Now I'm a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon: Volume 3 E-Book

Ryuyu

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Serie: Now I'm a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Reborn as a demon lord in another world, Yuki’s story continues! He succeeds in entering the royal capital to hunt down the crown prince, who’s determined to threaten the sanctity of his peaceful dungeon life. What he finds there, however, is a darkly transformed city overrun with Undead. Deciding to go ahead of the hero Nell and company, he infiltrates the royal castle, where he stumbles into a misunderstanding with the castle’s maids while also somehow managing to rescue the captive king. Then, after finding his princely target, Yuki launches his attack! The prince’s behavior and the disturbing atmosphere blanketing the area strike him as odd, though. His suspicions aroused, he uses Analysis to figure out what’s going on, and a shocking truth comes to light!

Leseprobe

Prologue: Invader

Yuki here. I’m the guy who was reborn as a demon lord in another world. I couldn’t tell you how, exactly, but one way or another, I’d managed to trick Nell, the hero who’d initially come to attack my dungeon, into becoming an ally. She’d told me everything she knew about the son of a bitch who’d been messing with my life by sending those soldiers and her, and then I’d set out for the royal capital where he was supposed to be. I’d run into a slight issue, though.

“Mr. Yuki! You could stand to treat me a little more carefully, you know!”

Right now, that hero was pissed at me.

“L-Look, that’s my bad, okay? B-But it’s not like I didn’t give you a heads-up before I flew off.”

“‘Keep your voice down or we’ll get found out,’ was it?! Should I have been able to read your mind from just that?!”

All right, all right, I’m sorry. You got me. It was one hundred percent a premeditated crime on my part. With Stealth active, I’d busted out my wings and blasted off into the sky, the plan being to invade the royal capital by air. The superfast takeoff and equally sudden landing had apparently scared the living crap out of her. Forgive me, will ya?

“L-Let’s talk about this later, okay? I-I think the guards are after us.”

The hero had gotten all up in my face, which had me bending way back to avoid her wrath. I wanted out of this sticky situation, hence the pointing behind her and telling her about the incoming guards. They’d definitely heard her screaming while we’d been airborne. Meanwhile, I’d been scoping out the city from above to add info to my Maps feature. Good thing I had, because now, it was going nuts with the hostile presence warnings. I could even hear the clanking of their armor as they made their way toward us.

Speaking of Maps, this new feature was something I’d activated a while ago. As long as I inspected a new location to fill in its data, Maps would show me enemies’ exact locations even outside the dungeon’s territory. I’d learned another thing about Maps recently too. It got geographical data and showed enemy locations by analyzing the mana that existed all around us. It was kinda like how dolphins and bats use echolocation, or how fishing boats and warships have sonar devices to detect anything in the water around them.

The feature was a Dungeon Points purchase, and I had a good idea of why Maps operated the way it did. So, my body was pretty sensitive to mana, and that was what the function relied on to work. It felt like it was legit modifying that part of me every time I used it too. Outside of the whole “demon lord instead of human” thing, I was basically a cyborg now. Maybe I needed to start wearing a black helmet with a really loud breathing apparatus.

“Tch. Whatever. This way, Mr. Yuki. Follow me.”

Um, Mr. Yuki thinks it’s unladylike for girls to click their tongues.

Nell headed off, practically jogging away from me. I rubbed my chest and sighed a little, then hurried after her.

Chapter 1: Inside the Royal Capital

Our feet clacked as we walked down the stone path, the sounds echoing before getting absorbed into the atmosphere and disappearing. I couldn’t hear any other sounds or see a single other person.

“It’s so quiet...”

I mumbled that while keeping a close eye on my surroundings. It wasn’t that late, but the path we were on and everything around us was deathly silent. Compared to that border town Lefi and I had visited as tourists—Alfiro, I think its name was?—this city was a whole lot bigger. But the lack of life and energy made it feel lonely, like some sort of ghost town.

“Not too long ago, these streets were bustling with activity... Now, though, I suspect that everyone is hiding in their houses, afraid of the dangers wrought by the recent troubles here in the capital.”

“Yeah, that tracks. This is literally a matter of life and death for them.”

I might’ve been biased since I hadn’t actually seen it happen, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if citizens had been arrested for bullshit reasons or even abandoned to fend for themselves. I mean, all of that was just how martial law worked, y’know? I’d been a big history buff in my previous life, so I knew what I was talking about.

Plus, I had another hint: an insane number of red dots on Maps. There was no way they were all soldiers, so I had to wonder who the people behind them really were. On top of that, I had sensed that something was off the minute we’d infiltrated the royal capital. Last but sure as hell not least was the strong rotting—no, decaying smell. Put it all together and there was only one thing those red dots could be.

“I’d been informed about the state of the capital, but I wasn’t prepared for how much worse it actually is in person. Oh, Mr. Yuki, I just realized. Why are you wearing that?”

“What? This mask is a disguise, duh. I am a demon lord, after all. As far as I’m concerned, the Church is still a hostile power, so I don’t want anyone to see my face, much less remember it.”

The white mask I was wearing looked a lot like a clown. Its eyes were thin lines, with a star underneath the left one and a teardrop below the right. The mouth was curled into a huge grin. When I’d been browsing the DP Catalog looking for tools to disguise myself, I had wanted this mask the moment I’d seen it, so I’d bought it immediately and tossed it into Inventory. To be honest, though, I really couldn’t see much through it. At this point, I was essentially forcing myself to keep it on. Disguise was key here, after all, so it was whatever.

Okay, yeah, that was a lie. I was still wearing it because the design was too cool not to. It was just that cool. Yes, I did need to say that twice. The aesthetic was just that important.

“I don’t think there’s any point in hiding your face. You’re sure this is going to be okay, though? It’ll be a big problem for me if they find out I brought a demon lord here...”

“We’ll be fine, so quit worrying.”

“One last thing. If they deny you entry, I want you to accept that, all right? You can’t force your way in.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Just relax and let me work my magic.”

In that case, I’ll just have to make my move when the time comes. Not that it mattered too much either way. Even if they let me just walk in, I still planned on doing my own thing; there was no need for me to join the Church’s side for real. All I wanted to do was overthrow the prince and have the Church take credit for it. I didn’t care about anything else.

If you’re thinking that that meant there was no real reason for me to have come all this way, you’re wrong. I did have a reason, and that reason was information. I wanted it, and I wanted it bad. You could call that my true motive for coming here. Oh well, there was no point obsessing over all that now. I’d figure out the details after I saw how the Church ran its ship, so to speak.

“That doesn’t reassure me in the slightest... Hey, Mr. Yuki.”

“What’s up? Is my mask so cool that you’ve fallen madly in love with me?”

“Ugh, as if! Look, will you?”

The hero was getting pretty snippy. I guess she was comfortable enough with me now that she didn’t feel like she had to hold back anymore.

“Right. That. Already knew about it.”

She slowly unsheathed her holy sword, a grim look on her face. I turned toward what she was looking at—a corpse. It’d found out we were here and appeared out of the dark alleyway, swaying bonelessly like the dead creature it was. One look at its face made it plenty clear that its life force was long gone. Not to mention that it didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about its guts hanging out of its torso or it missing an arm and a leg. Absolutely disgusting. I could feel my sanity level dropping just from looking at this monstrosity. Yes indeed, it was a zombie, aka an Undead.

Remember what I’d mentioned earlier about the awful stench? My secret guess had been that these guys were the source, and boy was I spot-on. Looked like the same kind of uproar that had gone down in Alfiro was happening here too. I know I’d said this place felt like a ghost town, but wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t have picked a better description, what with all these ghostly freaks crawling around. Well, undead freaks, if you wanna get technical. You know what I meant.

Jeepers creepers, for shit that looked like it was straight out of a B-grade horror movie, being on the receiving end still sucked hard. I’d said it before and I’d say it again, I could not handle gore for the life of me. And no chance it was just me either. Being chased by a corpse with its organs swinging around all over the place would make anyone’s stomach churn. Guaran-freaking-teed.

“There’s more? We don’t have time to waste on fighting them, though. Mr. Yuki, we’re taking a detour.”

“Roger that.”

I followed Nell down a narrow lane in the royal capital.

“Yo, Nell, walking dead that way.”

“Oh, you’re right. Let’s head down this road, then.”

Once I’d told her about Maps’s enemy alert, we made our way around the Undead obstacles.

“You’re amazing, Mr. Yuki. You can tell where they are without even seeing them.”

“Gotta make sure I don’t slack off, na mean? But seriously, there’s so goddamn many. Why the hell aren’t the troops taking ’em out?”

This was our fourth run-in with the Undead and counting. We’d managed to get this far without having to kick any asses, but cripes, their numbers were insane. I wasn’t sure how long we could keep this up.

“Hmm... If I had to guess, I’d say that either the chain of command has been disrupted, or they have explicit orders not to interfere.”

“You really think they’d have orders like that? But that’d mean the higher-ups are just letting all these monsters run wild. In the royal freaking capital, of all places. Why would they do that? And how would that even be possible?”

“Normally, it wouldn’t be, which is why I can’t bring myself to believe it either. Except...nothing is normal right now. Even though the Undead have flooded the streets, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the garrison fighting them off. If anything, what’s strange is the fact that security is so stringent on the city’s outer walls. It’s almost as if they’re keeping things in rather than out.”

She explained all that with a bleak expression.

“Gotcha. Considering what you just said, there’s a good chance that these uggos are being left alone on purpose. Oh, hey, Miss Hero. Eyes forward, yeah?”

“Huh? Oh my gosh! U-Undead Away!”

When an Undead suddenly appeared in front of her, Nell instinctively thrust her hands out in front of her and chanted her spell. The minute she did, a powerful beam of light shot out from her palms, and the Undead dropped straight to the floor.

“Was that...holy magic?”

I remembered seeing that as one of Nell’s abilities.

“Phew, what an unpleasant surprise... Yup, they teach us at the Church. I abbreviate the chant, though.”

“Does doing that change anything?”

“Yes, it makes the spell much less powerful. Ah, since this is holy magic, it might actually work really well against wicked demon lords like you, Mr. Yuki.”

“Oh nooo, I’m quaking in my boots. I’ll have to be on my best behavior or else!”

While I replied to her, I grabbed a zombie that had gotten too close for comfort by the head and smashed it against a wall. I could multitask with the best of ’em, thank you very much.

Unable to withstand a demon lord’s overwhelming strength, the Undead’s skull exploded like a pomegranate. Then, I poured a colossal amount of magic through my palm and into the corpse. Its entire body convulsed violently before it finally stopped moving.

Oh, son of a— My fingers were covered in bits of flesh, and I sure did hate the nasty, squishy sensation. I hadn’t bothered taking out my beloved Zaien from Inventory because I couldn’t swing it around too easily in this narrow alleyway. If I’d known I was gonna have to deal with this horror show, though, I would’ve at least had a short sword or dagger on hand. This blows. I hate myself.

“O raving abomination, I bid thee return to your final resting place. Undead Away!”

I grimaced in disgust as I wiped my hand clean. At the same time, Nell chanted her spell. She chanted the whole thing this time around, so it was a hell of a lot more efficient, clearing out the Undead ahead of us and securing a way forward. Note to self: as long as she wasn’t taken by surprise like earlier, she could actually get shit done. Seemed like a good thing to know.

“You... Even though you’re such a scaredy-cat, you’re actually okay when it comes to dealing with zom—no, the Undead, huh?”

“Sh-Shut up. Besides, I can cut the Undead. I can’t say the same for ghosts, so that’s why.”

“Wait, what? That’s your baseline for not being afraid of stuff?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m alone in that. If a sword doesn’t cut through something, that means it can’t be attacked. Although, pure magic is a viable and effective weapon against non-corporeal monsters...”

Do people in this world really think like that when it comes to what’s scary and what isn’t?

“But don’t people like you have a responsibility to exorcize wandering souls?”

Nell was, for all intents and purposes, a part of the clergy. If she got scared stiff every time she saw a ghost like she had when she’d first shown up at my place, there was no way she’d be able to do her job properly. I guess it didn’t matter, though, since I didn’t actually know if wandering souls even existed. My wraith sisters didn’t count because they were just ordinary monsters.

“My main role is as a preserver of the peace, so you could say phantom extermination doesn’t really fall within my duties.”

“Is that right, Miss Hero? If that’s God’s honest truth, then I want you to look me dead in the eyes when you say it.”

The hero stubbornly refused to look at me.

After that, we’d done our best to avoid fighting, but after deciding that we couldn’t do it anymore, we’d eliminated the Undead as quickly as possible. A short while later, we’d managed to make progress on our journey to the Church.

“We’re here, Mr. Yuki.”

The hero stopped in front of a building that, at first glance, looked like a run-down shack. It sat in a back alley, in the middle of a row of other buildings. She didn’t bat an eye as she walked up to the worn-out door and knocked on it in a rhythmic pattern. Immediately, a man’s muffled voice responded from the other side.

“To the end...”

“...we weave our way.”

Slightly above the doorknob, a shutter slid open and a slot appeared. An arm reached out of it.

“Your sigil.”

Nell pulled out the seal she’d used before from inside her armor and handed it over. The man behind the door left us stewing for a few seconds before he spoke again, the confirmation procedure apparently complete.

“Thank you for your patience, exalted hero. I am glad to see that you have safely returned. I realize you must be tired from your travels, but I must request you wait while I call for someone who can verify your identity visually. This is standard protocol, so I appreciate your understanding.”

When he finished talking, I sensed him walking away. I couldn’t help an astonished murmur from leaking out after seeing their exchange.

“So, hey, that was unbelievably badass. It was like some secret organization shit or something.”

“Mr. Yuki, I’d appreciate it if you kept thoughts like that to yourself moving forward.”

Apologies, ma’am. Won’t happen again.

“Nell!”

At that moment, the door slammed open so hard I thought it would break, and a woman came flying through it.

“Ah! Miss Carlotta!”

The woman used her momentum to crush the hero into a tight hug, which Nell returned by wrapping her arms around the woman’s waist. She looked intelligent and had a nice figure, so needless to say she was drop-dead gorgeous, but I also got the impression that she was a strong-willed, never-back-down kind of woman. She was wearing light armor designed just like the hero’s, which pretty much screamed that she was associated with the Church. I saw a sword strapped to her hip too, so all signs pointed to her being another holy knight.

“I was worried about you, especially during that brief period when we didn’t know your whereabouts. And after the capital went on high alert, security tightened considerably. Most of our communication methods with the outside world were severed as a result. You did well to find your way back inside.”

The lady knight spoke to the hero with affection in her eyes. It made her seem like a normal woman who was talking to her little sister.

“I’m sorry. I failed to follow through with my directive.”

“Don’t worry. It was a reckless order to begin with, one forced upon us by the higher-ups. What matters most to me is that you’re safe, Nell.”

Her directive? Ohhh, her mission to take me out. I really, really wanted to tell this woman about how her precious hero had bawled her eyes out because of the wraith sisters’ pranks, then relaxed in my hot spring before going on her merry way.

“Um, so, I’d like to introduce you to someone, Miss Carlotta.”

“To this man?”

At Nell’s urging, the lady knight finally noticed that I was here too. She untangled her arms from around the hero and stared me down without so much as a hint of the warmth that had just been on her face. Instead, she looked super on guard.

Okay, so, a stupid thought crossed my mind. Whenever the topic of lady knights came up, I’d been conditioned to think of the clichéd “Gah! Just kill me!” thing they’d say in, uh, certain risqué games and other stuff like that on Earth. Had my degenerate mind permanently ruined the phrase “lady knight” for me? Yeah, probably.

“He... He’s my s-servant. Fate brought us together some time ago and we’ve kept each other company ever since. He’s very trustworthy and capable, so I thought he’d be useful in this situation, hence I brought him along with me...”

“Hello. I’m her servant, Wye.”

I turned to the lady knight and raised a hand in greeting.

“Are you sure we can trust him? He’s wearing quite the strange mask.”

“Th-That’s true, but I swear he’s not a bad person.”

If you have a problem with my ultra-cool mask, management would sure love to hear about it.

“Well, if he’s in your employ, Nell, I’ll take your word for it. Frankly, we’re extremely busy right now, so extra hands would be a godsend. We welcome his skills should they truly be up to snuff. Come, let’s go inside before we’re assailed by the Undead.”

The light-armored lady knight—the woman Nell called Carlotta—invited us in with an unexpectedly gentle attitude. The caution in her eyes was more or less gone now. Wait, this might actually work? Way to go, hero. Couldn’t have pulled it off without her unwavering faith in you.

Just like that, we walked quickly through the entrance. First, the lady knight, followed by Nell, and me bringing up the rear.

“What the...?”

Something felt off. The instant I passed through the beat-up door, a weird sensation rushed all the way through my body. I didn’t know what it was, but it definitely didn’t feel good. And even though it only lasted for a second, there was no question that it had happened. What did I just feel?

“So you noticed. You truly are quite powerful.”

The lady knight watched me with a somewhat surprised expression.

“What was that?”

“You don’t have to be so guarded. You must understand that we wouldn’t just blindly allow a stranger into our sanctuary regardless of Nell vouching for you. That you were able to pass through that door means you hold no ill will toward us. Now, let’s see... Hmm, you are indeed human. That mask of yours doesn’t seem to be a magical tool either.”

A man had made his way over to us from deeper inside and handed her a piece of parchment, which she’d been reading while muttering to us and then to herself.

“Huh?”

The hero unconsciously turned toward Carlotta. I gave her a look that told her to shut the hell up, then shrugged.

“Of course. That’s perfectly natural. I’m just here to support Ne—my lady hero in whatever way she needs.”

“Well, I beg your pardon, then.”

With that, the lady knight’s face genuinely relaxed. For now, it looked like she’d acknowledged that I wasn’t an enemy. I’d take that W. That said, for as much as I was calm, cool, and collected on the surface, my heart was pounding like a drum. Warning! Danger! This woman’s scary as fuck! She had acted like she was warming up to me when in reality she’d been testing me!

Hoo boy, let me tell ya, I was glad I’d asked Nell ahead of time about any magical equipment that could reveal a person’s stats. If I hadn’t, I would’ve struck out just now. Y’see, there was a reason they’d determined that I was a human, and no, it wasn’t because I’d been magically reborn—again—as a human. It was all thanks to a new ability I’d acquired, Camouflage.

This ability let me tinker with my stats just like Lefi had done with hers. In other words, I could show what I wanted people to see and hide what I didn’t. Before arriving here, I’d made sure to alter my stats. This was what mine should’ve looked like to them:

Name: Wye

Race: Human

Class: Thief

Level: 35

HP: 1,603 / 1,603

MP: 1,167 / 1,167

Strength: 411

Stamina: 443

Agility: 682

Magic: 451

Dexterity: 638

Luck: 72

Abilities: Unarmed Combat 3, Stealth 4, Scout 3, Swordsmanship 1, Water Magic 3

Title: The Adjudicator

My fake name, “Wye,” came directly from the first letter of my real name, “Yuki.” It was literally just the letter Y with the pronunciation written out. Not even my dumb ass could forget something that simple. I’d set most of my stats about two levels below Nell’s, and the “thief” class was something I’d come up with on a whim. For no reason in particular, I’d only left Agility and Dexterity with unusually high values.

I’d also left just the abilities that would make sense with this persona visible. I’d learned that if an ability level was 5 or above, it meant that the user was an expert in that field, so I’d kept all my ability levels low too. As far as water magic went, I sure as hell couldn’t have listed “elemental magic” since it was extremely rare, but listing something was gonna make things easier for me if I ever needed to use magic. Besides, outside of a little bit of earth magic here and there, I almost exclusively used water magic.

Lastly, my title. My new stats had felt kinda empty without one, and I’d figured this one wouldn’t create any problems for me, so I’d left it. Although I didn’t know how far into my stats they’d actually looked, I figured these numbers were good enough to validate me as someone strong even among humans.

By the way, here were my real stats:

Name: Yuki

Race: Demon Lord

Class: Demon Lord of Judgment

Level: 43

HP: 3,101 / 3,101

MP: 10,442 / 10,442

Strength: 911

Stamina: 926

Agility: 818

Magic: 1,161

Dexterity: 1,423

Luck: 73

Ability Points: 0

Special Abilities: Demon Eyes, Polyglot, Flight

Abilities: Inventory, Analysis 8, Unarmed Combat 4, Elemental Magic 5, Stealth 5, Scout 5, Swordsmanship 3, Weapon Enhancement 4, Sorcerer’s Grant 4, Traps 1, Greatswordsmanship 2, Camouflage 2, Danger Detection 1

Title: The Demon Lord from Another World, The Supreme Dragon’s Owner, The Adjudicator, Enemy of Humanity

Dungeon Points (DP): 104,356

My level had gone up a bit, and my ability levels had improved across the board too. Even Swordsmanship had gone up a level, and that had always been a pain in the ass to increase. Woo-hoo. My new abilities were Greatswordsmanship; Camouflage, which I’d bought specifically for this mission; and Danger Detection. I’d used DP for that one too because I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have it just in case.

Greatswordsmanship was exactly like it sounded. The damn thing showed up and went up naturally thanks to my vigorous and enthusiastic use of my greatswords. Camouflage, though, not so much. I’d dumped all my Ability Points into that one to raise it a level.

Circling back to Camouflage, it worked kinda like Analysis in that it was more effective the higher its level was—which wasn’t exactly reassuring since mine was still pretty low. With me just trying to trick some humans, though, I figured it’d work out one way or another. It helped that my current stats were higher than Nell the hero’s. Still, if I did get found out then yeah, I’d wave the white flag. No other choice in that situation.

“Wye, hm? Under these circumstances, I won’t inquire about who or what you are. I have no concerns since you bear us no ill will. So, taking your considerable talents into account, can we rely on your aid?”

“That was my original intent in coming here, you know?”

“You have our thanks. We are undoubtedly in need of more people. Now, then. This time, we will adjourn inside.”

Carlotta walked farther into the run-down building.

“Mr. Yuki, what did you do?”

The hero whispered to me while we followed behind her.

“I messed around with my stats. That’s why I told you to trust me.”

“Got it. Honestly, I was incredibly worried, but I’m relieved to hear that.”

You and me both, sister. Almost gave myself a heart attack, dontcha know? That woman had seriously tried to figure me out by pretending to trust me. Sneaky, sneaky.

“This way. The path is rough, so take care to watch where you step.”

As we made our way through the plain, shabby house, Carlotta came to an abrupt halt in front of a wall.

“We take the road to our savior.”

When she recited those words, a door emerged in the wall with a rumble.

“Wooow...”

Incredible. It’s a deadass secret door! I’d always wanted to walk through one. I could see a path beyond the door leading underground. The walls were lined with roughly constructed torches, which faintly illuminated the plain passage.

“Shall we go?”

The lady knight started walking again. I followed behind her, sorta kinda internally hyped.

◇ ◇ ◇

Secret passageways gonna secret passageway, I guess, ’cause there were twists and turns galore in here. If anyone managed to find their way into this underground path all by their lonesome, they definitely would have ended up completely lost. As the three of us trekked our way through the place, the hero spoke suddenly.

“Miss Carlotta, may I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“The Undead in the capital... When did they first appear? What’s the situation now?”

The lady knight responded to the questions with a frown.

“Hmm... I need to make it clear that we still don’t know the full extent of what’s going on, but we received our first report of a sighting two weeks ago. It came not too long before His Highness staged his insurrection.”

“Kh... So His Highness really is responsible for their appearance...”

“Right. We don’t know the exact methods he utilized, but we believe there’s a strong likelihood that he’s the culprit. You must have seen what condition the town was in, yes? It’s like that because the garrison has made no move to eliminate any of the Undead.”

“Yes, which is why Mr.—no, um, this man and I had discussed how strange it was.”

“‘Mister’?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s me.”

I butted in on their conversation as the lady knight looked at us dubiously.

“Truly? I’ll leave it at that, then. Regarding the topic at hand, to sum up the state of things, these circumstances seem quite convenient for those who are essentially in control of this city at present. They’re apparently unconcerned about the ongoing damage and all the other goings-on.”

Huh, so she’s thinking the same thing Nell is. This whole Undead thing was definitely the enemy’s doing, but the more I thought about everything that was going down, the weirder it felt. Things weren’t adding up. You started a rebellion to try to take over the country, right? Then why the hell would you send out hordes of Undead to purposely infect the people you’re trying to rule?

I guess using them was one means to gain control, but there’d be all sorts of problems once the dust settled. Did they really think that the citizens would just happily let people who were willing and able to let the walking dead run rampant lead them? Was the faction supporting the prince honestly okay with all this? Or was this a choice the prince had made without consulting anyone? Whatever the real reasons were, whoever was behind this was being real optimistic if they thought these tactics were the way to go about subjugating a country. In fact, I’d say it was a freaking pipe dream.

Getting back to the real, direct issue of Undead strolling around everywhere, it amazed me that they’d been left to their own devices for, according to Carlotta, two weeks now. With them out in the open for such a long time, there had to be a serious risk of the contagion spreading.

While Nell and I had been walking through the city, there had been a strong rotting stench coming from every direction imaginable. Saying that it had assaulted our noses was practically an understatement. In this world, where the strange, unknown beast called magic could be found in literally everything, it was hard to be completely sure of anything. But even so, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that a hugely contagious outbreak in this relatively civilized society would result in a massive number of deaths? Knowing what I did of the Black Death from the Middle Ages on Earth, that seemed like a pretty fair guess.

I couldn’t figure out the enemy’s true, full plan, but it all still felt weird to me. What was going through his mind? Was he really just planning to drag everyone and everything down with him as he self-destructed?

“During the initial outbreak, we tried to do as much as we could to handle the situation, but their numbers proved unmanageable. Which brings us to now. We’ve sent out several investigative units to ascertain the cause of the Undead epidemic, but we still have no leads as of yet...”

The lady knight seemed kinda peeved.

“Mr. Yuki, when we were still in the city, you knew the Undead’s locations without seeing them. Were you able to glean anything from that?”

At Nell’s sneakily whispered question, I shook my head.

“Unfortunately, my Scout ability isn’t all-powerful like that. So right now, I can’t tell you jack.”

I might have been able to find some clues if I could survey the royal capital carefully and thoroughly from the sky. Too bad that wasn’t really an option right now.

“But I hear ya. Tomorrow, I’ll try to find a way to check things out. Don’t expect a whole lot, though.”

If a reconnaissance team formed by a legitimate organization couldn’t figure out the cause of the Undead problem, then I was for sure gonna have a bitch of a time with it.

“Please and thank you.”

While the lady knight gave us the skinny, we kept moving through the maze. Eventually, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel—there was what I assumed was an exit like thirty meters ahead of us. Following behind our guide, the hero and I headed toward that light.

Walking through the opening led us to an enormous underground cathedral.

Several gorgeous pillars stretched way up toward the ceiling. The ceiling itself was completely painted over, with the painting depicting some sort of myth, and had a bunch of magnificent chandeliers hanging from it, lighting up the place. Placed on the geometric-patterned floor were wooden pews, all of them facing a wall inlaid with stained glass windows that illustrated a story. There was a pale light coming from behind them, so seeing as we were underground, my guess was that it was coming from a magical tool.

Beneath the stained glass windows was an elaborate statue of someone who was probably a goddess. She had quite the scowl going, and was flanked by angelic figures—presumably guards. Just looking at them made me want to stand up extra straight.

“Wooow...”

That sound of astonishment just kinda slipped out. We seemed to be on the second floor since I could see stairs further ahead that led down. Apparently, the path we’d just taken wasn’t the only one that connected here. I could see a few more of them on the opposite side of where we were.

Seated on the pews on the first floor were troops on standby. From the design of their armor, I’d put my money on them being holy knights just like Nell and Carlotta. Hold up, though. There were a few wearing different equipment. So even though they’re not affiliated with the Church, they’re here as allies of the anti-prince legion?

“This place is incredible, isn’t it? I was surprised too the first time I came here.”

“For sure.”

Even a hardcore atheist like me could feel an inexplicable sense of sacredness in the air here. No way, no how would this place suffer the truly wicked. Well, except that I’d snuck my demon lord ass inside, so that was a fun little hitch.

“We make use of this place to hold meetings in secret because the Church has always been under surveillance. The public-facing building is being watched even now, which means a location like this is particularly vital to us.”

“You sure I should be here, then?”

“Yes. Not only am I certain that you have no nefarious motives toward us, but Nell also brought you along, and that matters. She still has a lot to learn about the world, but there’s no denying her intuition about others. There’s no problem.”

“S-Stop that, Miss Carlotta.”

The lady knight rubbed the hero’s head aggressively. For someone who was saying to stop, Nell sure was smiling pretty bright as she looked up at Carlotta. Seeing them like this, I knew Nell thought of Carlotta as an older sister. It was nice that they were so close.

“In any case, you two have excellent timing. I was just about to gather the troops and hold a strategy meeting. I haven’t decided on the roles you’ll both play when we establish a battle plan just yet, so in the meantime, I ask that you listen in on our discussion.”

With that comment, the lady knight headed toward the stairs leading down. We followed her lead, and once the three of us reached the first floor, the hero and I popped a squat on an empty pew. Carlotta didn’t sit down with us, though. She kept going down the center of the aisle, straight toward the pulpit in the front of the room. After walking behind it and turning to face everyone, she spoke, her voice filling the room.

“My fellows! I am Carlotta Demeyere, knight commander of the Holy Order of Faldienne. With your permission, I’ll be acting as supreme commander of our upcoming military operation!”

Everyone in the cathedral shut up real fast when she started talking.

“Knight commander, eh? Sounds important.”

“Yup. She’s a remarkable person. Her mighty abilities with both the sword and magic led to her selection as the youngest commander of the Holy Order of Faldienne, which itself exists as the keystone of all holy orders of the Church. Even though my attributes are higher than hers, I have yet to win a single duel against her. She’s the only one I still can’t defeat.”

The hero happily bragged about Carlotta—quietly, of course. Hmm, yeah, the lady knight’s stats were pretty high if I remember right. This was what Analysis showed me:

Name: Carlotta Demeyere

Race: Human

Class: Holy Knight

Level: 62

HP: 1,312 / 1,312

MP: 3,400 / 3,400

Strength: 387

Stamina: 409

Agility: 552

Magic: 611

Dexterity: 1,192

Luck: 198

Abilities: Holy Magic 5, Fire Magic 5, Swordsmanship 7, Scout 2, Danger Detection 5, Dagger Combat 5, Axe-Wielding 3, Rapier Combat 4, Whip-Wielding 4, Concealed Weapons Combat 4

Title: Sword Princess, Battle Maiden

The first thing to catch anyone’s eye was definitely her bajillion weapon-related abilities. Every last one of them was high, but Swordsmanship in particular was downright terrifying at level 7. Even her titles were connected to fighting, for crying out loud. “Sword Princess”? “Battle Maiden”? That was some scary-ass shit.

Her overall level was up there too, and her freaking Dexterity had broken 1,000. Wait a sec, did that stat have anything to do with swordsmanship? Nell’s was also pretty high, come to think of it. This whole time, I’d assumed it didn’t make a difference since I had a crazy high Dexterity value but was complete dogshit at actually handling a sword. Now, though, I thought that maybe I was just plain bad at it.

Uhhh...weeeeell...at least I was good enough with a greatsword to squash my enemies like bugs if I wanted to. Had that going for me, which was nice. Besides, I didn’t mess with normal swords on the regular. Couldn’t be good at something I didn’t do a ton. That was my story and I was sticking to it. Denial was just a river in Egypt. Shut up.

Anyway. Back to our stats chat. The only ones throwing me for a loop were HP and MP. Those two didn’t seem like they worked the same way as the others, and I still hadn’t figured out how they actually did. So, excluding those two, I’d come up with a ranking system for how a human’s stats compared to the average. It was based on the interactions I’d had so far in this world plus some knowledge I’d picked up along the way.

Per my system, a stat that was between 10 and 100 was considered Child-level. The Civilian rank was anywhere from 100 to 200, and Fighter was 200 to 400. Between 400 and 700 was Veteran, 700 to 900 was Expert, and any stats above 900 were Monster-class.

The Fighter category included all kinds of combat jobs, so they could really be anywhere on my list, but most folks fell within the 300 to 400 range for any one stat. I hadn’t really run across anyone higher than that yet. Hell, I could count on one hand how many had hit even the 600 mark. Aside from the hero, there was that clown doped up on the magic blade, and the lady knight made three. From a human’s perspective, they would all be considered mega strong.

Most of the knights gathered here hovered between 400 and 500 for everything, which had me thinking they were probably part of an elite unit. Even so, Carlotta stood head and shoulders above them all. By the way, the hero was the only one I’d seen so far who had every stat at either Expert or Monster rank.

I had actually asked her about people with numbers like that because I didn’t know beans about them in the first place. In response, Little Miss Humble had said, “Well, I can’t call myself a master by dint of having high values alone. Especially not when I lose so often. The numbers you see are only a frame of reference. You can’t always assign meaning to them just by looking at them.”

I mean, she wasn’t wrong, but at the same time, this baseline was specifically for humans. As far as other demons and beast folks went, I didn’t know much aside from what I’d seen of our maids’ stats, so I figured my overall impression of what the values meant would change once I learned more about those types of people’s average stats too. Like, just look at my stats. If I ranked myself using this system, I would be Monster-level across the board.

Besides, I wasn’t taking abilities into account. To use an admittedly extreme example, let’s say someone with Expert-rank stats and Swordsmanship at level 1 was up against someone else with Fighter-rank stats who had Swordsmanship at level 5. There was no way to predict who’d win that fight.

Just like the hero said, it was best to think of stat values as a basic standard only; a fighting style was the deciding factor in their overall strength. To paraphrase something Lefi had told me, anyone who didn’t train, even if they were a prodigy, was destined to lose to the ordinary folks who did hone their skills. While those thoughts tumbled around in my head, the lady knight kept on speaking.

“Our nation faces annihilation. As a result of the heinous scheme birthed from His Highness Lute Glorio Alisia’s insanity, the Undead run amok in our streets. It wouldn’t be overstating things to claim that the royal capital is currently at the height of chaos.”

The soldiers all listened attentively as her dignified voice rang out.

“We must liberate Arsil, our royal capital, from its monstrous transformation! Each of you gathered here has their own motives, but frankly speaking, we are short of allies at this moment! So let us join arms and wrest victory from our enemies, returning peace and stability to our city! Does anyone here object?!”

Not a peep from any of the troops. They were all focused on her and her alone, passion burning in their eyes.

“Very well! Thus begins our war council!”

After that, Carlotta pulled out a whiteboard-looking thing. She quickly filled it up with all kinds of information, including an explanation of how they would achieve their goal of rescuing the king. The more questions and answers flew back and forth between her and the soldiers, the more she wrote down.

The first step of their battle plan involved troops that had been stationed outside the city in advance. If contact could somehow be reestablished with those guys, half of the force in here would coordinate with them to launch raids on important sites throughout the capital. These attacks were designed to create a diversion by drawing as much attention as possible. Once the enemy was concentrating on that group, a few of the remaining units would infiltrate the royal castle. Rescuing their king was the primary goal, and if an opportunity presented itself, they’d capture His Royal Assness too. Speaking of, they had succeeded in pinpointing the king’s location. He was still very much alive, and had apparently been tossed into the castle dungeon.

Hm... Okay, yeah, that makes sense. But I wanted to plant the fear of a demon lord in the bastards we were dealing with, so it probably wouldn’t hurt for me to go in ahead of the rescue team. You know, pave the way for them by having the poor schmucks ready to hand over when the extraction squad arrived.

“We will carry out our plan tomorrow, in the dead of night. All units will commence when the church bell tolls. That is all. Any questions? Then, everyone, that concludes our meeting! Victory will be ours!”

“Victory will be ours!”

With a battle cry to end the war council, the cathedral erupted with activity. Soldiers moved in groups to begin their preparations. The lady knight left her post at the altar and came back to us.

“Great job, Miss Carlotta. You were awe-inspiring.”

“I appreciate the sentiment. Lighting a fire under others can be very tiring.”

She gave Nell a wry smile before continuing.

“Since you two arrived here just today, that must mean you don’t have anywhere to sleep, correct? If not, I know just the place—”

Suddenly, a shout cut her off.

“Alert! Everyone, on your guard! Undead!”