The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 261

The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 261

The Day of the Seven Deadly Sins Subjugation.

Our group traveled by carriage since morning.

Since the area where the Seven Deadly Sins were located had already been designated as a restricted zone, we headed there with thorough preparation.

Meanwhile, Anton, Sophia, and Ash were traveling together in my carriage to discuss future matters.

“I see, so Beckavia eventually…”

“Yes, the Beckavia royal family members who felt their lives were threatened surrendered separately to Tunkai and Calliper. Tunkai and Calliper plan to use those royals to establish justification for conquering the Beckavia region.”

“Thank you for letting me know.”

Until now, Sophia seemed to have held onto a sliver of hope thinking that perhaps Juras had been talking nonsense, but after Anton’s confirmation, she appeared to have resigned herself to the truth.

“…Are you okay?”

When I asked this to comfort her, Sophia let out a deep sigh.

“I’ve been thinking about something lately. What a nation means to its people.”

“That’s quite a philosophical concern.”

“Well, you know, even the Ellan Kingdom is in chaos right now. Everywhere you hear voices resenting the nation, and people slandering the royal family… Seeing that made me realize that nations are transient things that can prosper or fall at any time. For example, Wade, if you put your mind to it, couldn’t you make the Ellan Kingdom disappear and establish a new kingdom?”

“Well… If I were to decide to do so, I suppose that could happen.”

“Isn’t it ridiculous? The fate of the Ellan Kingdom with its hundreds of years of history could be determined by the whim of a single person.”

“…”

“That’s how Beckavia was too. A weak nation that couldn’t escape the cycle of rise and fall. Thinking about it that way, I don’t even feel sorrowful anymore.”

Seeing this, Ash whispers to me.

“What’s with her, talking like some world-weary old lady?”

“Be quiet, you.”

Perhaps having heard everything, Sophia smiles bitterly and says.

“More importantly, what are you going to do from now on? We should be able to return to the Magic Continent soon.”

“About that, I think it will take quite some time.”

“Is it because of the magic stones?”

“Yes, just one teleportation requires about as much as that magic stone you cherish so much. If we’re talking about a round trip, we’d need much more.”

Moreover, this is just for one person. If we’re talking about moving three or four people, the number of magic stones needed would increase much more.

“That should be fine soon enough. You’ll secure more magic stones as you subjugate more dungeons.”

“It’s just a matter of time.”

At that moment, Ash mutters.

“…Something feels artificial about this.”

“What do you mean by artificial?”

“Well, just. Let’s say the teleportation using massive amounts of magic stones makes sense. What bothers me is how we’re able to obtain such precious magic stones so conveniently now. If it weren’t for this time of turbulence, wouldn’t it have been difficult to obtain such high-quality magic stones?”

“That’s…”

“Yeah, it’s like this turbulence happened just in time for us to be able to travel between here and the Magic Continent.”

“Originally, subjugating dungeons doesn’t create magic stones. It only produces evaporating magic stones. Converting them into magic stones…”

“Isn’t something only you can do, right? When dungeons choose self-destruction, they become magic stones.”

“Hmm…”

“What if someone who knows this secret starts collecting magic stones and begins traveling to and from the Magic Continent?”

“What about the teleportation magic circle?”

“I’m not sure about that part… But there might be some way.”

The doubt Ash raised swirled in my mind for a while.

However, as we soon entered the territory of the Seven Deadly Sins, I had to push this topic aside and refocus my mind.

* * *

The entrance to the Seven Deadly Sins domain was guarded by the kingdom’s guards.

When we said we came to subjugate it, the guards pleaded with desperate expressions.

“Please! Please end this nightmare!”

“Understood. Then please remove the obstacles blocking the way.”

“Yes, noble hero!”

Only after the guards cleared the obstacles could we start moving again.

As we entered the area, ominous energies could be felt around the carriage.

Gaspar whispers.

“Ars, someone is targeting us.”

“It’s probably thieves controlled by the Seven Deadly Sins.”

“What should we do, should we deal with them?”

“No, we don’t have time. A simple threat will make them run away.”

Leitin took on that role.

“Do you like fireworks!? Hyaaah!”

The fireball Leitin shot soared into the sky and exploded with a boom! The thieves who were targeting us were startled and hid their presence.

That’s how we were able to reach the point that Juras had previously used as a base.

“From here we need to split up. Elena and Ilya’s teams, please use teleportation scroll here and move to different entry points!”

Three teams were mobilized for this subjugation.

The teams were organized based on the bond between each member.

First, my team consisted of me, Erina, Estelle, Eonia, Ash, Gaspar, and Yumir.

The safest team with the highest bonds, taking on the main force.

Next, Elena’s team as leader includes the childhood friend duo of Lucretia and Leitin, the elves, Beato, Pion and Margarita, and one remaining elf guardian, making seven members.

Lastly, Master Ilya’s team has Anton, Rinoa, Anduha, Gunther, Sophia, and one spy provided by Juras, making seven members.

And here at the teleportation scroll base point was the support team of Meissen, Mirabel, and Bisketa.

Meissen is there to remove curses from those who return via teleportation scroll, Mirabel is for escort duties, and Bisketa is there as a restraint to prevent Mirabel from acting impulsively.

A medium-sized party of 24 people in total.

Finally, as signal flares indicating readiness are shot from other entry points, the subjugation of the Seven Deadly Sins begins.

“After passing through the cave interior, a forest will appear. We’ll move there as quickly as possible!”

An ominous energy flowed through the cave leading into the Seven Deadly Sins.

There were multiple phrases written in blood at the entrance, and the smell of rotting corpses subtly wafted through.

While there were no monsters in the Seven Deadly Sins itself, there were people who had gone mad and those who had died or gone missing during subjugation attempts still inside.

‘This is the Seven Deadly Sins…’

One of the top 10 dungeons said to be the most vicious.

I realized that viciousness from the moment I stepped into the cave.

“Ugh…!?”

An ominous energy constricting my chest.

That energy stirred as if trying to draw out the ugliness within me.

‘This is…!?’

The curse of greed. A curse that makes one refuse to give to others and think only of oneself.

While I’m basically a giving person, that’s only towards people I know. I often act selfishly towards others.

The curse tried to dominate my mind by maximizing that aspect.

“Whew…!”

I controlled that curse while taking deep breaths. According to Juras, once you resist that curse, you should be fine for a while.

As he said, once I found my composure, it became bearable. While the ominous feeling was still constricting my chest, this level was manageable.

After overcoming the curse of greed, I looked at my companions.

First was Ash’s case.

“Uoooh! I want to be rich! I want to make money and build my own harem! Uoooh!”

Ash was raging, seemingly afflicted by the curse of greed. I thought it was serious, but he soon regained his composure.

“Phew! Feeling better after letting it out.”

“Geez, you scared me.”

“I was just trying it out. It’s not like I was interested in money to begin with.”

“That’s true.”

Anyway, Ash overcame the curse of greed.

Next was Gaspar.

“Ah… This is really bothersome. Can’t I just sleep here?”

It was clearly the curse of sloth.

“I’m an old man. How can you make an old man work like this? Sigh… I’m going to sleep, don’t wake me up…”

However, Yumir scolded Gaspar with a stern voice.

“What are you doing, Father! Get up right now!”

“Huh!?”

Gaspar snapped back to his senses at the first mention of being called father.

“S-Sorry!”

When Yumir scolded him, Gaspar instantly overcame the curse of sloth.

He seemed embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, probably because he realized he was exposed as being a father.

After scolding Gaspar, Yumir immediately turned to me.

“And you’re just as bad, young master! How long will you keep being picky with food! Do you know how much thought I put into making your meals! It breaks my heart to see you suffering through eating them!”

“S-Sorry.”

It was clearly the curse of wrath.

“I’ll try to control it a bit from now on.”

“A little control isn’t enough! Swear that you’ll never be picky with food again!”

“Haha…”

“Why are you laughing!?”

“No, it just makes me happy to see you showing your emotions like this.”

“…Huh!?”

Yumir seemed flustered, having finally regained composure.

“Young master, this is…”

“If you hated my picky eating that much, you should have scolded me like this before.”

“N-No…”

“Is there anything else you’re angry about? Like how I’m raising Ryuna?”

“No. I always know you’re doing your best, young master.”

Yumir averted her gaze, seemingly embarrassed. At least it seemed she had overcome the curse of wrath.

Though we were very tense because it was the Seven Deadly Sins, there were surprisingly fun aspects to it.

Next, Eonia was quite a sight.

“Um, Miss Eonia?”

At Ash’s words, Eo furrowed her brow sharply.

“…How dare you casually call my name! I am Eonia Mirabel! A Valkyrie and royalty of the Holy Kingdom of Kuravel! Bow your head, commoner!”

“Ah, yes. Is that so.”

Eo, affected by the curse of pride, was acting as if she had become a god.

Ash gave up and left her to me.

I approached Eo and met her eyes. Eo hesitated.

“S-So I am… um…”

“Go ahead, call me a commoner.”

“No, um… I couldn’t say such things to Lord Als…”

“Have you come to your senses?”

“…Yes. I apologize for causing a scene.”

After subduing Eo in one go, I turned my momentum toward Erina.

‘Now what’s left are lust and envy.’

I could quickly tell which one Erina was.

She was writhing her body and looking at me with heated eyes.

“Ah, Sir Ars…”

“Gulp.”

This was more dangerous than I thought. If I intervened, it might have the opposite effect.

Erina, unable to resist her instincts, tried to rush at me.

‘This is troublesome.’

At this rate, I would have to use a curse removal scroll, but because this curse removal spell activates in an area, it would remove everyone else’s curses too, resetting them.

Since the curses would randomly activate again anyway, it would create a bad situation where we’d have to overcome different curses again.

So I hoped somehow Erina would overcome the curse of lust on her own.

“I can’t hold back anymore! Hold me right now!”

My presence on the same team seemed to have the opposite effect. Erina was unbuttoning her clothes and jumping in as if about to kiss me right away.

Estelle firmly grabbed her shoulder.

‘Wait, if Erina has lust, then does that mean Estelle is under the curse of envy…?’

In this situation, if she felt envy, there’s no telling what extreme actions she might take.

I hurried to stop Estelle, but she slapped Erina’s cheek and shouted, “Get a hold of yourself, Erina! How can a Duke’s daughter lose to such base instincts!?”

“Ugh…!”

That seemed to work as Erina barely managed to calm down.

“Th-Thank you, Estelle.”

“As long as you understand.”

I wondered if this was what bonds meant, but I was more surprised that Estelle could maintain such composure despite being under the curse of envy.

“Um, Estelle…?”

“What is it?”

“No, are you okay? Aren’t you under the curse of envy?”

At that, Estelle scoffed.

“I transcended something like envy ages ago. Since the time you were having secret meetings with Erina… All those times you were flirting with girls at the academy… After overcoming it back then, this kind of curse is nothing to me.”

“Incredible.”

A level of envy where curses don’t even work.

Everyone was in awe of Estelle’s mental fortitude.

After all seven of us had each overcome our curses, we headed properly into the Seven Deadly Sins dungeon.

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