Vol 4: Chapter 22
I spent the next day preparing for the jailbreak.
When I went out collecting edible nuts to eat in the thin forest, I saw many unknown monsters again.
(They might exist in the “front world”, too.)
Soldier ants with green carapace larger than myself.
Gibbons with four arms jumping from tree to tree at a tremendous speed, moving away from me as if being cautious.
And highly poisonous man-eating mushrooms that were capable of camouflage. I was able to avoid those thanks to【World Ruler】being able to see through their camouflage.
(The ecology is completely different in this world.)
During the day, I checked the surroundings around the underground city. I also looked in the direction where the Holy City would be located in the “Front World”.
It was entirely a wasteland. There was almost no place to hide in the wasteland where not a blade of grass grew. The soil was exposed, and poisonous swamps dotted the land.
(If I tell the young lady about this, she probably wouldn’t believe me.)
While conducting a thorough survey, I returned to the underground city after collecting the necessary supplies.
It seems that this city has almost no access to the outside world. And perhaps due to their confidence that this city will never be found, there were no guards posted as lookouts either. So I wasn’t worried that my intrusion would be found.
There was only one problem.
The preparations for jailbreaking the Levs were completed. All that is left is to wait for everyone to fall asleep and carry out the escape operation.
Then, what is the problem? — It is the deputy captain. According to the master sergeant, that guy sounds like a shitty bastard.
I wanted to confirm it with my own eyes. Therefore, I decided to return to the city before they turned off the lights to observe the deputy captain from a distance.
He might surprisingly be a good man who intentionally acts like a bad guy to save his allies.
About 30 minutes before the lights went out, a Lev wandered outside surrounded by three underground soldiers.
「Ihihihihihihi! Thank you for treating me to delicious alcohol!」
「Because we need you to understand the technology of the airship. The other dragonewts can be stubborn.」
「Ahaah! Those guys are stubborn! So stubborn! You probably need to give ’em a slap or two to make’ em listen!」
「You… no, nevermind. It’s enough that you’re willing to speak.」
「Ihihihihi! I’m looking forward to the alcohol.」
He is intentionally playing the villain to help his friend… maybe…right? The possibility is not zero, is it?
It was time to turn off the lights. I headed into the bar where the four people, including the deputy captain, entered. Probably because the cooking time was over, there was no smoke coming out of the chimney. It seemed that they were serving meals warmed by remaining heat.
「——Wahaha! Drink to your heart’s content!」
「——Hey bar girl, come drink with us!」
「——Bastard, stop hitting my shoulder!」
……Sounds like they’re enjoying themselves.
I opened the lid door leading from the rooftop where mica mushrooms are cultivated to the attic. Going down the ladder, I can see the ground floor through the gaps in the floorboards.
Tables and chairs were lined up in a small space inside the store. The drunken underground man’s skin was bright red.
Perhaps due to being in enemy territory, the deputy captain seemed like he was curling up in a corner, but was still gulping down an ale-like drink happily.
「Oh, Deputy Captain. Are you still going to say that you’re from the “Lev Magic Empire”?」
An underground man in his mid-thirties, sitting beside the deputy captain, stretched his thick arm and placed it around the deputy captain’s shoulders.
「Y-Yes… that’s right.」
「You see, none of us have ever heard about such a country. You’re not thinking we’re idiots who are easy to fool, are you?」
「Puh! N-N-No! Of course not!」
The deputy captain shook his head, accidentally spitting out the ale in his mouth. But the underground man’s thick arms restrained the deputy captain.
「The other crew members said the same thing as me, didn’t they!?」
「That’s right… and that is suspicious.」
「Eh!?」
「Did you arrange that story beforehand?」
「That’s not the case at all, hundredman chief-sama!」
Hundredman chief is… a rank with 100 subordinates, right? So that boorish underground man is quite a high ranking officer, huh.
Now that I think about it, the two other underground men, who look to be the chief’s subordinates, were alert at all moments in the bar as if to prevent the deputy chief from escaping.
「But you see, there ain’t no evidence.」
「E-Evidence?」
The deputy captain laughed with a hopeless look.
「Then how about this? Torture one of the crew members. Then you will know if it’s a lie or the truth, right?」
「…You say some crazy stuff, don’t ya?」
「But I can’t prove my innocence otherwise. Any one of them is fine. They’re the ones who made fun of me, after all.」
O-O-Oi, what’s wrong with this guy!
He’s selling his friends to the enemy so easily!
Even the master sergeant who hates you, told me to only “hit” you. Yet, you are suggesting “torture”?
(This guy is not a good person. He is not pretending to be a villain. The underground humans might actually torture one of the prisoners by listening to this guy. It’s quite possible that the prisoners might even die from torture.)
I wanted to blast that guy with magic instead of giving him a simple “hit”, but I was able to restrain myself.
(In that case, I’ll jailbreak only those 12 people and leave. Time to go.)
If I stayed here any longer, I would probably hear a lot of unpleasant things.
I heard the hundredman chief’s words just as I was about to leave.
「I know you are working with us to save your own neck, and we are really grateful for that… but you don’t have enough knowledge about the airship. Which means, I won’t be able to present that knowledge to “that person”.」
The deputy captain shamefully shrank his neck.
「……Good grief.」
I climbed the ladder and went out to the rooftop.
I felt exhausted even before starting the operation.
I don’t know what will happen to that deputy captain after this, but I don’t care anymore.
Now, let’s commence the operation.
