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The Rising of Tanaka – 33 Part 1

Pasifista

A New Age

　The fall of Majide fortress–

This news was promptly delivered by a messanger sent by the fortress garrison. The Western National Alliance was racking their brains to come up with a countermeasure to deal with it.

The civil war in the western region had finally reached its conclusion, thus most of the troops sent to the city of Gokuri had been sent back to the cities they were dispatched from.

Gokuri, as a city-state, had also decided to join the Western National Alliance, and currently the Western Nation Alliance headquarters had gathered diplomats who represented their countries as well as military officers who were still at Gokuri to hold a conference. Among them, Aisa, Shosa, and Taisa, who were staying at Gokuri as representatives of the Torochi Kingdom, were giving their all to deal with this crisis. After convincing the representatives of each country who were ready to flee, they then proceeded to summon emergency troops from the neighboring city-states.

First of all, they had to strengthen the defense of the town which had turned into the front line, and prevent the swarm of monsters that had taken down the fortress from marching further westward. The preparations were quite an ordeal, but they still more or less managed to reorganize the Alliance army, albeit only of a small scale, before the monsters began to make their move. The Alliance army cooperated with the fortress garrison, who had already been stationed to defend the town that had turned into the front line, to build a defense line. For the time being, they had succeeded in setting up the arrangements to deal with the situation. However, at this moment, the Alliance headquarters was frozen as they received another piece of information delivered through a different route.

Purin Kingdom’s Army began to march westward–

The Alliance headquarters was engulfed in uproars caused by the incidents that were occurring one after another. Eventually, the idea to just let the monsters and the Purin Kingdom Army, who were mutually enemies, to destroy each other began to spread. If the Purin Kingdom army could bring down the fortress, then let them do it. Another idea began to spread that they were better off against the Purin Kingdom Army than against the monsters. Among them, however, there were those who had realized the danger lurking behind this series of incidents. Aisa was one of them.

「If there were a connection between the fall of the fortress by the monsters and the march of the Purin Kingdom Army to the west, then…」

The Alliance headquarters was filled with an air of skepticism at Aisa’s words. However, when Aisa, as someone related directly to it, informed everyone there about the strategy of employing jet black dragons during the civil war, as well as about the disappearance of Cassius, the person who created the magic tool which enabled said strategy to be carried out, an indescribable air prevailed. Afterward, the representative of Gokuri also added the details regarding Cassius’ birth as well as his rise to the position of research institute’s director that were filled with obscurity. However, at this stage, it was nothing but a matter of speculation. Thereafter, when they received a report that there was a figure who was presumably to be Cassius among the Purin Kingdom army  that was marching westward, they couldn’t help but to consider the worst case scenario.

If the fall of the fortress caused by the monsters was the handiwork of the Purin Kingdom, then the Alliance army might have to fight against both the monsters and the Purin Kingdom’s army at once in the future. They were at an overwhelming disadvantage in terms of both troops’ quality and quantity. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they no longer had any way to escape this predicament.

And then, yet another emergency report was sent in. The alliance’s headquarters, which had already been in a heavy mood, went blank for a while upon receiving the report.

Majide Fortress, along with the surrounding regions had vanished–

What the hell was this guy talking about? At first, the faces of everyone there showed such an expression. After that, vanished? What the heck did that even mean? I didn’t get what this guy was talking about at all. As the content of the report was beyond even their wildest imagination, they couldn’t help but let out angry shouts. In the end, as they wasted too much time without yielding proper deliberation, they made a decision to first send the Alliance army to conduct an on scene investigation.

◇ ◇ ◇

「So this is what you usually call ‘beyond imagination’, huh….」

Shosa, who was participating as the commander of the Alliance army, couldn’t help but leak these words out as he stood in front of the spectacle spread before him. Originally, the road was supposed to be still continuing further ahead, but it was suddenly cut off there, with the areas beyond that point had already turned into a cliff. If you looked around at the surroundings, you could see that the cliff was stretching as though endlessly, as well as the slight curve it was forming far in the distance. They had come with the expectation of, with the area around Majide fortress as the center, a vast range of land had disappeared. However, even upon arriving on the scene, they were unable to exactly ascertain it. It was impossible to ascertain what was going on ahead because even at present smoke was still rising from the gaping wide hole.

This area was originally a mountainous area which was hard to march on. Thus, as the only road was now gone, it was safe to assume that the threat of the Purin Kingdom army had also virtually gone along with it. Moreover, when the headquarters performed further investigation, they found out that, let alone the monsters, there were hardly any beasts in the vicinity. The people of the Alliance army, who had been at the mercy of streams of bad news for a while now, couldn’t help but leak out words at the world that was unfolding before them. The situation there turned as though they were at a tourist destination. Among them, shouts of joy could also be heard, as they had managed to luckily evade the looming threat.

「It’s not due to luck….」

Sitting next to Shosa, Taisa let out such words as she gazed at the spectacular view in front of her. She could tell that the spectacle in front of her was not conceived by mere coincidence. She recalled the back of the man who departed in front of her that day. The man whom she’d never doubted to be the strongest man in the world, and yet said man had to depart for the battle with the resolve to die. In a way, the spectacular view in front of her was an understandable result.

「You’re right. We were saved by him yet again, weren’t we?」