Chapter 167: A Bug’s Emotions

“Fascinating,” Mazdari said as he looked at the gunports in the rampart of the Moving Castle. “Even though it’s moving, I can’t feel any shaking up here. The legs attached to this castle are much more cleverly crafted than we think.”

Vasen Lak Orazen asked, “

Clever

? Isn’t it just magic?”

“Hm, I’m not sure…”

The concept that Mazdari was talking about was the gyroscope, which could sense tilting in all directions, but he didn’t have the vocabulary to explain that yet, so he just decided to move on.

The two of them avoided the Rakshasas and hid in the shadows of the castle wall or crouched among the trees and bushes in the courtyard of the Moving Castle. Because both of them were relatively large in size, they weren’t exactly doing a good job at hiding, but fortunately enough, the Rakshasas were charging toward the second and third squad, who were making commotion as Vasen ordered, so the Rakshasas never properly looked in the direction of where Vasen and Mazdari hid.

“But it seems that our luck stops here.”

Once they got close to the tower where the control room was, the security set up by the Rakshasas seemed very immaculate. Although about twenty of them seemed to be having casual conversation about the chaos happening in the distance, creating a somewhat relaxed atmosphere, they still thoroughly checked to see if there were any intruders.

Mazdari said, “There are quite a few of them. Sneaking into the tower seems difficult as they have a clear line of sight from here to the tower’s entrance. What’s your plan?”

Vasen pondered for a moment.

“Is there any kind of magic that would be useful? The magic you used against the pirates last time would…”

Mazdari replied, “That kind of magic requires a lot of potions. Getting those potions wouldn’t be a problem if I receive the help of the palace, but the Helix Wing didn’t hold out.”

“Hm.”

Mazdari scratched his beak.

“However, I wouldn’t have come along if I couldn’t use any magic. There is a useful spell, but it requires more than one dead body. If we have that, then…”

Vasen shook his head.

“Then let’s drop that idea.”

“Why?”

“Requiring a dead body means that we would have to capture a Rakshasa from somewhere, but that takes too much time.”

“I see. I understand you don’t want any delays. Maybe I should have mentioned it earlier.”

Vasen replied, “Even if it weren’t for that, using magic while a Dragon is nearby is risky. Haven’t you heard the old saying that magic belongs to the evil gods and Dragons?”

“I’m also not sure if the magic would be detected or not.”

“And lastly, it might be wise to save that kind of magic since we’ll soon have to face the Dragon.”

Mazdari nodded.

“Well, if you think so… But isn’t there no other way to deal with those guys then?”

“I think it would be best to just approach it simply.”

“Simply?”

Vasen looked up and down at Mazdari.

“Do you know how to act?”

***

A few moments later, Mazdari walked toward the Rakshasas while limping.

Then he said, “Oh, thank goodness. I’m saved.”

The Rakshasas seemed surprised and confused at Mazdari’s sudden appearance, and held out their weapons.

Mazdari raised his hands and continued to say, “Yes, I’m one of the intruders who came into the castle, but it seems that things aren’t going so well for me. I’d like to surrender.”

A few of the Rakshasas whispered to each other. Then the one who appeared to be the leader and had a necklace made of teeth went toward Mazdari.

“Are you one of those guys who came on those things that fly in the sky?”

“Yes.”

"Why do you want to surrender?"

Mazdari looked behind the leader for a moment. Vasen was moving behind the Rakshasas, silently and swiftly. Then, Vasen kicked one of the Rakshasas in the back of their knee while wrapping his arm around their neck and piercing his dagger deep into their throat.

The other Rakshasas were all focused on Mazdari, so they had no idea what was happening behind them.

Vasen then silently lowered the dead Rakshasa’s body onto the ground and moved toward his next target.

Mazdari said, “As you can see…my partner ran away after losing, and I sprained my ankle…”

“Wait,” the leader with the tooth necklace said. “Losing, you say?”

“Yes. We are losing. It was an absurd plan.”

The Rakshasas then whispered among themselves again.

Meanwhile, a blade was inserted and pulled out of the heart of the Rakshasa at the very back. The Rakshasa’s warm blood dripped onto the stone floor, and at that sound, another Rakshasa reflexively turned around. They were a little more than ten steps away.

Mazdari tensed up.

‘Is barely two all that you can take down?’

That wasn’t the case. Vasen immediately pulled out his bow and shot an arrow. The rustle was so quiet that it was buried by the sound of wind and the crackling of the castle’s torches. The arrow pierced through one of the Rakshasas’ eye. Vasen then jumped and grabbed onto the head of the dead Rakshasa to prevent the body from hitting the floor and making a sound. Then he quietly laid down the body as if laying a drunk person onto bed.

Mazdari continued to say, “To be honest, some of my friends did survive, so I can’t say for sure how things will turn out. However, I’m lost, and there’s no other way for me to find any of my other friends, so I’m surrendering.”

The leader laughed.

“I don’t know what kind of bizarre species you are, but you seem to lack courage for your size.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“I’m actually mocking your species, birdhead.”

“Hmm. That might actually be true.”

As Mazdari easily accepted the fact and agreed, it was the Rakshasas who were thrown off.

“Does your species easily accept humiliation like that? Do you not have any pride?”

“Pride? I don’t know, I don’t really feel anything.”

"What do you mean?"

"Judging a species' value solely based on what one’s seen is probably a reflection of your own narrow perspective. Why would I feel any emotion about such narrow-mindedness?"

“You damn…”

“You only annoy me. Do you feel emotions towards bugs?”

"That's it!"

The Rakshasa leader lost their temper and stalked toward Mazdari. Then another Rakshasa hurriedly grabbed their arm.

“Captain, behind…”

“Let go! I won’t rest until I rip this rude birdhead’s beak apart…”

“Captain!”

The leader turned around.

Vasen’s blade was inches from their nose, but one of the Rakshasa subordinates quickly extended their club and stepped in between them. The blade ended up cutting the subordinate’s club, chest, and stomach.

The leader thought they had escaped death, but soon came to their senses as they felt an ominous feeling from behind their back. However, they weren’t able to turn around. Mazdari had drawn his sword and stabbed into their back. The last thing they saw was the sword protruding out of their chest.

Mazdari then quickly counted the remaining Rakshasas.

‘Have we reduced the numbers down to ten now?’

Vasen and Mazdari positioned themselves back to back to limit their blind spots.

Furious with Vasen’s surprise attack and Mazdari’s deception, the remaining Rakshasas closed in and surrounded them.

Vasen then said, “Mazdari.”

“What is it?”

“The thing you said about feeling emotions toward a bug is blasphemy.”

Mazdari sighed.

“...Can’t you just cut me some slack? It hasn’t been too long since I considered devoting myself to Black Scale, so my faith in Night Sky isn’t great.”

“I’ll think about that after we deal with all these guys.”

Almost simultaneously, the ten Rakshasas charged at them. But Vasen clearly spotted one of them moving a beat earlier than their comrades. Even though their synchronization was impressive, attacking simultaneously was difficult.

‘It won’t be possible to dodge all of them. What’s important is what to avoid, what to block, and what to strike.’

Vasen dodged the swords, parried the axes with his sword, and endured the striked from the clubs. While he dodged, he used his tail to grab onto a Rakshasa and kicked their head.

Crack!

In an instant, the Rakshasas heard a sound that made them flinch. The Rakshasa's neck was unnaturally elongated. The neck bone had detached from their spine.

Vasen then said, “Now there’s nine.”

***

It didn’t take much time to kill all the Rakshasas.

Vasen and Mazdari wiped their blades on the clothes of the dead Rakshasas and then headed toward the tower.

"Is this...the control room?"

Vasen was somewhat bewildered, but Mazdari was looking around with admiration.

"This is surprising. I expected something magical, but this seems more like a machine."

There were exposed gears and control levers. Vasen recalled the interior of Automaton he had seen once. There were things written down, but they didn’t even seem like letters to him.

Vasen carefully said, “Hm, I think it would have been better to leave one of them alive…”

“No, hold on. I think I know what to do.”

Mazdari pulled and pushed on the control levers.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I've encountered a similar ruin before. If the symbols on these handles mean the same as the ones I saw there, it shouldn’t be much different,” Mazdari replied. “What would you have done without me?”

"Wouldn’t there be multiple ways to stop things that move?”

As Vasen said so, he pointed at his bag. Mazdari hadn't paid much attention to what Vasen had taken and put into his bag from the other adventurers before, but now he realized what it was. A strong smell of gunpowder came from the bag.

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

Mazdari operated the control levers thinking that he was saving an ancient ruin.

"There...it's done."

As Mazdari pulled the last control lever, a deep rumble seemed to come from the Moving Castle’s foundation, deep underground. Very slowly, the Moving Castle came to a stop.

Vasen then looked out of the tower window toward the castle walls. The landscape that had been moving quite quickly was gradually slowing down.

“Finally. …Mazdari?”

As Vasen turned around, Mazdari was looking at something outside the window on the opposite side.

Mazdari didn’t even turn around and said, “Vasen.”

“What is it?”

“Can I apologize for something?”

“What?”

“I cursed at you earlier when you chose the difficult path. But you were right. It was good that I saved it.”

Vasen didn’t reply and walked toward the window that Mazdari was looking out of. There was something there. It was something huge. Torches and braziers that offered warmth to people couldn’t illuminate this whole thing. Legs were the only thing visible under the light. It was tens of steps long from head to tail, and the four exposed legs were so thick that a couple people wouldn’t be enough to circle each of them.

-Was it you? Who appeared while spreading that foul gunpowder smell?

The voice came from the sky, from two glowing yellow dots which appeared to be eyes.

-I asked if you were the mortals who dare challenge me again, the Great Ashurada.?

Fortunately or unfortunately, this huge being didn't sound angry. Or perhaps it didn’t even think it was worth getting angry.

Both Vasen and Mazdari hoped on the inside that Ashurada would consider them not there and hid next to the window.

Vasen said, “...Wait, what did I tell you to save?”

Mazdari raised his staff.

“Magic.”

And he tapped the ground with it.

Under Ashurada's feet, the bodies of the dead Rakshasas began to bubble and boil.