Final Judgment

“I accept, I definitely accept!”

Cliff was the first to answer, and the other captives looked at each other. In the end, they all lowered their heads and chose to accept this decision. After all, their lives were already in the hands of another; they had no right to choose anymore. Surviving was already more than enough.

“I will use my actions to pray for the forgiveness of the Elves.”

Flosa also accepted this decision, which meant that a new batch of blood slaves were about to be born.

“Then does that mean I…”

Cliff spoke.

“Oh? When I said ‘you all’, you were not included.”

Serea smiled as she spoke, and with those words, cliff’s smile froze on his face.

“L-Lady, you mean…”

“You commanded soldiers to attack my tribespeople. If you do not pay an additional price, the hatred in my people’s hearts will be difficult to appease. If that’s the case, even as slaves, my tribespeople won’t be able to coexist peacefully with yours.”

As she spoke, Serea gave her final judgment.

“So, for the sake of your subordinates being able to live peacefully with my tribespeople, all the guilt shall be borne by you as their commander. You will die in place of your subordinates. You are a truly great commander!”

“No, no, why is it me!”

Cliff shouted, and seeing the murderous glint in Little Black’s eyes, he almost broke down from fear.

“Why? I won’t bother explaining the details. Let me introduce you to some friends instead.”

As she spoke, Serea pointed to her side.

“This is Little Black, this is Little White, this is Little Red, and I am the so-called ‘fool’ Queen that you gave them their names!”

With Serea’s words, cliff was struck dumb, but moments later, a strong will to live made him desperately shout again.

“No, Your Majesty the Queen, listen to my explanation, I…”

Puchi!

Before he could finish, Little Black’s bony tail already pierced his abdomen from behind.

“To dare insult Her Majesty the Queen—death is already the greatest mercy you can receive!”

Blood Absorption!

Serea extended her palm, and a stream of blood welled up from Cliff’s abdomen and gathered in her hand. Feeling the blood in his body being gradually drained, cliff struggled desperately until the very end.

“No, Your Majesty the Queen, you cannot kill me, I am an officer of the Ailera Empire, you…”

His words froze. His blood was drained, and as a dried corpse, he died still struggling.

Thud!

The corpse hit the ground. Seeing this, his subordinates felt no anger. At that moment, their feelings could only be described in four words:

Utter satisfaction!

This showed just how unpopular a “commander”

Cliff really was.

After handling Cliff, Serea turned and asked Lola and the others.

“Now, the commander who led the soldiers to invade our homeland is dead. As for those captives, are you willing to accept them?”

“Her Majesty the Queen represents our will, and not a single tribesperson of ours was lost. Since our home has been destroyed, let them rebuild it for us through labor. We will not hold any grudges.”

Lola’s answer spoke for all the Elves. Hearing this, Serea looked again at the captives.

“And what about you? I killed your companion—holding onto that anger, are you still willing to willingly become my slaves?”

Serea asked, and upon hearing this, one of the guards chuckled.

“Hehehe, anger? We brought that on ourselves. A wrong command, a wrong decision, attacking the wrong enemy. The only one we blame is that pigheaded ‘commander’ who abandoned us. If Your Majesty the Queen is willing to forgive and accept us, we will only feel grateful, not resentful.”

“Not bad. You are quite perceptive. Then drink this.”

As she spoke, the Skeleton Warriors fetched bottles filled with a black-red liquid. Judging by the color, this batch of Blood Spring (Corruption) was of extremely high purity.

Each bottle consumed three Blood Crystals. At this level of purity, they were enough to turn every one of them into a blood slave, subject to Serea’s control.

“Spring of Life?”

“Drink it, and you’ll know.”

Serea said, and the faintly smiling expression on her face made the soldiers realize something.

Earlier, their crazed companions became that way because they drank this special spring water!

So, if they drank it too, they would also become like that—monsters for this “monster” to control.

But their hesitation lasted only a moment. As before, refusal was no longer an option. The guard gritted his teeth and was the first to gulp down the Blood Spring (Corruption).

Seeing this, the others followed suit, even the mage Flosa.

Incidentally, for easier control, Serea also had Maro and Camilla, who had been brought back, drink this spring water—since after witnessing everything here, they realized they could never go back.

Gulp, gulp!

With the Blood Spring (Corruption) going down, they would soon be turned into blood slaves, and Serea had no patience to witness that transformation again.

“Eighty, take them down and keep them under control. Tomorrow I’ll come to inspect the results.”

“As you command, Your Majesty the Queen!”

Eighty led the Skeleton Warriors to take the new blood slaves away, along with the unconscious ones.

On the other side, the skeletons also began to deal with the dried corpses.

There were many skeletons, and they moved quickly. Soon, all the corpses were cleared out of the settlement, and Serea used Blood Absorption to convert all the bloodstains in the camp into Blood Crystals.

In an instant, the camp was emptied. There was no trace of bodies or blood. Except for the wooden palisades and houses damaged in the battle, nothing remained to show fighting had taken place here.

And with that, the matter had come to an end. Feeling a little tired, Serea stretched. By rough estimate, it was already around 10 p.m.

“Ahhhh!”

Occasionally, the roars of zombies came from outside the camp. For this, Serea had the tireless skeletons and Skeleton Warriors guard the Elven village perimeter.

While defending against zombie attacks, they also served in scouting human movements.

Although, based on the intelligence, all the human forces in the jungle had been annihilated, it was better to be safe and keep patrolling.

As for the wooden palisade, tonight she would have the Skeleton Warriors patch it up as best as they could—for a full repair, Serea would need to personally control them tomorrow.

For now, after the long battle, everyone was exhausted, especially Lola. She had just used Blood Frenzy and now urgently needed rest.

“Phew, it’s finally over.”

As Serea said this, she turned to look at Aruka and the others.

Just then, Aruka’s tribespeople arrived as well, bringing the Elves with them. As the werewolves and direwolves moved in, the camp felt a bit cramped. With thirty more blood slaves and over a hundred skeletons, Serea would definitely need a bigger camp.

But for now, they would have to make do…

“Chief Aruka, I’ll have Vina arrange your people’s accommodation in the village.”

“Hmm, thank you, queen Serea.”

“This is as it should be.”

With that, Serea handed over the task of allocating accommodations to Vina, while she herself made for the Elves’ wooden house.

Vina, being half-undead, did not tire; Serea, however, did. She now needed rest…

For a time, everyone settled down in the Elven village.

As for the skeletons lost in the recent battle, Serea had already reanimated new ones from the bones in Addis’s ancient tomb—and soon, they would arrive.

Of course, Serea could have built a Plague Graveyard in the camp to resurrect skeletons, which would have been convenient.

But for now, she decided to watch and wait, to see how the humans would act.

The Elven village’s position was too dangerous. There were human troops ahead and zombies blocking the rear. If necessary, relocating the camp wouldn’t be a bad option.

(To be continued…)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep