#403 Orkubo’s Moving Castle

Lord Osennim of Grandburg still speaking.

I’m in desperate need of help.

As a traitor, I am surrounded by the armies of both humans and demons.

And what’s worse, something unknown has appeared.

Seriously, what is that?

As I stand on the edge of the castle walls looking out, I see something gigantic.

So gigantic, at a glance, it looks like an architectural structure.

It’s a pile of stone bricks... and the top is... what is that, covered in mud?

However, it’s so white and flat that it’s hard to believe it’s a mud wall.

If I had to decide what to call that building, given its solid construction and scale...

It would be a castle.

“A castle, right in front of our city...?”

“Maybe it’s a temporary castle built for besiegement... No, wait!”

Both the envoy and I were stupefied, unable to comprehend what happened next.

The castle moved.

It’s crawling slowly on the ground, visibly moving toward us.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!” screamed the envoy and me.

“The castle! The castle is movinggg!”

“Please don’t tell me it came all the way here like that!”

The impossible event caused a great deal of confusion.

How and why?! What is the purpose behind moving a castle?!

As these questions erupted, I was at a loss for words when I heard a call from the mysterious moving castle.

[Ah, ah. Mic test, mic test. Today’s weather is fine, but waves are high.]

What?

“That’s one loud voice. How can we hear it when there’s so much distance between the castle and this place?”

“Maybe through some kind of magic?”

We really don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few minutes, so we have no choice but to remain vigilant.

[Lord Saint, please let me do the next bit.]

[Oh. Please go ahead.]

The voice changed from mediocre-sounding to something youthful and courageous.

[...Ahem. To Lord Osennim of Granburg, I am Dalkish, Lord of the Wallachia frontier.]

The Wallachia frontier?

What does a petty lord of such a small territory want with me?

[I’ll get straight to the point. Surrender. I have received a guarantee from the Occupation Office that they’ll spare your life if you surrender now. Your actions are reckless from the perspective of victory or defeat and are a nuisance to the entire human race. I sincerely hope you’ll make the wise choice.]

Haa...

That might be a good idea.

“...Oh, no. Is the shock of the moving castle unraveling his brainwashing? Magic reinforcement!”

“Silence, young man! I will be the king of our people! The new era of the Human Kingdom will begin with me! I’ll have you and your men guillotined for good luck!”

“Good, good... That should do it.”

This moving castle is just misleading us! What purpose could it possibly serve in a war?!

I should just ignore them and pay attention to the army surrounding the city!

[Well, if he refuses to surrender, we’ll have to start this war.]

Huh?

They can hear me?

[Then, experience Orkubo’s Castle to your heart’s content... Uh, what was it called again? ...Ah, Orkubo’s Castle Spin-off: Endless Track Tower, Premium Version!” 

Did he just correct himself?

I don’t know what’s going on, but the fortress surrounding our city of Mercade is the largest in the world.

It’s impossible to break through it, even with the demon’s alchemy.

If you want to be prey to the myriad arrows and stones that rain down from the top of these walls, come at us!

[Catapults at the ready.]

Huh?

What’s that big thing looming atop the moving castle?

“Load, aim... fire!”

Oh?

Something shot out of the giant contraption!

It was as if an arrow had been shot from a bow, but magnitudes bigger!

“What is that?!”

Something flew over our heads.

We could not see it with our naked eye because it was so far away and flying so fast.

Moreover, the unidentified mysterious object easily flew over the world’s highest walls and fell inside.

“Aahhhhhhhh!!!”

My city walls! Our city’s iron wall defenses were easily breached!

“Calm down; it was probably just a rock, judging from its size. What’s there to worry about if one or two of those things fall in the city? They won’t even make a single scratch!”

“Fool! If a rock that big hits a citizen, it’ll be a catastrophe! They’re the people of the city I ruleeee!”

I hurriedly ordered the soldiers to check the situation and received a surprising answer.

“Sire! The object isn’t a rock!”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s a person!”

Huh?!

“Perhaps they sent a magically enhanced soldier that can absorb the impact! More and more of them are coming! Our defense is falling apart!”

Indeed, as I listen to the report, more strange objects are being shot out from the castle and falling into our walls. 

Are those really the enemy soldiers?!

How reckless!

“Oh, bother! They’re coming one or two at a time! We can surround and kill them immediately!” shouts the envoy, but our soldier’s response wasn’t satisfactory.

“The invaders are stronger than expected, sire. Even if we surround them, we can’t take them out easily.”

“What?!”

“The soldiers are all boys and girls under the age of 20. However, they are highly skilled in both sword and magic. Not even our soldiers can compete with them!”

Meanwhile, the castle still hasn’t stopped firing; I’ve already lost count of how many of them came flying in.

If these enemy soldiers are a match for a thousand, our city could collapse from within!

“Worthless bastards! Fight more desperately! Kill the few soldiers and sweep them cleaaaaaaan!”

The envoy lost his cool and pushed me aside to give orders himself.

Then, another soldier rushed in.

“Sire! We know what the intruders are after!”

“What?”

Right. They won’t just randomly send their soldiers into the city. 

They must have a clear objective to defeat us holed up inside the city walls.

If they were to send a small number of elite soldiers to cut deep into the enemy camp and target someone, it’d most likely be the general...

“Eek! Don’t tell me they’re heading this way!” frightfully says the envoy. “Gather all the soldiers you can here! Do not let the enemy come near us!”

“With all due respect, the enemy’s target is not you.”

Huh?

“The intruders safely evacuated the commander officer’s families you held hostage. Your ally on guard duty was knocked out, too.”

“No... It can’t be...”

“If we have no hostages to worry about, we have no reason to follow you! Bring our feudal lord back to his senses!”

I think to myself as I watch the envoy being beaten to a pulp by the soldiers...

Isn’t this bad?

“Hey, what are you doing? How could you treat the Order’s envoy like this?!”

Mm...

Huh?

What was I doing again?

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notes:

chapter title is a reference to studio ghibli's howl's moving castle.

"Today’s weather is fine but waves are high." is a famous line in JP military history by Saneyuki Akiyama during the Russo-Japanese war.

volume 11 will be out this 25th, with Letasreit on the cover

quick life update: been rly busy with catching up with people i haven't met for 5 yrs or more before i fly for 2 days starting tomorrow cause my host country sucks and they want our asses back on campus. but ill see if i can post in between due to the hella long layover time on my connecting flight! things should be more stable again once I've landed and settled. so whether or not you noticed the irregular posting lately, i genuinely appreciate your patience and understanding. i hope everyone's doing well