Chapter 504

Day 106 – Nighttime, the Theocracy, Streets

A figure in a jet-black cloak cast a faint lone silhouette in the darkness of night. The soil covered under the veil of the night was being speared by countless tentacles, gouging and churning the ground without mercy. Yes, that’s right. Potatoes are being planted! How is it possible for the scene of planting potatoes to look so utterly evil?

The ravaged fields had all of the produce stolen, so potatoes are being planted as emergency rations. Vibration magic shatters stones and tills the soil, while Magic Hands level the ground, and Magic Threads mow weeds, mixing them into the soil… A farmwork spectacle that looks like a nightmare vision that would occur to you in the middle of the night. There is nothing even remotely peaceful or pastoral about this scene.

Then, pressing his hands to the earth, he uses alchemy to transmute the soil, infusing it with mana. Grass and kitchen scraps are decomposed, the carbon–nitrogen balance carefully adjusted, the mix matured toward optimal values as it was kneaded into the soil. Sadly, Haruka-kun hadn’t gone to an agricultural high school, so that was his limit. From here, it would require Oda-kun and his group agricultural guidance. Although they hadn’t gone to an agricultural school either. We were in the same school after all?

And yet, somehow, despite going to the same school, Oda-kun and his crew are well-versed in both agriculture and engineering. Terrible when it came to actually making things, but brimming with knowledge and insight when it came to teaching, they became the unsung heroes behind the development of the frontier’s agri industry. Looks like 『I’ll get serious once I’m go to another world』 wasn’t just a joke after all.

「Haruka-kun, good work out there.」

「Huh? Did you plant turnips too?」

「Over here are potatoes and taro, right?」

The black shadow is slapping his lower back as though he is exhausted… But wasn’t all the actual work done by tentacles?

「For now, speed is everything. I don’t know how farming works in this world, but turnips should be ready in a month or two, and potatoes in three, I guess? With the stores already plundered, we need fast, high-yield crops, maybe we should’ve brought the Geeks with us after all?」

Even if one has Knowledge Cheat, there are points that can’t be understood without experience. Only once Oda-kun and others’ deep know-how is combined with Haruka-kun’s real abilities does a peculiar Fumbling-for-Answers Cheat become possible.

「I mean, potatoes should be fine? Season-wise? But I kinda feel that turnips are more of a spring or autumn crop? Maybe it is early summer here? We don’t even know how temperatures and seasons work here, so we’ll just have to experiment… That aside, I feel like crops in the frontier grew way too fast for some reason too?」

Yeah, we don’t know a lot about this world. Information is scarce, and their knowledge only half-fit this world of sword and sorcery.

「「「But you know… Wouldn’t Kakizaki-kun and company be even worse at agriculture, and also economics, and industry? Can they really handle being nobles?」」」

「Ahh, those ladies are from marquess family and its vassals, and The Eastern March is split among the counts, so those guys are just gonna be figureheads? Soo, war-purpose Idiots?」

Despite his attitude, he actually looked into it, worrying about all sorts of things. In the end, the boys do get along. They hurl insults and butt heads whenever they meet, loud and rough, but it was like puppies play-fighting, or brothers bickering. Can’t help but feel a bit jealous of that special distance, not too far, but not too close, that only existed between the boys.. A face they only ever showed to each other, blunt words reserved only for boys talking among themselves.

It seemed Haruka-kun’s weak point was agriculture. But then again, unless you were from a farming family, any normal high-schooler would know nothing about it. In the frontier, crops thrived like crazy, mushrooms sprouting everywhere, fields abundant with harvests. But farther away, growth was very ordinary. While they didn’t have to deal with monsters, the crops also grew at normal rate at best. Mushrooms also, unlike those in the Evil Forest, didn’t just pop up endlessly.

And that is why people can live ordinary lives here. Why they have to live ordinary lives here. Yet they are going so far as to even gather seedlings from the neighboring towns and villages, pouring it all into preparations for war. Even if the Theocracy obtains magic stones and recovers its monopoly in Magic tools trade, filling its coffers with wealth and power, it is still heading straight for famine, because you can’t buy food for an entire country with gold alone. As a kingly policy, it was as disastrous as it gets.

「Do they really think they can win against the Frontier, against the Kingdom? We’re fully equipped now, and we spend every day leveling up and training, getting stronger and stronger. Do they honestly believe that church soldiers of this caliber can stand against us?」

「Maybe they’re planning to trigger another Dungeon Stampede!」

「They can’t pass the Beastmen Country, so could they be trying to rush the capital through the canal?」

「If it’s by ship, the pirates will just sink them. They said they had so many torpedoes they couldn’t even use them all.」

「The church’s technical ability is hard to read, but it’s kinda low. No idea if they’re holding back, or hiding something, but they should have a considerable amount of equipment from dungeons, yet it’s all just too flimsy. With all the magic stones and equipment they’ve stockpiled, how can the church army still look this pathetically underpowered?」

It went unsaid, but this was about Nephertiri-san. Before she came under Haruka-kun Taming, she had been a level 100 Dungeon Emperor. To capture and subjugate her, The Church has to to possess enough power to capture and subjugate her, whether it was magical tools, equipment, or sorcery. If all of us attacked at once and didn’t mind casualties, maybe we might have a chance to force a collar on her, but if we tried that against a fully serious Nephertiri-san, the required sacrifices would be immense and success would still not be guaranteed… And they are supposedly concealing that much power?

「Didn’t the elites get wiped out in the previous war with the kingdom? And they didn’t care about the exchange of captured equipment afterward?」

「Yeah, would be scary if they used disposable weapons, like landmines, grenades, and such?」

「At the very least, I’ve never heard of consumable weapons powered by magic stones.」

「「「So it really was a waste! Well, Haruka-kun said just carrying it is a waste but it’s not like he’s ever going to use it himself?」」」

「No, I mean, making them myself, using them up, and then going back to handcraft more, that’s just depressing? Quite?」

『Collar of Subordination』 that bound Nephertiri-san was in the Church’s posession. It actually also required a coffin layered with countless ritual implements to reinforce the collar’s effect. Still, they had such a collar. Whether it was Dungeon equipment, a relic of the past, or a magical tool manufactured by the church, no one could say.

That was why he didn’t want us going to the Theocracy. If not for Arianna-san and the others, even indiscriminate attacks would have been on the table… But if Haruka-kun carried out indiscriminate attacks that incapacitated the church, it would only mean countless innocents dying in agony. There’s no way he wouldn’t suffer over that. He’s the type who always chooses the best possible course in the moment, weighing every angle, so he never regrets, but even so, the results would crush his heart and torment him. That’s why we can’t let it happen. That’s why, even with 『Collar of Subordination』 existing, we came.

We weren’t ready. Nephertiri-san, because of her immense mana, had been able to resist completely being chained in both body and soul, while shattering herself from within. We could never do that, we lacked the strength and willpower. And for a girl to be collared like that, nothing could come of it but the worst kind of horror. Even so, we had to come! We couldn’t let Haruka-kun carry that burden alone. So if the absolute worst happens, we’ll be the ones to kill each other, our comrades killing us, us killing our comrades. That’s our secret promise.

Because we can’t let Haruka-kun be forced to kill us. Because we can’t let him suffer for our sake. Because above all, letting Haruka-kun see us defiled, that’s something we could never bear.

Even now, he’s pouring out his dwindling MP to build walls and expand the town for the sake of protecting everyone. No matter how vast are his mana reserves, unleashing it all at once means agony sharp enough to split your skull apart. But in every town, no matter the place, there are families and children. And Haruka-kun sees in them the shadows of his late parents and younger sister. That’s why he can never abandon anyone. That’s why he always suffers when he can’t save everyone. …And that’s why, right now, we’re changing clothes.

「Good work—!」 (*monyun*)

「Already finished?」 (*munyun*)

「That’s a splendid wall you’ve built.」 (*monyu monyuuu*)

「Was your MP okay?」 (*mugyu mugyu*)

「Then let’s use a warm steamed towel~ and wipe off your sweat~」 (Jiggle-Jiggle!)

「「「Yeees, thanks for your hard work—!」」」 (*Rub-Rub, Squeeze-Squeeze, Squish-Squish, Pant-Pant, Wipe-Wipe*)

The soothing bodypile. It doesn’t feel very soothing, but he squirms and flees overjoyed with an indecent look on his face. Haruka-kun is weak against new outfits! Just one look and his Rajingan gets completely distracted, his brain capacity eaten up with recording it all, leaving him powerless. That’s the whole point of the mini-skirt sailor uniform! With knee-highs & thigh-high stockings, too!

「W-wait, not there, and not there either, or rather, don’t strip me, okay!? I mean, this is a magical construction, so I didn’t even sweat! I literally just took a bath, didn’t I? Hey, pants are off-limits! Don’t wipe inside my pants! That’s seriously bad, in a Highschool Boy’s sort of way! That’s the one place you really shouldn’t rub?!」

Yesterday, he probably was crying and apologizing while he built the Great Wall all on his own in the Beastmen Country.. So today, he was comparatively tame, only resorting to some crafty wordplay. His MP is depleted, leaving him in a state of fatigue and lethargy so heavy even moving is hard. We still can’t truly help him, just assisting a little is our limit, far from being his right hand, useless companions with no reliability. That’s why, at the very least, we want to heal him. That’s why, at the very least, we want to make him smile. So just give up and let us, okay? It’s not scary, okay? *Slurping saliva*

「Hey, the self-proclaimed bodyguards, Dungeon Emperor-sans, how come you are supplying towels instead of rescuing me?! And why are you hauling my gear so far away!? Whoa, no, wait, this is seriously bad! I’m serious, gahh, 『Teleport!』(*poyon*) …Wha!? The instant I tried to teleport, I bounced off something and instantaneous movement got cancelled!? Teleport is supposed to distort space, right? Space going poyon? That’s not okay is it! Also that place is not okay, no touch!」

【Sex King is Screaming】

We wiped him clean with wet towels, massaging and loosening his body, casting Recovery and Healing spells, trying to soothe him with gratitude, tender care, and a bit of maiden’s curiosity. He fainted, looking happy.

From here it’s Rated 17+. Angelica-san and Nephertiri-san drag away the blissful corpse, treating their prize as something dear, precious, and delightful. From their cute lips peek lascivious tongues, that motion of slowly tracing them across their lips was bewitching and alluring, but also obscene and ominous! None of us have acquired the Clairvoyance skill yet, even though we managed to get Enhanced Hearing? Is there no higher tier of Presence Detection?