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“La~la, lanlala, lala~lala.”

No matter how calm I try to act, there’s always a limit to everything.

At the time I got caught in the trap of that man, was made to drink poison, and was in the middle of being treated, I was under the surveillance of Nuphsa.

Nuphsa tried to seize my trading path for my drug with the resident of Yugura’s planet as the trigger.

My subordinates acted well to a certain degree, and it seems like they managed to hide a number of routes, but I still needed to prepare myself for the fact that most of my source of income will be cut off.

Yumis must be in the same state.

“Lalan, lala~, lalalan.”

I remember my past while trying to face away from the abnormal sight in front of my eyes.

My ambition didn’t wane even when I was defeated in the competition for the throne.

Even if I can’t win against that man, I still have the energy to think of plans to get back my political power again in a place where he is not present.

Nuphsa and Washekt still have naivety in them, so they would definitely not do something like kill me.

The most they would do is pour as much of my power as they can to continue keeping an eye on me.

Then, I just have to overcome that and wait for my next opportunity.

“Hmm, it dried a bit too fast. Moreover, the color blackens when it dries… Maybe it will become a bit more vibrant if I mix other things with it? Hey, what do you think, Chisante?”

And yet, a fear I can’t comprehend as if insects were coiling all around my body was eating away at my heart.

The one in front of my eyes is Hilmera, who is painting.

The sight of her humming while painting is the very picture of glee, and I have never seen Hilmera with such an expression before.

But the story changes when there’s countless undead standing behind her.

She is in the end a fake who doesn’t have the blood of Father flowing in her. There was no need to face her seriously, so I didn’t even look at this little sister of mine.

But I am now in a situation where I can’t miss a single action of hers.

I am currently tied up in a chair.

Yumis is also caught in the same way by my side. She must have been injected with some sort of drug.

I can’t put strength in my body as I want.

I can hear the low growl that’s hard to believe comes from a humanoid undead from behind me.

The fishy smell reaches me as if enveloping me.

I want to look back to confirm its appearance, but the backrest is so big, I can’t see behind me.

“Please…Hilmera… Save me…”

“Geez, I didn’t ask you, Yumis. Your artistic sense doesn’t match mine, so shut up. Well, I don’t think the musclehead Chisante will be of help either though.” (Hilmera)

The attack of the undead is causing a turmoil in the country.

We were kidnapped within that chaos.

I didn’t think the day would come when I would be kidnapped by an undead.

Hilmera did something outrageous.

This is violence that has forgotten something more fundamental than empathy or morality.

An action that should make your sense of reason stop you before doing it; Hilmera didn’t get stopped by this and has gone through with it.

“…What are your demands?!” (Chisante)

“None. I have no intention of negotiating with you people anyways. You guys haven’t talked to me at all until now, so I thought maybe it would be nice once in a while. Ah, I don’t have enough materials.” (Hilmera)

Hilmera stopped painting and stood up slowly.

She grabbed the bottle nearby and approached something that had a cloth on top a few ways away.

“Then, release us! This action is obviously beyond reason! I doubt Washekt would want something like this!” (Chisante)

Hilmera stopped moving the moment I mentioned Washekt.

Hilmera is attached to Washekt.

If I am going to convince her, it has to be with th—

“You are the one to say that? You are the ones that blabbed about things Onii-sama didn’t want as if nothing, right?” (Hilmera)

This is disgust and anger, huh.

This is most likely her displaying her feelings at me over mentioning Washekt.

I understand her telling me what right I have to say this. But my words won’t reach this woman unless I shake her feelings.

“That’s right. I am saying this exactly because it is me. The reason why you hate us is because of our treatment towards Washekt, right? Do you plan on walking the same path as us?!” (Chisante)

“…I see. So you also say it like that. What a sly man.” (Hilmera)

Hilmera sighed lightly and took off the cloth.

“Wa… Father…”

It was Father tied up in a chair the same way as us.

He must have been weakened with a drug or something, his expression is hollow and he is groaning powerlessly.

There’s a strange apparatus on his arms.

Hilmera tinkers with it and blood slowly begins to flow out from the metal at the tip of that apparatus.

Hilmera puts that blood inside the bottle in her hand…

Could it be that the paint of that painting is…!

“There’s not much compared to the first time. Is it because of his age? Come on, Father, here’s some blood-forming medicine. Please do your best and make more blood, okay?” (Hilmera)

Hilmera makes Father face up and pushes something resembling a pill into his mouth.

And then, she grabbed a bottle nearby and poured the water inside of it into his mouth too.

The teeth of Yumis were clattering in fear.

As for me, I was feeling chills from that abnormal sight.

That Father…our father that I was aiming to climb up to become…is in such a pathetic state…

“Have you gone that crazy…?!” (Chisante)

“Father said something similar and tried to persuade me. He said it would make Onii-sama sad. That I would stop being the little sister Onii-sama wants… Father and child really are similar. The part where you can only speak such surface level words.” (Hilmera)

“Dahaha! Those words also insult Washekt!” (Chisante)

It doesn’t matter what it is. What I have to do right now is to make that woman look at me.

Even if she gets a bit emotional and gets violent on me, I won’t even be able to persuade her if she doesn’t get conscious of my words.

I normally would get flustered here, but I can stay calm even in a situation like this, most likely thanks to that man.

“I don’t really care though.” (Hilmera)

“…!”

Hilmera directed her gaze at me. And yet, she is not looking at me at all.

It is as if she is talking to a lump of meat on the side of the street.

“Onii-sama is not that good with words either. But I am happy. The fact that Onii-sama acted for my sake and speaks. I feel happiness, not from the words, but from the true essence that’s in them.” (Hilmera)

Hilmera took out a small knife and made a shallow wound on my arm.

She scooped the blood flowing out from the wound with her finger and observed it while playing around with it on top of her hand.

“Won’t do. I thought it could be used since it came from the same source, but…with this being so much inferior, it just won’t do. It must be the same for Yumis. Father, your blood is barely in the passing mark, so please do your best, okay?” (Hilmera)

“O-Oi! —?!” (Chisante)

“So noisy.” (Hilmera)

She pushed my body the moment I called her and I fell together with the chair.

I saw what was behind me this whole time now that I fell backwards.

What was there was a single giant beast.

Its whole body is corroded here and there, and I can tell it is clearly not a normal animal.

What I thought when I saw this was that it is an undead created from necromancy, but what animal is this?

It is bigger than a bear and its appearance is closer to that of a lizard.

I at first thought it was a dragon which I have heard of in tales, but this guy is clearly different from the dragons I know.

Its whole body is covered in fur like a bear or a wolf, and it has no wings.

It must be bipedal. Its front legs are short, but its hind legs are extremely developed.

There are times when I feel like I would be able to communicate a little with wild animals. But I don’t feel anything from the eyes of the beast in front of me. It is questionable whether it is conscious in the first place.

“It is important to try things out. Onii-sama said that, so I prepared an opportunity to talk to you people, but I got nothing from this.” (Hilmera)

Hilmera takes out a clay whistle and blows it.

The beast reacted to this sound and howled.

The fear sleeping deep inside the instincts of my body were dragged out forcefully, and I understood what would happen afterwards.

I heard the screams of Yumis, but I don’t care about that right now.

I will be the next one, and I have no means to change that.

My heart was paralyzed from fear and the inside of my head cleared out.

The people who drank my drug must have felt like this.

Then, maybe I was unexpectedly contributing to society.

But to think I would end up like this together with Yumis who I was the most wary of.

I was on guard against Nuphsa and Washekt at least, but to think the one I had to eliminate was actually this woman who I didn’t even give the light of the day…

Aah, I wanted to die without feeling pain if possi—

◇◇

Mix, who was using detection magic on our way to the Serende Castle, noticed the abnormality.

There wasn’t the need to think much to reach the conclusion that this is due to the effects of a giant magic seal stone used for wars.

Ekdoik and the others must have been affected as well, so we decided to switch to getting rid of the magic seal stone, and hurry ahead.

“To think they would make it so that you can’t use magic inside the capital… They won’t be able to deal with the undead fast enough without the use of purification magic… Is Princess Hilmera planning on destroying this country completely?” (Ilias)

“The definition of country must be different from that of normal for Hilmera.”

“The definition of a country… The king, the people, and the land?” (Ilias)

“That’s right. When the set of ruler, populace, and territory are present, a country can come to existence. But Hilmera most likely thinks a country can be established with a ruler and territory.”

Right now Hilmera is not looking at the people.

She thinks only about Washekt as the king. It doesn’t include what kind of country she wants him to rule.

That’s why she is simply thinking about getting rid of the obstructions to obtain sovereignty and territory, and putting into action extreme measures.

It is similar to the time when we were doing iterations of how to destroy Taizu in the simulated worlds of Gold.

If you don’t care about the results afterwards and just concentrate on achieving your objective, the hurdle decreases quite a lot.

Hilmera just looked at that lowered hurdle and moved, thinking to herself ‘I can do it’.

“We will be arriving at the castle gates soon, but…! Everyone, stop!” (Mix)

Everyone stopped at the order of Mix who was running towards the castle gates.

There’s no soldiers at the castle gate that should have been attacked by undead.

But we could see a strange creature instead.

Its whole body is corroded, so I can tell it is an undead made with necromancy, but its appearance is a pretty rare one even in this isekai.

“What’s with that beast…? A monster?” (Ilias)

Ilias and the others seem to not know this animal, but I have seen that appearance before.

It is a creature that’s said to have existed not in fantasy, but reality. Basically, a dinosaur.

If I had to categorize it, it would be from the same line as the tyrannosaurus, the yutyrannus.

If it looked like a tyrannosaurus, it could be mistaken as a wingless dragon, but having fur is confusing Ilias and the others quite a lot.

“Washekt talked about having found fossils of bones from animals that existed far in the past when he guided us in the ruins, right? She probably used those as catalysts to make undead.”

Dinosaur fossils that are said to have been found while their ancestors were in the middle of making ruins centuries ago.

Washekt explained that they kept them in the ruins as lucky charms.

Fantasy worlds normally had dragons live since ancient times, so there was no turn for dinosaurs, but dragons are monsters in this world.

Monsters that wouldn’t have been born if the Demon Lords were not present.

There’s a high chance the ecology of the animals is similar to that of Earth.

“Fumu… There’s no problem if I just think of it as a small dragon, but the problem is that magic has been sealed. It would be a pretty big workload to drive a monster of that size into an unregenerable state without magic-desu zo.” (Mix)

Ilias and Wolfe can face dragons that are far bigger in size.

They wouldn’t be defeated when it comes to simple battle, but the issue is that we are dealing with an undead.

Moreover, I can see several more deeper in the castle gates.

With how things are, I feel like there are quite a lot of dinosaur undead inside the castle too.

“I can.” (Ilias)

“Wolfe can, too!” (Wolfe)

“You may be able to, but if you were to unleash an attack that can blow up that giant body, it will be discovered that we have invaded-desu zo.” (Mix)

The calm retort of Mix made the two confident ones grow docile.

Our objective is to stop Hilmera, so unnecessary battles will just give her more chances to escape…

“It might be an unexpectedly good idea.”

“Eh, have you awakened into the brute force faction too, Mister Friend?!” (Mix)

“Wolfe is not in that faction. Wolfe is in the ‘leave everything to Shishou faction’.” (Wolfe)

“Wolfe…” (Ilias)

Ilias looked at Wolfe somewhat sad, but I ignored that and opened the map of the Serende Castle that I got from Nuphsa.

“Hilmera is somewhere inside the castle. Ilias and Wolfe should be able to advance while defeating those undead. I want you two to split and defeat the undead in a flashy manner. Hilmera will think about escaping if she feels like the situation is bad. When that happens, she will definitely bring Washekt with her. If she is going to be retrieving Washekt -in other words, securing an escape route- she will definitely move the undead. That’s where…”

“My turn comes, right?!” (Mix)

I nod and explain the plan roughly.

I will have Mix climb to a high position to investigate the dinosaur undead’s distribution and perimeter of their actions.

I will have Ilias and Wolfe rampage next to create change in their movements.

If they don’t have any plans, we will definitely succeed in getting rid of the undead.

That’s why, regardless of whether Hilmera tries to make a countermeasure or escape, she will be giving some sort of order to them.

Mix will confirm those movements and share that information.

And then, I will read the intentions and narrow the location.

“You will be blowing away undead of that size, so Wolfe who has the most mana will be the core of this plan. Ilias, please deal with them while prioritizing guarding me. Also, Mix, they are undead who used creatures with sharp senses as base, so don’t forget to get a grasp of their detection range.”

“Understood-desu zo! Then…” (Mix)

“Let’s go!” (Wolfe)

Wolfe dashed towards the dinosaur undead in front of the castle gates.

The dinosaur undead detected this movement, roared, and tried to switch to an attack, but its whole body was smashed to pieces with the punch Wolfe unleashed.

I can tell clearly it was an attack with an overwhelming amount of mana even with my untrained eyes.

Magic has been sealed with a magic seal stone, so it should originally be a pretty dangerous opponent, and yet, there’s this overpowering difference.

Hilmera will have no choice but to do something.

“We should go too!” (Ilias)

“Yeah, but Ilias, make sure you save your mana as much as possible.”

“…Got it.” (Ilias)

Ilias must understand what I mean by this.

I probably won’t be present at the important moment.

That’s why I need to do what I can right now.

No need to worry. When the time comes I need to pass the baton, I will.

That’s why I want you to prepare yourself now.

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