The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 218
We arrived at a building reminiscent of a palace in the area where women were said to be confined.
Ash mutters in disbelief, “Is this for real? Something like this exists underground?”
Despite being underground, the building was excessively luxurious. It was unnecessarily opulent, as if symbolizing the vested interests in both the underground market and this mine.
“Ars, with multiple women confined in a place like this, it’s obviously some kind of harem. As royalty, I know these things well.”
“Harem…”
“What, hits too close to home?”
“Watch what you say. Even I find it distasteful.”
“Hehe, sorry.”
The thought that Yumir was in such a harem made my blood boil.
As I subtly released my killing intent, Ash says with a bitter smile, “Looks like our other companions are drawing attention well. There are no guards. Let’s enter right away.”
We passed by the five-story main building and headed toward what appeared to be a garden behind it.
That’s when we heard it.
“Damn it, why do I have to do this kind of work?”
A male beastkin was grumbling while washing women who were sprawled out like dolls. Signs of sexual abuse were evident on the women, with bruises visible across their bodies.
“Damn it. Should I look for another Alliance?”
At that moment, Ash and I made eye contact. When I nodded, Ash suppressed his presence to the extreme. His presence became so faint it was as if a ghost stood before us.
Ash approached the man washing the women with indifferent hands from behind and held a dagger to his throat.
“Make even the slightest sound and I’ll tear your throat open.”
“…!?”
As the man froze in shock, having confirmed he was subdued, I decided to ask the women for information about Yumir.
Ash began interrogating the subdued man.
“Name?”
“Kuk…!”
As the blade pressed against his neck, the man reluctantly spoke.
“Ingeum! Ingeum Seibrid!”
“State your affiliation.”
“Rank 12 of Roar.”
“A small fry then.”
Ash conducted the interrogation skillfully. I tried to get information from the sprawled women, but they were too terrified to say anything.
I considered using charm magic, but just then Ash finished his interrogation.
“Hey, blond punk! I got the information.”
“Who are you calling a blond punk?”
“Well, I can’t exactly call you by name, can I?”
Ash made Ingeum take the lead.
The guy seemed to be cooperating with us while looking for a chance to call for help.
So when we reached the entrance of the harem, he tried to shout to the guards stationed there, but with a slash! Ash cut his throat with the dagger before he could.
“Kh… As expected of someone from the Magic Continent. Your ruthlessness is different.”
It’s like having the philosophy of ‘kill or be killed’ ingrained in their instincts.
Ash smirks at my admiration.
“You’re from the Magic Continent too. Well, I get what you’re trying to say, but more importantly, what are we going to do about those guards?”
“I’ll handle them.”
I threw a flash orb and easily dealt with the guards who were groaning from temporary blindness.
Afterwards, I collected the bundle of keys they had.
The entrance was open.
We carefully made our way into the harem.
* * *
Elliot, searching the city with his Alliance members, soon secured evidence.
‘The higher Alliance’s indiscriminate slave hunting to secure workers for the mines…! This will cause an uproar!’
He planned to escape quickly. Whatever happened to Ars wasn’t his concern.
This conviction grew stronger after encountering a Roar executive while collecting evidence.
“So this is a Roar executive…! He’s a complete monster!”
Even with coordinated attacks from other Alliance members, they barely managed to kill him.
That opponent was ranked 9th. This meant there were eight even more vicious ones above him.
“I’m sorry, Wade. Please don’t resent me.”
Elliot believed that exposing this incident to the public was true justice and a noble cause. For this cause, whether Ars’ operation succeeded or failed didn’t matter.
Besides, Ars had a teleportation scroll, so the chances of death were slim even if the operation failed.
Therefore, Elliot decided to leave this underground city earlier than planned.
“That’s enough! Minimize combat and retreat quickly! Those protecting the witnesses should leave first!”
As they headed toward the exit of the underground city..
There was a crowd at the exit.
‘Damn, did they block the exit first after all!’
Elliot thought they were in trouble, but the situation was the opposite.
The one guarding the exit wasn’t the enemy, but Ilya.
Knowing Ash had gone with Ars to their destination, Ilya was guarding the exit to draw the enemy’s attention and secure their escape route.
Elliot was shocked.
‘Guarding that place alone? That’s insane!’
Though Elliot planned to use Ilya as bait to escape, he soon noticed something strange about the situation.
Ilya grins while staring at the opponents maintaining their distance.
“What’s the hesitation? Not going to attack?”
“…!”
The Roar Alliance members flinched. They watched Ilya cautiously without moving an inch.
Elliot’s jaw dropped when he checked around her.
‘Those are…!’
They were Roar executives. Ranks 7, 3, 4, and 6 lay dead on the ground.
Even in this unbelievable situation, Elliot quickly calculated.
‘Now’s our chance to escape!’
He attempted to break through while the encirclement’s attention was focused on Ilya.
“Sorry, but we’re leaving first!”
“…”
Ilya glared briefly at Elliot but didn’t stop him. She understood their position.
With Elliot’s group gone, only Ars’ group remained.
Though Ilya appeared confident on the outside, she was anxious inside.
‘The number of enemies keeps growing.’
If they increased any more, escape might become impossible.
That’s when that man appeared.
A brawny beastkin. When he appeared, the Roar Alliance members trembled.
“Alliance Leader!”
“Brother Alaga! You’ve come!”
Alaga, who had revealed himself, stared at his dead executives with white eyes of rage.
“You… How dare you kill my brothers.”
He released tremendous pressure. Ilya licked her lips at this pressure. She could feel he was on a different level from those she’d faced so far.
“Where are you from? Who sent you? A strong one like you can’t be unknown. State your name!”
“The Strongest Mom.” [Tl/N: lol]
“…What?”
“That’s my current name.”
It was the operational nickname Ash had given Ilya.
“Are you joking!”
“It’s not a joke. It’s actually true.”
Alaga raised the greatsword on his back in outrage.
“I’ll cut off that head and see your face!”
Inwardly, Ilya thought this was fortunate. Thanks to Alaga’s excessive confidence in challenging her alone, she could buy more time.
‘Hurry and finish it, Ars. We don’t have much time…!’
Clang! While deflecting the opponent’s greatsword, Ilya glanced toward where Ars had gone.
***
The interior of the harem was beautiful. Whether it was the master’s taste or perhaps a manifestation of an inferiority complex toward the upper class, the interior felt like a royal palace garden.
However, rather than being beautiful, it was chilling due to the lifelessness of the people wandering there.
The garden was filled with countless pregnant women. Even those who weren’t pregnant had young children with them.
Ash gasped at the overwhelming numbers.
“Wow! Whoever the master is, they must be incredibly virile!”
“Ash, let’s split up and search.”
“Good idea. I’ll search the mansion area over there.”
There were about six large mansions that appeared to be residences inside. Since there wasn’t time to check each one thoroughly, I decided to cause a commotion even at the risk of danger.
I threw a magic orb into the sky, causing a loud explosion.
This should have attracted the attention of the people here.
“Yumir!! I’ve come to find you!”
I began searching while shouting.
On Ash’s side, he was also shouting, “Miss Yumir! The prince has come to get you!”
However, even after about 20 minutes, there was no response. My anxiety grew stronger with each passing moment.
The anxiety that Elliot’s tracking magic had simply failed, and all of this was for nothing.
The rumors about the pregnant beast-people woman seen here made sense now. With so many pregnant women here, of course there would be rumors.
“Yumir! Where are you!”
Now we had at most 15 minutes left.
Ash seemed to be feeling anxious too. Unable to wait any longer, he returned to me.
“Ars, what are we going to do? I won’t stop you if you want to search until the end, but finding Miss Yumir that way might backfire.”
We could search until the end. Since we were using teleportation scroll, we could escape if we attempted self-destruction in a dangerous moment.
But Yumir couldn’t. In that case, stirring up the hornet’s nest might only put Yumir in danger.
I had to make a decision. Should we risk the danger and confirm Yumir’s whereabouts? Or should we retreat and regroup?
Which was the right decision was clear.
“…Let’s get out. But we’ll keep searching until the last possible moment.”
“Got it. Then I’ll prepare our escape route.”
“No, I have another request for you.”
I pointed to the high-rise building that seemed to represent this district.
“Ash, go there and get anything that looks like confidential documents.”
“Oh, you want to take something with us? Well, it would be frustrating to return empty-handed. Alright, leave it to me.”
After sending Ash off, I resumed the futile search.
“Yumir!! Please come out if you’re here!”
That’s when it happened.
“Um….”
A woman approached hesitantly. I was going to ignore her, thinking she would just ask to be saved, but her next words stopped me in my tracks.
“You’re looking for Yumir, aren’t you?”
“You know about her!”
“Eek!”
The woman fell on her bottom in fear when I rushed toward her.
I wanted to ask about Yumir’s appearance since it could be someone else with the same name, but she was too frightened to say anything.
“Tch!”
Since I had no time to waste, I removed my mask and made eye contact with the woman.
‘Charm!’
I cast Charm at maximum intensity. The woman’s pupils dilated for a moment, and her wariness of me faded.
I must have put too much magic into it, as her gaze now held some strange emotions.
“If you know anything about Yumir, please tell me.”
“She… Was a pregnant beast-person. I remember her because she was very composed.”
It was Yumir. This meant Elliot’s tracking magic had worked correctly.
“Where is she now?”
“Well, I don’t know. I haven’t seen her for about two weeks.”
“What do you mean…”
Could she have been harmed by Roar’s people? If that was the case, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to maintain my sanity.
Perhaps my expression betrayed my thoughts, as the woman, though still frightened, tried to comfort me.
“The master of this place, a beast-person named Alaga, doesn’t tolerate children that aren’t his own. If he finds out a child isn’t his, he kills it immediately.”
Crunch! I unconsciously ground my teeth.
“Miss Yumir was staying here pretending to be pregnant with Alaga’s child. Since Alaga happened to be away on the surface during that time, she somehow managed to deceive everyone. She didn’t have to be summoned by Alaga either, since she was already pregnant.”
The problem came as her due date approached. It would be disastrous if Alaga checked.
“So what happened?”
“After that, I’m not sure… This is just a rumor, but I heard that one of the upper Alliances that controls mining rights secretly helps people here escape to the surface. If Miss Yumir isn’t dead, I think she might have gotten their help to go to the surface…”
My head was in chaos.
Either way, it was certain that Yumir wasn’t in this harem anymore, so there was nothing more to see here.
“Thank you. …I’ll reward you later.”
“Ah…”
The woman’s eyes welled up with tears, silently begging me to take her with us. This was the troublesome part of using Charm.
“I’m sorry. But I promise I’ll make sure you can escape from here. It might take some time…”
“But…! *sob* *sniff*”
Just then, Ash returned with the confidential documents.
Ash shuddered when he saw the crying woman.
“Don’t, don’t tell me you were hitting on women even at a time like this?”
“Stop talking nonsense. Let’s get out of here quickly.”
The operation had changed from a raid to an escape.
We headed toward the exit where Master Ilya was holding position.
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