Chapter 34: I Will Stand at the Vanguard

“I will stand at the vanguard.”

As the long stretching staircase came to an end and a wide open space revealed itself, the mages belonging to the Imperial Army, including Viscount Philips Grey, scattered magical lights in all directions to secure minimal visibility.

The underground ruins, set as the place where the power of the Evil-Slaying Paladin, Onisia, was sealed, were far larger in scale than Cain had imagined.

However, unlike the ‘Mausoleum of the Constellations’ where he had quite specific information, this place had been heavily handled by outsourced personnel during the planning stage.

Therefore, even in Cain’s mind, there was no precise location information about where ‘Onisia’s power’ lay dormant, so he had no choice but to painstakingly search on foot, as troublesome as it was.

“Wouldn’t it be better to spread out and search?”

“That won’t do.”

With his personality pursuing extreme efficiency, Cain suggested spreading out to explore since there was no danger anyway.

However, Viscount Denver rejected it, citing that they could not disperse the escort forces for safety reasons.

“Your Majesty!”

How much time had passed like that?

Aren Valerian’s shout echoed as he seemed to have discovered something at the front of the formation.

“Let’s move forward.”

Cain moved to the front of the formation along with Viscount Denver.

The mages’ illumination was brightening the pitch-black darkness.

Relying on that, as they proceeded forward, a staircase leading further and deeper underground came into view.

“What should we do?”

At Viscount Philips Grey’s question, Cain quietly rummaged through the developer’s memories in his mind.

Although most of the work to concretize the settings here had been handled by outsourced personnel, naturally, the initial planning and final approval had been done by him.

So, if he thought hard about it, there would surely be something he remembered.

However.

“Your Majesty. It seems we have uninvited guests.”

Before Cain could recall anything, Viscount Heinrich Denver, who had sensed new presences entering the underground, approached closely beside Cain and spoke.

“Uninvited guests?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Are you sure? It’s not the knights who were waiting above coming down?”

“The Imperial Army knights are rigid and inflexible fellows, so they wouldn’t disobey orders and leave the operational area without reason. And the ones approaching here now are coming as stealthily as possible, killing their presence through some method.”

With Viscount Denver’s brief explanation, Cain realized the gravity of the situation and quietly closed his mouth.

“How many?”

Grasping their numbers was the priority.

At Cain’s question, Viscount Denver concentrated again on the presences coming from outside.

“The presence is faint, so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact number. However, it seems to be at least several dozen.”

“Contact with the surface?”

“The knights deployed on the surface have likely been taken out with high probability. Fortunately, it seems we can respond with the remaining personnel.”

With Viscount Denver’s explanation, Cain made a decision.

“Let’s go down. This place is too narrow to engage the enemy.”

The location where Cain and his escorts were currently positioned had too many obstacles even in the wide ruins, making movement inconvenient and unsuitable for combat.

With over 100 personnel attached as escorts, it seemed better to conduct battle in wider terrain.

Moreover, if they went down and awakened Onisia’s power, that would be more helpful, so it would be wise to form up in wide terrain at that point and respond.

Cain conveyed this to Viscount Denver and then headed toward the deeper parts of the ruins.

The footsteps of the mages descending with them and the high-ranking knights disguised as soldiers echoed through the silent ruins.

Following Cain’s instructions, the procession of the Imperial Guard Knights and the Imperial Church’s paladins advanced toward the deep parts of the underground ruins.

Although disguised as hired mercenaries at the top, merely hiding their outer shell could not conceal their momentum.

Relying on mana lanterns emitting light through magical power, at the front of the procession advancing boldly forward, the Imperial Church’s knight Aren Valerian reached a dead end and stopped his steps.

“Inform His Majesty the Emperor of this fact.”

“Yes, understood.”

At Aren’s command, his subordinate ran to the following ranks to report to the emperor that there was no further path to advance.

However, upon hearing his words, Cain shook his head and said.

“I will confirm it myself.”

As he advanced toward the paladin Aren, Cain pondered the possibility that the structure here might have changed due to the additional application of the DLC.

However, the conclusion reached at the end was that there could be no variables.

Although issues could arise from applying numerous unstable private DLCs, such fundamental settings would not be deleted.

That is to say, if there had been a major revision point enough to modify the relevant setting, he wouldn’t have been unaware of it.

Cain headed to the front with his escorts, and accordingly, Viscount Denver positioned a small number of Imperial Guard Knights in the rear to guard against sudden attacks from the uninvited guests.

When Cain arrived at the front ranks where Aren and the Imperial Church’s paladins were waiting.

As they said, he could confirm with his own two eyes that there was no further path to proceed.

The peculiar point, however, was that what blocked the front of the passage was not the natural end of a cave but a structure that looked like a castle wall.

Originally, these underground ruins should have the form as if built in the center of a naturally occurring cave.

Therefore, it was normal for there to be no artificial structures on the outskirts here… but the solid barrier visible before Cain’s eyes now was clearly not a natural terrain, no matter who saw it.

“It’s all blocked.”

There is no further path.

However, even as Cain muttered to himself, he felt something was off.

This place was born from the hands of outsourced workers, but it was a location that Cain had clearly confirmed during the initial planning and final approval process.

Of course, human memory has its limits.

Therefore, it wouldn’t be particularly strange if his memory didn’t hold certain details about this place.

However, now Cain felt that the information related to ‘Onisia’s power’ was blurred to a somewhat abnormal degree.

The final confirmation was quite a long time ago. But for the memory to be this blurred is indeed strange.

Come to think of it, among the events that occurred after he possessed the good-for-nothing prince Cain, there were other facts where the memory was inexplicably unclear.

At that time, he thought it could be because the situation was so chaotic, or since some areas were born from outsourced developers’ hands, it wasn’t a big issue… but in this case, he intuitively sensed that something had acted on his own memory itself.

An uneasy feeling.

But for now, finding the sealed power of Onisia and awakening the holy relic was the top priority.

Cain decided to momentarily set aside the sense of discomfort regarding parts of his developer-era memories being blurred to an abnormal level.

“Your Majesty!”

Yet, while Cain was peering around the barrier blocking the front in search of helpful clues.

Viscount Heinrich Denver from behind approached urgently, raising his voice.

“What’s wrong?”

“It seems we’ve been flanked from behind. Our position has been discovered! The enemies are rapidly closing the distance toward us!”

The uninvited guests, who until just a moment ago had been cautiously following because they couldn’t pinpoint this side’s exact location, had suddenly increased their pursuit speed.

It was natural that they couldn’t hide their position until the end, but the development was faster than expected.

“We must protect His Majesty the Emperor with our lives.”

That was Aren Valerian’s assertion.

Naturally, Viscount Heinrich Denver felt the same, but Denver was the overall commander of the emperor’s escort.

Yet, with their position already discovered and the enemies approaching at such speed… it was hard to guarantee they could break through without major risk.

“Viscount Denver. Rather than rashly attempting escape, it would be better to form a defensive formation here and meet the enemies.”

In place of Viscount Denver whose face had hardened stiffly, Cain made the decision.

Their current position was the second underground level of the ruins.

This place had only one staircase connecting to the floor directly above.

Even if they luckily evaded the uninvited guests rushing here and reached near the staircase without a single engagement, if the enemies weren’t fools, they would have blocked the retreat route with some forces.

If their ankles got caught in the process of breaking through that, they would end up facing enemies from front and back, which would be the worst case.

It would be better to find terrain advantageous for defense nearby, position themselves, and meet the uninvited guests in a fortified defensive posture.

“We will form a defensive formation.”

Viscount Denver also agreed with Cain’s opinion, and soon commanded the escorts to find terrain advantageous for defense and then formed a solid formation.

“Sir Aren. I entrust the vanguard to you.”

“I shall execute His Majesty the Emperor’s wrath upon the wicked foes who dare threaten the imperial authority.”

At Cain’s instruction, Aren stepped forward.

Though at the early stage, he was a paladin of the Imperial Church who had strictly reached the ‘Meister’ realm.

Thus, he bore the heavy responsibility of breaking the enemies’ momentum from the most dangerous front line.

As befitting a paladin armed with fanatical faith and loyalty toward the emperor, he completed preparations to face the enemy at the very front of the defensive formation.

Other paladins of the Imperial Church joined at Aren’s side, and immediately behind them positioned the Imperial Guard Knights under Viscount Denver, Viscount Philips Grey, and the mages belonging to the Imperial Army.

At the very rear of the defensive formation were Cain, Heinrich Denver, and Rachel.

Upon the fact that enemies were approaching, the assassin Rachel also hardened her expression stiffly and drew the dagger hidden under her skirt.

Originally the liaison for the Nightmare assassination cell, Rachel held the disguised identity of head maid in the imperial palace.

However, she was in truth a seasoned assassin at the ‘Grand Chevalier’ realm.

Already knowing Isabella’s personality to some extent, Cain assumed Rachel would naturally do her part even in such a situation.

Therefore, he had already permitted her to carry weapons, and Viscount Denver knew this as well.

“They come. I will prepare defensive magic.”

As Viscount Philips Grey finished speaking, he waved his staff and drew a magic circle in the air.

Aren Valerian gripped with both hands the greatsword of golden divinity honed based on fanatical faith and worship toward the emperor.

As the brilliant golden flash drove away the shadows of darkness, the jet-black forms hanging from the high ceiling began to reveal themselves one by one.