Chapter 96

Day 1 of Return: Earthenware
"Umm, first, I need to turn anything that might still contain the king’s soul into ash as much as possible…"

Marylia looked at the freshly built furnace and the decapitated body of the King of Baltoria, then smiled sweetly.

"For now, let’s strip him down."

They removed the corpse’s clothing and burned it, as it was stained with the king’s blood. Anything that had already spilled was one thing, but she wanted to incinerate whatever she still could.

"Hmm, hmm. The furnace is working well~"

The furnace, made by stacking bricks and stones and sealing the gaps with clay, was a temporary setup but functioned properly. Thanks to the chimney effect, air was drawn in from the bottom, fueling the flames that roared beneath the fire grate, where logs burned fiercely. The king’s clothing, tossed into the fire, was consumed rapidly.

"This needs to be collected."

They retrieved all the ornaments. Naturally, they were made of magic stones.

"Hehe, such high-quality magic stones. If I wore the whole set, I could spread necromancy throughout the entire kingdom."

"Damn you, give them back!"

"No way~ like I’d ever return them. I’ll be keeping these. I’m sure I’ll want to move the island again at some point… and these would be useful for that."

Since she could acquire nearly all of the mana that had ruled over Baltoria, there was no way Marylia would let this opportunity slip. And so, she methodically collected the magic stones in front of the severed head, which was contorted with rage. This was the very reason for stripping the body!

… Up to this point, everything had gone smoothly.

"Eww~ I know we stripped him, but this is unsightly…"

… An unfortunate accident had occurred—the king’s corpse was now completely naked. Of course, it was bound to happen.

"Y-You…! Unforgivable! I won’t forgive you!"

"I don’t want to see this either, you know…"

The severed head raged furiously, but Marylia sighed and gave Jade an order.

"Jade, start by chopping off that unsightly thing and tossing it into the fire."

… And so, in front of the agonized severed head, the furnace roared, and part of the king’s body was swiftly reduced to ashes.

"Come to think of it, this corpse… even though it’s dead, it still had reproductive capabilities, didn’t it? Or did they kill him after securing an heir and then turn him into a lich…? Hmm, maybe I should have conducted more experiments and written a paper on it to advance necromancy…"

While Marylia muttered to herself, Jade continued methodically cutting up the king’s body and tossing the pieces into the fire.

Having been left overnight, the corpse’s blood had somewhat congealed, preventing it from spilling out when cut. This made dismembering and burning it all the easier.

More and more of the corpse and logs were fed into the furnace. Periodically, the accumulated ash was scraped out, mixed with clay, and kneaded.

The furnace’s flames burned high, illuminating the darkening Baltoria sky… and then.

"… Ah, just as I thought?"

Marylia smiled sweetly as she looked at the object Jade handed her.

"I knew it. There’s no way such large-scale necromancy could be performed without magic stones."

… It was a collection of magic stones extracted from the king’s abdomen.

"Those are…!"

"Yes, magic stones. No doubt the ones you used to perform the necromancy."

Marylia washed the stones clean with water and grasped them. The mana within was palpable—exceptionally potent.

"These are top-quality. If I keep them on hand, they’ll be invaluable in emergencies."

Holding the magic stones, Marylia smiled and turned her gaze toward the burning severed head.

"Even now, you keep regenerating every time you burn, thanks to these, I suppose."

The head’s eyes widened in terror, its trembling apparent—though the flames made it hard to see clearly.

"Well then, I’ll be taking these too."

"Stop it!"

Ignoring the head’s scream, Marylia clenched the magic stones… and then.

"Ah, so you can’t maintain regeneration anymore?"

As soon as Marylia claimed the magic stones, the severed head let out a final scream and burned away completely. The magic sustaining it had failed.

"Ehehe. I wonder if you’ll turn completely to ash now."

Marylia watched the burning head with a delighted expression.

Meanwhile, the golems, clutching kneaded clay and eagerly waiting, stood by as if ready to exclaim, "Time to mix it in~"

And so, dawn broke on the second day of her return.

"Good morning~ Now, let’s get to work again today~"

Marylia awoke in a plush bed she had taken from the royal castle, smiled brightly, and gave orders to the golems.

She stoked the furnace’s fire, adding fresh logs, then propped up the newly made Terracotta Golem parts to dry.

Ideally, she wanted to fire them right away, but if they weren’t dried properly, the earthenware would crack. It was best to leave them to dry by the furnace until around noon, at which point they would be dry enough to transport. Then, she could return to Fractalia.

"Everyone’s waiting for me."

With that thought and a bright smile, Marylia got to work, making the most of the morning.

"Hear me, people! The King of Baltoria is dead!"

And so, Marylia immediately raised her voice from the balcony of the Baltorian castle.

"If you wish to flee, do so now! Those who remain will be accepted as compatriots! But know that you will be under surveillance for the time being!"

Some of the populace had survived. In other words, there were still living citizens—not undead controlled by necromancy, nor ones who had perished in the island golems' invasion.

However, none of them had the will to fight Marylia any longer. In confusion or through tears, they either began packing their belongings or shouted, "L-Long live Lady Marylia!"

Seeing their reactions, Marylia smiled and decided to leave about a hundred Iron Golems behind. She felt it would be irresponsible to conquer and then abandon the kingdom.

… And so, by noon.

"Well then, I’m off. Take care while I’m gone."

Leaving the Iron Golems to guard the city, Marylia hurried back to Fractalia.

… Only to find Fractalia in complete chaos.

And for good reason. "People suddenly dropped dead!" That alone was enough to cause not one, not two, but ten or twenty different outbursts of confusion.

Simply put, with the final death of the King of Baltoria, his necromantic magic could no longer be maintained… resulting in the instantaneous death of every spy and soldier he had sent into Fractalia.

The most shocked by this were the citizens of Fractalia, who had been under attack at the time.

They had been desperately fleeing from the Baltorian soldiers, with no clue as to why they were being attacked—when suddenly, all the soldiers collapsed and immediately began to decay.

As they watched the hordes of zombies turn to ash and vanish, the people of Fractalia realized just how many undead Baltoria had sent into their land.

… Which brought them to the present, now that they had calmed down after a night had passed.

Before the castle gates of Fractalia, voices roared.

"Bring out the king!"

"Baltoria invaded us just like that!"

"We won’t forgive this!"

… A riot had broken out in Fractalia!

Leading it were the knights—Cyril Eregian, and others who, just yesterday, had been pirates. They pounded on the castle gates with fury.

But their actions would soon come to a halt.

"T-That’s…!"

… Not because of the royal family or high officials barricaded within the castle. No, it was because of something coming from the sea.

"Lady Marylia?!"

… The Island Golem, reactivated by Marylia, was slowly wading through the sea toward them.

And thus, Marylia returned to her homeland.

What do you think about this chapter?