Chapter 383: Chapter 383: Hunting Undead

There was a place which occupied roughly a quarter of E-Rantel’s outer ring, which was also most of the western quadrant. It was E-Rantel’s communal cemetery. While other cities had their own graveyards, none of them were as big as this one.

This was in order to suppress the spawning of the undead.

Although many things were unclear about the spontaneous genesis of the undead, the basic idea was that vile creatures frequently spawned from the places where the living came to an end. Of these, people who died sudden, violent deaths and the dead who were not properly revered had the highest chance of coming back to unlife. Therefore, battlefields and ruins tended to be infested by the undead.

Since E-Rantel was very close to the Empire and consequently its battlefields, it required a huge graveyard a place where remains could receive the proper veneration.

In this aspect, the neighboring country – the Empire also adhered to their common agreement to respect the dead. Though they slaughtered each other, they both saw the undead that attacked the living as their common enemy.

In addition, there was another problem with the undead. If left unattended, the undead spawned more powerful undead. This was why the city guards and adventurers patrolled the graveyards day and night to exterminate the weaker undead as soon as possible.

A wall surrounded the graveyard. This wall was the boundary between the living and dead. While it was only four meters tall and could not compare to the city walls, it was wide enough for people to walk on top of it. The large doors set into its side were sturdy and could not be easily breached.

All this was in order to ward against the undead that spawned in the graveyard.

There were staircases to the left and right of the doors, and watchtowers along the length of the wall. The guards took turns observing the graveyard below them as they yawned from the watchtowers, in shifts of five men at a time.

The graveyard was lined with sconces enchanted with 「Continual Light」 spells, so there was ample illumination despite it being nighttime. Still, there were many shadowy places, and visibility was even worse in those places blocked by tombstones.

A spear-wielding guard absentmindedly looked out to the graveyard, and said to his yawning colleague:

“Tonight’s quite peaceful too.”

“Yup, there were only five Skeletons earlier, right? That seems a lot less compared to the past.”

“Hm, could it be the souls of the dead were called back by the Four Gods? That would be pretty lucky for us if it were true.”

The other guards were drawn in by the topic, and began speaking up:

“Well, if it’s just Skeletons and Zombies we can deal with them. Still, it’s a pain to take out Skeletons with a spear.”

“I think the most troublesome ones are the Wights.”

“For me it’s the Skeleton Centipedes. I’d be dead by now if the adventurers standing guard nearby didn’t chase them away from me.”

“Skeleton Centipedes? I heard that the powerful undead only show up when you let the weak ones get away. So all you need to do is kill them all when they’re weak and the strong undead won’t appear.”

“Yes, that’s right. The captain chewed out the squad patrolling the graveyard last week. While it’s nice to have them buy a round for us, I’d rather not have to go through that sort of thing again.”

“Still… when I think about it, I’ve got a bad feeling about the lack of undead right now.”

“…Why’s that?”

“Ah, I just feel like we might have missed something out during our watches.”

“You’re thinking too much. There aren’t that many undead normally. They say that they only pop up frequently when they bury the corpses of the people who died while fighting the Empire. So on the flip side, this is what happens when there aren’t any big wars, right?”

The soldiers nodded to each other in agreement. They had buried human corpses in their own villages, but they had never heard of the undead appearing that often.

“…So that means the Katze Plains must be pretty insane.”

“Yeah, didn’t they say something about an unimaginably strong undead creature showing up?”

It was a place where the Empire and the Kingdom clashed in fierce battles. It was also a place famous for the proliferation of its undead. Adventurers hired by the Kingdom and Imperial knights would often go there to hunt down the undead. This task was important enough that the Empire and Kingdom’s support corps had built small towns nearby to support their personnel.

“I heard-”

A guard who was about to speak suddenly shut his mouth.

Another guard, who felt easy about this, spoke up:

“Oi, don’t scare me-“:

“Quiet!”

The silent guard looked straight at the graveyard, as though he could see through the darkness. Following this, the other guards turned to look at the graveyard one after the other.

“…Didn’t you hear it?”

“Were you imagining things?”

“Though I didn’t hear the wind blowing or the grass moving… I think I can smell dirt. Didn’t they dig a few graves just now? It smells just like it did then…”

“Come on, don’t joke about this sort of thing.”

“…Eh? Ah, oi! Look over there!”

One of the guards pointed to the graveyard, and everyone else looked toward the spot he was pointing at.

Two guards were sprinting for the doors. Both of them panted heavily, their eyes bloodshot, and their sweat-slick hair stuck to their foreheads.

Guard patrols in the graveyard moved in groups of at least ten. Why were there only two people here? Judging by the way they had no weapons and were running for dear life, they had panicked and fled.

“Open, open up! Hurry up and open the doors!”

~~~

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