Preparations For Countermeasures

However, there were people who came to roughly understand the circumstances behind this quiet situation, and they were the ones who had sent the gargoyles and caused the incident. In a situation where there were no gunshots and no chaos at the royal palace, they could tell that what they had done had failed.

Of course, they had expected this failure. The best result would have been success, but what they had done now was only a move that followed retaliation to the end.

“From now on, we continue with the second wave.”

There were still gargoyles left. Their movements as they took out the gargoyles, which had been in suspended animation inside wooden boxes in one warehouse, were swift. There were as many as ten prepared gargoyles. This time, their target was not the royal palace. It was the downtown area of the capital, and they were set to attack indiscriminately.

“Now we wake them up.”

Before they knew it, they began waking the gargoyles using a device that generated electric shocks. In an instant, the stiffened bodies came alive and twitched, and they immediately began flapping their wings. Kiriririk— The creatures that let out strange cries in an instant began flying up into the sky.

“Good. Go and run wild to your hearts’ content. Kill as many as possible, if you can.”

“It’s a relief that the control device is working properly.”

“If not for this, we wouldn’t have been able to move these things properly.”

In reality, this incident was retaliation and, at the same time, an experiment. They had developed a control device for biological weapons. As the name implied, it was for controlling biological weapons, and it had reached a state where they could make them obey their words for about one minute. That was why the gargoyles had moved directly toward the royal palace.

“Now they are out of our hands. We must quickly leave this country as we are.”

At those words, the dozen or so people in the warehouse nodded. If they did not leave in a hurry, they could be caught by the Polia Kingdom’s intelligence department. If that happened, they would be captured before they could even leave this place. The end of that was far too obvious. That was why they hurriedly left the warehouse.

The moment they left like that, the gargoyles, which had flown even higher into the sky, were moving while flapping their wings continuously. Naturally, their goal was to move to the designated location. The wingbeats that continued for about one minute lost control in an instant, and from that moment, they could only lose their original reason and go berserk.

Kaaak! Kiririk—

In the gazes of the gargoyles that kept looking down, many people walking around inside the downtown area were visible. As soon as they confirmed that sight, killing intent appeared around their eyes, and they immediately began dropping toward the ground as though plunging downward.

The people spending their daily lives today without knowing anything had no idea at all that their lives were now on the verge of being lost. At the moment the ten gargoyles were dropping toward the forest of buildings like that, flash! Lightning struck from a clear sky.

Kwa-reung—!

At the sound of thunder, the people passing along the street were startled and were looking up at the sky. Everyone was looking up as though wondering why thunder was suddenly striking like this. Some of them hurriedly entered buildings, perhaps thinking it might strike them.

At that moment, there were gargoyles that had become ash from the power of the electric shock and disappeared without a trace. This phenomenon could naturally be said to have originated from Ian, who was located at the royal palace. On Ian’s face as he stood on the terrace atop a high spire, there was an emotion of relief.

‘I wondered, just in case, but to think another attack really had begun. And this time, it was aimed at the people of the city.’

He thought that if he had simply let it pass, a considerable number of victims would have appeared from indiscriminate slaughter. At that fact, he could not help shaking his head. If this fact became known, there would be no choice but for great social chaos to break out.

It seemed that anti-aircraft batteries had to be placed not only at the royal palace, but also throughout the downtown area. Only by doing that would attacks from the sky be prevented to some extent.

‘This will require quite a bit of additional budget.’

Of course, money would be needed, and manpower would be needed as manpower. However, he could not make birds under his control wander around like in the royal palace garden. He could not enter control through Mental Manipulation without limit. Since there was a limit to that number, in the end, he had no choice but to use manpower as a substitute.

In any case, he thought he had to continue surveillance of the sky from now on. Until now, he had had no sense of alertness toward the sky, but with something happening twice today, he could not help developing one. Instead, since the reality was that he had to observe in all directions, mental fatigue would come rushing in.

‘I’ll just think of it as training hard for the first time in a while.’

Like that, Ian, who had been looking over the city’s scenery from atop the spire, immediately began moving his steps inside the palace. With this, Ian’s side had blocked all the retaliation the secret organization had carried out without even suffering any damage.

The next day.

The atmosphere of the royal palace conference hall had sunk heavily. Although silence had been imposed, the ministers knew about what had happened yesterday. There had been no secrecy control placed on them. They could only have expressions shocked by the attempted attack of a biological monster targeting the princess.

“As everyone knows, there was an… assassination attempt against Princess Karina.”

Ian’s voice was heavily subdued. In a situation where an assassination attempt had occurred against the queen, now there had been an assassination attempt against his daughter, the princess. For Ian, this reality could only be something that enraged him and stirred his will to annihilate the other side.

“It is something that absolutely must not happen.”

“That is correct. In addition, I believe we must quickly establish air defense for the royal palace.”

“We must begin tracking those who committed such a thing. What is the intelligence department doing?”

“An attack against Princess Karina, the only royal descendant, is a declaration of war against this country, the Polia Kingdom. We must annihilate them without fail!”

Normally, he would have listened to them favorably, but to the current Ian, they only sounded like obvious words. The voice that came out before he knew it contained irritation.

“What should not have happened has already happened, and we are already trying to establish air defense. And the tracking is already underway. In addition, they and we are already in a relationship where we absolutely cannot share the same sky, so is it right to feel that it is a declaration of war only now?”

After hearing Ian’s words, the ministers could only become quiet like mutes who had swallowed honey. Everyone was feeling that the king’s current condition was not good. Since he might pick on even the smallest words, everyone could only become cautious.

“From now on, we will equip each city, including the capital, with an air defense network. Quickly organize the budget for that.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. We will proceed with haste.”

The Minister of Finance answered like that and had to immediately think about what could be removed from the currently organized budget and what budget could be brought over. In order to equip not only the royal palace but also each city, including the capital, with anti-aircraft batteries, the scale of the budget could only be quite large.

“As everyone knows, those bastards not only possess the ability to cultivate superhumans called Holy Knights, but are also independently developing and producing flying biological weapons like this one. Since we do not know how bizarre the monsters they create and release into this country will become in the future, should we not prepare a readiness posture for that?”

“Your words are most proper.”

“I believe we need people who can mobilize quickly in order to properly establish a readiness posture.”

“That is correct. That is why we will newly establish a kind of mobile strike force. They must be people who can deploy quickly in any situation inside an urban area.”

He thought they needed people in every city who could be deployed at any time through rapid mobility. The equipment they would use had to always be the best, and they had to become the best strike force. Naturally, the intensity of their training would also be high. It was a kind of early special forces unit he was trying to create.

‘If we used helicopters, they could deploy even faster, but that would still be impossible for now, wouldn’t it?’

At the current level of technology, developing helicopters was immediately impossible. As an alternative, there would be a method of boarding aircraft, quickly flying to the city, and dropping people wearing parachutes. Of course, it was an action accompanied by considerable danger. In particular, considering the strong winds between buildings, they could easily be blown away, hit something, and die in vain.

‘As an alternative, we will create spaces on the rooftops of each building where they can safely land with parachutes as much as needed.’

If that happened, they would be able to land safely and quickly take elevators down to the ground. For reference, regarding aircraft capable of having multiple people jump out, development has currently progressed considerably. It could be said that a transport-type aircraft was on the cusp of completion.

‘If I consider the time needed to establish and create the mobile strike force, the transport aircraft should be completed by then.’

Thinking that, everyone showed agreement with Ian’s words as he spoke about the mobile strike force. They thought that only if such a strike force existed would they be able to respond to bizarre biological weapons. Meanwhile, he thought that even if they had to spend a lot of money on weapons, they had to develop powerful weapons for them.

‘The mobile strike force needs weapons capable of damaging biological weapons, even if they cost a lot of money no matter what.’

Perhaps something like an anti-tank rifle would be needed. In order to pierce the bodies of those tough bastards, they would need weapons with that degree of destructive power. They would even need something like automatic rifles rather than submachine guns. In many ways, the technology of weapons was lacking for the era, but they had to develop them.

‘Even if an enormous amount of money goes into a limited number of units, we must make and arm them. And I have no intention of ending it like this.’

No matter how he thought about it, he did not feel like letting them go simply because he could not chase them like this. Certainly, after sleeping, his anger had only grown even greater, and he wanted to find those bastards immediately. That was why he had now properly made up his mind to find them.

‘I will move personally.’

The fact that Ian, the king, would leave his position was itself a considerably difficult matter, but putting such difficulties behind him, he had made up his mind to move. It was a situation where they had targeted none other than his daughter. How could he, as a father, stay still regarding this?

‘First, the Rat Religion.’

His retaliation against the Rat Religion had not yet ended either. Naturally, he was thinking of going personally and finishing it. That finish would also be the pope’s life. Naturally, regarding the course of his death, he intended not to leave even the slightest evidence that they had done it.

‘They will probably suspect me and our kingdom. But even so, what can they do?’

They would suspect it, but there would be no evidence, so the situation would end while only leaving questions behind. What mattered was what came next. In order to find the secret organization, he would have to move with proper determination. He was thinking of trying to release the restrictions on their minds.

‘They have probably strengthened them even more firmly than before, haven’t they?’

Since they already had a record of being broken through once, they would be preparing thoroughly. Of course, he had confidence. Just as much as they had prepared, he had also continued developing during the time that had passed.

Like that, Ian, who had been thinking of preparing the situation inside the royal palace while he would be absent, moved his steps toward the queen’s palace as soon as the meeting ended. As his arrival was announced, the door soon opened, and with that, he saw his daughter inside, who had discovered him.

“Papa!”

At the sight of Karina running toward him while calling him, he lifted her up in a flash. His mood had been bad until just a moment ago, but watching his daughter like this made him feel as though his mood rose a little. At the same time, anger toward those who had targeted such a beautiful and cute daughter rose again. Of course, he calmed those emotions again.

“Our Karina, do you know how much this father wanted to see you today too?”

“Kyahaha~”

When he rubbed his cheek against his daughter’s soft cheek, she liked it that much. It was still impossible to communicate with her. If she had grown just a little more, he would have been able to at least have a conversation with her, so he could only feel regretful. Meanwhile, Queen Adrina, who had been watching that sight, approached with a gentle smile and spoke as though asking if he had arrived.

“You have come, Your Majesty.”

“Have you settled your heart a little?”

“Of course. I am fine now. As long as our Karina is safe, that is enough.”

“Mm, I heard there is nothing harder to heal than an invisible illness of the heart. From what I see, it seems you still need to settle yourself much more.”

It was already the second time. An assassination aimed at herself and an assassination aimed at her daughter. If she were an ordinary woman, it would have been a situation where her eyes rolled back and she fainted more than enough. If there was something fortunate, it was that Queen Adrina’s heart had become a little stronger than that of an ordinary woman. Perhaps because she was in the position of queen, her heart had naturally become stronger.

‘Still, it must be hard.’

“No. I am going to steel my heart now. Since I do not know when something like this will happen again, I must come to my senses.”

“…Do not worry about an attack in the garden now. I guarantee that there will absolutely be no more incidents coming from the sky.”

“Yes, I trust Your Majesty.”

“And it seems I must say something rather apologetic to you.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“I think I must leave the royal palace for a while.”

“Yes? So suddenly?”

“It is an impulsive judgment, but because there is something I must do, I think I must be away from the royal palace for some time.”

Seeing Ian’s appearance, only then could she tell that he was about to do something she did not know about.

“Um, is it not dangerous?”

“It is not dangerous at all. There are always people guarding beside me for safety, are there not?”

“Even so…”

“I ask this of you.”

At the sight of him lowering his head as though asking a favor, Adrina could not help being startled. For him to go this far, there was surely something major going on. She worried, but in the end, she had no choice but to say she understood.

Ian could only hug that queen tightly. And when Karina, seeing her parents like that, also stretched out her hands as though asking to be hugged too, Ian held both of them tightly.