Grandson of the Holy Emperor is a Necromancer

The three of us, Hans, Alice, and I, stepped into the staircase going down into the sewers located near Benikin church.

"...It smells horrible."

Alice blocked her nose in dissatisfaction while scanning our surroundings.

The interior down here was quite dark, so both her and I used divinity to enhance our vision to get a good look at where we were. It was the middle of the day outside, but here, not a sliver of light could infiltrate this damp and smelly Negative Field.

I groaned softly, "Even I didn't expect the stench to be this bad."

In my case, I had all sorts of dwarf-made devices installed on the armour. If I wanted to neutralise the air that had been contaminated with toxins or some other pollutants, all I had to do was to inject divinity into the armour and it'd start the purification process all on its own.

"Still, what a relief it is that we're here to catch some rats," said Hans while looking around the area himself, wearing those magic-detecting goggles of his.

I tried to correct him. "I'm telling you, we aren't dealing with regular rats here."

I peered into the darkness and spotted some live rats. Except, these rats were not what you'd call 'normal' by any stretch of imagination.

These rats had bushy, stiff black fur on top of their heads. They were around one metre in height while they walked around on their hind legs like humans. They were even carrying things like sticks and rusted knives.

Alice immediately froze stiffly on her spot as if indescribable chills had completely immobilised her just then, while Hans stood there with his jaw about to hit the floor.

I, on the other hand, stared at these Ratmen with some interest. "See? I told you. They aren't your regular rats at all, am I right?"

To be honest, I certainly didn't expect them to show up while wielding knives, sticks, and even clubs.

And why was this? I picked up on demonic energy, as well as some kind of toxin, wafting out from them. Either there were some undead mixed among their group, or some Ratmen might be capable of using demonic energy.

"I guess rats in this world do prefer to walk on their two feet."

Another thing to note here was that their numbers had to be well over a few hundred. I wonder, was it because their nature forced them to form a large herd? And perhaps their nature also granted them enough intelligence to wield weapons on top of that?

There were so many here that the sewer entrance veiled in darkness was completely blocked up by them.

-Screeeeech!

The furs on all those Ratmen stood on end. Hundreds of eyes gleamed murderously in the darkness as they began rushing towards us on all fours, all the while their jaws held onto the knives and sticks.

Rumble, tumble-!

Dozens, nay, hundreds of large rats were now dashing madly through the sewer filled with streams of excrements and filth.

Yup, even I was getting goosebumps looking at this spectacle. It's like staring at an ocean of cockroaches scurrying towards me.

And to make matters worse, the stench coming from them was the absolute worst. All sorts of filth and crap could be seen staining the monsters' furs.

"...W-what should we do?" Alice asked while sounding rather scared.

Wait, what? Because of some rats? Or could it be because of the higher-than-expected numbers?

Oh, none of the above.

She was frightened simply because they were so filthy.

I mean, really now. This girl was a Lady Martial Arts Master capable of one-punching a Minotaur to death, so there was no bloody way she'd get scared here.

Heck, even I wanted nothing to do with these dirty-ass rats.

I quickly summoned a musket and let out a breath into its chamber. Since there were no eyewitnesses down here, it should be fine to do whatever I want for the time being.

As such...

"Time to hunt some rats."

I aimed my musket at the incoming horde of Ratmen.

**

(TL: In 3rd person POV.)

The fourteen year-old girl living in Benikin Church's orphanage, Yuria, was currently walking alone inside the sewer while clutching onto a teddy bear. She looked to be in bad sorts right now.

It was so gloomy and smelly down here. She had nothing to quench her thirst nor to appease her hunger. The tiredness of the mind and body continued to weaken her.

She was so tired that she couldn't even properly recall how she managed to spend the day trapped down here.

Not only that...

"...Heuph!"

Yuria gasped out in surprise and almost dropped the teddy bear. A rotting corpse was floating down the filthy sewer water right before her eyes.

A corpse that had been badly maimed by the fangs of all sorts of beasts, no less. Yuria covered her face from this gruesome sight and stumbled back several steps.

She hated this.

How did things turn out like this?

-Big sis, please go and get my doll!

That was one of the immature little siblings of hers throwing a tantrum. It seemed that the child carelessly dropped her doll inside one of the sewer openings while pretending to be on an adventure.

Since it was getting late in the day, Yuria decided to go and get the doll. If not found in time, then it was obvious that the child would continue throwing her tearful tantrum for the rest of the day.

Besides, it was dangerous for a little child to enter the sewers alone.

But her decision to come down here turned out to be the beginning of her troubles.

-Uh? How come...?

The entrance she used to enter the sewers had been shut tightly.

Bang! Bang!

She pounded on the gate but no one opened it from the outside.

She did hear stories of the guards deciding to lock up all the sewer entrances due to the spate of dangerous events happening recently, but even then, she didn't expect something like this would happen to her.

And to make matters much worse...

-Screech?

The monsters called Ratmen had taken residence in the sewers. Yuria fled and barely managed to lose them.

The stench of the sewers had hidden her own smell, while the Ratmen didn't possess all that good of an eyesight, so they simply devoured whatever they happened to come across.

Yuria sobbed silently all alone.

She continued to struggle in order to get out of this place, but the number of Ratmen seemed to balloon up over time and placed so much pressure on her. She had to flee for her life several times, hid in the darkness, and had to lose them in the labyrinth of the sewers.

At times, she had to hold her breath and enter the flowing sewerage to lose them.

But now, it felt like all hope was lost. She was too tired to even walk. She knew that at this rate, it was only a matter of time before she ended up as monster rat food.

Just as she began to sob softly again...

Boom-!

An explosion noise could be heard.

'What was that?'

Yuria shifted her gaze to the end section of the sewerage tunnel she was in. A flash of brilliant light suddenly brightened the passage there before chunks of what used to be Ratmen were flung back, their blood thickly coating the sewer walls.

As she stood there staring at that spectacle in shock...

Tumble, splash...

A wave of sewer water tumbled out from the deeper part of the tunnel behind her. She turned to look, only to spot a massive monster rat at least five metres tall – one massive enough to scrape the ceiling of the sewer tunnel.

A Giant Ratman.

Yuria sucked in her breath at the appearance of this huge monster. She even forgot about screaming.

-Ku-aaaaaahk!

It screeched out violently.

Its maw split wide open as if to swallow up the small-statured Yuria in one go.

She tightly clutched the teddy bear and closed her eyes.

'It's over!'

It was at that very moment that she heard the distinct click-clack of metallic boots. Something or someone was quickly rushing towards where she was while noisily splashing the sewer water.

Just before the Giant Ratman's fangs closed in to rip her apart, a lengthy barrel of a musket was shoved into the monster's throat.

A bright spark lit up in the muzzle, followed by the back of the giant rat monster's head exploding into gory bits. Blood and chunks of flesh rained down on the surroundings.

Yuria, who was still holding onto the teddy bear, flinched nastily in surprise and quickly raised her head.

She saw a person covered in a set of white armour from top to bottom. This unknown individual was wielding a musket rifle about one and half metres long.

A sacred aura oozed out from his whole body and ensured that even if his figure became drenched in blood, he'd never be tainted by uncleanliness.

Yuria dazedly stared at this unfamiliar holy knight and muttered softly, "Lord Paladin?"

"Are you Yuria?"

The returning voice was soft, and yet, it was still filled with confidence.

The Paladin extended his hand towards Yuria.

"I've come to take you home."

< 112. Monsters of the Sewer -1 (Part One and Two) > Fin.