“I’m exhausted.”

Rus Kritechren checked the depleted magic within his body, touching his forehead. Sweat beads soaked his forehead, which was normally so smooth.

It had only been a day since Elizabeth Keaton had contacted him. During that time, Rus had squeezed his magic to the limit, constantly using teleportation magic from Chatteris, where the magic tower was, to the capital Agatha.

To unravel this situation, which was like an inexplicable plague.

‘…Will Sienna be safe?’

He moistened his dry throat with the water he had brought, and the thought of Sienna, whom he had been trying hard to forget, made his hand tremble.

‘I shouldn’t have stuck to the magic tower. I should have been by her side at least.’

He regretted having stayed in the magic tower, making excuses for his research, unable to smile and bless Sienna’s marriage to the crown prince.

A zombie. They said Sienna was the first to become one.

Although it was somewhat suspicious since it was said by Elizabeth Keaton, whom he despised like an enemy, it was assumed to be true since the communication with the magicians residing in the capital Agatha had all been cut off.

“If that’s the case then…”

Rus could not continue and bowed his head.

Although it was a thought he hated, Sienna probably had a high chance of being dead.

More accurately, it would be right to say that she had become a state hardly recognizable as human.

Nevertheless, the reason Rus squeezed out his magic and hurried to the Duke Keaton’s residence sooner than planned was due to guilt over Sienna.

‘My chest hurts.’

It was not due to the loss of a loved one.

Sienna had chosen the crown prince, and Rus’s confession was rejected.

It was a painful time, but Rus respected Sienna’s choice and wished her happiness.

Sienna was his one and only precious friend.

The guilt he felt now was mainly due to the fact that he had done nothing for his precious friend Sienna until she met her change.

So Rus couldn’t ignore Elizabeth Keaton’s proposal, even though she was unpleasant to look at.

〈Someone has to stop this bizarre situation. So, please help.〉

〈Come to the Duke Keaton’s residence. With other magicians to fight together if possible.〉

And … strangely, he could not ignore her words.

‘It makes me feel sick. Just like Sienna speaking.’

Her tone was a bit stiff, but it was so unlike the Elizabeth Keaton who used to act as if she would eat Sienna alive that he wondered if it was really her.

Straight purple eyes. And the clear words requesting help.

Although she looked different, and her natural color was different, Sienna strangely overlapped her.

Gentle and warm Sienna would not have ignored such an emergency.

Rus unwittingly accepted Elizabeth Keaton’s proposal.

Even though he knew clearly that he was not in good terms with the other magicians in the magic tower, he even promised to bring them along if possible.

“If it turns out to be nonsense, I won’t let it go.”

Muttering to himself, Rus took out the magic recharge potion that was in his dimensional pocket and gulped it down at once.

As he gulped down the sweet peachflavored potion he had developed himself, he felt his depleted magic filling back up again.

‘I’m almost there. I just need to hurry a little more.’

Uhoh. He resisted a sudden feeling of nausea from the rapid magic recharge.

Although he was extremely tired from using magic day and night, teleporting continuously, Rus gritted his teeth and arrived at the capital Agatha.

When he arrived at the sturdy walls of the capital, Rus was startled by a strange and eerie noise.

“Grrrrrrrr…….”

“Uuuu…… Uaaaa……”

In the silence where not even an ant seemed to pass, only that crying was clear. Despite the fact that there were no signs of the bustling people fitting for the capital of the empire.

‘People? No. This is what Duke Keaton spoke of, the zombies.’

Sensing the smell of a person, the zombies from beyond the wall seemed to swarm toward Rus’s side.
Unable to climb the castle wall, they only clung to it.

In the appearance of a cloud of dust, Luella momentarily felt her hair stand on end, but she quickly cast both a spell to erase her presence and a teleportation spell on top of it.

『My shadow, erase my existence.』

『Teleport!』

Just a few seconds. Although it was only a brief instant, the experience was bonechilling.

The zombies glared at Luella with bloodshot eyes, until she vanished with her teleportation spell, licking their lips.

Stained with crimson bloodstains, looking as though they’d been torn apart by beasts, their incomplete bodies merely standing and watching was terrifying.

Thinking of Sienna, who had been like a lovely spring flower, wandering around in that state chilled her heart.

‘Duke, let’s teleport to Duke Keaton’s mansion.’

Suppressing the nausea that came from her fear, Luella finally arrived at the Keaton Duke’s mansion. Though she did fall onto a giant tree planted outside the Duke’s mansion, perhaps due to the fatigue of continuous teleportation.