Chapter 145 : Chapter 145
Chapter 145. The Danger That Befell the Territory
Radel woke up from his dream.
“What was that?”
He sat up and pulled out the black key he kept against his chest.
The black key was quietly glowing in the darkness.
Maybe that was why a devil showed up in his dream.
……It really was a completely pointless dream.
A devil who kept insisting on making a contract even after being rejected.
And what exactly had Belphegor meant by what he said at the end?
Go and see. Danger has come to you.
Radel could not shake the uneasy feeling.
“What danger, my ass.”
A dream like that should have been easy to forget, but the devil’s final words lingered in his mind.
On top of that, the area outside the Lord’s Castle felt strangely noisy.
“KYAAAA!”
At that moment, a scream from one of the territory’s residents echoed from afar.
Radel jumped to his feet and rushed outside at once.
“Your Highness!”
Gusto, having sensed something as well, was already running out with his sword in hand.
“I have a bad feeling about this. Please do not leave my side.”
Gusto’s gaze turned toward the dark sky.
Radel could not feel anything himself, but it seemed that Gusto could.
The two ran toward the source of the disturbance.
Just as Gusto had sensed, something truly bad was happening in the territory.
KIAAAH!
Undead monsters of unknown origin were attacking the territory.
Skeletons, ghouls, and zombies were chasing the residents.
“Undead!”
“Run, quickly!”
The residents panicked at the sudden attack by undead monsters.
“Everyone, to the shelters!”
Chariot, the acting lord, appeared with several strong men.
They went from house to house, evacuating the residents to safe locations.
Fortunately, the Lizardmen had noticed first and were holding the undead monsters back.
KIEK!
Lando Chau, the leader of the Lizardman warriors, stood at the front and swung his sword.
If one feared undead monsters like these, one could not be called a true warrior.
“Warriors, raise your swords! Do not fear those who defy death!”
However, unlike ordinary monsters, undead monsters were not easily harmed by normal attacks.
The Lizardmen knew this and were even more tense.
CLANG!
“Damn it! Something that should take two slashes needs five!”
“Be careful not to get bitten!”
Gusto, who had arrived late, quickly made the sign of the cross and released Divine Power toward the Lizardmen.
“By the blessing of the Supreme Deity!”
Gusto possessed Divine Power far superior to that of an ordinary priest.
With a single blessing, he could spread Divine Power over a wide area.
SHAAA!
Thanks to Gusto’s blessing, the power of the Supreme Deity briefly imbued the Lizardmen’s swords.
KREEEK!
The Lizardmen did not miss the opportunity and struck down the undead monsters.
Radel also pulled out Holy Water and poured it over his sword.
“What is going on?”
At that moment, Inette came running from the other side.
“Where did all these things even come from?!”
As she ran, Inette tore off her gloves.
She did not have Divine Power, but she was prepared to set them on fire at least.
As Radel finished coating his sword with Holy Water, he spoke.
“I do not know yet. This is not a Dungeon, so can undead monsters really appear in such numbers?”
“This does not seem like a natural phenomenon. It is possible that someone deliberately summoned them.”
Gusto replied as he drew his sword.
If Gusto was right, that meant heretics might be hiding nearby.
For now, dealing with the undead monsters that had appeared came first.
WHOOSH!
Inette’s flames spread to the monsters, and Radel calmly struck, sending a skeleton’s skull flying.
CLANG!
Before he knew it, Armandy and Pirenzo had joined the fight as well.
“Earth!”
Armandy swung his staff, binding the zombies’ feet as he grumbled.
“Seriously, undead after Lizardmen? There is never a quiet day.”
“What?! Are you putting us on the same level as monsters?!”
The Lizardmen shouted in protest at Armandy’s remark.
That was when it happened.
“When did the honor of the proud Lizardman warriors fall so low?!”
A Lizardman shrouded in ominous energy appeared from the other side.
He was the chieftain of the Chau tribe, wearing a black robe.
His expression was dark, and he looked unwell, as if suffering from something.
“I sense intense demonic energy, Your Highness. Please stand behind me.”
Gusto stepped in front of Radel, surrounding himself with Divine Power.
Radel narrowed his eyes and stared at the Lizardman chieftain.
He had thought something was suspicious when they met before and he sprinkled Holy Water on him.
But to think he was actually a heretic.
Well, emitting demonic energy of that level would have been impossible without being a heretic.
Radel’s group was not the only one shocked.
The Lizardmen were also horrified by their chieftain’s changed appearance.
“Chieftain! What is the meaning of this?!”
“What do you mean? Can you not recognize this great power?”
The chieftain looked at the warriors who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
They had once been reliable comrades, but now they felt nothing like that.
Yes. They felt trivial.
The chieftain raised both hands and shouted.
“Listen well! You who betrayed the tribe!”
As he shouted, the ground split apart.
CRACK!
From the fissures in the earth, skeletons wrapped in purple demonic energy began crawling out.
KIEEK!
KEHEK!
Their wicked appearance was enough to leave even the Lizardmen shaken.
Had the chieftain always possessed such cursed power?
“If you return to me even now, I will accept you with generosity! Proud warriors of the Lizardmen!”
The chieftain shouted with his arms spread wide toward the Lizardmen.
“But if you betray me and disappoint my expectations, my hands will be stained with your blood!”
At those words, Lando Chau, the leader of the warriors, stepped forward.
They had merely lived as exemplary prisoners, so he could not understand the chieftain’s accusations.
“We have never betrayed you!”
“Do not make me laugh! You shared drinks with humans, and even dared to sit at the same table as them! If that is not betrayal, then what is?!”
Lando Chau shouted in frustration.
“We only shared drinks with human warriors! We hunted together, so we merely shared the prey!”
“Silence! Did you think I did not know that you begged humans for meat after abandoning your warrior’s pride?!”
Lando Chau was startled by the chieftain’s words, but he answered calmly.
“Then are you saying that you saw all that and still did not come to rescue us? We firmly believed the tribe would come for us!”
“Enough with your disgusting excuses! I have no obligation to save traitors like you!”
When the chieftain shouted, Lando Chau could only sigh at the complete lack of communication.
At that moment, Radel, who had been watching everything, casually raised his hand.
“If you are done talking, can we attack now?”
He had wanted to ask for a while, but he had waited, thinking the misunderstanding should be cleared up first.
The Lizardman chieftain’s gaze stabbed sharply toward Radel.
However, Radel did not care and asked again.
“Or should I wait a little longer?”
***
The chieftain of the Chau tribe was boiling with rage.
Seeing that human brat brought back memories of his past suffering.
He was the one who had dared to use poison in a sacred battle.
No herb had worked, and the pain had been unbearable.
‘If that black magician had not appeared and treated me, by now I would have…….’
Even the Lizardman’s secret techniques had failed, but when the black magician breathed energy into the wound, it healed as if it had been washed clean.
From that moment on, the chieftain came to trust the black magician completely.
‘With this power he lent me, this miserable human territory is nothing more than a bite-sized snack.’
The chieftain clenched the purple key hanging from his necklace.
An overwhelming power surged into him.
This, too, had been lent to him by the black magician.
‘Yes, this power! This endless power!’
The chieftain accepted the power flowing from the key.
The moment he was enveloped in it, courage surged forth.
It had been quite some time since he first met the black magician.
Back when he had been training with his sword to defeat the previous chieftain, the black magician had appeared before him.
He had offered him power and helped him defeat the former chieftain.
Thanks to that, he had been able to become chieftain.
However, because the former chieftain had died as a result, a corner of his heart had never been at ease.
That was why he had distanced himself from the black magician for a time.
But that had been a mistake.
If he had trusted the black magician earlier, he could have obtained great power much sooner.
Now, that was his only regret.
While the chieftain thought as such, Radel was busy persuading the Lizardmen.
“Come on, think about it. If your chieftain keeps summoning skeletons like this, what do you think will happen to our territory? Even now, the ground is splitting and being overturned. Skeletons keep bursting out of the ground.”
Radel sighed loudly so that all the Lizardmen could hear.
“Sigh, fixing all that is going to be a lot of work. ……It cannot be helped. You will have to suffer a bit more.”
“What?! You are saying we have to clean that up too?!”
“You were not planning to avoid it, were you? As fellow Lizardmen, I believe you share collective responsibility.”
The Lizardmen did not want even more work piled onto them.
“This is unfair! You are telling us to take responsibility for a chieftain who calls us traitors?!”
“That is right! We are the victims here!”
Faced with the Lizardmen’s fierce protests, Radel paused to think.
“This is a difficult issue……”
Seeing that spectacle, the chieftain was dumbfounded.
Who was calling whom a traitor?
Seeing how close they were with humans made his blood boil even more.
“Words will not suffice! Die here together with that insolent human!”
Now that he had obtained this power, he no longer needed the Lizardman warriors.
As the chieftain swung his arm shrouded in demonic energy, undead monsters were summoned endlessly.
KIEK!
KIIIK!
The Lizardmen quickly drew their swords and engaged the undead monsters.
“There is no place to retreat now! Warriors, fight to protect our pride!”
“WAAAH!”
Radel used the opening to approach the chieftain with Gusto.
As Gusto advanced, wrapped in Divine Power, the chieftain instinctively stepped back.
He did not even know why he had done so.
Ignoring Gusto for the moment, he drew his sword and charged at Radel.
“Die, human!”
However, that was not a good choice either.
The moment his sword clashed with Radel’s, he was blown back by the force erupting from Radel’s blade.
It was only natural, considering he had struck demonic energy against a sword consecrated with an archbishop’s Holy Water.
“URGH!”
The chieftain rolled across the ground with a look of disbelief.
Unfortunately for him, he had chosen the wrong opponents.
The combination of Gusto, one of the most talented apprentice holy knights, and Radel, who had conquered an undead dungeon alone, was far too much for a heretic who had only just begun to wield demonic energy.
Radel approached the chieftain together with Gusto.
“You were suspicious from the start. So you really were a heretic.”
“That is correct, Your Highness. It seems evil cannot hide itself.”
The chieftain retreated and shouted.
“I, I do not know anything about heretics! I just did what I was told!”
At that moment, three suspicious figures appeared out of nowhere before them.
They stepped forward and grabbed the chieftain’s heart.
“That would be inconvenient if you kept talking.”
It all happened in the blink of an eye.