Reincarnated Hero System

Of course, the boy's sudden change in plans caused a lot of problems, especially for the external forces he had called up to help deal with the situation like the Church of Artemisia and the mages of Kasteblum.

He had a bit of a hard time dealing with the political issues pertaining to the fact that his actions could potentially invite grandmaster-level existences from another Country into the Great Western Empire.

Luckily, the Emperor giving him the benefit of doubt, plus the fact that the man had spoken to the Chief Grand Magus of Kasteblum personally, made it so that the assistance force sent by Gavin did not get held up unnecessarily at the border.

As for what Evan had spent the past two and a half weeks doing?

It was quite simple.

He had gone through five of the Duchy's 20+ Counties and had been helping smaller towns that were affected by the 'stray' undead and could not protect themselves to evacuate to the larger cities in the Counties.

On a side note; the undead affecting said towns weren't really 'stray', but were sent there on purpose with the intention of making the Duke spread his forces out thinly.

As for the sources of these numerous 'stray' undead, they were all gotten from the cemeteries in these Counties, along with a few unfortunate small towns that had fallen to the hands of the Eighth Finger himself.

The level 200 undead like the Dullahan Evan just fought were sent out in droves from the Eighth Finger's personal stash that he had accumulated for over twenty years.

And with such undead running rampant in his territory, the more powerful knights under the Duke's control would definitely be sent out to take them out, but since they were all in different Counties, the Duke would have no choice but to spread his forces out which was exactly what the Eighth Finger wanted.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, this plan had not been going all too well due to the reinforcements sent from Gerfast, along with the actions of the Church of Artemisia who had taken up arms faster than the Eighth Finger had predicted.

Evan's actions also contributed as he took out the level 200 undead and joined the adventurers in said towns to help the citizens evacuate to larger more protected cities that would not fall to a few level 200 undead monsters.

However, this did not mean that there wasn't some degree of success to his plan so currently, things could be said to be at a strange stalemate with the Demonic Hand looking to tip off to the losing side.

On another side note; Evan had taken advantage of the situation to build a reputation for himself, earning a 'Protector of the People' title over the course of the past two weeks.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Just one more day and we've reached the city, right?"

"Yup."

The knight leader replied to Evan's words as he took a sip of the jug of beer on the small table in front of him, throwing a glance around and scanning the thousands of people setting up camp around them.

"I think this is the last batch we can accept. Any more and there wouldn't be space for the original inhabitants of the city."

"I see."

Evan replied while sipping his strawberry juice from the mug in his arms as he sat hunched over with his feet on the chair.

The town that they were evacuating was a fairly small one compared to the others that Evan had helped out in the past few weeks, having a bit over 2500 citizens, with close to 400 of them being adventurers and town guardsmen.

As for the knights that were accompanying them, they were sent over by the lord of the city they were evacuating to, who was also the Lord of the County they were in.

The Knight leader sitting with Evan was actually one of the three vice-captains under the Knights of Yelcyne, a level 240 knight who seemed to be part of the small minority who achieved the Superior stage of the master level before reaching Level 250.

Even with his stat boosts, Evan wasn't so sure about being able to win against the guy in a serious fight.

The boy was about to speak when a sweet scent suddenly filled his nose, along with the scent of alcohol as two arms wrapped themselves across his neck, with a head of blonde hair coming to rest on his shoulder.

Easily identifying his sudden hugger, Evan placed the mug in his hands on the table and unwrapped the blonde girl's arms from his neck, dragging her around and sitting her in between his legs.

"Huhh?! Oh, it's still Evan."

The girl tensed up momentarily, but relaxed once more upon discovering she was in her boyfriend's arms, planting a kiss on his lips before snuggling into his chest.

While Evan calmly patted her back and lulled her to sleep, he turned to glare at the group of female knights who avoided meeting his eyes while silently putting down the bottles of alcohol in their hands.

'They're the only ones with alcohol potent enough to make a level 200 existence get drunk.

I knew I should not have agreed to carry that alcohol in my inventory for them.'

The boy clicked his tongue audibly before appraising the girl in his arms and heaving a small sigh of relief when seeing that her condition was only 'Slightly Drunk'.

'She'd regain her wits soon enough.'

A small grin appeared on his face as he thought about how he was going to tease her when she did, with the knight vice-captain beside him bursting into laughter upon seeing it.

"Huh?"

"Haha..haha…You look like a kid who's thinking about how he's going to tease the girl he likes…hahahahaha."

"Oh…"

Evan let out a light chuckle upon hearing the man's words that were frighteningly accurate, with his attention being turned over towards the group of adventurers who were shouting loudly as they cheered on an arm-wrestling match between Greed and some other B-rank adventurer.

While taking his eyes off the match that was obviously going to end in Greed's win, Evan scanned the area for Pride but failed to notice the high demon, having to resort to sensing her location through their connection.

[…anything?]