The Strongest in the World Doesn’t Want To Do Anything

20 – The One Trying to Stop

Casey hurried her steps back to Terosa.

The distance from the unknown forest to the border took over a day to traverse.

If she had a horse, she could have returned more quickly, but Casey didn’t complain because attracting Wolfgang’s attention unnecessarily was a risk she didn’t want to take.

It was about halfway through her journey.

She heard the sound of horses from a distance of about ten steps away.

Stopping in her tracks, Casey concealed herself in the bushes and observed the source of the noise.

“Is this the place the captain mentioned?”

“That’s right! How many times do I have to ask?”

“I have to trust your words, right? Idiot.”

“Who are you calling an idiot? Shut up and finish digging!”

There were two dwarf’s with their heads shaved in that place.

One was holding a map in his hand, and the other was digging the ground with a shovel. Both had tattooed wooden shapes on their arms.

They looked almost like brothers, but you could tell them apart by the unkempt beard hanging from the dwarf who was digging.

Casey immediately recognized who they were when she saw them.

“Aren’t these the forest guys? How are they here?”

Because Casey had left with the captain of the guards to track the forest members before Tendrial freed them from the prison of Terrosa under the queen’s command, it was a situation where she could have easily suspected the fact.

She cautiously stood up and approached behind the dwarfs who were frantically digging.

“Hurry up and dig faster!”

“You pitiful son of a soil! If it’s that frustrating, then you do it! All you do is sit and play with the map!”

“…”

“That’s right. Just shut up and do as you’re told!”

“…”

“Is this it? Hey! I found it! The place the captain mentioned…”

The dwarf who had been digging without even looking back found something wrapped in paper in the ground.

And when he turned around with it in his hands, Casey’s gun was pointed at him.

Another dwarf was unconscious on the ground.

“Hello? Why are these inhumans who should be in prison here?”

Naturally raising her arm in response to Casey’s question, the dwarf answered.

“Ah…Hello there. Hahaha. You look more beautiful after a long time. Security guard…ah!!!”

Casey swung her revolver and smashed the dwarf’s nose.

Fresh red blood dripped from his short, blunt nose.

“Don’t act like we’re friends, just hand over what you have in your hands. Give it to me.”

“…Yes…Yes.”

The dwarf handed over the object in his hand to Casey.

Even with this short action, there were numerous hesitations felt.

Understanding that, Casey aimed her gun and crushed the object in her hand with her fist.

With a loud ‘bang’, the wrapping paper burst and white smoke settled.

Between the torn wrapping paper in her hand, there were piles of white powder.

Casey stuck out her tongue slightly and tasted it.

“Is this still here?”

Realizing the identity of the white powder, Casey brought the gun barrel closer to the dwarf’s face.

“Is it cocaine?”

“Yes? Cocaine?”

The dwarf desperately tried to play dumb, even letting his beard fall, but it was obvious to anyone that he was acting awkward due to his lackluster acting skills.

Casey raised the gun again and pretended to strike the dwarf’s face.

Terrified, the dwarf covered his face and fell to the ground.

Casey laughed at his appearance and aimed the gun at him.

“Don’t pretend to smoke anymore, it’s definitely drugs that were disposed of. We arrested all those gangsters and completely demolished the production facilities. But is this still going around? Did you hide something? Or is there a factory that we missed back then?”

“I… I really don’t know! What can a lowly scum like me know?”

“Still, wouldn’t it be better to say something if you know? Is this your first investigation?”

The dwarf who had fallen behind Casey got up and cautiously approached her from behind.

The bearded dwarf, who was lying flat on the ground to match Casey’s height, witnessed him and opened his mouth to buy time.

“I… It’s not my first time… The first time was when… when I was with the beautiful lady guard here…”

Casey firmly grasped the rifle’s bolt handle and loaded the magic stone.

“If you keep babbling nonsense, I’ll execute you right here.”

“S-Save me!!”

“I think you don’t know what story to bring up, so I’ll tell you. You just have to answer the questions. It’s not difficult, right?”

“Y-Yes.”

In the bearded dwarf’s eyes, the dwarf who had suddenly approached behind Casey became visible, about one step away from her.

At that moment, Casey lifted her left leg and kicked the ground hard.

With a sharp sound, a blade sprang out from the back of Casey’s boot heel.

With the rifle aimed at the bearded dwarf, Casey knelt and quickly raised her leg backward, towards the dwarf who was approaching from behind her.

“Ugh!”

With a short moan, the blade attached to Casey’s heel pierced under his chin.

The dwarf’s eyes rolled back and the axe he was holding in his hand fell weakly to the ground.

Casey quickly stretched her leg forward, pulling out the blade that was stuck in the dwarf.

Casey’s blood-stained left foot dwarfed behind him, a gaping hole in his jaw.

“It seems like a conducive environment for answering.”

“Yes! Yes!! Of course! I’ll say everything! I’ll even find out what I don’t know and tell you! Please, just spare my life!”

The bearded dwarf, fervently, as if willing to lick every bloodied boot of Casey’s, begged with fervor.

“Alright. First off, let me ask. How did the Forest Wardens who were supposed to rot in Tessa’s prison end up here?”

As the question ended, frighteningly, the bearded dwarf began answering effortlessly, as if he were a deity.

“Chief Tendrial got us out! On the night the war ended, he came into the prison to deliver the news of victory. But he brought more than just news. He brought the keys to the prison! I thought it was some victory celebration gesture. Anyway, with the chief’s help, all of us wardens got out. When we left the prison, the guards were unconscious, lying around. That’s how we, without any resistance, followed Chief Tendrial out of Tessa.”

“Good. You answer well. That’s all I need.”

“Yes… Yes! Thank you!”

“…It pains me. Go over there.”

Casey pointed his rifle toward a dug pit.

“Yes! Yes! I understand!”

Simultaneously responding, the dwarf leaped into the pit, his beard fluttering.

Into that pit, Casey tossed the body of the dwarf he had just slain.

“Ugh!”

“Bury this one.”

“…Yes, yes!”

The bearded dwarf began hastily digging.

Casey found a comfortably shaped rock and settled atop it.

The barrel of his gun still aimed at the dwarf.

“As you dig, listen carefully and answer. The second question, as I asked before. You mentioned Eyekillers you unearthed. You claimed the strike force took care of your kind when they were on a hunt. How are there still survivors?”

“I truly don’t know! The chief just gave us a map with markings and ordered us to go there, dig, and retrieve whatever was there. So, we arrived, dug, and found what came out.”

Casey flicked the rifle, seemingly intrigued.

“How many others received the same order as you?”

“Roughly… about ten of us.”

“You all move in pairs like you?”

“Yes, probably.”

“So, with five teams, one is here…”

Casey picked up a map from the ground and shook it toward the bearded dwarf.

“Is this map the one?”

The dwarf furrowed his brow as if trying to see more clearly, then winced as pain shot through his injured nose, bowing his head.

“Oh! Yes, yes! That’s correct,” Casey replied, scanning the map.

Black X marks were scattered across the forest terrain on the map.

“So many?” she thought.

“Are these the items marked on this map that you all need to find?” she asked.

“Yes! That’s right!”

Roughly counting, there seemed to be at least twenty X marks.

Considering the quantities of other teams besides the dwarves’ team currently captured, it was a substantial amount that couldn’t be ignored.

Casey tucked the map into her arms and directed the final question at the dwarf.

“All right, now the last question.”

“Yes! I’ll answer anything!”

“Where is your leader right now?”

***

Following the queen’s orders, Tendrial led his subordinates, who had been freed to find Wolfgang, out of Terosa.

Officially, that was the case.

“What’s the use of a promise when Adeus is dead?”

The queen assured her commitment to the non-human autonomous rulers, but Tendrial didn’t trust her.

It was understandable, given that the situation in Terosa was clearly unfavorable.

He had betrayed and attempted to execute the most powerful figure in the world.

But things went south, and even the queen’s champion was killed.

Since then, he had completely disappeared, making Wolfgang an uncontrollable and dangerous figure, just as the queen feared.

“If I had just left it alone… damn!”

Having escaped Terosa, Tendrial decided to pause in the nearby forest to settle some unfinished business with the Forest members.

Feeling a sense of relief in the familiar forest, which had been like home to them, they relaxed with a comfortable heart.

She explained in detail to them the events that had transpired so far and the plans for the future.

“…that’s how it was. So, I came here. For now, I’ll act as if I’m on the queen’s side. Until the moment I mentioned earlier comes, everyone should quietly do what I ask.”

Dwarves, elves, tree spirits, and various other non-human races listened attentively to Tendrial’s words.

“The first thing we need to do is find the ‘box.’ It contains gifts from my former colleague, that damn pretty guard Casey, and it’s a ‘box’ that we need.”