Holy Emperor's Grandson Is A Necromancer Chapter 4

[The Divine Puddle has been summoned.]

A voice delivering a ‘message' could be heard inside my head.

The ground beneath my feet suddenly became mushy. With the shovel as the centre, the water began to fill up below and eventually created a smallish puddle. And then….

Tjiikk-!

Dozens of zombified rodents stepping into the puddle all melted away.

Their bodies, maintained by that thick demonic energy, simply stopped existing. Leaving behind only their skeletons, the zombified rats slowly sunk into the puddle and completely disappeared from the existence.

"Oh, my goodness….."

The eyes of the two farmers became huge circles.

They walked closer to my side and stared at the melting rats before speaking back to me.

"I, I heard that some Priests can soar through the air and even revive a dying person to full health, but this…."

"I didn't know that you possessed such immense power, your highness. Can you also beat up the zombies while emitting light, too?"

Hey, did you guys read some throwaway wuxia novel or something?

I clicked my tongue while looking at them. It wasn't so far-fetched to see them carrying around strange notions regarding Priests, though.

I haven't seen other Priests of this world yet, but still, they shouldn't be on such a fantastical level as described by these two farmers. Yup, they probably should wield a similar level of holy magic as me.

I lifted up the shovel and rested it against my shoulder.

The [Swamp of Death]. Originally, this skill created a ‘puddle' filled with demonic energy which then sapped away the life force from its victims to kill them gradually. It had been now altered to create a puddle filled with holy water, instead.

That's all good and well, but…

"Argh…. Anemia…."

I staggered unsteadily.

I've been thinking about this every single time it happened, but man, the amount of divinity spent was nothing to laugh about.

I gotta learn how to control my own power, but it was kinda difficult for me to figure out the methods to do that when my ‘holy skills' were all based off on the Necromancy skills, instead.

"Still, it sure is powerful, alright."

I looked down on the zombified rats melting away.

I didn't know that the holy water could even melt down the undead's outer skin, actually.

I dunked my hand in the holy water beneath my feet and took a whiff of it. What a unique water it was, an invitingly sweet aroma and all. You could drink it straight up and it wouldn't cause you any harm.

The holy water - very effective in curing any illnesses, enhancing your health, as well as boosting your natural recovery rate.

My version was created through a different process from the stuff found in the churches or other monasteries, which was made by Priests praying their b.u.t.ts off and adding divinity to water. I thought that the effects were pretty much the same between the two, though.

"It's really annoying to baptise people individually, so…" I pointed at the holy water puddle and told the farmers. "Go and distribute this to other villages. Around a finger-sized portion should suffice. Drink it, and your plague will be healed completely."

Actually, I hadn't experimented on living people before. However, seeing that the two farmers were fine after being blessed by me, this holy water should also work pretty well, too.

"You… want others to drink this??"

The farmers stared at the holy water puddle. Bits of flesh and bones that used to belong to zombified rats were floating around on it. They then s.h.i.+fted their troubled gazes back to me.

"I don't think you're in any position to mind stuff like that right now," said I, while staring straight back at them. The farmers seemed to give up then, and nodded their heads.

"….We shall distribute them right away."

Yup, you should've done that. Otherwise, I'll be unduly troubled by you lot. I definitely didn't want to see this dang plague spread out anymore than this. I was losing my sh*t from the increase in the workload, after all.

"By the way, why were all these zombies crowding around that particular house?"

I studied the house where all those zombified rats came out from. Only the skeletal frames of it remained as if the vermin relentlessly gnawed on it or some such. I entered the structure and my gaze was immediately lowered to the floor. That's where I saw a tiny little gap there.

My shovel slammed down and enlarged the gap, and I began prying it open. I used the tool's handle like a lever and pushed it down, causing the wooden floorboards to shatter.

It was then - something reddish-black pounced at me.

Brandis.h.i.+ng a sharp kitchen knife, a girl covered in scarlet colour grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back. I lost my balance and tumbled on my b.u.t.t. I even heard my shoulder muscles being crushed.

A pair of icy-cold eyes were now looking down on me. Without a shred of hesitation, she stabbed down with the knife.

"G.o.d d*mn it…!!"

I reflexively blocked the knife with my shovel.

The blade was mere inches away from the tip of my nose now. I managed to save myself just in time with my trusty shovel, and the girl and I entered into something of a power struggle.

"I thought this village has been abandoned, but…."

Cold sweat trickled down my face as I glared at the girl dyed in blood. She seemed to be around 15 years old.

"….Who'd have thought that there was a survivor here?"

And she was utterly bat-sh*t insane, to boot!

She must've stabbed and bit the zombie rats to death, because rodent flesh and fur were stuck to various parts of her body. On the other hand, many gouged-out wounds could be seen on her, too - perhaps caused by the rats biting her.

Her irises were constantly shaking about. The glow in them were murky. There was almost no light of life in them at this point.

Could she have thought that I was a zombie and attacked me?

More cold sweat trickled down. Strength was leaving my body and I began to tremble.

"L-little miss? You're making a mistake here. Get off me before your noggin gets a good smack."

The kitchen knife was getting closer to my forehead now.

At this rate, never mind getting p.r.i.c.ked in the head, the b.l.o.o.d.y knife would go straight through my skull.

"….Die…."

A cold-blooded murmur came my way. The girl, her expression as cold as a sheet of ice, glared at me, her voice filled with murderous intent.

"Looks like you're a bit angry about something, but…."

Defending myself anymore than this would be tough.

Strength was leaving my hands now.

The kitchen knife crept closer to my forehead.

"….Cool your head for a bit, alright?!"

I summoned up every sc.r.a.p of power and twisted the shovel to smack away the knife, and then hit the girl in the head with my ‘weapon'.

Crack!

Accompanied by a rather chilling noise, the girl crumpled into the corner of the dilapidated house.

I somehow managed to get up and hurriedly touched my face. Her killing intent was so thick and heavy that I thought she did stab me in the head somewhere.

After confirming that there was no wound on my face, I quickly turned my head to look at the girl. She was lying on the floor, but her scary glare was still fixed on me. Besides her, I could see two corpses, currently covered by large sheets.

I saw that, and my lips began twitching. "Holy sh*t."

The two corpses were horribly maimed and torn to bits.

They were a man and a woman. There were bite marks from rats, but more importantly, smallish knife stab wounds could be seen everywhere on them.

This girl, she… had to kill her parents that turned into zombies. Then, she must've hid herself below the floor, and endured until now while fighting for her life against the zombified rodents.

"What happened? Imperial Prince-nim?!"

The two farmers hurriedly rushed inside the hut. They saw the girl covered in blood and shouted out in sheer astonishment.

"Charlotte?! Oh, oh, dear G.o.ddess Gaia! Oh, goodness me!"

I looked at the two and grumbled in pure dissatisfaction. "You said there were no survivors, didn't you?"

"T-there was none when we were here last time."

Rather than "there was none" it's more like you didn't find her the last time, you d*mn motherfu….

I ma.s.saged my aching shoulders and spoke up. "How long has it been since you left this village?"

"It's been about a week, your highness. However, we came here three days ago. Back then, the whole village had already…."

"I see. She endured for at least three days, is it…."

Without a doubt, the girl couldn't have gotten any sleep, nor eat and drink anything properly.

She must've endured against her hunger and thirst by consuming the zombified rat's meat and blood. All the while the dang zombie rats tried to devour her after sensing her life force.

What a tenacious will to live.

The two farmers checked her head and cried out after spotting blood trickling out from there. It seemed that the impact from the shovel had been greater than I thought.

"Don't get all worked up, you two. She's still alive."

I grabbed her collars and dragged her outside.

"I-Imperial Prince-nim?! What are you….?!"

I tossed the girl into the puddle filled with holy water.

The coldness must've woken her up, as her eyelids faintly cracked open.

"Drink."

One of the farmers hurriedly approached me and spoke up. "She's still a young child! Her wounds are serious, so if you handle her so roughly…."

"A young child, my a*s. She's about the same age as me. Also…." I pointed to the front. "Even if she was hallucinating, she tried to kill me. I have no need to treat a would-be murderer kindly, now do I?"

"H-however…."

"Hey, kid?" I called out to her.

The girl's eyes s.h.i.+fted towards me.

"Drink."

"……."

I walked closer to the girl and squatted down next to her. "Let me be brutally honest with you. Your body right now is in a bad shape. You ate the zombie rats, so the demonic energy and the poison from them have spread throughout your body. Also, you bled a lot, too. At this rate, you're going to run a fever, then become another zombie yourself."

She had been in far-too-close proximity to death itself. As soon as her breathing comes to a stop, she would become an undead for sure.

I pointed at the holy water puddle. "However, by drinking this, something might happen."

This was a gamble, though.

When divinity was forcibly inserted into a body that had absorbed demonic energy, an adverse reaction would occur. If something went wrong, then the body itself could balloon up and explode.

"But, at least, you won't become a zombie. The survival rate might be less than 10%. So, choose. Either choose to suffer horrendous pain and become a zombie, or struggle until the end so that you can survive somehow."

I read the description of potential reaction from the interaction between divinity and demonic energy in an old book I found in the monastery. Not sure whether it was due to the special perk of the Profession or this body already possessed a certain amount of prior knowledge, I had no trouble studying the books related to magic.

I yapped on about the standard knowledge found in the books and looked down at the girl.

She was getting tearful as she tried to speak. "Mom… Mom is…."

"Not here."

"Dad…. My… dad…."

"He's not here, too."

Teardrops formed in the edges of her eyes. She showed no indication of drinking the holy water.

Was she giving up?

"You struggled until now to survive, didn't you? Weren't you fighting in order to live?"

"….."

"You want to live, right? It's simple. Drink this."

"……"

"Of course, your chances of survival is slim. However, you won't become a zombie. There's no point in dying twice, right? And also…." I quietly observed the girl and continued on. "At least….. two people who used to live here would've wished for you to live on."

Those were the keywords that made her move.

She made her choice.

After moving her head with some difficulty, she buried her face in the holy water puddle. She opened her lips and poked her tongue out to lick the water.

The moment the liquid entered her throat, her entire body began convulsing.

Wu-du-duk!!

Her bones broke. Sounds of her muscles being crushed accompanied her tearing skin. Her horrifying scream filled my hearing. It was so sickening that I ended up frowning deeply.

At this rate, she'd go full-on insane even if she managed to survive.

"W-what's is going on….?!"

I stopped the farmers from getting any closer.

The girl would end up as one of the two - either she became a survivor, or a corpse that got blown apart.

Her skin continuously ripped apart and blood trickled down. As she thrashed about in pain, the holy water on the ground healed her. Her old flesh burned up and was replaced by new flesh. Her bones repeatedly shattered and realigned themselves.

Wouldn't the ‘metamorphosis' in the martial arts novels be similar to this, I wonder?

I thought about useless stuff while silently observing her changes, my shovel stabbed into the ground.

Five minutes pa.s.sed by. Ten minutes, then thirty, and one hour later….

Her horrifying screams gradually died down. Her convulsion finally stopped and she pa.s.sed out completely, half-submerged in the holy water puddle. Although faint, she was still breathing.

"Hiiiya~. She survived it!"

You could say it was a bit of relief, this. There was nothing more sour-tasting than watching someone die in front of you. I sighed in relief inwardly and addressed the two farmers. "Take her with you."

"Pardon us??"

The duo tilted their heads.

"She's your fellow villager, isn't she?"

"Y-yes, that's true. However, a child struck by the plague is a bit….."

What the h.e.l.l, seriously? Were they all putting up an act with their concerned expressions earlier? Or, just being hypocrites?

My straightforward glare caused them to sweat buckets. Their gazes were lowered while they spoke their piece.

"We'll try our best to talk to the folks from the neighbouring village."

"Good. Oh, and don't forget to distribute the holy water, too."

"You mean this?"

The farmers looked at the holy water puddle responsible for causing that bout of convulsion in the girl, and their complexions paled. They probably ended up recalling her rather violent reaction just then.

"That happened only because she swallowed up a lot of demonic energy. Oh, wait. Could it be that your new village has people who eat zombies? Wowsers, talk about stomach of steel."

"N-no, your highness. That's not it."

The farmers shook their heads side to side.

"In that case, there are no side effects to worry about. So, prioritise in stopping the plague first," said I, before getting up while dusting myself. I pulled the shovel out from the ground and perched it on my shoulder. "Oh, right. Install lots of rat traps, too. Looks to me the cause of this plague is the zombie rat's bites. One or two might not be an issue, but when there are hundreds of those things…. Just imagining it gives me the heebie-jeebies!"

Right, just imagine that hundreds of those swift-footed critters rus.h.i.+ng in at you. No one would be able to deal with that sh*t.

"You gotta do whatever to decrease their numbers, at least by a little. Also, send the word out to Ronia, as that's the nearest domain run by a lord. The feudal lord there will send out a couple of Priests to investigate the origin of the plague, at least. I mean, he ain't gonna sit still and do nothing when the Holy Emperor's grandson finds himself in a place with a deadly plague, right?"

"We understand, your highness."

"Good!"

With that, this saga should be over.

The need to shovel away, lug around dead bodies, or to perform burial rites - the need to perform all those physical hard labour should be gone soon. Now that I had created holy water, this year's plague should be cured pretty quickly, too. And with that, my peaceful daily life should get going once more.

That's what I believed.

That was, until the following day when hundreds of villagers arrived in front of the monastery.

Did they want to express their grat.i.tude regarding the distribution of the holy water? Nope.

The villagers carrying expressions of despair cried out.

"I-Imperial Prince-nim!! Please save us!!"

"Zombies are in our village….!!"

….It seemed that the once-serene rural village had become a zombie village overnight.

< 004.="" imperial="" prince="" is="" a="" gravekeeper="" -3=""> Fin.