After spending the couple of following days getting to know the people inside and exploring the rooms, an escape plan had started to form in Corvin's mind.
The buthcery was actually the room filled with animal corpses they camped inside before, and that was where Corvin planned to use for the escape. The next problem was the bug patrols. Because the tunnels weren't wide enough to let everyone escape at once, some of them had to go slow and protect the ones escaping.
And that's where the biggest problem was. Because the people kidnapped into the nest were both Ale-Ans from the south of the mountains and Avibs from the north of the mountains, coordination was going to be slow and outright impossible if there were no one to translate between the two languages.
Except from Corvin, their group all knew both languages, but that wasn't true for the rest of the humans inside the nest. There was a noble boy from the south who knew both languages, but he was kidnapped relatively recently, and couldn't get over the murder of his guards in the one week he was kidnapped here. So there were only three people from the people inside the nest that were useful as translators.
That's why, Corvin decided to use another way to protect the ones trying to escape.
There were fourteen craftsmen who knew how to make weapons. Because Corvin didn't want the gun to be spread before they were able to finalize the project, he asked them to make spears instead of pickaxes.
The three spearmen they met when they entered the kitchen were the part of a group of ten people, and only one of them were killed before they were captured by the bugs. Since they were all from the same place, they had no problem communicating, and they were also trained and professional soldiers, not amateurs. That's why they were tasked with protecting the people trying to escape and teaching the spear to the willing.
Noah was tasked with preparing a map for everyone to help with the escape. The map was going to be made with magic, and after activated, anyone who was inside the area the map showed would remember the map clearly, until they got out of it.
Because the activation needed a mage to inject mana, someone who could use magic was going to be the one to carry it and use it on everyone.
The person who volunteered for it was a young woman who was a commoner mage who used to be backed by a noble to get education. But because she wasn't great at studying, she was soon replaced by that noble family and had to leave the school she attended. Because of that, even though she could use vector magic like Corvin, because of the lack of practice and because she didn't get to learn how force and movement works, her magic was weaker than Corvin. Even still, she asked for a spear as well.
She knew how to speak both languages because of her mixed family, and thus she was a perfect candidate for this job.
After dealing with that problem, the only task remaining was to distract the bugs somehow to keep them away from the escape route.
When he talked about this, Kharon proposed an idea.
Him and Acherie were going to attack the Horde Queen while Corvin was going to hold any bugs trying to get close to the two of them to let them fight the Queen without worrying about their backs, and Noah was going to support them with his magic. Amy and Clair was going to hide nearby and help out in emergencies with materials they prepared beforehand.
When he heard this plan, Noah suddenly got up.
"You can't! Do you have any idea how strong the Queen is?!"
Kharon closed his eyes as if he was expecting such an objection.
"Of course, we have an idea. Did you think we would underestimate a monster that was able to build this stupid nest? Of course not. Why do you think we are putting you and Corvin to protect our backs?"
"D-Do we have to fight the queen?"
"Do you think this will end if we don't?"
"R-right?... At least let's block the entrance to the queen's room off..?"
"The bugs dug this nest out of a giant mountain. Do you think anything we use to block the room will be able to stop them? In fact, leaving the entrance so they don't resort to digging around and gaining an advantage in stealth is the best we can do."
"..."
Noah fell back on his seat with visible fear on his face. Seeing this, Corvin asked something to him.
"Noah, didn't you say you wanted to break free from what happened nine years ago?"
"...I did say that didn't I?"
Noah gave a sad smile and leaned forward, lowering his gaze.
"I-I am just scared... I just can't forget those days. Even if I didn't see it, I heard it. Even my dad was hardly able to fight with that thing... He was almost thirty year old back then. I am just a weak kid who is being guarded by someone his age... I may have said somethings with the heat of the moment, but this is not the first time, you know? It's just words... when it comes to actually acting on those words, I suddenly get cold feet. I can't move forward at all. Sometimes, I ramble about leading people and whatnot, but at the end I am just a coward..."
Corvin froze when he heard Noah. Since he was someone who walked on his path forwards without thinking about it much unlike Noah, he didn't have any encouraging words to give to him.
Seeing the helpless expression on Corvin's face, Kharon gave a small sigh.
'You act like an adult usually, but look at you now... You are still a child after all, eh? Well, it is the adult's job to pick the kids back up when they fall...'
"What is wrong with being a coward?", said Kharon.
Noah lifted his face and stared at Kharon's eyes. Instead of the usual easygoing Kharon, he saw a big and reliable man like his father.
"I was a coward too. I was the weakest kid in our village, you know? I was tall, sure, but I was also thin like a stick. The other kids didn't play with me much because I got tired too quickly. They made fun of me frequently. Whenever that happened, I would always be saved by Acherie. Well... she wasn't considered short for our age back then but- Ouch!"
Acherie stepped on his foot in anger. When he looked back at her, she made a 'Hmph!' and looked the other way.
"Well, you get the idea right? I survived by being a coward. Being a coward means you have things to lose and a valuable life. It means you aren't overconfident, and don't underestimate your enemies. Being a coward and dying of old age is better than being cocky and dying at the hands of an avoidable problem."
"Th-Then-
"But! We are two adults, and professionals in killing monsters. When an adults tells you they can do something, they are either confident or are scamming you. And I hope you don't think we are scamming you, since we are putting our lives at risk over here..."
"No, I don't..."
"Then great, you can leave fighting with the Queen to us then, right?"
"..."
"Relax a little bit, if it looks like we are failing, you can just escape and explode the whole mountain to bury us with the queen under it. That way, the queen would be dead."
"I couldn't do something like that!"
"If we are failing, then that means we are already going to die there. Since when did kids have the responsibility of saving adults' lives? It is our responsibility to save kids' lives, not the other way around. If we are failing, you are going to abandon us and save yourselves, okay? We won't hate you if you do so, since it doesn't really matter if we die a few minutes early by an explosion instead of being eaten by a bug."
"B-But... don't you also have somethin-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Corvin stopped Noah and took him away from the group for a while.
"Of course they do. How can they not? They recently became a couple."
"Th-Then why?!"
"Do you think they would have done that if they were married or had kids? I bet he will also send her with us to die alone, you know?"
"..."
"And, what are you doing killing them in your head before they die? Didn't your father force it to go into hiding for a decade? It is already wounded, and it won't have it's underlings like in Master's case. I think we have a good chance of doing this."
"...Right... If it is you who is saying that, I believe you Corvin... since you won't let anyone die when you are around, right?"
Corvin gave a smile and headed towards the group.
"Heh, you give me too much credit... Come on, our food is going to get cold."