With a single kick, the carriage wall was cleanly breached. Mei-rin trembled, staring at the man clad in bone armor. 'Who on earth is this person?' As she was gripped by fear, the man turned to look at Mei-rin. Then, he approached without hesitation and extended his arm. 'Gah!' She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head. But suddenly, an arm wrapped around her waist, and her feet were lifted off the ground. She belatedly realized she was being carried, tucked under the man's arm. 'Ugh! What kind of position is this? It's so embarrassing!' She wanted to scream, but the immense pressure emanating from the man made it impossible to even utter a sound. Was it best just not to resist? The man checked if Mei-rin, tucked under his arm, was alright, then immediately leaped out of the moving carriage. "Kyaaaaaaah!" The intense speed made her disoriented. The surrounding scenery blurred past rapidly. Soon, *thud*. She felt the man's feet hit the dirt ground. Mei-rin cautiously opened her eyes. "......!" Looking ahead, she saw the old man who had been thrown from the carriage earlier, crawling on the ground. Blood streamed from his nose and mouth, and one of his legs was bent at a grotesque angle. He trembled and tried to get up. "Grrr! Damn it! Who are you?! Who sent you?!" "......." The man didn't answer. He slowly lowered himself while standing, setting Mei-rin down on the ground. Then, he held up the white greatsword in his right hand and tilted his body to the side. A chilling killing intent flowed from the man's entire body. 'How dare he......!' Though retired now, Javier had been a Necromancer who left behind countless notorious deeds during his active days. He slammed the staff in his hand onto the ground with a *thump*! Skeletons poured out of his subspace. Mei-rin, who had been lying on the ground, raised her head. Each of them was a heavy-duty skeleton, over three meters tall, carrying a massive spear. There were over twenty of them. He was a Necromancer capable of deploying at least a squad. 'That perverted old man, he's definitely not ordinary!' *Swoosh!* A white sword slash cut across the air in a straight line. It felt like a fierce wind blew, and then all the skeletons suddenly tumbled to the ground. "......Huh?" A dumbfounded sound escaped Javier's lips. Mei-rin also stared at the man with shocked eyes. 'W-what did he just do?' The man casually rested the greatsword on his shoulder and began walking towards Javier. Javier, flustered, quickly stretched out his arm. 'Restoration!' However, the fallen skeletons remained still. He tried to restore them several times, but it was no use. Only the clattering sound of skeletons could be heard, but they wouldn't get up. 'There's some strange dark magic on that sword. To think he's this strong!' It was a mistake to have sent all his main summoned creatures, the Mud Golems, to Manus. He never expected a battle to break out here. There was no choice. He had to use his last resort. He reached inside his clothes and activated the jet-black magic circle drawn on his chest. "Ugh!" Javier clutched his throat and staggered, then began to vomit strange flesh from his mouth. As if his nutrients were being sucked away, Javier's body gradually withered and turned mummified, while the flesh he vomited grew larger and larger, nourished by Javier. Mei-rin made a horrified expression. 'What was he growing inside his body?!' *Squish! Squish-squish-squish!* It was a grotesque creature, seemingly made of organs. Its body length exceeded three meters, and its limbs bulged with clumps of organs. -Kwoooaaargh! The grotesque creature let out a monstrous roar. Its entire body turned jet-black, and sharp bones protruded from its two arms. "Get away!" Mei-rin shouted. "That thing can't move! There's no need to fight it, we can just......!" *Clang!* The man swung his greatsword. A white line was drawn from the creature's shoulder to its waist, and its upper body was cleanly severed, sliding off diagonally. 'I-in one strike?!' Mei-rin's pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck. The man reversed his grip on the greatsword he had swung and lowered his shoulder. *Whoosh!* A left slash, a right slash, a diagonal slash while spinning his body. Countless lines were drawn across the monster's body. With cracking sounds, the monster's body turned into countless pieces of flesh and fell *thud-thud-thud*. "Ah......" Mei-rin shivered with awe. Overwhelming strength. A monster created by a professional Necromancer, sacrificing his life, was defeated as easily as playing with a toy. 'What on earth is this person's true identity?' The man casually rested the greatsword on his shoulder again and looked at Mei-rin. Her shoulders hunched. Just looking at that skeleton helmet, and the blue smoke flowing from his eyes, fear sprouted. He exuded an atmosphere completely unlike a human. As the man approached, she closed her eyes and sharply turned her head. 'Ah, damn it! Why did I suddenly become such a coward?' Of course, the oppressive aura emanating from the man was terrifying, but she had always thought of her Kizen uniform as an invincible armor. In fact, within the Dark Alliance, no one could touch her if she wore this uniform. But that notion had just been shattered by Javier. She had almost been subjected to something dirty, and worse, she was about to be sold off as a corpse. Deathland was a place where common sense didn't apply; being a Kizen student didn't make her invincible. She didn't know what this man would do next either. Thinking that, she couldn't help but be afraid. *Swish.* 'Again?!' Her face flushed. This time, the man, with Mei-rin tucked under his arm again, landed on the dirt ground and then soared into the sky. Mei-rin's scream echoed. * * * Mei-rin was dragged along without knowing what was happening. The surrounding scenery rushed past. The fierce headwind made it difficult to even open her eyes properly. "......?" Soon, their speed gradually decreased, and the man landed on the ground. Mei-rin quickly opened her eyes and looked around. She couldn't make out much else, but in the distance, there was a path leading to the sewers. *Swish.* The man set her down on the ground and gestured. 'Turn around?' She seemed to have no other choice. She raised her upper body from her prone position, knelt, and turned around. The man moved his greatsword. *Snip.* The blade cut through the rope. Then, he lightly pricked the back of her hand with the tip of the greatsword, and the magic circle shattered with a *clang*. It seemed that was the curse. Her core reactivated, and Jet Black began to circulate throughout her body. Mei-rin, now free, looked up at the man with a bewildered expression. 'Is he just purely saving me?' The man turned his back without hesitation, his cloak billowing. "W-wait a moment!" Mei-rin jumped up and shouted. "Thank you for saving my life! If it's alright, I'd really like to repay you!" The man stopped walking, turning only his head to look back. No matter how many times she saw it, his gaze was intimidating, but she mustered her courage and placed a hand on her chest. "I am Mei-rin Billenne, a student of Kizen and a member of the Ivory Tower. Whatever you wish......" [Return to your friends.] Mei-rin was startled by the man's voice, which she was hearing for the first time. It was a low, cold tone that didn't sound human. [Two people are collapsed in the sewers.] "Ah......!" Her group members came to mind. Are they all okay? But two people? What about the remaining one? [One male was captured just like you.] He said. [But he escaped on his own and entered the sewers. He should arrive in a few hours.] Escaping on his own, as if it were obvious. This guy is Simon. Just as Mei-rin was thinking that, the man started walking again. Mei-rin suddenly felt a sense of urgency. Was he just going to leave like this? She wanted to know something, anything, about this man. "Name!!" She raised her voice. "Please tell me your name! I beg you!" [.......] The man stopped silently. Then, without turning around, he answered briefly. [Pion.] *Thump!* As he straightened his bent knees, his body shot into the sky. Mei-rin watched the man disappear into the darkness in an instant, her face flushed, her hands clasped together. '......We'll meet again, won't we?' Her heart pounded continuously as she watched the disappearing figure of the man. * * * Simon, who had been running through the trees, took off Pier's skull helmet and tossed it behind his back. Then, he let out a big sigh of relief. "Phew, I thought I was going to get caught!" [Kekekeke! Well done, boy!] This is how it started. After Prince kidnapped Mei-rin, Simon went to interrogate the humans Pier had captured at the mansion. Getting them to talk wasn't difficult. Pier, a master of intimidation, created an atmosphere of terror by tapping their necks with his sword, and they quickly confessed. They were employees who followed a retired Necromancer named 'Javier', and they revealed that they were running a large-scale corpse supply business. When Simon asked if they had seen a female student in a Kizen uniform, they shook their heads. However, they said that if the female student were to fall into Javier's hands from Prince, she would be put in a carriage and sent to a campsite located a short distance from here. They added that the mansion would soon become a battlefield. -What do you mean, a battlefield? At this question, the prisoners hesitated to answer. After a brief period of Pier's 'sword dance', they trembled and revealed the full story of an undisclosed new event. Javier had maintained cooperative relationships with both 'Prince' and 'Manus', the two Ancient Undead who were the two great powers of Deathland. And his ultimate goal was to have Manus eliminate Prince, and then he himself would eliminate Manus to obtain Prince's 'Crown'. Although he now knew the full story of the incident, Simon's top priority was to rescue the kidnapped Mei-rin. Rather than going directly to the mansion, he thought that infiltrating the mansion when the war between Prince and Manus was about to break out would maximize the success rate of the rescue. In the meantime, Simon decided to check out the campsite the prisoners had mentioned. He took off his Kizen uniform and changed into the prisoners' clothes, then headed towards Javier's campsite. On the way, he happened to spot a carriage heading straight for the campsite. Simon attacked the carriage without hesitation, and there, he was able to rescue Mei-rin by a hair's breadth. [Kekeke! But tell me, boy!] Pier said. [What was that 'Pion' you said when the girl asked for your name?] At that question, Simon's face flushed, and he cleared his throat. "Ah, well...... At first, I was going to answer 'Pier', but I thought it might complicate things. So I just mixed 'Pier' and my name 'Simon' to make 'Pion'." [Kekekeke!] "Enough of that, let's hurry to the mansion!" The war between Prince and Manus. This was a stroke of luck for Simon. He felt it was a chance to acquire the third Ancient Undead, who was uncooperative with the Legion's reintegration. Simon raised his head and saw the mansion burning beyond the dense forest. "It seems the war has already begun."
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