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“Ekdoik, 2 more from behind!” 

Some mindlessly attacking us, and some who go around and come in between attack intervals. 

The movements of the beast undead are close to that of hunting. 

We are reaching the siege weapon storage smoothly. 

But if we head there in a straight line, they end up catching up with me no matter what with my means of movement.

What’s fortunate is that their aim is completely me…no, Prince Nuphsa who I am carrying. 

That’s why Blue and Melia went ahead and had the surplus to set simple traps using ropes. 

Just when they were close to catching up, a rope set behind would show up and would wrap around the legs of the beast undead. 

Even if they are good walkers that won’t be fazed by a bit of bad footing, they can’t escape falling if their legs are pulled. 

“Nice, Melia! Please head to the next location!” (Ekdoik)

“Y-Yes!” (Melia)

We pay attention to not get surrounded while moving through narrow alleys and hindering their path. 

I feel like we will be able to get to the siege weapon storage safely at this rate. 

Nuphsa was mumbling something while I was thinking this and poked my shoulder. 

“Can’t you go faster?” (Nuphsa)

“If I could use magic, I would be able to…” (Ekdoik)

“I see. It is going to be bad at this rate. What lies ahead is not a residential district but an area where there’s a lot of facilities from the country. The spacing of the buildings will be wider as a result. You will be caught there with this speed.” (Nuphsa)

It is true that the reason I haven’t been caught by the beast undead is because I can do three dimensional movement. 

They have a bit of jumping power, but they don’t have the deftness to jump from one rooftop to the other. 

The space between buildings and the roads is bigger due to the necessity for space in order to transport siege weapons. 

Their movement speed will increase as a result and ours will lower.

“Then, we will stay here. Blue and the others will—” (Ekdoik)

“That’s a bad move. Those two can’t use magic so they are weaker than you, right? If Hilmera has hidden the magic seal stone in a storage, there’s no doubt there will be one or two beast undead stationed there.” (Nuphsa)

“…In other words, you want me to carry you to the storage, and draw the attention of the undead there as well.” (Ekdoik)

But that requires the beast undead behind us to not catch up to us. 

The traps Melia is setting are helping out, but it is not like they are obstructing all of them. 

I would like one more trick. 

“—There’s no point asking for what we don’t have. Lower me the moment we change sectors.” (Nuphsa)

I do as told and lower Nuphsa just when the sector changed, and he casted mana strengthening on his own body. 

There’s no stagnation in the flow of mana. It looks like he has trained a lot. 

Nuphsa then took off the simple armor he had equipped and threw the small sword he had on his waist. 

“You can run?” (Ekdoik)

“It has been years since I moved my body, but I should be able to manage just barely if it is just this distance. I will run with all my power without looking back, so you all go obstruct them.” (Nuphsa)

“I don’t mind that, but…what do you plan on doing after moving sectors?” (Ekdoik)

“The storage has a sturdy room. I will run there and shut myself inside until things are over.” (Nuphsa)

Nuphsa said this and began running. 

It is pretty slow compared to the knights of Taizu and seasoned adventurers, but that’s still clearly on a completely different level from a civilian. 

Nuphsa should be able to arrive at the storage if we obstruct the undead chasing after him a number of times. 

“Blue, Melia, I can’t use my means of movement from here on! We are buying time until Nuphsa arrives at the storage!” (Ekdoik)

“No way! That prince can run that fast?!” (Blue)

The walls of the lined up houses were gone and the beat undead raised their speed one after the other towards Nuphsa. 

They weren’t paying any attention to us who were nearby.

But that’s convenient for our objective. 

I shot my chains to two places at the same time and wrapped them around the legs of two different undead. 

The two undead fell down by utilizing their own momentum against them. 

I immediately retrieved the chains and moved to obstruct the next one. 

Chains alone wouldn’t make it in time, huh. 

In that case…

I unsheathe the sword I got from Nuphsa and slide in between the legs of the undead. 

I cut off one leg as I passed by and made it fall.

“Y-You are good at using a sword…” (Blue)

“If it is just cutting the legs of beasts. Melia, please do the same! Blue, try obstructing them somehow!” (Ekdoik)

“I-I get it!” (Blue)

The beast undead showed up one after the other even while we were doing this and were trying to attack Nuphsa. 

Melia went to the front and I went to the sides while severing the legs of the ones that came close. 

Blue threw the jar with oil inside she retrieved from a house in their path and made them fall. 

Obstructing them isn’t that difficult in itself. But there was a limit to how many we could deal with. 

“!  I am sorry, Ekdoik-san! It went past me!” (Melia)

“3 of them went past Melia!” (Blue)

I wrap my chains around the ones that tried to get through from the openings, and have them pull my body. 

I approach them as if trailing the chains, got in between its legs, and sever them. 

I throw my chains on the remaining two and—

“Far! Prince Nuphsa!” (Ekdoik)

There would have been no limit if I could use magic, but right now the lengths of my chains are limited. 

The chains I tried to wrap around them hit nothing and the two beast undead approached the back of Nuphsa. 

“—Looks like you don’t have enough people. Allow me to lend a hand.” 

Giant boulders rained on the undead behind Nuphsa.

Nuphsa must have been understandably surprised by that tremor, he stopped his feet dumbfounded. 

“That just now was the rampart breaker’s…” (Nuphsa)

“It was a weapon in the storage, so I borrowed it for a bit. It is used for the sake of this country, so I would be grateful if you don’t count it as a crime. That said, I am a wanted person, so it is not like it changes much though.” 

“You are…Ritial Zentry?!” (Ekdoik)

The one that appeared in front of us was without doubt Ritial Zentry. 

Why is the person that should have been defeated by us and escaped from Serende here…? 

“It is a calculated move, Ekdoik. Such assistance in cooperation with him can create big concessions.” (Ritial)

“…! There’s more coming!” (Ekdoik)

“No issues. We have already seized the storage. We have someone who has a better grasp of this space than anyone, and can control things better than anyone else after all.” (Ritial)

The boulders that flew next crushed the beast undead with precision.

To think they would be able to hit the charging beasts from that distance with a siege weapon… I see, it is Molari and Komiha, huh.

Molari can get a grasp of the space, and Komiha has the ability to tinker with matter -basically her handiness is extremely high. 

They can show such godly technique by combining their inhuman talents, huh.

“Ritial, you said you seized the storage, right? So there was no magic seal stone there?” (Ekdoik)

“It is great that you are a realist that goes straight to the main topic. It means that both of our guesses were wrong. Oh well, my decision was with the intention of using the siege weapons as well though. Let’s move to the storage for now. Those girls wouldn’t fail, but they might get worn down faster with us here.” (Ritial)

The fast undead were being crushed by boulders one after the other. Most of their bodies were crushed below the boulders, so they can’t regenerate well. 

It won’t get rid of them completely, but they should be able to incapacitate them for a while with this. 

“Oi, Smythos, set the next one already. There’s still a whole lot of them coming. There’s a few of them who have already gotten out from below the boulders.” 

“Listen here. Lifting a boulder with just mana strengthening is pretty tough work, you know?! How about helping out a bit if you are going to give orders all high and mighty?!” (Smythos)

When we followed after Ritial and arrived in the storage, there was Molari and Komiha controlling the siege weapon, and then there’s Smythos desperately rolling boulders. 

“Geez, you two, stop fight—E-Ekdoik! That’s a relief! You were alright!” (Komiha)

“Yeah, Komiha. Don’t look away and aim properly. The distance is 20225. 762 to the right compared to what it is right now.” (Ekdoik)

“No issues! Shoot!” (Komiha)

Komiha made slight adjustments and a new boulder was shot. 

The boulder drew an arc and crushed the beast undead from afar straight on. 

It seems to be shooting giant boulders with the flexibility of the rope, but this rough weapon is shooting with precision like a proficient bow. 

Moreover, she is doing this while waving at me…

“T-That’s impressive, Komiha…” (Ekdoik)

“Ehehe… It is not a big deal! Ah, but this won’t do anymore after around 3 more shots. Smythos, bring out the next one out from the storage!” (Komiha)

“You will have your hands free once we can’t use that one anymore, right?! Why am I the only one doing the manual labor here?!” (Smythos)

“Because you are the only one who can use mana strengthening that’s good enough for physical combat.” (Komiha)

Smythos was captured before it turned into a fight, but it seems like she is skilled enough in physical combat to be a sparring partner of Yasutet. 

Her proficiency in mana strengthening feels close to that of the knights of Taizu.

“Molari can do it too!” (Smythos)

“I am doing this while being wary of the surroundings. If you can get a grasp of the situation around without detection magic, you can take my place.” (Molari)

“Aah, geez! Why is it that our only men, Yasutet and Arcreal, are not here at a moment like this?!” (Smythos)

The capital of Serende is in this state, and yet, they are talking like usual. 

They must be pretty mentally composed, but the one who is maintaining that is without doubt Ritial. 

“By the way, Ekdoik, have you seen Yasutet?” (Ritial)

“No, I haven’t… He is here too?” (Ekdoik)

“I asked him to keep surveillance of Serende, you see. We came here to get him, but we couldn’t head to the meeting point because we couldn’t use the teleportation magic of Molari due to the magic seal stone.” (Ritial)

“I see… That man wouldn’t get caught off-guard by normal undead, but that means he must be doing something.” (Ekdoik)

Yasutet was the kind of man that could take a step back and watch things unfold even within the allies of Ritial.

That man acting in this situation must mean that he is trying to settle this situation. 

“Considering his personality, I thought that he would have met up with Haakudoku or someone like that since he knew his location though. Haakudoku and Masetta-kun apparently didn’t meet Yasutet though.” (Ritial)

“?! You met those two?!” (Ekdoik)

“Yeah. I found Haakudoku carrying Masetta-kun when we were on our way here. The two were heavily injured. I had Tsudwali bring the two outside the range of the magic seal stone and had them healed.” (Ritial)

I was relieved after hearing those two are fine, but that also made a question surface in me. 

Haakudoku and Masetta were seriously injured? 

I find it hard to believe those two would get bested by undead even in a situation where they can’t use magic. 

I thought a beast undead attacked them, but most of the beast undead that were around that area were heading straight to Prince Nuphsa.

“…Who attacked those two?” (Ekdoik)

“According to Haakudoku, it was the doing of a man named Murshto. You should know that man well too, right?” (Ritial)

I felt conflicted once I heard that name. 

Hilmera is the one who caused this mayhem. Then, her bodyguard, Murshto, should be moving for the sake of bringing further chaos in this country. 

Comrade said: If Princess Hilmera becomes an enemy, Murshto would become our enemy without hesitation. 

But the Murshto I saw liked Comrade, and was a person that wished to get along with Comrade from the bottom of his heart. 

Just what kind of mindset did he have when he was walking through the capital? 

“Now that the siege weapon storage doesn’t have the magic seal stone, the next one would be the supply storage.” (Nuphsa)

“I would really like to do that, but those beast undead are targeting you, right, Prince Nuphsa? Siege weapons can’t make tight turns, and it is not like we can carry the boulders around. We need to lower their numbers to a certain degree while we are here.” (Ritial)

They are incapacitating beast undead one after the other, but that’s because they are using the siege weapons of Serende and their talents as Yugura Illegitimate to bring out results higher than they normally would. 

The talents of Komiha and the others are still present, but they can’t use magic which makes full use of them. 

It doesn’t change the fact that it is as dangerous as us to fight the beast undead from the front.

“Then, I will remain here as well. In the time I am drawing them—” (Nuphsa)

“I can’t accept that proposal. An outstanding individual is necessary in order to bring back Serende to its feet. There’s no action more important than protecting you in order to save this country as long as there’s no other person who can serve as your replacement.” (Ritial)

“…Can’t be helped. Then, there’s no choice but to quickly lower their numbers.” (Nuphsa)

The culprit of this mayhem, Princess Hilmera, would be out of the question, and Prince Chisante and Princess Yumis who were consumed by greed are also not the right people. 

There’s no telling whether the king of Serende and Washekt are still fine. 

It is just as Ritial says. We should refrain from actions that risk the life of Nuphsa if we are to think of the future of Serende.

“Looks like you have settled it now. Let’s prioritize incapacitating the beast undead that are gathering in this place. If we are lucky, Yasutet might be cooperating with someone else, and will destroy the magic seal stone… Well, it is just hopeful thinking though. Molari, Komiha, Smythos, I will have you work hard for a bit more.” (Ritial)

“Yes, Ritial-sama! I shall perform any order you give! Oi, Smythos, prepare the next one already.” (Molari)

“As I said, don’t make me do all the heavy lifting! Ekdoik, help out too!” (Smythos)

“O-Okay.” (Ekdoik)

—

Author: The cheats of the Illegitimate stand out when managed properly. 

Komiha’s mana strengthening on herself isn’t that strong, but she can grasp the potential of a tool with precision by passing her mana in it. She is most likely the one who would be able to use modern weapons the best. 

Molari herself isn’t that dexterous, but she is someone who would excel as a sniper. 

Smythos had almost no time to shine, but she is on the same level as Girista when it comes to physical strength, so she is actually at the top when it comes to pure battle power within the female cast. She has the potential of defeating any human if her poison lands. But the treatment she is given is pitiful. 

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