Chapter 41

No matter how hard we try or pay attention, collateral damage occurs.

Even after issuing evacuation recommendations, posting notices, and hiring criers to shout, there are still people remaining in the demolition zone.

No matter how often we say during roll calls that looting is prohibited, there are always those who think they can get away with it and recklessly engage in misdeeds in the occupied territory until both ends are cut off.

In a city turned battlefield, there are priests who refuse to leave the temples until the end, and captains who meet their demise alongside their ships.

No matter how hard we try or pay attention, collateral damage occurs.

This is merely a result-oriented perspective; it cannot be an excuse not to put in effort and attention.

However, among the three of us, one is a future grand magician, one is a reincarnated person, and one is a future saint.

The Duke of the Empire, who must maximize the use of human resources, needed to prioritize getting these three to safety.

I climbed the stairs with a brazen expression, dragging Matheos along.

“He is destined to die for the royal family and clergy, so he will surely be embraced by the Lord after death.”

Naturally, I never once thought that these words would convince Matheos.

There was no way a devout and compassionate seminarian, who established a relief center in the slums, would accept such reasoning.

I merely continued to drag Matheos up the stairs with my left hand.

The strength of the Sword Expert, who could imbue mana blades onto swords, was tremendous, allowing me to easily pull along a priest even with a leg injury.

A growl sounded from below.

“Come on, hurry up! You lazy bum!”

Bright light flooded in.

Sererassie opened the sewer stair door wide and gestured for us to enter.

At that moment, Matheos let go of my hand.

“Your Excellency. Please go.”

I made a face that seemed to say, “Don’t say nonsense.”

“Don’t say ridiculous things.”

In the end, I spoke.

Matheos smiled gently and clasped his hands together.

Golden light, like sunlight, erupted, and the wound on my thigh partially healed.

“I am more skilled at purification than healing, so I think this is about all I can do.”

As I was about to say something more, Matheos quickly continued.

“I understand. Even if the world is turned upside down, the lives of the royal family and the lives of the poor cannot be equal. It would not be appropriate for you to risk your life for those who live above. But I am a seminarian.”

He took out a sun-symbolizing cross from his bosom.

“I have learned that before the Lord of Light, everyone is equal, and I cannot drag those monsters to the ground just to save myself.”

I felt like the world was collapsing as I grasped his wrist.

“Your friend cannot return.”

“Yes. I intend to send him off myself.”

“An abomination is not an undead that can be dealt with at a student’s level.”

Rudi’s magic arsenal was incredibly potent, but that did not mean the abominations were weak.

“It’s not something I should say in front of Your Excellency, but I am not an ordinary seminarian.”

I raised an eyebrow, just in case.

At that point, there could have been a forewarning of the saint.

“When the light is with me, I have saved hundreds and purified streets inhabited by thousands. If I believe that He is by my side, I am not afraid.”

I gave a bitter smile.

Indeed, those were not words one would expect from the black-suited saint Matheos before his reincarnation.

“You are going with us.”

“That person is a duke, right? I have committed a serious disrespect by treating him as a magician instead. Please go. The lives of Your Excellency the duke and an ordinary seminarian who hasn’t even been ordained as a priest cannot be equal.”

“Are you not afraid?”

“Why should I be afraid? I die for the royal family and the people, so I will surely be embraced by the Lord after death.”

“!”

Receiving back the very words I had spoken, I could only shut my mouth.

However, I could not just let Matheos die here.

The saint of the Church of Light, known throughout the continent.

The mere fact that he remained in the Empire’s capital made it difficult for surrounding kingdoms, republics, and high nobles to take military action against Jeilliris, and thanks to his proclamation of a holy war against the Infiltrators, Jeilliris was able to focus solely on war and politics.

I said to Sererassie, in a grim voice.

I truly hated this.

“Sister.”

“Stop talking nonsense and hurry up.”

Even I realized that what I was saying was ridiculous.

“Go get Lady Trentia. His Majesty will come himself if you tell him there are abominations swarming underground.”

“Are you planning to die with that seminarian? Are you getting this revenge because I cursed a bit?”

“I have no intention of dying. Since you say you are good at purification, I should be able to hold on a bit.”

In reality, the power of the ancient ones that had entered me was completely gone.

“How about we send that seminarian away, and you and I hold them off?”

“I need your purification ability.”

“Change your mind. Can’t it just be me and the seminarian left?”

“Do you want me, who has become a leg cripple, to run to the imperial palace?”

“Then if we send up the seminarian…!”

“I’m staying because I said I wouldn’t.”

Sererassie glared at me and Matheos as if she wanted to kill us both.

“I’ll zap that seminarian unconscious…”

“If my leg was fine, I would have already knocked him out. Even if you were a knight, I would have agreed. But you can’t possibly help both the unconscious seminarian and me with my injured leg.”

Sererassie gritted her teeth.

“I hate you.”

“Why?”

“You have kept me away from my home and made me leave the person who saved my second home.”

I laughed bitterly.

Somehow, everything I did was despicable.

“You have a good reason to hate me.”

“…Draw your sword.”

When I unsheathed my sword, Sererassie chanted a spell.

“Burn, and consume the enemy.”

From my sword, blue sparks crackled and leaped.

It was an enchantment spell.

“Will you promise not to die? Because I will still be mocked by you in the future.”

She dashed out the door.

I wrapped the torn sleeve around my wound for pressure and called Matheos to gather his divine power.

“Stand about ten steps above on those stairs. That height will be advantageous for a one-sided beating.”

“Your Excellency.”

“Stay behind me. If you purify the enemies, I will behead them.”

“Why are you risking your life for someone like me?”

“Be careful with your injuries. You need to help me, and I don’t want a situation where you have to take care of your wounds.”

“You are the capital’s greatest bandit…”

I yelled out in a manner befitting the capital’s greatest bandit.

If I had my way, I would have taken Matheos out right away.

“Shut up! I said shut up! I’m not staying because I want to! I’m here because you can’t die!”

Thanks to my mana control gained from my previous life’s experiences, I quickly became a Sword Expert, and born with the blood of royalty, I possessed amounts of mana that far exceeded my peers.

However, objectively, my mana was far too limited to be considered that of a Sword Expert.

Without a magic tool, to confront an abomination with this amount of mana was madness.

“Why must I not die…?”

“They’re coming!”

The huge, humanoid abomination shuffled its way through the underground sewer.

Feeling Matheos gathering his divine power behind me, I raised my sword.

* * *

Abominations were monsters formed by merging two or more zombies.

Above a certain size, they might walk on four legs, sprout heads and limbs like a mane on their necks, or completely deviate from human form, but the ones wandering in the sewer were not that large.

Their pale gray or pale yellow skin was mottled like patches, and that part served as a kind of joint.

“Now you too will be embraced by the light!”

Matheos held them close, perhaps one day having rescued these people with his own hands, granting them rest once more.

As he radiated divine power like a brilliant sun, the joints and eyes of the abomination ignited in flames.

Chi-i-i-i-ck!

The sound of flesh cooking and a hissing noise filled the air as the abomination trembled.

At that moment, Valenciaunos moved.

“You, wretched creature, who cannot die nor live! How dare you raise your head in front of anyone!”

Swoosh-!

With curses intended for self-hypnosis, he swung his sword, covered in lightning, decisively.

The abomination’s neck was cut off halfway.

Valenciaunos used a swordsmanship that aimed precisely at large veins in the neck or thigh to incapacitate.

However, that was not a very effective swordsmanship against an undead that does not bleed.

Moreover, the abomination, big enough for its head to reach the sewer ceiling, had a neck thicker than a person’s torso and was packed with muscles stronger and tougher than a corset.

Thus, Valenciaunos had to use his imperial swordsmanship level one move nearly every time.

“I’m running out!”

Cursing once again, Valenciaunos gritted his teeth.

“I will purify once more.”

“Enough, save your strength. I think others will come too.”

Declining assistance, he kicked the abomination’s lower jaw, knocking it upwards.

“Drop down to hell! You horrid monster made from assembled corpses!”

With a terrible sound, its neck snapped, and the giant, over 2 meters tall, fell straight into the sewer.

Splash!

Slimes began to flock towards it.

“Is it okay to eat that?”

“A few might mutate, but those slimes have short lifespans, so it should be fine.”

“Is there a chance that part will mutate?”

“If millions of them mutate, one might come out. Once, some crazy alchemists dumped all their toxic experimental reagents, and there was a mutated one then too.”

“Then we shouldn’t drop it like that…”

“That mutated one was eaten by the slimes throughout the sewer.”

“Oh.”

“Focus. Others are coming.”

Pat, pat, pat, pat!

Fast footsteps echoed from afar.

Valenciaunos recognized through experience that they were quadrupedal undead about the size of dogs.

“Ugh!”

“Gods!”

But he certainly did not expect a creature with a dog’s body and a human face to leap out.

“How can this be so disgraceful! Is this truly the work of man?”

Groooowl!

Matheos lit up in horror and radiated the light of purification.

As they ran in sporadic bursts, the area affected was wide, but that reduced its power.

Valenciaunos sneered.

Drawing upon the logic that Matheos had liked before his reincarnation.

‘Could this help?’

“Humans might sacrifice ten innocent children as offerings to the old ones to save family members who died of disease.”

“Ah.”

“In the process, they might horrifically change themselves, and as they are chased by the Empire and the Church, they seek more strength to reject it, ultimately forgetting why they started doing such things, just like your friends who spewed that.”

“Light of illumination!”

‘It seems not.’

“Augh! Augh! Augh!”

The human-faced dogs charged in, leaping swiftly.

“How dare these filthy rags!”

With a terrible shout, Valenciaunos swung his sword.

Zing! Zing! Zing! Crunch!

Accelerating suddenly, he swung his sword like a butterfly’s wing, cutting off the limbs of the human-faced creatures and kicking their bodies into the water.

Matheos was a step behind in his rebuttal.

“How can you say such things? There are far more people who are not like that!”

“True. The problem is that one such person can kill about a thousand who aren’t. Tragically, if one side wants to fight, the opposing side has no choice but to do so. And generally, the worse side wins.”

“What?”

“Can you purify me once more?”

When Valenciaunos turned back, he noticed that Matheos’s face had turned quite pale.

His pierced left leg was soaked in blood.

His white uniform pants were stained red, a horrifying sight, and a small puddle of blood was forming beneath him.

“You forced me to expend too much power while killing the abomination and made me move too quickly to kill the human-faced creatures. Your friend is inducing my depletion, knowing you won’t run away.”

“What?”

“Even when things change, memories remain. The only thing that changes is perspective.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

As Matheos wore the light of purification and healing over his wound, he asked.

Valenciaunos, adjusting his clothing around his thighs once more, replied.

“The enemy intends to draw you into corruption as well, and to do this, they must prevent you from escaping and keep me from aiding you to escape.”

“Yes.”

“They know that you won’t run. The first part has been resolved. However, when strong ones gather, I’ll take care of you and escape. Thus, we cannot send them all at once.”

Matheos’s gaze wavered.

Valenciaunos laid out the results of a brutal and fierce psychological battle.

“You must think that I can endure alongside you; otherwise, you won’t flee. They will send the truly strong ones when we start to tire. Perhaps the one himself may come.”

“So we are now…”

“Yes. We are in serious trouble. We need to flee upwards immediately. If we try to endure longer here, we will get caught by them.”

“Go. I can pull some of the surrounding people into it…!”

Valenciaunos interrupted.

He did not think of it as frustrating.

It was precisely such compulsion that was the condition of a saint.

“If you become corrupted, it’s all over. I repeat, the enemy is not trying to kill you; they are trying to corrupt you.”

“My faith does not waver.”

“Mages, shamans, spirit summoners, infiltrators, and priests are similar yet different. They can empathize with what ordinary people cannot sense.”

“!”

“It is because your faith is firm that it is even more frightening.”

“What can I do now?”

Matheos asked in a distinctly gloomy voice.

The relief center he started out of goodwill had met its end in human hunting. In a place he came to find his friend, he had encountered a wayward and mutated friend, and although he did not run for the sake of worrying about people, he heard that he could also be a source of concern for them.

And the one who said that was known as the greatest bandit in the capital, the protagonist of the rumor that treated human lives as unworthy as flies.

To the unsteady seminarian, Valenciaunos said,

“Retreat, or advance towards the enemy.”

“Yes?”

“Thinking you are winning is the most dangerous thing. When you think you are losing, the clue for counterattack appears.”

Footsteps were heard from above the stairs.

“Your Excellency.”

“Enter the heart of the enemy and purify that disgusting vomit-colored slime.”

“Just now.”

“May your friend meet a peaceful death. If you do not do it, I will mete out a terrible death.”

The door above burst open with a clatter of plate armor.

“Valen! Are you safe?!”

“Your Excellency!”

“Lord Valen!”

Three people dashed down like the wind.

“Go burn all the undead and tear them apart to feed the slimes. Only when the corpses are still do they receive mourning.”