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Chapter 291: 153. The Approaching Darkness -3 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

I continued to read the tome on undead hybridisation and creation of chimeras while traveling in my carriage.

Experimenting on what I had read, I opened the carriage door and waved my finger around in the air. A holy undead was summoned outside the moving carriage.

Bones broke through the surface of the ground, the first set forming some legs. Right after that, a horse’s body materialised, but rather than a horse’s head, a regular humanoid skeleton’s upper torso was attached to it.

A set of armour wrapped around it rapidly, and the undead creature gripped onto a lengthy polearm as sharp light burned in its eye sockets.

‘I did it!’

It was the result of all my experiments for the past few days while riding in the carriage. I could bring about quite an eye-popping performance now.

An undead with a lower body from a horse boasted excellent mobility, complementing its upper torso of a humanoid soldier. I had managed to alter the structure of a regular undead quite noticeably, and now I could create a brand new legion of undead.

Just as I was feeling quite pleased at the result…

“Y-your Majesty, my lord!”

I turned my head and stared at Damon.

He was shivering away under his robe, his hands interlocked in a pleading posture. “T-this servant earnestly begs Your Majesty to reconsider your decision.”

His trembling eyes were pleading with me. Even I could tell that he was shivering in fear. Which was understandable, considering what I told him earlier about my plan: the destruction of Aslan.

But their fate had already been decided.

“It’s too late now,” I replied.

If I handled this matter too nicely, then no doubt the vampires would target other countries, too. I thought the events back in the kingdom of Lome and the Holy King coronation would serve as perfect deterrents, but it seemed they weren’t effective enough.

There were still some humans willing to cooperate with vampires, which meant that they were falling for all that sweet talk coming from the bloodsuckers. That also meant that some idiots were looking down on the Theocratic Empire, as well.

Since that was the case, I needed to show off our overwhelming might, one so shocking and absurd that it would easily suppress such temptations.

‘I need to show the world that the Theocratic Empire can easily trample on another country if we want to.’

There was no avoiding it. This world’s cultures, values, and mindsets were different from that of Earth. Terror was another word for respect, and also the symbol for peace that would maintain law and order.

“Aslan raised the flags of rebellion to the empire not just once, but twice in less than five years.”

“B-but, that’s because of the vampires…”

“Vampires being involved does not change matters. No, hang on. It’s precisely because those undead are involved that we cannot let this event go by unpunished.” I stared straight into Damon’s eyes. “Although it is unfortunate for Tina, she will have to step down from the throne.”

“…”

Damon got up from his seat and knelt down on the floor. He bowed his head and addressed me. “We at Aslan have no desire to go against the will of Your Majesty the Holy King. Especially Her Majesty, the Queen of Aslan.”

“…”

“If you wish, we do not mind Your Majesty taking over Aslan. However, I beg of you, please spare Her Majesty Queen Tina’s pitiful life…”

The carriage came to a stop.

Charlotte dismounted from her horse and addressed me through the carriage’s open doorway. “Your Majesty, we’ve arrived at the border wall.”

I got up from my spot and turned my head to take a glance at Damon. “Don’t you worry.”

“…”

“I’m doing this to save her and the citizens of Aslan, after all.”

Those bastards hadn’t yet managed to unify the whole of Aslan. If we hit them before they finished rallying and gathering all of their troops, then we should be able to minimise the losses from war as much as possible.

Damon’s eyes gradually widened. He then bowed his head even lower. “If that is your will, this servant shall follow, Your Majesty.”

I ignored him and went along with Charlotte to the command tent. The Paladin Captains of all six forces representing the Imperial Family had gathered there by the time we entered, with the sole exception of Oscar the Sword King, who had led the army during our previous incursion into Aslan.

“We greet Your Majesty the Holy…”

I roundly ignored them and headed straight to the operation map laid out on the central table. I scanned all the chess pieces placed on top of the map, then picked up a ‘knight’ piece located by the border wall before slamming it down where Aslan’s capital was.

I declared loudly, “Ten days!”

The leaders of the Paladins bowing their heads flinched in surprise and hurriedly raised their heads.

I swept my gaze over them and said again, “We shall destroy Aslan in that period of time.”

The distance between the border wall and Aslan’s capital was around seven days’ travel. What I said could be construed as the army now having only three days to conquer all the territory between here and the capital.

That was basically asking for the impossible.

However, there was this one other way to make that a reality, and that was to ignore all the territories and cities, and simply conquer the capital, instead.

This action would mean that the army had to forego securing the supply route behind them and perform a forced march, accumulating a lot of fatigue in the process. The level of difficulty here was so high that a common soldier wouldn’t be able to endure after being worn down by fatigue and hunger.

However, that’s what I planned to try, forcibly if that’s what’s required. I definitely wasn’t going to sit back and let the vampires bring to life whatever underhanded scheme they had cooked up.

“But sire, that will burden the soldiers too greatly!”

“Our forces will be more than enough to conquer the enemy’s capital city, but the losses to our own side will be just as extensive, sire!”

When the Paladin Captains raised their objections, I replied with, “Simply laying siege to the capital will be more than enough.”

Regardless of what the plan of the vampire bastards was, it was my role to invade the capital and rescue Tina. What I wanted to achieve here was preventing another undead-ification of the entire capital, like what had happened back in the kingdom of Lome, through the presence of the empire’s army.

So, I figured that the army could just surround the Aslan capital and rest while biding their time for that opportune moment.

“They have not rallied together, anyway. Their citizens are distrustful, while many Necromancers are not following them yet, either.”

Just one look was enough to tell anyone with a brain that the enemy forces stationed by the border wall weren’t the part of Aslan’s regular army.

The ones behind this whole event didn’t have enough influence to rally the entire country. As such, this was our chance. Such a thing was only possible because Tina wasn’t the one issuing these orders in the first place.

“If we don’t conclude this war as soon as possible, the ones to suffer the most will be the common people.”

“…”

“Lead the army to the capital. As for the person standing in front of the pack…” I looked up from the map and scanned the captains once more, “…I shall take the lead.”

After saying that, I left the command tent.

A sigh automatically left my lips. This sense of fatigue was making my head hazy, too.

“This must be a part of the training, right?”

“Yup, it has to be.”

“…Well, we’re supposed to ‘train like the real deal’, so…”

I turned my head after listening to those murmurs.

If you included the new recruits, the number of combatants currently stationed by the border wall was close to twenty thousand. The murmurs came from the trio of Gril, Adolf, and Yuria making dazed faces. They had been staying in the campsite for the troops on standby.

Judging from how they were absentmindedly poking at the burning firewood with sticks, I figured that they were still suffering from the residual side effects of the intense training they had gone through.

Charlotte walked up to me and asked, “Your Majesty, how about taking a short break?”

“More people will die the longer we rest,” I replied.

Right about now, the Aslan capital should be a pit of confusion and turmoil. If the vampires had really taken over the ruling authority, then it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see a festival of blood already unfolding there.

I muttered again, “But you know, something about this feels weird.”

“Regarding what, Your Majesty?”

“Why would vampires do something like this?”

Sure, they might possess enough destructive power to bend a country to their will, but in order to exercise that power, they would have to make thorough preparations, as monumental in scale as the task at hand.

For instance, during the incident back in Lome, two Marquis-class and many more Progenitor Vampires had been mobilised. The vampires ended up receiving a heavy blow upon the failure of that operation.

Well, they had lost one marquis and many other nobles back then, after all. I had no doubt that this event was only possible because a vampire of marquis or higher peerage got the ball rolling in the first place.

“I can’t figure out what those bastards are thinking.”

What exactly were they aiming for here? Could it be as simple as sowing chaos in the Theocratic Empire?

But the price for such a result seemed a bit too high, didn’t it? If they failed this attempt as well, then they would really lose the foundation needed to create a kingdom of vampires.

“Your Majesty, those bastards are arrogant,” said Charlotte, taking her cape off to drape around my shoulders after judging the weather a bit too chilly. “Although they are cunning, their weakness lies with their arrogance, which causes them to look down on humanity. That’s how we’ve been winning against them, Your Majesty.”

“Looking down on humanity, is it?” I raised my head to look up. A bitter smile slowly spread across my face as I took in the sight of the moon illuminating the night sky. “It would be nice if that’s really the case.”