Chapter 530 – Life in the Capital, Earth

My name is Earth.

A clay doll made by ghost king-sama.

Though the ghost king-sama has transformed to Ursa-sama, my loyalty doesn’t change.

I will give all of my life for Ursa-sama.

That is my reason for living and my mission!

「Earth, I want you to support Tiselle today.」

Eh?

.....

Eh?

Even though Ursa-sama only said it once, it resonated in my ears.

-0-

That’s why I’m walking around the royal capital with Tiselle-sama and Asa.

If I really have to walk around the capital, I would prefer being with Ursa-sama.

No, I’m not dissatisfied with Tiselle-sama.

However, my loyalty is with....thugs suddenly appeared.

Strange desu ne.

It is only me, Asa, and Tiselle-sama.

Why are they targeting us?

Did they think we’re good targets because of our clothes?

In any case, just beat them.

There are five opponents.

It will be troublesome if I make them faint so I’ll only hurt them.

「R-remember this!」

What a corny parting line desu.

That’s what I thought but Tiselle-sama doesn’t think so.

「”remember this” means “I’ll definitely take revenge so remember this”.」

I was shocked.

She’s certainly correct.

That’s exactly what it means.

And the other party dare said that.

It means they’ll truly hunt us for revenge.

That awakens me.

It means that they are enemies that need to be annihilated.

Hurting them is not enough. They should be killed.

But if I kill them, the number of people who praise Ursa-sama will decrease.

Let them live and convert. Let them glorify Ursa-sama.

-0-

The escaped thugs entered a suspicious building in the back alley.

Though I saw them, I don’t want to enter because that place doesn’t look like it has been cleaned.

However, we can’t let those thugs escape so I rush in.

Tiselle-sama said that it is enough to leave one of them conscious so I will not hesitate to knock them out.

There are around 20 of them but they’re not my opponents.

I’m strong enough to hunt rabbits in the forest after obtaining a magic clay body created by Loo-sama.

It was over in a few minutes.

As Tiselle-sama requested, I kept one of them awake.

「P-pl-please forgive me...」

I chose the most powerful one in this place but did I made a mistake?

He’s desperately apologizing.

What should I do?

Since it has come to this, I’ll leave the judgment to Tiselle-sama.

「Earth, how can you be so half-hearted?」

Half-hearted?

What part?

I don’t understand what she’s saying so I continue to listen obediently.

「That man, his right leg is broken but his left leg is still fine.」

Ah, I see.

「But wouldn’t that make an imbalance since both of his arms are okay?」

「Of course, that’s why you’ll break both his arms too.」

I was about to do it but Asa stopped me.

「Now, now, if he’s being cooperative, then there’s no need to hurt him anymore, right?」

「Asa, you’re so na?ve. Overly na?ve. Even if he’s like that now, he’ll always have a deep grudge that he’ll release later. We have to be thorough. We have to make sure he’ll never have the idea of going against us ever again.」

I agree with her desu.

Wasn’t the conversation too good?

He answered all of our questions without hesitation.

I’ll spare you from breaking your bones.

-0-

Now there’s a problem.

These thugs did not target us by chance but they were asked by someone to target us.

He said it was a man who calls himself Tony.

Well, it could be a fake name.

It looks like they took it because they were given an advance payment of a reasonable amount.

So that’s how it is.

I see.

It is clearly an enemy that can’t be left alone.

Tiselle-sama, don’t be so happy.

No, I’m glad that we found out an existence that is hostile to us too.

Understood.

Let’s find that man who calls himself Tony.

Yeah, it will be annoying if he hires other thugs to do the same thing again.

But, how do we find him?

As we heard, the way he contacts the thugs is one-sided.

「It’s okay.」

Tiselle-sama, do you have any idea how to?

「There’s already a lead.」

Eh?

...ah, someone’s peeking through the window.

And he ran away.

It might be a trap but we still chased him.

It was Tiselle-sama’s decision.

Is that escaping guy the man who calls himself Tony?

Or just a liaison?

Let’s name him suspicious man A for now.

I’ll be able to catch up with suspicious man A if I run with all my might but we only followed him as instructed by Tiselle-sama.

We made it look like we lost him.

And I secretly tracked him.

I’m not really good at tracking but...this is much easier compared to tracking Ursa-sama.

-0-

Suspicious man A entered two buildings before going to a certain ruin.

That ruin looks suspicious.

In addition, the ruins look like there’s a basement in it. I used the stairs to go down.

Asa and Tiselle-sama have not arrived yet.

What should I do?

If there’s another exit underground, I will probably lose suspicious man A.

It would be great if suspicious man A’s companions are here desu....

Let’s just go down.

I left a message for Asa and Tiselle-sama and headed underground.

-0-

「To think you’d really follow me here...idiot.」

Suspicious man A was waiting for me in the large space of the basement.

He knows that I’m tracking him?

I should reflect.

And suspicious man A transformed.

I see, so suspicious man A was neither a human nor a demon.

Undead.

An undead called lich.

Suspicious man A snaps his bony fingers and summons skeletons in the basement.

It shouldn’t be a hundred but it would be more than fifty.

The large space suddenly becomes narrow.

「My name is Tony Armage! One of the subordinates of the ghost king! And the one who’ll bring your death!」

Ah....so Tony is really his real name?

That’s disappointing.

And he’s a subordinate of the ghost king....

Ghost king....

....

「I see. You’re a colleague. My apologies.」

I never thought that I’d be able to meet a colleague in a place like this.

If he told me that earlier, I wouldn’t follow him in the first place.

And I even did something bad to the thugs he hired.

I don’t know what’s your purpose but I’m sorry.

「C-colleague?」

Areh?

He didn’t get it?

Ah, excuse me.

I haven’t introduced myself.

「A subordinate of the ghost king. My name is Earth. I was digging a tunnel in the west before.」

「Tunnel?」

「Yes. Didn’t you participate in the tunnel digging before? Well, you can say that I’m in a field supervision position....」

「What the heck are you saying! There is no way the ghost king will order something like that!」

......

「You don’t know anything about the tunnel?」

「No! Die!」

....

.........

Ah, I see.

It’s a trick.

Ghost king-sama is famous after all.

I see I see.

I’ll kill you.

-0-

I’m currently waiting for Asa and Tiselle-sama while cleaning down the ruins.

The magic circle is cleverly hidden in the basement. I guess he was able to summon a large number of skeletons using it.

It’s a simple thing.

I’ll break it.

He can’t even summon skeletons without using something like this?

I can.

Though I did not do so because they are not suitable for digging tunnels.

But what should I do now?

Before I could hear why Tony was targeting us, I already extinguished him.

I hope I can find something in this basement..though that’s very unlikely.

If Asa and Tiselle-sama arrive before I could think of something, they’ll be mad.

historical

Hnn?

Someone’s invading the ruins.

It’s not Asa and Tiselle-sama.

There are a lot of them.

Twenty...twenty one, no, twenty-two people.

Their formation is..not that much.

Their equipments are broken things?

But their individual skills are not bad.

The division of roles is well done too.

In other words....adventurers.

「Finally found you, subordinate of the ghost king!」

Well...I’m certainly a subordinate of the ghost king but...

What you’re looking for is not me, right?

What should I do?