Instant Death

The feudal lord of Hayabusa, Ryouta, was one of the many adherents of the rulers of this world, the sages.

He had a simple reason for harboring an aversion against them, a reason that was difficult to ignore for someone like him, who considered themselves an upstanding human being: Pretty much everyone that had to do with them was a jerk.

The room they were currently in was part of the building Ryouta made use of for his political duties as feudal lord; the same room he was just panicking in due to the report of a terrible tragedy occurring in his town, when suddenly the man responsible for that very tragedy leisurely walked in.

"Just doing some local resupplying, a"ight? Zombies gotta be replaced pretty frequently, y"see."

"Don"t screw with me!"

The whole town had fallen into chaos because of the ma.s.sacre that Masayuki and his small army had started.

Even so, Ryouta could only gnash his teeth. As long as Masayuki continued to insist that he was acting in the name of Lain Ryouta could only abide.

"Come on, hand over the key already."

"...What"s Sage Lain doing right now?"

Hayabusa"s barrier was raised by Lain, and the duty of controlling it was given to Ryouta. The key was indispensable in that regard, it allowed one to release the barrier, strengthen it, and even restricting the sages" blessings was possible. It certainly wasn"t something one handed over just like that.

"Lain"s cleaning up after Santarou right now. Wouldn"t be surprised if she showed up here before long actually, Santarou"s territory wasn"t too far from here after all. Don"t look at me like you can"t hand it over without Lain"s permission, I"ve already told you I"m here under her orders."

Masayuki wouldn"t dare use Lain"s name to bluff, and knowing that, Ryouta pulled out his key and reluctantly shoved it over the table towards him.

"d.a.m.n it! Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get this town to where it is now!?"

Once Masayuki"s battalion started moving there was no way this matter would be settled with just a manhunt; an image of Hayabusa in ashes was already coming afloat in Ryouta"s mind. All he could do now was pray that the people Masayuki was looking for would be found quickly.

＊＊＊＊＊

It might have been possible to pa.s.s by him unharmed, but Yogiri decided to get rid of him anyway, just in case.

Fortunately the town"s search hadn"t made any progress so far, the citizens were too busy dealing with the sudden zombie outbreak. However, even if they didn"t have to worry about being captured any time soon, there wasn"t anywhere for them to go after escaping Hayabusa.

"Hmm, guess there"s not point in going to the train station either, under these circ.u.mstances."

Tomochika voided her thoughts. Earlier they intended to get away from Yuuki"s slaves by taking the train to the capital, but now the situation had changed completely.

"Yeah, I doubt the trains are being operated right now. Also, there"s a good chance we"d really get captured if we went to a public place like that."

"Actually, why are we being treated like wanted criminals anyway?"

"Well, we did kill a sage. They probably won"t leave us alone for a while."

Nonetheless, Yogiri still viewed that one time as justified self-defense and held no regrets. But whether he regretted it or not, it increased the chances of getting caught up in some annoying mess quite drastically.

Unlike earlier, now they really had to be cautious of their surroundings, but before Yogiri could even relay that thought to Tomochika it was already too late.

"I"ve found some! We"ve got two j.a.panese here!"

A whole gang of armed men appeared in droves from around the alley"s corner.

Yogiri had been trying to avoid a scenario like this, but it appeared his efforts ended in vain; with how strong the men"s killing intent was it didn"t take Yogiri"s power to tell what they were planning.

"Die."

Yogiri used his power and the barricade of people before them crumbled at once. However, it seemed like their presence was already picked up on by more people, based on the new people he could sense making their way to them.

"Did they think I wouldn"t kill civilians? Getting kind of fed up to be honest."

Even if there was some manipulation happening, all of them made the conscious choice to attack him and Tomochika, and Yogiri didn"t feel any remorse killing a would-be attacker. As far as innocent bystanders went he did try his best not to kill them.

And like that, Yogiri was starting to feel some irritation towards the person responsible for this whole mess.