Chapter 246

Translated by: A Passing Wanderer

Edited by: RED

“Still, I don’t remember granting him the peerage of a Paladin, though?” While saying that, I shifted my gaze over to Charlotte .

“He’s simply calling himself that, Your Highness . ”

Did he really want to become a Paladin, then? I thought he was terrified of zombies?

The dude who only knew how to blow some hot air back in his rural village now possessed similar abilities to real Paladins . I ended up chuckling wryly at the revelation .

Well, this should be enough of me spectating passively, then .

“All of you, step aside . ” I commanded while walking over to the gate .

The convicts were taken aback, before shouting out loudly, “Lord Saint has commanded us!”

“Everyone, step back! Now!”

-Seriously, can’t I do something about Lord Saint this or Lord Saint that?-

Even though I was making a dissatisfied face, I still stood before the breached fortress gate and Summoned my holy undead .

New undead creatures broke through the ground’s surface to follow me . To minimise the divinity consumption as much as possible, I extracted the greatsword from the item box and had Kasim take possession of it .

The convicts were taken by surprise at the undead crawling out from the cold, hard earth, and quickly stumbled back .

However, they soon cottoned onto the fact that these undead possessed divinity, and their wariness vanished instantly, to be replaced by pure astonishment filling their expressions .

“Holy undead?”

“It’s the Holy King’s army! You know, the one from all those rumours coming out of the capital!”

The holy undead army blocked the access to the gate . As for me leading them from the front, I gripped the greatsword tightly and pulled it back .

My glare under the helm was directed at the scene before me, at the four thousand undead .

Their souls would soon receive salvation in this place!

I fully cocked the greatsword back . At the same time, my holy undead also lowered their stances, as well .

I sucked in a deep breath before activating the ‘Divine Aura of Wind’ .

Winds began condensing on the greatsword .

And I…

“Fuu-woo…”

…unleashed them all!

The formless blades of wind instantly pulverised all the undead filling up the gateway and extinguished them from existence . Not even their previous shells remained .

Not a piece of bone or lump of flesh remained, either . All of them were turned into ashes and were completely extinguished .

I took a small step forward . At the same time, the holy undead on standby behind me rushed ahead . The white divinity leaking out from the large horde of the holy undead drove the darkness away .

This was merely a zombie hunt . These low-tier undead with slow, lumbering movement couldn’t possibly be an opponent to my holy undead!

I felt the gazes of the convicts on top of the outer walls staring at me and the holy undead .

“…That’s the real divinity?”

I shifted my gaze and glanced back at them . They were looking down at their own hands .

The expressions of joy previously etched on their faces after sensing their faint little amount of divinity were gone . Now, their expressions were stiff .

They probably had witnessed the gap in the power between them and me . Which was actually for the best, really .

I didn’t know what Count Jenald was cooking up at the moment, so I figured it might be a good idea to instil this sense of sheer pressure in them .

Well, in this world overwhelming power would be an absolute necessity if I wanted to control a large group of people, after all .

I slung the greatsword on my shoulder and Summoned a skeletal horse for myself . Various bits of bones rapidly gathered up and constructed a horse automatically .

I mounted the undead horse and along with the rest of the undead cavalry, dashed towards the incoming zombies before taking a huge swing with my sword .

The low-tier zombies found here in the northern region weren’t even good enough to serve as minor side distractions . I even felt apologetic toward the enemies I had been fighting up until now after daring to compare them to these lowly creatures .

“That doesn’t mean I’ll just let them do whatever they want, though!”

It was the duty of the Imperial Family to purify evil spirits!

I kicked the side of the skeleton horse, and made it gallop even faster .

**

The morning sun was rising .

I was still riding the skeleton horse . My greatsword drooped to the ground .

The very last moving zombie was still crawling down there . The skeleton horse I was riding on reared up and slammed down with its hooves to crush it, utterly extinguishing it .

With that, the invasion of the undead had come to an end .

However, they might show up again soon . Whether that would be later today, maybe tomorrow, or even the day after, nobody knew .

One could never let their guard down against the Tide of Death, after all . I mean, it was quite possible for yet another monster boasting the strength of a Count-class Vampire to be born amidst the Tide .

I shifted my gaze to the side .

Charlotte walked up to me and bowed her head deeply . “I’ve heard that you have travelled a long way, Your Highness . I recommend that you take a short break in the residence of…”

“I wish to confront Count Jenald before that . ”

She raised her head and looked up at me .

While tilting her head side to side, she cautiously confirmed, “Your Highness… you wish to question Count Jenald?”

I simply nodded in reply .

Right now, we should be focusing our attention on the upcoming invasion of the vampires, but there was a cloud of uncertainty hanging over our heads… uncertainty regarding the potential outbreak of internal strife within the Theocratic Empire’s borders, no less .

I needed to get an answer for that first!

Without a doubt, Count Jenald was someone to keep an eye out for now that he had a Count’s title and had been given the full command of the forces of the northern region .

“Please go and set up the meeting for me,” I asked, and Charlotte nodded to indicate her understanding .

Harman took over the mop-up operation of any undead potentially still moving . Several were wounded during the battle, so Alice and Hans took it upon themselves to treat them .

—

A little while later, I was walking down the corridors of the lord’s residence under Charlotte’s guidance . Eventually we reached the lord’s office and entered .

Count Jenald Ripang welcomed me in, waiting for my arrival .

Before I could say something, he knelt down first .

He bowed his head to greet me, the Imperial Prince, according to established custom . “The head of the House of Ripang, as well as the commander of the northern region of Ronia, Count Jenald Ripang, pays his respects to Your Highness, the Seventh Imperial Prince . ”

Outwardly he looked like a loyal retainer . But that only made me more suspicious of him .

I was suspicious as to whether or not this feudal lord, who used to be a scaredy-cat in the past, began harbouring unwise ambitions of his future after coming into some authority and status .

Without getting the count’s consent, I took a seat in one of the sofas in the office . “Take a seat, Jenald . ”

I deliberately called out his name .

That’s all I did, but Jenald made a gratified expression and settled down on another sofa directly opposite mine .

As for Charlotte, she stood behind me, just like always . However, I did spy her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, just in case .

“Jenald . I’m not the type to beat around the bush . ”

Ronia’s defence force…

The official count of the enlisted men and the convicts who had awakened their ability to wield divinity, referred to as the divinity awakened, was around eight hundred in total .

“According to the report, they all seem to have awakened their divinity ability about one or two years ago . However, you have not reported this matter to the Imperial Family yet . Do you have a reason for this?”

Count Jenald stared back at me, maintaining his silence for a little while . I began furrowing my brow at his silence, which prompted a bitter grin to form on his face next .

He scratched the back of his head . “I… didn’t have any special reason, Your Highness . We only wished to…” he lowered his head and muttered as if he was talking to himself . “…be some kind of help to you, Your Highness . ”

“What was that?”

The Count of Ronia, Jenald Ripang, raised his head slightly before continuing .

“It was to…” The corners of his lips slowly curled up, “…make Your Highness into the new master of the Theocratic Empire . ”

It was like I was staring at a man entranced by ‘something’ right now .

“To make you the next Holy Emperor, Your Highness . ”

Lights of madness seemed to burn in his eyes as he said that .

Fin .