The pulse handgun's blast deflected off my personal shield and dissipated into a harmless mist.
"My Lord!!!"
Raven, the leader of the Kamishiro Main House's Imperial Guard—my own private soldiers—shouted in alarm.
"Calm down! Everything is going according to plan!" I yelled.
...That was a total lie. I was panicking internally. But at a time like this, it was better to pretend I had everything under control. Huma-san... your training definitely just saved my life.
Isono and Nakajima moved in, pinning the shooter to the ground.
"You're Megan Jamil, aren't you? Why did you shoot?"
Megan was... well, she was a tanned, black-haired beauty with a massive chest. Boing, boing.
O God, was He telling me to suspect everyone with a large chest from now on? I didn't want to believe it, but she was definitely packing a heavy set of tropes.
Both the boys and the girls present wore complicated expressions.
"Um, was she originally an old guy?" someone muttered.
Megan and everyone else fell into a stunned silence. I understood the girls' hesitation, but why were the boys suddenly so quiet?
A crowd of soldiers had begun to gather in front of the room.
"W-Wait, what did Megan do?! She's my fiancée!" a burly soldier with a buzz-cut fade shouted as he pushed forward.
"What are you talking about?! She's my fiancée!" a husky laborer-type soldier yelled back.
"You bastards! I'm the true fiancé..."
A slender soldier joined in, and soon a line of men, all claiming to be her fiancé, appeared one after another. In the blink of an eye, the crowd swelled to dozens.
"This is a nightmare... Someone! Go get One-oh-one!"
One-oh-one was our trump card. As long as a Zork hadn't been disconnected from the network like Kevin, she could forcibly rewrite their connection and bring them under her control.
"A riot's going to break out before she gets here!" Eddie shouted, trying to hold the men back. But more and more kept appearing, swarming the room.
The boys and I formed a line to guard the entrance.
"Back off, you idiots! Don't enter this room! It's restricted!"
Why on earth did I have to protect the person who just tried to kill me?
"Megan's been neutralized! We're here to help!"
Melissa, Claire, and Ren arrived to reinforce us. But even with their help, the sheer number of soldiers was overwhelming. They were far more trouble than the Zork; at least with the Zork, you could just kill them and be done with it!
Just as we were reaching our limit pushing back the crowd, the Military Police arrived.
Waaaahhh! Saved at last!
Or so I thought, until I saw Katori-sensei leading the charge.
"Hey, you brats! You still in one piece?!"
"Shenshei..."
I'm sorry for ever thinking you were an ogre. I was practically ready to weep with relief.
"Looks like I'll have to teach you the basics of melee combat."
...Wait, what?
Katori-sensei literally stepped over the heads of the crowd to reach us.
"Listen up! When they get this close, you do this!"
Whack! Sensei’s wooden sword came down on the man in front of her. He went down in one hit. She moved through the crowd like a whirlwind, knocking men out left and right.
A domino effect was about to happen! Just as I braced for the chaos, Sensei let out a deafening roar: "KIEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!"
Everyone stopped dead.
"It’s dangerous, so quit pushing."
【No, you're the one being dangerous here!!!】
In that moment, our hearts were truly as one.
"See? Just like that. Knock out anyone who gets too close, and use sheer spirit to stop the rest."
She was absolutely absurd. As expected of my master—her disregard for common sense was unparalleled.
"Hey, Military Police! Use this opening to settle things down."
The Military Police began leading the male soldiers away. We were saved, sure, but I couldn't shake this lingering sense of unease.
"I have arrived, de arimasu!"
While we were standing there with sour looks on our faces, One-oh-one finally appeared.
"Major, I just need to make her my subordinate, right, de arimasu?"
"Please."
One-oh-one struck a prayer-like pose. Suddenly, Megan’s body went limp as she lost consciousness.
"I have successfully registered her as my subordinate!"
"One-oh-one, you're an angel. Good girl, good girl!" I said, patting her head.
"Ehehehehe."
One-oh-one beamed under the praise, but then her face suddenly turned serious.
"Did something happen?"
"It's here, de arimasu!"
"What is?"
"The terminal that was controlling the big sister. It's heading this way... Um, it's a battleship-type, de arimasu!"
I remembered it instantly. The battleship-type that had mind-controlled the troops during the recapture of the Imperial Capital! That incredibly tedious monster was back for more.
Give me a break.
"A battleship-type can control even humans without Zork factors for short periods, de arimasu!"
"Then what about Megan?"
"She is a female-type, de arimasu."
So the spy had been among us all along.
"But I have already identified the other female-types connected to the Zork network, de arimasu!"
She really was the best girl.
"Girls, work with One-oh-one to restrain the Military Police and any other female-types! Eddie, Isono, Nakajima, and Edge, go with them! Katori-sensei, you too!"
"Right! What about you, Leo?" Eddie asked, implicitly checking if I’d be okay.
I’d be fine. I had the Raven unit with me.
"I'm going to Wifey’s side to figure out a countermeasure for that battleship! Raven, with me!"
"Understood! Let's move, Knights of the Kamishiro Main House!"
"OHHH!"
My private guard was at maximum hype.
"Fairy! Report this to Wifey!"
"Already done!"
We sprinted toward the bridge. We’d faced plenty of Zork before, and under RPG rules, they felt like mid-game bosses. But under SLG logic, the rules were different.
A battleship-type was a total cheat code. Dammit, they were really pulling out all the stops to resist us. I see... even Mother was starting to panic.
But why? If the Republic’s true territory lay in deep space, there was no reason to obsess over Planet Sanctuary. It wasn't like the Demon King's Castle was here. Strategically, they should have been attacking from a different front.
Hmm. Why wouldn't they leave Planet Sanctuary?
"Wifey!"
"What is it, Lord Groom? I am already preparing for the meeting."
"No, it's not that. I think I just realized something..."
"Oh?"
"The Zork... it's not that they won't leave Planet Sanctuary. It's that they can't, isn't it?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe they didn't choose to invade the Empire. Maybe they were forced to because they had nowhere else to go."
Wifey gasped. I didn't know the exact reason yet, but it felt like the Zork were just as backed into a corner as we were.