The boar beastmen's riot shook the entire city. From outside Ende to Obeli, the suddenly blazing flames stirred up a hot wind in the city.
Sapien, who was guiding Grull, received a call from an Obelisk. Apologizing to Grull and approaching him, Sapien heard through a whisper what had happened in Ende.
‘Orcma is rioting and threatening Obeli?’
Although some context and background were omitted, it was a clear fact. Sapien hurriedly checked Grull's mood. Grull was cracking jokes to his subordinates who were grumbling in dissatisfaction.
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Grull was also a boar beastman, but since he had arrived in the city today, the possibility of him having planned something was low. But wasn't the timing too coincidental? Bringing the Beast Faction inside the city was already a considerable risk for Ende, and for such a disturbance to happen on top of that...
Sapien used qi to transmit his voice so Grull wouldn't hear.
[Take the 2nd unit and depart first. I will hold him back here.]
"Wow, really. You invited guests, so why are you only whispering among yourselves? People will think you're leaving them out."
As Grull grumbled in annoyance, Sapien gestured for his subordinate to go ahead and said.
"A small accident has occurred. Please wait here for a moment."
"Wait? You lectured me when I took care of some business briefly before the appointed time, yet now you're asking me to wait with all these people? Civilians have no shame."
"I ask for your understanding."
"Understanding."
Grull, contorting his face as if sneering, shrugged exaggeratedly.
"Alright. Since the high official of Obeli says so, I suppose I must listen. Everyone, it's break time! Stretch your bodies for a bit!"
The warriors of the Beast Faction smiled savagely and swung their bodies around. It was a threatening gesture openly displaying their dissatisfaction. Since the cause was on this side, they couldn't say anything, but the Obelisks felt a prickling tension.
Grull casually approached Sapien.
"While killing time, should I tell you something interesting?"
"What is it?"
"We beastmen, you see. Have four ears. Human ears, and animal ears."
Grull tapped his hair-covered ears. Beneath the slightly bulging hair, human ears were hidden.
"It means we are less born properly, and more like beings mixed with something. Anyway, having many ears isn't necessarily a good thing. Animal ears have much better performance, while human ears that disrupt the senses only get in the way."
"I know that as well."
"However, if you utilize qi, your senses improve. A human who handles qi as excellently as an Obelisk gains senses as good as a beastman's, no, even better. You can even control it at will. It's much more useful than a beastman who has to sensitively receive even unwanted noise."
Words everyone knows cannot be the main point. Everything Grull was saying right now was a setup. Sapien felt a faint sense of anxiety and asked.
"What are you trying to say?"
Grull grinned and replied.
"Then, what about a beastman who has developed their senses using qi?"
"...What?"
"My kin, the boar beastmen, are rioting, right? So you're trying to keep me and my subordinates tied up here? Well, that's a big deal! A big city like Ende never runs out of trouble!"
Grull shouted openly and grabbed his belly, laughing loudly. Caught without any room for excuses, Sapien was horrified.
"I transmitted it via voice transmission...!"
When Heavenly Qigong reaches a certain realm, one can even grasp the air. Voice transmission is a technique that directly transmits sound by catching the wind with qi.
Because it physically blocks the sound, regardless of the height of one's realm, there is no way to hear another's voice transmission. Generally, that is.
"I didn't hear the sound. I heard 'you' who heard that sound. Next time you use voice transmission, be careful of your ear canal too! If it's information you want to hide so badly!"
However, Sapien had underestimated his opponent too much. Reaching the principles with Qigong meant harboring one's own Principle. Grull had reached the realm of amplifying even the beastmen's advantages with Qigong.
Sapien answered with a feeling of dismay.
"...If you heard it, you must know. Right now, a big disturbance has occurred in Ende. Until that is quelled, we cannot let outsiders into Obeli."
Since it could no longer be hidden, he conveyed the truth candidly, but it was a bit too late. Grull changed his expression and retorted.
"Hey, you... are you joking?"
Clang, clang, clang. The moment Grull's words ended, the Beast Faction and the Obelisks drew their weapons and aimed at each other. A tension that seemed like a battle could break out at any moment lingered between the two groups.
Amidst that sharp momentum, Grull exhaled a long breath. It wasn't even that cold, but white breath roughly flowed from his mouth.
"Our kin rose up out of dissatisfaction. Yet, rather than encouraging or persuading them, you try to hide the matter first. Even if it means deceiving and alienating us."
"It was an unforeseen event. Rather, Obeli has no choice but to be even more wary of you."
"Ah, of course, it's not that I don't understand. You must be scared too. Terrified. Because we are powerful, and if we fight, we'll both get hurt."
Even if the truth had been told from the beginning, it would have been hard to just let it pass. Now that trying to hide it had been discovered, the Beast Faction had no reason to hold back any longer.
"But! If fear of a fight means being looked down upon, that is death! If we bow our heads even once, from now on, continuously! They will continuously covet our flesh and blood!"
Compromise and concession are only possible among humans. In the wild, where each covets the other's flesh and blood, there are only two options: fight or die.
If you fall back in momentum, you die. Only by showing the will to inflict wounds on the opponent's body even if you die can you escape being prey. Only by taking revenge when a kin dies can you instill wariness in the enemy.
Even if honor seems useless, there is a reason to grasp it even at the risk of reckless bravery.
"Are you afraid of us!"
"Are you afraid of us!"
"Are you afraid of a fight!"
"Are you afraid of a fight!"
The warriors of the Beast Faction gradually snorted and chanted Grull's words. The wind that started from Orcma's protest had reached the Beast Faction as well.
"We are going to Obeli."
What Ende and the Beast Faction had promised was to join forces in Obeli and defeat the Wolf King. What the city was like or what the situation was, was none of their business.
"If you're going to stop us, stop us with force, not with words!"
However, Obeli had to protect the city. Whether it was the enraged boar beastmen or the Beast Faction. If they targeted Obeli, they were enemies.
Whether the odds of winning were high or low. Regardless of whether the situation was good or bad.
Sapien gripped his weapon.
******
The enraged boar beastmen were approaching Obeli's barricade. Having knocked on the door consecutively with pickets, seeing the unopening door, rather than losing strength, they seemed to burn even hotter. Now, instead of pickets, they were battering the gate with a log procured from somewhere.
"Au au. What kind of commotion is this."
The rabbit beastman and trap designer, Kito, blinked her large eyes in fright.
Although the five major livestock beastmen took up the majority, there were many other minority beastmen tribes in Ende. Representative cases were cats and rabbits. Among them, the rabbit beastmen, famous for being cowardly, were always in the weakling position.
"Do something about it!"
"Force is the Obelisks' job... I, I'm in the tech department..."
"Right! Use that great skill of yours to block those guys! You can do it!"
However, Kito was recognized for her abilities and lived in Obeli. The reason was none other than because she had awakened her Innate Demon Path.
The official pointed with his finger, veins popping on his neck.
"Those guys are trash who can't even learn qi! Turn the things they have into traps!"
"Au, I've never changed something someone was holding..."
"It's an emergency! Quickly!"
Beside her, who didn't know what to do, a large ladder fell. Thump, a heavy wooden ladder hung over the barricade. Startled out of her wits, Kito grabbed her head and sat down. From below, cheers were heard as the boar beastmen began to climb the ladder.
Fortunately, the dispatched Obelisks smashed the ladder, but there were only five or six Obelisks, while their numbers were gradually increasing. Occasionally, beastmen who weren't boars could be seen.
"Do you think those guys will leave you alone because you're a beastman? You, who are neither a boar nor a livestock beastman, are also the same vested interest of Obeli! Quickly!"
"Uuu..."
At this rate, it would really fall. Frightened Kito quickly looked around and unfolded her Innate Demon Path.
Innate Demon Path, Miss Goldberg.
Kito's Innate Demon Path was Collapse.
To be exact, it was the ability to momentarily maintain objects on the verge of collapse in that state.
A clumsily stacked pile, a tightly pulled rope, a roof that looked like it could fall at any moment. It maintains and suspends all this instability that should soon collapse. Within Kito's Innate Demon Path, everything is buoyant and does not fall.
When it is raised to the fullest like that, what if Kito releases her Innate Demon Path?
The pulled rope snags a person, the pit that was barely holding on caves in, the sliding pillar strikes a person, and the ladder that looked fine breaks.
That is what a trap is. It's dangerous, but it's hidden so one can't notice it, and when someone touches it, it collapses in an instant. Kito forcibly engineers that situation with her Innate Demon Path.
Because the situation was so complex and buoyant, the instability of the Innate Demon Path piled up in an instant. Kito's whiskers stood on end as she instinctively felt the crisis. Kito looked back at the official who gave the order and asked.
"S-should I really do it?"
"What are you doing! Do it quickly!"
"A-are you serious? Are you really doing this? Should I? Should I just do it?"
"In the time you're saying that, just do it!"
"But then someone might get hurrrrt..."
"Who cares if those scums get hurt or not! Do it quickly! Or else I'll hurt you!"
The official flared up in anger. Kito squeezed her eyes shut and firmly folded her long ears with her hands. It was to avoid hearing the screams that would soon follow, but a rabbit's long ears couldn't be fully covered by hands alone.
Kito murmured, hoping the screams wouldn't be heard as much as possible.
"Uwu. I'm sorry..."
"No. That won't be necessary."
"Eh?"
I, who had approached Kito's vicinity, flicked my finger.
There was a cauldron boiling water. It was prepared by the official's orders to splash at the boar beastmen. It was boiling on a haphazardly tied pile of firewood because it was hastily assembled, but for some reason, it lost its balance and rolled down.
Boiling water spilled as the cauldron rolled round and round. People scattered to avoid the heated cauldron. A cow beastman bringing a net was no exception. The net that should have been wrapped around the sandbags added to the gate got tangled in the cauldron and rolled away.
"Ehh?"
Unfortunately, Kito was at the end of it.
In a flash, the net wrapped tightly around Kito's ankle. As the cauldron rolled downward, Kito's body was dragged along without resistance. Stumbling and falling, she ended up hanging upside down beneath the castle wall. With her skirt and clothes all flipped over, Kito, wrapped in the net and dangling, cried out sobbingly.
"S-save meeee!"
"Why did you have to get caught in that!"
Traps do not distinguish between friend and foe. Kito, who was at the center, secretly became a victim of her own ability. It was a side effect of Kito's Innate Demon Path.
Of course, this time I prematurely detonated one of the traps near Kito.
It's quite an interesting Innate Demon Path. It's easy for me to steal and use, and the result is fun. I want an Innate Demon Path like that too.
Perhaps because it was such a chaotic scene, even though a few more people, including me, joined, no one particularly cared. Maybe because Kito was in such an embarrassing state, everyone's attention was entirely focused there. Even the Obelisks.
It couldn't be helped. They couldn't help but let their guard down, never expecting boar beastmen to come from inside Obeli.
However, the price of carelessness was great.
Someone quickly approached from behind the official. Before they could even react, the shadow wrapped a thick arm around the official's neck.
"What? You're...! Urgh!"
"Everyone, stop."
It's a boar beastman. The boar beastman who should have been outside the barricade had approached at some point and was wrapping around the official. While everyone was briefly dumbfounded at this unprecedented situation,
The First Tusk, Mercenary Captain Urkfang, growled with the official as a hostage.
"Open the gate immediately. Otherwise, the official's life is forfeit."
A meticulous plan creates more loopholes. The longer you prepare, the higher the chance it leaks out.
Most major events usually happen unintentionally. Surprisingly, having no plan can be the plan.
The castle gate that blocked the hot wind opened, and Ende greeted spring.