LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 59: It Fired
「The Kranzle Empire's imperial capital… is one of the most solid cities in the world… Kukuku, no doubt about it, I'm perfectly safe in this place…」
A certain red-haired woman devoured her meal in a certain inn in the imperial capital while muttering those words.
「…Hey, do you think that guest over there is right in the head? Not that I want to poke my nose into her affairs, but seeing her like that since a while ago…」
The mistress of the inn looked anxiously at the suspicious guest who had been staying in her inn for many days.
「Shhh, she paid for her room properly, and it's an advance payment on top of that. There's no way we can kick her out.」
The master of the inn replied to his wife.
「I know that, but still…」
「Hahaha, you just over worrying.」
「On the other hand, you're overly optimistic, dear. Or else… you're not telling me that the reason why you take her side is that you’ve been mesmerized by her beauty, right?」
「Hah, what are you talking about?」
「What else then…」
「That matter aside, I heard about this from our guest but―」
Maybe because he realized that the situation would only worsen if they continued that topic, the master tried to change the topic.
The mistress frowned upon realizing this, but she decided to listen to her husband's story.
「It seems they're going to use magic cannon today.」
「Magic cannon? Are you seriously telling me that they're going to use that giant thing at the gate? Just… which country is our empire going to attack this time? Even though we've been on a winning streak… that doesn't mean that the casualties on our side are zero either… I wonder if our child is okay…」
In fact, one of the two sons of the couple joined the army of the empire.
Although his parents were proud of their son who fought for the empire, they still worried for his safety.
「It seems that magic cannon can reach the enemy of our empire. Moreover, it's strong enough to destroy an entire city in one shot. I guess the era in which our empire doesn't have to send its army to other nations to subjugate them is just around the corner.」
「Is that true?」
「Yeah. Moreover, I heard that the target this time isn't a country or city.」
「Not a… country? What do you mean, dear?」
The master then answered to his puzzled wife.
「The target is the great-disaster-class monster. They said it's an undead that even the famous Hero King of Romana couldn’t do anything against, the No Life King.」
The master told his wife another piece of information that he heard from his acquaintance.
「It seems that monster is currently heading toward this city.」
「A-Are we… going to be all right…?」
「What are you talking about? That's exactly why they used the magic cannon on that monster. I mean, it's a weapon capable of destroying a country far from this place, right? That's why, no matter what kind of monster it is, that monster is bound to die once they become the target of the magic cannon.」
GATAN!
The couple turned around the moment they heard the sound of something falling to the floor.
「N-N-No… Life… King?」
The strange red-haired woman from before had already stood up from her chair, trembling from head to toe.
It seemed the previous sound was from her when she knocked her chair.
「D… Dear guest?」
「Is something the matter… dear guest?」
The couple asked the red-haired woman with a timid voice.
But the red-haired woman didn't seem to hear the couple's voice. She just walked out the dining room with an unsteady gait.
===
「That guy… is here too? Why did he… come this far?」
After leaving the inn, the red-haired woman walked down the main street of the imperial capital with an unsteady gait.
GAN!
Her shoulder ended up bumping against a man who happened to pass by her side.
But the red-haired woman kept walking as if she didn't realize that she had just bumped on the shoulder of a man.
「Hey, the bi*tch over there. Aren't you going to apologize to someone when you run into them?」
Unfortunately, the man seemed to be pissed off by her attitude.
And yet, the red-haired woman didn't even turn around to see the man.
「HEY, ARE YOU DEAF OR SOMETHING?!」
Seeing the red-haired woman ignore him, the man became even more irritated. He seized the woman by her shoulder.
At the next moment, she finally turned around.
「…Shut up already. Are you looking to die?」
「HIIIII?!」
She engulfed the man with her killing intent.
That alone was enough to make the man's hip give out and fall on his rear.
「W-W-W…」
At that moment, the poor man knew of one thing.
He shouldn't have picked a fight with this woman.
His intuition was spot on.
Because the name of that woman was Estina, a platinum-grade adventurer.
She left Romana in order to escape from the No Life King's terror and finally arrived in the Kranzle Empire.
「C-Could it be that he came to… kill me?」
…Although it was just pure coincidence, she couldn't help but arrive at that conclusion after coincidences piled up one after another.
「B-But… this city… should be able to keep me safe… right?」
Naturally, the reason she chose this strongest military country in the world—even though there was not a single adventurers guild in the entire empire, which in turn meant she had no source of income—was that she had some expectation for the military country's protection.
「…?! What is… this terrifying amount of mana? I-Is it coming from… that?」
She was looking at the cannon embedded in the giant rampart.
「I see now… so that's the one they called magic canon from before… Such amount of mana…」
A chill ran down Estina's spine when she felt the huge amount of mana gathered in the magic cannon.
Even her, a platinum-grade adventurer who was said to be amongst humanity's strongest, wouldn’t be able to do anything if that gigantic magic cannon was aimed at her.
She came to realize that this was the end of the era in which the power of individuals wouldn't be able to tip the balance of the war.
「If it's that weapon, even that No Life King will be do—」
SHHHHHHHHHHH!
She manipulated her more than a hundred-meter long whip to climb as close as possible to the top of the rampart.
And then, she focused her attention toward the direction where the magic cannon faced.
Over there, she saw the speck of a human shadow, far away from the rampart.
As a platinum-grade adventurer, Estina's eyesight had long since surpassed the limit of a normal human. Thus, she could see the shadow of the person.
「H-HE CAME…!」
In addition, there was no way she could forget his characteristic white hair.
「…! Is the magic cannon… going to be fired now?!」
Estina unintentionally put up her guard when she felt the omen from the magic cannon.
At the next moment, the light beam formed from ultra condensed mana was fired from the imperial capital toward the No Life King.
◇◇◇
===A Certain Undead With Communication Disorder===
I stopped running the moment I saw the terrifyingly giant rampart from afar.
「Is that the imperial capital?」
「Y-Yesh…」
The one who replied was the limp mysterious man whose entire body was wrapped in some sort of black cloth, except for their eyes.
Well, he might be limp because I ran at full speed while carrying him below my armpit all the way until this place. But it really couldn't be helped; you reaped what you sowed.
「Is this really the place?」
「A-A-A…」
「You have been saying the same thing and brought me all over the place, you know?」
「HII… S-Sorry… I-It really wasn't intentional…」
He was trembling non-stop as he replied to me.
I mean, after entering the empire, this man has been leading me to various cities while I tried to rush toward the imperial capital to save the kidnapped female Holy Knight.
Every time we arrived at a city, a new black-clothed guy would appear and tell me the name of another city.
Although I had no idea who these guys were nor their goal, their constant misleading made me quite irritated.
「S-She's definitely… in the imperial capital…」
「Where's said imperial capital?」
「O-Over there is…」
「Do you really know the location of the imperial capital? Why wouldn't you just tell me that you've been lying to me this entire time?」
「H-HIIIIIIIIII! I-I REALLY HAD NO IDEA! BUT IT'S AN ORDER FROM HER MAJESTY, THE EMPRESS…!」
「The… Empress?」
…Why did the empress of the empire want to kidnap the female Holy Knight?
Just what in the world was that empress trying to do here?
Crap, an ancient man like me might not have been able to grasp the logic behind her actions since there were simply too many logical leaps between the current era and my own era.
Anyhow, I should focus on going to that empress' palace first.
After that, I regripped the limp black-clothed man again and ran at full speed toward the imperial capital.
「Uhm? What's that?」
When I ran toward the rampart gate, I noticed a certain thing that was simply too big to be ignored.
「Ma… na?」
I felt a terrifying amount of mana from the rampart.
Something really unbelievable happened when I observed the rampart.
One part of the rampart suddenly split open, moving to the left and right.
And then, a giant 〝Something〟 appeared from within.
Although it was hard to see its real shape since I looked at it from the front, the thing pointing toward me looked like a pole from a distance.
Upon closer inspection, the middle part of that pole was hollow, so calling it pipe or tube might have been more appropriate.
There was still around ten kilometres between us.
Nevertheless, the gigantic amount of mana in that thing seemed to be leaking.
At the next moment…
The mana that was compressed till the utmost limit and turned into the embodiment of destruction was fired from the hollow part of that pipe.
And sure enough, it was heading straight toward me.
Would I finally be able to die if I bathed in that light of destruction?
…I thought that… until I remembered that I carried a black-clothed man under my armpit.
Me aside, this guy would die for sure if he was exposed to that light of destruction.
Yeah, I couldn't let this man die.
Moreover, I still had to save the female Holy Knight.
Who knew what was going to happen to her if I died here.
Thus, just like when I destroyed that miasma vortex, I focused my entire mana into my right fist.
…Or not, the amount of mana I used this time far surpassed the amount I used at that time.
And then, I punched toward the oncoming light of destruction.
KACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
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TN: Beam Canon vs No Life King, WHO WILL SURVIVE!? Stay Tuned Next Week!!