“What… the undead are retreating?”
A knight, fighting hard on the city walls, noticed the change and muttered to himself.
The undead around him were still rampaging, but the ones below the wall were packing up their ladders and falling back.
They even stopped their attack on the city gate, pulling back the battering ram.
He wondered for a moment if they had won, but quickly dismissed the thought.
There was no way such a powerful enemy, one that had even broken through the protective barrier, would be defeated so easily.
As if to confirm his prediction, a massive shadow passed overhead.
He hadn’t had the luxury of watching the battle in the skies above the Royal Capital, but seeing more undead aerial cavalry returning than had gone out made it abundantly clear what had happened.
“Damn it… what’s going to happen now…?”
“Reporting on the battle situation. The objectives of the initial engagement have been mostly achieved.
As you know, the battle around the city walls is ongoing. We’ve managed to kill a fair number of knights.
Also, the units that breached the walls have engaged in urban warfare. They’ve also killed several adventurers and knights.
The soldiers remaining on the city walls and in the city will continue to fight until they are completely wiped out, while the rest are retreating.”
“I see. Things are going quite well, then.”
Riding her wyvern, Renée received the report from Alistair via a Caller.
She could see the main camp and her palanquin, and next to it, the tent set up as a command post. Renée had her wyvern slow down.
As they approached the ground, Renée leaped off and rushed into the tent.
Alistair was staring at the desk, in the same posture as when she had left.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
“They’ve even started putting priests on Ciel-Terra’s aerial cavalry. A frontal assault is going to be difficult.”
“Is that so? Then we’ll have to come up with a plan.
…Well, if the next phase of the operation goes well, air superiority won’t be as important. Once it becomes a street battle, the enemy’s aerial cavalry will have a hard time intervening.”
“Oh yeah, how did that go?”
In response to Renée’s question, Alistair smirked, taking a suggestive pause.
“As you ordered, we haven’t killed a single member of the Second Knight Order. Also, we captured a single archer belonging to the Second Knight Order alive during the battle on the city walls and abducted him.”
“Well done. So, after that…”
Just as Renée was about to speak, one of the Callers on the desk emitted static.
“How did it go?”
Alistair asked, and a hushed voice replied from the other side.
“…The assassination squad has successfully infiltrated the temple. However, the enemy force is larger than expected and we are struggling.
We have killed four priests, but we have lost the Skeleton Assassins that you entrusted to us, Your Highness.
It seems that the priest-type adventurers who were in the Royal Capital have been gathered. There was also a party that seemed to be guarding the…”
The report from the Caller came from a Ghoul Scout who was commanding the infiltration and assassination squad made up of Skeleton Assassins (created from the corpses of thief adventurers and the Night Python’s assassination squad).
Their objective was to infiltrate the temple in the rear and eliminate the priests who were performing healing and Consecration. Priests in temples, even those who can use holy magic, are often not specialized in combat, so if done well, this was a way to completely shut down the enemy’s healing.
But it seems it didn’t go very well.
“There are adventurers there?”
“Yes. It seems that the ritual magic was also led by adventurers.”
Renée thought, “I see.”
The term “adventurer” is broad, and their backgrounds vary widely. For example, if there happened to be an adventurer with the convenient experience of “fighting a defensive battle against a large horde of undead attacking a city,” it wouldn’t be surprising if they had given the temple some advice.
But Alistair’s reaction was intense.
“Adventurers?! Do you mean to tell me that those barbaric, filthy field mice possess such intellect!?”
He was beside himself, as if the reporting ghoul were lying. He resembled the Duke in life when he was flustered by Renée’s attack.
Seeing this, Renée lowered her evaluation of Alistair.
– Ah… I see, he’s that kind of person. Smart, but weak against unconventional opponents, and basically looks down on adventurers and commoners…
Maybe this guy is a bit… underwhelming.
If a Revenant is created properly, it inherits the memories and personality of the living person. The Alistair here was the same as the living Alistair, except that he swore absolute loyalty to Renée. He had inherited not only his former intelligence but also his former foolishness.
“Are they preparing for the next ritual?”
“They seem To be, but they used up all the catalysts they had for the previous ritual. They seem to be gathering them from around the city and from what the adventurers haD, but it seems it will be difficult to gather the same amounT.”
When using ritual magic, the catalysts that enhance the magic’s power differ depending on the school of magic. And the only ones who perform rituals with holy magic are the temples. There are few places that stockpile catalysts specifically for holy magic rituals.
The knight orders also have dedicated holy magic users, but their main role is as “medics” on the front lines, and the knight orders apparently don’t have the know-how or preparations for ritual magic.
“I will also be discovered soon. I will now launch my final attack…”
“You did very well. My heart is with you until the end.”
Renée said something she didn’t mean.
“Such kind words.”
And then the communication was cut off. Forever.
“Well then. Now I have to do my job.”
“The prisoner is being held in a separate tent. I judged it best not to show my face, so I haven’t explained the situation to him yet.”
“Understood… oh, before that, I should change. I got a little dirty in the fight.”
Humphrey had thought at least 100 times by now that he was the unluckiest man in the world.
Humphrey is an archer belonging to the Ciel-Terra Kingdom’s Second Knight Order. He is a former commoner who gained the title of a one-generation noble when he was appointed to the knight order directly under the royal palace. He does not own any territory and lives on a stipend from the kingdom. He is also a father who married the daughter of a general store owner four years ago and has a son and a daughter.
He had been fighting on top of the city walls when he was captured by a skeleton that had climbed up and was carried away.
It was terrifying to be carried by a skeleton, flowing backward in the torrent of undead that ran silently across the battlefield.
And now, Humphrey was tied to a chair in a tent at the undead’s main camp.
A thick stake had been driven into the ground inside the tent, and Humphrey was tied to the stake, chair and all.
He tried to struggle, but it didn’t budge.
He had even been thoughtfully gagged, probably to prevent him from biting off his tongue and dying.
He didn’t know what was going on.
They seemed to need him alive for now, but if that was the case, he couldn’t imagine what the undead would do to a living person.
There was no one else and nothing else in the small tent, but that only made it more frightening.
He kept thinking that a terrifying monster might come in through the flapping entrance at any moment.
But when the girl entered the tent, Humphrey was speechless for a reason other than fear.
She was a girl in a white dress. Her straight silver hair, which reached to her back, was brilliant, and her silver eyes were bewitchingly beautiful.
Although she had the innocent features of a child, her demeanor exuded a certain elegance.
Her entire body was unified in white and silver, including her skin, which was so white it seemed to glow. …Except for one thing: a rose emblem on the skirt of her dress, as if a large paintbrush had been dipped in fresh blood and used to draw it.
Humphrey was struck by her nobility and beauty.
– A noble girl with silver hair and silver eyes… could she be?!
The very opponent Humphrey and the others were fighting.
The undead child of the former king. Renée “Rosy Like a Rose” Luvia Ciel-Terra, the “Rose Princess of Hekkrage”.
“Nice to meet you, Sir Knight. You are a disloyal subject serving a false king, but as a general of my army, I shall treat you, a prisoner, with courtesy. I am Renée ‘Rosy Like a Rose’ Luvia Ciel-Terra.”
Renée pinched the hem of her skirt and bowed slightly, bending her knees.
It was an elegant gesture, yet it also had a certain girlish awkwardness.
“I apologize for this forceful act. However, I desperately wanted to speak with someone from the Second Knight Order.”
A whirlwind of questions swirled in Humphrey’s mind. He felt like question marks were overflowing and spilling out of his ears.
“No matter the outcome of our discussion, I have no intention of harming you. I will use my transfer magic to send you back to the city.
So please calm down and listen to what I have to say. I will release your restraints now.”
As soon as Renée said “release,” Humphrey’s body felt relief.
He didn’t know how, but the ropes and gag that had bound him were severed from behind and fell to the ground.
“W-why… aren’t you a skeleton…?”
As soon as the gag was removed.
Of all the questions swirling in his head, this was the first one that came out.
After he said it, Humphrey thought, “Oh no.” It was a ridiculously trivial question. If he offended Renée with such an impolite question, he might be killed immediately.
However, Renée, who looked a little taken aback, quickly broke into a smile, elegantly covering her mouth.
She looked genuinely amused, and looking at her like that, she didn’t seem like a monster. She was just a well-bred girl.
“Fufu. That was just to scare you a little. It’s not an appropriate face for a discussion, so I’m taking a different form now.”
Then, with a slightly nervous and serious expression, she began.
“What I want to talk about is this. To end the battle with as few casualties as possible, I want the Second Knight Order’s commander to cooperate with me.”
Humphrey gasped, taking in her earnest gaze.
Bartil Lagerbeck, Commander of the Second Knight Order.
He was not a flamboyant and charismatic hero like Lawrence, but he was a solid military man and was trusted by the people. Like most knights, Humphrey admired Bartil.
To that Bartil. A request that could be construed as an invitation to treason.
“Do you… know the Commander?”
“No. But since he did not participate in the coup d’état, he might be willing to listen to me.”
Renée’s tone was tragic, as if Bartil was her last hope.
When the King’s younger brother, Hilbert II, raised the banner of the coup d’état, the First Knight Order, led by Lawrence, took part, and the Second Knight Order’s tacit approval sealed the deal.
But Humphrey knew. The commander didn’t tacitly approve of the coup because he didn’t care about the king.
Bartil’s assessment was that if the Second Knight Order had sided with the king and fought the First Knight Order, they would have exhausted each other, and the Second Knight Order would have lost. If that happened, Ciel-Terra would be in chaos, and even if the knight orders were annihilated, the Federation, which backed the king and the Second Knight Order, and the Four Great Nations, which backed the king’s brother and the First Knight Order, might fight on Ciel-Terra’s soil.
Bartil thought the actions of the king’s brother and the First Knight Order were foolish, but he made the agonizing choice to tacitly approve of the coup.
“I do not wish to burn the Royal Capital to ashes and kill many people in the name of revenge. That is why I want the Second Knight Order’s commander to cooperate with me.”
Humphrey couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
The princess who had been resurrected as an undead out of resentment. The invader who had led 4,000 undead to attack the Royal Capital.
She said she didn’t want to kill innocent civilians if she could help it.
Judging from Renée’s serious demeanor, it didn’t seem like a lie, at least.
“So, I want you to mediate for me. Can you do that?”
“…It depends on what you want the Commander and the Second Knight Order to do.”
Seeing Humphrey speak cautiously, very cautiously, Renée smiled.
It was a smile like the gentle, shining silver moon.