Chapter Volume 2, 30: Earl Mansion’s Raid?

Volume 2, Chapter 30: Earl Mansion’s Raid⑤

「Should I introduce myself first? I’m Manzi, one of the Eight Wisemen of 『Devil’s Piper』. My dear city lord and adorable adventurers, you can stop this riot if you kill me. After all, I’m the one who controls all the hidden undead in this city. But of course, that is only if you have the ability to kill me.」

The mysterious old man was Manzi, who came along with five undead, including Eunos. He spoke with a clear and sonorous voice.

The wrinkles and blotches that covered his face formed an eerie smile.

Manzi spoke cheerfully as if he was about to start a show right after this.

The 『Dancing Sword』 adventurers couldn’t say anything. They were rooted in place, watching the scene with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

After all, one of the undead who protected Manzi was none other than their own guild master, Eunos.

The gallant, awe-inspiring, and charismatic figure which they saw in their guild master when he was still alive was already gone. All that remained was an undead.

The light in his eyes had long since vanished, replaced with a stagnated grey color. His bluish tongue dangled from his mouth like a dog waiting for their meal, and his back arched forward like an old man.

He even lost his usual vigor which was always on his face when he was still alive.

Eunos’ entire body was enough to tell his subordinates that their guild master was already dead.

「E-Eunos… sama?」

The 『Dancing Sword』 adventurers were also despaired upon seeing the current condition of Eunos.

Robin Hood glared at the undead Eunos with a bored look on his face. He then glared at Manzi who was being protected by five undead.

「 Does that mean all the undead in the entire city are under your control? As if such a grand sorcery that will turn one man into an army can be used by you alone.」

Manzi looked even more delighted upon hearing Robin Hood’s remark.

「Not directly of course, I scattered my subordinates around the city. Every single one of them has a death purple crystal to control the undead, but its source is me… This is my grimoire, 『Guiref’s Book』’s power.」

He then showed a black book that became the source of his power as he replied to Robin Hood.

He had the leeway to tell the other party both his name and the origin of his power and weapon.

Surely, the low-rank adventurers of Barreira City were nothing more than toys in Manzi’s eyes.

「On top of being an excellent conductor for necromancy, it also contains 42 simplified casting techniques for high-rank necromancy spells. It allows me to summon 13 spirits of Hades. This book, my bible, was created with alchemy by the person I revere above all others, Guiref-sama, a man known as the history’s worst human.」

「G-Guiref?! THAT GUIREF?!」

Fando exclaimed in surprise.

Seeing his reaction, Manzi let out a satisfied smile.

Guiref was humanity’s most notorious alchemist in the Regios Kingdom. The only ones who had never heard his name were babies who understood little.

Guiref was an alchemist of the Algrous Kingdom, a kingdom that was defeated by the Regios Kingdom two hundred years ago.

Two hundred years ago, the Algrous Kingdom was one of the kingdoms in the West Worimia Continent that promoted pacifism.

Algrous Kingdom, which was a minor power at the time, had very little experience in war. Poorly equipped, they decided to form an alliance with their neighbor, the Hein Kingdom, as soon as the Eight Countries Unification War intensified.

They decided to do so to prevent their citizens from becoming casualties of war.

But Guiref, one of the alchemists at that time, managed to control the royalty. He single-handedly destroyed the alliance with Hein Kingdom in the worst possible way, which led to a war between the two kingdoms.

Moreover, to make up for the Algrous Kingdom’s overwhelming lack of war potential, he abandoned all kinds of ethics. By researching necromancy, he boosted their military power to the point that it could rival much bigger countries.

As he gained more and more authority with each success, eventually, Guiref controlled every corner of the government. He trampled on the citizens’ dignity with his cruel oppression and exploitation, mercilessly torturing and executing anyone who opposed him. Anyone who spoke out was soon made an example of. Guiref controlled every inch of the kingdom to an abnormal degree, completely transforming the once-pacifistic Algrous Kingdom into a military nation. This complete change was due to Guiref alone.

And then, Guiref himself killed in a mutiny after what he built so far collapsed in an insurrection.

As a result, the total death toll in Algrous Kingdom both during the insurrection and the war became the largest death toll in the entire West Worimia Continent at that time. Guiref single-handedly killed around ten million people.

And the weapon he used was created by his own hand via alchemy—the black grimoire.

If the grimoire in Manzi’s hand was the real Guiref’s book, then it wasn’t impossible for Manzi to control an army of undead by himself.

Robin Hood fired an arrow toward Manzi without waiting for the latter to prepare himself.

The three arrows fired by him passed through the gap between the five undead as if they had lives of their own, heading straight toward Manzi.

Suddenly, a headless swordsman with a sword in each hand appeared from behind Manzi, knocking back the arrows in one swing right before they pierced Manzi’s oval-shaped head.

Clad in old-fashioned black armor, the thing that protected Manzi was one of Hades’ spirits—Dullahan.

Spirits were beings that existed in the aptly named Spirit World. A sorcerer could summon them under special conditions by forming a contract with them.

In this case, Manzi just took over the spirit that had already formed a contract with Guiref and tied it to the grimoire the moment the former took over the grimoire.

After swinging their sword, the Dullahan’s figure turned into a thin black mist.

This didn’t mean that the Dullahan returned to the spirit world. It just turned invisible to protect Manzi, its summoner.

「Hyohohoho… No need to be in such a hurry. You’ll soon join your comrades. I will personally decide whether you have value to serve me or not.」

The five undead moved as soon as Manzi finished his sentence.

Standing at the forefront of the formation, the dead-eyed Eunos zig-zagged toward Robin Hood and Co.

「I-I-I WON’T DIE! I WILL GRASP EVERYTHING IN MY HANDS! I-I-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Eunos raised his sword, lunged forward as far as he could, and charged toward Robin Hood.

There was a high chance that an undead would retain their own ego due to their sheer will-power or residual mana in their corpse.

Although there wasn’t much ego left in Eunos, his deep-rooted obsession remained strong even at the end of his life. This obsession transformed in the most crooked way.

「Robin Hood, YOU’LL DIE DIE DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!」

「The one who’s already dead is you, basta*rd!」

Robin Hood’s arrow pierced Eunos right on his face.

Eunos’ head bent back due to the power behind Robin Hood’s arrow. As his head became crooked at an impossible angle for living humans, Eunos let out a guttural noise.

But that arrow was far from enough to stop the undead Eunos.

He closed the distance between him and Robin Hood. His head was bent at an impossible angle, and he brandished his sword.

The undead Eunos’ movements were far too rough compared to when he was still alive, but they were a league faster. The current speed of his sword swing had clearly surpassed that of when he was still alive.

「DIE DIE DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!」

Robin Hood ducked to let the sword pass above him. Then, he dodged to the left when the sword had swung down.

He then took out the knife from his breast pocket to parry more than three dozen of Eunos’ attacks.

The fight continued on with Eunos thrusting his sword only to get the tip of it knocked away by Robin Hood’s knife.

‘Not good. Defending against his attacks at this distance is already the best I can do…’

「WiND, CArrY mE.」

A magic circle formed on the tip of his sword as soon as Eunos finished his aria.

The wind blew violently despite being indoors.

As he rushed toward Robin Hood, Eunos rode the wind while maintaining his slovenly posture.

Although his stance was a mess, his speed was definitely faster than before.