Dwarf Liberation And the Next Target
The Golem Legion began its advance as ordered. Arrows rained down from the fortress like a storm. However, they had little effect on the all-metal golems.
That said, large weapons such as ballistae seemed to have the power to pierce the Soldier Golems. But even that was blocked by the heavily armored assault-type golems marching at the front. Though their movements were sluggish, their sheer power and heavy plating deflected the massive bolts fired by the ballistae.
The imperial soldiers tried to block the castle gate by piling up anything they could find from within the fortress.
"Don’t let them. Fire."
Cannon fire was poured relentlessly on the gate, preventing the blockade. And at last, the heavily armored assault-type golems reached the walls. Their purpose was to destroy the fortifications. With a thunderous roar, the pile bunkers hidden in their arms drove steel piles of Alice Steel into the wall, cracking it open. Again and again, the strike was repeated.
When the imperial soldiers realized this, they understood that unless they targeted the heavy assault golems, the walls would soon be reduced to rubble.
"Take out those big ones!"
To attack directly below the walls, they had to lean out. But the Soldier Golems, standing like accompanying infantry behind the heavy assault golems, tilted their gun barrels upward and pulled the triggers of their AKs at the exposed imperial soldiers.
With sharp bursts of gunfire, the imperials screamed and toppled one by one from the walls. Defense was impossible like this, and the imperial troops began retreating from the first wall, likely intending to hole up in the central fortress.
"Alright, let’s move. First objective is the liberation of the Dwarves. The central fortress just needs to be surrounded by golems."
"”""Oooooooooh!"""”
The clones rode scooters, while Takuto, the otherworlders, the knights, and Alicia advanced on foot. This was because the clones’ physical abilities depended on the original body, making them too slow otherwise. The knights were as fast as cavalry, and the otherworlders also possessed comparably high physical abilities.
The suppression unit, led by the clone, crossed the ruined gate.
"Lots of ground meat."
"Princess… this is a bit much, urgh…"
The gruesome sight made even Alicia nauseous. Many of the soldiers gathered to block the shattered gate had been obliterated by concentrated fire from the 88mm cannons, leaving most unrecognizable. Even the knights frowned deeply at the sight. Yet the clone remained relatively unfazed. The imperial soldiers were outsiders to Alicetia’s world. No matter what happened to them, no matter how they died, Alicetia would feel no pain. Takuto too seemed relatively fine, but Mai and Kazuhito looked away.
The clone dismounted from the scooter and gave instructions to the knights.
"Lead the golem soldiers and liberate the Dwarves."
The knights shouted in response and rushed off in different directions.
The clone nodded with satisfaction and first secured the dormitories where the Dwarves were being held.
It seemed that during the battle they had been moved from the forge to the dormitory. The dormitory door had been locked from the outside, but Takuto slashed it apart with his blade.
"… The Empire really deserves to die, don’t they."
For the first time, the clone frowned.
The small windows had iron bars. And there were very few windows to begin with, leaving the interior dim. Rows upon rows of five-tier bunk beds lined the room.
Some of the Dwarves stared at the group, but their eyes were devoid of light, steeped in despair.
"So… this time we make weapons for you lot, is that it?"
An elderly dwarf dragged his leg as he walked toward them. He was likely the representative of those in the dormitory. His body bore countless whip marks, his clothes were in tatters, and he was missing his right eye. His right leg also limped.
"We came to free you."
At those words, the dwarf representative gave a powerless laugh. It was despair. Even if freed, he believed the forced labor would never end. Liberation was just a change of ownership, nothing more.
"Liberation, eh… We won’t resist. So please, don’t mistreat the young ones."
"They don’t believe us, don’t they?"
The clone asked Takuto with a grim face.
"Well, that’s how life has always been for them. Then we just need to show proof, don’t we?"
But what proof could convince them? Showing the flag of the Kingdom of Arland wouldn’t mean much to dwarves here, who might not even know what Arland was. At worst, they might have been indoctrinated with the Empire’s impression: that Arland was a nation of demons. To dwarves who knew nothing of the outside world, words alone would be meaningless.
After thinking for a moment, the clone gave an order to one of the knights.
"Gather knights of other races."
The knight understood from the situation that Alicetia’s persuasion alone would not suffice, and immediately brought knights of other races.
"We are people of the Kingdom of Arland. You will no longer be forced to work, whipped, or killed as examples."
The clone’s words echoed quietly through the dormitory. But the clone appeared to be an ordinary human. There was no proof behind the words.
And then, as if to support those words, the knights raised their voices.
"I’m a beastman. Yet I serve as a knight of the kingdom. In Arland, there’s no discrimination against other races."
"There are plenty of dwarves in my homeland. We beastmen get along well with them. Dwarves are skilled craftsmen, their farming tools are incredible. No one would ever whip them."
"My cousin married a dwarf, and they live together in a mixed-race territory. You’re safe now."
The dwarves’ eyes widened in shock. Though most of Alicetia’s army were humans, there were also four elves, five dwarves, and around twenty beastmen among them.
From their perspective, it had always been natural for non-humans to be discriminated against. Many of them had been confined here for years, some even born inside. Thus they knew almost nothing of the outside world. Even those who had come from outside knew little due to poor communication in this world. They hardly knew anything about a country called Arland.
But to see other races—who by their knowledge should also be oppressed—calling themselves knights was more than enough to gain their trust.
"If you choose to immigrate to Arland, you’ll find many of your kin there. Of course, it won’t be forced. If you wish to seek out your homeland, you’ll be provided with food and tents for the journey. I will keep my word."
"Truly… we’re really being freed?"
The representative asked, trembling, his eyes brimming with tears.
"My name is Alicetia von Arland, First Princess of the Kingdom of Arland and head of the Viceroy family.
In Arland there even is a Dwarven Duke. I myself am an engineer, and my Master is a dwarf. I will never oppress you."
When they heard the princess speak so plainly about studying under a dwarven master, the dwarves erupted into cheers.
The other dormitories were also secured before the imperial soldiers could carry out massacres. When the representative from the first dormitory was asked to help persuade them, the others quickly trusted Alicetia’s army as well. Among them were many other races, and unlike the imperial soldiers, they showed no arrogance. On the contrary, they cared for the dwarves who had been harshly exploited. For the dwarves, Alicetia’s army was truly salvation.
Now only the central fortress remained. But before that—
"We should feed them."
"Princess, the fortress hasn’t been taken yet."
Before the clone moved to completely subdue the fortress, she began insisting that the dwarves must be fed first.
"They’re surrounded already, so it doesn’t matter. Calming the starving and sick dwarves comes first."
And so, even with the enemy still before them, food and treatment were prioritized. But the imperial soldiers barricaded in the central fortress made no counterattack. They were under constant watch by golems on all sides, and the moment anyone poked their head out from the battlements, they were met with gunfire. Terrified, they huddled within the fortress.
"Still, there sure are a lot of heavy infantry."
When treatment and meals were finished, equipment was stripped from the corpses of dead imperial soldiers. These would become raw material for the golems.
"Well, it was us who made this stuff… though now it’s full of holes."
At first the dwarves had been full of pride, but now, seeing their heavy infantry riddled with bullets and lying dead, they hung their heads.
It seemed the fortress’s trump card had been these heavy infantry. Yet they had been annihilated, unable to withstand the AK-like rifles and unable to retreat into the central fortress. Their armor was certainly thick, but not enough to deflect rifle fire, and weighed down by it, they were too slow to escape. A pitiful fate—these heavy infantry were denied not only victory, but even the chance to make a name for themselves.
Some had been cleaved clean in two, armor and all, by Takuto’s blade. Others had been beaten to death with nothing more than a stick by the burly kingdom knights. Unsurprisingly, the knights held a very low opinion of them.
"They’re so heavy they can barely move. If you can’t cut them down with a sword, just smash them with a stick!"
Thus the siege of the fortress neared its end. All that remained was to strike the central keep. Alicetia’s army began lining up rows of 88mm cannons.
The imperial commander, watching this, was no fool. He immediately recognized them as magic cannons. From their size alone, he understood the fortress’s fate was sealed.
"We surrender! We surrender!"
The imperial troops waved white flags, opening the gates, stripping off not just weapons but even armor, raising their hands high.
"According to the laws of war, we demand prisoner treatment—"
Before he could finish, the clone pressed the trigger of her revolver and shot the commander dead.
"We don’t need commanders. And laws? The Granzur Empire and our kingdom haven’t signed a single treaty. You won’t be taken as prisoners. After all, you never treat our captured soldiers as prisoners either."
The fate of Arland soldiers captured by the Empire was grim: killed for sport or sent into slavery. They were never, ever returned. For that reason, Arland’s soldiers preferred death in battle to capture, becoming warriors prepared to die.
And so, once again, a fortress fell in just a single day.
Interrogations of the surviving imperial garrison revealed the existence of a nearby iron mine—and that many dwarves were forced to work there. Alicetia’s forces immediately dispatched a suppression unit.
The mine’s guards were few in number, and not even a fight broke out before they surrendered to Alicetia’s army.
"There are about 2,000 dwarves here."
"They’ve been treated horribly. What about the transport ship?"
"It should arrive by tomorrow morning."
The transport ships, escorted by armed airships, could fly boldly into enemy skies. Imperial airships trying to interfere were being scattered by Arland’s air fleet.
In fact, confirmed losses already reached 150 imperial airships—half their fleet. Including damaged ones, losses amounted to 200. In other words, the Granzur Empire had lost two-thirds of its airships. The skies now belonged entirely to Arland.
"Still, the Empire sure gives us some nice presents."
Before the clone stretched mountains of iron ingots and ore seized from the factories and mines.
"We were running low on iron. With this, we can make another twenty thousand golems."
The factories and mines that had supplied forty percent of the Empire’s weapons still held vast stores of iron. All of it was seized by Alicetia’s army.
"But isn’t it still a bit short?"
"Agreed. We’ll need more."
"Then…"
"""Work, imperial soldiers!"""
And so, once again, the clones tore through the mines, digging out iron recklessly and without plan.
But this time, it wasn’t just mining. Curious about what lay beyond the mountains, one clone boarded Helios and flew over to take a look.
"A huge tree."
"What’s that, Alicia?"
Beyond the mountains stood a colossal tree, over 150 meters tall, at the heart of the forest.
"That would be the World Tree. It’s said that once, at its roots, the elves built their Divine Tree Kingdom and lived there."
It was the World Tree—the place where the Spirit King had met his end. To the elves, it was sacred ground and their homeland. But when the Divine Tree Kingdom fell, the survivors unleashed a mighty illusion using their lives, preventing the Empire from ever reaching it. Because of that spell, the World Tree remained untouched.
"I see."
"That’s the World Tree. Its parts are valuable alchemical catalysts."
"Princess! Don’t tell me—"
"Our next target is the elvish sacred land. We’ll plunder it."
Thus, Alicetia’s army had found its next objective.
What do you think about this chapter?
