Volume 2, Chapter 24: Half-Face Witch, Adamaria ②
As he chased after the signs of the death black crystal, Lambert arrived at Barreira City’s adventurer graveyard, 『The Final Resting Place of Nameless Heroes』.
This was a graveyard under direct supervision of the lord. When a member of an adventurer guild died, they could be buried in this graveyard in exchange for leaving their assets to their guild.
The reason for this was because the majority of the adventurers were wanderers from far away places.
In addition, the majority of them had no relatives.
Many of those adventurers were buried in 『The Final Resting Place of Nameless Heroes』.
But then, adventurers whose jobs involved treading the thin line between life and death rarely had any savings.
In addition, many adventurers used the articles left by their deceased comrades without reporting it to the government.
The purpose of 『The Final Resting Place of Nameless Heroes』 was to ease the minds of poor adventurers, who constantly put their lives on the line to protect the territory and its people. It was to let them know that, even if they died, they’d have a proper burial.
Although Lambert had no idea about the place’s background, he guessed as much upon seeing the statue of a brave warrior shouldering his sword at the entrance of the graveyard, the cheap tombs, and the condition of the graveyard itself.
But there was one, big tomb that looked different from the others. It was located in the deepest part of the graveyard.
It was the graveyard of the hero who also became the reason for the earl to build this graveyard.
The hero who saved Barreira in the past, Hildyard Armgren.
He was an adventurer who lost his life after he protected Barreira City from a monster stampede forty years ago.
Twenty human bodies, whose che*sts had already been dug out, were tied with rope around that grave.
And then, below those bodies were numerous magic circles painted with the blood and flesh of those corpses.
Lambert guessed that the scene unfolding before him was some sort of preparation to invoke sorcery.
There were two men in front of the grave.
One man was a skinny, reaper-like man—clad in black robes—sitting on the grave.
In his hands, he clutched a death black crystal, which casted an ominous light upon the scene.
And then, a big man holding an earthen-colored shield stood, as if protecting that skinny man.
There was no life in his eyes.
The skinny, reaper-like man looked at Lambert while sticking out his tongue.
「…Sure enough, Adamaria-sama was right. This guy really did appear.」
He then stood up.
「But you made a mistake by coming to this world. Look at this appearance. Not even Adamaria-sama was able to uncover his identity. Did you see it, wanderer? But I guess you should have at least heard his name before. He is the great hero, Hildyard-sama. Well, even a hero like him was reduced to nothing more than our pawn after his death. I heard that you’re strong, but… do you think that you can beat this legendary hero? 」
After the men spoke, the big man―the hero who saved Barreira City in the past—Hildyard raised a warcry as he lifted his axe.
「FUUH… FUUH… FUGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
「NOW THEN, SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT, LEGENDARY HERO! THIS WILL BE YOUR ENTRANCE TEST! HAHAHAHA! USE YOUR TOMB TO DESTROY THE CITY… WHAT A FUNNY JOKE!!」
Hildyard rushed toward Lambert with a speed that betrayed his large frame.
He leaped toward Lambert with a low posture.
…Or so it seemed. Hildyard’s body suddenly fluttered in midair, and he brandished his axe with pin-point precision from an unexpected angle.
It was a technique that would kill anyone who saw it for the first time, a deadly attack that utilized the element of surprise.
It was a deathblow that made full use of Hildyard’s weight and centrifugal force.
The axe that was swung with such power was heading toward Lambert’s head.
「HAHAHAHAHAHA! GREAT, THAT’S GREAT!」
The skinny man’s laugh resounded in the graveyard.
And then, a flash of light cut through Hildyard’s body.
The axe in Hildyard’s hand fell to the ground.
A moment later, Hildyard’s body split right in half in front of Lambert.
「…Eh?」
Lambert looked down at Hildyard’s corpse.
Hildyard’s pseudo-flesh, which was made from sorcery, started to crumble like sand until nothing but his skeleton remained.
The skinny man’s body trembled non-stop as he looked at Lambert with an astonished look in his eyes.
「Victory is mine. Now you may rest in peace, Hildyard.」
Even the hero who saved Barreira City forty years ago couldn’t beat the hero of the Eight Kingdoms Unification War two hundred years ago.
「Now then, next is your turn, boorish gravedigger.」
The death black crystal in that skinny man’s hand fell to the ground as he glared at Lambert.
「W-What the hell are you?」
Not even that skinny man could grasp what he witnessed just now.
Hero Hildyard, who was resurrected as undead for this raid in Barreira City, was definitely the strongest warrior.
And yet, even that hero was felled far too easily.
He even started to doubt his own necromancy. There was a possibility of him making a mistake when invoking the magic.
But he saw it with his own eyes; Hildyard’s agility was that of a first-rate warrior.
Although he lacked knowledge in close combat, he felt excited upon seeing Hildyard make such a delicate and precise movement despite being an undead.
「How… how can it be…?」
The man staggered.
And then, when his eyes caught the figures of the collapsed humans around him, his lips formed a cruel smile as he thought that he might be able to use those humans as his hostages.
In a daze, he grabbed the head of the human closest to him, pressing his knife on his hostage’s neck.
「T-That’s enough! Stop where you are!」
「Yeah, no need to get closer than this, indeed.」
The voice came right from behind the skinny man.
The moment that skinny man picked a hostage, Lambert moved in closer with his god-like agility.
「S-Spare me!」
Lambert’s greatsword bisected the skinny man from the crown of his head.
It was an instantaneous death for the man. Blood spurted out from the man’s cross-section as his corpse fell to the ground.
Lambert shook his greatsword lightly to get rid of the blood that was left on its blade. He then returned it to its scabbard.
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