That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 2 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

The Offrey Earldom

ARROGANZ MADE ITS LANDING on the deck of the Bartfort warship. There, our allies and the Bartfort knights had already captured and bound a number of pirates.

“Nicks!” I cried the moment my hatch opened. “You okay?!”

My brother marched toward me, lips pulled into a thin, hard line. “You’ve got some nerve, asking that after using me as bait.”

Seeing him unharmed, relief washed over me. I heaved a small sigh before retorting, “I saved you, didn’t I?”

He sneered. “There you go, mouthing off again. Anyway, I assume you’re setting off? We can’t go anywhere ourselves for a while yet.”

I surveyed our surroundings and realized our allies were busy seizing the enemy’s ships. The sight surprised me, since the knights we’d brought from our territory usually seemed pretty unreliable. They’d proven themselves dependable on the battlefield, however. So far, they’d captured every single enemy pirate without even one slipping their net. My old man had assured me that these knights were battle-hardened veterans. He hadn’t been kidding.

In any case, mopping up and apprehending prisoners would preoccupy them for the foreseeable future, leaving them unable to help with anything else. That was fine, though; Nicks had carried out more than his share of the plan. In fact, he’d exceeded my expectations.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got it all worked out,” I said. “And the Roseblades agreed to lend their assistance in the rest of this.”

The moment I dropped that name, Nicks pulled a face. He looked somewhat relieved by this news, but also somehow concerned. “You know, of the people I’d have thought to go to for help, the Roseblades were pretty much last.”

The way he said it suggested he had doubts about my choice. He and Deirdre were in the same grade, and she was quite a unique character. But maybe Nicks also knew something about the Roseblades that I wasn’t privy to.

“I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me about this,” I said.

“I don’t figure they’re bad people or anything, but there’re a lot of rumors circulating. Never mind me, though—you better hurry up and get out there, right?”

Shrugging, I climbed back into my cockpit and yanked the hatch closed. 

Outside, Nicks waved. “Go save Marie!”

Arroganz slowly lifted from the deck, accelerating as I directed it deeper into Offrey territory.

“That cost more time than we planned,” Luxion informed me. “This is why I suggested exterminating the pirates with my main ship for greater efficiency.”

“Arroganz was already overkill, and you know it. Besides, I’d have a hard time sleeping at night if I let you go through with a murder spree.”

“I fail to comprehend your reasoning, Master. No Holfortian law forbids us to maim or kill these enemies on the battlefield. By insisting on capturing the pirate captain alive, you merely complicated the situation. His survival was irrelevant so long as we obtained the key item in his possession.”

“It’s not a matter of legality,” I explained. “It’s a moral issue.”

At his full power, I knew Luxion could wipe out the pirates in the blink of an eye, but there was no need to resort to such an extreme. A massacre wrought by overwhelming force simply wouldn’t sit right with me. I wanted to avoid taking life as much as possible—at least for now. Once you crossed that moral line and let yourself kill someone, it desensitized you, and doing so again became that much easier. I wanted to avoid that pattern. Even if needing to take a man’s life one day was inevitable, I didn’t want to do it yet.

“Luxion, doesn’t the thought of a murder spree bother you even a little?”

“Murder means killing people, but to me, new humans are not people.”

Translation: “No, it wouldn’t bother me at all to wipe out hundreds of them.” But personally, I didn’t want my partner to resort to mass murder.

***

Since the Offrey heir was getting married today, the earl gave his people the day off. A city festival was held with stalls lining the central plaza, and street performers gathered to enliven the occasion.

Yet on what should’ve been an auspicious day of celebration, the citizens wore dubious looks. It was hard to get excited with all the soldiers in the streets, clad in armor with swords hanging at their sides, keeping an eye on everyone. The ostentatious festivities perplexed people, making it difficult for anyone to derive genuine enjoyment from the events.

“Is there really a wedding happening?”

“I saw some soldiers interrogating people, asking whether they saw anyone suspicious.”

“I heard a rumor that Lord Ricky’s bride had a lover back at the academy.”

“He stole his bride from another man? If this lover was at the academy, it must’ve been a fellow noble, right?”

“The Offreys must be afraid he’ll come take his beloved back, then.”

“You there!” bellowed a soldier who caught wind of the murmuring. “Don’t spread slander! Just enjoy the festival!”

His menacing air was shared by his comrades, making the rumormongers flinch and scurry away.

At their core, the Offreys were more merchants than aristocrats. They ruled their lands and subjects far more stringently than most fellow nobles. They levied heavier taxes, and tax collection was inflexible. Naturally, their subjects weren’t very fond of them.

An explosion echoed through the city plaza. The earsplitting crack was entirely unlike the sound of bursting fireworks that usually marked the start of a festival. Civilians craned their necks, scanning the area for the source of the noise.

“Did you hear that explosion just now?”

“Was it cannon fire? No—too quiet for that.”

“It was a gunshot!”

As soon as the bystanders identified the sound, they scrambled away, scattering like newly hatched spiders.

The soldiers craned their heads back. Armors piloted by knights streaked through the skies above; the enemy had shown up after all. One group of soldiers climbed a nearby lookout tower, from which they surveyed and ­reported the situation to their comrades on the ground.

“It’s a warship! They’ve got—too many to count! The enemy flag is…a rose and a sword?! It’s the Roseblades!”

The blood drained from all their faces. The Roseblades were infamous enemies of the Offreys; if House Roseblade was here, the battle was sure to be as intense as it was bloody.

The infantry captain on-site gripped his rifle tightly. “Why attack us now?!”

A younger soldier thrust a finger at the sky. “Captain, look!”

Following the young soldier’s finger, the captain spotted a black Armor locked in combat with Offrey suits.

***

“As we thought—you’ve come to steal back your girlfriend, haven’t you, you little upstart?!” The enemy knight fired erratically at us, even though we were in the skies directly above his capital. He wasn’t the only opposition I faced; a number of suits launched from the ground below and raced toward us.

“What a pain,” I grumbled. “There’s no end to them.”

“Master,” Luxion said, “there’s no time to waste. Once you cut through their ranks, leave the rest to the Roseblades’ men.”

“Yeah. Good idea.”

I’d led the charge to begin with to reduce casualties as much as possible. My comrades had accompanied me to save Marie, and if the ensuing chaotic battle injured them, I’d never hear the end of it.

“Before we go save Marie, I think Arroganz and I should have a little fun.”

“There seems little ‘fun’ to be had, since you cannot use the majority of the equipment I prepared for you,” Luxion said bitterly.

“If I whipped out firearms in the middle of a city, there’s no telling how many people would die in the crossfire.” 

As we bickered, I steered my suit, foot pressing the acceleration pedal beneath.

The design of the humanoid suits darting through the sky was generally simple. In this world, what were called “Suspension Stones” existed. Once you connected one to a magic power reactor, all you had to do was point whatever object you were powering in your preferred direction to propel it forward, modulating the energy input to control your acceleration through the air.

In my old world, engineers had to concern themselves with aerodynamic shapes when designing stuff like jets, but this world was way more straightforward. Suits were human-shaped primarily to simplify their controls. You needed magic to pilot a suit, and maneuvering that suit was much easier if its form was humanlike—something you were familiar with. Suits could also deploy a force field to reduce wind pressure as needed.

In the beginning, this world’s technology had made flexible, lightweight full-body armor suits easiest to ­pilot. However, as techniques developed over time, those suits grew to become the enormous Armors employed today.

Luxion interrupted my thoughts. “I will, however, be more willing to help you reduce casualties if it increases Marie’s chance of survival.”

“You should’ve said that to begin with.”

With no weapons whatsoever, I charged the enemy, using my bare hands to crush an Armor’s head and tear it off. Once I ripped off the cockpit hatch on the suit’s chest, the pilot was in full view. His face morphed into a look of sheer terror. I gave his Armor a gentle kick, letting it plummet to the ground.

A barrage of bullets pelted Arroganz, but my suit remained perfectly unscathed. Seemingly frustrated by how impervious my Armor was to its attacks, another knight’s suit approached with sword and shield in hand. Its plating was all white with extravagant golden embellishments.

“I hope you have no illusions about making it out alive after attacking us,” the pilot said as he slashed at me. “You may be allied with the Roseblades, but the entire kingdom is on our side!” 

He was implying we were criminals for launching an attack on them. I burst out laughing at his delusional protest. 

Arroganz threw its arms open wide, then slung them around the enemy in a crushing embrace. The air split with the sound of cracking metal. The panicked knight pulled an emergency lever and popped the cockpit hatch, leaping out to escape. I lowered myself and the empty Armor to the city plaza below and finished crushing the husk into a lump of scrap. As for the pilot, he’d managed to land in the plaza fountain, apparently uninjured.

“Do you really think I’d make such a fatal mistake?” I asked, turning to him. “I’ve got rock-solid proof that you guys are in bed with the air pirates. The Roseblades are taking action in the capital as we speak. His Majesty knows all about your many crimes.” The sort of maniacal smile only a villain would wear spread across my face.

The knight who’d fallen into the fountain gritted his teeth, glowering at me.

“Enemy Armors approaching,” Luxion warned.

“Get my battle-axe and staff.”

“As you command.”

Luxion ejected the requested items from the container on my back. I took one in each hand and combined them into a halberd, then swung it through the air at the incoming Armor, cleaving straight through its limbs. Without legs or arms, the Armor lost its balance and smashed to the ground, rolling several feet.

I held the halberd in one hand and raised the other to beckon the next guys close—really goading them. “Come get me, you useless weaklings!”

Several infuriated Armors streaked toward me in a futile attempt to take me down.

“Master,” Luxion said, his tone oddly exasperated for an artificial being, “such behavior is unbecoming.”

It was a parade of destruction. My halberd tore through arms, legs, and occasionally even heads. Armors fell around me, one after another. Soon enough, they were a pile of steel husks.

“Since you guys picked a fight with me, let me fill you in on a little secret—I’m the kind of guy who always arranges victory before going into battle!”

Once I’d taken down about seven Armors, Luxion noted, “If you were always so methodical, it would be much easier cleaning up after you. It is terribly disappointing that you only take things seriously at times like these.”

Was this AI incapable of conversation unless it was nagging me? I was beginning to think the answer was yes.