Among the five thousand soldiers of the Alcott Empire, only about 200 survived. In addition, a few hired hands managed to hide until Axel saved them all.

Counting everyone, there are exactly 254 present.

"That's still too many..."

Axel grumbled as he stared at the soldiers, who looked at him with fear.

It was true that he had saved them from the Gargoyles. However, he was an unknown figure, appearing from nowhere and displaying such might. It was only natural for them to be wary of him!

If they knew he was the acting leader of the place they were planning to invade, their expressions wouldn't show mere wariness and slight gratitude; instead, they would be filled with primal fear.

Axel sighed and scratched his head.

"There's no way I can bring this many in my Humvee..."

In his current situation, the most he could transport was five. If he chose the air route, he could manage about thirty.

Regardless, he couldn't cater to everyone in one go. "I really should've waited until there were only a few dozen remaining, at the very least..."

[Stop complaining!]

As if fed up with his indecisiveness, Navi exploded.

[Two hundred is already way too few. If you had just moved much faster...]

"Don't ask for the impossible. I saved them because you insisted, but I'm still not entirely convinced of the reason," Axel snapped back.

Navi's reason for asking Axel to help was simple.

Letting the empire lose the princess here would create a large ripple effect across the entire wasteland, destabilizing it. Of course, that was something Axel would want to avoid.

The Empire, simply by existing, played a crucial role in thinning out the monsters in its immediate surroundings. If the empire fell, those monsters usually managed by the empire would scatter and could find their way to Axel's nation instead.

It wasn't that they couldn't handle such a threat, but it would wear them out—mentally and spiritually.

They would lose their free time completely!

"Anyway, how do we transport everyone back to our kingdom?" Axel redirected the conversation. "Just so you know, I don't plan to make multiple trips to pick them all up."

Over the past three weeks, Axel had attempted to teach the girls how to drive the Humvee. However, the complexity of operating a manual transmission proved too challenging for them, and almost none succeeded.

Beatrix was the best driver among them, but even she could only manage a maximum speed of about 20 km/h, which was far from the vehicle's potential.

If they struggled with cars, Axel figured that flying a plane would be even more daunting. So, he could only continue to teach them patiently, step by step, until they mastered the skill.

[That...]

Navi hesitated, unable to propose a viable solution.

"Should I just wipe them out, then?" Axel suggested, holding a ball of mana in his hand. "That was my initial plan anyway. Leaving that out-of-place woman over there should suffice, right?"

[No way!] Navi retorted. [If you're just going to kill them, then what's the point of saving them in the first place?!]

"It wasn't my idea to save them in the first place..."

As their argument continued, Axel suddenly had an idea.

"Then I'll just take that woman with me. That would make it easier." He smiled. "As for the rest... I'll leave enough resources for them to make their way to our kingdom and take the rest for myself."

The wagons and carriages were loaded with supplies meant for five thousand soldiers.

That was far too much for just two hundred, so he intended to lighten their load—keeping everything else for himself. It was a chance to earn some extra pocket money!

Consequently, without sufficient food and resources to return to the Empire, they would be forced into a death march toward Axevaria Kingdom, where they would be imprisoned upon arrival.

It was as if they were walking to their own demise!

Navi paused, contemplating Axel's words.

While it was indeed impossible to take all of them, taking just one person seemed too intentional. However, if he only needed to bring one along, he wouldn't require the Humvee and could simply fly through the air at high speeds—just as he had arrived.

Yes, Axel had learned how to fly!

Though it wasn't quite accurate to say he "learned" it; it was more like he "stumbled upon" the method.

When he entered the Overdrive state and channeled too much mana, the pressure he released was powerful enough to lift him off the ground! In essence, he wasn't using a proper flying spell; he was merely utilizing the reaction force generated by his buffed state.

Noticing that Navi remained silent, Axel smiled.

"Alright, it's decided then!"

He turned around and walked toward the woman who had been gaping at him. She was hiding behind a thin bubble—a barrier of sorts.

"Hmm?"

As he approached, a bespectacled man suddenly moved to intervene.

His attire suggested he was a scholar, and he was quite handsome as well. He positioned himself between Axel and the woman, as if to shield her, his expression a mix of desperation and bravado. Cold sweat dripped from his forehead down to his chin, and his teeth chattered.

"You must be this army's general commander, right?" Axel said, addressing the woman as if the man were invisible. "I'm Axel Walker, the acting ruler of the Axevaria Kingdom. The place you were planning to attack," he added.

"...!"

At his proclamation, both of them gasped.

One gasp was prompted by the sudden realization of the power behind the place they intended to assault. The other was due to the fact that the man before them had explicitly identified himself as the "enemy."

Rico's body tensed, his expression growing more rigid; but all he could do was growl at Axel.

After all, they were still within the Sanctuary's barrier.

"No answer?" Axel sighed, shrugging. "Not that I came here to make friends. Anyway, I saved you by a strange twist of fate, but we are far from allies. Therefore, frankly, I'm here to take you as a prisoner."

After finishing his statement, he stood just at the edge of the Sanctuary's boundary.

With one more step, he would touch the barrier and, like the Gargoyles before, burn to a crisp... or so the two thought.

"Hup!"

But Axel simply flicked the barrier with his finger, and it shattered into a million pieces.

It didn't withstand even one attack—if that could be called an attack!

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