Dark skies today

Humans generally tend to think of "night" as the time of the undead and monsters.

Many knights may be glad that the army of the undead didn't come in the night.

However, when they saw the army of disasters marching in the morning sun, they wondered whether it would be better to be able to see them or not.

Corpses advancing in step. Skeletons in armor. A cavalry beast with its belly ripped open. The first report of about 4,000 was almost correct. Several tattered banners imprinted with a rose of fresh blood fluttered through the sky.

The deformed army approached with unrestrained movements. A young knight who was watching from the top of the city wall through a magic telescope panicked and leapt to his death from the city wall.

The undead army came from the east, and the main force was positioned to block the eastern road. Next, a detachment was set up around the royal capital and took up positions on all of the western, southern, and northern roads. As it was, the coming knights of each lord would have to first break through hundreds of undead to even enter the capital.

In addition, René used magic to destroy the eastern road along the cliffs that were along the way.

Few troops arrived at the capital during the night. The few knights and farmers who could be dispatched ahead of the others from neighboring territories barely made it in time. On the human side, the First and Second Orders of Knights under the direct control of the royal family were almost the only force available.

The royal knights, composed of combat specialists, were far superior in terms of their individual abilities compared to the peasants of the lords, but they were undeniably a small force against the vast 4,000-strong undead army.

The rest hired adventurers and mercenaries who were in the royal capital, 'hitting them with sacks of gold', but for some reason, many adventurers were out of town and did not gather together, and about 30% of them fled when they saw the large army of undead that had appeared. Some of those who did not flee... may have simply made a poor decision and were surrounded, unable to escape even if they had wanted to.

The city gates were tightly closed, and even the city walls were covered with blue geometric lines of magical light. The city walls of the royal capital were equipped with anti-magic defense mechanisms.

A magic item that fueled by magic stones and the magic power of the land to put up a defense ... No, a Magic Structure. If they wanted to break through this defense head-on, the attackers would need an enormous amount of magic power.

There were no living human beings outside the walls.

There were only farmlands buried in the snow.

No beasts or birds were to be seen now, as though they had been forced to flee by the evil presence that filled the air.

As soon as the army was fully formed, something unusual happened.

"≪Speaker≫ x ≪Mirror Image≫ x ≪Refraction Manipulation≫ x ≪Dark Sky≫.

Assembled Spell......≪Propaganda Vision≫”

The sky darkened.

A dark blue sky without a single cloud. The area became dark like in the midst of a storm.

Then, screams rose from all over the city.

A huge, translucent image was projected in the sky.

The skeleton of a girl in a dress, which was almost too eerie, was looking down on the people with its huge body piercing the sky.

It spoke in a voice like echoing thunder.

The innocent sound of the girl's voice came with a fear-inducing reverberation.

"O people of the capital! And to the disloyal knights who serve the false king. Hear me. Elbert "The Sage" Elk of Ciel-Teira, rightful king of Ciel-Teira, and of the rightful heir of Ciel-Terra. René "Rosey" Ruvia of Ciel-Terra. King Elbert. His wife, Queen Rosalia. And I have risen from the depths of death to judge you for your sins for killing. Celebrate my resurrection and bow down to me. And afterward, atone for your sins with blood."

Many people shrank stiffly and uttered words of prayer.

They were not asking for forgiveness from René, but rather for God to save them.

As if to ridicule their dismay, the giant apparition continued.

"But I will give you an opportunity to repent. Remove the false king from his bloody throne and put him to the guillotine, along with all of his servants. Then I will forgive you graciously. You do not much time left. Do not think that I can wait forever."

The voice died away, the illusion faded away, and the sky returned to its original brightness.

But the voice still echoed in the ears of the people.

*

"That's it. We'll wait about an hour before we start attacking. It will be just enough time to wait for my magic power to recover."

Under a tent set up in the main camp.

René was enjoying the feeling of fear that was rising up from within the city, which was just barely within range of her emotional detection.

From the beginning, René never expected that the citizens, fearing her, would move to kill Hilbert.

However, it was important to make many think that 'there might have been a possibility of peace' when the time came to attack.

In extreme situations, people become aware of the possibility of saving themselves. If these feelings were stirred up, they would lead to the next step.

Do not let them unite. If they betray their neighbors, if they betray their friends, if they betray their king, ... they will think that ... they alone can be saved.

"Thank you for your majestic words."

The open tent, with only a windbreak and a few curtain walls, was set up as a command post.

Next to her, Alastair was writing endlessly at a desk lined with maps and call marks.

As in the battle for the destruction of Wesala, Alastair would be in the rear, in command of the whole operation once the battle began. But until then, he had another job.

Alastair kept a record of the movements of the main nobles in the coup d'état.

Within a few days, his intelligence and memory would deteriorate without a shadow of a doubt. He needed to have his memories of his lifetime exported by then.

Alastair was probably the one who knew best ... who sent René to death at that time.

For now, the priority was on attacking the capital, but no one involved was going to get away without a fight. For this reason, they needed to know what the situation was like, who was moving and what they were thinking, and other relevant data.

Incidentally, the speech shown above was written and prepared by him as a speechwriter during the march.

"Alastair. I have a lot of doubts about the number of documents you have. What is this manuscript B?"

René flicked the paper of the unfinished manuscript.

"The theme was "The Innocence and Cruelty of Children"."

"Maybe this way of speaking is more typical ..., but I still think it's a bit too staged. I think it was a bit overdramatic."

"I'm very sorry."

Although she was a bit concerned about the overproduction of the script, which was full of "☆" marks, she felt that this was closer to her true self.

René was aware that she was playing the role of the "Rose Princess of Hellrage". She was playing herself as a princess who bore all the resentments of the country and the royal family. In reality, René's revenge was a personal vendetta, and she had no idea of her origins until just before she was killed, but she thought she would look better as the avenger in the role of the "tragic princess".

The noble behavior that she displayed was something she had acquired during her month-long undercover work.

If she was not careful, she would start to speak in the same flabby tone she used to use when she was just a commoner, but she tried her best to suppress it. After all, being feared is what she wanted, and self-branding was important.

--Even so. I'm a little sad to lose Alastair's brains. I didn't have particularly high hopes for him because he seemed like just a jittery, pathetic old man, but he's quite capable as a military strategist. If he becomes a ghoul, most of his memories and personality will be lost, but I wonder if he would become a smart ghoul if he were to be rebuilt as one now.

He showed mysterious competence as a speechwriter, but he was also excellent as a commander and military strategist.

The ratio of René and Alastair's involvement in the planning of the operation in this attack on the royal capital was about 3:7. Alastair fleshed out René's general plan and corrected any flaws.

--I couldn't have done this attack by myself. ...I need servants. I need servants who are capable and who will not oppose me. Even the Demon King uses his minions to fight the heroes and ruin countries. The undead are useful but also troublesome in many ways... I would like to increase the number of non-undead comrades ... This Ciel-Terra is not the end of the story."

René's revenge would not be limited to Ciel-Terra.

The four major powers that triggered the coup in search of mineral resources needed to pay as well.

And finally, she would like to find a way to strike down the Great God or whatever he's called.

She felt it was impossible for her to do it all on her own. Even with the mighty Divine Protection cheat given to her by the Evil God.

Alastair, an ordinary person and as a fighting force, a piece of junk (compared to René), however, was now a great help to René in her fight. He had helped her reach places that she alone could not reach. Surely such things had to continue to happen in the future.

――Well, it's going to be tough to find someone who knows what I'm trying to do and is still willing to help me, I guess. Hmmm... Evil God-sama was talking about something like 'Demon King's Army in shambles', so maybe I could pull some out of the Demon King's Army...

Suddenly, René interrupted her future planning when she felt a chill rising from the depths of her body.

The royal capital was glowing white. The light radiated out and enveloped the entire royal capital like a dome and stayed unchanged.

(TLN: Illustrations are a bit different from WN story since they are from the LN, but anyway~)

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