Once Arman melted the bars and made an opening large enough for people to pass through in the blink of an eye, the captive soldiers waltzed out. Even in tattered clothes, he still had the dignity of a champion.
After leaving his own cage, Arman destroyed the bars of the other cages one after another until all of the soldiers were free. Ruri and the spirits then split up and started busting the soldiers’ shackles.
“Thank you very much!”
“We will never forget this kindness, Lady Beloved!”
The soldiers were fatigued, not having been given enough food and water during their imprisonment, but their eyes were alive.
Ruri left breaking the shackles to the spirits and passed out food that she’d stored in her pocket space to the men. They were able to provide their own water since they could employ the power of the spirits again.
“Hmmm...I might not have enough food for all of these people,” Ruri said, taking advantage of the large space she had to herself, where she put more food than she could ever eat by herself. She’d figured that Lydia would eat it but wasn’t sure if she could pass out all that food to the hungry soldiers. They needed to fight against the troops from Furgal, so they had to build up their strength.
“Do not fret, Lady Beloved. Now that the shackles are off, we can open our own pocket spaces. There are some of us who have food stored in there,” said one soldier. “Being a soldier means physical work, so a good number of us keep supplies on hand.”
“I see. I’m glad to hear it,” Ruri said in relief, checking on Arman’s situation now that the matter of sustenance had been resolved.
Arman seemed to be having issues with the sheer number of cells.
“Are you all right, Beast King? You must be using a lot of mana.”
“Yeah, I am, but I don’t see myself running out anytime soon. In fact, my body is heating up like I’ve got too much mana in me. Pretty weird, huh?”
Ruri stood there, unable to utter a word. In her mind, she was sweating bullets over his vigor being a result of her giving him a whole bottle of dragon’s blood. However, he seemed to be as fit as a fiddle, so she decided not to ask him about it.
As she continued to free the soldiers, an angry yell could be heard echoing throughout the basement out of nowhere. “What is this?! Why are the prisoners out of their cells?!”
Ruri looked in the direction of the voice to find a middle-aged man in a military uniform unlike that of the Nation of the Beast King’s usual garb. From his outfit, she could tell that the man who was red in the face from shouting was high status.
“Huh? Who’s that?” she asked, knowing full well it wasn’t a member of the Nation of the Beast King.
“The general leading this war,” Arman replied. “The highest-ranking soldier among the Furgal forces and the one who put me through all that hell.” A smile came over his face that would make the most hardened of criminals flee, and his devious snicker made Ruri’s expression tighten at the sound of it.
The resentful gazes of the soldiers were just as piercing. She even started to feel sorry for the enemy for a brief second. But as the thought crossed her mind, she noticed the boy and girl behind the man, probably around Sango’s age. They had young features—almost grown but not fully reaching adulthood, their dark hair and eyes a combination very familiar to Ruri.
They were decked out in garb that was fine but not too glitzy. Ruri could tell that they were good-quality clothes from her time receiving the highest grade of treatment as a Beloved.
“Beast King, are those two in the back...who I think they are?”
“Yeah. They’re the Beloveds.”
“I knew it.”
They were the transmigrators from Beryl’s letter. It was quite the twist of fate that there were two Beloveds among them.
“Hey! Don’t leave your cells! What are the guards doing here?!” the girl exclaimed in a shrill and grating tone.
“They’re incompetent to the extreme. Fire all of them,” the boy said in a languid voice.
Ruri could instantly sense that they weren’t the kind of people she would get along with. Their every word was rife with arrogance.
“You fiend! How did you escape?! We put you in magic-sealing shackles!” the enemy general shouted hard enough to burst a blood vessel as he looked at Arman standing before him without a scratch.
Arman wasn’t perturbed. In fact, he chuckled mockingly. “Ha, what a pity. You shouldn’t have thought you could keep me tied down with those little trinkets. Don’t ever underestimate the Beast King.”
“I’m the one who broke the shackles, though,” Ruri murmured under her breath.
Arman heard her hushed jab and momentarily froze, the corners of his mouth flattening, but he immediately recovered. “I’m going to be sure to pay you back for what you’ve done,” he threatened the enemy.
The general’s tantrum was being overridden by Arman’s mounting pressure. “What do you think you can do?! We have Beloveds higher in rank than yours!” he said, almost as if gloating over something he’d done himself before looking back at the pair behind him. “Hey, put these guys back into their cells.”
The pair furrowed their brows at the pompous instruction. Then the girl spoke up. “You seem to have the wrong idea, don’t you? Don’t give me orders.”
“Hey, what did you say?!”
“Who do you think helped you win? If you want me to do something, bow your head and ask for it.”
“Bow?! I’m the one in charge of this war!” the general snapped, dissatisfied.
The boy glared at him, as condescending as his companion. “So what? That’s got nothin’ to do with us. If you want us to lend our help, you better ask nicely, old man.”
“Old man?!” the general repeated in shock.
Ruri had assumed they would be on amicable terms since they’d helped Furgal incite the war, but it seemed they were very much not—or maybe they just didn’t get along with this particular soldier.
“Well, what will it be, old man?” the boy asked.
“C’mon, c’mon. Lower that head,” said the girl.
Faced with the duo who had a total grasp on their own superiority, the general clenched his fists in frustration so tight that they were shaking. Even Ruri was uncomfortable with their attitude as she watched from afar with a furrowed brow.
As the general of an army, the man must have had a certain amount of pride, but he obediently bowed his head to the boy and girl who seemed younger than his own children.
“I beg of you, lend us your help.”
“Lend us your help please, right? You’re an adult, but you don’t know how to use your words?” said the boy.
“Grk... Please lend us your help...”
“That’s more like it. You should have done that from the start, but your pride was just too big.”
“Seriously. You know you couldn’t do a thing without us around,” the girl added.
As the pair scoffed at him, the general pursed his lips and desperately contained his humiliation.
“To think that these cretins ravaged our nation makes me sick to my stomach,” Arman commented.
“I agree,” Ruri replied, relieved that she wasn’t alone in the discomfort she felt. Tolerant as she was, she was so angry now that even she felt that holding back was unnecessary.
“Now then, let’s get this over with,” said the boy.
“Right,” his companion agreed.
The two walked forward, pushing the general out of the way. The soldiers of the Nation of the Beast King tried to cover Arman and Ruri, but Arman waved his hand to halt them.
“What? You think you can beat us?” the boy stated. “We’re Beloveds. You weaklings should bow your heads in reverence.”
“You wretched brats. I’ll show you how harsh the world can be. Do you have any idea how much damage you’ve caused?” Arman snapped.
“Nope! I’m the human chosen by the world. I’m not like any other rando. Do you understand that?” the boy replied.
“That’s right. We are special. If you weaklings do as we say, we’ll spare your lives,” the girl added.
Ruri groaned as she looked at the two. “So, this is what they call a chuunibyou...”
She was taken aback by their arrogant and childish line of thinking and gave them both a dirty look. She knew that in a decade or so, they would be writhing on the ground in shame at their behavior. The pair was trying to mark a page in their dark chuuni histories.