Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Infection Lord
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"It's 5 AM. Ten minutes until execution."
The masked man checked his pocket watch and reported. Rantel Baron scanned the pitch-black sky with an anxious face.
"We finish the deed and withdraw before dawn breaks. Please, let that bastard be in the mansion...."
Here, that bastard naturally referred to the assassination target, Prince Claude.
Fourteen hours ago.
They had confirmed that the greatest obstacle to the assassination, Knight Master Dabi, had left the mansion and boarded a carriage heading north.
The problem was that, excluding the carriage carrying Dabi, five baggage wagons had gone north as well.
In the process, rumors spread that Claude had scraped together every high-end liquor in the capital, and stories leaked that Claude himself had gone north with Dabi.
"Baron, what if the prince really isn't in the mansion like the rumors say?"
The masked subordinate asked in a trembling voice. Rantel anxiously chewed his lips repeatedly.
"No, that can't be. Prince Claude has no reason to go north."
"They say he gathered every drop of liquor from Emperlord. Maybe he's going to bribe the White Knight Order?"
"The prince bribing the White Knight Order? Why?"
"I don't know either...."
"No, I've heard the prince has been busy training his private knight order lately. Maybe he's planning to poach more knights besides Dabi?"
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it sounded. Rantel squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.
Should he call off the operation even now?
But there was no time to contact the assassination team on the opposite side?
"You're all here."
At that moment, a thick voice rang out from behind. Rantel turned his head and cried out in shock.
"Uncle!"
"Tch, raising your voice in the dead of night won't do."
At this precise moment, a person who absolutely should not be here was standing there.
Talisman Count.
"......!"
Moreover, the count in the darkness wore plain clothes with no disguise whatsoever. Rantel screamed inwardly as he scolded the count.
"Uncle! What in the world are you doing here? I told you not to show yourself outside because it would draw attention!"
"I came because I was curious how things were going."
"Even so, how can you come dressed like this? At least wear a mask to hide your identity...."
But as the count approached, he displayed a striking feature that no mere mask could conceal.
'What is this?'
He was grotesquely bloated.
In just one day since last seeing him, the count's already corpulent body had swollen to an astonishing degree.
It resembled a corpse that had drowned and bloated. Everyone stared at the count in shock, but he himself remained unperturbed and spoke calmly.
"Don't worry, no one spotted me on the way here. More importantly, why are you here? We need to thoroughly hide any involvement from our family in this operation."
"That's...."
Is that something you should be saying right now? Rantel wiped his cold sweat and explained anyway.
"These are private soldiers I raised myself. They're not gathered for the assassination; they're here for cleanup."
"Cleanup?"
"If even a single rat escapes the forest after the operation, it won't do. If anyone flees from the mansion, they'll naturally head for this western exit closest to the city."
"So you're blocking this place?"
"Yes. Of course, there's no guarantee rats will only flee along human paths, so I planned to disperse troops into the forest from now on to form an encirclement. But then you came, Uncle...."
"Good. I understand."
Talisman cut off his nephew and nodded.
"So the real force is somewhere else, not here."
"Of course. I've dispersed the main troops to the east and south of the forest for maximum surprise effect."
"Three Knight Commanders and seventeen Knight Experts?"
"They're on the south. On the east, I've placed two hundred regular mercenary knights."
"Then the north?"
"At the northern forest exit, fifty agents from the Cluster Assassination Squad are standing by. Like us, they're not attacking the mansion directly but handling any enemy remnants that might flee north."
"Thorough. Very good. Hic."
"That's actually not good at all."
Rantel frowned at the count's oddly reacting demeanor.
"Since Tolari vanished, our magical power here is zero. No matter how successful the surprise attack is.... If we don't cut off Prince Claude's breath in one strike, his counterattack might wipe us all out. The prince is an Arch Wizard, after all."
"He's still just a brat not even twenty. Didn't you prepare for that?"
"Yes. I equipped all Expert-level and above knights with magic-specialized armor. In performance, it doesn't fall short of Anti-Magic Knight armor."
"Then there's no problem, right?"
"The problem is that the prince might not be in the mansion."
And silence fell. The count blinked his bloodshot eyes wide and asked.
"That bastard isn't home? Why?"
"Well.... Actually, Uncle, you cut off all outside contact yesterday, so I couldn't report. There are rumors that Prince Claude accompanied Dabi north. If that's true, we're all just wasting our time...."
"No, not necessarily."
The count twisted his grotesquely swollen face into a sinister smile.
"What if Claude isn't home? It might even be for the best."
"For the best? What are you talking about right now?"
"Burn his nest while he's away. Kill everyone close to him and torch all his possessions. Wouldn't that hurt him as much as dying?"
"Of course.... But Uncle, if we don't eliminate the prince himself, what's the point?"
"The meaning is mine."
The count suddenly turned serious and declared to the private soldiers gathered around.
"I am the meaning and the justification. All that matters is my newly changed heart and will. Rantel?"
"......"
Rantel stared at the count's nonsensical ramblings for a long while before finally responding.
"Yes, Uncle."
"How many are here?"
"150 in total."
"Very good. How many knights among them?"
"Thirty. Five of them are Knight Experts."
"Then gather all the knights here first."
"Why the knights...."
"This is an order. Are you defying the family head's command?"
"No. How dare I?"
Rantel frowned but gathered the knights around him anyway. The count slowly nodded as he looked at the assembled knights.
"You've all come this far well. This is a very meaningful time for our Talisman family—a historic moment. We'll repay all the humiliations we've suffered and at the same time...."
And he began a long speech. The knights, not understanding, listened politely in respectful postures.
"......And thus, we dedicate this glory to all our family's ancestors. Everyone, close your eyes and observe a minute of silence!"
Everyone frowned at the sudden call for silence. But the speaker was Talisman Count, the family head. Who could refuse the order under any pretense of safety?
"......"
Thus, everyone closed their eyes and bowed their heads.
Rantel, who had been pacing anxiously, also let out a short sigh and pretended to observe silence with closed eyes.
And at that exact moment.
Shluck!
Dozens of tentacles burst from the grotesquely bloated count's body, tearing through his clothes and shooting out in all directions.
At the tips of the tentacles were long, thin needles. The count swiftly jabbed the needles into the gaps in the knights' helmets with eyes closed, injecting something.
Squeeeeech!
"Kuhk...."
The thirty knights, including Rantel, collapsed without even screaming. The other hundred or so soldiers scattered around turned and screamed.
"Uwaaak!"
"What is that!"
"Monster! It's a monster! The count has become a monster!"
"Run! Hurry!"
The forest turned into pandemonium in an instant. But the count retracted the tentacles from the knights' bodies and shot them out in all directions again, infecting dozens more soldiers.
"Why run?"
"Guh!"
"This is an honorable thing. Tonight, you'll all be reborn as my faithful servants. Exciting, isn't it?"
"Kraaak!"
"How is it? The feeling of being reborn?"
"Uu...."
At that moment, the knights who had been stabbed first began rising one by one.
In grotesque forms with veins bulging across their bodies and skin turned gray.
The count gazed at them with satisfaction, then truly exploded his concealed, bursting body from within his clothes.
"Kaha!"
The count, swollen more than tenfold in an instant, let out a cheer and fixed his gaze toward the mansion.
Slash!
At the same time, all the infected knights and soldiers turned their heads in the same direction. They drew their weapons and began marching toward the mansion.
A horrific dawn was about to begin.
The count watched his newly created legion with a pleased face and muttered in a voice no longer human.
"Kill them all.... Devour them all. So that They may emerge victorious in the end. But They? Who are They? What's going on in my head...."
The count tilted his head in confusion. Then, as if electrocuted, he shuddered and shook his head.
"Ah, no, it doesn't matter. As long as I can inflict the same pain on that damned brat.... Nothing else matters!"
* * *
At the same time, atop a tree a short distance away in the forest. A small boy crouched and his eyes flashed.
"......That one's moving too."
The boy was Didi. Confirming the monstrous count rolling like a ball, Didi threw himself down from the tree.
"He's rolling to move.... But damn, it's slow. Anyway, good thing I patrolled at night like His Highness said. Regal?"
"......"
"Hurry back to the mansion and tell Tolari. With His Highness gone and the knight captain away, only Tolari can stop a monster like that right now."
"......"
But Regal, crouched below the tree, showed no reaction. Didi shook Regal's body hard with both hands.
"Regal? What's wrong? Regal?"
"......It's not."
Regal finally spoke, glaring in the direction the count had rolled and shaking his head.
"You go back to the mansion and report."
"Me? Then what about you?"
"I'll chase after His Highness who's gone north and bring him back."
"......Why?"
"That thing is unnatural."
Regal took a deep breath and stood.
"The scent it's giving off is alien. Just like those that overran the sewers."
"Sewers? You mean deathworms or slimes?"
"It's on a different level from those small fry. Different from the blood puddles that were the root cause. It's a scent that shouldn't exist in reality.... I can't gauge it. Without His Highness, who knows what catastrophe might occur."
And he bolted north at tremendous speed. Didi squeezed his eyes shut and shivered against the whooshing wind.
It was the first time he'd seen Regal so wary of something.
And the bigger problem was that the enemies weren't coming from just this one direction.
Didi immediately ran toward the mansion, mapping out in his head the enemy formations approaching from three directions now.
'Tolari will block at least one spot. But what about the other two? Can we really stop them all?'