/

Chapter 24




Why is Dashiba here?!
Ugh, now’s not the time to think about that.
I was about to scream to ask the other dogs to save him.
[It’s the mongrel!!]
But someone else screamed before I could.
[The mongrel is here!]
[It’s the mongrel!!]
[Help me, I’m scared!]
The dogs who had been enjoying themselves in the dam started to panic while screaming ‘there’s a mongrel here!’
The sight of the dogs crawling away from the dam made them look like mountains made of dogs.
And while everyone was running away, Dashiba was still drowning.
Seriously, everyone?!
Why do you hate mongrels this much?!
Aren’t dumb dogs cute??
[You’ll get infected and turn into a mongrel, run away!]
Seriously, everyone, you guys are horrible.
[Urgent message!]
I was about to explode in anger, but a messenger Greyhound stole my attention.
[A Snake-Kin, a refugee from the empire, took his family as a hostage and attempted to flee toward the northern border with the mongrel! We’ve been unable to track them down until now because they’ve been using our underground passages! However, we recently found the Snake-Kin’s corpse in the mountain!]
“What about Kishu-sama? He is supposed to be with Dashiba, no?”
[Yes! He left a message for the Queen!]
—-I was done in (scraped my knee). I can’t move my body (I don’t wanna chase that dog). Forgive me (Prime Minister-sama). Forgive me (How could that Snake-Kin be so useless? Can’t even kill a frail dog in one blow)—-
“Such thing… I can’t imagine what Kishu-sama went through…”
“That’s a Waken thing to do.”
“Maltese, please do not think that all Wakens are the same (we aren’t all two-faced)! Remember that Wakens are the best breed of dogs! We are the embodiment of loyal dogs!”
Mameta-sama protested in response to Mars-sama’s disdainful tone.
The beautiful man with brown, silky hair asked the other man with the lustrous back hair.
“You, go and pick that mongrel, you’re both Shiba, no?”
“No! We aren’t from the same family! He’s his own family!”
“Just take him in, problem solved…”
“Please stop fighting! Please save Dashiba instead!”
When I shouted that out desperately, both Josee-sama and Yoch-sama made reluctant faces.
‘A mongrel is not classified as a living being.’ No, don’t give me that, Josee-sama! Aren’t you a doctor?!
What about the other two Wakens?
When I turned around, they said, ‘We are going to guide the mass to prevent casualties (we want nothing to do with the mongrel).’
Dr. Schnauzer smiled at me and handed me a copy of one of his textbooks, ‘The Popularity Policy for Good Dogs III.’
There was a bookmark in the section on the conditions for being loved by the people.
The line that originally read, ‘Hate must be reduced for the sake of the people’s peace of mind’ had been rewritten with a red pen with the words, ‘Mongrels should die.’
Red Pen-sensei, that’s horrible!
Seriously, what’s with everyone?!
I know that the Founder King Ayer-sama’s pet dog, Pochi-sama was a wonderful Dog-Kin.
And I’ve also heard that Ayer-sama himself was so amazing that he brought up the Dog-Kins loyalty just by being there.
But still, aren’t the Dog-Kins too obsessed with their view of being a ‘loyal dog’ and a ‘smart dog’?
—-My dog is neither of them, he isn’t loyal, neither is he smart.
But, I don’t care, I’m happy that he’s alive and well.
Just by having him by my side already makes me happy.
I don’t expect the dogs of this world to be ‘capable’ nor ‘smart’! It’s fine if they were just to act like normal dogs!
Enough of this!
I brushed Mars-sama’s arms away and ran down the hill toward the shore of the dam.
“Your Majesty!”
“You didn’t want to move to save him, fine I’ll do it myself!!”
Ah, by the way, I’m really bad at any kind of physical activity.
As soon as I dashed forward, I tripped over a pebble and fell face first.
It wasn’t a light fall, but a hard one.
My face slid through the ground.
The dogs panicked at the Queen, whose skirt was pulled up and accidentally revealed her underwear.
“Your Majesty!”
“Her Majesty is injured!”
“This country is done for!”
Kyan kyan kyan!
The quick-footed Yoch-sama hurriedly picked me up while saying, ‘Your Majesty, I don’t want to write disastrous articles like you getting into an accident!’
But he was late. My forehead was already bleeding from the fall. It felt hot and painful.
I couldn’t help but burst into tears over how pathetic I was.
Josee-sama hurriedly took her dog form, licked my face frantically while saying, ‘This is to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound!’
She then apologized as she leaned on me with her paws while still licking me with her big tongue and said, ‘I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I didn’t mean to make you cry! I understand, the mongrel is your precious dog!’
As time went on, my face became stiffer as I tried to stop myself from crying. Then I begged her…
“I can handle this much! Dashiba is more important, please save him!”
Splash!
Someone jumped into the dam.
“Maltese-sama! Shiba-sama!”
“Maltese-sama jumped into the dam, followed by Shiba-sama closely afterward!”
Actually, there were two of them who jumped.
The feeling of joy and pride engulfed me as I saw the two men, close in age rushing into the dam for me.
“Chase them with the tank!”
“We can’t! Shiba-sama is the only one who can operate it!”
“I’ll go forward! Seventh Division, put your speed to good use here! Also, bring your camera!”
Yoch-sama and half of the Seventh and First Division hurriedly moved to the dam.
They joined the two Wakens that went ahead and supported Mars-sama and Mameta-sama, as well as rescuing the panicked citizens.
I was covered in saliva, and Josee-sama, who had returned to her human form, wiped my face with a clean wet cloth.
I washed my scraped palms and the bridge of my nose under running water, and with the first-aid kit provided by one of the Eighth Division member, my wound was quickly disinfected and patched up.
A large bandage was applied to my forehead, while smaller ones were placed on my nose and palms.
Meanwhile, reports started coming to me, ‘Maltese-sama successfully retrieved the mongrel!’, ‘The mongrel tried to hit on Mameta-sama, but Mameta-sama immediately withdrew!’ I was happy after hearing the former report.
Of course, I will scold Dashiba later for the latter report.
Eventually, I decided to lean on Josee-sama and wait for everyone to clean up the mess at the dam.
“There’s also the matter of the imperial refugees…”
* * *
The fact that there are many refugees coming from the Empire is true.
Every time the empire tried to enforce its Dragon-Kin supremacy ideology the more people decided to leave the Empire.
In the book written by Dr. Schnauzer, he said that the Empire’s rapid expansion (invasion) policy itself was the source of the messy political situation that they have.
As if the population and food problem weren’t enough, the races other than the Dragon-Kins were feeling oppressed because of the Dragon-Kin supremacists, so there are a lot of reasons for them to rebel.
This is why the Empire needs a political enemy from outside the country.
They’ve been telling propaganda to their people, saying that the territory of Kennel Kingdom is their territory that the Dog-Kins unjustly snatched. As a result of that, the people of their country hated us, and our country would occasionally be the scapegoat whenever some kind of domestic problem happened in the Empire.
—-Peace brought by the Dragon-Kins.
That’s their primary ideology that they used to unite their country.
I remembered the cold stare of Duke Hainuwele.
Doctor Schnauzer made a hum as he proceeded to explain his deduction.
“Perhaps… Making use of the turmoil in their country, they used the refugees as their spies and made them do their dirty works all over our country. Most likely, our water and sewer purifiers were destroyed by their hands.”
“Such things!”
“Well, if our country is damaged enough, they would be able to penetrate through the former Humanist Kingdom’s territory… What do you think, Greyhound?”
Yoch-sama, who had returned, hooked his notebook around his neck before crossing his arms as he answered.
“The Fifth Division reported that there is an abnormal increase in the number of the Imperial troops stationed in the border, also they’ve been developing fleets of ships, large enough to transport a huge number of troops.”
He turned his gaze to us, his expression looked stiff as he said, ‘This summer, the Empire will finally make their move.’
That duke finally started getting serious.
Then, what kind of measures should we take…?
Now is the time to end the campaign.
Instead, we have to quickly return to the royal palace and focus on planning our countermeasures against the empire.
* * *
As the sun tilted slightly toward the west.
That was when it happened…
“Seriously the Dog-Kins luck are just bad, as expected of a bunch of idiots.”
“On the contrary, our luck is good, I mean, here we are, right in front of the defenseless queen.”
Suddenly, men dressed in black appeared in front of me.
Their outfit resembled the outfits of the people Mars-sama mistakenly ‘killed’ a while ago.
Imperial style outfits.
They are imperial assassins.
“Who…”
“Die!”
Of course, before I could ask them any question, they immediately attacked me.
At that moment.
A black silhouette flashed in front of me.
Suddenly, the men in black stopped in their tracks and fell down with their heads bent in a strange direction.
When the dozens of assassins fell down, a small dog with big ears and brown furs could be seen, standing in the middle of their bodies.
He was the Commander of the Fifth Division, specializing in covert operations.
Lyric von Corgi-sama.
His eyes were big like marbles.
His fur, which normally would look adorable, was covered in sticky red liquid.
[Why did the information travel so slowly? Their assassins reached this far already…]
“Lyric-sama! …No… Corgi-sama!”
He turned toward me when he heard my call.
Then, he immediately threw his body down to the ground with his nose sticking out.
[I’m sorry!]
“Huh?”
[This unworthy Corgi had acted in such uncouth manners! Showing Her Majesty the corpse and blood of her enemies like this is the biggest mistake a Corgi could have done! How could I be so foolish? I really shouldn’t be alive! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Kyan!]
“Shut your mouth, Corgi, it’s annoying.”
Mars-sama, who just climbed up the wall of the dam, stomped on Lyric-sama.
He looked down coldly at the small dog who was cowering while carrying Dashiba in one hand.
Dashiba is saved!
I spread my hands in delight as the dog stretched out meekly. Water was dripping from his fur.
“Dashiba!”
“Kyun! Kyun!”
“Don’t look at me! Stay away! Don’t come any closer!”
Dashiba stared absent-mindedly at Mameta-sama.
This perverted dog…
My hands awkwardly hung in the air…
Quietly, I lowered them.
“…Seriously, Dashiba, do you want a wife this badly?”
“No, no! Please, Your Majesty, don’t do this to me! Don’t look at me with that gaze!”
Mameta-sama shivered as his face paled.
I didn’t mean it that way though…
But, anyway.
I asked Lyric-sama, who was still cowering next to the people who were working on cleaning up the corpses.
“Wasn’t Corgi-sama on a diplomatic mission?”
[Yes, I was… I’m sorry… I went with Borzoi-sama to the Empire.]
“The Empire? Was it just a ball invitation?”
[Yes… but since I got stage fright easily, I was working with the Seventh Division to gather information instead… Under Borzoi-sama’s instruction, of course.]
“Why are you here then?”
[I’m sorry!]
“No, don’t be. Tell me the reason.”
[I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But the thing that matters is that we succeeded in our mission.]
“Succeeded? What did you mean by that?”
[I’m sorry!]
It’s frustrating…
The big-eared dog kept apologizing without answering any of my important questions. I’m starting to get annoyed.
“Greyhound-sama, if you will.”
“Oh, pardon me, Your Majesty. But it’s complicated… Also, they will be reaching our border soon, so, I have to ask you to come back to the castle quickly.”
“They? Is the Imperial Army coming”
“Ah, no, it’s their refugees.”
—-Refugees?
“Why the refugees?”
“Pardon me, Your Majesty, I got a call.”
Yoch-sama took out his transceiver while maintaining eye contact with me.
As time went on, his eyes got narrower as his smile got wider from hearing the news. He then reported the news to me.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty, the civil war finally started in the Empire.”
“Huh?”
“The Crocodile-Kin finally moved to separate themselves from the Empire.”
“Ehh??”
What is he talking about? I’m confused.
Yoch-sama, understanding my confusion, proceeded to explain the situation to me while reporting everything through several transceivers at once.
“The Prime Minister woke up and announced that he would issue a large number of visas that he had been preparing for a long time. Shepherd had also been working to fill out a bunch of immigration forms while still having ice pack applied on his head.”
“I-Immigration… what?”
“They won’t be moving here since it would be troubling for us, but we can send them over to the New Continent, so it’s no problem.”
“Uhh… can you… explain it to me in a way I can understand?”
If anything, I’m even more confused than before.
Mars-sama, who was holding Dashiba to prevent him from molesting Mameta-sama, shrugged his shoulders.
“Didn’t Master say that you don’t want us to shed our blood?”
“Yeah, I did, but…”
What does that have anything to do with this?
Everything still confused me, but everyone apparently understood what he meant as they laughed while saying that they are glad for fulfilling my wishes.
What are they so glad about?!
“That’s why we started a war where we wouldn’t have to shed our blood. That was hard, wasn’t it, Yoch-san?”
“Yes, it was. It’s been a long time since we had a war where we can’t move our troops to fight. They provoked us a lot, it was hard to restrain ourselves.”
‘I got a lot of scoops though!’, added Yoch-sama.
.
In the end, Dr. Schnauzer summarized the event for me.
It went:
We want to spit on the Empire.
But Her Majesty said she doesn’t want any bloodshed.
Why don’t we just do it, indirectly?
So, we make the Empire collapse on its own?
We can try. Borzoi, you’re good at this thing, go, do it.
The Fifth Division will gather the information and the Seventh will do the manipulation.
I’m not sure about how things went, but, whatever, we succeeded.
Yay!
“What do you mean ‘yay’?! I told everyone that we should never start any kind of war!”
As I protested, Yoch-sama looked at me strangely.
“Eh? Master, you said that you don’t want us to duke it out with the Empire, right?”
“Yes!”
“We aren’t participating in the war, aren’t we?”
“Uhh…”
“The Empire is having a war with itself.”
“…”
I failed to think of a comeback.
Yoch-sama smiled before bending down and kissing my ankle.
“Now you can take this whole continent and everything on it as yours… We’ll rename it to Lumania-Liselotte Continent.”
‘It would be wonderful.’ He added.
He proceeded to explain that fighting directly isn’t the only way to fight.
There are a lot of ways to destroy your enemies from their inside.
I was speechless by his explanation and didn’t notice Lyric-sama sneaked up on me and chewed on my shoe.
Now my shoe was covered in blood.
[I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It was… fun… to sneak around and kill the enemies of my master… That’s why, please, don’t forget about me!]
“Hey, wait!”
Suddenly his eyes lit up as he took off my shoe and held it in his mouth.
Mars-sama, surprised by this, shrugged his shoulders as he muttered, ‘He’s pushy over strange things, that’s why he is so annoying to deal with.’
Next to him, Mameta-sama was in a daze.
He closed his eyes tightly as he made a resolute face and said, ‘It’s decided! I’m going to kiss Her Majesty!’, but before he could finish his sentence, Mars-sama released Dashiba.
“Aaaahhh!!”
[Kyun Kyun!]
Mameta-sama ran frantically as Dashiba chased after him with hearts in his eyes.
I glared at Mars-sama who was in a daze with tears in his eyes.
‘That boy had grown so quickly…’ He said.
Then the Greyhounds came one after another.
[There was a rebellion in the Snake-Kin’s autonomous territory!]
[The Emperor, fearing for his own life, reinforced his defense in the Empire’s capital!]
[The Bird-Kin announced their independence from the Empire!]
[The Snake-Kin and the Crocodile-Kin declared a joined front against the Empire!]
[They requested Kennel Kingdom’s assistance, but we refused due to the lack of personnel! Though, we tested their sincerity by telling them, ‘If you could say that the God blessed Queen Liselotte 10 billion times, we would help you, no questions asked.’]
While I was going around with a megaphone, rattling about the summer cut and the summer heat…
The rest of the country was setting up something really absurd.
This really isn’t a war… more like… cold war? A war without fighting!
As I was grimacing, an unwanted report came from one of the Greyhounds.
[Borzoi-sama, Commander of the Sixth Division is on the line! He said, ‘How much fur would you like on your foot mat?’]
“Please tell him that I’ll settle with clipping his nail!”
I thought of my doggie lead, which I didn’t have on me at the moment.
By not having it on me, I accidentally released the most cunning and intelligent dog of the mad dogs…
Wan wan wan!
The dogs running energetically.
Leaving me alone, with complicated feelings.