The city is filled with the fishy scent of blood.

Mixed with the rotting smell of abandoned corpses, it created a strange stench.

“Woof, woof!”

“Caw-!”

Dogs, rats, and crows roamed the alleys disposing of corpses but.

New corpses piled up faster than they could handle.

One week since the heretic purge began.

Death pervaded Scolbon.

As many as five thousand people were killed.

All were innocent citizens who had been living ordinary lives.

“Things are progressing smoothly.”

“Indeed.”

The perpetrators of this horrific massacre.

The three cardinals were leisurely having tea time and conversing in the Deusis faith’s temple.

“By the way, it’s unexpected. Queen Abelson left the situation alone. Given the initial atmosphere, it wouldn’t have been strange if she had mobilized troops.”

Cardinal Fidenzio said.

Cardinal Benigso responded to this.

“Though young, she is wise. She knows stopping us would end the kingdom’s future.”

“It’s disappointing. I had hoped she would act on youthful impulse…”

Cardinal Fidenzio licked his lips.

They had planned to brand the royal family as heretics and devour the entire kingdom if Abelson mobilized troops.

But she didn’t move as easily as expected.

“Don’t worry about it. Just expanding our influence in the Kingdom of Mariette like this is profitable enough.”

“Right. Now that they’ve realized what happens if they don’t follow Deusis, the citizens here will prioritize and follow the religion over the royal family.”

“In the end, it’s just a matter of time. The Kingdom of Mariette is bound to fall into our hands.”

Fidenzio nodded at the other cardinals’ words.

“My thinking was short-sighted. I should abandon my impatience and wait comfortably.”

“Impatience is poison in any matter!”

“Indeed. Hahaha!”

The cardinals continued their pleasant conversation afterward.

Whatever was so amusing, they were in the middle of laughing and chattering among themselves when.

BANG-!

Suddenly the chapel doors opened and a priest burst in.

“What is this? How dare you interrupt sacred prayer time!”

Cardinal Fidenzio thundered with a rather stern expression.

The priest who had run in breathlessly knelt and bowed his head.

“I apologize! But this matter is so urgent…!”

“Sigh, speak.”

With permission granted, the priest stood up and shouted.

“Undead!”

“What?”

“A large force of undead has gathered near Scolbon!”

***

The capital Scolbon, already in upheaval from the heretic purge, was thrown into chaos once again.

“Did you hear? They say undead appeared in the neighboring Detron Forest. I heard their numbers reach tens of thousands…”

“Tens of thousands!? Where did that many undead spring from!?”

“Calm down everyone. We have the Deusis faith in the capital anyway. With three cardinals here, what’s there to worry about mere undead?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Instead of needless worry, let’s all get back to work.”

The advance of an undead army.

While it would be a disaster for ordinary cities, Scolbon is different.

Currently, a large army from the Deusis faith was deployed in Scolbon.

The vast majority thought that if the religion moved against them, the undead would be nothing – and this wasn’t wrong.

Demonic energy is weak against holy power, and undead especially so.

The Deusis faith had proven this relationship true through their subjugation of undead across the continent.

So there was no need to tremble in fear just because an undead army had gathered near the city.

“Hmm, this has become troublesome.”

Cardinal Fidenzio frowned.

“The undead numbers exceed ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand? How did such numbers gather and when?”

“That’s unknown. Anyway, what’s important now is that we seem to be stuck dealing with the undead.”

The Deusis faith has to handle the undead.

The situation was already set up that way.

If they fled now instead of destroying the undead?

It is obvious their carefully built image in the Kingdom of Mariette would crumble in an instant.

“Let’s speak to the monarch first.”

“Right. The capital’s defense should naturally be the kingdom’s duty. There’s no reason the religion should protect them.”

The cardinals headed straight to the royal palace.

While it was rude to seek the monarch without prior appointment, no one cared about that point.

Fortunately, Queen Abelson Mariette readily accepted the meeting and greeted them with a smiling face.

“What brings you here?”

“Your Majesty. We bring news that servants of the evil demon-kind are gathering.”

“Ah, you’re speaking of the undead.”

Abelson seemed to have already heard the news of the undead gathering and nodded.

“Yes! The undead! We must eliminate them immediately.”

“Undead grow in both scale and quality as time passes. Already over ten thousand troops have gathered. If we don’t move now, it will be too late!”

“If we depart right now, we can subjugate them without much difficulty!”

The cardinals took turns expressing their heated opinions.

Simply put, they meant to send troops quickly to subjugate the undead.

Why would they try to move Abelson instead of acting themselves?

The reason was simple.

‘There’s nothing much to gain from us hunting the undead.’

The work of devouring the Kingdom of Mariette was progressing smoothly.

While hunting the undead here would certainly make people more enthusiastic, their plans wouldn’t be hindered even if they didn’t hunt them.

In other words, they don’t want to suffer unnecessary damage.

‘Even if we have to, we need to make the king’s army move together.’

But we can’t just leave the undead alone either.

So the best method is to put the kingdom’s army at the forefront.

The church wants to stop the undead without suffering any damage.

“The Kingdom of Mariette doesn’t have that capacity.”

“As expected, a wise decision… Huh?”

Cardinal Fidenzio, who naturally thought Abelson would send the army, widened his eyes.

“What do you mean? The kingdom has no capacity!?”

“It’s exactly as I said. The Kingdom of Mariette doesn’t have the capacity to send an army to subjugate the undead. We will fight the undead from an advantageous position behind the walls here in Scolbon.”

“Th-this, what foo…!”

Cardinal Fidenzio, who was about to shout what foolish statement, desperately swallowed his words.

No matter what, this is the royal palace.

It’s not good to be excessively disrespectful to the Queen in front of everyone.

Cardinal Fidenzio caught his breath and continued speaking.

“Your Majesty. The undead grow stronger as time passes.”

“I know that too.”

“If you know this, why are you making the decision to hide? The enemy forces have already exceeded ten thousand. If time continues to pass like this, the entire Kingdom of Mariette might be in danger! Can’t Your Majesty hear the voices of the citizens trembling in anxiety!?”

Cardinal Fidenzio shouted with a desperate expression.

To think that a person who had massacred thousands of people up until now would sing about the citizens.

Abelson shook her head while holding back a laugh that came with her disgust.

“As I’ve said multiple times, we don’t have the capacity to subjugate over ten thousand undead. We will defend here, trusting in the capital’s defense system, magic, and walls.”

“That won’t do! Then if the faith steps forward, at least support troops…”

“No. We will defend the capital. We won’t step a single foot outside the capital.”

Abelson was firm.

The three cardinals trembled in frustration at the situation, but this wasn’t something they could force.

Just like how Abelson couldn’t stop their heresy investigation.

Because the capital’s defense was also Abelson’s exclusive domain.

“If you’re done with your business, would you please leave now? I have many things to attend to regarding the capital’s defense.”

At Abelson’s dismissal, the three cardinals had no choice but to leave the palace without further words.

***

The three Cardinals who left the palace couldn’t swallow their anger and were fuming.

“How can someone be so foolish! As if this city’s defense system would be of much help!”

Cardinal Caino shouted.

Cardinal Fidenzio nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. She clearly doesn’t know how strong the undead become if given time!”

The two cardinals went on about how incompetent and foolish Abelson was.

About why they must deal with the undead quickly.

“She knows nothing! She’s too ignorant!”

Actually, their judgment about the undead isn’t wrong.

Rather, it could be said to be very accurate.

The Holy Empire of Gatren and the Deusis faith had subjugated more undead than anyone else.

As a result, they had accumulated considerable know-how.

Among that know-how, there was something most important.

That is, undead must be dealt with immediately upon discovery.

Then Cardinal Benigso spoke.

“She’s probably putting on a brave face. She clearly knows we have no choice but to step in and is holding out.”

He thought Abelson was cunning rather than foolish.

She’s recognizing that the current situation is advantageous to her and using it.

“She’s using the nation and its citizens as hostages to threaten us.”

“Isn’t that more problematic?”

“We have no choice. They’ll all have to come into the Empire’s embrace anyway. It’s not even that difficult to deal with mere undead.”

From what they heard, the undead legion was just large in numbers but mostly composed of low-grade undead.

If that’s the case, there’s no need to request additional support.

It was obvious they would win overwhelmingly just by mobilizing the current priests and holy knights.

“Lord Caino and I will move together. Lord Fidenzio, please remain in the capital to prepare for any possibilities.”

“Sigh, understood.”

As a result of the brief meeting.

Cardinal Benigso and Cardinal Caino decided to depart for the undead subjugation.

Two thousand holy knights, one thousand priests.

A total of three thousand would move together.

“We’ll depart at dawn tomorrow and finish the subjugation by evening. Let’s plan to return by the next evening.”

The place where the undead gathered was about 60km away.

While regular soldiers would need at least 3 days just for one-way travel, these people were different.

They could reach their destination in just one day.

“As soon as we return, we must accelerate the heretic hunt.”

“Right. This might even be fortunate. Our faith’s position will rise higher because of this incident.”

Looking at it from a different perspective, the current situation wasn’t all bad.

Fortunately, since the undead’s level is low, subjugation would be possible without major casualties.

After the subjugation, the public sentiment of the Kingdom of Mariette would lean even more toward the Deusis faith.

Even the voices that had been resistant to the heretic hunt would clearly be silenced completely.

As the night passed, the next dawn.

As planned, an army consisting of two cardinals and three thousand priests and holy knights left Scolbon.

The capital’s citizens hailed them as heroes, and in unseen places, they criticized Queen Abelson Mariette’s irresponsibility, saying that the Deusis faith is saving the capital that the Queen had abandoned.

“We’ll arrive soon.”

“We’re earlier than expected. At this rate, we could have dinner after hunting the undead.”

“That’s right. Haha!”

About 12 hours after the army’s departure.

Though it was late afternoon, the sun hadn’t set yet.

Since they would soon encounter the undead legion, it seemed better to fight right away without rest.

“It becomes more troublesome to fight them when night falls.”

“Then let’s start the battle right away.”

Though the soldiers were somewhat tired, it wasn’t enough to affect the battle.

Thanks to continuously replenishing their strength with holy power.

Originally, these were elites accustomed to such forced marches anyway.

The fact that they only needed to carry three days’ worth of food, meaning they didn’t have much baggage, was one of the reasons for their quick march.

“We’ve arrived.”

After a little more time passed.

Finally, the undead forces began to appear in the distance.

“The numbers are certainly large.”

Cardinal Caino said.

Seeing them filling the forest, they could understand why they said there were over ten thousand.

“It’s fine. From the looks of it, most of them are skeletons. At this rate, it will end easily without us even needing to step forward.”

The fortunate thing was that, as reported, the quality of the undead is low.

They thought there would be high-rank undead mixed in here and there, but that wasn’t the case either.

Undead of this level could be dealt with in an instant.

“Then we’ll have dinner after dealing with the undead.”

Cardinal Caino grinned.

“Let’s bring down God’s iron hammer upon those wicked ones.”

***

At the same time.

A man watched from afar as the undead legion and holy knights clashed.

“Good.”

The man grinned and raised his hand.

Then, those who had been lying on the ground in disguise rose up in a rush.

“Imperial Third Magic Battalion Annihilator.”

The man spoke in a rather solemn voice.

“Let those arrogant fanatics realize the majesty of the Drason Empire.”

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