Published at 26th of March 2019 2:14 am

Volume 11, Chapter 5: Frost Dragon Lord Part 4

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

“Then, let’s begin.”

After saying that to Shalltear , who was standing beside her, Aura unfurled the scroll ─ the World-Class Item she had brought with her ─ and activated its power.

[Depiction of Mountains and Rivers].

Simply put, it was an item that sealed a target into a closed-off space. To be more precise, it swapped a painted landscape with the real world, and then it would convert the real world into a painted landscape.

The definition of “target” in this case was the same as that of the super-tier spell [The Creation], and referred to a specific area. Nothing within that area ─ animate or inanimate ─ could resist its effects.

This time, she was going to trap everything within this gigantic cave into the otherworld created by [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers].

Shalltear and Ainz were protected by World-Class Items, so they would not be imprisoned within the otherworld. Instead they would appear in the painted landscape which substituted for the region of devoured reality. However, as the item’s user, Aura would automatically be sucked in.

This painted world was almost the same as the real world, with nothing strange or outstanding within it. However, it was fundamentally an illusion. Without the power of [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers], once one exited the target area, everything would vanish into mist. In other words, any treasures gained from within the painted world would also dissolve into mist.

Of course, the two of them had entered this oublietted segment of reality of their own volition. Normally speaking, World-Class Items could not affect holders of other World-Class Items, but it would be a different matter if those holders accepted that influence. All that was thanks to a patch from the devs.

One could choose from 100 otherworlds to overlay onto the targeted portion of reality.

For instance, there were lethal lava lands which dealt ongoing fire damage, boreal landscapes which dealt ice damage, thunder plains that rained down lightning strikes at periodic intervals, monsoon regions where visibility was practically zero, or mist-shrouded worlds, as basic options.

The strange thing was that there were also battlefields which could be overlaid. After a certain period of time, a sizable number of reinforcements would show up to attack the enemy. However, these troops would only be about 60% as strong as their opponents, so they were generally limited to depleting the enemy’s resources.

If one-on-one confrontations were desired, one could instead face the enemy with an equal number of stronger entities, each of which had 80% of the user’s power. Due to this ability, it was quite useful if one’s opponent was to defeat the foe.

The most fearsome aspect of this item was not drawing people into an otherworld, but that it allowed the user to choose which targets would suffer its effects. The user could also choose these effects. In other words, even if the user created a region of molten lava, they could exempt chosen people from the fire damage it inflicted.

However, it had its weaknesses.

Unless specific otherworlds were used, one of 40 escape routes would be randomly chosen during each activation, and if the enemy managed to escape via that route, ownership of the item would transfer to the enemy. Of course, none of these escape routes were simple, but the fact that one could seize the item without defeating its holder meant that obtaining it was easier than most other World-Class Items.

This time, Aura chose one of those specific otherworlds, a simple region of sealed-off space.

Besides being trapped, the enemy would not suffer any deleterious consequences. However, there was only one specific way to escape from this place.

“Alright, Hanzo, I want you to block off the escape route from this world. It’ll be troublesome if any of them got away. Lean over a bit.”

The Hanzo leaned over from his hiding place in the shadows, and paid close attention to Aura’s explanation of the escape route.

Although Aura had not detected any ambushers nearby, it paid to be careful.

“Then, Aura. How many more people have entered this world after the others?”

“Hm? Only two people.”

That answer meant the enemy did not possess World-Class Items. They breathed a sigh of relief.

Shalltear looked around the residences of the old Royal Capital. It was a large city, but it was quiet, as though its citizens had all fled.

They had to quickly capture the Clan Lord, the ruler of the Quagoa, and convey the Supreme Being’s words to him. However, their visibility was impeded by the houses and they could not find the place where he was staying.

“Can you burn those houses away?”

“Hm? I can’t. However, I could create a hazardous environment to deal damage over time. For instance, if there were a line of log houses, we could create a lava region and burn them to ash.”

“That might kill them all, so you can’t do that.”

“Yeah. Still, I could activate it briefly and deal with everyone who survived… but it would be a shame if their ores melted.”

The Quagoa fed their children metal and the like, so there ought to be large quantities of metal or raw ore and minerals lying around. Destroying them would be a waste, and Shalltear agreed.

“Besides, Ainz-sama’s order was to see if they were willing to flock to our banner.”

“And then he said that if they refused, we would cull their ranks to a specific amount.”

“...Shalltear.”

After seeing Aura narrow her eyes, Shalltear realised what she was getting at.

“It’ll be fine! I won’t mess up this time! I ab-so-lute-ly won’t mess up!”

“If only that were the case.”

“I think I get it now. You have to use your head. Shall we?”

“Mm, let’s go. Then, can I leave the thinning of their numbers to you?”

“I think I’m more suitable for that task. Are you okay with that?”

Aura’s strength was tied up in her magical beasts, so she was not as good at this sort of thing.

“Yeah… If Mare were here, he’d trigger an earthquake and wipe a whole bunch of them out.”

“That boy has the strongest area attacks in Nazarick. I’m pretty confident in that field, but my power is limited in a place like this.”

Speaking of which, using an earthquake to obliterate them would not fulfil their master’s command of “selection”. If she could do that, then she could simply summon her familiars to perform an indiscriminate massacre.

“So you’ve already received orders like that? All these tasks were for you to learn, Shalltear.”

Aura repeated the orders their master had handed down many times.

“That’s true,” Shalltear replied, and then she mentioned something she had been thinking about for a while.

“Judging by the strength of the enemies we’ve encountered so far, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone here who could defeat a Death Knight. Then, could it be that they were beaten by chance? It’s more likely that they used an item or defeated them with a summon that was later recalled… It’s quite rare that Ainz-sama’s predictions are wrong.”

Shalltear realised Aura was staring at her. She did not want to ask why she was doing so.

“What? Did I miss something?”

“It’s not like that… hm… ahhhh. What a dummy~”

A look of displeasure crossed Shalltear’s face.

If she had missed something out, then why not just tell her directly? It was a while before Aura gave her answer.

“Say ─ how could Ainz-sama make that sort of mistake?”

“Was getting the Death Knights defeated part of Ainz-sama’s plan? It’s true that Death Knights made by Ainz-sama have very high stats. Nobody we’ve encountered so far should have been able to defeat them…”

Aura thumped her fist into her hand. “Is that possible too?” she wondered.

“I see. So it’s possible that he intentionally let the opposition kill the Death Knights. I didn’t think that far ahead, but I wanted to say that ‘his predictions weren’t wrong’. The Death Knights went down with the bridge, but I think they died from the fall. Their footprints were there when we passed through that fortress, but they weren’t there on the other side. In other words, they were defeated halfway through. That means, there’s only one reason they could have died.”

“If that was the case, does that mean this has exceeded Ainz-sama’s predictions?”

“I told you, it’s not like that. If Ainz-sama was talking to you seriously, it might be like what you said, Shalltear.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Shalltear knitted her brows, unable to understand. Aura went “Ahhhhh!” and stomped her feet.

“What do you mean, ‘what do you mean by that? I told you, right? Ainz-sama already knew that the Death Knights died from falling into the Great Rift.”

“Ehhh?!”

“Haaa… why don’t you think about what happened back then? You see, when Ainz-sama was explaining things to you, I wanted to ask if the Death Knights had been pushed to their deaths, but Ainz-sama looked right at me and ordered me to be quiet. Didn’t you notice? It was in the moment when he gave his instructions.”

Shalltear blinked in surprise. She had seen her master make that gesture. At first, she had thought it was because he wanted Aura to keep quiet because he was saying something. However, that Supreme Being was a genius strategist, so Aura’s explanation was more likely as opposed to her potentially flawed reading of the situation,.

Still, if that was the case, why had he explained all that to her?

“What kind of face are you making? Think about it a little and you’ll know.”

Aura’s absentminded words made Shalltear’s heart shrink like it was being tossed around in a whirlpool.

“Could it be… for me? Did he do that on purpose to train me? Is that what you mean?”

“...What other answer could there be? Along the way, you said there could be a strong enemy and asked Ainz-sama many things. If you knew they had fallen into the Great Rift, would you have asked so much? Ah, can you keep this a secret from Ainz-sama? It’s all because you doubted Ainz-sama…”

“You say I doubted Ainz-sama’s ability? How could that be?”

Shalltear hoped that she could keep quiet about how she had come out and said that she did not trust the prowess of a Supreme Being.

“Well, just keep it a secret. Just as Ainz-sama wanted me to keep it a secret from you, you have to watch your lips too.”

“Of course.”

When one reflected calmly on this, Aura had committed a mortal sin, that of ignoring a Supreme Being’s orders. However, that was because she felt Shalltear had shown disrespect to the Supreme One...

So was it me or Aura who was rude to the Supreme Beings? Or was it neither of us? Hm─

Shalltear’s head ached, and she decided to stop quibbling and not brood about the matter of keeping secrets.

“...Still, isn’t that a sign of disrespect in itself? Hm…”

“...Hm ─ speaking of which, if they don’t submit to Ainz-sama, he said something about cutting them down to about 10’000 people. While he did say to spare some of the females, what about the children?”

“Did he specify to leave a certain amount alive?”

“Although, don’t they get stronger by eating metals as children? And if we’re going to rule them, wouldn’t children be easier to brainwash? Shalltear─”

An evil grin appeared on Aura’s face.

“If Ainz-sama didn’t leave any specific instructions, that means… it’s a test, right? While we could always send the Hanzos to ask for directions, Ainz-sama said he left it to you, right? So I think Ainz-sama wanted to see how you would deal with it… Can our Number One Floor Guardian take good care of this task?”

Shalltear smiled thinly by way of reply. She had been thinking about this ever since she had been given her orders.

“”4’000 males and females and 2’000 children ought to be enough.”

“Hm? Hm ─ I guess. You seem to be handling this pretty easily ─ hm?”

Aura fell silent and cupped her hand to her ear. Shalltear knew what she was doing and kept as quiet as possible. In the end, she was all smiles.

“Ah, I heard what sounded like a large group of Quagoa making their move.”

“Are they fleeing, or are they deploying their forces?”

“I can’t be perfectly sure because I’m going by sound, but they don’t sound like they’re running away. It’s more like they’re dispersing outside the city.”

Apparently, there were 80’000 Quagoa here. Demihumans were the kind who grew stronger with age. In other words, everyone was a soldier. If they mobilized over 10’000 people but deployed them within the city, their advantage in numbers would be cut down by half.

While the intruders were so few they did not qualify as an army, they possessed incredible fighting power. The matter of the Dragon should have spread throughout the Quagoa. If that were the case, the smarter people would lead the others outside the city to evacuate, while setting up in formation to lure the enemy into the city for a fight. If a small number of enemies moved into the city, the Quagoa could surround the city and mount waves of attacks to tire them out before dealing the finishing blow with a team of elite warriors. That seemed like the most appropriate battle strategy.

In any case, one needed a wide, open space to deploy a large force.

Shalltear was hoping for just that.

“They’re over there. Then, we should begin negotiations now.”

“Of course. We need to work hard so we don’t keep Ainz-sama waiting.”

***

Over 60000 battle-capable Quagoa were formed up and waiting for the enemy.

Female Quagoa who were not pregnant or bearing children were just as good at fighting as the males, which was how they had managed to mobilize these numbers. Still, despite mustering a force bigger than any in recorded history, Clan Lord Pe Riyuro was not happy at all.

This was far too strange. The cave which contained the Royal Capital had suddenly been wreathed in mist.

What on earth was going on?

The battle-ready troops began lining up, facing the Royal Capital. If the enemy feared their numbers and did not come out, then that would be the best case. Therefore, they took the minimum provisions with them, and left their Dwarven treasures behind. As long as their enemy was not stupid, they would see that there was no point in fighting.

However, someone emerged from the Royal Capital.

One of them was dressed in red armor, and another was a dark-skinned shorty that was not a Dwarf.

According to the ones who had watched the encounter with the Dragon outside the Royal Capital, there should have been two more, but they did not see them. They must have been grabbing treasure, while these two were buying time for them.

“In any case, just to confirm, that is not a Golem right?”

“Yes, it’s not a Golem.”

According to Yozu, the Golems were tall of stature and wore black armor. So that suit of red armor was something else. However─

Perhaps that’s a type of Golem. It might be better to think of it that way. Still, why did they come out to face an army in the tens of thousands head-on? Is it because they’re confident of killing us all ─ No way, it can’t be. That’s impossible.

Riyuro shook his head to disperse the horrific image that had appeared within it.

He could guess that the opposition possessed unimaginable power, given that they had created this bizarre dimension. The fact that they could make a Dragon prostrate before them without a fight also suggested they were very strong.

Still, his side numbered over 60’000. It was completely incomparable to having only hundreds or thousands of people. There was no way to fight this many opponents.

However, if they were Golems, then it was understandable.

Golems did not tire like living beings. They could fight forever, and if they were strong enough to defeat Riyuro, then they could theoretically kill everyone here.

Still, that was merely theoretical.

Even if only one out of several Quagoa dealt damage through a lucky hit, over the course of thousands of rounds of fighting, the accumulated scratch damage would result in injuries that could take the enemy out of commission.

Numbers were strength. With his army of 60000, as long as they fought on the ground, they should even be able to slay a Dragon Lord.

“─I’ll go talk to these people. You wait here. If I’m killed… Well, do as you please.”

“It’s too risky,” one of his advisors said, stating the obvious.

“...We can’t talk to Golems, so I’ll talk to the one beside it. It would be bad if we didn’t find out their objective, at least.”

In any case, Riyuro was determined to attempt a dialogue.

The enemy must be strong. That being the case, he would ask them their objective. If they could be reasoned with, then he would not mind paying a certain price. If they could chase off the Dragon Lord, then acknowledging them as their new masters would also be fine. Even if that was impossible, he could pay them more than the Dwarves did in exchange for switching sides.

“Nobody must follow me. If a lot of us come at once, it might trigger hostilities.”

Without saying anything more to his aides, Riyuro stepped forth.

His troops parted on both sides of him, and the opposition seemed to have noticed that someone was coming. He could see the enemy had stopped to observe his movements.

“Sorry for the wait.”

Riyuro was the first to speak, and his voice made the enemies look at each other.

He looked around. As expected, there was nobody else around. There were two other people from that face-off with the Dragon ─ the Dwarf and the skull-helmeted chap ─ neither of which was here.

“Hm? Who’re you?” the dark-skinned shorty replied.

It would seem the red-armored one was a Golem. It seemed paler and taller than the humanoid next to it. Still, at a glance, there was no telling that it was an artificial being ─ it looked very realistic.

“I am Pe Riyuro, Lord of the Quagoa Clans who live in this place. And you ─ who might you be?”

“We are under orders from the Supreme Overlord who has come to this land in order to rule you.”

It spoke!

The red-armored one spoke. Since he heard that Golems could not speak, it was obviously not a Golem.

Trying to hide his consternation, Riyuro replied:

“Rule?”

“Correct. Our Lord has come to subjugate you. Bend the knee and bow before him.”

Then, what should I do? Riyuro thought fast.

He did not mind bowing and welcoming a new ruler. All they needed to do was grow strong beneath that ruler and then overthrow them.

The problem was that they could not submit to the opposition without knowing their power. They might have made that Dragon kneel before them, but that Dragon was not the Dragon Lord. For all he knew, after bending the knee, they might be made to fight the Dragon Lord.

“...There should be two more of you. What happened to them?”

“You do not need to know. You are only allowed to say if you accept our rule or not.”

They were not revealing anything to him. That would mean that investigating the enemy’s intentions ─ whether or not they truly intended to fight in earnest ─ was very important.

“...You say you want to rule us. However, it is very difficult for us to accept your proposal without knowing your strength. Does that make sense to you?”

In other words, he was implying that “if you tell me how strong you are, I don’t mind being ruled by you.” However, the two of them merely looked at each other and shrugged.

“Is that so. Our orders state that if you will not accept our rule, we are to reduce your numbers until you are forced to bend the knee. After that, you are to kill yourselves until there are only 4000 males, 4000 females and 2000 children left. You should be able to differentiate who is more valuable, am I correct?”

“Then, once there are only 10000 of you left, we will take you back to our country, the Sorcerous Kingdom, where you will be put to work.”

Fear coursed through the Clan Lord for an instant.

It was not because of the cruel content of the message. It was because they had delivered it in a matter-of-fact tone that was completely devoid of arrogance.

He felt that these two people could actually do it.

Yes.

These two people could kill an army of over 60’000.

Were they mad? Were they overconfident? Or─

That unbelievable attitude left Riyuro at a loss for what to do next.

They could not listen to such insane orders without so much as a fight.

Perhaps they had sensed the hostile intent from his side, but the two of them looked at each other, and their faces twisted into grins.

The Dwarves were hairy, so he could understand them. These two people had no hair except on the tops of their heads, so he could not read their expressions. Such was the gulf between two different species.

“W-wait─”

He could not finish his request for them to wait.

“─Then, I shall now begin reducing your numbers to an acceptable level. That being the case, do not give your clothes to anyone else.”

Normally speaking, the Quagoa did not wear clothes. After all, they were covered in fur from head to toe.

However, a king needed to show his authority, and thus he needed something to easily differentiate himself from others. That was why he wore clothing and a crown made by Dwarves, with the sigil of the Clan Lord. At the same time, he could let others wear them to serve as doubles for him, in order to deceive enemies from other races.

Had they seen through that plan and thus tried to cut him off halfway?

Taking out the enemy leadership to cripple the enemy army was the most obvious victory condition. However, why had they not done that?

No, that’s not it. There’s another reason for that… Could it be… That must be it. They’re not trying to kill me, they’re trying not to kill me by accident!

The differences between species ran very deep. However, as long as he wore his clothes, they could tell who the Clan Lord was and thus they would spare him. That was the meaning of their haughty declaration.

“Then, isn’t it about time you went back? We will start once your side moves towards us. I would be glad if you picked out the ones you wanted to survive before that.”

“Hurry up and go back.”

They waved him off, indicating that he should return. In other words, there was no need to negotiate any further.

This was far too different from his expectations.

I told them I was willing to bend the knee, but why couldn’t they make even a little concession? If they aren’t even willing to do that… does that really mean they view our lives as worthless…?

In the face of this arrogance, the Clan Lord struggled to suppress the terror overflowing from this heart.

In any case… they can’t possibly cut the 60000 people here down to 100000… Yes. That must be it. They must have lost their minds after seeing our forces!

Under normal circumstances, that sort of thinking would be correct. Even Dragons could not reduce their numbers by such large amounts.

In that moment, realization struck the Clan Lord.

Could it be that they intend to mount flying hit-and-run attacks?

If they fought like Dragons, then things would be very tricky.

Deploying in a wide open area like this would be detrimental instead.

Then, should he pull his forces back to the residential district?

However, that would be very dangerous. If the enemy could destroy buildings, then it would cause great damage to their homes. In the end, this was the only place they could fight.

After returning to his troops, the Clan Lord gathered his aides.

“Was that a Golem? ...What happened? You look very uncomfortable.”

His expression must have frightened the other two. The Clan Lord patted his face and gave his orders.

“Ahh… In any case, gather the Blue and the Red Quagoa.”

“Will they be a personal guard?”

“Not just that. Gather all the exceptional individuals of each Clan together.”

***

Riyuro gave voice to a mighty cry. It was a cry infused with the skill he had obtained when he had ascended to the position of Clan Lord. As he saw his army of over 10’000 charge the enemy in response to the cry, he even felt a little pleased. However, the results of that charge were too horrible to watch. Like a flow of water striking a wall, the charging soldiers struck an invisible barrier and were sent flying.

What splashed everywhere was not frothy water, but Quagoa ─ or what used to be Quagoa. Perhaps a sight like this would be fitting of Dragons or Giants, but their opponents were creatures that were even smaller than Quagoa.

“They’re flying…” one of his aides muttered dumbly to himself.

This was not a metaphor. The charging Quagoa were literally flying through the air. Neither did they do so one by one. Several dozens of them were sent flying all at once.

Their pulverized corpses became a shower of meaty chunks which rained down on their comrades. The gore-caked troops continued their charge, whereupon they become lumps of flesh themselves which fell on yet more of their companions. It was a scene straight out of a nightmare.

For some reason, the fact that they could not see any blood spurting made the sight even more surreal.

“What, what the, what the hell is that?!”

Riyuro did not even have the strength to answer his advisor’s mournful cry. His thoughts merely leaked out through his mouth in the form of words.

“This many…”

“Clan Lord! What is that!? It’s nothing like the Golems we saw before!”

They smashed away every single Quagoa charging them in a single blow. This was no longer a battle. It was not even a massacre. It was simply disposal. The comrades he had gathered to increase their influence were now being mangled up in vast quantities like so much rubbish.

“We, we have to run!”

“Where will you run to?!”

He shouted at his panicked aides.

“Where can you run to in this strange dimension?! These people said they’re going to kill us until there’s only 10000 of us left!”

His aides had nothing to say.

After seeing this overwhelming ─ this monstrous strength, they understood that their threats were not a joke. While it was hard to believe, they had no choice but to believe it. Out of their 80000 citizens, only 10000 would be permitted to survive.

Although he wanted to beg their forgiveness right now, there was no warmth in the eyes of those two. Even that Dragon Lord’s eyes held more compassion.

They have no intention of changing their statement to cut us down to 10000 people.

“That’s impossible! Clan Lord! What the hell are they? What have the Dwarves brought here?!”

“Why are such tiny people so powerful…”

As he heard his advisors, another flash of inspiration struck Riyuro.

“Could it be that red-armored chap is also a Dwarven weapon? They sent something stronger because they knew the Golems were destroyed?”

“...So if we defeat it, they’ll send something even stronger than that?”

The cries of his men echoed all around. Only the region around Riyuro was silent.

“Let’s pull the men back─”

“Stop! They have to fight! There’s no other way out for us! However strong it is, it’ll get tired eventually! When that happens, we’ll wait until it can’t swing its weapon any more, then force them to negotiate and demand concessions from them!”

“I, I see… But… Will it really get tired?”

He had mentioned something Riyuro had thought of in the corner of his mind. However─

“In any case, as long as it lives, it ought to get tired. It might have more stamina than us, but it’ll definitely get tired. Until then, make it keep swinging its weapon! ...Even if it doesn’t get tired, once it gets bored of killing we might be able to discuss something.”

The Clan Lord was reluctant to speak the words which came next, but they had to be said.

“Besides, we can’t win even if we fight it! Not against a monster like that.”

His troops would not be demoralized to the point of flight. The cry Riyuro had used to sound the charge turned his men into warriors that did not know fear. Much like the Berserk state of Berserkers, it increased their attack strength but reduced their defense. More importantly, they were immune to all fear-related effects. However, the fact that they would not refuse the Clan Lord’s orders no matter how dangerous they were could be said to be a double-edged sword.

The great mass of soldiers continued charging without ever looking back, and they were cut down to half their previous number with such swiftness that hardly anyone could believe it.

At this point, nobody had the strength to speak.

The fact that this tragedy was unfolding before them and it was the doing of one person traumatized their hearts.

All except for one person.

That person ─ Riyuro ─ scraped up the last of his courage.

“You chosen heroes!”

He could not raise his voice.

Riyuro saw the Red and Blue Quagoa before him, as well as the other Quagoa with special abilities, all of whom had been formed up into the strongest combat units of the clans.

The reason why none of them responded to Riyuro’s cry was because they were all watching that suit of red armor with despair in their eyes.

They too must have felt that they had no hope of victory. When they had first been gathered, their eyes had shone, but now there was no light in their eyes, as though they were dead.

He had chosen not to drive them berserk to preserve their defensive strength, but it had been the wrong decision.

The Clan Lord raised his voice to try and psyche them up.

“You are our ace in the hole! The enemy has killed many of our comrades, so it should be tired! You will be able to make it suffer!”

It ought to be tired ─ he said that, but there was no sign of it. That red suit of armor showed no signs of stopping as it cut every single Quagoa which charged it to pieces and sent the chunks flying into the air, swinging and thrusting its strange lance-like weapon without end.

“That’s right! No matter what, it’s living, so it’ll get tired! You can do it! Go! Our heroes!”

WIth a prayer in his heart, Riyuro sent out those heroes.

He gave his men orders to clear the path to the red suit of armor. Then, the heroes would assault the red armor─

─Riyuro closed his eyes.

“My, my Lord… Mighty Clan Lord of us all…”

After hearing his aides’ trembling voices, he slowly opened his eyes.

“You… you don’t need to say anything. I know. I, I saw it too…”

Nothing had changed. That was right. It had made no difference.

Just like the regular soldiers, the chosen heroes had been chopped into mincemeat and sent flying as lumps of flesh. And it had all happened in an instant. They had met the same end as the regular soldiers.

“...So… so…”

Riyuro could not say anything else. Although he did not know what that red suit of armor was, it was something which was undoubtedly stronger than a Dragon.

Riyuro could no longer feel anything. If he simply waited quietly for time to pass, the outcome would be as the enemy willed it.

“...said they wanted 2000 children. Pick out that amount.”

“My Lord…:

“...There’s nothing else we can do. Even if there’s only 10000 of us, as long as we survive, someday… someday, we can make the Quagoa great again…”

Nobody could say anything in the face of Riyuro’s words. That was because everyone clearly understood in their hearts.

They understood that there was nothing else they could do.

Riyuro’s head drooped powerlessly. It was as though he had been walking in a safe place, and then suddenly ambushed by a monster..

“Speaking of which, what is the Sorcerous Kingdom, anyway? Does it have anything to do with the Dwarves? Someone please tell me…”

His muttering came straight from the heart.

However much he tried to deny it, the carnage before his eyes gave him the feeling that an even greater tragedy would soon come.

Suddenly, he saw his Quagoa servants holding cages, Those were the cages used for storing food lizards. Riyuro knew that now was not the time for this, but the stress on him made him reach out to the cage. He grabbed a live lizard, but just as he was about to bite its head off, an intense pain coursed through his belly, bending his body into a ㄑshape.

There was no way he could beat the absolute ruler who would soon subjugate his race. The idea of flourishing again was so outlandish that even he had nothing to say in its defense. No matter how many generations passed, they would never be able to rise up in revolt. The Quagoa of the Azellisia Mountain Range would forever wear collars in service to their dreaded master.

The wildly-thrashing lizard slipped from Riyuro’s hands and vanished between his men’s legs. Riyuro went “ahh” in what was more a sigh than a shout, and then he collapsed into silent sobbing from sheer misery.

“If you were that strong, you should have said so in the first place! Why, why didn’t you tell me!”

The whimpering of the Quagoa Lord, hailed by his people as the greatest ruler in their history, blended with the screams of the children as his own soldiers butchered them.

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