I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 428 More useful than magic

Dealing with the three defectors took Diu Ni Rem quite a bit of time, and he was a little sleepy when he got here... It's the same both online and offline.

He thought for a moment, then walked to the corner of the tent, where a cot was placed.

Although the military camp has a magnificent tent exclusively for Diurem, it is warm, comfortable, and has servants on duty 24 hours a day.

But he didn't go back... for no other reason than he was too lazy to walk a few more steps.

Why waste precious time traveling when you can log off here and start working immediately when you log back on tomorrow?
However, tonight is destined to be a turbulent night.

Just as Rem lay down, before he could even pull the thin blanket over himself, a muffled thud came from outside the tent.

Damn, it's a command cannon, the kind with the highest level of early warning!

Rem's drowsiness was instantly shattered by the muffled thud.

He practically sat up abruptly, threw off the thin blanket he hadn't had time to cover himself with, and stepped barefoot onto the cold, rough ground.

Diu Ni Rem hurriedly put on his shoes and rushed out of the military tent.

The guards outside immediately raised their shields and surrounded him, forming a protective circle around him and protecting Rem completely.

Diu Ni Rem enjoys the treatment of a high-ranking official in the kingdom, but now he's a little annoyed by this.

"Make way, I need to get to the front lines. There are so many people here, how could I be in danger..."

The words have not yet been spoken!

In the shadows of the nearby military tent, the air seemed to distort violently like ripples on water, and a pitch-black figure shot out without warning, its target being Diu Ni Rem, who was surrounded by guards in the center.

The serpentine shadow appeared so suddenly that the guards had no time to react before it slithered through the gaps in their shield wall, then leaped up and pounced on Diu Ni Rem.

Diu Ni Rem suddenly turned around and saw a Lamia snake-man. Its upper body was covered with dark scales, almost blending into the shadows. In its hand, it held a strange short dagger that shimmered with a cold, eerie green light and was obviously coated with poison. The chilling killing intent and the unique stench of snakes hit him, and death was just around the corner.

Diu Ni Rem's pupils contracted to the size of pinpoints due to extreme horror. His body's instincts reacted faster than his thoughts. He grabbed the longsword from the guard beside him and slashed at the snake man with a backhand.

As a high-ranking official in the Kingdom of Bagnia, Diu Ni Rem did not participate in battles as often as ordinary players, so his skills were slightly inferior.

but

His instinctive counterattack failed to stop the assassin's attack; after just one exchange, Rem's weapon was deflected.

However, his action bought him some time. The two guards surrounding him reacted and, holding up their shields like two gates, stood between Diu Ni Rem and the assassin.

Is it safe now...?

Such methods are sufficient to deal with human assassins. In a narrow, crowded space, as long as there is a moment's delay, the guards on the outside can turn around and hack the assassin into mincemeat with a flurry of swords.

However, this snake-man was not human. At the critical moment, its lower snake body unleashed terrifying power, propelling it upwards like a spring, over the two shields, and crashing towards Diu Ni Rem.

The snake-man's movements were too fast and too decisive. At that moment, in Tourem's ears, the guards' exclamations and the sound of drawing their swords seemed to be stretched, distorted, and become indistinct.

He could clearly see his instantly pale face reflected in the assassin's cold, vertical pupils, and that murderous cruelty.

Finished!

The thought had just flashed through his mind.

boom……

A louder and clearer explosion than that of an ordinary flintlock musket resounded like thunder not far to the left rear of Diu Ni Rem.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The snake-man assassin falling from the sky suddenly jerked his head back, and a blood hole the size of a finger exploded on his forehead, while a cloud of blood mist mixed with dark red blood and grayish-white brain matter burst out from the back of his head.

The snake-man assassin instantly turned into a dead snake and fell, crashing onto the two guards. He was no longer a threat. His hideous triangular face still held the ecstatic joy of his impending success and a hint of incredulous astonishment.

Its thick, serpentine body was still twitching on the guard, but it no longer posed the slightest threat to Diu Ni Rem.

Everything happens in the blink of an eye!

Diu Ni Rem's heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of her throat, and cold sweat quickly soaked through the inner lining of her back.

He turned his head sharply, looking in the direction from which the gunshots were coming.

Polka, the magic advisor Chris had temporarily assigned to him, was standing a few meters away on a supply wagon.

He held a slender flintlock pistol in his hand, with wisps of pale blue gunpowder smoke rising from its muzzle.

Polka's face was expressionless. He simply slung the flintlock pistol over his back, then jumped off the supply wagon, clapped his hands, as if the shot had only hit a pesky bird rather than saved the commander's life at the last second.

The surrounding guards, as if waking from a dream, gathered around in shock, swords drawn, pointing warily at the assassin's corpse on the ground and the surrounding shadows, protecting Diu Ni Rem even more tightly, while also separating him from Polka.

Diu Ni Rem took a few deep breaths of the cold air, thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood, trying to calm his wildly beating heart and his almost suffocating throat.

He looked at Polka, then at the assassin's corpse on the ground, and finally his gaze fell on the musket.

"Polka!"

"Dou Ni Rem's" voice carried the urgency of someone who had just escaped a disaster.

"Thanks... But in that situation just now, wouldn't it have been safer if you had used some magic? If your hand had even flinched, the bullet might have hit me in the head."

Rem pointed at the musket. In his mind, magic should be more convenient and faster than a musket.

Polka raised his eyelids slightly, his dark eyes glancing at Rem, a barely perceptible curve appearing at the corner of his mouth, a hint of mockery mixed with a sense of entitlement, his voice as calm as if discussing the weather.

"Commander."

He raised his chin, pointing to the precise blood hole between the assassin's eyebrows on the ground.

"Look at this effect, it's instantly fatal, painless, clean and efficient. I can achieve this effect with just a flick of my finger. In my opinion, this musket is more effective than my magic."

"But what if it hits me?"

"It won't hit you."

Polka paused, then threw the musket off his back, picked it up, and gently patted the cold barrel before continuing.

"This is a rifled gun, and its accuracy far surpasses that of smoothbore guns. As long as my hand is steady and my mind is calm, I can't possibly miss a target at close to medium range."

Polka turned his head, his questioning tone as if stating an unspoken truth:
"If muskets are so useful, why would I need magic?"

Diu Ni Rem was speechless for a moment when asked the question.

In the distance, the shouts of the snake people charging into the camp, the roar of cannons, the volleys of flintlock muskets, and the shouts and screams of soldiers mingled together, reminding him that the war was still ongoing.

He looked at the rifled gun in Polka's hand, its metallic sheen gleaming in the firelight, and then at the snake-man assassin's corpse on the ground, killed by a lead bullet.

In the end, Rem simply let out a heavy sigh and patted the shield of the guard beside him.

"Send a few men to protect the advisor. Polka, come with me to the front-line command post. I want to see just how many of these worms have come tonight!"

(End of this chapter)