Chapter 112
Drip. Drip.
Marquis Baltimo watched the drops from the liquor bottle fall into the glass and stuck out his tongue.
There was no more liquor.
Nor were there any servants to bring it.
Those who attended him had disappeared, and now he had to fetch the liquor bottle himself.
Mikhail, his close aide and strategist, had also vanished at some point.
Only then did the Marquis rise, pull back the closed curtains, and open the window.
"Save me! Save me!"
Screams filled the air from all directions.
The corpses of those who looked like knights and soldiers were scattered everywhere.
The remaining knights and soldiers raised their weapons in front of the Marquis' Castle, holding back the front line.
"What is that?"
His eyes, sunken and hollow-cheeked like those of a ruined man, saw walking corpses.
"What... What on earth is that."
"They are undead."
Flinch.
Startled by the voice suddenly coming from behind, Baltimo whipped his body around.
As a Master-grade Knight, his movements were still swift, and his senses keen.
"Mikhail..."
"Have you been well?"
"Is everything happening out there your doing?"
"Well, I won't deny it. Didn't the Marquis suspect who I was?"
"..."
He recalled the first time he met Mikhail.
Red eyes and golden hair.
Their first meeting, where Mikhail looked as if he had bathed in human flesh and blood, had been shocking.
"Why here of all places? You could have started anywhere else."
"Since the Marquis was broken, wasn't this the most optimal place?"
"...Kek."
Laughter burst from Baltimo's lips.
"Still, this is my domain. Even if I'm soaked in alcohol, I am a Master. What gives you the nerve to show yourself before me?"
Marquis Baltimo had already picked up the sword hanging on a corner of the room and pointed it towards Mikhail.
"Your great Excellency, our Marquis. If that head isn't just for decoration. Shouldn't you know how to use it when needed?"
Mikhail snapped his fingers, his red eyes shining brightly, a chillingly cold smile on his face.
At that moment, a red energy began to slither towards Baltimo.
"Hup...!"
Marquis Baltimo strained against his suddenly uncontrollable body, writhing.
However, control over his body still hadn't returned to his hands.
"I've been steadily mixing drugs into the alcohol you've been drinking all this time. You must have heard of it. Death Knight, they call it. Simply put, a knight whose soul is held hostage."
"Youuuuuu! How dare you... How dare you intend to turn me... into an undead!"
"It's not impossible. That's why the old sayings tell you not to trust fairies, isn't it?"
A mischievous smile and a vile curl of the lips added to his handsome features completed a picture-perfect scene.
However, the scene depicted in that beautiful picture was not pleasant to look at.
Bloody tears flowed from the eyes of Baltimo, engulfed in the red energy.
Wanting to avoid further disgrace, Marquis Baltimo tried to bite down hard on his tongue, but even that was not permitted to him, having completely lost control.
"I will surely take your head."
"Of course."
With that final word, the focus vanished from Marquis Baltimo's eyes.
Along with him, Mikhail, having achieved his purpose, also disappeared.
Outside the Marquis' Castle, the knights and soldiers who had fought to the last collapsed to the ground.
And towards them, the Marquis, now turned into a Death Knight, slowly walked.
The moment his hand rose, the dead knights and soldiers raised their bodies.
Thus, the Marquis' Castle completely transformed into a castle of the dead.
***
In a temporary shelter where survivors from the north who had escaped the wave of undead gathered, people shivered uncontrollably.
Although winter had passed, the northern nights were still cold enough for ice to form.
Shiver, shiver, shiver.
One young child, lips blue, was curled up, while a woman who seemed to be the child's mother held the child tightly, trying to maintain body heat.
A person nearby covered them with a single piece of clothing they had managed to bring, but it was insufficient to block the chill rising from the cave floor.
"Hungry... Papa..."
One of the children, cheeks sunken from not eating properly for days, tugged at the clothes of the father beside him.
The unfortunate thing was that the body of the man whose clothes were being tugged showed no movement.
The man was stiffly frozen, unable to lift even a finger.
"..."
Another man, who had been watching the child tugging at the clothes for a while, got up and placed a piece of potato from his pocket into the child's hand.
"You! Are you out of your mind?"
"We have to live together, don't we."
The person who seemed to be the man's wife showed a pitiful expression, then looked at the child, unable to move properly due to hunger, and wore a look of resignation.
Giving away that one potato wouldn't make much difference in their survival time anyway.
"Tomorrow, we'll have to try moving to find food. At this rate, we'll starve to death soon."
"...Let's gather only the men and go out for a bit. To find something to eat."
They endured another difficult night with only the heat of the crackling campfire.
When dawn broke and the temperature rose slightly, about 10 men inside the cave finished preparing to move and went outside.
"It would be great if we could catch even some beast..."
It would be hard to find animals in the dead of winter.
If they happened to encounter a fierce beast, that would also be a problem.
The only weapons they had were hastily made wooden spears and a rusty iron sword owned by a retired mercenary.
Still, thanks to an herbalist who regularly traversed the nearby mountains, they managed to dig up some roots and berries edible in winter, and luckily found a deer caught in a hunter's trap.
It seemed the deer had been dead for a little while, but because the mountain was so cold, decomposition hadn't set in, and the meat looked edible enough.
"This should be enough."
They returned to the cave, happily imagining the warm stew they would eat after a long time.
The smell of deer meat cooking over the campfire momentarily made them forget their current misfortune.
"Will someone come to save us?"
"Marquis Baltimo is a lost cause. If he were coming, he should have arrived long ago given the distance."
"Look at the faces of the people gathered here. The nearby domains and villages are all..."
At the last person's words, everyone's face darkened.
Most of them were people who had fled without being able to save their families or having lost them right before their eyes.
"Karl, if it's Sir Karl..."
"Technically speaking, from the Knight of the Lighthouse's perspective, aren't we enemies... Even though it was the deeds of those above, from Sir Karl's perspective, what are we but collaborators?"
"..."
They too had heard the rumors.
The knight who steps forward for the world, the Knight of Salvation.
Saint Karl Reitz Meyer.
However, they were people living under the influence of the Marquis Baltimo's domain.
No matter how much of a Saint he was, who would come to save the collaborators of an enemy?
"Let's eat first... Let's eat and somehow find a way to survive."
Some among those gathered here had lost their families to those horrifying monsters while fleeing.
It meant nowhere outside was safe.
At least this cave hadn't been discovered.
Slurp, munch, munch.
For a very brief moment, people tore at the meat and drank the broth, warming their bodies.
It was the moment they felt a little strength return to their bodies.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
A horrifying human scream made everyone in the cave flinch instantaneously.
Just in case, they quickly extinguished the campfire and all other lights illuminating the cave interior.
Even though they heard the scream, they couldn't make a move to go and rescue anyone.
All they could do was clamp their hands over their own and the children's mouths, muffling their breathing.
Grrrrrrrrr.
The cry of a corpse, neither human nor animal, unfortunately drew closer and closer towards them.
"Mo...mmy...! Ugh- Mmph-!"
A child, having wet their pants in fear, burst into tears, and the mother quickly covered the child's mouth, but the monster's cry had already reached right in front of them.
Grrrrrrrrrrragh.
They prayed it would pass by, but eventually, gleaming eyes were seen.
The roughly dozen men inside the cave stood facing forward, tightly gripping their crude weapons.
Roar!
An outcry erupted as it charged into the cave.
There was only one, but its speed and strength were beyond what an ordinary person could handle.
The shoulder of a man who stepped forward to protect his family was torn off by the corpse's hand, and its teeth sank into his neck.
"Kuaaaargh!"
The man who had given the potato to the child the day before trembled like that, bleeding.
People nearby attacked its neck with wooden spears and the rusty sword, but they didn't penetrate the creature's toughened body at all.
"Ah... Essus..."
"Please..."
They cried out as they struck the corpse frantically.
But the hope of salvation did not descend upon them.
The first victim's breath finally ceased, and just when everything seemed lost.
They trembled, holding their weapons.
Fwoooosh!
In the midst of the terror of who would be the next victim, a bright golden light illuminated the cave before their eyes.
"Ah...!"
He was like an angel of God.
The black diagonal cross emblem on the surcoat worn over chainmail, the fluttering black hair, the black cloak, and the knight clad in golden aura – he was a marvel in himself.
Grrrraaaaaargh!
As the corpse's body began to burn upon exposure to the bright light, it started charging madly towards the knight.
Swish!
With a single slash of the sword, the corpse stopped moving forever.
Thump, thump.
The people's legs gave out, and they collapsed onto the ground.
"Are you alright?"
"We're alright... Ah... Thank you... Thank you..."
Their faces blank with shock, they expressed their gratitude repeatedly.
Thus, more people were saved.
***
"Every time I see it, I feel... it's truly... gruesome..."
As Kelvin said, the corpses and scattered body parts seen on the way here were horrific enough to make one believe that hell on earth had arrived.
"It seems not everyone bitten turns into a zombie. I don't know the reason, but the number of those who undergo mutation is fewer than expected."
If 300 people were killed by zombie attacks, the number among them who mutated and revived was roughly 100.
The remaining 200 did not revive.
Currently, Karl and the Knight of the Lighthouse were staying in a castle located two days' walk from Marquis Baltimo's Castle.
Since the surroundings were covered in undead, entering carelessly could mean death without escape, so they were gradually expanding the occupied area in coordination with Duke Ellenhower, the Mercenary Guild, and the Alcantara Knights.
"Haven't the reinforcements from the Order arrived yet?"
"No, we are exchanging messages. It seems it will take another 3 days for them to arrive."
The full-scale advance towards Marquis Baltimo's Castle would begin in 3 days when the Order's reinforcements arrived.
In a situation where the Divine Power of priests was needed more than ever, there was no reason for a reckless advance.
"By the way, this man..."
"He was a brave person. Let's bury him well."
In a corner of the cave, a child tightly hugged a man who appeared to be her father.
It seemed both had frozen to death from hypothermia.
Diogo slowly walked over to tend to the two bodies.
"He's alive! The child is still alive!"
At Diogo's voice, several knights quickly approached, wrapped the child in blankets they had, carried the child on their backs, and ran outside.
The rest collected the dead bodies inside the cave.
The knights collected all the corpses and made another grave.
"We've already made over 20 graves! And we don't know how many more we'll have to make. What on earth is Marquis Baltimo doing!"
"What else is this but hell."
Just as Kelvin shouted and the knights echoed, this was hell.
Flinch.
The knights, who had been shouting in anger, turned their heads at the sudden chill that ran down the back of their necks.
There stood Karl, silently, expressionless.
Gulp.
Diogo swallowed unconsciously.
There were no words, no actions, but anyone could tell how furious Karl was at this moment.
‘What were you thinking, laying out this kind of stuff before me? The deaths of these people better not be just for my mission.’
Though utterly cold and expressionless, Karl's anger burned hotter than ever before.