Chapter 106 - <13>
"Military Police. That's far enough."
It was Altman. The long-awaited signal.
"What did you say?!"
As a man's voice, almost a scream, rang out, Ritz slowly stepped forward from behind the cargo toward the enemy.
While keeping an eye on Anna scrambling up the wooden boxes with her staff, he leisurely slung his greatsword over his shoulder, holding it with one hand.
"Go, Water Sphere!"
At Anna's voice, the men all whirled around. But their reaction was too slow. They wouldn't be able to dodge.
Flying over Ritz's head, an unusually large and fast Water Sphere soared toward the men and landed right in the middle of them.
The freshly collected gold coins scattered violently, and the lid of the wooden box containing the drugs was blown off.
"…Go easy on them."
He said as he turned, and Anna replied with a dazed expression.
"This staff is amazing…"
Apparently, it really was her first time using it. Come to think of it, this staff had the power to enhance one's spiritual energy.
"There's a spirit user!"
For a moment, the men fell into a state of panic.
"So what! Spirit user or military police, it's all the same if we can get away!"
The man with the gravelly voice, who was relatively calm, said this as he shouldered his axe. Ritz had never seen his face before, but he was clearly a sailor. He was well-tanned.
"That's true enough."
The men all drew their weapons at once. In the dimly lit warehouse, a dull gleam filled the air. Swords were overwhelmingly predominant, but there were also men armed with axes and spears.
Three groups had participated in the drug deal. One group was selling. A total of four groups. Each group had brought their own hired bodyguards, so the number easily exceeded twenty.
From the look on their faces, none of these men were amateurs.
In that case, could he have a little fun?
As he assessed them, he couldn't hide the smile spreading across his face. This was a godsend, a chance to blow off the stress of the past few months living a stuffy, virtuous life as a minister.
On their side, there were less than ten military policemen. But there was also Ritz, Edward, two spirit users, two inspectors, and a beastman. Considering that, this number of enemies was far too small.
"Tch, is this all you've got?"
Ritz said with a shrug, loud enough for the enemy to hear. The men, who had only been focused on the military police and Anna until now, turned to look at him with a start.
"Don't lament. I am equally disappointed."
A man approaching from the opposite direction of Ritz spoke as if in a perfectly normal conversation.
"What are you talking about, old man? You shouldn't push yourself, you know?"
Ritz said without stopping his advance, even as the enemy stared him down. The man—Edward, of course—laughed cheerfully.
"Aren't you the one who's gotten rusty?"
"Don't be ridiculous. As if."
"Just try not to get hurt. You'll be a bother to Anna."
"That's my line."
By the time the men, who had been utterly dumbfounded by the two of them bickering with them caught in the middle, came to their senses, Ritz had already plunged into their ranks.
"Alright now, who's my opponent?"
He said cheerfully, looking around, and among the several men, he spotted the sailor from the cargo ship Viola who had thoroughly beaten him up.
"Y-You're…"
As the sailor stood there, speechless, Ritz gave him a cheerful smile. The man took a staggering step back.
"Thanks for yesterday."
"You were military police…"
But the man, having mistaken Ritz's weakness from yesterday for his true strength, quickly regained his composure and raised his sword.
"You wanna go? With me?"
Teasingly, he deliberately and slowly raised his greatsword and took a step forward. As the man stepped in and took a breath, Ritz took advantage of that split-second opening and swung his greatsword.
With a heavy whoosh of air, the sailor staggered. Ritz had delivered a powerful blow to the side of the sailor, who had tried to block with his sword at the last second.
Before he could even ready his sword, the sailor was sent crashing to the hard floor with a single swing, not moving afterward. He must have lost consciousness. How pitifully easy.
"Too slow. Is that all?"
There was supposed to be one man among the sailors who seemed to have martial arts training, but he was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, he wasn't here.
He'd wanted to get his revenge, but it was a shame.
"Isn't there anyone with a bit more backbone? This isn't even a warm-up."
As he taunted the men who were backing away after seeing their completely unconscious comrade, they all glared at him with murderous intent.
"We're not letting this bastard leave alive!"
"Oh…? Just try it."
He lightly dodged the charging enemies, one after another, looking for a reasonably skilled opponent. He had no use for guys who went down in one hit.
He wanted to take down the four bosses first, but that wasn't going to be so easy. The ruffians bared their fangs all at once, trying to protect their leaders.
In the next moment, what flew into Ritz's vision was the figure of a man drawing a bow. And in that direction… was Anna!
He knocked down the enemy in front of him in a single breath and looked toward Anna. She was still standing on the wooden box, despite him telling her to hide.
"Anna!"
Simultaneously with Ritz's shout, the bowstring twanged.
"Damn it!"
There was nothing he could do while dealing with several enemies. But just as he thought all was lost, Anna's figure disappeared behind the wooden box.
The arrow flew far above where Anna had been and shattered the triangular glass window. With a loud crash, glass scattered everywhere.
"Are you alright?!"
While blocking the axe of the enemy in front of him with his greatsword, he yelled toward Anna just in case.
"Yeah! Gordon-san saved me!"
Come to think of it, Gordon was with her.
Still, if he was aiming for Anna, his control was pretty terrible.
But if Anna was never his target in the first place and that window was, could he have been trying to contact an enemy outside?
Even if that were the case, the military police would have anticipated that much. Nothing to worry about.
The archer now fired at Franz, who was peeking out from under a wooden box. But that arrow also flew far above Franz and merely shattered another triangular window.
"If you're calling for allies, go ahead and try."
…and send someone with more of a challenge. He muttered softly. That would be more interesting.
With that sacrilegious thought, Ritz turned back to his opponent. He grinned at the axe-wielder in front of him who was desperately trying to push back his greatsword with all his might.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Even as the man, who must have possessed considerable strength, pushed against him, Ritz didn't budge. He even had the leeway to smile.
Sorry, but a contest of strength wouldn't do him any good. When he smiled at the desperate man, the axe-wielder faltered.
"Well then, shall we?"
The moment he finished speaking, he swiftly delivered a kick to the man's shin as he braced himself against the ground.
The man, not understanding what had happened, understood the damage he had taken a moment later, along with the pain.
"Guooooooh!"
In the opening created as the man groaned in pain, Ritz used the spring in his knees to lower his hips, causing the man who had been putting all his strength into his axe to stumble.
Seizing that moment, he drove his greatsword into the man's gut, delivering a merciless finishing blow.
"Gah…"
With a strange cry, the man's body slumped toward him. Ritz lightly sidestepped, and the well-built man fell unceremoniously to the floor beside him with a loud thud.
He nudged him with the tip of his boot, but there was no response.
"That's one down."
Stepping on the fallen man's arm, he kicked the axe far away and turned to the next man.
"You next?"
He asked with a smile, and the man clearly flinched.
But with everyone from the military police to Edward and Lef joining the fight, his share of the action was dwindling, so he couldn't let him get away.
The moment the frightened man tried to take a step back, Ritz closed the distance and thrust his greatsword into the man's gut.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
The man was sent flying and crashed shoulder-first into a wooden box.
"H-Help me…"
Embedded in the box, the man let out a pitiful scream and dropped his sword. One of his arms seemed to be immobile. He probably broke his shoulder.
"My condolences. Alright, that makes three."
He counted casually. It looked like Edward was racking up quite a body count as well. And Lef was keeping pace.
Even without a weapon, Lef was more than a match for any of them.
Meanwhile, Altman and the other military policemen were tying up the men Ritz, Edward, and Lef had taken down, a slight wry smile on their faces.
He felt a little bad for leaving them with the cleanup, but unlike them, these military policemen probably weren't the type to enjoy such violent affairs, so there was no harm in letting them draw the short straw.
He realized that the bosses had more or less barricaded themselves on the other side of the wooden boxes. They occasionally popped their heads out to use projectiles like bows, but their accuracy was poor.
"What, this is too easy…"
Were the enemies that archer signaled for not showing up? If that was a signal, they should have burst in by now.
But there was no sign of them. Perhaps the enemy reinforcements had been captured by the military police hiding outside.
How pathetic. They should have shown some guts and charged into the warehouse. He thought, letting out a small sigh as he cut down another enemy.
Just then, the situation changed.
It wasn't Ritz who noticed first.
Franz, who had been merely watching the fight with no opportunity to use his fire spirits, sensed a certain presence. As he looked around, Kenny, who had stayed behind to guard him, gave him a questioning look.
"What's wrong?"
"Don't you feel it?"
"Huh? Feel what?"
Kenny looked at him with a slight frown, but Franz couldn't say anything. There were presences that this man couldn't feel.
Instead of explaining to Kenny, he yelled at Ritz, who appeared to be in the most dangerous position.
"Ritz, be careful!"
"What?"
Ritz, who was being addressed, furrowed his brow, not understanding.
"There's a spirit user!"
Franz had heard from Edward before. Very rarely, sailors would hire a wind spirit user to ride on their ships. In other words, the possibility of a wind spirit user being among them was never zero from the start.
That meant breaking the glass windows was to summon the wind spirits that blew wildly over the sea into this warehouse. Wind spirits couldn't be summoned where there was no wind.
For that matter, Franz himself couldn't use fire spirits where there was no source of fire. The reason he could create flames anywhere now was actually thanks to Sara, who was housed in his lamp.
"A wind spirit user!"
Ritz, who seemed to have considered that possibility, groaned. Almost simultaneously, a man emerged from where the enemy bosses were barricaded.
On either side of him were men holding shields.
"O wind spirit, guardian of sailors, lend me your strength."
The moment the man spoke, a strong gust of wind radiated out from around him, blowing through the warehouse. It was more than a gust; it was a violent blast of wind pressure, and he could see Ritz and Edward bracing themselves against it.
"Ed, Lef!"
Ritz called out, and the two of them, as if they understood, dove behind the wooden boxes. The military policemen also dragged the men they had tied up and took cover behind the boxes for the time being.
"Damn it, are they planning to hold a siege with this small number of people?"
Ritz muttered with displeasure. It was surprising to Franz as well. To think they would end up in a standoff across wooden boxes inside a not-so-large warehouse.
"Altman, you have the exits secured, right?"
Returning his greatsword to his back, Ritz turned to Altman.
"Flawlessly. Even if they hole up in here, they have nothing to gain."
"So if they go out the exit, they'll be caught immediately."
"That's a given."
"…Hmm."
Despite having asked, Ritz muttered with disinterest. He then fell silent with a sullen look.
At times like these, Franz had no idea what Ritz was thinking.
Anna and Gordon, having made their way through the back of the wooden boxes, had joined them at some point. They had been watching the whole time, so there was no need for an explanation.
"This has gotten complicated, huh?"
At Anna's words, Edward laughed.
"It's not complicated. It's tedious. When they barricade themselves, it just wastes time."
"Is that so?"
"It is. If people start showing up in the morning, it'll cause a commotion."
At Edward's explanation, Franz thought of the pocket watch in Kenny's pocket beside him.
What time was it now? Was it already dawn? It was dark in here, and with only those two windows, he couldn't tell.
Ritz, who had been leaning against a wooden box with his eyes closed in silence, opened them and looked at Franz.
"Hey, Franz, how about you smoke them out?"
Ritz sounded bored, but what he suggested was quite dangerous.
"…Are you serious?"
"Yeah. An eye for an eye, a spirit user for a spirit user."
Most of what was here was flammable. In fact, most of it was in wooden boxes. Wooden boxes were on the same level as dry lumber. They were bound to burn well.
"This place will become a sea of fire, is that okay?"
He said with a hint of sarcasm, and Ritz grinned cheerfully.
"It's fine. If we wet it down beforehand."
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
They had someone who could manipulate water, even if her accuracy was low and her power not that great. So if they wet the wooden boxes, the fire wouldn't spread.
It was the same principle as green wood being hard to burn. As everyone nodded in understanding, Anna, a beat behind, clapped her hands together.
"Oh… I'm the one who's going to sprinkle the water."
"Well, duh… who else here can make water?"
Even Ritz looked exasperated with Anna.
"You're right."
Anna laughed sheepishly. He really wished she'd do something about this airheadedness.
But unlike Franz, Ritz quickly recovered and explained to everyone.
"There are sailors among them. Dousing them with water probably won't have a very interesting result. So, fire should be more effective, right?"
Ritz's words made Edward laugh.
"True, I doubt they'd want to be burned alive."
Just then, a loud noise echoed.
"…The door!"
Altman groaned sharply.
"The door?"
As everyone peeked out, they saw the spirit user from before, half-hidden by a wooden box, hurling the same wind pressure waves at the sea-side door.
He was planning to destroy the door and escape all at once. Even Franz could figure that much out.
"…We can't have them blowing the door off."
Altman said with a sigh.
"So, does that mean it's okay to smoke them out?"
Ritz asked for confirmation, still looking bored.
"I don't mind, but… you seem dissatisfied, Ritz-kun."
To Altman's question, which echoed Franz's own doubts, Ritz shrugged.
"'Cause… it's boring, isn't it?"
The military policemen and inspectors were speechless. But Franz, who had somehow predicted that he would say that, could only send an exasperated look Ritz's way.
Edward, standing next to Ritz, clapped him on the shoulder and laughed.
"…This idiot still hasn't had enough of a rampage."
"Shut up, you're one to talk."
"I am not as foolish as you. I am satisfied with this."
"Hmph, whatever you say."
The exchange between the two, which seemed like it would go on forever, was interrupted by Anna. Anna cheerfully raised her hand.
"Yes! A question!"
"What is it, Anna?"
"Soaking the cargo with a Water Sphere is fine, but… I think I might break the wooden boxes?"
Come to think of it, the first shot Anna fired was powerful. It might have been because of that staff, but even without the staff, if she dropped a large Water Sphere where the enemy was holed up, there was a chance the wooden boxes would break.
But Franz knew Anna's skill. Creating a large number of small water spheres would take too much time.
After thinking that far, he looked at Ritz, who answered Anna without a second thought.
"It won't break."
Anna's eyes went wide at his nonchalant reply.
"Huh? Why?"
"They know we have a water spirit user on our side, so if you throw a huge Water Sphere, their spirit user will destroy it, right? What happens when you blast a Water Sphere with wind pressure?"
"Umm… it gets pushed back?"
"You, honestly… It's water, you know? If it gets blasted with wind pressure?"
This time, Ritz's gaze turned to him. It was a question for Franz.
His tone was like that of an experienced spirit user master, but Ritz couldn't use spirits at all. He probably knew from experience.
He glanced over and saw that Edward, Kenny, and Altman's group seemed to have figured it out. As expected of professional soldiers.
But Anna alone couldn't seem to figure it out, tapping her chin with her forefinger, looking at the ceiling, and tilting her head slightly.
After a moment's thought, Franz realized.
"I see, it shatters into pieces from the wind pressure…"
"Correct. In other words, the Water Sphere becomes a shower that rains down on their heads. If we do that about three times, the wooden boxes should get thoroughly soaked, don't you think?"
"Oh, I see. I can't do it alone, but I can have the person over there break it for me."
"Exactly. Don't let them realize that's what we're thinking. Act as if you're trying to drag them out of there."
Ritz gave Anna a rather difficult order.
"How do I pretend?"
As expected, Anna asked, and Ritz flashed a fearless smile.
Coming over to Anna, he poked her forehead with his index finger and admonished her with an expression full of what looked to Franz like cunning.
"Listen, Anna. I'm not telling you to lie, okay? This is a strategy. It would be a huge problem if drugs were to spread in this country. You understand that, right?"
"Yeah."
"No matter what strategy we use, the goal of preventing that doesn't change, right? So it's still about defeating the enemy, isn't it?"
Around this point, it felt like the main point of the conversation was starting to drift. But it wasn't Franz's place to interject, so he decided to keep quiet.
"So it's okay for me to just attack with the Water Sphere like normal?"
"That's right. Just attack them with your usual feeling."
"Okay!"
Whether she was persuaded or convinced, Anna nodded cheerfully.
Ritz had been very roundabout, but to Franz, it sounded like nothing more than 'Forget it's a strategy and just attack normally,' but was that really okay?
He felt a little dizzy from the absurdity of it all. But it seemed that such concerns about Franz were not on Ritz's mind.
"Franz, once Anna's attack has thoroughly soaked the wooden boxes, intimidate them with Flame Arrows."
"…Yeah."
"And then, I'll beat down the ones that are smoked out."
So it comes down to that in the end… It was probably best not to say it out loud.
Ritz was apparently not satisfied with just coming up with a strategy. Whether it was his personality or his creed, he always charged in at the head of the pack.
"But that would leave the military policemen outside with no work to do."
Altman shrugged, stroking his beard, not looking particularly disappointed.
"It's fine, isn't it? They'll have plenty of work when we get back to the Royal Capital."
At Ritz's carefree words, Edward gave a wry smile.
"You and your words. Don't make it sound like the Royal Capital has poor public safety."
"Don't worry about it. The kingdom is safe and sound, Your Highness the Grand Duke."
With that declaration, the man who until a few days ago had been a minister of that very kingdom raised the sword he had been carrying on his back. With a confident smile, he looked at Anna and laughed.
"They have an archer, so I'll be your shield. Use your Water Spheres to your heart's content."
"Ritz, won't it be dangerous?"
To Anna's worried question, Ritz smiled.
"How could it be dangerous? You think I'd get hit by an amateur's arrow?"
From having watched Ritz all this time, Franz knew that his confident words were the truth. For what seemed to be a similar reason, Anna nodded in relief.
"Okay, I'll do my best!"
Anna clenched her fists tightly, as if to psych herself up. What a simpleton, he thought with inner exasperation, but the success of this plan rested on her.
As Franz gazed at the two of them with a sigh, he noticed something. Ritz, watching Anna pump herself up in that childish way, had for just a fleeting moment narrowed his eyes, his expression softening.
Seeing such an expression for the first time gave him a slightly strange feeling, but it was truly just for an instant before his face returned to normal.
Even while they were planning, the wind spirit user had been repeatedly hitting the sea-side door with wind pressure waves. Even with his limited experience, Franz could tell that the door probably wouldn't hold for much longer.
"Well then, shall we get started?"
As if nothing had happened, Ritz's relaxed words served as the signal to begin the operation.