Before the ruins of the blackened fire site, ten long strips of raised white cloth were laid out on the ground, each covering a charred corpse as black as coal. The recovered bodies of the victims were neatly arranged on the dry, cold earth.
Knights in full gear stood in formation at the front of the crowd, their hands lightly pressed to their chests in a gesture of respect, their expressions filled with sorrow. Leading the group were the third princess, Renner, along with grand knight Wade Bolton and adamantite-level divine magic caster Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra.
The farewell procession also included quite a few nobles in fancy attire, as well as the town mayor, who was sweating buckets on his forehead. A vicious incident like an assassination attempt on the princess happening on their turf—whether they'd secretly been involved or not—they couldn't escape the blame.
Under the lead of Princess Renner and divine magic caster Lakyus, everyone joined in a final prayer, offering blessings for the innocent souls who had perished.
A local band had been hired to play a knight's funeral dirge. The musicians, dressed in black-and-gray robes, stood to one side as flutes and oboes began to wail softly, their tones solemn and mournful.
The atmosphere at the scene was grave and dignified—if you ignored the four people whispering at the back of the crowd.
"Captain, why's your hair wet?" Sean tilted his head and asked quietly.
EeDechi touched a few damp strands on her forehead, her face blank. "Lakyus squirted on me."
"She squirted on you?" Barrett nearby sniffed the air. "Why does it smell like a dead moth that's been soaking in horse piss for three days? Did she spray you with top-tier vitality potion or something?"
"Maybe." EeDechi shot back irritably. "Your rhetoric skills are pretty good, huh?"
Barrett glanced up at Lakyus's back at the front of the line. "She's still alive? You didn't slap her?" Just thinking about how EeDechi had once smacked "Lord of Despair" Clovis so hard it nearly killed him made Barrett shudder.
EeDechi glared at him. "I don't hit people for no reason. Besides, Lakyus is a good kid—her Justice Value is 284, a full 138 points higher than yours!"
"Oh." Barrett shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
"Captain, can you resurrect those people who got burned to death?" Stella asked quietly from behind. "You know, with that healing magic of yours."
"Yeah," Barrett remembered too. "Don't you just bellow 'If Gods Deny Salvation's Hand, With Sacred Blade I'll Reprimand,' and unleash a powerful healing resurrection field?"
EeDechi shook her head. "They're burned to charcoal—can't resurrect them. I can only bring back people with intact bodies."
"What did you talk about with Lakyus? Enough that she had to squirt vitality potion at you?" Barrett asked curiously.
"We talked a lot. Basically, she thinks Ainz Ooal Gown is an unbeatable demon god, and the Blue Roses adamantite-level team can't join me in fighting him." With that, EeDechi let out a deep sigh.
She knew that on her own, she was outmatched and couldn't possibly take down Ainz Ooal Gown. That's why she'd been searching for adamantite-level teams. Now, she'd finally run into an adamantite-level adventurer, only to get such a spineless response.
Adamantite-level adventurers represent the peak of human individual combat strength. If even adamantite-level adventurers weren't willing to tangle with Ainz Ooal Gown, where else could she find allies?
What made it especially bad was that Lakyus claimed she only mastered up to 5th Tier magic. Just knowing 5th Tier magic already put her among the elite of humanity, but Ainz Ooal Gown's highest magic was probably 11th Tier—Super-Tier Magic—outclassing her by a whopping six tiers!
All this meant that people in this world with the power to stand against Ainz could be counted on one hand, or maybe... didn't exist at all. Even if they did, for EeDechi to track them down in this vast realm with dozens of nations, hundreds of tribes, and thousands of races would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
What's more, Ainz Ooal Gown—that overpowered demon king bastard—has a handful of equally overpowered minions. EeDechi had clashed with some of them before: Sebas, Cocytus, and Shalltear. It wasn't a fight to the bitter end, and she hadn't gone all out, but they still felt like a real handful.
The mournful melody from the fallen knights' prayer service echoed in her ears, and for the first time, EeDechi felt just how rough and grueling the path to taking on the demon king would be. She smiled bitterly to herself—yeah, nothing in this world ever comes easy.
Still, this heart-to-heart chat with Lakyus, the captain of the Blue Roses team, hadn't been a total bust.
Lakyus felt really bad about spraying EeDechi's face with spit, and she was shocked by EeDechi's bold ambition to take out Ainz. After slapping a cleaning spell—the kind mages use for housekeeping—across EeDechi's face, she opened up and shared a bunch of secrets that nobody else knew.
EeDechi spread her palm open, staring at the dark gold ring in her hand. The spiral pattern on it was nearly worn smooth, carrying the marks of ages long past.
Etched on the inner band was a string of beautiful, otherworldly letters—bold and vigorous, like a young dragon about to leap out of the ring. Lakyus said it meant "thirteen" in Draconic.
Lakyus had given the ring to EeDechi, telling her that with it as proof, she could track down the reclusive Rigrit Bers Caurau in the kingdom's capital.
Rigrit was a founding member of the Blue Roses adventure team, now retired. She was over 200 years old and had once been the necromancer in the legendary group known as the Thirteen Heroes, more than 200 years ago.
EeDechi pondered this in silence. She hadn't expected there to be one last living legend from the Thirteen Heroes. Looked like she'd have to dig deep into this world's ancient mysteries and hunt down these undying old timers for a talk. She clenched her fist, slipping the dark gold ring into her spatial ring.
At some point, the praying crowd had scattered without her noticing, and the victims' bodies had all been laid to rest. Renner was chatting with a few noble-looking types, apparently digging into who was behind the attack on her.
Princess Renner wore a kind and approachable smile, speaking in soft, gentle tones, as if she harbored no grudge over this deadly assassination attempt. But the nobles, who towered over her by a head or two, hung their heads low, their faces filled with fear, not daring to even breathe loudly.
EeDechi activated her Innate Talent, wanting to check these nobles' Justice Values to see who had the lowest one—it might help in cracking the case.
"This..." EeDechi's eyes widened, her face showing disbelief.
She never expected that the one with the lowest Justice Value wasn't those slick, powdered nobles, but Princess Renner herself! Justice Value only -261. But EeDechi clearly remembered that this morning when they set out, Princess Renner's Justice Value was 185.
"Is something the matter? Is my lipstick smudged?" Renner noticed EeDechi's shocked gaze, turned her head to ask, her bright smile on her face undiminished.
"Nothing, you're as... beautiful as ever." EeDechi swallowed hard, then signaled her three teammates to leave.
...
Lakyus stepped over a ruin littered with gravel and broken walls, using the magic ring in her hand, Trace Manifestation, to probe all around.
Renner jogged over to her, asking, "Found any clues?"
"Not yet, but I can confirm that the arrows fired at you were stored in a magic circle, not shot simultaneously by hundreds of archers." Lakyus didn't stop her spellcasting motions.
She was the princess's close friend for many years, and an adamantite-level adventurer, so naturally, she didn't need to observe any royal audience etiquette.
Princess Renner glanced at the ruins, asking casually, "I saw you and EeDechi chatting for a long time in the woods earlier—what were you talking about? EeDechi's been mentioning Supreme Overlord Ainz to me a lot lately; did she bring that up with you?"
Lakyus put away the magic ring, giving Princess Renner a deep look.
"Um... no, we just talked about some run-of-the-mill adventurer topics, like chimera hunting habits, how much wind element is in an invisible stalker, that sort of thing..."