Translator: Silver  Editor: Namorax

「Rebellion in Hoban」Part 2

At dawn, I glanced at the sky that had yet to give way to daylight.

Hoban was silent while the tension in the air continued to rise and spread throughout the entire town.

The only sounds that could be heard were Ariane’s, Sil’s and my footsteps as we made our way to the stone bridge from yesterday.

When we arrived at the sewer entrance, there were two men standing around keeping watch.

Sil nodded at the two while he slipped between the bars and entered the sewers.

Ariane went in next, holding Ponta, and I followed behind her as she ran after Sil.

Ariane moved through the sewers without hesitation, whereas my directionally challenged self would wander around like a lost child in this underground labyrinth without a guide.

It wasn’t a really serious problem thanks to 【Transfer Gate】though.

Before long, we came upon the already opened wall entrance of the secret pa.s.sage. A group of stern-looking men dressed like soldiers were hanging around it.

Since the pa.s.sage was only as broad as a single person, they were probably on stand by until they could storm the castle.

We pa.s.sed through the dank and dark pa.s.sage and climbed up the stairs to the dimly lit small room. Beneath the lamp’s light, a squad of men stood in the squalor.

Every one of them was wearing lightweight leather armor and they all had a tense expression while grasping their weapons tightly.

Labatt was sitting on the top of the stairs that lead to the castle, dressed in his personal set of body armor.

“Yo, you came. Quite a few of my former subordinates are also partic.i.p.ating in the revolt. If you see a white cloth wrapped around a guard’s right arm then they are our allies.”

“Hoo, so you were once a guard……”

“Surprised that a former guard commander is taking part in this? It is now my plight to rebel against the feudal lord.”

Labatt laughed as he twisted his mustache.

“What are the arrangements once we enter the castle?”

From the depths of her gray cloak, Ariane’s golden eye’s peeked out as she asked her question.

“Once we break in we’ll split into two groups. This pa.s.sage is connected to a warehouse located between the inner court and the main castle gate. The first group will gain control of the bridge and bring in support of the outside, while the second group will attack the guards stationed here so that the outside group has nothing to fear. Afterwards, our top priority is to gather everyone at the castle gate so that it can be destroyed.”

He said so as he took a sphere about the size of a fist from his breast pocket.

The black sphere seemed to be a combination of 2 half-spheres that were tied together with a string. It resembled a baking pan ball a little.

“An explosive magic crystal!”

Ariane opened her eyes in surprise when she saw the sphere.

“Onee-chan is a rather knowledgeable person. This fellow can easily blow the castle gate off of its hinges.”

“I heard that explosive magic crystals used magic stones as a detonating agent and that they were rather expensive……?”

“It a souvenir from our collaborator in the capital. That fellow blew dozens of gold coins on this.”

That explosive magic crystal seemed like a magic-powered hand grenade. The collaborator in the capital must be a high ranking n.o.ble with a lot of funds to send something like that over to these guys.

“I a.s.sume that we’ll be starting soon……”

As Labatt’s words trailed off, the tense men in the room naturally focused their attention on me.

Prompted by their stares, I climbed the stairs in the back of the room and placed my hand on the ceiling panel.

The tension in the room rose to a higher degree as people were swallowing their saliva and focusing their eyes on my hand.

When I pushed on the panel with a little strength, I heard the heavy rumble as it opened.

The tension that had filled the room till had now turned to shock as Labatt started to give his men instructions while laughing in utter amus.e.m.e.nt.

“Admirable, but we all have our own jobs to do. Two people lock the mechanism that the ceiling panel in place. Four people stand watch around this warehouse, Sil go down and call those waiting below.”

“Understood!”

Sil responded in high spirits before he ran out of the room to get the men waiting outside.

After listening to Labatt’s orders, the men in the room begin to calmly travel up into the castle one after another.

The panel above the secret pa.s.sage was attached to a pulley connected to the warehouse’s ceiling with a chain. Two men yanked at the chain to raise the panel before they secured it with a rope.

Once I was sure the panel was fixed in place, I slowly removed my hand and allowed the men to pour out of the pa.s.sage one after another.

We appeared to be in a secret room within a warehouse, because when the room’s door was opened we saw supplies blocking the way.

Four men opened a gap in the stack of supplies so that someone could peek inside the main area, while the members of the attack squads were readying their equipment.

When one of the four men at the door gave a hand signal, Labatt calmly nodded before giving the attack squad a signal of his own.

The men then slipped past the door into the main area before splitting into two teams.

Once outside, the groups meant to secure the castle gate and bridge headed towards their respective destinations by half-crouching along the wall. Once the castle group arrived, someone with a bow shot an arrow at a guard stationed on the castle wall.

The arrow caught the guard in the throat and caused him to fall.

A second arrow was fired and managed to hit its target, but before the number of guards could be reduced any further, the body fell off the wall and and landed with an audible crash that echoed through the area.

Someone on the wall noticed the sound and set out a group of yawning guards to the location with the now missing people.

Pretty soon the high-pitched metallic sound of a ringing bell was heard throughout the whole castle.

Khan, Khan, Khan, Khan.

Suddenly alarms started to sound all over the castle.

Under the dim light of the early morning, the sound of intense sword strikes gradually increased.

Shouts echoed as the guards and the group sent to attack the castle clashed with one another.

Behind a guard that had been overwhelming one of the rebels, another guard came rushing in to join the fight. However, the guard had a white cloth tied to his right arm and wound up stabbing the first guard from behind.

Ariane and I were slowing walking around the chaos-filled inner court, looking for places where the captured elves might be held captive.

However, I wasn’t exactly inconspicuous walking around in a black cloak, so every once in awhile a guard trying to raise morale would come charging at me. Each time, I would lightly knock them on their heads, causing their eye to go white as they collapsed.

『─Explode. Slay thine enemies─』

In front of the castle gate, a group of men were trying to defend it, as a chant was spoken and the black sphere was thrown towards the gate.

When the roaring explosion and burst of flames went off near the gate, the guards in the vicinity were blown away.

Once the smoke cleared the gate wobbled a little but remained standing. While the gate’s lower hinges were destroyed, the top ones remained unharmed.

“f.u.c.k! There was enough power, but the timing was off!”

Labatt curses as he bitterly looked up at the gate.

It would take something like hand grenades to target and destroy the top hinges.

“Push it!! The gate has been weakened! Push it!!”

When Labatt barked his order, his surrounding men finished up the remaining guards before gathering in an attempt to break the gate down.

“Defend the gate to the death!! The others will rain down arrows from atop the wall!!”

From the other side of the gate, someone who was probably a guard captain commanded his troops to fight against the rebels.

Furthermore, soldiers soon arrived on the rampart and started to fire arrows on the rebels below. However, for every rebel shoot down another stood ready to take their place.

This situation left both parties in a deadlock at the castle gate.

We couldn’t afford to wait forever for this pushing match to come to a close.

“Gangwayyyyyyy!!!”

When I shouted while running into the center of the gate, the people quickly parted ways.

My shoulder turned a pale blue when I ran at full speed and activated the warrior skill 【Shoulder Smash】. A large hole appeared in the gate and the guards that had been pushing against the other side of the gate were blown away like leaves in the autumn breeze.

For a moment the area went quiet and only the sound of the fight outside the castle gate could be heard.

“The gate is opened!! Charrrrgggge!!”

Once the moment of silence pa.s.sed, Labatt gave a rallying cry at the top of his lungs before running at the remains of the gate.

People got their bearings as their morale was raised and they soon followed after Labatt and begin to stab at the guards that were left in a state of shock.

When the surroundings became a crucible of confusion, I heard a joyous cheer from behind.

The drawbridge at the front gate had probably been lowered.

Soon a rumble could be felt and a battle cry could be heard approaching, causing the morale of those who had already broke into the castle to raise even further.

The guards that initially tried to fight soon scattered.

It would’ve been nice if they had been more tenaciousness in this battle, like in an RPG where a hidden boss would be brought out, but that was unlikely.

Occasionally, a few magicians would try to cast spells in our direction, however, they were easily dealt with by a clothesline to the throat.

Now we just have to search the castle for our objective.

“Ariane-dono, we should begin or search of the castle.”

“Yes”

After speaking up, Ariane moved out from behind me and the two of us quickly headed towards the castle.

Both of the castle doors were already ripped from their hinges, and the looting had already begun.

“These people raised a revolt to put down a tyrant correct?”

Ariane raised an eyebrow as she looked at the current state of affairs.

It was a familiar scene within human history, not everyone that takes part in a revolt was the n.o.ble sort.

I couldn’t say anything against them because I did something similar in Diento not too long ago.

When I saw a man chasing after a female servant with a sword, I swept his legs out from under him as he pa.s.sed by.

First of all, we should check the underground dungeon.

We immediately found the stairs to the dungeon and descended into the darkness.

The guards had already run away. The cells of the prison were lined up next to each other, and while we did see an old man and a bearded man of unknown ages, there were no signs of the all  important elves.

As we continued to thoroughly search the castle, we finally found what we were searching for in a corner room on the third floor.

In the center of the stylish room was a roughly made cage that clashed with the interior and inside the cage, a sole female elf was calmly sitting in a chair.

She had the green-tinged blond hair and long ears of the elves and she wore a black collar around her neck, as well as a thin silk dress. While she was looking ahead, her green eyes weren’t focused on us.

“Aniki, is that a real elf!? This is the first time I’ve seen one!”

“Hah hoh, quickly search for the key! Hurry before someone else takes her!!”

The two men that came here before us started to search the room for a key so that they could take the women home as a war trophy.

“Unfortunately, she is one of the people we’re looking for, so please leave.”

I called out the duo from behind.

“Huh!? That’s unfair, you’re trying to swipe our trophy away from us!!”

The well-built man referred to as Aniki had an awkward expression as he shouted that the woman was their prize.

Based on the way he looked it was clear that he saw how I blew the gate away, and that he was terrified of me.

When I simply took a step forward, the man reflexively drew his sword and took a fighting stance.

He seemed to want a physical altercation, so I took another step forward and delivered a backhand to the man’s temple.

The man instantly lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

“b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Aren’t we allies! What’d you do that for!!”

Unlike the other one, this man wasn’t afraid, and he attacked with open hostility. So, I punched him in the face hard enough to knock a few teeth out and throw him into the back wall.

“Even though we worked together, I don’t remember becoming allies.”

Since I held back he shouldn’t die from that.

While I had been playing with the two, Ariane had pulled down her cloak’s hood and approached the cage.

“We’ve come to rescue you.”

The women rose from her chair in surprise when she shows Ariane was a dark elf.

“I never thought help would ever arrive…… I suppose you had something to do with the noise outside?”

“There was a revolt against the feudal lord. Now let’s get you out of here before it’s too late. Do you know where the key is?”

“The feudal lord that bought me always carried it.”

The women answered Ariane’s question in frustration.

“Ariane-dono”

It’d be a waste of time to search for a key in the middle of this revolt, and besides, the lord might not even have it anymore.

Probably realizing my intention, Ariane stepped away from the cage.

“I’ll have you out in a little bit.”

Saying only that, I grab onto the cages bars and started to pull at them.

I heard the sound of metal creaking as the iron bars gradually bent.

〈Funnu!〉

I only wanted to create a gap in the bars; however, with a loud snapping sound the bars broke off and I was left holding two broken bars in my hand.

The cage wasn’t able to withstand being deformed. I don’t know if it was cheaply made, or if this world’s iron manufacturing techniques were simply too low.

The woman in the cage stared at me in shock and said nothing while I destroyed two more bars.

When the cage was completely ruined the woman was able to leave it easily.

While I was removed the collar from her neck, a loud shout was heard from outside the room.

“I’ve killed Earl Ferris De Hoban!!!”

Things seem to be wrapping up somehow how or other.

Since we no longer had any reason to stay, Ariane and I nodded at each other before I activated 【Transfer Gate】to transfer us to Raratoia, leaving Hoban behind.