The dead.

Souls disturbed in the realm of black magic.

The dead walked the earth.

Damn it, this land was part of the border between humans and monsters.

That’s also why Pofuta was teeming with monsters.

−Crack

The ground split and skeletal arms pressed against the earth.

“……Are they crawling up?”

Charlotte sighed softly. It’s like nails scratching the dirt.

I’ve heard it before.

Scratch. Scraaatch.

Where goblins died and graves piled up, blood pooled.

The blood mixed with soil, turning into mud.

From there, skeletal bones wriggled out.

“A bit……”

I hoped it would be different from expectations.

“What is that?”

Even the guards had never seen such a sight.

They’ve seen monsters break through the ground, but not like this.

“Aren’t those the dead summoned by black magic!”

“Why are the dead walking this land!”

It seems like they’re whispering something.

I can’t hear well, but I hear hallucinations as if they’re having some conversation among themselves.

“If you don’t want to die, keep your wits about you.”

Benjamin drew his sword and sliced off the skull’s head.

“If you lose your mind, they’ll drag you down in an instant.”

“……”

“Did you not hear what I said?”

Benjamin grabbed Charlotte’s arm and pulled.

“Don’t lose your mind.”

“They’re gathering.”

“They say it’s ominous when you see undead. Be careful.”

The bones fell and reassembled repeatedly.

“Has the treaty been broken?”

“It seems a gap has opened.”

“Don’t get bitten. Even if it doesn’t kill you, it’ll be quite harmful.”

Bones gathered near the old woman.

‘They say they gather to those close to death.’

The bones touched the old woman’s body.

A chilling sensation ran down my spine. Benjamin cut off its wrist with his sword and hoisted the old woman onto his shoulder.

“The wounded, fall back.”

A wounded mercenary came back, took the old woman, and left for the rear.

Gravestones rose in the empty space.

The old gravestones had epitaphs in ancient language.

“Gravestones.”

Fedlin had led the mercenary group to guard the subjugation front.

“Damn! It’s an undead grave.”

Subjugation fronts with gravestones usually have undead graves.

Charlotte read the epitaph.

“Were, wolf.”

“Pardon?”

“It says it’s the grave of the Black Werewolf pack.”

That’s what was written on the gravestone.

“Can you read the gravestone?”

“That’s how it turned out.”

Charlotte leaned on the gravestone and lamented softly. Her dark red hair flowed over her collarbone. She pushed back her shawl, brushed her hair over one shoulder, and felt a slight change.

The ground beneath her feet trembled.

Thump thump,

They were getting closer.

“If it’s the Black Were pack……”

“They’re the ones who confuse wanderers’ paths and bring them before their graves.”

Undead grave,

Monsters that have died and become bones.

“Step away from the gravestone!”

[This is the timeline separator]

Soon,

A monster flare went off.

“It’s a monster flare!”

“Monsters!”

Bang!

The harbor vendors looked up at the sky.

A red flare illuminated downwards.

A monster flare means there are monsters here, so if you don’t want to fill their bellies, stay away from the area.

Trees intertwined their branches on the outer subjugation front. Cobwebs, leaves, and reeds were tangled together.

“Sounds just like a wail.”

Some vendors shuddered and rubbed their shoulders.

[This is the timeline separator]

Charlotte cradled her numb wrist.

Her aching hand was completely burst.

Blood pooled in her hand. Drip drip− The blood seeped into the sword handle’s cloth and flowed along the blade.

The movements were monotonous.

She extended her sword and incapacitated them.

Her arm, taking the recoil directly, throbbed as she extended it.

It hurts.

Such pain was forgotten as she reached a state of selflessness.

‘What have I been close to all this time?’

Only emptiness remained in them.

It was as if they were telling how futile their end was.

“……”

She was bitten.

An undead monster bit Charlotte’s ankle.

“Your Majesty!”

She had gotten too close to the monster.

She stepped back.

It feels like she’s forgotten something.

Her breath was constricted suffocatingly. What had she forgotten?

All sorts of noises faded away.

Her ears were deafened by a buzzing resonance.

Fedlin, after calling for the empress and giving up, searched for the emperor.

“She seems to have stopped breathing.”

“……This is maddening. Stay here.”

Benjamin hurriedly cleared a path to Charlotte.

“Are you crazy enough to die?”

Benjamin grabbed Charlotte’s shoulder.

“If you want to die, you can do anything.”

“……Ah.”

“I told you they’d drag you down if you lose your mind.”

Charlotte finally burst out breathing.

The forgotten breath burst through her blocked lungs.

“I told you not to get bitten!”

“I was careless.”

“Do you know they’re gathering around you?”

She had felt it strangely for a while now.

The undead race gathered around Charlotte.

“They’re trying their hardest to drag you down.”

Benjamin clearly conveyed what he was guarding against to those nearby.

“Don’t let yourself be dragged down.”

Don’t show them any gaps.

That’s how Benjamin warned.

The guards closed their mouths, seemingly terrified.

“Who would…… take her for someone who just learned the sword?”

That sword was filled with resentment.

After removing and removing, only melancholy remained.

“It’s raining.”

“Fog is setting in.”

“Doesn’t it feel…… dreamy?”

Soon, they twisted their bodies strangely.

Bones collapsed and reconnected again.

“If you endure and endure, you’ll become numb.”

“……”

“If you become numb, the end will come someday.”

That was Charlotte saying to Charlotte.

“Don’t be too depressed.”

That was a hard-to-understand statement.

Benjamin realized it was Charlotte’s limit.

The crumbling center was crushed.

He wrapped his arm around Charlotte’s waist. Charlotte leaned her limp body against him.

‘Aaaaah!’

A desperate cry was heard.

That cry spread thickly underground.

A sinner was dragged up to the ground.

“Damn it!”

The sinner shook off the dirt and vomited blood.

Pyotr glared at the subjugation team with jaundiced eyes. Benjamin had already sensed the bastard’s presence.

“I didn’t expect him to crawl out in such a mess though.”

Now I understand why the intelligence officers couldn’t find him.

The bastard had become closer to the dead.

Benjamin stroked his chin as he exchanged greetings for the reunion.

“It’s been a while, but you’re in tatters.”

“Ah, is it the imperial mongrel?”

“You’ve changed quite a lot.”

Benjamin whispered softly.

“Seems you’ve forgotten imperial courtesy too.”

Benjamin held Charlotte in his arms.

Strength left her crumbling body.

“Take the empress to the rear.”

His eyes sank low.

[This is the timeline separator]

The blade cleaved the enemy in a single stroke.

The hesitation in the hilt only dulled the blade.

“Is it over?”

Benjamin dragged the blade on the ground.

It wasn’t for nothing that they attached the word ‘parricide’ to the end of the young emperor’s name.

He crushed the duty to be kept as a human.

The emperor was cruel enough to disgust even allies.

If there were a blood-soaked demon, it would look like this now.

There is no human duty in a sword left only with the purpose of killing.

Cruelty wielded the blade and sliced the enemy.

Unless malice is felt.

No malice was mixed in.

“Aaagh! Aaaaaaagh!”

The slaughterer who had been killing monsters seemed to be moving away from being human like that.

Pyotr writhed in pain.

Even when his body was cut, his flesh reconnected.

“Is he unable to die? Or is he not dying?”

Some guards slumped to the ground.

Even the mercenary group that had always fought on the subjugation front lost their strength limply.

The emperor just butchered as if remembering only ‘punishment.’

As if erasing black magic that had defiled order by slicing it.

“……Mongrels! Damn mongrels disturbing the path of the clan!”

The entire undead army collapsed.

“Should we help?”

“Don’t get close.”

The emperor extended his sword like that.

It was chilling even though they knew the imperial family led the empire and was their master.

The emperor fought with the guards behind him.

Taking the black magic head-on, he clashed with the black magician disrupting the empire’s order.

Bang!

The ground seemed like it could collapse at any moment.

Some forgot to breathe, crushed by the pressure.

“What is that?”

“What kind of fight is that……”

Nothing remained except the purpose of killing each other.

“Take Her Majesty the Empress to the rear.”

“Protect her so the poison’s effects don’t reach her.”

The guards surrounded the empress with sword energy to protect her from the poison.

“The pressure makes me want to vomit.”

The guards swallowed their breath roughly.

After the empress fainted, the emperor found the sinner hiding underground.

The emperor who traced the sinner’s presence dragged him above ground,

Then,

He sliced the sinner’s forearm.

“Aaagh!”

Pyotr clutched his shoulder and wailed as his forearm was cut off.

“Damn it!”

Pyotr’s complexion turned deathly black. Even when his body was torn and cut, Pyotr reconnected a new body with monsters.

Benjamin cut that off again. He sliced and cut it with his sword.

Pyotr curled up after losing his arms and legs.

“……Still not dying, huh.”

“I’ll tear you to death! Damn mongrels, the clan will find you and tear you to shreds to place on the clan’s altar!”

It was still difficult to adapt to the body even when woven with monsters.

Pyotr bit his lips at the blade scratching his neck.

“How many have you killed, the traces of dead clan members are stuck all over you!”

The emperor was like a murderous ghost carrying the scent of blood.

The subjugation team had been hunting monsters on the subjugation front all this time.

The traces of monsters killed by the subjugation team’s presence were everywhere.

“Is this my limit too?”

The undead army riding on beasts clashed with the subjugation team.

“It seems you’ve reached your limit too, but there’s no point in pushing yourself unnecessarily.”

The subjugation team put their breath and soul into a single strike.

As if knowing that a gap would lead straight to death.

Pyotr withdrew his black magic.

Pyotr who poured out those traces attacked Charlotte.

Bang!

A cloud of dust rose in the air.

Benjamin who threw his sword disrupted the black magic.

“He escaped.”

The bastard wasn’t there.

“Did you know he would come?”

“Well. I didn’t foresee that much.”

Benjamin only answered that much.

“The black magic in the area has been disrupted.”

The bastard’s presence was cut off too.

He left.

“The rain is getting harsher. We should descend now.”

[This is the timeline separator]

A space filled with emptiness.

There, Charlotte opened her eyes alone.

Pitch-black darkness.

If she took a step, it felt like a cliff would plunge her to the bottom.

There’s nothing here.

The emptiness seemed like another blank within a blank.

The emptiness brought loneliness, leading the isolated Charlotte to a dead end.

Is nobody here?

Something was stepped on.

This long and curly thing felt like hair.

Dark red hair dragged under her feet.

‘Was it this long?’

Her ankle throbbed.

She limped due to that throbbing.

Her hands were scratched and peeled.

Her skin was bruised and mottled, and the hand she thought was empty held a sword hilt.

‘Was I fighting?’

As she groped as if retracing something, she couldn’t quite remember.

She could tell the hand holding the sword was particularly weak.

Yes.

Now it seems I’m trying to end everything.

Unable to see myself like that, I didn’t see my foot soles scratched and peeled.