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An attack of undead that suddenly happened in the city. 

I left the information delivery to Dyuvuleori and was swamped with dealing with the undead. 

But this is pretty troublesome. 

It is not like I can just defeat the undead that enter my vision. 

I also have to get rid of the civilians that died from being attacked by undead and turned into undead.

The ones that encounter undead and die become new undead by being basked in their mana. 

I cleaned the area around the wound with purification magic, and carried them to the shadow of a nearby building. 

There would be no need for so much time if it were just the corpse, but the problem is when there’s the relatives of the dead nearby. 

I couldn’t just suddenly use my chains to stab the dead in front of the people who are sad about all this. 

It is not like all of them will listen obediently when they have lost their precious people. 

“That person will become an undead at this rate. We have to use purification magic to—” (Ekdoik)

“Don’t touch my wife! Aaah! Why…Why did this happen…? Please! Please open your eyes!” 

There’s no knowing when an undead would attack if we were to just stay in place. 

And yet, this man was hugging the corpse of the woman and wouldn’t move. 

I should be ignoring the circumstances of this man and stabbing the corpse this man is hugging with my chains.

I have to head quickly to the next undead and deal with the corpses as well or there will be more and more casualties. 

“Uh…” 

“! Aah, no way! That’s a relief! You were alri—?!” 

“Uah!” 

I tear away the corpse that had turned into an undead from the hands of the man with my chains. 

It seems like his shoulder has been gouged, but it is not a fatal wound. 

“She is not the woman you once knew. She has become a monster that will kill anyone on sight.” (Ekdoik)

“…” 

“If I deal with it using purification magic, we can still bring back the corpse without harm. Decide—” (Ekdoik)

“Please let go. Please let me…go to where my wife is…” 

The eyes of the man were hollow but they were serious. 

I loosen the chains and free the man. 

The man walked over to where his undead wife was.

The undead bit his neck to take his life without hesitation. But the man didn’t resist and continued hugging the undead.

“…!” 

I confirmed that the man didn’t move anymore and stabbed both of their bodies with my chains. 

I move the two of them to a back alley while keeping them both hugging each other. 

I am not that man. I can’t correctly gauge the worth of this hug. 

Even if so, I could tell what was important for that man. 

“So you were here, Ekdoik.” 

“Belard, huh.” (Ekdoik)

“The Blue Demon Lord-sama and Melia are heading this way. The mission given to us was to deal with the undead and assist in the evacuation of the people.” (Belard)

“Got it. I will regroup with them at once.” (Ekdoik)

I must not mistake the priorities. 

I will have to put protecting Blue and Melia as my highest priority as long as I am going to be acting together with them.

I look back at the back alley where I carried the two of them just now, and head deeper into the city with Belard. 

Blue and Melia were already there working together to deal with the undead. 

“Ekdoik-san, it is great that we managed to regroup quickly!” (Melia)

“Yeah. Blue, what were Comrade’s instructions?” (Ekdoik)

“He said that the culprit is most likely Princess Hilmera, so he has gone to capture her. Rakura is going to meet up with Haakudoku and the others to get help from Mejis!” (Blue)

This chaos is caused by Princess Hilmera… 

What I thought when I saw undead was Raheight. Comrade must have judged that Princess Hilmera was the helper of Raheight. 

“I see. Then, we should work hard to reduce the damage as much as possible. I know the battle prowess of Melia, but…how strong are you against undead, Blue?” (Ekdoik)

“Even if I can’t flail around my power as a Demon Lord, I can use magic that affects necromancy. I can deal with them in a more cost-efficient way than purification magic.” (Blue)

“That’s great to hear. Melia and Belard, stay by the side of Blue and—?!” (Ekdoik)

The purification magic imbued in my chains was dispelled. 

No, not only my purification magic.

All kinds of magic activation have been hampered. 

The chains can still move through mana, but I can’t use any magic at all to assist on those movements. 

I noticed Melia and Blue can’t use magic either.

This is…

“Magic seal stones?! Moreover, this is…!” (Ekdoik)

There’s no signs of magic seal stones around. 

What I can think of is that a pretty big magic seal stone has been transported into Serende. 

I heard that the nations have giant magic seal stones stored near their borders in preparation for the invasion of other countries. 

Princess Hilmera has seized that location and had the undead carry it here. 

“E-E-Ekdoik-san! What should we do?!” (Melia)

“Calm down, Melia. You are a holy knight, right? You may not be able to use magic, but you can deal with the attacks of undead with just mana strengthening.” (Ekdoik)

“Right. Also, I have become deadweight to a shocking degree.” (Blue)

Melia and I have trained in combat, so we can deal with the attacks of undead. However, Blue’s battle style revolves around magic. 

With all magic sealed, there’s a lot less things she can do. 

“Can’t you call your subordinate monsters?” (Ekdoik)

“I can do that. Eido is already headed here.” (Blue)

Eido was the skeleton horse, right? 

It is great to be able to increase your mobility in this time when you can’t use magic. 

“Blue Demon Lord-sama, how about calling Daruagestia? It should be able to carry a lot of people at once for evacuation.” (Melia)

“You…just think about what would happen if I were to bring a gigantic undead monster in this situation. Everyone would run the opposite direction.” (Blue)

“…Right. People can’t tell monsters apart.” (Melia)

But that makes dealing with the undead difficult. 

I can bind them with my chains, but now that I can’t change the length of the chains with magic, I can’t bind several at the same time. 

Now that it has come to this, we have to prioritize rescuing the people—

“Aaah!” (Blue)

“What’s the matter, Blue?” (Ekdoik)

Blue shouts often, but this one is more like she realized something rather than anger. 

There’s no doubt she noticed something important. 

“Wait a moment! A magic seal stone for war being brought into the city means that most of the people in this city can’t use magic, right?!” (Blue)

“T-That’s right.” (Ekdoik)

“Isn’t Rakura in trouble?!” (Blue)

“?!” 

◇◇

“Kya!” 

I ran to where Masetta-san and the others were while using purification magic on the undead when I saw them, but I suddenly couldn’t use magic. 

Seeing as how the construction of it was disintegrated, I could tell that it was erased through a magic seal stone, but I can’t see the magic seal stone in question. 

A pretty big one must have been transported here. 

I am currently running away from the undead.

I can’t win against them no matter what after all.

“Uuh, I haven’t trained for the times when magic seal stones are used!” (Rakura)

Our magic is mainly used against monsters. 

I seriously can’t do anything in situations like this as opposed to Mix-chan who excels at fighting against people. 

I should have learned a bit more from Ukka-sama about fighting styles when a magic seal stone is used. 

What’s fortunate here is that I can still use mana strengthening, so I can still run away from the undead. 

I can harden myself, so I can’t pull off physical combat though. 

I haven’t learned martial arts to begin with! 

I was complaining in my mind and an undead showed up in front of me again! 

Detour—wait, there’s one here too?! 

What should I do?! 

“Just when I thought I saw a familiar face. It was you, huh, Rakura Salf.” 

“T-That voice… Who were you again?” (Rakura)

I turned around at the familiar voice and the undead-san was buried inside a wall…

Uhm, if I remember correctly, I fought against them a bit in Kuama… I haven’t heard the name but…

Before that person answered, one more undead ran here, and was smashed onto the wall. 

I see. 

Being able to seal their movements like that is really nice. 

“Yasutet. It is Yasutet.” 

“Ah! Yasutet-san!” (Rakura)

Right, the subordinate of Ritial-san, Yasutet-san! 

The person that can cast sturdier barriers than me and an Illegitimate-san of Yugura that excels in concentration! 

It seems like he doesn’t have a barrier out, but he specialized in physical combat to begin with, so he has extremely good moves despite only using mana strengthening. 

“I haven’t introduced myself to you, but we did help each other out though…” (Yasutet)

“S-Sorry… Ah, but I do remember you were really strong!” (Rakura)

“Contrary to you, who seem to be in a pretty precarious situation because of the magic seal stone. It makes me feel bad for having lost to you, Rakura Salf.” (Yasutet)

“Hiih… Wait, you talked like that before, Yasutet-san? I feel like you were the kind of guy that built stuff up a bit more before speaking…” (Rakura)

Also, why are you calling me by my full name? 

I feel apprehensive about it because it reminds me of how Ekdoik-niisan was before…

“I don’t need to calmly support that little sister-like woman from the back after all. You are heading…to the facility where Masetta Noitch and Haakudoku Heriodora are in, huh.” (Yasutet)

“Ah, yes. But why are you calling them by their full names?” (Rakura)

“…It is not like we are friends, and calling them without honorifics would be way too familiar, right? That said, you have a brother like Ekdoik, so calling you Salf would be confusing. I judged that it would be better to just call you all by your full names.” (Yasutet)

“I don’t mind you just calling me Rakura, you know?” (Rakura)

I think this person is the serious type that can be considerate, but he is the type who overthinks things and gets seen as weird, huh.

“Then, Rakura…-san. I shall accompany you to your destination.” (Yasutet)

“I am happy about that, but why are you here?” (Rakura)

“Arcreal was attacked when he was hiding near Serende. We saved the person himself, but there was the chance they would send new assassins, so I was ordered to be on the lookout. The time for my shift was coming and the meeting point was the facility where Haakudoku…-kun is in, so I was heading there.” (Yasutet)

“Going out of your way to make the place near Haakudoku-san as the meeting point is quite peculiar.” (Rakura)

Haakudoku-san is an expert in detection magic. 

They may not be enemies anymore, but I don’t know about meeting up near the place of a person that is a bundle of caution. 

“Tsudwali wanted to visit Haakudoku-kun, you see.” (Yasutet)

“Aah.” (Rakura)

If I remember correctly, those two fought in the ruins. 

Maybe they have a pretty deep discord? 

I think it will be fine, but I should report it to Counselor-sama.

“I will deal with the undead. You be on guard for ambushes from undead, Rakura-san. I can’t cast barriers either, so I want to concentrate on physical combat.” (Yasutet)

“If it is just that… Uuh. To think I would be this powerless after magic has been completely sealed…” (Rakura)

“Even if it is a bad thing, you will always be able to find new possibilities from new discoveries. I myself recently learned that I have talent in farming.” (Yasutet)

I think not being useful at all without magic and finding out you have talent in farming are two completely different things though. 

That said, I feel like his expression when talking about this is extremely soft. 

This person gave off a really sour atmosphere in the past, but maybe he found something that would clear his heart after that battle? 

“You seem to be happy. Is it that great?” (Rakura)

“I just feel like grinning, thinking about the jealous face of Arcreal.” (Yasutet)

“I can’t understand what you are talking about!” (Rakura)

I am a bit curious about it, but this is not the time for that.

 We have to hurry and regroup with Masetta-san and the others. 

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