Chapter 37

"Lord Lionel, was that the reason you became the Black Knight?"

Lord Kelvim asked with a somber expression.

"Yes. Even if I had to abandon my position and honor, I thought it would be fine if everything turned out to be just a false alarm. I wanted to confirm it with my own eyes. But when I actually came here..."

He paused, then let out a deep breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to raise false hopes, so I thought it would be better to tell you the unsettling news first. There's only so much I can do on my own, but I'm prepared to do whatever it takes."

Although Lord Kelvim and his private soldiers had already braced themselves when they saw the defaced shield, their expressions now showed even more despair after learning the reason.

"Well, it's a relief to have a former knight captain known for his bravery here, isn't it? Besides, thanks to Lord Lionel, even his brother and the old men came as well, right?"

The mercenary man laughed, trying to change the mood. This brought a slight smile back to everyone's face.

"That's true. For now, let's focus on what's right in front of us."

Lord Kelvim raised his head, and everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"Has the messenger to the capital been sent?"

"Yes, we sent them immediately after the attack this morning. If the weather is favorable, it should arrive in four to five days. ...The problem is whether His Majesty will send reinforcements. Even if they do, it will take at least ten to fifteen days for them to reach us."

There are limits to the speed of human and horse movement. Depending on the scale of the deployment, the transportation of provisions could further slow their progress. Given the uncertainty of the king's intentions and the lack of guarantee that he would act quickly, relying on reinforcements from the capital seemed like an impractical choice.

"How long will the containment barrier hold?"

Lionel asked the elderly cleric who had been silently listening in the corner of the room.

"It should last up to seven days. Since they are contained within the barrier, they won't increase in number."

"There shouldn't be any stragglers," the young cleric added. They had come from the Great Church in the west, known for their expertise in barrier magic.

After confirming this, a private soldier raised his hand to add a report.

"The large undead beast this morning was nearly fully grown but was a failure. Thanks to that, we were able to deal with it early. It must have been recently transformed into an undead beast after the knight order's retreat. Therefore, there should only be one in this area."

Lionel nodded with a grim expression. Fortunately, large ones can be detected early by the clerics' detection. Moreover, large ones, due to their high lethality, make it difficult for surrounding beasts to become undead.

"The problem is the small mutated undead beasts..."

"Speaking of which... I noticed something during the daytime battle."

The mercenary man raised his hand.

"Even though I thought it was futile, I had purified my club with holy water. As long as the blessing lasted, I was able to take down a few of the small ones."

"Come to think of it, I was able to take down a few with my sword as well," the private soldiers agreed.

Large and medium-sized undead beasts can be stopped from regenerating if their severed parts are cut with a sword purified by holy water. By separating the head from the body, the flesh would crumble and return to the earth. However, until now, blunt weapons and arrows had been ineffective, and the blessing of the holy water would usually wear off by the time one was defeated.

"If that's true, there might be a glimmer of hope if we can overwhelm them with sheer numbers."

When Lionel nodded, smiles returned to everyone's faces.

Gilbert, who had been silently listening in the corner, was torn about whether to mention the events in the village during the day and was about to stand up. But Dolf held him back by the shoulder.

"The thing this morning was just a lucky effect of the secret weapon I created. It's still uncertain, and I can't raise false hopes with ambiguous information."

Gilbert blinked at this. He noticed that the private soldiers and mercenaries who had fought alongside him in the village were looking away, but he accepted it for now.

– After all, it's this old man...

He thought, imagining some strange contrivance. Then, he muttered another thought that came to mind.

"If we manage to completely exterminate all the undead beasts, the strange schemes of those above will be nothing but a bubble, right?"

His voice echoed strangely in the room's silence. Then, as if on cue, everyone in the room turned their gaze to Gilbert. The private soldiers and mercenaries who had been looking away were now giving him hollow, half-smiles. Though they didn't say it, he understood what they meant.

– I'm sorry. I said something stupid again...

Gilbert deeply reflected and apologized in his heart, but he noticed Lionel, who was sitting in the center of the room, shaking with laughter. When he looked up, expecting to have angered him, Lionel was surprisingly laughing.

"Well, reckless actions are a problem, but it's good to have that kind of resolve."

Lionel said this with a cheerful voice, and Lord Kelvim, the private soldiers, and the mercenaries all nodded with full smiles. Even the elderly cleric sitting next to Gilbert couldn't hold back his laughter.

"That's great. Really great. While the barrier holds, let's prepare as much holy water as possible."

He said this while playfully patting Gilbert's shoulder. The other clerics also nodded in agreement.

"Besides, there's a 'Marker Mage' in this town who rarely shows up. This could be a stroke of luck. It might go well."

The elderly cleric, a renowned priest from the Great Church in the west, said this last. By then, the room was buzzing with excitement, and only Gilbert and Dolf seemed to have heard his words.

– A 'Marker Mage'? Barbara? She's famous...

As he marveled, the people in the room began to stand up one by one.

"Then, while the barrier holds, let's prepare for the extermination of the undead beasts over the next five days and maintain vigilance around the area. The extermination will be carried out on the sixth day."

When Lionel announced this, everyone chorused in agreement.

As Gilbert and the others left the mansion, the evening sun illuminated the town, and the air was filled with a delicious aroma that stimulated their hunger. In the distance, Flora could be seen waving happily.

※ About the distances and information dissemination speed in the story

Capital ↔ Kelvim's territory: approximately 500km (similar to the distance between Tokyo and Iwate Prefecture's Hachimantai City)

General information dissemination speed by human and horse in the Middle Ages: 50km/day, so it would take about ten days.

⇒ The messenger is faster, so it's set to 4-5 days.

(I will write about this in a later activity report, but if anyone has references or information, I would be grateful if you could share it!)