Cemetery Village Semec (1)

The wave of corpses that engulfed Semec, which had long served as the common cemetery for the Inpula Church Territory.

“Yona, you!”

Bigrin stood up abruptly, her face flushed red.

Her anger, red-hot with an emotion that could be anger or something else, revealed the turmoil of her feelings without filter. At the end of that gaze, Yona looked back at Bigrin with an expression that seemed to say, “What’s wrong with her now?”

“Do you know what kind of village Semec is? As a cleric of the Celestial Church, you should naturally help! This is not a matter to discuss compensation!”

“I may be a cleric.”

Yona leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. As her nun’s habit slid down, revealing her fair thighs, Alec quickly pulled it up to cover her properly.

“I may be a cleric, but this baldy, that lizard, and Uncle James aren’t clerics. The Celestial Church didn’t teach us to drag innocent lives into danger, did it?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one persuading them?!”

“Why me?”

Honestly, she couldn’t understand why she should do that at all. Was there any motivation for adventurers beyond money? Simply asking how much the compensation was, whether it included incidental expenses, if there were any success bonuses. Isn’t that how adventurers take on quests?

“Bigrin, you must lack real-world sense from growing up only in the cathedral. What moves adventurers is money, money. Not meager faith or justice.”

“M-meager, you say…!”

Bigrin trembled, her fists clenched tightly.

Even so, Yona was also a cleric who grew up receiving faith education in the cathedral, wasn’t she? And the name Semec was clearly part of that education. Yet she showed such an attitude, which was utterly incomprehensible.

“Hero, Hero, please say something too!”

Bigrin thought that if she continued this argument any further, it would seriously damage her image.

The hero, Ludvik, was also originally an adventurer.

And now he’s a person who has to embark on a hero’s journey with her, who is now a saint.

Surely he could say some grand words to Yona and those adventurers-

“Saint, you shouldn’t handle adventurers like that. You should do it like this instead.”

Ludvik gestured for Bigrin to sit down. After she sat down with a somewhat reluctant expression, Ludvik cleared his throat lightly and began to speak.

“Anyway, this isn’t the village chief, right? Anyway, from what we heard, Semec is closer to Capatia than Inpula, so if we rush there right now, wouldn’t we arrive faster than going to Inpula? If we bring an army, those so-called dead would have already spread out as if it’s their world. Right now, we’re the only ones who can potentially contain this situation. Isn’t that right, Regent?”

“That’s correct.”

Ceres nodded quietly. Semec isn’t exactly in the center, after all.

“Then what’s the difficulty? We don’t know how critical the situation is anyway, so setting a compensation now seems meaningless. Wouldn’t it be better to go there, see the situation, and then decide? In exchange, guarantee at least two or three gold coins each as a minimum.”

Since they didn’t know the severity of the situation, they would go and decide after seeing it, but with two or three gold coins as the minimum compensation.

In fact, this was also a rational judgment, so Yona and the party members agreed to it.

After all, adventurers make money with their lives.

It’s unthinkable to give up on a big payday just because it’s dangerous.

The fact that Semec had been engulfed by a wave of the dead reached the Inpula Church Territory, and the urgency of the matter was reported directly to the Pope.

Although they couldn’t know exactly how much damage had been done, they could estimate that close to 2,000 corpses had risen, given that the number of bodies enshrined in Semec was at least that many.

Thus, under the permission of Arczel IV, it was decided to dispatch one Crusader Order.

The Crusader Order, clad in silver armor and equipped with holy silver weapons, was a higher-ranked order than the Cathedral Knight Order and was also the strongest weapon nurtured by the cathedral to confront demons, including the undead.

Arczel IV received their salute and then gave a brief standby order.

A feeling that was somewhat unsettling and even ominous.

The avatar of Verbaria that descended in Capatia Port and then fled, its whereabouts unknown afterward.

And the wave of the dead that engulfed Semec.

It would be stranger to think these two events weren’t related.

Undead monsters, represented by zombies, weren’t uncommon.

There were cases where people died harboring intense grudges, or rarely, were raised by the dark arts of necromancers, but for it to occur on such a large scale, there must be some backing force.

“…Call the 13th Crusader Special Operations Unit.”

At Arczel IV’s low voice, the priest quickly bowed his head and retreated.

The silver armor gleamed brilliantly.

The helmet completely covered the face, revealing only eye holes as thick as a finger.

Sharp spikes protruding from the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and back of the hands glinted keenly, and the armor, without a single wrinkle or scratch, was neat and straight as if representing the wearer’s character.

The holy knight approached with a clicking sound from the joint parts with each step, and before stepping onto the carpet leading to Pope Arczel IV, he unfastened his silver shield and dark mace and handed them to the priest.

“Ugh, oof.”

The priest stumbled, unable to bear the weight.

As the priest staggered under the weight of the equipment, too heavy to receive even with both hands, the holy knight quickly took back the shield and mace from the priest.

Then he personally hung the shield and mace on the weapon rack prepared beside the table and stepped onto the carpet.

A heavy sound was made with each step. With steps that looked so heavy it seemed they might sink into the ground, the holy knight kept a slight distance from the Pope and knelt down on one knee, bowing his head deeply.

“Scarlet, answering the call of His Holiness the Pope.”

Arczel IV slowly nodded at the greeting given in a low and heavy voice.

“Semec has been swept away by a murky current, Scarlet.”

“…Yes, I have heard.”

“A Crusader Order will be dispatched. You are to join them.”

“I will do so.”

There was not even a moment of hesitation. Without a trace of doubt in the Pope’s order, without asking if he was to join alone, as if it had always been this way, as if it were natural, Scarlet accepted the order without question.

“We don’t know who is behind this. However, you are to punish those who have so disgracefully defiled the bodies of the lambs nestled in the Celestial God’s embrace.”

“Of course, I will do so.”

“Bring down the iron hammer of the Celestial God upon those who have insulted the Celestial Church.”

“Of course, it will be done.”

“Make sure they never dare to show their demonic nature to the Celestial Church again, that they don’t even think of attempting it.”

“Of course, I will do so.”

“Go. Go and show the power of the Celestial Church.”

At those words, the holy knight slowly stood up.

Each time he moved, a soft operational sound rang out, and a faint holy power flowed out.

The holy knight straightened his back and stood upright, looking directly at the Pope.

That gaze was hidden behind the helmet and could not be seen by anyone, but at least one thing was certain-

He was a holy knight who moved alone.

And he was also the 13th Crusader Special Operations Unit himself, assigned the number 13.

“So, that means the knights from the cathedral will be coming too. Do you understand? The situation might not be as serious as we think. Maybe-“

Ceres stopped mid-sentence and smiled at Bigrin.

Even now, Bigrin was in the middle of an intense staring contest with Yona.

Glaring at each other and growling, Bigrin, who seemed about to say harsh words at any moment, glanced at Ceres when she stopped talking, and seeing that she was looking at her, cleared her throat and straightened her posture.

“Yes, with our Saint Bigrin supporting from the rear, and the Hero blocking in front, it might be enough. After all, skeletons and zombies are low-level among monsters, right? If our cathedral knights, led by the Hero, block them from the front, and meanwhile the holy knights from Inpula come to attack from the other side, in one fell swoop-!”

Ceres, who was speaking, suddenly made a loud “Eek!” sound and turned to look at Rubina.

Rubina, who had been listening to words like zombie and ghoul, was startled by Ceres’s sudden loud voice and hid behind Yona’s arm, trembling.

“Stop it, Regent. You’re scaring Rubina.”

“Well, that was kind of the point. Rubina, were you very scared?”

Ceres, who had started speaking casually to Rubina at some point, smiled and stroked Rubina’s head, and only then did Rubina let out a deep sigh.

“Anyway, that’s the plan. Hero Ludvik and Saint Bigrin will deal with the undead, while Yona’s group and the cathedral knights hold them back… The undead blocked on this side will be dealt with by the cathedral knights pushing in from the opposite side… That’s the plan. It shouldn’t be that difficult, really.”

“…What if ghouls appear?”

Ceres hesitated at Yona’s words.

Zombies – their movements are slow, and they have no particular means of attack other than biting.

Skeletons are also slow in movement, and apart from rusty iron swords, they don’t have much, so it’s over once you smash their skulls.

But ghouls were different.

Ghouls were monsters that used their long nails as weapons and moved very quickly to steal the lives of the living. Their rotting, dripping skin was fatal to the living just by splashing, and if someone were to eat their body fluids or flesh, they would become a ghoul’s minion.

Once they appeared, they caused enormous damage to ordinary people and were quite a big job even for adventurers.

“Well, in that case, I suppose the Hero would handle it. Or Saint Bigrin.”

“But. Regent, you seem certain that a necromancer is behind this.”

It was Kairoc’s question.

From his perspective, the situation looked very serious. He had never heard of the cemetery village Semec before, but from the explanation, it seemed to be a very important village, and it was strange that a necromancer had invaded such a village, and weren’t such villages usually protected by the power of the cathedral?

Yet the fact that it had been breached so easily was incomprehensible. At least in Kairoc’s view, this wasn’t the work of some petty necromancer, but rather, it was right to suspect the avatar of Verbaria that they had lost in Capatia Port.

“Well, it’s easier on the mind to think positively. As Kairoc says, it’s always good to consider the worst-case scenario, but if I did that, I think I’d get too exhausted. It’s rather comforting to think that some overconfident necromancer did this. And to say that a demon did this- Sigh.”

Ceres picked up a cookie from the table, dipped it generously in honey, and took a bite.

“It’s easier to think positively. If I always think of the worst, my mood becomes the worst too.”