Chapter 88: 050. Imperial Prince is Hunting Santa -2 (Part Two)

I used divinity to enhance my eyesight. And what I saw next was an existence boasting a portly body, snickering lips, and a red hat pressed down on its head.

Yup, it was the Red Devil, and it was currently running along with a red pouch visibly wiggling around on its back.

Not only that, there were two of them, too!

Two ‘Santas’ were moving around in a surprisingly agile manner that contradicted their rotund body shapes.

“Holy cow!”

Even though I was staring at them with my own two eyes, those two creatures just didn’t emit any sense of presence that I could latch onto. Even though they were wearing red clothing and I could see them running, I still couldn’t pick up their existences at all.

It was like looking at a creature that couldn’t be consciously ‘recognised’.

I guessed that some type of magic that fooled the eyes of the observer and cloaked one’s presence was at play here. Could that be the reason why those creatures hadn’t been caught until now?

If it weren’t for their stench, even I would’ve failed to discover them despite them running around openly on the rooftops.

“Hey, Harman.”

“Yes?”

“Over there.”

I pointed at the pair of Santas.

Only then did Harman notice them. He hurriedly unsheathed his sword.

“Alert the patrols. And hunt down one of them by yourself.”

“But we must…”

“The safety of our subjects takes priority. Could it be that you don’t trust me?”

“…”

I stared at Harman. “I’ve hunted both the Progenitor Vampire and the Progenitor Lycan. A small fry like that won’t even leave a scratch on me. We are going to hunt both of them and rescue any children found inside those pouches in the process.”

“Understood.”

I summoned my musket rifle, and then after reinforcing my body, dashed forward.

I ran through the streets at a rapid pace before entering a dark alleyway.

While sniffing out the stench of the targets no longer visible to my eyes, I continued my pursuit. And then, I looked up at the rooftops of the houses lining up the alleyway.

A ‘Santa’ was forcing its round body down the chimney with a grunt before disappearing from my view.

“Son of a…?!”

Bloody hell, maybe that’s the real Santa? I’m not going out of my way to stop the real thing from trying to distribute gifts to good children, now am I?

I turned my heading towards the house in question. At the same time, I injected divinity through my body.

After kicking the front door down, I heard blood-curdling screams.

I dashed up the stairs and reached the first floor in an instant, then stared at the ‘Santa Claus’ currently standing in front of the fireplace connected to the wall. It was gripping a huge machete. Blood was dripping from the blade.

An adult man and woman were lying face down before the creature. Meanwhile, a child was screaming and resisting from inside the red pouch slung over its shoulders. However, the noise gradually died down.

Noise-blocking magic, was it?

The fake Santa Claus’s gaze shifted over to me.

Its cheeks were chubby, but the rest of its face was contorted and rotting away rather hideously. Its dead eyes rolled around, and its sharp teeth gleamed under the moonlight from beyond the torn jawline.

-Kkereek, kkireek?

It made the unique-to-undead noise and began tilting its head. But then, it lowered its posture before pouncing at me.

The thing swung its machete, but I easily dodged that. After lowering my head to let the blade fly over me, I pointed the musket at the damn thing’s noggin and pulled the trigger.

The undead’s head exploded, and it fell on its knees before collapsing on the floor with a thud.

“Fuu-woo…”

I spat out a sigh of relief before opening the pouch. A tearful boy emerged from inside and jumped into my arms.

“You alright, kid?”

I patted the boy on the head but had to urgently cover his eyes while doing so. I turned my gaze towards the fireplace, at the boy’s dead parents.

“…”

They were standing back up as zombies. In their current conditions… ‘Resurrection’ couldn’t be used on them.

I kept covering the boy’s eyes while summoning the shovel from my item window.

……..

….

…

The parents were now laying unmoving, dead. The boy continued to cry.

I wrapped him warmly in a blanket and waited. A short while later, Harman and some patrolling soldiers showed up at the house. It seemed that they managed to deal with the other Santa as well.

And so, I took custody of the two dead fake Santas.

“For sure…”

I took a closer look at the Santa corpses.

Yep, it was a type of zombie I had never seen before. Not only was it quick, its physical strength was excellent too. On top of all that, it came equipped with some kind of special ability that perfectly prevented it from giving off any sense of presence.

I got the feeling that these things were created for the purpose of assassination, or maybe to deal with any loose ends.

Yeah, I made the right call by coming here. An organisation of Necromancers did know ways to summon more varieties of undeads, as it turned out.

I shifted my gaze away.

The remains of the parents were handed over to the garrison. The boy was clinging onto his parents and was still crying even now.

“…What will happen to the kid?”

“He will most likely be sent to an orphanage, your highness,” Harman responded.

I didn’t realise I was biting my lower lip until I said something. “…This is nuts. Those sons of b*tches, we gotta mop this up real quick. Go and obtain all the reports on every incident that has happened so far.”

I might be a mere transfer student right now, but Harman was still a Paladin. It shouldn’t be difficult for him to get his hands on the reports I told him to acquire from the garrison.

I picked up the Santa corpses and put them away in my item window.

There was plenty of value in researching these things, I figured.

The undeads they’ve been using? I’ll use them for myself and let those bastards taste their own medicine very soon.

**

Near a village on the outskirts of Humite.

Inside a certain section of the forest where all of its trees had been cut down, a dozen-plus knights belonging to the Order of the Golden Cross could be found.

These knights were kitted out in gleaming golden armours and raising up their scabbards. Then, they began slashing down in Charlotte’s direction with their weapons.

She fortified her body with divinity and defended against the incoming attacks. She continued deflecting away the scabbards, but one still landed on her back.

A wound opened up and blood danced in the air.

Even though she grunted in pain, she still clenched her teeth hard and continued swinging her sword.

Eventually, three of the Golden Cross knights collapsed while bleeding a little. The other knights on standby took them away and treated their injuries.

Oscal was watching this duel play out with widened eyes. “Excellent! I simply cannot believe that the Imperial Family managed to fish out a monster of this calibre from somewhere!”

While panting heavily, Charlotte turned her head towards Oscal’s direction.

“However, it’s still not enough. If it’s only on this level, you cannot protect the Imperial Family from the true monsters.”

Oscal stood up from his chair. He then personally picked up a white scabbard containing a sword and entered the fray. As a result, the intensity and difficulty of the training became even worse.

She attended the academy during the day to get educated on various topics. And at night, she would spar against the Golden Cross knights to hone her skills even further.

On this particular day, rain fell. She was on the ground, vomiting blood.

She forced her body to stand back up from the muddy ground.

Oscal, who was watching her, spoke in a cynical voice, “Are you going to give up now? It isn’t a bad idea to abandon the ways of the sword and live like a rural farm girl. Maybe it’ll be a happier life for you.”

“I… do not want to.”

She didn’t want that.

No, she had a goal. A goal of getting stronger to protect that person.

That was the drive that motivated her to keep moving forward.

Oscal was making a deeply satisfied grin. “Indeed. That’s how it should be.”

He raised the white-coloured scabbard and swung it in Charlotte’s direction. She dodged it and quickly dashed into Oscal’s torso.

However, her sword clashed against Oscal’s scabbard instead.

He was genuinely impressed. “You will definitely become stronger. More and more! For the sake of the Imperial Family, become even stronger!”

Charlotte gritted her teeth.

All of that was nonsense.

She didn’t care about the Imperial Family. What she wanted to achieve was only one thing.

The benefactor who gave her parents a proper funeral and saved their souls, and also even gave her another chance at life…

…Allen Olfolse.

She only wanted to be by his side. Nothing more, nothing less.

While gritting her teeth, she continued swinging her sword again.

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