I Have a Plan

￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥

"...What the fuck? Those are elves?"

Kang De turned to the knight and swore.

What happened to the gentle, big-breasted elf ladies and the elegant, shy young boys he had expected?

The knight blinked. "What's wrong?"

Kang De was so shocked he could barely speak. "They don't look right, do they? If you ignored the ears and told me they were barbarians, I'd believe you. Have elves been intermarrying with barbarians or something?"

The knight was even more confused, but he recognized the binoculars in Kang De's hands.

Even though mages skilled in Eagle Eye and the Atmospheric Perspective Spell provided battlefield intelligence in this era, monocular telescopes were still widely issued to armies. After all, both the number of mages and their mana were limited.

Kang De's were binoculars, but their construction was similar.

He held out his hand. "May I borrow them?"

Kang De handed him the binoculars.

The knight tried them out and roughly figured out how to use them. After observing for a moment, he said with absolute certainty, "They are indeed elves, and they're from the Wings of Wayne, the ship that was pursuing us."

Kang De simply couldn't accept elves looking like this.

"Hey, hey, hey, isn't this weird? How could elves look like that?"

The knight was even more puzzled. "What do you think elves should look like?"

Kang De pulled out his phone and considered it, but decided not to show him the lewd picture of the elf lady sucking on her fingers. As it happened, he had the movies from The Lord of the Rings trilogy stored on his phone. He had transferred them a few days earlier to pass the time if he got bored wandering around outdoors. He showed them to the knight, who was startled at the sight. "Why does this elf have a mainlander's face?"

...How am I even supposed to respond to that?!

He said in a complicated tone, "That's how people where I come from imagine elves."

Cleveland shook his head. "Then the Cathayan impression of elves is rather absurd."

He glanced curiously at the phone a few times, then handed it back to Kang De. A look of grave concern appeared on his face, but he patiently explained things to Kang De.

Perhaps he also wanted Kang De to understand what real elves were like.

"Mr. Kang De, please look."

He gestured for Kang De to use the binoculars, then explained, "The two assault boats in the middle have fifty elves in white battle uniforms with half their chests exposed. They're the ship's marines, and they're all trained to the same standard as archery corps soldiers in the Elven Royal Army. Do you see the great war recurve longbows on their backs?"

"They're made from dragon fir, shaped and reinforced under the direct guidance of druid bowyers. They're 2.4 meters long, with a full-draw weight of two hundred pounds. The minimum requirement for selection as a Dragonfang Army longbowman is to stand still and hit a human-shaped target three hundred meters away, fire twenty arrows accurately in one minute, and fire thirty at full speed in one minute."

"Please note that those are the minimum standards. The champion archers who stand at the pinnacle of elven military archery can use even stronger bows to fire an arrow every second. Their arrows fall like a torrential downpour and tear through armor like cloth."

Cleveland said, "As you can see, besides their bows and arrows, these marines also carry two-handed, broad-bladed greatswords as secondary weapons. When necessary, they can form a windmill sword formation for a heavy assault. Soldiers who can wield such weapons naturally need strong bodies and terrifying arm strength. Every one of them is a warrior of the first rank."

He looked at Kang De. "As for the elf in the picture you showed me... With that frail build, he could be a mage, or perhaps an ordinary adventurer with a low-draw-weight civilian bow. But if he appeared on a battlefield as a longbowman, the elves would surely laugh at him."

...That's a well-reasoned argument. I've got nothing to say to that.

But I understand the logic! It's about the feeling, the feeling!

Just like you can tell me a thousand times that mechs are unscientific, but I still fucking want to pilot a giant robot and blow every enemy to hell!

So even if you keep telling me elves are all peerless musclemen with powerful arms and hulking builds, I still want to bang a gentle, airheaded, big-breasted elf lady!

Kang De still refused to give up. He looked at the knight and said solemnly, "Right, I haven't seen any female elves. Please tell me the women don't look like that... Right?!"

A subtle expression appeared on the knight's face. He simply couldn't understand Kang De's inexplicable insistence.

"Ah... Just like us humans, there are beautiful women like Her Highness the Princess, and there are also female fighters who live for battle and whose mighty builds are no less impressive than men's."

He replied, "Talent is important, and training is important too, but generally speaking, female elves aren't predominantly strong and rugged. Most are quite beautiful..."

Kang De let out a long breath.

That scared the hell out of me.

...Wait.

Kang De recovered from the blow to his worldview and realized what their current situation was.

His expression gradually grew serious. "...These elves are after you?"

The knight gave a wry smile and nodded.

"You finally understand... I've been explaining the threat the elves pose and how powerful they are, but you seemed more concerned with their appearance."

Cleveland, whose supreme mission was to protect the princess, did not hurry back to report to her. His expression shifted rapidly as he fell into deep hesitation and found himself caught in a dilemma.

Kang De watched him silently.

After a long while, the knight slowly spoke, his tone strained.

"Mr. Kang De..."

He said quietly, "Goth and the elves are at war. A blood feud has been forged between us, and we cannot coexist. Whenever and wherever we meet, we are bound to fight until one side falls. You, however, are a Cathayan and have nothing to do with our war. We were stranded here, and though there were misunderstandings and conflicts between us, we've put them behind us. You treated us warmly and helped us, and we'll always remember it. By any measure, we shouldn't drag you into this conflict."

Kang De did not answer.

Although he had gotten along fairly well with these Goth People, he seemed to have no reason to take part in their war. After all, the knight had just explained how powerful and terrifying the elves were.

War was no game. He could easily lose his life, and he couldn't die here.

But there was another problem.

If these elves pursued them to the island and killed every last one of the Goth People, what would they do to Kang De, a "Cathayan," if they found him?

The thought made Kang De extremely agitated.

He hated leaving his fate and his life in the hands of someone else's mercy.

Just like when he had clashed with the knight and the others earlier, if he had surrendered and waited for Tina to come and explain, the Goth People probably wouldn't have given him any trouble... But he wasn't willing to gamble on "probably."

Besides, when all was said and done... it was the Goth People who had led the elves here.

This is so frustrating.

Just then, he heard the knight say, "The truth is, we led the elves here. In other words, you were living a peaceful life on this island, and we put you in danger. I feel deeply ashamed whenever I think of it. You treated us with kindness and generosity, yet we brought danger to your door."

"I'm already terribly sorry, but now I have no choice but to make a shameless request of you."

Here it comes.

Kang De said nothing.

He felt even more displeased.

The knight's probably going to ask me to help them fight the elves.

But how the fuck are we supposed to fight them?

A bunch of muscle-bound hunks armed with those damned magic longbows, with an effective range of over three hundred meters. They shoot farther and more accurately than my gun. How are we supposed to fight that?

There's no militia armory anywhere near the residential compound. If there were, I could come out carrying a few bundles of Type 40 rocket launchers and blow those elves up so badly their own mothers wouldn't recognize them.

But there isn't one.

How can I help? How can we win?

His thoughts were in turmoil.

"I'd like to ask you..." the knight said, "to take care of Her Highness."

Kang De looked up in surprise.

"You have many animal friends on the island. At the very least, you can take Her Highness and hide. As for us, we'll leave by ship immediately and lure the elves after us."

Cleveland spoke with absolute resolve.

Kang De had looked at the elven warship through his binoculars. Whatever else could be said about it, it was much larger than the stranded Penguin. Greater tonnage meant more crew and weapons, a principle that held true in every world.

He said, "You'll be sunk."

The knight smiled. "If we're sunk, the elves will be satisfied and won't pay too much attention to the Holy Seal Archipelago. That will give Her Highness and you the greatest possible assurance of safety."

But that meant everyone except Tina would die.

Including the knight in front of him.

"Although I still have many things to do, and although I'm reluctant to leave this world..." Cleveland smiled fearlessly. "I'm the prime minister's son. Only if I'm on the ship will the others willingly go to their deaths with me."

Kang De was silent for a moment. "...Can't you beat them?"

"Our chances of victory are zero."

The knight said without hesitation, "The Wings of Wayne is an elven capital ship, a mainstay of the Royal Navy. Everyone aboard is a pure-blooded elf. Even half-elves aren't allowed on board, let alone members of other servant races. The sailors are well trained and exceptionally loyal and capable in combat. The ship has a crew of five hundred, including a team of eighty spellcasters, one of whom is an archmage."

"Although the Holy Seal Archipelago seals all supernatural powers, besides the spellcasters, the ship also has fifty marines and three hundred and twenty sailors. Of the remaining fifty, apart from technical personnel such as the damage control and medical support teams, there is the group of naval officers led by the captain, who possess extensive combat skills and great strength."

"As for the Penguin..."

The knight sighed. "We suffered heavy losses in the previous naval battle. We're short of combat supplies, and we lost many of our spellcasters and elites. With the fighting strength we have left, even if we only faced the two hundred elven soldiers about to land, we would be slaughtered to the last person in fifteen minutes."

"Because we lack every means and piece of equipment that could counter the elven archery corps."

"The fifty marines alone could defeat us completely."

"There's no other way... I can only entrust Her Highness to you. At least she'll be able to live."

At this point, the knight hesitated, then said, "There's another thing I need to tell you. The ceremony Her Highness held for you that day was..."

Just then, Pigeon descended from the sky. Kang De had sent her to ask Second Senior Brother about the situation. Now she had returned and gestured wildly in front of him for a while.

Kang De gradually understood, and a hint of interest slowly appeared on his face.

"Things might not be as bad as you think..." he said thoughtfully. "I have a plan..."

￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥

PS1: The setting for the elven archery corps soldiers and their great war longbows was based on English longbowmen and English longbows, with the best historical figures increased by forty to sixty percent. After all, this is another world, the elves are a legendary race, and they also have the benefit of supernatural powers.

PS2: There's another update today, though it may be a little late.