Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 7 - Chapter 5.3

3

The prisoner exchange ends up being arranged to occur outside the city.

Having been thoroughly thrown for a loop by Belial. I guess Lydia wanted to avoid any further negotiations inside the city. The spot they specified is a barren piece of terrain with a cliff at the back.

It's a nice, empty piece of land, and unless someone bothers to scale the cliff, there's no chance of being ambushed.

"Things are going smoothly thanks to Lady Belial. We should be able to recover Miss Snow and Miss Heine without any trouble,” Rose says with a note of admiration as she leads the prisoners by a length of wire.

Belial’s actions earlier are probably what you’d consider the very model of a Kisaragi employee, but...

"You know, you’re starting to be more accepting of outright villainy lately. What happened to the pine and conscientious Rose that I first met? At least try to avoid ending up like one of the Kisaragi Supreme Leaders, okay?”

Belial, who has been cheerful thanks to Rose’s praise, pouts in response.

“You’re the ones who asked me to negotiate. I was just doing what you asked. I was fine with just forcing our way into the castle.”

“I’m pretty sure you and Lady Lilith are the only ones who’d call that negotiating.’'

“Boss, your negotiations aren’t that different. I mean, do you remember how you tried talking it out with Tiger Man the other day?”

Just as we’re placidly waiting outside the city, Lydia appears at the meeting spot with a large contingent of soldiers in tow, her expression clearly communicating her displeasure.

The soldier at the very back of the group leads Heine, who looks relieved, and Snow, who’s making no effort to conceal her irritation, by a rope.

Lydia clears her throat to begin the prisoner exchange when—

“Alice—!”

—Snow suddenly shouts, silencing everyone there. Having built up a friendship with Heine, it seem Snow has remembered what it means to be a knight. I’m sure she's going to tell us not to worry about her.

“I’ve kept my silence until the very end! And I tried to resist them from taking me out of jail! Don’t forget that you promised to reward me for as long as I stayed silent!"

“...Yep. Good job. I’m proud of you. I’ll add a little extra to your payment.”

Alice smiles softly after momentarily freezing at Snow’s obsessive fixation on payment, even under these circumstances.

...You know, she’s still one of my subordinates.

“Hey, Six, I mentioned this before, but you really should pick your subordinates better.”

“I don’t think you’re one to talk, being the Supreme Leader of a group of nothing but eccentrics and misfits like Kisaragi.”

Lydia gapes at the exchange, before she begins to tremble.

”H-how strong is your need to insult me...?! Do you understand the situation? I’ve heard the rumors of how powerful Kisaragi’s mercenaries are; that’s why I hired you in the first place.”

As Lydia’s anger builds. I remove the shackles from our prisoners’ legs, and when I lightly push them in the back, they run off without bothering to look back at me.

At the same time, Snow and Heine have their restraints removed, and they start to make their way through the soldiers in our direction.

"But the real reason I hired you is because our countries’ soldiers lack experience fighting monsters... Grunade is a holy country where the protection of the Midgard Mountains keeps all monsters but dragons from its lands. We’re not used to fighting monsters, but we’ve got plenty of skill when it comes to fighting people! Now that we have our hostages back...”

"Hey.”

Belial interrupts Lydia’s threatening remarks with a single word.

“Now that we have our hostages, there’s no need to hold back. You better be ready for what’s coming.”

"That’s my line! ...For the love of the gods, let me finish!”

The moment Lydia angrily shouts out the words, the ground under the soldiers behind her erupts upward like an exploding volcano.

The surrounding land bursts upward and the soldiers, thrown high into the air, scream, before raining down to the ground with a hail of pebbles.

Since they’re normal humans. Belial must have held back quite a bit.

I don’t think any of them have mortal wounds, but it still looks like a scene from hell with the shattered ground, the soldiers lying in their heaps, and Snow and Heine getting caught in the explosion.

As the groans of soldiers spill into the air. Lydia, who ducked and covered her ears at the explosion, tentatively turns to look.

“Ahhhhhh! M-m-my followers... My soldiers!”

<Evil Points Acquired>

It was a small explosion by Belial's standards, not even requiring her to make any gestures before unleashing it.

Lydia wails at the sheer, brutal violence that neutralizes her soldiers in a single breath.

I wish they wouldn't give me Evil Points for this. I mean. I'm only here as one of Belial’s accomplices: these points make it seem like I’m one of the main villains.

...Seeing Lydia’s face take on a look of complete despair, Belial nods approvingly.

“Lydia of the Grunade Kingdom, was it? I’m going to give you a good, hard smack now.”

“Why?!”

Belial lands a follow-up blow, even as Lydia reels from having all of her soldiers taken out in a single blow.

Oh, right, I told Belial about the fact that Lydia basically tried to blackmail us.

Belial hates it when people disrespect Kisaragi, so I guess she wants to exact a price for that.

Alice and Rose go to recover the pair of prisoners who got caught in the blast, as Belial cracks her knuckles, approaching Lydia, who remains cowed on the ground.

Just as things seem to be at their worst for Grunade, I hear a familiar voice ring through the air.

"That’s enough!”

The person who appears at the top of the cliff like a hero saving the day is—

"Diiiiiie!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!”

—Adelie, who tumbles from the cliff before she can identify herself, losing her footing when Belial destroys the ledge she's standing on with a jump kick.

Belial is, of course, ridiculous for shattering a solid- stone cliff face with a mere kick, but Adelie’s also pretty ridiculous given that she stands up and dusts herself off like nothing happened after falling from that height.

Adelie herself probably wasn’t expecting to suddenly be attacked before she could say anything. I mean, both she and Lydia at least deserve to finish their lines.

Despite not taking much in the way of physical damage, Adelie still seems to be recovering mentally as she looks around blankly before pointing her finger at me.

“I-I.. .1 don’t know why I get treated like this, given I’m the victim this time, but anyway... That’s enough, evildoers!"

Adelie stands there ignoring Alice as she drags the pair of unconscious prisoners along the ground, waiting for our reaction.

“That was pretty unfair, Lady Belial! You’ve completely thrown her for a loop. Remember that we’re not supposed to attack superheroes when they’re showing off after their arrival, transforming, or in an emotionally moving situation.”

“Well, Adelie’s not technically a superhero, so it’s not a violation of Kisaragi’s rules of engagement. But she sure does time her appearances like a superhero, which makes me want to attack her.”

"Please, at least listen to me!”

Adelie somehow gathers her wits and glares at us.

“Agentsix, look what you’ve done! You’ve got a heck of a lot to answer for! But first, say you’re sorry! Sorry for trying to frame me for that tiger beastman’s crimes! Also, while interfering is part of all elections, I think you guys went too far!”

I exchange glances with Belial as Adelie shouts at me.

I’m pretty impressed that she’s got the guts to lecture us in this situation, but does she really understand what’s about to happen to her?

“I know that look you’re giving me! It’s the pitying look you give to an idiot! Even I’m not so reckless as to face you guys alone,” Adelie says with a triumphant look, but it doesn’t really fit someone who fell off a cliff before she could get off her heroic pose.

“The prince is already on the way with his troops after hearing your broadcast earlier. I just came early to slow you down until they can arrive!”

Belial and I exchange glances again at Adelie’s comment.

True to Adelie’s statement, Prince Madia arrives with his troops in tow a little while later.

The moment he sees us, the prince’s blood pressure appears to spike, and a vein pops on his forehead as he shouts at us.

“Thanks to your meddling, our kingdom’s facing a terrible crisis! First, you will hand over my followers! Then, we’ll crush the mercenaries of Kisaragi with the help of Hiiragi!”

He doesn’t have as many soldiers as Lydia, but it’s still a pretty big group.

However...

“...Hm? W-what’s going on here...?”

It seems he’s finally noticed the mess around him, realizing that the lumps buried under the gravel are soldiers. A look of troubled confusion spreads across the prince’s features.

"M-Madia...”

At first he struggles to recognize the tremulous voice addressing him, but then he furrows his brow as he realizes who's addressing him.

“L-Lydia?! How did this happen?! Aren’t your personal soldiers on par with the royal army...?”

The prince is clearly taken aback when he sees Lydia slumped on the ground, tears welling in her eyes and the fight sapped from her expression.

“Excuse me, Your Highness. Do you mind looking over this way for a moment?”

When I call over to him, Adelie, who’s been tied up with steel wire and lying on the ground at my feet, pipes up.

“I-I’ll never bow down to evil! Your Highness, please do as your conscience says you must!”

"Y-you villain... You utter bastard...! You weren't satisfied with just tearing down my sister, but you’ve also reduced Dame Adelheid to such a pitiable state...!”

Seeing his sister and Adelie in their current state, Madia incorrectly assumes that this is all my fault. The prince’s voice trembles with rage and his cheeks flush with anger as he yells over at me.

Wait, I thought he and Lydia didn’t like each other.

“...Fine. We’ll allow you to return to your lands. In exchange, you will not lay a finger on Dame Adelheid.”

The prince seems to be under the impression we’ve taken Adelie as a hostage, but he’s mistaken.

Having already recovered Snow and Heine, we don’t actually have any need for further hostages.

“No, we’ve only tied her up because she said she was here to keep us busy.”

“Yep, she’s been causing a racket. We’d be real grateful if you’d take her off our hands.”

The prince looks a bit confused at our words.

“Just what are you lot after? You ally with my sister, only to turn around thoroughly to break her will to resist; you take my followers as hostages, but then say you’ll return Dame Adelheid to us. Honestly, I can’t even begin to comprehend what your goals are.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re doing this because we want to. This whole to-do is a result of our mutant, Tiger Man, going off half-cocked on his own, so...”

“Yep. We’ve both had a lot happen, but a good chunk of it’s just because we weren’t reading from the same script, never mind being on the same page. With the Demon Lord Realm gone, you guys are our neighbors now. It might take a while, but why don’t we work on finding an arrangement that works for all of us?”

At Alice’s proposal, we hear the sound of something hitting the ground echoing from nearby.

We turn to face the source of the sound to find Lydia, who’s somewhat recovered her wits, throwing her fan down against the ground.

“I can’t let things end as they are! That’s because I need to become queen! We definitely can’t let my little sister Nadia take the crown! And.. .1 can’t let Madia do it, either!”

“L-Lydia...?”

At her sudden change, everyone stares at Lydia in slack-jawed amazement, before the princess, having gotten everyone’s attention, continues.

“Do you know how our kingdom came to be? ... No, I suppose none of you have any way of knowing. What the sorcery stone is used for, or what happens as a result!”

There’s a desperate intensity to Lydia’s exhausted features.

As everyone falls silent at her intensity, the princess begins to explain in a tone of abject despair:

“Once, this land was overflowing with monsters. That was because this country had water in greater abundance than others... Aid in that world, the people were forced to choose. To live in lands that had ample water, but were swarming with monsters, or lands with relatively few monsters, but which were harsh, arid wastelands. Both choices were death sentences in their own right. But the artifacts from the distant past made it possible to survive...”

<Evil Points Acquired>

Just as Princess Lydia gets to that part, and everyone is caught up in listening to her story...

I hear the Evil Point acquisition announcement go off, and the ground suddenly bursts upward, throwing everyone into the air other than the Kisaragi personnel. As dirt and screams rain down once more, Belial says without the slightest hint of remorse:

“I’m tired of all these convoluted stories! Summarize, dammit! Summarize!”

“I’ve been thinking this for a while now, but Lady Belial, you really need to work on your patience.”