Chapter 138

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 .

Fin .