Group 8 stared at the scene in front of them, their minds struggling to immediately comprehend what had just happened.
Well, everyone except Knox.
Rather than being surprised, he was actually having trouble keeping the corners of his mouth from rising. From his perspective, the situation in front of him was less frightening and more painfully awkward.
The mysterious man covered in skeletal armor, standing near the unconscious Rick and Cami, was none other than Simon Polentia himself. More precisely, this was Simon after donning Pier as armor and assuming his identity as the Commander of the 7th Legion.
And judging from how completely motionless Simon had become after noticing Group 8, Knox could practically feel the panic radiating from beneath that helmet.
Pfft... What should I do? I really want to laugh right now. Damn, this must be Aha's fault! Curse you, Aha!
The temptation was becoming increasingly difficult to resist. At this rate, Knox felt like he was walking further and further down the Path of Elation.
Praise Aha!
Unfortunately, as entertaining as the situation was, Knox still had to pretend that he had absolutely no idea who the armored figure was. His amused expression disappeared almost instantly as he raised his sword and pointed its tip directly toward Simon.
"You... Who are you?"
His voice had turned cold enough that Cindy, Claudia, and Merida immediately became even more wary.
"Rick! Cami!" Cindy shouted after seeing the two unconscious members of Group 7. She immediately turned toward the armored stranger. "You! What did you do to them?!"
Claudia and Merida didn't say anything, but their silence certainly didn't mean they were doing nothing. Magic circles were already beginning to form near them, both girls prepared to attack the moment the stranger made even the slightest suspicious movement.
Yet the armored man remained completely silent.
To the three girls, that silence only made him appear more suspicious. Knox, however, knew the actual reason behind it.
His brain must be short-circuiting right now.
Before the misunderstanding could escalate any further, Knox slightly lowered the tip of his sword.
"I can tell that you're not the reason those two are unconscious. Still..."
His eyes remained fixed on the armored figure, deliberately leaving the rest of his sentence unfinished.
Meanwhile, beneath the skeletal helmet, Simon was indeed experiencing exactly the kind of crisis Knox imagined.
Pier! What should I do?! I never expected Knox and the others to come here!
Pier's voice immediately answered inside his head.
[Boy, even I don't know what to say about this situation... But we don't have time to stand around! Prince is already gone, and he took your friend Meilyn with him!]
The reminder immediately made Simon's panic spike again. However, after several frantic thoughts and a few precious seconds spent forcing himself to calm down, he finally managed to cobble together something resembling a cover story.
"...My name is Pion."
Cindy, Claudia, and Merida remained in their combat stances despite the introduction. Claudia narrowed her eyes at the mysterious necromancer before immediately pressing him for answers.
"Pion, huh? Then why are you here? Why were you fighting that strange zombie just now, and who exactly are you?"
Simon was just about to answer when Knox suddenly cut in.
"This aura..." Knox studied him for a moment before speaking in an unnervingly calm voice. "You're not an ordinary necromancer, are you?"
Inside the helmet, Simon's composure immediately cracked again.
Why did he have to notice that too?!
Knox gave him no opportunity to recover.
"And that short, talking zombie from earlier, the one who kidnapped Meilyn..." His eyes shifted briefly toward the hole Prince had escaped through before returning to Pion. "That was an Ancient Undead, wasn't it?"
This time, it wasn't only Simon who reacted.
"What did you just say?!" Cindy's eyes widened. "An Ancient Undead?!"
"Yes." Knox nodded calmly. "According to the information I know, a special undead resides somewhere within Death Land. More precisely, it's a zombie, but calling it merely a special zombie would be severely understating its identity."
As he spoke, Knox deliberately kept his eyes fixed on Pion's helmet.
Had that helmet not been covering Simon's face, everyone present would have seen just how badly his expression was beginning to stiffen.
"That zombie is Prince, an Ancient Undead who once belonged to the 7th Legion."
Cindy, Claudia, and Merida visibly tensed at the revelation. Simon's earlier panic, on the other hand, gradually disappeared as he realized Knox apparently knew far more about Prince than he had expected.
Unfortunately, that relief lasted for only a moment. An inexplicable chill suddenly crawled down Simon's back.
For some reason, he had the terrible feeling that Knox was about to say something much, much worse.
And Knox, completely ignoring the reactions around him, casually dropped a second bomb that made the first one seem insignificant.
"Am I right..."
A faint smile appeared on his face as he stared directly into Pion's helmet.
"Commander of the 7th Legion?"
The moment those words left Knox's mouth, Cindy, Claudia, and Merida felt as though their hearts had been struck by lightning.
If the three girls had possessed tails and fur, they would have looked exactly like frightened cats, with every strand of fur standing on end and their tails shooting straight into the air.
Simon wasn't doing much better. For a moment, he genuinely felt as though his heart had stopped, and even Pier fell completely silent inside his mind.
Well, putting Simon aside, Pier's heart had indeed stopped a long time ago.
To begin with, he didn't even have a human heart anymore.
"Wha... Wha..."
Cindy's mouth opened and closed several times before she finally found her voice.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
The shout didn't come from Cindy alone. Claudia and even Merida yelled the exact same thing alongside her.
Yes, even Merida.
The matcha cupcake who was almost always sleepy and quiet had actually raised her voice. That alone showed just how thoroughly Knox's revelation had shocked the three girls.
Before any of them could recover, however, Pion finally spoke.
"...How did you know?"
"..."
If there had still been any room for doubt, that single question completely destroyed it.
Cindy, Claudia, and Merida slowly turned their heads toward the armored figure again. By asking how Knox knew rather than denying the accusation, Pion had practically confirmed with his own mouth that the mysterious necromancer standing before them really was the Commander of the 7th Legion.
Simon, however, hadn't simply blurted out the answer because of panic.
While Simon had been deciding how to respond, Pier had quietly informed him that he couldn't sense any hostility coming from Knox. More importantly, Group 8 had witnessed Prince kidnapping Meilyn with their own eyes. With their friend currently in danger, Simon decided to gamble on the possibility that they would prioritize rescuing her rather than wasting time trying to stop him.
And Simon had won that gamble.
Knox had absolutely no intention of stopping him.
We don't have time to waste here anyway.
The situation was already moving faster than the others realized. Meilyn was in danger, while Prince and Manus would soon come into conflict with each other. There was also another person Knox couldn't afford to overlook.
Javier.
Knox knew exactly what that man intended to do. Once Meilyn was handed over to him, Javier would attempt to turn her into an undead.
Fortunately, Knox wasn't moving blindly anymore. Igris had already located Manus, while Beru had successfully tracked down Prince. Through their reports, Knox also knew that Javier had begun moving with his carriage, with the kidnapped Meilyn in tow.
Now that he knew where everyone was, Knox had no reason to wait any longer.