Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Southern Kingdom (8)
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“Looks like we're going to need some explanation.”
Frostblade sliced through another beastkin and let out a deep breath.
He acknowledged that an explanation was necessary, but his expression made it clear there wasn't much time for one.
After a brief pause to choose his words, Frostblade spoke quickly.
“As long as you're with that child...”
Frostblade cleaved the neck of a charging beastkin with his sword.
He caught his breath and continued.
“...more of them will come.”
When I showed a lukewarm reaction, Frostblade pressed on.
“Two days ago, a pigeon letter from my errand runner mentioned it. All the northern guard posts have been abandoned. Even the other Seven Strongholds and the royal knights have mobilized. Given the circumstances, it can't be a coincidence.”
His eyes sharpened.
“They're not targeting you directly yet. But... if they find out that child is here, it'll be a different story. Hundreds will swarm us.”
I'd already suspected as much, and it matched what I'd heard during the interrogations.
It was only natural they'd come swarming after we slipped away with something important.
Proof that they were even more desperate than we were.
“So why should I hand Luella over to you?”
“We arranged her escape. We even prepared the route. If things had gone as planned, we could've extracted her without them noticing the setup...”
Frostblade gave me an odd look.
Did he think I'd botched their plan?
I'd wondered how Luella could have escaped on her own, but it turned out she had backup after all.
Making sense of it, I turned to Frostblade with a question.
“Can I assume the Southern Kingdom is directly behind something like this?”
“More precisely, the royal family.”
“In that case, who is the master you serve?”
“...The one destined to purge the corruption from Delgaria and lead its dynasty.”
The words about succeeding Delgaria.
Recalling how he'd visited me before and promised to grant any wish I had...
“...A prince, then. It wouldn't be someone high in the line of succession, so probably the third.”
Frostblade's gaze didn't waver.
Guessing it was a prince seemed correct, but the third wasn't the one pulling the strings.
I was about to press further when I caught him staring at me intently, so I reluctantly changed my question.
“Is there a way?”
“...There is. But we'll have to split up.”
Frostblade steadied his breath briefly and raised his sword.
“I'll take the child to the hideout I've prepared. She'll be safe there.”
“You said we'd split up...”
“Right. The other group heads to the Nokreung underground prison. We strike the lab directly.”
Frostblade's voice was resolute.
“Once the altar is complete, we won't have time to act. With all the troops pulled north, now's our chance.”
Irena fell silent for a moment before stepping away from the pillar and picking up her frost spear.
She nodded to Sidor, who gently scooped Luella into his arms.
“Let's do as he says. Sidor, you ready?”
“No idea what's going on, but I'm always ready.”
Sidor replied with a light wag of his tail.
Frostblade pulled a map and a nameplate from his bosom.
The hideout was marked on it.
“Follow the map. Show them the nameplate, and they'll know the situation.”
I looked at Luella.
She still hadn't woken, breathing shallowly in her sleep.
“Irena. Take care of her.”
“Don't worry.”
Irena gave a short smile.
She, Sidor, and Luella soon vanished into the darkness.
We hurried toward the lab as well.
>
Night fog blanketed the outskirts of Nokreung.
Frostblade didn't slow down as he dashed along the jagged mountain path, slicing through it like his blade.
He leaped from branch to branch amid the trees.
The surrounding scenery blurred by in a panoramic rush.
Gravel crunched underfoot, and the humid air carried the mingled scent of blood.
“This area's the lab's perimeter.”
Before he could finish, a strange vibration brushed past on the wind.
The moment I felt a sense of déjà vu about it, Frostblade was already reacting.
“Sorcery barrier.”
He drew his sword and slashed the empty air. An invisible veil blanketing the sky tore apart.
As the membrane peeled away like shed skin and dissipated, Frostblade charged forward.
I followed right behind.
>
“Be careful. Touch it wrong, and the alarm goes off. No troops around, but still.”
This was my first encounter with sorcery.
My reaction was a beat slow at first, but by watching Frostblade, I started getting a feel for it.
'I don't know how he senses it... but I can feel the vibration.'
I decided to rely on the faint vibrations carried by the wind.
Timing it with Frostblade's sprint, I pushed forward.
The moment my flung body detected the vibration, I twisted open the sheath at my waist.
A needle-like tingle spread from my fingertips.
The invisible barrier vibrated like a scream, and icy wind seeped through the gap.
“So that's the feeling.”
“...You sensed the sorcery?”
“First time trying.”
“You're only the third person I've seen who can detect it like I do.”
Most people couldn't sense it, apparently.
As if answering my unspoken question, Frostblade spoke up.
>
“People sensitive to sorcery are rare.”
“What does that sensitivity mean?”
“Their constitution rejects sorcery. Their bodies don't mesh with it.”
A physique that couldn't wield sorcery and physically repelled it.
In simple terms, people for whom sorcery was a weakness.
As I ran, I stared at the ring on my finger.
The Ring of the Goddess of Corruption.
It had great options, but the drawback was vulnerability to sorcery.
'Must be this.'
We crouched low at the stone entrance hidden along the slope.
The Nokreung underground prison was eerily quiet.
As we delved deeper into the cave, the air grew heavier.
With each step—one, two—an inexplicable chill seeped up from my toes.
A foul stench of rotting corpses leaked from within.
Lanterns hung along the walls swayed without a breeze.
In their light, fragments of bone scattered across the floor came into view.
Black mist rolled in through the gaps.
>
“...!”
Frostblade muttered in a trembling voice upon seeing the figure emerging from the mist.
>
“I'd heard reports, but I never imagined the dead would actually walk...”
What stepped from the mist were corpses.
Already decayed bodies, grotesquely mutated, crawling out from deeper inside.
The familiar stench and forms.
I let out a deep sigh and drew my Rigid Body Armament.
“Strictly speaking, they're not the dead. They're monsters. Judging by their state, somewhere between monsters and great beasts.”
One by one, monsters began to reveal themselves from beyond the mist.
Some matched the descriptions of the missing people I'd heard about during the investigation.
“Monsters... An unfamiliar term, but it suits them well.”
The monsters charged, crawling forward.
Their legs staggered, but they were faster than any human.
Frostblade and I began dealing with them.
Rotten bones shattered with bursts of waves.
>
But for every one we felled, three more crawled out from behind.
Black hands poured from every corner and ceiling crack.
The eyeless wails filled the cave.
“So they were setting traps.”
Frostblade growled through gritted teeth as he swung his sword.
Five heads flew at once.
The swarming monsters were weak individually.
They were nothing compared to the hordes I'd faced countless times up north.
I handled them with ease, but Frostblade seemed to feel differently.
“Huff... huff... There's so many.”
Severed limbs crawled across the floor, and half-beast monsters lunged on blind instinct.
To him, the scene was far from weak.
No matter how feeble, overwhelming numbers made it grueling.
Not for me, but for Frostblade with little experience like this, it had to be tough.
>
A heavy metallic clash echoed from the end of the corridor where the monster horde briefly parted.
The stench of iron and blood thickened, and two red glows flashed in the darkness.
Before I realized they were footsteps, a massive shadow crawled out.
A hulking figure that had lost all traces of its human shape, its four limbs grotesquely elongated.
Fragments of armor bearing the royal crest clung to its body here and there.
“...They even turned a royal knight into a test subject---?!”
Before Frostblade's sarcasm could finish, the knight's head tumbled.
>
In the instant it was severed and bounced once on the floor.
I urgently grabbed Frostblade by the nape and flung him backward.
KAANG!!!
The Rigid Body Armament clashed against a sword.
A woman with a familiar face burst through the black mist.
Behind her, countless monster corpses rolled on the floor, headless.
As if she'd done it herself.
As if she'd spent her whole life doing just that—slaughtering every monster in sight, her greatest skill.
Following the habits of her living days, my old comrade who'd cut down every visible monster greeted me.