I climbed onto the roof of Yamigasa Companyâs trading house, where I controlled the summoned ultra-compact reconnaissance drone âBlack Hornetâ with only my thoughts. Under the cover of darkness I began reconnaissance of the warehouse behind the trading house. The two silent rotors made only a very faint driving noise, and the guards patrolling the warehouse didnât notice the black hornet flying around in the dark night.
âThese guysâŠarenât mercenaries.â
The images sent from the Black Hornet are displayed on my field of vision, and I could see them as if I were actually there. The guards were excessively equipped to protect warehouses or trading posts. I also noticed some mages wielding large shields that are supposed to be anti-monsters and anti-humans, along with a robe that seems out of place to be worn by mere guards.
The clan members of the âRafflesiaâ huh⊠As expected, whatâs in the warehouse isnât a decent thing.
The Black Hornetâs operating time limit is 10 minutes. While looking at the time limit counter displayed in my field of vision, I switched to reconnaissance inside the warehouse as top priority and searched for an approach to the interior.
ââThis is it.
There were several wooden lattice doors without glass on the upper side of the warehouse. It is a small door that is impossible for a human to get through even if the lattice is removed, but the Black Hornet was able to enter without breaking the lattice. The inside of the warehouse, which was the size of a school gymnasium, was dimly lit. There were few moving figures. On the contraryââthere were countless unmoving silhouettes lined up.
Lined up enough to fill the warehouse, was an army of Demonic Steel Soldiers. They were standing quietly like a silent doll, with a six-foot stick sticking out.
Too manyââand if this number of Demon Steel Soldiers self-destructed, the Royal Capital could be wiped out. The Black Hornet flew between the unmoving Demon Steel Soldiers, slowly proceeding in stealth flight to the only place in the warehouse that emit light.
Two moving figures could be seen beyond the Demon Steel Soldiers. They seemed to be talking about something, but the Black Hornet only has a camera. There is no choice but to try to eavesdrop with a sound collection sensor from the roof of the trading house. But considering the distance, it would be difficult to hear the sound clearly.
In that caseââlimit the sound collection range of the sound collection sensor, give it a direction, and have it focus on capturing sounds from farther away.
âWith this, we have handed over all the non-attribute magic stones that we can prepare.â
âWith this many Demon Steel Soldiers, it should be no problem to take down the Royal Castle and control the area around the Royal Capitalââthe rest.â
âOh, I know! Princess Cyril has already been secured, all thatâs left now is to get Yuki Zephanel from Flyhigh!â
âItâs already past the scheduled time, isnât it? If only you lend out any more of the Demon Steel Soldiers, their custody will surely be a foregone conclusionâââ
The person was the chairman of Yamigasa Company, the slender rat-type beastkin, and a man who was also a beastkin but still unknown to me. I wonder what line that is, a blue-haired dogâno, a wolf-type beastkin. While listening to the story of the two, I captured the source of the light enshrined behind them with my camera.
This isâŠâŠ.
A gigantic group crystal cluster shines thereââbut the arrangement is regular and looks like something designed.
No, rather, these are not naturally occurring crystal clusters, but can only be seen as objects created by the game system.
While listening to the conversation between Yamigasa Company and the blue-haired wolf beastkin, I controlled the Black Hornet to bypass them and observed the crystal clusters a little more closely. Inside the six crystals extending from the hexagonal pedestal was a skeleton humanoid doll. And at the center of the largest and thickest crystal that extends from the center of the hexagon, itâs emitting a richly colored lightââThe labyrinth core.
âI see⊠thereâs a limit to your boldness.â
The conversation between the two, the crystal clusters reflected in front of them, and the countless Demonic Steel Soldiersââthe answer was too simple and fearless.
âSo, youâre producing Demon Steel Soldiers in the Royal Capital, and whatâs more, the cost is a non-attribute magic stone and a large magic stone.â
I couldnât help but let out a voice, but the question was who was the one who created this crystal group, was it a <Bloodline Skill>, or was that blue hair a [Trespasser]?
Walking on the roof of the trading house while looking at the image inside the warehouseââI resummoned the Mag-Fed 20mm in both hands, put the barrel and one foot on the edge of the warehouse and looked through the scope.
What you can see is only the roof of the warehouse, but if you judge comprehensively from the live image sent from the Black Hornet, the shape that can be read from the map, and the voice of the conversation captured by the sound collection sensorâ.
ââhere.
Even if I couldnât see it directly on the scope, I can still tell everything beyond it.
When the trigger was pulled, an explosive flame and an explosive sound were released from the muzzle of Mag-Fedââthe last shot that was loaded made a large hole in the roof of the warehouse and landed where it was aimed.
âUwaaa!â
In Black Hornetâs camera, the blue hairâs head was blown off right in front of the chairman. That scream belonged to the chairman of the company, who got blood splashed all over his body. And thenââMag-Fedâs 20mm caliber bullet destroyed the central part of the crystal cluster that had been enshrined at the back, the crystal pillar where the brilliant magic stone was floating.
âWhat was that explosion just now?!â
âThe roof of the trading house is on fire!â
âHey, look. Thereâs someone over there!â
âCheck inside the warehouse, you guys get him! Kill him, donât let him escape!â
After hearing Mag-Fedâs gunshots, my location was immediately known to the adventurers around the warehouse. The muzzle flash when firing is also considerable, so there is no reason not to find it. As I continued to look inside through the Black Hornetâs camera and the scope through the large hole opened in the warehouse, as expected, the crystal cluster pedestal vibrated and turned red.
In the same change as the self-destruction that I saw many times when I killed the Demon Steel Soldier, I manipulated the black hornet to escape from near the pedestal.
The chairman of Yamigasa Company must have sensed the danger. I can see him running to the exit of the warehouse on all fours without being able to get up. Right after thatââthe crystal cluster pedestal was swallowed by the fireball, and exploded into a swirling pillar of fire that pierced the ceiling of the warehouse.
When I involuntarily took my eyes off the scope due to the amount of light that exploded through the scope, I saw the figure of the adventurer who should have been in front of the warehouse in the midair in front of me.
âDie!â
The adventurer kicked into the empty space, and the long sword in his hand swung sideways to cut my neck in two.
âKuhââ!â
Involuntarily, I lifted the Mag-Fed to defend myself, using it to block the cut in on the side-slashââhowever, this adventurerâs swordsmanship must have been of a high level. The Mag-Fed was bisected by its characteristic long barrel and disappeared from my hand as particles of light.
Oi, this is extremely expensive stuff here!
Using the moment that I bought with Mag-Fed as a shield, I did a backward slide jump on the rooftop to gain distance. At the same time, summoning Smith & Wesson E&E Tomahawks in both hands to face the adventurer.
âWho are you?â
The adventurer was clad in light armor, and the long sword he held in his hand had a special decoration and brilliance compared to mass-produced products. This man must be quite skilled even in the âRafflesiaâ. Without answering the manâs question, I reconfirmed the map in my field of vision and the Black Hornetâs camera image.
The dots were moving around the trading house, and I could hear many footsteps running up the stairs. And then, the inside of the warehouse in question progressed as expectedâthe Demon Steel Soldiers one after another turned into particles of light and disappeared from the warehouse.
With only a few seconds remaining on Black Hornetâs camera, the image cut off when the chairman of Yamigasa Company desperately tried to collect the particles of light.
Ten minutes of the operating limit time had passed.
But, as expectedââif the crystal cluster pedestal is destroyed, the Demon Steel Soldiers that were created from it will also disappear. Considering the game system, this is a very likely chain reaction.
I donât know if the game system that created the Demon Steel Soldiers was an MMORPG series, a MOBA series, or an action online game, but it was clearly a control unitââan objective that needs to be destroyed.
If this were a game, destroying the crystal clusters would have cleared the stage or won the match, but this is the real world.
The battle is still going onââfirst, how to close this place.
âThat man is âBlack Mask Shaftâ.â
Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from a different direction than the man facing me. At the same time, a single dot appeared on the mapââ.
ââSchuldtianaâ huhâŠI see, this man is the black mask that has been hindering us.â
A disappearing <Skill> huhâŠ
Just in case, I changed my field of view to FLIR mode and looked around the roof, but it seemed that there was no one but the black clothes that had newly appeared.
âHe came out from the direction of Flyhigh, but I didnât think he would come here when I chased after him. Thanks to that, it seems that this has also become quite troublesome.â
âFrom Flyhigh? What happened over there, are things going according to plan?â
âNo, the Crown Prince, the Third Prince, and even that fox Zephanel have escaped, the forces of âCactusâ have been almost wiped out, and even Reiner has been captured.â
âSchuldtianaâââI believe it was the name of the intelligence clan affiliated with the dark guild that Remy-san had informed me.
âCaptured? That stupid bastard still messed up, huh⊠In that case, it seems that you have to pay back the many debts you have accumulated, black mask!â
The adventurer never took his eyes off me. Even while he was talking to the man in black, if I showed him a chance, he would have attacked me instantly.
I could feel the bloodlust, and my grip on the tomahawks involuntarily tightenedââThen, the door connecting the roof and the inside of the building was opened with great force, and a large number of adventurers rushed in.
This is badââI often fought while outnumbered nowadays, but the opponent this time was the largest and strongest clan in the Kingdom of Kurtmerga, the âRafflesiaâ. This rooftop is too small to deal with those clan members at onceâŠ
âOops, I wonât let you escape. I donât want you to get in the way of our supremacy any more. Your life will end tonight.â
Perhaps sensing my movements, the glaring adventurer man took a step forwardââat the same time, the clan members who came up to the rooftop spread out to surround me, each with their own weapons ready for battle.
âWhat is the purpose of you, âRafflesiaâ? Is it to take over this Kingdom? Or do you intend to become a vassal state of the Viceburn Empire and obtain even just the right to control it?â
In order to buy a little time, I tried probing into their still unclear purposeââbut,
âââPu! Ahahahahah! Kingdom? Empire? Did you really think that we would rise up for something like that? âCountryâ is nothing more than a convenient way to bind people to our hegemony. What lies ahead of the supremacy is not that small!â
Their goal is not to control the country? Then what are these guys intended toâŠ
âYouâre a man Iâd hate to killâbut since youâre going to get in the way of the supremacy, Iâll get rid of you right here!â
With those words, the elites of the âRafflesiaâ attacked all at once.