Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume4 Phase03 (section)

===Part 1===

The central square of the capital’s second level was the center of the Precession Festival which had, until a moment ago, been ruled by elderly Guardeleo’s presence.

“Stand back!! Please stand back! We ask that all ordinary residents and visitors obey the guards’ instructions and evacuate in an orderly fashion!!”

“Run away!? Where are we supposed to go!? There’s fire burning everywhere you look!”

“Mommyyyy!! Where are youuuu!?”

All the noise was deafening.

The shining stars no longer filled the sky. The mana sealed inside the crystal tubes across the capital had reacted, lighting powerful searchlights, and some homes and shops were on fire.

The screams were joined by angry shouts, which may have belonged to the half elves of the Collaborative Continent.

“Burn their flag! And set their capital ablaze with it!!”

“We are no longer allies. Our friendship has been washed away by our emperor’s blood!!”

Injured Emperor Milbert and the dark elves were no longer here.

Only the red blood spilled upon the stone pavement remained.

“W-wait! I am an official diplomat protected by international law!”

“Shut up! We don’t have to listen to you!!”

The king had handled all the diplomacy before. How could some unknown diplomat get through to the Philosommelier Personal Empire when they refused to even listen to Guardeleo?

Heavy footsteps thundered along.

Giant dragons were flying through the sky, being swarmed by Shade Swallows.

14th Princess Carrisy viewed the distant flames.

“Did the Collaborative Continent release dragons into the city?”

“N-no. Those are the vouivres used by our own Royal Guards! They appear to have been intentionally released from the control of our Royal Guards with a Tamer III job qualification!!”

It wasn’t visible, but a spice, stimulant, or aphrodisiac must have been used to stimulate the large creatures’ senses and send them wild.

Since she originally belonged to the demon side, the dark elf aide would probably know how to do that better than a human.

The aide and the rest were traveling somewhere with their injured emperor.

If so, then all of this was no more than a diversion and distraction.

“Miss Mamilis.”

“What? I’m fine…”

That was good to know.

Although Ayato had kind of hoped to see the dark elf girl driven wild by love.

“I supposed they wouldn’t want a shift in the wind to wipe out all their own dark elves and half elves.”

“What are you talking about, coach?”

Something fluttered by in front of him.

It was a palm-sized fly made of pearl and black lace.

After he blinked, it had transformed into a black-and-white maid who kneeled and offered a sheathed sword up in both hands toward 14th Princess Carrisy.

“Princess, your blade.”

“Magnet Sword Magnetia. Now isn’t the time to worry about blurring the distinction between my position as princess and Royal Guard.”

14th Princess Carrisy sighed with a look of resignation.

Then she drew the sword.

“I will be activating my Fencing III qualification. We are now facing all-out war between continents.”

“Against who? Surely you aren’t going to challenge an unconscious and dying emperor to a duel.”

Ayato’s interjection made the courageous ringlets princess fall silent.

Surprisingly, she seemed capable of listening to advice.

“Emperor Milbert is, at the very least, unconscious. Then who will contact the Collaborative Continent and take command?”

Ayato’s question brought the same face to everyone’s mind.

“That dark elf aide. I believe her name is Hemylina Luxshine.”

“Dangerous individual!”

Someone called out to Ayato as he quietly clenched his teeth.

The sharp voice belonged to Henrietta.

“Is this really going to start a war? No more than a misunderstanding will plunge two continents into war!?”

“Not on my watch.”

A solemn voice quietly interjected.

Henrietta was dumbfounded.

The speaker was King Guardeleo, seeming as tough as stone.

“We invited visitors domestic and foreign to the Precession Festival, so they are our responsibility. I will not allow this to develop into tragedy. The Collaborative Continent will not want to go to war with their emperor injured. The situation is merely forcing their hand.”

Guardeleo threw his gaze toward Ayato Criminaltrophy.

Toward the boy wielding not a sword of succession and not a sorcery gun, but an illegal linkage plug sword.

“You are a man of the shadows, I take it.”

“…”

“I have met people with the same look in the eye. You have no place on the main stage, yet when the kingdom faces a crisis, it is the people like you who come running without needing to be told. However, there is no need for young lives like your own to be lost during this crisis. Your unique skills should allow you to escape the capital unnoticed amid the chaos. Take your friends and flee. Before the guards and Royal Guards recover and establish a solid perimeter.”

The stone-paved ground seemed to shake.

The king had turned around and begun walking deeper into the capital where the fires were burning.

Yes, the king who had been using a wheelchair earlier was now walking on his own two feet. He had to be rapidly draining some sort of unseen resource within himself, yet his step was strong. And the next thing they knew, he had a giant sword resting on his shoulder. There was no queen or maid by his side. Perhaps he had been forced to say farewell at some point along his long journey to this point.

Something roared.

A 30 esoule<ref>Approximately 36 meters.</ref> sea dragon drew out an arch overhead in preparation to attack Guardeleo.

He only spoke a single word.

“Sorry.”

His action was by no means a large one.

But the sea dragon seemed drawn in to a point ahead of Guardeleo’s blade where he sliced it through with the minimum force and optimal speed. The strike was as casual as bisecting a radish someone had thrown into the air. No, it only looked that way. By honing the fundamentals – breathing, gaze, footwork, distance, etc. – to the limits of humanity, he had acquired the sword technique necessary to rule a space and freely guide the situation toward victory.

It was the optimal slaying, with no waste and no opening.

It was an ultimate and impregnable wall that did not allow the enemy to pave a path to victory even if they had the superior strength, weight, and speed.

This was the very way of life of the man known as a king – a way of life created to protect his people and his kingdom.

Crafty Ayato and even warrior Henrietta were frozen with awe.

He had something that instantly informed anyone – professional or amateur – that they could not defeat him. And it would do the same for inhuman dragons and beasts. Instead of achieving victory through anything as barbaric as war, this was the wisdom of the true fighter who unilaterally trampled even the intent to begin a war.

Teleria also froze up for a significant period of time, but she finally came back to her senses.

“A-Ayato,” she said, flapping her hands. “What are we supposed to do?”

“Coach, is there even anything we can do now that it’s reached this scale?”

Red spots vividly dotted the stone-paved ground.

Those were blood stains.

Ayato took a deep breath and consciously reclaimed his cool before beginning an analysis.

“Metal fragments likely made it inside the emperor’s ribs. An ordinary hospital can’t heal a wound like that. Attempting to remove the fragments with inadequate facilities will only fatally damage an organ or artery.”

“Hold on, dangerous individual. If this is too much for them, won’t they go to a doctor?”

“In the middle of an enemy kingdom? They only have the one emperor. If they ''suspect'' a local doctor might make an intentional mistake during surgery or poison the boy, they’ll never let him be treated here. This isn’t a diplomatic issue anymore. The Philosommelier dark elves and half elves have already entered wartime mode. Their diplomatic contact points will already be closed.”

That said, was a shocking attack really enough for the situation to deteriorate this rapidly? Ayato glanced down at his linkage plug sword. It pained him that he didn’t have time to check to see what was happening on the sorcery network. Knowing the Queen who had been hiding behind the 9th Prince, there was a chance she had forged documents which were being spread in the prince’s name to deepen suspicion against the kingdom.

Ayato clenched his teeth.

“And if little Emperor Milbert dies in an enemy kingdom, there really will be no holding it back. But on the other hand, it’s not too late yet. If the emperor’s life is saved, there’s still a chance for negotiation and a truce!”

They all turned to look at the same person.

Teleria Nereid Aquamarine.

Everyone who had traveled with Ayato this far knew her skill with water element recovery magic.

“Eh, eh?”

“We need to get Miss Teleria to the Emperor no matter what. I see this as the only sure way to avoid all-out war here. Miss Mamilis, Miss Henrietta, any objections?”

“None that I can think of.”

“I don’t see what choice we have but to leave this to her.”

The decision was made.

That meant the question was how to get Teleria there.

In fact, where had that dark elf aide run while carrying the badly injured emperor when she was so deeply suspicious of everything? For them, they were in the middle of a massive enemy kingdom and they couldn’t afford a lengthy battle.

“Hyah!” yelped Teleria.

An explosion had erupted overhead.

A massive airship had been silently passing by in the darkness overhead when a swarm of Shade Swallows attacked it and brought it down. A count of five was all it took. The safety of the skies was a fragile thing now that flight authorization had been revoked.

Guardeleo’s voice bellowed from beyond the flames.

“Who gave that command!? That was a visitor’s ship!”

“S-sorry. The Shade Sparrow defense network uses the subconscious region of the many operators’ minds, so it takes time to alter settings. Not even central control can change that right away!!”

A nearby royal guard was giving a panicked report, but that did nothing to change what was happening before their eyes. The burning airship fell toward the capital. And more fires were burning.

This was new information.

“They can’t use their airship. Or the medical resources they likely had inside. So where will the dark elf go with her dying Emperor Milbert in her arms?”

Ayato placed a hand on his slender chin as he muttered to himself.

Even if the dark elves of the Collaborative Continent pulled the trigger of war in their rage, they couldn’t have their emperor captured before their army could cross the sea and attack. Milbert was an irreplaceable leader. If the Static Continent forces used the emperor as a human shield, the arriving imperial forces would be stuck.

So they would want somewhere they could hole up with their injured and immobilized emperor, allowing them to safely buy time.

They needed a secret base.

“If they rushed to an ordinary hospital, they would simply end up surrounded by Royal Guards. On the other hand, as confused as the Royal Guards will be with all this happening so fast, they should still have enough sense to swiftly shut the main gate to the bridge. That means the dark elves won’t be able to leave the capital.”

“Ayato, even if they could leave…there’s nothing but fields and wastelands surrounding the capital, so they wouldn’t have much chance of healing their emperor at a proper city.”

That may have been why they tried to escape on their airship even if it had been a long shot. They might have been able to rapidly fly to a distant city and there might have been specialized medical equipment aboard the airship itself.

(But that isn’t an option anymore.)

Ayato had already seen the answer.

“The palace.”

“Coach, that sounds like charging right into the enemy base.”

“The consul guest quarters in the palace!! That’s the one place with extraterritoriality, preventing the Royal Guards from attacking. They can hole up in there and buy time until a Philosommelier army can cross the sea and reach the capital. Then they won’t be outnumbered anymore!!”

Of course, that wasn’t a perfect answer.

For one, the emperor was still unconscious with metal fragments embedded in his chest. Ayato didn’t know the exact specs of the consul guest quarters, but if the supplied medical kit wasn’t enough to treat the wound, he would simply die.

And if that happened, there really would be no stopping things.

Something fluttered by.

It was an unnatural purple butterfly decorated with jewels and lace.

Ayato blinked and a long-skirted maid was standing before him.

“Sorcery Hacker.”

It was Micha Angelos.

“I have a message from His Glorious Highness. He asks if you have any intention of entering the palace and solving this problem. If you accept, you will be rewarded appropriately. As much as it pains me to assist a filthy peeping tom, I can deactivate palace security using my authority as a sword guardian maid.”

“What is that bull bastard doing with all this going on!?”

“He has his own deep thoughts on the matter. He believes it will help if you add some chaos to the scene. So what will it be? Will you attempt to break into the palace with your incompetent Sorcery Hacking and wind up burned to ashes, or will you use my authority as the 1st Prince’s sword guardian to pass through the security? A true Sorcery Hacker will choose the wiser option, so I doubt you will be rebuffing my offer.”

Ayato couldn’t just sit around.

He had to stop a great intercontinental war from breaking out. And he had to settle things with Queen Astaroth Revolver who was pulling the strings.

“What exactly is my job?”

“You should already know.”

Micha Angelos did not bother changing her expression.

Ayato thought a moment before…

“So before Emperor Milbert dies, I need to find a way to drag him out of the consul guest quarters and provide him with specialized medical care, hm?”

“The Collaborative Continent’s Philosommelier Personal Empire was given Room 0108. Handle the rest with your filthy knowledge, Sorcery Hacker.”

“But how is that supposed to work?” cut in 14th Princess Carrisy. “The consul guest quarters are spaces separated from our kingdom. Room 0108 will have been fully isolated as foreign territory.”

The princess with blonde ringlets started to rudely bite her thumbnail before recalling she was wearing a gauntlet.

“Even the standard security has five layers of thick barriers and the guests will have provided more unique security by mixing in their own barrier structure. So the palace’s master key won’t get you in. Unlocking the door requires the approval of both sides. And even a sword of succession would have a hard time breaking in through brute force.”

Forcing open the door the usual way would be a waste of time.

And on the other side, they would be nervously treating their emperor’s wound. Attacking the wall or door could make them jump and worsen the wound.

While they stood around like this, Emperor Milbert would eventually pass away.

Ayato winked.

“It sounds to me like some kind of trick will be needed to save the emperor.”

“Sorcery Hacker, the circumstances require us to consider even the illegal options. Do you have an idea?”

“Plenty of them.”

Mamilis tilted her head.

She had drawn the full-auto shotgun from her back, but she didn’t seem to know what to do with it.

“But, coach, we’re on the second level here. Won’t the Philosommelier people have trouble reaching the palace on the top level?”

“You’ll see the answer when we follow them.”

Collapsed people dotted the main street.

Guards and the elite Royal Guards commanding them were lying in pools of blood.

That wasn’t just a testament to the skill of the dark elves and half elves of the Collaborative Continent.

“They couldn’t possibly fight in these circumstances.” Striker Henrietta grimaced. “The people attacking them are officially considered guests from a friendly nation. Being rude to such a guest ordinarily means losing your job, so win or lose the Royal Guards had no option.”

The large elevator gate used to raise and lower sorcery vehicles between levels two and three had been destroyed.

The Philosommelier Personal Empire would have made their way to the palace in the same way. They wanted to get as far as they could while the “guests from a friendly nation” card was still valid thanks to the confused intelligence.

Ayato clenched his teeth.

“Is it like this all the way to the top level, the palace, and consul guest quarters 0108?”

“We do not want them to make a mistake on he way and allow the emperor to die, Sorcery Hacker.”