Chapter 16: 16

“You son of a b*tch! You used Necrom… . !”

Before she could finish her words, the shovel smacked her in the face once more . Despite blood dancing about everywhere, she didn’t die .

The Prince looked down on the dazed and bleeding Morian before speaking out loudly, “I shan’t be the one to judge you, but my fellow villagers will . ”

He then stepped aside . Even the platinum-haired girl released her grip on Morian .

Before long, the villagers approached her from all sides . She looked at their expressions and her own complexion paled greatly .

“P-please, s-s-spare…!”

She was quickly gagged and then dragged out from the cave . Eventually, the group returned to the monastery . The remainder of the villagers were informed of her evil actions .

The enraged people stoned her mercilessly . Once she became a broken wreck, they tied her up and hauled her back to the forest before dangling her up by the neck and abandoning her to her own demise .

2

Some time later, starving beasts passing by tore into her flesh and devoured her .

Three days later, she herself became a zombie . While still hanging on the tree, she flailed about ungainly .

The Imperial Prince looked at that spectacle and clicked his tongue . “Even if this is a fantasy world, the medieval setting sure can be scary . ”

9

The zombified Morian who was dangling by the neck continued to flail away while howling out loudly .

Without a Priest to perform her purification ceremony, she’d have to remain as an undead for decades, maybe even for hundreds of years .

This was the fate waiting for a Necromancer who relied on the magic of death .

“That’s too bad though . I wanted to find out what that Black Order thing was all about, but oh well . ”

3

If only he possessed a skill to talk to souls like a real Necromancer, that would’ve been real nice . Unfortunately, he wasn’t blessed with such a descriptive ability .

3

It didn’t matter at the end of the day though, since he was still an Imperial Prince .

After he was banished to this place, his influence as a potential successor to the throne had pretty much disappeared . Even then, there were still some people who made a move to eliminate him, perhaps fearing that despite his current state, he could pose some threat to them .

If that was the case, then he could certainly think of a few likely suspects .

Such as…

“My brothers, huh . ”

3

His siblings from the Holy Imperial Family who were eligible to inherit the Holy Emperor’s throne–it was possible that they were targeting him .

“Damn, how cold-hearted . I didn’t expect to get tangled up in a power struggle…”

The Imperial Prince clicked his tongue again as he shook his head .

Nevertheless, the curtains on the Witch Morgana incident had closed with this .

They were in the northern frontier’s Land of the Dead Spirits . The time for the ‘Tide of Death’, the moment when the instincts of the dead awoke, were closing on them once more .

**

Charlotte grew interested in the boy referred to as the Imperial Prince .

During the defence against the zombie horde, and during the mass funeral, she observed him from a faraway distance .

She heard stories about him . One of them being that while she was still unconscious, the prince took care to move the remains of her parents and sincerely performed their funeral .

She quietly watched the boy prince tirelessly perform numerous funerals throughout the night . Even when everyone was dog-tired, he didn’t rest and continued to work . He prayed with great care so that the dead souls could find some peace in their afterlife .

While seeing him like that, she felt a certain frustration well up in her chest . He was her life’s saviour, her benefactor . And he was also another type of a saviour, who saved her parents by performing their funeral rites .

“What kind of person is the Imperial Prince?”

Charlotte’s question was answered by the older girls and aunties of the village .

He was a mangnani, a maggot, an irredeemable trash, a dumbass who killed himself after failing to seduce a woman . All sorts of criticism aimed towards his direction were whispered right into her ear .

She frowned deeply after hearing them all . This wasn’t what she wanted to find out . Charlotte ended up glaring at the village’s womenfolk .

“Well, it does feel like he’s somewhat changed since three months ago, actually . ”

“Yeah, he performed my father’s funeral with such care back then, too . ”

“That’s right, he even saved everyone this time, didn’t he?”

They were grateful towards the Imperial Prince-nim . And they also seemed to be relying on him, too .

Charlotte recalled the time she supported the Prince-nim back in the cave .

‘He was so small and young . ’

1

Indeed, his figure felt tiny and very light . He was even more immature than she was, with a face that looked younger than her . And yet, with such a small body, he fought off against that huge bear . Even though he was injured badly, he still tried his best to rescue the kidnapped woman .

‘He’s actually very caring . ’

2

But then, that woman named Morian betrayed his faith in her . She lunged at the boy prince and tried to kill him .

Charlotte quickly stepped in to stop that from happening .

It all transpired in the blink of an eye, really .

By the time she regained her wits, she was already leaping high in the air, grasping the woman’s hair, and then slamming the woman’s head down on the floor . She even pointed the knife at the woman’s throat, almost slicing it wide open .

She herself was shocked by her own agile movements .

‘Was my body this light from the beginning?’

As it turned out, the woman was a Necromancer . Charlotte found that out after the woman and the Imperial Prince conversed for a while .

Charlotte couldn’t understand what they were talking about, but she was sure that this female Necromancer was targeting the Prince’s life . And for that purpose, many, many villagers had to die .

The Imperial Prince didn’t forgive such a person .

In the end, Morian was hung by her neck in the forest while she was still alive .

It was a truly gruesome fate .

That’s how this incident came to an end .

Charlotte and the rest of the villagers began rebuilding the village and hunted down the still unaccounted-for zombies . Then, they helped the Imperial Prince perform the funerals for the dead .

When the situation had somewhat normalised, farmer Gril came to speak to her .

“Charlotte, if it’s alright with you, why don’t you stay at my place?”

He smiled awkwardly while asking her . She had no place to stay anymore, and that’s why she nodded her head to express consent . But still, she looked in the direction of the Imperial Prince in the monastery .

“Is there anyone there helping the Imperial Prince-nim?”

“Helping his highness? What… Ahh, you mean as a gravekeeper?”

She shook her head .

She didn’t just mean the role of gravekeeper, but someone to clean the monastery, managing it, as well as performing other sundry chores .

Wasn’t such an environment just too unforgiving for a young prince to live alone? Shouldn’t someone at least try to lend him a helping hand?

“Ah, you wish to work as a maidservant?”

Charlotte nodded her head in response .

But Gril formed a troubled expression on his face . “The thing is, the Paladins told us not to place a servant near him . The reason being…”

…Because he was a mangnani; he was banished so that his personality could hopefully change for the better .

The Paladins said that having a maidservant would only cause the boy to become even more arrogant, rather than reflecting on his past and grow remorseful about it .

Gril pondered the situation for a moment before addressing Charlotte once more, “There’s one other way . Maybe it might work if you decide to become a nun . ”

“A nun?”

“Well, it’s a monastery, right? If you enter it to study faith, then the Paladins might not mind . ”

4

Charlotte nodded her head .

The next day, she went back to the monastery .

She found the Imperial Prince by the library . He was busy going through the written records recovered from the Necromancer’s cave .

“How complicated . At this rate, I’ll get assassinated for sure . Without a shield to protect me… I’ll definitely get killed . As for my skill proficiency, I gotta…”

A shield?

Not only that, assassination?

Charlotte approached the boy prince . He flinched after sensing the presence of another human and sneakily hid the book .

She tilted her head as she stared at him .

He replied to her with a heavy frown . “What’s this? Why are you here? I don’t have any funerals scheduled for today, so why can’t you let me take a break for at least a single day?”

“I wish to pay my debt . ”

“What debt?”

She inwardly went, ‘ah, I made a mistake’ . ‘Debt’ wasn’t the right word to use here .

She should’ve said the kindness he had shown her…

While regretting her choice of words, Charlotte tried to open her lips again .

“Wait, are you talking about back then?” The prince said .

He looked really surprised just then . For some reason, he quickly retreated and sneakily reached out towards his trusty shovel too .

Why was he reacting like that, though?

Ah, perhaps he still had unfinished business he needed to attend to?

“It’ll be better to forget about the past, alright? I mean, our first encounter wasn’t all that memorable as a shared experience, am I wrong?”

As expected of the Imperial Prince, his heart was secretly generous . He was even telling her to forget about the kindness he had shown her . But… how could she dare to do that?

3

He saved her life and ensured that her parents could rest peacefully, didn’t he?

“I wish to serve you . ”

“Eh?”

“And, also…”

Charlotte recalled the word ‘shield’ .

She remembered that this boy-prince had been exiled here . And not to forget, that woman Necromancer spat out the word ‘assassination’ too .

Someone was trying to murder this young prince . Without a doubt, his banishment had to be that person’s underhanded trick as well .

There was no way that a prince like this boy could be a mangnani .

Charlotte’s gaze shifted towards the books that were lined up on the bookshelf .

[The Imperial Swordsmanship Tutorial]

[The Imperial Self-Defence Technique and Practice Drills]

[The Methods to Operate and Control Divinity for Paladins]

There were several books here .

A shield… he was searching for it .

He was searching for someone to protect him .

However, if she came out and openly said it, he’d reject her . Because it’d be a dangerous task, that’s why .

“I’d like to offer my services in this place as a nun . ”

4

This didn’t mean that she should give up though . No, she definitely had to protect this person .

In that case, she should masquerade as a nun instead . As a nun, she would study his religion and train herself so that she could protect him when the time came .

A young girl might not be able to properly defend an Imperial Prince, but still, she decided to give it her all regardless of this fact . Besides, there could be a way for a nun to switch to a Paladin by learning swordsmanship .

This would be the only way for her to repay the kindness he had shown to her . She would protect the boy prince who had no one to rely on .

1

“That’s why…”

Charlotte smiled at him .

“…I’ll be in your care . ”

Fin .