Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

Chapter 231: Dragon Hunter ① Roar of Beginnings

Aegir POV–

The morning sun hits my face and wakes me up.

Not good, the sun is already rising.

「Aahn......」「Aau......」

When I lift my upper body up from the bed, it makes Leticia and Sharon, who are resting their breasts and arm respectively on my chest, let out a small moan.

This is Leticia’s shop, which also serves as their residence, that I gave them so they could earn their livelihood.

They let me enjoy a grand feast last night so I paid them back by making them climax more times than they could count with their fingers.

I continued to thrust into Leticia and Sharon even after they passed out.......

「Oops, this isn’t the time to be getting hard again. I’m late.」

I kiss the two whose eyes are still half closed before getting up from bed and quickly putting my clothes on.

Leticia wakes up first and stands up unsteadily after her hips were thoroughly overused last night, then tidily adjusts my clothes.

「Sorry to bother you while you’re busy and thanks for being so kind to us. Please feel free to drop by and embrace us again whenever you want.」

I hug her soft body and suck on her irresistibly juicy lips.

「Come on, Sharon. Get up so you can see him off. Laying asleep like that is rude!」

「U, uun...... I want to, but my ass got dug too much and I can’t stop...... ejac-...... no, I can’t stop squirting.」

I made lots of love to Sharon yesterday too.

「You’re fine staying there. What a cute girl.」

I lower myself to Sharon and steal her lips.

Something rises under the futon but it’s nothing I need to worry about.

I leave the shop after being sent off by the two girls whose flushed faces tell me they’re still thinking about the sex from last night.

There is nothing which makes a man more proud than that.

「Sis. I think I really should cut it off after all...... I can’t think of myself as anything other than Hardlett-sama’s woman now.」

「Let’s ask for his opinion the next time he comes over. I’m sure he’ll guide you in the right direction.」

I don’t know what they’re talking about and I don’t want to ask.

Three Days Later. Lintbloom.

「I’m just going to visit the dwarves. You didn’t have to come with me.」

I tell that to Celia after arriving at Lintbloom while petting her head.

I didn’t come because of some complicated reason like doing inspections.

I just want to apologize to Balbano for losing my weapon and see if I can ask him to make me another one.

That’s why I wanted to only bring the minimum amount of people with me from the escort squad in Gido, Kroll and Christoph.

Speaking of which, Celia is always by my side so she isn’t included in the count.

「Ara, we just so happened to want to check on how the city is doing. If we were going to the same place anyways, why not go together...... is that no good?」

Accompanying us are Claire, Laurie and their followers.

「You said it was a coincidence, but it felt like you rushed to follow me when you saw I was setting out on a trip.」

「You’re imagining things.」

「All the followers are female...... not only that, they all have bodies which Aegir-sama prefers.」

「It’s just your imagination.」

Claire and Laurie reply to me and Celia respectively.

I’m happy there are more girls around me but it’s painfully obvious she has some kind of hidden agenda.

「Aegir-sama, you can’t be lured by the women and make any strange promises!」

Celia glares at Claire as she says that.

On the other hand, the female merchant remains unperturbed and grins back at Celia.

「......There are things in this world that a human can do nothing about. They can only do their very best and hope they can put up a fight.」

「The use of seductive techniques is not something that powerful!」

Celia climbs on top of Leah, who is resting on top of my lap.

「Waah, Celia-chan, you scared me~」

When Celia heard Claire would be joining us, she quickly dragged Leah, who she’s close with, along with her.

「I’m not enough to fully occupy Aegir-sama. That would mean Aegir-sama would go embrace the girls provided by that female merchant.」

「I’ll do my best.」

Leah was forcefully taken by Celia, but she doesn’t seem dissatisfied.

She happily clings to my arm and presses her chest against me.

「I don’t often get to come along on long trips so I’m happy to be together with you~」

I pat the fawning Leah while inspecting her body.

She’s one size shorter than Celia.

Her body is more on the chubby side instead of being muscular because she doesn’t train.

「Aahn.」

When I fondle her breasts, I can tell they’re fairly larger than Celia’s.

Perhaps it’s because she’s been eating good food, her breasts and ass are growing bigger and bigger.

「I want you to touch my boobs more. It makes me happy when Master touches me~」

Her body isn’t the only thing that’s soft, her demeanor is soft too.

In spite of that, she is extremely skilled in bed and I can’t get enough of the insides of her excellent vagina, which coils around me like a separate living being.

「I’d be happy if you take me around to more places too. I’m usually just left behind on long journeys after all.」

Leah, unlike Celia, isn’t used to fighting and isn’t quick on her feet either, so I really don’t want to bring her to any dangerous places.

Goods are frequently transported to and from Lintbloom, plus there are inns and regularly maintained paths along the way, so I thought it would be safe to take her with us.

「I’ll do just that if the place we’re going to is safe. Now, let’s not keep Balbano waiting.」

「It would be nice if you got a new weapon......」

Celia becomes somewhat gloomy again.

「I told you not to worry about that.」

I stroke Celia’s head lightly.

Then I quickly remember to stroke Leah’s head right after.

「Leah is as tall as Celia was a little while ago and at just the right height for me to pet.」

I realize my improper wording after I said it.

Celia slumps down onto her knees.

I guess getting her head pet by me is something quite important to her.

「My bad, my bad. I’ll pet you too.」

「Habubu...... my head please.」

We make our way to where the dwarves live while I squeeze Celia’s face.

Dwarven Residence. Tunnel in the Mountains.

「So you lost that spear?」

Balbano and I speak to each other one-on-one.

Celia wanted to say something but I don’t like using a woman as an excuse so I left her in the adjacent room.

Balbano is short and stout as usual, at about 160 cm in height, but has a bulging muscular fram and extremely short legs.

His face is decorated with a beard and his limbs are covered in a thick layer of hair.

「Yeah, I know you took time and effort to make it for me, but I thought it wouldn’t do any good if I died.」

I exchanged it for my life and a woman’s life, and while I might be sorry, I’m not ashamed.

Balbano closes his eyes and chugs some alcohol.

「No worries. That was a good weapon, but it’s nothing compared to losing a friend. I’m glad you came back alive.」

The bearded man stands up and pulls me in for a firm hug.

I don’t like hugging guys but I’ll put up with it for now.

「I still have something left to do. I can’t die just yet.」

I want to meet Lucy and embrace her once more.

I gained so much experience in sleeping with women after leaving the forest.

My body and dick are much bigger than before.

As I am now, I can probably face her head-on and make her submit with my meat rod.

I would continue to pound Lucy even as she screams she’s at her limit, bite her neck and squeeze her breasts so hard that it hurts.

Still, she would wrap her voluptuous thighs around my waist while clenching tightly to my shaft.......

「Hey......」

「......don’t mind me.」

As my delusions go wild, so does my dick.

Balbano swiftly steps back from me.

It’s a misunderstanding.

「So you came here only to apologize?」

Balbano takes his seat.

He’s sitting a bit further away than before.

「That’s one reason...... I also have a request for you.」

「A replacement spear?」

As expected of him, he knows what I want.

Come closer, why are you stepping so far back?

「Yeah, I’m putting a request in this time so I’m naturally going to pay you for it.」

The dwarves don’t show much interest in money so I’ll reward them with meat and alcohol.

Apparently they drink our alcohol like it’s tasty water.

「Hmm......」

However Balbano strokes his beard while looking somewhat troubled.

I take one step forward.

「I’ll reward you with as much as it takes to satisfy you.」

Balbano takes a step backward.

「Our friendship can’t be measured with the amount of payment. It’s just that I don’t have any materials.」

He did say that the materials used in that spear was precious.

「You don’t have to use the very best materials. It’s enough for me if it doesn’t break when I use it in battle.」

「The important materials have all been used up in making cannons and what not. I can still make something better than your local blacksmiths with what I have on hand but I can’t give something like that to a friend.」

I’m fine with something like that though.

It’s not like I’ll be hanging it up as decoration.

「I will forever regret it if the spear breaks and my pal dies. I won’t hand over anything half-assed!」

Balbano is, just like his outward appearance, stubborn.

It won’t improve the product if I continue to hound him.

「Do you have someone to supply you with materials?」

「Recently, a young crowd has been digging through a new tunnel, probably inspired by your friends. We can probably gather some materials there.」

Hmm...... seems it’ll be pretty time-consuming.

Right as I was thinking about asking the blacksmiths in Lintbloom to make something in the meantime, I feel a rumbling in my stomach.

At the same time, the earth beneath my feet shakes and dust falls down from the ceiling.

「I-is it another earthquake!?」

Celia quickly runs over.

No, it’s much closer and shorter than what we experienced in Vandolea.

「A cave-in!? Check to see if anyone got caught under the rocks!」

Balbano instantly realizes the truth of the situation, tosses away his alcohol and dashes out of the room.

「It’s the path that Bonbo and Dogon dug!」

「Search for them, they might be buried underneath the rubble. Take shovels and pickaxes with you!」

Dwarves start gathering around from nearby.

「Sorry, but we’ll have to continue this later. I have to go now as well.」

「I’ll go too.」

For now, I’ll take the hammer hung up in this room.

With this, I would be able to smash any boulders blocking the way.

「We’ll go too.」

Celia, Gido, and Christoph will be coming with me.

I speak to Balbano as we run through the tunnel.

「Do cave-ins happen often?」

I hear that it happens frequently in the iron mine leading to casualties.

「Of course not, we’re dwarves that live in the mountains. Screw-ups like that are rare. ......That’s why I’m worried. There’s a chance it would pierce through that place.」

「The abyss......?」

There is a place deep down in the mountains filled with monsters called ‘the abyss’ and there are rare times when digging tunnels would cause a slit which connects to that hell to open up.

When that happens, monsters will keep rushing out until the hole is sealed.

「I don’t want to see another spider like the last time. I don’t have my spear either.」

As we grumble our ways down the tunnel, we reach the end and sure enough see that the ceiling has collapsed.

Two dwarves were pinned underneath the fallen rocks and dirt.

「They’re trapped under there! Dig them out!」

While their buddies are busy digging, Balbano and I check the wall at the very back.

「There’s a crack.」

It is a large enough opening that I can easily see through to the other side.

I try looking through the crack and see nothing but darkness.

Does that mean it’s connected to that abyss?

「Move, let me see.」

Balbano takes a pot of oil lit with fire...... uses it like a torch and throws it over to the other side through the crack.

After a few seconds, I could hear the pot shatter and a small flame grows inside the pitch black space.

Seeing that, the dwarves sigh lightly in relief.

「So it isn’t the abyss like we thought. If it was, it would be a bottomless hole.」

But Balbano’s face quickly tenses up.

「It looks like a relatively large cave. It might be possible that it leads to the abyss so investigations must be done.」

It’s true that it took several seconds before the pot fell and shattered at the bottom, meaning it’s definitely a deep and wide hole.

I make sure I have my hammer just in case enemies appear.

「You have a sword too!」

Celia brought my Dual Crater with her.

What a good girl, I’ll lick her pussy enough to make her dripping wet later.

Balbano takes a sturdy-looking rope from his friends woven together with what looks like something metallic, then hammers the end of it to the ground before tossing the other end through the crack in front of us.

I guess we’ll be going down the hole with this.

「I’ll go first. You come after me.」

「Might as well, since I’m already here.」

Balbano takes the lead, followed by me and then Celia. We descend down the cavity while relying on the metallic chain.

When I pause briefly, Celia lowers her soft ass on my face.

「Please don’t play around right now!」

She got upset.

I’ll prepare myself for what’s to come then.

「You idiot! Don’t fart on my head!」

Sorry, I tensed up too much.

When we reach the bottom, we get some light by setting fire to flammable ore.

We have to make sure this hole doesn’t connect to the abyss.

「Everything looks clear over here.」

「Nothing over here either. There is no hole or crack.」

「In darkness, you can see the truth......」

「Uwaaaaaah!! ......nevermind, it was just a mushroom.」

Celia and the others didn’t find anything.

Balbano also runs around, checking the wall here and there, not finding any particular problems.

Nevertheless, this is such a large area...... this space is easily over 50 meters tall and the radius seems to be greater than 100 meters.

In most cases, areas like these would be irregularly shaped but this place is almost perfectly circular......it makes me think I’m inside a giant building or something.

「The ground is flat and clear too.」

There are no rocks, bumps or dips in the ground.

It was as if someone tidied the place up.......

「What’s that?」

I find a spot in the perfectly round walls that looks abnormal.

I shine a light on the area and see a large protruding bulge.

Is it a sculpture or something?

「Only this part is a different color.」

I take my hammer and try hitting that spot, but it makes a ‘kachink’ sound and makes my hand feel numb.

It’s strangely hard.

As I grimace in pain, I look up to find two shining orbs of light.

「Huh?」

I hold my torch up and don’t find anything unusual.

It’s just a little big.

「Eyes, huh?」

I sigh and turn around, then quickly run to where the rope is.

「Aegir-sama, something strange is-...... mgh!」

As Celia runs and meets me halfway, I stop her mid-sentence, then pick her up and carry her.

Balbano as well as Gido and company also silently signal each other with hand signals before running full speed.

「Oi, oi...... what is that......?」

Christoph freezes as he turns to look behind him.

Gestures were made to tell him not to let out a sound, but that idiot doesn’t seem to have the courage not to do so.

「Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!」

Christoph’s scream echoes throughout the entire space and then, as if answering back, a terrifying, head-splitting roar shook the air.

Gido tumbles after hearing that sound while Balbano and I stop moving altogether.

Christoph, who was the closest to the sound, gets blown away and faints.

Kroll closes his eyes and spreads his arms wide. Celia lets out a weak whimper.

After the roar, that thing slowly gets up and makes its way toward us.

I say it’s heading toward us, but it really takes just two or three steps, and yet it was able to close a lot of distance.

「......It doesn’t look possible for us to turn our backs to it and climb the rope.」

「Who would have thought it actually exists......」

Balbano and I turn around and ready our weapons.

「Li-Li-Lintbloom!!」

Gido, who certainly isn’t a coward, starts trembling and falls flat on his ass.

「I’m fine!」

I push Celia behind me even though she tries to act strong.

Don’t worry about wetting your pants, I won’t tell anyone.

「Something big showed up again. The spider would be a hundred times better than this.」

With that said, a torch was thrown right at the enemy to illuminate the area.

The creature had a large body many meters tall, a similarly large face and a large gaping mouth, and finally glowing eyes.

Its limbs were like thick tree trunks, it had a long tail we couldn’t see the end of, and extending from its front limbs are claws that are longer than me.

On its back are folded wings as large as its body.

Further, its entire body seems impenetrable...... speaking from my experience of hitting it, this thing’s body clearly appears to be covered in countless sturdy scales.

「It goes without saying, that’s a dragon.」

I comment while hiding my cold sweat.

I try my best to make light of the situation but I don’t get any response.

This might be bad.

–Third Person POV–

Battle of White City③ All-Out Attack.

「Start the attack, concentrate on the upper portion of the fortress. Don’t worry if it gets a few allies caught up in the blasts.」

Sekrit gives the order and battleships immediately approach White City, starting the cannonfire.

This time, the White City side counterattacks without delay and showers the fleet with projectiles.

「Senelace, sunk instantly.」「Agule, severely damaged.」

Sekrit doesn’t react to the damage report.

The damage to the fleet is increasing but many cannonballs have landed on the walls too and she could see cannons and soldiers flying left and right.

「The land army has begun to charge.」

The Empire’s land army rushes towards the castle walls amidst the rising smoke.

「Focus your aim predominantly at the places they’re counterattacking.」

The Imperial army gets hit with a barrage of arrows and cannonballs as they close in on the walls, scattering and running around in confusion.

Shortly after, the fleet would bombard the place where the counterattack happened.

This series of events would repeat itself several times, resulting in piles of dead Imperial soldiers at the feet of the walls, but it also resulted in drastically reduced resistance.

「The land army has put up the smoke signal!」

「Stop firing.」

As soon as the red smoke was spotted, Sekrit orders for the bombarding to stop.

Losing disposable soldiers due to friendly fire isn’t a big deal but accidentally firing at a crucial location is something serious.

Many Imperial soldiers mix together to form a few squads and advance towards the castle walls.

「Do you think things will go smoothly?」

「Only if the amount we use doesn’t rout them.」

A blue smoke signal goes up to indicate the plan is a success.

And then simultaneously, a big explosion incomparable to the ones caused by cannonballs destroys the a portion of the walls.

「Burying gunpowder at the base of the wall and blowing up the walls directly......?」

「If we could do this, why did we not do it until now......」

Sekrit sighs in response to her incompetent subordinates.

A risky attack like that won’t work on undamaged walls.

It’s because the walls are already riddled with holes that they can be finished off just by throwing gunpowder at them.

There’s no way slowly poking small holes into the wall would be effective while the enemy’s defensive structures remained operational.

Explaining all of that in detail is too troublesome.

Sekrit only gives out orders.

「The walls have fallen. The rest is up to the land army while we stay vigilant for the enemy fleet.」

The walls have collapsed but just a single portion of it.

They could not provide further assistance with cannonfire because the area is beyond their line of sight

「The rest is dependant on Zaphnes’s skill...... it would be nice if he does a good job.」

The Empire’s land army invade through the large hole opened up in the first layer of the castle walls.

Because such an enormous amount of gunpowder was used to blow up the wall, a large enough hole was created for a massive army to flood in.

「Invade all the way to the city!」「Break through the next wall before the enemy can get ready!」「Destroy everything in sight!」

The Imperial soldiers charge in shouting their war cries only to see nothing in front of them.

They couldn’t see any enemy soldiers hurrying to escape from the broken wall or hastily moving the cannons.

When they started to express their doubts, the gates of the second wall standing in their paths opened.

「Throw out these savages. All regiments, advance!」

The Federation soldiers wrapped in white armor rush towards the Imperial soldiers.

At the same time, numerous cannons and archers provide intense supporting fire.

The Imperial army had no backup after stepping beyond the first wall.

In addition, the Imperial soldiers were cluttered from pushing their way through the hole and rushing in blindly, whereas the Federation soldiers marched in orderly ranks.

The Federation soldiers were waiting for the enemy to invade after the first wall went down.

As soon as the two sides clashed, the soldiers from the Empire fell apart instantly, finding themselves in a one-sided rout, and then running for their lives through the hole they were finally able to crack in the first wall.

「Hmph, fools. Did they expect the soldiers to cling to the battered walls forever?」

Exactly as the Federation’s commander said, the defense headquarters, having determined the first wall was at its limit, moved most of the soldiers and cannons to the second wall.

With the supporting fire from the fleet, they anticipated the wall on the south side to be broken and concentrated most of the defensive troops there.

「If we fight at the second wall, the fleet’s cannons will not reach us.」

「That’s right. The enemy can only try and fight without any backup. We’ll show them what we can do.」

White City still will not fall.

The light in the eyes of the Federation soldiers has not died yet.

Federation VS. Empire – Comparison of Military Forces (Current + Losses = Max Mobilization. In the case where numbers don’t match, it means there are spare forces.)

Olga Federation

Military Strength – Current: 550 000, Max Mobilization: 2 550 000, Losses: 1 150 000, Civilian Victims: 930 000

Garland Empire

Military Strength – Current: 2 150 000, Max Mobilization: 3 100 000, Losses: 950 000 (Military slaves not included)

Protagonist: Aegir Hardlett. 23 years old. Late Autumn.

Status: Goldonia Kingdom Margrave. Great Feudal Lord of Eastern Area. King of the Mountains. Rose1 Friend of the Dwarves. Friend of the King of Aless.

Citizens: 172,000. Major Cities – Rafen: 24,000. Lintbloom: 5000. Vandolea Special Town: 9000.

Celia (leaking), Gido (panic), Christoph (fainted)

Assets: 2440 gold (Allowance for Leticia sisters -10)

Sexual Partners: 234, children who have been born: 54 + 555 fish