I flipped the page of the book I was reading.
[When a zombie fully decomposes, it will become a skeleton. However, if it manages to preserve its body somehow, it will become an even more powerful ‘ghoul".]
I continued reading the paragraphs below.
[If their bodies are exposed to the Negative Fields, the existing demonic energy there will greatly accelerate the evolution. Their skin will become tougher and their bones stronger.]
M-mm….
[Once a skeleton"s intelligence reaches a certain level, it will start wielding a weapon. Meaning, it will evolve to either a Warrior or an Archer. If it"s not purified as soon as possible, it"ll continue to grow stronger with pa.s.sing time.]
I flipped to the next page.
[They instinctively crave for stronger demonic energy. They also wish for a stronger body. And that is why they all head towards the ‘Land of the Dead Spirits".]
The warmer seasons of Spring and Summer served to weaken the bodies of the undead. The demonic energy would dissipate when subjected to warm sunlight, and not to forget, the Negative Fields would be exposed under the bright light, too.
That"s why the undeads headed off towards the Land of the Dead Spirits, which was a Negative Field full of demonic energy.
And also….
[Once the Autumn arrives, and then, Winter, the undead will finally awaken their instincts, the one they had been suppressing all this time.]
The instincts of the undead.
The avaricious desire to devour the living, and also the drive to propagate their numbers by turning others into fellow undeads.
[This is the ‘Tide of Death". Once every year during the coldest spell in Winter, the undeads that have been roaming the Continent will be drawn to the Land of the Dead Spirits, their instincts soon to be unshackled. It is the season where their bodies will not rot and remain as they were, and they would scatter among the rest of the Continent to devour the living. And the time for that will be….]
"Around one month left until the D-Day, huh."
I closed the book.
I got up from my seat so that I could return this book back in its original place somewhere within the monastery"s small library.
"Let me take care of that, please."
However, a silver-haired girl stopped me from doing that.
The girl kitted out in a neat nun"s habit picked up the book while carrying her trademark expressionless face.
Her name was Charlotte, and for some reason, began visiting the monastery quite often after the end of the zombie wave incident.
I heard that the farmer Gril accepted her as his adopted daughter or something. That guy, he initially detested the very idea, but now, he must"ve decided to take responsibility of looking after her.
"Okay, sure."
The girl nodded her head and placed the book back on the shelf.
I couldn"t tell if she was suffering from the shock of losing her parents or something, but for some reason she decided to enter the monastery and requested to work as a nun here.
Never mind my breakfast, lunch and dinner, she even took on the menial task of cleaning the monastery as well as maintenance of the graves, too.
It was convenient for me, sure, but every now and then, I"d recall the sight of the bloodied kitchen knife and chills travelled down my spine as a result.
Weeeell, her unpaid voluntary service shouldn"t last for that long. She"d leave on her own volition once she got sick and tired of playing maidservant. Probably.
Not everyone could become a nun, after all.
This world believed in several different religions.
As long as it didn"t harm anyone, an order would be acknowledged as a religion. On the other hand, if it did harm other people, then it"d be labelled as heretical cult.
Also, you could get married even if you were a nun. So, this silver-haired girl before my eyes would leave the monastery after falling in love with a boy or something.
My expression remained that of a sullen pout as I looked at her, before I walked straight past her. I opened the door to the library to go outside, only for some people to block my path.
"What now?" said I in irritation.
They were knights kitted out in pure-white armour from the top of their heads all the way down to their feet. The Paladins of the Theocratic Empire"s Imperial Family. And the monitors of the Holy Emperor"s seventh grandson/Imperial Prince, as well. Which was me.
A week had pa.s.sed since the zombie wave incident.
I was so preoccupied with searching for every zombie wandering around and performing all the funerals that I even forgot about the pa.s.sage of time.
It was only yesterday that we had finished settling everything. After our relative safety was a.s.sured once more, the village chief sent the word out to the nearest fiefdom. It took over a full day"s journey to travel back and forth, yet in less than half a day later, Paladins showed up.
They perused me top to bottom before s.h.i.+fting their gazes to Charlotte over yonder.
"A nun?"
This monastery was empty before I showed up.
They were puzzled by the appearance of a nun ostensibly studying their religion.
I deliberately spoke in a sarcastic tone of voice. "Yeah, she"s sent by the local village. And she"s studying the faith quite diligently, too. Ah, she also volunteers her services for my sake. She doesn"t seem to care whether it"s day or night, either." She made sure to take care of my needs during breakfast, lunch, and supper. "Well, what can I do? She"s not a servant but a nun. How can I reject a fellow believer in the G.o.ddess, right?"
I continued to speak in the slimy tone of voice.
The head Paladin looked away from Charlotte and stared at me. "We were informed that you have captured the witch Morgana."
Huh! Would you look at this guy? Not even a simple greeting, but straight to the topic, eh?
Are you taking me lightly because I lost my status as the Holy Emperor"s successor? Ah??
"That"s right. The villagers caught that d*mn woman."
"Yes, we heard." He spoke without a hint of emotion like a cyborg and nodded his lead. "We heard that along with the villagers, you fought tooth and nail for their survival."
I fought tooth and nail along with the villagers?
Well, if you"re talking about the battle against zombies near the monastery, then….
"Also, we heard that they surrounded the King of Gluttony and fought it off with their farming tools."
"Eh?"
"Hundreds of zombies surrounded them, but the villagers still managed to defeat the undeads in the end, and eventually, located the Necromancer."
"………"
"Especially that man named Gril. He said he defeated over 30 zombies, and even cast the holy water on Witch Morgana, thereby driving her to a corner….."
Gril, oh dear Gril, since when did you become a peerless, fearless farmer capable of spewing bullsh*t to that degree?! I guess the sight I witnessed of you sobbing and wailing like a little baby, unable to even properly take down a single zombie, was all a lie?? I had no idea that you"d be like one of those munchkin MCs that hide their powers for one stupid reason or the other!
"I know it"s all an exaggeration, but….." The head Paladin continued on while his gaze s.h.i.+fted over to the monastery"s window. He could see hundreds of newly-erected graves that went up over the past seven days through the window. "….But, it seems to be true."
"Pure exaggeration. You"re supposed to be a Paladin, so you shouldn"t just haphazardly believe every story a stranger tells you."
Of course, this guy wouldn"t even dream of me killing all those zombies by myself. That"s including the King of Gluttony, too. It might have been heavily exaggerated, but the tale wasn"t a lie since the villagers really did help me.
"Anyways, you probably didn"t come here to confirm that. Am I wrong?" said I while scowling a little.
"Were you aware that Morgana was affiliated with the Black Order?"
"Yeah, got that after interrogating her."
What the h.e.l.l, I could"ve learned that from these guys, instead? That Morian woman, she was speaking as if it was the greatest secret in the world or something.
"She was a truly malicious, vicious villain, suspected of destroying five villages in the past."
Wowsers, she"s actually a genocidal witch!
Oii, what the heck. I was fighting against such a crazy b*tch??
"What happened to that witch, your highness?"
"Didn"t you hear it from the villagers? She was beaten up half to death and got hung in the forest."
"Did you do that, your highness?"
"Nope."
I immediately denied it.
Are you mad?! How could I, a young boy with frail heart, do something so cruel and savage? My heart is as pure as a maiden"s!
Of course, I didn"t say what was really in my head.
Because, this guy would definitely start retching if I did that. So, I went with a different routine, instead.
I approached Charlotte and hugged her while behaving like a spoiled brat. "I was so scared that I couldn"t move a muscle, you know! I thought I"d wet my pants. Oh my goodness…! It was so terrifying, I tell you. That d*mn chick! She was even trying to seduce me earlier, you know? But then, she treated me like a stinking sc.u.mbag, so she got what she deserved! Wowsers, what a relief that I didn"t sh*t my pants back then….!"
I even yelled out loudly to amplify the effect even further. Didn"t forget to sneak a glance at the Paladins in the meantime, of course.
The leader Paladin was lowering his head, and I could hear him sigh grandly.
Nice. What a disgusting sight this must be for him!
This spectacle of me clinging onto some girl and s.h.i.+vering away in fear while loudly yapping on and on….!
Even I found such a sight rather disgusting, if I say so myself.
In any case, oh, my dear Paladins! Report this sorry sight in full to the Holy Emperor! Oh, and don"t forget to send suitable greetings to my brothers, too.
Please do your utmost best to convince them that there"s no need to send more a.s.sa.s.sins like that witch my way, okay?
The head Paladin pulled out a leather pouch from his inner pocket and placed it on top of the shelf nearby.
"What"s that?"
"It"s the reward for Morgana"s head, your highness. 80 Gold in total."
About 50 Silver would be enough for a commoner to live off for a month in this world. When considering that fact, you could say the reward was a pretty sizeable amount, alright.
With this amount, I should be able to lounge around for a while.
"Huh, so there was a reward?"
"By any chance, did you find any magic-related tomes in the witch"s possession, your highness?"
"What about "em?"
"We need to confiscate them."
"Don"t have "em. Didn"t like the way they looked, so I had them incinerated."
I was bullsh*tting, obviously.
You think I"d hand over such nice educational material like magic grimoires to you lot just like that?
I risked my life to get my hands on those. I wasn"t dumb enough to go ‘Ohh, how wonderful!" and hand them over, you know? I"d just use them to their fullest myself, instead.
Of course, it was unknown whether I could learn anything from them or not, seeing that I possessed divinity, not demonic energy.
"I see."
Before the Paladins left, their leader looked back at me for one last time.
"The Winter is coming. The weather is getting colder, so please do take care to remain healthy, your highness."
"Ng, I know. This is in the middle of a mountain and it gets so f*cking cold up here."
"Also, the ‘Tide of Death" will soon be upon us."
"Yeah, I read about that just now. A wave of undeads that happens every Winter, is it? Around the 25th of December, when it"s so cold that it"s more like a b.l.o.o.d.y Ice Age, that"s when this Tide thing is supposed to happen, right?"
I"d rather much prefer that Santa showed up with an armful of presents on that day, but well, it was more like Halloween where all sorts of spectres would rampage about, instead.
I spoke with a refres.h.i.+ng grin on my face, causing the head Paladin to stare at me without a single word. He was probably sighing under the helm due to my lack of dignity.
"Please prepare to evacuate from here. We shall escort you."
"Oh, ohhh! Really? I"m finally leaving this boring, stuffy place for good? Where are we going, then?"
Were we headed to the nearest neighbouring country? Or to another city?
I"d love to go on a tour of this world. Didn"t matter where, I was dying of curiosity anyway! The Paladins should be accompanying me, so I might as well make them cough up the expenses, too.
The ultimate travel log where its protagonist stayed only in the best hotels and eat only the tastiest food, all the while protected by trusty bodyguards!
How romantic was that?
I was getting sick and tired of playing around and wasting time with corpses, anyway. Pretty sure they wouldn"t mind me going on a vacation, right?
"We shall accompany you to the Ronia fiefdom."
"What?"
Yo, hang on. What"s this? That place… That"s right next to this village. Wasn"t it a city only half a day"s travel away?
It had no tasty local delicacy and nothing interesting to look at. No, it was simply a fortress built as a s.h.i.+eld against the ‘Tide of Death".
About half of its populace were convicted criminals, so understandably, its public order was the absolute worst. It was even referred to as the ‘Abandoned Domain", or the ‘Sacrificial Castle" set up to appease the evil spirits.
Hang on a minute. Were they actually planning to send the Holy Emperor"s grandson to that place??
"During the dark Tide, many casualties will rise, your highness. Therefore….."
E-eiiii, there"s no way! Please, tell me it ain"t true. Don"t you dare say anything else!!
"…For the sake of those n.o.ble sacrifices, we"d like you to perform their funerals, please."
"……."
"This is the will of His Majesty the Holy Emperor."
Oh. My. Goooood!
It wasn"t just "You, go there" but, "You, go there and perform hard labour"!!
Ahh, you c.r.a.ppy, rotten grandfather of mine!!
Well, sure, you aren"t my real grandfather, but still, biologically you are it, anyway!
Are you planning to kill your poor grandson through overwork?
W-wait, could it be that a.s.sa.s.sin Morgana was sent by him, instead?
I could only sincerely pray that wasn"t the case.
If the Holy Emperor decided to kill me for real, then I"d die without making a sound, that"s for sure.
Once the Paladins left, the villagers came to see me.
They were hammering away. Tools and materials were brought in, and the worn-down and weathered furniture were taken out.
The monastery was currently going through a renovation/repair work.
"What a relief that it"ll be the undeads attacking us, not some bandits."
The undeads advancing forward due to the ‘Tide of Death" would ignore run-down houses or buildings that lacked tangible signs of life.
Meaning, the village or the monastery would be spared as long as no one remained in them. So, there was nothing to lose by fixing up the old building and filling it up with new furniture.
"These are the village"s best carpenters. Although it won"t be like a brand-new building, they should ensure that there are no leakages and prevent the roof from collapsing."
The village chief showed up to honour our prior agreement.
Not only did he bring people to fix the monastery, he even brought along enough firewood to last through the Winter, too. On top of it all, there were new ingredients for food waiting for me to collect them.
Cooking used to be my hobby in my previous life, so you could say that fooling around with the various local ingredients found in this world had become my new pastime. Having said that, Charlotte was taking care of my meals lately so I didn"t have to lift a finger anymore.
I pushed forward the coin pouch at the village chief.
"Your highness, this is….?"
"There are 5 Gold inside."
My words caused the old man"s eyes to open up extra large. "S-such a large amount of money is…"
"Apparently, there was a reward on the witch you guys hunted down. This is a portion of that."
Of course, I took the liberty to swallow up the rest for myself. Sure, the villagers killed that witch, but didn"t I play a huge role in her capture in the first place?
It was a fair percentage, I thought. It should also be seen as the price for not soiling my hands, too.
"We can"t accept this. We are in your debt as well, your highness. So this money…."
The village chief formed a bitter smile.
"I"m not just giving it away, you know," said I.
"……?"
"I"m paying you upfront."
"For the repair work of the monastery?"
I shook my head.
You mad? That"s for free, innit?
I pointed at the various headstones haphazardly erected here and there on the cemetery. "Look, you can see that they are all pretty sloppy, right? Bring in some people and material from the nearest town and make proper ones. I"ve already performed all the purification ceremony, so all you gotta do now is to tidy up the graves. I can"t be bothered to work on them anymore, so do what you think will be okay."
What I was saying here was that, since I couldn"t be bothered, the chief should go and hire some labourers. With their share of the reward, no less.
"I understand."
The village chief accepted the money.
"If you try to pocket some, Imma break your hands, okay?"
"But, of course."
The village chief chuckled good-naturedly.
With that, the work was done. The bothersome Paladins left, too. And I was also finished with studying magic.
In a month"s time, this world"s version of Halloween would begin. Although, it wasn"t a fun festival of sorts, but a real march of the undeads, which was a b.u.mmer, I guess.
The season of rampaging corpses that wouldn"t rot. And the time when they would try to spread to the rest of the Continent.
For the sake of my future fraught with potentially endless labour, I should utilise this off-peak season to rest my weary soul and further increase my skill proficiency.
If I don"t, I"d probably suffer h.e.l.lish torment with no respite later!
That"s why…
"I guess I should start experimenting, then."
Now was the time to learn all those Necromancy skills found in the grimoires that Morian or Morgana or whatever her name was, had left behind.
< 012.="" imperial="" prince="" is="" toiling="" away="" -1=""> Fin.