CHAPTER 391: Aftermath
"Ma'am!" I saluted as the lieutenant reached us.
"Koyuki, the major wants to see you, follow me." Camille said.
I nodded and followed, so did Rose which caused the lieutenant to frown. "Why is your undead coming?"
"She is my bodyguard, ma'am. There might be more assassins." I explained.
Rose nodded. "I am not going to leave Koyuki's side, especially with most of our forces still in pursuit of the goblins."
"I haven't asked you, creature. My orders were for Koyuki to follow." Camille stated.
"Ma'am, I am not part of your chain of command, nor am I officially deployed here as a student of the academy, I am simply helping Duchess Cathleen." I pointed out. I would not risk my own life just because some officer disliked undead. Although the incident showed that I could be in trouble if I ever was deployed under the wrong officers.
"It's fine, Lieutenant Camille. I will accompany you as well, I want to talk to my mother." Valeria stated.
The lieutenant stopped being difficult and led us towards the main group although she did look unhappy. Major Elarin was already waiting, together with Duchess Cathleen and Lieutenant Claude.
"Koyuki, you did well!" Major Elarin said. "I was concerned once your group engaged so early and the goblins diverted a large force towards you but I underestimated your party. We won with minimal casualties thanks to your undead."
Cathleen smiled. "Necromancy is truly a powerful tool on the battlefield, a tool that Ilestria does not have."
"But they have assassins, the goblins came straight for Koyuki. It could have ended badly if they had been stronger." Valeria said.
I nodded. "It's not the first time that we are dealing with goblin assassins. They came for me when we were attacked on our way to the Korrah Forest last year. I did get Kaito out of that battle though. Actually, someone had bribed the goblins to attack us back then, I am not sure if they ever found out who was behind it."
Cathleen frowned. "Do you think someone encouraged this warband as well?"
I shrugged. "I am not sure but I could see Ilestria trying to further destabilise us by encouraging goblins to raid."
"Would Ilestria truly conspire with goblins?" Lieutenant Claude asked.
"We are working with undead." Lieutenant Camille replied.
"Kaito is probably the most civilised among us and he is an undead goblin." Rose mused.
"I did not raise him with his previous soul, so he is a new undead just inhabiting a goblin body." I pointed out. "But undead can be quite civilised, I am not sure about goblins. I have never met one who did not want to kill me."
"Goblin culture is not important here, we all know they like the taste of humans and the Ilestrian zealots have no trouble sacrificing people. I could definitely see them trying to stir trouble by encouraging goblin raids. Actually, the field trips from the academy have been attacked way too frequently in the last few years. Spiders, goblins,... someone is trying to weaken us." Cathleen stated.
"Lady Cathleen, we should discuss this at another time perhaps." Major Elarin suggested. "The battle is won but we still have to clean up the area and ensure that there aren't any survivors regrouping. Perhaps we can even follow some of them and find out if there is a larger lair deeper inside the forest. There are also the corpses to take care of."
"Sir, we are not raising our fallen, are we?" Lieutenant Camille asked.
"We bury our own, Koyuki can raise the goblins." Major Elarin stated.
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I nodded, that was fine by me. "Sir, how are we handling transport? Ideally I would like to raise the remaining corpses with a bit of preparation. Raising them in the field does not give me the best results."
"We do have an extra wagon, I am not sure how many you can pile in there but it's yours." Major Elarin replied.
"Thank you, sir!" I said.
I could have the goblin zombie carry the corpses till we reached the wagon. The zombies themselves would have to walk back towards Redonia. It was not that far thankfully but I was not sure if we would reach it before nightfall. Anyway, we would deal with that later, for now I had corpses to collect!
I walked back to our group and met with Hatsumi and Kaito, who had returned from their pursuit of the goblins. The cats were still around somewhere, likely snacking on corpses.
"The battle is won and I believe you have added about 50 goblins to your forces." Kaito stated. "Additionally I believe we might salvage around 100 corpses."
I checked my links and he was right. I had 64 goblins under my control right now, excluding those I had left back at the academy. Considering that I had brought 10 that meant I had now 54 more zombies. I would have to check if they were all in fighting condition or if some of them were better used as cat food.
"Have you seen any shaman corpses we could use?" I asked.
"I believe so but we will have to check. I do not trust all of the soldiers here so we need to ensure they are not sabotaging the corpses." Kaito stated. "Garm is still in the field keeping an eye on things, as are the cats."
"We only have one wagon, maybe some of the zombies need to carry the corpses all the way to Redonia. Preserving so many is going to be tricky, at least it's still cold. It would be really bad in summer." I mused.
"Ma'am!"
I turned around and saw three soldiers approaching.
"Yes?" I asked.
"We have been sent to assist you with the corpses!" The soldiers said and saluted.
I scratched my head. "Uh, I am not sure how you can help…"
My eyes widened as I saw one of them pull a dagger and lunge. I did not have a spell ready, my arming sword was sheathed and all I could do was jump backward. Thankfully my reactions were slightly boosted from our circulation technique so I managed to avoid the blade.
However, he was not the only one attacking. The second soldier came at me from the right and I had no way of avoiding his stab. Time seemed to slow as his dagger neared my unprotected side. It glistened in the sun, coated in what I could only assume was some sort of poison…
His hand stopped, Hatsumi had been faster. Her hand gripped the wrist of the soldier and her eyes glowed with rage. The man screamed and dropped the blade as she crushed his wrist, then she grabbed his throat with her hand, pulled him close and bit.
The man who had tried the first stab tried to follow with a second one but he had trouble moving, as his body was engulfed in frostfire.
"Attacking our Mistress is a grave mistake." Kaito stated with a cold voice.
I looked for the third soldier, he had been the farthest from me. The man looked paralysed as Rose drank from his neck.
"Koyuki!" Helena shouted and rushed towards us.
"The undead have betrayed us!" Lieutenant Camille shouted in the distance.
"STAND DOWN!" Major Elarin shouted immediately afterwards.
"Are you alright?" Helena asked as she reached us.
I nodded. "Yeah, thanks to my undead…"
"We are only doing our duty, Mistress." Kaito stated, while the soldier being covered in frostfire screamed. Soon afterwards the soldier's head was completely covered in frostfire and the screams stopped.
As the officers, Valeria and Cathleen reached us Major Elarin asked: "What happened?"
"Betrayal, assassins, however you want to call that." Kaito stated.
"Yes, they betrayed us!" Lieutenant Camille insisted.
"Koyuki would not just attack our soldiers without a reason." Cathleen said.
"Vampires, unhand those soldiers!" Lieutenant Camille demanded.
"We need to question them." Major Elarin stated.
Hatsumi stopped biting her victim, then she licked her lips. "They need to die."
"I, uh, I killed mine." Rose stated. "But I think he is an undead now, like Bob. I guess I have my own Bob now."
"A fitting fate for a traitor." Kaito said.
"You cannot turn our soldiers into undead!" Lieutenant Camille shouted.
"Stand down." Cathleen said. "Koyuki is my guest and she has been attacked, she is in her right to defend herself and I will not deny her those corpses. If you can hand us one to question though I would appreciate it. You can keep the others, may they serve as a reminder about what happens to traitors."
"The frozen one is still alive." Kaito said.
"So is mine." Hatsumi stated. "I have paralysed him with my bite so he is currently unable to speak. He did carry a poisoned dagger, maybe it holds some clues?"
"I can have a look at that if you have a lab." Cassie offered. She had arrived with Skadi as well to ensure I was fine.
"I can arrange that." Cathleen said. "Also, my apologies for the incident, I will ensure that it is properly investigated. Major Elarin, take this frozen soldier into custody. Lieutenant Camille, your conduct has been questionable during this exercise. Perhaps you need to take a break and reevaluate who you serve. Your family is loyal to the kingdom, is it not?"
Lieutenant Camille looked like she had swallowed a lemon but she nodded. I had no idea if she was from an influential family but she had certainly acted suspicious. Thankfully investigating her was not my problem.
"Argh!" Lieutenant Camille shouted and jumped, drawing her sword. Two purple eyes stared at her from the grass.
"Meow." Nyx, who was currently the size of a kitten, licked her paw.
"It attacked…" Lieutenant Camille began only to be interrupted by Major Elarin: "Enough, let it go. Koyuki, please do not provoke my officers."
"It was simply a gentle reminder that we do not tolerate threats to our Mistress. Nothing more, nothing less." Kaito stated.
"Major Elarin, if you keep your troops in line my undead will behave." I said. The incident had been unpleasant but not that surprising, I suppose. I really should have been more suspicious of the unknown soldiers. Thankfully my undead were watching over me, I had no idea what I would do without them.