28. Reunion, Reunion.

“You’ve come.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Ludmila politely greeted the person sitting on the platform.

Veronica also bowed deeply, while Yuna-ssi and I just stood still.

I wondered if they would make an issue out of this, but it seems not. Do they not care about Yuna-ssi and me in the first place?

But even so, his gaze was directed towards me.

“First, be seated.”

Following his words, Ludmila took me and the group somewhere.

Moving quite far forward among the many seats spread out in a fan shape.

Ludmila sat in an empty seat.

And Veronica sat next to her, and Yuna-ssi and I sat next to her.

Is the meeting starting now?

It’s going to be boring as hell.

“Don’t they give out snacks or coffee or something? I’m bored. I want to eat tteokbokki.”

“…Please endure it a little.”

She glares at me with eyes as if looking at a rambunctious child.

Sorry, but I’m not very good at enduring things.

“Now that all 35 of the National Talents (Gukjae) are gathered, let us begin the meeting.”

The King announced the start in a solemn voice.

In the solemn atmosphere where silence had settled, a man who looked to be in his mid-20s came forward with a board.

Did he put a map on it?

“I will explain the general situation.”

He started pointing to various places on the map, rattling off things like monsters had occupied this place, corpses were piled up and an epidemic had broken out.

As expected, a terribly boring time. I feel like yawning.

“That person is Duke ‘Pulpumir Din Obel Kraba’, the only Master in the Raizer Kingdom.”

“I don’t care. More than that, what exactly is the reason I had to come?”

“I agree. It doesn’t seem like we need to be here.”

Even Yuna-ssi joins in, expressing her doubts.

Hearing that, the person named Pulpumir looked our way.

“As everyone knows, the root cause of all these events is the monster rampage that started in the northern great plains. It’s something that has happened every few decades, but this time it’s different. Everyone knows that there was a huge explosion in the far north about a month ago.”

Those in the hall nodded.

“That seems to be the root cause.”

He took out a cloth folded several times from his pocket and unfolded it.

“This is a composite sketch of the bastard secured by a vassal of the main family.”

“Bastard?”

A face broken here and there, a gruesome appearance.

It’s too far gone to be called a proper living being. It’s the appearance of a chimera that would only appear in movies or novels.

He says hundreds of thousands of monsters are rampaging, but where did he get something like that? He didn’t go close to draw it, did he? That doesn’t make sense. Or does he have some kind of thief who used stealth magic?

If that’s the case, he should just use that technique to cut off the head of the leader or whatever.

“As you can see, it is a human body that has undergone mutation. In other words, it means he is a person. Whether he sold his soul to the devil, dabbled in black magic, or gained the ability to control the monsters of the plains through some event. Moreover…if a living being is hit by his technique, they will all mutate and blindly follow his words. It’s similar to a zombie.”

“A zombie…”

“How terrible…”

“Then what is the current damage?”

Pulpumir was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.

“100km north of the royal capital. Everything north of that is annihilated.”

“!!!”

“Everyone from ordinary farmers, lords, and knights has become his hands and feet and is moving. However, since it is different from zombies where completely dead corpses move, it may be possible to cure it like a disease.”

“Keung…”

Some nobles groaned.

“It’s fortunate if it’s fortunate…but it will be a bit cumbersome to deal with.”

Veronica mutters like that.

“Why?”

“Because we have to consider tens of thousands of enemies as ‘living people’ and deal with them. As long as there is a possibility of saving them, we cannot recklessly slaughter them.”

“Ah. I see.”

More conscientious than I thought. If it were the higher-ups in Korea, they would keep such facts a secret and drop napalm or something.

“It is difficult to accurately estimate this guy’s skill, but judging from the amount of mana surrounding his body, he is at best Expert Peak. If you and I here can face this in close proximity, it means the situation is practically over.”

“Then why didn’t you just go and take care of it while you were drawing the composite sketch.”

Pulpumir flinches and glares at me.

No, isn’t that right? If you’re drawing something like that, it means you went pretty close, right? Then if that Master bastard had done it in the first place, it seems like the situation would have been over already.

Anyway, I tried to keep my voice as small as possible out of courtesy, but he heard it.

“…It’s obvious that he saw it from afar with an artifact like a telescope. Do you think I’m crazy enough to go close and draw a picture?”

Ludmila retorts, perhaps because she was taken aback.

I see. There’s a telescope here too.

“Yueun-ssi, I have something to ask you.”

Suddenly, he flashed his eyes and held out the composite sketch towards me.

“Do you know the original form of this?”

“Original form? I don’t know.”

What’s with the sudden talk about the original form.

“I mean the form before it became this.”

“I don’t know at all. How would I know what’s in the north in the first place. I’ve only been in the south.”

At my words, people buzzed and gave me even worse looks.

Is it because of the informal speech again?

“You don’t know?”

Pulpumir also frowned and put the composite sketch on the desk.

And then he took something else out of his pocket…a round stone. Is it a jewel?

“I don’t know if you’ll say that after hearing this…”

With those words, Pulpumir moved his lips. Then,

-Yueuuuuuun!!!!!!!!!!! Yueun!!!! I’ll kill you!! I will kill youuuuu!!!!

-Yueun!!! Yueun!!

From that small stone, the sound of a huge number of crowds chanting my name burst out.

It’s really huge. I seriously wondered for a moment if my eardrums had burst.

The stone made a sound for about 10 seconds and then stopped.

Everyone is sending me an even more hostile gaze.

“You heard it, so you know. They are all shouting your name.”

“I don’t know. It must be a coincidence.”

More than that, he’s using informal speech because I used informal speech.

“You really don’t know?”

“Hey, I’ve only been in the south, how would I know a human in the north? I only found out about the monster plains or whatever a week ago.”

“Is that so? That’s strange. The south…come to think of it, he was in the Raizen territory.”

He nodded and took something else out.

Stop taking things out, are you Doraemon?

“This is a composite sketch drawn by retroactively calculating the progression of the body’s mutation.”

The new composite sketch that Pulpumir held out.

There was a fairly handsome man there.

“Lloyd?”

The victim of NTL who was chased to the north…

Ah…I think I know why…

So all of this situation is because of me and Lloyd?

“I see you know him.”

“Lloyd?! Wasn’t he the commander of the Knights of Raizen Territory?”

“He was said to be the lord’s fiancé…he was recently kicked out.”

“The lord fell in love with that woman…”

What’s with that information power…;;

How do you know all that?

“Lloyd adored Baron Raizen and was actually engaged to him, but everything was taken away from him when you came to the barony. Recently, he was even kicked out. If he harbors extreme anger and made a contract with the devil or used black magic to destroy the world, wouldn’t that be quite persuasive? And the fact that he’s calling your name.”

“Hmm.”

It’s too plausible. It’s definitely because of me.

“I guess so. It seems to be because of me. Sorry.”

“……”

I apologized, but everyone’s expression hardened.

“Haa….”

Yuna-ssi is sighing…hmm. But even if I caused it, Lloyd is the one doing this, right? Then he’s the bad guy, what else.

“What’s the point of saying that now. Let’s discuss that later, and let’s come up with a plan first. Is there a plan?”

In the uncomfortable silence, Ludmila spoke confidently.

As expected of a princess, she doesn’t shrink anywhere. This husband is happy…

“Yes. Of course.”

Pulpumir began to give a long explanation again.

Ah…another boring time….

.

.

The meeting lasted for a whopping 4 hours.

Actually, it wasn’t that Pulpumir was so talkative, but it was delayed because the humans called the 35 National Talents (Gukjae) were divided into two factions and fought.

One side is of the opinion that they should first deal with the people who follow Lloyd by using large-scale mana attacks and bombardment by wizards, and then put in high-ranking National Talents (Gukjae) in that gap to quickly take Lloyd’s head,

The other side is of the opinion that the damage to the people could be too great if they do that, so they should proceed by secretly dispatching a small number of masters to assassinate him.

Well, either way, the words themselves make sense, but honestly, I don’t think the latter makes sense.

It’s impossible unless it’s me or Yuna-ssi, but I don’t intend to do it, and it doesn’t seem like Yuna-ssi feels the need to go to such trouble.

But I’m a little uneasy about deploying the maids because I don’t know exactly what the situation is.

Wouldn’t it be better to just sweep them away…hehehe…

No, I’m not talking about sweeping them away to the level of dropping napalm, but just dealing with the things that are blocking the direction of progress. That can’t be helped, right?

“Let’s do this.”

Yuna-ssi, who was tired of the continued meeting, opened her mouth with a slightly tired face.

“I forgot because I didn’t have a chance to use it…but there’s a weapon called a bow, right? You were pretty good at shooting it.”

“Ah.”

“Well, if you’re only talking about damage, throwing stones is enough, but you don’t know if you’ll hit it accurately…I think a bow is the most appropriate.”

A bow might be okay…

“A bow? Can you shoot a bow?”

Veronica asks, as if surprised.

“Of course. I’m competent, even if I look like this.”

“No, I meant, can you put mana into the bow?”

“What are you talking about.”

“?”

I asked, but Veronica tilted her head instead.

“There are at least tens of thousands of mutants surrounding him…that means the distance to him is kilometers, even if you take it short. Are you going to snipe something that far away with a bow that doesn’t even contain mana?”

“Why. He might be at the very front.”

“That’sㅡ,”

Kugugung!!!

Huh? What?

Suddenly a huge vibration!

It’s a roar like hundreds of thunders are roaring.

“Is it an earthquake?”

“It’s too much to call it an earthquake…!”

Gugugugugugugugu!

“U-U-Uh. Wh-Wh-What’s h-h-happening.”

It’s an earthquake! A huge one at that!

“Kyaaaaaaack!!!”

“Evacuate!!”

The majestic building collapses.

“Is it an attack?!!”

“Where is it!! What the hell!!”

The 35 National Talents (Gukjae) who were resting for a while, and the maids and servants of the royal palace, were also flustered and moved around.

“Director!!”

Veronica protects the princess by embracing her.

Yuna-ssi and I just stood still.

After all, even if I get hit by a collapsing building, it won’t hurt at all…I’ll just think of it as getting a free massage.

“By the way, what is this really.”

“…Haven’t we experienced something like this before?”

“Experienced?”

Yuna-ssi suddenly said that.

Hmm…experienced…come to think of it, there was a similar situation.

“”Barkanah?””

The moment Yuna-ssi and I uttered the same word at the same time, something incredibly huge appeared above us with a boom! And the royal capital fell into darkness in its shadow.