CH 182

Chapter 182 – Twinkling Light

Sitting on the roof of the hovercraft, which is kicking up snow and dashing forward, Myrril-san lets out an excited laugh.

“Takifu, this thing is really wonderful! Fast, flexible, powerful, dependable, and all that good stuff! Why this can’t dominate the battlefields where you are from, I have no idea…”

It must have been the various operational and technological developments that came to mind. Myrril-san was in a state of great excitement, but then she noticed something and rapidly lowered her tone.

“…No. I understood.”

“Do you understand? As expected of Mir-neesan.”

“It’s not something to be praised. Perhaps this something eats up a lot of fuel, doesn’t it?”

“It’s a hovercraft. But you are right. It probably consumes many times more fuel than a truck. If we talk about consumption alone, tanks are pretty big eaters too, but in the case of this one, it takes fuel to stay afloat even when it is idle.”

It consumes a lot of fuel, whether it’s running, stopping, or idling. I point to the metal intensifier tank fixed at the very back of the rear seat.

“The metal barrel-like thing piled up behind it is the added reserve fuel tank. Without it, we won’t be able to make it to the central territory and back.”

Simon told me that there is no manual, so this is just hearsay, but the main fuel tank is about 1500 liters. The additional reserve tank is 1,000 liters.

If we were to go to the central territory, which is about 400 kilometers one way, we would have to worry about the main tank alone. It seems that it would be possible to make the round trip by eco-driving at low speeds and low RPMs.

“If we were just going there and back, 1500 would be enough, but we’ve got some rough stuff waiting for us over there, don’t we?”

That was Simon’s opinion. Incidentally, I heard that this thing could run at less than one kilometer per liter at full acceleration and in combat maneuvers. That’s why it needs an extra tank.

“It’s a machine that can’t float unless it’s constantly buzzing and screaming. But it has its advantages. It is inevitable that there is a price to pay.”

It is the viewpoint of an engineer to show a certain amount of understanding for a challenge that was accomplished at high risk and high cost.

“Where I come from, they say that the weaker the child is, the more you attach to them.” [T/n: It means that a weaker child is more likely to feel affection because it takes more effort to raise them.]

“I don’t think so. Whenever you see a good story or a dreamlike phenomenon, it is an engineer who thinks there is something behind it. On the other hand, the idea and the result of “Hovercraft” are brilliant. It’s not fair to blame them for a small problem, is it?”

“Maybe so. In my world, slow vehicles like this are nothing more than targets, and there are plenty of weapons that can pulverize even tanks to dust with a single shot. There are countless choices, like faster ones, sturdier and stronger ones, or cheaper ones that can be supplied in larger quantities. After all, there is no one-size-fits-all. Everything has its uses.”

“O-oh… now that’s a letdown. In addition, a tank can be pulverized by a single blow; it is truly a world beyond the heavens.”

That’s right. I agree with you.

“Now, they’re taking the bait.”

Myrril’s voice boomed with excitement. We were heading north from the western interior in a wide circle, and hooded figures were appearing here and there in the snowfields.

“I guess when the bait is this big, you can’t miss it.”

I chuckled and pointed ahead. In the front part of the hull, the part that corresponds to the hood of a vehicle, there was the east lord wrapped in a bamboo mat. The old man, whose family crest, the sea serpent, is positioned in front of him, looks like he is dressed in a banner.

In addition, he was shouting for help, so the raiding party was forced to choose between killing us or saving the East Lord. The hesitation caused a delay in action, leading to the fatal mistake of falling behind us as we moved at high speed.

“Mir, we’ll hit them from both sides.”

“Don’t worry. I can see them.”

They are the secret task force of the national political center. They are the elite of the Republic. As long as they can get into the right situation, there is no way they can fail. In fact, if McKin had stayed in the lord’s house with a strong defense, they would have been able to finish him off with ease. However, we took the unexpected (from their point of view) step of venturing out into the unshielded plains against an enemy who was out and about. In response to McKin’s action, which could only be considered suicidal, the Koubi clan deployed in Lafan chose the worst possible course: to wait and see what would happen.

The theory that launching forces one after the other is a bad idea is probably the same in this world as well. Once in sight, the attackers came at us all at once. They came toward us at speeds faster than a horse, despite the snowfall, but they were shot down without a second thought by Myrril-san’s UZI. The attackers may have judged that it was unnecessary to use the rifle rounds of a MAG general-purpose machine gun against an unarmored enemy, or they may have simply chosen a weapon with which they were familiar. Bodies roll by, their eyeballs shot out, and are joined by their followers, who rush in without fear. It wasn’t just a clash of armor. It was just a massacre.

After a few minutes of decisive action, I stowed away the bodies of the attackers, who had fallen in a heap. There were 37 of them. Most of them were werewolves, except for four elves with bows and two tiger-beastmen with shields.

“Let’s move. Bring the old man back inside the vehicle.”

“”Roger that.””

The East Lord, who saw the Koubi clan deployed on the snowfield, kept shouting at them to rescue him, but by the time the number of returned fire exceeded 20, he realized the difference in strength between them and us and began to cry out like a child. The old man’s voice soon turned into pleas for his life, and then he fell silent and began shivering from hypothermia.

“The guards at the edge of the forest fled. I’m sorry, I was out of range when I found them.”

“It doesn’t matter. They will confront us in due course.”

“I assume they’ll be returning to report to their employer, but can they get there before us?”

“…I don’t know. I think we can easily get ahead of them since they only have horse-drawn sleighs.”

The attackers are probably werewolves or elves.

“Hey Tig, how long would it take you to travel to the central territory?”

“It’s about 250 miles. So I would say it would take about two days, but to be honest, I don’t know. The beastmen vary too much from person to person. And if they are the elite of the council, there is no telling how well trained they are.”

The speed at which the attackers were moving on the snow that I saw earlier was at a level where they could catch up with the hovercraft, if only for a moment. The rest would depend on their endurance, but that was where we would have to increase our speed to keep them off our backs.

We changed our plans and turned east. The northern part of Lafan, where Kayson-san’s house is located, was lined with small farmhouses and fishermen’s homes. As Griffin’s huge body pushed forward, blowing wind, it caused damage to buildings and materials.

After making sure there was no sign of life, we headed straight for the coastline.

“H-hey, Takifu! Look ahead!”

Louis, who apparently hadn’t heard the hovercraft’s explanation (or couldn’t understand it even if she had), hurriedly pointed out the front window.

“It’s all right, hold on!”

I waved to Louis and the others, and without slowing down, I drove the boat down the sloping shoreline and surfed into the waves. The crew in the aft seat start to groan as the boat begins to move swiftly through the water.

“This is good. Takifu, let’s fly a little bit.”

“Oh!”

After a few minutes of speeding along the surface of the sea, the crew notices the sound of explosions and goes out to the pier. Eino and Colon, the rear guard of the Battlecry, and even McCain, who is supposed to be calm, are stunned at the sound of the approaching hovercraft.

Moff, the snow-white wolf standing beside them, wagged his tail and seemed to be in a good mood.

“Now, I’m here to pick you up. The Lord has a big job for us. Why don’t you get in quickly?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Okay.”

“…Oh.”

“Woof!”

I waved at the three of them to get on board and then dropped Kayson-san and Calmon off in exchange. I also took out the fishing boat and a large barrel of silver and copper coins. The pier’s gangplanks creaked from the sheer weight of the coins. I hurriedly put them away in storage and took them out again on the shore. I also put up a treasure chest-like object that was supposed to contain precious metals. I don’t know what’s in it.

“Takifu-san, what is this?”

“This is your share so far. The rest of the stuff will be divided up when we get back. Kayson-san’s ship handling was a great help in the naval battle and in the defeat of the Sea Serpent, so please accept it.”

“Oh… I’ll take it, thank you.”

“You sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

“Yeah. You’ll be staying, Calmon, because this is the kind of work a rootless adventurer does.”

“No, I’ll be right back after a quick twist.”

Tig and Louis nodded, and Calmon looked at the house. He chose to retire for the sake of his family. There is a line that needs to be protected, even though I’m the one who got them involved in a series of battles.

“I’m sorry, Demon King, but we’re running out of time.”

The Lord told me to look to the sky, and I saw that the sun was beginning to set. There were only about seven hours left until midnight, and when he had been told that he had only a few hours left to live. He was also concerned about the Koubi clan that had fled.

“All right, let’s get out of here. Everybody sit in your chairs.”

We waved to Calmon and his father and left the pier. We accelerate slowly, throttling down as we near the shore because of the bouncing waves. As we reach the open sea, I bring Mr. Myrril back on board from the gunwale, and we go into a full gallop. The hovercraft, which kicked against the waves, was comfortable and faster than expected with less shock.

“This is a wonderful ship. I’m getting more and more excited, even though it’s just before the battle.”

We are going to be at war again with a new enemy whose identity we don’t even know, but I’m starting to enjoy the roundabout way things are going. The lord involved, the Battlecry, and Myrril-san all seem to be having a good time, so there are no regrets.

“It will be dark soon. By the time we reach the central territory, it will be midnight. We can either turn off the engines, dock, and go ashore under the cover of night, or we can go ashore with this ship the next morning and attack…”

“Takifu.”

Oh, geez. When Mir-neesan puts a comment on me, it’s almost decided. An enemy has appeared, hasn’t it? Fleet, fleet, fleet, fleet…

“The enemy ship is in the shadow of the island on the left front. The distance is one and a half miles. There are two big ships, seven to nine medium-sized ones, and twenty or so rowing flatboats.”

See, I knew it. Is it the northern fleet this time or the remnants of the eastern fleet? It is also possible that it was reinforcement from the central territory.

I had assumed many possibilities, but Myrril whispered to me in a doubtful voice.

“It looks like a gunboat hiding in the shadow of the island. I can see the rock projectiles from the cannon and the magic light from the attack magic.”

But it is strange. She took out her binoculars and began to observe. As usual, I couldn’t see anything at all. Not even the shadow of the ship, not even the shadow of the island. I felt something shining on the horizon, but I did not know if it was the magic light or not.

“There was another light. It’s a small twinkling in the back. Could it be… gunfire?”