Chapter 258 – Side Story 7 – The Young Lady’s Night Walk (2)

The place where the group arrived after spatial movement was the ravine where the final battle against the Demon King had taken place during the war.

And in the distance, faintly visible buried in darkness, were the ruins of the Demon King’s dungeon.

Vlad found it difficult to believe Selena’s words immediately.

“Is this really the Demon King’s Ravine?”

“Yes. The undead rising now are the allied forces that died back then.”

Even after seeing the young knight nodding as he looked at the zombies and skeletons emerging from the ground, Vlad still found it hard to believe.

“But the distance from the domain to here…”

This was because although the domain’s location was east of the wall, it was still quite far from the Demon King’s dungeon.

A distance further than from the wall to the domain.

At least a distance that would require crossing one or two countries.

For a young mage to create such a long-distance movement magic on the spot – Vlad had never heard of such a mage, except perhaps for grand mages called Sword Mages.

However, both the young knight and the young lady found Vlad’s disbelief strange.

“I’ve been here before, so it wasn’t difficult. I had set a target then. Besides, it’s not like it’s on the opposite side of the continent, so it’s not hard.”

Vlad felt something off about common sense at the young lady’s words.

He had only seen a mage use spatial movement once before.

Even that mage couldn’t go far and died, yet here was someone using space magic that crossed countries and thinking nothing of it.

Both the domain and the people living there seemed strange.

In any case, Vlad couldn’t help but believe the young lady’s words due to the scene before his eyes.

Undead soldiers bearing the emblems of various countries and domains were approaching where they stood.

The various armors worn by these undead looked like they had been buried for several decades.

The only place where diverse soldiers from different countries had died together decades ago was the Demon King’s Ravine and Plains where they had fought the Demon King.

“As expected, dealing with ordinary undead won’t be enough.”

The young lady frowned as she looked at the approaching undead.

“Well, we’ve known that for a long time. But can you find it this time?”

At the young knight’s words, who was also watching the undead, the young lady glanced at Vlad.

Vlad, who had stepped back slightly, tilted his head again at the young lady’s gaze.

“First, I need to check. This time, there’s someone else besides me.”

With those words, Selena began drawing a magic circle in the air.

“Um, if we’re not going to run away, could you explain?”

The young knight chuckled at Vlad’s cautious question from the side.

Vlad was poised as if ready to flee at any moment.

The undead rising from the ground now seemed slow in their movements, probably from being underground for so long, and it would take a while for them to reach the three.

But Vlad’s posture suggested he would run away immediately without a proper explanation.

“You heard up to the part where the young lady’s parents, the lord and his wives, gave her a task, right?”

No, I heard she forced them to agree to conditions, not that they gave her a task…

“That task was to clear the undead around the domain, and to do that, we need to catch not ordinary undead, but elite undead that lead other undead.”

According to the young knight, land tainted with evil energy could awaken the dead at any time.

Moreover, it seemed to continuously awaken some of the buried corpses each time evil energy gathered, rather than all at once.

“That’s why even now, 20 years after the war ended, the area east of the wall hasn’t been properly cleared. Our domain is fine because the wives spread divine power everywhere, creating sacred zones, but other places are still suffering from undead.”

In fact, even the imperial lands west of the wall weren’t completely cleared.

Undead were still appearing in the eastern part of the Empire that had been swept by undead during the Demon King war.

“But Selena found a way to eliminate the evil energy that keeps awakening undead. It’s by catching the elite undead that generate the evil energy.

That’s how Selena has been making many parts of the domain safe.”

At the young knight’s explanation, Vlad cautiously asked:

“Couldn’t someone else catch these elite undead?”

“The ones that could be caught were already dealt with by the lord and others before. The elite undead Selena has been catching are ones only she can find.”

Undead that only the young lady could find.

Could it be because of that strange mana that only she possessed?

“However, there were elite undead even Selena couldn’t find, and she wanted to catch those before the wives returned.”

In the end, this meant that such undead were here in the Demon King’s Ravine.

It was an amazing story and good information, but Vlad was starting to worry more and more.

There were too many undead approaching this place.

And they had to catch hidden elite undead on top of that.

It looked like even a decent order of knights would struggle here, so was it possible to fight with just two people?

Thinking this, Vlad took another step back.

He was ready to flee if necessary.

This was the eastern edge of the continent, close to uncharted territory. Though it was the Demon King’s Ravine, he thought he could escape if he moved quickly enough.

As he had always done before.

As Vlad was considering escape, Selena spoke:

“…I found it. I found the evil spirit.”

Selena said this while looking at Vlad.

“As expected, it’s as I thought.”

It was a meaningful statement, but Vlad was more concerned about the rapidly approaching undead.

“More importantly, those undead are getting close. Shouldn’t we use spatial movement or run away quickly?”

At Vlad’s urgent words, Selena turned to the young knight.

“You’re right. Please, Seowoo.”

At Selena’s words, the young knight checked the approaching undead, glanced at Vlad, and expressed concern.

“Will it be alright?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect him.”

The young lady confidently thumped her chest.

Seeing this, the young knight sighed.

“That’s why I’m more worried… Well, I guess we have no choice.”

The young knight glanced briefly at the empty space behind them, then took up his sword and charged towards the approaching undead.

Vlad couldn’t understand.

He knew the young knight was an exceptional knight for his age, but the horde of undead approaching now was not a number one knight could handle.

‘Was he far more skilled than I thought?’

However, Vlad had seen the young knight’s skills before… Unless he had been hiding his abilities then, there was no way he could handle these approaching undead alone.

Moreover, the approaching undead weren’t coming from just one direction.

The undead were spread out widely above and below, centered on where the dungeon was, as they approached.

Even if the young knight blocked them, the rest of the undead would all come towards where the young lady and Vlad were.

‘Should I really run away?’

Vlad thought this as he watched the young knight charge forward, but in the end, all his worries were unnecessary.

Of course, it wasn’t that the young knight had been hiding his skills.

Nor did he end up in danger.

When the young knight met the undead, he didn’t deal with them.

He merely passed between the undead, lightly inflicting wounds with his sword as he went.

Though the wounds didn’t disappear because they were infused with mana, they were so small that the injured undead continued to follow the young knight.

Not only the undead that had originally moved towards the young knight, but even those that had been coming towards Vlad and the young lady all followed the young knight.

Seeing this, Vlad was reminded of a hunter’s monster hunt he had seen before.

“Could it be… a drive hunt?”

“Seowoo calls it ‘mob herding’.”

The young lady shrugged proudly at Vlad’s exclamation, as if she had done it herself.

Listening to the young lady’s proud voice, Vlad watched the young knight running while dragging the horde of undead.

It looked more like bait hunting than drive hunting, but either way, it seemed to be about gathering the undead in one place.

However, even to Vlad’s eyes, the young knight’s efforts to gather the undead seemed somewhat lacking.

“But the distant undead are still just coming here.”

“There’s a method for that too. Watch carefully.”

Before the young lady finished speaking, the young knight, while running, reached into a pouch at his waist.

His hand went deep into the small pouch.

It was clearly a magic pouch.

For a young apprentice knight to have a magic pouch that even formal knights found difficult to obtain – Vlad couldn’t help but be surprised again.

But the surprises didn’t end there.

The object the young knight pulled out of the magic pouch shocked Vlad even more.

‘It looks like an iron rod with strange things attached all over it.’

Of course, when Vlad first saw the object, he was more puzzled than surprised.

It was neither a sword nor a spear, but an incomprehensible, ambiguous implement.

However, the next moment, that ambiguous implement spat out flames with a thunderous sound.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Startled, Vlad covered his ears and looked on to see bones of distant undead shattering each time the implement flashed.

“A magic staff? Is the knight actually a mage?”

The young lady laughed at Vlad’s surprised words and answered:

“That’s not magic. It’s something called a gun. It shoots balls by exploding gunpowder.”

Though Vlad didn’t fully understand the young lady’s words, he realized that the iron rod was a special implement, something like an artifact.

“If the first mother were here, we could probably kill the undead with that gun, but now it can barely scratch them.”

As the young lady said, the undead hit by the artifact called a gun staggered but continued moving.

It was like undead hit by arrows.

If so, like bows that were useless in fights against undead, this weapon seemed useless too.

“Still, it’s perfect for luring them.”

As the young lady said, all the undead hit by the artifact called a gun started moving towards the young knight who had fired it.

The undead swarming towards the fleeing young knight.

As the undead gathered into a massive horde, the young lady raised her hand.

“Now then, let’s clear out the mobs first.”

With those words, a huge fireball formed above the undead horde.

The next moment, the fireball fell to the ground.

Boom!

A massive explosion engulfed the undead horde.

Hundreds of undead were incinerated in an instant.

The young knight, who had seemed to be caught in the flames too, was completely unharmed.

Of course, when he returned, smoke was billowing from his armor and body, but not a single wound was visible.

“Now, I’ll go catch the evil spirit here.”

As the young knight approached, the young lady said this and flew up into the sky.

The young knight sighed at this sight.

Watching their comedic interaction, Vlad slightly moved his foot to crush the ground.

His foot was simultaneously burying skeleton bones emerging from the earth back into the ground.