1107: Running Amok

「Hah! As if that pig knows how to rule people. What a joke.」

The head soldier spoke to us about his dissatisfaction with the country.

It’s pretty clear that Raydoss is conducting brainwashing education, but apparently not everyone is obedient.

「Besides, there’s a certain group running amok in our country lately.」

「A certain group?」

「Yeah. They raid the mansions of nobles, take their food, and distribute it to the slums and such. They’re a nuisance, really, but also pretty interesting if you get the chance to talk to them… I hear they came from Kranzel.」

「Who are they?」

「A mercenary brigade consisting of half-insectkin. Oh, and they had some really strong elderly adventurer with them too.」

Wait, that’s…

（Neidhart and his friends?）

『Probably.』

It seems Neidhart and Dimitris were really going wild in Raydoss.

After hearing about the details, what they were doing was truly ridiculous.

They attacked greedy nobles and anyone connected to them, sometimes very aggressively. For example, they once raided a mansion head-on and knocked out all the guards. Another time, they ambushed a squadron performing a military exercise and stole all their supplies.

They also started something like a slave liberation movement, going as far as to kill nobles who refused to free their slaves.

Since their old comrades were forced into slavery, that’s probably the only way to free them unless their registered owners willingly give up ownership.

Neidhart and his friends were prepared to betray Kranzel to save their captured comrades, so of course they wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

Fran would do the same thing to save enslaved black cats.

As for Dimitris, who was apparently handing out food to the slums… No clue what his goal is. The old guy’s probably doing whatever he feels like.

However, Neidhart and Dimitris rarely took the lives of people who were only doing their jobs. It seems this captain guy fought them twice and lived to tell the tale.

「Both times I got knocked out before I knew it though.」

He claimed to be knocked unconscious by a mantis-man, so that’s obviously Neidhart.

Since the guy responsible for stealing food supplies was apparently an old man, Dimitris may be handling that part of the operation. Perhaps Dimitris and Neidhart split their forces, with one in charge of punishing evil nobles, and the other in charge of freeing slaves.

We tried to extract additional information about the South Conquest Duke’s plans, but they didn’t have much detailed intel. These guys were truly treated as nothing more than pawns.

All we managed to get was a glimpse into the lives of Raydoss citizens. They weren’t even aware of the undead horde attacking Alessa.

However, it seems the South Conquest Duke has been applying undead to various fields in his territory lately, and training many necromancers. They apparently had at least two people capable of summoning thousands of undead at the same time.

「The first is a man from a unit called the Black Skeleton Corps. I’ve heard that their first seat, a sorcerer called Nameless, is quite skilled.」

Even in Raydoss, it seems no one knows the Black Skeleton Corps was comprised entirely of undead. Nameless was believed to be a human necromancer.

「And the other one?」

「I haven’t heard his name recently, but the sorcerer called Onslaught is also incredibly famous. Not only does he have a rare talent in necromancy, but also the other schools of magic. Guess it’s only natural he’d rise to fame.」

「What’s he doing now?」

「No clue, he hasn’t appeared in public for a year… There are a lot of dark rumors about him though, like how someone murdered him for vengeance, or how the state hired him to do some dirty jobs. All kinds of things.」

「What other things?」

「I’ve heard rumors that he goes around slaughtering people to raise them as undead, or that he worships the Evil God. Oh, and also that he’s secretly a monster wearing human skin.」

In short, it seems this Onslaught guy was such an awful person that everyone trash talked him.

『Let’s transport these guys back to Alessa for now.』

「Nn. Listen up, I’m dragging you all into town. You better not resist if you don’t want to get hurt.」

Fran, you’re making us look like the bad guys!

Afterwards we retrieved the scouts and tied up all the earth mages. Of course, everyone’s limbs were properly reattached.

We transported everyone to Alessa in a single trip on the max-sized Urushi’s back. There were some screams, but Fran ignored those. I guess hearing a little about Raydoss’s inner workings was not enough to erase her enmity against those from Raydoss.

Still, she ensured that no one fell off. Perhaps she didn’t hate these soldiers quite as much as the rest.

I realized something strange on the way back.

Where did the undead horde attacking Alessa come from? I highly doubt they gathered a bunch of necromancers to summon them, due to the difficulty of sneaking past the border.

Was a single high-level necromancer responsible for everything? That doesn’t make sense either. The horde of undead was clearly not strong enough to take over the town by itself, so why would they bother with such a futile attempt?

Perhaps their only intention was to force Kranzel to withdraw from the border, but that sounds like a pretty inefficient plan to me.

It’s not like the undead were cooperating with the mages we caught either. I just can’t comprehend what they were trying to do.

As I was wondering about all of this, Alessa came into view. There were no signs of additional undead, so it seems the city regained most of its peace and quiet.

But right when I thought everything was over…

BANG!

A pillar of light extended to the sky from the center of the noble district, along with a powerful explosion. The shockwave blew away the surrounding mansions.