What motivates adventurers the most?
Honor? The thrill of adventure and the satisfaction of curiosity?
So do value those things, but at their core, adventurers are people who care about money.
[The kind who’d sell dungeon dirt if it turned a profit.]
It was a derogatory label, but adventurers themselves just nodded and admitted it was accurate. They’d joke that if dungeons weren’t dangerous, they’d love to make regular trips inside to harvest magic stones. That’s how money-crazed adventurers were.
"Money, money’s getting away!"
And so, the Andras fleeing at full speed ahead of the adventurers were, to them, walking jackpots that would pay out a fortune if caught.
"Damn, what’s with those robes?! The defense on them is insane!"
"Catch them and strip them! I’m wearing that no matter what!"
"Magic doesn’t even work! Did you hear that? Arrowheads bouncing off! Must be steel-grade!"
The adventurers lost their minds over the feather robes the Andras were wearing. Even long-range arrow shots and spells left the Andras completely unscathed.
Defensive power rivaling steel armor.
Light as a feather.
And the kind of "style" that made an adventurer’s heart race.
"Th-those are mine!"
The subjugation mission was already the furthest thing from their minds. The adventurers chased hard after the Andras, desperate to steal their feather robes.
"These humans are insane-ras!"
The Andras shielded the backs of their heads and sprinted forward. The feathers on the robes were tougher than their own black plumage, and they had no choice but to hold their arms behind their heads to keep stray arrows from burying into their skulls.
"They’re going to catch up at this rate."
The lead Andras, who had long since taken to the night sky to guide the unit, clicked her tongue at the shrinking gap between the subjugation force and the monster unit.
"They say human greed knows no bounds."
Even in the middle of a war, they’d covet a monster’s armor this badly?
"If we lose even one robe, Master will have my head. Absolutely not happening."
The Andras seethed at the humans’ greed. And then she ca up with an ergency plan.
’What’s a way to exhaust the pursuing force while escaping faster?’
There was no magic trick she could pull out of nowhere. Instead, the Andras decided to use the terrain to her advantage.
"That way should work."
The Andras grinned at the winding river below. When she flapped her wings and followed the river’s course from above, the Andras below her let out shrieks and threw themselves into the water.
Splash, splash!
The Andras began diving into a river that wasn’t exactly shallow, but couldn’t be called deep either. The pursuing force was thrown off when the Andras unit suddenly plunged into the water.
"Oh, oh no! The money’s floating away!"
The adventurers sprinted along the riverbank at full speed. The more hot-headed ones didn’t even bother removing their gear before swimming after the Andras.
Splash, splash!
But keeping up with Andras who’d deliberately jumped into the river was a losing battle. If the adventurers were chasing with fire in their eyes, the Andras were fleeing for their lives.
[If we’re caught, we die.]
[If we die, they take our feather robes.]
[If we lose feather robes worth well over 20 mid-grade magic stones each, more valuable than an Andras itself, the Legion Commander will be deeply disappointed.]
[And then he might not bother resurrecting us.]
So getting caught could genuinely an death. The Andras’ retreat was, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
"O spirit of water!"
One mage began manipulating a spirit to alter the river’s current. The Andras at the front were mostly unaffected, but those at the rear panicked as the flow suddenly shifted, flailing their arms harder.
Clang-clang-clang!
A rain of arrows poured down on the backs of the Andras struggling upstream against the reversed current. The feather robes boasted solid defense even when soaked, but the Andras’ own feathers weren’t nearly as tough.
"Hurk?!"
An arrow lodged in the back of one Andras’s head. Fortunately it didn’t pierce the skull, but just having an arrow stuck in his head was enough to slow him down.
"M-my arrow hit him! That one’s mine!"
"Like hell! Finders keepers!"
"Shut up, all of you! Whoever cuts his head off gets him!"
The adventurers at the front raised their weapons with euphoric faces as the Andras began floating downstream.
"Too bad."
And at that mont, sothing shot down from the night sky and snatched the Andras up by his feather robe.
"Wh-what the?!"
"A hawk...?"
"A woman...?"
A few sharp-eyed adventurers caught a glimpse of the flying monster that had grabbed the arrow-struck Andras. Silhouetted against the moon, she looked so human that if not for the crow wings on her back, they’d have mistaken her for one.
"A little more desperation and you might’ve had him. Too bad."
The Andras smirked down at the humans and spread her wings.
"Master sotis says sothing in situations like this. ’Close, but no cigar.’"
"Why you...!"
The adventurers flushed with anger at the Andras’s words. They understood the aning instantly.
"Welco to Ras Vegas. You foolish humans."
The Andras who’d been floating downstream drifted right into Ras Vegas.
"So, what now?"
The adventurers who’d been chasing the prospect of a feather-robe fortune stared in stunned disbelief at the torch-lit, unyielding walls of Ras Vegas.
***
At the hour the Andras unit returned to Ras Vegas.
Eila, the commander of Ras Vegas, hurried the soaking-wet Andras through the portal.
"Go to Orias’s dungeon and dry off. Warm yourselves by the Flare Panteras’ fire."
"S-so cold-ras...."
The Andras left through the portal, shivering violently. Eila picked up the feather robes they’d stripped off. They were sowhat waterlogged, but apparently had so water-resistant properties; a few vigorous shakes sent the moisture flying off.
"So the adventurers went crazy for these."
The sight of the adventurers despairing outside the northern wall had been truly sothing. Eila hadn’t thought the robes would drive adventurers that wild, but strangely, adventurers, especially the n, had gone absolutely mad for the feather robes.
"If we can use it, we use it. The dampness... this should be enough."
A living person wearing them might catch a cold from the moisture, but if the wearer wasn’t alive, it hardly mattered.
"Kimaris. Put the robes over the dullahans’ armor."
"Ugh, they sll like bird...."
Kimaris wrinkled her nose but accepted the feather robes and draped them over herself. Worn like a cloak, the feathers swayed and shimred every ti she moved atop her unicorn, Amdusias.
"Any trouble moving in them?"
"Not at all. They’re not particularly heavy, and the unicorns can handle this much weight easily. The only problem is the sll."
"Deal with it."
"Fine. So then, Princess Knight, are we finally moving out?"
Kimaris’s blue spectral light glowed from within her helm as she raised her weapon. Beside her, Amdusias scattered violet energy from her eyes and stamped the ground with her hooves.
"Yes. Master said not to annihilate them.
...He didn’t say anything about taunting them and inflicting so damage."
At Eila’s words, the dullahans all snickered and mounted their unicorns. Every one of them raised their specially crafted weapons with bold, eager expressions.
In one hand, a steel sword. In the other, a long pole with what appeared to be a leather strap attached to it.
"Death knights, prepare to sortie. Charge the ones building the encampnt and..."
Eila drew a finger across her throat.
"Take their heads."
Neiiigh!
The unicorns burst through the south gate in unison and poured out of Ras Vegas.
***
"Sothing feels off."
Gray had been constructing the defensive position and setting up the commander’s personal tent, but a chill kept running through his body. He was currently embedded with the subjugation force as a spy for the Legion, and if by so chance the subjugation force actually won, he’d be in serious trouble.
"...Freedom really is better."
Rather than living shackled to obligation just because he was born into a high-ranking noble family, living freely in the Legion was far preferable. That was why Gray did his best to play the part of a dedicated mber of the subjugation force while secretly gathering all manner of intelligence for the Legion.
"Sir Gray, the commander’s quarters are... impeccably done. Thank you."
"Don’t ntion it. I’m surprisingly good at this sort of thing, unlike my usual self. Ha ha...."
The priests were impressed when they saw the perfectly appointed high-noble commander’s tent. Gray had insisted, more forcefully than anyone, that he would be the one to set up the commander’s quarters, and his skill proved to be no idle boast.
"But what’s that?"
"Ah."
The priest pointed at a red candle placed at the head of the field cot. It seed too thick for an ordinary candle, and its wick was thin.
"Ah, that’s what’s called a scented candle. If you light it before bed, it helps calm the mind and body."
"...Isn’t that dangerous? It’s essentially sleeping with a fla right next to you."
"It’s a tiny flicker, less than a match. Don’t worry. The Baroness herself uses them regularly. I bought it from a trustworthy place... Avalon."
"Hmm."
One of the priests turned his head away, blushing. It wasn’t illegal or forbidden, but a priest frequenting such a place was certainly bad for one’s image.
"Understood. Then the rest of..."
Clop, clop, clop!
The ground began to tremble. The vibrations, felt even from a distance, were clearly no ordinary earthquake. Soone was charging toward their hastily constructed encampnt.
"Wh-what’s happening?!"
The three rushed out of the tent. The soldiers were already outside their own tents, weapons drawn.
"Cavalry...?!"
Surrounding the encampnt, knights in jet-black heavy armor with feather robes billowing rode pure-white unicorns. Through their grotesquely twisted helms, the knights kept scanning the soldiers with their eyes.
"Death knights?!"
Gray recognized them and panicked. The plan he’d been given said nothing about death knights running wild. Had the plan been changed?
’They said once the encampnt was built, they’d leave it alone?’
They hadn’t attacked during construction, but ca after it was finished. Gray couldn’t make sense of it. Neither could the priest beside him.
"Death knights...? Do you know what those are?"
"...I saw them before I escaped the dungeon!"
Gray thought fast and tossed out a plausible excuse. The two priests gave him suspicious looks, but the pressing matter was that death knights had appeared right before their eyes.
Neiiigh!
The unicorns let out roars. The death knight at the front wheeled around and began charging. A headlong ram into the fortifications would be foolish, but the wooden fence ant to stop cavalry was only half-finished.
And the death knights cleared the fence with ease. The soldiers, suddenly face-to-face with monsters, scread and either collapsed to the ground or dove out of the way.
"Th-this is insane!"
"Respond! Archers, loose! Spearn, raise spears!"
At Gray’s command, the soldiers raised their weapons. Just as a death knight seed about to cut down a soldier right before his eyes, Gray squeezed his eyes shut.
Click.
"...Huh?"
There was no sound of sothing being cut. Instead, he heard sothing fastening. Gray opened his eyes in bewildernt as he watched the death knights swinging the poles they’d been carrying on their backs.
"Lassos?"
Whoosh!
The death knights snagged soldiers’ necks with lassos. The leather straps beca leashes, and no matter how much the soldiers struggled, it was useless.
"""Ohohohoho!!!"""
An eerie, coquettish laughter spilled from beneath the helms, sending chills down Gray’s spine. Every single death knight was snatching up only the "handso n" from among the subjugation force.
"Aah, AAAAGH!"
The n lassoed by the neck were dragged away by force, caught on the poles. Nearby soldiers grabbed at their captured comrades and pulled, but it was futile.
"C-could this be...?"
Gray recalled sothing he’d read long ago in his family’s library about the customs of barbarian tribes. The tribes living on the distant plains were known for their raids, lusting after won; they’d kill the n and abduct the newly widowed won, dragging them away.
"H-help, grrk?!"
The lassoed n were hoisted onto the unicorns’ heads in an instant. The sharp horns pierced through their armor, pinning them in place with no chance of escape.
"Fall back!"
The one who appeared to be the death knights’ leader wheeled around. Each death knight, having abducted one man apiece, turned with a flourish and rode back toward the city.
"Sh-shoot them! Brothers, the vile monsters are kidnapping our n!"
"If we shoot, we’ll hit our comrades! W-we need to go after them and rescue...!"
Clop, clop, clop.
The death knights used their kidnapped n as shields and slipped out of the encampnt. Gray let out a hollow sigh and covered his face with his hand.
"...They’re going to be thoroughly ravished."
Gray offered his condolences to the 30 handso n.
Eastern subjugation force base camp outside Ras Vegas.
30 mbers of the subjugation force had been abducted by the death knights.
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