I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 40: Night of the Living Dead (2)

Lindman’s nickname was Lucky Man.

He wasn’t actually born lucky.

If he were truly lucky, he would have been born the child of nobility, living a life of luxury, rather than the poor child of a hunter in a remote village.

Lindman was just an ordinary hunter.

He never caught any great game by sheer luck, nor did he ever happen upon a valuable medicinal herb by chance.

Yet, despite all that, he had been called the Lucky Man since childhood.

This was because he was particularly resistant to misfortune.

Even when kobolds attacked the village of Lotho and massacred nearly all the villagers, he survived.

He had been conscripted in Lothian, and even in the battle against the kobold army led by the kobold prince, he survived without serious injury.

Despite being part of a battle where about 100 of the 300 conscripts were killed or wounded.

He also survived battles against troll and goblin armies.

Lucky Man, Lindman.

At this point, his comrades joked that maybe he should change his nickname to Immortal Lindman.

Not long after, he volunteered for a new mission.

The mission was to stay in the destroyed Lotho village and watch for any new invasions from the Lotho Forest.

He was a bit scared, but it wasn’t a defensive mission, and if he saw any enemies, all he had to do was report and run, so he gathered his courage.

He was also drawn to the generous bonus pay.

In the city of Lothian, hunters had little work, and due to the influx of refugees, the cost of living had risen.

While his basic service would cover food, extra money was necessary for anything beyond survival.

The mission wasn’t bad at all.

When he entered the destroyed Lotho village, his heart ached, but he quickly became accustomed to it.

The corpses of the villagers were either eaten by the kobolds or carried away by beasts, leaving almost nothing behind.

His job was simple: climb the watchtower with his comrades, look to the west all day long, and report twice a day using smoke signals.

Lindman used his experience as a hunter to trap small animals, selling the meat to his comrades or the supply soldiers who came by, and also sold hides to make extra money.

With the added bonus, his income wasn’t bad.

It felt like he was making more than double what he earned as a hunter.

If he kept saving money like this, maybe he could buy a proper house in Lothian.

Perhaps he could even remarry the widow he met in Lothian.

Of course, that wouldn’t be easy.

If the rumors were true and the age of ominous stars had truly begun, war would likely never cease.

Spending his money in a tavern seemed like a much more realistic plan.

But then again, it was just a dream.

He thought it was okay to have a sweet fantasy every now and then.

Lindman imagined the blonde knight.

When he first saw her, he thought she was an angel or goddess. She was so beautiful, graceful, pure—basically, she seemed to embody every good adjective in existence.

Imagining fighting beside her in the battlefield again, saving her when she was wounded, exchanging names, and eventually falling in love, maybe even running off together to live in a mill.

“Heh, bullshit. That’s impossible.”

He laughed bitterly, realizing just how unrealistic the fantasy was.

Still, he smiled and cried as he wiped the image of the knight out of his mind, focusing on reality.

Below the watchtower, hell unfolded.

Dead bodies were rising and marching.

Among them were white bones and the corpses of massive beasts.

Though it was hard to be certain in the dark, there seemed to be thousands of them.

The watchtower began to shake.

The stench of rotting corpses rose from the hole where the ladder had been removed.

If only he hadn’t dozed off after the report.

If only he had fled when the first corpses arrived near the watchtower.

It was all too late for regret.

The watchtower shook harder.

Lindman felt the unmistakable presence of death.

That’s why, gathering his final courage, he faithfully carried out his mission.

Boom!

When he shot the signal flare that the mage had made into the sky, a bright red flame painted the night sky.

Now that he thought about it, the mage was quite beautiful.

“Heh heh.”

Looking at the magical flare, Lindman thought of Rene’s face and drew his short sword, gritting his teeth.

The watchtower shook again.

And then it collapsed.

The undead army, made up of zombies and skeletons, passed through Lotho village and continued forward.

Though some human corpses were mixed in, the majority of the army was made up of the bodies of monsters.

There were small monsters like kobolds and goblins, and large monsters like trolls and ogres, their bodies also mixed in.

As typical for low-tier undead, their movements were slow, but they knew no fatigue.

They marched continuously, their pace not falling behind a regular army’s.

Among the army of undead, a woman was riding an undead horse with two horns.

Her face was hidden behind the mask of a plague doctor, and her body was wrapped in a black robe. She lifted her head and gazed at the night sky.

The sight was clearly different from what she had seen before.

“This is it. The world beyond the wall.”

With a dry smile hidden behind the mask, she looked ahead again.

Now part of the undead army, she remembered the words of the kobolds as they spoke of Lothian, and she moved eastward, toward it.

The news spread quickly.

The scout at the midpoint, seeing the red signal flare while eating a midnight snack, immediately set off another red flare, preparing to flee, then climbed the watchtower and looked far into the distance.

Thanks to the bright full moon, the scout could see quite far and, upon spotting the undead army, jumped down from the tower and mounted his horse to ride.

“Corpses! Corpses! Thousands of them!”

The new invasion had started, but the content of the report was far from normal.

An undead army.

Most likely an army of zombies and skeletons.

While the numbers weren’t precise due to being observed at night, the scout had said thousands, which meant it was likely several times the number of enemies they had faced before.

“W-What do we do?”

High Priestess Jillian asked, her face on the verge of tears—no, already trembling with emotion.

Yoo Seong took a deep breath before speaking to everyone.

“It will take at least two days for them to reach Lothian.”

Considering the location and the nature of the undead, three days might also be a possibility, but Yoo Seong remained conservative as he turned to Jillian.

“High Priestess Jillian, can you prepare for a siege defense?”

“Huh? Oh, yes! I’ll try my best!”

Jillian clenched her fist, though her face was still filled with fear.

Yoo Seong had gathered a lot of information about her over the past month.

Though she was timid and a crybaby, her resolve was strong, and as the High Priestess of the Omphalos Church, her knowledge of siege warfare was second to none among their retainers.

Moreover, this time, their opponent was the undead army.

There was no one more suited for the job than her.

“Lord Ruan will assist High Priestess Jillian.”

“Understood.”

“Sir Simon, gather the conscripts and prepare for battle. Sir Rant will assist Sir Simon.”

“Understood.”

“Edgar, Robin.”

“Yes!”

When Yoo Seong called for Edgar and Robin, they responded in unison, and Yoo Seong turned to them.

“You two will scout the area near the Volano territory. If an army is advancing from that direction, Robin, return immediately, and Edgar, direct the evacuation of the villagers in Philo village. Leave now.”

“Understood.”

“For the glory of Camelot.”

Edgar and Robin saluted and immediately turned to ride out.

Yoo Seong then looked toward Iserina and the administrators.

“Lady Iserina, take charge of the transaction with the trading company. The administrators should spread the news of the invasion to surrounding territories and request any available support.”

“I will.”

Although Yoo Seong didn’t expect much support, it was better to at least ask.

“I will leave the castle to conduct reconnaissance. If necessary, I will also engage in interception.”

Though it was rare for the commander-in-chief to personally head out for reconnaissance, none of Yoo Seong’s retainers stopped him.

It wasn’t because they didn’t care, but because they had learned from the last two battles that Yoo Seong’s actions were always the best course of action.

“Rene will accompany me.”

While an army wasn’t necessary, Yoo Seong needed Rene.

When Yoo Seong said this, Rene immediately nodded and asked with her eyes, and Yoo Seong nodded in return.

“I will return as quickly as I can!”

As Rene left to prepare for departure, Yoo Seong gave his retainers a reassuring pat and headed for the castle gates.

“Ha, ha. I’m back!”

Soon after, Rene, carrying a large backpack, arrived at the gates.

“Then I’m off. Glory to Camelot.”

“Glory to Camelot.”

After returning the salute, Yoo Seong rode out with Rene.

It was just before dawn, the darkest hour.

As Yoo Seong, who had been alternating between resting and riding, stopped his horse at a point he estimated to be about half to one hour away from the undead army, he reflected on the fact that his purpose was not to directly engage in a forceful reconnaissance. Therefore, there was no need to observe the enemy personally with his own eyes.

After all, Yoo Seong had Rene with him.

“Rene, please.”

“Yes, Heir.”

Rene, who answered immediately, took a few deep breaths, then closed her eyes and focused her consciousness.

After riding for several hours, most magicians would have collapsed from exhaustion, but thanks to her steady physical improvements through leveling up, despite showing a slight sign of fatigue, she was still in good shape.

“Bird of light, soar.”

Whispering the incantation softly, a pure white bird appeared above Rene’s head. It was the same bird of light she had used before.

When he first encountered it, the bird had only been able to stay a few hundred meters away from her, but now it could maintain its form even when several kilometers apart.

The bird of light cut through the morning sky.

As Rene observed the ground with the bird’s eyes, she unconsciously swallowed a dry gulp.

The scout’s report had been true.

Under the morning sunlight, an undead army, numbering in the thousands, was advancing steadily but slowly.

“Two thousand and some hundred. It seems to be around that scale.”

The kobold army had been about a thousand strong, so this was more than double that number.

“About seventy percent of them seem to be zombies. The rest are skeletons…And the ones that look like human corpses are about half. The rest seem to be from monsters.”

Among the army, there were also the remains of huge monsters like trolls or ogres mixed in.

“Rene, there must be someone controlling the corpses. Can you see anyone who might be a magician among them? Perhaps a vampire or something similar?”

In Fantasy Monarch, undead armies often appeared, and the commanders of such armies, who focused on controlling zombies and skeletons, were usually one of two types: a vampire lord or a necromancer.

“I’ll look.”

Rene focused her consciousness more intently to observe the flow of magical power among the undead army. To her surprise, all the magical energy of the approximately three thousand undead was concentrated on a single individual.

A woman in a black robe, mounted on a skeleton bicorn, with only bones remaining.

The moment Rene saw the woman, the woman seemed to notice her too, gently lifting her head.

Though Rene couldn’t see her face due to the plague doctor’s mask, she could intuitively sense it.

Their eyes met.

The woman, too, had recognized her.

“Hello.”

The woman spoke.

A dry smile spread beneath the mask.

And at that moment, an immense surge of death magic exploded, obliterating the bird of light.

“Ahhh!”

“Rene?!”

Startled by the sudden scream, Yoo Seong rushed to catch Rene, who was about to collapse. However, Rene, still staggering as if her legs had no strength, leaned her head against Yoo Seong’s chest and breathed heavily.

“Ha, ha, ha.”

“Are you okay?”

Instead of answering, Rene simply nodded a few times.

She was in no state to speak.

Yoo Seong patiently waited without urging her, and after taking several deep breaths, Rene finally regained her composure. She looked at Yoo Seong with a pale face and spoke.

“There’s a woman, probably a necromancer.”

After saying this, Rene shuddered slightly.

She recalled the green eyes of the woman they had met through the mask.

The woman’s magical power was truly terrifying.

Thanks to her repeated leveling, Rene had become much stronger than her peers, possessing magical power of a different caliber. However, the woman’s magic was far stronger than hers.

But it wasn’t just the strength of her magic that was shocking.

It was truly horrifying death magic.

After hearing Rene’s explanation, Yoo Seong gritted his teeth. A high-level necromancer of that caliber wouldn’t just be leading a zombie army of three thousand. Far more powerful undead monsters would surely appear on this battlefield.

“Let’s go back, Rene.”

Against an undead army led by such a powerful necromancer, even if they dealt some damage through guerilla warfare, it would have little effect. After all, the necromancer would just resurrect the fallen undead and continue advancing.

It would be better to go back and prepare for a siege battle more thoroughly during the remaining time.

“Get on behind me. Let’s ride together.”

Having been exposed to death magic, Rene still staggered, so Yoo Seong helped her mount behind him, and they rode back toward Lothian.

And at the same time, in the untamed lands leading to the Volano Territory, an army of monsters appeared.