Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 3, Chapter 21: Flander of Human Furniture①

―We are one of 『Devil’s Piper』 Eight Wisemen, 『Spinner of The Truth』.

I existed nowhere.

We had already freed ourselves from the shackles of flesh.

Our existence was solely to do research, spinning the truth.

Thus, we were eternally young, immortal, and also indestructible.

No one could disclose our identity.

The research record in this city had already become part of me.

At this point, this city had already become useless to me.

From the very beginning, this kind of place was nothing more than disposable land.

A long time ago, my master excommunicated me as a good-for-nothing failure beyond help.

But that was his mistake.

We were modified by my master’s sorcery, gaining time to spin the truth.

We gained what many sorcerers failed to achieve and died in the process.

And we were the only one who achieved this amongst numerous disciples of our master.

We had already surpassed our master.

Now that we had already divulged our plan to overthrow the kingdom to Viscount Le Gael, we couldn’t stay in this land for too long.

But we still had something to do in this land.

Even if Tony Lair called us madmen who only cared about research, we unexpectedly found value in ephemeral pleasure.

Moreover, we had to bring down the hammer of justice on those people who dared to infiltrate this place.

◆

The red-haired Alante was running along the street of Tetomburgh City, pushing the wheelchair in front of him.

Sitting in the wheelchair was one of the girls who became the test subject—Elise.

Although it was his daily duty to take the test subjects strolling aboveground, he didn’t do that for his duty today.

「We have to use this chance to escape from this place even if it’s just a little bit further!」

「…Stop, big brother. You don’t have to take me with you. Leave me here and save yourself.」

Elise spoke with a trembling voice as she pointed ahead of her.

Alante used the riot to free all the captured children and escape from the underground research facility.

But it took quite some time due to Elise’s disability.

Since the other children had no reason to wait for them, they escaped first.

「Big brother… Are you deliberately letting them escape first? You are actually far more powerful than the other bad sorcerers, right?」

Elise spoke with a trembling voice.

What would happen to them if they were discovered by 『Angel of Death』.

There was no way Alante wasn’t scared of them.

They were definitely going to be killed once they got discovered by the other members of the organization. Alante himself had no idea whether the two of them could escape from this place or not.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t afford for the other children to get caught, so he did everything to at least guarantee their safety by staying behind with Elise.

The vice-leader of 『Angel of Death』, Tony Lair, had already noticed Alante’s abnormal behavior.

Even Elise knew that Tony Lair was actually looking down on the so-called kingdom army.

There was even a rumor saying that Tony Lair dissected living children while humming a song.

She could pretty much guess that Alante had already been marked by Tony Lair, seeing how the latter gave special attention to the former.

「To begin with… what are you doing right now, big brother? If it’s you, you should be able to join the ranks of the other baddies pe… ah…」

The moment Elise said so, she noticed the wry smile on Alante’s face.

She then realized that if Alante joined the other sorcerers, Elise would be left alone.

And the people who could bring her—with her disabled legs—along to leave this place were gone.

Even Alante had pretty much realized that the 『Angel of Death』 people had already noticed the fact that the children had escaped.

After he snapped out of it, he realized that Elise was right; he could escape by choosing another escape route.

Tony Lair, who received the news of Viscount Le Gael’s death, made a speech to the sorcerers of 『Angel of Death』.

『In the end, they’re just samples. We should have some time till we confirm the truth, but… Well, it can’t be helped, right? Everyone, dismantle this place immediately. Leave some corpses to scare them. And kill all the samples that we’ve yet to touch to prevent them from looking down on us.』

Tony Lair had no intention to keep the children alive.

At that moment, Alante decided to make his move.

He had to take the risk no matter how slim their chances to escape from the city.

「It’s okay! The kingdom army has entered Tetomburgh! The kingdom is finally making their first move! We just need to go to them and ask for asylum! Easy and simple right!」

「…Indeed.」

「Right!」

In fact, he knew that the one who came was nothing more than part of the investigation squad. There was no way they would be able to match the sorcerers.

He didn’t even know whether they really had already infiltrated Tetomburgh.

「But… but…」

Elise’s expression was frozen stiff when she turned around and saw Alante’s face.

Elise stayed like that for a while, but then, she rubbed her eyes.

「Elise… chan?」

「Big brother… What are… those?」

When Alante turned around, he saw three bodies running in their direction.

Their appearance was simply grotesque.

They had no arms, and bandages were coiling around their body.

Their eyes were also covered with bandages, and there were scribble-like eyes drawn on it.

There were numerous tubes affixed on their heads.

One of them was bent in the form of a chair—with a man whose head was covered in a jute bag—crossing his arms as he sat on top of the said “chair.”

By the way, the same scribble-like eyes were also drawn on the part that covered his head.

In addition, the man was also wearing the same 『Angel of Death』’s robe just like Alante.

「It’s time to pla~y, Alante-cha~n, Elise-cha~n. Tony Lair-san has been looking for you~ Please come back obediently since it’s dangerous outsi~de.」

「F-Flander…!」

He was one of the 『Angel of Death』 alchemists with a huge bounty on his head, Flander Frankfurt.

Everyone knew the name of 『Flander of Human Furniture』.

Once upon a time, one hundred people disappeared for no reason in just one year in the royal capital which was famous for its good public order.

In the end, all those missing people were found in the basement of the inn owned by the famous white sorcerer in the royal capital, Flander.

Some of the victims were famous adventurers.

Despite their tragic state, all of them were alive.

Some of them who were taken under the kingdom’s protection died in the span of a few weeks since no one knew how to take care of them after their bodies got altered into such grotesque forms.

Finally, all the victims were put to death by the inquisition squad in the form of mercy killing.

Back then, even the inquisition squad, who had always been criticized for their extreme measures, wasn’t criticized for their actions.

Currently, Flander was hiding himself in 『Devil’s Piper』 and belonged to 『Angel of Death』.

「Don’t even think about running away since you know that there’s a story about me loving to kill fleeing children ri~ght? Sorry~, Elise-cha~n! I actually don’t wish to become a cold-blooded murderer either! Look, I never actually killed anyone, including my victims in the royal capital ri~ght? The ones who killed them are those fools. How dare those idiots destroy my work of art that I finally managed to finish!」

「Dammit! To think that we met Flander of all people!」

Alante, who focused on Flander, suddenly felt pain in his hands.

He suddenly lost control of his hands and pushed Elise off from her wheelchair.

Elise, who couldn’t resist, was thrown to the ground.

「E-Elise-chan! Why did I…?」

「Big brother, run… please? The other children need your help too. At this rate, everyone’s going to be killed… but I think you’ll be able to save them.」

The reason for their current situation was that Alante refused to abandon Elise, despite the latter telling the former to abandon her.

Alante chewed his lips as if preparing something and took the cane strapped on his belt, pointing it toward Flander.

「BIG BROTHER, NO!」

Elise screamed to stop Alante.

Alante turned around and flashed a cramped smile at her.

「Don’t worry… I’ll be okay. I’m a genius after all. That’s the reason why they brought me to this place. That’s why… don’t worry about me…」

「Hey, hey, this ain’t the time to smile. How can a young master who joined under the recommendation of the noble to whom we were indebted act so conceited? The only reason why Tony Lair gave you such attention was that your face is that bisexual b*stard’s type, you know? Hm, are you by chance misunderstanding your position? Listen, a long time ago, nobles would bring their beloved daughters on a long journey just to introduce them to me. That’s what you call a real genius.」

Flander was trembling nonstop as if he was laughing at Alante.

「Nevertheless, you know what? That said daughter got kidnapped after being healed by me and became one of my pieces of art.」