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AL_Squad15-19 minutes

Chapter 556

"They're all empty."

Heroes' Hall, second floor.

Olivia and I opened the various stone coffins and confirmed that the remains were missing.

There were too many coffins to open them all, but it was clear that they would all be empty without checking.

Not only Harriet, but Kono Lint's spirit was gone too.

"This... this must mean..."

Harriet stared at me quietly.

"...The idea we had could be something others thought of as well."

"Yeah..."

Reviving past heroes as undead and using them as a force. Olivia's idea was bizarre and sinister, but ultimately a product of human thought.

There was no rule saying others couldn't have the same idea as us.

"But... for someone else to come in here like we did... and resurrect the corpses before escaping?"

Kono Lint's spirit was drained.

"It's strange that there's no uproar about this yet. Honestly, if it wasn't for my ability, we wouldn't have been able to get in here this easily..."

If the royal tomb had been raided earlier, there should have been a huge commotion.

While we could avoid getting caught, Kono Lint's point that others would surely leave traces behind was true.

"Where's the evidence that it had to be another faction doing this?"

"...What?"

What a foolish child.

"If it was the work of the royal family, there wouldn't be any commotion, would there? Who would know?"

The royal family reviving the remains of the royal tomb as undead.

It's a horrifying thought, but it can't be ruled out as impossible.

Only the royal family can confirm that.

"No way. The empire doing such a thing? Bertus?"

We would do everything we could to survive and win the war, employing all means at our disposal.

So, it's possible that Bertus would make such a choice as well.

"It's not certain yet. We haven't figured out that the empire is controlling the undead."

There might have been other circumstances in the empire, or it might have nothing to do with the undead at all.

It's just a conjecture since the corpses disappeared.

Olivia spoke with a stern expression.

"We need to check the national cemetery."

We can't know what exactly happened at the royal tomb.

But there's no more business for us here.

"This might not be the end."

Olivia had her eyes wide open, as if she was imagining something ominous.

------

All the stone coffins in the Heroes' Hall were empty.

Technically, we stumbled upon a bizarre incident while planning a major crime.

We don't have a duty to investigate this matter.

But we must find out what happened.

The most likely suspect is the empire.

However, Olivia believed that this might not be the end.

Kono Lint didn't have to accompany us to the national cemetery after we finished our business at the tomb.

But he seemed to want to know the truth about this strange turn of events and followed us.

To be precise, he didn't so much follow us as lead the way with spatial teleportation.

We quickly left the Imperial Palace, and together with Kono Lint, we moved to the national cemetery under the cover of deep night.

As it was night, the cemetery was naturally dark, and there would be no reason for visitors to be in this place at this late hour.

So, while the vast graves were empty, there was a light shining in the chapel.

The priests, administrators, and guards who resided there would still be around.

Though they couldn't enter the Hall of Heroes, there was a tomb area designated for those who had distinguished themselves.

We arrived at the outskirts of the cemetery, where the light and gazes from the chapel couldn't reach.

"What on earth could be happening...?"

Kono Lint looked fearfully at Olivia, whose expression had grown cold and hard.

"I won't know until I see it with my own eyes."

Olivia began scanning the tombstones in the darkness, one by one.

These were the tombs of fallen warriors.

Though she wouldn't recognize any names, Olivia gazed intently at each tombstone, passing them one by one.

"What are you looking for?"

"Dates."

Olivia replied succinctly to Harriet's question.

Silently scanning the tombstones, Olivia soon stood before one particular grave.

Perhaps she was looking for a tomb that had been buried more recently.

"We'll start the operation. Cover us."

"...Are you sure?"

"We're not doing anything on a large scale. Even if we wanted to get caught, it would be difficult with just one."

Since we were about to undertake a task different from the original plan of a large-scale undead resurrection, concealment would be easy.

There was no one coming and going, but it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

Harriet cast a series of concealment spells, including invisibility, and Olivia began pouring her corrupt divine power into the tombstone, her hand resting upon it.

Kono Lint glanced at me with a fearful expression.

"Could it be… that you think… even these tombs might all be empty?"

If not only the hero tombs but also the national cemetery's warrior tombs were all empty...

What would become of this situation, and how should we accept it?

His lips trembled.

"I don't know. Nothing's certain until we check for ourselves."

"..."

At my words, Kono Lint hung his head.

How much time had passed?

-Woosh!

The flat, blue grass behind the tombstone began to stir.

The stirring meant something was trying to emerge from the ground.

Could this place be intact?

The fact that something was resurrecting was evidence of that.

"Ah, agh...!"

Kono Lint's face turned pale, and he began to shiver.

-Gulp! Gulp!

-Swoosh!

Soon, the grass stirred, and a bony hand, all that remained of the body, pierced through the earth and revealed itself.

The resurrection of the dead.

To be precise, it was resurrection while still dead.

Kono Lint turned his gaze away from the sight, while I watched the half-revived figure crawling out of the ground, its arm extended.

-Grooooan

With a chilling moan, we soon saw the creature that had crawled out of the ground clearly.

The corpse, buried and decaying in the soil, rose up, wrapped in the black aura of corruption.

Some flesh still clung to it, making the sight even more horrifying.

Kono Lint didn't dare look, and Harriet covered her mouth as if she were about to retch.

Olivia gazed silently at the reanimated corpse.

"Uh… at least the corpses here are… still here, right?"

"It seems so."

Olivia gave a vague response to Harriet's words.

Olivia stared at the skeleton, its hollow eyes staring back at her.

It was nothing more than a rotting body that had come back to life without a soul.

"We'll need to raise a few more to be sure."

For a while, Olivia stared at the revived skeletons, and she briefly muttered.

------

Instead of a large-scale ritual, Olivia revived the corpses one by one, as if she were stealing in the dead of night.

In total, five.

Considering the size of the entire graveyard, it was a very small number.

"Say something, please. If you know, say you know. If you don't know, say you don't know..."

As Harriet mumbled anxiously, watching Olivia revive the corpses without saying a word and just staring at them blankly.

The revived skeletons mindlessly followed us.

"Go back."

Ignoring Harriet's words, Olivia briefly commanded.

-Grrrrrr

And the skeletons began digging back into the ground from which they had emerged.

"Return everything to its original state. Make sure no one notices the disturbance."

"Huh?"

"Do as I say, I'll explain soon."

Having just revived them, Olivia sent the creatures back to their tombs.

With a dubious expression, Harriet blankly watched as the creatures that had crawled out of the ground started digging to return to their graves.

Harriet used telekinesis magic to bury the disturbed soil and grass, and patched up the torn grass.

Though it wasn't perfect, it was enough to deceive the eye to some extent. Finally, Olivia looked at me.

"I tried five warriors' tombs, but I couldn't create a single Death Knight. What could be the reason?"

Olivia said she had failed five times to create a Death Knight.

This place is a graveyard for those who have achieved military accomplishments, especially warriors.

Not mages or others.

There should have been at least one or two Death Knights, but all had failed.

"It seems like all the corpses have been switched."

It was different from the royal mausoleum.

There were corpses, but there was a possibility that someone else was buried instead of the tomb's owner.

------

The undead Olivia had painstakingly raised returned to their tombs.

She had brought them back to life, only to let them rest again.

"Every corpse I've revived has been buried after the Gate incident and after the Coalition Army's departure."

Olivia had been reviving corpses based on the date, not their names.

"These were buried relatively recently. According to Uncle Sarkegaar, the Coalition Army mostly cremates corpses. However, the fact that these corpses were buried in the National Cemetery after the Coalition Army's departure means that they are very important people. Important enough to transport them through the Imperial Capital and hold funerals instead of cremation. You understand the meaning, right?"

"...Yes, I understand."

"But it doesn't make sense that I couldn't create a Death Knight with even one of the five corpses buried in the warriors' tombs."

These were the corpses of those who had established military accomplishments, important enough to be transported through the Imperial Capital and buried instead of being cremated. Their power in life must have been significant.

It should have been optimal conditions for creating Death Knights, as the corpses had not been buried long.

But to Olivia, they seemed subpar.

Of course, it could happen with one or two corpses.

But it had happened five times in a row.

"In conclusion, it's simple. In the National Cemetery, there's no corpse that can be turned into a Death Knight."

Olivia coldly reached her conclusion.

"Is the Empire really creating Death Knights? Does the Empire also have... someone who can wield the power of a necromancer... like you?"

At Kono Lint's words, Olivia shook her head.

"It's not necessary to assume they're Death Knights, but attempting to secure the corpses of those who possessed great power during their lifetime could suggest they're either creating something similar to Death Knights or conducting some sort of experiment. And even without Kier's power, wouldn't it be possible to create undead with strength comparable to that of Death Knights? That's what dark magic is for, isn't it?"

"Ah..."

The process may be different, but the result would be similar.

Even without knowledge of the power of the Demon King, creating undead is possible. Dark magic and Kier's power share similarities, after all.

If we were to create Death Knights using the power of corrupted divine power, the Empire could create them using dark magic.

"As I said, they might not be Death Knights. They could be doing something different than actually creating undead. But the Empire cannot be uninvolved. This place, as well as the royal mausoleum, are all under the Empire's control, so hoping that it's the work of a third party rather than the Empire would be overly optimistic."

Olivia concludes that the Empire is definitely involved in this situation, and I think so too.

The Empire might be using the corpses of the deceased for creating undead, or for something even more sinister.

What we're trying to do is no different than what the Empire has already done. It's pointless to argue whether it's evil or not.

However, it is shocking.

"That means, the act of repatriating corpses to the imperial capital is more likely a ceremonial act created to secretly use the bodies for other purposes."

"...That's probably true."

The process of honoring the dead and burying them in the imperial mausoleum is a cover-up.

Other bodies are buried while the real corpses are used elsewhere.

Sending the corpses to the imperial capital is already an excuse in and of itself.

"But we've never seen the Empire use an undead army, have we?"

"Right... We've neither seen nor heard of such an army."

Those were the words of Kono Lint and Harriet.

"They must be saving it for later, for when it's needed."

Just as our alliance with the coalition forces would be noticeable, if the coalition forces began using a Death Knight army, it would undoubtedly cause chaos.

It's an army that can't be used unless truly cornered. Olivia looks at me.

"If that were to happen, they'd have a plausible excuse. They could just say it's the Demon King's army, right? The Empire has too many things they can blame on you."

"...That's true."

Let's say the Empire really needs to deploy a Death Knight unit.

They could just claim it's an unrelated Demon King's army, and that would be that. The coalition forces would panic, but it's better than admitting they're the ones controlling the Death Knight unit.

As Olivia said, most people would simply accept the blame if the Empire blamed all the bad things happening in the world on me.

The Empire is stockpiling power.

The power they've stockpiled, even as they resurrect the corpses of fallen warriors, will only be unleashed in the direst of situations.

Bertus chose the path of resurrecting the corpses of fallen heroes because he now has the excuse of the existence of the Demon King.

It wasn't in the original work, of course. Back then, there was no convenient excuse of a new Demon King. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have been used until the very end.

There's no reason or right to blame. If Bertus hadn't done it, we would have.

However, Kono Lint could not close his mouth in shock, as the Empire was actually doing such a thing with their own hands.

When we do evil deeds, it's no different when the Empire does the same.

"I can't believe it..."

For a while, he just mumbled blankly.

Yes, at least if the Demon King, who is considered an enemy, were to do this, it would be somewhat understandable.

But in this case, it's a betrayal.

While calling those who died for humanity heroes, they're secretly raising the dead as an undead army in preparation for emergency situations.

It doesn't matter if my case becomes known.

I am the Demon King, and it's expected for a villain to create an army of the dead.

In fact, I intended to do such a thing regardless of Bertus's wishes.

When a villain does a villainous act, people ironically get angry but ultimately accept it as human nature.

I might be like that, but the Empire is not.

However, if it becomes known that they're doing such a thing, the Empire will be torn apart.

"Bertus seems to be taking an excessively dangerous gamble."

I couldn't help but say that.

A gamble that is too dangerous, even if it is risky.

But a gamble that must be taken.

"Now we can't reinforce the Death Knights..."

With a complicated expression, Harriet sighed.

Raising dead heroes as an army is not a proper thing to do.

It's fortunate that we didn't do it with our own hands, but it's clear that others are already doing it.

So it's both fortunate and unfortunate.

As Harriet said, we failed in reinforcing the Death Knights and were left with a very awkward suspicion.

At Harriet's words, Olivia shrugged her shoulders.

"No? There's still one more place left."

Huh?

What's she talking about?

"What's left?"

"There was one more place we intended to go. That's where we'll go."

Olivia gently placed her hand on Kono Lint's shoulder.

"Lint, can you help us one last time?"

"...Yes?"

"You'll help us, right?"

"Yes, of course!"

Unfortunately, our Lint was not someone who could refuse such a request.

"Where are we going?"

In response to my question, Olivia squinted her eyes.

"If this is the Empire's doing, then places outside the Empire's influence should still be safe, right?"

"Yes?"

"Ah... no way..."

I didn't understand, but Harriet seemed to get the idea and was flabbergasted.

"The Tomb of the Saints."

The Tomb of the Saints.

Naturally, the tomb managed by the Holy Knight Order and the Five Great Religions would be beyond the reach of the Empire's influence.

In the case of someone like Charlotte, she must have thought that we would loot the Hall of Heroes, and even if Bertus had created Death Knights, he wouldn't have touched the royal family's remains.

But the Tomb of the Saints.

I can't mention it directly, but it's obvious what's there.

"Is, is it... is it okay to do that?"

Olivia's stepfather.

The former commander of the Holy Knight Order and the man who died by my hand.

From my perspective, he died as a villain, but he is known to have honorably perished while fighting the Demon King.

Surely, the tomb of Riverrier Lanze must be there as well?

"I couldn't fulfill my filial duty while he was alive, so I'll take this chance to do so."

Olivia smiled brightly, and we were left bewildered in the face of that smile.