The Villainous Aristocrat's Efforts Led to a Genuine Harem - Episode 42

Episode 42

“…Take this!”

Life shouted that. And he released a fire spell.

His fire bullet came flying. But I swallowed it up with a blue vortex I deployed, erasing it.

“What!?”

I moved behind Life. He stepped back in shock.

Then, I kicked him hard in the back.

Life was struck by my kick. He rolled across the ground violently.

“Gahhh!?”

Life rolled and rolled. He then tried to get up. But perhaps, it hurt so much that his eyes filled with tears.

“Y-you…!?”

Father raised his voice irritably. He glared this way.

At that timing, Lady Filia softly let out her voice.

“…It would be better to stop here, don’t you think?”

As expected, since Lady Filia stepped in, Father didn’t seem able to say anything more.

“Well done, Reis.”

“Thank you very much.”

After saying that, Lady Filia stepped one step closer toward me.

She didn’t spare even a glance at Life, who was glaring in frustration.

Her smile clearly said this—“Next, let’s fight me.”

“Then, next will be a fight with me…!”

“…”

Are you seriously going to do this…? Lady Filia looked at me with such eagerness to fight. I glanced at the knight captain and the attending knights for help. But all of them wore resigned expressions.

They looked as if to say, “Once she gets like this, she can’t be stopped anymore…” I could only imagine the knights’ usual hardships.

…No helping it. Am I really going to fight Lady Filia now?

It was then, when I was thinking that.

“Emergency, Zangell-san!”

“What’s wrong…?”

It was Garing. He rushed in frantically. And we all turned our faces toward him. Well, given the situation, it couldn’t be helped.

But Father immediately exploded in anger. He raised his voice.

“The princess is here right now, you insolent fool!?”

“It might be an emergency. Please don’t worry about me, continue.”

When Lady Filia said that, Father furrowed his brow deeply. …From earlier, things hadn’t been going as he wanted. And he seemed irritated.

“…Yes! Just now, there was a report that a massive number of monsters are overflowing from the ‘Forest of Rebellion.’”

“What!? Is that true!?”

Father and the rest of the family shouted. Their faces were going pale.

“…Yes. At the front, a black-armored knight is leading the monsters of the ‘Forest of Rebellion’

and advancing.”

…A black-armored knight?

I frowned at the unfamiliar term. But Father too looked as if he had fallen into despair.

“…W-what is that? W-what are the soldiers doing!?”

“…Right now they are preparing to deploy the barrier. By chance, many skilled adventurers also happened to be gathered in the guild. And they too are moving to respond. However, the overall command of this city belongs to Lord Roubel. May we have your decision for the response?”

“Immediate evacuation! Use the teleportation stones, move to another city! Then, gather forces and prepare to meet them!”

…Well, even though the scale of the monsters is unknown, that decision itself is correct.

If Validor were an ordinary city, that is.

The one who immediately spoke was Lady Filia.

“…Please wait. Validor is a city for stopping monster invasions, isn’t it? There are many weapons here specifically to fight against monsters. Wouldn’t it be better to respond here? We could also request reinforcements from other cities, and have them move here using teleportation stones. That should be enough.”

Lady Filia’s opinion was correct.

This Validor had a large stock of anti-monster equipment. And its barrier devices were superior to other cities’.

If the fuel and maintenance had been properly taken care of… the correct action would be to use them while waiting for reinforcements.

…If the fuel and maintenance had been done, that is.

I had asked Vilias to check the maintenance. But there were so many devices that only the bare minimum could be done.

As for fuel… since the military budget hadn’t been allocated, of course there was almost none.

Father must have calculated that much as well.

His face quickly turned pale.

Silence followed for a while. It was until Garing spoke.

“…Sorry to interrupt the discussion. Regarding the teleportation stone, it seems the magic power has been destabilized by the monsters from the ‘Forest of Rebellion.’ It renders it unusable.”

…As expected, it turned out like that.

Just like with Reem, escaping with the teleportation stone was difficult.

“T-then we can’t even evacuate…?”

Father’s voice came out in despair.

“Y-yes… If we want to evacuate the townspeople, we’ll have to hold off the monsters ourselves.”

If they evacuated in the opposite direction of the ‘Forest of Rebellion,’ they could manage to escape somehow.

But to issue an evacuation order for the whole city, and have everyone act immediately… that would be difficult.

It would turn into a massive migration. The streets inside the city would be severely congested.

And of course, there would also be people who don’t want to evacuate. And there’s no time to persuade them one by one.