The Necromancer Who Was Despised

Judging by their attitude, it seemed unlikely that they would let us live.

“Rickenly, Caberus.”

“Follow me. We’ll clear a path. Duphe!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Have the dwarf moved to the Lord’s carriage.”

Duphe was a servant and also the coachman driving Banis’ carriage.

He responded quickly and immediately took over the dwarf from the servants’ carriage and put him in Banis’ carriage.

The servants’ faces were filled with uneasiness.

Moving the dwarf meant that they themselves could be abandoned if necessary.

However, they couldn’t say anything in this situation.

“Do you plan on breaking through? That’s absurd.”

The number of bandits blocking us from the front wasn’t that large.

At most, it was just over ten. However, they were all equipped with large tower shields as if they intended to stall for time.

“Jimnis!”

“Protect the Lord’s carriage. As soon as we open the way, get out immediately.”

Unexpected.

I thought he would entrust his own escorts… .

‘Ah, right. We have never gotten along… ‘

At an important moment like this, it was natural to trust his own escorts more.

“Kukukuku. How ambitious.”

“Hmph!”

Lang Bingek no longer responded to their words.

Instead, he lowered his visor, spurred his horse, and charged toward them.

His two escorts quickly followed.

Lang Bingek’s two escorts took out spears, and Lang Bingek took out a sword. At the same time, a faint aura began to emanate from Lang Bingek’s sword.

As the three horsemen approached a certain distance, the one who had been provoking Lang Bingek gave a signal throughout.

Ping, ping, ping.

Arrows rained down from the sky.

“Damn it…!”

Lang Bingek shouted in frustration.

The number of arrows flying was not that many.

Only about five?

However, it was a surprise attack, and the aim was accurate, so it was impossible not to be flustered.

It seemed that they were sniping from behind a hill or rock.

‘…This is getting annoying.’

Even without this, the hill terrain was slowing them down, and with this surprise attack, their speed was completely dead.

Furthermore, the fact that there was only one proper warhorse became a problem.

Hehehe!

“Damn it!”

The two escorts abandoned their horses, which had fallen into chaos.

This was the problem with horses that had not been trained for battle. In dangerous situations, they would panic and lose control.

It seemed that they had intended to charge through, even if they had to force their way, but their intentions were completely ruined by a few arrows.

The two of them abandoned their spears and took out their swords.

Lang Bingek reined in his horse and charged at them again, but he could not reach a decent speed due to the concentrated fire.

I glanced back.

A large cloud of dust was rising as a group of people rushed toward us.

From the looks of it, they would reach us before we could clear a path.

“Jim Nis, what is the situation?”

At that moment, Barnis, who had been quietly inside the carriage, spoke to me.

It was not the voice of an old man like before, but the voice of a boy his age.

“Lord Lang Bingek is clearing the way.”

“…There is dust rising from behind.”

He seemed anxious.

“Once Lord Lang Bingek clears the way, I will lead the carriage out. Do not worry.”

“…I’ll believe you.”

‘Should I ditch them and run?’

If I did, everyone here would likely die anyway.

After escaping, I could contact Athena from an outside shelter and have her rescue Tia…

‘No, no.’

It would be a waste of everything I’ve done so far.

Of course, nothing takes priority over my survival.

If there’s absolutely no chance of winning, I won’t hesitate to run.

But it’s still okay for now.

At least, not with Ravenbeak’s abilities, given the intel I’ve gathered so far…

“My lord.”

I called out to the coachman of the second carriage.

“Let’s go! Follow us!”

I immediately spurred my horse, and Kayla followed suit.

Behind us, Barnis’ carriage and the carriage carrying the servants began to follow.

There were no shots fired at us.

Instead.

“Ugh!”

“Damn it! Captain, Captain! This isn’t what you said it would be!”

“Stick together! Stick together! You archer bastards, what are you doing? Aim properly!”

The enemy’s formation collapsed.

Although it was a secret mission, there was a reason why we were moving with such a small number, despite its importance.

Skill.

That was the reason I wasn’t running away.

‘Normally, he’s supposed to be calm…’

But he was still a knight who had been on expeditions. It would be strange if he didn’t have any aggression.

“You bastards! You’re facing a knight! Are you really this unprepared?”

The one who had been provoking Ravenbeak seemed to have anticipated the situation and was somehow trying to maintain the front line.

“Ricklinly, Caberus. Don’t let them regroup.”

Ravenbeak wasn’t alone.

Ravenbeak, who had rushed to the front, endured the hail of arrows and cut down a couple of people, and the two escorts who followed him blocked the enemies who were trying to regroup.

They may be escorts, but they have awakened their mana.

So, those guys couldn’t easily break through even the escorts, and soon a gap opened up.

“Jimney…!”

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Ravenbeak turned his head as if to call out to me, but we were already within close range.

Screech.

Even through the visor, I could sense that Ravenbeak was pleased with the situation.

“Protect the Dwarf and the Princess with your lives!”

That was what he said to me as I passed him.

He didn’t respond. However, it seemed he preferred it that way.

Despite all the misfortunes, Lenbeck proved why he was a knight.

However, there weren’t many of them.

Ping, ping!

Arrows flew towards us.

Kayla casually knocked away the arrows aimed at her from atop her horse, and it was the same for me.

However, the problem was the carriages.

“eeek!”

The coachman who was carrying the servants fell down after being shot, and the horses, terrified, went wild, overturning the carriage.

‘They’re all dead.’

Even if they survived right now, they would be killed by the guys pursuing us.

The archers, who realized their arrows weren’t working on us, focused on the carriages.

Ting, ting!

However, as expected of a carriage carrying the successor of the estate, ordinary arrows didn’t work.

Then, the guys started to shoot their arrows at the coachman, and I immediately jumped off my horse and onto the carriage, judging it to be dangerous.

‘If the coachman dies… the carriage will just overturn.

If that happened, the princess and the dwarf would die on the spot.

I blocked all the arrows that were pouring towards the coachman, and with that, we were finally out of range of the archers.

“Th, thank you.”

Coachman Dupre thanked me.

“It’s not over yet. Lord Lenbeck will block some of the guys pursuing us, but the difference in numbers is too great to block them all. There will definitely be pursuers.”

Dupre’s face turned thoughtfully at my words.

“So we have to run as far as we can.”

“… “I will do my best.”

Fortunately, the archers didn’t target the horses.

It seemed they had momentarily targeted the coachman after seeing the servants’ carriage collapse after successfully sniping the coachman, but that became their downfall.

However, the joy was short-lived.

Rumble… .

The speed of the carriage was decreasing as time passed.

‘The horses are tired.’

Of course, they would be.

We had run at full speed on a hilly road, and the weight of the carriage had increased considerably with me and the dwarf aboard.

We had also crossed the line of death, so the stress they must have received in an instant wouldn’t have been normal.

It was a very harsh day for these packhorse-born horses.

“… Let’s abandon the carriage.”

Kayla’s horse was relatively fine, and it seemed it was much less tiring to carry a person than to pull a carriage.

“Excuse me.”

I immediately opened the carriage door and saw the terrified Barnis and the dwarf who was still tied up.

“Kayla. Untie the dwarf. Dupre, go and untie the horses.”

“What are you going to do, Jimnis?

“First of all… I plan on leaving the road.”

In response to Vanis’s question, I relayed Sir Rainbank’s words that it would be difficult for him to fend off all of our enemies and that it was highly likely that our pursuers would soon catch up to us.

He was certainly a knight of extraordinary skill, hard to come by in the borderlands, and he had demonstrated enough ability to break us out of our predicament, but he was not so skilled as to be able to completely hold off thirty or so pursuing horsemen. with just two useless seeds in tow.

“If we take the main road, it won’t be long before they catch up with us. So…”

“You want to take the long way around and return to your domain.”

“As I said before, the only person I can trust right now is Jimnis. I beg you to take me and this dwarf safely back to my domain.”

“It shall be done.”

“I will certainly… reward you for your efforts.”

I did not reply.

‘Where are we going…’ ?’

‘If we go this way… ‘

It just so happens that I have Vanis here with me…

Dupre unloaded the horses and brought them over to us.

I asked Vanis, “Do you know how to ride a horse?”

“Of course I know how to ride.”

As a noble, despite his young age, he seemed to have had plenty of experience in horse riding.

“It seems you will need to ride behind the dwarf.”

Since Vanis was still a boy and the dwarf was slow, I thought it would be best to put them on a horse.

“…If it is necessary.”

It’s not like we haven’t ridden in the same carriage before.

I looked at the dwarf that Kayla had freed.

He seemed to be quite old, but given that dwarves live as long as elves, judging by his appearance, he must have been at least 100 years old.

“Can you ride a horse?”

“…Of course.”

The dwarf replied in a slightly hoarse voice.