Solution

Surrounded by skeletons and Skeleton Warriors, with those four terrifying monsters before him—and having just said such ‘words’ himself—Cliff couldn’t help but tremble at the thought.

Dorulu wanted to continue mocking him, but Dolusam pulled him back.

“Don’t interfere with the Queen.”

“Huh? Brother, don’t pull me…”

Dorulu was dragged away. Serea, gazing at the kneeling Cliff before her, then turned to look at the injured Doluka.

“Is it him?”

“Yes, queen. He led the humans to attack us.”

Doluka said through clenched teeth. Her eyes were filled with hatred as she looked at Cliff. Hearing this, cliff realized that the ‘master of the Undead’ before him was allied with those Elves. Once certain of this, cliff shouted out.

“M-misunderstanding, I… I didn’t mean to attack! We only came here for supplies!”

“Oh? That’s quite an interesting excuse.”

Serea smiled instead of getting angry. Seeing her wearing that expression, cliff’s mind started racing. He then noticed Flosa, bound by the magic-suppressing shackles.

“Yes, him! He told me the Elves had the Spring of Life, which could remove the plague—he tempted me to seize it! None of this was my idea!”

For the sake of survival, cliff put all the blame on Flosa. Upon hearing Cliff’s words, flosa raised his head in surprise to look at Cliff, but ultimately chose to remain silent.

What Cliff said wasn’t wrong. It was because he had revealed information about the Elves that their village had been attacked, leaving the Elves homeless. Although he could justify it as ‘just war’, the guilt in Flosa’s heart never faded.

Serea, hearing Cliff, then looked toward Flosa, who was under the Elves’ control.

“Bring him over.”

The command was given, and Flosa, still wearing the magic-suppressing shackles, was thrown to his knees beside Cliff.

“What do you say about what he just claimed?”

“It was I who leaked information about the Elves, which led to them losing their home. In this jungle overrun by zombies, I know what that means, so I do not intend to argue. As your prisoner, I will not question your judgment.”

Saying this, flosa bowed his head toward the Elves.

“Heh, unexpectedly honest and courageous.”

Flosa remained silent, while Cliff acted as if he had grabbed a lifeline.

“See? It was him! It was under his persuasion that I chose to attack!”

“But as the commander of your party, weren’t you the one who gave the order? By that logic, your crime seems even graver. As you said, this is war. You, as the enemy, committed such crimes—it wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to execute you, would it?”

“I…”

Cliff was speechless. Serea’s flash of ruthlessness made Cliff grit his teeth.

“But wasn’t the decision to attack one we all made together? And him, and him, and him too—they were all commanders like me. Shouldn’t such guilt be borne collectively by us?”

Cliff pointed to several surrendering captives. Faced with the threat of execution, nothing else mattered to him. He figured that if more people bore the blame with him, he might avoid death.

That was his thought, but the others weren’t pleased.

“Wasn’t the decision to attack made by you alone? And in the end, you tried to run away and abandon us. With that, do you still deserve to be called a companion?”

“Nonsense! Weren’t you all approving of the decision with your flattery before? Naturally, you share the guilt too!”

Cliff argued back. Hearing this, the others fell silent, feeling ashamed of ever currying favor with ‘someone like him.’

However, just because they stayed silent didn’t mean no one else would step forward.

“Commander Cliff—no, you no longer deserve that title.”

It was the guard who Cliff had wounded earlier. When Cliff tried to escape, he hurt this guard on purpose and ordered him to draw the enemy’s attention. But Cliff wouldn’t remember that this guard had once saved his life.

With burning anger, the guard spoke up.

“You who abandoned your subordinates don’t deserve to be called a commander. You who tried to escape alone, caring nothing for the lives of others, don’t deserve to be called a companion. What’s even more unfair is Mage Flosa—he originally wanted to communicate peacefully with the Elves! But you, out of greed, chose to plunder and attack. And now you want to push the blame onto Mage Flosa and us?!”

“Bastard! Who let you interrupt here?!”

Cliff shouted, then turned to Serea with pleading eyes.

“Great master of the Undead, please hear me: these people just want to drag me down with them! I am the highest commander here—I can tell you all about us. I’m valuable!”

Seeing Cliff’s performance, the guard’s face twisted in disgust.

“Pah! I truly regret ever saving scum like you.”

The guard spat angrily, but Cliff didn’t care. All he cared about was how to survive.

Watching everyone’s reactions, Serea asked Doluka at her side.

“You were involved. What’s your opinion?”

As the question fell to Doluka, cliff cast a beseeching glance, while Flosa was still tormented by guilt—it was his loose tongue that had caused all this…

Seeing everyone’s state, Doluka hesitated briefly, then spoke.

“The humans attacked us and caused us to lose our home. Without Chieftain Aruka’s help, we wouldn’t even be standing by the Queen’s side.”

“Then we might as well just kill these people.”

Serea spoke, and the captives all shuddered. Would they still not escape death in the end…

But then, Doluka changed her tone.

“But that human mage, out of guilt, tried to let us go. I cannot say if he was sincere, but his skills could be of use to the Queen.”

“Is that so…”

Serea looked at Flosa, who was now staring at Doluka in astonishment—he hadn’t expected Doluka to plead for him.

“Doluka, what is the loss to our people?”

“Seven grievously wounded, twelve lightly injured. Because Chieftain Aruka arrived in time, no one has died. The wounded have been treated and are currently on their way here with Aruka’s people.”

“At least there was no great loss.”

Serea remarked, then turned to the captives.

“You should be grateful that none of my people have died. Otherwise, I would not have needed prisoners today.”

As she said this, a smile appeared on Cliff’s face.

Did that mean…

“But since you ravaged our home and wounded my people with your barbarism, after your hundreds of comrades have died, I have decided to spare you from the death penalty. However, you will henceforth become the lowest slaves, bound to my tribe for life, laboring for me until death. Do you accept this result?”

That was Serea’s ruling—but not all of them would be spared from death…

(To be continued…)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep