LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 58: It's the Latest Magic Weapon, You Know
===A Certain Empire’s Mad Scientist===
「How are the preparations, Wizard Melvin?」
「If it's Your Excellency Prime Minister. Yeah, everything is perfect.」
The man replied with confidence to the answer of the prime minister of the left.
The man was an old man in his fifties, and despite his tall frame, he was quite thin.
His beard and hair were so long, giving an impression of a wise wizard; the splendid robes he wore on his body were already so old to the point that they couldn't be distinguished with rags after he wore them for so many years.
「Whether it's a kingdom or a dragon, they're just mere targets for this magic cannon. Hohohohoho.」
The thin elderly wizard who raised a strange laugh was a genius who catapulted the old empire to what was known today as the “Magic Empire” in a single generation.
Many of the magic tools the Empire kept to itself were created by this very man.
Even the magic cannon, which was built and embedded into a bulky rampart, was one of his creations.
「The old cannon simply launched an iron pellet by detonating mana inside a sealed chamber. But this magic cannon was built using a completely different principle from that toy. This magic cannon will fire an extremely condensed mana bullet. It's firing-range can easily cross the empire's border and shoot down foreign countries' royal capitals… Even I, its creator himself, marveled at the might of my creation! Hohohohoho!」
Yes, it was an extremely terrifying weapon that fundamentally changed the concept of war itself.
But a gigantic amount of mana was needed to activate this weapon.
And the solution for that problem was―right under the magic cannon itself.
Beneath the magic cannon was a group of people, each of them captured by the empire army during the aggression.
In short, they were prisoners of war.
Amongst them, the former soldiers of the countries who resisted the empire the most received the most cruel treatment.
Those people were restrained and had some sort of hose forcibly plugged into their mouths.
Those hoses were connected directly to the magic cannon.
「「「「～!! 」」」
They let out mute screams since the hoses blocked their mouths, preventing them from speaking.
But their faces, all of them wore agonizing looks on their faces. They glared at the elderly wizard as if looking at the enemy of their parents.
In fact, those hoses were forcibly sucked up their mana, and sent it toward the magic canon.
「Hohohohoho! You're the fools who dared to resist our mighty Empire. Now offer your mana for the Empire! Be grateful that we're at least sparing your puny lives!」
The thin wizard laughed maniacally while looking down on the prisoners of war below.
Contrary to the old wizard's triumphant look, the old prime minister seemed to be filled with anxiety.
「…W-Wizard Melvin. A-Are you sure that… this magic cannon is really strong enough to kill THAT?」
「Dear me, are you doubting the fruit of my research, Your Excellency?」
「N-No, it's not like I don't trust your invention. It just that, the other party is rumored to be a great disaster-class monster…」
「Hohohoho, all the more reason for you to put more trust in my invention! This is the best chance to show the power of my magic canon to the rest of the world.」
◇◇◇
===A Certain Female Holy Knight===
「Where… am I?」
When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar place.
Though it was a simple room without any decoration, the ceiling and the wall was clearly made from first class materials, you might even say that this simple room rivaled a noble residence.
I should be sleeping in a room in the slums.
And yet, I woke up in this simple yet marvelous room for some reason.
Moreover, my body felt awfully sluggish.
It was as if my body turned into lead.
I couldn't hide my surprise when I tried to move my limbs.
It turned out I was made to sit in the chair, and my limbs were restrained.
「…! Just… what happened to me?」
「Have you woken up?」
「!!」
The one I saw when I turned around to the direction of the voice was a woman donned in a gorgeous dress.
The make up she applied on her face gave her an artificially well-ordered beauty.
Despite how she tried to look younger, I knew that she was at least 40 years old.
Rather than that, why did I feel this overwhelming presence from her fair-skinned, slender frame?
The weight of her presence was comparable to my big sis—No, she had more presence than my big sister.
Before I noticed it, my head was drenched in a cold sweat.
My instincts told me that even if I fought this woman, I wouldn't be able to beat her.
Just… who in the world was she?
「You're the Holy Knight Limule, right? Your current position might not be the most comfortable, but you can at least see me. Think of it as a honor to be able to see me like this.」
The woman's makeup-covered white face formed a smile as she spoke with such a haughty attitude toward me.
It wasn't a kind gentle smile. It was a scorn-like smile, as if she was looking at lower being.
「W-Where am I? What are you… trying to do to me?」
I somehow managed to muster my willpower to ask her.
「Haha, aren't you quite brave for daring to show such a cheeky attitude when you ask me? But well, I guess I'll forgive you for now. I shall answer your question.」
She was the one who was extremely disrespectful for treating me like this for no reason.
But I endured the urge to retort to her remark since I needed to understand my current situation.
「You're currently inside our castle at the center of the imperial capital. We have no business with you, but we need you as a bait to lure that guy to come to our imperial capital.」
Imperial capital?
C-Could it be that I'm… right in the center of the Kranzle Empire?!
That meant, this woman was―
「The Empress… Deodora Kranzle.」
Not even the Hero King of the Romana Kingdom or the Pope of the Saint Melt religion had ever met her in person.
And yet, that mysterious Empress was standing right in front me right now…
I was at a loss for words due to how unrealistic my current situation was.
After all, it would be easier to believe if everything I saw right now was a dream.
Nevertheless, for that absolute monarch of the Empire to meet me in person, I… No, wait a minute, didn't she just say something about luring someone to come here?
And I got this feeling that she was referring to THAT person.
「Are you trying to lure… the No Life King?」
「Correct. The most feared No Life King whom even the Hero King can't defeat. We'll do the impossible: subjugate the great disaster-class monster, the No Life King. For our Empire that is aiming for world domination, there's no better target than him to show our power to the rest of the world.」
Meaning that the Empire had been keeping an eye on him.
Since when were they doing that?
…But wait, I heard a rumor that the Empire had the best intelligence organization.
They had an extremely vast information network. It was shown by how much the Empire knew the information of all countries all over the world despite never having any diplomatic relationships with them.
Just like how the Empress called me 〝Holy Knight Muriel〟a while ago.
I couldn't fool them even though I should have already used normal equipment instead of Holy Knight's… and she knew my name on top of that.
It seemed the rumor about that intelligence organization wasn't a hoax.
And that very same organization might be the one who drugged and carried me all the way to this imperial capital.
The imperial capital of the Empire should be really far away from that ruined city.
And the most scary part about them was the fact that they accomplished such a feat… in less than half a day, without even disturbing my sleep.
「Reporting to Her Majesty.」
Before I realized it, there was a shadow of a man kneeling behind the Empress.
My instinct reacted to that shadow.
I instinctively realized that this person was a member of that intelligence organization.
「The target is drawing closer to the capital.」
「How are the preparations for the magic cannon?」
「It's already charged about 90%.」
「Perfect. Not even the No Life King will be able to survive a blast from this magic cannon.」
Magic cannon?
This was the first time I heard about that.
「It’s our latest magic weapon that uses the mana from more than ten thousand people.」
「…」
Mana from… more than ten thousand people?
「Gathering such a tremendous amount of mana will only make them… run amok, right?」
「Don't look down on our magecraft technology. We're ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to magecraft, you know? Although your worries are natural, it's the Empire's magic cannon.」
Although I heard before that the Empire's magecraft was more advanced than the rest of the world, I never expected for it to be by this much…
「According to our preliminary calculations, the effective range for our magic cannon is two thousand kilometers, and Romana's royal capital is within that range.」
「!!!」
That literally erased the need for the Empire to send troops…
It might even change the rooted concept of war itself.
So this was the Empire…
The world domination that the Empress spoke off a while ago might not be a pipe dream if they had this kind of power.
But―
「Can you really beat the No Life King… with this weapon of yours?」
「What do you mean?」
「Let me tell you one thing I understand about him. No matter how advanced the Empire's magecraft technology, you can never beat him.」