Chapter 138: 075. Rescue -1 (Part Two)
The soldiers wordlessly blinked their eyes.
This silence lasted for a surprisingly long time, but eventually, they all exploded into a loud peal of laughter again.
“Hahahahah!”
“Listen to this kid! Look, everyone! Some crazy kid just showed up!”
The guffawing soldiers shouted out, and even their colleagues up on the fortress walls peered down to take a good look at me.
“This kid, he looks outwardly fine, but it seems he’s lost his mind! He says he’s from the Imperial Family. Not only that, he says he’s the Seventh Imperial Prince, no less!”
“Seriously now, the whole world must’ve gone mad. I had no idea that a boy this young can also work as a clown!”
One of the soldiers dug within his pockets, found a copper coin, and tossed it in my way.
I glanced at the soldiers.
“If you’re planning to entertain us, clown, make it more entertaining than this. I was actually dying of boredom just now.”
“But know this, kid. If you fail to keep us amused, we’ll just break your legs and sell you off as a slave.”
Their glares were rather cold, I have to say.
Even though they were just regular soldiers working for the castellan, they still came across as pretty overbearing. That’s because even if they killed someone for fun, they wouldn’t get punished. They were even allowed to assault any women they found pleasing to their eyes.
As long as the castellan turned a blind eye, all would be forgiven.
This was precisely the reason why Aslan’s subjects detested and feared the nobles and the soldiers. What a relief it was that I investigated this fact beforehand. All these soldiers, they treated every commoner like a slave and they thought of it as an obvious thing to do.
In that case, no more reason to hesitate then.
While looking at them, I shook my head as if I found something to be quite unfortunate. “How sorrowful. None of you believe me even though I speak the truth. Working as a clown? You do know that’s lese majeste, don’t you?”
“Oh! Is this one of those situational comedies? Don’t you have any other talent besides this? Like, juggling or balancing on a ball?”
“Talent, is it?” I asked.
The soldiers stared at me with amused eyes.
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. “Well, I don’t have much of a talent, but mm… Well, I can show you this one cool trick though.”
“A cool trick?”
“Yes. Well, I guess I’ll show it to you guys in commemoration of rescuing my older brother, and also to advertise my new wares.”
“…Your new wares?”
“Now, please concentrate on this upcoming trick that will even stun the likes of Mister Jok*r!”
“…What’s this trick he’s talking about?”
The soldiers clearly became interested. It was pretty boring guarding the fortress’s gate, so their curiosity must’ve been greatly stoked by my actions.
Every soldier around the gate and above the walls paid their undivided attention to me. They snickered while occasionally exchanging glances with one another.
It seemed that these folks were treating me as a simple clown.
Well, they were right about one thing.
I was the ‘clown’. Except that, rather than laughter, I’d be busy gifting them with shock and terror, but hey!
I pointed to the empty space behind me. “Do you see anything behind me?”
“Behind you?”
Since it was at night, the soldiers had to raise their lit torches up high to cast enough light. Although the darkness behind me was chased away, they couldn’t see anything there.
“There’s nothing there, though?”
“Indeed! You can’t see anything there, right? But when I do this…”
I spread open my arms wide like a showy illusionist performing on a grand stage. My hands smoothly, slowly tilted and turned. The gazes of the soldiers all drifted towards the ends of my fingertips.
Just as their undivided attention was focused on me, I loudly clapped my hands before spreading my arms again.
“Ta-da~!!”
The soldiers’ gazes instantly left my hands and their faces all hardened like stone while staring not at me, but at the ‘beings’ currently standing right behind me.
I turned my head and looked back as well. “Oh~ my~ goodness! Can you see now? In this previously-empty space, a whole bunch of undead suddenly showed up!”
They were none other than one hundred or so ‘mummies’, with forged steel-like rotting flesh wrapped up in white bandages. They were currently outfitted with white balaclavas and matching white-coloured steel armour. They stood tall with their heads bowed while wielding the curved scimitars.
The corners of my lips curled up.
I looked back at the stunned soldiers and raised my voice louder. “Yes, these are the freshly oven-baked one hundred ‘mummies’ I got my hands on recently!”
They ranked higher than mere skeletons in the undead pecking order. Not only was this legion of mummies able to masterfully wield all sorts of weapons, they could even use low-tier magic as well.
“And so…” I pointed at the soldiers with my finger. “For the crime of insulting the monarchy, all of you…”
I raised my thumb up and pointed it to the ground.
“…will be executed.”
The soldiers flinched and stumbled back.
It was then, a mummy rapidly dashed forward and dug into the midst of soldiers. The scimitar held in both of its hands rose up before quickly slashing down.
Along with the quick flashes of light, a single thin red line suddenly appeared in between the brows of the soldier.
“Uh? Huh?”
Two soldiers collapsed as their eyes rolled back into their sockets, while blood started gushing out from their fresh wounds. At the same time, all of the mummies raised their bowed heads, their eyes glowing eerily in the dark.
“E-enemies?!”
“I-intruder…!”
The mummies pounced forward.
They wielded the scimitars held in their hands much faster and much more nimbly than any skeletons could. The soldiers guarding the fortress’s gate were all slaughtered mercilessly while their blood danced in the air.
A portion of the mummies looked up. Their eyeballs exposed between the bandages and the white balaclavas busily darted around.
“F-Fire the arrows…!”
The soldiers up on the walls fell into panic and hurriedly nocked their arrows.
The mummies lowered their heads, and rapidly dashed forward. They climbed up the wall in the blink of an eye by grabbing onto the gaps found within the surface.
Dozens of mummies agilely climbed up the fortress wall at least ten metres tall. The soldiers up there were instantly butchered even before they could do anything.
The mummies stabbed and killed the archers, stole the weapons and speedily fired arrows to hunt down the other Aslan soldiers.
While all this slaughter was happening, I summoned the dwarf-made armour set and the musket. I quickly put the white-coloured armour that covered me from the top of my noggin all the way down to my feet and then grabbed the musket.
“Oh, dear Gaia…”
I breathed into the spread shot-enabled musket and stared at the firmly-shut fortress gate.
“It’s that one! He’s the Necromancer!”
“Kill him first!”
More soldiers showed up above the fortress wall and shouted out while pointing down. Unfortunately for them, though, none could touch the current me.
“Fire the arrows!”
Arrows rained down, but my mummies quickly came to my defense. With deft movements, they raised round shields and blocked off all the incoming arrows. Some crouched low while some other stood straight to defend. Others stepped on them to create a tall wall where every layer was tough and impregnable.
The defensive wall created out of shields layered on top of one another and successfully defended me from the arrows.
“Sir Necromancer! Over here!”
A soldier on standby above the wall suddenly shouted out. A Necromancer arriving on the scene belatedly began casting a spell under the protection of the nearby soldiers.
A huge ball of fire created through magic flung down and blew away the mummies forming the defensive wall. However, I simply ignored the incoming magic despite being within that wall.
This armour boasted built-in magic resistance. It had been improved even further by [Divine Aura], so without casting a mid-to-high tier magic, no one would be able to hurt me.
[Divine Aura has been used.]
[The equipment will be temporarily upgraded.]
[The upgraded equipment is now granted with the skill ‘Spread Shot’.]
I stared at the fortress gate, took aim with the musket, and then fired it.
A loud sonic boom exploded out. At the same time, dozens of holy projectiles pierced straight through the darkness of the night and collided directly against the gate.
The projectiles even went straight through the gate itself.
The soldiers above the wall flinched in surprise and looked down at the gate, only to witness it explode spectacularly into countless bits and pieces.
Debris flew out and rained down in all directions.
An unlucky soldier had his head impaled by a piece of wood and died instantly, while many others screamed at the top of their lungs as bits of the gate punctured various parts of their bodies.
“Stop them! Do not let those bastards invade the fortress!”
Bells began ringing throughout the fortress. Even the sleeping soldiers were roused up and began rushing towards the broken-down gate.
More Necromancers also showed up and summoned their skeletons to completely surround the vicinity.
I leisurely strolled through the open gateway.
“Fuu-woo…”
Divinity-laden breaths leaked out from the slight opening of my helm.
My whole body was covered in heavy-looking armour while my right hand held a musket rifle, and in my left, a towering shield. Behind me, the mummified ancient guardians followed closely by.
The commanding officer leading the castle’s troops saw me and his face visibly hardened.
“A white armour, the musket, and then…” He muttered out as his expression morphed into a full-on freakout while staring at the white-coloured mummy legion and yours truly leading them from the front. “…H-holy undead.”
The Necromancer’s complexion paled instantly in fear.
But that wasn’t so surprising.
Didn’t Hans say this? That there was a spooky ghost story doing its rounds in Aslan.
And that happened to be…
“It, it’s the angel…!”
…A rumour about me.
This was the second option I was talking about – capturing the enemy fortress outright.
If the castellan knew about our identities, then killing him would solve the problem. Even if pursuers did come after us, it’d only happen some time later since a matter like the death of the castellan would take a while to deal with.
I cocked my head to the side and issued an order. “Go and locate my brother.”
The mummies bowed their heads.
“Oh, and wipe them all out, too.”
Within the darkness of the night, the holy undead legion dashed madly forward as the eerie light in their eyes glowed brightly.
< 075. Rescue -1 (Part One and Two) > Fin.
