Chapter 349: The battlefield expands and an identity is revealed

“There is no need to fret; I shall eradicate the scary monsters. Here! ‘Mysterious Space Rend!’” said Borzofoy, who had come to be known as the ‘Mysterious Person’ among the city guards, waving his staff with a smile.

The space warped around the mutant Minotaur in front of him, whose skin was made of metal, and its right shoulder exploded.

The mutant Minotaur bellowed in pain and anger.

This was an advanced spell that bent space and destroyed its target by utilizing the force generated when that space returned to its original form. But this high-Rank mutant Minotaur would not fall, even with its right shoulder and arm in tatters. It raised its axe with its left arm so that it could crush this Dwarf mage.

However–

“‘Life Tree Bind!’” cried Kalinia.

Her spell caused plants to suddenly sprout from the handle of the mutant Minotaur’s axe, which grew rapidly and extended their roots towards its body.

The mutant Minotaur let out a groan that quickly faded as the roots violently sapped its life away. Already wounded from Borzofoy’s spell, it was unable to withstand this attack, and only an emaciated husk of metallic skin and bones was left behind.

“Now is your chance, Smith-san. Go on ahead,” said Borzofoy.

“Take care, Mark,” said Kalinia.

Smith and Mark, were two city guards that Borzofoy and Kalinia had protected from the mutant Minotaur. They had previously remembered Borzofoy and Kalinia’s faces, as they had been the ones dealing with them when people reported them for being suspicious.

“Yeah, you guys be careful, too!” said Smith.

“Once we take these people to the Hero Preparatory School, we’ll be coming back here, alright?” said Mark.

And then they left, heading for the Hero Preparatory School while protecting the civilians.

But naturally, there were numerous entrances to the Dungeon Rikudou had created in the Hero Preparatory School’s surroundings, as well as in the roads leading to it.

But the monsters appearing from the gates, from ordinary Wyverns to Flame Dragons, from Ogres to Minotaur High Kings, were being slaughtered one after another, their heads severed or their bodies cleaved in two.

The one carrying out that slaughter was the temporarily-hired teacher, Dandolip-sensei – also known as Randolf ‘the True.’

“Shit, so much is going to waste because of that bastard!” he spat.

With his dagger, bow, and spiritual magic, he massacred the monsters as they streamed out of the gates. His expression was filled with fury and irritation.

“A countless number of monsters appearing all over the city at the same time was outside our expectations… Because of that, I didn’t have time to disguise myself properly, and I couldn’t afford to just provide some support while keeping myself hidden!” he cursed.

Having been temporarily hired as a teacher, Randolf had been at the Hero Preparatory School, which was his workplace. Vandalieu had asked him to protect the teaching staff and the students, and to protect the school building and underground Dungeon in the event that people took shelter in them.

Intuitively sensing that this was an emergency, he had dashed outside and slaughtered dozens of monsters on his own in a single instant.

And although the monsters that had appeared were of no significant threat to Randolf, their numbers were too many. And yet, the gates had appeared at reasonable distances from each other. Thus, he had been forced to wield his full strength in order to protect the city and the school building.

“What incredible power. He destroyed the monsters’ heads and hearts accurately so as to not cause any damage to the surrounding area!” said one of the teachers, who had followed Randolf outside.

“The rumors that Dandolip-sensei might be Randolf were true!” exclaimed another.

Randolf clutched his head with one hand as he continued slaughtering the monsters that were still appearing from the gates.

Meorilith sighed. “… I did warn you that you should reveal your true identity yourself.”

If Randolf had revealed his true identity to Vandalieu in advance and told him that he didn’t want to make it public, Vandalieu might have been able to help him keep it a secret, perhaps by preparing a fake Dandolip-sensei to provide an alibi for him.

“Shit, I won’t be able to disguise myself with red hair for a while,” Randolf muttered.

“And you really think you’d be able to get away with turning it blue or green?” said Meorilith.

“… I’ll be back after I go to the plaza on the main road.”

And with that, Randolf flew off like the wind, killing monsters instantaneously in his wake – likely to tell people to evacuate and to secure a path for them to do so by exterminating all the monsters on the way to the main road’s plaza.

With swift thrusts from her rapier, Meorilith stabbed both eyes of a Basilisk Lord, a monster that resembled an enormous lizard.

The Basilisk Lord screamed as it was blinded, but in the next moment, its tongue poked from its mouth, and on its tip was a third eye – a Demon Eye of Petrification – that stared at Meorilith.

But Meorilith did not turn to stone.

“‘Silver Flash!’” she shouted, and her rapier pierced the Basilisk Lord’s third eye.

With its most powerful weapons destroyed, it was nothing more than a large lizard, and Meorilith quickly ended its life.

“As expected of you, Principal…! The name and skill of the ‘Piercing Shooting Star’ is still alive and well, I see!” one of the teachers said, praising her brilliant skill.

Before she left the profession, Meorilith had been a capable A-class adventurer known as the ‘Piercing Shooting Star,’ a Title that she had earned through the speed of her thrusting attacks.

But Meorilith made a bitter face. “I’ve gotten rustier than I thought. My body feels heavier than when I was still an adventurer. I suppose I shouldn’t expect myself to perform as well as when I was clearing A-class Dungeons almost every day.”

“How about taking up dancing with Kanako-sensei?” suggested Randolf, who had returned. “They say that dancing is a skill that transfers to combat. It will also help you lose weight.”

“Randolf, I understand that you’re in a bad mood because you can’t keep your identity a secret any longer, but it’s quite immature to take it out on me. More importantly, how was the plaza?” Meorilith asked.

“There’s no problem with the plaza in the direction of the nobles’ district. Some promising youngsters were doing some good work there, so I left it to them. There’s no problem at the residential district and the slums, either. The upper-class nobles’ district… I don’t think I need to even mention it,” Randolf reported matter-of-factly.

“Y-you weren’t even gone for a minute! How have you grasped so much about the city’s current situation in that time?!” one of the teachers asked, astonished.

Orbaume, the capital of the Orbaume Kingdom, was a large city with a population of about a million. Surely it was impossible to go around the entire city – while defeating monsters on the way, no less – in a single minute.

“I would say ‘grasped’ is the wrong word. I just went from the plaza in front of the nobles’ district to the plaza in the commercial district, exterminating the straggling monsters on the way, and returned. Most of this information is what I heard from the wind spirits; I didn’t see it for myself,” said Randolf.

That’s still incredible, the teacher thought as he stared speechlessly at Randolf. Even though he’s retired, the strength of an S-class adventurer is extraordinary. With him here, we can get through this, can’t we?

“Hey, I said that things look alright, but that doesn’t mean that it’s certain that there won’t be any casualties. If you let your guard down, things will collapse in no time. If you’ve got time to stand there in a daze, go and fight instead!” Randolf barked.

“Y-yes, sir!” said the teacher, as well as the other teachers who ended up receiving Randolf’s scolding as well.

Breaking out into a cold sweat from Randolf’s presence, which was even more intense than that of the monsters, they went to face the monsters that were still emerging from the gates.

“And one more thing! I forgot to say this earlier, but don’t go inside the gates!” Randolf warned them. “There’s no telling when the gates will be closed by the evil god that’s controlling the monsters! You’ll end up having to fight hordes of monsters until you die!”

“Where did you learn that?” asked Meorilith.

“One of Vandalieu’s familiars, just a moment ago,” Randolf replied. “On the other side of those gates is a Dungeon controlled by Rikudou, so I was told not to send in any fighting forces that aren’t disposable.”

“I see,” said Meorilith. “So has your identity finally been revealed to him.”

“No, I attacked it and defeated it by mistake, thinking it was a monster. It mumbled that information to me, then turned to dust and vanished,” said Randolf.

“… You should apologize for that later,” Meorilith said as she continued defeating the monsters that had gotten past the teachers. “So, is it true that they’re Dungeons? If so, just how many hundreds of Dungeons does he control?”

“I wasn’t told, but… it’s likely that this Rikudou only controls one large Dungeon,” said Randolf, and then he began to explain the thoughts behind this conclusion.

The reasons he came up with: The fact that the gates serving as the entrances were all the same shape, the fact that there was some pattern to the races and strength of the monsters that appeared, and the fact that the rate at which the monsters were appearing was far too low for there to be stampedes occurring from hundreds of Dungeons simultaneously.

“If each gate led to a different, separate Dungeon, and stampedes were occurring in all of them at once, then the monsters would be coming out like an avalanche. The fact that they’re coming out gradually is a sign that that isn’t the case,” Randolf said.

“I thought that every Dungeon only had one entrance, but it seems that there are exceptions,” said Meorilith. “But at the same time, that’s also troublesome.”

If there was only one entrance, then the danger could be prevented from spreading by gathering everyone who could fight around that entrance, even though this would result in the area around the entrance being destroyed. But because there were entrances all over the city, this was impossible.

Even as Meorilith was listening to Randolf’s explanation, the residents of the nearby area were being led into the school building by the teachers.

Although it didn’t look like it, the Hero Preparatory School had been built to be even more durable than the average fortress – because it managed a Dungeon beneath the school building.

It had been built so that in the unlikely event of a monster stampede occurring from the Dungeon, the monsters could be contained and dealt with inside the school building.

“Of course, it’s strong at keeping dangerous things in, but I’m not sure about keeping dangerous things out. It would normally be the opposite, but this is an urban area protected by sturdy walls, after all. If we evacuate into the Dungeon, the school might not be here anymore when we come out. Well, I suppose that can’t be helped,” Meorilith sighed. “So, don’t you need to go and fight the one responsible for all this?”

“… There’s no guarantee that the Dungeon will stop functioning after its creator is defeated. If he still hasn’t been killed by Vandalieu by the time we’ve got the evacuation under control, I’ll go,” said Randolf. “What about you? Don’t you need to worry about the students?”

“No. Everyone other than Pauvina and her party members are cleaning up the Dungeon along with the teachers who aren’t so confident in their ability to fight. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about,” said Meorilith.

Fortunately, the gates that led into Rikudou’s Dungeon had only appeared in outdoor locations. It was unclear as to whether Rikudou had done this on purpose so that the appearance of monsters in the city would make Vandalieu panic, or whether he was simply unable to create them indoors.

Thus, there were no incidents of hordes of monsters going undiscovered inside warehouses until it was too late or gates appearing inside other Dungeons.

Thanks to that, the Dungeons that Vandalieu had prepared in advance to be used as a shelter didn’t become unusable.

But that didn’t mean that all the shelters could be used immediately.

Meanwhile, the teachers of the Hero Preparatory School who were former C-class adventurers, alongside their students, were engaged in a fierce battle inside the Dungeon managed by the school.

“It’s the same as the practical combat training! These enemies can be defeated as long as we don’t let our guard down! Keep on going!”

“We need to expand the safe zone for the sake of the people who will evacuate into this place!”

They hadn’t come into the Dungeon because they wanted to be the first to evacuate. They had come to clear as much of the Dungeon as possible to create a safe zone for the people who would evacuate into the Dungeon from ground level.

Because it was a Dungeon that was managed on a daily basis, the first floor only had weak monsters, and their numbers were few. But even Rank 1 or 2 monsters posed a threat to ordinary civilians.

And because the relatively safe first and second floors had the layout of underground ruins, the usable space was limited. The floors that could accommodate enough people were the middle floors, which were grassy meadows, wastelands, and forests, but had relatively strong monsters.

However, most of the monsters outside were more powerful than the Boss of this Dungeon, so it was far safer in here than in the city.

There were two parties leading the rest of the students. One of them was Alex’s party.

“Leave it to the other students to secure the safety of the first and second floors. We’re starting at the third floor, along with the teachers who will be catching up to us soon! First, let’s run through until we reach the stairs!” said Alex.

“Yeah! We can’t be losing to those guys, after all!” said Robin, slaughtering the Goblins and Giant Bats standing in their way with his dual-wielded spears.

The monsters on the first and second floors were weak and few in number so it was excessive to have capable students like Alex and the teachers, who were former adventurers, deal with them. Thus, they were headed for the third floor, where the monsters were higher in Rank.

“But will we have time to catch up to them?” questioned Towa, the rabbit-type Beast-kin.

“They did happen to be inside the Dungeon for practical training when this all began,” said Anabelle, the half-Elf.

“I know it will be difficult, but the teachers decided that we’re not ready to take part in the battle on the outside. So we have no choice but to do our best in here! Just like Elizabeth and her party!” said Alex.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and her companions – the ones that Alex’s party was trying to catch up to – were exterminating monsters on the fourth floor of the Dungeon.

Three bizarre figures were mowing down the monsters one after another.

One of them roared fiercely. “‘Double Thrust!’”

Another one shouted loudly in exertion. “‘Provocation!’”

“‘Flame Bullet!’ ‘Wind Slice!’”

“Hey! We’ve only just started! You guys are using up too much of your Mana and stamina!” Elizabeth warned them.

The overall appearance of the three she was talking to was that of enormous knights wearing jet-black suits of metal armor, but there was an enormous eye on each of their heads, and another on their chests. And they also had four arms in total – one protruding from each shoulder, another from their back, and another from their waist.

Their voices were those of young men, with still a hint of childishness to them, but even the monsters that stood before them, which supposedly felt no fear for their life, were cowering before them as they wielded their weapons – a spear, a sword, and a staff that was being used to cast spells.

Had Elizabeth taken a page out of Vandalieu’s book and tamed some bizarre monsters as her familiars?

“Macht, Taurus, Yuzef! Are you listening to me?!” Elizabeth shouted.

“Yes, we are listening to you, Elizabeth-sama!” they replied in unison.

These bizarre figures were her party members – the spearman Macht, the swordsman and shield-bearer Taurus, and the mage Yuzef.

They were using transformation equipment that they had received from Vandalieu. These were modified versions of Hiroshi’s defense-specialized transformation equipment, which had been used as the base for the design. They resembled monster-like power suits, but they boasted incredible performance, providing 360-degree vision, two sub-arms that could be used for combat and to help keep their balance, and enough defensive capabilities that had been tested and proved to be able to withstand being stomped by a Mountain Giant.

“But there is nothing to worry about! This transformation equipment is surprisingly sturdy… and it seems to provide assistance with not only spells, but martial skills as well! I have much more leftover Mana than I normally would!” said Macht.

“With this, I could even take a frontal attack from a Minotaur!” said Taurus.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves!” said Zona, scolding them. “That’s equipment that Vandalieu lent you just because these are special circumstances.”

“That is right. Macht-sama and the rest of you, you would normally not have received this equipment without going through more lessons,” said Mahelia.

Zona, Mahelia, and Elizabeth were also using transformation equipment. But these were improved general-purpose equipment that they had previously used.

“No, I think I remember him saying that the lessons have nothing to do with it…” said Yuzef.

“Please take them. Everyone else is, after all. Dancing is a skill that transfers to combat, after all,” said Mahelia.

“Y-yes, Ma’am…” said Yuzef, yielding before Mahelia’s pressure.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth evaluated the monsters that were gathering around her party and began giving orders. “Our objective has changed from completing a task for practical training to thoroughly exterminating every single monster, so change your mindset. I don’t know how many people will evacuate into this place, but the main shelter will be below the third floor. Vandalieu left this place to us. If it turned out that there’s still monsters left, he’ll become even more overprotective!”

Elizabeth and her companions were fighting in the Dungeon of the Hero Preparatory School rather than at ground level because he had decided that it was still too early for them to be fighting on the frontline.

Thus, they had taken advantage of their practical training to be on standby inside this Dungeon, which was planned to be used as a shelter when the situation called for it.

Vandalieu didn’t think of Elizabeth and the others as hindrances. He had simply asked them to carry out a task that suited their current level of strength.

“Am I really that overprotective?” asked the Demon King Familiar that was accompanying them to maintain communication and take over if things got out of hand.

“You are!” Elizabeth said flatly to the Demon King Familiar behind her.

Screams were coming from the upper-class nobles’ district, which was some distance away from the commercial district where the potential heroes were, and the Hero Preparatory School where Randolf and the others were.

“AAAAH!”

“HELP MEEEE!”

But when the monsters had begun to appear, the nobles living in the district and those who served them had ignored the calls to evacuate and attempted to deal with the monsters on their own.

After all, these nobles had hired knights, soldiers, and former adventurers. These defensive personnel had either been outside trying to find out what was going on after noticing the fierce battle taking place in the sky above the royal castle, or staying near the nobles they needed to protect.

Thus, the ones who had been outside had been able to immediately respond to the gates when they appeared.

But the monsters that appeared from within the gates were powerful, and the average soldier or knight would accomplish little against them other than serving as a meat shield to buy a little time.

One of the monsters growled, causing the men around it to scream in terror.

Of course, it wasn’t unusual for dukes and marquises who had mansions in the upper-class nobles’ district to employ former B-class adventurers and knights of equivalent strength as bodyguards. Such houses were able to exterminate the monsters that appeared near them.

“Damn it, it’s no good! There’s too many! Is nobody going to come from the castle to rescue us?!”

“Somebody is fighting in the sky above the castle! You think they’d be able to rescue us when that’s still going on?!”

The knights and guards holed up in the mansions of the Dolmad and Tercatanis houses, as well as the mansions owned by the Corbitt house and Hartner house, had been able to deal with the first group of monsters that had appeared around their respective mansions.

They had pushed on towards the gates, defending themselves from Breath attacks of flame and lightning, and preventing significant damage from being inflicted to the surrounding area. But the gates with no capable fighters around were spewing out their second and third monsters.

“We cannot hold! We must have Madam and the others escape to safety…!”

“It’s impossible to escape! Gates with monsters coming out are all over the place, not just here!”

“Damn it! Then we have no choice but to have them take shelter in the basement. If we’re lucky, they might survive!”

As this bleak exchange took place between the guards, a Rank 10 Adamantite Golem closed in on them.

“It’s over. To think that our kingdom would fall, beginning from its center…!” one of the knights said bitterly, gritting his teeth in despair as he raised his Mythril-coated iron sword.

“It’s too late to give up!” shouted an angry voice, and a fist came flying down from the sky.

The Adamantite Golem creaked and groaned as the flying fist – a metal gauntlet – buried itself in its head and flattened it.

“Huh… What?” the knight uttered in disbelief at this unexpected aid.

“What are you standing around in a daze for?!” the angry voice said.

A second gauntlet came flying in, striking the Adamantite Golem’s knee.

“Swords are poorly matched against Golems! If you’re got time to stand around and watch, go and defeat the other monsters, or leave to protect your lords!”

As the Adamantite Golem collapsed down onto one knee, the owner of the angry voice became visible to the knights. It was a small silhouette, no taller than their own chests, and it was missing both arms.

“Y-you’re the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades,’ Bal…!”

“If you’ve got the time to say my name, hurry up and go! Or if you’re going to flee, get to the residence of Honorary Countess Zakkart, who has been looking after me! That, or the residence of Duke Alcrem!”

“Y-yes, Ma’am!”

“We shall repay this favor one day!”

Having been saved by the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades’ Baldiria, the knights split into two groups. One group headed to fight monsters that they could battle favorably against, while the other headed back to their lord’s mansion to evacuate the family.

“Phew… return,” Baldiria commanded.

“Yes, Ma’am!” a voice said.

The gauntlets that had struck the Adamantite Golem returned to Baldiria and attached themselves onto her severed arms. However… these were not quite new arms like the artificial limbs of Simon and Natania.

The public story was that she had lost both her arms in the battle to retake the former Scylla territory, but she hadn’t actually lost them. To cover up that fact, Vandalieu had created a special Living Armor using gauntlets in which the spirit of a knight that had served the Sauron Duchy resided.

But as expected of a Rank 10 monster, the Adamantite Golem rose once more with a roar, despite the damage to its head and knee, and this time, Baldiria was its target.

“… I am rather poorly matched against this monster myself,” said Baldiria, the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades,’ with a wry smile.

“JYUOOOH!” roared Bone Man, a flying Skeleton that had turned completely red from the blood of the monsters he had slain, as he rushed to Baldiria’s aid. “Adamantite cannot stop my blades! ‘Fierce Bone Blade!’”

Capable of turning all the bones in his body into blades, he shredded the entirety of the Adamantite Golem into pieces in the blink of an eye.

“I suppose poor matches are meaningless when there’s such an overwhelming difference in power. I must grow stronger so that I may be of aid to Onee-sama,” Baldiria decided as she watched Bone Man’s great display of strength.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the nobles’ district, panic was growing.

Servants, city guards, knights, and nobles were surprised by the sudden appearance of monsters, but they screamed in pure terror as vines protectively wrapped themselves around them one after another.

“HELP UUUUS!” the city guard shouted.

“I am helping you,” said Silkie Zakkart Mansion… the one whom the vines belonged to. “Stop running, give up and surrender yourselves to me, you stubborn, living fools!”

Silkie’s main body, the mansion, could not move, so the plan had been to use it as a shelter for evacuation. But not a single person in the nobles’ district was unaware that she was a haunted mansion.

Thus, even though she called out to them to run inside her grounds, nobody did so. That was why she and her companions had no choice but to take them by force.

The Deep Sucker gardeners with bloodshot eyes and mouths that stretched from ear to ear groaned as they forcibly took the fleeing people into their custody.

One of them roared. “There’s one! Corner him!”

“Don’t let them get away! Capture them all alive!” growled another.

A third let out a terrifying screech.

Meanwhile, the Jubokko were binding people with their vines and carrying them into Silkie’s mansion grounds.

“Monsters! We’ll buy some time! While we’re doing that, take them away!” said Braga as he and his ninja squad engaged the monsters that were interfering with the rescue efforts.

“If I absorb this much, I might get faaat!” said Eisen.

“Then shall I take care of them instead?” offered Bellmond. “The only thing we’ll need to worry about is the sliced-up monsters and stone statues.”

These two were dealing with the monsters that had crossed Silkie Zakkart Mansion’s walls and were trying to enter the mansion.

Eisen was impaling monsters with the branches growing from her back, absorbing nutrients from them, while Bellmond was turning the monsters into slices with her threads.

Still, not everyone was running about outside their mansions in a panic. Because there were no monsters indoors, there were more people who had holed themselves up inside their mansions.

But the monsters that had appeared were simply too high in Rank. Even though the mansions had emergency shelters, a single attack or spell from a high-Rank monster could create a hole in their walls. And those with a sharp sense of smell or exceptionally good hearing would be able to locate any hiding survivors.

One would need an unrealistic amount of luck to survive in Orbaume, which was currently filled with a countless number of these high-Rank monsters.

In a certain mansion, a group of nobles attempting to escape into their basement were discovered by a high-Rank monster… Sam.

“Haha! I have found you!” he said.

One of the nobles screamed. “A carriage is coming from the ceiling?!”

“Come! This place is dangerous. Get in!” Sam said to them.

Naturally his objective was to rescue them.

He possessed the ‘Alternate Dimension Travel’ Skill, allowing him to travel through buildings by passing through an alternate dimension, and he was running around to rescue the people who were inside their mansions.

But not everyone was willing to believe the coachman of a suspicious carriage that appeared all of a sudden from their ceilings or walls, and neither was this particular noble.

“Y-you just appeared out of nowhere! Who are you?!” he demanded. “If we leave our lives in your hands–”

“Hurry up and get in. Or do you really want to cause me trouble?” said a red-haired beauty… Eleanora, as she poked her head out from under the carriage’s canopy.

The moment the noble saw her, his attitude changed. “Yes, Ma’am! You lot, hurry up and do as this young lady says!”

With Eleanora’s ‘Demon Eyes of Charming’ making the noble obey her, the noble got into the carriage, along with his family and servants.

Although Sam appeared to be nothing more than a carriage that could be pulled by three horses, its inside was 1,024 times larger than it looked from the outside, thanks to his ‘Space Expansion’ Skill that had reached Level 10.

The carriage was large enough to protect not only the nobles and their families, but all of their servants and guards as well.

Once the effects of the ‘Demon Eyes of Charming’ wore off and the nobles returned to their senses, they made a loud fuss, but that was quickly silenced.

“This is an emergency situation, so I will have you be quiet,” said a familiar voice.

“D-Duke Alcrem?! Why are you here?!” one of the nobles demanded.

“I am not a noble who is in your service…” said another.

“There is no time to explain! This is an emergency situation, and you will obey my instructions!” Duke Alcrem said sternly, cowing the nobles into silence, and then he poked his head out of the carriage to talk to Sam. “According to ‘Detect Life,’ the next ones are in the basement of the mansion next door.”

“Understood. Thank you, Mari-san,” said Sam.

There was no reason for Duke Alcrem to be here; the real identity of the Duke Alcrem inside Sam’s carriage was the ‘Metamorph’ Mari.

“But if I was going to use ‘Metamorph’ to disguise myself as someone else, wouldn’t King Corbitt have been better? I’ve seen his face before, so transforming into him wouldn’t have been a problem,” Mari said.

“You can’t do that. Duke Alcrem has given his permission for you to impersonate him, so that’s fine, but impersonating the king is punishable by death, so it’ll be troublesome later on,” said Eleanora.

A document signed by Duke Alcrem, stating that he had hired Mari as a body double, had already been prepared to deal with the troublesome consequences later on. Originally, the plan was to have Kühl or Isla use this document, but Mari using it wasn’t a problem, either.

“Let us finish up the rescuing so that we can return to Silkie and the others!” said Sam as he dove back into his alternate dimension.

Monster explanation (Written by Luciliano):

Dimension Conquest Carriage

Sam, a carriage-type Undead that has conquered space. It is not conquest in the literal sense; in this case, ‘conquest’ refers to the fact that he can travel through space freely as if he has conquered it.

Even the sturdiest fortress is meaningless before this Undead. The only things that could effectively stand in his way are another Undead of the same kind, a master of space-attribute magic, or a holy barrier that prevents any Undead from passing through it.

However, there are a limited number of beings capable of facing a Rank 11 Undead, and he is likely capable of breaking through the average barrier. And it is exceedingly unlikely that any Undead of the same kind exist.

As always, he is relatively weak when it comes to pure strength in combat, but it is almost impossible to avoid his ‘Charge’ attack performed as he suddenly appears from his alternate dimension. And because there is no way to tell what is inside the carriage, if one ever finds themselves being pursued by him, I would recommend surrendering immediately.

In terms of his capability in transport, which was his original purpose, he easily surpasses even the largest of sailing vessels, and the interior space is marvelously livable. A comfortable temperature and humidity is maintained inside the carriage at all times, even if he is traveling through freezing lands or volcanic regions.

Even if a Fire Dragon were to use a Breath attack on him, those inside the carriage likely wouldn’t feel any of its heat… though Sam himself would feel the heat and pain as he burned, so I cannot recommend testing this hypothesis.