Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement Vol. 2

His escape had cost the empire a great number of troops. The dragon had taken the smoothest path—the main road—and that was exactly where their army was stationed. He had crushed any forces in the middle or sent them flying.

The main road was, of course, where the enemy’s front-line headquarters had been. A bit further down the road were their supply squads, which carried the army’s food, water, horse feed, and spare arrows, among other things. The supplies themselves had also been in the dragon’s way, since they had been placed at the side of the road for convenience. Losing so many supplies and their chain of command instantly threw the Imperial Army into chaos.

Having lost their flying riders—the key to making their invasion a success—as well as the ancient dragons and monsters, the enemy had no choice but to prioritize retreat with minimal casualties.

The soldiers that could somewhat communicate with monsters had died, and the ancient dragons, in all their supposed majesty, had been defeated or scared off with ease. This had confounded the monsters, which Mitsuha finished off by using her newly-acquired orc and ogre languages to say things like, “You look tasty. Me eat you whole.” The monsters had all made a run for the hills... sending them straight through the imperial forces.

Well, I don’t really care about the rest, Mitsuha thought, fully intent on leaving the aftermath and pursuit to the capital forces, the local lords’ armies, and the mercenaries.

She soon found out that the other gates had been assaulted by traitors of the kingdom. Their main goal was to keep the nobility and royalty from escaping, but they also had some soldiers try to break in. Instead of the limited resistance they had expected, they were met with machine gun fire and grenade launchers.

I’m glad the mercs at the other gates got something to do too. I didn’t want them to be all sulky with me. Anyway, back to the city we go. Mitsuha turned around to call out to the captain, but he and his men were too busy loading one of the dragons into a truck. Well, you do you, I guess.

◇ ◇ ◇

Exhausted from battle and hardly lucid, Mitsuha entered the town... and a frenzy of people. She could hardly keep up with the crowd that swarmed her, so she answered them only in her thoughts.

“Lightning Archpriestess”? That joke’s over; don’t beat a dead horse.

A servant of God? Oh, cool, you heard my speech. You fell in love with my words? Must be the suspension bridge effect.

You want me to marry your son? Wait, Your Majesty?! Since when were you here?! And no, I don’t need anyone who sparkles too much.

Huh? Leuhen? Well, I wouldn’t mind taking him. His presence is pretty soothing.

Ah, please stop jostling me! My left shoulder hurts like hell! You’re gonna open the wound—Ahh, it’s bleeding!

Hey, Wolfgang’s pretty popular, too! They’re getting the “Godsent soldier” treatment. That woman with the baby says she wants you to touch her child. Go on, do it. Ah, hey! No touching the mother herself! And no, there aren’t any women who want you to touch their breasts, you asshole!

It would’ve been problematic for the mercenaries to stay for too long, so Mitsuha intended to send them home as soon as possible. Keeping them around could open up a whole new can of worms, and I don’t want any of their guns or something getting stolen.

She couldn’t world-jump in a place like this, however, so she gathered them in the inner courtyard again. After sending them back to Earth, Mitsuha returned right away. There was still so much to do, after all. She even paid a visit to Alexis. He had been pretty worried about the battle and was overjoyed to learn that the kingdom had won.

Gonna sleep now, Mitsuha thought. And I’ll take tomorrow off. Probably wouldn’t be able to work properly anyway.

◇ ◇ ◇

Months—no, years later, in the valley of dragons, two juveniles were brainstorming how to cure their boredom.

“Hey, wanna play with humans? They die if you just poke ’em a bit, but they make good pawns for games.”

The other dragon looked conflicted. “Hmm. But, y’know the weird old dragon that lives in the mountain cave? The one who gets really mad and yells stuff like, ‘Don’t mess with humans!’ and ‘Don’t lay a hand on them!’ What if the humans did something bad to him?”

“Ohh, that old fogey... Well, I guess we shouldn’t do it then. Even the grown-ups don’t wanna deal with him.”

“You’re right. See you tomorrow!”

“Yep! See ya!”