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The Rising of Tanaka – 62 Part 1

Pasifista

At Any Rate, Call It Uesama From Now On!

　The mountain ranges lying between Purin Kingdom and Haru Empire. As a stretch of steep mountainous area, most of it was impossible to cross.

But even under such kind of situation, there were several routes that could be taken to cross between the two countries, albeit with difficulty. The place was one of the few roads connecting the two countries, usually though there were not many people who took it.

Firstly, there was the fact that there were few people with reasons to travel between the two countries, which did not have such a good relationship in the first place. Secondly, it was the fact that the road was merely on the passable level, as it was still too steep to actually pass through nonetheless.

These usually deserted mountain ranges were now being infested with the presence of a lot of people. They were the soldiers of the Purin Kingdom’s army, who had recently been stationed around the routes connecting the two countries. The Purin Kingdom had opted to seal the border to prevent further outflow of demon tribes.

Tanaka and his group were also affected by this. As they were stranded in front of the mountain ranges that served as the border. However, they couldn’t simply wait there until the blockade was lifted either.

It was clear that if they continued to dawdle there as they were, they would be discovered by the kingdom’s soldiers or those who had been dispatched by the guild, which would involuntarily draw them into unwanted trouble.

Having no other choice, Tanaka and his group eventually started heading north. They were moving while looking for any holes in the blockade set up by the kingdom army. However, with seemingly no chance of finding a convenient loophole, they continued to gradually make their way north.

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「Not good…, the area ahead is also guarded by the kingdom soldiers.」

Curryman, who had slipped away from the group to scout the route to cross the border, came back. The result was not satisfactory.

「Hmm, guess we have no choice but to head further north, huh. But at this rate, we may end up escaping the kingdom through the north side….」

Tanaka-san, who had personally taken over the leader position, sighed. There was no way that he was thinking that he shouldn’t have taken the leader position if things would turn out like this. It was a sigh of how much he was concerned about his comrades. As evidence, this sigh was a gesture based on ‘The way of sigh to be popular with girls’ he had personally devised. The calculated exhausted expression on his face, the movement of his hands, and the timing were just perfect. If there had been a beautiful woman who happened to pass by, she would have surely passed by without stopping.

「I think that’s not a good idea. We’ll end up passing through the permafrost wastelands before we can detour the mountain ranges. It would most likely be unbearable for those who have lived in the kingdom.」

Speaking of the northern side of the kingdom, it was a land where numerous demon tribes were once driven out to. Given the fact that the Purin Kingdom, who had aggravated even the Empire, chose to keep their hands away from it, the circumstances there were simply that unimaginably harsh.

The Black Demon tribe was one of the demon tribes that had been driven north, and Kugel and the others, who had originally lived in the demon territory to the north, explained that it would be dangerous to continue going north as they were.

「Being unable to replenish our provisions would indeed be harsh. We’re already running low, after all. Moreover, it seems crazy cold and all. As a Kyushu boy myself, I don’t think I can stand such a cold.」

「What is a Kyushu boy-degozaru?」

「It’s a man with a first-class back-talking license. But, it’s a state secret so don’t tell anyone, alright? If the Honshu folks were to find out about this, it could lead to a war against those who are blinded with jealousy, after all.」

「I don’t really get it, but got it-degozaru.」

Unable to escape to the empire even now, as they continued to head north, they had met other demon tribes that were similarly stranded. As a former salaryman who was renowned for their weak-willedness, there was no way Tanaka-san would be able to refuse those who wished to accompany them, so their forces expanded in an uncontrolled manner. The great Tanaka group was now a group of dozens of tribes with a total of over a thousand members.

As surviving with hunting for prey was getting difficult, they had reached the point of opening Tanaka’s storehouse (item box) for provisions. However, even that had its own limits.

From the expression shown on Tanaka’s face as he gazed at the stars in solitude in the middle of the night, one could see the hardships of a man who shouldered the fate of demons. That figure of his as he sincerely strove to help everyone escape had earned solid trust from the demons. No one seemed to be able to understand the despair of Tanaka-san, who was shedding tears as he gazed at the stars in thought, ‘Even with this many people have gathered, to think there’s still no beautiful women who have shown up to tempt my affection…’.

At any rate, unable to overcome the situation, Tanaka and the others were gradually being pushed into a corner. Tanaka-san was trapped even deeper in a life with no healing, but there was surely no need to talk about this matter.

「Perhaps we should just break through the blockade, huh. Now that we’ve gathered so many people, won’t we be able to force our way through it?」

「No matter how you think about it, that’s not a good idea. If we do things in such a blatant manner, they will surely file a complaint and demand the Empire to hand us over. The Empire may not like the Kingdom, but as they don’t want to cause unnecessary dispute, I think they’ll most likely make a move to hand us over.」

「East is no good. And north is no good either… huh. But we can’t really move back to the west at this late of the game, after all.」