Ch.149Harem Party Conceals Its Power

“Let’s keep playing together, good children! Heeheeheehee!”

The mistress of the mansion said this as she extended her hand and scattered something she had been clutching onto the bedroom floor.

They were knight figurines in full plate armor, completely out of place in the Wild West-era Grantis.

Five silver-armored knight figurines slowly rose to their feet and drew their swords, pointing them at us.

“…What is this about?”

“It’s a duel game! A fair match, five against five! They’re just disposable figurines, so feel free to break them as much as you want—I won’t punish you!”

“That’s not the issue. We followed the mansion’s rules by not stealing any gold coins and freeing all our companions. We have no further business here, so please let us out.”

– You must pay gold coins to free companions who have been turned to stone.

– Those who steal gold coins from servants will not be forgiven by the mistress.

– You will be rewarded if you leave the mansion without your petrified companions.

According to these rules, we shouldn’t be punished since we didn’t defeat the servants and steal their gold coins, but we also wouldn’t receive any reward since we weren’t leaving anyone behind.

However, the mistress’s interpretation seemed a bit different from what I had thought.

“Who said you could leave the mansion when your business is done?”

“Huh?”

“Did you actually read the mansion’s rules properly? It says you’ll be rewarded if you leave your petrified companions behind.”

“That’s why I’m saying we don’t need any reward, so we’ll take all our companions and—”

“Are you stupid?”

The mistress of the mansion stared down at me with an expression as if looking at a pitiful creature.

“When I say I’ll reward you for leaving companions behind, it means if you want to leave the mansion, you must leave your companions behind.”

“What…!?”

“Originally, everyone except those who weren’t turned to stone would have to stay, but since you’re good children, I’ll let you leave just one behind. Then I’ll let the remaining four go.”

The mistress of the mansion spoke as if bestowing a great blessing, looking down at us with an expressionless face.

With her attitude leaving no room for negotiation, we could only look at each other and sigh deeply.

“Haah, so it comes to this after all.”

“Well, things in this world don’t resolve so easily.”

As we took out our weapons and prepared for battle, the mistress’s expression twisted slightly.

“You won’t follow my instructions? You’ll regret it.”

“You’re the one who shouldn’t have regrets. You’d better quietly let us go before your precious figurines—and this mansion—get smashed to pieces.”

“Hmm, such naughty children who don’t know their place. I’ll have to punish you.”

With those words, the mistress of the mansion stretched her large hand toward us.

She probably intended to grab one of us and snap our waist in two.

If that hand could actually touch any of us, that is.

“Disintegration.”

*BANG!*

With Jessica’s short utterance, a web-like pattern of cracks appeared on the porcelain doll’s outstretched palm, and the next moment, it exploded with a loud noise.

White fragments scattered everywhere, along with metal components that had connected the finger joints, littering the bedroom floor.

“KYAAAAH-!?”

The mistress of the mansion, having instantly lost one hand, clutched her wrist and screamed in pain.

Her large glass-like eyes couldn’t grasp what had happened, alternating between staring at her vanished right hand and the five of us.

“Listen, Miss Mistress, you seem to be misunderstanding something… We didn’t harm the mansion’s servants not because we lack ability or fear fighting.”

Another reason I freed Jessica from stone first:

During our stay at the atelier, Jessica’s newly created magic would serve as our ultimate weapon against the dolls.

The matter-disintegration magic, Disintegration.

A magic based on tools discovered in the Corkas Mine ruins, an arrangement of the Dragun’s destruction beam.

Though ineffective against living beings and limited in the area it can destroy at once, this magic can instantly destroy materials like wood, metal, or porcelain—a death sentence for the mansion’s dolls.

“From the beginning, Jessica alone could have swept away all the porcelain dolls wandering this mansion within an hour or two. The only reason we didn’t was because we hoped there might be a third option—neither harming the servants nor abandoning our companions—that would yield the best outcome.”

In old tales and fairy tales, there are often such developments.

Like when someone honestly declined both the golden and silver axes and received both, or Sir Gawain’s episode from Arthurian legend with the witch who alternated between being a beautiful woman and an old hag.

We hoped that by finding a third answer to a binary choice, we might avoid the dungeon boss’s wrath while still obtaining the treasure.

“But if what awaits at the end is a vile contract scam, there’s no need to show any more restraint, is there?”

“That’s right. Let’s quickly blast away that unpleasant giant doll.”

“Eeeek… Knights! Destroy these insolent creatures!”

At the mistress’s command, the silver-armored knights emitted red light through their helmet slits, drew their swords, and charged at us.

The numbers were even at five versus five, and though we had the advantage in reach, that benefit couldn’t be utilized in indoor combat.

*TANG!*

*TATANG! TATANG!*

However, that would only matter if we had no means to stop the knights’ approach.

While ordinary adventurers’ firearms might have struggled to penetrate that armor and damage the dolls, our weapons each transcended common sense.

Mina’s large-caliber pistol blasted away an entire knight’s body, and a single-action revolver with rifle-exceeding power severed another knight’s knee joints.

“Diamond Dust!”

*CRACK*

The remaining three knights were caught by freezing magic before they could take more than a few steps, rendering them immobile.

One with broken legs crawling on the floor, three frozen in place unable to move, and one with its upper body turned to rags after being hit by a shotgun.

The direct confrontation with the knight dolls ended as soon as it began.

*BANG! CLICK, BANG! CLICK, BANG!*

Phyllis’s lever-action rifle fired consecutive magic bullets at a frozen knight’s chest.

Though they resembled humans, the opponents were dolls controlled by magical power.

There was no guarantee that their life-sustaining magic stone would be located in the same position as a heart.

The knight being pierced by Phyllis’s rifle collapsed powerlessly after the fifth shot, its vital point apparently destroyed.

“Good, three left.”

Defeating the three immobilized knights was more simple labor than combat.

The series of battles just now was meant to demonstrate to the mansion’s mistress that each of us could easily overwhelm the dolls.

We could have defeated them much faster if Jessica had used Disintegration.

“Impossible… the Silver Knights couldn’t even put up a fight…”

“Got any more? Bring them all out.”

“E-Executioner! Bring me their heads!”

“GRAAAAH!!”

The mansion’s mistress used her remaining left hand to place down a male doll much larger than the knights.

The muscular figure wearing an iron mask swung a huge double-bladed axe, creating an intimidating presence.

“GRAAAAH!!”

*WHOOSH*

The double-bladed axe was swung with terrifying momentum toward Seth, who blocked the executioner’s path, but Seth dodged it with a large backward bend while thrusting his spear into the executioner’s body.

Despite being deeply stabbed in the side, not a single drop of blood appeared—truly befitting a doll.

*WHOOSH! CRASH!*

Seth avoided the downward cleaving axe attack with a back jump and landed lightly on the sofa.

The next moment, the executioner’s head fell off while its body remained frozen in the axe-swinging position.

Seth had launched a sharp vacuum blade while performing an aerial somersault during his back jump.

As my, Mina’s, and Phyllis’s magic bullets showered the headless executioner’s body, the riddled corpse collapsed powerlessly to the side.

“Scarecrow!”

This time, a straw scarecrow doll with blades attached to both hands appeared, emanating an ominous aura, but before it could do anything, Phyllis’s deadly strike flew in.

“Fireball {Scorching Yutin}!”

*WHOOSH!*

“KYAAAAH!”

The scarecrow doll, writhing in flames, instantly turned into a pile of black ashes.

If metal and porcelain could be destroyed in an instant, what chance did straw or fabric have?

“What! What! Why are you so strong! Insolent dolls… HIEEK!?”

The mistress, extending her left hand in frustration, froze when Jessica simply raised her index finger.

She remembered that the red light of Disintegration, which had blown away her right hand earlier, had emanated from that very fingertip.

“Your repertoire seems to be getting increasingly pathetic. If you’re running out of tricks, how about bowing your head and apologizing?”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous! Why should I, to mere little dolls!”

As I aimed my revolver at the mansion’s mistress who showed no sign of surrender, she flinched momentarily before quickly displaying a vile smile.

“Go ahead and shoot if you dare! Your attacks can’t reach beyond the mansion anyway. That’s the rule of this mansion.”

“Oh…?”

*BANG!*

As I fired a test shot with my revolver, sure enough, as the mistress had said, the white magic bullet disappeared without a trace the moment it passed through the broken wall.

Seeing this, the mistress’s expression became even more triumphant, so I quietly reloaded my revolver and placed it back in the holster at my waist.

“Now you understand? You can’t do anything to me. But I still have plenty of toys—”

Quick draw.

Feeling the magic power flowing out of my body, I drew the gun from its holster again.

What I needed now wasn’t a high-speed bullet or six fanning shots, but a single bullet that could transcend space.

I was simply recreating what I had used to overcome the trap in the disease demon’s dungeon.

*BANG!*

The gunshot echoed through the room.

But this time, the white magic bullet that left the barrel produced a completely different result from before.

With a cracking sound, a piece of the porcelain mistress’s left earlobe shattered and fell off.

“Ah…?”

The damage this strike inflicted on the mansion’s mistress was probably not even a tenth—no, not even a hundredth—of what Disintegration would have done.

But watching her face gradually fill with terror in real-time, one could appreciate the impact of that single shot.

“Aah… AAAAH!? UWA, UWA! AAAAAAAAAH!!”

The mansion’s mistress fell into panic, screaming strange screams as if she’d seen a ghost.

With her devil doll-like appearance making such expressions, the intensity was no joke.

“Let me ask you again. What were you saying about us?”

“UWAAAH! UWA! Impossible! Why? How? How is this possible!?”

“I told you already. We weren’t staying quiet because we lacked strength.”

Aiming the gleaming silver revolver barrel once more, I delivered an ultimatum with the most evil expression I could muster.

“Kukukuku, I’ll slowly turn your entire body into a beehive, giving you a painful death.”

“HIEEEEK… UWAAAAH! Expulsion, expulsion!”

The panicked mansion mistress pointed her severed right wrist toward us while shouting, then extended her intact left hand forward and screamed loud enough to shake the dungeon.

“All of you are EXPELLED!”

The next moment, with a beam of pure white light filling the mansion’s bedroom, we were forcibly ejected from this insufferable house of dolls.