On the day of the attack, the village in the westernmost part of Duke Gerald's domain was attacked by a powerful undead horde led by a skeleton champion with a lightning magic sword.
　The villagers, who were hibernating for the winter, were slaughtered helplessly, and the few who were lucky enough to escape were alerted to the danger.

　The undead swarm then proceeded in a southwesterly direction, spreading across several territories and annihilating the villages in its direction. By the time the palace realized the situation, six villages had already been destroyed.

　The Royal Court saw this as an emergency situation, and requested the strongest adventuring party in Ciel-Teirah, the "Spear of Zero," to accompany the priests of the Temple to defeat and investigate the situation.
　With three sixth-grade elites and two fifth-grade adepts, the "spear spear spear" would be able to take on such a nightmarish enemy as an undead army of skeleton champions. However, the Royal Court had a sneaking suspicion that the "Rose Princess of Hell" might be behind this.
　The naturally occurring undead are weak. Since so many undead are appearing, there must be someone who created them. If so, then the most suspicious person is the Rose Princess of Hell, who seems to still be hiding in the shadows.
　That's why I've arranged for adventurers who are strong enough to come back with information in case something happens. Duke Gerald also recommended this selection. Duke Gerald recommended that we send out strong adventurers as soon as possible.
　The Royal Court had no objection to this, and the strongest party, the "Spear of Zero," was immediately chosen.

　The "spear spear spearers" headed towards the southern part of Ciel-Teira, their destination, as if they were anticipating the movements of the undead.

　* * *

　At the same time.
　At the same time, Duke Gerald was gathering his knights and farmers from his own territory.
　The knights who had been urgently summoned yesterday due to the undead that had appeared in the territory had already arrived in Wesara the next day.

　The city was booming with the sudden increase in the number of people. This kind of festivity only happens a few times a year.
　There are various kinds of knights under the duke. The wealthy ones have their own mansions in Wesara, the capital of the realm, but many of them stay in inns. Some of the servants and peasants they bring with them stay at the lodgings, thanks to the generosity of the residents and the temple (the duke will pay for their lodging later).
　The streets were filled with strong men in silver and white armor, and daily necessities and foodstuffs sold like hotcakes.

　When the sun was high in the sky, they gathered in the spacious courtyard of Duke Gerald's castle. It was a spacious courtyard for gathering troops and training.
　The knights, as well as the peasants, looked dignified as they lined up with their weapons at the ready. They were elite farmers who had been trained by the duke in between farm work and were therefore exempted from some of the labor.

　When the Duke appeared on the balcony, the soldiers in line tightened their faces even more.
　A man with a loyal heart. Some are nervous, lest they be punished for misbehaving. Those who are doing their duty in a businesslike manner in return for the guarantee of land. Those who secretly harbor animosity. ......
　Each of them had their own thoughts and feelings, but that no longer mattered to the Duke.

The reason I asked you all to gather here today is simple.

　It was then that the Duke began to speak, his voice booming.

I'm not sure if you've heard of it or not.
　Assembled Spell ...... "Bloody Red Paper".

　A girl's voice sounded out of place in the quiet courtyard.
　The sky was supposed to be clear, but as soon as it seemed to dim, a red-black storm of death broke out.

"Aaaaah!
Aaagh!
Aaaaah!

　The blood-colored storm roared like a tornado over the entire courtyard.
　The screams cascaded, and the soldiers in line collapsed in a heap.
　The duke looked down at them with a cool face.

"From now on, you will all serve the ...... Great One.
Duke, what are you doing?

　The only ones who survived were the sorcerers who were able to defend themselves in time and the knights who had their talismans activated even in a place like this. There were only a few of them.

　Looking up, there was a small figure stepping out from behind the duke.
　It was a beautiful girl with silver hair and eyes. She wore a glorious pure white dress with a rose emblem painted in bright red on the skirt. Despite her innocent face, she looked down at the surviving soldiers with a wicked, lecherous smile that showed no regard for life.
　She jumped onto the balcony railing, crossed her legs and looked down at the devastation in the courtyard.

What the heck is that ......?

　One of the survivors muttered.
　It's not 'she' or 'her', it's 'that'.

"Some people just don't know when to quit. Get rid of it.

　With a small, white, soft hand, the girl snapped her fingers sharply.

　As soon as she did, the fallen ones rose up at once.
　Their faces were all vacant, and some of them stood up with only their bones, their bodies turned to dust.

"Undead......!

　There was no time to be surprised.
　The survivors were stabbed and chopped in all directions and fell, but soon rose again as soldiers of the dead.

　This was the first time I had ever seen such a thing.

　The courtyard was lined with soldiers. An order of undead alone.
　Ghouls, skeletons, zombies and liches. There are even a few fierce warriors in the mix who are considered to be of a higher level.
　The new technique is working.

　The new power Rene has gained from eating Miriam's soul. It is the creation and manipulation of the undead, or more accurately, its efficiency.
　When she eats the soul, Rene can develop her abilities in any direction she wishes. He understands that it is like getting skill points and assigning them to a skill tree.



　Creating undead is something you could do if you wanted to, but undead will continue to eat up the magic power of the emissary. The number of undead in your hand will reduce your magic attack power and maximum MP. Even if you are Rene, maintaining and using an army of undead is a heavy burden.
　Therefore, he has sharpened his soul into a form more suitable for using undead, so that he can follow a large number of undead efficiently. The basic specs of Rene himself have also been increased. This would allow him to fight while maintaining a large number of undead.

　In addition, Rene was in good shape, perhaps because he had just eaten such a huge meal. He should be able to show 150% of his strength now.

"You've done a great job gathering the ingredients, Alastor.
"It is my pleasure to be complimented.

　Duke Gerald, bowing respectfully. But this is not exactly the Duke himself. The Duke has already been killed by Rene, and his soul has already ascended or gone to hell. René doesn't know where he's going, but he's really hoping it's the latter.
　He really wanted to capture the soul and torment it after it died, but he couldn't do anything about it because he had already put a protection on it. It was painful to let the central figure of the royal brother faction die without tormenting him, but it was for a more important purpose.
　The duke who is here now is merely a magically moved corpse of the duke after his soul was drained.
　The Revenant ...... is an undead who has magically given the corpse a faint life.

　If the corpse is clean and dead, the reverend can be created with the same appearance and abilities as when he was alive. The current Duke is almost as intelligent as he was when he was alive.
　The only difference is that from the moment he was resurrected as an undead, he has been imprinted with absolute loyalty to his creator, Rene.

　His breathing and pulse are currently normal, he eats and drinks, and sleeps at night. There is nothing strange about his behavior. At first glance, you would not notice that he has been switched.
　And yet, the Duke now acts as a faithful servant to René, the sorcerer. Priests and sorcerers may be able to detect the Revenant, but such personnel were sent away from the castle by the Duke's order before the Duke realized that he had become undead.
　The downside is that they don't last long physically or mentally, they slowly deteriorate and become nothing more than 'fresh zombies' in a few days. If you try to maintain them, you'll get into a lot of trouble. But in this case, a few days were enough.

　Incidentally, the current Rene, who looks the same as when he was alive, is actually a Revenant in disguise. As expected, Rene's body and intellect have not deteriorated.
　In terms of her abilities, she is a backward-compatible form of "Rich Form minus the magic enhancement," but as a girl, Dullahan with a bald head and Rich with a skeletal face were forms she wanted to avoid.

　After the battle, Rene first flew to the edge of the duke's territory, carrying the corpses of the Night Python members and Brian, and had them form an elite undead force to attack the village. He then had them head southwest.
　The purpose was twofold.
　First, to create a diversion for the powerful undead to draw away the strongest adventurers and the best of the knights from King's Landing.
　And secondly, to give the Duke an excuse to gather his troops.

　Rene ordered the Revenant-ized Duke to gather his knights and elite farmers.
　They were all killed here, and became Rene's undead army.

"Alastor.
Ha!
I lend you my faithful knights. Lead them and turn Wesara into a dead city.
　Kill the grown men and pile them up in the square, leaving as much as possible intact. Women only if they look strong. I'll turn them into soldiers.
　Girls my age should be hunted alive if possible.
　Those who can use magic should be captured alive. We can't make them rich without their souls.
　Whenever you find weapons or other things that can be used in battle, loot them and give them to your soldiers.
　...... This will be the signal for my counterattack.
"Yes, Your Highness.

　The wreckage of the man who had once ruled this land bowed graciously.