Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

Chapter 172: Winter War in the Capital ② Sinking in Hellfire

A Few Hours Ago, Hardlett Residence.

「Ununu...... to think I’d get drunk from such a measly amount, I still have a long ways to go......」

「Don’t be ridiculous, hurry and drink some water.」

After Irijina returned home, Dorothea hands her a cup filled with water, but Irijina takes the pitcher and drinks directly out of there instead.

「It’s not like I was so drunk I couldn’t stand! He could have taken me with him!!」

「Geez! It might have been different if you got drunk at the party, but he couldn’t just enter with an escort who is already red in the face!」

「I didn’t think they would be that strict.」

The alcohol Irijina chugged like it was water in the carriage were all expensive high-class products, each of them way more than the monthly income of a commoner, not to mention many of them were the kind of alcohol you would normally enjoy sparingly in a glass by smelling the fragrance and sipping lightly.

「Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now. I’ll just wait and eat something.」

「Pipi is hungry too~」

「Fine. I’ll make something to eat, just wait here please...... Alice-san too, please sit on the sofa instead of going to the corner.」

Lying flat on the room’s sofa in the character ‘大’ is the large Irijina and Pipi is on top doing the same.

On the other hand, the obedient Alice has come to the capital for the first time and is more timid in an environment with nothing and nobody she’s familiar with.

Besides the times she plays with her ass, the girl is rather bashful and reserved.

「Mamaa~ snack~」「Mamaa~ pee~」「Mamaa~ sleepy~ 」

As Dorothea moves to the kitchen, some children who are still quite young follow behind her in a row.

If Nonna were here, she would probably scream something like “Is this an orphanage!? Please use better judgement”, however the family members here, Irijina and Pipi, don’t really stress about these little details. While waiting for the food to come out, Irijina is killing time by using the bounciness of the sofa to bounce Pipi up and down. Pipi laughs, making poses in midair every time she’s sent up.

The two girls jostle with one another and enjoy themselves despite Pipi’s underwear being exposed for everyone to see.

「Uu...... panties......」

「Come on Kroll, this isn’t the place to get turned on, help out why don’t you! Add some more charcoal to the fire and go fetch some water.」

「Okaaay.」

Even though Kroll has buffed up, Dorothea still thinks of him as one of her sons.

Having shown an embarrassing side of himself to his mother, the man slumps his shoulders and walks towards the well in the courtyard.

When Kroll filled the bucket of the well with water, a man called out to him.

「Sorry to trouble you this evening! I would like to meet with Lord Hardlett!」

The head of the house had taken Mel and Leah to a party so this probably wasn’t a guest who made a proper appointment.

In that case, Kroll determined that it wouldn’t matter if he replied in his master’s stead.

「May I know who is asking?」

「We are members of the palace guards! We would like to have an audience with Lord Hardlett urgently.」

In front of him are several carriages and about 50 armed men from the palace guards – an abnormal scene which caused him to be suspicious – but because they are palace guards, he couldn’t treat them with disdain.

「Hardlett-sama is currently away on business.」

「What!? ......where did he go?!」

The man is clearly showing how much of a hurry he is in.

And he also forgot to maintain his keigo, raising his voice and shouting instead.

「...... I am just a mere servant so I do not know. He has taken the madam with him too.」

Kroll also thought his behavior was strange and purposely didn’t provide his master’s destination.

Hearing the angry yelling, Pipi popped her head out from the door of the mansion, which Kroll then signalled to with his eyes.

The girl swiftly returned insides.

「When will he be back?」

「I don’t know.」

A brief silence fell on the two individuals, then the palace guards whisper something to each other.

Some people in the neighborhood have already come out to find out what was going on with all the yelling.

Seeing how they were clearly making a scene, the palace guards made a sour expression.

「...... It’s a shame we let the big tiger escape, but there’s no helping it now!」

The man who greeted Kroll unsheathed his sword and everyone behind him also did the same. They must have been prepared for when their disguise failed.

「Kill everyone connected to Hardlett!」

「-gh!?」

Kroll had already partly anticipated this would happen and rolled away to dodge the long sword swung at him, then he closed the door which separated the courtyard with the main street and lowered the bolt. The people in the nearby houses who were peeking all screamed and shut their windows and doors.

They had an extremely good view but they had no reason to get themselves involved.

「Bastard!」

The enemy kicks the door in a hurry, but that’s nowhere near enough to break down the reinforced door.

Even if they detour around, the walls are made of stone and if they wanted to climb up, they would be hit with a spring trap installed by Celia. It wouldn’t be so easy for them to get in.

「Hurry up and get them!」

But the door is not exactly a castle gate.

It wouldn’t hold out for long if several men continuously ram their bodies against it.

With just the bucket in his hands, Kroll couldn’t do anything even if he wanted to.

However at that moment, a shout and loud footsteps can be heard approaching him from inside the mansion.

「Villains-!? You’ll be skewered!!」

Irijina bursts out of the mansion by destroying the door and thrusts out her spear without question.

One of the men who was charging into the door to break it down received a clean strike from the spear through his face and into his head.

「Judgment! Judgment!」

Irijina pulls out her spear by force and then puts her back into consecutive thrusts, piercing another man through the heart and killing him, and then gouging out the abdomen of two others to injure them.

「What’s with this woman!?」「She easily penetrated chainmail!」

Irijina has a considerable amount of brute strength even compared to men, so those thin chainmail armors that the guards were wearing were not enough to block her thrusts.

「Hahahahahaha!! Prepare yourselves!」

Her spear runs through the thigh of another man, and when he falls to the ground, Irijina delivers a thrust to his face to finish him off.

「Tch, change your weapons! One-handed swords put us at a disadvantage!!」

The men let go of the one-handed swords specifically used by the palace guards and then take out spears and bowguns from the carriages.

They must have determined their disguises are meaningless at this point.

「Kroll, go get your sword! While you’re at it, let the children inside run away!」

「Right!」

Irijina takes the door of the mansion she broke herself and uses it in place of a shield, intent on staving off the enemies here.

The unarmed Kroll runs off at lightning speed.

「Shoot her to death through the fence! Use your bowguns to-...... wah!」

Right when the shooter settled his aim on Irijina, an arrow hit him in between his eyebrows.

「W-where did that come from!?」

The answer was Pipi, who climbed on the roof of the mansion.

The distance wasn’t even ten meters and she had the height advantage.

It was hard to believe she would miss her mark.

「Mother!」

「Kroll!? What’s going on?」

「Listen, just hide in the basement! Take everyone with you!」

「B-but we have to protect the mansion......」

In exchange for managing the mansion, the house was given to her to look after, so she immediately thought about how all of them would be chased out if they did something to harm the house.

「Forget about that right now! I will protect it!」

Kroll picks up his sword and heads to the front door.

Dorothea held back the little boy who wanted to chase after him and took everyone down into the basement.

「Soryaa!」

「Guh, you little-!」「This one’s skilled!」

Irijina fends off attacks with the fence while swinging her spear and has already put down a couple more men.

Those who were about to shoot Irijina get taken down by Pipi’s arrows one after the other.

If things continue at this rate, the girls would be able to hold out, but the enemy chose to do something bold.

The horses’ asses were slashed with swords and they were made to charge towards the door.

「Tch!」

Irijina rolls away and dodges the splintering pieces, the carriage is heavily damaged and the horse is dead after getting stabbed by the broken iron fence, but the main entrance was broken down.

「The enemies...... there are 30 left?」

Irijina’s expression becomes gloomy.

She could tell these men weren’t amateurs just from fighting with them.

She somehow managed to push them back with the fence but if they all come flooding in, she wouldn’t be able to withstand all their attacks.

Pipi has also begun to be targeted by bowguns and hasn’t peeked out from on top of the roof.

Because there wasn’t much distance between them, the enemy could also accurately aim at her.

「Irijina-san!」

Kroll rushes out of the mansion with a sword in his hand.

His skills are lacking and he probably won’t provide any help, but the increase in headcount was still appreciated.

「The children are behind us. We’ll protect them to the death!」

「Right!」

「Kill them all!」

The enemy pushes forward all at once.

「Kroll, watch my back!」

Irijina twirls her spear and jumps in the middle of the enemies, using her power to knock away the two at the front with shields. Spinning her extended spear to face upward, she thrusts towards the throat of another enemy, spraying his blood everywhere as the man collapses with a hole in his heck. Then she crouches and takes a low stance, making a low sweep with her spear.

「Uwah!」「Gyaah!」

Two enemies get their legs cut and fall over while another one hops up to avoid the attack, though he becomes unbalanced in doing so.

「There!」

Bringing the spear back, she performs a high-speed triple thrust, accurately piercing the hearts of the three staggering enemies and defeating them instantly.

「I’m not done yet!」

Quick strikes dart towards the face and throat of the enemies – the heavy attack with Irijina’s full force behind it tearing through the shields of the men trying to defend, and penetrating through the chainmail and into their abdomen.

「What is this woman!?」

「She’s got incredible strength! Don’t try to deflect her attacks!」

Irijina runs around the courtyard taking on three to four enemies at a time, but because of the difference in numbers someone is bound to circle around to her back.

「Drop dead!」

A man encroaches behind Irijina as she’s fighting, ready to swing his sword.

「I won’t let you!」

Kroll engages that man.

He takes a swing at the man and his attack hits the man’s shoulders, however with his lack of strength, it bounces off the chainmail. Nevertheless, the sword was able to act as a blunt instrument, causing the man to hold his shoulder and drop his sword.

「Guh!」

「Toryaaa!」

Kroll puts the strength of his entire body behind his horizontal swing and severs the man’s head. A fountain of blood erupts from the newly created opening and the man collapses after desperately trying to stop the bleeding from his neck.

「Haa, haa...... I finished...... one of them.」

「This damn brat!」

As Kroll remains dazed after his first kill, a furious front kick knocks the wind from his lungs and causes him to crumple in pain.

「I’ll kill you!」

The following sword attack was somehow blocked but he couldn’t muster any strength and was pushed down. As the enemy’s sword grinds on his own, the blade slowly gets pushed towards his neck.

「I said I won’t...... die.」

Alma should be waiting for him to return.

So if he dies, the girl will definitely cry her eyes out, and then......

「She will be taken by Aegir-sama!」

An image of his beloved girl getting pounded by his master with a smug look pops into his head.

「I’ll make you forget all about Kroll......」

「Aahn, Aegir-sama! You’re so much bigger than Kroll~!」

His beloved person was being pinned down by the man with bulging muscles and getting rammed with intense thrusts of the man’s hips.

The girl’s small hole, which has only known of Kroll’s tool, is mercilessly being stretched by a dick thicker than his own arm, and that thing pushes up against her stomach from the inside with each thrust.

Eventually, Alma faints from the pleasure and a huge load of semen is pumped inside.......

「As if I’ll let myself die hereee!!」

He yells as loud as he could and kicks the man who is pressing down against him in the balls.

「Mugha!」

「Alma is my woman!!」

Kroll pushes away the man who is weakly holding his crotch and then swings his sword at the enemy’s head before he could get up.

Blood squirts out and the man twitches before collapsing to the ground and becoming a motionless heap of flesh.

「Nicely done!」

Irijina shouts loudly to commend the young man but she herself is facing off against three enemies simultaneously so she doesn’t have much leeway to look elsewhere.

Just when Kroll was getting into position to provide backup, he heard an airheaded remark.

「Hae? What’s with this person...... what are you doing?」

The owner of the voice is Alice.

She went to the washroom unaware of the commotion and came to check what was going on.

The toilet blocks most of the sound from leaving the room, but Alice is a peculiar person.

She considers excretion as a form of pleasure as well.

She makes an effort to eat spicy things and enjoys the pain from her sore asshole whenever she plays with herself on a daily basis.

Because of her heightened state of arousal, she couldn’t hear any of the hustle and bustle going on around her.

「Eh!? Eeeh!?」

The girl felt confused as she was thrusted into the sudden state of affairs with the entrance to the mansion destroyed and falls flat on her ass.

「Idiot! Hurry up and go inside! Tch!」

Irijina yells at the girl but was further pressed into a harsher situation in that brief lapse of concentration.

Kroll wanted to go help, but he needed to defend Irijina’s backside or she would be defeated and so he couldn’t spare any effort to save Alice.

If Irijina is defeated, everything would be over after all.

At that moment, the bowgun user shooting with Pipi gets an arrow to his forehead and falls over, his own bolt flying off in a separate direction.

That bolt’s trajectory is directly at Alice...... soaring just next to the girl and barely grazing her.

「No...... I don’t like this...... these cruel things...... stop iiiit!!」

Alice’s hair is instantly dyed red.

Her hair looked as red as fire.

「Go away!」

The air in front of the girl starts distorting like on a hot summer’s day and flames bursts forth.

「What!?」「This is-!」「Uwaah!」

The flames seem to avoid the garden trees, Irijina and Koll and close in on the crowd of enemies.

「H-hot! Gyaaah!」「Someone put out the flames! Help me!」

Several of the men become engulfed in the flames and drop to the ground while the other men try their hardest to stomp out the fire.

「M-magic?」「Alice...... you-」

Irijina and Kroll stare blankly at the girl.

Her hair which resembles a burning flame hasn’t lost any of its intense red color.

「Don’t come here......」

「A magic user, huh...... however-!」

The invaders don’t give up.

Magic is an extremely rare talent and the strength of that power varies widely amongst all individuals with that skill.

Its users can range from a mage of legends who can cast spells on a catastrophic level to worthless pieces of trash who struggle just to get water to boil.

Even though the man got hit with Alice’s magic, it wasn’t a severe burn and he could still fight.

With that level of fire, he thought there would be a chance to win if he threw a pot of oil at her or if he instantly closed the distance between them.

「Focus on that girl! We’ll charge in altogether......」

「So you’re not going to back off......」

Alice’s hair glows one level brighter.

「Then, sorry about this.」

Once again, the air in front of Alice distorts and flames appear out of nowhere.

「Listen! We’ll charge in at the same time she shoots and then cut her to pieces!」

The assailants get ready to charge in but Irijina and Kroll stand in front of their way to prevent them from doing so.

「I’m really...... sorry!」

Alice shoots the flames at the enemy.

The men who were about to rush in stop moving.

「You’re kidding me......」

The flames weren’t like the ones from before.

A ball of fire with a diameter of 1 meter flies even faster than an arrow and crashes into the man at the head of the pack.

The man who took a direct hit from the attack instantly turns into charcoal and his iron chainmail glows red as it melts off his body, making the flames fueled by a pot of oil seem weak.

A few moments later, the clump of fire bounces off towards the surrounding enemies and explodes.

「So hot! 」「Kroll, get down!」

Despite the flames not reaching the area where Kroll and Irijina are standing, they could still feel an intense wave of heat from the blast.

With it being obvious there is no point in them standing in the way, the two of them jump aside and watch in awe as the enemy burns to death.

「Monster...... a demon of fire......」「Fall back! Retreat!」

A few of the corpses were burnt to a crisp while nothing but the melted remains of the iron was left of the man who took a direct hit.

The survivors couldn’t hide their agitated mental state.

「Is it...... okay now?」

Alice asks Irijina with a sad expression.

「Not yet...... the enemy hasn’t left yet!」

The enemy’s morale was seemingly destroyed with the sudden chain of events but a new set of carriages come running in.

Being men who have collectively hunt down and killed over 100 people altogether, it’s natural for them to have forces in reserve.

The enemy no longer has any regard for maintaining appearance and have even prepared flaming pots of oil.

「It would be bad if they burned down the entire mansion. Mother...... and also the children will be endangered!」

「But......」

Kroll pleas desperately but Alice seems hesitant.

She must hate having to use her magic on another person but it really can’t be helped in this situation.

Their time to decide is running out the longer they let the enemy finish their preparations.

It was then that Kroll remembered the girl’s sexual disposition.

「If you protect the mansion and everyone else, Aegir-sama will reward you!」

Alice twitches.

「I’ll ask Aegir-sama to dig into your ass with his cock until you go insane!」

「......really?」

「Of course! Lord Hardlett will do at least that much if you protect his women!」

Irijina also jumps in.

「......alright. Then I’ll burn them all up.」

Alice’s hair glows an even brighter red, making it seem like her hair is actually on fire.

「Alright, we’ll burn the whole mansion down along with that monst-...... wait, what’s that!!?」

It wasn’t just the air in front of Alice which started to distort.

Above the heads of the enemies gathered on the road in front of the mansion, a fireball similar to the last one appears about 5 meters in the air.

「Oh God of battle...... save us from this nightmare.」

「This is...... not an illusion...... impossible.」

The enemy starts saying prayers and curses.

That is to be expected, as over 20 fireballs have appeared and are floating unsteadily until that final moment of truth.

Not to mention each of them are increasingly getting bigger than the one which was initially created.

「Sorry about this.」

As soon as Alice apologizes again, the flaming orbs rained down on the earth.

「「「－－－－!!」」」

Unspeakable cries of agony beyond imagination echoes throughout the capital at night.

Those who were incinerated instantly were lucky, while those who got caught in the fireball explosions were helplessly burned to death.

The fireballs with predetermined trajectories didn’t touch the roads on both sides of the house, only turning the front road into a sea of flames.

Those who were directly hit by the fireballs practically disintegrated, those caught in the blast radius burned to death while screaming for their lives, and those who tried to run away got caught by the flames on the road and also burned to death.

「So fierce......」「So this is magic......」

Irijina and Kroll were left with their jaws to the floor.

Their dripping sweat wasn’t just from the fight they were in earlier.

The temperature around them was so hot it felt like it was summer time.

The fire eventually calms down.

What was left on the ground were the people and horses, reduced to a charcoal version of their former selves with small flickering embers still remaining on their bodies and then a scattering of craters in the stone-paved road most likely from the impact of all the fireballs.

「It’s over.」

「「............」」

Alice finally says something while the other two remain silent, although the girl seems quite sad and covers her eyes.

「Incredible! Alice! I’ve never seen anything like this before!! How delightful, how thrilling!!」

「Au, au-」

Irijina grabs Alice and lifts her up, shouting loudly in celebration.

「Thank you for protecting mother!」

Kroll unconsciously hugs the girl.

「Eh, eh...... it’s no- nothing like that...... at all.」

Alice hides her face, feeling embarrassed.

Her red hair gradually loses its luster and eventually all color fades from the strands, leaving her with white hair.

「Alice? Your hair-......」

「......When I use up my magical power...... it loses its color. If I leave it alone for a while, it’ll go back to normal......」

It was right when Alice stroked her own hair bashfully.

「L-let me go! Monster!!」

A man’s yelling can be heard from the courtyard of the mansion.

「Kuh! A different intruder!?」

Irijina grabs her spear in a hurry and rushes over to confirm the situation.

When she got there, she saw two individuals, one of which looked like a man from the earlier group of assailants.

The other one is...... rather small in size, has magnificently golden hair, is wearing a black dress, and has breathtakingly beautiful features.

That beauty is unbelievably holding up the burly man with just one of her slender arms.

「Fumu, I was thinking that our food supply would be in quite the trouble if his house were to go up in flames...... but he should have told me such a capable Magus was stationed here, making me worry unnecessarily...... I need to have a snack to satisfy my cravings.」

The woman slowly places her hand against the chest of the man she captured.

「Stop iiiiiiiit!! Gyyy—aaaaagaahhh!!」

「Fumu, such a nice color.」

The elegant hand cuts through the chainmail like a hot knife through butter and penetrates the man’s body.

After inserting her hand in up to the wrist, it is pulled out swiftly and the beauty twists her body to avoid the blood which squirts out.

In her hand is a pulsing clump of flesh – the man’s heart.

The man, having become nothing but an empty shell, is thrown to the ground and the beauty gives the lump of flesh a nice lick.

「It isn’t bad...... but this isn’t enough after tasting that kind of delicacy.」

The flustered Kroll evades the chunk of meat which was tossed away in his direction.

No matter how you look at it, she isn’t someone who you would want to upset.

「U-um...... and you are......」

「I am intimately related with your master. I’ll wait until he comes back, guide me inside.」

The moonlight peeks out from a gap in the clouds and shines on the courtyard.

It looked like there were some assailants who were trying to ambush from the adjacent house and perform a frontal assault.

In the courtyard are their ruined bodies, with all their limbs severed and countless corpses piled up.

「Can you hurry up? Let’s go, Siegfried.」

In the center of that tragic scene is a large man in black who silently nods to the blonde beauty and follows after her.

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