Ch.248248. The Northern Empire

I’ll be honest.

That attack, the Skeleton Necromancer’s attack, was indeed orchestrated by me.

I specifically selected a Skeleton Necromancer with good acting skills, gave it a few special abilities, and instructed it to attack Peter with the premise that it wanted to turn him into an undead knight to serve it.

Any unexpected situations could be covered by me forcibly releasing Dukbing if necessary, as my ultimate goal was to make Peter willingly release the demon sword.

I deployed forces that Peter couldn’t possibly defeat in his current state but could overcome by releasing the demon sword.

That righteous hero would have released the demon sword without hesitation if his lover was in mortal danger.

In fact, the plan was proceeding quite smoothly.

Although Peter was fighting more valiantly than expected.

It was inevitable that the Skeleton Necromancer would gain the upper hand, since during the new moon, undead naturally spawn continuously in the surroundings, and all the necromancer had to do was gather them.

Additionally, the Ogre Zombie I personally provided to the Skeleton Necromancer was a specially modified version, and to prevent Peter from overcoming the challenge, I even gave the Skeleton Necromancer magical tools from the university.

I gave it a skull staff imbued with power to enhance control over the undead and a crystal orb that could store created undead like a container…

But of all things, a vampire who isn’t my follower suddenly intervened.

And not just any vampire, but one that remains in my old memories.

‘Rom’s Magic Knight’ Isabel.

If I recall correctly, she was a named vampire character modeled after Don Quixote, with beautiful pixel art and a good alignment, making her one of the few undead that could be recruited as a companion, which is why I remember her.

As I recall, the vampire frenzy affected her in a unique way, driving her completely mad, and in the process, her memories became jumbled, turning her into a seemingly sane lunatic.

She claims to still be human and a magic knight from the Rom Empire era that never even existed, when in fact the Rom Empire didn’t even have the concept of knights, let alone magic knights.

Despite this, her character exemplifies the perfect knight, earning her the nickname of a capable Don Quixote.

The absurd thing is that even with her severe delusions and mental disorders, she’s still relatively sane compared to other vampires.

Most progenitor vampires became my followers during the induction at the Blood Sanctuary in the past, but there were also vampires who didn’t respond to my call, as if they were my vampire avatars.

And while the vampires who joined under my command received the Blood Chalice and were freed from blood thirst,

those who stubbornly refused to submit to the end had no choice but to fully suffer the effects of blood thirst.

Thirst of Blood.

In the game, it’s a passive skill, almost like a curse, that all vampires inherently possess. Simply put, it’s a basic roleplaying skill where vampires suffer various debuffs if they don’t drink blood for extended periods.

But when this skill became reality, it underwent several changes to match its setting, one of which is the endless mental emptiness that accompanies it.

Since it’s a sensation caused by a curse on the soul, the vampire can never resolve it themselves, though the emptiness is somewhat alleviated during the act of drinking blood.

However, vampires who continuously indulge in too much blood lose their sanity and become hideous monsters.

So if they drink blood moderately while constantly suffering from mental emptiness… they gradually begin to go mad.

Suffering from auditory or visual hallucinations or symptoms similar to depression is the least of their concerns. They may periodically experience paralysis of reason, feel intense impulses, or develop obsessive fixations on specific targets.

Even our Lisa, if I hadn’t been there, would have eventually adapted to the vampire mentality and become a monster with the perverse habit of extracting blood from pure young people to bathe in it.

So Isabel’s relatively mild madness can be seen as just a cute quirk… Ah. My mind wandered for a moment.

Anyway, although I was perplexed by this completely unexpected variable,

when I think about it carefully… it’s not really a problem for me however things unfold.

From the beginning, with my now limitless options, I could make Peter release the demon sword Dukbing of his own will with just a little more effort.

So I withdrew part of my consciousness that I had focused on Peter, and then, with a sudden thought, I readjusted the direction of that consciousness toward the northern territory…

And then the people of Bremiya who had arrived in the northern territory of the Dawn Empire, the homeland of old Bjorn, began to come into the god’s view.

※ ※ ※

Northern Western Continent.

This region, which encompasses the northern part of the Western Continent excluding the northeastern part where the Rus Empire is located, is officially Dawn Empire territory, but is known to be occupied by several external forces.

First, there’s the Northern Wasteland, located slightly north of the great plains connecting the Eastern and Western continents.

Though called a wasteland, it’s essentially a land of snow and ice considered worthless, home to a strange multi-racial nation called the Soviet Holy Republic.

With a population primarily consisting of some orcs and northern beastkin, this place is traditionally an ally of the Dawn Empire, but due to the great physical distance, very little information about it is known.

Then there’s the Tundra Zone, which makes up the rest of the territory.

Too cold and desolate for farming, and critically, roamed by monsters affected by various cold energies, yet people still stubbornly live here.

Of course, since the environment is so harsh that even potatoes recently imported from the New Continent can’t be grown,

the people who survive in this tundra zone are known as the Northern Nomadic Tribes.

The rumor that the weak cannot withstand the environment and are eliminated, leaving only the strong, is common, and indeed, most northerners living in this region are famously large and physically robust.

The powerful cold magical energy of the north causing mutations in the human body, and the mixing of blood with large beastkin like bear-folk, are among the reasons for their large builds.

And the northern nomads of this region are treated as barbarians by the southerners…

This treatment is influenced more than anything by the north’s unique culture.

Those who worship the wolf god of war and rage use skulls as decorative items, and to survive the harsh northern life, they supposedly become career bandits who irregularly descend to the south.

Therefore, the people of Bremiya, who had vaguely thought of them as barbarians, couldn’t hide their bewilderment when they directly encountered these people and saw how different they were from their preconceptions.

“…Who are you?”

“W-We are followers of the god of vengeance, fleeing from persecution! And who are you?!”

When someone who looked like a stereotypical barbarian cavalry raider asked cautiously, the ceremonial leader answered with what sounded like a threat, hoping to avoid future trouble… and they showed a truly unexpected response.

“Oh, I apologize, brother in faith. We too are a tribe that worships the god of vengeance.”

“…That’s fortunate.”

Following the wolf rider who claimed to be a follower of the god of vengeance, they arrived somewhere.

The city of the northern barbarians they had only heard rumors about was far more developed than they expected.

All roads, though slightly covered with snow, were neatly paved with something like gray stone, and the cityscape, while not particularly splendid, was clearly developed.

The enormous city walls, nearly 20 meters high, featured intricate craftsmanship, and what appeared to be cannons were mounted at regular intervals along the top of the walls.

Additionally, the city had brass, copper, and steel pipes running throughout, connected to massive mechanical devices that emitted hot steam as they busily operated.

What particularly caught their eye was something oblong and round floating in the sky above.

The ceremonial leader, who had never believed that man-made machines could fly, was even more shocked and asked about the identity of the object floating in the air…

“Excuse me, but… what is that?”

“Ah, you mean the airship? It’s a joint creation of the Dwarf Kingdom and our Dawn Empire.”

“Dawn… Empire? So, are you saying this place is the Dawn Empire?”

“Yes. …Did you not know?”

One shock is buried by a greater shock.

Compared to the casual revelation from the wolf-mounted rider, the relatively milder shock about the airship quietly disappeared.