Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 106 - Operation 7

There were seven members in the traveling party.

Aisha, Eris, Ghislaine, Elmoia, Kriner, Luke, and myself.

Of those six, I could only confirm that three would truly be loyal to me.

The carriage we used was pulled by two horses. We needed to return to the country discreetly, after all.

......

"Ah, to think such a wonderful person has come to this city! How adorable you are. Those firm, beautiful eyes, that flowing long hair. Just like a true angel... No — it's as if a goddess herself has descended upon the mortal world! The moment I first laid eyes on you, I had already fallen in love!"

Hm? Who was Luke trying to flirt with now?

Wait... the women present...

I snapped my head up. Luke was courting Eris Greyrat.

Oh no. This guy...

Just as I was about to say something, Luke spoke again.

"If possible, could you tell me your name? Ah, of course — no need to give me your surname if you'd prefer not. I only hope to carve your beautiful name upon my heart. Even just that much would be enough consolation."

He spoke like a man utterly lost in a dream.

This was the first time I had ever seen him like this.

That playboy, of all people, reduced to this...?

"Ah, you won't tell me your name. Then at least, please, grant me the honor of bestowing a kiss upon these beautiful hands. Only then, I..."

Mid-sentence, Luke shuddered and crumpled. He had been hit.

To be precise, he had been punched straight in the face.

Eris Greyrat, from the front, had driven her fist squarely into Luke's face.

And from her stance, she was already winding up to do it again.

"I'm going to beat your face until it looks nothing like Rudeus!"

No one could stop her. Luke was beaten black and blue, past the point of not resembling Rudeus, past the point of resembling a person at all.

Just as it seemed like he might actually die, I stepped forward.

But Aisha Greyrat patted my shoulder and shook her head. No need.

"Sister Eris, if you've vented enough, stop now."

"Hmph!"

Aisha Greyrat was the one who ended it.

She healed Luke and looked him dead in the eye.

"If my brother had been here just now, you would already be dead. No matter how important you are to Princess Ariel, you would still die."

Just those words. After that, Luke never once looked toward Eris Greyrat again. He seemed genuinely afraid.

I made a point of scolding Luke in front of Eris Greyrat as well, to help her cool off.

......

We traveled using a combination of Teleportation Magic Circles and horses and carriage.

First, we drove the carriage to the Sky Fortress. From there, we rode it directly through the Teleportation Magic Circle, transferred to the north end of the Red Dragon's upper jaw, and then continued south overland.

Perugius had arranged a Magic Circle at a location the carriage could enter.

Of everyone present during the transfers, Aisha Greyrat watched with the most obvious delight. Whether she was genuinely fascinated by Teleportation Magic, or whether she simply knew how to do it and chose not to help, I couldn't say.

My personal feeling was the latter.

......

The Red Dragon's upper jaw.

A valley with a single road cutting straight through.

Not as arrow-straight as Sword Saint Street, but just as unbroken. No forks. No branches. One road from one end to the other.

A stretch of land between borders, belonging to no country.

The ones moving through it were large merchant caravans. Ten covered wagons. More than fifty horses loaded with goods. The convoy was hauling cargo from the Asura Kingdom to the three great magic nations.

Scattered through the long procession at regular intervals, travelers on foot picked their way along the roadside.

As a princess, this was my first time in a place like this.

Honestly, it was refreshing.

I turned my gaze back inside the carriage. Aisha and Eris both wore expressions that weren't quite right.

Did this road remind them of something unpleasant?

I could only guess. I wouldn't ask. Even though Aisha Greyrat had said she considered me a friend, I didn't see it that way.

I had always felt she didn't truly care whether I became queen or not. Whether it was her arrogant nature or simple indifference, I couldn't tell. But she almost certainly did not think of me as a real friend.

"Alright. We're almost through the Red Dragon's upper jaw, so let's go over our tactics. More attacks are coming, that much is certain."

Aisha Greyrat clapped her hands together.

The tactics, in practice, amounted to this: Eris Greyrat would stay at my side to protect me, while Ghislaine and Aisha Greyrat moved up front to kill. My own subordinates weren't factored into the combat strength at all.

Lamentable.

.....

The next day.

We moved according to the plan.

Eris Greyrat and Ghislaine rode ahead on horseback.

"Stop!"

Both of them reined in their horses, keeping distance.

Ahead, a line of armored soldiers blocked the road.

"Who goes there!"

The armored soldiers didn't answer Ghislaine's question. Full-face helmets hid their expressions completely. In the middle of their formation stood someone wearing particularly ornate decorations.

The captain, most likely.

"......"

They said nothing.

They blocked our path in silence.

"Sister Eris, you protect the carriage."

Eris Greyrat followed Aisha Greyrat's order and fell back toward us.

Aisha Greyrat, sword at her side, walked toward the soldiers at an easy pace.

When she had closed to a certain distance,

"!"

Her sword cleared its scabbard.

One step. One head.

"Enemy attack!"

Ghislaine's shout came as she was already charging forward, right behind Aisha Greyrat.

They moved at speeds that left no afterimages, cutting soldiers down one after another.

The enemy had set the ambush. Our side threw the first blow. What kind of tactic was that?

From the left side of the forest, over 30 more soldiers came sprinting toward the carriage.

"You lot — shout if anyone gets close!"

Eris Greyrat drew her sword and charged to meet them without waiting for a response.

Facing those three, numerical advantage meant nothing.

They were truly strong.

10 minutes later, the sounds of fighting died.

I looked ahead. The last few soldiers had parted to either side.

A figure stepped out from between them. Seeing it, Aisha Greyrat and Ghislaine both went still.

The figure was much smaller than I expected.

A meter tall, at most.

A dwarf.

Clad in full-body armor polished to a mirror gleam. Sunlight caught every surface and threw it back in flashes. Combined with those short limbs, he looked like a disco mirror ball come to life.

The moment he stepped forward, the soldiers around him fell quiet.

The feeling was unmistakable, they were deferring to him.

A powerful one, then.

"My name is Vi Ta, the North King! One of the Three Swordsmen of the North God! Vi Ta of 'Light and Darkness'!"

"Who the hell are you!" Aisha Greyrat snapped.

"I have come to pay my respects to the Black Wolf Ghislaine. I wish to challenge her to..."

He didn't get to finish.

Aisha Greyrat, visibly fed up, activated something, I couldn't tell what magic it was. The ground around the dwarf cratered under an invisible weight.

Then she and Ghislaine charged him together. The fight lasted a few minutes.

The surviving soldiers watched it happen and scrambled backward.

So the dwarf had been formidable after all. He'd held out for a few minutes under both of them at once, that was no small thing.

Even after he fell, though, Aisha Greyrat didn't relax. She kept scanning the treeline as she moved through the remaining soldiers, killing them with the detached ease of someone doing chores. Sometimes a spell. Sometimes a casual swing of her sword.

These lives registered nothing on her face.

I didn't pity the soldiers. They were my enemies.

But watching it still made me afraid of Aisha Greyrat.

The last of them didn't hold out long. Aisha and Ghislaine finished it.

Complete victory.

Aisha Greyrat's expression was still heavy.

That probably had something to do with me.

I opened my mouth.

"Miss Aisha, is something wrong? You don't look well."

"The enemy that should have appeared didn't show. Maybe I shouldn't have moved so fast... I might have spooked him off. But I was also worried Sister Eris might get hurt..."

She answered, but the second half trailed off like she was talking to herself.

The enemy that should have appeared?

She'd known the ambush was coming?

This...

She must have caught something in my expression. Aisha Greyrat smiled.

"Curious how I knew they'd ambush us?"

"Yes. Please, if you're willing — tell me."

"Mm... it's hard to explain. How about this: I'll fill you in when the time is right."

"Alright."

Pressing further would get me nowhere.

I composed myself and ordered my guards to deal with the corpses. We were in a forest, leaving bodies unburied meant undead. That much I knew.

As the disposal work went on, Luke's expression darkened steadily.

Not because of the corpses themselves. Because of the armor on them.

I had noticed something familiar from the start.

Among the bodies, a portion of them bore the same crest on their armor.

A crest belonging to the lord of a certain territory within the Asura Kingdom.

That territory was called Milbots.

One of the four great regional nobles, lords who wielded formidable authority within the Asura Kingdom. This was one of their fiefs.

Luke stared at it and the words came out barely audible.

"How can this be..."

The Lord of Milbots.

Pilemon Notos Greyrat had betrayed me.

➤ Next: Some Truths