Chapter 509

Day 107 – Evening, the Theocracy, a Certain Town

It seemed the Church was gathering its forces around the capital while spreading units eastward. To think preparations for war with the Kingdom had advanced this far… and yet, everything is a mess. Yeah, do they even have proper logistics set up? There’s hardly anything valuable lying around. With nothing better, I pick up the cheap, mass-produced swords and armor scattered in their warehouses.

I then ride Horsie-san scouting the streets to the east. I check the neighbourhood with the map in hand, but soldiers are stationed basically everywhere. Conversely, it would seem the capital has the imperial troops. If the Sister Girl, as princess, raises her banner to overthrow the Pope, then the outer sects of the Church and their armies, those who fled to the outskirts, will surely rally to her side. Attempting to uphold secrecy won’t be possible for much longer. After the first clash, anyone perceptive enough would have realized by now. And speaking of perception, let’s stew some taro in soy and mirin. We’ve finally got dried bonito flakes, after all.

「Looks kinda ordinary, huh? Like, they’ve got numbers, but it’s just troops with a bunch of magic tools. Do they really mean to wage war with this? Their chances against the Kingdom are way too slim?」

(Nod-Nod, Nod Nod, Jiggle-Jiggle)

Certainly, even if it’s nothing but rabble, if there is a strong person among them, the tide could largely change. In that sense, war in this world is close to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, better not to infer much from average level and training. That makes it all the harder to fight. Winning itself might be simple, but someone could still die to an enemy’s hidden ace. A victory bought at such a cost is meaningless. And there are too many hostages… From the Sister Girl’s view, the believers and the citizens alike are hostages. And many of the churches aligned with her faction have been seized. If we at least knew exactly where they are?

「Say, can you even tell which of these church folk aren’t enemies? Their clothing makes it impossible to distinguish who’s just a civilian. Can you tell?」

「I think it is, impossible to tell. If they come, at us, then enemy.」

「If they run, civilian.

If they charge, enemy.

If they are holding a sword, then all enemy.」

(Bounce-Bounce)

In truth, if they’re believers, they’ll follow the Church’s orders, which makes them all enemies. And their leaders, as it usually happens, will be the ones disguised as commoners fleeing. Using towns as bases turns out to be unexpectedly annoying.

「So anyway, you wouldn’t happen to know, would you? Um, about the Sister Girl? You know, the Sister Girl among the sisters? The Sister Girl who’s a princess, but not the Royal Girl, just a Sister Girl with a name that sounded impossible but apparently is real, that Sister Girl? Where are her sister companions? If you don’t know then I’ll chop you with that scythe…」

「W-who-ho-ho are y-you people? H-ho-ho-how did you g-get in here!?」

「Wh-wh-what do you mean how? Yo! Hey, Say! I knocked properly on the door, yo, knockin’ on, yo?!」

Apparently it was some freestyling, verbal-assault type Middle-Aged Man priest. What if he starts dissing me? I’m just a frail Highschool Boy, verbal attacks hit like carpet bombing!

「I-I-I am a bishop, the commander of this Church army! And y-you dare trespass here unbidden, what is the meaning of this!?」

「Ahh, well, I was referred here, you see? This looked like the shadiest town, so quietly snuck in by breaking the wall, only to find soldiers assaulting girls, so I beat them up and asked where their comrades were, and they said the tavern, so I went to the tavern, found soldiers assaulting the barkeep, beat them up too, asked where their comrades were, they said the barracks, so I went to the barracks, found soldiers who kidnapped some women and were about to assault them, so beat them up too and after some violent interrogation, they in their dying breaths directed me here?」

This town really had a convenient setup, at every turn, there were soldiers up to no good, which made it extremely easy to tell who the enemies were. Since everyone was an enemy, I just beat them all up, and the trail led me here. With lawlessness so rampant, there wasn’t even foot traffic, no risk of involving civilians. Every time I beat the hell out of someone suspicious they turned out to be actually a bad guy, a very considerate town, really.

After all, I had two peerless beauties with me, so dressing them in brand-new leather outfits and letting them walk down the street worked like a charm, our catch kept catching, catching, and catching again, hauling buckets and barrels of Middle-Aged Men and beating them senseless. …We actually might have overfished them, leaving no soldiers in the town. Like, it looked very much like a ghost town?

「Alright then, while you still can, start talking? This here is the brand-new product, created while listening to the creepy agonized cries of countless Middle-Aged Men who were such loyal users, 『True Super-Itchy Powder Supper Rolling Special』. It’s seriously itchy, you know? Our loyal user even left glowing reviews saying it was an actual literal living hell?」

A voiceless scream. Too noisy anyway, so the moment he tried to shout, I shoved a cushion that happened to be nearby into his mouth. Now he writhed, convulsing, smashing himself against the walls, rolling across the floor, yet still refusing to confess. …Ahh, of course. He can’t talk, he’s chewing on the cushion. What a gluttonous Middle-Aged Man.

Forced to watch the grotesque squirming of a Middle-Aged Man, all I managed to extract was this: the Pope keeps a personal order of Church Knights, and they’re the main force controlling this region. They supposedly returned to the capital ten days ago, and are likely to come back soon… Judging from the timing, they’re the prime suspects behind kidnapping the Sister Girl’s companions.

The Middle-Aged Priest is foaming at the mouth and convulsing. If super lucky, he’ll end up going insane at the very least. For the ones in charge it should be just to suffer at least as much as the number of bodies discarded in the alleys of this city. His skin has swollen grotesquely, shredded by his own frenzied scratching, his body now blood-soaked. At this point he looks more like a monster, trembling, gasping weakly, hardly resembling a person. Well, he can pray for all I care. As a priest of the Church, honoring God and cherishing the people, surely he’ll rest in peace. And if he dies writhing in nightmares, that’s on him. So whatever.

「It’s taken longer than expected, and it’s getting dark. Let’s head back?」

(Nod-Nod, Nod Nod, Jiggle-Jiggle)

Usually, it would be an issue that out of three Dungeon Emperors not one stayed back. But the girls are trying to stand on their own feet now, gripping swords by their own will. Things can get very nasty from here on, and quite frankly highschool girls really shouldn’t be learning how to kill… When they hit, you know, that certain age, it’s going to be terrifying. Scary? Really scary?

From here, it’s the liberation front. Free the orphanages, free the towns, and the Theocracy’s soldiers will scatter and weaken on their own. More importantly, it would also mean not having to drag in soldiers who are only being forced to obey because their families became hostages. By fighting guerrilla warfare, liberating the eastern towns one by one, we can reduce the hostages, then build toward a decisive open-field battle and crush them at once. Not a bad plan… though would the enemy really move so predictably? Well, if it fails, we can withdraw. If we guide them into the path we want, if we shave away their options, narrowing their choices, then the chances of success climb with every move.

The Theocracy is vast, its population enormous. By contrast, the Kingdom is small. It has size in land, but the population is overwhelmingly small. The country was largely defined by the numerous monsters in it, and the large number of people dying to them. The Theocracy’s manpower is overwhelming, their numbers staggering… but their soldiers are kinda weak? Yeah, Ordinary soldiers wouldn’t even be able to beat the orphans. Probably even toddlers get to kick their asses? At level 10, you can’t even beat a weak goblin? It’s nothing but numbers.

What I found upon returning to town was a brawl, infighting? It’s said nothing is scarier than a catfight, but when it’s between level 100+ girls, it’s even scarier. They have been training under Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san, who themselves had mastered Taikyokuken and Systema the instant I taught them. Their technique was magnificent, but the moves were brutal… Looks like they decided on hand-to-hand training.

Wait, did One More Set Revolution go as far as teaching martial arts too? Taikyokuken is, after all, a Chinese martial art, at its core, a system for precise and accurate destruction of the human body, and thus quite vicious. And Systema could be called its modern version.

Known as a Russian combat art used by the military, Systema is essentially a modernized, practical form of aikido, designed for breaking bodies in contemporary warfare. More than technique, its focus is on learning the principles of body mechanics, breathing, relaxation, movement, posture. With those four as its foundation, it becomes an endlessly adaptive martial art with infinite variations.

Of course, there’s no way I could really master it just from studying in middle school. But combining what I saw in old videos with what I’d read in books, and then with Wisdom-san editing and compiling, it turned into a medieval isekai version of Systema. Well, it’s basically the result of me doing gun kata with gun tonfas. And since human anatomy didn’t change across worlds, breaking bodies works the same here. Naturally, Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san jumped onto it, and now they were teaching others. If Dungeon Emperors like them found it worth adopting, then both Taikyokuken and Systema must be genuinely effective in battle.