Zero no Tsukaima:Volume18 Chapter6

Chapter 6 - Spirit Stone of Destruction

The Pope's caravan was at slow pace towards Romalia, their arrival was somewhat delayed. Unfortunately for them, the travel took 3 days, compared to just a day if they used dragons for transport.

But one should take into consideration, that the Holy Pope's visit was not anything. He must respond to the devotion of all those believers of Brimir that lived in villages they passed by. This was a primary task for those who had given the title of ‘Pope’.

However, if the Pope stopped to give sermons in every person in his visit, the number of people would become endless. So, he only gave the blessing to babies, families who became faithful servants in the service of God and Brimir; and brave soldiers who served in the crusade.

For Romalia, they needed to continue with the developments of the crusade as soon as possible, so this visit of the Pope had a great and deep political gain.

So the fact that the Pope and his caravan were immediately surrounded by people at every village they stopped by, Saito and others found it extremely difficult to implement their rescue mission.

If they were to proceed in their plan now, not only did they have to deal with the Templar Knights, the people would also turn on them, and they would be immediately surrounded by enemies on all sides.

And besides, fearing a possible assassination, the escort staff of the Pope was in high alert not even an ant could slip through their impenetrable defense. Not even those rumored as Chevalier of North Parterre members seemed to made any move against the defense network of the soldiers assigned to directly guard to Pope.

It seemed that planning a move during the course of their journey was impossible.

Also, the guard of the Pope was always at the frontline, this would make impossible to prepare a trap in advance. Thus, attempting a surprise attack when they were in the vicinity of the forest would be unsuccessful due to low number of soldiers at their disposal, compared to the vastness of knights guarding Pope.

So in the end, the progress in rescuing Tabitha was still stagnant.

Two days had gone by since leaving Lutecia ...

The next day the Pope's caravan without losing their rhythm was able to reach the "Tiger Road"...

At an inn not far from there, Saito and his group held a meeting on how to continue the rescue mission.

“Soon in that place, a huge number of people will gather to see the Pope, so being dressed as monks, and mixing within that crowd was just easy task. We cannot fail, failure is unacceptable...” Kirche said as she rested her elbows on the table proving it was a difficult task as she thought.

“But it has to be soon, we must rescue her before they reach Romalia or else, the rescue would be impossible,” said Reynald with a face completely seriously.

At the same time, Saito was desperately thinking of a solution but in the end the anxiety overwhelmed him. The idea of Tabitha just within his hand but couldn’t rescue her made him angry. Beside him was Louise, who kept her eyes closed, seemed to be really struggling thinking a solution to this dilemma, but still, she couldn’t think of any idea.

“Just as I thought, then we do not have any other option but to attack in the front, if we can attack with everything we have, in the end maybe one of us will be able to reach and rescue Tabitha,” said Malicorne while nodding at himself.

“That's impossible. But then if there is no other option. We must use the decoy plan.”

“Decoy plan?”

“Exactly,” said Saito.

“I will begin to make a fuss in close to them to get their attention, then you have to go after Tabitha...”

Without completing, suddenly a voice came from behind him.

“If you're the one to do it, then you won't get anything."

“Huh?”

When they turned back, what they found was a large muscular man standing near them. Immediately, all present, from within their monk robes, prepared to arm themselves with wands and swords.

“It's me Chikasui!” said the man.

“But you're a man!” cried Louise.

“No. This person is certainly Chikasui.”

Behind him, Isabella appeared who was a little taller than the man. As expected, they wore monks robes whose hood covered their head and eyes.

When the man lowered his hood, Saito couldn’t help letting out an "Ahh".

It was the man during that time, on the river banks of Leilian, who pretended to engage in a duel with Saito in order to deliver a letter for Tabitha.

Then he turned his gaze to Saito, the man smiled.

“Long time no see.”

“You are...”

“The rose squadron commander, Barto Castelmorre (Basso Kasuterumo-ru),” Isabella said presenting him to all those present.

“The first time I heard it I still couldn’t believe it,” declared Castelmorre as he watched Isabella with a cold stare. “But, upon seeing that young girl who now bears the royal crown, I'm forced to believe it. She couldn’t be Charlotte-sama! We, at all costs, must recover the true Charlotte-sama and restore the throne that is rightfully hers! And so, because of all your invaluable help, I thank you deeply, Tristanian Knights.”

Castelmorre then addressed Saito and the others and offered them a great reverence.