Chapter Seven: The Wisest King of Wisdom
The war with Faubrey eventually started . . . a few days earlier than expected.
“Is this Whip Hero just a moron?” Trash furrowed his brow, head tilted, in the operations meeting room. Trash had predicted that they would invade Melromarc at the same time as the wave, but Takt had attacked much sooner. Maybe he thought speed was the key to victory.
There might have been a chance of catching us unprepared, but thanks to Trash’s expedient orders, we were completely ready for anything.
Standing by the trenches in the castle town and squinting, you could see the Faubrey forces advancing. I was therefore in discussion with Trash in the castle concerning their earlier-than-expected invasion.
“The only reason I could think of is that once the wave occurs you and the other heroes, Hero Iwatani, will be boosted to the total level with other worlds . . . but surely he would still expect to win even in that situation . . . so I just can’t see why he’d do something this stupid,” Trash reasoned. Maybe that was the reason, but when I considered it from Takt’s perspective, he would probably still think he could beat us regardless of our levels. “There might still be something behind this . . . but no matter. If this is when they choose to attack, then we must simply respond,” Trash stated.
“Everything is ready?” I confirmed.
“Yes, Hero Iwatani,” Trash replied.
“You’ve really thought up lots of different strategies, haven’t you?” The other heroes and I had been involved to some degree in preparing his operations. Of course, we’d also been training in between.
That said, while heroes didn’t have a level cap, it was impossible for us to catch up with the self-proclaimed level-350 Takt in just a few days. Yet we still had a few trump cards up our sleeve—the knowledge I had provided, and the knowledge obtained from Trash and Fohl’s seven star weapons had mobilized us, leading to the proposal of a specific strategy.
Yesterday, our enemies had taken a certain fortress in Melromarc. To be more accurate about it, we had let them take it. This was all a part of Trash’s strategy.
Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and I had memorized all the strategies that Trash created and decided upon what to tweak as circumstances demanded. The basic plan was for Ren and me to attack Takt, while Motoyasu and Itsuki would respond as required on the battlefield. Trash would give battlefield orders and defend our base. Fohl would be with me, while Rishia would be fighting alongside Itsuki.
In other words, the heroes would be divided between Takt’s party and the battlefield.
Filo, Raph-chan, Gaelion, Sadeena, S’yne, and Shildina were intended to go with me. Keel and anyone else from the village capable of fighting humans would be sent to the battlefield. The Raph species would be operating as a separate unit.
Everything else just came down to Trash’s strategy. We just had to pray his airborne countermeasure would go off as planned.
“Hero Iwatani, I’m just providing a framework,” Trash advised.
“I know,” I replied. Still, I hadn’t expected much from Trash, and those expectations had been suitably betrayed. It was easy to sign off on his plan. It had a much higher chance of success than anything I would have come up with, that was for sure. Letting people play to their strengths was always the best approach.
If everyone just did the best they could with the time that they had, the results couldn’t be bad.
No. I’d make sure it wasn’t bad.
“It’s almost time,” Trash said.
“I know.” I was ready. I took to a podium that had been erected in front of the battlefield. The soldiers from Melromarc, Siltvelt, and Q’ten Lo were all lined up, along with the slaves from my own territory. They could all see me. A wry smile curved my lips and then I made a declaration.
“Everyone! This is the battle to avenge the queen of Melromarc. Not only that, but we face the very scum who interfered with our battle with the Phoenix and now seeks to besmirch the legend of the four holy heroes! You all understand what this means?” My question was met with shouts of agreement. “We are fighting in order to protect this world. But what about our foes? They seek only to take this world for themselves, underestimating the threat posed by the waves and killing the innocent with reckless abandon! We cannot allow them to perpetrate such acts in the name of the four holy heroes!” More shouts. Everyone clearly felt as I did. “Everyone! Bring your hearts together! We shall make this enemy of our world pay for these misdeeds! This battle is when we take our revenge! Let’s put the scum in the ground who caused such harm to us and our allies!” Further cries of agreement rang out across the battlefield.
Seriously . . . I didn’t do this kind of thing often, but it definitely had a positive effect on morale.
“Little Naofumi!” Sadeena came over as I climbed down from the podium.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m glad to see you looking so well. You seem to be through the worst of it now,” she said.
“I guess so. More can happen than you’d expect when you’re half-dead,” I said cryptically.
“Okay. At least you are better. If you’ve shaken it off, I need to do my best too,” Sadeena replied with a smile.
“Just don’t get too carried away,” I cautioned her.
“I’ll be careful! Say, little Naofumi. Once we win this battle, how about we have some fun together?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.
“Yes, yes. I’m now more receptive than before, so if you’re talking about some serious playtime, I might give it some thought. After we’ve gone to get Raphtalia and taken care of some other stuff,” I said. Hearing that reply, Sadeena placed a hand on my shoulder with a grin on her face.
“You’re in top form. I’m happy to see it. Let’s both do our best out there!” she said.
Having finished my greeting, I lightly waved the staff I had received from Trash and started to put his strategy into action.
It was a few hours later.
Takt was standing on a terrace in the fortress he had captured. This vantage point offered an excellent view. Surrounded by women, he looked out over Melromarc. There was black smoke rising from the direction of the castle town in the distance.
His expression was of one drunk on victory.
“Reporting!” shouted a messenger. At just that word, Takt seemed assured that the report was a good one, and actually . . . it was. “Your new weapons and strategy, Master Takt, have successfully landed our nation’s troops in the capital of Melromarc, throwing their command structure into disarray. The heroes barely arrived in time, and though they hold their own for now, considering the disparity in numbers, it is surely only a matter of time before they fall.”
“I’m sure it is,” Takt replied with a chuckle. “We’ve won using this strategy every time until now. No way these chumps could wrap their heads around it.”
“Well said, Master Takt!”
“You’re so incredible!”
“No army can withstand such an assault!”
“Your aircraft bombing and troop deployment strategy is simply incredible, Master Takt! No one will ever defeat it!”
“Please, ladies, restrain your praise,” Takt said over the gaggle of his retinue. “I’m doing this for the sake of this world and the sake of its people. The fastest way to end this conflict is to eradicate this trashy nation from the map.” There was a light smile on his face as he spoke. “I admit, it’s a bit lacking in entertainment value when it’s this easy. But nothing is more fun than a battle you can win. Especially when it’s a strategy you came up with yourself.” More comments of agreement and laughter rang out at his words.
“At least, that’s what you wish had happened,” the messenger continued.
“Huh?” Takt’s laughter was abruptly cut short, and he turned to look at the soldiers who had come to make this report—the soldiers who happened to be me and my allies in disguise.
Here’s how it went down.
I had registered a portal to the fortress that we let Takt take. We’d infiltrated through that, pretended to be messengers in order to reach Takt, and then shared with him the report as dictated by Trash in order to gauge his reaction. If it was as expected, we were to reveal ourselves and take him out.
The messenger uniforms and equipment had been provided by the Zeltoble Dark Guild. Faubrey was a nation with a long history, so there was a lot of that kind of stuff floating around. Just in case, we’d even had Raph-chan cast some illusion magic on us that changed our odor. Making things invisible wasn’t the only use for illusion magic after all. Even those among Takt’s party with powerful noses hadn’t picked up on anything.
“For a start, why would so many messengers be reporting to you? Are you really such an idiot?” I continued. Takt and the others were still looking on dumbfounded, so we ended the charade completely. There was Fohl, S’yne, Ren, Raph-chan, and me. Filo, Gaelion, Sadeena, and Shildina had already engaged the soldiers around Takt.
“You sounded so pleased with yourself for a moment there. I’m sorry to spoil your mood, but that smoke is where your precious toy planes crashed into the ground,” I happily reported.
“No way! Not Rulina and the others?” Takt really couldn’t believe it, but it was the truth. By now, Trash’s strategy should have knocked all of Takt’s airplanes out of the sky. The planes he planned to use for bombing and troop deployment should have run afoul of the ore from the Glawick mines, which Trash had gathered in the air over Melromarc.
Glawick ore was basically rock that could float in the air.
This world had a lot of these kinds of rocks that could float, so Takt’s forces would be prepared to dodge them, but that was where the Raph species had come in. They were incredibly good at concealing things, after all. Using something on the level of cooperative magic, they had made it look like there was nothing at all in the skies over Melromarc. Even better, that day the weather was clear. It really looked like the perfect day to take to the sky. Of course, that sky was actually filled with floating Glawick ore.
Those airplanes were unable to make sharp turns. It wasn’t hard to imagine them being unable to avoid the rocks and just crashing right into them. It went without saying that the plan also considered that the rocks alone would not be enough to take all the planes down. The paratroopers they carried had then been targeted by wind and gravity multi-cast magic from Melromarc magic users working together and standing up on the rocks.
Parachutes had pretty obvious weak points, after all. Hit the chute part with some magic and they were screwed. Our enemies might have been planning to use wind magic to protect themselves in the case of an emergency, but they wouldn’t be able to cancel out an increase in their descent provided by gravity magic. Not to mention the poor fools would also have magic and arrows targeting them down below, so regardless of how high their levels were, they wouldn’t be getting away in one piece.
For once, things seemed to be in our favor. All thanks to the Wisest King of Wisdom.
“W-what happened?!” Takt asked.
“I’m not here to share my life story,” I said mockingly. “If I had to boil it down, you should have paid more attention to all that talk about the past genius of the Wisest King of Wisdom.”
“Bah!” Takt’s retinue raised their guns.
“That same Wisest King of Wisdom told me to tell you that your strategy is the lowest of the low. Every bad decision you could make, you made it,” I told him, really rubbing it in. The most idiotic strategy Takt could possibly have chosen was what had led to this exact situation. That he was completely unprepared for us reaching him was again was, according to Trash, proof of that fact.
The one that I’d personally considered pretty dangerous was Takt coming to the front lines and deciding to fight us singlehandedly, but according to Trash, that would have been a mistake too. Even if it had come to that, the combined heroes should have been able to defeat him, so it probably wouldn’t have been too much of a threat.
Immediately after the fighting started, Trash had muttered the following. “He’s coming at us with a strategy even worse than the most idiotic ones I considered for him . . . almost as though this is some kind of suicide attack. Is he trying to lure us in? Or does he just consider us incapable of opposing him? If this is a trap, then let us pretend to be caught in it and see what he does in response. If it isn’t a trap, that will still put us in an advantageous position.” Trash had now probably seized that advantage for himself.
Whatever. Right now, I just needed to concentrate on what I could do in this situation.
If there was something I was worried about, it was not having the old lady with us. She had looked very displeased about it, but due to her experience on the battlefield, I had been forced to put her with our main force. I’d told her that Raphtalia had already managed to escape, which had at least put her a little at ease.
The complicated smiles on the faces of the Siltvelt leaders at seeing Trash in action had also left an impression on me.
“I never dreamed the day would come when we fought on the same side as the Wisest King of Wisdom, our most hated foe for so many years,” one of them had muttered with deep emotion. “We really were up against a monster, weren’t we?”
He had also planned all sorts of strategies to use in the melee fighting. He had not shared them with anyone for fear of the information leaking out, but he had one or two hundred strategies ready for simultaneous deployment as required. These included providing combat support using our excellent means of communication.
“They might not all function, but some quick modifications should provide much of what we need,” he had said. All we needed to do was concentrate on defeating the enemy commander in the enemy base. I wasn’t sure if he was mocking the enemy or had some plans to win that I didn’t know about. The only thing I could say about that was, “You’ll have to ask Trash.”
Seriously, he was like some kind of genius general from a story or anime. Things were going so well I almost wanted to make a joke about him being some kind of psychic.
Honestly, I was just happy I never had to face Trash in the prime of his powers. If the Trash I had faced when I’d been framed had been on his game like this, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to prove my innocence.
“In that case, I’ll head over to the battle right now!” Takt deployed his claws and looked ready to dash away at once.
“Hold it. You’re not forgetting about us, I hope? We’re not the same guys you fought the last time,” I told him. We were here not just to stop him from leaving, but to defeat him.
“You really think you pond scum can defeat me?” he taunted.
“Of course. The whole point of this battle is to end your life. As you fight us, try and think about where you went wrong,” I replied. I was having so much fun thinking about how his face would twist once we defeated him that I couldn’t even get angry anymore. We hadn’t come here unprepared, after all. We were here because we had a good shot at winning.
“What are you talking about? You’ve come all this way just to help me get stronger, is that it? Then I guess I have to fight you,” he replied. Takt’s women raised their guns again.
“So? Another cowardly volley of fire and then you pick off whatever remains?” I said. This taunt had been scripted by Trash too. Takt’s expression tightened, his brow furrowing. He was incredibly simple, that much was for sure. A few choice words and he was hooked. “It sounds nice when you call it a ‘grand strategy,’ but really it’s just a coward’s way of winning.” If he didn’t take the bait, we had other plans too.
Crap, I looked around and didn’t see Witch anywhere. I didn’t know where she was.
“Very well. I’m enough to handle you rabble alone. I am level 350.” He had a relative sense of justice then. Or maybe he was just an overly proud moron.
In either case, Trash’s strategy for the fight against Takt proceeded to the second phase. From here it was about my personal fight and had nothing to do with Trash.
If I lost now, that would make me a laughingstock!
“You rabble? That’s my line. Why do you think I haven’t paid you back for the cowardly surprise attack you unleashed on us?” I questioned.
“No surprise attack will work on me!” Takt suddenly exclaimed. Was he even listening to anything I was saying? It seemed impossible to talk to this guy.
“In any case, in order to truly destroy everything you have established, I’m choosing to fight you head-on,” I told him. I had a trump card with which I could definitely win, but refraining from using it was what would prove my own claims. “I’m enough alone to handle a fake hero like you.”
“Brother?!” Fohl voiced his surprise at my comment.
“Sorry, Fohl. Just hold fast,” I said.
“But—” he started.
“Hold it. I’m not telling you not to fight at all. Just stay calm and watch what happens,” I told him. Then I took a step forward, staff up on my shoulder, and made sure Takt saw it.
“Hmmm. That staff . . .” Again, he took the bait right away.
“Yeah. It’s one of the seven star weapons that you want so badly. I’m its current wielder,” I told him.
“What luck for me. I’ve already taken the shield from you, so taking another weapon won’t be an issue,” Takt jibed.
“If you think you can do it, go right ahead,” I told him. The two of us glared at each other. “Where’s Witch, anyway? Waiting amid all these people to launch a cowardly magic attack from behind us?”
“You mean Malty? Hah, she’s still back in Faubrey. Even with how low this place has fallen, she probably doesn’t want to see the end of her homeland,” Takt theorized.
“You have no idea who Witch is, do you?” I snapped. He had no idea who that bitch was. She of all people would be the one happiest to see Melromarc destroyed.
“Master Takt, let us fight too.” A number of his women stepped forward. There was the aotatsu who had fought with Fohl and the fishy-one who had been hostile to Sadeena during our last encounter. There were two others, as well: the lizard-like woman and the one with wings on her back like Filo.
Gaelion and Filo stared down each of these respectively.
“Nelshen, Shate, Leludia, and Ashil too? Very well. Better than just having you watch. Show him what you are capable of! It will be the true hero and his allies who win this battle,” Takt said.
“True hero, you say? Doing all of this, there’s no way any of you are heroes!” Ren declared, taking a step forward. The woman with the lizard-like tail glared at him and Gaelion.
“Master Takt isn’t a hero?” she responded. “You must be blind. You four holy heroes are known for nothing apart from being weak. We’ll show you who the real king is!”
“Allow us to beat the truth into you!” added the aotatsu woman, moving up to stand in front of Fohl. “We’ll show you how noble, how wonderful the man is who you face. That you hakuko with your faith in the Shield Hero— that all of Siltvelt—are just backward rejects!”
“Move aside! I don’t care about you!” Fohl shouted.
“Fohl,” I calmly said. “You can join in with my battle once you take care of her. If this idiot hasn’t been defeated by then.”
“Understood. I’ll be right with you, brother! Leave this to me!” Fohl returned, continuing to glare at the aotatsu . . . Nelshen, wasn’t it?
“Who am I going to fight?” Sadeena asked. “You?”
“Female orca! You are not allowed to exist!” said the fishy woman. Then she transformed. She was a shark-like therianthrope.
“You look like a noid and kusha mix. Do you have something personal against me?” Sadeena asked.
“Such impudence! You orca have always mocked my kind!” the shark woman spat back.
“I don’t know anything about that, but if you want to fight me, then I’m game. You fall back, little Shildina,” Sadeena said. The shark woman seemed to be holding some kind of inter-species grudge. I didn’t have time for that. Sadeena seemed to consider the chip on her shoulder to be an annoyance too.
“What? I want to fight too!” complained Shildina.
“Then go and help Filo. I think she’s going to struggle,” Sadeena commented. Shildina looked at Filo and the Griffon and nodded.
“Oh my. I’ll finish that quickly and then get serious with you,” she said.
“Good. Just do your best,” Sadeena replied.
“Enough joking around! I’m going to finish you both off!” the shark woman raged. Immediately after that, Sadeena unleashed her own murderous wave of energy. Shildina’s face had a huge grin on it. The two were acting like members of a certain warrior race—I almost expected their hair to change color!
“You think you can handle Shildina and myself on your own? Joking around like that is more likely to make me mad than make me laugh!”
Sadeena shouted, pushing out another wave of pressure to put the aggressor in her place.
“That arrogance!” The shark-like therianthrope was pushing back for a moment and then shouted back in rage. “I’ll show you what I can really do!” As the bickering went back and forth, S’yne suddenly stepped forward from my side and deflected an incoming bullet using her scissors.
“You’re getting—”
“Ahead of yourself a little, aren’t you?” her familiar said for her, while she pointed her scissors at the maid-looking woman at Takt’s side. She’d apparently attempted to make an advance move on me with a rifle.
“You will pay for the crime of upsetting Takt,” she said.
“I won’t allow that!” It looked like S’yne and the maid were going to be fighting.
“Holder of a Dragon Emperor fragment, you got away once and then came back again? You must really want to hand it over to me,” said the lizard-like woman.
“Kwaa!” was Gaelion’s response.
“Hah. Let me show a weak, pathetic fragment like you the terror of a true Dragon Emperor!” she shouted. With a series of cracking sounds, the lizard-like woman started to turn into a dragon—a big one. She was even bigger than father Gaelion. I couldn’t quite say what it was, but I felt something from the dragon as she faced down Gaelion, something crackly, similar to the Spirit Tortoise and the Phoenix. The place my shield had been ached too . . . There was definitely something about that dragon.
To be honest, I hadn’t been able to understand why I needed to bring Ren along when I was facing just Takt. But Trash had sent Ren along with me just in case, having a bad feeling about the whole thing. Maybe this was what he had been worried about.
“Puny Dragon Emperor fragment! Takt said to leave the women alive, but that doesn’t apply to you,” the dragon spat.
“Hey. Don’t forget about me,” Ren quipped, leveling his sword at Gaelion’s side. “Naofumi, who should I fight?”
“That dragon looks the strongest. You help Gaelion fight it,” I told him.
“Okay,” he replied with a nod and then leapt onto the now large Gaelion. It looked like a combination father Gaelion would have something to say about. It would probably be along the lines of the twist of fate that now put two who had tried to kill each other on the same side.
“You think any of the four holy heroes stands a chance against me?!” the dragon roared.
“Leludia, you can take the hero?” Takt asked.
“Who do you think I am, Takt? Any number of these fools can’t hope to take me down!” the beast responded. At her side, the woman with the wings also transformed. She was the griffon. Filo faced her down.
“Filolial. Our hated foe who crawls along the ground! I am the griffon who shall end the bloodline of the queen,” the creature spat.
“Wow, are you a bird? Or a cat? Either way, I’m not losing to you again,” Filo responded, her face as relaxed as ever. Her opponent was meant to be a higher level than Filo . . . but she wasn’t letting it show at all.
“Bird God . . . let us fight together. I will end this quickly and prove I am superior to Sadeena,” Shildina said. So she called Filo “Bird God” too? Of course, in Q’ten Lo, a proclamation by Ruft had meant that Filo was treated as a bird god.
I had to shake my head and push these unnecessary thoughts to the side. “Let’s get this farce underway then—a battle with a conclusion that is already determined.” At my words, Takt gave a provocative laugh. “Well said! The start of a battle we will definitely win!” With that, each individual fight started.
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