Chapter 189: 101. The Blackened Village -3 (Part One)
**
Baron Lava Labert was able to witness the Priest’s feats through a zombie’s eyes.
When the boy Priest offered a prayer to the goddess, powerful magic began indiscriminately raining down.
Flashes of blinding light exploded, then hundreds of zombies were completely slaughtered into oblivion while every single wounded knight was healed to their full health.
That had to be advanced-class magic.
Baron Lava, currently hidden on top of the forest located on a hill, was standing there trembling in shock all the while holding a blood-stained bible in his hand with its cover open.
‘That human is definitely a dangerous existence.’
The skill level of the other knights was nothing to write home about, but that boy Priest alone was powerful enough to do the job of a hundred-plus of them.
Did this mean Baron Lava wasn’t dealing with a normal, run-of-the-mill Priest?
Now that things had come to this, he had a choice to make: either he does nothing and allow them to leave the village, or take on the risk and try to eliminate them all.
There was no doubt that after they left, the matter of this village would become public knowledge. The kingdom of Lome would start investigating the cause, and that would lead to Baron Lava’s plan going down the drain.
He carefully weighed his options for a little while before coming to a decision.
The zombie army had to be created regardless of what happened. Location-wise, it’d be hard to find another one as ideal as this village. And if he decided to withdraw now, then there was a good chance that the ‘marquis’ would force him to take responsibility for this failure.
This meant that he should just eliminate the Priest.
‘And I do have a way to deal with him.’
He had seen ‘it’ when the boy Priest was casting magic.
Just before the boy could cast magic, he would offer a prayer.
Meaning, he was unable to move for at least a dozen-plus seconds. So, Baron Lava should aim for that opening.
However, there were quite a few knights around him.
In order to kill the boy Priest…
‘…I’ll have to eliminate those knights first.’
Lava glared at the knights in the far-off distance. He then poured his demonic energy into the blood-stained bible before beginning his chant.
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
I forcibly dragged Barus out of the village.
We headed to my carriage parked by the forest near the village’s outskirts. I figured that the smartest thing to do right now was to get out of here as soon as possible, since the village had been decimated and there didn’t seem to be any survivors left.
Once we reached an opening in the forest, I shoved Barus there and one-sidedly asked him a question, “Do you really not know? I mean, the Second Crown Princess Consort, Rose Darina.”
I even pulled out a portrait of her and showed it to him. He stumbled back a little in discomfort when I pressed the portrait real close to his face.
The knights next to us exploded in a fit of dissatisfaction.
“How insolent! Even if you’re a holy man from the Theocratic Empire, who do you think you are in the presence of, to dare act this way!”
Just as the knight raised his voice higher, Barus urgently cried out to counter him, “Sir Himel! Stop right there!”
The knight named Himel promptly shut his mouth.
Barus began admonishing the knight, instead. “Mind your manners right now! Who do you think this person is, anyway?!”
After finishing his words, he quickly went down on one knee with his head bowing down deeply towards me.
“The rightful heir to the throne of Lome kingdom, First Prince Barus Victoria, offers his greeting to the Seventh Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire.”
The escorting knights were stunned silly by his declaration and urgently knelt down as well.
Actually, even I was surprised as well. “You know who I am?”
“I heard that your highness is the only Priest in the Theocratic Empire capable of using a musket as his main weapon.”
I looked over at Charlotte.
Since when did I become this famous?
She approached me and whispered in my ear, “Rumours regarding your feats have already spread throughout the continent, your highness.”
“…What kind of rumours are we talking about here?”
Naturally, I became curious as to what people were talking about me.
“They say that you prefer to use a musket as a weapon even though it’s merely an ornament, and also, you’re a Priest capable of commanding the holy undead. Of course, only a very few believe in the rumours.”
Huh, such rumours were doing its rounds among the aristocracy in various kingdoms? But then again, it would’ve been weirder still if stuff like that hadn’t spread around by now.
However, it had only been two months since the official announcement regarding the holy undead was made, so I couldn’t help but be rather surprised by the speed of these rumours spreading around.
I shifted my gaze back to Barus kneeling on the ground. “The way I hear it, the Second Crown Princess Consort has been receiving assistance from Lome’s rebels. Is that true?”
Barus cautiously stood back up on his feet. A troubled look floated up on his face. “We also wish to find out the whereabouts of the Second Crown Princess Consort, your highness.”
His manner of speech had noticeably changed. Even his actions became much more cautious.
“That way, we’ll be able to hand her over to your side and prevent the Theocratic Empire from intervening in our domestic affairs.”
With the face of a man being wrongly accused, Barus sounded rather anxious at the moment.
I glanced at Charlotte, but she quietly shook her head. There was no way of knowing whether he was lying here or not.
Dang it, was this a waste of time? This whole thing was rapidly turning into finding a needle named Rose in a massive haystack.
At this moment, there was no way of finding out where she was hiding.
I glanced back at Barus and asked, “In that case, do you know any nobles connected or related to Rose?”
“Well, that’s…” Barus shifted his gaze and stared at the village of Rost below the hill. “I heard that the dragon slayer, Raiden, is a close acquaintance of the Second Crown Princess Consort.”
Really? But then, the dragon slayer was nowhere to be found. And his village had also morphed into a den of zombies.
What a strangely suspicious turn of events this was.
Whatever the case might be, I needed to locate this dude named Raiden if I wanted to catch Rose Darina.
Even though he was a retired hero, this Raiden dude was still a famous person, so I figured it’d be far easier to track him down than Rose.
It was around then that the heavens opened up on us once more.
The rainy winds became quite strong and the surrounding trees began shaking around violently. Even if we wanted to get a move on, the weather made it nearly impossible to do so.
“What are your orders, your highness?”
Charlotte asked, and I groaned under my breath before responding to her, “For now, let’s just take a break.”
After a lengthy, nonstop journey, we finally reached our destination only to start a zombie hunt right away.
Running into Lome’s First Prince was a stroke of good luck, but he had no hints to give regarding Rose’s whereabouts, so I couldn’t help but feel deflated by this whole thing.
Both my body and mind felt fatigued. Now was the time to rest for a bit.
“Alright. We’ll camp here for the night. Your name is Barus, correct? Come with me, we still have a few more things left to discuss.”
I needed to figure out whether he was being truthful or not. If he displayed even a hint of doing something suspicious, then well, I’d have no choice but to get rough with him.
Barus flinched a little at my ‘suggestion’ and asked back, “Y-you mean, we’ll camp here?”
He nervously glanced at the village of Rost below the hill. He seemed to have recalled the zombies that attacked him and his group.
I replied nonchalantly, “What’s the matter? Zombie hunting is a pretty simple affair, isn’t it?”
Right, it wasn’t a problem even if a crap ton of zombies suddenly raided us.
It seemed that Barus remembered the sight of me wielding a musket not too long ago, because he began nodding in acceptance next.
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
Charlotte and Barus’s escorting knights stood guard around the carriage.
The knights could only sneak uncomfortable glances in Charlotte’s way when she practically glued herself to the vehicle’s side.
They were doing that because they had no way of finding out what was happening to their master inside the carriage.
‘Who knew that the boy was the Imperial Prince of the empire?’
He was supposed to be the Seventh Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire. It might be possible that Barus managed to convince him and undo the misunderstanding, thereby eliminating the need for the empire to intervene in Lome’s affairs.
However, the knights also had to consider the possibility of taking the Imperial Prince hostage if things went south from here.
They glanced at Charlotte again.
She had this straight, firm posture; her silver hair was neatly combed back, while a pure-white armour covered her figure.
At a casual glance, she came across as a frail daughter of a noble house, but the knights knew they wouldn’t be able to best her even if they attacked together.
The Imperial Prince being capable of easily sweeping away hundreds of zombies was one thing, but even this girl knight was able to smoothly slice apart a sword made out of forged steel. Without a doubt, she couldn’t be an ordinary person either.
Both of them were still so young, too. Could it be that the Theocratic Empire was overflowing with monsters of their calibre?
Thanks to today’s event, they got to learn the stark difference in the level of skill and talent existing between them.
The knights could only sigh.
It was around then that one of the knights, Himel, felt a strange gaze lingering on him. He turned his head and looked into the depths of the forest.
‘What is that…?’
There was a pitch-black shadow-like silhouette. It was well over two metres tall.
The silhouette belonged to a huge ‘insect’ with a greyish hide, visible through the gaps of a robe usually worn by the monks residing in a monastery.
Its body resembled a maggot, while a pair of eyes protruded from what must’ve been its face. Rows of serrated teeth could be seen on the hollow part below the eyes.
Himel’s expression hardened instantly. He was about to yank his sword out and urgently shout, but then…
“Mons…!”
But then, Himel’s eyes ran into the monster’s gaze.
The creature murmured something in an unfamiliar language; demonic energy streamed out and promptly shut Himel’s mouth up.
The light in the knight’s eyes slowly dulled.
