CH 166

An earthquake of an unprecedented scale struck the western part of the continent.

It caused tremendous damage throughout the Kingdom of Zain.

Raidorl, who came to power as regent, mobilised all the resources at his disposal to rescue the victims.

Thanks to the protection of Neimilia’s magic, the damage to the Royal Palace of Zain was kept to a minimum. Raidorl immediately opened the royal palace as a place of refuge and housed the injured residents of the capital.

Of course, it is not only the capital that has been affected. Directly under the control of the king, far from the capital. The noble estates have also been badly damaged.

Troops were sent to local cities, towns and villages to provide disaster relief.

Food reserves in the royal palace were also brought in as relief supplies, and forts and fortresses that were safe were offered as places of refuge.

Normally, these decisions could only be taken with the consultation and approval of the ministers. However, as a centralised dictatorship, Raidorl was able to do so on his own.

His decisions are fearless, but at the same time they are incredibly timely and appropriate to the situation.

The young regent, who had been through a lot in the frontier settlements, showed his worth during such an emergency.

Even if Granard and Lockwood had been alive, they would not have been able to respond so smoothly to the sudden disaster.

If one looks only at the results, the damage caused by the disaster was minimised by Raidorl, who took over the kingdom.

Still,there were not a few people who could not be helped.

By nature, the Kingdom of Zain is not prone to major earthquakes. In the wake of the unfamiliar earthquake, the confusion of the people swelled greatly.

In some of the affected towns and villages, unfounded rumours even led to riots. The rescue of the victims had to take a stepback as the Knights had to deal with the suppression of the rioters.

From the time of the earthquake to the end of the chaos, it took about a month.

In that time, 10,000 people died as a result of direct damage caused by the earthquake and indirect damage caused by sudden riots. The number of missing persons is several times that number.

This is, without a doubt, the biggest disaster since the founding of the Kingdom of Zain.

Fortunately, and quite quickly after the disaster. Relief supplies arrived from our neighbours to the east, the Arslanian Empire.

The empire, which is located in the middle of the continent, was not so badly affected by the earthquake, and Emperor Zacharias immediately sent relief workers and supplies.

Raidorl owed Zacharias a great debt of gratitude, this,in turn, helped to consolidate his reign.

It was Raidorl who ended the war with the Empire and made peace. This has already spread throughout the kingdom.

Thanks to Raidorl’s peace with the Empire, a lot of help was given. The people who were affected by the disaster shouted, “It is thanks to His Highness Raidorl that we have been saved!” and praised him.

Also the fact that the earthquake has forced the rebellious nobles to go into hiding is working to Raidorl’s advantage.

Their territory had been damaged and they could no longer manage without the help of the knights and the army. “We’ll take this opportunity to drag down that hateful younger brother!” They had no time to even think about it.

In order to defend their lands, the nobles were forced to hang their heads to Raidorl, whom they supposedly hated.

Just as the rains hardened the earth, so the hardships of the great earthquake enhanced Raidorl’s reputation and, oddly enough, consolidated his reign.

And so it was that Raidorl overcame the first hardships of his reign…….but it was not long before he realised that he was not alone.

The witches’ plague has only just begun. It is not over yet.

The battle between the hero, the holder of the holy sword, and the “Six Witches of Doom” was about to begin.

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“GGGGAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa…!!!!”

A strange, high-pitched, hair-raising voice came out of the dimly lit forest.

At first it was distant and faint, as if nails had been scratched into glass, but as time went on it grew louder and louder, and they knew that the voice was getting closer.

At the same time, it was accompanied by the sound of crawling on the ground. It was a low, heavy sound, like a horse dragging a huge load.

“Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~”

Before long, the owner of the voice appeared.

At first glance, the silhouette of the creature crawling through the trees looks like a giant snake crawling on the ground.

But those people will soon realise that this was a mistake.

The serpent, with its reddish-black scales like dried blood, has a human upper body in the place where its jaws should be.

The upper half of the sallow human body is unclothed, leaving the naked torso exposed. The two breasts, all female, were completely exposed without a leaf on them.

If they look only at the human torso, it looks like an incendiary female body. But there is no man who would be excited by lust in the presence of this monster of a human snake. 

The woman’s eyes are red and glowing, and her mouth is split open below the ears. The woman’s jaws were open and drooling, and her dark yellow bodily fluids, when they fell to the ground, gave off a foul smell and white vapour, like an acidic drug.

“…… Lesser lamia, eh? There’s a lot of you.”

A monster emerges from the forest, a human snake. There were about thirty of them.

The black-robed man with the jet-black sword in his hand, Raidorl Zain, sighs in disgust at the sight of the horrible monsters, even if they were coming in packs.

Lesser lamia is not a major demon.

This is the first time Raidorl has encountered one in person, although he has some knowledge of them from books.

To begin with,Lamia is a sub-human race. They are abhorred in the Empire, which has a strong disdain for subhumans, but they are not evil.

They have the upper body of a human woman and the lower body of a snake, and they live in settlements in the south of the continent.

Despite their fearsome appearance, they have a gentle nature and are said to entertain men who wander into their village and ask them for a night’s love. The Lamia are an all-female race, and they mate with men of other races to procreate.

The Lamia are all beautiful in appearance, and some men have had relations with more than one Lamia, pretending to have wandered into the village.

The Lesser Lamia, on the other hand, has the same characteristics of a human snake, but is extremely fierce. It is unable to communicate with humans because it lacks the intelligence to understand human language, and it prefers to attack humans and eat their flesh and blood.

Lesser Lamia is another species that only has females. ……This one has intercourse with its ‘mouth’.

By feeding on human males, they take the ‘sperm’ directly into their bodies and fertilise the eggs in their wombs to reproduce.

Thirty Lesser Lamia was in front Raidorl.

“How many men did they kill to get this many?”

“I’m sorry…… that you had to die with such an ugly slut as your last woman. I can’t bring him back to life, but …… I can at least avenge him”

“Kishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Lesser Lamia squealed with delight at the sight of Raidorl.

They must have thought that the poor Raidorl will sacrifice a food to eat and nourish him for the birth of their babies.

Thirty lesser lamia were happily heading straight for Raidorl.

“…………..”

Raidorl, on the other hand, does not swing his sword, but points it at the ground, allowing the monster to approach him as if it were his prey.

“Kishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

“…………….”

Lesser Ramia was getting closer. Closer and closer- but Raidorl doesn’t move.

“Kishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

And then at last the Lesser Lamia in the front row leapt towards Raidorl. She kicked the ground with her serpentine body like a spring, flew into the air and opened her jaws to the limit.

She tried to bite off Raidorl’s head……but Raidorl finally moved.

“Spell fighting [Medusa, Goddess of the Stone Eye].”

Raidorl did not even raise his sword, but muttered with the tip hanging down.

Instantly, a hemispherical dome appeared around Raidorl’s feet.

“Kishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

He drew the enemy to the very edge and unleashed the blow.

The Lesser Lamia were trapped together in the jet-black dome, surrounded by a vortex of miasma that raged inside the dome.

“Aaaaah …………?”

A Lesser Lamia, who was about to jump on Raydor, turned into stone in mid-air.

With a look of confusion on their face, they crashed to the ground with a thud.

The other Lesser Lamia also turned to stone in the same way. In a matter of seconds, the thirty Lesser Lamia had been reduced to a flock of stone statues.

“Kishaaaaaaa?”

“Mmm?”

There was only one Lesser Lamia that escaped petrification.

Only the last of the monsters escaped the petrifying dome.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

The surviving Lesser Lamia turned on their heels and fled towards the forest.

Seeing their comrades turned to stone before their eyes, they finally realised that the man they were about to attack was not their prey, but a natural enemy that threatened their survival.

They fled without a second thought for their petrified friends.

“Oioi…..You can’t just run like that.”

Of course, Raidorl  will not allow this to happen.

Raidorl swung his sword with a careless hand, and a jet-black blade shot out from it and plunged into Lesser Lamia’s head.

The last lesser lamia falls to the ground with its head cut in two.

“Even though it’s a monster…..it doesn’t feel good to point a sword at the back of a fleeing woman.”

Raidorl lightly dusted off the holy sword Dáinsleif in his right hand and placed it in its sheath.

He stretches out his body with his hands above his head, as if to say, “I’ve done my job.”

“But I’m not a softie enough to let a cannibalistic monster escape. In the next life, I hope you will be born as a decent woman.”

With a sarcastic retort, Raidorl turned his black robes and walked towards the town behind him.

It was his hometown, the one he had known since he was a child.

The frontier city of Raid.

Raidorl, who had become king, was returning to the frontier town where he had spent his thirteenth and eighteenth years.