“Undead! The… the bodies! On the catacombs! They’ve become undead!”

His words stunned the room into silence. From where Matthias was standing, it looked like the lord was flapping his mouth in an attempt to say something he hadn’t thought of yet.

The shock was understandable. Dead bodies rising from the grave were normal in that world. According to the church, it was due to the “miasma” that contaminated the soil. That same element contributed to the birth and growth of dungeons. However, there were little to no studies done in that field, mostly due to how understaffed the church was. At least, that was what Matthias observed. Regardless, in terms of understanding the undead, the church was unparalleled. They had devised many ways to combat them and prevent them from rising in the first place. And that was why the news came as a shock to everyone.

How could the church catacombs, a place that should have been blessed extensively, suddenly have undead?

“We don’t know! The message didn’t say much… But this is an emergency!”

The lord realized what it meant. If there was a mass undead rising within the church, then what about the public graveyard?

“West! Call the town guard and the adventurers! We need to send someone there! The people might be in danger!”

He rushed to the windows, likely to catch a glimpse of the town from his high office. Being on the third floor of the manor situated at the top of a small hill, it was easy for him to see it from where he was.

“Guess that’s our cue.”

If the earl saw them crouching on the rooftop near the windows, then it would be extremely awkward later on. They would be treated as thieves. So, before the earl could reach the windows, Matthias positioned himself in the middle and pulled both sides open. He almost slipped down in the process due to the angled tiles, but he managed to recover without making the fact obvious. With a kick, he entered the room through the opening and landed in front of the flabbergasted people inside.

“Wh… who are you?!” the earl demanded. “Are you a burglar? Wait–” His eyes squinted. The ensuing pause was kind of awkward, and Matthias struggled to just end it by introducing himself. But he managed to hold out until the earl’s eyes popped wide and he cried out, “Aren’t you the son of Duke Fel?”

That was the first time someone had recognized him. After a few weeks of people just referring to him as “a noble”, being recognized as a specific individual caught him off-guard. But in hindsight, that was to be expected. The earl was a proper noble, and the land of the Fels was located a mere half a day away from the town of Rosen Elk. Unlike commoners and adventurers, who rarely if ever had to interact with them, nobles had to memorize a lot of names and connect them with faces. It was essential for them to broaden their connections among the higher-ranked people in society.

The earl quickly straightened his posture and bowed.

“My name is Lohen Elk, Lord Fel. Why did you–I mean, may I ask what brought you here to my home?”

Matthias’ mouth twitched slightly. Earl Lohen clearly wanted to ask why he entered through the window first before correcting himself.

To be perfectly straight, he did come off as very suspicious in doing so, especially with how things went. After all, instead of breaking in to deliver some equally breaking news, the priest made it so that only the “breaking in” part remained true.

So, with the lack of options available to him, Matthias chose the simplest method to gloss over his crime; ignorance. He’ll just act like it was a normal thing to do. A “mere” earl can’t just point a finger at someone who was effectively a marquis when no harm was done in the end, right? Ah, abuse of power is great.

“We came for the same reason as that priest there.”

Without giving the earl a chance to retort, he explained what had happened earlier, including the fact that Nail’s party, the Blue Wolves, had already mobilized in advance. Hearing that the highest-ranked adventurer party in town was already at the scene greatly reassured the earl.

“Ah, Ms. Ujel and Ms. Mie being on the case gives me confidence. Nobody can best those two when it comes to dealing with the undead.” But then, a look of doubt crossed his face as he asked, “Wait a minute, how did they notice the spell? You said that it was being cast on the soil, right? Besides miners, I can’t think of anybody who would try to detect magic at such a depth.”

As expected of the earl who managed a town with a dungeon. He was familiar with the many aspects of how adventurers typically carried themselves. It was actually quite surprising, especially when he considered that most nobles abhorred associating themselves with those who had “dirty professions”. In fact, the earl himself didn’t look like the kind of person who simply indulged himself with money. Even though he was pretty chubby, he had well-toned arms and was dressed up neatly despite the time. His mustache was trimmed and there was no jewelry on his body besides a golden ring on his ring finger. Additionally, his earlier orders to send men to the graveyard to protect the townspeople greatly appealed to him.

Overall, he seemed to be quite a respectable guy.

“It wasn’t them that noticed it first. It was… an acquaintance. He can explain it better than me.”

Without waiting for Earl Lohen to react, Matthias called out to Tolg, who was waiting for his signal to go inside. After being called, Tolg slowly entered the room through the open window, which was a much less comfortable squeeze than what Matthias made it seem. When the butler and the priest saw the giant, menacing beastkin enter the room, they immediately stepped back with pale faces. Only the earl managed to stop himself by clenching his fists.

“Good evening. My name is Tolg, a wanderer passing by the region.”

Even when he was bowing his head, Tolg still towered over everyone else in the room by at least a head. But even with his physical advantage, Matthias didn’t fail to catch the slight discomfort in his voice. Maybe he was afraid of offending the opposite party, who was of the nobility.

“Ah… it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The earl somewhat meekly extended his hand. Tolg met him with an equally sheepish expression. After many years of dealing with the nobility, it was somewhat strange for Matthias to see a venerably-ranked noble act that way with someone a lot of people discriminated against. Of course, he knew some who dealt with beastkin fairly, but they were few and far in between.

When asked, Lohen simply answered “the beastkin in my territory pay their taxes. Why should I discriminate against them?” with a face that implied that the question was strange. Although Matthias wanted to believe that he was one of those rare nobles, the way the beastkin are treated by the populace gave him some misgivings.

But anyway, that was not why they were there.

“I was resting on my way to the north. The area I camped in had a lot of Antlerhurn, so I decided to catch one for a meal,” he explained. As a note, Antlerhurns were rabbit-like animals that lived deep underground. While they were difficult to detect, they were easy to catch during the night, as they had a habit of sleeping so deeply that even the act of digging wouldn’t wake them up. “So I tried to find them by looking for traces of the magic they use to tunnel. That’s when I detected something strange coming from the city.”

“It reached all the way there…?”

Tolg nodded. Confirming that, the earl cupped his head. Certainly, if the traces of magic were apparent even at that distance, then the scale of the ritual must be truly grand.

“Then… evacuation isn’t an option. The outside’s too dangerous… Holy shit, how were they able to set up something so big under my nose?”

“Huh? Why?” Matthias asked.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I may be too short-handed to monitor the populace, but I at least have eyes on most of the major areas here.”

“Except the Adventurer’s Guild, the Pharmacy Guild, and the Merchants Guild,” was Matthias’ immediate mental retort. These were outside of any normal noble’s power, as they were effectively their own states.

“That’s not what I meant. Why can’t we evacuate the people to the outside? The earth mages excavated the surrounding land before the town was built, right?”

It was normal practice for the surrounding lands to be upturned for any corpses before large-scale construction was done. It was to prevent the undead from rising unmanaged. That was also why it was strictly prohibited to bury the dead outside graveyards, and people who could not afford a spot there had to have their corpses cremated. As for the lands beyond, mostly only caravans with guards and capable travelers pass through anyway.

Rosen Elk was a relatively young town, with a history of just two decades since it was formally designated as one. It was originally just a hub for adventurers to access the nearby dungeon. However, formal management had been introduced only a decade ago. The Elks inherited a long list of administrative issues that choked their manpower for several years and were further exacerbated by the political turmoil around them.

After being asked, the earl suddenly became flustered. He even performed the stereotypical rubbing of the neck and answered with a soft voice, “Well, no… it hasn’t.”

Tolg and Matthias’ eyes widened in shock.

“It should have been done a few years ago, but… most of the state mages had been recalled because of the wars,” the earl bitterly explained. It was plain to see how disgruntled he was from the way he bit his lip and clenched his fists. “Those who are left aren’t even enough to do the maintenance work around the town. I’ve tried commissioning the work to the Adventurers’ Guild, but there are simply not enough mages who could use earth magic in town.”

“So… it’s not safe beyond the walls?”

“Likely not. I don’t believe there are many corpses buried there, but there’s still a risk.”

Immediately, Matthias’ heart sank. He realized that he had made a mistake. Tolg also tensed up and looked alarmingly at him.

“Sir Matthias... The children–”

“Shit. Manna! Go look for the kids! Tell them to stay in the sewers, and stay with them!” he yelled out. Though no answer came to him, he knew that she was listening, and he knew that she would follow. She always did. Perhaps the people around him were shocked at his sudden shouts towards nobody in particular; a moment of silence came over the group.

At first, he didn’t want to place the kids anywhere within the town. If an outbreak happened, then buildings would only become cages. Even if they could be protected by the adventurers, there was no guarantee that the guild would try to squeeze every ounce of its strength to manage the situation. The guild was already short-handed from the beginning. On top of that, the town’s population was large enough to stretch them thinner than he would like.

That was likely why Nail’s party also agreed to send them down through the sewers. Nothing but rubbish and cleaning slimes were there. If anything, the slimes were better guards against zombies than humans. But they needed to be told to stay there, as the outskirts had become a danger zone.

“The Blue Wolves have already informed the guild. As long as no high-ranked undead appear, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

The earl nodded. “I’ll get my men to gather the people to the innermost district. The roads are paved with heavy stones, so no undead should be able to get through from below. It’ll be easier to defend them here.”

Matthias nodded. That sounded like a good idea. It would be bad if too many people went to the sewers as well. He felt his responsibility was more to the kids than the general population. But then, it occurred to him.

“Say… if the entire graveyard’s contents turned, how many undead are we talking about here?”

The earl looked him in the eye and gravely replied, “Thousands.”

“Even though I’ve had the public graveyard blessed out of my pockets, it’s all useless if even the corpses underneath the church have turned. This is a dungeon town, after all. Many people have died here.”

----------------------------------------

Ever since he learned about how undead “spawned”, Matthias had wondered; why did the people in that world rarely cremate their dead? Logically speaking, if undead rose from the bodies of dead creatures, then burning the corpses would drastically reduce the number of victims reported every year. After all, the undead cannot rise from their ashes. That was why fire has been one of their defining weaknesses. He thought that it was a question that he would have difficulty answering, but the truth was that it was simple enough for even a child to understand.

It was the nobility. As most nobles were fervent believers of the church, who preached about the sanctity of the Body as the vessel for the Mind and Soul, they preferred burying their dead completely intact. Of course, they also hired the church to bless the tombs. So, most of the undead didn’t come from them. The problem was the effect they had on the commoners.

In an attempt to emulate the people they normally saw as superior, commoners emulated their practice of burying their dead as well. However, because the price of land was not cheap, they were rarely able to afford the subsequent process of having their graves blessed. Additionally, the nobility, despite their misgivings, saw the use of land as burial sites as a business opportunity. They designated patches of land that couldn’t be turned into farms and sold them to commoners to bury their dead in.

Despite knowing the risks involved, the nobility took it as a way to make money. Even though it was against their faith, most commoners amounted to nothing in their eyes anyway. They prey on the weak and the poor like mindless beasts. Men like Lohen, who would pay for the safety of his people, were unfortunately very rare.

It was for that reason that Matthias thought it was strange.

“Earl Lohen,” he called out. Their discussion had reached the end, so everybody was preparing to head out again. One of the earl’s attendants brought Matthias and Manna a bag of mid-grade potions and holy water as supplies. Meanwhile, the lord of the mansion was back at his desk drafting a quick document to mobilize all of the local knights to aid in the effort.

When he heard his name, he lifted his name obediently and asked, “What is it, my lord?”

“Do you know an adventurer named Soleil?”

The earl touched the stubble on his chin and thought. It didn’t take long for him to recall the necessary details he knew.

“It’s that eccentric girl that’s made a name for herself recently, right? I know her from the file. She purchased an old, abandoned church in the slums recently so she can take care of some orphans.”

“You know that?” Matthias was stunned. The earl laughed in response.

“Of course. While a lot of adventurers are good people, she’s the only one in recent memory to spend that much money on a bunch of abandoned kids. It was stated on the “Reason for Purchase”. But normally, even the prize money of a drake horn wouldn’t be enough to buy such a large estate, so I gave her a discount and approved the purchase.”

“It’s in the slums, though. That’s why it’s so cheap,” Lohen murmured silently.

“Then… did you know that the town guard’s been trying to arrest her?”

Earl Lohen’s smile disappeared. His expression changed to shock, then contemplation, before resting on displeasure.

“No. I don’t. Why?”

Matthias explained everything that had happened as succinctly as he could. They didn’t have time for a proper discussion on the matter. Fortunately, the earl didn’t mind being fed a summary of what happened. After his story, Lohen nodded in understanding.

“I’ll have someone investigate immediately. I’ll also call off the town guard on the matter as soon as I can.”

It looks like the local lord wasn’t the one who had sicced the town guard on Soleil. Even though he didn’t show anything convincing, Matthias didn’t have any reason to present doubts at that moment. He just wanted to see how Earl Lohen would react.

But if it wasn’t him, then who was it? There were lesser nobles around the area, but if they moved to interfere with the town guard, then Earl Lohen would be sure to notice.

Matthias shook his head. It wasn’t an urgent matter. Soleil was safe inside the guild, and he highly doubted that a few hundred zombies could threaten her when she could beat an undead drake to death with her bare fists.

When it came time for them to leave, through the front door, of course, the entire mansion was already writhing with activity. Guards, knights, maids, butlers, chefs, and all other kinds of people ran frantically around the halls. Some of them were carrying supplies, while others were headed to a formation just outside the doors. It was a testament to how the earl took the situation seriously.

“We gotta go. Thank you for lending your ears, Earl Lohen.”

“And for not asking why we came from the windows.”

Ignore it, ignore it.

“Ah, before that.”

The earl raised his voice so that his words would not get drowned by the commotion around them. Matthias looked back. The lord looked calm, but there was a meaning behind his stare that was easy to decipher. So, Matthias turned to look at Tolg and said, “Go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”

Once the earl was sure that Tolg was gone, he immediately got to the point for fear of wasting time.

“Lord Matthias. I believe you should take caution with that beastkin.”

“Why?”

“Something’s weird. I’ve been around adventurers for over a decade. As far as I know, not anybody can specify necromancy spells being cast. Except for priests, the only other thing I can think of is–”

“But necromancers can’t cast elemental magic, right?”

The earl stuttered. That was true. Practitioners of necromancy lose the favor of the spirits, so casting any kind of elemental magic becomes impossible for them. However, Matthias had seen Tolg use wind and fire spells firsthand. Since there was no precedent otherwise, it was impossible to conclude that Tolg was what the earl suspected that he was.

But it was a good point. How did Tolg know that the ritual was necromantic, even before Ujel had confirmed his theory?

Perhaps he didn’t have any ill intentions. But still, being kept in the dark gave Matthias a bad feeling.