There, there, it’s all right now. There’s no more need to fight against your will. Leave everything to me and return to your rest.”
After making sure Snow’s been restrained, Grimm returns the undead to their senses.
Carrying out her task of returning the undead to the ground, she approaches the struggling Snow.
“You bastards! Have you gone mad?! To think you’d let your greedy intentions to steal my glory lead you to such low ends! Have you no shame?!”
“I—I don’t know why, but that really hurts coming from Snow…”
As Grimm lightly presses her hand to her chest, I step in to read out the charges.
“Hey, Snow. You’ve really done it this time.”
“Eh? What are you talking about? I’ve done nothing… Oh! Y-you bastard…!” Snow suddenly has a look of regret on her face, evidently finally realizing what she’s done. “So you intend to bring up the hostess club scam, huh? Ah, I get it now; you’ll keep quiet about the scam if I split the reward for my achievements in this battle. That’s the deal, is it? Very well. Now, as for our individual shares…”
“No, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m talking about… You seem a little too quick to bring up hush money. Do you have a lot of experience with this or something?”
Snow goes briefly silent at my words. “…If this isn’t about hush money, then what’s the big idea?”
“You ordered the knights to go hunting for a cat doll even when Alice told you to focus on maintaining order, didn’t you? The knights mistook Tiger Man for the cat doll and got wiped out. That’s caused all sorts of problems that we’re dealing with now—the city’s in chaos, and we’ve completely lost track of the cat doll.”
……
“You’ve got it all wrong; just listen to me.”
“All right, I’ll let you tell your side later. In a nice, comfy dungeon cell. Okay?”
The restrained Snow starts struggling. “I had no choice! I can’t lose Her Highness’s trust! I was under investigation until recently! Which means the only option I had left was to restore my reputation by producing results!”
Welp, she’s finally just decided to own up to it.
“You’re barely average as a field commander. We don’t need you trying to do more than you’re told! Thanks to you, we had to take care of the dolls and zombies in the city on our own. Hey, have you been here the whole time? You sure you haven’t let a doll past?”
“I guarded the gate properly, so there’s no problem at all. This main gate’s currently the only way into the castle, after all. I’ve been standing here the whole time, so it’s fine.”
At Snow’s words, Grimm and I let out sighs of relief.
It seems we’ve avoided the worst-case scenario of Gadalkand getting into the castle.
Which means all we have to do is tighten our defense of the entrance and exit points and wait for our Combat Agents to hunt down the stuffed animal.
…Snow seems to have decided that struggling is useless and instead addresses me in a conciliatory voice.
“Six, why don’t we cut a deal? I was only told a cat-shaped stuffed animal lost control and started going on a rampage in the city. Could this be the Demon Lord’s Army’s fault?”
…Huh, she’s pretty sharp considering she doesn’t know any of the details.
Thinking back on it, she also correctly figured out I was a spy even though she hadn’t known me very long.
I keep thinking of her as just a gold digger, but I suppose there’s more to her than…
“Yes, this must be the Demon Lord Army’s fault. Indeed, there’s nothing else it could be. Surely, Heine of the Flames, who fell victim to monsters in the wastes, has used the Undead Festival to return and get her revenge. It’s perfectly plausible that one of the Demon Lord’s Elite Four knows how to control the dead. In which case, this entire string of events is sabotage activity by the Demon Lord’s Army… That would about cover it, no? If you’ll accept, I’ll give you one of the beautiful swords from my collection. Not a bad deal, is it?”
I feel like she owes me an apology for the fact I felt even the faintest glimmer of admiration.
Just then…
…a bell tolls from inside the castle.
At the same time, I also hear objects colliding somewhere near the courtyard.
“…So much for ‘none shall pass,’ huh?”
“What’s with that look? Believe me! It’s true—I swear! I’ve been here the whole time, and there shouldn’t be any other ways inside!”
Feeling my scrutiny, Snow desperately tries to explain.
Grimm looks at Snow, tilting her head a moment. “But this is the alarm that sounds when an unholy presence like a demon or the undead gets into the castle… Wait, don’t look at me like that! I’m not an unholy presence! I’m not fully undead yet!”
…Which means the one causing the commotion must be…
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