Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 3, Chapter 18: Embodiment of Different Dimension②

Since most facilities in Tetomburgh were built in the cave or underground. It almost became a ghost town with many buildings on the surface left vacant.

And today, there were fifty sorcerers lined up outside of that desolate-looking town.

「To be honest, I have no idea what Le Look-sama is really scared about for her to act hysterically like that. Even more so when she told us to escape while bringing as much research data as possible.」

Standing in the middle was a slender man wearing a black suit.

He was Tony Lair, the vice-leader of the alchemist organization 『Angel of Death』 which was based in Tetomburgh town.

Since no one aside from Tony Lair ever met in person with their leader, the sage 『Spinner of The Truth』, Tony Lair was the de facto leader of this organization.

「There’s no need to worry about the kingdom soldiers because they won’t move anytime soon. Right, my adorable dolls?」

After saying this, Tony Lair looked at the handsome youth in butler clothing who stood on his left.

Standing on his right was also a handsome youth in the same clothing.

As if they had no mental functions at all, their eyes had already lost their light.

The youths were the slaves gathered by Tony Lair as part of his hobby.

Some children who didn’t fulfill the criteria for the experiment were refurbished by Tony lair. He broke their minds and turned them into obedient puppets who only obey him.

Naturally, anyone who regained their will was sent to the laboratory immediately.

Tony Lair was licking his lips, caressing the youth’s cheek as he revealed a nasty smile on his face.

At that moment, one of the sorcerers from 『Devil’s Piper』 rushed toward Tony Lair.

「Reporting, Tony Lair-sama. We discovered around a dozen swordsmen surrounding Tetomburgh.」

The tip of Tony Lair’s lips rose up the moment he heard the news.

「TEN DOGS! And normal soldiers on top of that. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WHAT A JOKE! What are they trying to do now? Comitting suicide? Since this seems to be the case, let’s make this job easier for them!」

He clapped his hands.

The other 『Devil’s Piper』 sorcerers laughed alongside him.

「Listen to me, gentlemen. Sooner or later, the kingdom soldiers and church inquisition will eventually march to this place. But the leader of our 『Angel of Death』, 『Spinner of The Truth』, said that it’s not the time to fight them yet. We must leave this land, Tetomburgh. But escaping without offering any resistance will only make that royal family look down on us.」

Tony Lair spread his arms and started preaching.

「THUS, LET’S GIVE THOSE KINGDOM SOLDIERS THE NIGHTMARE OF THEIR LIFE! NO, A MERE NIGHTMARE ALONE ISN’T ENOUGH! LET’S TURN THIS AREA INTO A NIGHTMARISH HELL!!!」

Bending back and forth, he raised his hands to the sky as he made a grabbing motion.

「WE, THE PROUD 『DEVIL’S PIPER』, KNOW NOT OF BETRAYAL! AND YET, THE POISONOUS BUG IN VISCOUNT LE GAEL ACTIVATED! HE WHO MADE A CONTRACT WITH US ACTUALLY DARED TO BETRAY US!! SINCE THAT’S THE CASE, LET’S COMMIT A MASSACRE IN HIS TERRITORY. THIS IS NEITHER TYRANNY NOR AN ATROCITY. THIS IS OUR PUNISHMENT FOR A BETRAYER!! WE WILL POSTPONE OUR ESCAPE UNTIL THE CHURCH ARMY ARRIVES AND BRING DOWN RETRIBUTION IN VISCOUNT LE GAEL’S TERRITORY, EXPOSING HIS DEAL WITH US FOR EVERYONE IN THE KINGDOM TO SEE! WE WILL WITHDRAW WHEN THEY COME, BUT NOT WITHOUT LEAVING A GOODBYE GIFT FOR THEM!! 」

As the one who used the curse on Viscount Le Gael, Tony Lair knew very well of its defect which might trigger the curse’s activation due to complex human emotions.

Even the curse that he used on Viscount Le Gael was more like an experiment to see the usability of the curse rather than to prevent Viscount Le Gael’s betrayal.

But of course, the thing he wanted the most was to commit mass slaughter in this territory.

Because even if 『Devil’s Piper』 was in cahoots with a few nobles, they couldn’t just leave the fact that they caused mass slaughter in this territory after they killed Viscount Le Gael, who turned into a hindrance for their plan.

Because if they did so, the other nobles who were allied with 『Devil’s Piper』 might switch sides and ally with the kingdom again.

But that was a completely different case when Viscount Le Gael was the one who betrayed them. After they committed mass slaughter in Viscount Le Gael territory, they could use this fact to prevent the betrayal of the other nobles who allied with them.

「Let the kingdom and its citizens know this. LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE, 『DEVIL’S PIPER』, ARE CAPABLE OF! IT SEEMS THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ONE OF OUR EIGHT WISE MEN, MANZI THE 『UGLY OLD MAN OF CORPSE』, TO THE CITY OF ADVENTURERS WAS FAR FROM ENOUGH TO WARN THE KINGDOM!! HONESTLY SPEAKING, OLD MAN MANZI SHOULD’VE RETURNED AFTER HE TURNED ALL THE BARREIRA CITIZENS INTO UNDEAD!! YET HE FAILED IN HIS DUTY! NOW IT’S OUR CHANCE TO CREATE THE SECOND WAVE AND DECLARE WAR AGAINST THE KINGDOM!!」

The overly enthusiastic sorcerers raised a cheer.

The only ones who didn’t react to Tony Lair’s fervent speech were the handsome youths who turned into his mindless slaves.

Another three youths with butler attire ran toward them from another place and then stopped in front of Tony Lair before giving a cold bow to the latter.

「Master, Alante-sama might be planning to use this chaos to escape. He seems to be hiding the experimental body too.」

「My beloved Robic, don’t worry about him. Did I not tell you before that Alante-kun won’t participate in this operation?」

「…But this is an emergency situation.」

「Uh, I understand your worries. You worry that he might steal something and vanish with it, right? Don’t worry about it. Alante-kun will never escape. And even if he gets caught in the battle, he won’t die. Although you never see it due to his obedient nature, he’s a genius when it comes to sorcery. Anyhow, even I have no choice but to endure his antics for the sake of our future development. That’s why it’s better to not bring him here.」

The edges of Tony Lair’s lips rose upward as he made a really creepy smile.

「Alante-sama… won’t escape. I have no idea why you are so sure about it, but I guess I have no choice but to trust it since Master is the one who said so. Now I can finally feel at ease.」

「But how unusual for you to worry about Alante-kun like that.」

「We’re just trying to eliminate any kind of possible hidden danger in your plan, Master. This is just my conjecture, but Alante-sama must be a VVIP, right?」

Tony Lair bent forward, still with that extremely creepy smile on his face as he took a closer look at the youth’s face.

「You’re mistaken, Robic. You’re bound by my technique and have no other choice but to obey me. Yet, the idea of Alante-kun—who you always think of as someone in a similar situation as you—escaping and finding his own happiness somewhere is unacceptable, right? Am I wrong?」

Tony Lair scanned the youth’s face as he licked the latter’s cheek.

「I understand your feelings, Robic. Your ugly desire for everyone else to suffer is what we call envy. Don’t worry Robic, no one can ever hope to escape from me.」

Even when Tony Lair was licking his cheek, Robic didn’t even bat an eye.

Even when his real thoughts were read like an open book, he didn’t seem to be surprised at all. Or maybe, such an emotion had already been stripped off from him.

Tony Lair stretched his body again as he laughed loudly.

「Well then, gentlemen! No one’s gonna stop us! Let’s raise a storm in this land! Let’s create an unforgettable nightmare for those kingdom soldiers!!」

「Tony Lair-sama! There’s something that I want to tell you!」

One of the sorcerers of 『Devil’s Piper』 ran in a hurry toward Tony lair.

「Is something the matter?」

「Habane-sama… the berserk warrior squad led by Habane-sama is…!」

「Habane-dono made his move first, eh… Well, those kingdom soldiers might’ve already been wiped out. I wanted to catch them and torture them slowly, but I guess Habane-dono is faster than me in this regard. But then, I think that bringing the berserker warriors to battle those weak kingdom soldiers is simply overkill.」

Tony Lair revealed a bored look on his face.

Habane was one of the sorcerers of 『Devil’s Piper』. He was a member of 『Angel of Death』 who specialized in depriving humans of their ego, thus creating berserkers whose physical limits had been removed.

The berserker squad led by him was composed of experienced swordsmen with overwhelming life forces and terrifying power.

Although their sword skills were at most second-rate, since their intelligence had already been removed, they could overwhelm master swordsmen with brute force.

「I guess that berseker is too stupid to even think about capturing those soldiers. Come to think of it, something seems amiss about Habane-dono in your report. It seems no one was left alive on our enemy side. Good grief, he put our plan into disarray…」

Tony Lair spoke as he heaved a sigh.

「NO, THEY WERE ANNIHILATED! THE BERSERKER SQUAD LED BY HABANE-DONO HAS BEEN ANNIHILATED BY A SQUAD OF KINGDOM SOLDIERS!!」

「WHAT?! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?!」

「Y-YES! EVEN THOUGH THE BERSERKER SQUAD APPROACHED WITH STRONG MOMENTUM… THEY WERE ANNIHILATED IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE! THE ENEMY HAS ALREADY INVADED TETOMBURGH!!」