Chapter 6

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Super Stealthy Kid Searches for Daddy 105

-----------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you deaf!? Move! I said move!!”

Reginald bellowed.

But the soldiers only milled about uncertainly in place.

“L-Lord……”

And who could blame them? The barrier surrounding the Agaveert Mercenary Corps and Adelin looked utterly impenetrable to their eyes.

That wasn't all.

“Th-that red mist……”

The red mist that had begun seeping out from the barn just moments ago was another problem entirely.

Several knights already lay collapsed around it.

As if it were warning them of the peril in even touching it.

“You useless pieces of shit!”

In the end, Reginald flew into a rage.

He snatched up a sword from the ground and brought it down on the nearest soldier.

The man let out a groan as he crumpled, and the soldiers turned to him with faces drained of color.

“I am your master! I am the lord of Caldenbine Ridge! Anyone who doesn't obey me will have their head chopped off!”

His voice thundered with fury, and the soldiers hesitated before gripping their swords once more.

Their hands shook violently, but they had nowhere left to retreat.

They knew better than anyone just how ruthless Reginald could be—they'd watched him up close all this time.

“Ch-charge!”

Finally, the ranking officer squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

“Seize the scoundrels who attacked the lord!”

With that, every last soldier surged toward the barn all at once.

They had taken heavy losses, true—but they still held out hope.

Compared to the mere handful from Agaveert, Reginald's soldiers remained superior in numbers.

Reginald burst into mad laughter, hope reignited.

“Yes! Kill them all and seize the will—!”

But he couldn't finish his sentence.

His bloodshot eyes darted wildly, losing focus.

The charging soldiers faltered too, grinding to a halt where they stood.

“A-aaagh—!”

Sporadic screams began erupting from all directions.

Something was bursting up from underground, felling the soldiers one by one.

“S-save me!”

“Lord—! Help, he—guhkk!”

Reginald froze in place.

In the unbelievable scene before him, the hand clutching his sword trembled like an aspen leaf.

Right before his eyes, the lush green grass that had blanketed the rear garden blackened and withered in an instant.

As if some irresistible force was draining away its life.

Then, piercing through the brittle grass, bizarre things he'd never seen before began emerging one after another.

“Wh-what in the world……”

Dust billowed up.

Storm clouds gathered overhead, and the damp scent assaulted his nostrils.

“Th-the dead! The dead are rising—!”

The soldiers broke ranks and fled in blind panic.

Reginald stared blankly at those rushing past him toward the opposite side of the lord's castle.

But they didn't get far before stopping dead.

Their sole escape route had long since been sealed off.

Reginald dropped the sword from his grip.

All around him, the ground had piled up into mounds as tall as a man.

The surfaces writhed, and something began crawling out from within.

Bones riddled with holes, like eroded stone.

“……Spare me.”

The soldier at the front collapsed in a faint.

But the twisted bones moved as if alive, thrusting a rusty sword into the man.

Dust trickled from between the skeletal fingers gripping the blade.

“A-aaagh……!”

And that was far from the end of it.

As the skeletons closed in, narrowing their encirclement, the soldiers dropped their weapons one and all.

The temperature had plummeted, a biting chill sweeping over them.

It was just then, as Reginald remained rooted like a statue.

“When I think of my daughter and wife I'll leave behind, and all the people of this territory, my heart grows heavy.”

A reciting voice came from behind him.

Reginald whipped his head around, doubting his ears.

Outside the barn.

The platinum-haired little girl he'd seen earlier held the previous lord's will in her hands.

“Even after my passing, Caldenbine's glory must endure…… I entrust the safeguarding of our house and the management of the territory to Reginald Caldenbine.”

But then, the girl—who had been reading the will steadily, word by word—fell silent for a moment.

She quietly lifted her head and looked straight at Reginald.

“……until my successor, Adelin Caldenbine, comes of age.”

A dry swallow scraped down his throat.

“Uncle.”

The girl took a step forward.

At once, the army of bones blanketing the rear garden parted left and right, as if on cue.

A straight path opened between her and Reginald, who staggered back with ragged breaths.

“Do you know the story of the greedy squirrel?”

She was just a child.

Yet he couldn't understand why his own feet were retreating.

Unlike him, the girl's face showed not a trace of fear.

“It's about how the squirrel sneaks into his friend's candy store and gets caught stealing sweets.”

The girl took another step, then another.

As the distance shrank, Reginald stumbled, glancing desperately around.

But there was no one to help him.

Swords raised by the risen dead hovered at each soldier's throat.

And Letchia had vanished somewhere.

“D-don't come any closer!”

Reginald scrambled for the sword he'd just dropped again.

But,

“……Where do you think you're going.”

Basto, who had approached, seized his arm in a vise-like grip.

Reginald swallowed hard, his body tensing.

The girl was now right in front of his nose.

“So the squirrel steals a ton of candy, right? And when he finally gets caught, he tries to run away.”

A flicker of pity passed through her innocent green eyes.

“But he couldn't escape. Know why?”

“What the hell kind of nonsense is this?!”

The girl let out a deep sigh.

“His belly got so full that his fat got stuck in the hole. The book says that's what happens when you're too greedy.”

Reginald's face twisted.

But the girl's expression was utterly serious.

“Don't steal other people's things. Don't lie. Keep your conscience. Even the ladybug kindergarteners know that.”

“……Ha, haha.”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Reginald clenched his teeth with all his might.

“What the hell do you want from me?”

The last shreds of his pride—on the verge of crumbling—blazed in his eyes.

“I am the lord of Caldenbine Ridge! Everything you're doing right now is treason!”

The girl scowled and plugged her ears.

But Reginald only shouted more furiously.

“If word of this reaches His Imperial Majesty! You think he'll let the likes of you off?!”

He glared at the mercenaries standing off at a distance.

“You're all to be executed! Lowborn scum like you, scraping by hunting monsters! How dare you, how dare you lay hands on your lord—!”

But in that instant, a blue phantom flashed right before Reginald's face.

His eyes widened as he recognized it.

“Y-you, how……”

It was Stasia.

His sister-in-law—the woman he had personally poisoned to death.

Stasia's pale hand clamped around Reginald's throat with brutal force.

White frost began creeping across his skin.