The Regressed Demon Lord is Kind

arch for the other statues.
Lubella soon followed Zich while staring at his back.

*   *   *

Not long afterwards, Lubella felt foolish for doubting Zich. After they drew those silly-looking magic circles on Bellu’s statues and poured holy powers on them, they soon encountered an unexpected creature.

“It’s a zombie.”

“Yes, it’s a zombie.”

Under the cover of darkness, Zich and Lubella were trying to find another statue when they met a zombie.
It wasn’t strange to see a zombie in the city when Bellid’s ritual was close to complete, but Lubella thought the zombie looked odd.

“Why is it acting like that?”

The zombie approached them while staggering.
That part wasn’t unusual since zombies often moved strangely.
However, the zombie’s movements went beyond simply strange.
As if it was wearing invisible armor, its movements were extremely stiff like it was restricted.

“Hm.”

Zich went closer to the zombie.
Like all zombies, it stretched out its hands to take away Zich’s life force— to make Zich like itself.
However, the zombie’s movements were very awkward and slow, so it didn’t feel threatening at all.

Zich struck the zombie’s neck.
It was a simple procedure like striking the head of a dead fish.

“It became weaker.”

“Weaker? The zombie did?”

That seemed like good news to Lubella, and her heart thumped with expectations.

“Yes, it became weaker for sure.
Thankfully, it seems like what we are doing is not useless.”

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Zich’s words were basically a confirmation for her.
The doubt that took place in the corner of her heart quickly dissolved.

“Ah, thank goodness! That’s really a relief!”

Like that, Lubella got onto her knees and prayed to Karuna.
Because she felt like they could end this harsh plight without a great sacrifice, her eyes teared up.

“I don’t know how I can express my thanks.”

Then, Lubella abruptly got up and grabbed Zich’s hands.
She couldn’t bear that she had doubted him before.

“I’m sorry.
To tell you the truth, I doubted you.”

“Uh, that’s a bit disappointing.
How many people do you think would be kind enough to help you with their life on the line—that you doubt me?”

Zich winked.
And because his eyes didn’t seem to hold any grudge against her, Lubella burst out into laughter.

“I didn’t doubt you, as a person. I can’t thank you enough for helping me so far.
But I had a bit of doubt about your method of hindering the ritual. Although I have access to valuable information from Karuwiman, I didn ’t know about it, and the method is…”

“Because the method is drawing ridiculous and suspicious-looking scribbles that don’t even look like magic circles?”

“…To tell you the truth, that was it.
I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need for you to be sorry.
I understand. Even I wonder what the person who made it was thinking.
I don’t know if I should call the person a genius or an idiot.”

“I think the person is a genius.”

“Since you think that, I will also think the same.”

“Can I ask how you learned this method?”

“Ah, that is a secret.”

Since she had been refused before, Lubella didn’t really feel disappointed.

“Then, please, you must teach me the magic circle later.”

“Don’t worry about that.
I will teach you all later.
Of course, with a price.”

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“That doesn’t matter.
For us, Karuwiman, that magic circle is priceless, and the Church will grant pretty much anything you ask for.”

Maybe it was because they saw the effect of their works, but their moods were much brighter than before—despite the fact that they were still getting chased and the Deputy Mayor was still alive and well.

“Now, we just have to take care of a couple more statues.
Then, the Deputy Mayor’s power will decrease significantly, and we can attack the Mayor’s mansion again.
But we have to be more careful since they will increase the number of guards as the number of statues decreases.”

“I understand.
But how can they place so many statues without a single rumor spreading? Many people should have disappeared as offerings.”

“They probably blocked people’s mouths with money and power.
There are a lot of excuses to choose from, like, ‘Let’s keep quiet for now since people can start panicking.’ Since this is a city sensitive to the economy, that probably worked well.”

The whole truth was impossible to realize if one didn’t realize that the city was covered by a black curtain, specifically the Bellid group.
In fact, before he became aware of what was going on, even Zich thought the appearance of the undead was a new happening since public sentiment was still relatively calm.

“But that won’t last for long.
Let’s take care of the rest of Bellu’s statues and save the city.”

“Yes!”

Feeling hopeful, they disappeared into the city’s darkness again.

 *   *   *

Since then, Zich and Lubella found a couple of more statues.
On the magic circle that Zich drew, Lubella generously poured more holy power.
And their results became more and more visible.
In the end, they reached a point where they couldn’t find a single undead all over the city at night.

Of course, this didn’t mean that the undead completely disappeared.
They might have missed one roaming around in a back alleyway.
But generally, they could sense that the total number of undead had definitely decreased.

“Okay then, let’s go to the Mayor’s mansion and destroy the center statue there.
If that still exists, everything we did will be for nothing.
We can only delay the ritual and not stop it.”

“Where do you think the Deputy Mayor is?”

“I also don’t know, but he will probably be at the Mayor’s mansion.
Since the mansion is the center of this ritual, that guy probably can’t leave the area.”

“Then we should go to the mansion.
When are we going?”

“Is there a reason for us to take our time?”

Zich stared at the area where the Mayor’s mansion was.

“Let’s go tonight.”