The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 7 Read online

  “Apologies for the wait,” the knight said. “The princess wishes to thank you. She would like to invite you to the palace.”

  The princess stared at us from behind him, her expression implying that she’d give us the greatest possible hospitality. I appreciated that and thought it was commendable coming from royalty. If I were acting under my true identity, I would have accepted the offer. But now wasn’t a good time.

  I didn’t know what to do, so I bought some time by asking a question. “Uh, to the palace, you say? Who are you two, exactly?” I knew the answer, more or less. They were a knight and a princess, and they were unfortunately attacked on the road. It felt like associating with them would go nowhere good, but maybe I was imagining things.

  “Oh, my apologies, I should have introduced myself sooner. I’m Nauss Ancro, captain of the Kingdom of Yaaran’s Royal Guard. And this is...”

  The Royal Guard was supposed to be among the most powerful groups in Yaaran. There may have been a lot of monsters, but they shouldn’t have done as much damage as they did. Some of the knights who did survive were heavily wounded, and those wounds didn’t look like they came from forest wolves or rock wolves. Maybe they were harmed by something else beforehand and then were attacked again. That would leave them with little remaining stamina, which would explain why they struggled against relatively weak monsters. Whatever the case, it seemed like a nasty situation.

  “I’m the second princess of Yaaran, Jia Regina Yaaran,” the princess said after the knight.

  We kneeled before her. I may have grown up in the middle of nowhere, but I knew that was the proper etiquette around royalty. In the off chance that a noble would come to the village, they wanted to avoid any potential disasters, so they beat these things into us.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Princess Jia said. “Maybe if we were in the palace, but this is a public road. Besides, you saved us. More monsters could attack at any moment, so I could never demand that you bow to me in this dangerous place.”

  But accepting her generosity at face value and raising my head could get it chopped off, as has happened in numerous instances before, so I kept my head down. Not that severing my head would necessarily kill me, but it wouldn’t be ideal.

  “You really can raise your heads,” Nauss said. “She’s not like the corrupt nobles you’re thinking of.”

  Yaaran did have corrupt nobles, but relatively few compared to other countries. There were many reasons for this, but one big reason was that the majority of the country belonged to the Church of the Eastern Sky. It was built around living a modest life and showing compassion to others, so if nobles belonged to that religion, they were more likely to care for their people. Nauss surely knew this of Yaaran as well, but it sounded like he felt strongly about the nobles he spoke of.

  I was only getting more suspicious and didn’t particularly want to go with them, but it was hard to directly reject a request from royalty. Maybe it would at least be possible to postpone this. Then there might be some ways to deal with this. If nothing else, it would be better than going there right away. I decided to try and carry the conversation in that direction.

  At any rate, I was told to raise my head, so I did. It didn’t matter if my head was lopped off, and I was the one closest to them, so I figured I would act as the representative. Nobody tried to remove my head, and Nauss and Jia just watched me, so I seemed to be okay. I was relieved about that, but I tried not to show it.

  “Princess, Sir Nauss, thank you for your generosity,” I said.

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Jia replied. “So, will you accept my invitation?”

  This was the kind of question that was more like a demand. But it was framed as a question nonetheless, so I hoped that if I asked if the invitation could be pushed to a later date, it would be allowed. If not, then so be it.

  “We’re adventurers in the middle of a job, so we have to go report about that first. Also, as you may see from how we’re dressed, we’re not in the proper attire for entering a palace. If possible, we’d like some time to prepare first.”

  All three of us were in flashy outfits. Mine and Lorraine’s were certainly on the trendy side, and Augurey’s was hard to look at but still well-made. Regardless, I had been told that visiting a palace in outfits like this would be improper. When going before someone of high prestige, many preparations were required, even with regards to clothing. We didn’t meet those standards. As such, I thought this would be a good excuse to ask for more time. This wasn’t simply for our sake, as Jia most likely didn’t want to be embarrassed by us either.

  Nauss was the first to express that he understood what I was saying. Only a noble could become the captain of the Royal Guard, but because he had the duty of protecting the royal family, I heard there was more emphasis placed on his skill with a sword than his status. Maybe his standing as a noble wasn’t as high as some others, judging by his interactions with us.

  “Yes, you might be right,” he said. “Your clothes are somewhat painful to the eye, if you don’t mind me saying. And once you’ve taken a job, you must see it through to its end. Normally the royal family should be the top priority, however. Princess, what do you think?”

  “Father always said not to interfere with our citizens’ work. You can leave this for another day, of course.”

  This perspective probably came from the compassion that the Church of the Eastern Sky preached. The royalty of other countries would be happy to intrude on the lives of its citizens and wouldn’t even comprehend why they shouldn’t. They viewed the work of the masses as trifling compared to the demands of royalty. Thankfully, Yaaran was different. It was a small country either way, so the royalty was far closer to its citizens than other nations were.

  “Then let’s do that,” I said. “What should we do when we’re ready?”

  “I’d tell you to simply visit the palace, but ordinary adventurers aren’t allowed past the guards. Take this with you. Show this to the guards, and they should open the door for you,” Nauss said as he handed me a medal. It bore the same crest that was engraved on part of his armor.

  The crest depicted a rather violent image of a unicorn impaling a monster on its horn. Maybe knights looked at this and thought it looked gallant. I wouldn’t know how knights thought, but it was kind of cool, I guess. My family never had a family crest or anything. Actually, considering everything I now knew about my village, maybe they did have one somewhere. It could be worth asking about next time I returned home.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It is what it looks like. A medal that features the crest of my family. I hand them out at times like these, when someone needs to present proof that they have business with me. I have a few, but they’re magic items made of fairly rare metal, so hopefully you don’t run off with it.” Nauss kind of sounded like he was joking, but his eyes looked serious.

  Lorraine was staring curiously at the medal and nodding, so it must have been a pretty decent magic item. Even I could tell that the metal was of high quality. It could sell for a high price, but then I might get my head lopped off, so I decided against it.

  “Understood. Then we’ll be sure to visit the palace at a later date,” I said. “Also, will that carriage be all right?” The carriage was completely turned over on its side, and while we weren’t far from the capital, it would still be at least an hour of walking. The knights might be able to handle it, but not so much the princess.

  “Fortunately, it simply toppled over. It should still be usable once we pull it upright. It was built for the royal family, so it’s quite durable. But it might take some time.”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  They were so exhausted that it might have been tough for them to lift the carriage. “Should we do something to help?” I whispered to Lorraine and Augurey. Nauss and the princess were ordering the other knights to pull the carriage upright.

  “Offering to help might bear the most fruit in the future,” Augurey said. “But you
two don’t want to draw attention, do you? Then, if necessary, I could go to the palace by myself and ideally earn enough of their gratitude that they allow it.”

  In other words, Augurey would go tell them that we went off somewhere and couldn’t come to the palace. But I didn’t want to make him do that. It was me who said we should help them in the first place. Making Augurey deal with the aftermath of that didn’t sit well with me. Although, we were only here at all because of Augurey’s unreasonable request, but I was the one who’d accepted it. I couldn’t push the blame on him.

  “That might be convenient for us, but it’d hurt your standing in the capital,” I said. “And we only just met. I couldn’t ask so much of you.”

  Augurey looked a bit surprised. “I’m the one who dragged you into this. How nice of you. Well, I appreciate the thought, but what should we do, then?”

  “Whatever the case, earning their gratitude should be the right choice. Fortunately, getting that carriage upright again will be easy, if you don’t mind me taking care of it,” Lorraine suggested.

  She intended to use magic. Some of the knights could probably use magic too, but because of their jobs, they would have focused primarily on learning offensive magic. Lorraine knew those spells too, but she also knew some more convenient and highly specific spells.

  “That’s fine with me, but don’t make too big a show of it,” I said. The outfits she’d picked already stood out enough as it was.

  “Fine, it won’t be too showy. But it might be a bit wriggly,” she answered.

  I had no clue what that meant, but as long as it wasn’t showy, I didn’t care. Most magicians knew a couple of bizarre spells that matched their personal inclinations, so I assumed it would be something of the sort.

  “You do that, then,” I said.

  Lorraine walked up to Nauss. “Sir Nauss, may I offer to help lift the carriage?”

  “No, no, you’ve already saved our lives. I can’t ask for more than that. This will take a while, but we should make it back to the capital before sunset,” Nauss insisted.

  But then we couldn’t earn their gratitude, so Lorraine pushed further. “This may be no concern for such mighty and honorable knights as yourselves, but I don’t think you can expect the precious princess to wait in this bloody place for so long. I believe it would be in your best interest to lift the carriage as soon as possible. I happen to know some magic, including a spell that’s perfect for accidents like this. If you leave this to me, I can take care of it in a matter of minutes. You need only ask.”

  I thought her flattery was kind of excessive, but she always told me about her efforts to coordinate with other scholars in the Empire. Maybe this was a skill she picked up from back then.

  Nauss seemed like he was going to object at first, but when Lorraine mentioned the princess, he appeared to change his mind. And when she said it would only take a few minutes, he looked surprised and then a bit conflicted.

  “I hate to ask this after you saved our lives, but please do offer your aid. We actually had to fend off another attack before this one, so our stamina and mana have run dry. This would usually be easy for us, but not right now,” he admitted and bowed his head.

  “Based on your wounds and mana, I thought as much. I take it that asking for more details would be audacious of me, so I won’t. Anyway, I’ll pull the carriage upright for you. Can you have your knights stand back?”

  “Hey, she’s going to lift the carriage for us!” Nauss shouted to the knights. “Stand back!”

  Once the knights did as told, Lorraine cast the spell. She was talented enough to cast many spells without reciting the incantations, but she generally did so anyway when she was in public. That was partially to avoid showing the extent of her abilities, but it was also considered polite among magicians, apparently. Talented magicians were always swarmed by the rich and powerful, so it was probably intended to avoid that.

  When Lorraine finished casting the spell, thick, green vines slithered out of the ground and wrapped around each other to become even thicker and stronger. Then the vines coiled around the carriage, picked it up, and set it down in an upright position. I guess that was what she meant by a wriggly spell. It was fast, too. If she had made these strangle a person or monster, they could probably be knocked out immediately.

  Elves specialized in these plant-based spells, but I knew that Lorraine could use them too. She had demonstrated how she could use smaller plants like whips before. As an aside, my ability to accelerate plant growth with divinity differed from this in a few ways. When it came to magic, the plant would disappear the moment it no longer received mana. Also, it was possible to use spells to harvest fruit and such, but they tended to either have no flavor or a horrible one. They also provided no nutrients, supposedly. When using divinity, though, the plant grew and stayed grown permanently. That was why people tended to be thankful to be blessed with divinity. It was also why I had value as walking fertilizer, but I couldn’t say I ever wanted that.

  “Oh, magnificent!” Nauss exclaimed. “I hear that plant magic is difficult to cast.”

  “Well, it just happens to be something I like to study,” Lorraine said humbly. That was actually true, but being able to control so many plants was the mark of a great magician. Plant magic was difficult because it involved controlling living creatures. Elves were good at it because they spent their entire lives living closely with the forest, but for Lorraine to be capable of this magic, she needed incredible skill.

  “No need to be so humble. Well, now it seems we can make it back to the capital right away,” Nauss said.

  “I’ll call them, then,” Jia said and whistled.

  Just when I wondered what she was doing, I heard something running toward us from afar. I looked to see what it was and saw two pure white unicorns. These were probably the animals that drew this carriage. They were hard to train and highly temperamental, so they weren’t often used the way horses were. But their speed and stamina dwarfed that of the average horse, so trained unicorns were treasured.

  They came when Jia called, so these unicorns probably only listened to her. They were supposed to be intelligent animals, so maybe they’d obey other people if Jia told them to, but it would be best not to get too close to them. Around humans other than their master, they acted like any other wild animal.

  Jia tied the unicorns to the carriage. It looked like she was quite familiar with this task, so she seemed to be more than just a sheltered princess. Considering she also came out of hiding in the carriage despite Nauss’s instructions, Jia didn’t come across as the most docile sort. They were attacked twice, yet she was relatively nonchalant about it.

  The knights began to inspect the carriage, but they didn’t seem to find any significant damage. It couldn’t have been completely unharmed after it fell over, but it was as durable as Nauss claimed. The carriage would be able to move perfectly fine.

  “Then I think it’s about time for us to depart,” Nauss said.

  “Right,” I answered. “Would you mind if we attend you to the capital?”

  I’d discussed this decision with Lorraine and Augurey beforehand. Essentially, it was another push to earn their gratitude. The knights had probably somewhat recovered, but not completely. We weren’t that far from the capital, but if the knights had to defend the carriage on the way there, it would likely take about an hour, as the knights now had to travel on foot. They were originally on horseback, but unlike the unicorns, most of the horses were injured or killed in the attacks. They only had a couple left, but at least that was more than nothing.

  “You’re willing to escort us?” Nauss asked.

  “Yes, if you’re not offended by the offer. I think it would be best for the princess, if it’s not too much trouble.” He placed the greatest emphasis on the princess’s safety, judging by his earlier conversation with Lorraine.

  “Yes, you’re right. If you can help us, please do. You’ll be rewarded, of course.” As expected, Nauss seem
ed easily swayed when it came to the princess.

  “Understood. We’re not knights, though, so I do worry that we’ll draw attention. We’ll follow from behind, if you don’t mind.”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Thankfully the path to the capital was extremely safe. It was rare to encounter so many monsters on a public road in the first place. Whatever first attacked them probably left the scent of blood for the wolf monsters to sniff out. When you slay monsters in the forest, you have to quickly change locations if you want to avoid getting swarmed. There didn’t seem to be anything more that came to the road, but those monsters were plenty. I’d certainly seen more than enough wolves for the day.

  “They should be safe here,” I said.

  “Yes, this may be a good time to depart,” Lorraine agreed.

  I walked to the front of the carriage and told Nauss, “We’re almost to the city gate, so we’ll be parting ways now.”

  “Oh, are you?” Nauss said. “I suppose there’s nothing more for you to do now. If anything does happen, the gate guards can handle it. Thank you for everything. Please remember to come to the palace soon. I will tell His Majesty of your achievements.”

  I didn’t want that to happen, so I tried to indirectly reject the offer. “Oh, protecting the princess was simply the natural course of action. That won’t be necessary. Goodbye now,” I said and hurried away. Nauss seemed to want to say more, but I felt like listening more would bring needless trouble, so I acted like I didn’t notice.

  Lorraine, Augurey, and I rushed to go stand in the commoner line. The carriage, of course, went to the line for greater nobles. There were a few different lines at the city gate. Some were divided by class, such as the commoner, lesser noble, and greater noble lines; there were also lines for pedestrians or carriages. The gate itself was enormous enough to make this possible.

  Naturally, the line for commoners was pretty busy at this time of day. The line that the princess used, on the other hand, was mostly empty. There weren’t that many greater nobles in the first place. We could have entered with them to make matters easier, but then they would keep some records of our entry. When it came to nobles, they actually kept track of things. There was a good chance that they would remember the few people attending them too, so we decided it would be best to separate outside the gate.