Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 45 - Chapter 5

Elfaria’s Actions

Saturday, November 26th

When Koutarou woke up, he saw Elfaria’s face in front of him. With that, he remembered that the battle had ended and he was back at the Imperial Palace.

“Were you having a bad dream?”

Elfaria stroked his chest like she had done before. A short while ago, she’d discovered Koutarou sleeping in the courtyard and had stayed by his side ever since. She felt like Koutarou needed that.

“Something like that...” Koutarou tried to raise his body to talk with her. But in the process he discovered Elfaria’s hand pressing on his chest and lay back down on her lap as he started talking. “Sorry, Elle. It was a swing and miss. It’s not going easily.”

The report should have reached her by now, but Koutarou apologized properly anyway. He and the others had gone to Taurus Cobon to get a lead on Maxfern and Grevanas, but it hadn’t gone well. Because of how it was being used, the base they’d discovered wasn’t much of a lead. The only thing they could call a lead was the transmission and the log, but the signal had been camouflaged by being bounced off several relay points, and not even Clan could determine its source.

“Not at all. We have learned a lot from this. So there have been results.” Elfaria smiled as if to tell him that it was enough, and she stroked Koutarou’s chest once more with gentle movements.

“What do you mean?”

“Our enemy will use any means necessary. There are probably several factories like that one.”

“So there’re a bunch of those...” Koutarou’s expression turned dark. If tragedies like that were happening elsewhere too, it was a grave situation.

“But please don’t worry. Thanks to your efforts, we have learned the trends in the supplies that they bring in. Using that as a lead, we should be able to find their other bases.”

“I see, so if you find a ship carrying the same types of supplies to a planet, you’d be able to follow them, huh?”

Sure, they hadn’t found a lead on Grevanas and Maxfern. But through the logs they had discovered, they knew what kind of supplies were brought in and the routes for transporting them. Among those supplies were rare substances that would act as obvious signs. By following those, they should be able to find the other bases. In other words, they had achieved enough for Koutarou not to feel down, which was why Elfaria smiled.

“Not to mention the transport industry is very cooperative with us right now.”

Thanks to the Blue Knight-related business certification mark, transport businesses were cooperating with the government. By pulling some strings, Elfaria should gain their help tracking the rare supplies.

“How wicked you are.” Koutarou smiled wryly.

Noticing that a smile was back on his face, the nature of Elfaria’s smile changed a little. “For your—no, for my happiness, I will even become a villain.”

“The citizens beloved by you must be happy.” Koutarou had recently come to realize that Elfaria was working for the country and its people harder than he’d imagined. Her devotion reminded him of Alaia’s.

“The one I love is you, Koutarou-sama.” That didn’t mean that she didn’t love her country or people. The empress definitely loved her country and people the most. But as a woman, she loved Koutarou.

At those words, any desire to praise her vanished from Koutarou, and he let out a startled cough.

“I will protect your wishes and what you want to protect with my life.” Koutarou loved Forthorthe and the people who lived there, so in the end, and even as a woman, Elfaria would try to protect the country and people. Just as the man she loved wished for the happiness of the country and the people in it, so too did Elfaria.

Koutarou was so surprised he choked again. “L-Love?!”

Elfaria looked at him and laughed. “Hahaha...it was a joke.”

She stroked Koutarou’s chest again. But there was no way of knowing whether that was because he was gasping or because of her deep love for him. Koutarou was busy coughing and didn’t notice the movement of her hand.

“What?! You were just joking?! Don’t scare me like that...”

Elfaria’s words had sounded like the truth to him, which was why he had been surprised. But it seemed he was mistaken. She was just kidding, as usual.

“No, I was serious.”

“I won’t fall for that again.”

“Would you prefer it was a joke?”

When Elfaria said that, her eyes were serious. However, Koutarou didn’t notice and answered as usual.

“If anything...if I keep relying on you like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to recover.”

Koutarou found it strange himself, but lately he felt like he was getting drawn in by Elfaria. Like when she was smiling or wordlessly stroking his chest. It wasn’t unpleasant, but if he left himself to it, time would pass by in a flash, and he couldn’t allow that, given his position.

“So yeah, it being a joke helps.”

“I see...then I will let it be a joke for a while longer.” Elfaria smiled. She looked so happy and full of joy. And her slender fingers continued to gently stroke his chest.

“Ahahaha, I’m no match for you...” Koutarou felt like he was being drawn in even now. If it was a joke, he could leave it be, and sooner or later, it would end. So he closed his eyes as he laughed.

Losing a factory for creating zombies was a painful blow to Maxfern and Grevanas. If anything, it was more of a problem than failing to kill Koutarou.

“How incredibly vexing.” Maxfern leaned against the chair in his office with a displeased expression. The backrest was soft, but it didn’t soften his displeasure.

“Indeed. It would seem they will not just sit and wait.” Grevanas was the same. The unexpected loss was a hard blow to them. But due to a difference in personality, he didn’t show it as much as Maxfern, although the wrinkles in his forehead grew deeper.

“Even so...not bringing anti-government forces directly here was effective,” Grevanas noted.

“So they didn’t get a lead on us?” Maxfern asked.

“Once they showed up, all we had to do was cut off the base. Our caution has paid off.”

“I want soldiers, but keep any information leaks to a minimum. We will need to continue along this course for the moment.”

The silver lining was that the Imperial Army hadn’t gotten any real leads on them. Their side was turning anti-government forces into zombies to avoid information leaks, so there wasn’t any damage beyond losing the facility.

“But being on the losing end doesn’t sit right with me. We should be making a move of our own,” Maxfern grumbled. He wasn’t going to laugh off the loss of the base. He was plotting revenge in his mind. To hit the enemy so that it hurt them more than the loss of the base had hurt him.

“What will you do?” Grevanas asked.

“Haha, I will go for their Achilles’ heel. They’ve put you through a lot too, haven’t they?” He then shared his plan with Grevanas.

“Yes...that is certainly where to aim!” Hearing what Maxfern had in mind, Grevanas’s dried-up face twisted into a smile. Their target included someone he had a true grudge against.

“Hahahahaha, what will you do now, Blue Knight?! Can you really protect everything?!” Maxfern laughed as he stared at a hologram displaying the faces of three people: Clan, Ruth, and Kiriha. They were the brains that supported Koutarou.