"Count! Get away quickly! There’s an undead monster horde behind you!"

“Don’t worry. This is my army. To be precise, it’s commanded by my guard, so you needn’t be concerned.”

“…?”

The Duke of the North stood in shock, rendered speechless. Behind the Vermont Count’s party lined up rows of skeletal soldiers. They stood calm and posed no aggression, clearly unlike ordinary monsters.

Even their bones showed no excessive buildup of mana. Could they not truly be monsters? Animated skeletal remains? And somehow, the armor on these skeletal soldiers seemed familiar.

“Would you let us in? The flying monsters will arrive shortly.”

“What shall we do, Your Grace? Open the gates?”

“With Merilda out there, we don’t have a choice…! Grrr! Open the gates!”

The Duke made his decision, issuing the command. Aslan Vermont’s mouth twisted into a sly smile, causing a chill to run down the Duke’s spine.

‘It’s as if I’m the foolish lord tricked by a general of the Demon King’s army into opening the gates for an undead legion…’

If Aslan Vermont truly were a villain with ambitions, this day would be remembered as the darkest day in history, the one that saw the Empire’s fall because of one foolish mistake. Yet he had no choice.

Merilda was as good as a hostage. My only daughter, Merilda…!

With the gates open, the Vermont party and their hundreds of undead soldiers poured in. If his decision was wrong, it would spell the Empire’s doom. But he had no regrets. With a firm grip on his enormous sword hilt, the Duke stood to meet the undead army.

A single skeleton stepped forward from the ranks and stopped in front of the Duke. Judging by the ornate armor, it seemed to have been royalty in life. It faced the Duke’s imposing presence with complete composure, opening its mouth to speak.

Clack-clack! Clack-clack!

“…?!”

Was it threatening him? Or chanting a spell? The Duke frowned, preparing to draw his sword.

“Yulia, translate.”

“I am Franz Mark, eldest son of Emperor Mark II. I led the first Demonic Realm Expedition, where we became isolated and ultimately perished. I hear you’re the lord of this place, the Duke. Does that mean you’re royalty?”

“Y-yes, indeed. Yes, I am.”

Clack! Clack! Clack-clack!

“Hey, you! How dare you not bow to your ancestors! Don’t they teach manners to young people these days? …T-that’s what he said! I swear I’m not making it up…!”

The skeletal noble’s reprimand made the Duke flinch. Mark II? Wasn’t that one of the founding emperors, who laid the foundation of the Empire? If this skeleton was his son, he was royalty from a thousand years ago.

The sudden appearance of such an ancient ancestor left the Duke deeply unsettled.

Clack! Clack-clack!

“You. How many generations removed are you?”

“I am Richard Friedrich, thirty-eighth descendant of King Alexander Friedrich, my lord.”

Clackity-clack! Clack! Clackity-clack-clack!

“What? Friedrich? So, a branch family? My niece married into that lowly Count Friedrich’s family, and they actually clawed their way into the royal court?”

“….”

A cold sweat trickled down the Duke’s back. How was he supposed to respond to reproaches about events a thousand years past? The Mark family had declined after inbreeding for the sake of “pure blood,” eventually wiped out by genetic diseases, making a change in rulership inevitable.

He wanted to argue, but how could he retort to a revered ancestor?

Clack-clack! Clackity-clack!

“Bah! Ten years can change mountains, let alone an empire. I suppose it’s a miracle the Empire still exists. So, how much has the Empire’s territory expanded?”

“Well… actually, uh… several independent kingdoms have split off, so it’s smaller than it was a thousand years ago…”

Clack! Clack-clack! Clackity-clack, clack!

“Arrgh! My Empire! If I’d known these fools would ruin it, I would have become emperor myself instead of dying in this godforsaken land like a dog!”

“….”

The skeleton noble clattered his ribcage in frustration, and the Duke could barely lift his head in shame. To the Duke, it sounded more and more like the clatter of false teeth.

Clack! Clack-clack!

“Anyway, what’s done is done. It would be disgraceful for a forgotten specter to nag his descendants.”

The skeleton noble drew his sword and held it by the blade, extending the hilt toward the Duke. Startled, the Duke took the sword with both hands.

Clackity-clack!

“Take this. Bury it in my grave instead of my defiled remains.”

Clackity-clack-clack!

“And today, the resurrected spirits shall vanish here and fade into oblivion once more.”

Clack! Clack-clackity-clack!

“Those who still live, take shelter behind the broken dead!”

Clack-clack!

“No one dies today!”

The undead soldiers clacked their jaws in unison in response to the noble skeleton’s proclamation. Each skeleton threw down the sword bearing its name and took up new swords handed over by the soldiers of Esther. Taking the soldiers’ places, they marched up the wall, preparing for battle.

The monster wave was drawing closer.

‘Who could make the Duke of the North as meek as a lamb…?’

It was a shocking sight. Even the Emperor, who was his own cousin, didn’t seem capable of intimidating this man. And yet here he was, cowed by the appearance of an ancient ancestor from his maternal lineage.

But even more surprising was that Yulia’s undead army had volunteered to help defend against the monster wave. If they had resisted, Yulia would have had to compel them. It was a stroke of fortune.

“My lord, the monster wave is upon us.”

The wyverns were now visible, approaching the fortress city, which was shrouded in tension and silence.

Our position was at an observation post on the inner wall, giving us a clear view of the entire fortress. We stayed here rather than going to the bunker for a simple reason: if the undead army lost control and turned on us, we’d know immediately, and Yulia could issue orders.

“Hey, Charlotte.”

“Yeah?”

“When you saw the skeleton grandpas, you clung to Aslan in terror. Isn’t that ‘Ultimate Sword’ of yours just for show?”

“T-that’s… I knew right away! I could tell they weren’t bad guys, so I didn’t draw my sword on purpose!”

“So you clung to Aslan, squeezed your eyes shut, and whimpered?”

“T-that never happened…!”

“Hmph. Rewriting history now, are we?”

The battle was about to begin, yet these two were as carefree as ever. They seemed to be arguing over who was the braver, but both were equally guilty.

Yulia, who scares easily but shows courage when it counts, versus Charlotte, who rarely shows fear but freezes in extreme terror. They were opposites yet complementary.

“And Yulia, you hid behind Aslan as soon as you looked down the pit!”

“T-that was just because Aslan was close by!”

“Actually, Sylvia was closer. So you just really wanted to be near Aslan?”

“N-no…!”

Their argument grew heated, but a smile crept across my face. In this terrifying situation, they both instinctively leaned on me.

I have no combat skills, yet the kids rely on me before turning to the combat-ready Sylvia. I shot a smug look at Sylvia.

“….”

She gave me a look that seemed to say, “What’s your point?” but I felt proud. I hadn’t raised them poorly.

“Sir Yuri, you don’t seem to be feeling well.”

“It’s nothing… sir…”

Yuri looked as though she was gritting her teeth. Yes, take a good look. This is reality.

Charlotte and Yulia can’t live without me now. I gave Yuri’s shoulder an encouraging pat.

“The battle is starting!”

Rumble.

The sky darkened as the wyvern horde, wings spread, descended upon us.

Screeech!

The monsters folded their wings and dived. Skeleton soldiers raised torches high, holding their ground without a step back.

“They’re fighting…!”

As the monsters and skeleton soldiers clashed, chaos erupted. Large wyverns shattered some skeleton soldiers upon impact, scattering their bones, but the soldiers clung tenaciously, skillfully severing the monsters’ necks.

[Come!]

On the ground outside the fortress, Earth-Earthy’s trap was working wonders. The monsters drawn to the flash of magic were swallowed by the pits, buried under heavy mounds of earth, soon to become fossil fuel.

“Go, skeleton grandpas!”

Despite the children’s cheers, the skeleton soldiers fought without reserve, even as they were torn apart. When the battle finally ended, nothing remained alive atop the wall.

A thousand wyverns lay vanquished, but the skeleton soldiers were scattered in pieces. Soldiers emerged from their posts, speechless at the destruction.

“Ancestors…”

Thud.

The Duke of the North climbed the wall, picked up the severed skull of the skeletal noble, and closed his eyes in silent respect. The atmosphere grew solemn as all the soldiers lowered their heads.

“Thank you for your service. Rest well now…”

Clack-clack! Clack! Clackity-clack!

“Aah! What the—!”

“Skeletal grandpas…!”

The skeleton noble’s jaw clattered wildly, and scattered bones began to move, reassembling themselves in neat rows.

Charlotte and Yulia cheered, while the Duke looked deeply unsettled.