Chapter 80
"Protect the fleeing civilians! Don't let the skeletons chase them!"
Leo gave the order at the top of his lungs.
As Leo and his companions headed for Bassau, they quickly noticed a huge black sphere floating above the city.
Seeing how abnormal the black sphere was, Leo immediately began preparing for battle and raised a purple smoke signal announcing an emergency. The sphere was so unnatural that Leo instinctively knew it was dangerous.
He had never seen anything like it. It was beyond Leo's understanding, and so were the events it would bring about.
The only consolation was that, despite the Imperial Knights' attempts to stop him from acting rashly, raising the purple smoke signal had ultimately been the right decision.
"Damn!"
Leo swung his sword from horseback.
A monster made of nothing but bones stood before the tip of his sword.
Skeletons were low-level monsters. Special monsters belonging to the undead category, they normally did not appear at all.
Leo crushed the chest of one, its weak point, and brought it down, but it was a drop in the bucket.
Skeletons poured out of Bassau as if water were overflowing from a cup.
There were easily several hundred in sight alone.
The people of Bassau fled in panic from that army of skeletons.
"Prince Leonart! Fall back!"
With that, an Imperial Knight instantly cut down the skeletons around Leo.
But no matter how many they cut down, more skeletons kept pouring out.
"There's no end to them! Let's retreat for now!"
"No. We'll hold them here."
"Are you sane, Your Highness?!"
The Imperial Knights cried out at Leo's decision, their voices nearly screams.
Only Leo, his Imperial Knight escort, Linfia, Abel, and Abel's party were here. There were fewer than twenty altogether.
There was no way they could hold back more than several hundred skeletons.
"If we retreat here, the fleeing civilians will be attacked from behind. We will not retreat. We will hold the line here."
"Then you must fall back, Your Highness!"
"I won't fall back. Anything else?"
Leo asked as he cut down a skeleton.
Retreating would be easy. But if they did so, the civilians they were supposed to protect would be placed in danger.
He could not put the civilians in danger simply to save his own skin.
Leo was not the emperor now. If his life were important to the Empire, he might have considered retreating. But at present, he was merely a candidate for the throne.
His life was not as valuable as the emperor's.
"I came to the South to assert my will. I am here because I wanted to help suffering people. That hasn't changed. What about you? On the day you pledged your swords as Imperial Knights, do you still carry in your hearts the resolve you swore to His Majesty the Emperor?"
The Imperial Knights who had been urging a retreat fell silent in the face of the ever-growing army of skeletons.
As the Emperor's swords, the Imperial Knights swore their oaths before him. They pledged their swords and their pride.
"I swore to dedicate myself to the Empire and its people. That oath has never left my heart."
"Good. Then fight. The time we buy here will surely mean something."
"Yes, sir!"
Even so, no one urged Leo to retreat anymore.
Leo had not decided to stay merely on the basis of emotion.
The skeletons pouring out one after another were not moving at random. They were converging on the nearest enemies.
In other words, Leo and the others were drawing the skeletons toward themselves.
If they retreated here, the skeletons, having lost their nearest target, might scatter across the South.
If that happened, the lords of the South would be forced to defend their territories on their own, and exterminating the skeletons would take time.
For the sake of the Empire, Leo judged that staying here and becoming 〝decoy〟 was the best option.
"Prince Leonart, may I consult you?"
"What's the matter, Linfia? Surely you're not going to suggest retreating too?"
"My home village lies behind us. I'm sorry, but we can't afford for you to retreat, Your Highness."
"As expected. You understand the situation well."
Leo gave a wry smile when he realized that Linfia had reached the same conclusion.
With the southern nobles suspected of corruption, the refugee villages would be the first to suffer if the skeletons spread across the South. Very few lords would likely try to protect them, and even fewer would possess the strength to see it through.
"So, what did you want to discuss?"
"Let's call for reinforcements."
As they talked, Linfia cut down the skeletons around Leo.
She wanted just a little time to discuss things properly.
"Reinforcements? From where?"
"From all across the South. We'll send messengers to the nearest cities."
"Are you trying to pressure the lords?"
"No. The lords can't be relied upon. We should rely on adventurers. They won't betray us as long as they're paid, and they'll work reasonably hard. Like Abel and his party."
"That's right! We won't run because we're being paid a fortune! Though we'd love to run right now!"
Abel, who was fighting nearby, cut down skeletons as he said this. His party members around him complained about their leader.
"Because our leader let the reward tempt him..."
"Don't make it my fault!? We all discussed it, didn't we?!"
"No, everyone objected, but you pushed it through with that strange sense of justice, saying, 'Can we really abandon a village in trouble?'"
"Hey, hey!? Don't pin this on me now!? We're a party, aren't we?!"
Abel's party continued this amusing exchange while covering for one another at the proper distance.
When it came to fighting monsters, adventurers were professionals.
Adventurers would indeed make powerful reinforcements.
However.
"The adventurers at the South's small guild branches alone won't be enough to make a difference."
"I know. That's why we'll issue a request to the guild as a whole."
"What do you mean?"
"We'll commission a Raid Quest."
Raid Quest. Leo searched his memory at the unfamiliar term.
It was a term he had heard before.
At the very bottom of his memory, it must have appeared in a story his mother told him when he was young.
"If memory serves, it's a large-scale quest in which many adventurers can participate, isn't it?"
"Yes. They are rarely held these days, but this is the perfect situation for one."
"By the way, why are they held so rarely?"
"Simply because they cost a lot of money."
Leo found Linfia's answer convincing.
Rather than deploy many low-rank adventurers, it was better to send one high-rank adventurer. The best example was an SS-rank adventurer.
Hiring an SS-rank adventurer would be far cheaper than commissioning a Raid Quest. That was how expensive Raid Quests were.
"Do we have the funds for that? I don't have enough to spare."
"Prince Arnold gave me a large sum of money. Let's use it."
"Honestly... He usually doesn't spend money at all, yet he casually hands a fortune to other people."
"Isn't that just like Prince Arnold? He is such a kind man."
Linfia smiled and handed Leo the pouch Arnold had given her.
Leo tilted his head, having assumed that Linfia would be the one to go.
"Wouldn't it be easier for you to handle the paperwork?"
"There's no guarantee I won't betray you. It will be safer to have one of the Imperial Knights go."
Leo frowned at Linfia's words.
Leo already trusted Linfia. He could not imagine her betraying them or losing her nerve. But that was only his personal trust.
At such a crucial juncture, he could not entrust an important mission to a mere adventurer.
Linfia had made the suggestion with Leo's position in mind.
"I will fight at Prince Leonart's side. I made a promise to Prince Arnold. I promised I would definitely be of help to you."
"You've already helped more than enough. Is anyone willing to serve as a messenger?! Someone who can swear they absolutely won't flee!"
With that, Leo called out to the Imperial Knights.
The Imperial Knights would not volunteer merely in response to a request for a messenger. It would be like fleeing from the enemy. Even more so when the member of the imperial family they were supposed to protect, Leo, was fighting.
But Leo had added that he wanted someone who could take pride in never fleeing.
Failing to step forward here would mean admitting that they lacked confidence in themselves.
Every Imperial Knight stepped forward. Leo handed the pouch to the knight most skilled with horses and gave him his orders.
"Head to the nearest city and request a Raid Quest from the Adventurers' Guild! The Adventurers' Guild can contact people across the entire continent! Don't forget to have them report the details of what's happening to the Imperial Capital!"
"Yes, sir! I'll return at once! May fortune favor you!"
"And you!"
With that, the knight rode off.
After watching him leave, Leo turned his gaze toward the city of Bassau.
The black sphere's sinister aura had intensified, while the skeletons showed no sign of dwindling.
It looked like the entrance to hell.
With that thought in mind, Leo simply began swinging his sword, without a thought in his mind.