Chapter 294: Outside

Editor: Tseirp

While the audience chamber was turning into a sea of flames, it wasn’t exactly peaceful outside the castle either.

More than tens of thousands of horsemen from the equestrian tribes besieged ‘Schulz’.

And the castle gates were about to be closed, naturally….

But the equestrian tribes, who had been lurking in the streets of ‘Schulz’ for several days, raided the gates and kept them from closing.

The attacking equestrian tribes didn’t pay attention to civilians and focused on the government facilities.

The knights’ quarters, the guards’ quarters, the ministries, the castle…and the plaza.

“Damn, who the hell are these guys? Get into a defensive formation with the civilian officials at the center. Now!”

“B-But, His Majesty Rupert is in the castle!”

“First, we need to deal with these guys pouring in…”

“There are enemies inside the castle as well!”

“What the hell! His Majesty…”

The Imperial delegation and its escorts were in disarray.

Nevertheless, the escorts were imperial troops, and because of their high individual strengths, they had not completely collapsed and were barely maintaining the battle line.

“His Majesty is inside the castle…”

“You think these mere marauders are capable of killing someone that even Lord Aubrey couldn’t kill? How about we worry about ourselves, the ones outside, first!”

The Union delegation and its escorts were incredibly decisive….

Which probably suggested that they thought very highly of former king Roberto Pirlo… no, while they most certainly do….

Is that really how it should be, Union escort detail….

“Ryo, are you all right?”

“I’m good. This level of attack won’t even hurt a hair on my head.”

The Kingdom delegation and its escorts were all inside an ice wall.

“Dammit, what’s with this invisible wall!”

“It’s no good. Even magic is useless against it.”

“What should we do, Chief?”

The tribe that attacked the Kingdom delegation was completely stopped in its tracks.

They were literally helpless before Ryo’s .

“We are all good here thanks to the defense, but… the fact that enemies are coming out from inside the castle probably means that there are some in the audience chamber as well?”

“Most likely. They’re probably fighting in front of the castle door to keep anyone from going in.”

Ryo asked, and Niels answered with a nod.

Between the plaza and the castle, for some reason, the equestrian tribes who came out of the castle set up a defensive position to prevent Schulz’s soldiers from entering the castle.

And inside the castle were leader Hugh and chief negotiator Ignis.

Including the former emperor of the Empire and the former king of the Union, of course, but well, they’re irrelevant….

Hugh McGrath is a former A-rank swordsman and hero of the ‘Great War’.

Alone, he would be able to get out of any difficult situation.

But chief negotiator Ignis… isn’t one for violence.

Of course, being the second son of Marquis Hope, a great western noble house, he may have received some kind of combat training since childhood.

Which is very likely….

Still, he’s no fighter.

“Mr. Ignis…”

“Yeah. He might be in a bind.”

Niels nodded to Ryo’s concern.

Then, Swordsman DeLong, the leader of ‘Coffee Maker’, came running to the two of them and said.

“Ryo, you can maintain this ice wall on your own, right?”

“Of course.”

“Great. Then, I’ll leave the protection of the civilian officials and the D-rankers to you. Niels, we’re going to take the B and C-rank parties and storm the castle. We’re rescuing the Grand Master and Mr. Ignis.”

“Got it.”

Niels nodded vigorously in reply to DeLong’s suggestion.

Niels was of the same mind.

Listening beside him were those whose faces were filled with determination.

They were Swordsman Harold, Priest Zeke, and Dual Swordsman Gowan, the three members of ‘Room 11’.

Seeing this, Ryo called out to them.

“Harold, Zeke, Gowan. Please take care of Mr. Hugh and Mr. Ignis.”

Ryo’s voice may have surprised them.

Harold’s eyes widened a little.

But he quickly regained his determined expression.

“Sure, we got this.”

Saying so, he nodded his head slightly.

The three of them then followed Niels and the other members of ‘Room 10’ and ran to the castle.

Meanwhile, Ryo remained behind to protect the civilian officials.

And for the first time in a while, Ryo heard a voice in his mind.

((Ryo, listen, there is something you should know about ‘Schulz’… whoa, what in the world is going on?))

((Abel! And here I was just thinking it’s been a while since we connected! As you can see, it’s a battlefield.))

The voice coming from ‘Soul Resonance’ was, of course, that of Abel, back in the royal capital.

((Don’t tell me, it’s a raid by the equestrian tribes?))

((That’s right. Do you know something?))

((Yeah. I received a report from Marquis Heinlein. Saying that the current ‘Schulz’ government is hunting the children of the equestrian tribes in an attempt to eradicate them. And that there’s a plan in the works involving an orphan of the previous dynasty of ‘Schulz’ teaming up with those equestrian tribes to become the king of the equestrian tribes and attacking ‘Schulz’.))

Ryo was surprised.

At the same time, he was terrified.

Wondering how far Marquis Heinlein’s intelligence network extended.

His reach extended beyond the Imperial territory to the desolate lands beyond the Pitch-Black Forest where ‘Ayteke-Bo’ was located.

‘Information is Power’ indeed….

((I’m really glad that… Marquis Heinlein is on our side. Abel, you’d better butter up to Phelps, the successor to Marquis Heinlein!))

((What do you mean, butter up…))

((I just think it’d be better to avert a civil war between King Abel and Marquis Heinlein that will one day split the Kingdom in two, in advance.))

((Oh…. Should it come to that, my chances of winning are slim, won’t you say?))

Abel replied, not taking it seriously at all.

((When that happens, what will decide the outcome will be which side has the support of the premier duke!))

((In other words, Ryo, right?))

Ryo is the premier duke of the Kingdom.

((Then I guess I win.))

Abel made a rare declaration of victory.

((Why would you think so?))

((Do you even need to ask? Well, I’ll grant you a weekly basis cake privilege.))

((Damn Abel, you sure know your way around things! In that case, I’ll stick with you for the rest of my life, right?))

The simulated confrontation between the king and the prime minister ended with the king’s victory.

But as expected, Ryo soon came to his senses.

((Sigh, this isn’t the time for foolish talk. Looks like the situation is developing…))

((Yeah, don’t mind me.))

Once Ryo had driven Abel out of his mind, he concentrated on the situation at hand.

Until a few moments ago, the other delegations besides the Kingdom had been acting in a rather disjointed manner.

At most, the delegations from smaller countries were clustered in a defensive formation in a corner of the plaza.

And were being protected by Ryo’s .

Ryo, too, wasn’t just chatting away with Abel and ignoring the situation!

The Empire and the Union were, well, opponents with whom he had fought, and he couldn’t completely say that there was no hard feelings in protecting them, but the delegations of the small countries were allies to be protected.

Those were his honest feelings.

And be that as it may, Ryo wasn’t about to watch the members of the Imperial and the Union delegations die! It hadn’t gotten to that.

He wouldn’t necessarily call them companions… at most fellow travelers heading for the Western Countries together.

Thus, he watched them as they gathered together to some extent.

And finally, they seemed to have assembled.

( )

As he chanted in his mind, a couple of ice walls were generated, protecting each Imperial and Union delegations.

Since he had no intention of revealing it was his doing, he chanted without saying it out loud.

“What’s this!? An invisible wall just…”

“Damn, it won’t crack at all.”

“Even magic is ineffective…”

“Is it… protecting us?”

“I don’t know what it is, but we can finally breathe easy.”

“It’s God’s blessing.”

Ryo decided to ignore the last words by the priest, although he wanted to vehemently deny it.

Ryo, after hearing Abel’s story, honestly had no desire to fight the equestrian tribes.

The Schulz government was doing inexcusable things, such as hunting children to eradicate the horsemen… If that was true, then he could understand why they attacked “Schulz”.

Some would call him naive, and that may be so.

But that’s just who Ryo is.

As someone who studied history… or rather, who had studied history, he couldn’t overlook ethnic cleansing.

“Though, the ones in the castle are unaware of this…”

Ryo thought of the heads of delegations and their guards, including ‘Room 10’ and ‘Room 11’ bunch, who had gone in to rescue them.

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