After leaving his instructions behind and watching Jason disappear into the distance, Muen finally turned around and walked alone toward Notasia’s towering walls.

Crunch. Crunch...

With each step he took, a crisp sound echoed across the silent wilderness, like the anguished wails of countless dead.

Human bones cracked underfoot just like that. Even knowing they had all once belonged to enemies, Muen still felt his scalp prickle.

Fortunately, it would not last long.

Muen spotted a raised platform.

The platform stood right in the middle of the piles of bones. Judging from its position, it must have been built by the Kingdom army after the outermost rear defensive line of Notasia Fortress was breached, so they could command the battlefield more easily from there.

From that spot, one could overlook the entire battlefield.

"I see. So Notasia Fortress was broken from the rear."

He had already suspected as much earlier, but now, standing on the high platform and looking more clearly at the walls in the distance, Muen could finally confirm it.

"If the Kingdom had a way to circle around behind Notasia, then that means that in their original plan, even without relying on the Salvation Society’s help, they still should have been able to take this fortress.

At most, it would only have been a matter of time.

But in the end, they still relied on the Salvation Society’s power, which means..."

The corner of Muen’s mouth curled up in a mocking smile. "My 'hundred-thousand-strong army' really did scare you that badly, huh?"

The plan had worked even better than expected. Several hundred thousand troops had been "buried" by the Kingdom’s own hand just like that. From the perspective of the war between the two nations, the Kingdom was now in an absolutely hopeless position no matter how one looked at it.

"So it ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) seems the reason you ended up like this is one percent my fault too, along with Pink Bear’s, for coming up with that little plan."

Muen lowered his gaze to the sea of bones strewn across the ground. There was neither pity nor self-reproach in his eyes, only that smoldering fire that had remained hidden and unspent this whole time.

"But I’m not apologizing. After all, I’m just that yellow-haired villain who does every evil thing imaginable and only knows how to bully cute girls, right?"

The somewhat cold words melted into the foul wind. The several hundred thousand Kingdom soldiers who remained here as corpses alone naturally had no way to rise up and condemn Muen for his ruthlessness and coldness.

Muen closed his eyes.

Then opened them.

Deep darkness instantly flooded his pupils. In the space of his mind, the pitch-black sun wheel slowly began to turn, and black flames danced deftly at his fingertips.

Burning several hundred thousand living monster soldiers was probably beyond him right now. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

But if it was only several hundred thousand corpses...

Crunch...

Yet just as the black flame was about to fall, the familiar sound of bones being crushed underfoot reached Muen’s ears.

There was still someone alive?

"Who’s there?!"

The black color faded from his eyes. Following the sound, Muen whirled around.

And then he saw it.

At the base of the platform, atop the field of corpses,

a shriveled figure, gaunt as a dried corpse, was staggering toward him step by step.

The figure wore tattered armor, held a bloodstained sword in one hand, clutched its abdomen with the other, and shuffled forward with its back hunched.

"Who are you?"

Muen frowned and silently raised his guard.

Though the armor was so ruined that whether it could still be called armor at all was debatable, one could still tell from the refined patterns and the sheen along the edges how sturdy and expensive it must once have been. Anyone who wore armor like that and carried a sword that powerful and sharp had to belong to the absolute uppermost tier on the Kingdom’s side.

No... a Kingdom soldier still left here at a time like this...

Could it still be called a person?

"One of those man-made Kingdom monsters that slipped through the cracks? I didn’t expect there to be a lone one left."

After reaching that conclusion, Muen let out a breath and relaxed a little. Drawing Elizabeth with one hand, he started toward the monster, deciding to let it rest first.

But the moment he took a step forward...

"I..."

The monster spoke.

"I’m not..."

The Kingdom monster staggered onward and finally emerged from the pile of bones. Its bloodstained bare foot slammed down hard on the steps behind the platform, then it began climbing higher, one step at a time.

"I’m not a monster..."

"..."

Muen’s pupils contracted.

In his understanding, those undying Kingdom soldiers created through some method of the Salvation Society should have lost all reason completely.

But this monster in front of him...

No, this person...

looked like he was still conscious?

"I’m not a monster. I am... a prince of the Kingdom... the true leader of the Kingdom... the only great ruler who can lead the Kingdom toward a bright future!"

"I am—Aurier Saint Peron!"

The "monster" finally stepped onto the topmost stair and met Muen’s gaze.

That face was as gaunt as Muen had expected. The eye sockets had sunk in deeply, and only the two eyeballs within them, opened so wide that they seemed almost lidless, radiated a chilling sharp light.

"Aurier Saint Peron?"

Muen murmured the name. It took him a while to match this dried-corpse face to the information in his memory.

"I see. If I remember right, you were the commander of the Kingdom’s central army. Those poor soldiers aside... even you ended up like this?"

Though some fragment of reason clearly remained, there was no question that Aurier’s current state was no different from the Kingdom soldiers Muen had encountered before. He had long since been turned into a monster by some special power.

"Are you looking down on me?"

Aurier suddenly roared. His bloodshot eyes seemed to be staring at Muen, yet not staring at him at all. Those clouded pupils no longer seemed capable of reflecting anyone’s image.

"I’m telling you, I haven’t lost yet! Those Imperial bastards, that lying bitch, and that senile worthless old fool—they all want to defeat me, but that’s impossible! I, Aurier, am the King of the Kingdom! I’m the great ruler who will lead the Kingdom forward! I won’t lose! I absolutely will not lose!"

"Come!"

Aurier raised his longsword and pointed it at Muen.

"Let me show you the greatness of Aurier Saint Peron!"

"...I don’t particularly mind if you want to fight me, but there’s one thing I’m genuinely curious about..."

Muen stroked his chin. After observing for a long while and still failing to make sense of it, he tilted his head.

"How exactly are you still keeping your sanity?"

Muen very much wanted that answer.

Because this exception standing before him very likely pointed to a way of countering the Salvation Society’s bizarre trick.

Just like in zombie movies from his previous life, there were always a few people who would not be affected by the virus.

"Sanity? Ha..."

But faced with Muen’s sincere question, Aurier laughed for some inexplicable reason.

"You’re as stupid as that woman."

"..."

Was this bastard normally this punchable too?

Muen tightened his grip on the hilt. For the sake of the information, he would tolerate him for now.

"Please enlighten me."

"You think that by altering some rule and triggering this irresistible bloodthirsty instinct—this craving for bloody flesh that comes from the soul itself—you could make me completely lose my mind and turn into something like those lowborn wretches?"

Aurier’s smile was manic, full of contempt.

"Of course not. Who do you think I am...? I’m Aurier. The great Aurier!"

As he spoke, he finally removed the hand that had been clutching his abdomen the whole time.

Splatter.

Without anything holding them back, slick loops of intestine spilled out through the horrifying hole in his belly and slithered onto the ground.

Muen’s breath caught. But it was not only because the image of his entrails covering the ground was so grotesque.

It was also because Muen could see clearly that behind the hole in Aurier’s abdomen...

there was truly nothing there at all.

"Do you understand now?"

Aurier spread his arms, his expression immensely smug.

"As long as I cut out my own stomach, then I won’t feel hunger, I won’t crave bloody flesh, and I won’t be controlled by those ridiculous instincts, right?"

"I, Aurier..."

He grinned madly.

"...am a genius!"