113 - Final Chapter: And So, the Three Idiots Go Even to Foreign Lands
"Nmyu?"
"Ah, Onee-sama."
Feeling as though the ground had shaken, Marianne's consciousness was forcibly yanked back.
When she snapped her eyes open, she saw Lilitia's satisfied face against a backdrop of blue sky, and Marianne wore a puzzled expression.
(............Why am I being given a lap pillow by Lilitia?)
She instinctively tried to sit up, but her body lacked strength.
While she was floating with question marks as to what had happened, the golden spider, Misha, appeared at the edge of her vision, accelerating her confusion. However, Misha ignored those doubts with a nonchalant face and sent a telepathic message.
"To devour that thing, I used up my magic until just before exhaustion, so your body will not move for a while. I had the saint provide a little supply, so stay safe."
"What is with that 'stay safe' way of speaking? Also, that stiff, professional site-manager posture makes me anxious............ Or rather, I feel like my magic is being sucked away by you even at this very moment, aren't you going back?"
"I said I'm staying. I'm tired of just watching from afar. I've only just finished the boring cleanup. The real part starts now."
Marianne turned pale as Misha tilted her head as if to ask, "What are you talking about?"
In other words, this golden spider was saying that she intended to remain manifested from here on. Giving a hundred steps of leeway, that was fine. That was fine, but the magic required for manifestation was coming out of Marianne's pocket.
Furthermore, even now in a standby state, she had the sensation of her magic being sucked away little by little, and it seemed that this slightly exceeded her own self-recovery ability.
To put it bluntly, this went beyond terrible fuel efficiency and was a straight line toward ruin. At this rate, she could not avoid death from magic depletion.
"Wa-wait a moment! I have no desire to commit suicide!? You'd be in trouble too if I, the summoner, died!?"
"I'd be in trouble. But if so, you just need to have magic supplied from elsewhere."
"Supplied from where────"
Before Marianne could voice her question, Misha raised a front leg. At the tip of it was Lilitia, wearing a beaming smile.
"I had the saint supply it earlier. ────This saint loves Marianne too much, so it was easier than bothering to persuade her."
"I'm telling you, I still haven't forgiven you. If you use Onee-sama's magic until she almost dies again, I'll punch you to death even if you're a god."
"How diligent. That's why I kept the manifestation to a minimum. Even in this state, I should be able to call out a few shadow beasts. An army like before is impossible. And when the magic decreases, you just supply it to restore me. Daily perks. Win-win."
"Kuh............ If it weren't for that, who would accept your existence and proposal! You plague god!"
"Calling me a plague god is rude. Call me a nuisance at most. ────Only for spiders."
Why is this child saying such clever things, Marianne retorted inwardly, then suddenly realized.
It seemed she had received magic supply from Lilitia, but how on earth──── as she thought, she arrived at the words "daily perks."
Now, she wanted to remember. During the previous battle, Geoglyph and Later had supplied magic to Marianne. Ignoring some efficiency, they did it via butt-bumping. Why did they have to choose such an eccentric method──── Geoglyph had said this.
"The most efficient way for magic supply is mucosal contact, but──── you'd hate that, right? Both of you."
Marianne and Later had nodded. What sadness would lead two middle-aged men to do erotic things? Therefore, they had reluctantly accepted the butt-bumping.
Turning to the present. Lilitia, who loved her Onee-sama, would never do such a thing to a nearly dying Marianne, and under the guise of emergency evacuation, she would perform the magic supply using the most efficient action.
Namely──── mucosal contact.
Thinking "no way," she turned her gaze toward Lilitia, who was covering her mouth with her hand and blushing.
"That was delicious. Onee-sama's lips."
"Wh............ Ah............ Haaah!?"
Marianne was shocked by that fact, the blood that had drained away rushed back all at once, dyeing her face bright red and leaving her unable to say a second word. The only thing that barely came out was────.
"I-it was my first kiss!?"
It was a statement like that of a maiden.
"Please be relieved! It was mine too!"
"I didn't ask!"
"Good for you, Marianne. Let's kiss every day from now on."
"How dare you make such a crazy statement!"
"Since you can react to the joke, do you still have some leeway? Is it because it's a long-awaited yuri chu-chu?"
"N-no............! L-listen, Misha! I just want to watch yuri, and becoming a participant should be more slowly, yes, at the end of a beautiful accumulation────!"
"Then, Onee-sama! Let's accumulate more kisses!"
"Ah, geez, why is this girl so carnal and materialistic!? Youth!? Is this what youth is!? What is youth!?"
"Don't look back."
"Dammit, this spider reacts to every joke──── fnunu! A-ah, I can't, I can't put strength into my body right now!!"
"In other words, the current Onee-sama cannot reject my love............!"
"Gyaaa!!"
Just as she was pinned down by Lilitia, thinking Ah, I really can't resist, it happened.
"Hey, Princess! Lili-no-ji! Stop flirting and let's get out of here quickly!!"
"Hurry! Harry! Harry!!"
Marianne and Lilitia looked puzzled as they were shouted at by Later and Geoglyph, who appeared with frantic expressions, leading Shannon, Lumilia, Latia, and Kazuha.
On the other hand, Misha had an expression that said "I figured," despite being a spider.
"What is it, we were just getting to the good part."
"Y-you saved me!"
"This is no time to be leisurely!"
"Let's escape quickly! Fortunately, we're the only ones who stepped into the royal castle! If we make it out, there will be no human casualties!"
Just as she wondered what they were talking about, she suddenly noticed. She noticed. Perhaps it was because they had been together for a while now.
The fact that these two idiots were making such serious faces meant that something inconvenient had happened.
"You two idiots over there, what did you do?"
When she asked, the two of them simultaneously averted their eyes.
At that overly blatant and perfectly synchronized movement as if they had coordinated, Marianne became certain. These guys definitely brought some trouble upon us.
And as Latia, Kazuha, Shannon, and Lumilia also noticed and stared, the two reluctantly began to speak.
"N-no, well, you see? The Spirit Dragon Alberstein was sealed beneath the royal capital──── or rather, directly beneath this royal castle, right?"
"It seems so."
"So, when it revived, it came to the surface while destroying the ground here and there, right? That earthworm monster."
"Yes, well, if it's coming from underground, that's how it would be."
"And, to cut the path with the dragon veins, I dove underground, and at that time, the path to the Sea-Flame was collapsed, so I had to excavate it myself."
"I see, I see."
"As for me, to sweep away the bone dragon soldiers overflowing on the surface, I was throwing the Holy Scripture, like a wrecking ball, creating craters."
"And then, and then?"
"Uh, well, the thing is, we didn't know the other was doing that............"
In other words, without any reporting, consulting, or communication, an idiot who didn't know moderation dug recklessly, making the ground brittle, and then another idiot who didn't know moderation performed compaction work on a disaster scale called meteor dropping from above.
"I-I did take care to excavate in a zigzag pattern like an underground parking lot, you know!? I didn't know you were meteor dropping the Holy Scripture turned into a wrecking ball from above! I did think something flashy was happening, though!"
"Ah, Sensei, don't put this on me! I just threw it with a good feeling! In the first place, who is the idiot that digs additional holes and hollows out the ground without doing a geological survey while an earthworm monster is collapsing the ground! This is why you don't know the field, you pampered brat!"
"What did you saaaay!?"
"You want a piece of me!?"
An ugly game of passing the blame occurred.
It was immediately after that. The ground shook. It was an unpleasant shake. Not a momentary shaking, but a slow, swaying motion. Additionally, the sound of something moving, zuzu, zuzu, began to be heard.
Come to think of it, Marianne remembered waking up because of this kind of eerie shaking earlier. Whether to evacuate or not, the habit of waking up once even in the middle of the night upon sensing an earthquake was perhaps a trait of her former Japanese self that she couldn't shake off even after reincarnation.
"U-um, so, what does this mean?"
Shannon asked Marianne, looking perplexed by the earthquake, but Marianne had no leeway in her mind to answer.
Alberstein carved out the deep underground and destroyed the ground, the SF otaku (idiot) excavated to make a path and made the ground even more brittle, and the kemoner (idiot) compacted it from the surface to the level of creating craters. The result was something she didn't even need to think about.
It was the initial tremor.
The conclusion derived from the hollowing of the ground, thoughtless excavation, and moderation-less compaction──── namely, land subsidence.
Rather, she was calmly impressed in some part of her heart that it had held up until this moment, and Marianne screamed.
"L-let's escape!"
Immediately after, as if being swallowed by an antlion pit, the royal castle was dragged into the ground, taking the entire area with it.
●
On a small hill in the outskirts of the royal capital, there were two figures.
One was a middle-aged man sitting while clutching a spear──── Richter Centaur.
The other was an old man lying next to him──── Gardel Vertex.
"............Hm?"
"Oh? Are you awake, old man?"
And now, Gardel quietly opened his eyes and sat up as if looking around his surroundings.
"Richter? I, exactly............"
At Gardel's question, Richter shrugged his shoulders as if exasperated.
"You're a True Ancestor vampire."
"True Ancestor──── Beosteral?"
"That guy dragged your unconscious body, joined up with me, and escaped to here."
After that──── Beosteral, who had recovered Gardel, successfully escaped from Alberstein. To be precise, while wandering inside the stomach, for some reason, his body turned into sand and he was able to get out.
After escaping, while wandering the royal capital, he encountered Richter, who was fighting a great battle against a large number of bone dragon soldiers. Seeing a known acquaintance in need, he joined the fray and exterminated them. However, by that time, Richter was also battered, and judging that further combat would be difficult, Beosteral apparently carried the two of them and escaped the royal capital.
"And then, that gentleman. He spat out the parting words 'do whatever you want' and went off somewhere. How stylish."
That was a misunderstanding.
Having saved a loyal subject who had faced the civil war with the resolve to die and wished for the master's growth by offering his own life as a sacrifice, and even turning him into a vampire, he didn't know how to take responsibility, paced back and forth in distress──── and simply ran away.
"Oh, right. There's a message from Master Beosteral. 'You've become a slightly special constitution, but if you eat tomatoes, you'll manage, so stay an ally of the farmers forever.' ............I wonder what that's about?"
"So, that's how it is............"
Feeling the pouring sunlight to be a bit annoying, Gardel guessed the general situation. He thought it was troublesome, but──── he couldn't bring himself to hate it.
"But, what shall we do, we two. Either way, we're rebels."
"You weren't the mastermind, so it should be no problem. It's common for nobles to coordinate with those around them and start an internal rebellion. If you were just a stupid noble, that would be one thing, but your skill and command ability are necessary for this country's future. The Princess──── no, Her Majesty the Queen will have no choice but to forgive you."
"And the old man?"
"For me, who is already supposed to have died, appearing would only create unnecessary confusion. Even if I were to receive proper judgment and be executed, probably............"
With this body turned into a vampire as a kin of the True Ancestor, he predicted that he could not die by normal killing methods. If that man made him a kin with this in mind, he is quite the strategist──── Gardel nodded with deep emotion, but it was a misunderstanding of a mere coincidence.
"In any case, I've entrusted the rest to the young. An old man closer to death than the youth cannot take responsibility for the future, so one should not talk big. Then, without stepping over those currently active, I should just watch silently without interfering in the ways of the fledglings who have stood on their own. While counting the remaining days of my life on my fingers."
Gardel shrugged his shoulders, deciding to quietly leave the country and watch over his homeland from the outside.
From now on, the future awaiting those two will certainly not be only pleasant.
They will trip, get lost, and fight──── but Gardel decided to believe that they would overcome it based on the experience and lessons gained this time. If, even slightly, they could be grateful to him (the wall they overcame), he would hold that as the medal of his life in his chest.
"I see. I────"
The moment Richter muttered "what shall I do," the ground suddenly shook.
"Ah"
The royal castle seen from the small hill disappeared as if swallowed by the ground. Immediately after, eight shadows were visible in the sky above. They seemed to be arguing about something, but Richter nodded upon recognizing his disciple (Shannon) among them.
And then, he turned to Gardel with a great smile and gave a thumbs up.
"............Alright, let's go on a journey to find a wife! Let's leave the tedious things like rebuilding the royal castle or rebuilding the country to the younger generation! I can't put up with this anymore! I'll accompany you, old man!"
"Good grief, honestly. Including me, is everyone just an idiot?"
Having confirmed the safety of his former master among the eight surviving shadows, Gardel gave a wry smile and lay spread-eagle on his back.
While narrowing his eyes at the sunlight that had become a bit annoying.
●
"T-the castle............ O-our, our homeland's castle, the symbol............"
"W-what shall we do............"
Shannon, who had managed to hold Lumilia and escaped safely by flying in the sky using Inversion, landed at the very edge of the ground that was safe. She and Lumilia stood there in a daze, speechless.
Below her field of vision, at a point that had sunk lightly two hundred meters, was the spire of the royal castle. It was unmistakably land subsidence, and the royal castle and its surroundings were caught in it──── it would likely no longer fulfill its original role. Rebuilding was probably impossible, and if they did it, they would have to fill it in as it is and build anew.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache, and when she thought about who in the world had caused this situation to happen.
"────Hey? What should we do, you three?"
Sensing the presence of those trying to stealthily leave the scene behind her, Shannon looked back over her shoulder. At the end of her gaze, she captured the figures of the Three Idiots, who shuddered.
However, they each declared in a flustered manner.
"T-this is, you see! A matter of force majeure! T-that's right, that's right! This country has deep-miners who are out of work, so isn't it good to think of it as a new public works project!?"
"T-that's right! We've taken back the country, so the rest will work out somehow!"
"Yes! In the first place, isn't it internationally bad for us foreigners to be involved any further? Right, you two!"
"It's bad!"
"It's bad!"
"Since it's bad──── we'll be taking our leave now, shall we!?"
The three of them voiced their excuses and immediately took their next action.
Geoglyph carried Latia on his back, Later carried Kazuha in a princess carry, and Marianne clung to Lilitia's back.
There was no romance or anything about it, they just did it quickly as if they were luggage.
And then, they all looked at each other────.
"Run!"
"I won't let you escape!!"
They turned their backs and started running to escape with all their might. Naturally, Shannon would not let that slip by.
"Inversion! Inversion! Inversiooon!!"
"H-help meeee────!!"
She cast Inversion on the escaping Serious Breakers, forcing them to turn around, but somehow those guys devised a strange tactic of running backward to escape while receiving the effect of Inversion.
They were uselessly skillful people, but visually, it was an exquisitely disgusting movement.
Furthermore, after this, they really managed to escape without even a greeting, and Shannon and Lumilia, together with Julia and the Alliance, put the Serious Breakers on a wanted list within Alberstein to give them a thank-you (T/N: sarcastic) with various meanings, and Lumilia sent a complaint (thank-you) with a smile to the Leonesta Empire, and a dynamic international problem titled "Foreign Royal Castle Destruction Incident" was discovered by the Empire, and the Imperial government, taking it seriously, began to question the Adventurer's Guild on the grounds of management responsibility, and the Guild Master (Dusk)'s hairline rapidly receded from stress, a grim incident that occurred──── but that is another story.
At any rate────.
"Wait! Three Idiots────!!"
"W-we're sorrry────!!"
Even in foreign lands, the Three Idiots go.