Her Majesty’s Swarm - Volume 4 - Chapter 15

The Gregoria’s Hero

“Liquid oxygen concentration is normal.”

“Vitals are all in order.”

Deep underground, beneath a detached building on the Noie Vejya Castle estate, an individual was slumbering in an artificial coma. A hero that had once saved the country, and a terrifying monster that had nearly driven the country to ruin.

“Court magician, how is Georgius?” Bertholdt asked.

“He’s still asleep, sir. Sleeping calmly.”

After relaying orders to the generals at HQ, Bertholdt had come straight here.

“Can you wake him?”

“If that is what you wish. However, we still don’t have a spell capable of controlling this monster. It was for that very reason we put him to sleep in the first place.”

“True, we cannot control him. But if we must wake him, we will. The emperor commands that we use this monster to fight the enemy’s insects.”

“Using a monster to stop other monsters... I don’t think that’s wise. Once we wake him, countless soldiers will be sacrificed to put him to sleep again. Do you understand?”

Bertholdt glared at the court magician.

“Our orders are clear, court magician. Do it.”

“Understood. But don’t hold me responsible for whatever comes of this.”

Just what was he fearing? What would happen when Georgius came out of his slumber?

“Release the inhibitors on his brain! Pump in ether until he awakens!”

Ether was the catalyst magicians used for spells. It permeated the air, and its density directly impacted their magic power.

“Releasing inhibitors!”

“Vitals are destabilizing rapidly! Look out!”

Needles nestled in his head popped out, and the crystal monitoring its pulse let out a shrill alarm, informing everyone of approaching danger.

“What do we do? Do we continue?” the court magician asked, panicked.

“Do it,” Bertholdt replied curtly.

“Vitals are still unstable!”

“Target is awake! I repeat! Target is awake! Georgius has awakened!”

The “target”—Georgius—was a hulking man standing nearly two meters tall. There were shackles around his neck and limbs, but the man forcibly wrenched them off and tore them apart. He started with the shackles on his hands, then his legs, and finally his neck and waist. With all the shackles broken, he smashed his containment capsule full of half-transparent liquid and stepped out of it.

He had waist-length, golden hair and the facial expression of a bloodthirsty predator, with a primal glint in his eyes. Georgius dragged his muscular body along, then fixed his gaze on a cowering magician. He reached out and easily caught the man, twisting his neck effortlessly. The magician’s neck snapped with a dull sound, and he crumpled lifelessly to the ground.

“Eeek!” another magician screeched.

Georgius sluggishly approached him and then lashed the magician’s body with one of the chains. The magician fell to the ground, twitching, as fluid spilled from his cracked head. He then went still.

“S-See?! I told you this would happen! I’m not responsible! You take control of this situation!” the court magician next to Bertholdt called out.

But he couldn’t escape the underground facility. The monstrous man bashed the crystal that monitored his vitals into the magician’s skull. The magician fell to the ground, his blood flowing down the staircase.

Finally, Georgius lunged at Bertholdt and landed right in front of him.

“...Oh. It’s you, Bertholdt,” Georgius said, peering into Bertholdt’s face with a bored expression.

Bertholdt nodded. “Yes, it’s me, Georgius.”

“You’ve grown old,” Georgius remarked. “All those wrinkles, and your hair’s gone white.”

“Well, my current job puts me under a great deal of stress,” Bertholdt replied with a thin smile.

“Is the emperor...still Friedrich?” Georgius asked, baring his fangs. “I have some debts to collect from him. Where is he?”

“Sleeping in his grave. Emperor Friedrich has passed on. The current emperor is Maximillian.”

Friedrich was the emperor before Maximillian and the man who’d decided to put Georgius to sleep. He’d ordered that Georgius be shackled and put in a years-long magical coma.

“Oh! So Friedrich kicked the bucket. This world is such a fickle place. The only ones who are as long-lived as I am must be the elves. But the elves are weak. No one in this world can match me.”

Georgius sighed as he regarded his shackles.

“Oh, no, there is,” Bertholdt told him. “Monsters have appeared. Monsters that would be your worthy opponents. That’s why we’ve awoken you: we need you to deal with those monsters. However, you mustn’t massacre them.”

“Heh.” Georgius sneered. “You think you can give me orders? The only ones who can match me are the monsters at the bottom of the Necrophage. What, has the Empire unified the continent already?”

“No. The continent is in the midst of a savage war. It’s an era of conflict, just the way you like it. We’ve only conquered half the continent, but the other half is in our enemy’s hands. They are the Arachnea, a fearsome empire of mutant insects.”

By now, the Arachnea’s name was well-known and feared by all. The Swarm had reduced cities to ruins and destroyed nations with ease. At the mere thought of them, the people of the Nyrnal Empire shivered in terror.

“Arachnea... I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere before, but I cannot remember where,” Georgius muttered, as if trying to grasp at some ancient, faraway memory. “But a dragon will easily stomp out mere insects. How have you not destroyed them yet?”

“They defeated our dragons. The Arachnea’s insects are well organized and powerful. If we could deal with them easily, we would not have sought your help.”

“Very well.” A ferocious smile played on Georgius’s lips. “If they can defeat our dragons, they should put up a good fight. Let’s have an exciting battle, one monster against another. Where should I go, then?”

“You’ve only just awoken, so let your body recover first. Once you do, the emperor’s Third Secretariat Division will inform you of your destination. But there’s one more thing I must tell you.” Bertholdt glared at him. “You must capture the Arachnea’s queen alive. She’s a girl around fourteen years old with black hair and brown eyes. She’s constantly guarded, and her soldiers have successfully slain both the Archangel Metatron and our lindwyrms. Don’t be careless around her.”

“Oh, so they got Metatron. That’s interesting.” Georgius narrowed his eyes. “However... Fourteen, with black hair and brown eyes. That reminds me of Katja...” He punctuated those words with a deep sigh.

“What happened to Katja was inevitable,” Bertholdt said. “We couldn’t prevent what happened to her.”

“That’s what I’d like to believe,” Georgius murmured. “Maybe, if I’d have fought harder, she wouldn’t have died.” His expression, momentarily soft, grew serious once more. “Go and get me clothes. And food. Not necessarily in that order.”

“I can certainly prepare you some clothes. Go upstairs and wait there. And don’t kill anyone there just because you’re bored.”

Thus, Nyrnal woke their hero—a creature with the stench of blood hanging over him...