novelA Wonderful Enemy Who is Both a Princess and a Queen (2)
| ← Ch.139 | Ch.141 → |
Part 5
The Saint Kanzaki Kaori and Second Princess Carissa.
A scorching tension ran between the two women.
No concrete physical phenomenon was going to act as a trigger.
Their thoughts would trigger the beginning of the fight.
"!!"
"!!"
Kanzaki moved first.
She started to draw her sword... and then used 7 wires instead.
Nanasen.
Holding Curtana Original, Carissa's response to the wires simultaneously attacking from different angles was...
"If you hold back against an enemy like me... you will die."
A tremendous noise rang out.
The next thing Kamijou knew, Kanzaki and Carissa had their blades locked together at extremely close quarters. Carissa had merely rushed in and swung her sword, but Kamijou hadn't been able to see even that simple action.
"So you can fight on the level of this dimension-severing attack? With two attacks that can slice through anything, some inconsistencies or contradictions may be created between the two laws."
"... Your movements are different from before. It seems you too will get tripped up if you hold back."
Those words had been intended to protect Kamijou, but the boy himself knew in his heart it wasn't true.
His instincts told him that the princess who excelled at military matters may regulate herself, but she did not "hold back".
"At any rate, this thing can be quite difficult to use. You need to ensure that unnecessary side effects and openings are not created while paying the price required by the situation to get the desired result. The ability to make strategies that prevent unneeded expenditure, reductions, or shortness of breath is a needed skill."
The two repelled each other's weapon and then swung their own blade again.
Their bodies blurred.
From there, they entered a series of attacks and defenses where Kamijou had a hard time determining where exactly they were. Continuous explosive noises as if from a machine gun continued as sparkling objects flew between the two women. Around Kanzaki were broken wires and around Carissa were the fangs of wreckage that appeared with each strike.
The situation was not one Kamijou could directly help with, but Imagine Breaker was still an irregular threat to Curtana Original.
(Then the only thing I can do is... !!)
Kamijou made up his mind and ran in a route around their battle. He was attempting to move outside of Carissa's vision. Even if that was actually impossible, he was making sure Carissa had to keep an eye on him.
"Heh. How brave of you, " Carissa said to him having realized what he was trying to do and while continuing to cross swords with Kanzaki at high speed."But it will just get you killed."
An explosive noise rang out as one of the pieces of dimensional wreckage that had naturally been created in her fight, one with a pointed end, was knocked back towards Kamijou with her heel.
It was much like a lance thrown by a powerful soldier.
"!?"
Kamijou frantically twisted his body, but an injury raced along his cheek. It was more like a scrape from falling on some rocks on the beach than a cut from a blade.
Seeing that, Kanzaki ignored her own danger and yelled out.
"Kamijou Touma!!"
"Don't worry about me! Push forward!!" yelled Kamijou to keep Kanzaki from switching over to a strategy that would prevent others from being caught up in the fight.
That was when the reinforcements arrived.
The Amakusa Church showed up armed with swords, spears, axes, hammers, bows, and staffs. Tatemiya Saiji with his Flamberge and Itsuwa with her Friuli Spear stood at the center of them.
The former Agnese Forces showed up with Agnese armed with her Lotus Wand, Lucia armed with her giant wheel, Angelene armed with her numerous gold coin bags, and the other nuns armed with various other spiritual items.
Orsola Aquinas, Sherry Cromwell with her golem, and others were also gathered. It didn't look like much of anyone was missing from the original group that had entered London.
Having arrived late, they first looked on in shock at the way Kanzaki and Carissa were fighting and then held their ground beginning to assist. Some aimed between the two fighting women's battle to hit Carissa with long distance attacks and others started in for close quarters combat as a group to lower Kanzaki's burden.
Carissa clicked her tongue.
"Ah, you're really going to make me take on unnecessary costs, aren't you? I suppose I should have left a few knights to deal with people like you."
Even so, the second princess was not defeated.
While continuing to exchange blows with Kanzaki, Carissa used even the flow of created dimensional wreckage as part of her strategy. She created objects that had sharp ends like giant fangs or ribs and sent them flying in all directions. They blocked attacks rushing in at tremendous speed from different directions, acted as walls to stop people from rushing in, and acted as projectiles to counterattack with.
As Kamijou frantically evaded those attacks, he was reminded of a game of otedama.
Carissa had two hands, but only one weapon. Even so, she managed to respond to attacks and actions from hundreds of enemies at the same time. The back alley street fight strategy of using a large group to create a wave of people that completely washed away an individual didn't even work on her.
And then the Griffin Skies returned to the fight. Moving along with the red fortresses in the sky, the 20 meter lances started moving along the ground again. One of them plowed into the Golem Ellis that Sherry Cromwell controlled blowing it away. Having received that powerful strike, the mass of stone came to pieces in midair and rained down on the heads of the former Agnese Forces.
Seeing Agnese and Lucia franticly attempt to evade, Kanzaki clicked her tongue.
She turned towards her fellow Amakusa members and spoke.
"Split into a Carissa team and a Griffin team! Those mobile fortresses are at an altitude between 20 and 50 meters... That's high enough for Peter's Anti-Flight spell to work. Ushibuka, Kouyagi, Nomozaki! Can you three put together a spell to bring them down!?"
"We can, but they have a giant shield protecting them. I don't know if we can get through that!!"
Despite saying that, Ushibuka and the others quickly started to take action.
With the Golem Ellis destroyed, the Griffin Sky turned around again and moved in for the Amakusas, but it suddenly lost its balance. The giant lance rushing along the surface struck the black soil and created a tsunami of dirt and sand. The spiritual item held more destructive force than its mass or speed indicated it should have.
However, it was not brought down.
The unsteady Griffin Sky regained its balance and continued its attack run on the Amakusas.
"Oh, shi-... !!"
"No, that was enough!!" Kanzaki said, cutting Ushibuka off as she used her Saint's strength to rush forward. Her target was the giant lance that had lost speed from contacting the ground. Kanzaki grabbed the lance with both hands from the side where it did not have its explosive destructive power as a spiritual item. She spun her body by twisting her hips to spin it around.
The giant lance and the Griffin Sky were linked using its shadow.
By grabbing the lance and swinging it around like that, Kanzaki caused the Griffin Sky above to rotate around like it was caught in a tornado.
It was possible that the magical connection to the lance could be severed in case the lance got caught on a solid fortress, but it was no use. Kanzaki was not simply spinning the Griffin Sky around with her strength. She was also using high level magic to obstruct any kind of emergency cancel while at the same time using her physical strength as a Saint.
As Kanzaki swung around the Griffin Sky, 4 of the same types of mobile fortresses got caught in it and formed a single mass. To finish off her attack, Kanzaki changed the angle of the giant "axis" she was swinging around to a straight line down.
It was like she was wielding an incredibly giant morning star.
And of course, her target was Second Princess Carissa and Curtana Original.
There was an incredibly loud noise, but it had not been caused by the impact of the numerous Griffin Skies.
It was the sound of Carissa stabbing Curtana Original upwards slicing the morning star apart with a single strike.
"Dammit!! That was a hammer made up of 5 mobile fortresses!" yelled the old Isahaya in defense of Kanzaki.
Meanwhile, Itsuwa spoke loudly to encourage the others while wielding her Friuli Spear.
"B-but now we know that they can be brought down! Let's continue breaking into groups and increase our attacks on the Griffin Skies. The more of them we can take out, the more people can focus on Carissa which should increase our chances of victory!!"
They nodded, split into two groups with no discussion on who went where, and then headed off to their respective foes.
After having temporarily left the battle line to her comrades, Kanzaki controlled her breathing to recover some of her lost stamina and then lightly jumped over in Kamijou's direction.
"I hate to say it, but it looks like I really am going to have to rely on your right hand. Can you negate Carissa's dimensional slicing attack itself?" Kanzaki continued to jump around deflecting the white objects as she spoke to Kamijou in a low voice."It is a powerful slicing attack that also creates projectiles. Negating even one strike would greatly shake the strategy she has built up and it might create an opening I could exploit."
"I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything." Kamijou clenched his right fist."I just can't grasp the rules behind it. Before you got here, I tried a couple of times and it worked sometimes and didn't work sometimes."
Then one of the red Griffin Skies was shot down by a barrage of pitch black darkness from the distant Selkie Aquarium. With the passenger plane-sized object falling in their direction, Kanzaki grabbed Kamijou and jumped 200 meters away.
"In China, there is a legend of three different swords. For the strongest among them, it gives no feeling of having killed someone upon killing them and the person killed does not even realize it and continues living.... Well, it is really just a metaphor used for ideological teaching, but it seems Curtana can truly accomplish that metaphor."
"?"
"Basically, the cutting strike is simply too sharp, so there is a bit of a lag before any signs of the object being sliced show up. The cross section wreckage does not appear in the three dimensional world until 1. 25 seconds after the dimensions are sliced."
"... You made that analysis during that high speed battle?" Kamijou said in complete shock.
"I had to, " Kanzaki simply responded."The only magical phenomenon is the ability to sever dimensions. The dimensional wreckage is nothing more than a natural phenomenon brought about by the magic. It is like the relationship between magical fire and the ash the fire creates. Your right hand can negate the strike itself, but it can do nothing about the wreckage created afterwards."
"So..."
"If you attack the area Curtana passes through within 1. 25 seconds after the attack, you can negate the strike and prevent the dimensional wreckage from appearing."
1. 25 seconds.
A time accurate past the decimal like that was not something a mere high school student could have a real feel for.
"So it's a cross-counter where I'm completely screwed if I fuck it up..."
"I am not telling you to go in and finish this. I am merely asking you to reach out if Carissa attempts to create a gigantic object with large scale and long distance slice and it is within your reach."
"Understood. So I just wait for a good opportunity."
Kanzaki tapped his shoulder as a sign of trust before she gathered strength in her abdomen to jump back into the fray around Carissa.
However, the situation did not wait around.
With a tremendous noise, a giant flower opened up with the second princess at its center. The flower was made up of deadly sharp white flower petals woven together. The projectiles shot in all directions and blew the primarily Amakusa close quarters fighters a great distance away.
"Itsuwa!! Tatemiya!?" Kamijou yelled, but Carissa opened her mouth to speak before they could respond.
"Oh, are you neglecting to guard your comrades so you can discuss strategy? It's like you're asking me to kill them."
As she finished speaking, the second princess jumped.
She must have been borrowing Telesma from Curtana because she jumped 10 meters straight up. Holding up her sword in midair, she aimed for her "target" during her descent. Kanzaki immediately took action.
Kamijou Touma's right hand held an important role in destroying Curtana Original.
That was why she immediately assumed that Carissa was intending to kill him.
"No! It isn't me!!"
As Kamijou tried to push Kanzaki out of the way, Carissa swung Curtana in midair. A blank white board was created in midair and the second princess forcefully kicked it.
Her trajectory changed at an acute angle.
Her course changed from one towards Kamijou Touma to one towards Third Princess Villian who was staring in complete surprise.
"!?"
Villian immediately tried to bring her bowgun up, but it was too late.
With a loud impact, Carissa landed near the third princess and dragged her sister off the ground with one hand. By the time Villian raised her head, the end of Curtana Original was already pressed against her throat. That sword had no tip or blade, but it still held the ability to slice through all whole number dimensions.
"You can't even use any proper magic. Why are you here? Did you succumb to some strange sense of justice? Or were you just afraid of the main fighting force leaving you behind and alone?"
Villian must have gotten some advice from the Anglicans because her bowgun had a number of tricks to it. However, those tricks were nothing but trash to Carissa who held England's greatest spiritual item, Curtana Original. It drew red, blue, yellow, and green lines with magic of the four elements and their distribution could form various types of magic, but that level of magic would have no more effect than a child's love fortune.
"Were you just overcome with ecstasy when you helped send my Curtana Original out of control by activating your own magic for the first time down there in the subway?... So you get innocently excited over a single lucky shot? Well, that is the limit of what you can do, little miss princess."
Carissa sneered down at her sister while practically straddling her.
But her expression suddenly froze.
"... So this is it. This is the terrible thing William and the innocent servants and cooks were faced with in order to allow me to escape."
The third princess glared straight back at her older sister.
She glared back to express her intention to win.
"Then it is about time that I stood up to fight. As a princess of this nation, I need to become the kind of person that creates a roof that can protect everyone from this kind of fear!!"
As she yelled, Villian ignored the sword at her throat and prepared her bowgun.
Staring up at Carissa, she unhesitatingly pulled the trigger as if to say she was prepared to die to take out her sister.
She fired a special arrow that had an arrowhead on the tip that functioned as a spiritual item.
"!?"
For the first time, Carissa's expression changed.
All she had done was move her head to the side.
However, that had been enough for her to evade the arrow that her little sister had put her all into.
Even though the bowgun had been altered to make it easier to use for Villian's slender feminine arms, it would still take at least 5 seconds to load a new arrow.
In that time, Carissa could easily have Curtana Original sever every dimension along with Villian's head.
"It is time for you to sleep, dreamer, " Carissa said in a dreadfully expressionless face the likes of which she had not shown before.
And then...
The arrow Carissa had evaded causing it to continue to fly up into the night sky struck the large scale flash spell from Coven Compass.
The arrow Villian had been using had magical effects built in. Carissa had assumed they were the type that would widen a wound, but a change occurred in the large scale flash spell once the arrow hit it.
The pure white light turned into a mass of water weighing a few dozen tons and surged ominously in the night sky. The giant mass might have seemed like a whip had it not been more than the size of a radio tower. As its end bent, it got wrapped around one of the red Griffin Skies and headed for Carissa.
(A combination attack!?)
Villian herself did not have the power or knowledge to use magic properly. However, that changed when she could use the massive amount of magic power being sent by Coven Compass. Instead of preparing a huge piece of magic that created a large explosion, Villian just had to use a small piece of magic she could activate herself to trigger that explosion.
And the Anglican Church had Index Librorum Prohibitorum and the 103, 000 grimoires she had stored.
With the advice of multiple magicians, she could put together different magical symbols in the arrowhead to make that phenomenon possible.
"Dammit!! A petty trick!?"
Carissa rolled out of the way to avoid the mass of water. Villian forced her faintly trembling hands to pull back the shotgun-like slide and load another arrow.
"Sister, did you know that I am said to excel in benevolence the same way you are said to excel in military matters?"
"You're trying to justify relying on others? It pisses me off that I'm sisters with someone like you!!"
Something invisible was emitted around Carissa.
Not backing down, Villian calmly aimed the bowgun into the night sky above Carissa's head. The fired arrow once again struck Coven Compass's attack, but Carissa paid it no heed and ran straight for Villian.
Upon striking the giant pillar of light, the arrow turned to a large number of golf ball-sized spheres that rained down on Carissa. But Carissa borrowed Curtana's power to exceed the human level of movement. She made quick zigzags to evade the downpour while continuing to get closer to Villian.
"This is the limit of what relying on others can get you!!"
Carissa swung Curtana Original at Villian who now truly had nothing left at her disposal.
The timing gave her no chance to evade or defend.
All that was left was for the third princess's head to fall to the ground, but...
"Yes, this is the peak of what relying on others can get me, sister."
A tremendous noise rang out.
It was the sound of a great number of footsteps. Villian's body disappeared from in front of Carissa and was replaced by Tatemiya, Itsuwa, the other Amakusas, and the other close quarters combat fighters.
Their speed was clearly different from before.
That vanguard was clearly 3 or 4 times faster than before and Carissa gritted her teeth as she swung Curtana Original to create some dimensional wreckage to deal with them.
(So that downpour of spheres wasn't an attack! It was a boost for physical abilities!!)
As she fought at high speed, Carissa stared at Villian who now stood a distance away.
Having been lowered to the ground by Kanzaki, the third princess spoke with a confidence she never had before.
"That is why I told you I am the princess that excels at benevolence."
"Hah! Do you truly intend to win with such shallow thinking!?"
Carissa fell back and gave a large swing of Curtana Original. The spell that boosted the vanguard's physical abilities using Coven Compass's power had buried into the ground like bullets, so she created a giant 100 meter piece of dimensional wreckage that dug up the ground itself. She then destroyed every single one of the hundreds of cores that were supporting the magic.
(It's over, Villian. Once I stop them, I will chop you to pieces in a public execution!!)
Carissa then swung Curtana Original with all her might by swinging her whole body around.
However, the dimensions were not sliced.
There was no resistance as if it had just slipped out and Carissa frowned.
The cause had been a boy named Kamijou Touma.
That's right.
That boy had already been asked by Kanzaki Kaori to swing his fist up when Carissa attempted to make a large scale, long distance slice into the dimensions.
With what sounded like the snap of a whip, the partially sliced dimensions returned to normal.
As if in unison with that "misfire", Third Princess Villian fired her bowgun into the night sky once more.
(Is it coming... !?)
Carissa instinctively held Curtana Original up above her head to defend against a large combination attack with Coven Compass.
But the third princess's benevolence did not end there.
Next, some words rang out.
"B A O C D!! (Distort the trajectory. Alter it to head down!!)"
Those words belonged to the girl who had accurately memorized 103, 000 grimoires. She was using a method of interception called Spell Intercept that was meant to interfere with another's magic.
However, she did not use it on Carissa's Curtana Original.
The girl, Index, had not yet fully analyzed the spell controlling Curtana.
In her hand was a communications spiritual item connected to Coven Compass.
In other words, she had altered the supposedly straight trajectory of the large scale flash spell.
"Wha-... ?"
For the first time, Second Princess Carissa's expression turned to one of surprise instead of one of anger.
The giant pillar of light fired by Coven Compass bent at a right angle as if to avoid the arrow fired by Villian's bowgun. Its trajectory changed to one heading straight down from the sky, pierced through the Griffin Skies in the way, and headed straight for Carissa through an opening in Curtana Original's defenses.
There was an explosion.
The explosion was so great that it knocked away even the magicians spread out around Carissa.
Kamijou Touma's sense of hearing was blown away.
A great amount of dust flew up into the night sky. A crater with a radius of greater than 20 meters had formed around the area where the large scale flash spell had struck. The Amakusas and the other close quarters fighters stood back up coughing.
Kamijou started to wonder if they had overdone it.
He started to worry about the enemy, but then he learned just how wrong he had been to do so.
"... I have to admit, that was effective."
A chill ran down Kamijou's spine.
The atmosphere of relief that had spread around the area vanished in an instant.
The mountain of dust was blown away from a whirlwind in the center. Standing there was Second Princess Carissa holding Curtana Original. Her red leather-covered dress had mud covering it and it was ripped in places. Some parts of her skin seemed to be oozing some red liquid, but she was still doing quite well and Curtana was not broken.
(Seriously... ?)
Kamijou realized his legs were trembling slightly.
He was reminded of the seemingly eternal fights in RPGs with monsters that had massive amounts of HP.
(She can take a direct hit from an attack of that level? I don't know the specifics, but that barrage is meant to attack fortresses. Ignoring the application and overall battle ability, that attack might have had more raw destructive power than one of Kanzaki's attacks. She took a direct hit from that and got nothing more than a few scratches!?)
"... It really looks like we can't do anything about her without first destroying Curtana Original, " Kanzaki muttered with a bitter expression.
With an enemy that couldn't be defeated even with that attack, Kamijou seriously wondered how he was supposed to get close enough to her to use his right hand.
Meanwhile, Carissa rested her sword on her shoulder and looked around the night sky.
There had originally been around 20 Griffin Skies, but the long distance attacks from Coven Compass and Selkie Aquarium in addition to the attacks from the Anglicans on the ground had almost completely wiped them out. Only one was still barely managing to fly with its damage, but it lost its balance and crashed as Carissa watched.
"It looks like this is the limit of unmanned weapons. No, it was because I used them for interception when they are designed to attack fortresses. There may not be a real problem with their specs."
"At any rate, you're the only one left now. If we push forward now..."
"What? Do you think you leveled up by defeating some lower level enemies or something? You apparently don't have a very high estimation of the head of state wielding Curtana Original."
Carissa moved her gaze back from the night sky and looked over at Kamijou with the sword still on her shoulder. She reached her other hand for the open cleavage of her dress and pulled out a small radio.
"And I never said anything about those being the only 'lower level enemies' at my disposal."
"!?"
Kamijou focused on Carissa's radio thinking she was going to call in yet a different type of mobile fortress.
However, that was not what she was doing.
First of all, why was she using a normal radio instead of a magical spiritual item?
At any rate, Carissa spoke into the radio.
"Calling the destroyer Wimbledon that is currently patrolling in the Strait of Dover. Prepare one of the cruise missiles loaded with a bunker cluster warhead. Set the detonation depth of the warhead for minus 5 meters and aim the missiles for Buckingham Palace... Fire immediately."
The first person to stiffen at those words was of course Kamijou Touma of the science side.
"A-a bunker cluster!?"
"Oh, you're familiar with them? They are special warheads developed to destroy military shelters. They scatter around 200 smaller bombs in the air, so I would have been taking out my own forces if I had fired this while the Griffin Skies were still here."
As Carissa held Curtana Original in one hand and the radio connected to the destroyer in her left, her most villainous smile yet spread across her face.
"I was planning on firing this after creating a bit more of a sense of danger that brought my mother here, but the Griffin Skies were defeated ahead of schedule. I have no choice but to move the schedule up a bit."
"Shit!! That warhead will blow away an area with a radius of 3 kilometers in every direction!! Buckingham Palace isn't going to be the only place hit. One shot will be enough to do serious damage to London!!"
"You can shout all you want, but a cruise missile is quite fast. With the Concorde and the Eurofighter, France and other EU countries have been demanding quite a bit of money for development, but that has strengthened this country's supersonic technology. I believe the obsession with the shape of the cruise missile's stowable wings have brought them to the level of being at or near Mach 5 at low altitude. It won't even take one minute to travel the 100 kilometers."
"Dammit!!"
Three kilometers in sixty seconds. That wasn't a distance human legs could take someone. That may be different for a Saint like Kanzaki, but most of the Anglicans there would not make it in time.
"I won't let you do that, " said Kanzaki Kaori cutting off Kamijou's thoughts.
She checked over the wires in her hand.
"I will set up a defense barrier in the air to intercept them. A range of 3 kilometers in every direction and about 200 smaller explosives spreading out... That is not an impossible scale to deal with!!"
"It's true that you may be able to deal with a bunker cluster using magic."
Carissa smiled. She was surely only standing there because she was confident she could escape the blast unscathed using Curtana Original's power.
She pointed up into the night sky with the hand holding the radio.
There was an artificial point of light there that was clearly not a star.
"But you don't have time for that kind of preparation."
"!!"
Kanzaki strung the seven wires up into the night sky as if the repel Carissa's words. The wires formed a three dimensional magic circle and bluish white light ran across them creating a thick wall covering up an entire city block.
That was the special magic of a Saint that was an order of magnitude greater than normal magic.
However...
"You're defenseless. As I expected."
"... !? Kanzaki!!" Kamijou yelled out, but Carissa was faster as she swung Curtana Original while licking her lips.
The tremendous noise of the severing of dimensions was heard as everything turned to rubble. Kanzaki barely managed to avoid the 100 meter cross section, but that delayed her from preparing her defensive spell. The thick wall that was supposed to be covering the night sky was torn apart in a straight line.
The cruise missile continued to approach.
Kanzaki started to construct the defensive spell again, but she did not make it in time.
At about 4000 meters in the air, the tube shaped missile split into four pieces. With the outer shell removed, the 200 explosives inside appeared and spread out into the sky. They rained down like spears because they used the energy from their high altitude fall to penetrate into shelters buried deep in the ground.
Carissa had said the detonation depth was set at negative five meters.
Because she wanted to blow away Kamijou and the others who were on the surface, she had set it to explode above ground.
Kamijou thought he heard someone yelling "run".
However, he could not move and merely stared dumbfounded in Carissa's direction.
She was his enemy.
England's second princess spread her arms wide as if to accept the light's blessing. As she looked up at the 200 points of light in the night sky with satisfaction, Carissa noticed Kamijou's gaze. She returned his gaze and put on a new expression that could not at all be described as a smile.
She then said something, but Kamijou could not tell what it was.
Immediately afterwards, the bunker cluster attacked Buckingham Palace.
There was no sound.
Kamijou's eyes could see nothing but pure white.
All he could sense was that his body was being thrown somewhere. The great number of explosives did not explode in the air or on the surface. They first dug down into the ground and then exploded back up from under the ground.
He lost consciousness at least for a moment.
He groaned a bit, moved his fingers, and then finally realized that he was still alive.
He could tell he was coughing, but he couldn't hear it. He tried to turn his head, but his body would not do what he told it to. Even so, he managed to awkwardly move his mud-covered arms and legs in order to slowly stand up. It was the first time he had felt that surprised that he possessed all his limbs.
He looked around.
Surprisingly, the fire and destruction had not spread into the city of London. It may have been due to the defensive barrier Kanzaki had put up partway through. Most of the 200 explosives had been detonated early in the sky. The ones that had come down on top of Kamijou and the others had fallen through a gap in the barrier that had been sliced open by Curtana Original. The destruction caused by the ones that had made it through had been weakened by the defensive spells cast by the magicians.
But...
"Index... ?"
Kamijou ignored his own dirt covered head and looked around in shock.
No response came.
"Kanzaki, Itsuwa?"
The boy's voice echoed in the silence.
Dirt had been torn up, buildings had collapsed, and his own footing was shaky. Standing in the middle of a burnt field, Kamijou somehow managed to move his trembling lips.
"Sherry, Agnese! Oriana!! Dammit... Orsola, Lucia, Angelene! Tatemiya, Villian!! Fuck. Someone... anyone, please answer!!"
A few moans came in response, but no clear voices did.
Mostly everyone had collapsed. Some people may have been buried. That scene caused more intense damage to Kamijou's heart than the shockwave did to his body. He could not even hazard a guess at how many levels of trump cards their opponent had. Kamijou's heart simply couldn't keep up.
A single figure stood in the center of it all seeming to transcend the scene.
It was Second Princess Carissa.
The woman in the red dress resting Curtana Original on her shoulder spoke.
"Now then. Do you still have any hope left?"
She smiled and brought the radio closer to her mouth with her other hand.
She spoke mercilessly and purposefully letting him hear.
"Destroyer Wimbledon, prepare to fire another bunker cluster."
Part 6
First Princess Rimea had removed her trademarked monocle. In its place, she was peering through an antique telescope that looked like it was something used by a sea captain during the Age of Exploration.
(... Oh, dear. And this country's magicians should have known just how fearsome an existence the head of state with Curtana Original is. I suppose the Anglican remnants are on the verge of destruction upon being given a clear view of what that existence is. )
Rimea was hiding on top of a building in London. As she watched the distant battlefield, a smile appeared on her lips.
A voice reached her ears from a communications spiritual item.
She had avoided using it up to that point, but she had determined that Carissa was too focused on the area near Buckingham Palace to detect the origin of the magic power.
"Hey, miss. Our youths have done a sweep of Edinburgh and it seems everything is just as you predicted."
The voice belonged to a kind older man. He used none of the usual concern of one speaking with a member of the Royal Family, but that actually made Rimea's smile widen. After all, he did not even know she was a princess and she preferred these kinds of people that did not try to use her for her position.
"So, I can assume that that is the 'grave'?"
"The scale is a little smaller, but your level of accuracy is quite something. This is clearly suitable to be the grave of the king of an entire culture. If you stuffed Khufu's pyramid into a single room, you would probably end up with something like this. I'll send you the data." With those last words, a black dot that looked like ink appeared on the parchment lying next to Rimea. Starting from that dot, diagrams and cursive letters started appearing as if an invisible quill were writing on the parchment.
Rimea put back on her monocle and looked over the numbers before nodding in satisfaction.
"I see... Now we've more or less grasped the aim of the coup d'etat's leader, " she muttered as she moved her gaze from the parchment."It's true that this makes it reasonable to not kill them."
"... Hey, miss. Where did you get all this dangerous information? I know you claim to be a member of an old magician family that controls Stonehenge, but..."
"Hee hee hee. If you want to reveal the secrets of a beauty, you should get to know her a little better first."
After that remark, Rimea severed the connection.
She then changed where the spiritual item was directed and activated it again.
Thanks to her reliable comrades who did not know who she really was, she now had all the necessary pieces.
Afterwards, she simply had to take an action most befitting of the princess said to represent intellect.
At that time, all of the knights in charge of guarding the Second Princess at Buckingham Palace were collapsed. They had been "punished" in order to bring the knights back together after doubts started forming about Carissa's control of Curtana Original.
It was true that they had started to be disheartened at her lack of control over the blade.
However, that thinking had been naïve.
Even if she had lost control once, Carissa's overwhelming power with Curtana Original had simply been too much for the young knights to do anything about.
A presence moved amid them.
One of the suits of armor lying around like pieces of junk slowly rose up.
He wondered where he was.
He was not within Buckingham Palace where their blood had been shed. He seemed to be inside a large building. From a distance, he could see intermittent flashes and could hear explosions. There was a time lag between the flashes and the explosions like between lightning and thunder.
The young knight moved his hurting head around as if he were looking for something. What had awoken him from unconsciousness was a female voice coming from a communications spiritual item.
"Listen. This is First Princess Rimea of the Royal Family."
Normally, receiving a transmission like that would have required a certain obligatory vigilance, but his head was so hazy due to the pain that the he couldn't recall the proper process. Instead, he simply listened to the voice silently.
"Due to a report from one of my spies in Edinburgh, I now know the true aim of Carissa's coup d'etat. Most likely, she has not informed you in the knights of this, but this is the true goal hidden in my sister's heart."
(... )
The young knight slowly looked around.
It seemed he was the only one alive amid the pile of bodies.
He wondered why.
The reason he had survived after having his muscles, bones, organs, and nerves injured by the now tyrannical Carissa was a mystery, but so was whoever that took him unconscious from Buckingham Palace.
However, he did not think too deeply about it.
Whatever the reason, it did not change the fact that he was merely a sacrificial pawn even after giving his all and risking his life for Second Princess Carissa's revolution. He no longer even felt the natural anger at being betrayed. The young knight almost collapsed again overtaken by an overwhelming lethargy.
"As the representative that rules over this country's military, she feels more responsibility than anyone over the threat the Roman-Russian alliance poses to the United Kingdom. The country's military strength has been robbed using the treaty banning cluster bombs and other types of weapons and the Eurotunnel bombing provoked the nation itself. Carissa came to the following conclusion."
The young knight who was about to collapse heard a different noise.
He wasn't alone.
He heard the sound of scraping metal and turned around. He saw a fellow knight trying to stand up despite his hazy mind.
"She concluded that England would lose its value and dignity as a nation as things were going. Just for being British, other countries would look down on people and an era of persecution would begin. So Carissa decided that she had no choice but to maintain the country's value and dignity via military force so the British people would not be destroyed by the era of change that war would bring."
At first, they were not listening carefully to Rimea's words.
The intense pain running across their entire body was too much for that and they had just been subjected to Carissa's tyranny. Any kind of words that seemed to defend her sounded like deception to them.
"At the same time, Carissa was worried. Due to her talent in military matters, she understood better than anyone the double-sided fear that Curtana's strength brought. If the head of state did not have Curtana, if the monarchy that had been so absolute were not there, would she have a chance to listen to the voices of the people and adjust the direction the country was headed in before the war with the Roman Catholic Church became that bad?"
However, the young knights realized something bit by bit.
Their muscles, bones, organs, and nerves had supposedly been damaged. Carissa had supposedly carried that out as a punishment. She had given them such horrible pain that it would bind all who watched it with fear. For that reason, their bodies had supposedly been injured to the very core.
So why had they been able to rise up so easily?
They hadn't fallen back down due to broken bones and they did not have any after effects that would stick with them for the rest of their lives. It was almost as if someone had aimed for but purposefully missed all the vital points of a human.
And why had there been no deaths after such brutality?
"At the same time that Carissa became determined to use Curtana Original as a trump card against France and the Roman Catholic Church, she also planned on completely sealing that ultimate weapon once the fighting was over.... She wanted to create a system where someone could stop a leader that was leading the country down the wrong path. To do that, simply utterly destroying Curtana was not enough."
Rimea's voice continued on in the otherwise silent room.
"Even if she killed every member of the Royal Family and destroyed both Curtana Original and Second, it would be possible for a new royal bloodline to appear after 100 or 1000 years. The ruins of the destroyed blades could be analyzed to develop a Curtana Third or a new spiritual item that we cannot even imagine now.... After all, Curtana Original was thought to have been lost to history, but Carissa managed to acquire it after such a long time. While that helped Carissa gain the power she needed, it also pained her greatly."
The young knights could not answer their own questions, so they merely listened.
"The queen and the knights' ruling structure constructed from Curtana and the All-English Continent has 'reserve power' built in. Even when the Original was lost, their rule continued because they had purposefully left behind the ability to make a Second. For example, the Original had the clue for the analysis needed to create a Second prepared within it and forethought had gone into making sure the structure of the All-English Continent would not be thrown into chaos when the Second was activated once the Original was lost.... Carissa wanted to ensure that not just the currently existing Original and Second were sealed, but that the possibility of creating yet another Curtana at a later point was sealed as well."
One of the young knights looked out the window.
He saw Carissa's back as she fought within the grounds of the destroyed palace.
He was a few kilometers away, but he had a search spell cast on him for sniping, so that did not matter. He could see the unfolding battle at Buckingham Palace as if it were right in front of him.
Carissa seemed to reign supreme in the center of a storm as she used Curtana Original's power to her heart's content and even called in a cruise missile loaded with a bunker cluster warhead. However, she looked somehow sad to the young knight.
"Carissa's aim is to kill every member of the Royal Family that can use Curtana and mess with the currently existing Original and Second in order to destroy the clue for making a Third within them. That way, she could completely prevent a monarch from appearing later who uses Curtana to send the country in the wrong direction. Buckingham Palace's destruction is not just due to the Anglican attack. Carissa has crushed the possibility of a Curtana Third being created by utterly destroying the coded documents and paintings that cannot be decoded by current magicians but are thought to have been analyzed to create Curtana Second.... Once the war with France and the Roman Catholic Church is over, Carissa will destroy and seal Curtana Original and Second and then take the remains deep within her 'grave' for the rest of her life."
Someone slowly stood up.
He was mysteriously able to stand up.
He was not able to do so simply due to the power of the knights alone. Carissa had made sure he would be able to from the beginning. She had made sure the knights who helped her with the coup d'etat would be able to survive. The second princess had become a tyrant all on her own and taken even the responsibility the knights should have had to bear onto her own shoulders.
The young knight thought to himself that he wanted to fight for her. But he also knew that doing so would be the same as following Carissa's orders and letting the coup d'etat succeed.
"My conclusion is that Carissa has two goals. Her first is to protect England by becoming an overwhelming tyrant in order to eliminate France and the Roman Catholic Church even if it makes her a blot on the country's history. Her second is to seal the powerful but terrible weapon that is Curtana and eliminate the incompetent monarchy to ensure that the people are never oppressed by a runaway state.... And even if various factors lead to a new monarchy being formed, it would be weak enough that it would have to listen to the voices of the people preventing it from making the wrong decisions. To carry this out, Carissa intends to make sure the tyrannical crime of wielding the inhuman weapon of Curtana to slaughter all the countries enemies, both external and internal, is carried on her shoulders alone."
If only Carissa could remain the type of person that could not kill the subordinates who doubted her.
She could not be allowed to stray from her path any further.
Surely there was a way to overcome the crisis caused by the Roman Catholic Church without using Curtana Original's power.
Yes, if only the queen and three princesses, Carissa included, could join forces.
And...
Standing atop the building, Knight Leader listened to First Princess Rimea's words.
"I cannot force you to take action. You have families, friends, and lovers that you must protect as well as the country. I will not deny you the option to flee if you want to make sure they do not have to mourn for you."
Knight Leader silently shut his eyes.
Rimea brought her long talk to a close.
"But if any of you pity my sister Carissa, if any of you knights wish to save her not as the second princess but as a mere woman, then will you take up your swords now? She is most likely a woman who can be saved by just that. This is not about the amount of power you can wield. She will be saved just by knowing that there are people truly willing to fight for her."
For a bit, there was nothing but silence.
Most likely, that same silence hung over the entirety of the United Kingdom.
They contemplated what Rimea had said and came to a single conclusion.
Each of them freely came to their conclusion as a knight, as a man, as a human.
(It seems I don't even need to send out an order. )
Knight Leader silently nodded and pulled a sword out of nowhere.
He had lost the power from Curtana and the All-English Continent, so it was simply a silver longsword that could not even change its color to red. However, the naked steel looked stronger than it ever had before.
(Words are not needed because what we must do is clear. )
That knight's sword was once more being used for its proper purpose.
The head of the knights who held it jumped at high speed from building to building.
First Princess Rimea smiled thinly.
Knight Leader had been standing behind her until just a bit ago, but she had not turned around even once.
She did not trust anyone who knew that she was the first princess.
But that was not why she had not turned around. Rimea was not the type to show her back to one she did not trust.
(Carissa started this coup d'etat thinking of the people, but has changed so much in carrying it out. Villian has grown so much by seeing the suffering of the people caused by the coup d'etat. )
Rimea thought as she looked through the telescope once again to check on the battle.
(I wonder if I too have grown "stronger" from all this. )
Part 7
Without wiping the mud from her hair, Villian stared dimly at the back of a certain boy as she lay on the ground. The bunker cluster bomb had just about wiped out the remaining Anglican forces, but that boy continued to oppose Carissa.
Villian was practically on the verge of death like most of the Anglicans when a transmission from her eldest sister Rimea reached her ears.
Had that boy heard the transmission, too? He may have heard the same transmission being broadcast from a spiritual item that had fallen amidst the rubble in the battlefield, but he might not have.
Either way, he did not waver.
The Anglicans wavered upon learning of Carissa's true aim, but he alone did not.
"What will you do now? The second bunker cluster has been fired! And unlike last time, the magicians don't have any power to spare in order to put up a defensive barrier!!"
"!! Dammit. I'm not giving up!!"
"Ha ha ha!! Do you think I'll send a self-destruct signal to the missile in order to save my life if you destroy Curtana Original? This isn't a nuclear missile we're talking about. That warhead doesn't have a self-destruct!!"
"This isn't over yet!! Selkie Aquarium can send a barrage to take it out!!"
"I suppose that is somewhat realistic... But if they could do that, they would have done so on the previous shot. That might work with a piece of junk from France that lost a good bit of its adaptability because of their stubborn insistence to develop it and produce it in their own country, but this cruise missile will not be so easily shot down!!"
Unlike William Orwell, he was a mercenary without complete principles or ideologies. It was true that he could not always choose the correct option. He had been fooled by Carissa and the knights and had been unable to prevent the coup d'etat from happening.
But that did not stop that boy.
Even if he had made a mistake, he would not give up. No matter how bad the situation became, he would try to find the best strategy to turn the situation around.
That was why this boy did not waver at the current situation.
He may smile and invite in the situation, but he would not hesitate from shock.
Who was more noble, the one who made sure he was right from the beginning or the one who made sure everyone was smiling in the end?
"Look, here it is! The bunker cluster is here!"
Carissa, the tyrant whose inner thoughts had been revealed by Rimea, spread her arms wide looking up at the night sky.
At one point in the dark sky, the point of light that was the missile appeared.
"It's over for you, you ignorant fools!! This is the power of the military!!"
"!!"
Betting on a slim chance, the boy looked around the area trying to find a communications spiritual item that connected to either Coven Compass or Selkie Aquarium. However, the mountain of rubble that the palace grounds had become made finding one difficult and his lack of magical knowledge meant he might not have been able to spot one had it been right next to him.
As he searched, the cruise missile approached Buckingham Palace.
If something didn't change, it would scatter the 200 smaller explosives and an area of the city with a radius of 3 kilometers around the palace would truly be blown away.
And then...
"To zero!!"
A new voice reached Villian's ears from a distance.
Immediately afterwards, the cruise missile malfunctioned instead of scattering the smaller explosives in every direction. Even when it reached the designated point, the missile's outer shell did not open, the flame propelling it from the back disappeared, and it fell to a road outside the palace grounds like a wild pitch. The cruise missile had to have weighed quite a bit, but it rolled while bouncing multiple times instead of piercing into the road.
It was an unnatural scene almost as if all of the attack power it had as a weapon had been stripped from it.
As the third princess stared blankly, the sharp sound of the air being sliced reached her ears.
It was the sound of a piece of dimensional wreckage created by Curtana Original.
Carissa had kicked the 3 meter long sharp stake. It came roaring directly towards Villian's face, but it did not hit her.
Knight Leader had suddenly cut in from the side and punched the 3 meter stake away with his right fist.
With a loud impact, blood shot from between his fingers.
But Knight Leader's expression did not change.
He merely looked down at his fist.
"... It seems that it truly does not work on Curtana Original or the phenomena derived from its powers."
"Knight Leader... ?" called Villian in a shaking voice, but he did not turn in her direction.
A great number of knights had appeared along with him and he spoke without looking at Villian.
"I will accept my punishment. Once this coup d'etat is over, you may decapitate me if you wish."
He spoke those words with no hesitation.
For the very first time, Knight Leader spoke of what he had helped start as a coup d'etat instead of a revolution.
"However, at least allow us to make the necessary preparations for our judgement with our own hands. My only wish is that the Royal Family can join forces once more and properly face France and the Roman Catholic Church."
As he spoke, Knight Leader readjusted his grip on his sword with his bloody hand.
He was no longer receiving any power from Curtana Original, so it was merely a knight's longsword that had no special abilities.
"Lady Carissa has managed this much on her own. If she used that power properly and joined forces with the rest of the Royal Family, you could surely defeat the Roman Catholic Church."
As she saw Knight Leader clearly heading into a situation he probably would not survive, Villian's lips seemed to move on their own. As she tried to drag her aching body up, she spoke.
"Wait."
That word was so powerful and sure that no one would have thought the third princess could have spoken it. Knight Leader stopped. Villian already held the power needed to get the head of the knights to turn around.
"Forcing yourself to head to a selfish death would only cause suffering. If you truly want to atone for what you have done, then do something that will make me rejoice. Think for yourself about what you must do. Actions taken of your own will are the ones that have meaning, not actions you are forced to take."
Knight Leader reflected on what she had said.
He then unhesitatingly stepped in between Kamijou and Carissa who were fighting even then.
"Split into two teams. The first will recover and heal the collapsed Anglicans. The other will commence attacks to directly stop Lady Carissa."
After Knight Leader gave his brief instructions, the men wearing beaten up armor quickly began to move. They were not simply following orders. Every one of them, from the very top to the very bottom, were acting of their own will.
"... We will win. We cannot allow Lady Carissa to remain alone any longer."
The head of the knights stood next to Kamijou who was evading the giant white objects and attempting to negate Carissa's dimensional slices whenever he had a chance.
"I apologize for leaving the fate of my country and the fate of my princesses to all of you."
Kamijou's response was concise.
He didn't even look in Knight Leader's direction.
"Sure. Now let's work together to stop her."
The two of them moved at once.
Kamijou moved to negate the dimensional slices. Knight Leader attacked directly to hold back the movements of Curtana Original.
Knight Leader held a longsword. The blade was about 80 cm long and made for use on horseback. He looked down at his own weapon and started muttering with a bitter expression on his face.
"(... So the lengthening truly has been sealed and I cannot use the pattern magic created from a synthesis of spells from different paths of knighthood around the world. I suppose that should be obvious as the power from Curtana is gone. All I can use are the Spell of Thororm that I created with my own power and the support spell for high speed movement. But the Spell of Thororm does not work on Curtana or any of the phenomena derived from its powers. Without the power from Curtana, I cannot even avoid having my sword fighting ability from being drastically reduced. )"
Knight Leader thought about how much of a disadvantage he was at, but he still smiled slightly.
The smile was slightly smug as if he had regained his true self.
"(... I suppose I can only put out half my speed, but this is perfect for stopping her without killing her!!)"
"I see. First it was Villian and her benevolence and now it is Rimea and her intellect!!" Carissa yelled over the clashing of sword on sword.
Yes, Knight Leader's longsword repelled Curtana Original. He had accurately struck the side of the sword where it could not create its dimensional slicing field.
"That speech was purposefully given with the perfect timing! For both the knights and the Anglicans it was just after Curtana Original's power had begun to break their wills! That was why it had such a great effect on them! It was the same as when you drink something sweet after eating something spicy!!"
Carissa's fierce attacks did not stop.
Her attacks and defenses continued against the monsters that were Knight Leader and the rest of the knights like a game of otedama.
"And to top it all off, that was not sent directed at all the knights! She made it sound like it was, but that message was directed at you personally! As she should have. The true pillar supporting the knights is its leader!! Your personal decision has a major effect on the view of the entire group. Having you change your view is a much more effective and predictable way of having the entire faction move than having each and every one of them choose of their own free will. That was a truly cunning speech befitting of the princess of intellect!!"
"I do not mind."
Knight Leader's expression did not collapse as he evaded Carissa's attacks.
His resolve had already hardened.
"Even if it was an act, it still functions as a driving force for me to save you. Being controlled by Lady Rimea and her intellect can be enjoyable, too!!"
"Is that your pride as the head of the knights? But you cannot use your full power without help from Curtana Original. Or do you think you can keep up with me using some weak power from the Second!?"
"Something as trivial as the presence or lack of power will not cause my resolve to waver!!"
"Tch. What a disturbing man!!" Carissa yelled.
However, the knights' fighting spirit had recovered. In fact, it was greater than it had been originally. Their attacks felt more intense than they ever had before. Most likely, the collapsed Anglicans had completely recovered mentally if not physically. Their depth as a group was greater than it had been before. And on top of all that, more knights were gathering from other parts of the United Kingdom, so Carissa could tell she could not play around anymore.
(It pisses me off to do this, but I'm not holding back on the cruise missiles anymore!!)
She gave a large swing of Curtana Original as a diversion and then jumped back to put a good bit of distance between her enemies.
Having opened up a bit of time, she rested Curtana Original on her shoulder and watched Kamijou and the knights attempt to lessen the distance between them and her.
"I wanted to save some for an attack on France, but it looks like I have to use up all the bunker clusters here."
Carissa held a small radio in her hand.
Kamijou looked on in shock and Knight Leader took a challenging step forward.
"My Spell of Thororm cannot seal Curtana Original or the phenomena it creates, but it can turn a bunker cluster's attack power to zero. Are you still going to waste them?"
"If I remember correctly, your defense spell negates the attack power of a chosen object that you perceive as a weapon, " Carissa said as if she were double checking with a subordinate about his job.
As she did, she brought the radio up to her mouth.
"In that case, I'll give these instructions: Prepare the cruise missiles loaded with bunker cluster warheads. Prepare the 24 on the Wimbledon at Dover, the 26 from the King Henry VII, the 20 from the Sherwood, the 15 from the Hastings, and the 15 from the Shakespeare. All ships should aim for Buckingham Palace and fire all 80 bunker clusters on my signal. Now then, which one do you think I will hide with an illusion?"
"... !!"
Knight Leader's body stiffened and a villainous smile appeared on Carissa's face.
"Of course, I may be bluffing, but it's all over for you if one gets through. And if I attack with Curtana Original at the same time, I can be doubly sure of my victory. How about I test the essence of a British knight by seeing if you can force back my sword while missing a single missile will spell doom for every single one of you?"
"Tch! We need to stop her!!" Kamijou urged Knight Leader while he rushed towards Carissa clenching his fist.
However, the second princess was faster in pressing the connection button.
Before Kamijou's fist could reach her, Carissa gave the order of destruction.
"All five destroyers are to fire the cruise missiles..."
Kamijou gritted his teeth, but Carissa looked somehow puzzled.
She then looked up suddenly and jumped back.
In the very next instant, a huge antenna tower used for military transmissions slammed forcefully into the space Carissa had just been standing in.
As he had been heading for Carissa, Kamijou's body was blown back by an explosive gust of wind. Someone was standing atop the wreckage of the giant antenna that lay in the center of a cloud of sand. The large figure spoke as it looked down on Second Princess Carissa.
"Now you cannot send reckless orders to the British military. They are British citizens. They should not be forced to fire on the capital they should be protecting because of some ruthless dictator."
"I see. Once again, you bring nothing but trouble!!"
Carissa's low voice was accompanied by what was likely her most annoyed expression since the coup d'etat began.
The large man jumped down from the antenna tower and stood between Kamijou and Knight Leader.
"It seems I am a bit late. I only have a passing knowledge of science, so it took some time to search out and destroy every military antenna in the area."
A certain mercenary adjusted his grip on the sword he held that was over 3 meters long.
That mercenary was used to both individual battles and wars between groups and he had finally joined the battle.
As usual, his timing was maddeningly good.
Between the lines 5
In the end, it was just an accumulation of ridiculous things.
There hadn't been this one special moment. The rails heading for the worst conclusion had been visible here and there for quite some time.
"In accordance with the majority, the aforementioned weapons will be banned from use."
It hadn't just been the bunker clusters.
Being controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, the EU council had adopted a treaty that specifically banned the weapons that the United Kingdom had primarily been developing. It had been as if they were saying they weren't afraid of provoking an old-fashioned nation.
Apparently, it had started when Elizard still controlled the military. At that time, Britain's nuclear weapons had been banned, but France's had not. The two countries had been split into two different categories because of the difference in power between their bombs, but Britain had been prevented from later developing nuclear weapons with less power. And to top it all off, England had been required to give all their nuclear weapons to France. Officially, this had been because France would be the sole possessor of nuclear weapons within the EU and they would therefore have the technology needed to safely disassemble them, but the real reason was clear.
The "attacks" had been occurring for a long time.
They had escalated and eventually resulted in the disaster that Carissa had seen.
The EU countries had whispered things in the shadows.
"There is no problem as long as you have the protection of the Roman Catholic Church."
"If fault is found in England, they can't stand up to a force of 2 billion people."
"England is just a relic of a bygone era."
"Your prosperity ended at the beginning of the 20th century."
Carissa felt that England's value as a country was dropping.
Her mother who led the country said that there was no reason to react to such clear provocation.
However, that only led to the surrounding countries taking them lightly and deciding that they could act with impunity regarding England. If the situation had continued, it would have ushered in an age where England would no longer be recognized as a nation and the British people would be ridiculed, would be abused, and would begin to hide that they were British.
That had to be stopped.
The people of England had to retain the ability to live happily.
She had prepared for years. There had been a few different paths she could have taken, but she had naturally chosen one of them from the very beginning. She was a woman who excelled in military matters. She knew nothing other than heading to a mud-covered battlefield with a sword in hand. If she were to succeed, she could not realistically see herself choosing anything other than a coup d'etat.
However, she had done nothing more than prepare.
If certain conditions were not met, she never would have acted on that preparation.
If her mother who led the country was able to restore the country's dignity via diplomatic means, that wouldn't have been a problem. If the surrounding countries could have been brought out from under the control of the Roman Catholic Church and had begun to act of their own will, the crisis would have naturally ended.
But...
The Eurotunnel connecting England and France had been bombed.
And at the same time, a plane had been hijacked in order to block the flights to England.
The various checkpoints and borderlines she had strategically set up had all been breached in the worst possible way.
She had determined that she could not wait any longer.
If she did not take that chance, the value of the British people would fall to a position lower than slaves.
In the end, Carissa had taken Curtana Original into her hand.
Despite how much she loathed it, she had grabbed that sword that determined the king.
She had silently decided that she would become a tyrant.
She would become such an overwhelming tyrant that she would leave an indelible blot on history.
She had always been a woman who excelled in military matters and could do nothing but take up a sword and fight. She had only one way to change her country and to change the world.
Carissa had made her decision without telling anyone else.
Once the fight was over, she was prepared to disappear from history along with the two Curtanas. She would head deep down into the grave she had created to sleep eternally without anyone ever knowing what she had done.
| ← Ch. 139 | Ch. 141 → |