That's Mine?
Fortunately, Canelly knew how to drive a carriage. Sitting beside her up on the coachman's seat, I hardened my expression as I watched the black smoke billowing up from the county in the distance.
"U-um— Evan…?"
"What is it?"
"W-wouldn't it be better if you went inside…?"
"Why?"
"W-well. The coachman collapsed all of a sudden earlier…? I think that was probably the effect of a curse or dark magic…"
The coachman who had collapsed bleeding from every orifice without a single external wound. Thinking about it, it had been a little strange—the sudden bleeding, and the way the corpse had kept moving afterward.
Canelly said the reason was something blanketing this entire area.
"If you stay exposed to the curse… you could end up just like the coachman…"
"…Wouldn't that apply to you too?"
"I-I'm fine—! I've already built up some resistance, and this robe blocks that kind of thing! I-if you want, I could give you one too? I-it's the same robe as mine, but…"
Muttering in that uniquely spine-chilling voice of hers, Canelly pulled an identical robe from inside her clothes.
I didn't like the design, and more than anything I wasn't thrilled about wearing the exact same outfit as Canelly—but fretting over appearances and ending up dead like the coachman would be pure stupidity.
"Thank you. I'll wear it carefully."
"Ehek— ehehehehek—!"
"…Did you put something weird on this?"
"N-nohihihihi."
Watching Canelly burst into that grotesque laugh with her bizarre voice, I hesitated for a moment before putting on the robe. A moment later, though, I pulled it on anyway.
Canelly let out another eerie laugh and drove the carriage on.
"Uhihihihik—!"
Confirming that Evan had put on the robe she'd handed him, Canelly bloomed into a sly, delighted grin. Of course she did. Because Evan's appearance was…
Couple outfits, couple outfits—!
Her bucket list. Wear matching outfits with her boyfriend. Go on a trip with her boyfriend. Ride a carriage alone together with her boyfriend.
With so many items on her bucket list coming true all at once, there was simply no way she could hold the laughter back.
"Hhehehehehet—!"
"…"
She failed, however, to notice that Evan was looking at her with a cold stare.
Bland County.
They were going through hell under an untimely assault.
"Kill the living and defile the corpses!"
"Burial is good civilization! Cremation is bad civilization!"
"Where's the dragon's carcass—!"
The dark mage collective that had stormed in after the dragon's corpse: Death Symphony.
"Steal everything that smells like money!"
"You idiots—if you were going to store a dragon's corpse, you should've at least called the Royal Knights!"
"Thanks for the meal—!"
The bandit gang that went wherever the scent of gold led: Gold Hyena.
And even the War Spirits, which appeared out of nowhere the moment a war broke out.
Organizations and beings far too powerful for the county to handle were defiling the territory. Their purpose was only one—the dragon's corpse in this land.
Damn it, damn it—! Where did the information leak from!? Why the hell isn't support coming!
Hiding in a secure secret bunker, the count listened with one ear to the thunderous noise and the screams from outside and began to tremble.
He had reported the attack to the royal court, so the kingdom would send support soon. But thinking about it rationally, that support should have arrived long ago—before the fact that a dragon's corpse was here spread far and wide, and before those damned bandits stormed Bland County.
The county should already have been under the kingdom's protection.
Could it be.
He had reported to the kingdom the moment he took possession of the corpse—the very moment the army dragged the dragon Evan had killed into the county. By now, troops should have arrived. They hadn't. Instead, the bandits had hit the city first.
And that was something only a handful of beings could arrange.
"Could this attack be…"
"—It's here—! The bunker—!"
"Bunker!?"
"Bunker buster! Bring the bunker buster—!"
"D-damn—!"
Before the count could even finish organizing his thoughts, the dark mages found the secret bunker first. They roughly stuffed corpses into the bunker they'd discovered and began chanting.
Flesh and bone exploded, cracking the bunker. They stuffed more corpses into the cracks and detonated them again—and after repeating this, the mithril-alloy vault door of the bunker was destroyed in an instant.
The door opened, and the dark mage who poked his head inside smiled sweetly at the count within.
"Aha— the lord of the land, are we?"
"G-get out of here—! Aren't you afraid of His Majesty the Blue King!?"
"Ah— the great Blue King. A fearsome man indeed."
Hearing the king's epithet, the dark mage said so and laughed slyly.
"But— majesty this, majesty that, he's not here right now, is he?"
Grinning, the dark mage grabbed the count's head and used dark magic. As a noble whose blood ran blue, the count resisted for a moment—but the man before him was the guildmaster of Death Symphony.
Breaking through the count's magical resistance in an instant and brainwashing him, the guildmaster immediately asked where the dragon's corpse was.
"The dragon! Where's the dragon's corpse!"
"I-in my… breast…"
"In your breast!? Where!"
Tearing the count's clothes to shreds, the guildmaster found a key in his breast pocket. Sensing the magical energy from the key, he realized it was a magic key leading to a warehouse.
Emerging from the bunker onto the surface, the guildmaster shouted at the dark mages looking his way.
"Sing the Requiem!"
"Ahaha! Guildmaster's the best!"
"O Death— advancing across this land—"
"Who the hell starts without accompaniment!"
As the members of Death Symphony began singing boisterously, the guildmaster thrust the key into empty air. A lock engaged, and a space opened.
A subspace opened—and the guildmaster's eyes sparkled as he discovered the dragon's corpse and gold within.
"Ahh— O radiant corpse…"
The moment the guildmaster stepped into the subspace to claim the dragon's corpse—arrows flew from somewhere and clattered against his magical barrier.
Turning his head with an irritated expression, the guildmaster found a bandit gang aiming crossbows at him from afar and scowled.
"Those damned animals…!"
The guildmaster's rage took physical form and poured out in black. Blackening the world in an instant, he began to sing with his members.
Death Symphony — Movement One
Mors Requiem — the Death Requiem
A song of curse that kills everything it touches.
A song of curse that killed everything it touched began to spread.
Arriving at Bland County, Canelly stopped at the sight of unidentified somethings camped before the walls.
"…S-spirits?"
Sensing their energy, Canelly realized the beings before her were spirits. A land overflowing with death. What reason would spirits have to be here?
Puzzled, she slowly drove the carriage closer to the county, and the spirit standing outermost among those before them slowly approached and blocked their path.
"Huh? B-but we need to get inside the county…"
"B-but…"
The low-ranking spirit informed the High Spirit who approached that Evan and Canelly wanted to enter Bland County.
Hearing this, the High Spirit crossed its arms, nodded, and opened its mouth.
"What, you should've just said that from the start."
Shlick—.
The High Spirit's body split left and right. Looking at its body that wouldn't regenerate, the bisected High Spirit let out a dumb uh of a moan.
Casually drawing and swinging his sword, Evan began slowly loosening up as he looked at the spirits blocking the path.
"So I just kill all the ones here and go in…"
"…What, you weren't blocking us?"
Finding it more anticlimactic than expected, Evan sheathed his sword and climbed back onto the coachman's seat. Then he signaled Canelly to move forward.
Passing through the throng of spirits and entering through the gates, Canelly finally realized what the spirits were and let out a gasp of wonder.
"Th-those are War Spirits…"
"What are those?"
"They appear when a war breaks out and cause chaos… basically mischievous fairies…"
"They didn't seem that strong."
"S-strong or weak isn't the point. The fact that those things showed up means this place is basically a battlefield right now…"
In other words, the spirits had recognized whoever invaded Bland County as an "army," and recognized that a "war" had broken out between them and the county.
At the fact that the army was the enemy, Evan stroked the hilt of his sword. He had never cut down an army before. What reason would an individual ever have to fight an army in the first place?
An army, huh…
If he could cut it—he wanted to try.
Thinking that, Evan pushed deeper and deeper through the pitch-black curse. The farther in they went, the more moving corpses and unidentifiable mercenaries charged them—but none of them were enough to block Evan and Canelly's path.
"It's so dark I can't see a thing. Where the hell is the count's castle—"
Pushing through darkness so thick he couldn't see an inch ahead, Evan suddenly frowned slightly as the sky brightened with a whoosh—.
Above that brightened sky, a dragon soared upward.
"—Ahahahahaha—! Success!"
That dragon wore the face of the very dragon Evan had killed.
"…That."
That's mine?
Realizing this, Evan immediately gripped the hilt of his sword.