The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War ~And Thus, I Became The Strongest Knight Disciple (♀) in The World~-Novel

「Uugh!」

It was neither a mistake nor a coincidence that Inglis managed to choke Hallim just earlier. However, Hallim also had his plans.

「What’s the matter, Mr. Hallim? I do not judge whether it’s you or your men next, please come and give these men their reinforcements.」

「No, there won’t be a need for that.」

Saying so, Hallim’s face showed none of the surprise nor panic he had shown earlier. Instead, he had a cold sneer plastered on his face. And then, he snapped his fingers.

The bodies of the enemy soldiers who were holding the control stick of the Flygears that Inglis held up straight were twisting and suddenly emitting a blinding light.

「……?!」

This was… a rapid mana expansion! Moreover, as the mana was transmitted from them into the Flygear, its outbursts accelerated faster and faster and eventually——

「Kgh!」

In a hurry, Inglis kicked the ground. She leaped up to the top of the roofs of a nearby building, still holding the two Flygears.

The soldiers and their Flygears exploded in an enormous explosion. Inglis had sensed this, and thus quickly flew upwards to avoid involving Rafinha and everyone, as well as damaging the buildings.

「GLIS?!!」

「INGLIS!!」

「MISS INGLIS?!!」

Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte shrieked. Inglis’ body was flung far by the zero-distance explosion, hitting the wall of the inn where they had rented a room, falling straight into her room.

「HAHAHAHA! Her quick wit was indeed laudable! But still, how naive! Why, she just lost her life trying to protect the people here, didn’t she?!」

Halim laughed heartily.

It seemed like he was aiming for the self-destruct explosion from the very beginning. That explained why they charged at Inglis as though they were ready to throw their lives away. After all, they did prepare to blow themselves up, literally. They could self-destruct at any time under Hallim’s order.

The mechanism was suspected to prevent a rebellion amongst the slaves, but now it was also a means of attack, too. In addition, the power behind their explosion had increased explosively by using it in conjunction with the attack mechanism that amplifies offensive sorceries that, by this time, should be assumed to exist within all Highland Flygears.

And the reason why Hallim didn’t activate the Highlanders’ special subspace was so he could take the surrounding buildings and people as hostages. He ordered two Flygears to attack Inglis and if she evaded the first, he would have the first Flygear explode on the spot, causing damage to the surroundings. Once she was shown that, it would be harder for her to evade the second Flygear, which he would explode as well, so that was his plan.

That was, indeed, a strategy that couldn’t be done within the subspace. Which was to say Hallim didn’t look down on her or test the waters at first, he had always been on full offense since the start. That’s quite an inhumane tactic and one that Inglis couldn’t say she enjoys, as that means her opponents will self-destruct and die.

Still, in terms of pure strategy, it was an effective one.

「Y-, young miss?! Aaah……how pitiful you ended up! Forgive me! Forgive me!」

The owner of the inn came rushing into the crashed room. She would rush over to the fallen Inglis and burst into tears, but before that could happen, Inglis casually sat up.

「EEEeeeehhh?!」

「Ah, Mrs. Hostess. I’m sorry I destroyed the room……」

Inglis gave the owner of the inn a quick bow.

「N-, no, don’t fuss over that… H-hold on, girl! I saw it from my hiding, but the explosion was huge, you know? No way you could have survived that, and yet how come you still look so alive?!」

「Well, I trained my body quite hard~」

Inglis responded with a smile as she dust off her clothes. Just before the explosion, she had activated Ether Armor and covered herself in it. The wall of Ether couldn’t be penetrated by an explosion of that magnitude, after all. However, since she was exposed to the blast at such close range and up in the air, there was nothing she could do to prevent her body from being flung away.

「H-, how dare you take Glis out like that! With such a dirty method, no less!!」

Rafinha’s voice, coming from the square, was shivering with anger.

「Ah, that’s not good! Forgive me, Mrs. Hostess. We’ll give a proper apology later……hyah!」

Inglis vigorously jumped out of the hole in the wall.

「Hold on, Rani!」

She controlled her posture midair and somersaulted. She came back to the middle of the standoff between Rafinha and Hallim. Right when she landed, she was hugged painfully tight from behind.

「Glis! A-, are you okay?! Are you hurt?!」

「Not at all, you see? It’s okay, I’m all fine.」

「Really? How about here?!」

「Hyau?! C-, can you not touch me there right now?!」

「But you really are unhurt! I was worried sick, so you should be at least have some injuries to pay for that, I can heal the injury, too」

「Eeh? That’s cruel!」

「I mean, if you are injured, you’ll stop being so reckless, right? You always, always make me so worried!」

「Ahaha, sorry, sorry. I frightened you, didn’t I? I didn’t expect the explosion too, after all!」

She didn’t expect that he would use his underlings as suicide bombers. Quite the inhumane strategy.

「Really! He did it so suddenly as if he couldn’t even see people as people! I feel bad for Pullum for saying this, but that guy is not right in the head! Highlanders really are full of irritating people!」

「It was an effective tactic, though. In fact, it really did catch me offguard……But still, I agree with you Rani, it’s too wasteful.」

Inglis turned to look at Halim, seeing that he was taken by surprise.

Was he planning for something else? It was good that he still hadn’t lost his will to fight, but…