Chapter 361

Meowcom [Part 3]

“J-Joanna-sama…”

The thumb-sized magician looked at Joanna anxiously, pressing his hurting chest after his conscience was brutally wounded by the boy’s counterattack.

“F-Fool! Hurry and fire the next round of shells!”

Since the soldiers on the ship were also captured, they had to change plans and destroy the Royal Capital thoroughly using the artillery so they could be unhindered when seizing the city after the bombardment was over.

“B-But… M-Many people… are… d… dying…”

The magicians under Joanna all worked for research and were not used to this kind of rough work.

They didn’t have the resolve to hurt people.

The thumb-sized subordinate was visibly dismayed by Joshua’s words.

“It’s an order! Do it! The ones who die are Kingdom people with no ties to you whatsoever. If we don’t do it, ‘they’ will do it to us instead. Think about your old parents and younger sister. If you don’t fire it now, your family will suffer the same fate!”

Joanna threatened her subordinate, still with her body tied up and cheeks pressed on the floor. The thread bound her as tightly as ever.

However, Joanna felt there was no doubt that the odds were in her favor. Even if most of her personnel was bound, she still had artillery fully set up to fire and one free magician who could operate it.

The Kingdom didn’t have any means to defend against the incoming artillery shells, especially at night with low visibility. The Kingdom with no magicians also had no means to save the people trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the bombardment or to extinguish fires quickly.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“*sob* A-Arghhhh! Boom… Boom! Boom! Boom! …”

Fully aware of what his actions would bring, the subordinate magician screamed like he had lost his mind. How could he defy the orders when he was told his family would lose their lives if he failed?

“Oh boy, you even attack ordinary people indiscriminately… The Kingdom people could never do such a cruel thing, you know?”

Joshua looked at the thumb-sized magician, who fired the artillery continuously with magic while crying, with pity.

‘The one under attack is the boy’s country, and the one attacking is us… so where does his composure come from…’ Joanna couldn’t understand.

♠♠♠

*rustle rustle!*

(We prefer the dark but can’t see what’s flying toward here when the sky has already turned this dark!)

The tailless whip scorpions voiced out their worry while following after the running three cats.

“Mew!”

Kan-chan: (No worries, mew!)

“Oomeoow!”

Chou-chan: (Cats have night vision, meoow!)

“Mewmeow!”

Ryuu-chan: (Well, even if you can’t see, you can somehow pur-ceive it with your intuition, right!)

*rus…tle…?*

(Intu…ition?)

‘We don’t really get what you’re saying.’ The tailless whip scorpions looked at the sky.

*rustle!?*

*rustle rustle!*

(Something is coming!?)

(We can sense it… something is coming!)

Perhaps it was one of the results of the training to subdue Over, but the tailless whip scorpions vaguely understood the ‘intuition’ in Ryuu-chan’s mouth and let themselves be guided by it.

“Mew mew!”

(That’s right. Don’t think, meow, feel!) Ryuu-chan said something like a famous kung fu master would say.

“Mew… meooow~!”

(But that thing… flies too high. We probably can’t reach it~!) Chou-chan said while running.

Even if the cats had explosive jumping power, the unidentified flying object X was at a very high altitude, and they naturally couldn’t seem to reach it.

“Mewmeow! …Meow?”

Kan-chan: (George always said this, meow. It’s over if you give up, meow!)

Then, as Kan-chan ran, he saw an obstacle blocking his way a few distance away.

“Meow… Mew, meow…”

(T-This… T-The trampoline is placed in such a purrfect position…!) Chou-chan exclaimed in surprise.

That obstacle was the trampoline that Joshua brought some time ago for the cats to play with. It’s the extra tough one made from armored boar leather.

As Chou-chan said, that trampoline was set up in a surprisingly perfect position for them to use to catch the unidentified flying object X.

“Meoow~!”

(It’s possible with this!) Kan-chan hopped onto the trampoline and leaped high into the sky toward object X.

With the armored boar leather’s elasticity, Kan-chan reached the altitude object X was flying at in one jump… but,

“Mew!?”

Kan-chan jumped before object X at the perfect time. But right before he was about to catch the object just like that, his whiskers quivered alertly and his nose twitched.

Gunpowder smell.

(This… mustn’t be caught!)