episode_0147

A forbidden spell, necromancy, that revives the dead and manipulates them according to one’s will.

Even though 20 million people were dying, the Soviet Union conscripted poor rebels from somewhere, made political officers point pistols at the back of their heads, blocked the front lines, and succeeded in planting an enemy flag on Berlin.

I thought these two went together pretty well.

‘No matter how high the Soviet people’s will to fight, it is not possible to continue the fight even in the state of lifeless corpses. But what if it were possible to send the Ivans who fell to the ground after being hit by bullets to the front line separately from the Ivans who were still alive? There won’t be any trouble supplying troops with a large number of people.’

If the ghouls under Comrade Secretary General’s command have the ability to infect other living beings like those in zombie apocalypse films that are common in the 21st century.

Beyond pursuing extreme efficiency by sending dead soldiers back into the battlefield, the longer the battle continues, the more the number of allies increases while the number of enemies decreases.

‘Soldiers who have to fight against ghouls must wear additional armor to avoid infection, and if the armor is not a reinforced exoskeleton with a separate power source, their mobility is greatly reduced and even the slightest movement becomes difficult, making close combat impossible. It will work. The numbers of ghouls increase just by running towards them.’

First of all, I don’t feel like this ghoul standing in front of me has the intelligence to put advanced tactics into action, but I can’t let my guard down.

If we assume that ghouls have the intelligence to shoot guns and use various tools like human soldiers, it will be a more difficult fight for the human soldiers fighting them.

This is true even if you exclude the infection problem. First of all, ghouls are basically people who look so horrible that it makes you vomit, so even if you are a brave person, if you see ghouls running towards you to bite you, your morale will plummet and your chances of leaving the battlefield will increase.

‘Now that I think about it, I heard that during World War I, there was a case where Russian soldiers who were not real zombies but were attacked by German soldiers with poison gas attacked and successfully counterattacked without paying attention to the terrible pain of their skin melting.’

This incident was so famous that newspapers at the time called it ‘the attack of the dead,’ and it could be dismissed as simply an example of the bravery of Russian soldiers… but my opinion is a bit different.

‘What if the attack is not carried out by soldiers covered in poison gas and dying, but by walking corpses that are truly unresponsive and possess the ability to infect? Oh my, I can clearly see them making a counterattack as a group.’

Well… at this point, we can’t be sure whether Germany and the Soviet Union will become friendly and non-aggressive, get along well with Poland, and eventually go to war, or, unlike actual history, form a formal alliance and divide the world. It would be premature to start worrying about fighting against them.

First of all, we need to find out why Comrade Secretary General showed me the ghoul.

“Hmm, what can I say… It’s very surprising. It is understandable that Comrade Secretary General emphasized that it is ‘the most intimate secret.’ But perhaps that’s why I don’t understand why they show this to me, a foreigner who is not from the Soviet Union and will return to his home country someday. Can you tell me why?”

The reaction came immediately.

“This can only be said in a place where no one else is present, but there are currently too many traitors in the Federation who are only outwardly loyal to the revolution and inwardly are only looking out for their own interests. They hide in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and even within Encabede, which is supposed to be most loyal to the Federation. This means that guests from foreign countries can be more trustworthy than a federation overrun with traitors.”

The disease of suspicion is so severe that we have reached a point where we trust foreigners more than we trust people from our own country.

‘But if you look at it that way, wouldn’t it be right to be suspicious of the West for sending weapons and volunteers to the White Army camp to thwart the establishment of the Federation during the Red-White Civil War… Ah, Germany put Lenin on a sealed train and sent it to the Russian Empire. ‘He is credited with bringing about the revolution by sending him.’

And from the perspective of a patient with a suspected serious disease, a foreigner who can meet briefly, exchange compensation, and part ways without a word may be more trustworthy than a domestic person who meets face to face all the time and seems to often engage in suspicious behavior.

I can’t be sure because I’ve never been so suspicious of others in my life.

“You know this because you have seen it, but this power I am dealing with is a foreign power that is different from the power of magicians that rarely exist in each country. So, even after acquiring this power by chance during the civil war, rather than honing it to use it better, he was busy hiding it so that the story would not reach the ears of the enemies of the revolution.”

I thought that those whom Comrade General Secretary referred to as ‘enemies of the revolution’ were political opponents represented by Trotsky.

Let us assume that it is true that Comrade General Secretary gained this power not after his power had been solidified, but during the civil war when he was merely one of many Bolsheviks.

At that time, he did not hide his power and went around openly, but when he was fighting with his political opponents for the highest position after Lenin’s death, he was attacked by saying, ‘We cannot entrust the position of supreme leader of the Union to someone who uses supernatural powers such as necromancy!’ would have received it.

No matter how good Comrade Secretary General is at the art of scheming, it would have been a long way to reach today’s position if he had faced the political offensive of prominent competitors such as Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Bukharin, and this is absolutely unfounded.

‘I think this is my first time seeing such a persuasive Himsumjjin. It’s common for powerful people in novels and comics to be suffering from middle school illness, but they were so obsessed with protecting their power that they had no idea how to utilize it properly even though they acquired tremendous powers such as necromanship.’

Isn’t this the opposite of me, who acquired a natural talent for magic engineering with the help of my lovely daughters and actively used it to gain fame?

“Wait a minute. Is that why you invited me to the Soviet Union? If I, like Comrade Secretary General, deal with a special power that is different from anyone else, unite the divided people and show them hope, I may be able to help solve the problem that Comrade Secretary General is experiencing… Are you here?”

“That’s right. I’ve been trying to use this ability in some way for quite some time, but I can’t find anyone to help me within the Federation, where I can’t tell who the traitor is. However, there are limits to testing the ability on my own while avoiding the traitors’ eyes. There was.”

“Even if there was no one to ask for advice, unless you were born with the ability to use this power, the tool that allowed you to acquire this power…? person…? I’m not sure what to say about this, but anyway, if there was a manual or something, wouldn’t you have been able to look at it and study it personally?”

“Romanov’s grimoire, which allowed me to use this power, was substantially damaged when discovered.”

It is unlikely that there are that many people who would know about necromancy, but in the extreme chaos of the Red-White civil war, the only manual on necromancy was torn apart or burned.

Even if I were in the position of Comrade Secretary General, I think I would have worried about what to do about this. It would be a waste to just pretend that the discovery of the grimoire never happened and not use it, and there is no way to use it.

‘If we help you solve the problem Comrade Secretary General is experiencing, you can use it as a golden opportunity to understand your future enemy in the event of a fight with the Soviet Union. Conversely, in the event of peace with the Soviet Union, this could be used as an opportunity to test the capabilities of the allies to take charge of the Middle East and Far East fronts. Either way, it’s beneficial to me.’

If I provide that help through magical engineering, I can measure the power of the magical engineering weapons I created against ghouls who will not be prosecuted for murder even if they kill hundreds or thousands of them. If I approach it medically, I can measure the durability of the ghouls whose bones are exposed under their rotten skin. I think I can increase my level of knowledge by strengthening…

“It’s a bit awkward to ask a guest who came all the way, but I think you should spar with me. Will my ghoul army be stronger or your robot army? Aren’t you curious too?”

“I was thinking that too, if Comrade Secretary General says so. It seems like we can communicate better than our country’s bastard junkers.”

In this way, the sparring between Comrade Secretary General and I took place impromptu, regardless of schedule.