On that day, mankind

Noacurio’s army retreated.

In addition to the decline in morale, the frontline troops, who had lost their commander, the former Count Randall, were no longer able to act in a unified manner.

Those who were deeply associated with each other formed small groups and were moving to join the main force in Wesala.

Terra Kaine, the capital of Marquis Edfeldt’s domain, had seen its defensive strength quickly reduced by the withdrawal of Noacurio’s frontline troops. However, there were shadows lined up neatly in the near-empty garrison camp.

They were overtly suspicious men in masks and priest’s robes. They were human-based incarnate holy beasts created by Technical Advisor Morgana.

Morgana herself had been kept in the strictest confidence by a strict gag order …, but she was detained by the Noacurio forces for having turned the Count Randall of the Frontier into an incarnate holy beast, and was being escorted out of the city by a retreating force.

However, even so, there was no problem in controlling the remaining holy beasts in Terra Kaine.

Originally, the executives and above in the unit were able to give orders to the holy beasts. This was because it would not be possible to respond to changes in the situation if Morgana was issuing orders on the battlefield. Naturally, the holy beasts entrusted to the Marquis Edfeldt were told to accept orders from him as well.

In other words, now that Morgana had been pulled away from Terra Kaine, the remaining holy beasts were at the disposal of Marquis Edfeldt. At least that was what Marquis Edfeldt… Marks thought.

Furthermore, to fill the hole left by the retreat of Noacurio’s army, Marks had issued an order to the lords with the nomination of Ghislain as a candidate for crown prince. He asked the lords to offer their forces to protect Ghislain.

However, the lords were slow to respond. There were several reasons for this, but the biggest problem was that Marquis Berger’s support for Johann, as candidate for crown prince, was attached to the support for Ghislain. And within a few days of the lords’ hesitation, the Noacurio army was attacked by the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, and had to retreat miserably.

In this situation, sending out troops for Ghislain was jumping into the middle of danger. It was obvious that the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” had her sights set on the Noacurio forces, and it also seemed obvious that she was ultimately targeting the Crown Prince candidate Ghislain and Marquis Edfeldt. And they could no longer coordinate with the Noacurio forces. Who would die if the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” attacked?

Marquis Edfeldt had also requested the cooperation of the Adventurers’ Guild. The Adventurers’ Guild, a supranational organization, had a policy of basically staying out of each country’s domestic affairs, but that did not mean that they could not help if the country wanted to counter an invasion by a monster.

However, whether individual adventurers would agree to this was another matter.

Currently, adventurers were under the direction of the Guild, and were assigned to escort refugees and supplies, but the Guild did not force them to do so. The Guild asked the adventurers to cooperate with it, guaranteeing compensation, and the adventurers cooperated half out of the goodness of their hearts.

Adventurers did not take on requests that were too risky. For example, they wouldn’t do a request to fight a Named Monster that could destroy a whole country.

The most dependable group was the knights under Marquis Edfeldt.

Knights had already been gathered in Terra Kaine, but Marquis Edfeldt had gathered even more knights when the retreat of the Noacurio army was decided, and he had also called an emergency meeting of the farm soldiers. This was to protect Ghislain and, above all, Marquis Edfeldt.

However, this also meant that the entire territory would be away from home, except for Terra Kaine.

＊ ＊ ＊

At about the same time that Marks captured Morgana in Terra Kaine.

Marquis Edfeldt’s territory, the fortified city of Dualcamarte.

Although it could not be compared to the royal capital or Terra Kaine, the city was surrounded by walls that were appropriate for the size of the city.

In this world, it was normal for a city of a certain size to be surrounded by walls and moats. This alone would greatly reduce the damage caused by monsters.

In the case of Ciel-Terra, stone, which was abundantly available throughout the country, was used, and there were walls in most of the cities where walls should have been built.

Two guards walked along a not so wide corridor.

Looking at the snowfield outside the wall, they crossed their white breaths.

“What’s going to happen …?”

“What’s going to happen to us…?”

Under a clear blue sky, on a field of silvery white snow, but their hearts were crushed with gray anxiety.

Just a few days ago, they believed that Marquis Edfeldt’s territory, where Noacurio’s army was located, was the safest in the country. Now, however, the lord was gathering soldiers from all over the territory to protect the city of Terra Kaine. This was somehow eerie and unsettling.

The plight of Noacurio’s army had already been rumored. It was natural for anyone with a bit of a brain to feel that something was amiss.

“Everyone is gathering in Terra Kaine, right?”

“I guess so. Right now, only the guards can fight in this city.”

What they were worried about at the moment was the lack of forces to protect this city. It was the decline of the defense force.

The Guards were both the police force and the city’s defense force.

However, the Guards could only deal with small-scale attacks by bandits and monsters.

They were limited to initial response until the military was mobilized.

In other words…

“… Supposing, hypothetically speaking, that…?　If the Rose Princess of Hellrage were to attack Dualcamarte right here, right now…”

“Don’t jinx it.”

The older of the two groups of guards made a bitter face and waved his hands in the air as if he was trying to get rid of a fart.

It was a possibility he didn’t want to face directly.

Looking away wouldn’t make him safer, but that didn’t mean there was no way to deal with it.

“If something like that comes along, what are we going to do about it anyway?”

“That’s true, but …”

“If they do come, it will be to Terra Kaine. That’s why the lord is gathering troops there.”

“I hope so…but…”

The younger guard looked so wide-eyed that blood seemed to flow from the corners of his eyes.

He pointed somewhere, his mouth opening and closing silently like a fish.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, that… that…”

Following the tip of his finger, he saw what his eyes had seen.

“You’re lying, man.”

A reddish-brown-skinned giant-like figure loomed over the trees in the forest not far from the city.

＊ ＊ ＊

Stepping onto the silvery white earth, the giant loomed over them, throwing off their sense of perspective: the five-meter-high city wall was as tall as the giant’s chest. In contrast to its huge body, its head was quite small.

Something like an ornament fluttered above the giant’s shoulders. It had three pairs of six long arms like spiders, each holding a huge iron ball club, a morning star, or a battering ram.

When they got some distance closer, they could see that the reddish-brown skin was an aggregate of sores and decayed carrion. It was a mass of flesh that looked like a giant’s form had been formed by splicing together many corpses.

Following the giant were soldiers with rotting faces. Skeletonized knights. An army of undead, writhing between life and death.

The undead soldiers marched in an orderly fashion, holding up several red rose banners that looked like they were made from torn rags.

“They’re here, b*stards!”

“What the h*ll is that stupid big monster!? I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“I don’t know it either!”

The sound of half-bells ringing like mad echoed through the city.

On the city walls, the guards, adventurers who were in town, and onlookers who had somehow blended in lined up to witness the march of the undead.

But there was nothing they could do except watch.

Although he took out the bow he had prepared, he wondered if he could shoot it properly with his shaking hands. Or rather, would he have enough arrows? Also, would the holy water he had asked for at the temple be ready in time?

Some kind of ornament swung on the shoulders of the giant.

When they got a little closer, they realized that it was a flag.

There was something written on it in poor handwriting, like a small child’s scribble.

“‘Hil…Bert, 2nd generation’…Hey, that’s…”

The next moment.

Huge weapons were concentrated at a single point and swung down on the city walls.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaa!”

A roar, then destruction.

In the midst of a cloud of smoke. The city wall collapsed, leaving a large gap. Several people who were there were caught in the destruction and were ground into minced meat in the rubble.

The gap was so big that even the giant could pass through if he stepped over the piled up debris.

The guards, who were safe, were slumped over the corridor.

They looked up. On the shoulder of the giant, who was bending down to lower his weapon. Two small heads stood side by side.

One was a rotting, sore head of a zombie.

On the other was the head of a man with a red beard and a cheap crown, like a child’s craft, chained to his face. His mouth was covered with a metal object like a gag.

“Wo, I … this is not my intention … body on its own, ufu, ugh.”

A kinky, crackling voice echoed around the area, accompanied by the sound of a half bell.

It seemed that the metal object was not to block the mouth, but rather a magic item for amplifying the voice.

“Hahahaha, yes, this can’t be true. Hahaha, illusion, be gone. I am Hilbert “Lionheart” Nicholas Ciel-Terra. I am the rightful king of Ciel-Terra. I am the greatest king that ever lived. Celebrate my resurrection, my people, for I am not a monster who would harm my people in my glorious reign of bliss.”

Crazy laughter descended on the city.

Everyone was in a state of shock.

Everyone knew that name. The former king, who was killed by the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” for usurping the throne.

No, he should have been killed…

“D-die!”

“You fool!”

One of the guards reflexively fired an arrow.

A guard next to him tried to stop him. The guards knew they had to fight, but their fear of attracting this monster’s attention outweighed their sense of duty.

A half-hearted arrow flew over the giant’s shoulder and fell in a parabolic arc onto the snow.

Hilbert glared at the guards, glaring at them only from the neck up. His movements were unnatural, as though he could only move freely from the neck up.

“Hahaha, you fight me. Destroy the invaders, the aggressors, and defend this country, and under my rule all people will be happy. Uh-huh, ahahahaha, hahahaha!”

“Aaahhh!?”

“R-run, run away!!”

“Mommy!!”

As if in response to Hilbert’s maniacal laughter … or completely unrelated, the corpse behemoths swung their weapons around in a random fashion.

The city walls blew up like piles of straw, blowing away any guards who were lucky enough to be alive.

Undead soldiers streamed in through the large gaping holes in the city wall.

Without even a battle cry, the deformed army just padded forward in an orderly fashion, stepping over the piles of rubble and scattering into the city.

“Oh, God bless you! Blessed be God! All that is evil shall perish! Hyahahahahaha!”

The two-headed giant smashed and destroyed the buildings in turn, starting with the one nearest at hand anyway.

The undead soldiers scattered throughout the city, killing anything alive in their path.

“The test operation is going well… seems to have enough melee firepower, so the next modification will be flying.”

“That’s…”

There was a shadow alighting on the city wall that was no longer of use.

A girl stood there as if she had walked in midair from somewhere else and found herself standing there.

The survivors of the Guardsmen could only look at her in dismay.

A silver-haired, silver-eyed girl who was considered an abomination in this country.

The silver, which shone so beautifully and ominously, was the color of the merciless moon, the color of a healthy white rose.

This also reminded of the white rose, a pure white dress with a softly spread skirt. The skirt was engraved with rose crest that looked as if they had been drawn with human blood.

In her hand was a crimson sword that looked like it had been carved out of a jewel.

“’The “Rose Princess of Hellrage’ …!”

With her small body, however, she was clad in a spine-chilling evil spirit.

Those who stood still or slumped down saw her for only a few seconds.

She grabbed her hair and lifted her own head, and the moment they thought the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” had taken a step forward, they felt a hot pain in their bodies and died.

On that day, the city of Dualcamarte disappeared from the map.