Chapter 463: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 40

Author's Preface

Within the year! In just ten more chapters! It's going to end!? Hyahohoooy!! (Losing my mind)

『Anti-Castle Warfare!』

『Victory Condition 1: Deplete the opposing structure's Resource Value.』

『Victory Condition 2: The opposing structure's owner surrenders.』

『Victory Condition 3: Defeat the opposing structure's owner.』

『Bone-Clad Keep, Skull Azuchi Owner: Anju』

『One-Night Castle, Scorpion Sunomata Owner: Kyougoku』

『Players in the same clan or party as the respective castle owners are exempt from normal PK penalties caused by kills from the opposing faction.』

『Now, fight... fairly and squarely!!』

◇ 

With the twenty-fourth Declaration of War finally accepted, Kyougoku, whose turn had at last arrived, stretched her spine as she stepped out of the One-Night Castle, Scorpion Sunomata... a shack barely worthy of the name, capable of fitting only a few people if they were packed in like sardines.

"Well then, are you heading out?"

"Eh? Ah, the Library guy. Yeah, the signal came through."

Whether he had come to see Kyougoku off or had some other intention, Kyougoku straightened her posture and replied to The Professor, the leader of [Library], who had assisted in "constructing" Scorpion Sunomata.

"I'm glad to see our verification testing was of some use."

"I'm completely abusing it, though... Is that okay?"

"Fufufu, even an old man has times when he wants to forget his age and make merry."

While looking at The Professor, who smiled cutely (in appearance), Kyougoku pondered briefly whether her own late grandfather ever had times like that.
And then, she wondered if it was really okay to use the swordsmanship taught by her grandfather for something like this, even if it was just a game... But thinking about this would mean "Bakumatsu" was out of the question too, so Kyougoku discarded the thought.

"───Ah, it seems I've held you up. Oh no, I merely came to confirm that forming a Clan Alliance also applied the effects, so please, swing your sword to your heart's content."

"Um... Please excuse me, then."

Bowing her head once, Kyougoku broke into a run, calling her weapon to her hand while a ferocious, sinister smile spread across her face.

"Legal, completely legal. Heaven (the devs) said to do it, so it's not my fault... Right?"

Brandishing the black katana, "Polished Dragon's Sturdy Horn," Kyougoku effortlessly reached and infiltrated the wide-open Skull Azuchi.
After all, Skull Azuchi and Scorpion Sunomata were... only about a one-minute walk apart.

◇◇ 

"...Anti-Castle, Warfare? Eh, what is this, what is this!? I never heard anything about this, Emi-Lia!!"

Inside the keep, the Feng Shui Master (Anju), who had been entrusted with Skull Azuchi by her friend, was at the peak of confusion.

Anti-Castle Warfare. She had no memory of it, nor any clue about it; it was essentially the equivalent of having an entirely unknown fight picked with her, both mentally and physically.
Anju had her own excuses. While struggling with the unfamiliar controls of Skull Azuchi, mixed among the countless control windows was a "Declaration of War" approval window that had been sent over and over and over... at least nearly twenty times, as far as she remembered.

"Uuu... It was an accident, it was an accident... I was just hitting reject on autopilot and misclicked..."

Making excuses to no one in particular, she still understood that this was bad.
According to what she checked in the system regarding the Anti-Castle Warfare rules... if they lost, the support from Skull Azuchi during the decisive battle phase would almost certainly stop.

"Kyougoku... Kyougoku... Ah, the PK Kyougoku!!"

Anju remembered hearing that name. If she recalled correctly, it was the name of an active PK who had even belonged to the infamous [Ashura-kai].
She was supposed to be in a different clan now, but... why was a player like that picking a fight with Skull Azuchi?

"More importantly, what's Scorpion Sunomata?"

Sunomata she could sort of understand, but why Scorpion? Tilting her head, she opened her dedicated map to see where this enemy structure called Scorpion Sunomata was, but for some reason, it didn't show up anywhere.
Thinking it might be in a place that wasn't a frontline base, she expanded the display range all the way to Tearplaten, but she still couldn't find it.

"What is going on... Geez!"

"Anju-chan!"

"What!?"

"Some crazy woman with animal ears just broke into Skull Azuchi! Isn't that the person named Kyougoku!?"

"Hogyaa!!?"

Anju's scream was the product of a double dose of sheer shock: the fact that the enemy general had charged right in... and the fact that the mysterious structure known as Scorpion Sunomata was actually a tremendously tiny marker located right next to the massive marker of Skull Azuchi.

◇？◇ 

Allow us to explain! The One-Night Castle, Scorpion Sunomata, is a verification-testing structure built by the carpenters belonging to the clan [Library]!!

The purpose of the test is simple and clear! "If the Resource Values are equal, is it possible to declare war even when bearing a handicap several times larger in terms of scale?" It was a theoretical question that couldn't be properly compared using a half-baked structure!!

The Bone-Clad Keep, Skull Azuchi, used a massive amount of monster materials for its outer shell, boasting an anomalous Resource Value numbering in the tens of thousands.
In that case, how on earth could they prepare a structure to rival it...? The answer to that was the One-Night Castle, Scorpion Sunomata!!

"Couldn't we just rack up the Resource Value by pasting a massive amount of rare jewels and rare Crystal Scorpion materials all over the place like tiles?"

It was a superficially plain-looking shack, built right on the absolute edge of Skull Azuchi's territory, featuring a bizarre interior that turned that highly unrealistic theory into reality!!

The materials used were all high-rarity, high-resource jewels, ores, and crystals, but every single one of them was spent solely on decorating the interior of the shack!!

As an aside, the number of challenge attempts required by the material provider to procure them was exactly fifty-eight! The Library player who received the materials would later recount:

"Is it truly possible for a person to erase all traces of humanity from their movements to such an extent?"

◇ 

Scorpion Sunomata has no offensive capabilities.

Scorpion Sunomata has almost no defensive capabilities.

But Scorpion Sunomata has Kyougoku. That alone is more than enough.

"Creating a massive clan ended up being your downfall."

"Guhaa!"

Tonight, the black katana "Polished Dragon's Sturdy Horn" hungered for blood. Committing atrocities that practically screamed those words, Kyougoku advanced forward and upward.

"........."

Bakumatsu Principle #1: Do not constantly fear a surprise attack; instead, read the "timing of the surprise attack" and move accordingly.

"Hiding behind an object to ambush me. The old me would have fallen for it."

"W-why did you notice...!?"

"Kuh, just stay perfectly still! Forgive me for taking us both down!!"

Bakumatsu Principle #2: Always treat a battle against many as a continuous series of one-on-one duels.

"Gu, ko..."

"A single thrust to the throat...!?"

"I don't know why you're so surprised by this... Alright, good job on the ambush."

There was no need for a decisive kill. As long as the ambusher couldn't return to the fight before the battle ended, that was enough. Therefore, by applying the psychological "shake" of piercing the throat, she stopped their movements with an effect far greater than simple damage.

Two flashes. She cut down the ambusher and immediately delivered the finishing blow to the other who was holding their throat. With a hyun, she flicked the black katana—even though there was no blood on it—sheathed it, and headed further up.

"Now then... Even if my goal is just to stall, it defeats the purpose if I get killed, so I really should proceed carefully, but..."

Bakumatsu Principle #3: Beyond recklessness and challenge lies the Best of Divine Punishments!!

"I brought a mountain of healing items, so let's keep going until I die."

Ultimately, humans polluted by Bakumatsu couldn't help but adopt a suicidal vanguard mindset, no matter how hard they fought against it.

◇◇ 

"Anti-Castle Warfare... Directly striking Skull Azuchi to cut off the buffs for the Noirlind fight... No, she probably has something else planned as well."

Although it was unexpected even for Emi-Lia herself, she wondered how she would apologize later to the Feng Shui Master, feeling guilty for saddling her close friend with total authority over Skull Azuchi. Exhaling a single breath, Emi-Lia switched her train of thought.

"Ten-Don-san, thank you for agreeing to such an unreasonable request."

"Ahaha, it's fine. [Wolfgang]... Well, I assume the clans allied with them are mostly on that side, but personally, I don't hate this kind of violent, chaotic setup. Regardless of who's 'right', it's no fun without an enemy!"

Given the situation, the flow of the decisive battle phase was almost entirely tilting toward Siegwurm's defeat. It became particularly fatal the moment the Saint intervened.
But even so, there were those who agreed to fight alongside Emi-Lia, saying, "There's no reason we should get a penalty for targeting Noirlind." Even if every top-tier clan turned against her, there was a number of players who agreed with Emi-Lia's goal to defeat Noirlind large enough not to lose to them.

In that case, it was exactly as the leader of [Knights Tempura], now the largest clan in ShanFro, had said.

It no longer mattered who was right and who was wrong. Both sides had something they wanted to achieve, and they were going to slam down every card in their hand to make it happen.

"Let's go."

The morning sun was near, the night moon far away.
The human battle surrounding the Gold and the Pitch-Black was approaching its climax.

Author's Afterword

Lately, I've been thinking that Ten-Don is one of the greatest naming senses of the Heisei era.

Pencil: "Go gather materials with enough resources to rival Skull Azuchi. In one day."
Sunraku: "Fwai!?"

Translator's Notes

• [1] Ten-Don: The Japanese word for "leader" or "boss" used here is 首領 (Don). Combined with the "Ten" from Knights Tempura, his name becomes Ten-Don, a pun on the Japanese dish of tempura served over rice (Tendon).