Chapter 22

Fernandez sat in the cathedral for a while, waiting for his strength to return. After two sleepless nights and a final showdown with an ancient lich, Fernandez’s condition couldn’t be worse.

“I might die like this.”

-You’ve already died once.

Fernandez fiddled with the incense burner, lost in thought. Should he report this or not? Honestly, retreating to the Inquisition Keep seemed like the smartest move right now.

Since it was confirmed that Merlin Port had been corrupted by the lich, more support was needed…

-“Aaaah!”

-“Help me!!!”

-“Ugh!!! Mom! Mom!!”

“…?”

What’s all this commotion…? Fernandez flinched and grabbed his sword.

-Fssst…

“This is not good…”

As soon as he gripped the hilt, the Saintmetal Greatsword shattered into pieces. Blackened iron dust scattered everywhere. It seemed to have corroded while piercing the lich’s heart.

“Ugh, I’m so tired.”

Fernandez slowly got up and walked out of the cathedral. Whatever was happening now… hearing such noises from the central district of the city was anything but normal.

-Squeak…

As soon as he opened the door, a walker lunged at his face.

“Tch, damn it!”

-Crash!

Fernandez quickly threw a short punch, hitting the walker between the eyes. The walker’s neck snapped, and it collapsed.

“What the hell? Are these walkers?”

-Look around.

At Faijashi’s voice, Fernandez cautiously scanned his surroundings. Merlin Port was on fire. Flames engulfed everything, and people ran around in terror. No, they were either terrified or driven mad.

“What the hell, a walker outbreak?!”

Suddenly?!

Walkers, driven by endless hatred and hunger, seek out living people to devour. This plague turns anyone exposed to the infected’s bodily fluids into a walker within minutes to hours.

Blood, filth, saliva—it spreads fast. There’s no cure. The walker plague isn’t just a disease. It’s a forbidden art created by the High Council of Aseas, combining deadly alchemy and dark magic with demonic rituals!

-Squeak.

After closing the door, Fernandez leaned against it, trying to gather his thoughts. Screams continued to echo outside.

“Why now? Merlin Port was supposed to fall 40 years later… And I’ve never seen walkers in this timeline!”

-What could have changed from your past life?

“Too many things to count. The fall of Demdrizard? Maybe that?”

-There’s one more.

Did Demdrizard’s failure in Gloridaine provoke the Bronze Scales? As Fernandez groaned, Faijashi looked out the window and spoke.

-Zephis Sirahdast. That guy might have done something.

“The Phaeirn Royal Family…? That was just a smokescreen, wasn’t it?”

-There’s a high chance someone was hiding in the real royal family. And if Zephis stirred them up, causing this mess now? Totally possible.

“This is kinda making me feel guilty.”

So, Fernandez was partly responsible for this horrific walker outbreak. He approached the lich’s corpse. Ashes and a crimson robe lay scattered on the floor.

Fernandez tore the robe and wrapped it around his fist. There was no cure for the walker plague. While Demonica’s serum granted immunity to most plagues, avoiding infection was still the best option.

“There’s only one guy who could spread the walker plague ‘suddenly’ like this.”

-Yeah. Dale Pertas. That bastard is here himself.

“Lucky me.”

Fernandez stretched lightly and grabbed the doorknob. At that moment, he sensed movement from the window. He cautiously peered out… and locked eyes with a walker.

Its cloudy, maddened pupils stared back.

-Crash!!

“Huh?”

The window shattered as walkers began crawling in. Fernandez smirked and raised his fist.

His soul and body were exhausted, and he didn’t want to move an inch. He felt like collapsing into sleep right then. But Fernandez smashed the walker’s skull as it staggered toward him.

He had never lived a life of complacency.

*

“Hold the line, you damn bastards!”

“Hold it with what, you idiot?! With your mom?!”

Kirhas watched as the mercenaries cursed and swung axes at the walkers’ heads. The Red Axe Gang. They had rushed into the city as soon as the walker outbreak began.

“Lady, stop standing there and help us, damn it!”

“Sigh…”

Fernandez’s reason for recruiting these guys was beyond her. They were just a rough, barbaric mercenary group with no hint of heresy.

‘Though their mouths are pretty heretical.’

But Kirhas wasn’t a priest burning with faith in Vaitas. Her faith was closer to Fernandez’s.

A man with the savagery of a lion and the wisdom of a phoenix. Truly, he resembled the great hero from her tribe’s myths! Kirhas stabbed a walker between the eyes, thinking of Fernandez.

Right after going out to recruit the mercenaries, the walker outbreak suddenly erupted in the city. And in the chaos of the port city, the mercenaries swarmed in to seize the opportunity… and Kirhas got swept up with them.

In other words, Kirhas was now in the city as a looter!

‘Your Excellency, where are you…’

“Aaaah! Damn it! Stop! Please!!!!”

“Shit! F***! Hey! Nathan got bitten!”

“Damn it! Nathan! You idiot! I told you not to grab weapons bare-handed!”

At the warehouse entrance, a mercenary guarding the barricade against the incoming walkers clutched his hand, tears streaming down his face. It wasn’t the pain in his hand but the fear of death.

From the rear, the mercenary captain, Jereil, who had been strategizing with a map, raised his axe.

“Nathan! You damn fool! At least five of our brothers survived because of the shield you carried! Bastard! Any last words?!”

“F***… Please, Captain. I’m not ready yet…”








“Damn.”

“Pretty pathetic for your last words, Nathan.”

-Wham!

Jerail lifted the ominous axe, swirling with a red aura, and brought it down. Nathan just stared blankly at the blade, unable to resist.

-Slice.

The axe cleaved Nathan from the crown of his head down to his chest. Splitting a person vertically—that’s not human strength! Kirhas swallowed hard as she watched Jerail.

‘If we get caught, we’re dead.’

Fernandez’s voice echoed in her mind. She cautiously approached Jerail.

“You’ve got some experience with the Walker situation, huh?”

“Mercenaries are all the same. Pay them enough, and they’ll chop up Walkers or even nuns.”

Jerail chuckled as he poked at various spots on the map.

“From the rooftop earlier, I saw Walkers swarming here, here, and in the market alley. That means survivors are likely here. Those things have a knack for sniffing out the living.”

“We need to rescue them immediately!”

Kirhas stood up and shouted. Fernandez might be among them. Sure, Fernandez had the strength of a lion, the muscles of a bear, and the wisdom of a stork, but… the city was already overrun with Walkers.

“What nonsense. Hey, look here.”

Jerail pointed to a corner of the map.

“Here. This is the central administrative district. Banks, government offices—everything’s here. We came because there’s something insane here. Do you know what’s in Merlin Port?”

“…No?”

“These clueless knights. Tsk. Look, what’s this?”

Jerail pulled out a tarnished coin from his pocket.

“A silver coin?”

“A ‘Merlin’ silver coin! The standard coin of the Phaeirn Kingdom! Why do you think it’s called Merlin? Because the Merlin Port Mint is here!”

Kirhas finally understood the true nature of the Walker outbreak.

According to Fernandez, the Walker plague is a forbidden art of the Bronze Scales.

Not far from the Inquisition Office, and a place the Phaeirn Royal Family carefully protects. Why would they risk using forbidden arts in Merlin Port?

To collapse the currency market and bring down the kingdom!

The survivors left in the city—most civilians are already doomed, but the Merlin City Guard and the City Guard must fight two enemies.

Walkers and the Bronze Scales.

And the jackals roaming this city or passing through.

Merlin Port will fall. The Phaeirn Royal Family will face an economic crisis. The strongest kingdom in the eastern continent will lose its national functions for a while.

‘But then, they’ll definitely try to eliminate the Bronze Scales…’

With the nation’s fate at stake, would the Royal Family just let the Bronze Scales be? A thorn in their side, now evolved into national terrorists?

It might seem like a great achievement, but this was a miscalculation. The enraged Royal Family still had the Royal Griffin Knights. A superhuman group ranked among the world’s best.

‘Why, though?’

*

“To the sea and glory!”

“Report!”

“Multiple hostiles at 3 o’clock! Likely Walkers!”

“7th Squad! Defend Gate 12! Execute!”

“To the sea and glory!”

The Merlin City Guard’s field command post remained orderly despite the chaos. The City Guard General sighed deeply after sending a messenger and glared at the map.

The situation was nearing worst-case. They’d succeeded in protecting the administrative offices, but the officials were now in a panic.

They’d never trained for a Walker outbreak in the heart of the city.

The city nobles each demanded their families be rescued, and the City Guard immediately mobilized to secure the administrative district.

Walkers, mindlessly charging, were easy opponents if you ignored that they were once human.

Human jaws couldn’t pierce chainmail. Heck, not even leather armor.

With a solid formation, poking with spears from behind barricades and pushing with shields, protecting the administrative district wasn’t a problem.

The real issues were the jackal-like mercenaries, the nobles panicking to protect their families, and the citizens fighting somewhere. They had to protect the citizens.

“Captain! A rescue signal from the market district!”

“How many?”

“Unknown! A large group of Walkers is converging on the market district.”

“Damn it. Damn it!”

There were still defensive forces, but they were needed to slowly expand the frontline from the administrative district.

They couldn’t spare a detachment.

Then, someone entered the tent. A shadow fell over the canvas. A young man lifted the tent flap and stepped in.

“Who are you?”

“Inquisition Officer Angelo.”

“…Inquisition Officer? Not the best time for a visit… Protection request?”

“Troop support request.”

“Are you insane? Can’t you see the situation here?”

Fernandez, the man, looked at the map and spoke.

“I need a detachment. We must capture the mastermind behind the Walker outbreak.”

“If we catch the mastermind, will the Walkers just bite their tongues and drop dead? We need to deal with the current crisis first!”

“If we let them go, this could happen in other cities. Then Phaeirn is finished.”

Fernandez rubbed his tired eyes. Part of him wanted to just threaten them.

But they couldn’t let the Walkers tie them down and let the Bronze Scales escape. He couldn’t break through the Walkers alone and capture the Bronze Scales.

Moreover, there were too many possible locations. He’d checked suspected areas, but he couldn’t search them all alone.

‘I need to regroup with Kirhas…’

They needed every available person now.

Then, a man walked out from inside the tent.

“Long time no see, Angelo.”

“…Karl?”

“Let me formally introduce myself. I am Carlo Romano Pavilos. I hold a professorship at the Phaeirn Royal Hunting School. Care to join me?”

“Do you know their location?”

Karl smiled.

“Turns out, the ones I’ve been chasing are likely them. We need to head to the outskirts’ communal burial grounds.”

“Sounds like the kind of place they’d be…”

Fernandez stroked his chin as he looked at the map. One Carlo Romano was worth more than a dozen City Guards.

After all, he’s the man who single-handedly wiped out an entire vampire noble family.

It seemed like the end was in sight. The Bronze Scales, and among them, only one person could unleash the Walker plague so instantly and widely.

Dale Pertas. You’ve come here yourself. You must be desperate.

My old friend… I’ll be waiting. Fernandez slowly, deeply smiled.