Chapter 26.2 – A Desperate Escape Act

The elf was sent flying, her body bent in half, and she crumpled to the floor.

Given the difference in their physical abilities, it was a fatal blow.

“Heh, heheh… you fools…!”

Even so, she was smiling.

As she lay dying, she mocked them to the very end.

Gyausaru wanted to strike her again, but this was no time for that.

“Hurry! Bring her back!”

“I know! Actually, let’s all go!”

“Yeah! She’s already escaped, it’s not safe here anymore!”

“The handmaidens are worthless as hostages! They’ll just blow up the manor with magic!”

The Lizardmen rushed out of the room.

No, they rushed out of the manor.

Without bothering to open the door, they smashed through walls and windows, chasing after the “elven girl in noble clothes.”

“Ugh, ghh…!”

In her fading consciousness, the “older elf in noble clothes” was smiling.

It was not a smile of mockery, but of relief.

“Etacarina! Etacarina!”

The other elves, who had been trembling, unable to do anything, rushed to her side.

But there was no such thing as “healing magic.” There was nothing anyone could do for her.

All they could do was call her name.

“Etacarina! Oh, to think you would take my place…!”

“I told you, my lady… that I would protect you with my life…”

The fallen woman called one of the girls—one wearing a handmaiden’s dress—my lady.

It was simple. She was Aspi.

“The Lizardmen are gone now. Father will be here soon… I’m so… glad…”

“Etacarina!”

Aspi hadn’t escaped at all. She had simply swapped clothes with one of her handmaidens.

It was so classic, so trite. It could hardly be called a magic trick.

But just as hunger is the greatest spice, desperation is the greatest factor in a successful deception.

The Lizardmen had failed to see through the switch.

Now, as for this successful operation… how were they able to change clothes beforehand without any means of communicating with the outside?

The secret lay with the orchestra Dikes had led the day before.

The ancient Elven opera, Must War.

In the final act of this opera, the emperor successfully escapes by swapping clothes with his body double.

The orchestra had played the music from that final act.

Hearing it, Aspi and her handmaidens understood.

Aspi and a handmaiden must switch clothes. That is the plan.

They didn’t know the finer details, but it was enough to lead them to success.

Though, just like in the opera, it had included the death of the body double…

※

So, who was the elven girl in noble clothes running from the manor?

She was a member of the Conjurer Knights’ artillery squad.

She was wearing a top-quality dress that normally only a noble was permitted to touch.

It was illegal for her to wear it, but not a single person cared about such trivialities.

I can’t believe I’m wearing this under these circumstances…!

She was having a terrible time.

First, she had to run towards the manor after the smoke bombs went off, and then, as the smoke began to clear, she had to run away from it.

For an elf with little stamina, it was an incredible ordeal.

But still, when she sensed the Lizardmen approaching, she smiled, thinking, Got ’em.

Thanks to her slow pace, she had been able to naturally orchestrate the timing, allowing them to spot her, go back to check the room, and then come charging after her.

“Come, my lady! This way!”

“Y-Yes!”

Feeling a shiver at being called “my lady” by Gaikaku, she managed to get inside the Lives motor-car he had brought into the forest.

A quick glance behind her revealed the Lizardmen closing in with desperate looks on their faces.

She almost screamed, but the Lives was already moving.

“D-Damn you! Wait!”

“If we don’t catch her, we’re finished!”

Lizardmen are tough, but they aren’t particularly fast.

They were catching up to the moving Lives, but they weren’t about to grab hold of it in an instant.

“S-Sensei… w-we did it!”

“Save that for later! Hurry! It’s time for the next phase!”

The moment they had drawn the Lizardmen away from Aspi, the rescue was mostly over.

But it was too early to relax. They were now moving into the phase of the operation where they would kill the Lizardmen.

“Here, put this on!”

“Y-Yes, sir…!”

Inside the rattling vehicle, Gaikaku and the artillery elf equipped their Sea Runners.

While the Beastkin usually wore them, it wasn’t as if elves or humans couldn’t.

The devices made their bodies lighter.

“Chief! Is it time?!”

“Yeah! Lock the wheel!”

This Lives was normally operated by a crew, but right now there was only one Dwarf aboard.

That Dwarf, also wearing a Sea Runner, began to rig the steering wheel.

Anyone with a brain could guess what that meant.

“The Lives is coming!”

“Quick! Throw the flares!”

Seeing the Lives racing down the forest path, the Dark Elves who were waiting on its route sprang into action.

They threw the flares they had been given onto the path ahead of the Lives.

Inevitably, this enveloped the Lizardmen chasing from behind in a cloud of smoke.

“M-More smoke?!”

“Don’t lose sight of it!!”

Even charging into the smoke, there was no way they would lose sight of a vehicle like the Lives.

The Lizardmen desperately tried to catch up to it.

But inside that smoke, Gaikaku, the artillery elf, and the Dwarf had leaped from the vehicle.

“Nngh—!”

“!!!”

The Dwarf jumped alone.

Gaikaku held the artillery elf tight, throwing himself into the woods while doing his best to ensure she wasn’t injured.

Even if it wasn’t at top speed, jumping from a moving vehicle was a full-blown traffic accident.

Depending on how they landed, this elf could have died.

“W-Wait~~!”

“W-We’re almost there!!”

But they had succeeded in the most crucial part: throwing the Lizardmen off their trail in the smoke.

Gaikaku and the others, who had suppressed their voices, finally felt a sense of relief as they saw the Lizardmen continue to chase the Lives.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Sensei…”

The artillery elf snapped back to reality.

She was wearing the finest dress, being held by Gaikaku, lying together on the ground.

It was inappropriate, certainly, but it was the height of romance.

“I asked if you’re okay?! Can you not even speak?!”

“N-No… I’m alright… thanks to you holding me.”

“I see. Good!”

His subordinate, whom he had put in danger, was uninjured.

At that, Gaikaku finally, truly relaxed.

“Chief… you sure about this?”

The Dwarf who had been driving the Lives until a moment ago, however, looked resentful.

He seemed pained to think about the fate of the masterpiece they had worked so hard to create.

“It’s fine… As long as we’re alive, we can make another one. Next time, we’ll build something even better.”

※

The Lives had been running on the same set of hearts the entire time.

The forest path was uneven, and the damage to the hearts had been accumulating.

Thus, without any intervention, the vehicle’s speed began to drop.

“L-Look! We’ve caught up!”

“It must be pulled by horses! Looks like they’re exhausted!”

“Hurry, secure it now!”

Whether it could be called fortunate or not, the Lizardmen managed to grab onto the Lives and open the door at its rear.

They entered, intending to search for Aspi.

“Wh-What is this?!”

What they saw was the engine compartment of the Lives.

The Lives, designed with maintenance as its top priority, had its entire engine section where the cargo bed of a truck would be.

There, inside transparent containers, were nine pulsating hearts.

It was only natural that anyone who saw such a thing would be confused.

But this was no time to worry about that. There was no one inside the vehicle, let alone Aspi.

“Hey, nobody’s here?!”

“N-Not again!”

“They’re hiding… no, they jumped off somewhere!”

“Damn it, it must have been in that smoke… Turn back…!”

Just as the Lizardmen grasped the situation, a powerful vibration struck them all.

The supposedly sturdy warriors were thrown towards the front of the vehicle.

Piled up in an undignified heap, they had no idea what was happening.

From outside the vehicle, however, it was obvious.

The Lives, with its steering wheel locked, had been running erratically until it crashed into a large tree in the forest and came to a halt.

Naturally, this too was part of the plan.

“Forest Chief! One of the handmaidens has suffered a fatal wound, but the Lady Aspi is safe!”

“The Lizardmen are all inside that wagon!”

“It appears Lord Gaikaku, the elf who acted as a decoy, and the Dwarf who was driving have all disengaged!”

“I see…!”

Around the tree where the Lives had stopped, the elves were already waiting.

Elves who boasted at least twice the power of an ordinary person, and five times on average. Among them, the hand-picked elites had formed a perfect encirclement.

Of course, among them was the figure of Dikes, trembling with rage.

“Now, for the finale… This is the golden opportunity the Conjurer Knights have prepared for us to catch them all in one net… Do not let them escape!”

They began to chant, preparing to use the most powerful magic they could wield.

A torrential rain of magic like a swarm of insects, something that not even the Knight Order could achieve, was only possible for the Elven defense force.

With fury, they unleashed their greatest magical assault.

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

The armor of the Lives, which had repelled the Centaurs’ attacks, was utterly meaningless against the elves’ magic.

To say nothing of the scales of the Lizardmen, which were only slightly strong, and were instantly pulverized.

The Lizardmen who had wreaked havoc in this land were, along with the Lives built by Gaikaku and the Dwarves, quite literally blown to smithereens.

“Everyone, I leave the confirmation of the bodies to you. I will…”

“Yes, Forest Chief. Please, go to Lady Aspi’s side…”

Amid the cheers celebrating the death of the murderers, Dikes ran toward his manor.

There wasn’t a hint of relief on his face.