7: Exiled Lord — Chapter 7 – Hitting a Wall!
No One at the Empire’s Strongest Defense Line 7: Exiled Lord — Chapter 7 – Hitting a Wall!
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“Killing Rotting Corpses isn’t so hard.” Field’s confidence was soaring.
He flicked the tainted blood off his blade.
“Lord, watch out!” A half-bodied Rotting Corpse had crawled through the gap while he wasn’t looking, about to sink its teeth into his ankle.
At the last second, Ashina snatched a dung fork from the wooden cart and drove it into the corpse’s spine, pinning it to the ground.
“Ha!
Nice work!” Cold sweat flooded down Field’s back.
He stumbled several steps away, heart slamming against his ribs.
That was close.
Corpse Poison could be cured by the Church’s Clergy, sure, but don’t expect treatment without a hundred gold coins.
That was the price tag.
He barely wrestled the pounding in his chest back under control.
He exhaled hard, reached over, and rubbed Ashina’s head.
“Saving my life earns you a gold coin.
You’ve got my word, Ashina.” Ashina lit up.
Her eyes practically shone.
She’d never seen that much money in her entire life.
“Huh?
Really?
It was only my duty, though.” Rotting Corpses weren’t like zombies from horror films.
A weapon through the body was all it took to put them down.
More of them surged forward anyway, clawing and flailing at the cart-wall.
But the slaves behind the wagon train had noticed something: the Rotting Corpses weren’t that powerful.
They couldn’t reach through the wooden carts.
And if their Lord and that slip of a girl both dared to fight back, then maybe they could too.
Men started grabbing farming tools.
The counterattack spread down the line.
Field didn’t hesitate.
He raised his sword and kept killing.
Blood splashed in bursts.
Rotting Corpses went down under farming tools and Field’s blade, one after another.
“Wah!” A scream cut through the noise.
One of Connor’s cavalrymen had ridden too close, a Rotting Corpse dressed like a village woman snatched his cloak and yanked hard.
His legs kicked in the air as he toppled backward.
CRACK!
The back of his skull met the ground.
The unlucky bastard went still.
Connor spat a curse. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Useless piece of shit!” What infuriated him even more was that Field wasn’t cowering in a corner, he was out there calmly directing slaves like he owned the place.
“Cut the head off every corpse, stack them together, and burn it all on the spot.” Field had spent the entire journey cramming knowledge about Corruption.
The bodies of these Corrupted humans were a serious environmental hazard.
Left unchecked, they’d seed a new contamination zone fast.
He frowned, staring at the wall of Gray Fog bleeding into the horizon.
“That many zombies before we’ve even reached Nightfall Territory.
Not a good sign.” His family wanted him exiled, fine.
But sending him straight into a corpse pile was something else entirely.
“Thank you for your aid, my Lord.” The refugees came rushing back like they’d spotted a long-lost parent.
They dropped to their knees in front of Field, then prostrated themselves to kiss his boots.
“May the God of War illuminate your path!” Field accepted it without comment.
He looked them over, wretched, filthy, barely better than beggars, and asked, “Where are you from?
How are there this many Rotting Corpses out here?
Shouldn’t Ka Mountain Fortress’s walls be keeping the Corrupted creatures in check?” “It’s the Death Haze.” The villager’s voice shook.
“That Gray Fog from the North — it seeped right through the fortress walls and rolled over our Oak Village.
It was night, so most people were asleep.
The fog took them before they even woke up.
Turned them into Rotting Corpses.
Only we got out.” The man trembled like he was standing in a gale, his whole body shuddering with the memory.
Gray Fog.
Death Haze.
Said to be the root of all Corruption, suspended in the air, invisible, and once inhaled by any living thing, it killed the host fast and converted them into a Corrupted monster.
Only those with a lord’s authority, or Chosen Ones, could resist it.
The other option was the Church’s Atonement Lamps, which could drive the Gray Fog back.
Expensive, naturally.
Field had spent 50 gold coins on just two of them, and only got that price because of his noble title.
Field listened to all of it in silence.
Then he frowned.
“Where is your Lord?
Every border fortress should have a Chosen One stationed there.
Gray Fog shouldn’t be able to penetrate those walls.” “The Baron and the Chosen One left to track down a cult.
Only the Baron’s son remains in the castle.” “Then let’s go.
We’ll meet the man in charge.” Once the group had reorganized, Field swung up onto his horse.
To reach Nightfall Territory, he needed the local Baron’s permission to pass through.
Simple as that.
Ka Mountain Fortress hit him the moment it came into view.
It was massive.
Stone walls running without a break, rounded towers anchored into the mountainside, the whole structure fused with the mountain range into one enormous defensive system.
The walls were wide enough to ride horses across, and every section bristled with ballistae, trebuchets, and oil cauldrons ready to pour fire.
100,000 soldiers could break themselves against this place and have nothing to show for it but a headache.
Griffin banners cracked in the wind along every battlement, advertising the old Empire’s reach and authority.
The problem was obvious, though.
The outer walls were completely empty.
Not a single soul.
He scanned left, right, nothing, just bare stone in every direction.
Connor had gone pale.
“An Orc raid?
If Orcs break through Ka Mountain Fortress, the entire province collapses in an instant.” “Probably not.
If they had, it wouldn’t be this quiet.” Field pushed forward.
After some distance, he spotted torches burning on the inner citadel walls.
Figures moved in the firelight, plenty of them.
“Stop where you are!
Who are you?” a voice called down from the walls.
So they hadn’t abandoned the fortress completely, just pulled everyone inside the inner ring.
Field filed that away and called back: “I am Field of the Rose Family, Baron, traveling to take up my post in Nightfall Territory.
Open the gates of Ka Mountain Fortress and let us through.” The officer on the wall looked uncomfortable.
He hesitated, then turned and fetched someone.
The Baron’s son stepped forward.
“No!
My father hasn’t returned.
Nobody is talking their way through that gate.
Get out of here — or we start shooting.” The corner of Field’s mouth twitched.
The kid had clearly been scared witless by the Rotting Corpses.
Field cupped his hands around his mouth and called up, “It’s me.
Field.
I donated money to this fortress before, remember?
I’m not your enemy.” “A few lousy coins?
The whole Empire sends money to the border — who the hell do you think you are?
You think that makes you special enough for me to remember your name?
Get lost, outsider.
You’ve come all the way to Bull Territory just to embarrass yourself.” Field was grinding his teeth.
He could feel them.
The original body’s last decent act had amounted to absolutely nothing.
He would’ve stormed the walls right now if he had soldiers.
Instead, he swallowed it, kept his voice level, and tried again.
“Those villagers, I pulled them out of a zombie attack on the road.
You can’t just, ” More shouting from above, before he could finish.
“Do you think my castle has food to spare?
Who asked you to save those idiots?
Keep your nose out of things that don’t concern you.
Bring them one step closer and I order the archers to fire.” ➤ Next: Fine, Fine, Fine!
I’m Done Being Human!