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“Everyone died…? Are you saying there were no survivors? Gold rank adventurers should be very skilled, so that’s a bit…”
“I know, but apparently no one came out alive.”

One day after work, Krieck started an extraordinary meeting, so we were all inside the meeting room when he told us the party that went to investigate the dungeon had perished. Ciel and Karin had been at the dungeon entrance when they saw that party enter, which they told me amongst many complaints.

Back then I had not expected it to end like this. The faces of everyone assembled looked clouded, but I could not blame them. The strongest adventurers we had were wiped out, and on top of that there were some adventurers from neighboring guilds, then this was the result, it was very unlikely they had found and slain the king. In other words, They had been unable to avert the monster invasion.

“What should we do, Master? Doesn’t that mean that a large group of monsters will attack us soon?.”
“Wouldn’t it be wise to advise the civilians to take refuge somewhere…?”
“Also, how about gathering all the adventurers that can fight, irrelevant of rank? The soldiers and guards here won’t be enough to defend us.”

The employees voiced their ideas one after another. I wanted to say something myself, but I could not think of anything useful. I had always been thrown alone to deal with things like this after all…

“Everyone, calm down. We’re relaying this information to the governor as well, and we sent requests to all the guilds so we can increase our fighting power. We are also in the midst of asking the nearby cities and towns to house our citizens momentarily. If everything goes well, once the battle begins, there will only be soldiers and adventurers left in the city.”

Everyone heaved sighs of relief. Everything was already being taken care of, as expected of Krieck. As I silently admired his decisions, Miranda raised her hand.

“Master, do we have any information in regards to the enemy? It’s hard to believe those adventurers simply died like that.”

Krieck nodded, then cleared his throat before speaking again.

“We do have a small amount of information. According to the information the party relayed outside before they perished, the enemies are undead, and of a rather high level. Which means that they probably aren’t simply zombies or skeletons, but ghosts at the very least…and I can only assume that the king would be something like a lich or a vampire.”

“That can’t be!”
“A lich or a vampire?!”
“How’re we supposed to defeat one of those?”

I began feeling restless seeing the murmurs coming from everyone around me. A lich, the strongest undead spirit known. They were born from priests who fell into darkness and turned undead, or when they gave in to their desires of manipulating undead spirits and willingly turned into one. Whichever their source was, they were able to use incredibly strong magic, and a regular person would die just by inhaling the miasma emanating from them.

Then there were vampires, monsters with an appetite for blood as their name implied. They had the special ability to morph their body into that of any creature they desired, or vanish into mist. They also possessed a strong and resilient body, besting any average adventurer with physical abilities alone. Lastly, their high recovery rates, which was possibly their most dangerous trait. As long as their coffin, hidden somewhere, was not destroyed, their wounds healed at such a high pace they could easily be considered immortal. Though that also meant that if the coffin was destroyed, they were much easier to deal with.

Both were monsters I had fought countless times back when I was still active. At first, it was quite the struggle, but with my current experience, I would easily be able to take them on, though back then other people apart from me could also defeat them. But judging from what I saw of the current adventurers…they would definitely have a lot of trouble with them.

“Any holy magic should be effective against them, or in other words, we should prioritize healing and purification magic. Though as things are now, we haven’t received as much support from the priests as I’d wish.”
“That’s… Does that mean no church will aid us?!”
“The temples of the God of War Gael and God of Abundance Fertila have assured us their support. But that of the God of Light Lumiere, Knowledge, Commerce, and Artisans have all given unfavorable replies.”

As Krieck said that, his face took a sour expression. Everyone else also looked displeased. Even though I had only recently moved into the city, I had an idea as to why not every temple offered their support. The two who did offer their support were those with many followers in the city, while the rest only had a handful of followers. There was simply not enough support for them, and risking their lives might be asking for too much in that situation.

Though somehow I felt that it was exactly in times like these that their aid would help in increasing their popularity around the citizens. Though maybe my way of thinking was too different from that of a normal person.

“In conclusion, we can’t count on many priests being here, which means the main forces will be composed of our adventurers and the city’s guards. When the time comes to it, we have to be organized and avoid falling into panic. To that end, I think we should assign each of us our respective roles, so pay attention now.”

Saying so, Krieck took a large sheet of paper and fastened it to the wall. The paper had a list of the members of the guild and their roles. So for instance Krieck would be in the frontline as the master of the guild, leading all the other adventurers, Camille would have a supporting role behind the lines while Miranda would move as a messenger between all the troops. I was curious what role I got, but when my eyes reached the line with my name, I encountered a role I was not expecting.

“Err, Master. My role is…”
“Yes, you will be in charge of healing in the rear lines. After all, we won’t have much support from the priests as I just mentioned.”
“I don’t really mind, but I could still…”

I wanted to complain, but Krieck raised his hand and interrupted me. He knew how well I could fight, but he still relegated me to a healing role in the rear lines. Is my outward appearance the reason for this as well?

“I know you’re strong, maybe stronger than everyone here. But this battle…no, this war, is of such a large scope that it won’t be decided by the strength of a single individual. That’s why I’d prefer it if you could heal anyone who gets hurt rather than having you fight in the front lines.”
“Ah…I- I understand.”

I was about to object again, but I stopped before I said anything. If I requested to be on the front line, I would probably be allowed to be there. If I used my skills, I could easily take out large hordes of monsters with large area magic attacks, but I had a hunch of what would happen afterward, so I instinctively pretended to agree with the decision.

When I thought about it, what had happened the last time I used all my strength and defeated the Demon King? Back then, I had to go through many difficult experiences with people avoiding me due to the excessive strength I possessed.

But now I had met really nice people and was finally able to live a calm and relaxed life, so I was afraid of losing that more than anything. When I began imagining Karin and Ciel treating me like a beast, or Camille and Miranda being cautious whenever they were around me… I was unable to say anything, only a loud gulp coming from my throat. If someone who knew my true strength witnessed this, they might call me a coward, but I truly did not have the courage to speak up.