How To Live As A Third Son Of A Failure [EN]: Chapter 167

Ruth’s eyes widened slightly at my question.

She probably imagined the sheer size of the cemetery in Midland’s largest metropolis.

“There’s no time. We need to deal with this and move quickly.”

Ruth’s eyes flickered briefly at my words.

But there was no more hesitation. Ruth, realizing the urgency, pushed off the ground and plunged into the swarm of ghouls.

Blue light flashed rapidly through the faint night fog, and each time, a ghoul’s head went flying.

No matter how many there are, ghouls are still ghouls. They’re slow and unintelligent, making them easy prey for a knight.

But what about the ordinary citizens?

The downtown of Capital flashed through my mind.

Men drunk on alcohol and women holding their young children’s hands, out to enjoy the festival. I could vividly picture the citizens enjoying the founding anniversary celebrations.

‘This is bad.’

The walls of Capital are high and thick, and no sane person would attack Capital on the founding anniversary, when all the powerful nobles of the kingdom are gathered.

Therefore, I know that everyone except the minimum security personnel enjoys the festival on the founding anniversary.

And those minimum security personnel would all be guarding the walls.

‘How is this happening?’

Dealing with the ghouls in front of me takes priority.

I drew my sword and charged in to help Ruth deal with the ghouls.

There’s nothing to be careful about. The ghouls’ bodies were already quite rotten. They wouldn’t be able to make any threatening movements with those bodies.

As expected, the ghouls just flailed and waved their arms, unable to evade my swinging sword at all.

Thwack!

The severed ghoul’s head flew into the air. The feeling of beheading someone was nothing to be happy about, even as a joke. After all, they were once human beings.

It seemed that dealing with ghouls was more of a mental burden than a physical one.

[What’s going on?]

Aphen cautiously spoke to me as I felt that unpleasantness.

‘It’s ghouls.’

[I can see that. But why are there ghouls in Capital?]

‘Probably their doing,’ I replied, referring to the likely culprits behind this attack.

[They’re crossing the line? No matter what, there are things you shouldn’t touch!]

‘I agree.’

He’s making sense for once.

As I dismissed Aphen’s words and continued to behead ghouls, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Aphen.’

[Hmm?]

‘Capital was built at the same time as the Emperor’s unification of the continent, right?’

[That’s right!]

‘If so, do you know who planned the city of Capital?’

[Why are you asking? Of course, it’s my smart mom!]

My prediction was correct. A perfectionist with ability like Kerwin would have tried to do everything himself.

‘Do you remember that time?’

As if finally understanding what I was trying to ask, Aphen replied in an excited voice.

[Of course, it’s all in my head!]

‘You’re going to be useful for once.’

[What? What did you just say!]

Ignoring Aphen’s words, I continued to cut down ghouls when I suddenly noticed Ruth standing still.

“What are you doing?”

“P-Prince.”

Ruth, stuttering, slowly began to back away.

Why is she like that? There are only a few ghouls in front of Ruth.

But soon, I understood why Ruth was backing away.

“It’s a person?”

It was a person. It was clearly a ghoul, but its appearance was so clean that it was hard to believe it was a dead corpse.

Except for one thing: a tattered neck, as if it had been bitten by something.

“…….”

What that meant was obvious.

A ghoul had harmed a person, and the dead person had returned as a ghoul.

That meant the situation was more serious than imagined. Now, it wasn’t just a matter of dealing with the ghouls that had initially appeared.

“Those sons of bitches!”

Ruth burst into anger.

I can understand. Even I, who had maintained composure until now, gritted my teeth for a moment.

“Ruth, there’s no time. We need to finish this quickly and assess the situation.”

“I can’t do this!”

“You idiot!”

Unable to bear it any longer, I stepped forward and slashed down the ghoul that had made Ruth back away.

The severed head flew into the air and met my eyes. I bit my lip at the gaze that I couldn’t possibly think belonged to a dead person.

Then, I turned and grabbed Ruth by the collar.

“Listen carefully, Ruth, there’s no way to turn a ghoul back into a person. Sending them off cleanly is the way to honor the dead.”

“B-But that person was alive and breathing just a moment ago!”

“Yes. Until a few hours ago, they were probably enjoying the festival and spending happy times with their family. But not anymore. They’re just a ghoul!”

“…….”

But Ruth’s gaze was only directed at the head of the ghoul I had last cut down.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

Ruth was the type to take lives without any hesitation if they were enemies. A prime example was when she wiped out hundreds of raiders in the Basarak territory.

But knowing that the opponent was an innocent citizen, Ruth’s blade seemed to have dulled. This was probably even more so because she had a knight’s conviction to protect the weak.

If so, it seems right to give her time to collect her thoughts.

With no other choice, I released Ruth’s collar and sighed lightly.

“If you don’t want to create more innocent victims, you better come to your senses quickly.”

“…….”

After speaking, I looked around.

It seemed that this place was mostly cleared. The number of ghouls killed easily exceeded a hundred.

But this place is the outermost part of Capital. In terms of population distribution, it’s the lowest density area.

Even in such a place, hundreds of ghouls appeared, so what about places closer to the center?

Moreover, humans who are sacrificed to ghouls become ghouls themselves and rise again. It’s not strange to think of the world-ending scenario often seen in zombie movies.

“Follow me, Ruth.”

“Where to…….”

“First, to Rihas’s house. We need to join Ilia there and evacuate the survivors.”

Rihas’s family.

Ruth’s eyes changed at those words.

“We need to go quickly.”

“Yes. We need to go quickly.”

After that, without discussing who would go first, Ruth and I began to run at full speed.

The situation at Rihas’s house, which we arrived at after running frantically, was even more serious.

The small, cozy garden in my memory was gone. The small pond was already a crimson color, and the garden’s bushes were grotesquely decorated with flesh, like Christmas ornaments.

After passing through the garden filled with ghoul corpses, I could see a sweaty Ilia standing guard at the entrance of the mansion.

“Ilia.”

“Prince!”

Ilia, who had drawn her sword, thinking she was looking at a ghoul when she saw Ruth and me in the distance, took a breath and relaxed.

“Rihas’s family?”

“They’re safe.”

“Did you do all this?”

“Yes.”

“You held out well.”

“I thought about evacuating, but I didn’t think I could protect all three of them with just my hands…….”

“Good job. That was a good decision.”

Ruth clicked her tongue at Ilia’s words. There seemed to be at least over two hundred ghoul corpses scattered here.

Even if she could manipulate mana, it would be difficult to handle this number. Especially considering Ilia’s level, who is still just a mana user.

“K-Kain, Baron!”

Rihas’s mother, Alisa, greeted me as I entered the house. She had a fairly calm face despite the current situation, but she couldn’t hide her trembling hands.

At the same time, Rihas’s two young sisters, who were hiding in her skirt, burst into tears when they saw Ruth.

“R-Ruth Uncle!”

“Waaaaah!”

“Yes, yes, Uncle’s here!”

Watching Ruth soothe the two younger sisters, I spoke to Alisa.

“You were at home. That’s a relief.”

Alisa, placing her hand on her chest, sighed at my words.

“I was waiting for my husband to come back so we could enjoy the festival together.”

“Prepare to move. We need to go to a safe place.”

“W-Where to?”

I hesitated for a moment at her question.

Should we go to the palace? But everyone who noticed this situation would have the same thought as me.

I imagined the palace gates crowded with refugees and shook my head.

“Let’s go to the mansion given to the Lindayer family for now. It’s a safe place with strict security.”

“A-Alright.”

“Ruth, evacuate these people with Ilia.”

“Aren’t you coming with us, Prince?”

“I have something to do.”

“It might be dangerous alone.”

“Right. A knight who manipulates mana might get caught by a ghoul and bitten. Right?”

Ruth shut her mouth at the words, knowing she would never get caught by a slow ghoul.

“Rest assured, I’ll never get caught if I don’t want to.”

“……What should we do after evacuating?”

I hesitated for a moment at Ruth’s question and then searched Ilia’s luggage.

I found a small horn bow and signal arrows there and strapped them to the back of my waist.

“If you need to call me, shoot a signal arrow and I’ll come running right away.”

“Understood.”

“Good. See you later.”

“Please be careful, Prince.”

“Yeah. You too.”

I lightly bumped fists with Ruth and immediately left the house.

‘If there are ghouls that have risen, there must be someone who raised those ghouls.’

Ghouls that couldn’t have arisen naturally.

If so, as I thought earlier, this must be a work involving the Neviros Order and the Unholy Knights.

Then, what is the reason they caused this?

Simple terrorism? That’s unlikely. There’s no need to incur the wrath of all the nobles just to kill some civilians.

When my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly thought that the current situation might be a means to achieve some purpose.

Then the only conclusion left was one.

‘They’re aiming for something, taking advantage of the chaos.’