The 8 groups that had rushed out of the fort and into the imperial palace were basically nothing more than a distraction. While the 8 groups were keeping the enemy soldiers busy, another group composed of nothing but elites were to be sent in with teleportation to the inside of the palace.
To be a bit more specific, that group was mostly made up of the familiar faces of the village’s hunters. Selen, Philia-san, Selius-kun, Gori-chan, Noel-kun who had [Shield Master Techniques], Goate-san who had the [Herculean Strength] Gift, Balrath-san who had the [Sword Techniques] Gift, Perun-san who had the [Spear Techniques] Gift, Banba-san who had the [Heavy Blade Techniques] Gift, Dorial who had the [Axe Technique] Gift were just a few among this group.
“You have to let me join them!”
“I will lend my strength as well!”
The Enbala Kingdom’s Queen Maribel and her guard Ganzas-san both volunteered for this operation when they heard of it. They had powerful Gifts, so their aid would certainly be reassuring, but…
“I think this is too risky of an operation for a queen of a country to…”
“There is no need to worry about me. I had always been thinking of a way to repay you for saving my country. So, I ask you to let me aid you no matter what!”
“I feel the same as Her Majesty!”
Other than them, about 10 elites from each of the participating nations were joining this group. Of course, each of them had powerful Gifts as well. They probably had a ton of combat experience under their belt, if the aura they exuded was any indication. Must be nice to be like that, I thought. I wished to be as cool as they were someday…
“Still, I couldn’t believe we really would be invading the very heart of the empire…”
“I had never heard of a Gift as outside of the ordinary as Luke-dono’s Gift is.”
“To begin with, I find it hard to believe that a single Gift could have so much variety in the things it could do.”
“Any ordinary person would have misused that Gift long ago. Not Luke-dono though; he uses this power only for the right things.”
“The lad is magnificent. He’s the ideal leader, isn’t he? Compared to him, I’m still…”
Huh? I don’t know why, but those guys are looking at me with what almost seems like reverence…
Along with the group of elites, I teleported to a place within the imperial palace that I scouted with Village View beforehand.
“What a large room!”
“This might be the emperor’s audience chamber. Look, that’s the throne, isn’t it?”
In the back of the vast room was an excessively decorated seat.
“!? Who are you people!? How did you get in here!?”
We heard that being asked in an angry voice.
When I turned toward the source, I saw a boy of about 10 years old that was in a ridiculously gaudy attire.
“A child?”
I thought it was a child that belonged to the royal family, but…
“Oi, how long do you intend to keep standing!? I am the emperor! Bow your heads before me, now!”
“Huh? The emperor? This child’s the emperor?”
“If anybody’s a child here, it’s you! The nerve to call me a child! Off with his head!”
With his face fully red, the self-proclaimed emperor furiously shouted so.
Well, it wasn’t rare for nations that observed monarchy to have a monarch that was all too young. The Giant Soldier pilots we captured mentioned they never met the emperor, but maybe that was because the fact that the emperor was this young was being kept hidden.
“…Your Majesty, it’s dangerous here. This people might be the invaders. They certainly don’t look to be anyone from our nation.”
The one to warn the emperor was the man standing behind the throne. This man looked to be in his mid-thirties. He was short and plump; his hair was rather thin; and he had a mustache that extended left and right.
“Huh!? What are the soldiers doing!? How dare they let our enemies come this far in!”
The young emperor furiously shouted.
Maybe they had no choice but to spread their soldiers too thin or maybe they just didn’t expect to be invaded this far inside the palace, but either way, the only ones near the emperor at the moment were the aforementioned man and 2 muscular soldiers.
As perhaps to be expected, those 2 soldiers were considerably strong. However, the gap in power between our sides was quite large. They looked like they understood this too. They readied their weapons and shouted.
“Your Majesty! Minister! Please escape from here!”
“These people are no amateurs! We’ll buy you as much time as we can, so hurry!”
Those words might have made emperor understand the gravity of the situation for he immediately let out a pitiable shriek.
“I-I’m counting on you! Stop them here no matter what!”
He then hurriedly escaped by passing through the exit at the edge of the room.
Please consider supporting me. You can do this either by turning off adblock for this blog, buying me a ko-fi, or via my Patreon page (link here). Thank you.
RPGNovels 
Leave a comment