chapter 18

The next day.

After yesterday interrogation of the enemy commander, Leonard was now tasked with the important duty of raising corpses as zombies as soldiers to help keep the border safe.

He has been doing it diligently since the day before, endless raising corpses.

However, he reached a roadblock, magic depletion.

Leonard only had so much magic for reserve.

"Alright...last one…" Leonard struggled to raise the last corpse.

"Go joined up with the rest." Leonard pointed at the formation

The zombie then headed off to form the rank along with its kin, along the way it passed Vandal without giving him a glance.

"How are you holding there, Leonard?" Vandal asked Leonard, who now has dark bags under his eyes.

"...feeling like crap…," Leonard replied weakly.

Vandal looks at his little brother ragged appearance and felt somewhat sorry for him.

"This is enough, you don't have to raise any more corpses, just transfer their commands right to me." Vandal told him.

"...alright..if that's the case, they will now be under your commands." Leonard then ordered the zombie minions that from this day onward, they will take Vandal commands as if they were his own, until further notice.

"Alright, try giving them a command brother," Leonard suggested to Vandal.

"Alright, Salute!" Vandal shouted a salute command.

Immediately, all the zombies use their right fist and hit their chest.

Seeing close to a thousand saluted at the same time in unison is quite an impressive and intimidating sight to behold, Vandal couldn't help but felt impressed by these undying soldiers and smiled.

"Alright Leonard, I'll be leading them back and integrating with our own army now, just hope that the knights that fought alongside us don't freak out when they see these zombies." Vandal told him.

"Good luck that then," Leonard told him, his brother nodded and then led the zombies out.

Later that day Vandal and all the officers issue an order for all the troops to gather up to hear an important announcement.

Among them was Lucas, he held the rank of one of the cavalry unit that served in the previous battle against the Rosen kingdom.

"I wonder what's the higher up is up to," he muttered to the guy who was next to him.

"I don't know, I only heard a rumor that there are new knights joining our rank," he told Lucas.

"If that's the case why did the higher-ups gathered everyone here, they could just forcefully integrate the new guys into the rank, and done," Lucas told him.

"These guys could be special, who knows, maybe there are special circumstances," he told Lucas.

"Shhh, quiet- Commander Vandal is going to speak." Lucas shushed the man.

"Knights of the kingdom of Evergreen, may I have your attention please." Vandal words shushed all the whispering that was going in the ranks.

"We have a good new and a bad new that I wished to inform all of you." Vandal said.

"Let start off with the bad news, the bad news is- our enemy isn't just the Rosen kingdom, but also the church as well, it is them that supplied the Rosen kingdom with those death machines..the "trebuchet" that launched stones of which killed many of our comrades." Vandal spoke in an angry tone.

Then a commotion began to broke out within the ranks, probably due to the shock that the one who is their spiritual and religious leader was involved with the enemy that killed their comrade.

"Quiet down, it's not the end of the world, even with the backing of the Holy Kingdom, the Rosen kingdom still suffers a loss from us." Vandal told them.

"My lord, if you don't mind me asking, but what would the Holy kingdom gained out of all these troubles?" Lucas braved himself and spoke up.

"From what I've heard from the enemy commander, the church backed the Rosen because they want a piece of land to expand their border." Vandal told him.

"Alright,off to the good news then, the good news is- we will not fight the church alone, my brother- Leonard has managed to find a Necromancer to help our effort against them." when Vandal dropped the word "necromancer" to the knights, the commotion it caused was much bigger than that of the church involved in their recent invasion.

"Quiet down, I know what you're thinking, you're afraid that the Necromancer will defile your body after you die, no- we already made an agreement with him, he will only use our enemy corpses- like these over there." Vandal told them and then pointed at another formation of soldiers on the other side.

Many of the knights were surprised, they did not know that the small army that stood next to them was long dead and now raised as one of the undead.

"Sir- what would that Necromancer get out from all of this?" a knight asked.

"Money, the duke has agreed to pay a sum of money for the little army," Leonard replied to the man instead of Vandal.

"But couldn't we just use mercenaries?" the man asked once more.

"Mercenary are for one, expensive- second, not reliable, they will turn tails and ran once the situation is dire, unlike the undead, which showed no fears and requires almost nothing to upkeep, and of course cheap to make, since all you need is dead body and magic," Leonard told the man.

The knights look at one another and couldn't help but agreed to what Leonard said, because it is true, sure it might be weird fighting alongside corpses, but the economic value of it was undeniable, besides since the church has secretly plotted for their death, they might as well used the church's most dislike enemy against them just out of spite.

After Vandal's little bullshitting session, he dismissed the knights, after all the knights left, Leonard walked up to Vandal.

"You kept a secret that I'm that necromancer?" Leonard asked him.

"I'm doing this to keep you safe Leonard." Vandal told his brother.

"I know Vandal, I'm not faulting you, I'm just thanking you," Leonard told him.