Chapter 3: 3

They were wearing masks, and with some difficulty, lugging around a corpse . I was so preoccupied with what I was doing that I failed to notice them approaching me .

“Go inside . ”

The divinity-filled zombie wiggled about and reacted to my words .

It willingly entered the pit on the ground and comfortably laid down . As an added bonus, it even began dragging in the surrounding earth to bury itself . I took care of the remaining soil scattered about .

I grunted heavily as I closed up the ground and carefully hardened it .

“Nice . ”

1

While feeling satisfied, I sneaked a glance at the farmers approaching me .

“Huh? Weren’t you with someone just now, sir?”

“Nope . ”

1

I shook my head to deny what he said .

It’d be wiser to keep the villagers in the dark about the undead .

Could you even imagine the kind of reactions it would cause if the Holy Emperor’s grandson was seen hanging around the zombies?

7

– The Holy Emperor’s seventh grandson has grown disheartened by his fate and signed a contract with the devil!

I somehow managed to ‘miraculously’ survive the suicide attempt, but now I was controlling zombies? A heresy inquisitor might really get dispatched here immediately .

4

It’d be rather difficult trying to convince the Priests of the Holy Emperor’s kingdom, when they only believed in what they wanted to believe .

1

“So, uh, Sir Imperial Prince-nim . Uhm…”

3

As for me, I was referred to as either the Imperial Prince or the Seventh Prince . Originally, I should’ve been referred to as the ‘Imperial Grandson (皇孫)’ . But the thing was, the Holy Emperor’s son, ‘my’ father, who was the first in line for the throne, had already ascended to the seat . But then he promptly went missing afterward .

7

So, my current title was apparently the ‘Imperial Prince’ .

1

“W-we greet Your Highness, the Imperial Prince-nim . ”

There was no way that a couple of villagers from the sticks would know anything about decorum or etiquette . The two farmers belatedly bowed their heads a little as their greeting .

For some reason, they seemed to be minding my mood too .

The original owner of this body must’ve thrown an almighty tantrum after such greetings were offered in his way . Probably .

I actually preferred these simpler greetings though . Besides that, I also had no clue as to what the established decorum or etiquette was myself, so I was in no position to demand that from these two .

I pointed at the corpse they brought in with my chin and spoke to the farmers, “What is that now?”

Feeling a bit fatigued, I stabbed the shovel on the ground and leaned against it .

The farmers quickly explained the story behind the dead body .

“You see, sir, my neighbour Beron died from the plague . ”

“Euh-euhk, it was so terrible . I’m worried about us getting infected by the plague ourselves and die later . ”

1

“You didn’t cremate the body?” I said in pure dissatisfaction, causing the farmers to stare at each other .

They then replied with awkward expressions .

“Well, that… You know, it’s a bit… Even though we weren’t that close, we still said good mornings to each other everyday, so we figured that he should at least get a decent burial, you see… We heard that a simple purification ceremony is enough to let us bury him as an intact corpse . ”

“W-we got tasked with this job recently, so we don’t know much about the finer details on what we should do, sir . How should we even cremate…”

I glared at them with eyes filled with dissatisfaction as I raised myself up .

It’d be fine to cremate the body and bring only the ashes, but these villagers seemed to be rather disinclined to harm the corpses . Perhaps it was due to the affection they felt towards one another when the dead body was still alive or something .

Obviously, the number of things I had to do would increase because of this, but oh well .

I raised my shovel up high, and then I glared at the farmers .

The farmers flinched in surprise and backtracked in a hurry .

“I-Imperial Prince-nim?!”

One farmer was panicking, while…

“I told you his old habit is still there! He didn’t change after his suic…!!”

…The other farmer was shouting loudly, his complexion ashen-white .

They probably thought that my shovel was aimed at them .

It was then .

-Ku-ohhhh!!

The corpse wrapped tightly in fabric suddenly writhed and began moving . It extended its hand out and grabbed one of the farmers .

Its cheeks were torn open and its mouth was split wide as if its jaw wanted to fall off .

Just before the damn thing could take a bite out of the farmer’s neck, my shovel sliced down . The edges of the farming tool slammed into the animated corpse’s head .

“Hiieeek?!”

The farmers got the shock of their lives and ended up falling on their asses .

I lightly dusted my hand and spoke, “I keep telling you people . ”

Raising the shovel again, I performed the kill-confirm strike . A rather bone-chilling noise issued out .

“If you don’t cremate the corpse, it’ll turn into a zombie in three-four days . ”

This world was rather unique in that way .

1

I wasn’t sure about a bustling city, but the thing was, when a person died near ‘negative spots’, such as somewhere out in the remote rural areas, some gloomy forest, or even in the middle of a battlefield, there was a one out of ten chance he or she would be revived as a zombie .

It was like the standard rule of this world or some such .

And the ones tasked with dealing such zombies among the villagers were called ‘hunters’, ‘gravekeepers’, or the Priests .

The ‘negative spot’ found in the surrounding vicinity of the ‘Land of the Dead Spirits’ was especially strong . However, this was also probably because this was the final resting ground of the Necromancer King, the one who turned the continent into an ocean of death in the past .

Thanks to that, anyone who died in this place had about a 50% chance of turning into an undead . The villagers already knew about this, and yet their dumb beliefs meant they were reluctant to cremate the dead with their own hands .

4

Their reasoning was quite simple–a superstition about getting cursed themselves .

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and then drank some water out of the leather waterskin attached to my hips . “Whatever . Thanks for your hard work . You may go now . ”

I waved my hand dismissively .

The two farmers swallowed nervously as they stood back up . They then studied each other’s moods before quietly opening their mouths . “Excuse me… Sir Imperial Prince?”

“What now?”

I stared at them as I drank some more water .

“I-Imperial Prince-nim, sir, you… You’re a Priest in a way, yes?”

“I don’t know crap about being a Priest or not, but I’m the grandson of the Holy Emperor, sure . I’m just the grandson of a man who enjoys the authority of an emperor and a pope at the same time . ”

Well, that’s what I was on the outside… Ah, I forgot about the divinity inside me .

“I-in that case, is it possible for you to bless us so that we don’t get infected by the plague?”

1

I looked at them with a less-than-impressed glare .

What the hell were they on about? There’s no way you wouldn’t get infected by the plague with something like that . Do you think that it’s some sort of vaccination?

Besides, I didn’t even possess such skills either . I wasn’t even a Priest, but a damn Necromancer, so why the hell…

4

I shook my head as a response to their request, but the farmers didn’t give up so easily .

“E-even if it’s just a simple baptism…”

They held hands and begged, their expressions serious and earnest .

The plague doing the rounds in this area lately must’ve been pretty grave . But then again, that had to be since corpses were frequently being brought into the graveyard . The appeal that the villagers sent to a nearby feudal lord must’ve fallen on deaf ears .

At this rate, it wouldn’t be strange to see a whole village disappear .

“What do you mean by baptism? I’ve never done anything like that before . ”

“P-please don’t be like that . ”

These farmers seemed to be under the assumption that I wasn’t helping them out because I couldn’t be bothered about their fate . They rummaged through their pockets and fished out a handful of coins before presenting me with those .

“This isn’t much, but please…”

Indeed, it was literally a pocket change that a little kid might carry around . I alternated my gaze between the two farmers, and they looked back at me with pleading faces .

I spat out a lengthy groan . “…If that can put your minds at ease . ”

Even though I said that, I still didn’t know how to perform a baptism or whatever . I mean, when would I have ever had the chance to do something like that?

I tried to recall what I saw in passing from TV in my previous life .

I poured a little bit of water from the waterskin at the two farmers . After drawing a sloppy cross in the air, I mumbled out . “Uh, so . Uhm, amen?”

7

Even if it was just for show, I thought it’d be discourteous not to do it .

Originally, one would have to spray around holy water and recite the holy scripture, but as I didn’t know how to do that, I decided to just gloss over the finer details .

When the farmers saw how sloppy I was, they sighed under their breaths . But still, they gathered their hands and offered their prayers .

“We pray that Gaia’s blessing will be with us . ”

It was exactly then .

[You have blessed your target . ]

10

…But how??

5

Fin .