Vol 3 Chapter 78 – vs. Undead Commander & Undead Lackeys【Empire War Arc】

Three undead stood before them. The one in the middle, with slightly fancier clothes, was clearly the top dog here.

“Guess I should show off what I can do for once.”

Saying that, Ange stepped to the front.

“I’ll at least cover you.”

“Mm, counting on you, Bo-ss!”

“…”

“I’m kidding! Don’t make that sulky face!! —Alright, I’m going in.”

Ange drew her beloved Celestial Blade and took her stance. The aura surrounding her was very different from when she had faced Roy and the others at Grentze Fort.

Any ordinary human would have sensed the danger and refused to approach, but the undead paid it no mind, staggering toward her.

“…He…lp… me…”

With the last remnants of his consciousness, the undead commander begged Ange for salvation. From his perspective, the golden Celestial Blade may well have looked like a beam of light from the heavens.

Ange answered the being that continued to move even in death.

“…Got it.”

The undead commander swung his longsword down from above—but never hit. The silhouette of Ange that he had been aiming for shimmered like a heat mirage and vanished.

“Afterimage Sword: Phantom.”

A line of light traced itself from the undead’s shoulder to his chest, and light began to spill out from within.
The undead smiled, and then his body dissolved into particles.

“Roy, these guys aren’t normal undead. Their weak point is this, buried in their hearts.”

Ange tossed a black, orb-like object to Roy.

“…Dark Matter, huh. How’d you figure out they had this stuffed in their chests?”

“Our eyes met when we crossed blades. Normal undead never look anywhere in particular… Anyway, I’ll leave the other two to you guys!”

Roy snagged the undead that had been about to swing at Ange with Shadow Whip, yanked it in, and cut it down in a single stroke.

Sarina and Sophia took care of the last one, each driving their weapons clean through its heart.

Clink, clink.

What remained after the undead turned into particles were the black Dark Matter orbs. For something to end so easily just by damaging the orb… As weapons, they were almost laughably fragile.

“Roy-saaan! There’s a diary or something from the guy before he turned on the desk!”

Yukino, who had been terrified of the undead earlier, was now cheerfully rummaging through the room.

Roy took the diary from her and read through it, gleaning various bits of information.

“Listen up. First, these undead really were the commander and his attendants. They were subordinates of nobles who had rallied to Lydia Kingston’s cause, and swallowing these black orbs was apparently the requirement for people of commander class.”

“…So these people gradually lost their sense of self.”

Standing next to him, Yukino read along and wore a pained expression.

“The ones who didn’t ‘synchronize’ with it just got a slight bump in mana, it seems. And the final entry is dated three days ago. They probably died once on that day.”

“The reason their response to the surprise attack was so slow… was because their command structure had already collapsed, yes.”

Everyone nodded at Sophia’s observation. Then Yukino, noticing something, turned to her to confirm it.

“Sophia-san, doesn’t it feel like Dart-san’s gotten way too strong?”

“…Indeed. His strength was far beyond what you’d expect from merely boosting his mana a little.”

Both Sophia and Yukino had fought Dart. The “black wind” he had shown them back then was on a completely different level from the original Dart they knew.

“In other words, Dart is one of the ‘compatible’ ones.”

The amount of Dark Matter that could be mined was extremely small, and until recently there was no technology to make effective use of it. There had been a single known case in the past where it had synchronized with a monster; because of that, Dark Matter had been designated forbidden and its use strictly prohibited.

“Hmm? Wait. Then why didn’t anything happen to Warren or his knights?”

“Roy, Lydia has only started moving in earnest recently, you know? Even if she obtained the technology, with the current extraction volume she’d have to be careful about who she used it on.”

“Got it. So to Lydia, these guys’ master was someone she trusted.”

New technology, using it on humans instead of monsters, armed uprising against the capital, and a being that looked suspiciously like one of the demon race helping Lydia…
Roy could not shake the feeling that something ominous was lurking behind it all.

—Suddenly, the door opened.

“Roy-kun, looks like you’ve got things wrapped up on this end.”

The one who came in was Eiden. With no more sounds of battle, it seemed the fort had fallen safely.

“Eiden, looks like you’re alright too. I was a little worried leaving everything to you alone.”

“You worry too much… Also, you could have warned me King Volga was in Testeed. Seeing him in there almost stopped my heart, you know!?”

A nobleman wearing a lab coat, gesturing wildly as he spoke. He cared about other territories enough to develop new crop varieties, and on top of that, he had analyzed the Tomahawk to study corruption… In short, the guy was a soft touch in all kinds of ways.

“Is there something on my face?”

“No, nothing. More importantly, Sophia looks like she’s dying to hug you.”

“W-What!? I-I most certainly am not!! Don’t you dare hug me!”

Sophia ran away, Eiden chased after her. To anyone who did not know them, it would look exactly like some lecherous old man harassing a young lady.

“Eiden-san seems really happy to see her again.”

“Yeah. He probably wanted to take her in as his daughter, deep down. But doing that would have dragged her into all kinds of political baggage… Whatever happened in Eiden’s past, he must have, in his heart, thought of her as his real daughter.”

“Roy-san, you really understand Eiden-san well~, don’t you? It’d be nice if you understood us that well too…”

“I understand my party members just fine. Or are you saying there’s something I don’t know?”

“Nope~, nothing at aaal~l.”

Feeling vaguely dissatisfied by Yukino’s prickly tone, Roy turned his gaze outside.
The snowfall had turned into a full-on blizzard, and he judged that pushing deeper into Kingston territory would be difficult until it let up.