「Haah……I want meant……」
「Don’t say it, Glis! You’ll just make it worse!」
「Yeah……you’re right」
「All things considered, speaking about things that don’t show up when you need them, the same goes with the Ironblood Chain Brigade, doesn’t it? The Highlanders have been throwing their weight around, why wouldn’t they come here and clean up the mess?! They shouldn’t have the time to attack Lady Cyrene or raid the Chiral Royal Palace!」
Rafinha spoke as much as she brought the snow into her mouth.
「……Well, sure, their range of activity may be limited within Charalia’s borders, but with such huge Flying Battleships under their control, they can’t say they couldn’t come all the way here, right?」
「……Yeah. They could. I thought they were already here.」
「And yet they didn’t! What’s the point of bragging to be an Anti-Highland guerilla organization?!」
「To be fair, we also didn’t know how bad the situation was until we came here, so it’s possible that they just haven’t noticed the situation yet!」
That being said, the Ironblood Chain Brigade should have a wider information network compared to Inglis and her friends. It wouldn’t be surprising if they had taken a few steps ahead. And yet, Inglis and her group hadn’t seen any signs of the Brigade at all ever since they crossed Alucard borders.「But, I think they won’t lay their hands on Alucard, you know?」
「……Why?」
「Well, taking account of their actions so far……I just have a feeling they won’t.」
Or more precisely, taking account of what happened as the results afterward. Just as they claimed, being anti-Highland, they were indeed hostile to Highlanders, but the changes in the state of affairs, the changes in people’s viewpoint, the results of the Brigade’s actions. When Inglis looked at these points, she couldn’t help but think that there must be some kind of method to their havoc. Whilst it was true that they attacked Highlanders who jeopardized the Midland, it didn’t seem like they did it at random.
This might lead to the question of who the Black Mask actually is. Regardless, it was all still just a hypothesis. Nothing more than guesswork, or in another word, a baseless assumption.
Which is why she still held back from speaking out.
Whether or not the Ironblood Chain Brigade will make their move, if they didn’t show their tail, that means Inglis’ assumption had a higher possibility of becoming true.
「Is that what you wish, Glis? Since we have evil Highlanders here, you want to monopolize the fights?」
「No, I personally welcome it if the Ironblood Chain Brigade decides to join the fray, you know? The more people we can fight the better, right? Wasn’t it fun the last time the Ironblood Chain Brigade attacked the Royal Palace?」
「It wasn’t fun, not one bit! You were the only one enjoying it, Glis!」
「……Well, it would have been better if you enjoyed it. If everyone enjoyed the very act of fighting, the world would have become a more peaceful place, you know?」
「Eeh?! Why would it?! There’s something wrong with that logic!」
「There’s not. People who enjoy the act of fighting will be satisfied with just fighting, so they won’t fuss over differences in ideals and whatnot. Hence, they don’t use fighting as a means to push their agenda, or in other words, they won’t fight to solve a problem. And once that happened, at the very least, there will be peace amongst mankind, right?」
As a king in her previous life and as a girl who attempted to master the art of war in her current one, Inglis couldn’t help but carry that notion in her heart.
Yoink!
Rafinha, however, seemed to not like it and pulled Inglis’ cheeks wide.
「Don’t! Joke! Around! Think seriously!」
「Hyoeeh?! Aym naut jawkingh. Ay waah seyiouhs!!」[efn_noteI'm not joking. I was serious—-[/efn_note]
「Oh no, I know you’re joking! Basically, you’re saying everyone should become like Glis, right? I can’t have more Glis around! You’re still okay now since you have me watching you closely! But if there’s more Glis around, there’ll be more people I need to watch over, and it’ll be hard on me!」
「Fuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyu……」
「Hm? What, what’s wrong?」
「Then, I know it’ll be hard, but please take care of me if I have one more me, okay? No one says that I won’t duplicate!」
「Eeh?! Wh-, what do you mean?」
「If we continued on to Alucard’s capital, we might stumble on some research equipment left by Lord Abel, the one that made a lot of Mister Ian’s bodies. If I can use it, I’ll try making a copy of me too, you see.」
「WHA?!! Hold on, is that the real reason you want to go to the capital?!」
「That’s not all, though. It is, like, a conclusion based on a number of circumstances?」
If there was one more Inglis around, Inglis was sure that the other her would agree completely to all of her ideas and would be the ideal training partner for her to continue to hone and grow her skills with.
She might still have to search for strong opponents, as having variation was vital for her growth too, but she wouldn’t be bored out of her mind for not having an opponent at all.
After all, life is short. Every second her hands were regretfully not used to fight was a second wasted. It would have been absolutely meaningful and essential if she had someone to fill those wasted seconds.
「That’s a big NO! We definitely have to go and unlock Lekrea’s prison first!」
「Even if we choose that option, there are still…」
Just as Inglis dished out her reply…
「AAAaaaahhhhh?!!」
A shriek was heard from a place far away.