The Bezos guarded by Fiore, rarely allowed the Empire's intrusion.
Although sporadic battles broke out, the Empire, in the end, could not break through the defensive line.
Briol's border remained firm.
It seemed as though the Empire's invasion would be thwarted.
However, an unexpected anomaly was occurring from a place no one anticipated.
"Mmm..."
Facing the patient, Jermain tilted his head.
"What symptoms do you have?"
"My throat is dry, and I keep feeling hungry..."
"I mainly heal external injuries. For things like that, you'd be better off going to another priest or a doctor."
"I've gone everywhere, but no one knows the reason. I think if you would just shine the light of healing on me, I would recover. And pray for me, too. Then the Lord will look after me."
"You're devout."
"Of course."
As Jermain raised his hand toward the patient, on his chest was a badge representing the Allied Army Veterans' Association.
"Oh, that badge. You served in the Allied Army?"
"That's right. I was a battle priest."
"My goodness. The Allied Army, you're a hero."
"No, no. I merely fought alongside heroes."
"Oh, I think I've heard that line somewhere before. By any chance, did you meet the Third Prince?"
"Meet him? I saw his face every day."
"Wow, I'm envious."
Jermain examined the patient's face.
At a glance, his face was dark and gaunt, looking as if he had a serious problem.
Although holy magic could help with diseases to a slight extent, it never had the dramatic effect it did when healing external wounds.
Jermain invoked holy magic.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel good..."
"The Lord is watching over you."
"Yes, I believe..."
While unfolding holy magic, Jermain sincerely prayed for him.
He had never seen someone with such a dark complexion live long. Even if he died, Jermain wished for his soul to go to a good place.
"Ugh..."
Soon, the treatment was over.
The man stood up, bowed to Jermain, and staggered out of the room.
"Click click..."
As Jermain clicked his tongue, the assistant priest beside him spoke up.
"I've been seeing quite a few people like that lately."
"Quite a few?"
"Yes."
"He was completely gone."
"Exactly. People with faces that blackened like that come here, and I have no idea what's going on. It's like they all ruined their livers at the same time..."
"It's unfortunate."
"Shall I call in the next person?"
"Go ahead."
The assistant priest poked his head out the door and shouted,
"Next brother, please come in!"
He stopped mid-sentence.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
Jermain looked at the assistant priest.
The back of his head twitched, and then, startled, he slammed the door shut and turned to Jermain.
His face had gone pale as if he had seen a ghost.
"P–p–priest. Th–th–that..."
"What's wrong?"
"K–knight. Temple knight!"
"What's going on?"
"Call the temple knight! Call the temple knight!"
The assistant priest, as if he'd lost his senses, kept calling for a knight.
"What's wrong? Is someone causing trouble?"
"D–don't go!"
"What is it?"
Jermain rose from his seat, opened the door, and looked outside.
"Huh?"
An unreal scene unfolded before him.
The patient who had just received treatment from him, was biting into the neck of another patient waiting in line.
The victim's body went limp, convulsing.
Blood dripped from between the attacker's teeth.
Jermain shouted,
"K–knight!"
The patient didn't stop but chewed through the flesh. Blood kept bursting forth. The face that had been deathly black regained its color.
His mouth covered in blood, he tossed the victim aside, then turned his head toward Jermain.
That figure didn't look human.
Jermain immediately slammed the door shut and locked it.
"Wh–what is that? Why is he like that?"
"I don't know!"
Jermain was equally flustered.
That appearance—it was like an undead from legend.
Among them, it was exactly like…
"A zombie?"
It was the perfect likeness.
Jermain recalled what he knew about zombies.
Creatures that lost all reason, craving human flesh and blood, and those bitten by them became zombies as well.
"A zombie? That's impossible, they're just things in stories..."
"Y–you just saw it. Does that look normal to you?"
"B–but maybe that patient just went crazy?"
"No. Something's happening."
If something of this scale had happened, someone should be screaming, or a temple knight should have rushed in to resolve the situation—there should have been a reaction.
Yet all around was silence.
That meant something big had happened.
Jermain clenched his fist.
"Wait here."
"Priest?"
"I'll go see what's outside."
"A–after seeing that scene just now..."
"It's fine."
Jermain shook his head.
"I can protect myself, at least."
He was a veteran of the Allied Army. He wasn't about to cower in fear.
He wasn't a combat specialist, but he had, from time to time, swung a weapon clumsily to protect himself.
Jermain took up a sword lying in the corner of the treatment room—a patient had unbuckled it for a moment and forgotten it.
"Lucky there's a weapon."
"Will you be all right?"
"Even if I'm not, I have to."
Jermain quietly opened the door and peeked outside.
"..."
There was nothing.
The floor was stained with fresh blood, but the zombie and victim from moments ago were nowhere to be seen.
"What the..."
Suddenly, something fell before his eyes.
Blood.
Instinctively, Jermain looked up and raised his sword.
"Uwaaaah!"
The zombie, teeth bared, leaped down—only to have the blade thrust into its mouth.
"Keaaaargh!"
The zombie writhed, impaled on Jermain's sword, then went limp.
Jermain flung both sword and zombie away, then fell back, gasping for breath.
"D–damn. What is this."
Sweeping his hair back, he tried to calm his pounding heart.
"What the hell is going on..."
But it wasn't over.
Further down the corridor, several staggering figures appeared.
Though he couldn't see them clearly, their movements alone told him they weren't normal.
"Hey, hey. Hey."
Jermain glanced behind him as he backed away.
The assistant priest stood frozen, his face ashen, unable to move.
He was in a panic.
Jermain cursed under his breath, yanked his sword from the zombie's mouth, and shouted,
"Snap out of it!"
"Wh–what is this, what is this..."
"Hey!"
Jermain barked sharply and slapped him.
The assistant priest stared at him blankly.
"If you want to live, follow me."
"Yes..."
"You'd better keep your wits about you, understand?"
"Y–yes."
"Trust me."
Even as he said it, Jermain clicked his tongue inwardly.
In the Allied Army, he'd done nothing but trail after the knights, yet here he was, leading someone as if he were some great swordsman.
But what could he do? Someone had to.
Jermain fled the temple with the assistant priest. Occasionally, a zombie appeared, but he cut them down with his sword.
The zombies' physical abilities weren't much different from ordinary humans.
"Priest!"
Outside, a temple knight came running toward him.
"You're safe!"
"Oh, um, what was your name again..."
"My name is Charlotte."
"Ah, Dame Charlotte, what in the world is going on here?"
"I don't know either."
She looked around as she spoke.
"It was time for the shift change, but the next watch didn't arrive, so I came to check, and found this mess."
"The other areas?"
"A complete disaster."
"This is unbelievable..."
"We need to get out of here. Please, follow me."
"Where to?"
"Wouldn't it be best to head to the lord's castle for now?"
"Yes, that sounds good."
The lord of Francaise, Lian Flandre, was both an outstanding knight and an excellent lord. He also commanded a powerful knight order.
"Let's go."
Jermain followed Charlotte, bringing the assistant priest along.
From time to time, survivors reached out to them begging for help, but soon they would be bitten and devoured by zombies, or else become zombies themselves.
It was hell on earth.
"How could something like this..."
"My goodness."
From all directions, corpses with exposed bones and entrails staggered toward them.
It was a scene straight out of a novel.
Battling Orcs on the plains had been horrific in its own way, but this somehow felt even more unreal.
"T–this is only happening here, right?"
"I wish that were the case."
Charlotte shook her head.
"It doesn't seem so."
"Why not?"
"If it were, the army would already be here clearing things out. The fact there's still no sign of them means chaos has broken out everywhere."
"That can't be..."
"Over there!"
Charlotte shouted.
"There are horses!"
In the stable attached to an inn, several horses were moving nervously, terrified. The latch was firm, so it seemed the zombies hadn't managed to break in.
Charlotte smashed the lock with her sword, went inside, and led the horses out.
She kept three, and let the rest run free.
"Go!"
The freed horses scattered in all directions. The zombies wandering nearby lurched after them in a clumsy run.
Thanks to that, the zombies around them disappeared.
"Let's go now."
"Yes."
Mounting their horses, Jermain and the assistant priest rode after Charlotte.
The scenes along other streets were no different from what they had already witnessed.
Suddenly, a large building came into view.
It was Francaise University.
"Wait a moment!"
Jermain shouted without realizing it.
Charlotte turned to look back.
"What is it?"
"Wait, let me just check that place for a moment!"
Charlotte's gaze fell on Francaise University.
"Why?"
"Just stop for a second! We don't have much time!"
Jermain pulled on the reins to stop his horse, and stood before the front gate of Francaise University.
Charlotte, still on her horse, sounded irritated.
"Really, we don't have time, so why here..."
"This is it."
"What?"
"I said, this is the place."
Jermain gazed blankly toward the campus.
As someone who wielded holy magic, he could sense the presence of an evil energy lurking inside.
"Something is happening in there."
"I don't see anything unusual."
"I can feel it."
Charlotte dismounted.
Now and then, a zombie wandered across the campus, but there was nothing else visibly different.
"All right, I understand. We'll report this to the lord."
At that moment—
Someone appeared from inside the campus.
"H–hey, over here."
He was speaking in as low a voice as possible, so as not to provoke the zombies, as he walked toward them.
"Help me."
It was a man with disheveled hair. Looking around warily, he trotted toward them, stopping in front of them, panting.
"I–I'm saved. You're a knight."
"Who are you?"
"I'm a researcher here. I was working late, pulling an all-nighter, and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was like this."
Unfortunately, his movement caught the attention of the zombies.
The zombies wandering across the campus of Francaise University began staggering toward them.
"Damn."
Though not particularly fast, the sight of corpse-like beings limping or crawling across the ground to approach them was oppressive.
"Let's get out of here quickly."
It was at that moment, as Jermain turned to move—
The assistant priest screamed.
"Aaaargh!"
A zombie, who had gotten close unnoticed, was biting his calf.
He kicked at the zombie wildly with his other foot, then fell to the ground.
His horse panicked and began to buck.
"Damn it!"
Charlotte cursed as she swung her sword. The zombie's head separated from its body, falling to the ground beside the assistant priest's leg.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes..."
The assistant priest rubbed at the wound on his leg.
"I–it'll be fine, right? It's okay to be bitten, right?"
No one answered.
Legends about the dead were always the same.
If you were bitten, you became one of the dead.
Considering how the streets were filled with zombies, the method of transmission was obvious.
The assistant priest pleaded.
"Priest, please heal me. If you use holy magic, it'll be fine. So right now..."
Jermain nodded and invoked holy magic.
But the wound didn't close. On the contrary, as if something invisible was gnawing at it from within, it began to rot further.
The injury worsened, and bleeding increased.
"Ugh, aaagh..."
"F–first,"
Jermain said,
"we'll ride together and..."
But before he could finish, Charlotte swung her sword. The assistant priest lost his head instantly, collapsing onto the zombie's corpse.
"No..."
"It's too late."
Charlotte calmly sheathed her sword.
"If you're bitten by a zombie, you become one. I've seen it on the way here."
Jermain didn't argue further.
He had already learned in the Allied Army that not everyone could be saved.
"I understand."
His quick acceptance made Charlotte's eyes gleam briefly.
She soon noticed the Allied Army Veterans' Association badge on Jermain's priest's robe and nodded.
"You're from the Allied Army."
"Yes."
"Good."
Charlotte mounted her horse.
"Let's go quickly. To the lord's castle."
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