Karnak, Monarch of Death

The reason Karnak's party always carried boxed meals was simple. None of them could cook properly.

They were experts when it came to slicing and dicing people, but very few had experience slicing vegetables. Varos was reasonably skilled with roasts, but that was because he was good at butchering meat, not because he was a competent cook.

For this reason, whenever there was a rare chance to light a fire and cook, Karnak was the one who took the lead.

"Chop the vegetables, the vegetables. Chop the meat, the meat."

They poured plenty of water into a large pot while Leven and Lapicel cut chunks of meat, carrots, and turnips to throw in. Conveniently, they found an abandoned pot to use lying around the house.

One might wonder if such crude processes would result in a proper meal, but that was the nature of stew. Throw in a bit of this and that, simmer it thoroughly, and it would generally turn out edible, as long as the seasoning was done right. Fortunately, Karnak possessed exceptional talent when it came to seasoning.

He shrugged. "It's just about adding the right amount of salt and spices, isn't it? Easy enough."

A monster capable of precisely weighing intangible souls could hardly fail at measuring out salt and pepper. While he couldn't create a world-class delicacy, Karnak was skilled enough to turn almost any food into something palatable.

The stew started to bubble, filling the house with a delicious aroma. It was the first warm dinner they'd had in a long time, and everyone waited expectantly for the meal.

That left Drel exasperated. "Shouldn't we first be planning how to deal with the cultists?"

The entire party answered in unison, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Food comes first."

"Food."

"A warm meal is important."

He was confused. Was this what it felt like to be a two-eyed man in a village of one-eyed people? Am I the strange one here? Is that it?

Karnak chuckled as he looked at Drel. "Usually, the ones who say that never even consider they might be the one-eyed."

At any rate, the stew was delicious. Perhaps it was the warmth of the meal after such a long time, but the fatigue of the journey seemed to melt away with each spoonful of stew. Only after finishing the meal did they get to the discussion Drel had been waiting for.

Karnak took on a serious expression and addressed everyone. "Now, first things first, we need to gather intel on their situation, don't we?"

***

At present, the forces of the fallen popes occupying Astlin City numbered around thirty thousand. However, that did not mean all thirty thousand were stationed within the city. Armies, by their nature, incurred massive upkeep costs simply by existing.

This reality did not change much even for the Black God's Cult, whose forces were primarily undead. The necromancers had to continuously maintain the flow of dark power to keep them active.

However, there was one decisive difference between armies of living soldiers and those of undead. The undead could be switched on and off.

Human soldiers required regular meals even while on standby, but undead soldiers reverted to corpse form when deactivated. While their bodies would eventually decay over time, they could maintain combat readiness for quite a while.

Thus, the Black God's army kept only about two thousand troops active within the city as an essential defensive force, while the rest simply stood outside the city, deactivated. They could be reactivated when needed.

The fallen popes, along with the cult's necromancers and other living beings, occupied and fortified the noble mansions within the city, using them as strongholds.

Unrolling a map, Karnak pointed to these locations. "Roughly from here to here."

It was a map he had drawn himself. Normally, city maps were not sold to civilians due to security concerns. Typically, one would purchase them at an adventurers' guild, but the guild had long since been reduced to ashes in the city. Hence, there was no choice but to draw it himself.

The map was remarkably precise, prompting Lapicel to let out a note of admiration. "You're surprisingly good at drawing, Lord Karnak."

He responded, "I'm fairly skilled at this sort of thing. I'm confident when it comes to handling a pen."

Varos threw in a comment from the side. "Though you were notoriously averse to using your body for much else."

Karnak was offended. "Haven't I been exercising quite a bit these days?"

Varos commented. "Oh, I'll admit that much. Compared to how you used to be, young master, you've really improved."

Lapicel tilted her head slightly, unable to follow the conversation. "Is that so? Lord Karnak, you've always seemed diligent with your training whenever I saw you..."

"Ahem, anyway!" Karnak quickly diverted the topic of conversation. "This is all the information we've gathered so far."

He pointed out the current positions of the fallen popes and the necromancers, as well as the deployment of the undead forces. He had gathered this information by observing from a distance, using Far Sight magic.

However, this method had its limitations. It could not reveal the internal state of the enemy's encampments.

"From here on out, we'll need to enter directly and gather information ourselves," he said.

The most common method for scouting enemy camps was for a mage to send in a familiar. This was a method frequently employed among the nobles who constantly engaged in political strife.

However, that was not a viable option in the current situation. No matter how discreetly one operated a familiar, it would still leave a faint trail of mana. Far Sight magic did not carry this risk since it was a method of observing from a distance, outside the range of the enemy's mana detection.

But familiars were different. Infiltration using familiars required getting up close. During wartime, when even the faintest mana disturbance could trigger alarms, sending in a familiar would only serve to alert the enemy. Thus, Karnak's party had no choice but to disguise themselves and infiltrate personally.

Karnak asked, "That's the specialty of the King's Order, so it shouldn't pose a problem, right?"

Serati raised a critical point. "But we've hardly ever actually done infiltration work, have we?"

Because Karnak was so proficient in necromancy-related operations, most missions ended cleanly without ever requiring infiltration.

Milia added a comment. "Besides, it's been a long time since we've had missions like that."

After all, Karnak had been running around all over the continent, taking care of his own issues. Meanwhile, they had continued receiving their salaries faithfully, which might as well have counted as embezzlement at this point.

Leven said, "I don't even really feel like I'm part of the King's Order."

Lapicel nodded. "Same here."

And in Drel's case— "Wait, all of you were in the King's Order?"

Karnak scratched his head awkwardly. "Did I never mention that? I didn't think it was that important..."

And it wasn't entirely inaccurate.After returning from time regression, facing down the God of Death, founding the Twilight Church, commanding Archliches, and dealing with martial kings and archmages, whether or not he was part of the King's Order felt like a trivial detail.

In any case, while they truly were members of the King's Order, none of them had much experience with infiltration missions. To be honest, under normal circumstances, they would have simply left it to someone else. But now was not the time for that.

Karnak took on a solemn look. "We'll have to handle it ourselves."

Varos shot him a sideways glare. "You say we, but what you really mean is 'the rest of you handle it,' right?"

Karnak nodded. "Of course. Do you think a noble young master like me, raised in comfort all my life, could pass as a servant without getting caught?"

At that, the current head of the Strauss family remarked, "Our house is a ducal household, you know."

And the heir of one of the top ten noble houses in the empire added, "Our family is a marquisate, for the record."

How dare a mere baron boast of his pedigree? "Then you two can sit this one out too..."

***

The undead soldiers forming the main force of the Black God's Cult required little management, especially the lower ranks like zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.

It was far easier to use them until they broke apart and then replace them with new corpses rather than trying to preserve them for extended periods. This was especially true in a campaign where new corpses were constantly being generated.

However, not all undead were disposable. High-ranking undead like vampires, elder ghouls, and demon zombies retained their intelligence and were treated as valuable assets within the cult. Much like the necromancers who still possessed living bodies, they enjoyed a semblance of human life, albeit in their own unique ways.

Now that the Black God's Cult had conquered Astlin City and occupied the noble mansions, those who had previously lived in hiding and austerity suddenly found themselves with the wealth and power to indulge.

And what came next? Naturally, it was only human to desire to experience luxuries they could never have dreamed of before.

"For that reason, I heard they're recruiting servants everywhere to put to work," Karnak explained.

Drel asked in disbelief, "Without even checking their identities?"

"Yeah."

Drel laid out all the possibilities. "Couldn't it be a trap? They wouldn't just roll out the red carpet for spies to walk in..."

"That's the way nobles think," explained Karnak. Most of the Black God's cultists were once oppressed commoners. "Just because honest folk have turned wicked doesn't mean they suddenly become cunning."

Of course, Leoslav and Relfiana were much more cunning and intelligent. But even they didn't seem particularly concerned about this matter.

Karnak continued, "If they were planning to make this place a permanent stronghold, they'd be more careful, but they're going to march on eventually, aren't they? It's no different from conscripting locals to do menial labor."

"True, it happens often in armies."

Thanks to this, they found an opening to exploit. Varos, Serati, and Lapicel would disguise themselves as servants and infiltrate the interior. Milia, being unsuited for physical labor, would likely find it difficult to escape if something went wrong, so she was excluded. Drel and Leven, like Karnak, were noble sons raised in luxury.

Varos grumbled. "So the esteemed bluebloods can't be bothered to play servants, so the lowly ones get sent in, huh?"

Serati added sarcastically, "Wow, how touching."

Karnak clicked his tongue and shoved them forward. "It's not like we'll be sitting around doing nothing! Stop complaining and just focus on gathering intel."

***

As planned, Varos, Serati, and Lapicel were hired as servants at one of the mansions occupied by the Black God's Cult. It didn't prove even remotely difficult. They simply walked up and asked.

—I heard you were looking for servants?

And that was it. They truly didn't seem to care about the identities of the servants and maids they were recruiting. As long as the work was done properly, they paid no attention. And Varos had originally been a servant for a noble young master.

Granted, it had been a hundred years ago, but after his regression, he had resumed serving as a butler at the Zestrad Barony for some time, making his movements as sharp and practiced as ever.

Compared to the cultists who had just taken over the mansion and were not even nobles themselves, Varos was far more accustomed to handling the affairs of such estates.

"Your name was Thomas, right?"

"You're quite good at this."

"You must have served nobles before."

"That's not the work of a novice."

Lapicel, too, performed admirably without drawing suspicion. After being taken in by Karnak, she had spent quite some time actually working as a maid. Serati, on the other hand, stood out quite a bit.

"Your name was Alice, right?"

"You're far too pretty, you know."

Serati's beauty was excessive. On top of that, as an aura user, her body was fully activated, giving her a toned figure and smooth skin. No matter how shabby the maid's uniform she wore, there was no hiding her presence. Female necromancers and vampires in particular looked at her with curiosity.

"Be honest, you were a noblewoman, weren't you?"

"I'm a commoner."

"How does a commoner get to be that pretty?"

"I was just born this way."

"Ugh, so annoying."

Fortunately, although they found her intriguing, none of them truly suspected anything. The reason was rather absurd. They had the experience of slaughtering the original noble family of this mansion.

"Well, it's not like all noble ladies are pretty."

"Yeah, and once you wipe off all that makeup, their skin's rough."

"And when you kill them, you realize they're kind of chubby too."

"So those slim waists were all thanks to corsets, huh."

"Still, all that fat makes them taste better."

The cultist women made such chilling comments with terrifying nonchalance.

Serati kept glancing around the interior of the mansion while staying on guard. I need to finish gathering intel and get out of here quickly.