Volu 1 Chapter 38: The Town of Paknir Before the Fall
Translator: The Light
The small town of Paknir was situated in the south of the Gabriel Empire(swordsn), it was a sparsely populated place close to the larger military-based town of Sakerid. When light broke over Paknir today, the town’s residents discovered that there were quite a number of visitors and guests to their small town, all either rcenaries and adventurers.
The residents didn’t find this too strange as a detachnt from the Gabriel Empire’s royal guards as well as quite a few of the Church of Light’s templar knights had passed hurriedly through their town just last night. The residents of Paknir guessed that the beastn were making mustering their forces once again on the border, it wasn’t that rare of an occurrence lately.
The Gabriel Empire had sealed off any news of the terrifying outbreak of undead in Sakerid, as such a large-scale and seemingly unstoppable outbreak would surely strike unrest into the general populace. Just like when the Laerte line had been captured by so unknown forces of evil, there were so news that just couldn’t be shared publicly.
“Hey, did you hear? They’ve discovered so treasure from the previous dynasty in Sakerid, the royal family and the Church are working together to hide this valuable information from the public.”
“Where’d you get this fake news, you dimwit, I heard from my cousin who is one of Sakerid’s town guards, that the Empire and Church discovered traces of when the god of light had descended down to our world in Sakerid, and that any light mages that go there to train for one day will beat training normally for a year! Not so dumb past dynasty’s treasure.”
“Shut up, you liar, your cousin was transferred to the Laerte line last year, how the hell did he tell you about what’s going on in Sakerid?”
“Stop arguing, I’m one of our mayor, Baron Jeffrey’s personal guards. The mayor had received notice that so very dangerous monsters had appeared in Sakerid and the Empire needed to hire all these rcenaries to help in the subjugation of those monsters.”
Within the Azure Wind, the most luxurious dining place in the entire town of Paknir, a fat man in extravagant clothing was discussing with a well dressed gentleman. They had ordered an entire table covered with plates of the most expensive dishes that the Azure Wind had to offer for just the two of them, it was quite evident that there was no way that they would be able to finish all of it.
The fatty with the greedy look on his face, golden rings on all ten of his fingers, and a thick necklace set with sparkling gems around his thick neck, was the mayor of this small town, Baron Jeffrey. He was a greedy person who only sought to enrich himself, willing to do anything for money, there was even an unconfird rumour that he had previously sold information about the military town of Sakerid to the enemy beastn forces.
“Sir Clent, I’ve already ordered my n to spread the rumours, now there should be at least a few dozen different sayings about what’s happening in Sakerid right now. Except, will the Empire investigate after this?”
“What are you scared of, Jeffrey-dono? I’m sure that the empire’s upper echelons would rather you spread even more confusion among the peasantry, so that they can keep secret whatever is truly happening in Sakerid. Anyways, I’ve also bribed your boss Count Spyke as well, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Here, this is a little bit of my appreciation for you.”
If an outsider were to see this scene they would definitely be shocked, as a baron of the Gabriel Empire was paying such respect to a re Knight, who was below him in terms of nobility. This was sothing that was against the strict hierarchy of power in the empire.
This Knight, Clent, was soone who had only ca to the lilight in the underground of the Empire over the past month. As Knight was only an honorary title, with no fief, anyone with enough money could purchase the title of Knight from any noble with a fief. However, Clent’s political relations were quite complicated, knowing much of the higher class nobility within the empire.
Apart from his connections, Clent was unnaturally wealthy, being very generous indeed. His ‘little bit of appreciation’ for Baron Jeffrey was a small box filled with gold bars. In all of the human empires, gold bars were used as currency for beneath-the-radar transactions, it could be said that behind each gold bar hid a dirty transaction.
“Knight-sama is quite generous, here, I still have two important pieces of information to sell you. Except, this might be betraying the agreent I had with the previous buyers, you see...”
“Speak, we’re good friends, are we not!”
“This is... Clent-sama, it’s like this...:”
Seeing the beautiful pure-white gemstone on the table between them, Jeffrey imdiate threw all sense of virtue behind him and quickly spilled the beans, betraying all those who had purchased these two pieces of information before Clent.
After quite a while, Baron Jeffrey left the Azure Wind with a look fulfillnt on his face, holding on tightly to the diamond as if it would disappear if he loosened his grip. It seems that the deal had been completed.
This little fatty is quite useful, just a bit greedy. Demon King-sama should be arriving soon, I should hurry and go welco her and tell her what the human just told .
Clent left through the door soon after Baron Jeffrey, no one would suspect that this well dressed gentleman wasn’t a human at all. Clent was one of the most welcod subordinate dark suzerains of the Dark Sanctuary’s demon kings, ã??Master of Facesã?? Clent. Clent was currently carrying out demon king Bella’s orders and had infiltrated the Gabriel Empire several months ago and had gathered large amounts of valuable information as well as using large amounts of wealth to buy countless ‘connections’ within the various tiers of the Gabriel Empire’s nobility.
___
At the entrance to the town of Paknir, a party of adventurers were walking in, the reason why people knew they were adventurers and not rcenaries were because of the fact that they weren’t wearing any armbands that signified what rcenary company they belonged to. Normally, rcenary companies would be given special armbands by the rcenaries’ guild with their company’s emblem as well as their company’s level, from F to SSS there were a total of 9 levels, with SSS being the highest level.
What drew all the attention towards this party of ‘adventurers’ was that the party was composed entirely of girls. The party had six knights, one archer, one assassin, and four lolis that seed to be their servants. It was a sha that their faces were masked by ugly looking clown masks and their figures were hidden by a large black cloak. If it wasn’t for the weapons in their hands, it would have been hard to determine what profession these girls were in.
Bella looked a little depressed as she rode upon one of the warhorses that they had just purchased, this ti, apart from the two ‘princesses’ of the Dark Sanctuary, the two lolis Lilith and Lilian; all the other girls of the Dark Sanctuary were now accompanying her. The party was comprised of six knights: Bella, Dolores, Eleanor, Irene, Lisha, and Roland, the archer Annie, the assassin Lola, as well as the three goddess level lolis and the princess of the demon world. Hadias.
After receiving Kriss’ call for help, Bella had quickly assembled the Dark Sanctuary’s beauties to create this ‘rescue party’. Bella was rather mad that she had been interrupted at such an important mont, but because the one who had interrupted her was Kriss, Bella couldn’t exactly take out her anger on Kriss.
It was fortunate that Bella was already around 70% done the ‘conquest’ of Lola and Irene, on their chests was a mark that only demon kings could see, that mark was sothing demon kings gave their subordinates when they were given the title of general within the ranks of the demon king’s army. Bella had learned the steps for doing so during her ti in Lisha’s mory world, based on when Lisha had bestowed the title upon the demon marshal, Rebecca.
Irene joining the Dark Sanctuary was sothing that Bella had planned for a while, Lola was more of sothing that ca as part of a ‘package deal’ with Lisha as her follower, as Bella and Lisha had made peace with each other already Bella couldn’t deny the addition of Lola to the Dark Sanctuary. Anyways, Lola was one of Lisha’s best friends as well as sothing akin to a personal servant for her, if Bella conquered Lisha, Lola would naturally be unable to escape the her fate anyways.
Right now, both Irene and Lola averted their eyes from Bella, as they had been just narrowly avoided being completely eaten up by Bella. Even thinking back on it now, they could feel their face heating up.
“Nee-sama, were you doing sothing fun just before? Why didn’t you call take with you! Just call and I’ll be there in seconds.”
“Nee-san, weren’t Lisha and Lola our enemies, why are they with us now?.”
“Nee-san, there’s sothing strange, before I didn’t notice because of the distance but I can feel sothing familiar from Lisha-nee, the last ti that I felt sothing like this was from Kriss-nee.”
As for the questions that the three lolis: Mia, Angel, and Noesha were throwing at her, Bella could only answer them one by one. Because they had asked their questions quietly while beside Bella, the other girls in the party who were following behind them weren’t able to hear the questions that the lolis were asking Bella.
“You adventurers over there, our rcenary company has already booked this entire inn, if you want to... woah...”
A burly man who had blocked Bella’s path wanted to say sothing, but Bella grabbed his hand before he could finish and threw him across the room, cutting the burly man off before he could finish his words.
“This friend over there, our Tempest rcenary Company doesn’t...”
“Cut the blabbering, we’re here to make trouble. Hurry it up, we’re in a rush here.”
A middle-aged swordsman in heavy armour blocked Bella’s path, he was the leader of the Tempest rcenary Company and he couldn’t exactly just stand and watch as his n were getting thrown across the room, even if Bella had made quick work of a high-tier swordsman.
“There’s going to be a show here, the Tempest rcenary Company is a level C rcenary company, there are a few hundred of them here in Paknir right now, these girls might be in for so trouble.”
Seeing the possibility of a fight, quite a few rcenaries and residents of Paknir surrounded the inn to watch. The security of Paknir wasn’t great, the number of the town guards were few, along with the fact that personal conflict between rcenaries and adventurers were sothing that fell within the jurisdiction of their respective guilds rather than the town’s administration, ant that fighting between rcenaries and adventurers as well as other rcenaries were quite commonplace.
Looking at the hundreds of burly rcenaries that had surrounded their party, Bella wasn’t worried at all. No one in her party could be considered weak and it wouldn’t be hard for them to wipe the floor with these rcenaries, it was that there were just too many onlookers at the mont and it would be a bit annoying for Bella’s party to show their true power at such a ti.
“Can everyone do this old man a favor and stop the fighting? There are more inns than just this one here. To the fellows of the Tempest rcenary Company, I’m sorry for what these adventurers have done because I was the one to hire their help, they’re still young and you know how hot-headed young people are, right? This was all just a misunderstanding.”
The Knight Clent showed up in the nick of ti to stop the fighting, seeing that it was Clent who stepped in, the onlookers all dispersed. Right now, everyone with a bit of connections in the Gabriel Empire(swordsn) knew who Clent was and how he had quickly taken to the lilight in just over a month and had connection with many mbers of the Empire’s nobility.
“If it isn’t Sir Clent! I’ll do you a favor and take my n elsewhere for now, except that this friend of mine has a family at ho that depends on...”
“Here is a little piece of my gratitude for you and your n, captain-sama!”
Seeing the heavy bag of gold coins that Clent handed over, the captain of the Tempest rcenary Company knew that he should stop and accept it. This bag of gold was enough for three months of their company’s expenses even if they didn’t take any commissions during that period, it would have taken the Tempest rcenary Company at least half a year to make this amount normally. In tis like this, it was the intelligent choice to now towards the power of the wealthy.
“It seems that you’ve fit in quite well, Clent! Was a bag of gold all that it took to bribe those rcenaries, isn’t that kind of cheap?”
“This... demon king-sama and the honoured guests of the Dark Sanctuary, this subordinate has already prepared the things that were requested, please co with to the manor.”
Clent couldn’t really answer Bella’s question as he was just a dark suzerain who was a bit smarter than his peers. Clent didn’t have much interest in human currency and if it wasn’t for the fact that the demon king Bella had so interest, Clent wouldn’t have bothered collecting such a large amount of human currency.
In all of the human empires, common peasants probably wouldn’t ever need to use gold coins, which were the exclusive currency of the rich and nobility. Amongst the commoners, those who used silver coins we’re already considered well off. Bella didn’t have any use for human currency in the Dark Sanctuary so she didn’t have knowledge of what an entire bag of gold coins ant to a small group of rcenaries.
___
In a wooded area outside of Paknir, the Tempest rcenary Company had t their end, the gold coins that they had received earlier were all taken by their attacker. The company’s captain looked towards sothing with a look of terror on his face, the last expression that he ever showed on this world, because not long after he made this face, his head separated from the rest of his body
“That damned Clent, always making do this kind of stuff for him. I don’t understand humans, what’s so important about a bag of tal circles?!”
ã??Bone-corroding Dukeã?? Adrian sent the severed head on the ground flying with a kick, still holding the bag of gold coins in his hand. At this mont Adrian looked more like a bandit chief than a dark suzerain.
“Adrian-sama, there’s sothing strange about these corpses. Look, they’re getting back up and attacking us!”
“What the hell? Turning undead in front of , a dark suzerain? Sound the signal, gather all the Bone Crushers in the area, the upper echelons of the Dark Sanctuary are in town today, it’s ti to show them our loyalty!”
The mbers of the Tempest rcenary Company who had been slaughtered began rising up one by one, the scene here bore strong resemblance to that of Sakerid, when the town’s residents had been killed by the undead and joined their ranks quickly after.
“Adrian-sama, these undead seem unfazed by our swords, they’re even trying to bite us!”
“Grind their bones to dust, I want to see how they’re going to get back up without any bones!”
The virus that was the source of the out break didn’t have any effect on Adrian and the special evil beings, Bone Crushers, under his command. The thousand Bone Crushers made quick work of the several hundred newly risen undead, who were no longer able to continue getting back up after having every bone in their body ground to a pulp.
Back in the small town Paknir, isolated cases of zombies had already appeared, with the occasional scream of terror being heard. It seed that the virus had already spread from the military town of Sakerid, the current state of the Church of Light’s templar knights and the detachnt of the empire’s royal guards which were deployed around Sakerid was unknown.
“Adrian-sama, undead like these have started to appear in Paknir, what’s our next course of action?”
“Imdiately gather all the Bone Crushers, we’re going to go help demon king-samas. These filthy undead aren’t deserving of being ended by the demon king-samas, it’s best to leave the dirty work to us. On your way, find and tell ã??Shadowless Demonã?? Tanpur to keep an eye on the situation in nearby towns and villages, he should be in the area.”
___
In a rather elaborate manor within the town of Paknir, Bella and the others were waiting. This manor was owned by one of Bella’s subordinate dark suzerains, Clent. Currently, the manor’s gate was locked and blockaded from the inside with furniture and other heavy items.
Bella and the others had started to hear the screams from outside as soon as they had entered the manor’s gate. It was rather fortunate of them to have entered the manor when they had, the streets outside had fallen into a state of chaos, with infected seeking out and attacking those who were still human, increasing the ranks of the undead.
In reaction to this sudden outbreak, the town’s mayor, Baron Jeffrey had quickly ordered all of the town’s guards back to his manor and barricaded themselves inside. Jeffrey chose to ignore what was going on outside his manor’s walls, the town guards numbered only 100 and there was no way that they would be able to suppress all the undead outside.
Although Bella had heard from Kriss quite a bit about the strange outbreak in Sakerid through the communication stone, but she hadn’t expected that this outbreak to spread so fast across such a large area.
If the virus was allowed to keep spreading, Bella might actually have to go borrow so nuclear weapons from ã??Machine Creatorã?? Andrea to try and put an end to virus and stop it from destroying the entire world before Bella got a chance to explore it all.
What was worse about their situation was that Bella’s party were now in the sa dilemma that Kriss and the others were in, their clothes had already began to darken and started to show signs of fading away. If they didn’t figure out sothing soon, they would end up unclothed in no ti at all, aning that they won’t even be able to leave this manor’s gate in case so lucky pervert was still alive outside.
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