The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

Chapter 78: Black Sphere

Protect the fleeing people! Dont let them chase the civilians!

Leo uses all his voice to give out his command.

Leo was heading to Bassau when he noticed a giant black sphere emerging above the city.

After seeing that anomaly, Leo immediately began preparing for combat and ordered the emergency purple signal fire to be lit. He immediately understood that the sphere was an anomaly and intuitively know that it is dangerous.

It was something he has never seen before. At the same time, how it appeared was also beyond his understanding.

The only grace here would be that he could prevent his imperial knights from doing anything rash and immediately raised the purple signal fire.

Kuh!

Leo swings his sword as he rides on his horse.

The thing he swung his sword at was a monster made of bones.

It was a lower-class monster called skeleton. It is a rare type of monster called undead which wouldnt appear under normal circumstances.

Leo crushed its weak point at its chest area but it is like dripping water on a hot stone.

Skeletons are pouring out from Bassau as though water overflowing from a cup.

From what he saw, their number is not just a few hundreds.

Right now the people of Bassau are fleeing from that skeleton army.

Your Highness Leonard! Please fall back!

Saying so, the imperial knights cut down the skeletons around Leo.

However, no matter how much they cut down, more still come at them.

They will keep coming! Lets retreat for now!

No, we have to stop them here.

Are you sane, Your Highness!?

The knight screams at Leos decision.

There are only Leo and the imperial knights who are acting as his guard here. Other than that there are only Lynfia, Abel and his party members. Counting all of them it is doubtful whether their number reaches twenty or not.

Stopping hundreds of skeletons is impossible for them no matter how you look at it.

If we fall back here, they will get to the fleeing civilians. We cant retreat. The front line must be established here.

Then please at least fall back by yourself Your Highness!

I will not. Do you have anything else to say?

Leo asks as he cut down another skeleton.

Its easy to retreat. But doing so would put the people he wants to protect at risk.

He cant endanger the people just to save himself.

Right now Leo is not an emperor. He may consider retreating if he has to consider the impact he will have on the Empire. However, right now Leo is just an emperor candidate.

His life doesnt have the same weight as the Emperor.

I came to the South for a reason. I am here because I wish to save people from suffering. That still hasnt changed even now. What about you? When you were given your sword as an imperial knight, do you still remember the oath you gave to the Emperor?

The knight who proposed for a retreat against the growing number of skeletons was silent.

The imperial knights swore to become the Emperors sword. They swore that on their sword and honor.

I have vowed to devote myself to the Empire and its people. That vow will never disappear from my heart.

Good. Then fight. The time we can earn here will definitely have meaning!

Yes, Your Highness!

No one was urging Leo to withdraw anymore.

Leo doesnt decide to do this purely out of his feelings either.

The skeletons overflowing from the city arent just behaving randomly. They are gathering at the enemy closest to them.

In other words, Leo and his men are attracting the attention of the skeletons.

If he retreats here, the skeletons that lost their target will be scattered throughout the South.

In that case, the Southern Lords will be forced to defend their territory by themselves and it will take more time to defeat all of them.

He decided to stay here as a [Decoy] because he considered that this action would be better for the Empire.

Your Highness Leonard. May I propose something?

What is it, Lynfia. You are not going to ask me to retreat too right?

My village is behind us, my apologies but it would be troubling for me if Your Highness decided to withdraw here.

As I thought, so you understand huh.

Knowing that Lynfia also has a similar thought, Leo shows a bitter smile.

Among the Southern Nobles under his suspicion, if the South were to fall to the skeletons, the one who will receive the most damage would be the immigrant villages. There should be a few Lords who want to protect them but the Lords who have such determination and enough power to protect themselves and the villages will be even fewer.

So, what do you propose?

Lets call for reinforcements.

Lynfia sweeps down the skeletons around them as she speaks with Leo.

Just a short while is fine, she wanted the time she can properly talk with him.

Reinforcement? From where?

From all the South. We can send a messenger to the nearest city now.

Do you intend to move the Lords?

No, we cant count on them. We will be relying on the adventurers instead. If we pay the reward, they will not betray us and will only work for you, Your Highness. Like Abel-san and his party here.

Yeah, thats right! We already received that sum of reward, after all. Theres no way we can just run away by ourselves right! Even now I still want to run away as fast as I could though!

Abel who was fighting nearby cut down a skeleton while saying so. His party members also start to raise their complaints.

Our leader is easily lured in by reward after all

Its my fault!? We talked with each other before we accept this quest right!?

No no, everyone was against it you know. We only accepted this quest because you suddenly felt like being righteous and said that you couldnt ignore a village in trouble right?

Oi Oi!? We already came all this way so dont put all the blame on me alright!? We are a party arent we!?

Abels party members have such a merry conversation while maintaining their formation and looking out for each other.

Adventurers are pro at dealing with monsters.

Certainly, if they have adventurers as reinforcement they will have powerful allies.

However,

There are only small branches of adventurer guild in the south, I dont think they will be much help for us though.

I understand that. Thats why we will put out a request to every branch.

What do you mean?

We will issue a Raid Quest.

Raid Quest. Leo searches his memory for that word.

He heard of it before.

At the bottom of his memory, that word came out from the story his mother told him when he was young.

Its a large scale quest that many adventurers can accept right?

Yes. its rarely done these days but this is a great time to issue one.

By the way, why is it rarely done nowadays?

To put it simply, it is because the quest costs a lot of money to set up.

Leo then understands what Lynfia was trying to say.

It is better to deploy a high-rank adventurer rather than many low-rank ones. The best example of this is the SS rank adventurers.

It is much cheaper to ask for an SS rank adventurer than issuing a Raid Quest. A Raid Quest costs that much money.

Do you have funds for that? I dont have that much money lying around you know?

His Highness Arnold has given me a lot of money. Lets use it.

Seriouslyhe never spent any money on himself at all and now he just simply gave it away for others.

Isnt that like His Highness Arnold. He is a kind person isnt he.

Lynfia smiles and hands Leo the pouch she received from Al.

Leo, who thought that Lynfia was going to go herself, tilted his head.

I think that if you go instead of me it would be much faster to go through the procedure you know?

I cant say that theres no possibility that I would betray you so leaving something like this to an imperial knight would give Your Highness a peace of mind right.

Leo frowns at Lynfias words.

Leo had already trusted Lynfia. He thought that theres no way that she would betray him now. However, that was Leos personal trust.

In this emergency of a situation, he cant afford to assign this important task to a random adventurer.

Lynfias proposal was based on Leos position.

I will remain fighting at Your Highness Leonards side. I have already made my promise to His Highness Arnold that I will definitely become your power after all.

You have already helped me enough you know. Can anyone act as a messenger!? Anyone who is confident that you will definitely not run away by yourself!?

Leo asks the imperial knights.

The imperial knights do not react when he asks for a messenger. Its like running away from the enemy for them after all. Even more so in a situation where a prince who they must protect is fighting.

However, Leo added that he wanted someone who definitely will not run away by himself for the task.

If they do not name themselves here, it will show that they do not have that confidence.

Thus all the imperial knights nominate themselves. Leo gives the pouch to the knight who is the best at horse handling and gives him his instructions.

Head to the nearest city and ask the adventurer guild to issue a Raid Quest! The guild can contact all of its branches throughout the continent! Make sure that they share this quest to the imperial capital branch as well!

Yes, Your Highness! I will return here as soon as I can! May the fortune of war be with you!

You too, now go!

Saying so, the knight started running.

Sending him off, Leo turns his eyes to the city of Bassau.

The black sphere is exuding even more malice and he already lost count of the skeletons.

It was as if the city itself has turned into the gate to hell.

While having such an impression, Leo focuses on swinging his sword.