episode_0215

“Honestly, I would like to just eat the entire territory, but realistically, there are many reasons why it would be difficult. Considering that, it is better to sell the newly acquired territory.”

It was a story that could be fully agreed upon that it was profitable for Count Carbon to just hold the territory.

However, even considering the benefits, swallowing up the Viscounty of Tar was bound to be a burden in many ways.

“What on earth is so difficult?”

“The biggest problem now is that I pushed all the soldiers away.”

Even though some of the nobles had collected the bodies, he pointed to a contaminated land still full of corpses.

And, Count Carbon, who looked at the place for a moment, nodded as if he understood.

“The anger of the territory residents must be quite big. No matter how all-out a territory war is fought, it is rare to be annihilated like this… … .”

“If I wield real power as the lord in such a situation, there is a high possibility that the lords will not follow or rebel.”

When a territory war was fought with all-out fighting, as in my case, various problems tended to arise in managing the loser’s territory that had been confiscated by the winner. Basically, this is because the residents of the territory do not actively cooperate, or in extreme cases, civil unrest may occur.

Considering that, it wasn’t a good choice for me to absorb Viscounty Tar.

In addition, it was even more of a problem because I did not run the territory through vassals or administrators like common lords. The undead were used to manage the territory, but there was a high possibility that they would not follow the control due to fear or other reasons.

In the case of the city that was my territory, I was fine because I had adapted to it since it was a small village, but if I tried to manage another territory like my city, all kinds of difficulties would arise.

“Of course, it will be difficult to manage. But isn’t it still a pity?”

“What… … . I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. The more residents there are, the more taxes can be collected.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better to just close your eyes and have territory? In any case, the opposition of the local residents can be resolved with the passage of generations or sufficient appeasement.”

Count Carbon continued to express his opinion that he wanted me to own the territory, perhaps because he wanted me to increase my power and put pressure on the noble faction.

But still, I had no choice but to shake my head.

“It is not difficult to solve, but the management itself is close to impossible. There are no vassals or administrators that can be trusted right now. In fact, there is a shortage of administrators in the city right now.”

“Aren’t there undead? Why not do it like your city?”

“I’d like to, but it’s not at a level I can handle. Because my territory is close to the limit I can handle. It is impossible to completely control the entire Viscounty territory.”

If there were no restrictions on using the undead, he would not have thought of handing over the Viscounty of Tar to others.

But the reality was not like that. There were several restrictions on using the undead.

Controlling the undead from a distance was not impossible, but it required more dark magic. Otherwise, it was all about simple movement.

This was the case with the Logi Skeleton moving into the mine or outside. All they did was simply follow orders such as ‘Mine minerals and place them in a specific area’ or ‘Move to a specific location while avoiding obstacles.’

Of course, in order to prepare for sudden unexpected situations, etc., there were skeleton mages that could move autonomously. However, in the case of those guys, they consumed several times more dark magic than the skeleton mages operating in my city.

Considering those things, I couldn’t handle the entire Viscounty of Tar. Although the dark magic power could be further increased with the blood essence, inhaling the blood essence for a year or two was not enough to handle the entire Viscounty of Tar.

I might have been greedy for just one or two cities, but I thought being greedy for the entire Viscounty territory was overly greedy.

Anyway, when I told him that I could not annex the Viscounty of Tar due to my abilities, Count Carbone also stopped talking about annexing the territory.

“If that’s the case, I can’t help it. Instead, I will definitely introduce people who want to purchase territory.”

Instead, he seemed to only trust himself, saying that he would introduce people with financial resources so that he could benefit as much as he could by running his fiefdom.

“Ah, yes. Among those who watch the war as notaries, there are a few who do not have estates. Would you like to sit down with them once?”

“There’s nothing that can’t be done. Or, since we finally won the territory battle, should we have a small victory ceremony among ourselves?”

The nobles of the aristocratic faction had already left in a nervous manner, with no one left out, perhaps due to investment failure.

On the other hand, none of the royalist nobles left their seats. They didn’t come near me because I was talking to Count Carbon right now, but the others were lined up in a huddle as if waiting for their turn to talk.

Since everyone was staying in their seats, it was also possible to have the opportunity to sell the territory in the name of holding a victory ceremony.

Count Carbon also nodded as if that wasn’t a bad thing.

“Then would you like to go to my mansion first? I’ll just clean up after this and catch up soon.”

“It’s okay to wait here.”

“You can do that, but… … . Because it might be a bit uncomfortable to see you clean up after yourself.”

Count Carbon’s complexion turned slightly white as he talked about turning the countless corpses lying around in the polluted land into undead. It seemed as if countless corpses were imagining themselves as undead.

In the end, Count Carbone chose to move to the city before me along with other nobles.

I watched the royalist nobles moving towards my city on the various skeleton carts I had brought out, and when they were about to disappear from sight, they began to move.

The beginning was entering a land so polluted that just entering it was a curse.

“Wow… … . Really, if an ordinary person came in here, they would die within ten minutes?”

As soon as I set foot on the ground, I shook my head as I saw a surge of dark magic and the energy of death running rampant. Although the expression may be a bit cringy, it seemed possible to give it a name such as Land of the Dead or Land of Mortal Death.

Of course, since it was essentially dark magic that originated from me, it had no negative effects on me.

“Ugh.”

But that didn’t mean it was completely fine. Because the dark magic was so thick and the energy of death was overflowing, even natural undead were occurring.

A zombie, clearly dead, with only the upper body looking as if it had been cut from the left shoulder to the right side by a single blow, wriggled and stood up.

Since naturally occurring zombies do not have a warlock that can be said to be their master, they simply show a tendency to attack living creatures. Even now, he was wriggling his right arm and head hard to get closer to me, the only living person around.

However, I had no intention of being captured by such a zombie, so I immediately used black magic. He stretched out his palm towards the zombie and released energy, and the zombie that touched the released energy melted into a soft liquid.

“I need to work quickly.”

I started working right away, thinking of finishing the work before the corpses that were good for making into skeletons turned into natural undead.

However, since there were so many corpses to make into skeletons, I decided to use a method that was quite different from the usual process of making skeletons. If the standard method was used, the skeleton would be stronger and better, but even one or two days would not be enough.

I was planning to use black magic to turn all the bodies in the surrounding area into skeletons at once. Although it was very useful, it had the disadvantage of deteriorating performance by 20 to 30% compared to hand-made skeletons.

Even so, since more powerful entities were created than skeletons using regular goblins, he did not hesitate to use black magic.

A large amount of dark magic erupted from my body and spread out, sweeping the surrounding area. And at the same time, the corpses began to melt, similar to but different from how the zombies had melted just moments ago.

The bones of the zombies melted away, but only the skin of the corpses that were to be made into skeletons melted away. Originally, they would have been absorbed into the bones to strengthen the skeleton, but since it was a simplified method, that process was omitted.

Anyway, I turned some of the bodies around me into skeletons and immediately gave them instructions.

“Make sure to separate the bodies of the knights nearby.”

Although they had just become skeletons and had just become naturalized for the first time, they carried out my instructions very faithfully. The goal was to prevent the bodies of knights, who were too valuable to use as a base for regular skeletons, from being caught up in black magic.

Thanks to this, it was possible to create well over a thousand skeletons in an instant without experiencing the unfortunate incident that the bodies of the knights that were supposed to be used as knight objects became the basis for regular skeletons.

Even though several nobles collected the bodies, so many skeletons were created. Also, since the bodies of the knights were planned to be made entirely of knights, the number did not include the knights.

Thanks to this, I was able to see over a thousand skeletons standing on the polluted and blackened ground, looking at me. If I wasn’t a warlock, or if the skeletons under my command weren’t there, it would have been terrifying.

“Have some of you carry the body to the workshop in my mansion, while others absorb the dark magic and energy of death from beneath the earth.”

Of course, I had no need to be afraid because it was mine, so I comfortably gave instructions to the skeletons.

The skeletons that were pointed out to me collected the bodies of the knights that had been collected separately and began to move, while other skeletons began digging into the contaminated ground as I instructed.

If left as is, the land would become unusable for simple movement, so it was necessary to purify it. And, the method was to bury the skeletons here.

The undead were capable of absorbing things such as dark magic, curses, and the energy of death. It was possible to remove contamination from the ground just by burying them.

It’s a bonus that the undead are strengthened in the process.

Anyway, after disposing of the bodies and giving instructions for cleaning up the contaminated land, I immediately headed towards my mansion. There was still one zombie wyvern waiting, so fortunately, I was able to arrive at the mansion around the same time as Count Carbon.