The palace was completely under Furgal’s control. Seeing the Furgal troops walk around as if they owned the place, the Nation of the Beast King troops’ faces started to scrunch and contort in rage, resembling hannya demons.
Arman and the others were not sneaking around. They charged from the front, gallantly. And the only reason they could was because Ruri was with them. The Nation of the Beast King had a clear strength advantage, and they normally wouldn’t have lost the war. They’d ended up being decimated because of the irregular element of the otherworldly Beloveds being on their side.
“Go! All of you go north! I’ll take the east side!”
“As you wish!”
“Leave it to us!” the soldiers said before dispersing under Arman’s orders.
The Furgal troops were in shock and started to panic at the sight of Arman and his soldiers out of their cells.
“How did the prisoners get out of their cells?!”
“They should’ve had magic-sealing shackles on!”
Despite being slightly shaken up, many of the Furgal forces tried to intercept the escaped Beast King’s men based on their confidence in having won a one-sided battle before. However, there was one problem.
“Why?! I can’t use magic!”
“Me neither!”
“What’s going on here?! Where did the Beloveds go?!”
The soldiers fell into mass chaos as they realized they couldn’t utilize magic. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Beast Kingdom wiped out Furgal’s soldiers with a bang using their own magic. Arman stood at the head of the group, mowing down more Furgal troops than anyone else.
The spirits, who were only heeding Ruri’s wishes, took away the magic from Furgal’s forces, and the Nation of the Beast King’s men were using magic via the spirits instead. The balance of power had done a one-eighty.
The soldiers of the Nation of the Beast King, led by Arman, were recapturing more and more of the occupied palace. In the process, they were also rescuing civilians who worked at the palace, who had been rounded up and confined to a room. Some had been seriously injured as a result of resisting, but Ruri used Jade’s dragon’s blood to heal them right away. Unable to handle it all by herself, she handed bottles of the medicine to the spirits and ordered them to tend to the injured. The people of the Nation of the Beast King took priority, of course.
It might have been a soft way of thinking, but Ruri was repulsed by the concept of people dying, even if they were enemies. Therefore, she used the medicine on anyone with serious injuries, even those from Furgal, though she restrained them first so they wouldn’t run amok after they recovered. Nearby, Arman seemed like he wanted to say something, but she ignored him.
Arman did not complain about Ruri’s actions, but it was easy to imagine that he was exploding in frustration on the inside. Of course, Ruri had not forgotten that Celestine had been badly injured by these people either, so there was a part of her that whispered to just leave them be. Even so, there were some things that not even she wanted to yield on.
The recapture of the palace went bafflingly smoothly. There was no shortage of soldiers who were terribly wounded and extremely exhausted due to lack of food and water, but their morale was abnormally high. This was likely because Ruri had told them about Celestine’s condition. The people of this nation absolutely cherished their Beloved. Their attack on the Furgal forces was so intense from their desire to get revenge that Ruri feared they would overdo it and kill all their enemies.
Worst-case scenario, the dragon’s blood would take effect if the patient was still drawing breath, so Ruri tried to subtly suggest that the soldiers beat their enemies but not kill them, though it was doubtful if they were even listening.
Ruri didn’t know if it was the effect of downing a whole bottle of medicine, but thanks to Arman, who showed no sign of running out of mana, they succeeded in reclaiming the palace with frightening speed. And when they entered the throne room, a royal member of Furgal sat atop the throne as if he owned it, leaving Arman looking dumbfounded. A vein then popped in his temple.
“Who gave you permission to sit on that throne, you bastard?” Arman demanded in a low, gravely tone.
The Furgal royal’s legs shook like a newborn fawn, and he cried for help, but his soldiers had already been eliminated.
“Get off—now,” Arman said, grabbing the collar of the man who was too afraid to resist. He dragged him off and tossed him away.
“Yeeeeek!” the invader screamed. He was acting so cowardly, you would never have expected him to be a royal of an entire—albeit small—nation. Then again, most people would react the same way if faced with Arman pissed off to the max. The exhilaration of battle caused an overflow in raw vigor that was so intense that Ruri didn’t want to face it head-on even though she was protected by Kotaro and Rin.
Arman tied the foreign royal with rope from head to toe, sat on his throne, used him as a footrest, and let out a long sigh.
“Good work,” Ruri said, handing a cup of hot tea to the still-excited Arman. Even the soldiers of the Nation of the Beast King were afraid of what they saw, despite being allies, so Ruri wanted him to calm down as quickly as possible.
“I’d rather have booze, but oh well,” Arman grumbled as he chugged the tea down, oblivious to Ruri’s concerns. “Sheesh, losing to such a minor nation will be a dark part of this kingdom’s history,” Arman said, grinding his heel into the man-turned-footrest.
“Yeek! Please spare my life!” the royal said.
“Footstools don’t freakin’ talk,” snapped Arman.
“Sorryyy!”
Arman ground his heel into him again to shut him up. The sight made it hard to tell who the invader was in this situation.
“Ruri, we’re going to go clean up the soldiers in the royal capital. There are Furgal troops occupying there too. We need to sweep them out and give peace of mind to the civilians.”
“Was there much harm done to the civilians?” Ruri asked, remembering her time in the royal capital before. Everyone there loved and revered the spirits and cherished the Beloved. She couldn’t really shop comfortably because she was a Beloved and the townspeople were so very religious, but it was a nice town that was lively and filled with kindness.
“I’ve heard little harm came to the citizens. It proved fortunate that they didn’t openly oppose due to the Beloveds of Furgal having spirits in attendance.”
“I see. We have their deep faith in the spirits to thank, then.”
“True. Even so, it’s best if we get them back as quickly as possible. Could you tell the spirits to continue shunning Furgal, Ruri?”
“Understood,” Ruri replied as she proceeded to tell the spirits the characteristics of the Furgal soldiers and instruct them not to lend their help.
After seeing that the deed had been done, Arman and the soldiers headed for town. Ruri wanted to go along with them, but there were two Beloveds in the palace’s dungeon at the moment. Arman asked her to keep an eye on them, since there was no telling what they might do. He was also probably reluctant to take a Beloved like Ruri onto a battlefield filled with danger. It was no problem for her to come along, but Arman wouldn’t approve of it even if she did plead her case.
As a result, Ruri stayed put and waited at the palace with the soldiers that Arman assigned to guard her. He returned around sunset without any major issues having occurred.
The people of the royal capital had spent their time worrying about what would happen, with only a surface-level understanding of the situation, but relief started to spread once Arman and his forces began to apprehend the invaders. It seemed that a distrust of Arman was beginning to grow among some people in the capital—they worshipped the spirits so much that they thought it was wrong to keep a Beast King without the favor of the spirits around as their ruler. However, now the spirits were on Arman’s side and the Furgal troops were being ignored by the spirits no matter what magic they used, which helped restore their confidence in Arman. It was a terribly self-centered state of affairs, but that probably showed just how anxious the people were about all of this.
Upon hearing that the harm to the people was minimal, Ruri was able to breathe a sigh of relief.