Chapter 44: ……Did this person get jumped by muggers or something…?

"This looks worse than I imagined."

Dias muttered as he looked over the soldiers slumped along the corridor.

Dora Fortress, which they had finally reached, had once again sealed the gate on the highway linking Granseal and Larentia, just like the last time they had been here.

But unlike before, the weapons installed atop the long walls stretching east to west were aimed inward—toward Granseal’s own territory.

Inside the fortress, soldiers who looked completely worn down were sitting wherever they could find space in the passageways.

From the moment they left the forest until they reached the fortress, they had crossed open wasteland with nowhere to hide. Along the way, they had passed several groups fleeing from Granseal.

"So the royal capital really has already fallen, huh…"

"That’s why we should’ve just flown straight in by plane, nya!"

While they waited in the room where a fortress representative was supposed to meet them, Natsumi’s muttered comment prompted Ririka to snap at me.

"Hey, cut us some slack. We had our own problems to deal with. Even an interstellar fleet doesn’t have unlimited weapons—you’ve gotta be careful."

In reality, since none of the ships had taken damage, it wasn’t that big of a concern. Still, I’d been nagged about it enough times that I offered a half-hearted excuse.

Ririka shot me a suspicious look, but Beatrix—who had remained standing a step behind us, not even taking the chair she’d been offered—spoke up instead.

"The soldiers do look exhausted, but there don’t seem to be many wounded. If it was a surprise attack through a warp gate like in Larentia, there probably wasn’t any major fighting, right?"

"Exactly. Charging in under those circumstances would just make the chaos worse."

"You actually thought about that, nya…?"

Ririka sagged in disbelief at how quickly I latched onto Beatrix’s comment, then flopped down carelessly. He stretched his legs out in a way that was decidedly improper for someone wearing a short-skirted maid outfit.

Right after that, the door flew open, and the person introduced as the fortress’s representative burst into the room.

"To think that Lady Ririka and her companions would return in this national crisis—what incredible fortune! You’re worth a hundred soldiers!"

The representative was a pervert.

Beatrix stepped closer behind me and whispered in my ear.

"…Did this person really get robbed or something…?"

From a common-sense standpoint, it was a perfectly reasonable question.

The woman who had appeared as Dora Fortress’s representative—Princess and knight of the Kingdom of Granseal, Her Highness Evangelin—was wearing an utterly deranged outfit. It used the bare minimum of fabric to barely conceal the absolute essentials.

Even before, she had worn barely-qualifying bikini armor made mostly of transparent parts and questionable life choices. Now, even that was gone. Instead, a strip of white cloth that looked like it had been torn from a curtain was somehow wrapped around her chest and hips.

On closer inspection, the fabric itself was glossy, finely laced, and looked expensive. She was also wearing boots like the other soldiers, so it wasn’t as though she lacked proper clothing altogether.

Besides, the soldiers who were presumably her subordinates were all wearing proper uniforms with armor.

"W-What happened to you, nya…?"

Still at a loss, Ririka cautiously lobbed an extremely broad question at the pervert.

"…Mm. The royal capital, Granbaria, was suddenly occupied by the Aste Empire’s army when they appeared inside the temple…"

It was vague, but more or less what we had expected.

"I-I see, nya… Actually, Larentia’s capital was taken the same way, and we came to ask for help, but… I guess that won’t be possible, nya…"

"I’m sorry… We only barely managed to flee this far with those who refused to submit to the Empire and continued resisting… It all happened so suddenly that I couldn’t even bring the sword and armor I inherited from my mother…"

Now I understood why she wasn’t wearing that freakish armor—but I still had no idea why she wasn’t wearing normal clothes instead.

"Wait a second. Larentia’s capital—Larentinia—was basically abandoned because its city functions were already wrecked for various reasons, so we moved our base elsewhere. But Granseal’s capital was still intact—maybe a little dirty, but functioning normally, right? How did it get taken so quickly?"

This time it was Natsumi, who had been listening quietly, who spoke up.

I’d been too distracted by the outfit to think about it, but now that it was pointed out, it really was a valid question.

"…My brother surrendered immediately."

Ah.

Right. That guy existed.

The limp, good-looking prince who never quite hit the mark.

"What the hell was that pretty boy thinking? Just because you’re handsome doesn’t mean you get to be spineless. This is exactly why humanitarians and pacifists are useless when it actually matters. Watching someone who can’t bring themselves to kill the enemy just sit there agonizing is stressful."

"N-Natsumi-kun, calm down, nya. Maybe there was a reason, nya."

"Y-Yes. My brother judged that fighting inside the capital would cause civilian casualties. In fact, there were almost no human losses."

I see. Even if life became inconvenient under imperial rule, it was better than people dying.

But Natsumi wasn’t satisfied and pressed further.

"Then why are you holed up out here?"

"The citizens of Granbaria had their food, property, and homes taken… They’re being forced into labor as a slave class…"

Yeah. That wasn’t okay.

Even if their lives had been spared in the moment, losing everything and being forced into labor was far too high a price.

"That’s way worse than I imagined, nya…"

Ririka looked shocked too. Since I knew nothing about the Empire, I asked directly.

"So the Empire really is that bad, huh…? I don’t know much about it, so it feels like a cartoonishly evil empire, but is that really what they’re like?"

"Not exactly, nya. They had harsher settings than other countries—like a slave system—but to players they were just another hub city. I think the emperor was supposed to be a young, ambitious pretty boy, so maybe he’s gone off the rails because of that, nya."

"Another pretty boy… This world’s got way too many useless handsome guys…"

"I’m sure there’s at least one decent pretty boy somewhere, nya…"

Just as the conversation threatened to derail completely, the pervert—who seemed to have been waiting for her moment—leaned in close to Ririka with a deadly serious expression.

"That is exactly why! To liberate Granbaria, I want Lady Ririka to lend us his strength!"

"E-Even if you say that, nya, we came here to ask for help freeing Larentinia too… There are people over there waiting for reinforcements as well, nya…"

I’d had a vague feeling things might turn out like this, but now it was an actual problem.

This fortress technically had something that could be called a military, but even if we helped them, was it really possible to liberate Granbaria first and then return to Larentia afterward?

Ririka, Natsumi, Dias, and Beatrix all seemed to be grappling with the same dilemma, their gazes lowered as they struggled to respond.

Just then, the door burst open again, and a large-built man rushed in, panic written all over his face.

"This is bad, Princess! The Empire bastards are back! And there’s more of them than last time!"

The one who leapt to his feet so fast he nearly kicked his chair over wasn’t the perverted princess—it was Dias.

"Big bro! You made it out alive!?"

"Dias!? Dias, is that you!? You’re still breathing, you bastard!"

A bearded, bandana-wearing musclebound man and a bald, dark-skinned musclebound man grabbed each other in a crushing embrace.

"Ohhh… Dias… You really came back, didn’t you…!"

"Big brooo…! I never thought I’d see you again in a place like this…!"

Still clinging to each other, their thick arms began roaming over one another’s bodies.

Their faces were pressed close, eyes locked, both glassy with tears.

Honestly, it was painful to watch.

"U-Um… well… er… I hate to interrupt such a touching reunion, but… Rick, you two are… uh… what exactly is your relationship? That is… well, I’ll ask you about that later… More importantly—did you say the Empire has arrived…?"

While everyone else stood there, dumbfounded by the sudden carnival of flesh, the perverted princess gathered her resolve and forced her way between the two entwined giants.

"Ah—ah, sorry, Your Highness. This guy’s my little brother."

"Ah… I see…… No, never mind that. The Empire comes first. What happened?"

For some reason, the perverted princess looked slightly disappointed—but she quickly steered the conversation back on track. At least in moments like this, she remembered she was supposed to be responsible.

"A huge number of soldiers have advanced right up to the fortress! The envoy outside is demanding our surrender!"

"They’ve already pushed their army this far… The soldiers here are exhausted and worn down… Even if we resist on our own… how long could we possibly hold out…?"

Despite her ridiculous outfit, the princess lowered her head seriously as she spoke. Her expression was clouded, yet her eyes kept flicking toward Ririka.

It was painfully obvious what she was hoping for.

She was counting on the help of “Archmage Ririka-sama,” the one who had once saved this fortress from a massive monster horde.

"I-I mean, if they’ve sent an envoy, maybe we should at least hear what they have to say first, nya…"

Wearing an unmistakably reluctant expression—less hesitation and more regret over having bragged too much about past exploits—the so-called archmage offered a cautious but perfectly reasonable suggestion.

"…That princess isn’t going to suddenly shoot the envoy with an arrow or something, is she…?"

As we followed the perverted princess outside to meet the envoy, I voiced my concern.

"I don’t think she’s that stupid, nya. Still… this really is a mess, nya."

"At this rate, there’s no way we can take reinforcements to Larentia. Honestly, things over there might still be better than this."

Ririka and Natsumi walked ahead, both clearly troubled.

Behind them, Dias followed while happily reuniting with Dom—who, like Rick, had also made it to this fortress.

Bringing up the rear, Beatrix watched the three entangled musclemen with a troubled expression as we arrived before the fortress’s main gate.

With a heavy, grinding sound, the gate opened just wide enough for a single person to pass through.

We stepped outside and faced the Aste Empire’s envoy.

"By the way, Rick, since you and Dom are both here… does that mean all the players who were in Granseal managed to escape the capital?"

I casually asked what had crossed my mind.

"No… not all of them…… It’s unfortunate, but among the players—"

"Pretty much the entire Kingdom of Granseal has already fallen into the hands of our glorious Holy Necrozyle = Aste Grand Empire! Wouldn’t it be wiser for you to give up and surrender already? Fighting back will only earn you a beating in the end!"

Cutting off Rick’s uneasy reply, soldiers in light armor resembling black military uniforms—clearly Aste Empire troops—spread out in front of the fortress.

From behind them, a knight-like man clad in heavy black armor stepped forward and shouted confidently.

Something about him felt… familiar.

Like I’d seen him somewhere before.

"Uh… isn’t that… Luci—no, wait… Sieg—uh… Siegfried…? Was it, nya…?"

"Geh! Cat Goddess Princess☆Milk-chan!?!?"