novelraw Chapter 133
Chapter 133
Ch.133 It’s okay. I’ll find a way.
After the battle for the Imperial Capital had settled down somewhat, I was about to check the situation and head back when Scarlet’s group came looking for me.
“Master!”
“Huh…?”
Leah stepped forward as their representative. She exhaled a hot puff of breath right onto my face.
“No matter how I look at it, I really don’t like Mia being the only one staying safe in the rear!”
“Huh?”
Leah’s words caught me completely off guard. Scarlet and Cecilia nodded in agreement.
“All of a sudden?”
“It’s not sudden at all—it’s only natural! Why do we have to be stuck right in the middle of the battlefield while Mia just lazes around in the safe rear, only popping out occasionally to deal with the King of the Dead?”
“Well… that’s true.”
“Then we can take turns doing that role too, right? So please let us rotate and rest!”
Judging by how the other two nodded along with her, I had a feeling this wouldn’t be easy to brush off.
But that would slightly disrupt our current formation.
“Yes! Please let us take turns resting at your territory, Master!”
“Hmm…”
Their argument actually made a lot of sense.
Even with bodies and minds surpassing ordinary humans, fighting battles every single day would inevitably wear them down.
Rotating them weekly—taking one or two days off per person—didn’t sound like a bad idea.
If the King of the Dead himself showed up, we’d all join the fight, but if not…
Honestly, our side was a bit too relaxed anyway.
“Exactly! While we fight every day, Mia just lazes about! That’s so unfair, Priest Hans!”
Cecilia joined in, and Scarlet standing beside Leah and Cecilia seemed quietly hopeful as well.
“Wait a minute! I’m not just lazing around there!”
Mia protested, clearly uncomfortable with their accusations—but the three women just stared at her.
“Isn’t your territory far more comfortable than the battlefield, Master?”
“Right? Lady Mia, I never took you for someone so shameless!”
Leah and Cecilia scolded her. Scarlet just kept her eyes fixed silently on Mia.
Well… they weren’t entirely wrong.
I’d seen Mia lounging around the garden more than once.
“Hmm… Let’s stick with the current arrangement for now, and we’ll discuss it again in a few days.”
Since I didn’t know how Roy might act next, it was safer not to decide anything immediately.
“Okay!”
“Use Auros to relay messages.”
As I said that, Auros stepped forward.
“You want this old man to be your love-letter courier? Here—take these instead and handle it yourselves.”
He waved his hand through the air, and two notebooks appeared.
“These notebooks let you read whatever’s written in the other one. Just use them to exchange anything important.”
“Oh? That’s a fascinating artifact.”
Maybe it’s because he’s a dragon?
Both Icira and Auros casually handed out artifacts that would fetch a fortune among humans.
While Leah flipped through one of the notebooks, I asked Auros,
“But how do you know when someone’s written something, and how do you know which page it’s on?”
A brief silence fell.
Everyone looked at Auros, who then burst into a hearty chuckle.
“Oh! I completely forgot about that. Hand it back for a moment.”
Leah returned the notebook. Auros held one in each hand, and a faint blue glow emanated from them.
“There. I’ve enchanted them so that whenever something’s written, the book glows and automatically opens to the written page.”
With this, we could communicate calmly among ourselves.
“Then we’ll use these from now on.”
Glancing around, I saw our whole party had returned. I called out to Icira.
“Icira?”
She nodded knowingly and chanted,
“Teleport.”
***
An ordinary village.
As the sun began to set, villagers who had gone out to work in the fields started returning home one by one.
Children ran through the streets, called back by their mothers.
Following their mothers’ calls, the children all went inside.
“Mom! Did you hear about the Hero?”
A freckled boy with brown hair blurted out as soon as he entered the house.
“The Hero?”
“Yeah! She has a boyfriend! And apparently, the Saint, the Mage, and the Elf are all dating the same guy!”
His mother, Lia, shook her head, thinking it was nonsense.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Men and women are meant to be paired one-to-one.”
While some corrupt nobles might do otherwise, this age harshly condemned any defiance of divine order.
Thus, everyone maintained the appearance of perfect marital fidelity, even if they gossiped behind closed doors.
“But Arthur said so! His dad works for a trading company—so it must be true!”
Lia recalled a rumor from the marketplace a while back—similar to what her son, Chris, was saying—but quickly shook her head.
‘Why would those exalted ladies fight over one man? It’s obviously just a baseless rumor.’
“Stop spreading nonsense and go wash your hands.”
“Okay!”
As Chris ran off to wash up, a cheerful voice rang out.
“Honey, I’m home!”
Her beloved husband, Taylor, had finished his work in the fields and returned.
“You’re back!”
Taylor peeled off his sweat-soaked clothes.
“Yeah, I’ll freshen up.”
“Alright! Take your time.”
Relieved that her husband had returned safely, Lia smiled.
She hadn’t said it aloud, but she’d recently heard whispers of undead roaming the land—and that the King of the Dead sought to exterminate all living beings.
Of course, even in such times, farmers had to farm and merchants had to sell.
So Taylor had gone out to work as usual.
‘Thank goodness nothing happened today.’
She thought this as she stirred a large pot in the kitchen with a long ladle and prepared some white bread—
worried her husband might run into undead on his way home.
After all, their neighbor had recently been killed by a rotting beast in the woods.
She couldn’t help but worry.
Taylor was not just her loving husband, but also a childhood friend from this very village.
And here, men were the ones responsible for supporting their families.
If he died, Lia and Chris’s lives would collapse entirely.
“Thank you, God, for bringing Taylor home safely again today.”
Dinner was soon ready, and the whole family gathered at the table.
“Dad! Dad! Did you hear about the Hero?”
Chris chirped excitedly. Taylor chuckled.
“Oh? Got any interesting stories for me?”
“Yeah! The whole Hero Party is dating the same guy!”
“Huh? One guy?”
Taylor frowned, confused.
“Aren’t couples supposed to be one man and one woman?”
“No! I mean one guy is dating all of them!”
Taylor was stunned for a moment—then burst out laughing.
“Son! You can’t seriously believe that rumor! Why would those noble ladies all cling to one man like that?”
It was only natural.
That rumor sounded even less believable than claiming the Hero Party each had several boyfriends.
“But Dad! It’s true! Arthur’s dad told Arthur himself!”
“Haha, well, merchants are known for spreading rumors, aren’t they?”
At that, Lia subtly elbowed Taylor in the ribs.
“Why?”
“Don’t badmouth Arthur’s dad in front of the kids!”
Children imitated adult speech constantly—often repeating words and phrases among friends, causing no end of awkward situations.
“Ah, my bad! Alright then, let’s just eat.”
The family ate bread and shared stories from their day.
But their happiness wouldn’t last long.
—Ding! Ding!
A jarring bell pierced the night, stirring uneasy feelings.
“Huh?”
“What’s that?”
Taylor and Lia knew exactly what that bell meant.
Their faces turned pale.
It was the alarm for an attack.
When Chris was young, the Demon King’s army had once reached near the Imperial Capital and raided their village.
Other than that terrifying memory, they’d never heard this bell.
Taylor’s expression hardened.
“Honey, take Chris and run.”
‘Damn it… Is it the undead?’
Seeing Taylor’s grim face, Lia’s voice trembled.
“Dear…?”
“We’ll be fine. Undead aren’t that big a deal, right?”
Indeed, zombies, ghouls, and wild undead had recently appeared—but villages had easily repelled them using holy water distributed by the state.
But if the alarm bell was ringing, it meant the situation had already escalated far beyond that.
“Go… go now.”
As Taylor urged her, Lia dashed to the kitchen, grabbing enough food for a few days and a handful of gold coins. She was about to flee with Chris when—
“Aaahhh!”
“Help meee!”
“Moooom!”
Through the window, they saw the village in flames—hordes of the dead slaughtering villagers.
“M… Mom?”
Frozen in horror, the family stood paralyzed.
—CRASH!
A heavily armored infantryman smashed their door down with an axe.
His eyes, visible through his helmet, weren’t merely indifferent—they were utterly hollow.
“P… Please spare us! Have mercy!”
Taylor begged desperately to protect his family—but the soldier…
—CRUNCH!
Bursting through the broken door, he raised his axe high above the petrified family.
***
After assigning the defense of the Imperial Capital to Auros and Scarlet’s group,
I summoned the lich Edward—who had surrendered to our side—to my office.
“Ha ha! You called?”
Edward scratched his own skull with his fingers.
“Yeah. Nothing major, really…”
He was a lich, yes—but also a high-ranking mage.
If I wanted Scarlet’s group to rotate rest days, I’d need to make the most of our spare combat strength.
“I want you to occasionally go to the Imperial Capital and help with defense.”
“What?! You want me… to kill people?”
Click!
Edward’s jaw dropped clean off in shock.
“No, not people—just deal with the undead. We’re human, after all, and fatigue builds up.”
Edward picked up his jaw and snapped it back into place.
He scratched his skull thoughtfully.
“I suppose I could… But why not just command me outright?”
As my undead subordinate, he was bound to obey my orders—but…
“Ah, come on. You’ve got your own sense of self—I can’t just force you with a command.”
Edward lifted his head and fixed me with glowing red eyes.
…That was kind of creepy.
Tiny red lights flickered where his eyes once were, stark against his creamy-white bones.
It was genuinely unsettling.
Plus, those bones really were Edward’s own—according to lore, at least.
No matter how kind-hearted he was, his appearance was undeniably unnerving.
“Alright, fine. But won’t humans panic at the sight of me?”
“Hmm…”
His question was fair. I thought for a moment.
Icira or Auros would probably figure something out.
“It’s okay. I’ll find a way.”
Review at
NovelUpdate
One for All200[Get access to 20 premium chapters each for over 30 series.
Check out List at Membership page]Unlock next 20 premium chaptersValid for 30 daysPurchase