“You fool! Do not call that thing a princess! She is a monster, born from a traitorous pig impregnating a bitch!!”
“M-My apologies!”
“…What is the situation!”
“She is riding in a palanquin carried by skeletons, proceeding slowly down the South Grand Avenue toward the castle gate! Liches and ghouls are solidifying the perimeter around her!”
The “Rose Princess of Hellrage”… The moment that name was spoken, the air in the operations command room grew taut.
She was the enemy general, the root cause of this entire situation, and the enemy’s greatest and most powerful asset.
After only prodding and poking at them until now, she had finally made her grand entrance. It was a sign of a devastating final attack, but at the same time, it was an opportunity to seize a one-in-a-million victory by striking her down.
The war banners of the red rose fluttered as the soldiers of the dead marched, the sound of their boots echoing loudly.
An army of the undead was advancing down the grand avenue leading from the South City Gate. At its center was Renée’s palanquin. The main force was directed toward capturing the city walls, so the number of soldiers participating in this procession was small, but the visual impact was nevertheless immense. Beings that were not human, raising their own banners and marching down the Royal Capital’s main thoroughfare in broad daylight. It was a show of force, or rather, a provocation.
“It seems the second commander was captured. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting things to go this well.”
Renée spoke to Alistair, who was riding a zombie horse beside her palanquin. He was holding all of their communication talismans, the Callers. They were about to redeploy throughout the city.
“Indeed. This will make future developments significantly easier.”
Alistair nodded in response. Renée had observed Bertil’s capture through her emotion-sensing ability. Lawrence might still believe that it was the treacherous members of the Second Knight Order, not revenants, who had attacked the south gate. There was a chance it could have turned out this way if her revenants weren’t discovered, but that had been more of a ‘we’d be lucky if it worked out that well’ kind of plan.
“I suppose there’s no need to hold back anymore.”
“Yes. Let us dispatch units to the residential districts.”
“Just be very careful not to cause any unnecessary deaths.”
Avoiding unnecessary deaths was, of course, not out of any humanitarian concern. It was a preemptive move to gain an advantage when she applied more pressure later. It was also to preserve a margin in Renée’s own psychological tolerance, in case she was forced to slaughter the citizens. When her “atrocity gauge” maxed out, her edge would dull.
The western escape route was still open. The more mobile citizens had begun to evacuate, but it wasn’t just them; mercenaries and adventurers were also starting to flee. Renée had them monitored, just to ensure that knights from the First Knight Order, Hilbert, or “other people she would need later” didn’t slip away, but otherwise, she let them run.
It seemed that information about the south gate’s fall had not yet fully spread through the city, but the citizens would likely soon ignore any attempts by the Knight Order to control or guide them and rush to escape through the west gate first. The information that the west gate was a viable escape route had been spread by adventurers who had been turned into revenants. This was mainly intended to cause chaos in the city and give her an advantage in urban warfare. However, since the Knight Order had retreated all the way to the castle walls at once, this particular move had become somewhat pointless. Well, the adventurers and mercenaries hired by the Knight Order seemed to be routing nicely, so she decided to count it as a win.
The battle was finally reaching its climax.
It would have been easy for Renée to simply destroy the Royal Capital, but such a crude battle would not allow her to kill Lawrence, and Hilbert would most likely escape. That was why Renée had been cornering them, dismantling them piece by piece, like strangling them with silk floss. All that remained was to kill Lawrence for certain and finish off Hilbert. To do that, she still needed a plan.
“Hmm, I was hoping the Second Knight Order would wear down the First, but that seems unlikely now. I’ll have to be content with just having separated them.”
“Yes, my lady. I believe we should now focus on causing the Second Knight Order to self-destruct and neutralize them.”
“You’re right. I suppose we can go ahead with it. It seems they’re planning to do an undead check at the Grand Temple… and it would be a pain if knights who’ve already been ‘inspected’ were to join up with the First Order.”
The knights of the Second Order were not opponents Renée was particularly eager to kill. But for the purposes of “strengthening her forces by creating superior undead soldiers from superior knight material” and “crushing any possibility of them turning against her under Lawrence’s command,” killing them didn’t trouble her conscience in the slightest.
Renée issued a command to the undead with her thoughts. As a signal, she snapped her fingers with a click.
“Revenants? Don’t be silly. Everyone’s overreacting.”
“…If I may ask, what was that line for?”
“I just felt like I had to say it.”
“I see.”
The revenants Renée had created within the Second Knight Order were not limited to just those who had attacked the gate tower.
The knights ran through the city streets. Fleeing from the avalanche of undead. Fleeing from terror. A small unit of about ten men. All of them were from the Second Knight Order.
They had heard that the undead soldiers wouldn’t attack the Second Knight Order. While that was true, they couldn’t assume they would be safe forever. There were no eccentrics among them who wanted to test their courage by remaining in the middle of a surging undead avalanche.
Contact with their commander, Bertil, had been lost. Instead, an order to retreat had come from the commander of the First Knight Order, who also commanded them to undergo an inspection at the Grand Temple. He said that revenants had infiltrated the Second Knight Order. They were to have the priests at the temple identify and eliminate them. Afterward, they were to retrieve the knights and priests receiving treatment at the temple and fall back to the royal castle… Easier said than done. They didn’t even know if they could outrun the approaching undead, and now they had to find and eliminate undead that had infiltrated their own ranks? And on top of that, escort the wounded and non-combatants to the castle? It was madness. It didn’t feel like it could possibly succeed. At a time like this, their commander, Lord Bertil, would have come up with a good plan, but no matter how many times they called, their Caller talisman remained silent. Had he been killed by the undead, or perhaps…
By now, every one of them was in an extreme state, as if their nerves were being ground down with a file. Or perhaps like the over-inflated belly of a Balloon Rat, ready to burst at the prick of a single needle…
“…H-Halt!”
The captain called out to his men. He had noticed the sound of footsteps approaching from the side.
The clatter of armor, the metallic ring of footsteps. What appeared around the corner was not a horde of undead, but another unit from the Second Knight Order. They, too, looked surprised for a moment, then relieved.
“Are you all okay?!”
“You too!”
“Yeah, somehow.”
There was strength in numbers. For a brief moment, the taut thread of tension seemed to slacken.
But then.
“Th-That one…! That one’s an undead!!”
A mage who had joined them screamed, pointing at one of the knights.
“…Huh?”
The accused knight looked as if he had no idea what was happening. But the mage’s terror was anything but normal.
“H-H-Hey, wait a minute! That’s a bad joke—”
“Stay back! You can’t fool my eyes! Everyone, be careful!”
Saying so, the mage raised his staff and immediately began to chant.
“You bastard, you must be…!”
The knight accused of being a revenant drew his sword and lunged at the mage. But two other knights jumped in to intervene.
“You won’t!”
The clash of sword against sword rang out, but they only crossed blades twice. Two against one was an overwhelming disadvantage.
“Gyaaaah!!”
Stabbed in the neck through a gap in his armor, the accused knight fell.
“H-Hey… are we sure he was the revenant…?”
Another knight muttered. Hearing this, everyone became hostile, their hands going to their swords as they grew wary of the others.
From somewhere nearby, another voice could be heard shouting, “There’s a revenant here!”
“The Second Knight Order has begun fighting amongst themselves…”
“What?”
Hearing the hushed report, Lawrence couldn’t believe his ears. This development was far worse than he could have imagined. The person on the other end of the communication was one of the Second Knight Order’s captains.
“They’re looking for revenants and killing each other! I-I can’t tell if they’re only targeting actual revenants. Everyone’s on edge…! Or maybe, it’s possible that real revenants are making false accusations…”
“Then hurry to the temple and have the priests check you!”
“The chaos is spreading out from the temple! The Second Knight Order was moving toward it in small squads, so there are members all over the area! We can’t reach the temple without breaking through the brawling! At this rate— ‘There’s one! A revenant!’ Gyaaaah!!”
A scream, and then the voice cut out. Lawrence crushed the Caller talisman in his hand out of sheer frustration.
“The Second Knight Order… Like captain, like men. A bunch of fools…!”
After saying that, Lawrence reconsidered. He should think of these idiots as having been useless as a fighting force from the start. In fact, it was a blessing they were eliminated before the final battle, rather than having a hole open up in his defenses at a critical moment.
But the disadvantage in numbers was now decisive. In contrast, the undead would surely continue to multiply. At this point, he had no choice but to place his hopes in his final measure.
“My king, I shall go and strike her down myself!”