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Kaoru Chapter 32: Hell, first stage

 

We arrived at the 4th village.

With the boy, Tapani’s guide, Kaoru’s party headed to the hut at the end of the village.

The villager built a hut on the outside of the well, the villagers seemed they wanted to camouflage this place as just a storehouse.

「That hut」(Boy)

When Kaoru got out of the caravan and tried to approach the cabin which Tappani pointed to, there were about 20 Empire cavalries approaching from the center of the village.

「Damn, the Cavalry Squadron of the Empire!」(Roland)

Roland unsheathes the sword on horseback, the female knight Francette and five Royal guards also unsheathe their sword.

Although the number of enemy soldiers was three times of ours, we have Roland who is master in sword and Elite Royal guards. Not to mention Francette who trained all her life until now to become a royal knight, and right now her abilities even got boosted many times with Kaoru’s potion.

On the enemy side, the Empire cavalries were weakened due to a few days of food and water shortage, and even their horses were also getting tired.

Looking at the situation, Kaoru thinks that it’s going to be okay and heads for the hut. 7 children add one more boy Tapani makes it a total of 8 children also follow after.

In front of the hut, 4 children stopped and kept guard the entrance of the hut. Although they look like empty-handed, each child is holding a knife in his bosom. Since it’s impossible for a child to swing the sword properly anyway.

Kaoru took out a medicine bottle from the item box and grasped it on her left hand. It was troublesome to decide the effect of medicine many times, so Kaoru created a lot of it and kept it in the item box instead of creating it every time.

Then, Kaoru opened the door with her right hand and went into a dark hut with four children … There were three Imperial soldiers standing there.

Imperial main army seemed haven’t reached this village yet. These soldiers must be a scout team.

「Who are you ?」(Soldier)

One of the Imperial soldiers who were drinking water yells to Kaoru and the children.

Kaoru and the children remain silent because they can’t honestly answer that question of the enemy soldiers.

But then one of the soldiers noticed the bottle that Kaoru hold.

「Huh, what is that thing you are holding?」(Soldier)

Kaoru thinks this is bad but it’s already too late to hide the bottle now.

「No way, you plan to poison this well too」(Soldier)

The 3 soldiers stand up and block the way to the well.

What should I do, Kaoru hesitated.

If I use explosion, we will draw the attention of the outside soldiers. Even if Roland and others are strong, it’s still difficult to prevent dozens of imperial soldiers from heading to the hut because of the different number of people.

Then should I use sulfuric acid or hydro chloric acid?

But isn’t it the same if these soldiers scream? What should I do to rob their fighting power in a moment …

It wasn’t so difficult to beat enemy. But Kaoru was busy thinking for a few seconds that make the children thinking Kaoru is in trouble.

And the kids decided to help with Kaoru’s trouble.

「……Huh?」(Kaoru)

The youngest child that is 8 years old girl, Bell pulled the medicine bottle from Kaoru’s hand and rushed out to the soldiers.

Meanwhile Emil held Kaoru’s hand to stop her chasing after Bell.

「It’s okay, let Bell do it」(Emil)

Kaoru didn’t understand what Emil was trying to say.

Bell holds the medicine bottle in front of her chest and running to toward the well.

The soldiers grin as they watch Bell running. It’s easy to catch such young girl that run toward them. In order to spray the poison on the well, that kid needs to go straight to them and open the lid of the bottle and put the medicine in the well. Even if she tries to throw it as it is, there are three adults blocking like a walls, they can easily stop the bottle throw by a little girl.
Thus the soldiers were standing in front of the well with a comfortable look.

Bell was running toward the the soldier in the middle, and just when she came in his reach, she turn to the left side and a second later she moved to the right. Three soldiers tried to followed her all the way and clash with each others. They expected the most she can do is change the direction only one time.

This is a technique that make use of a small body to break through the surroundings of adults trying to capture the vagrant that often steal things.

Bell kept both arms in front of her chest to hold the bottle, lowered her posture and kept the possibility of being caught to a minimum as she tried to run pass the soldiers. She did not open the lid of the bottle, didn’t swing up the arm and didn’t slow down her speed. But even when she passed through the soldiers, she still kept running with that speed and rushed straight into the well.

「What…」(Kaoru)

Emil said to Kaoru who was staggering.

「I already said, Bell will do it」(Emil)

When Kaoru was looking at Emil, he had an unbelievable face, there was no facial expression on that face.

「Why! Why did you let her do that!」(Kaoru)

Emily answered graciously to Kaoru.

「On that day, Bell was already dead. But you had saved her life.

After that, she was able to live the happiest days in her life.

She was really graceful to you, enough for her to devote her life …

And Bell was also a member of 「the eyes of the goddess」!」(Emil)

「Don’t toy with me!」(Kaoru)

Kaoru raises her right hand to slap Emil. But reflect in her eyes. There was tear sticked to Emil’s cheek.

Kaoru let down her raised arm gently.

「You idiot …」(Kaoru)

The soldiers of the Empire who were stunned for a while finally stand up again.

「Brats, what did you do …」(Soldier A)

「There is only one safe well …, the hope of our army …」(Soldier B)

The three Imperial soldiers are in despair with their failure to secure the well for the future of their own army from the kids before them, pulled out the sword. Kill all the children. Their eyes said so.

However, it wasn’t only Imperial soldiers who were furious.

「… Die」(Kaoru)

Together with Kaoru’s cold word, the soldiers hold down their chest and belly.

One soldier can’t breathe because of hydrogen peroxide water packed plenty in his lungs and drown on land.

One soldier is melted from the inside of his body by dilute sulfuric acid in the stomach.

And the last one, his body stopped moving, even his heart gradually stopped its movement.

After suffering for a while, the three soldiers were out of breath.

「Not yet, it’s only the first stage」(Kaoru)

Kaoru muttered so. Emil don’t know the Japanese phrase so he doesn’t understand what it means.

Suddenly Kaoru noticed that Emil rushed to the well and was about to jump in.

Kaoru stopped him and yelled

「What are you doing?」 (Kaoru)

「Bell may still be alive and I have to help her!」(Emil)

「There is no need for that」(Kaoru)

「Huh…!?」(Emil)

Emil is amazed at Kaoru’s words.

Then, Kaoru held out her left hand, and the next moment, a girl appeared from there.

「Eh? This is… I …」(Bell)

「「BELL !! 」」(Emil + other children)

Kaoru didn’t bother to add meaningless restrictions when deciding the specification of the item box.

Because time is stopped inside, there’s no problem to put living things inside as well.

Since everything will be stored directly in subspace, there’s no need for Kaoru to directly touch to store things.

About what happened before, as soon as Bell jumped into a well, Kaoru had stored Bell in the item box.

There was a possibility of her getting hurt when she fell, and because she jumped in with head first, she might die if things went wrong.

There was no sound at that time, why didn’t anyone wonder about it?

Since the medicine bottle was also stored together with Bell, Kaoru must take it out again to spray in the well. But before that.

「Listen well, all of you

If you have dedicated your life to me. Then I won’t allow you to die without my permission.

Got it?」(Kaoru)

While embracing Bell and shedding tears, Emil was nodding to Kaoru together with other children.

Even if he isn’t a member of「goddess’ eyes」, the boy in this village had seen the miracle for the first time. Tapani opened his mouth and was looking at it with a stunned face.

After pouring the medicine to the well, Kaoru and the children left the hut, it was just when the battle ended.

There were about 4-5 Imperial Cavalries who ran away desperately.

There’s no need to chase them because we don’t need to keep secret of what happened here.

Now, there aren’t any wells that can be used in this village anymore. The enemies won’t be able to do anything.

There were also injured people on our side as well. One of the Royal Guard is slightly injured, and two more Royal Guards were with considerably deep scratches.
Because it was a battle between cavalries, there was no time to stab the sword to the one who was wounded and fallen from the horse. those who lost their fighting ability often were left untouched and they need to immediately fight with other cavalry. We was fortunate that there’s no death on our allies.

And of course, Kaoru instantly cured all of them with potion.

The miracle that the Royal Guards saw for the first time surprised them.

Although they may have seen the effect of a commercially available one, the thing Kaoru used this time is a genuine Goddess’s tear.

As for the Imperial cavalries, most of them heavily injured and there were also dead, but many of them were still alive.

Kaoru was wondering whether to kill them or not, but in the end she decided to cure them to the extent that they don’t die, to prevent them from resisting when we take them back.

We were able to transfer consumable goods away and have free space in the carriage for the prisoners, except for those who ran away and the dead, the captives are about 10 people.

As a precaution, Kaoru’s party reconfirmed the inside of the village lightly, and found 3 dead bodies that seemed to be villagers. Tapani confirmed that they are the said villager traitors.

Even if the villagers told the Imperial Soldiers the location of the hidden well, there’s still no reason for Imperial soldiers to pay the villagers of the enemy country anything. And the said soldiers are the one who start invading our country in the first place.

It was a very poor idea of the farmers.

Well, at least the property of other villagers are still safe.

Because all the Imperial soldiers this time were cavalry squads, we can secure the horses from the dead and captured riders

Fortunately there were no dead horses, and Kaoru cured all injuries by potion.

Kaoru insisted on ownership of these horses. Horses, especially military trained horses, can sell with good values. For Kaoru, the horses were worth far more than the prisoners of war.

Then Kaoru’s party took along the horses and the prisoners, went to the returning road again. They joined with the 2 Royal guards who came back after they completely put medicine to the well in 5^th Village.

And, just in case, the group returned to the Capital while confirming the wells of the remaining two villages.

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