Holy Emperor's Grandson Is A Necromancer Chapter 7

"Charlotte, how are you feeling?"

An auntie and grandma came closer to check Charlotte's current condition and asked her.

"Oh my goodness…. Look at all this cold sweat. Oh? Her fever has gone down. That's a relief. Why don't you lie down for a little while longer?"

"You must be starving. Here, have a potato, at least. Right now, we only have these."

The auntie gently pushed forward a plate with a potato and a kitchen knife on top. Charlotte felt confused and fl.u.s.tered by these ladies and their nursing attempt.

What happened? Where was she? Why was she here? What about her mom? Her father….?

Her chaotic confusion intensified, and she s.h.i.+elded her forehead from the pounding headache. Just as she grew more fl.u.s.tered….

"Kyaaaahk!!"

Someone screamed out.

Charlotte was startled awake and reflexively shot up from her spot.

A woman was pointing at the window while backing away in fear.

"They, they are coming!! No, they are already here!"

Women inside the monastery looked outside the closest windows. That also included Charlotte; she quickly s.h.i.+fted her gaze outside and observed the current situation.

She saw numerous zombies lumbering towards the monastery. There were so many of them, too.

Complexions of everyone inside the building grew pale as white sheet. Some screamed, while some others hurriedly looked around themselves, perhaps searching for a place to hide.

However, Charlotte's reaction was somewhat different to theirs.

‘Zombies….!'

She reflexively reached out and grasped the kitchen knife next to the potato, before das.h.i.+ng towards the monastery's exit. The ladies were stunned by her actions and stopped her by hugging her from behind.

"Charlotte, it's dangerous outside!"

"You mustn't!"

Even though they were trying to stop her, they ended up getting dragged forward instead as Charlotte's steps gradually grew stronger and stronger.

This was a display of sheer physical strength that no 16 year old girl could produce. Young boys watching this also intervened and stopped her.

"Uh? Uhh?"

Charlotte was thrown into confusion and had to ungainly pull back. A part of that was because she finally lost out in the strength tug of war, but at the same time, she didn't want to harm others accidentally with her knife.

So, she withdrew her strength. Even then, her gaze remained fixed outside the window. Her wide-open eyes were locked on a certain ‘boy' standing outside the building.

She saw him jump up high while raising his shovel.

Then, he slammed it down.

A head of a zombie split open gruesomely and the creature collapsed.

"What are you all doing?! Aim for their heads! This ain't the time to worry about preserving the corpses or whatever!!"

The boy's yell prompted the terrified villagers to grit their teeth and start swinging with their farming tools.

Soon, tools began landing on the zombies.

Eventually, though, someone lost in the contest of strength against the zombies and got bitten. The boy gritted his teeth and grabbed the back of this man's neck and forcibly dragged him away.

He then swung the shovel. It landed splendidly against a zombie's head, making it stagger before it collapsed on the ground. The boy raised his shovel high up and smashed apart the downed creature's skull.

That sight stunned Charlotte deeply.

A boy about the same age as her, no, maybe one or two years younger even, was stepping up to hunt down the zombies himself when older, stronger men were flailing about like newborn chicks.

"Don't let up! If you've got time to complain about your pain, then kill one more zombie instead!!"

His manner of speech was also quite unrefined, too. The grown-ups glared at the boy, but still, they attacked the zombies nevertheless.

One by one, the undead began falling.

These shuffling zombies proved to be oh-so easy to subjugate due to their slow movement speed and their unsteady staggering.

The boy must've been feeling fatigued, as he barely managed to stand by leaning against his shovel, his breathing heavy and rough.

It was around then, the ladies that stopped Charlotte earlier clicked their tongues and whispered among themselves.

"What's this? That Imperial Prince-nim, he knew how to hunt zombies?"

"Well, he's a prince from the Imperial Family, so of course he should know how to hunt down the zombies."

The still-scared ladies continued to chat among themselves. Their words stunned Charlotte again, though.

He was an Imperial Prince?

Now that she thought about it, she did hear a rumour that a mangnani Imperial Prince-nim had come to visit the monastery in the hills some time ago.

She locked her gaze on the back of the boy once more.

The villagers roared out scream-like howls; they swung the farming tools held in their hands to stab and smash down. Every time that happened, zombies' skulls were crushed and shattered.

Rotting flesh splattered everywhere, and the villagers backed away with expressions uncomfortably close to despair.

Their breathings were heavy and disarranged, but their eyes were diligently scanning the 100 or so zombie corpses no longer moving on the ground all around us.

Some plopped down on their b.u.t.ts, perhaps no longer having any spare energy left to even stand. Some embraced the headless corpses while sobbing, too. Must've been their family members or friends, maybe even acquaintances.

Even though everyone suffered from the pain of sadness, we somehow managed to defend against the zombie attack.

I confirmed the conditions of the villagers. Some were injured, but no one had died.

"Now that's a relief."

I stabbed the shovel on the ground, leaned my back against it, and spat out a lengthy sigh.

This was tough. Seriously tough.

If I knew this would happen, I should've chosen the ‘Warrior' profession during that game testing part time job, instead. It'd been infinitely more preferable than ‘Necromancer' where I had to mind everyone else's glares just to use a skill or two.

Alternatively, how wonderful would it have been if I arrived in this place as a superman boasting the sky-high skill proficiency?

"You worked hard, your highness."

One of the farmers came closer to me to pa.s.s along a leather waterskin.

"Oh, thanks."

I gladly received waterskin and washed my hands with the water inside before quenching my itching thirst. During all of that, I kept glancing at the farmer. With [Mind's Eye], I confirmed his name.

"You said your name is Gril?"

The farmer Gril flinched and asked back with a puzzled expression. "Have I told you my name before, your highness?"

"Yeah, you have."

Nope, you haven't.

Maybe he was happy about me remembering his name, because Gril suddenly formed a grateful expression next. "Thank you, your highness."

"No need to thank me."

"However, an Imperial Family member has remembered the name of a measly farmer, so I…."

"Hey, man. You should hold your own profession in higher regards. Let me tell you, being a farmer is an important job."

Gril seemed a bit confused there. He nodded his head energetically, looking as if he was fl.u.s.tered and moved at the same time.

Now that I think about it, didn't this guy take away that girl who got infected earlier?

"What happened to that girl? Did she survive?"

"That girl? Ahh, you mean, Charlotte, your highness? She's safe and sound, and I think the ladies inside the monastery should be taking good care of her."

That's a relief, then.

I glanced at the monastery. I thought for a moment there that I could feel someone's gaze on me from one of the windows, but saw no faces.

Should I blame my current state of mind for that?

I glanced back at the dead-dead zombies again. The stench was so bad that I ended up frowning deeply. This level of demonic energy was simply too much for corpses that became the walking dead in only a single night ago.

"How strange."

"What is, your highness?"

"This plague, I mean."

Sure, a plague did its thing around this place regularly, but it was simply too abnormal for a zombie wave of this scale to appear. h.e.l.l, I'd wager that a plague on the level of a Biblical calamity wouldn't be this severe.

"Even if we're near the Land of the Dead Spirits, it's too bizarre to see this many zombies pop up like this. It was a really close call this time. If this keeps up, though, we'll be completely annihilated."

"When, when you say ‘completely annihilated', you mean…?"

"Everyone except me will die."

Gril's complexion paled greatly.

"If we don't find the cause quickly, that'll happen for real."

I'd say around two weeks minimum for the fiefdom of Ronia to detect something was off and dispatch people over here. I wasn't sure whether we could last that long or not.

Gril hurriedly asked me in a petrified voice. "W-what should we do next?"

"Well, we'll have to endure somehow. Or, find the cause. But that's for later. Let's give them a proper burial first, starting with cremation."

"You mean, right now?"

I scanned the villagers before looking back at Gril. Everyone was dead tired. Even this guy was making a face of a man asking for a lengthy break. However, if they rested now, I wouldn't get to perform a proper purification ceremony.

"We better finish up quickly when we still have many willing hands available. Also…." I stared at the unmoving corpses and frowned slightly. "They are suffering even now, you know? We should ease their pain as soon as possible."

I directed the villagers to dig out a burial pit next to the cemetery. The ma.s.s funeral was simple and concise. After gathering the corpses, they were cremated. The remains were then poured into the pit and buried, a lone wooden signboard acting as their tombstone.

Now normally, a high-quality headstone would've been used instead, but unfortunately, we lacked enough energy to go and get one.

While everyone was watching, I stared at the new grave and offered a silent prayer, my hands still holding onto the shovel.

This was the purification ceremony - remembering the departed, and praying for their comfortable, eternal rest.

I worked until the following morning to finish up. After offering the last prayer to the grave, I turned around to address the villagers. "Let's take a break for a little while before hunting down the rest of them. It'll be prudent to trim their numbers as much as possible."

Even though I was in the middle of my speech, I didn't forget to study the villagers' reactions.

A gaze I didn't enjoy receiving landed on me first. Some looked rather dazed, while others looked quite surprised.

I tilted my head, causing the villagers to cough awkwardly and avert their gazes.

I frowned a bit and summoned the village chief. "Hey, Mister Village Chief."

"Yes, your highness. Is there something bothering you?"

The chief sauntered over and formed an awkward but still considerably smooth smile.

Something about this atmosphere felt weird, though.

I formed a slightly pouting expression as my reply. Completely disregarding whether I made such an expression or not, the chief simply waited for me to finish what I wanted to say.

"Did any strange events happen around here in the last few days?"

"When you say strange events….?"

"Like, a strange object showed up, or a stranger came to visit the village."

"Hmm, I wonder. I don't remember anything like that. The plague started doing the rounds about a month ago, but there wasn't anything suspicious back then."

In that case, did the contagion really spread through already-infected vermin or birds? That couldn't be. I had this strong suspicion that rather than mother nature, someone had artificially set this crisis in motion, instead.

"Is there a Necromancer nearby or something?"

I muttered to myself, but that caused serious panic and fear to spread among not just Gril and the village chief, but to the rest of the villagers.

In this place, Necromancers were literally the calamity personified.

The ‘Grim Reaper of the Plague', the ‘Soul-stealing Devil', etc., etc. - with the exception of a particular kingdom, everyone else in this continent branded them as criminals.

One of the laws of this land even stipulated that you wouldn't be tried for murder if you killed a Necromancer without a good enough reason.

To put it simply, I'd be as good as dead if my profession as the Necromancer was to be revealed here.

"A N-Necromancer?"

"Oh, my G.o.d…!! You think that such a disgusting presence has been hiding in our village?"

Oh, I'm sorry for being so disgusting. It wouldn't be strange for your head to go flying for insulting the Imperial Prince, though.

"It's just my conjecture," said I.

But, if there really was one, that would be a huge source of headache. Because, if he decided to lay low for a while, then everything would go down the c.r.a.pper.

However, there was a pretty good chance that he was nearby. Because, you'd have to be close by in order to control the zombies.

Too bad, I had no idea how to search for him. Unless we were talking about a dedicated search team comprising of Priests and Paladins, sending these clueless villagers out there to search for our unknown Necromancer was basically the same as feeding the man tasty new treats.

Well, I could be wrong, and this whole situation could be a naturally-occurring plague spiralling out of control.

Either way, the problem remained the same - how do we find the origin of it all…..?

"Let's stay put for a night. Tell everyone to take a break. Ah, and we'll need rotating sentries, just in case."

We were all as tired as a human could be.

We dug the ground the whole day and moved the corpses. Then we went and performed a ma.s.s funeral, too. So our physical and mental limits had been reached by now.

At the moment, none of us could do anything, really.

"I'm going to catch some Zs. If something happens, come and wake me up," I told both the village chief and Gril, before turning around to head towards the monastery.

"Kyaahhk!"

A scream resounded alongside the thunderclap.

I was startled awake in my sweet slumber inside the monastery. The pitter-patter of raindrops rang around in my ears.

My vision remained dark and dim, but the momentary brightness brought on by the lightning strike illuminated a person's face right before my eyes.

Pale-white hair and crimson eyes, an expressionless face like a sheet of ice - all of these belonged to a certain girl.

As if she was taken by surprise, her brows rose up higher as she stared at me.

"What is it now?" I asked her.

"……"

The girl showed some signs of fl.u.s.ter as she quickly left my side. It was then, the monastery's doors burst open and Gril rushed in.

"Your highness!"

"Are you trying to deafen me??"

Perhaps due to all the fatigue, my whole body felt as heavy as wet sponge. Even my mind was drowsy. The farmer's loud shouting-like voice rang inside my head and I was getting dizzy from it.

"What happened?" I asked Gril, but at the same time, took a glance at the girl.

She was openly looking at me with a pair of sunken eyes while squatting at the corner just over there. The glare in them was cold, sharp.

Wait a second, that girl…. Wasn't she the one who ate all those zombie rats and survived?

Her eyes were filled to the brim with venom. She's… not blaming me for something, right?

"Your highness!"

"I'm listening, okay. What is going on here? What's with all this ruckus?"

The farmer Gril urgently updated me on the situation.

"One of the villagers have been kidnapped by the zombies!"

< 007.="" imperial="" prince="" is="" cracking="" heads="" -3=""> Fin.

- my thoughts:
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