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The Men Lying in Wait
At the front of the group stood a well built middle aged man.
Equipped with an orthodox sword and shield, but his pure silver armour was something I had seen before.
“Chris-san! That armour


.isn’t that the royal knights armour? It’s exactly like the one Alexandra-san wore.”
“Yeah, the emblem of our country is visible as well, so they are definitely the royal knights.”
“They could have simply stolen the armour from the royal knights as well, right? Otherwise, it means that they are royal knights from a different squad then!”
“I assume so. And by the looks of it, he’s also a squad commander at the same level as Alexandra.”
It wasn’t that strange for the royal knights to be here but, he even made a commander into his pawn huh.
The men behind him were probably the Cardinal and his subordinates that Graham had told me about.
Their attire looked somewhat different from what graham wore but, the design seemed very similar plus you could see the pattern of the cross on them as well.
The old man that looked the same age as the old golem guy must be the Cardinal and the men on both sides of him must be the bishops.
One really strong vanguard and the three rear guard. It was a strange formation focused on one-man but, if Graham’s info is correct, the three in the rear were also extremely talented men.
If they plan on making the battle extend for longer period of time, it was a really troublesome party composition.
“well well, you’re finally here. I was getting bored of waiting.”
While scratching his head with his sword hand, the royal knight man started to walk towards us as he spoke up.
He seemed careless, but I could see no openings.
His attitude showed his confidence in his strength but


from my point of view, he was about the same strength as Alexandra, perhaps slightly stronger than her, but nothing more.
“Is that so? I guess you guys already knew we were going to show up here in that case.”
“Haah? Don’t get what you’re implying. We just got told that enemies would be appearing here so we waited here. I have no fucking idea who you guys even are.”
“We were told by Elphas-san that enemies have intruded into the area. And so we were ordered to take care of said enemies.”
They didn’t attack us suddenly, and even responded to me normally, both the royal knight and the Cardinal.
I can’t waste too much time so I wanted to get on with the battle but I’d also like to get as much info as I can.
“So I guess the info hadn’t leaked like I feared. You guys detected us coming here, and so you stayed here to wait for us. Does one of you guys have a really strong detection skill or something?”
“No, incorrect. Elphas-san can gain info from the undeads he controls that’s all. He can also tell when one gets defeated and while it takes a lot of mana, he can even directly take over all the senses of an undead temporarily as well and control it like it’s his own body.”
The Cardinal very candidly answered to my queries.
If that’s true, Elphas’ abilities could be a lot more troublesome than imagined.
Even without my letter to sabotage Mielle, she might have gotten kicked out and replaced anyway

?
That’s how good the skills and abilities of this guy seemed like to me at least.
“I see, and after sensing us, he gave you the order. Elphas seems to be a lot more talented than I thought

..But, you sure you should be telling me all this info so easily?”
“It doesn’t matter. You people will die here anyway, so consider it a gift for the dead.”
“That confident eh? Well, works for me—–“
“AAH! Enough with the damn chitchat!! I’m getting all itchy just standing here doing nothing. Let’s fucking fight it out already!!”
Interjecting in between, the royal knight scratched his neck as he shouted that.
For a moment I thought he was a rare calm time among the vanguards, but turns out, it’s another damn hot head.
“You’re a royal knight, that too commander class right? Why are you here?”
“Not your fucking business, also I’m the vice commander!”
With those words, the vice commander suddenly dashed towards me.
I even got his rank as well, so I was thinking of carefully analyzing him but, he didn’t give me that time and instantly charged at me.
I gave a quick signal to Ralf, and made him go up front to intercept the vice commander, and I got right behind him to provide support.
Afterwards, I gave the sign to Snow to start attacking freely at which point, Snow put on an even fiercer looking ice armour with a bunch of spikes protruding out of it, and launched itself at the vice commander.
“3 vs 1 is not fair is it? I won’t let you get away so easily, [Holy Ray].”
Aimed at Snow, the Cardinal instantly launched his own magic at it.
A projectile faster than even an arrow split the air, and the timing made it hard to block it but

I stretched out my limbs somehow and blocked the [Holy Ray] with my own body.
Graham told me that I should be able to completely block holy magic now but, I still resolved myself to take some damage but even after taking a direct hit, I felt no pain.
I couldn’t even tell if it actually hit my body so for a moment I wondered if maybe it wasn’t even an attack magic but, seeing the shocked reaction of the Cardinal, the chances of that seem low.
“Why did it get nullified? It couldn’t be, do you have a church’s

.?”
I chose not to respond to his query, and gave order to Snow to continue its attack.
I was still slightly doubtful but the cross pendant that graham gave me was totally the real deal.
Now, Ralf could guard against the vice commander’s attacks, and I could guard the cardinal’s attack, completely nullifying their attacking force.
I can’t be spending too much time fighting these 4 so I’ll have Snow and Esta put in the effort to quickly take care of them.