The GM Has Logged Into A Different World Chapter 40

RAW: 
TL: MbypobjzfSisjnq
ED: Emifttbo

I fss… epo'a lopw wiba ap tby jo aijt pddbttjpo…
Eokpy aif dibqafs!

We've reached the entrance to the throne room, but the luxuriously extravagant door was protected by the vines.

「Do we really have to go through all of these vines to open this door?」

We, the 3 men of our group, tried to cut them off, but their regenerative properties were too strong. The nearby trees reproduced the vines infinitely and blocked the door. Thankfully, Haruka sprinkled her herbicide and the vines withered away quickly.

As expected from the farmer.
She's really strong against plants.

We got rid of those vines and opened the heavy door. What greeted us inside was a scene similar to a jungle.
After pushing and cutting some vegetation away, we spotted a gigantic tree in the distance.
At the base of the tree, there was a girl with a bright red rose blooming from her chest.

「Fuiria!!」

I grabbed Tatsuma's neck collar before he could go another step.

「Why are yー」

Suddenly a huge wooden stake pierced the s.p.a.ce right in front of Tatsuma.
If I hadn't stopped him, he would be……

「There's a reaction from the base of the tree. I can understand that you're impatient, but we have to be careful. Especially after coming this far… right?」

「I…… umm… yes… sorry……」

As a skilled player, he must have realized it himself that it was important to move cautiously especially during a time like this. If I had anyone important in my life being held like that, I would have also jumped the gun and rushed to save them. Even though I just warned Tatsuma, the same warning applied to me.

「………Oi, stop hiding behind the shadow. You there, behind the pillar. And you, behind that thick tree. Also you guys behind the foliage. All 5 of you, get your a.s.ses out here」

5 men slowly appeared behind the place that I pointed at. Every single one of them was fully armed, but their equipment had different quality compared to Barry. Their equipment was on the same cla.s.s as what Prince Leon would wear during battles.

Were these guys the members of the royal guards?

「Brilliant. Magnificent, if I must say. I must give you a compliment. You deserve at least that much.
You must be Masaki, I a.s.sume.
To think that you hold this much strength and abilities, I really must kill you as soon as possible.
However, I truly am grateful to you. After all, it is all thanks to you that I was able to become the Emperor」

「Marquis Iro, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Are you the one behind all of this mess?」(Tatsuma)

「Technically, I am not the mastermind behind this masterpiece. But it is correct that I did everything to make all of this happen.
Aaaah…
It's been too long…
I was just a simple civil worker back then. When I saw the princess, I knew that she will grow into a beautiful woman. That's when I know that I must get her. I struggled, bribed, and schemed all the way to the top. Even I'm surprised at my own progress.
But you, Tatsuma… YOU! You and your G.o.dd.a.m.n otherworlders… I will take care of every single one of you and become the emperor of this whole continent!」

There was no doubt that he has done several questionable things to get the woman of his dream.
But this person wanted to be the emperor but……

「A king who slaughtered his own people? You are just sitting on an empty throne. I'm pretty sure nothing's shabbier than a lonely emperor. In that regard, the previous grandpa emperor is way better than you. Really, I can't even feel any shred of dignity from you. That power of yours is borrowed, just like Barry. A third-rate sc.u.m」

「You!? You dare calling me a third-rate sc.u.m!!」

「Sorry. My bad. Calling you a third-rate sc.u.m is an insult to every third-rate sc.u.m. You are a fourth-rate sc.u.m」

Iro's face was burning from my provocation.
I could see tentacles behind him, just like an octopus.

Tatsuma and Prince Leon were, of course, surprise to see my sudden agitation. I shot them a big grin to make sure they got my message.

「A fourth-rate sc.u.m? I'm pretty sure a fourth-rate sc.u.m would make a better emperor than him」

「You have a point there.
Emperor Aldebaran was an enemy, but he's still an excellent ruler and loved by his people. A king without people to rule, now that's unheard of.
Are you sure you didn't mistake a king with a scarecrow? 」(TL: Literal = You're only a king of scarecrows)

Ooh.
They fanned him even further. Nice.
Meanwhile, Iro's shoulder was already trembling in rage.

「Grrrr!!! I'll kill you! I'll kill EACH and every SINGLE one of you! Come, my servants!!」

Iro yelled a command furiously, though that wasn't exactly a concrete command.  We could clearly see that he didn't actually have a concrete plan to fight us. The only thing left was to defeat these 4 henchmen. However, Haruka wasn't exactly fit for combat. It was a little disadvantageous, but we still had the experience from fighting Barry.

「GAAAA!!!」

All 4 of them attacked at once.
Prince Leon was protecting Haruka, so he was fighting 2 monsters at once, but Haruka's true merit was as support. I don't need to worry about them. Tatsuma was strong as well, so there's no need to even think about his safety.

The soldier waved his sword around while shouting in bizarre voices, but after my fight with Barry, my eyes were pretty used to his movements. I could dodge it easily at this level. I blocked the sword diagonally with the Seven Arthur and put one hand on the soldier's chest.

「Tri-Bunker Impact!!」

Receiving direct hit from my skill, the soldier was blown away into the woods.
Even though Mars' Intuition helped in melee combat, it couldn't defeat this kind of opponent with bare hands. Blowing them away was the most it could do.
But really. I'm glad I didn't kill it in one blow.

If they could be killed just by that, it would be… troubling…

I jumped into the woods and followed in pursuit.

***

「Guuuuuu!!!」

「HAAAAA!!」

As Masaki vanished into the woods, Leon was dealing with 2 enemies at once, locking swords with one of them.
At a glance, it might look like he was in trouble, but on the contrary, Leon was leading the fight from the start.

Even though Iro took away their mind, the soldiers didn't lose their swords skills. A skill that they had developed after training every single day during their conscious life. They swung their swords again and again. However, Leon simply activated a dragon knight skill the moment he received their attacks.

「Dragon Force!!」

Leon exuded dragon-like aura that strengthened his entire body. This skill was one of the dragon knights' secret skill that added the flying dragon's power onto the user. The recoil was quite severe, but the effect was devastating if used in short-term battles.

Instead of being knocked back from receiving 2 swords at once, Leon gained more power and knocked them back instead. But not only that, Haruka, who was smiling behind Leon, also activated her skill.

Haruka took the environment into her advantage and planted some seed near Leon's feet. The seed grew fast due to Haruka's Light of Bountiful Harvest, but it still took some time to grow them on st.u.r.dy marble floors.

Haruka activated her monster trapping skill.
It's a simple skill with simple effect, but it turned to be a merciless skill when used in this world.

Intimidated by Leon's strength, the soldiers took a step back but failed to do because strong sticky objects stuck on their feet, hampering their movements.

It was a skill called 『Gummy Trap』.
It was a floor trap resembling torimochi. (TL: torimochi = birdlime. Gluey substances from trees that are used to trap birds)
It was sticky enough to trap small monsters, but it could barely capture medium-sized monsters.
But still, it was enough to buy time.

「GaAAAaa!?」

「Too laate~ I've gotcha~」

It was too late for the soldiers. Haruka's vines already grew to the point of covering their knees. They could try cutting the vines, but by doing so, they would reveal an opening. Leon wasn't that kind to miss such opening. His blade traveled at the speed that no eyes could follow, beheading one of the defenseless soldiers.

The other soldier managed to raise his sword as a shield and block Leon's sword.
It managed to endure Leon's attack with both hands, but Haruka's vine already grew and wrapped its torso.

Soon the vines extended to the soldier's shoulder, then to its arm, then wrapped itself around the head. The vines tightened and crushed the soldier's body. The plant humanoid was killed by the same kind of plant that turned it into a monster in the first place. Ironic.

「That was stunning, Harukdono. I never knew that there are this kind of plants」

「Of cooourse~
Actually, I don't like using it on people. But since Masaki-san said that these people are made of plants like Barry-san and I had confirmed that they aren't people anymore, I can use this skill.
This is the best skill I ever used~」

The sound of Haruka's vines crushing the monster flesh was enough to send shivers down his spine.

But even so… her smile…
Haruka's smile was so fascinating.

If the other otherworlders saw this, they would mutter『Ah, love is really blind, after all』.

Haruka hopped and whispered into his ear.

「Let's do our best and make Masaki-san's plan succeed, kaay~?」

「E… YES MA'AM!」

Her smile was so close to his face. Leon dashed to the gigantic tree with his hand on his chest, suppressing his happy heartbeat and b.u.t.terflies in his stomach.

***

「Hey Schwarz…… Never thought we'll settle our scores like this… I wish to fight the real you but…… such a shame…」

Tatsuma faced against the ex-captain of the emperor's royal guard, a group that consists of the strongest people in the Empire.

Schwarz Rondway.
If Tatsuma was the strongest spearman in the Empire, Schwarz was the strongest shieldsman. Meanwhile, Iro stood behind Schwarz, wriggling his silver tentacles that sprout from his back.

What Schwarz held in his hand was a relic of the past otherworlder.
The shield of Aegis.
The original wielder had already died peacefully from old age. After the death, the equipment was scattered all around the world, either sold or auctioned by various merchants from various countries, which included the Empire. The one that happened to land in the Empire was the Aegis.

The shield was pa.s.sed to the captains of the royal guards for the sake of protecting the royalties.
However, the one that it protected now was Iro.

「Schwarz!! Get rid of that eyesore!!」

Schwarz struck Tatsuma as per Iro's order. Under normal circ.u.mstances, there was no way for Iro to make the royal guards do his bidding like this, especially Schwarz as the captain of the royal guards. Sense of superiority filled his heart. His grin spread from ear to ear.

That grin really p.i.s.sed Tatsuma off. He dashed for an attack, but Schwarz blocked his way with Aegis.

A dull pain ran throughout Tatsuma's body.

Aegis bolstered a high defense point and had an ability to reflect damages. Tatsuma winced as he received a portion of damage from his own attack. His armor values helped to reduce the damage, but Tatsuma had a high attack value to begin with. It was like receiving his own attack at full force. With the current lack of recovery means, Tatsuma couldn't rush recklessly.

Schwarz's skill with his shield was known throughout the empire. Even during mock fights, his skill had repeatedly sent Tatsuma to several near-death experiences. The fight could go both ways for either them.  But there was this sense of discomfort Tatsuma felt during the previous exchange.

(Why didn't he parry with his shield…? No way… Schwarz? Are you… resisting him too?)

Even deprived of his will, Schwarz used not his shield, but deftly handled many attacks with his sword. And even when using his shield, he moved so as to take as little of the impact as possible. Avoiding a direct hit meant taking less damage from the shock of it, and this was a fact that only Tatsuma and Schwarz truly knew.
This proved that while his mind was eroded, there was still some form of consciousness inside.

Schwarz bashed with his shield, which Tatsuma responded by jumping backward to reduce the impact. They had been doing this exchange several times and would continue to do so again and again.  

Tatsuma betted on Schwarz's remaining consciousness, the last shred of Schwarz's wish to fight with everything he got. Tatsuma gripped his spear tightly. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, readying his stance.

The two of them dashed, pa.s.sing through each other.
Tatsuma's 『True Yellow Dragon's Spear』 collided with Schwarz's 『Shield of Aegis』. Fierce metallic sounds resounded across the room.

ーGakiinー

Tatsuma's spear danced in the air.
Iro smiled. Tatsuma was now disarmed. He barked his last order to kill Tatsuma.

But instead, what he saw was Schwarz's figure falling, not from being pierced by a spear, but stabbed by a sword.

「What……!?」

Tatsuma definitely crashed against Schwarz's shield. But when Schwarz slightly tilted his shield up, Tatsuma took the chance and mitigated the impact by deflecting it with his spear. As Schwarz bashed the spear away, Tatsuma also brandished his sword.

But Schwarz's sword never reached.
A sharp sword stabbed Schwarz instead.
The impact knocked Schwarz's sword away, planting it into the wall behind him.

Sure, Tatsuma was disarmed.
But in reality, he intentionally let his weapon go to create a gigantic hole in Schwarz's defense, which he used to take a sword from his waist and stab Schwarz in the chest.

It was the Emperor's sword.
The ex-captain was pierced by the sword who was once being held by the Emperor whom he was supposed to protect. 

ーklatak, klatakklatakー

Schwarz lost his grip on aegis, the legendary shield tumbled twice before finally lying motionless on the floor.

But still, Schwarz was smiling.
At least he could settle his score with his rival, though he couldn't say his final words. He vanished with a satisfied smile on his face.

Tatsuma caught his spear with one hand.

「Schwarz… Please wait on the other side.
I'm sending this f.u.c.ker to you right away……
You're next, Iro!
Don't you even dare to think things will be over even after you die!!」