"What's this 'Great Commander' business?"
[Because you're the Commander's Commander!]
"......Fine. If you insist on playing subordinate, I won't stop you."
I quickly gave up on correcting the title. After all, having more monsters to put to work was a good thing regardless.
Even if half the skeletons were still struggling to assemble their bodies, wandering around searching for their lost arms and leg bones....
I was watching the skeletons flounder about awkwardly when Mori suddenly stuck his head out from my pocket and looked at me.
[But Commander, the leather on your neck has changed color!]
Only after hearing Mori's worried words did I realize that this place was a dead land filled with poisonous energy.
The fact that I wasn't feeling any significant difficulty breathing was entirely thanks to the choker I was currently wearing.
"Since we caught Dasha, I suppose we could just leave."
Though there were skeletons staring openly at me, they didn't seem to have the courage to stand in my way.
I didn't think moving to a different location would cause me to miss Zenon or the other Dullahans.
Right now, this Samuel even had location tracking magic on him, and if it came down to it, Samuel would come up with something.
Having made my decision, I moved my body. Noticing that I was trying to leave this land, Mori asked in confusion.
[Aren't you going to wait for the other knights here?]
"I was planning to, but if the choker's color has changed, I need to move."
There was no need to unnecessarily test the limits of this purification magic with my own eyes.
When I pointed at one of the nearby skeletons and ordered it to guide us out of the dead land, the skeleton immediately took the lead.
Since Nadav wasn't here, I had no choice but to travel on foot.
Crossing the pitch-black land was a simple and tedious task. So much so that it was easy to get lost in other thoughts.
'I wonder how many days it will take to reach the Trebi Mountain Range.'
Rumors of my kidnapping would be spreading, so I'd need to change my appearance again, but actually, a problem had arisen for me right now.
'To think the magic tool would break.'
In the process of using an illegal magic tool to subdue Dasha and the skeletons, the necklace cord of my appearance-altering magic tool had snapped.
Amidst the chaos, I only realized this fact belatedly, and by the time I searched for the magic tool's whereabouts, it was already too late.
I don't know who stepped on it, but the magic stone was tragically shattered and rolling on the ground. Naturally, the magic tool didn't work.
'Once I reunite with Zenon, I'll have to ask him to cast the spell.'
As the heir to the Magic Tower Lord, surely he'd know how to cast an appearance alteration spell.
With those thoughts, I quickly let go of my lingering regrets about the magic tool, but moving around alone like this, I couldn't help but feel anxious.
[G-Great Commander!]
I was walking while gauging when I might reunite with Zenon, but I quickly came to my senses at the skeleton's urgent call.
We were still standing on the dead land. A dead land where thick poisonous energy drifted vaguely in all directions.
So there shouldn't be any living creatures to be found.
"......What is that now."
Beyond the deep purple mist, black figures appeared. They were heavily armed people.
I didn't know what they were, but it was obvious they hadn't appeared with good intentions. I immediately gripped my bracelet.
It felt a bit awkward to call them back out right after sending them in, but that would be better than stubbornly insisting on handling things alone.
* * *
Duke Roam's face was unprecedentedly grave after returning from the Imperial Palace. So Duke Roam's wife followed him straight into his office.
And there, she heard shocking news from the exhausted-looking Duke Roam.
"......You're saying they're hunting down the Crown Prince?"
It wasn't an official order, but one secretly issued. Fortunately, Duke Roam, who still had connections remaining in the Imperial Palace, seemed to have returned immediately upon hearing the news.
Duke Roam's wife couldn't believe what she was hearing. To dare arrest the Crown Prince?
The people who could issue such an order were extremely limited. Someone seated in a higher position than the Crown Prince.
The Emperor had been shutting himself away for days citing illness, and originally had no reason to be hostile toward the Crown Prince either.
So the remaining person was......
"Let me ask again. The Empress showed no signs whatsoever?"
At Duke Roam's sharp question, Duke Roam's wife shook her head.
"None at all. Even during the recent audience, she only said that participating in the central meetings was burdensome......"
Duke Roam's wife, who had been answering in a confused manner, hesitated. With her face distorted, she looked up with sharpened eyes.
"Are you saying the Empress deceived me? Why?"
"To do something like this, of course."
The Empress's face flashed through Duke Roam's wife's mind. The two women, of the same age, had obtained their respective positions around the same time, and had known each other for that long.
Though not intimate, they had known each other long enough to understand each other well.
"But the Empress is a woman who has lived her entire life far removed from power struggles. She always did her utmost to accommodate the Emperor's temperament!"
Duke Roam's wife knew better than anyone why the Emperor had chosen the current Empress.
The reason she couldn't become Empress was also the reason the current Empress could ascend to that position.
If the Empress had tried to wield any power, the Emperor would never have stood by and watched it happen.
At Duke Roam's wife's words, Duke Roam pressed his lips together tightly and turned away.
"What about Lilia?"
"The last news was a prophecy that the Crown Prince's subjugation would fail."
So she begged him to send military support, saying that the forces here alone wouldn't be enough.
If there had been any leeway, perhaps they might have listened somewhat to Lilia's request.
But regrettably, Duke Roam's wife didn't even have time to reply to Lilia's letter.
Because the atmosphere of the capital's social circles had changed rapidly within just a few days.
Those who had only whispered about Roam's faults behind their backs were acting with increasing recklessness.
They didn't even fear Duke Roam's wife. There were limits to controlling the public with the Roam family's power alone.
All of this was because a power transcending human authority had appeared.
God's agent. The daughter they had abandoned.
"Tch."
Duke Roam clicked his tongue in irritation. Roughly sweeping back his bangs, Duke Roam bluntly announced.
"I negotiated with Frisian."
Duke Roam's wife opened her eyes wide.
Frisian had been identified as the culprit who had stolen secret documents from the office when the Roam mansion caught fire previously.
It was Frisian who had taken those disappeared documents and threatened Roam.
Because of that incident, Duke Roam and Frisian had been greatly at odds, and it had even escalated into an open conflict between the Roam ducal family and the Kendall baron family.
Originally, the Kendall baron family wouldn't have dared to even think of opposing Roam. If Frisian hadn't become a member of that family, that is.
That was why Duke Roam's wife thought even more poorly of Frisian.
"That girl dared to threaten Roam!"
Negotiating with such a Frisian! Duke Roam's wife couldn't help but be appalled.
For the negotiation, Duke Roam must have offered compensation that would satisfy Frisian. What that compensation would be was all too obvious.
......Roam.
"We have Seiri!"
"Do you think we're in a situation where we can wait for Seiri right now?"
"Of course, it's true that Seiri keeps spouting nonsense lately, but......"
"Prince Heinrich has bared his teeth at the Crown Prince with the Empress backing him. The Emperor hasn't shown his face for days, and the Crown Prince's subjugation force isn't reporting victories—only news of disgraceful defeat keeps coming!"
Duke Roam raised his voice. It was a sharp shout enough to make Duke Roam's wife's shoulders flinch.
"Do you even know what the pretext for arresting the Crown Prince is? That he fell into wicked heresy and attempted to assassinate the resurrected one!"
To the extent of showing anger in front of her that he normally only showed to his subordinates, Duke Roam seemed to have no leeway.
"In the midst of all this, Roam is under surveillance on grounds of kidnapping the resurrected one. So I'm leaving this matter to Frisian."
"That girl can no longer be called Roam......!"
"If you hadn't kept interfering about the Roam successor in the first place, things wouldn't have gotten this twisted!"
Finally, the arrow of blame pointed at Duke Roam's wife.
Duke Roam's wife, who had unknowingly held her breath and gazed at her husband, gritted her teeth.
"Honey."
"Don't say another word."
Duke Roam stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back.
The newly moved mansion wasn't as good as the previous one, but it was sufficiently large and spacious. The same was true of this office.
It was decorated as similarly as possible to the old office, so visitors would completely forget about the burning of the Roam mansion and discuss business matters.
But the master, Duke Roam, was different.
"Frisian can't let go of Roam, so she'll definitely succeed."
Everything was unfamiliar. The new mansion, this office, everything surrounding them.
To the extent that he didn't know where things had gone wrong, or what to even start with.
"We need to drag Aneli here and make her testify to Roam's innocence with her own mouth."
The hardest thing was the fact that they could no longer turn back.
* * *
Clang!
The last knight's sword rolled across the floor.
Urk, the knight's body slowly crumpled forward as he vomited blood. I looked at the falling knight with exhausted eyes and let out a long sigh.
[What should we do?]
Minte's sword was now pointed at the one remaining enemy.
"Ah, Aneli......"
The person standing there with a pale face.
It was Frisian, my older sister, whom I hadn't expected to see here at all.
The knights, soldiers, and mages she had brought were now growing cold on the black earth, pouring out their blood.
Frisian, who had been frozen in place with a white face watching her forces being mercilessly slaughtered, quickly parted her lips when her eyes met mine.
"I—."
"Don't explain. I think I can guess."
I cut off her words with a voice mixed with sighs and looked around.
I considered calling only Palides, who could take human form, to handle them, but since there seemed to be more of them than expected, I summoned all the Dullahans.
I also intended to silence whoever appeared, no matter who it was. Thanks to that, Frisian saw all the Dullahans protecting me.
"You, those Dullahans......"
After wetting her trembling lips with her tongue several times, Frisian forced herself to compose her tone.
"Are you going to kill me?"