Chapter 12: 009. Imperial Prince is Hunting a Witch -2 (Part Two)

"Eh?"

A stupid-sounding gasp jumped out of my mouth all on its own.

H-hey, where did this girl pop out from?

Even as my brain failed to fully process this sight, the girl hanging onto the bear's neck proceeded to stab the knife into the creature's eye.

STAB-!!

Was it because it lost its sight now? The zombie bear howled out loudly and violently shook its head. She yanked the knife out, and then stabbed it down again in the monster's eye socket. Her movements were super-quick and violent, also unnervingly precise too as she stabbed over and over again.

Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

I finally regained my wits at this point and raised the shovel up high. This was my chance. If I didn't take it, then I'd really die here!

"Get out of the way–!!"

Did my voice get to her? Or was it because of the zombie bear's movements?

The girl was flung away from the creature as if she was thrown away. She crashed roughly on the ground, perhaps because she didn't know how to land properly.

Using the small gap created between that moment and the bear turning its head in my direction again, I managed to inject some more divinity into my shovel.

Although faint, pure-white aura permeated into the ends of the tool's blade. I summoned all of my strength and stabbed it into the creature's forehead.

STAB-!!

I was initially greeted by this disgusting sensation of contact, and that was followed by the sound of something snapping in half.

Any semblance of resistance from the bear suddenly stopped. The shovel's edges pierced past the monster's thick hide and penetrated straight into its skull.

And just like that, the creature stopped moving altogether like a stuffed animal. The housing used for the demonic energy to animate the undead, the skull, had been destroyed. This cut off the flow of energy from the Necromancer.

I glared deeply into the eyes of the zombie bear that gradually lost its light. I was sure that the damn Necromancer was watching me through them even now.

I spoke while staring straight into those eyes. "Sit tight and wait for me, because Imma pay you back in full for all the sh*t you just put me through."

I then released the shovel.

Boom-!!

The zombie bear lost its balance and fell to its side. The demonic energy that made this big hunk of rotting flesh move had completely dissipated now, and the 'remote control' was cancelled as a result.

Argh, so bloody tiring.

I plopped down on my butt once more.

What kind of unnecessary hardship was this? I heard that MCs from other fantasy novels who were caught in this kinda situation would suddenly turn into munchkins, but I...

"...I have to go through this crap."

This was patently unfair.

Why wasn't I given a once-in-a-lifetime talent or something? I was certain that there weren't any stories with such a sweet potato-like plot progression nowadays. [1]

I sat there, inwardly complaining bitterly about the unfairness of it all to the high heavens, only to notice that someone was approaching me. I raised my head to see that it was the girl from earlier. She now stood before me.

Her white hair was dyed in blood. She stared at me wordlessly with her equally-crimson and sunken eyes. The bear's fur and bloody flesh remained on the kitchen knife in her hand, blood dripping down from it.

"What now?"

My words caused the girl to flinch a bit, and she for some reason, raised the knife in her hand and waved it around. Her lips twitched as it formed a grin.

Could it be that she was trying to greet me?

Well, that's the kind of a grin a serial killer from a slasher film might actually make.

I suddenly recalled the incident of me ruthlessly smacking her in the head with the shovel not too long ago. Maybe I should've held back a bit back then?

You, uh, you ain't trying to stab me with that knife, are you?

"Imperial Prince-nim! Your highness...! Are you alright?"

Rather belatedly, the voice of salvation entered my ears.

What nice timing this was, since I couldn't even move my body properly at the moment. It'd be very difficult to emerge unscathed if I got attacked by something hostile in my current condition.

More importantly, though, I needed someone to do something about this awkward atmosphere between me and the girl. The villagers eventually got to my location. They discovered the zombie bear and froze up instantly.

Mister Hunter was among the rescue party and after taking one look at the unmoving bear, his complexion became ashen-white. "This... isn't this the King of Gluttony?!"

What a scary title that was.

I just had to ask our Mister Hunter about it, "You know about this thing?"

Hunter Hans alternated his gaze between me and the zombie bear, then replied with an awkward expression on his face, "This thing, it's one of the most dangerous creatures roaming out here, your highness. It lives in the Land of the Dead Spirits and it mainly preys on zombies."

According to him, this bastard of a bear enjoyed such a thick hide that it could easily withstand dozens of zombies attacking it at the same time. As a matter of fact, it was so scary that, were it to find a mate and get itself a little offspring, they could even hunt down an actual 'Troll' too.

That's why it was so strong, huh.

"Did you actually kill this thing, your highness?"

"No, it was already a corpse when I got here."

I simply shrugged my shoulders.

Things might get complicated if the villagers learn that I killed the monster by relying on Necromancer skills. Hang on, now that I thought about it, there was a witness here already, wasn't there?

I shifted my head and looked at the girl. She looked back at me while tilting her head.

There was a pretty good chance that she saw me summon the holy zombies. However, she didn't say anything about them and simply stood there. It could be either she wasn't the talkative type or she actually didn't see anything.

The villagers looked at the girl with the kitchen knife and then at me while forming strange expressions.

"Why is this little girl here?" I asked, and my question prompted Gril to form a troubled expression on his face.

He replied, "We had no idea she was following us either, your highness. Just as you got dragged inside the cave by the wolf, she jumped out from the bushes."

She surely couldn't have chased after me thinking that she didn't want to lose the target of her vengeance in this fashion, right?

A rather ominous thought decided to make camp in my head. The knife in her hand seemed to gleam even more so for some reason.

I smiled awkwardly and tried to get back up. However, I staggered about unsteadily as I still had no strength in my legs. She quickly reached out and held me up.

I flinched and looked back at her, only to discover a smile creeping up on her expressionless face. Her lips might have curled up, but there was no movement in her eyes whatsoever. Anyone could tell that she was forcing out a smile, and this only managed to send a chill down my backside instead.

Please, please! Someone else help me out here! This girl, she might suddenly stab me in the stomach with the knife you know?!

It was unknown whether Gril knew what my current thoughts were like or not. He simply alternated his gaze between the girl and me before pointing towards the exit of the cave. "Well, let's get out of here for the time being. You look really tired, your highness, so let's go back and rest before..."

"Why do you want to leave so quickly? We should see this thing to the end now that you're all here."

"Pardon me??"

I pointed to the deeper parts of the cave. "Let's end this right now."

"B-but..."

Gril looked at the bear with the imposing name of the 'King of Gluttony'. Even though I said that the creature was already dead when I found it, he didn't seem to believe me.

But then again, there was a hard-to-miss shovel sticking out of its forehead, so anyone with eyes could tell that it was killed by someone.

The villagers must be scared of another possible zombified bear potentially hiding deeper within.

The girl seemed to be blessed with quick wits, because she helped me move towards the shovel. I struggled a little before finally managing to yank it out from the dead creature.

"I'm guessing the other side doesn't have any more zombies left," I tried reassuring them.

"Your highness?"

I was merely guessing. There weren't any guarantees that our enemy no longer had undead troops left. However, I already came this far and there was no freaking way I'd let the bastard escape.

"There aren't any more zombies. Even if there are some left, they should be on the same level as the ones you fought off back in the monastery. Not only that..."

I took a look around our surroundings. Only then did the villagers notice the strangeness of the cave they were in. The cave where not a lick of light should exist, was brightly lit up.

This was all thanks to the faint trace of divinity that still remained in the surroundings.

"That b*stard will escape if we don't act now."

Since the whole cave was washed with divinity, any lingering zombies shouldn't present us with problems.

I studied the deeper parts of the cave that were shrouded in darkness and spoke, "That Necromancer... that bastard is somewhere in this cave."

That's right, I simply couldn't back off until our enemy was caught.

I needed to make the fool pay for putting me through such a wringer!

< 009. Imperial Prince is Hunting a Witch -2 (Part One and Two) > Fin.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

TL: “Sweet potato” in [1] is a Korean slang term denoting anything that's frustrating. Its opposite is “cider”, which stands for anything that's refreshing.

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