◇

"We, demand, pa.s.s through, checking station."
"Demi-humans, tyranny, unforgivable."
"Checking station, barrier, immediately, open."

We heard such angry voices as we arrived at the landing spot for wyverns on the multistoried building of the checking station.
It sounds like the choral chanting in the movie about student movements I saw in the past.

My motivation drops somehow or other.
I feel like leaving them and going back, but I can"t do that since Sera is with me.

We saw mothers holding their babies and children when when were looking from the sky after all.

"--How cruel."

I turn my line of sight hearing Sera"s criticism.

I saw Lizardkin and Orange Scalekin soldiers shooting arrows at the people who are trying to cross the border wall and putting their feet on the wetlands.
I could understand her reaction if they were laughing at the fleeing people, but the truth is a bit different.

According to Attentive Ears skill--.

"You didn"t hit them right?"
"Of course. What"s the point of threatening them away from the bottomless swamp of the wetlands if I hit them."
"Hahn, you trying to speak some intelligent words. Oy, there too."
"Again huh.... Won"t they become obedient if we let one get swallowed by the bottomless swamp?"
"Don"t even joke "bout it. That"s going to haunt our dream."
"Right."

--Such conversations happened.

When I told that to Sera, she felt ashamed with her remark earlier, but I supported her saying that it was only natural she misunderstood since she couldn"t hear them.

◇

"Y-your Highness! And even young master of Dragon Horn House!"

An official in charge of the checking station rushed in from the station building and greeted the prince and Macho Warrior.
He looks like a petty official who"s flattering n.o.bles, but judging from his glittering eyes, it seems he"s genuinely a fan of the two.
This is a country who respects strong men isn"t it.

"Captain! This is bad! Those guys!"

A soldier who was keeping watch on top of the wall shouted.
He has stopped looking idle.

Macho Warrior and the prince dashed and the official followed after, so I and Sera also go with them.
The spiral case that connects to the wall smells of mold, it"s stickied with moss and mud.

"--Hear us, frog eaters!"

Human men are on the bridge connecting the border to the checking station with drawn swords.
In addition to former soldiers of Makiwa Kingdom and members of crime guild, there"s even a high level warrior with unknown affiliation. The men are all in [Incited] state.

There"s none of the agent provocateurs among them.
They"re still dispersed in the refugees.

These agent provocateurs belong to a mysterious group called [Cannibal Snake].
I"ve never heard of them during my journey, and this group doesn"t exist in the countries I know.
Despite being a crime guild, skill compositions of the members don"t lose to professional spies. They"re probably special agents specialized in illegal activities of some country somewhere.

If the men speaking in unison earlier were like the demonstrators influenced by student movement, then these guys are probably the professional terrorist ones.
Every member has Murder offense, the high leveled warrior even has [Homicidal Maniac] t.i.tle.

They"ve pointed their swords to three lizardkin people who are tied with ropes.
According to AR reading, the three of them are commoners of Silga Kingdom. It seems they"re fishermen of a small village to the south.

"Open the station if you value these guys" life. Their limbs will be cut off every time the sand falls down in this hourgla.s.s."

The lizardkin hostages screamed hearing the cruel words of the men"s leader.

"--Shut up."

With the leader"s sign, the high level warrior cuts off a lizardkin"s tail with his sword.
The bridge is turning red every time the tail squirms.

"Unforgivable--"

Macho Warrior who saw that brutality jumped down the multistoried building.
With his level, he"s probably fine at only this height.

"That idiotic fool, he done and got himself worked up from such an obvious provocation."

The prince who disparaged the macho warrior with downtown language unfitting of a royalty jumped down while looking like it couldn"t be helped.
They"re quite a good pair.

"Satou-san, let us go too."

Sera said with shaking voices.
She"s been quiet since awhile ago, apparently she"s shaken with anger.

Her dignified face with raised eyebrows looks quite cool.

I"m bothered with the movement of the markers on the map, but she"s probably safer beside me than me leaving her.
I know the agents" positions, but there"s a possibility that there might be brainwashed people in the checking station.

I carry Sera in my arms and then follow after the two.

◇

"I-If you come any closer--"

Macho Warrior got close to the men before they could threaten him.

The spear thrust by Macho Warrior was somehow blocked by the high level warrior"s s.h.i.+eld.

"--Tsk, you"re good."
"You won"t pa.s.s through."
"Oh I will--"

Macho warrior"s spear was a decoy, he pulled the warrior"s pivot leg with his tail.

"Y-you coward."
"Coming from someone taking hostages."

The prince who caught up with Macho Warrior thrust his spear while saying so.
The warrior"s s.h.i.+eld seems to be a magic item, but it"s out of its league this time.

"I-Impossible...."
"Repent in human h.e.l.l. Your friends will follow soon."

The prince"s Dragon Fang Spear which pierced through the s.h.i.+eld stabbed the warrior"s heart.
As I thought, the prince"s Dragon Fang Spear has higher piercing power than Macho Warrior"s Dragon Horn Spear.

The refugees who are surrounding us from a distance scream.

Looks like Macho Warrior has begun stabbing the other terrorists.
The people here really are merciless against their enemy.

I"m not good with violent scenes, so I"d like to refrain from seeing such things.

"Don"t kill them all! Leave some for interrogation later."
"Tsk, can"t be helped."

Receiving the prince"s order, Macho Warrior knocked down two of the men.
They"re not dead indeed, but their limbs are turned to odd directions. Their ribs seem to be broken too.

As we caught up, we didn"t join the battle and went to the lizardkin hostages instead.

Besides the cut tail, they also have some injuries from beating, so I"ll let Sera take care of that, while I pick the squirming tail on the ground.
The lizard"s tail was cut, but once I sticked it to the wound and let the man drink mid magic potion, it got attached back.

He can probably move it again after getting some rehabilitation.

"--You murderer!"

One of the agents mixed among the refugees threw a stone while shouting.

He probably used [Inciting] skill at the same time.
I remember the odd sense of having my mind getting hazy.

I check the bracelet magic tool I"ve made myself.
This is a magic tool intended to be a simple version of Raka, it has automatic self-defense against mental interference, and automatically recovers when you"re attacked with paralyze, stun or any kind of debuff.
It cannot speak, but it has preset to distinguish them and automatically deal with them even without the user"s input.
In addition, it can also defend against physical and magic attacks, but unfortunately it can be broken by a single mid level magic from me.
It"s still possible to improve on that section.

"Revenge for our countrymen!"
"Make the frog eaters bathe in blood!"
"Blood for blood!"

It seems there are refugees who are cooperating with the agents, unreasonable abuses and stone-throwing come from the location where the agents can"t be found.
Even though they were the one who did the harm first, they act like the victims now.

"Hmph, what can such pebbles do."

Macho Warrior smiles ferociously, then he swings his spear like a fan to fling back the stones, slightly later, the prince invokes [Air s.h.i.+eld] magic to repel the stones back to the crowd.

Some stones also come flying toward us, so I use mid level force magic [Defense Wall II] to create a transparent dome shaped barrier.
Unlike the lower force magic [Defense Wall], you can go in and out of this freely.

With a bwoosh sound, the prince"s [Air s.h.i.+eld] had been broken.

"Tsk, a magician huh--"

The prince"s loathing was interrupted by a stone that hit his forehead.
It seems he has taken his helmet off after meeting the checking station"s official.

"I"ll crush you d.a.m.n small frieeeeeeeeeees!"

The prince who"s bleeding on his forehead shouted in rage.

With that wrath, the crowd"s state changed from [Enraged] to [Panic].
Apparently, his shout earlier was added with [Coercion] skill.

The crowd begin to run away from the prince one after another.

"Uwaaaaaah, we"ll be killeeeeeed."
"Run! We"ll get eaten from the head!"
"My child isn"t here, where is my childdddd."

The panicked male refugees run while kicking down the frail old people and women.

I make an effort to save the weak as much as possible using [Magic Hand].
Unlike the criminals earlier, I can"t let ordinary women and children get hurt even though they have the same ideology.

As expected I couldn"t save all 1000 people, people who got their bone fractured and injured appeared one after another.

"--Don"t think I"ll let you run!"

It seems the prince intends to pursue them.

"I"ll crush the left side. You do the right side."
"O-ou."

Macho Warrior seemed to be taken aback by the prince"s angry look.
I don"t intend to watch a ma.s.s slaughter, so I need to act now.

"Please calm down."

I come out of the checking station and whack the prince"s head with a long wand I"ve taken from my bag.

"What are you doing!"
"I canceled your abnormal status with magic. It seems there"s someone who can use incitement magic over there."

I told the turning prince while checking that his [Enraged] state had returned to blank.
I used mind magic [Cool Down] since his magic armor would have been broken if I used the usual Break Magic.

Macho Warrior"s state had already restored when he was taken aback by the prince"s action.
It"s probably because simple mind is easy to get abnormal status, but in turn it"s also easy to be restored from one.

"--■ Erase Evil Effect"

Glittering light emitted from Sera rain down upon the refugees.

Sera"s advanced level holy magic removed abnormal status of the refugees.
This magic doesn"t last long even though its effect is immediate, so I use mind magic"s [Calm Field] to prevent them from getting incited again.

Since the refugees are spread far and wide, I expand the effective range by stretching it thin.
The effectiveness slightly decreases, but it should be enough to lower the success rate of the incitement.
Advanced magic could probably protect them easily, but since there were many frail people among the refugees, I didn"t use high powered magic which would have big burden on their bodies.

With this, I"ve stopped the refugees from rioting and prevented the agents" secret maneuver.

Arresting the agents and their cooperators will be for later.
That is because--.

I see a priest in white clothing walking toward here from the wasteland that has quieted down from Sera"s magic.

--It seems the next one is the fake apostle.