Chapter 124: No
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 124: No
Clang.
Despite it being midday, a thick, blue fog had settled over Aztera.
The fog, so dense that one couldn’t see an inch ahead, soon blocked out the sunlight and birthed a shroud of darkness.
Clang.
There stood a female warrior, her hair a tangled mess hanging down, dragging a greatsword haphazardly across the ground. She had just arrived in Aztera, squeezing her body through a gap in the shattered castle gates.
“We want love!”
“Lord Alto is the only true man!”
“We want our Lord Alto!”
The warrior found the slogans of the Black Rose Movement incredibly grating.
“Alto…”
Her lips cracked and bled as she spoke for the first time in a long while.
She moistened her lips with blood, not saliva, as she breathed that nostalgic name.
“Alto…”
A faint spark of life returned to her hollow eyes.
“Alto…”
The women within the fog swayed unsteadily, yet they shouted their slogans with vigor. Perhaps they perceived the female warrior as an ally because her movements were just as erratic and swaying as theirs.
However, at the small whisper that followed, the women stopped moving all at once.
“He was mine once…”
Twitch.
“What did you say?”
The women asked in unison.
Their waists and necks, twisted at unnatural angles, all turned toward the female warrior.
“I said he was mine. He and I… we formed a party. Just the two of us. Yes, he wanted it to be just us. Because Alto liked me…”
“Don’t make us laugh.”
The women denied the warrior’s words.
Clang.
The warrior lifted the greatsword, its edge chipped and worn from being dragged against the ground.
Before she knew it, the women had surrounded her.
“It’s because of you… because you all got distracted, I got swept up in this too…”
“Blaming others? You sound just like that mage bitch.”
“I learned… no, I realized. This never would have happened if I were alone… It’s all your fault.”
Clang.
She lifted the greatsword and pointed it in one direction.
“I know you’re there. Come out already, Krima.”
“I’m not there.”
“I said, come out.”
Speaking after so long must have wounded her throat as well.
As she gathered her spit and swallowed, she tasted something metallic.
“Krima, you whore. Stop offering your pussy to some rotting dick in a grave and get out here.”
“Who are you calling a whore?!”
The women lunged at the warrior simultaneously.
“Who’s offering their pussy?! What a random fabrication—!!”
Long claws and bone protrusions sprouted from the women’s hands and arms, and those lethal weapons were about to tear the warrior apart.
Just before the claws could touch her body—
“Hehehehe?”
The corners of the warrior’s mouth tore upward into a wide grin.
Muscles and veins bulged in the arm gripping the greatsword.
With a single swing of her pumped arm, the greatsword cleaved the women in two, but their severed limbs continued to twitch and crawl toward her.
“What? Why won’t they reattach?”
“He. He. He. He. He. Come out already, you coward.”
Facing the horde of zombies, the warrior simply giggled.
“I’m going to catch you and take you to A-Alto. I’ll take you and give you to him along with Resin’s corpse and beg for his forgiveness. And then, we’ll k-kill you all together! Then, he, hehe, he! Then Alto and I will become a hero couple who killed the Demons and the Four Heavenly Kings, and we’ll even get m-married! Heeeee, hehehehehehehe!!!!!”
She slumped her body forward.
Her shoulders and waist shook as the warrior laughed and laughed.
As if it were truly delightful.
As if it were truly exhilarating.
“This crazy bitch…! She’s making life difficult again—!!!!”
The hesitating zombies soon lunged again, their pale eyes reflecting the moonlight.
“I don’t know how you’re doing it, but we won’t be defeated like before! Die, Mirei—!!!!!!”
“A-hahahahahahahaha!!!!!”
If Alto had seen this, he would have described it as such:
A fight between an idiot and a moron.
* * *
“Don’t back down, you pathetic lot!”
The Prince, the sole heir to the Duchy, was holding his ground while berating his soldiers.
The Prince, who loved the violence of war in a different sense than the Crown Prince, was merely holding them there by force, drawing his own sword to cut down those who tried to flee.
“Damn it!”
He should have taken action the moment the Black Rose Movement began spreading across the Duchy.
Thinking it was just a protest by women, the Duchy had looked down on it, only realizing after the capital itself was invaded that it wasn’t a mere movement, but a Demon invasion caused by a Dungeon Backflow.
“When is the war veteran coming! I sent a messenger!”
“Please wait just a little longer. Levantello will soon arrive with reinforcements…”
“It’s been a week of hearing that, you damn bastard! Are you not a man? If you’ve got a cock, pick up a sword and hold the line yourself!”
The men remaining in the Duchy’s capital were only brave when drinking and bedding women with the Prince; when a national crisis actually struck, they were busy hiding behind his back.
He wanted to behead them all, but doing so would destroy the very foundation of the nobility, let alone his own support base. Thus, the Prince, famous for his cruelty, could only grind his teeth and fiddle with his sword hilt.
The zombies were drawing closer by the second.
The female soldiers were holding them back, but they were being helplessly torn apart at the joints and eaten at the front lines, only to be reborn as more zombies.
Behind the meat shields, soldiers resisted by stabbing with long spears, but it was ineffective because the enemies kept crawling and attacking no matter how much they were smashed or torn.
“Levanna! When on earth is your father coming! Call him now, I said call him! Otherwise, I’ll throw you to that pagan mob first!”
Finally, the Prince went as far as to point his sword at the daughter of Levantello—the woman he had been courting—and threatened her.
In truth, it was the Archduke who had been pushing the courtship.
To firmly bring the war veteran Levantello into the Archducal family, he had intended to marry the daughter to his son. Therefore, even the Prince hadn’t been particularly fond of this marriage talk.
He felt it was unfair to sacrifice himself just to gain someone like Levantello.
If he was going to gain someone, it should at least be someone like Alto Bertrand for the math to work out.
“Are your ears blocked? I said call your father!”
“Did you not say, Prince, that you sent my father to the Kingdom to request aid!”
The girl, with short blonde hair and a bold impression, shouted back at the Prince without losing her nerve.
It was Levanna, who had been close to horses and trained in martial arts since she was a child, following her father.
Normally, she would have flatly rejected the sudden and forced marriage proposal, but when Levantello, who had reacted negatively, was sent away to a minor post, she had sensed something was wrong and kept a low profile.
However, now that the Duchy itself was on the verge of ruin, she didn’t care about the Archduke or the Prince.
Because once you’re dead, it’s all over.
Still, she didn’t want to commit the filial sin of going before her father.
“Where does this wench get off looking me in the eye and screaming?! Shall I slit your throat?!”
But it seemed it would be hard to keep that wish.
“If it will appease your anger, Prince, then do so!”
“Look at this wench talking back until the very end!”
However, the Prince’s outburst was cut short before he could finish, silenced by the massive zombie that appeared before the soldiers.
Everyone stood agape at the sight of the zombie, which was easily three times the size of a normal person—large enough to be called a giant.
“It’s a monster!”
“Eek! Mommy!!!”
“You spineless bitches! Don’t run away!”
The female soldiers, having completely lost their will to fight, threw down their weapons and fled. It wasn’t necessarily because they were women, but because they were a ragtag bunch conscripted and scraped together after everyone else had already fled.
The Prince cut down two more, but when not only the female soldiers but even some noblemen fled, his legs nearly gave out from the sheer futility of it.
The giant zombie approached, shaking the very earth.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake…”
Sensing his death, the Prince laughed in disbelief, then suddenly directed his anger toward the bedridden Archduke.
“Father, I told you! I told you we should find Alto Bertrand! He’s much better than Levantello! Damn it, damn it, damn it! I said if we just had Alto Bertrand, we could stand above the Kingdom, but you wouldn’t listen! You senile old man! If your mind isn’t clear, you should have handed the Archduke’s throne to me and spent your days bedding young girls! Did you like Levantello’s daughter that much? Then you should have taken her yourself! Why drag innocent me into this!”
Then, he raised his sword again and aimed it at the giant zombie.
“Come on! Come at me! I’ll show you what a real man is. You pieces of shit! You weaklings who couldn’t even be drafted to the battlefield, you abandon even your Prince?! Come on! I’ll tear you apart!”
As if in response to his words, the giant zombie’s speed increased.
As the zombie’s shadow loomed over his face, the Prince finally dropped his sword.
Clang!
“Is there… truly no one there…?”
And then,
Neeeeigh—!
“Levannaaaaa—!”
“Father!!!!”
From afar, Levantello, who had galloped with his horse using every ounce of his strength, delivered a lance charge that shattered one of the giant zombie’s ankles.
Crr-ack!
“Are you alright!”
“Father!”
Returning quickly with masterful horsemanship, Levantello caressed the cheek of his daughter, who was holding back tears.
Levanna was moved, realizing her father was still the same haggard yet strong man she knew.
“Levantello! Yes! I knew you’d come. You are indeed a loyal subject of the Duchy!”
Unsightly, the Prince gave Levantello a thumbs-up and shouted enthusiastically.
“Hurry and deal with that monster! Protect your Prince!”
“Levanna, come here.”
However, Levantello coldly pulled his daughter toward him and ignored the Prince.
“Levantello, what are you doing! Protect me!”
[Groooar.]
Unlike the frantic Prince, the giant zombie was diligently crawling toward them.
Dragging itself across the ground with wide eyes was even more grotesque than when it was standing on two legs.
“Hey, you low-life who can’t do anything but ride a horse! Protect me!”
[Gruuuuuu.]
“Hieek? Hik! Hey! Hey! It’s coming! It’s coming!”
His back hit the rubble of a building.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
In his desperation, the Prince began to blurt out anything.
“Is anyone there! Someone help me! Help! If you save me, I’ll give you anything! Anything!”
“Anything?”
“Yes, anything!”
“Then if I help you, will you let that woman go?”
“If you just save me, of course I can do that!”
“Is that a promise?”
“Fuck, stop wasting time and help me!”
At those words,
“Fine.”
The hunting dog grinned broadly.
“It’s a promise, Prince.”
“Shut up and save—!”
“Step back, moron.”
In an instant, the air was torn, and the fog was ripped away.
Levanna reflexively looked up, but the intense sunlight forced her to shield her eyes with her hand.
What she saw next was the giant zombie being helplessly torn to shreds.
[Gruwaaaaaaa!]
“Ha, you’re way below your prime. Villen!”
Twice.
By swinging the massive daggers alternately just twice, the zombie was rendered combat-ineffective.
It was strange.
The thing that had kept twitching no matter how much it was stabbed or cut was no longer moving.
Levanna saw him standing tall amidst the ruins.
A man with firm, powerful muscles and the smile of the strong.
“Alto Bertrand…!”
She recognized him instantly and averted her gaze. Even though she should have thanked her savior, she was too embarrassed to look at him directly.
“Yo, Prince.”
The hunting dog said languidly as he flicked the blood off his daggers.
“I’ll deliver the Kingdom’s answer to your request for aid.”
The Bloodhound reined in his Roar and Howling and turned around.
“The answer is no.”