Chapter 12: She was Like a Child
Neolen flicked the blood off that was on his blade before sheathing them into its scabbard. His movement was fluid but the motion contained a lot of strength that it sent off the splattered blood flying with ease. He was a bit surprised by his strength.
However, he shortly concluded that this was because of his mistress's power. He guessed that he should be twenty five percent more powerful than he was still human. Which was a good perk for being an undead.
Neolen liked power, without power, what one could do would be limited. The more power you have, the more freedom you have. And power aside, he had not felt tired one bit after the activity he had done. He did not pant or sweat, he did not even need to inhale air.
Being one of the undead was quite a wonderful thing. But of course, it had its drawbacks. He needed to sacrifice parts of his humanity. His sleep, thirst, hunger, tastes, senses of temperature, tears, and perhaps a few more he had yet to realize.
But all that mattered to him was emotions, the thrills, joy and so on. He was thankful he still had those. Perhaps he might have been hesitant and conflicted like Heiness if he didn't have those.
He gazed at the numerous corpses littering the plaza.
"Geez, the mistress sure is something..."
Despite her girly appearance, she was quite a heartless person. She was a pretty emotional person, that was what he observed, but she was able to nonchalantly give the order to execute everyone here as if she wasn't formerly human.
Pools of blood gathered on each corpse, slashes on their body, head decapitated, while zombies feasts on some others. It would be a lie if he didn't feel anything about what he had done here.
In fact, he had a bit of regret in his heart upon taking the life of the people he swore to protect when he was still one of the living. He may have never truly loved anyone, but he still cared about the people. Although, not to the level like Heiness did.
Even so, he still acted as a knight because he cared. He would carry out his duty even if it brings him death. That was how he was able to face fearsome beings bravely and face it head on without retreating even though death was certain. No, he faced it because death was certain.
If he would die, then he better make it worthwhile.
Now that he had changed, he still had the principle in him to carry his duty. Not the one he had as a human knight, but as a knight of his mistress. He would carry her orders to no avail, even if he had to massacre an entire village.
Because of the deed he had just done, he had to discard the small guilt beginning to form in his non beating heart. It was unbecoming as an undead, and as a knight of his mistress.
He cast a spell and a ball of fire emerged from his hand, burning the house in front of him. He did the same to other houses nearby.
"You zombies, stop eating and set other houses afire."
He just wanted to try if they could understand him, but to his surprise, they began to walk away.
Ah, how would they light up the fire…
He mused.
"Wait! Take these."
He grabbed the torches nearby and lit them all up and gave them to the zombies. To his surprise again, they grabbed them like a normal person, though they were pretty much still zombies. Were they intelligent enough just to do basic orders?
"Alright go and use these torches to set every house on fire."
The zombies then scattered with faint groans and growls.
"Huh, awesome."
He turned towards the corpses and set them on fire. He thought back about her master's lesson. Erasing those who held vengeance towards them. Was she wary of what hatred could do? It seemed to be the definite case.
After all, she too wanted revenge for what was done to her. Emotions were indeed a powerful force.
"For the sake of the mistress, I'll make sure to turn you all to ashes."
If corpses were left as it was, there was a chance that they could become undead. Most may become unintelligent, but there would often be deviants. Some may have a small consciousness left as they roam around, and some may even keep the hatred they had for the mistress. He cannot let that happen.
He increased the flames and the temperature increased to a great degree that the flames had begun to reach above the houses.
In the meantime, he decided to make sure there were no other survivors since he imagined that would greatly displease his mistress. It would be bad for him since it appeared that the mistress was in a bad mood.
Also, no doubt the zombies would kill anyone they find. And any survivors wouldn't be able to escape with the barrier still around.
Time passed, and they did find a couple of survivors, but of course they didn't live out to tell the tale of this village's demise. Neolen commanded the zombies to gather the corpses in the plaza where they would be burned with the others.
To his surprise, it took longer than he had hoped. Human bodies were harder to burn, so he had no choice but to amplify the fire considerably, and that consumed a lot of his mana. But not to the amount that it would cause him problems.
Seeing that the village was done, he proceeded to head towards his master with the zombies following behind him.
A moment later, he saw his mistress beside a tree, the setting sun shining upon her, giving this gloomy atmosphere. She looked so vulnerable, the image of a tough and fearsome being that he saw her to be was gone.
She hugged her knees like a child. Neolen found himself a bit concerned for her. The girl who always carried herself with confidence and showing power, was now wallowing in sadness. He was reminded of the time he faced her when he was still human.
She was fearsome, but full of grandeur. He didn't want to see her like this even though she was the one who turned him into an undead.
He was reminded of how bravely he faced her even though everything was hopeless. But, he must fulfill his duty at that time. He was relieved to see when he was reborn that she wasn't angry at him and didn't treat him harshly.
He tried to think of a way to cheer the kid up — although, that was a bit rude to describe her mistress. But he could think of nothing.
As he got closer, he shifted his eyes towards the other knight. Heiness was standing behind the mistress and lowered her head while holding her elbow with her other hand as though she was ashamed.
Even an undead, she still couldn't bring herself to carry out the command to kill the villagers. She was lucky that the mistress wasn't a harsh master and didn't force her to do it either and even allowed her to excuse herself.
Others might have executed her on the spot or punished her severely.
However, she couldn't rely on the mistress's kindness forever. One day, she must willingly carry out orders, no matter how cruel and bloody they may be. Even if after a long time she still couldn't, it wouldn't be a surprise that the mistress would decide to execute her.
Neolen didn't want to come to that. There was even the chance that the mistress might order him to execute her himself. He wished it wouldn't end up that way. They were reborn together, and he would prefer that they go on together as well. It's hard to be left behind by a friend and comrade.
"... Mistress, I have done what you ordered."
He was a bit hesitant to speak with her at the moment, but he had to report it. The mistress slowly raised her head and looked at him. At that, he saw sadness in her usual bright eyes.
"Ah — Ahem…" she cleared her throat and sprang up. "Good job! Took quite a while, didn't it? Hm."
She had returned to her joyful and energetic manner of speech. However, that was a sudden change of demeanor. It was pretty obvious she forced herself to change mood, and Neolen knew she was still sad inside.
Perhaps she just didn't want to let his servants see that negative side of her and wanted to give an image of a casual person. But, wasn't that hard to do? The mistress had no need to do that and just be open with her feelings.
That was how it was for some rulers, and Neolen would have no qualms if she was open with her sadness or displeasure in front of him. However, it was her decision, and he couldn't do anything about it. Even if he knew it was hard on his master.
The mistress looked towards the village.
"Burned nicely, alright…"
The mistress paused as though she was thinking of something.
"Mistress, what will we do now?"
"Hm, it's getting dark, we'll return to your outpost for a while. We need to leave anyway before anyone else follows the smoke, if some are interested that is."
"Understood, then what of tomorrow?"
"We'll head for the nearby city. It's mayor is a hero, yes?"
"Yes."
"Alright then, let's go."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Tearing_Sanctuary
Tearing_Sanctuary Hmmm. If she was still human, our MC would have cried a few times already.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone