Episode 100 〈Black Village〉
I got a hint from 3rd Prince Rupel and set off for Lost Village the next day.
As it was a neighboring country, it was not far away, and the village called Lost, located in the north, was not that far away.
I was able to arrive after a 10-day journey without rest using a skeleton horse.
It was a large town with good water and was famous as a tourist attraction, so after finding the whereabouts of the dragon slayer, I tried to wait leisurely for the first prince to arrive.
“I never thought there would be such luck.”
I never thought I would see Prince Varus as soon as I arrived at Lost Village.
Besides, no way.
“Stop it!”
The knights quickly raised tables and began blocking the entrance to the inn.
The window was broken and zombies were trying to come in, but the knights stabbed them with their swords and blocked them.
…I had no idea that the entire village would become zombies.
It’s a pretty tense situation.
The knights shout and draw their swords.
He blocked the door with his body and swung his weapon towards the window.
For them, it was a life-threatening task, but for me, who hunts vampires, it was a different story.
“I was looking for you.”
I poured alcohol into a glass and spoke to Varus.
“Let’s sit down and have a drink first.”
I took out a drinking glass from the item window and placed it on the table.
I smiled brightly and looked at Varus.
“Does your guy know me?”
Varus was alert and placed his hand on the handle of the sword at his waist.
Unlike him, who was cautious, the knights were urgent.
“What is this guy?”
He pulled out his sword and pointed it at me.
That was a big mistake.
Charlotte’s expression turned cold.
Her sword cut off the knight’s sword. He also quickly moved his left hand and grabbed the knight’s neck.
The knight’s body was lifted.
“…!”
Varus opened his eyes wide.
At most, she was an adult girl. I couldn’t hide my surprise that my slender hands were able to lift the heavy knight.
“I didn’t come here to fight. Prince.”
I looked at Varus.
[Name: Varus Victoria.
Characteristics: Excellent swordsmanship Flowers in a greenhouse Weak in determination Believing that one is justice.
+I am not the one who killed my father. It’s unfair!]
I checked his condition with my mind’s eye.
A traitor who assassinated the king.
Varus’s characteristics deny that.
I offered a drink while looking at Varus.
“Let’s have a drink first.”
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the king’s murderer or the wrongly accused.
There’s only one thing I have to do.
There is only 2nd Crown Princess Rose Darina.
Varus looked at the knight caught by Charlotte.
“are you okay.”
Charlotte loosened her hands at my words.
The driver sat down and coughed.
“Prince, you must run away!”
The knights blocking the zombies shouted.
The number of zombies was significant.
It seems that not only villagers but also travelers who came here were affected.
Varus broke out in a cold sweat and looked at the knights taking turns blocking the zombies.
I looked at Varus and spoke leisurely.
“Aren’t you saying you don’t have time?”
“…What do you want?”
Varus sat down again.
He took the drink I offered him and looked at it blankly.
“It wasn’t poisoned.”
“How can you believe it?”
“If they wanted to kill or kidnap them, they already did it.”
Varus glanced at Charlotte.
Varus, who saw her tight-lipped strength and skills, would know that Charlotte is much stronger than the knights here.
“Okay, what do you want? Did the rebels send you?”
“Rebel?”
I tilted my head.
After a while, I clapped my hands and said, ‘Ah!’
For Varus, the rebel would be the second prince, Derian Victoria, who currently holds power in the Kingdom of Rom.
Both of them claim to be the rightful heirs to the throne.
“It has nothing to do with them. “I just want to ask you one thing.”
“Is that what you want to ask?”
I asked Varus, clenching my chin.
“Do you know the Second Crown Princess Rose Darina?”
Varus’ expression hardened at the mention of Rose Darina.
Varus looked at Charlotte and me alternately.
Now you know who we are.
You might think of him as a ‘holy knight’ sent from the Holy Empire.
Varus said while breaking into a cold sweat.
“How did you come to visit me?”
“I was just lucky. And you’d better answer the question.”
I pointed to the inn entrance with my finger.
thud-! thud-! Kwasik-!
The entrance blocked by the table began to break down.
Varus looked at me nervously and said.
“No matter how many Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom, just two people will not be able to stop them. Now let’s join forces…”
“We don’t have time. Do you know about Rose Darina?”
“Now is the time to say it…!”
“shallot.”
Charlotte grabbed Varus by the back and slammed him down on the floor.
Varus’ face was distorted in pain.
“Do you know Rose Darina?”
“Prince!”
The knights tried to rush in, but they were unable to move as Charlotte aimed her sword at their necks.
Then the door broke.
Zombies crawl out.
“Zombies!”
Knights swing swords to hunt zombies.
Since they also had experience hunting undead, they aimed precisely at the head.
but.
thud!
The sword was blocked by thick skin.
The knights stiffened and raised their heads.
A giant zombie that appears to be about 2m 50cm is holding a knight’s sword with its left hand and raising an ax with its right hand.
“Zombie Warrior…?”
-Koooooo…
The zombie warrior raised his ax and struck it down.
The knight blocked with his sword and stepped back.
I tilted my head as I looked at the articles.
It’s weaker than you think.
Is that the only level of knights that protect a prince?
Or are the Holy Knights of the Holy Emperor’s Kingdom strong?
Even though I felt puzzled, I looked at Varus and said.
“Are you going to watch your men die?”
Varus’ eyes wavered. He closed his eyes and shouted.
“Know. 2nd Crown Princess Rose Darina! “I once came to the kingdom on a diplomatic matter!”
“Where is she?”
“There’s no way you could know. The last time she came to see me was only briefly, three years ago. “We haven’t seen each other since!”
“I heard that you, the leader of the rebel army, have Rose with you.”
“From what I heard, they said he was plotting treason. “It’s hard to deal with the second prince, Derian, but there’s nothing good about bringing in the Holy Empire!”
Varus shouted urgently.
He looked at the approaching zombies and his face turned pale.
That is correct.
1st Prince Varus Victoria. He is losing.
Involving the Second Crown Princess into this situation was not a good choice.
Still, given her status, Rose, the second crown princess, was very useful.
You can go into exile in another country and increase your power, or you can assert your claim to succession to the throne of the Holy Emperor.
There will be so many forces trying to take advantage of that that they will run into their own feet.
There was no way he wouldn’t do that to Varus right in front of him.
“Aaaah!”
I looked at the entrance to the inn.
A knight was captured by zombies, and his shoulder was cut by an ax wielded by a zombie warrior, blood spurting out.
Let’s leave it at this.
“great. More on the rest later. “Now is
the time to hunt the dead. ”
Charlotte tilted her head with an expressionless face.
“Shall we handle it?”
“No, I will do it.”
There was no vampire in sight.
If it’s just a zombie, you can deal with it easily.
I summoned the musket and breathed it into it.
“Gaia.”
This is my first prayer in a long time.
I was truly lucky to have found Varus as soon as I came here. Perhaps, as people say, a goddess may have helped.
I still don’t believe in the existence of God.
“Expressing my gratitude for your love…”
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to be thankful once in a while.
“Please grant me the grace to pierce the dead.”
I curled up the corners of my mouth and grinned.
[Uses sacred energy.]
[Temporarily advances the equipment.]
[Advances the equipment and grants the ‘Speed Fire’ skill.]
Holy power swirls from the muzzle of the musket.
I aimed it straight ahead.
The target is the dead in front of us.
Sister Hilda said. As much as hunting.
“amen.”
There is nothing fun.
* *
Meanwhile, at that time, there was a monastery located on the hill of Lost.
The head of the Goddess Gaia statue was cut off and blood stained the area around the sacred monastery.
The zombies stood there staggering, and the ghouls and Dullahan also stood firm and protected the monastery.
There was a monster dressed as a priest on the monastery’s speaking platform.
It looks like a maggot, with its thick hands and arms covered with gray leather.
It had a face and a mouth like a gear.
Vampire creatures had the same appearance as humans, but the progenitors had a unique appearance.
A grotesque appearance that went beyond human limits. That was their true appearance.
The progenitor vampire ate human flesh.
After cutting open the stomach and eating the internal organs, it raised its head.
Baron Lava Lavert.
He was a progenitor vampire who was given the title of baron by the Vampire King.
“Ah, good.”
His bloody mouth twitched.
He picked up the dead zombie’s leg and threw it in a corner.
As the corpse floats in the air, the lycans tamed by Baron Lava bite it.
Baron Lava smiled in satisfaction at the sound of flesh being torn and bones being ground.
He looks ahead.
The villagers have become zombies and are gathered together.
They are all holding farming tools, civil engineering tools, hunting bows, etc.
It would be sloppy to call it an army.
‘I guess it doesn’t matter.’
Yeah, it doesn’t matter.
In any case, the number of dead people he can lead is limited.
From the beginning, there was only one mission.
All you have to do is raise an undead army to massacre civilians.
Plan to invade the Holy Empire.
He was preparing for that.
‘There is no better place to gather troops than a country in war.’
Even though these frontier villages disappeared, the Kingdom of Rom did not care at all.
Now all you have to do is gradually take over the Kingdom of Rom with other vampires.
At that time, the monastery door opened.
A lycan approached with great strides.
He lowered his head and opened his mouth.
-Baron La Lava. There is an intruder in the village!
Baron Lava narrowed his eyes at Lycan’s report.
It was common for travelers and mercenaries to stop by the village.
It is perfect for increasing troops and feeding the dead.
However, it was not important enough to report it one by one.
-The monster monster has come.
“monster?”
-He is a priest. priest!
priest?
Lava frowned.
Are those dirty and nasty guys coming into his territory?
“What kind of people are they?”
-There are seven men and one woman.
Baron Lava narrowed his eyes.
These are fresh meats. You have no idea how sweet it would be to lust after their bodies.
In particular, the taste of the noble priest is also authentic.
These are people who are under the illusion that they are clean.
Killing them, polluting their souls and bodies, and turning them into zombies would not be as pleasant.
Baron Lava smiled.
It was just boring.
It might be nice to hunt down priests for fun.
He said to Lycan.
“Where are they now?”
* *
Varus couldn’t believe his eyes.
When the musket was fired,
bang!
An explosion occurred.
The entrance to the inn exploded with an intense light and collapsed.
Zombies were knocked over in all directions like boneless mollusks by the harsh wind.
-Coooooooo!
The zombie warrior overcame the shock and stood firm.
When I started tottering around, my chest, stomach, arms and legs all exploded at the same time.
A gunshot belatedly rang out, ringing my eardrums.
Both the upper and lower body of the zombie warrior turned into ashes and disappeared.
As the head rolled on the floor, a heavy foot stepped on it and crushed it.
“…what.”
The heavy body of the zombie warrior evaporated.
Is that it?
The entrance to the inn itself was blown away.
‘What just happened? ‘You did it with a musket, right?’
An item that was merely an ornament sought after by simple enthusiasts now has the power of a weapon of mass destruction.
Varus looked into the dust with a frozen face.
“Ah, amen was the word used where I was.”
Varus could see a single priest in the wind of dust.
Varus’ expression hardened.
amen?
It’s my first time hearing this word. However, I could instinctively know that it was far from a word praising Gaia, the goddess of the Holy Empire.
“It doesn’t matter. “The fact that sacred power is used means that even God likes it.”
The priest boy smiled a twisted smile at the dead.
The flashing eyes and grunting look like a devil.
“Aaaah!”
Varus looked away.
The knights writhe in pain after being hit by fragments of the inn.
It seems like he didn’t even think about the damage to his allies.
“Hey you…!”
Varus gathered his courage and spoke out.
“What are you doing now…!”
“Don’t worry, I don’t have a hobby of killing people either. but.”
Raise a long musket.
He radiated hot heat from the muzzle and aimed at the next target.
“It seems like you have a hobby of hunting the dead.”
Christmas is fired at gunpoint.
An explosion occurred and penetrated the bodies of the dead.
The priest takes a step forward.
Every time a gunshot rang out, the dead disappeared.
In the end, it felt like an illusion that the zombies stopped when the priest boy raised his musket.
“Gaia.”
He again offered a prayer to worship God.
“Christmas that will pierce the dead.”
[The ‘Shot Bullet’ skill is granted.]
“Give me the strength to heal your believers.”
[‘Healing’ skill is granted.]
The boy raises the musket.
A bullet was fired into the air.
Christmas rises high into the sky.
The frozen zombies began to move.
It approaches with its mouth open and sobbing.
Hundreds of creatures came from all directions to bite the mighty priest.
“Dangerous!”
The priest was defenseless.
The knights are also unable to move.
There is no one to protect him.
“hey! Your master is in danger. “Why are you so dazed?”
Varus shouted at Charlotte.
Charlotte looked at Varus and then moved her gaze to the sky.
Following her gaze, Varus also looked up at the sky.
The priest boy curled the corners of his mouth.
“May God bless you.”
At that moment, Christmas lights fell from the sky.
Pierce through the dead.
Dozens and hundreds of small bullets fell and slaughtered the dead.
The rotten body became ashes and perished, and the defiled soul was purified.
“Aaaah!”
The knights covered their heads.
It was the same with Varus. A bullet that can pierce even the dead.
If you get hit by that, you too will die.
At that time, a bullet pierced his body.
A burst of drinking broke out.
The zombies disappeared and ash spread everywhere.
The priest walked away with a musket on his back.
“Ugh! Just die. Die. “I was pierced!”
Varus shouted. He stuttered.
But there are no injuries.
Varus took a deep breath and looked at the knights around him.
The pieces of wood that were stuck in the bodies of the screaming knights were removed and they were recovering without leaving a single scar.
Varus widened his eyes at that sight.
“Oh my…”
Varus did not believe in God.
It was thought that the power of the priests, like the knights, was actually using mana distributed in nature.
But now I had to think differently.
God exists and there are those with whom such a God performs miracles.
That is….
“Barus Victoria.”
Varus lifted his gaze and looked at the smiling boy.
“Now, would you like to talk slowly?”
It was a priest right in front of me.