Chapter 220 (1/2)
Hiss—
A hiss from a snake resounded within the party venue. At the same time, the screeching hosts suddenly stopped moving like a bunch of broken machines.
“T—they stopped?!”
“What is it this time?!”
The pale-faced survivors looked around them. Their bodies continued to shiver from the fear of not knowing when the hosts would suddenly start moving again.
Only about three-tenths of the party-goers managed to survive.
“All of you must escape from the capital city now.”
Shocked at what Su-hyeun just said, the survivors immediately asked him to explain.
“What do you mean by escape from the capital?! Could it be…?”
“This isn’t happening only in here, but on the outside as well. About half of the capital’s citizens are in this state.”
While he was being guided by Reina to the Rawlsman residence, Su-hyeun was able to discover the parasite-infected hosts among the crowd of people walking on the city’s streets.
About half of the passersby had already been turned into hosts. If he had to guess, he’d say that the empire’s capital had already been captured by the enemies.
“Their targets should be Roy over here and myself, so all you have to do is stay under the radar and escape from the capital. I apologize, but I don’t think I can provide you with any further protection beyond the capital’s walls.”
“What do you mean, you two are the targets?! Are you saying that this situation is somehow related to you?”
“Well, I don’t mind telling you in detail, but…” Su-hyeun stared at the hosts and their fingers that were already starting to twitch. “It doesn’t look like you have a lot of time to waste here, so you should just leave immediately,” he continued.
“H—he’s right! Let’s hurry and leave. We need to escape from here at least so that…”
At Su-hyeun’s prodding, the nobles hastily left the party one after another. Knights who weren’t hosts left as well while providing protection to their masters. Thankfully, the hosts didn’t seem to display much interest in the fleeing nobles.
As I thought, their target was Roy.
Su-hyeun became certain after witnessing that.
These bugs’ reaction was contrary to their initial actions of trying to kill everything in front of them in sheer frenzy even though they had no consciousness to speak of.
They all had a clear objective, and it could mean only one thing.
“Well, it seems that even this place has become a Lichs’ den,” Su-hyeun muttered.
“Lichs…you say?” Herrels replied in shock.
“This is the ‘Bug control,’ a type of magic used by dark magicians and the undead Lichs. It is a magic spell that allows you to assign a specific goal to a human or even a monster that’s been turned into a host.”
“Then, all these people…they have become…”
“I don’t think the insemination happened overnight. You’d also need well more than one or two Lichs if you wanted to turn these many people in the capital into hosts.”
“Is there anything that can be done?”
“Let’s talk while we’re on the move.”
Using his “Predator” skill, Su-hyeun restricted the hosts’ movements, so he moved to leave the party venue with Roy and Herrels in tow.
“These types of bugs all have a commonality, and it has to do with them having a mother-type creature. It should be the same story with these parasites as well,” he continued on with his explanation.
“Are you saying that we need to find their mother?”
Su-hyeun nodded. “The hosts’ goal was Roy and him alone. You’ve probably figured that out from where they were looking at.”
Just like what he said, the hosts’ eyes were constantly fixed on Roy despite their bodies currently being restricted by the Predator skill’s influence.
“The intermediary issuing that command must be the ‘mother’ of the hosts. And as one of the conditions that this magic dictates, commands can only be issued from within a fixed distance. Meaning, the probability of the ‘mother’ being in the center of all the hosts is very high.”
“The center of the hosts, is it—?”
“Where is the center of the capital?
“It’s rather obvious.” Herrels heard Su-hyeun’s question and glanced at Reina for the last time before making his reply. “The center of the capital, as well as the empire, it’s… the imperial palace.”
* * *
Gya-ong, gya-ong—!
As soon as they exited the party venue, Su-hyeun summoned Miru.
Not only there was no more reason to care about drawing the attention of other people, but he also needed Miru’s abilities to protect Roy.
Unsurprisingly, Herrels’ jaw dropped to the floor when he saw Miru. Just like how it was in every other world, a dragon was seen as a noble divine beast that only appeared in various legendary tales even in this world.
“You even have a dragon accompanying you?!”
“Well, this kid is simply too eye-catching to be seen in the open in the capital, as you can imagine. He’ll protect you two from now on.”
“A dragon…Is it…?”
Mystified, Herrels stared at Miru who was busy “gya-ong”-ing away as if to say, “You can believe in me!”
The red dragon then cast protective magic around the figures of the three people. Then, they headed toward the gate that led outside.
“Kiii-eehk, Kiiiaaahk!”
“Ki-rururu…”
Pow, puhk—
Clang, clang, clang—!
The howls and screeching from the hosts could be heard coming from beyond the party venue’s front gate. Pounding at the gate like zombies or even swinging around weapons such as swords and spears, the hosts looked were rather formidable.
They seemed to easily exceed several hundred at least. Most likely, an even greater number of hosts would be waiting for them the closer they got to the imperial palace.
“From here, we’ll head directly toward the imperial palace. Sir Herrels, you ride on Miru’s back and escape outside the capital, please.”
“Will it be gravely dangerous?”
“Honestly speaking, yes. As Roy is their target, he needs to move with me, but it’ll be easier for us if we go our separate ways from here.”
“Is that so?” Herrels’ expression became actually brighter from what Su-hyeun said. “In that case, I must accompany you no matter what.”
“But, as I said, the imperial palace will be the most dangerous area. We don’t know how many knights have turned into hosts by now, and even the Lichs might be—”
“That is precisely why I must accompany you,” Herrels supplied and then cautiously walked up toward the front gate.
The outside was filled to the brim with the infected hosts. Su-hyeun tried to dissuade Herrels from heading to such a dangerous area all alone.
But then…
C—creak, c—c—creak—
Kki—reek, kki—ri—ri—ri—reek—