Volume 3 - CH 18

Act 3-18: Past Connection(Side: Lucas Gijidoor)

After confirming that my master, Felis Loto Amelia, had shut her eyes tight, I—Lucas Gijidoor—felt various emotions jumbled inside me: relief, pity, regret, and many others mixed into one.

I absolutely can’t let Milady summon THAT. Because having THAT grant Milady’s wish means that many lives would be lost.

It isn’t something mortals should use. To be honest, THAT isn’t supposed to be something that can be used by Milady, a mere human. Thus, if Milady’s magical power isn’t enough, THAT would demand the mana(life force). Naturally, if her magical power wasn’t enough, Milady would offer her life force.

But, unknown to Milady, Wind Cat’s folks and I have secretly made a pact with THAT. Wind Cat’s folks and I would offer a certain amount of our life force to reduce Milady’s burden. In that way, we wouldn’t kill ourselves. To begin with, we were already cornered, so we had even more reason to make that pact.

The problem is our next course of action, but escaping from this place with all Wind Cat’s folks is impossible. Even if we can get out of this place safely, we will turn into fugitives and lose our place in this kingdom.

In this case, there’s only one way out for Milady. It’s to send a messenger to Her Highness Rosemary, who has been declared the feudal lord of East End.

The reason Count Ketzer sent mercenaries and his private army to the East End is simply that there has been no formal declaration from Her Highness Rosemary yet. As long as Her Highness Rosemary makes a declaration, the private army of Count Ketzer will have no choice but to retreat from this place.

Naturally, if Her Highness Rosemary lost in the crown contest, the governing of this land would go under Count Ketzer.

Either way, Wind Cat is bound to be annihilated. But, we would at least have a guarantee of four years of peaceful life if we come under Her Highness Rosemary. We’re running out of options here.

At this point, our only way out is for Milady to ask THAT to protect this area while I run to Akinashi territory as her messenger. I will meet Her Highness Rosemary and declare our will to help her. In addition, Her Highness Rosemary has to send written messages to the royal capital and Count Ketzer that contain her public declaration about Wind Cat folks being her citizens.

And for that to happen, I have to kill this fu*ker in front of me first.

The man with the hideous burn scar on the left side, Caesar, pointed his great sword toward me and…

「Every single night since the day you burned my face, I always dream of the day when I burn you to de―」

I pointed my long sword toward him, interrupting him from continuing, then said,

「Cut the c*ap, Caesar! Let’s end this farce immediately. Come at me! I’m ready.」

I spoke in a way that I used to handle rookies in knight order.

「YOU BASTAAAAARD!!」

And just as I thought, Caesar bellowed in rage at my provocation.

Even though it has been a really long time since we met last, this man is as childish as ever.

I recalled the past, when we received an order from the government to suppress an uprising in a remote region. At that time, Caesar had massacred countless innocent civilians for no particular reason. Killing innocent civilians for no reason was one of the prohibitions in the army. So I had thoroughly beaten Caesar—who had broken that taboo—in front of all members of the knight order.

「I won’t make the same mistake this time. Today is the anniversary of your death.」

I specialize in wearing down my opponent’s mind and leading them to a trap with some provocation. I did exactly that in front of Caesar.

Caesar brandished his greatsword toward the crown of my head with a speed that surpassed common sense, but I dodge it by a hair’s breadth.

「IT’S FUTILEEEEEEEE!」

As soon as Caesar shouted, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left arm despite having dodged the attack. When I made some distance with Caesar, I saw my left arm and realized that it was riddled with countless bloody holes.

「I see… water magic, eh?」

It seems Caesar had fired countless, super compressed water droplets at a high speed from his sword. This was captain Geralt’s most favored trick back in those days. It‘s an extremely vicious, sure-kill move.

「Aah, I’ve been polishing this trick for a long time just to kill you. You might even say that I’m more skilled than Geralt in using this.」

Good grief! And this is all he has after polishing this trick for dozens of years. Truly a hopeless case!

「Good grief! Do you really think that you can win against me by using another person’s trick?」

I heaved a sigh, flashing a mocking smile.

「I’m strong. Your left arm is useless now. Victory is mine!」

「This right arm is enough to beat the likes of you.」

「SHUT UUUUUUUUUP!!」

I retreated to avoid Caesar’s charge.

「You cannot esca―」

He might have been convinced of his victory. Thus, I kicked the soil beneath my feet with my all toward Caesar, who was rushing at me with a joyous expression.

「Eh?」

I casually swung my long sword toward Caesar, who stumbled to his feet while letting out that stupid voice. He barely managed to catch my blow but―

「GUGAAAAAAAAAAA!?」

Suddenly, a roaring flame exploded from my long sword and burned the upper half of Caesar’s body.

Then, I slashed again toward the roaring Caesar, who rushed toward me while trying to get rid of the flame that engulfed his body.

Caesar just barely blocked that slash with his greatsword, but that made the flame burn even brighter, sending hot wind around.

「Only a fool uses a technique as it is. You’ll never get stronger as long as you never try to surpass the original technique.」

I slowly walked toward Caesar,

「W-Wait―」

And slashed at him again, causing the flame to become even bigger than before.

「S-Stop―」

He seemed like he wanted me to spare his life, but it’s far too late for that.

I kept swinging my sword until Caesar’s carbonized corpse fell with a thud. Then, I invoked the aflame ring.

The flame ring instantly incinerated the scorpions threatening Milady and the Wind Cat’s folks while undoing their bindings.

After that, I pointed my sword toward the man in the navy blue robe and with an unshaved face, Ruby.

「The table has been turned.」

I declared our victory.

The people surrounding our base trembled in fear upon seeing me easily dispatch Caesar, who was supposed to be their strongest fighter. Then, amidst the chaos―

「Good grief! In the end, I have to do this myself. Had I known this was gonna happen, I would have just ignored that muscle brain, whose only merit is his stupidly high pride.」

Ruby pointed his right hand toward Caesar’s corpse while his other hand patted his stubble.

「Freeze! I’ll give you and your soldiers one last chance to leave with your lives intact!」

I closed in the distance between me and Ruby, then pointed the tip of my sword toward his windpipe and threatened him with a cold voice.

As long as a veteran sorcerer like Ruby flees, the rest is easy. Especially those hired mercenaries! They know that an idiotic feudal lord like Ketzer isn’t worthy of them risking their life.

「Me, escape? Are you joking?」

I decapitated Ruby’s neck the moment I felt a chill run down my spine, but―

「N-NHAAAAAA!?」

A skeleton clad in a vestment appeared right before the sword touched Ruby’s skin and stopped my slash.

Chills ran down my spine the moment I saw the ominous red light in the skeleton’s eyes sockets. At that moment, I retreated in a hurry and stood in front of Milady to protect her.

「M-Monster…」

Maybe due to their survival instincts, the soldiers who had surrounded Wind Cat’s cave retreated the moment that skeleton appeared.

「Deimos Lich, it’s my pledge! Take as much life force as you want from those soldiers, and end this farce immediately.」

『Sounds good!』

The moment that low bass voice resounded in my head, the soldiers fell at once to their knees.

Then, that skeleton monster raised his right bone hand.

『【Undead Transformation】』

The moment he spoke those words of power in a cold, soul-freezing voice, countless black lumps appeared in front of his right hand.

An indescribable sense of disgust took over me the moment I saw those wriggling black lumps.

「KET! PROTECT MILADY!」

I barely managed to shout. We were wrapped in a transparent, light blue membrane. The jet-black bone that stretched out from the countless black lumps at an extremely high speed was weathering right in front of our eyes.

On the other hand, the poor unprotected soldiers and Caesar’s corpses got stabbed by the jet-black bone from the black lumps. The skin of all the soldiers and Caesar turned blue.

「Well then, round two!」

Ruby snapped his fingers, and the corpse of the soldiers and Caesar stood as invisible strings were pulling them. As if that wasn’t eerie enough, their bodies swelled up too.

Thus, Caesar and the soldiers turned into blue-skinned undead in less than a minute.

「Kill everyone except that girl!」

Ruby’s order became the trigger for the second round.