Chapter 38: Deliberately misleading and raising thieves’ self-respect (Part 2)
Because it's a fortress city. The undead disaster in Lantier first broke out from the cemetery near the outermost city wall, and then spread to the inner city, invisibly blocking the escape route for most citizens. The tall and towering triple city walls of the fortress city can usually prevent enemies from entering, but when trouble strikes, it also makes the people in the city so anxious that they can't even get out.
Therefore, although there is a certain time buffer, not many citizens can actually find a safe city gate and escape from this dead city.
Although the dragon steward Sebas and the adventurers he hired have been trying their best to organize search and rescue according to Ainz's instructions, in the end they only managed to gather more than 1,500 people, which was less than the original population of the city. One-twentieth of. However, if we add in the more than 200 adventurers and handymen who were originally brought out of the city by him to go to Kahn Village for construction work, the total number will be more than 1,700 people, which is equivalent to the size of a small town. .
So, when Gazef, the warrior captain of the kingdom. Storonov led his men around the fallen fortress city. After Lantier walked around, he discovered that a large temporary refugee camp had been formed on the barren grassland about five kilometers north of the city. The adventurers who left the city first used local materials, built dozens of bonfires, cooked boiling water and wheat porridge, and distributed them to the frightened refugees to keep out the cold and satisfy their hunger.
——Although it is already spring, the wind on the grassland still makes people feel a bit cold.
Here, he once again saw Ainz wearing a jet black robe and a strange mask. When the other party saw him, he greeted:
"...Your Excellency, Warrior Commander Storonov, are you okay?"
"...It's not very good, Lord Ainz. Especially after seeing the miserable state of this city..."
Gazef jumped off his horse and told the truth frankly. At the same time, he looked at the piles of refugees around him and the people who were distributing hot water and wheat porridge to them. "...When did Ainz-dono come back?" And what's going on here?" He inquired seemingly casually.
"...Oh, I just came here after receiving the notice. I have been surveying the environment in Kahn Village before! Your Excellency, Warrior Commander, you should also know that I stayed in Kahn Village for two days before, and I feel that The scenery of the place seems to be good, and I plan to build a mage tower there as a villa, so I asked my steward Sebas to recruit craftsmen, coolies and adventurers in the city, and then bring them to Karn Village for construction.”
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Ainz answered calmly, "...Unexpectedly, Sebas had just recruited people, purchased food, tools, and building materials, and before he had even left the city, something happened in the fortress city of E-Rantel. Such a tragic thing... So, they camped here temporarily to watch Depending on the situation, I tried to save as many people as possible. After I got the news, I rushed over from Kahn Village as quickly as possible... By the way, Mr. Warrior Commander, you are from the government. Do you know anything about the cause of the tragedy? ”
"...This...to be honest, my knowledge is very limited, but such a city-destroying undead disaster will definitely not occur naturally."
Warrior Captain Gazef pondered for a moment and replied, "...There must be some powerful guy behind it!"
——In the civilized society of this fantasy world, undead creatures are not a rare thing, and are even more common than many beasts. Especially in a place like a cemetery where negative energy gathers. Even if there is no necromancer to cause trouble, various naturally formed undead will appear from time to time. And when facing a living person. Out of disgust for life, these undead monsters will instinctively attack these lives. Therefore, in any large cemetery, there will be vigilant soldiers. They are responsible for these undead creatures - allowing these undead creatures to return to the earth after climbing out of the coffin.
Of course, corruption, deception and dereliction of duty exist in all times and places. Due to the night watchman's absenteeism and dereliction of duty, undead creatures slipped out of the cemetery and poured into the city, causing panic. Things happened from time to time everywhere.
But if it is an ordinary corpse, its natural undead rate is very low, even in a fortress city. In a large public cemetery like Lantier, the number of skeletons and zombies that pop up every night usually does not exceed single digits. Even if this number is multiplied ten times, it is not enough to pose a threat to a big city - generally speaking, skeletons and zombies in fantasy worlds are not as contagious as the apocalyptic zombie viruses in movies and television works. sex. Moreover, undead creatures are generally slow in movement and reaction, and their bodies are far from strong. A healthy ordinary human being with a strong psychological quality can kill such a monster with just a wooden stick. Therefore, a super-scale undead disaster that can engulf a city in just a few hours, and first breaks out within the city, must be someone hiding behind it and secretly manipulating it.
"... That's it... If this is the case, I may have some clues here... Just this morning, when I led people here, I accidentally met some sneaky guys and made friends with them. He took action and repelled them after a fierce battle..."
Ainz pretended to be calm and pretended, and ordered the maid beside him to present several charred and tattered helmets, armors, and damaged magic items, "...these are the trophies captured in the battle, Your Excellency, Warrior Commander." Can you tell anything from it? ”
"...This looks...like it's equipment from the Silian Theocracy? And it's something that only elite troops like the [Six-Color Sacred Scripture] can afford! What? Didn't you learn enough lessons in Karn Village last time? ? These haunting guys! Sir Ainz, have you captured any prisoners alive?"
"...Uh, I'm sorry, there are no survivors left, only a few burnt corpses. Would you like to go and take a look, Warrior Commander?"
Then, he reached out and fumbled for the incomplete emblem on the corpse's clothes, and contacted the agents of the Silian Theocracy who had disguised themselves as knights of the Bahas Empire and came to the border of the kingdom to burn, kill and plunder, as well as the fact that he was killed by the Silian Theocracy in Karn Village not long ago. With the personal experience of the "Sunshine Codex" special forces ambush, coupled with some subtle spiritual hints from Ainz, Warrior Captain Gazef was immediately deceived and became lame as expected.
"...Could it be that this natural disaster of the undead was actually caused by the Silian Theocracy? Gods! They have always claimed to be the most pious people who believe in the gods! They actually collude with the undead? This is too shocking... But... they always say one thing and do another. Wasn't it shocking enough that they secretly sent people to sneak into our country's border to massacre the villagers? Alas, it's really hard to judge for a while..."
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——Although the Silian Theocracy admires human supremacy, humans in other countries generally have no good impression of it.
Because, although the Silian Theocracy openly adheres to "human supremacy", it advocates the use of force to eliminate and expel other "inferior races" (whether this can be done is another matter) and expand the living space of mankind. But the problem is that when dealing with other human countries, the Silian Theocracy has never seen them be even the slightest bit softer. Massacres and traps are common methods, as if humans in other countries do not belong to their compatriots.
Not to mention far away, they have recently lurked into the border of the kingdom, burned and massacred dozens of villages in one go, and killed at least thousands of innocent people. The goal was just to set a trap to kill the warrior commander Gazef, and further Just provoking civil strife in the kingdom - As for whether the positive image of the Silian Theocracy will be affected after the incident is exposed, the priests who rule this country seem to have never considered it: probably in their view, such indiscriminate killing A lot of innocent things have been done a long time ago, and everything is just a "necessary sacrifice".
What's more, in addition to human supremacy, the Silian Theocracy has a higher public goal, which is to unify all mankind, and this country really has such strength - under the influence of previous generations of time travellers, The Silian Theocracy has established a modern state management and military mobilization system, and has national cohesion and military combat effectiveness that transcend the times. Its military and national power are almost unrivaled in the human world.
The reason why the Silian Theocracy has not been able to unify the human world so far is mainly because of the constraints of foreign enemies. As mentioned before, humans in this world are not the dominant force. The orc country in the east dominates the essence of the continent, and its civilization, national power and Their fighting power is far superior to that of humans, and they want to flood the fragile human world at any time. The Silian Theocracy is the outpost and dam that resists the attacks of the Orcs from the East.
Just like the Eastern Roman Empire in medieval Europe, it had strong comprehensive national strength and advanced political and military systems, but due to its geographical location, it had to guard the eastern gate of Christendom to fight against Eastern pagans such as Japan. It was difficult to attack Western Europe. Just like the massive use of troops in Central Europe. The Silian Theocracy also guards the borders of the human sphere of influence on this continent, and has withstood the tremendous pressure from various orc countries in the east and south that have invaded the human world for many years.
Therefore, before completely dismantling the terrifying offensive of these sturdy orcs and southern elven tribes, and freeing up their hands from the main battlefield against the aliens, the Silian Theocracy has not been able to turn around and send troops to the Western Expedition or the Northern Expedition to launch attacks on other human countries behind them. Massive offensive.
But on the other hand, for the Silian Theocracy, which has already clearly stated the strategic goal of "unifying all mankind", other human countries will eventually be the next targets of conquest. Although it is temporarily unable to launch a large army to invade, it can instigate civil strife and bribe Small moves such as placements are also carried out one after another, and there is no lower limit to the means. How to deal with orcs on the Eastern Front battlefield, the same means are used to deal with humans on the Western Front battlefield. Such a posture of "those who follow me will prosper and those who go against me will perish" naturally abhor the upper-class ruling classes in various human countries and regard them as "a group of lunatic murderers who talk about great principles."
In view of the above bad impression, Gazef was not sure for a moment whether the Silian Theocracy had broken through a new lower limit and started to play undead massacre!
"...Well, this matter is of great importance. I must report it to the king and let His Majesty make a decision. Does Ainz-dono have any other discoveries?"
After thinking for a moment, Warrior Captain Gazef realized that this matter was far beyond his authority, so he could only sigh and say this.
"... There are no other discoveries... for the time being. But I would like to ask your Excellency, the Warrior Commander, what are your plans next?" Ainz pointed at the fortress city in the distance. Lantier, "...under such circumstances, will you continue to go deep into the city to fight against the undead?"