Side: Yuki
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
"HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!!"
"MOMMY!! MOMMYYYYYYYYYY!!"
Helpless people were being crushed by the weapon known called war.
"Don't kill them, no matter what!! Capture them and sell them off!! Enslave the capable ones!! It'll benefit the country!!"
"Targeting the area with only women was definitely the right choice!"
"Yeah! With this, my promotion is guaranteed!!"
...This was the exact scene playing out directly outside the new continent's dungeon.
From the looks of it, the clearing immediately outside the entrance was a communal settlement where beastmen and elves lived together. However, it seemed some random army had just launched a raid on them.
My initial plan was to pretend we didn't see any of this, prioritize securing our own perimeter, and conduct our baseline experiments—
"Unforgivable!! I'm going in right now!!"
"Ah, wait!! Riel, you can't!!"
"...Sorry, Yuki. I can't overlook something like this."
Spurred by the sight, Riel, Tori, and Kaya immediately bolted out toward the clearing.
"Yuki-san, those three might be in danger if we leave them be. Even though we are using doppelgangers, there's no telling what might happen. Let us go as well!"
"Onii-chan, we have to save everyone!!"
"Nii-sama, I am going too!!"
"...Fufufu. Opportunities to cut loose in a scene like this don't come around very often, do they?"
Sheila, Aslin, Filia, and Labyris immediately charged after them in a synchronized pack.
"Ah well, youth truly is a splendid thing."
"Shall we head out too?"
"Yes. This time, let us show them we can properly protect people."
To make matters worse, even the three middle-aged veteran guys took off into the fray.
"Um, what should the two of us do? Since we're using doppelgangers, I don't think there would be any issue if we joined the battle?"
Even though she was currently operating a proxy body, Ria steadfastly refused to leave my side. Yep, what a good girl.
"......"
"......"
"Why the hell are you just standing there in stunned silence like me?"
I reached over and chopped Zargis, who was mirroring my exact paralyzed reaction.
"Ehhhh!? No matter how you look at it, actively interfering in an external conflict under our current circumstances is completely out of the question, isn't it?!"
"The wheels are already in motion. You're coming too! It's not like you're a pure research nerd with zero combat background! You were a member of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings, for crying out loud!!"
"Gyahhh!? Who in their right mind willingly dives into a battlefield riddled with this many unpredictable variables?!"
I don't want to go out there either, dammit!
But I couldn't just leave them to run wild. My wives' safety comes first—even if they're only using doppelgangers. Well, if we can secure some solid local intelligence from the people we rescue, I suppose that would make our overarching mission a lot easier to navigate.
"Yep, looks like everything is functioning completely normally."
"Yes, it certainly appears so."
"Uh... What should we do about all this?"
The various measuring tools and gadgets that Zargis and I had meticulously prepared for today were rendered completely pointless. Of course, there were also items I had explicitly explained and asked Ria to carry along with us.
If you're wondering what exactly we brought...
First, we needed to address the baseline question: Will our individual strengths translate properly on the new continent? To test our physical output, we had packed stopwatches and training scarecrows to measure speed and impact force.
The concrete answer to that experiment was currently being demonstrated as follows:
"Laying a hand on women is the absolute lowest of the low!!"
With a massive swing of Riel's weapon, a targeted enemy soldier was launched high into the upper atmosphere. And it wasn't just Riel. Tori, Kaya, and even the little girls like Labyris were casually sending grown men flying like ragdolls.
"Well, look at it this way. We're getting an accidental live demonstration of our physical performance. Zargis, Ria, keep your eyes locked on everyone's movements. We need to verify if their agility and power outputs differ from how they feel back in Weed. In fact, there's a slight chance their performance parameters might actually be elevated over here."
"I've already started recording with the video camera, so we're completely covered."
"I am capturing everything on my camera as well."
Before I could even give the order, the two of them were already recording the absolute gag-reel of a spectacle unfolding before our eyes. It's not every day you get to see human beings flying through the air like thrown baseballs.
"As for me... I'll go treat the wounded."
"Understood. But please stay strictly within my line of sight, okay?"
"What am I, a toddler?"
Muttering under my breath, I watched the soldiers who had been sent flying get bound up tightly like log rolls with the ropes we brought.
Meanwhile, I prepared to approach the injured beastmen and elven women to treat them with recovery magic—
But right, that brought up the medical issue we encountered before deploying to the new continent.
Thanks to Lilishe's divine protection, every single one of my wives had gained the ability to cast mid-tier recovery magic—to put it in recognizable terms, spells akin to Mid Heal or Curaga.
However, they were entirely incapable of manifesting high-tier spells like Elju or Rurua's Extra Heal—the equivalent of Full Heal. Since Rurua had been sidelined from the expedition due to her pregnancy, we were left without a dedicated primary healer.
Or rather, because we lacked one, the responsibility of acting as the party's dedicated main healer fell entirely on my shoulders.
"Eek!! A human?!"
"Don't come any closer! Stay away from us!!"
Man, dealing with the psychological fallout of this is rough. I mean, yes, a bunch of humans were just actively brutalizing your village, but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't lump me in with them. Granted, I have my own calculated motives for helping, but still.
My heart ached a bit, but leaving them gravely injured was out of the question, so I continued my approach regardless...
Suddenly, a tiny child—looking around the same age as Aslin and the others—burst out from behind a piece of cover and glared up at me with absolute defiance.
"Stop it!! Don't hurt my mama!! Go away!!"
The kid put up the absolute maximum amount of resistance a child could muster—scooping up a stone from the ground and hurling it straight at me. However, if I stopped to dally with the kid, the mother was going to bleed out, so I completely ignored the projectile and kept moving forward.
Thunk!
...Ow. I didn't stop walking, but that really hurt.
What gives...? Levels carry over to the New Continent, right?
...Oh, right. I remember someone mentioning that while our high stats prevent us from taking severe physical damage from minor impacts, our actual sensation of pain remains completely standard.
I recall Derieu doubling over in absolute agony a while back when Labyris accidentally poked her in the solar plexus with the blunt end of a training sword.
Seriously, this is exactly why I hate fantasy physics...
"Eeekk!?"
Ah, crap. My bad.
It looks like I accidentally glared at the kid because of the pain.
Well, the child didn't seem to have any physical injuries. Time to wrap up this medical treatment quickly. Oh, right, I need to verify my resource metrics before and after casting the spell.
Let's quickly pull up my status screen... alright, MP is completely full.
"Alright, here goes. Extra Heal."
I cast the high-tier spell directly onto the woman in front of me, who appeared to be the child's mother.
"Eh? Ah... m-my body... The wounds... they're completely healed!?"
"MAMAAAA!!"
The mother, who had been completely limp and covered in blood just a moment ago, sat up entirely rejuvenated, prompting her child to dive straight into her arms.
Wow, what a touching, emotional reunion—too bad I don't have time to sit here and admire it.
"Pardon the interruption. As you can see, I am entirely capable of administering instant medical aid. If you're willing to trust me, could you please start gathering the wounded here? Prioritize the ones in critical condition first. As you can see from the layout of the area, it's going to take way too much time for me to manually walk around and treat every single person individually. Please convince them for me."
"Y-Yes, sir!! Thank you so much!! I will go gather the injured immediately!!"
"For the time being, it's clear you aren't with the enemy. I choose to place my trust in you right now."
Witnessing the instantaneous healing firsthand, the surrounding villagers immediately mobilized—fanning out to locate the wounded, guiding them to our position, and explaining the situation to ease their panic.
To be completely honest, it wasn't as though I lacked the raw maximum MP pool to just blanket the entire area in a mass-heal spell right away, but since I hadn't verified the exact MP consumption variables on this continent yet, I chose to play it safe. Of course, having them cooperate with us was also a deliberate psychological tactic to build local trust.
As I watched the victims systematically gathering in an orderly fashion, a sudden realization hit me.
...Wait, what the hell happened to the raiders?
Curious, I turned my gaze toward the direction where human bodies had been flying like clay pigeons just moments prior.
Riel and the others were currently marching back, casually dragging the bound enemy soldiers behind them like sacks of potatoes. Each person was hauling a minimum of twenty soldiers.
Even Sheila and the little girls were effortlessly dragging massive columns of men along the dirt.
If I didn't know them personally, that sight would be absolutely terrifying.
"Do you bastards have any compressed comprehension of what you've done?! You have actively defied the grand Jilva Empire!! Utter annihilation is the only thing awaiting you now!!"
A heavily armored middle-aged guy with a lavishly manicured beard—presumably the commander Riel had captured—was barking threats at the top of his lungs.
"I don't think we have any reason to be scared of some 'Empire' whose entire military vanguard gets effortlessly wiped out by a grand total of three people, you know?"
Yeah, I completely get the point Riel is trying to make, but the least she could do is actually remember the name of the country...
"Uh, look. The people you just raided are getting actively terrified by your shouting, so would you mind shutting the hell up?"
"Hah! Why should a glorious imperial officer take directives from a pack of illiterate livestock who don't even comprehend basic geopolitical—"
"—I said shut up."
I wound up and kicked the guy squarely in the torso like a soccer ball, launching him directly into a nearby boulder.
Thud.
Yep. That officially confirms our physical output parameters haven't dropped in the slightest.
I stared down at the crumpled, completely motionless (and now blissfully silent) man, feeling thoroughly satisfied with the data. There was a noticeable smear of blood on the rock face, but he was still breathing, so he'd probably survive. The rest of the captured enemies instantly went dead silent, bringing a nice, peaceful quiet to the area.
Having dealt with the noise pollution, I turned back around to find the gathered crowd of injured villagers staring at me. There was a distinct tint of raw terror mixed into their expressions now, but I chose to ignore it.
Let's just patch them up all at once, wrap this up, and get down to siphoning some local intelligence.
Sigh... Seriously, things really never do go according to plan.
