kscans

Chapter 30 - The Stagnant Town and Urban Development

Swish, swish!

Ichigo-kun was in the courtyard, practicing his swings. In his hands was not the sword that broke in the previous battle, but a fine blade with lavish decorations.

"…Hup!"

I heaved a large garden rock at him.

"—!"

In an instant, the rock I threw was diced into fine cubes. Clack clack clack, thud thud thud.

"—!!!"

Ah, right. Cutting it up doesn’t get rid of its kinetic energy. A shower of small stones rained down on Ichigo-kun, and the poor guy was buried under a pile of pebbles.

"Still, that’s some amazing cutting power."

The sword Ichigo-kun was wielding was the magic sword used by Golova of the Kingdom War-Force Knights. After defeating Golova in that battle, I gave it to Ichigo-kun as a spoil of war.

"It’s a reward for protecting Adolnel, after all."

The magic sword’s sharpness was incredible, and it even seemed to enhance Ichigo-kun’s swordsmanship.

"But in terms of performance, the sword he had before seemed better."

Ichigo-kun’s real sword, which was now with my father. Golova had said this sword was its equal or even better, but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to believe that.

"Well, it’s gone now, so it doesn’t matter."

Besides, Ichigo-kun seems pleased with his new sword.

"Anyway, I’m glad my bluff worked out back then."

I recalled what happened after I defeated Calmwell and his men. After taking them down, I considered our next move. Should we flee under the cover of night, or should we continue the fight?

To be honest, our forces were a concern. The Animal Undead and most of the Undead knights and townspeople I had hidden in the dungeon had been incinerated by Calmwell’s group. Fortunately, the Undead I had stationed away from us were safe.

As for escaping, I could probably get away with Adolnel and Ichigo-kun, but I’d have to abandon the other Undead. We couldn’t move stealthily with a large group.

Thinking that would be a waste, I decided to take a gamble. I would deliberately show myself and propose a retreat to the enemy. After all, I had just defeated their strongest force. It could serve as a bargaining chip.

"If that doesn’t work, I’ll just launch an attack from the sky to act as a diversion and let as many Undead escape as I can."

The result was a resounding success. The defeat of their strongest force was an even greater shock than I had anticipated, and the knights fled, scrambling over one another, granting us a splendid victory.

"Their spirits were already worn down by the relentless attacks of the poisonous snakes. Learning that the kingdom’s strongest force had also been defeated must have shattered their morale completely."

That was Adolnel’s analysis after hearing the details later. That was why the knights’ spirits had broken. And so, I had finally succeeded in conquering the town of Fenesia.

◆

"Alright, everyone, get to work!"

Several weeks had passed since then, and I had been busy increasing my Undead forces and developing the territory.

Taking advantage of the Undeads’ ability to work without rest, I had them build multiple layers of earthen walls around the town and, in turn, connect the resulting pits to create moats, constructing a terrain designed to repel an invading army.

"Natural terrain is also an element of base construction, after all."

A major advantage of this terrain construction was that we didn’t need to accept outsiders. In a human town, travelers would come and spend money, bringing in goods. But this was a town of Undead. Apart from Adolnel’s living expenses, we needed nothing.

Furthermore, we created new underground spaces and passages for the Undead to live in during the day, allowing for both sieges and escapes.

"The exits to the underground passages are deliberately buried to prevent intruders. In case of an escape, I will order the Undead in advance to dig with all their might, opening the escape route at just the right moment."

Ah, that makes sense. If the exits were always connected to the outside, it would be a huge problem if we were discovered, as they could just pour in.

And so, the town of Fenesia was being reborn as a massive fortress city.

Now, aside from that, there was one other major change. A strange haze had begun to form in and around Fenesia Town, the territory I had claimed. And the corpses within that haze began to rise, reanimating as Undead without me doing anything at all.

"The corpses turned into Undead even though I didn’t do anything!"

"Sister, that’s something a human who did something would say."

I was genuinely surprised. I had thought the only way to increase my minions was to drink their blood myself, or have them be bitten by a minion whose blood I had drunk.

"This is Miasma."

"Miasma?"

Adolnel explained, a book from the library in hand.

"Yes. It’s an evil air that emanates from lands ruled by profane beings such as high-ranking Undead. It’s said that anyone who dies in a land saturated with this Miasma will rise again as an Undead and attack the living."

In other words, the biggest bottleneck in strengthening my forces—the fact that killing someone meant I couldn’t turn them into an Undead—was now resolved.

"A famous example is the forest of the Great Cursed Sea, the territory of the Great Duke of the Cursed Sea."

Come to think of it, my father’s forest did always have a gloomy atmosphere.

"I see. So this is what it means to acquire a territory."

And so, the problem of strengthening my forces was solved. But a new problem—or rather, a point of caution—arose. The thing is…

"The Undead have different performance levels?"

"Yes. There is a clear difference in performance between the Undead you personally turned into minions and the others. Specifically, their judgment, in addition to their physical abilities, seems to differ."

"Judgment?"

"When given an order, some will follow it blindly and, when an irregularity occurs, they are unable to adapt and continue their meaningless actions. Others, however, will think of a solution on their own and carry out the order to completion."

I see. That’s a definite difference in performance.

"For the sake of convenience, I would like to differentiate them. We will call your direct minions Upper Undead, and the Undead created by being attacked by minions or those that appeared naturally will be called Lower Undead."

Right. It could be a problem in a pinch if we can’t tell them apart.

"I didn’t know there was such a difference in performance, though."

"This is the first I’ve heard of such a distinction as well. It wasn’t written in any of the books."

I wonder if Father knew about this? There are surprisingly many things my master didn’t teach me. Or maybe this is the kind of thing he expects me to learn on my own.

"There’s still a lot I don’t understand about my own powers. I need to learn a lot more."

It seems I have a mountain of things to do.

"Kyururu…"

Ugh, with all these uncertainties piling up, my stomach is starting to hurt.