Chapter 52 Part8 (1/2)
<chapter 52.=”” war's=”” scenario=”” -=”” 8=””>
”Now then, the vanguard's up front. Come up if you want to. You and you stay in the back, you go up front...”
”Lee s.h.i.+n Woo, you're...”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo gathered the 27 new undead heroes and began forming a squad out of them. Seeing that, Erian realized one thing: the skeleton hand he'd shown earlier, perhaps that was...
”Are you actually the Heaven Defying General?”
”Erian, that's ridiculous. There's no way he's...”
”Bingo.”
”What!?”
He figured that by coming to rescue them, his ident.i.ty would be exposed. After all, it was far too late in the game to be worried about that.
However... before coming here, he'd thought, 'their reactions will be a pain', but looking at them now, that didn't seem all that true.
”Y-You're the Heaven Defying General...?”
”Yes.”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo quickly affirmed, and Lloyd gaped. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo grinned and briefly switched his face to that of an undead, and then switched back. Lloyd's mouth had widened so much that it seemed like his jaw and the roof of his mouth would separate.
”As I thought... If that's the case, then everything makes sense. If I hadn't seen your undead transformation just now, then I wouldn't have been sure. Did you always have the ability to transform into an undead? If not, then...”
”It's the opposite. I'm an undead, but I can transform into a human. Well, my human form is perfect, so there's not much difference either way.”
”How? No, why...? Why did you...?”
While Erian seemed to get the gist of things, Lloyd was still confused. Lloyd's expression reminded him of Prince, causing him to grin. He then turned around and said.
”Now then, there's a lot I have to tell you. Please follow me.”
Without an ounce of hesitation, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo led the 27 undead heroes, as well as Lloyd, who couldn't accept reality and was tottering around, and Erian to his base.
And thus, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo had unified the remaining heroes underground, undead or otherwise. Objectively speaking, their forces surpa.s.sed the Imperial Army's. ...Perhaps the disparity between their forces was wider than he thought.
”Ha, so we were the only ones out of the loop. I feel stupid for suffering.”
”I didn't keep it secret on purpose. Rather, I only told those who were in the same area as me. ...There was the case with Seira too.”
”I know what you're trying to say. Could you not look at me like that? How long are you going to use that (past events) against me?”
It inevitably took longer to convince them than Prince. But upon meeting Kratia, as well as Seira, the Banshee, they had no choice but to nod their heads.
Humans were quite simple; even if an individual didn't agree with something, if the majority agreed, then the individual tended to accept the majority's viewpoint.
”Even Prince... If she acknowledged you, then I should too.”
”So what's your relations.h.i.+p with Prince anyway, Senior Lloyd?”
”All I know is that the two of them think of their relations.h.i.+p differently.”
”What!?”
Lloyd, who'd even gone so far as to send a private message to Prince, was forced to accept the cold, hard truth. Regardless of whether Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was a good guy or an evil b.a.s.t.a.r.d, it was because of him that they had survived. Plus, he now realized that he didn't need to strike him down just because he was an undead.
”So we can't use the chatting channel anymore? But didn't you already kill the Archmage?”
All that was left was explaining the current situation to them. First, he explained that, as a result of killing Seagald, the underground's sun was no more (they just a.s.sumed that the night had gotten longer and that the sun wasn't rising). He then explained what he'd done thus far, which of the 12 Generals he'd killed, and explained the details of the final battle concisely.
”We've been shown there's a chance. A chance that an outsider can enter a domain protected by G.o.d herself. Of course, all of the heroes are on our side now and the Lich is dead, but... Someone else might try a different approach to tamper with the chatting channel.”
So, he requested that they not use the chatting channel, at least until the Emperor was dead and the Underground Empire was completely purified. What's worse, they could no longer use their permits to access the secret shop, so they were speechless.
”Man, this sucks. The curse is directly connected to the source of darkness. It'll be difficult for us until we can figure something out.”
”...We can't buy the medicine anymore, and what's worse, we can't buy supplies from the secret shop either.”
”That's how it is. Well, it doesn't really matter. Since the final battle is near.”
To be honest, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo could always break through the Archmage's curse and enter the secret shop, but he decided not to tell them that.
If he wanted to bring them to the secret shop, he would have to form a contract with them. Not only was that a pain in the a.s.s, but the final battle was right before them, so bringing them to the secret shop at this point wouldn't do much, if anything. To put it bluntly, he didn't plan on giving them any important a.s.signments.
”I've saved up a lot of supplies, so you won't have to worry about that.”
”It's really surprising that you can travel to the surface... How about we go to the surface and group up with Prince?”
”It's a good idea, but it's a bit iffy to bring so many strong people to the surface all at once.”
He was lying. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was 100% sure that if he sent this anachronic human and Elf to the surface then something bad would happen. Thus, he had to do whatever was necessary to stop them from going. Fortunately, Lloyd was persuaded immediately.
”Is that so? I'd like to purify the undead curse together, but... I guess we could all just go up there after the battle's over.”
”Of course. We're really close. ...Really.”
”Ooh, the surface... I'd really like to see its natural environment. There might be a lot of spirits up there.”
”Ah, now that you mention it...”
The Elf, Erian, was more attuned to the spirits and nature than Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo hesitated briefly, but ultimately suggested.
”Senior, would you like to be my partner?”