Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 46 - Chapter 3

Escape

December 5, Monday

With Forthorthe’s technology, it was easy to find footprints in the forest using image processing. So the first thing Kiriha and the others did was use distortion fields and the PAF to levitate for a while.

“We should land and walk,” Kiriha suggested. “It would be bad if the enemy detected the space distortion.”

“That’s true. They’ll have deployed on the ground by now.” Clan nodded. “Pardomshiha, what is the status of communications in this area?”

“It’s encrypted, so I can’t read it, but it’s clearly picked up in the past few minutes,” Ruth answered.

“They must be in pursuit,” Kiriha concluded.

There still weren’t any forces from the Forthorthe Imperial Army around, so all the messages flying about must be from the enemy. Since the planet was under Imperial control, the Forthorthe Liberation Army was in the middle of enemy territory. Normally, they would want to avoid obvious communication, yet the frequency of messages was increasing because the enemy was in pursuit despite the risks.

“It seems like they are moving as we hoped, for starters,” Ruth said and looked over at Kiriha, who nodded.

“That’s good. The problems start here, though.”

“We have to escape our pursuers, but we can’t lose them completely,” Clan said. “How troublesome.”

The circumstances weren’t too different from when they’d been in the landing craft. Their very presence meant that the enemy, in their pursuit, would seek the opinions of their superior officers, which meant the volume of messages would increase. If things went well, that could help them find clues leading to the enemy stronghold.

“Our survival skills are being put to the test,” Ruth said.

“We should have kept some troops in hiding,” said Clan.

“But we couldn’t afford to let the enemy see them,” Kiriha replied. She had considered putting allies in position ahead of time but had worried that Maxfern and Grevanas would suspect something. Those two were destined enemies of Koutarou, so it would be a mistake to underestimate them.

“I think so too,” Ruth agreed. “Besides...if we’d said that we wanted soldiers in hiding in case we were shot down, Master would have absolutely objected to it.”

Ruth had an additional reason they couldn’t have positioned soldiers ahead of time: Koutarou. He would surely have heard about it, and it wasn’t hard to imagine him objecting to the idea of them being shot down in the first place.

“Is that your opinion as the vice captain of the Knight Order or your intuition as a woman?” Kiriha asked.

“Both,” Ruth boldly replied with a calm look. In the past, that was something she wouldn’t have been able to do. But Ruth now knew that she was of use to Koutarou, both officially and personally.

“So we would have needed to give up on soldiers either way,” Clan replied.

“And we will have to make it home,” Kiriha added. “If we return with any serious injuries, Koutarou will never forgive us.”

The same was true for Clan and Kiriha, which was why they had accepted the risk of getting shot down on purpose. They could accept that risk to allow their beloved to win. They could never sit back and simply be protected.

“Of course.” Ruth nodded. “We have to prove this isn’t just recklessness, but all part of a proper plan.” Her eyes shone brightly, and the same was true for the other two. It was a rough situation. But they would all return home safely.

The haniwas were the first to detect the enemy approaching thanks to their bond and instincts. Scientifically, the data the pair acquired was analyzed and compared by the AI that had spent many long years learning and now detected the enemy’s presence.

“This unnatural gathering of spiritual energy is the enemy, ho!” Karama announced.

“But there are no large gaps in spiritual energy, so they don’t have any large weapons, ho!” Korama added.

“They must want to hide too. If the Imperial Army’s satellites or reconnaissance drones find them, they would just be a target for orbital bombardment,” Kiriha mused.

The enemy was still quite a distance away, so the haniwas’ analysis used a lot of assumptions. But the situation was clear: the Forthorthe Liberation Army had sent out a group in pursuit. A relatively small squad was following the three. But their pursuit couldn’t afford to include anything too flashy since the Imperial Army was watching from above. If detected, they would be obliterated, so they needed to stay low just like Kiriha and the others. For the same reason, they had no large-scale weaponry. Both the pursued and the pursuers were using the trees for cover as they carefully moved.

“How about having the Imperial Army detect us from above?” Clan suggested.

If their allies were above them, it seemed sensible to request reinforcements, but Ruth apologetically shook her head.

“I can not recommend it. It would seem the enemy already has stealth craft in the sky.”

“So we would be attacked before any allies arrived...” Clan nodded. Just as the Imperial Army had eyes in the sky, so too did the Liberation Army. They couldn’t use satellites or reconnaissance drones, but they did have small tactical drones and unmanned craft deployed, which meant that when the trio’s allies discovered them, the enemy would too. Their allies could send unmanned craft to protect them, but the enemy could send missiles and kamikaze drones in turn. Since they would arrive around the same time, the outcome was clear.

“A signal, huh?” Kiriha pondered. “That’s not necessarily a bad idea.” Having listened to the two, it seemed like she had come to a conclusion.

Clan looked at her. “What do you mean, Kii?”

“There’s something I want to try. I need your help.”

“I understand,” Ruth answered.

Clan nodded, somewhat perplexed. “I don’t mind, but...”

With a serious expression, Kiriha explained her plan to them.

Two types of units had been placed on Alaia to assassinate Kiriha, Clan, and Ruth. The first was the missile unit meant to shoot down their ship. That unit had a vehicle equipped with six supersonic missiles, with eight units deployed around the expected point of descent. Three of them had taken part in the attack for a total of eighteen missiles fired. The other type was a normal ground unit, albeit lightly equipped. Its role was to chase down any survivors if the missiles failed to assassinate them, so it needed to be stealthy within enemy territory. For that reason, those units had no vehicles or large weapons; instead, they had only weapons they could carry and relatively small unmanned crafts. The composition was closer to that of a reconnaissance unit than a standard infantry force. Their numbers were also that of a squad: a total of ten. Eight such units had been deployed around the area.

“I thought this would be a simple mission against amateurs, yet we’re struggling to find them.” The squad’s vice captain folded his arms and groaned.

This was one of the eight squads pursuing Kiriha and the others. They were stationed two kilometers away from where the landing craft had crashed and had been sent to investigate. After confirming that the targets were alive, they’d reported to their superior officer and immediately received new orders to follow the survivors.

“Since they haven’t left any footprints, they must know what we can do,” the squad captain said.

“Oh! I think Princess Clan was in charge of the intelligence agency!” the vice captain recalled.

“This is going to be a long day...”

The captain resigned himself to a long fight. There were no footprints around the crash. So much so that one could suspect the survivors had hidden inside of the craft. But the newly created life-detector, which was actually a spiritual energy sensor that soldiers didn’t know about, had confirmed that there was no life aboard, so there was no doubt they’d escaped. Moreover, the survivors had done so in around ten minutes. That wasn’t something a civilian who’d been caught in an accident could pull off. It was clear that their targets had experience in battle. If the squad let their guard down, the survivors would escape.

“Where did they run off to?” the vice captain asked.

“Where would you run to?” the captain replied.

“I would run to my allies...but it’s a long way to walk. The ocean is to the south and isn’t very suitable for hiding. So perhaps the hilly north where I could find a good place to hide?” the vice captain suggested.

The captain nodded. “I think so too.”

The ocean was a few kilometers south. Since the survivors wouldn’t want to be cornered, they probably wouldn’t run there. It made more sense to assume they had escaped to the north, since the forest extended into the hills, making it easy to hide, and there were also other places where they could take refuge, like caves or ravines.

“So, to the north?” the vice captain asked.

“But they are skilled. Wouldn’t they be able to predict that we would think that?” the captain replied.

“Then they may still be hiding around here. We don’t have much time,” the vice captain said.

Assuming their targets knew what they were doing, they could be waiting around the crash site. That could hurt them in the short term, but it would hurt the Liberation Army in the long run, since it was the Liberation Army that was in enemy territory.

“All right, we are going to search this area,” the captain decided.

“What about the north?” the vice captain asked.

“Epasta’s squad was deployed to the northeast. We’ll have them block off the north.”

“I see. Then they will be trapped.”

They would search the surrounding area and leave their allies to block off the north. So unless their targets headed northeast with pinpoint accuracy, they would have no way to escape. Since this was enemy territory, the squad could only search the immediate surroundings of the crash site, so the strategy made sense.

“Okay, everyone move into the forest! The Imperial Army will be all over this place soon!” the captain ordered.

The vice captain relayed the order. “You heard him! Move out!”

Many of their personnel were former Vandarion faction members, so they had a degree of training and morale. Following orders, they entered the forest in an orderly formation. Their decision was the right one, as Kiriha and the others still hadn’t gone far.

“Have some men wear infrared goggles to check our surroundings. We don’t have much time to conduct a thorough search,” the captain noted.

“Understood. We’ll also have some unmanned craft search with acoustic sensors,” the vice captain replied.

“Good,” the captain said with a nod.

They were the hunters but also the hunted, so they would use all means available to search for the survivors. If they failed, it was they who would suffer for it.

Their actions were correct overall, aside from a single miscalculation—the three survivors weren’t the type to run and hide.

Shortly after their search began, something abnormal happened: a small explosion in the air above them.

“What?! What was that?!” the captain asked.

As confusion spread among the soldiers, the wreckage of a machine the size of a large dog rolled across their feet. It was one of the unmanned craft they had sent out.

“The unmanned craft was shot down!” the vice captain shouted.

“Dammit! They discovered our location! Set up a smoke screen and start jamming!” the captain ordered.

“At once!”

With the unmanned craft they had sent out as a precaution destroyed, it made sense for the soldiers to assume that the enemy had done so to launch a surprise attack. In other words, the enemy was coming, and the squad didn’t know where the enemy was yet. It was an extremely dangerous situation.

Fortunately, they were able to deploy a smoke screen and jam signals before the attack to avoid being wiped out. But there was no time to relax. The squad captain gave out further orders.

“Use the remaining unmanned craft to find the enemy!”

“Understood! Wait, what?!” the vice captain exclaimed.

“What is it?! Give your reports clearly!”

“All unmanned craft are...apparently fully functional...” the vice captain stated.

“Impossible! Then what is this destroyed craft?!”

“Warning: incoming bombardment detected from the enemy flying above. Immediate evasion recommended,” the AI reported.

“Is this what they were planning from the start?!” the captain cried.

Immediately afterward, incoming missiles hit the wreckage of the unmanned craft, causing a large explosion. The soldiers were unfortunate for several reasons. The first was that their equipment belonged to the old Vandarion faction, which meant it had previously belonged to the Imperial Army, who used the same equipment, and had mistaken the unmanned craft Clan had delivered to them for their own. Since it was the same type with its signal disguised, they would never have expected that the enemy had given it to them.

Their next bit of misfortune was that the craft had self-destructed, but they had interpreted that as the craft having been attacked and shot down. Who could have predicted that the unmanned craft had sneaked up and destroyed itself?

The third reason for their misfortune was their high degree of skill. There was no way that their unmanned craft would have been shot down for no reason. Since it had to be a sign of an incoming attack, their training had taken over and driven them to set up their defenses. A smoke screen had been deployed and jamming had begun. That was the moment the Forthorthe Imperial Army had learned their exact location. A reconnaissance plane above them had detected the jamming, and when a pilot had gone to visually confirm it, they’d seen the smoke screen. It made sense to assume that the enemy was in the middle of a battle with Kiriha’s group, so the pilot had launched a support attack, firing optically guided missiles, which had struck at the center of the smoke screen.

“They aren’t entirely unlucky,” Kiriha noted. “From their point of view, we could be inside of the smoke screen, so the pilot would have used nonlethal weapons. So the enemy shouldn’t be dead.”

“And we will use this opening to hack their drones,” Ruth said.

Clan’s jaw dropped. “Kii, there really is something wrong with you. I wouldn’t blame the enemy for calling you a devil...” With the self-destruction of a single unmanned craft, Kiriha had taken out an Imperial Army squad. Ruth had lost her craft but gotten four more from the enemy. Since Clan was well-versed in its design, she had already finished hacking them. As a result, their available unmanned craft had quadrupled. It was a complete victory over the enemy, and they had captured their weapons. Moreover, the enemy had been given no leads. It was a complete strategic victory for Kiriha’s side. Clan couldn’t help but pity the captain, whose biggest misfortune was having Kiriha as his enemy.

“How rude,” Kiriha said. “I am nothing but an angel.”

“You have a habit of telling jokes with a straight face,” Clan pointed out.

“Oh my.”

Thanks to the efforts of an angel, the three were able to get rid of their first pursuers. But they couldn’t let their guard down. There were still a lot of enemies around, so they needed to hurry up and join their allies where they had agreed ahead of time.

“If they try, they would emit radio or gravitational waves, and then missiles or bombs would be lobbed their way,” Theia said.

“Then what are they going to do?” Sanae asked.

“They run to a landline and use a phone.”

“So they’re looking for an old-timey phone.”

The problem was that Forthorthe’s technology was too advanced. Since they had technology to send things instantly, they couldn’t attack until they also had sufficient defenses. They would need antiair lasers and rail guns, and a powerful distortion field. The first would intercept any missiles or bombs, and the distortion field would protect them in case the ordnance still exploded. Alternatively, they’d need an old-fashioned phone that didn’t rely on wireless communication, so Kiriha and the others were heading for a base that had prepared those items ahead of time.

“What are we going to do, Koutarou?” Sanae asked.

“You, Landlord-san, and I are going to follow them.”

“What about me and Sanae-nee?” Theia asked.

“Get ahead of them to our hideout. It needs to be protected, and it’ll be faster if we search from both sides.”

The message from Clan had had an overall explanation of the plan as well as the location of their hideout. The group was acting in accordance with her instructions. They needed to safeguard the three girls.

“Then what are we waiting for?!” said Theia.

“Yeah, see you later, everyone,” Sanae-nee added as they ran off. They were heading for the landing craft they’d used to get there, which they now planned to use to get ahead of the missing girls.

“All right, we should go too,” Koutarou agreed.

“I hope they’re not hurt,” Shizuka anxiously said.

“If they are, I’ll punish them.”

“Aha, you know you couldn’t do that,” Shizuka laughed.

“Well, we can at least confiscate their pudding.”

“Ugh, that would be rough!” Sanae cried.

The trio hurried off after their friends. They sounded casual, but they were anything but calm on the inside. Their expressions were somber.

They were using Spirit Vision as their method of pursuit. Maxfern and Grevanas also had Spiritual Energy Technology, but their technological level wasn’t advanced enough that normal units could get their hands on it. In that regard, Koutarou’s side had the upper hand.

“Blue Knight, I’m sure you already know, but you should avoid using Signaltin’s power to talk,” Alunaya warned him. “It’s the same reason as the phones—Grevanas and I would notice. If you’re going to use it, you have to be very close.”

Koutarou smiled wryly. “How vexing...”

The method of communication differed, but it was ultimately the same. They would need to straightforwardly search using Spirit Vision, and that made him impatient.

“The one who grows impatient first is the one who loses in cases like these,” said Alunaya. “Leaders need to have self-control.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Koutarou pumped himself up and focused on his Spirit Vision. Fortunately, there were still spiritual traces of the missing girls. “This is bad. The trail ends here.”

A hundred meters from the crash site, those traces, which wavered like an aurora, disappeared completely.

“I think this is a Spiritual Energy Field,” Sanae concluded with a glance. Since she played with the haniwas often, she’d seen them hide their presence with a Spiritual Energy Field quite a few times.

“The haniwas, huh? I can’t tell where to go from here,” Koutarou replied. With the traces of energy gone, Koutarou had no way of following the trail, but Sanae smiled.

“Hehehe, I can still see it!”

“Good work!”

Koutarou reached out to Sanae, who placed his hand on her head so that he could pat it. Then she grinned. “Okay, I’m satisfied!”

After some head patting, a satisfied Sanae led the way. But Koutarou soon reached out to her again.

“Hold on.”

“Huh?”

Sanae stopped and looked up at him. He’d grabbed her shoulder, his expression confused.

“What is it? Kiriha and the others are that way.” Sanae pointed into the forest.

When she did, Koutarou hurriedly pulled her hand down. “Hang on! Don’t point,” he told her.

“Why not?”

“You’ll give away their location.” He pulled Sanae close and whispered, “So don’t point right at them.”

They couldn’t know if the enemy was watching. Their opponents would have arrived at the crash site before Koutarou’s group, and there was a chance they were lurking nearby to observe them in hopes of figuring out where Kiriha’s group was. The squad that was supposed to do that had already been taken out by Kiriha, but Koutarou was still on guard.

“Oh, I guess so.” Sanae nodded as he made his point, quickly apologizing. “I’m sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

“As long as you understand,” Koutarou answered. “I’m not angry with you.” Seeing how apologetic she looked, he was relieved and let her go.

“Okay. I’ll lead the way by zigzagging,” Sanae announced.

Koutarou nodded. “We’re counting on you.”

Even without pointing, if Sanae walked in a straight line, any enemy watching could figure out where the missing girls were. Assuming they were under surveillance, Koutarou’s group would need to make their way forward with detours.

Knowing Kiriha-san, she would already have escaped while zigzagging, but it’s probably safer for us to do the same...

As Koutarou pondered the situation, he felt eyes on him.

“Hmmmm.” Shizuka cast him a sidelong glance while she was thinking about something herself.

“What?” Koutarou asked.

“You can be surprisingly”—forceful when stopping a girl in a hurry, she was about to say before changing her mind mid-sentence—“considerate about small things.”

It wasn’t entirely untrue, as this was something she had noted before.

“Well, I do have some experience as a commander,” Koutarou explained.

“I see. You were the same two thousand years ago.” Shizuka nodded. She was happy that Koutarou was so reliable. As for what she had been about to say, once everyone was back home safe, she intended to explore it further.

Before long, Sanae-san and Alunaya discovered the enemy. Although they used different methods, they found them at almost the same time.

“There are enemies in the front to the right,” Sanae-san warned them. “The terrain is blocking the view, but they are about two hundred and fifty meters away, Satomi-san.”

Having astral projected, Sanae-san was on lookout in the air, leaving Sanae-chan in charge of her body.

“There are ten,” Alunaya informed them. “Many are holding lumps of metal. There are also four large lumps, probably machines, that are floating. They are a modern squad of warriors.”

He was relying on instinct. He could sense spatial distortions, mana, sound, and smell to draw conclusions.

“Have they not noticed us?” Shizuka whispered with a worried look. She wasn’t very comfortable playing this kind of hide-and-seek for a long period of time.

“It’s okay,” Sanae-san said. “They’re nervous, but there’s no aura turning toward us.”

“Right, good...” Shizuka responded with relief.

Seeing that, Koutarou called out to her. “They might be detecting us, but they could be seeing it as unnecessary information and ignoring it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our presence is being made to look like puppies or kittens,” Koutarou explained.

Since they were close, it was possible that the enemy had already noticed them but ignored them since they saw them as critters. Based on experience, Koutarou’s side was using all kinds of methods to suppress their spiritual energy and body temperatures. Completely concealing their presence was a bad idea due to how unnatural it was and how much energy was expended. Yurika might have been able to erase everything, but Koutarou wasn’t a magical expert, so their current approach was more suitable. Of course, if the enemy looked at them directly, they would see through the disguise, so they couldn’t let their guard down.

Shizuka nodded. “Oh, that makes more sense than hiding everything from sight and hearing range.”

“So what shall we do, Blue Knight?” Alunaya asked. “Just defeating them would be simple, but...”

The expected forces were ten infantrymen and four unmanned craft supporting them. If Shizuka got serious, her side would be victorious in a matter of seconds.

“Based on their path, it doesn’t seem like we are being watched,” Koutarou answered. “So let’s leave them alone and let them pass by.”

Thanks to Alunaya and Sanae-san pointing it out, Koutarou could somewhat sense the enemy’s presence. They were currently on a path that would intersect with the one Koutarou’s group was on.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they were being watched after checking out the crash site, so Koutarou decided to wait in hiding and pass behind the enemy.

“Why? Shouldn’t we just take them out?” Sanae-chan asked. As someone who preferred to keep things simple, she felt it was better to defeat the enemy where they were. That way, there would be fewer enemies and Kiriha and the others would be safer.

“Then they’ll assume the girls are here and send in everyone,” Koutarou replied.

“Oh, that would be bad.” Sanae-chan nodded. If a Liberation Army squad was taken out, their superiors would assume one of two things had happened: either their targets had defeated them, in which case they would gather their forces in the area, or reinforcements had defeated the targets, which would mean those reinforcements were also looking for the girls in the area and would deploy their soldiers accordingly. So when thinking of Kiriha and the others, it was best to let the enemy be. With fewer clues to follow, the troops had to spread out to cover a wide area.

“Wait a minute, Satomi-kun,” Shizuka said. “Why don’t you think they have any clues to lead them to Kiriha-san and the others?”

Shizuka could sense the soldiers passing by ahead of them, since she was sharing Alunaya’s sensations. But that wasn’t enough for her to understand Koutarou’s decision.

“If they had proper information, they wouldn’t go that way,” said Koutarou. “And they would be rushing too.”

The direction the soldiers were moving in was one hundred and twenty degrees off from the direction Koutarou was headed. Even considering the zigzagging pattern they were moving in, it was far from where the missing trio was. Moreover, several hours had passed since the crash, so if the enemy was chasing after the girls, they would be rushing.

“Since they don’t know where Kiriha-san and the others are, they are looking for reinforcements like us?” Shizuka clarified.

“They should be. They would want to connect with reinforcements and follow or beat them to their destination.”

“In other words, attacking them is just what they want,” Sanae-san concluded.

“That’s so scary! War is scary!” Sanae-chan commented.

The enemy was pursuing Kiriha’s group while searching for reinforcements. Without seeing through that kind of mindset, Kiriha and the others could be in great danger. For that reason, they had to exhibit the utmost caution.

No wonder Kiriha-san and the others are being targeted...

Normally, it was Kiriha, Ruth, and Clan who were concerned about that kind of mindset. They would prepare the way so that the others didn’t have to think about it. But right now, those three weren’t here, so every decision took precious time. Koutarou felt how useful those three were now more than ever. He didn’t even want to think about what it would be like to manage without them until he settled things with Maxfern. So for both personal and public reasons, he had to get the three girls back.

Four hours had passed since the Liberation Army had shot down the target landing craft. They had been searching the area since then but still hadn’t found their targets. The trio in question had vanished like smoke.

“Don’t tell me they were never on board to begin with,” Maxfern muttered.

“That is impossible. The spiritual energy sensor detected the residual thoughts of the crew,” Grevanas said.

“So they’ve skillfully been buying time... The more time passes, the more advantageous the situation becomes for them.”

He slammed the armrest of his chair in frustration. They hadn’t been able to escape, as a new fleet from the Imperial Army had arrived. They’d also confirmed that a ground force had descended to the crash site, so their targets hadn’t gotten to safety yet. That meant they were still active on the surface. The reinforcements were probably a rapid reaction force, and once a little more time passed, normal soldiers would be deployed in numbers that far surpassed the current ones. That would be the end of the Liberation Army’s hunt for the girls. The tables would turn and it would be they who were being hunted.

“We probably have less than two hours,” Grevanas concluded.

The rapid reaction force had arrived after four hours, which must have been a rather reckless journey. If they traveled using the ordinary method, it would take six hours, so there were less than two hours left before more soldiers arrived. They needed to kill their targets before then.

“We have to be bold here, Grevanas,” said Maxfern.

“I agree. But we will need to do something beforehand.”

Healthy girls could walk around sixteen kilometers in four hours, but given the wooded terrain, they’d probably made half of that distance. Even if they put real effort in, they would have gotten ten kilometers at most. It was a wide area, so a bold move—such as using the waste—required narrowing down that area a bit more.

“Do you have a plan?” Maxfern asked.

“I am thinking of summoning magical beasts to chase them down.”

His idea was to use wave tactics by summoning a vast number of weak magical beasts to search for the three. There was no need for the creatures to actually kill them. All they needed to do was find a trace so that a human squad could be sent in to finish the job.

“I will use fairies,” Grevanas said. “They are smart, fast, and cost little mana.”

Fairies were small humanoid creatures ten centimeters tall with wings growing out of their backs. They were the perfect fit for what Grevanas wanted. Moreover, they could also use simple magic, making them highly useful pursuers.

Maxfern shook his head. “That won’t work, Grevanas.” He didn’t think the fairies could chase the three down.

“Why is that? They can hardly be called diligent, but they are ideal for this situation...”

Fairies had a clear weakness, which was that they couldn’t take a hit. An even bigger weakness was that they were very talkative. They would always be chatting with each other. So Grevanas would ordinarily never summon them. But he couldn’t think of a magical beast better suited to the situation.

“Fairies would be fine against a normal enemy,” Maxfern explained. “The problem is that our targets have fought plenty of these kinds of battles.”

Maxfern didn’t think the idea was wrong. Fairies were suitable for searching a large area, even if they could be noisy. But Kiriha and the others had used similar methods.

“They have fought using all kinds of techniques and technologies,” he continued. “They should easily be able to surmise what we are trying to do and will have countermeasures for science, magic, and spiritual energy—countermeasures that we won’t even notice.”

Sure, Maxfern’s side had caught up in techniques. They also had access to spiritual energy and the latest science. But what about using those things in battle? Two thousand years had passed since the Blue Knight had assumed the mantle of hero. In the current age, he would no doubt have tried all kinds of combinations. Meanwhile, Maxfern and Grevanas had little in the way of that sort of knowledge, so Maxfern didn’t think it would be wise to challenge them to their own game.

“But if we don’t do something—”

“Naturally,” Maxfern interrupted him. “That is why we will use a method that they have never used, Grevanas!”

“And what would that be?” His wrinkled face twisted. Despite his intelligence, he couldn’t read Maxfern’s intentions.

“You will summon magical beasts that systematically hunt. Magical beasts that hunt in a pack and don’t rely on mana, but vision, hearing, smell, and a high degree of intelligence, and can communicate as well. They’ll be harder to use than magical creatures or corpses, but in this situation they will be the most reliable.”

Maxfern was telling Grevanas to use the power of wild beasts to hunt their targets. Even if their targets used all means to protect themselves, they couldn’t completely block out all five senses. Especially not against beasts with stronger senses than theirs. The beasts’ power would be even greater when they worked together. Wild beasts didn’t have much in the way of intelligence, making it difficult for them to communicate with Grevanas. They would also be slower than fairies that could fly too. But the merit of not fighting on the same stage as the Blue Knight and his allies was big.

“I see!” Grevanas exclaimed. “As expected of Maxfern-sama!” With that, he finally understood Maxfern’s intent.

Maxfern-sama is right. By putting a pack at multiple points, we’ll flush those girls out!

“How about it? Can you do it?” Maxfern asked.

“Please give me a moment...”

Grevanas thought hard about the plan. After considering how many creatures he could summon, how much land a pack could cover, and all other kinds of factors, he reached a conclusion.

“Maxfern-sama, I believe it is possible.”

“Then put it into action right now,” Maxfern ordered.

“After this, however, I will not be able to use magic for a while,” Grevanas added. Beasts required more mana than fairies. Even if he used all of the gems he’d stored mana in, it would just barely be enough to summon all of the necessary beasts. After using up all of his mana, Grevanas would be nothing but an old man.

“That’s fine! This will all have been for nothing if we don’t find them anyway! Do it!”

“At once!” Grevanas nodded and immediately departed the control room, while thinking, Maxfern-sama is as reliable now as he was two thousand years ago... He is the one most suited to rule the world!

With those emotions in his heart, he left to carry out his big job. He was more determined than ever to use his powers to bring Maxfern to the top.