Chapter 112

Chapter 112 - Coastal Bay (2)

Cassandra is a woman overflowing with ambition.

It was entirely her choice to leave her matrilineal line at a young age to follow her patrilineal line, and to start her career as a warrior in the Blackhand clan.

Because although Cassandra's blood was noble, thicker blood existed in the royal castle, so she could not ascend to the position of queen.

Rather than living brightly as the tail of a dragon in the palace, she wanted to challenge for the position of chieftain in the matrilineal society of the Blackhand clan.

She was a young lady tightly bundled with a love for power and a thirst for ascending, possessing just as much wariness. Adding her experience living in the royal castle to that, Eugene's boldness couldn't help but be puzzling.

'Is that knight not even afraid of rebellion?'

As far as Cassandra knew, the Lord's direct subordinates were merely a squire and two Elf magicians.

Looking broader, there were the human mercenaries who accompanied him from the beginning, and Dwarf mercenaries who, although known for a short time, were famous for their loyalty.

Even taking all of them into consideration, they were reverse-surrounded by Dark Elves who vastly outnumbered them.

No matter how close he was to Rex and his aides, his attitude of rapidly accepting the tribespeople looked complacent to Cassandra.

-I expected him to be somewhat wary of us, even if not placing us under surveillance.

-Exactly. He's completely turned off his attention, hasn't he?

Cassandra and her subordinates were even flustered by the sight of him freely letting them roam and do whatever they wanted anywhere in the castle.

However, they could soon understand. The source of Eugene's overflowing confidence, that is.

-This is the Lord's exclusive area.

-Looks like he hid some gold and silver treasures or something?

When the newly joined female warriors showed curiosity toward some restricted areas, the existing mercenaries stopped them.

-It's not like that. It's because the castle rejects the entry of any being other than the Lord.

-???

Even excluding the place where the castle's core was located, there were some places only Eugene could enter. This was mainly true for places with secret passages exclusive to the Lord.

-The Lord didn't exactly forbid it, but you'll get a bitter taste if you enter as you please, you know?

-Hmph!

The mercenaries speaking provocatively with a smirk somehow had a way of getting on their nerves.

-Aaaargh!

A few female warriors stepped forward spiritedly, only to come to their senses after being battered by a storm that shook their bodies and minds.

[We will soon depart this place. Everyone return inside the castle and conduct a headcount.]

Eugene announcing the notice ahead of teleportation was also a special experience. There was no need to have servants with loud voices go around shouting or blow a trumpet.

His voice echoed throughout the entire castle via the ventilation shafts. It felt as if his will turned into a spiritual wave and crashed into everyone's souls.

Flash!

In an instant, they crossed deserts and mountain ranges, completely relocating the colossal castle.

Rumble.

The massive castle gates, which would normally require a bunch of strong warriors to stick to them, opened on their own with a single gesture of his hand.

As the desert they had been in just moments ago vanished and a blue sea unfolded, Cassandra's subordinates stared blankly.

They knew it in their heads from hearing stories, but experiencing it firsthand was truly marvelous.

'He's on a completely different dimension from other lords who just sit on thrones and play monarch.'

The title of Lord of the Moving Castle did not stem from a genealogy written on paper or the acknowledgment of the castle's residents.

It stemmed solely from the authority Eugene exercised. On top of that, he himself was a warrior possessing terrifying martial prowess.

Under these circumstances, there was absolutely no need to worry about usurpation.

Eugene walked towards the completely opened castle gate entrance.

"My dear residents. Look at the blue waves outside. It is a true sea, on a different level from the freshwater lakes of northern Roman."

The Lord pointing at the beach from the entrance pouring with light.

"The sea of Barcia is cold, and the sea of Gord is incredibly rough. However, the sea of Samur is warm and peaceful. I hope you fully enjoy it during the short time given to us."

As Eugene finished his words and gestured, everyone flooded out.

Although they came here with a purpose, grasping the surrounding geography was always important work.

According to protocol, Dwarf warriors stood guard around the perimeter, and mounted scouts departed for reconnaissance.

The rest of the people laughed and chatted with expectations of the southern sea they were seeing for the first time in their lives.

A single word popped into the mind of Cassandra, who was quietly observing that sight.

Legitimacy.

Although Eugene was no king, a more fitting expression to describe his existence right now did not come to mind.

'A rebellion won't ever happen in this castle.'

Cassandra shook her head and followed her subordinates urging her from ahead.

It was also her first time seeing a real sea. For a moment, her ambition and competitiveness subsided, and curiosity and anticipation for play befitting a young woman swelled up.

A soft smile she herself didn't even realize bloomed on Cassandra's lips.

* * *

Caw caw.

The chirping sounds of seabirds, distinctly different from mountain birds on land.

"They cry specifically."

"They do, right?"

When Eugene turned around at the voices of the marveling tribal warriors, they were just about to aim their bows and shoot.

"Hold on!"

"What is the matter?"

"Why are you trying to shoot out of nowhere?"

"Because they are prey...? And I'm curious about the taste."

"..."

The instincts of born hunters seemed to incite enthusiasm for a new hunt rather than the mood provided by the unfamiliar scenery and creatures.

Eugene bent down and picked up a crab crawling on the nearby sandy beach.

Crabs wandering around beaches are usually tiny, but the ones seen here were a little larger than Eugene's palm.

"Bird meat is all the same anyway. This guy will taste better."

"Urrgh."

The tribal warrior made a disgusted expression looking at the belly of the crab wriggling its multiple legs.

"This is really delicious, you know. Your mind will change once you try it."

"To think you're trying to pass up this precious thing."

While the mercenaries who had been with him since Bonyard defended Eugene, some scattered to gather crabs. It was due to habits ingrained from a long mercenary life.

They were living in luxury eating good food every day under Eugene, but the absolute majority of mercenaries have terrible field meals.

Dried-up bread, mysterious porridge, or low-grade jerky as hard as a rock with completely unchewable sinews attached. That was it.

Even that was deducted from their individual wages, so they would self-supply food whenever they had the chance like this.

Picking fruits from trees was a given, and they would set traps around the campsite or rip off handfuls of crops from unlucky private houses.

"Looking around is fine, but tell them to watch their heads. Some people get hit by those fruits and die."

"Understood."

Where Eugene pointed, a few mercenaries skilled at climbing trees were scaling palm trees.

"Amazing!"

"There's nothing to hold onto, so how are they climbing up?!"

Surrounded by tribal children looking up with excited faces and cheering them on. The rough mercenaries must have shrugged their shoulders as smiles appeared on their fierce faces.

It was because they felt as if they had settled in a village and were living there while working as mercenaries.

A sense of stability and belonging to a community that could not be tasted in a mercenary's life.

This was a factor that made the mercenaries working in the Moving Castle as satisfied as their wages or spoils.

Sploosh!

"Eek! It's cold!"

"Pthoo! It really is salty?"

Tribal members with their shins dipped in the seawater were running around here and there.

"It is truly nice that there is no pollution."

Every part of the beach entering Eugene's eyes was clean. A beach rolling with various garbage existing in his memories was nowhere to be found.

Yellow sand, conch shells, and crabs fleeing for their survival from the mercenaries were everything. Things like cutting feet on sharp pieces of glass would absolutely not happen.

Hop!

Homi jumping backward as if dodging the incoming wave and chasing the receding one.

"The wind is cold, but the sunlight is warm, so it feels nice."

Valda fixing her fluttering hair while wearing a straw hat.

Being together with those two made him feel like he came on a trip with family. A mature older sister and a cute younger sister. Is this what it feels like if close siblings went on a trip?

Thump thump.

Eugene touched his chest. It wasn't a splendid banquet nor a moment of achieving a great victory. It was merely a single, unremarkable piece of scenery.

However, a faint feeling of happiness that could not be exchanged for anything else was filling Eugene's heart.

* * *

Because the era was what it was, slave traders existed in every country. However, there were rules even in the slave trade.

There had to be justifiable reasons, such as a person with no family to support them becoming a prisoner of war, lacking the ability to repay debts, or being judged for a major crime.

Betraying a perfectly fine mercenary group, trapping them, and trying to sell them off fell under evil paths even by the standards of slave traders. Especially regarding a group close to a quasi-aristocracy like the Blackhand clan.

"This is the place the adventurer spoke of."

The mercenary in charge of the interrogation spoke. Eugene's army surrounded an abandoned temple located quite far from nearby cities.

"They say even the nearby villagers don't approach here."

"It is said rumors tied to this place are incredibly bad, such as wolves' howls constantly being heard and people going missing."

Eugene and Rex laughed at the additional reports from their subordinates.

It was a story that ordinary travelers or merchants would dread and avoid. However, for them right now, it only instilled the conviction that this was the bastards' base.

"Looks like we came to the right place."

"Wolf howls, seriously. Ordinary people would be scared, but this is incredibly sloppy. There are absolutely no traces of a wolf pack settling in the vicinity."

In the wild, struggles for dominance are fierce even in areas that seem to have absolutely nothing special.

If wolves with a pack lifestyle had settled down, there were no traces that should rightly be there. Lower predators that should have been kicked out right away were also brazenly managing their own territories.

In short, it meant it was a rumor someone artificially manufactured.

Of course, this was a part that only those equipped with sufficient martial prowess, confidence, and hunter's wisdom could see through.

"Anyway, it's a relief. It would have been more of a headache if they were guys operating with bribes and payoffs inside a city."

"Guys like that wouldn't even dare think of touching our tribe."

Establishing a group base in a city required more money, time, and effort than imagined. Even those belonging to the underworld naturally chose safe businesses with low risks to dip their hands into.

Only those capable of abandoning their base and fleeing anytime push came to shove could concoct such a scam.

"Will you attack immediately?"

The mercenaries were eager with expectations of an easy victory and spoils. This was because, unlike the temple Cassandra defended, its defensive capabilities were incredibly weak, and there were no guards protecting the entrance.

"It looks so sloppy that it conversely makes me anxious whether there might be a risk of traps."

Indoor combat has many variables. Unlike open terrain, it is difficult to pull one's body back in a pinch, and it was an absolute advantage for the defending side.

Since they were bastards concocting a plan bold enough to kidnap the Blackhand Mercenary Group, there might be a hidden move.

"I admit they are bastards with big guts, but they are mere slave traders. Even then, they are guys who leave the direct kidnapping to outside mercenary groups. You wouldn't need to worry excessively against guys like this."

Rex spoke confidently.

Those working in the underworld prefer handling everything completely by themselves if possible.

Since secrecy is their lifeblood, having many bridges connected to the outside is never good. Even so, if they had to link up with a mercenary group, it meant they were guys who had no choice but to do so.

"That is true too. Begin entry."

There were no war cries before the battle. Instead, only the sounds of footsteps moving in unison and iron armor clanking could be heard.

* * *

"Damn it! How did they find out and come here?"

Inside, a chaotic uproar actually occurred.

They kidnapped travelers or nearby villagers if they approached, and they periodically made tamed wolves howl to cut off the footsteps of people.

The only ones who occasionally came were groups of adventurers overflowing with the desire to explore. There had never been an instance of an army hundreds strong flooding in like now.

Since gathering and moving an army all costs money, this was a place with absolutely no value for that.

For reference, most of those adventurers were caught while camping on top of or near the temple and ended up wearing slave collars.

"Just who the hell are they?"

"It's a mixed unit of humans, Dwarves, and Dark Elves."

"What the hell..."

The slave traders who recalled competing organizations one by one were astonished by the identities of the unimagined enemies.

One person who focused on the Dark Elf part among them frowned.

"Could it be that the Condor Mercenary Group bastards' job went wrong?"

"That's why I told you! No matter how big the deal is, you don't touch knife-ears."

"But those Condor guys aren't the type to handle things so sloppily..."

The Condor Mercenary Group had collaborated with them multiple times up until now.

Their skill in deceiving and dragging even easy targets to a place advantageous for them to devour instead of just pouncing. It was enough for even the slave traders to feel admiration.

"Did the Blackhand Mercenary Group come for retaliation?"

"Even if things went wrong, it doesn't make sense for them to arrive this fast."

"Enough! Enough! Fire has fallen strictly on our feet right now, so what is the point of talking about past events? Things like that can be thought about later."

The enemies clearly seemed convinced they were in the temple. They had to pack their wealth and luggage immediately and flee through the secret passage.

"What about the VIP guests and the merchandise?"

The VIP guests were outsiders who provided convenience in exchange for being provided secretive pleasures by them. The merchandise went without saying; they were the slaves meant for trade.

"Take everyone! Prioritize the VIP guests especially. We can just get new merchandise again, but if we fall out with the VIPs, it's over."

If that happened, they would never be able to properly set roots in this vicinity again.

People, who were merchandise, overflowed in the world. The most important asset was always personal connections. Especially for bastards like them who weren't welcomed anywhere.

"Urgently advise the priests to escape as well!"

"Understood."

The problem was that the army surrounding the outside arrived excessively swiftly and also launched an attack.

"Kill anyone who resists!"

"Th-these bastards, where do they think this is?!"

"What the? That guy doesn't seem like a slave trader?"

"Is it your first or second time doing business? Just catch everyone first!"

Hearing shouts, screams, and the sounds of weapons clashing, the complexions of the leadership turned ashen.

For an army of this size to storm in, they had to expend time arriving at various bases, stationing, and departing.

A series of response guidelines formed on the premise that spies would send warnings in the meantime became utterly useless.

"Just how?!"

An invasion by an army that seemed to have just dropped abruptly from thin air no matter how they thought about it. From the slave traders' perspective, they could only let out screams.