Volume 4 Chapter 62: Crisis in the Imperial City

On the airship, the atmosphere was really subtle.

Princess Michelle, Aliyah and Irlin were sitting on a sofa at one end, while looking at the other end with narrow eyes.

On the other end was Bai Yueguang's party, Oyado, Gabriel, Dale, and that Lois who shamelessly tagged along.

While I was sitting at the center of the two groups, as I helplessly looked at them. "... Umm, aren't you guys going to introduce yourselves?"

"There's no need for that sort of thing!" Princess Michelle said with a pout.

"Those people over there come from the Eastern Continent, and are Bai Yueguang,

Tai Shixi, and Hei Luoli respectively. They do not have any bad records. 'Demonic Hand of Light' Gabriel Lancette, 'Homunculus' Oyado, 'Blinding Lightning User' Dale Lester, and Oryados Mercenary Guild's Lois. I have already read through the intel on you guys while I was on my way here. Although some of you are rather suspicious individuals, since you're friends of Fir, I will put those things aside... But as for you, Fir! According to my investigation, you returned a couple of days ago! Why haven't you contacted us till now!?"

"Didn't you say you have already investigated my whereabouts..." "Are you talking about your new identity as Fel?"

"Kuh..."

Because I changed my name and disguised myself, you guys didn't realize it was me till now? Well, wasn't preventing myself from being recognized the purpose of all that in the first place?

"Well~ Sorry."

"This isn't something that can be settled with just a simply sorry, you idiot! What were you thinking!?"

"Big brother, who is this big sister?" Oyado tugged onto my shirt and asked.

"Big brother... So you're actually into something like that..."

This time, it was Aliyah who spoke up. Although she did not say anything earlier, I could understand from her piercing gaze. She's thoroughly irritated.

But currently, she did not have an angry expression, rather... She looked as if she found something interesting to play with!

Really. She's definitely thinking of how to make the situation even more interesting, rather than settling it. I must definitely not fall into her traps.

"Oyado is the only person who can call him big brother!" Oyado looked at me and continued.

"Big brother, you don't have that sort of crazy-looking sister, right!?" Well spoken. I gave a silent thumbs up to Oyado in my heart.

"Cra... Crazy!?"

Aliyah furrowed her brows, and immediately charged out with her dual swords. But at the same time, Oyado stretched out her two hands, and in a flash, the shadow of two daggers collided with Aliyah's swords.

She actually hid daggers under her sleeves?

But these two people are really incredible. With just the collision of their weapons, the entire airship actually shook for a moment!

"Why did you attack me? I was only speaking the truth." "'Truth', my ass!"

Aliyah made a slight retreat, and then fiercely leaped into the sky. She twisted her

body, and the two swords once again came thrusting down.

"Arcane - Dual Splitter!"

Two swords immediately slashed towards Oyado, but the moment they were about to reach her, Oyado's figure suddenly blurred, and the two swords pierced through the air, and stabbed into the floor.

"How...' "You lost."

A dagger was pointed at Aliyah's neck, while the other was pointed at her heart.

Oyado, who appeared behind Aliyah had then declared her victory.

"Alright alright, stop fooling around. Are you two trying to dismantle the entire airship?"

The floor doesn't seem to be single layered, and the crack isn't that big, so there shouldn't be any problems. But if they were to go on, they will definitely destroy the entire place.

After all, I personally witnessed Aliyah's deed of slicing an entire house into pieces in the past.

"Hmph! Whatever the case, you will be punished, so wait for it!" Princess Michelle declared.

"Hey hey, I haven't done anything at all. And didn't I contact you guys because of

the nation's safety?"

"Oh right, you even killed the gryphon that we spent a great deal of effort and money to train up, didn't you?"

"If I did not kill it, I would have died!" "I don't care!"

"......"

As expected of 'Icy Arrogant', you're really unreasonable, huh.

"Haah, really. In any case, we can talk about this next time. Compared to this, we have to first deal with the problem regarding the trespassers."

After that, I turned to look at the three from the Eastern Continent.

"Alright, you guys should have the general idea of what's going on, right? In regards to the trespassers, what are your thoughts?"

"Un..."

Bai Yueguang pondered for a moment.

"To tell you the truth, other than the city we started out in, we have never went to the other cities in the Eastern Continent. Tai Shixi..."

"I have never went out as well. But, truthfully, that sort of thing isn't something from my country, but something that comes from your side, Little Bai."

Tai Shixi shook her head.

""Even if you say that, our side is also split into various countries. And there are mostly only internal conflicts. I have never heard or people planning to attack the Western Continent..."

"Lorsande Kingdom..."

I suddenly recalled something, and hurriedly asked.

"Do you guys know of anything regarding the Lorsande Kingdom?"

"Oh, that? It's really close to the Country of Ye, and is isolated from the concept

of war. But it has deep relationships with both the Eastern and Western Continent, after all, it's a country situated at the center of the two..."

Hei Luoli seems to be rather knowledgeable of this matter. But, that's reasonable, after all, she's a princess.

"In other words, it acts a corridor for both countries? Well, I believe it has quite a strong economical power, right? So, is it planning to increase its land size? But why does it have to choose the farthest Ice Empire... Do they want to take over a

coastal country or something? But your country is a coastal country as well, right?" "The Navy, I guess."

The moment Bai Yueguang suggested this, Princess Michelle spoke up as well.

"Because of the constant years of internal conflict, the Eastern Continent's countries basically do not have a single Navy division. On the other hand, our Ice Empire have been expanding our Navy in the recent years, and our long-distance fleets have increased by three times because of the expansion. They must be targeting this."

"Is that so... That's really easy to understand, huh." I nodded, and then looked towards Hei Luoli.

"Alright, since that's the case, is there any way to discern an Onmyouji? Those

Shikigamis can either be controlled by an Onmyouji himself, or be semi- automated. If it's semi-automated, there's a need to summon the Shikigamis from the talismans in advance, right?"

"Un, it's a must for an Onmyouji to carry out the summoning."

"I see, if that's the case... our opponent could have simply entered the city before summoning them, so why..."

Why do they have to purposefully summon them in advance, and have people transport them over?

And in the end, they actually fled, and even used a teleportation magic formation. Why would they go to so much trouble...

"They did it on purpose!?"

"Un, what are you trying to say?"

"I'm telling you, they did all these with a purpose in mind!" I explained the earlier situation, and continued from there.

""They purposefully summoned the Shikigamis and placed them in the carriages.

Then, they had people to escort these carriages. No matter how dumb your intelligence unit is, something like that would obviously be detected, right? Then, after you guys attacked, they brought the Shikigamis to another city. First, it would cause you guys to dispatch more people to investigate. Second, have the Shikigamis appear at the surrounding cities and cause chaos. And while they're wrecking havoc in the various places..."

I paused for a moment.

"At this time, they will make use of the opportunity when you guys aren't paying attention to your surroundings, and initiate their attack."

"Eh? At this time?" "Princess!"

Suddenly, the broadcast system in the airship rang. "What happened!?"

Princess Michelle picked up the receiver and asked.

"There's smoke being emitted from the direction of the imperial city! Currently, we're going to turn and head towards the evacuation point."

"What!?"

"As I thought..."

I turned and looked towards Dale. "How many gliders do you have?"

"Tons of them. Because their production costs were cheap." "Great."

I walked over to Princess Michelle's side, and took the receiver off her hands.

"Captain, is it alright if I open the airship's hatch when we're close to the imperial city?"