There was the old age question that asked—were Vampires undead?

We lived in coffins, often wore black and paraded ourselves at night and often liked to drink the blood of the living humans, so any person and their mother surely should have contemplated that.

The answer to that... Well, I wasn't exactly sure.

Sources all said different things, but to think of myself as something dead when I never felt so alive in recent years—since I woke up—seemed like something that humans must have written down because they couldn't explain Vampires.

Because they wanted to think that the dead haunted them and it was all in an attempt to make them feel better about themselves, justify the killing of Vampires... whatever it is that made them sleep better at night.

I didn't care, I was going to suck them dry, anyways.

Regardless, it brought me back to the forefront of this new and unexpected situation as I looked at Ghoul Number 1.

Based on the still visible throat injury, this was what everyone had called on as Sir Knight.

I thought that there had only been one outlier, that Archer boy who was on his way back to their kingdom—but it seemed like someone wasn't quite ready to die and returned to his already dead body. Something like a poltergeist that haunted—except it chose a semi-functionable body.

Good for him?

"Grrrr..." Sir Knight said as his lifeless eyes stared out into a random tree as he attempted to pretend that he didn't actually gain or regain his consciousness.

I'd give him that for attempting to survive.

Unfortunately for him, the language of the dead was something I'm familiar with—not because I saw myself or was one—but because of my previous interactions with a Necromancer ages ago, who I presumed was most likely still alive and just holed up in their lair.

More than his undead tongue, his thoughts were just so apparent that I picked them up—you had to pick them up alongside what I presume to be the zombie core that was nestled within its body.

"You're right by the way." I rested my arm across his shoulder, or the metal armor over it rather. "If I were any less astute, if I hadn't picked up on your thoughts and allowed you to roam free, maybe cannibalize your fellow Ghouls or some other creature in the forest to get stronger—well you might have been able to break free from my control and that would have been amazing, wouldn't it?"

It was impossible for someone undead to become colder or stiller, but it seemed like he froze at my words.

"I mean what else would you do, little Knight?"

I chuckled darkly and pointed out to the light that glimmered outside of the forest, just out of reach.

"You'd run out of the forest, maybe accumulate enough dead mana on your own that you wouldn't collapse if you leave—and then try to find your way back to society? You're undead, everyone has kill on sight orders when they see you."

He didn’t make a sound.

"Maybe you're thinking that you could disguise yourself? If you grab a hood, maybe you can hide the awful stench of death that's on you—especially since you haven't rotten that much and you have armor as well. If you entered a small village without anyone with Classes in a Mage or someone who could detect monsters, then you might be able to blend in? Maybe after some time you'd be able to relearn the Common tongue again. Practice makes perfect after all... and at that point, you could hold back your desire to kill every living thing and then all that's left for you to do is maybe convince someone that you're a good guy."

At this point, the Ghoul had shifted slightly... uncomfortably as I narrated the next possible steps he might have done, on what he could have done if he had been able to evade me.

It should have been impossible to taste despair, I was no Witch that fed on emotions or some similar concept—but I could feel it, all of this former man's hopes and dreams finally being placed out in the open and burning into ashes.

Was it a dark thing to say?

It didn't appear that way to me. I was only stating things and yet as I planted the idea into his mind that everything was hopeless—he jerked back towards me in ferocity, teeth angled towards my neck—and I grabbed his head with my hand and ignored the gaping mouth which expelled a nasty scent.

"Impressive. You shouldn't be able to attack your Master—for I had given your second life, but of course minor complications do change things,"

I said as he attempted to fight me back, to land a blow for all of his fallen comrades I suppose.

"I had already told you that it's hopeless, that you shouldn't cling to any wild ideas because they'll only explode in your face and yet you still try to bite the hand that created you. A pity, you would have been useful you know?"

Screams and curses shouted from the man's mouth as he snarled and continued to push forward, hoping, ever so hopeful that he might actually be able to land a single blow on my person.

Before I knew it, his head suddenly bent down as his neck gave away.

He was still alive—the lack of a head didn't exactly affect this Ghoul since he had a 'zombie' core which you needed to destroy in order to fully kill.

I contemplated letting him live, a part of me, something that I detested wanted to let him survive... but the words that left my lips earlier were spoken well. It was a losing game for him to stay alive and he also posed a possible threat because he did not wish to bow down to me.

"I mean, I did let the Princess and Rose survive—and isn't that some kind of bias on my part?"

At my words, the Ghoul was finally able to descend into more snarls and gibberish, but luckily had spoken in Common and flew off into a fit of rage.

"DIE! DIE! TREACHEROUS ONES—"

I snapped his head off from his body and threw it down into the ground.

The knight’s head rolled over slightly and stopped underneath a tree that might have swallowed him if not for my presence.

"You know at least that Bouw boy knew some respect, you're just trash."

I smiled and walked over towards him until his gaze landed on mine.

"And trash? Well trash is to be disposed of."

One step over his head was all it took, obliterating it.