Little by little, without being noticed (a very obvious move, actually), he approached the door that was the original entrance and exit, next to the big hole in the wall.
His mind was occupied with the question, âWhy here?â
Even if she had not been defeated yet, wasnât she located far to the southwest?
A little girl begging for a childish game.
It was hard to believe that this was the case. Even Ulrich, who was a complete amateur when it came to fighting, could tell, a feeling of coldness in his neck.
As if to say, âItâs insulting to be thought of as singling out a guy like him.â
âListen carefully. This is whatâs going on all over town.â
âEhâŠâ
Ulrich finally realized what was being said.
Screams, noises of struggle could be heard from outside.
Ulrich had almost gulped down the situation.
But it was too hopeless to comprehend.
How could the Undead invade a place like this so easily? Both the guards and the dukeâs soldiers who had gathered there would have to be swept away and the whole city would have to be destroyed to get to this point.
âŠThe dukeâs soldiers, who were supposed to protect the city, had in fact turned entirely into undead, a situation that Ulrich had no way of knowing.
âThen letâs go. «Ice Shackles»â
âGihiii!?â
Gagin! And with a sound, Ulrichâs legs attached themselves to each other, and Ulrich lost his balance and fell on his stomach. Using the fat as a cushion, he landed softly.
Forcing the flesh of his neck to fold in on itself, he looked down at his feet and saw that his legs were covered in blocks of ice, which stuck together like shackles.
âRule number one. You canât use your feet.â
âMm, I canât! How can I do thisâŠâ
ââȘWind Bladeâ«â
âGyaahh!!â
Ulrichâs arms were cut off by wind.
The wind blade shredded both arms along with the sleeves of his clothes, and blood dripped from his tattered arms.
âRule number two. You must move with your wounded hands.â
âWha-What are you talking about!?â
Ulrich exclaimed.
He was not only blocked from moving his legs, but also his arms, which were his only hope to move.
Ulrich had no confidence in his arms. He could not even do a single push-up. Although he could stand on his arms with his stomach as a support.
Ulrich prepared himself to be blinded this time, but he was wrong.
ââȘCreate Undeadâ«â
She cast a spell on the man who was stabbed to death in front of Ulrichâs eyes.
The man who was supposed to be a silent corpse moved.
âRule number three. Donât let me catch up to you. Iâm too lazy to chase you on foot, so Iâm going to use this guy as a vehicle. Good for you, itâs not very fast. Or rather, itâs not a comfortable ride!â
Ulrich watched the scene with his eyes wide open.
He doesnât remember this manâs nameâŠ, but he must have been one of Ulrichâs subordinates, anyway.
He was carrying the monster on his back, on all fours, like a parent playing horse with a small child playing knight!
She gently placed her own head, which she was holding in her left hand, on top of her neck and grabbed the manâs neck instead of the reins.
âIâm going to give the undead special orders not to attack you. Letâs get started.â
The desperate escape began.
ïŒ ïŒ ïŒ
Ulrich crawled along at full speed, dragging his icy shackles behind him, as fast as a tortoise could go.
The cobblestones of the main road were chattering with snow that had almost melted during the clear winter days.
The area around his stomach was soaked with moisture, and he shivered from the very depths of his body. If it werenât for the thick fat, he would have frozen to death long ago.
His arms ached as though they would tear into a thousand pieces with each crawl. Ulrichâs progress left a trail of dripping blood. The palms of his hands were so cold that he could not feel them.
âHey, someone help me! Help me! Iâll give you money!!â
Ulrich shouted to cover up the pain as he continued on.
The sounds of battle, carnage, and screams echoed from the area.
The undead seemed to be rampaging sporadically here and there, and even the direction in which people were fleeing was not constant. Everyone was frantic, those who passed Ulrich, those who crossed paths with him, and there was no one who heard Ulrichâs voice and tried to help him.
âWhoa!â
âPiggy!â
A boy running in front of him caught his foot in Ulrichâs face and pinched him.
It was like a kick hit clean on the bridge of his nose, and Ulrich could smell iron. A drenching nosebleed flowed.
The boy almost fell, but he stayed on his feet and ran away at a frantic full speed without looking back.
âKi, ki, ki, ki, you, you âŠ! How dare you kick meâŠ, Iâm Ulrich Toman, you little âŠ, Iâm going to make it impossible for you to live in this cityâŠ!â
Ulrich muttered with resentment. But no one even heard him.
But then.
Ulrich saw a carriage driving frantically ahead of him.
And when he saw the crest on the front of it, he thanked God for the first time in a year and three months, since his business rival had lost a lot of money in the stock market.
âBah, a carriage! Itâs a carriage, my carriage! Hey, let me on! Itâs me!â
Pulled by two magnificent horses, it was a carriage belonging to the Toman Trading Company. It was the company carriage used by Ulrich and the executives for transportation.
The driver whipped the horses and came at full speed.
âRideâŠâ
And then he drove right past Ulrich.
Ulrich could see the driver look at him, surprised, bitter, and then look away like he was giving up on something.
âOh, oh, oh, you bastard. My neck! Aaahhh!â
Ulrich howled, shaking the flab on his neck.
Yes, the man had not come for Ulrich, but had simply escaped.
She talked about the torment she had been subjected to by the knights under the name of âtortureâ.
Being whipped was just the beginning. She suffered from being pushed against a burning iron mortar, being splashed with boiling water, having needles inserted into her mouth and between her fingernails, having her fingers put on a grater, having her head plunged into a tub of water, having her fingers crushedâŠ
And then, an endless inferno of being enchanted with healing spells so that she couldâŠagainâŠgetâŠwoundedâŠagainâŠand again.
âYou see âŠ? This makes your hand hurting like nothing, doesnât it?â
She didnât come up with this kind of death game by exercising her cruel imagination to the limit, but she really thought it was ânothingâ to be made to crawl with shredded hands.
If she changed her mind for a second, she would add ârulesâ like pouring boiling hot water on him or sticking needles in his mouth.
If she did that to me, he would die âŠ! He would die!!
Ulrich went on with all his strength, just not wanting to die.
Ahead.
A battle was being waged.
âAdventurers!?â
Young men in armor with swords.
Three or so adventurers were fighting a great battle against twice as many undead.
And they were fighting well.
Seeing this as the final help God had prepared, Ulrich cried out in a hoarse voice.
âAdventurers! Adventurers! Hey, help me! Defeat this monster! And Iâll reward you with gold coinsâŠâ
ââȘDeath Cloudâ«â
Something flew from behind Ulrich.
A reddish-black mist-like substance was hurled at the adventurers and exploded, engulfing them.
âUghâŠâ
âGeee!?â
âAhhhhâŠ!!â
The undead involved were unperturbed, but the three adventurers fell down, clutching their chests.
âAhe?â
âHmm, I got some good material. I think theyâre about 4th class Guards.â
As Ulrich looked at her face, he ⊠became somewhat angry.
It was the momentary savagery of someone who was finally ready to die, or the defiance of a broken man.
âYouâre crazy! How many hundreds of thousands of people do you think there are in this country!? Why should I be the only one to suffer like this? I am neither a knight nor a king! Iâm just a merchant! I did not kill you!â
âIt was directly the knights who killed me, and Hilbert the Pretender. But it was the people, ⊠something vague that I donât understand, who fired them up. The only way to get revenge on them is to kill them all, but even I canât do that. While Iâm killing those who are within my reach, the rest will escape. The world is a big place. If there are 100 people, I canât kill them all, but I might be able to kill 50. Thatâs how I kill. I kill roughly, I kill capriciously, and I take revenge on the people by instilling fear in the survivors.â
Whatâs funny is that it was an adorable, girlish laugh.
âYou are the one who is killed by me. You are the one who will be killed by me, who happened to catch my eye, and who will be killed directly by me. You were simply unlucky. ⊠this is just âunreasonableâ.â
âWhâŠâ
âOh, and killing time. I told you. I said letâs play a game. I wanted to play.â
â⊠Okay, hold on a second. Fufu, sorry. I just got some work to do. So playtime is over. I know it was a bad, ugly toy, but I had a little fun with it.â
âYour body is going to be dull when I turn you into a zombie⊠Iâll give you plenty of nutrients and use only your sturdy-looking bones. You, there. Cut off his flesh⊠pleaseâŠâ
Ulrich let out a loud scream, his mind felt as if it had gone blank.
It hurt beyond the sensation of pain. Fatty sweat gushed out from his entire body in spite of such cold weather, and blood trickled onto the cobblestones like a trickle.
The skeleton did not try to kill him at once. First, he scraped off a little fat from his belly. Next, he scraped out something long and thin. Intestines.
Ulrich, who had gradually decreased in body volume, was now in a state of shock and despair.
In fact, if she tried to create a skeleton with «Create Undead», the flesh would be removed from the corpse and it would stand up with only its bones. Therefore, there was no need to remove the flesh of the corpse while it was still alive, but this was just a little mischief on Reneâs part.
ââStopâ, âhelpâ, âforgiveâ. ⊠I said a lot of the same things. No one listened.â