Volume 8, Chapter 45 – The Undead Maid’s Delusions

Shortly after Fia and the others returned from the underground anthill to the kingdom of the dead above, the entire kingdom of the dead bustled with activity. Lucitine, who still had some magic power remaining, immediately dispatched the undead army into the anthill, led by one of the Thirteen Attendants to the large cavity. Although the Thirteen Attendants didn’t believe that any Chaos could have escaped from the cavity annihilated by [Great Void], it was Fia’s order, so they had no choice but to go.

According to Fia, the Chaos nest in the previous large cavity was merely an outpost, not the Chaos’s main base. The remaining Lucitine and the Thirteen Attendants, to prevent the enraged Chaos from launching a general offensive after the destruction of their outpost—which wouldn’t happen—began restoring their magic power at maximum speed.

Upon hearing that the Thirteen Attendants and Lucitine had been attacked, the entire undead world became extremely indignant, the very air filled with a solemn and chilling atmosphere. The undead lacked desires, so their efficiency in executing most things was low. But correspondingly, they extremely valued their reputation and honor. The queen had been attacked; as her servants, they had a duty to retaliate, otherwise they couldn’t maintain their dignity.

So they continuously gathered forces, letting a steady stream of powerful undead return from outside the Wall of Sighs, and opened up the right of passage of the anthill, allowing any undead above the Third Tier to enter and search for traces of Chaos. Thus, the originally lifeless kingdom of the dead became unprecedentedly lively. At every moment, one could see skeletons and ghosts with red-rimmed eyes howling as they charged into the anthill, vowing to settle scores with Chaos.

This busy patrolling continued for three days before the undead’s tension finally lessened somewhat. And with the expansion of personnel and the sudden increase in pressure brought by Chaos, some rules also changed.

First was the undead’s attitude towards the anthill. Previously, the undead believed that the Chaos in the anthill were just scattered individuals that hadn’t managed to follow the main force when Chaos was driven back in the past. The main Chaos force was entirely suppressed in the battlefield beneath the anthill, so they had neglected to survey the anthill.

But now, Lucitine’s discovery of a Chaos nest within the anthill meant their past judgment had been a major blunder. The anthill was far more complex than they had imagined. Since one outpost had been found, there might be two, three, or even more within this intricate anthill. They had to investigate the entire anthill thoroughly to eliminate any hidden dangers.

In response, the undead made ghosts, who were most suitable for survey work due to their ability to pass through thin walls as the main force. A large number of ghosts were released into the anthill. Once a certain ant tunnel was confirmed to be free of Chaos, the undead would summon magic casters who could use earth magic to fill and seal the tunnels one by one, preventing them from being reused by Chaos in the future.

Second, because the interior of the anthill was too massive, and the strength displayed by Chaos exceeded Lucitine’s expectations, Lucitine recalled the undead warriors stationed at the lowest part of the anthill, in the war fortress. They were the elite of the elite, and leaving them there risked them being surrounded and devoured by Chaos. She preferred to contract the front line rather than lose her most elite warriors.

Correspondingly, under Fia’s guidance, Lucitine divided this most elite force into several teams, each led by two or three of the Thirteen Attendants or other undead of equivalent strength. They were responsible for protecting the survey teams and, upon discovering an outpost, would send a few undead to scout the Chaos’s scale and strength while recording all connecting ant tunnels for a future siege.

As a result, within three days, the undead discovered two smaller outposts, and one team even succeeded in a sneak attack, further increasing Fia’s prestige among the undead—although this was actually a result artificially manufactured by Fia.

In summary, the kingdom of the dead was now busy and orderly, adding many unprecedented scenes to the undead world.

However, Fia was now facing a small problem.

As usual, to distract Lucitine and prevent her from noticing the rapid relocation of the second Nursery members beneath the anthill, she came to the gray hall where Lucitine was. Following the custom of the past few days, Fia and Lucitine would next study the two newly discovered outposts. First, they would memorize the surrounding ant tunnels; second, they would familiarize themselves with the soldiers’ strength configuration and station soldiers within the tunnels.

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Yesterday, the two had already formulated a strategy. Because Chaos had the ability to communicate across space, and the two outposts were relatively close, to prevent the Chaos in one outpost from getting wind of an attack on the other and retreating, the attacks on both outposts had to be simultaneous. Therefore, the current strategy was that one group of undead would be led by Fia, and the other by Lucitine and Ruth together.

The ensuing problem was that Fia had only recently arrived in the kingdom of the dead and, being a living person, found it difficult to interface with the low-level undead soldiers. She needed someone who could convey orders for her. Theoretically, choosing someone from the Thirteen Attendants would be most suitable.

Thus, the problem revealed itself. Each of the Thirteen Attendants believed they had offended Fia. Having publicly expressed discriminatory remarks against the living (which naturally included Fia), they didn’t dare to stay close to someone who could eliminate Chaos with a mere gesture. After a brief discussion, they unanimously decided that the maid Afla, who had offended Fia the most, should suffer her mind and exhaust her body.

In their words, since it was about apologizing, they certainly had to choose the person who could best represent their sincerity. Afla had offended Fia most deeply, deserving death. And since she deserved death, she naturally should be the representative.

This led to the current scene of Afla, her hair tied in twin tails, kneeling before Fia with a thud, her head deeply bowed in apology. Both her voice and legs trembled incessantly, her words filled with fear.

“I was very rude to you before. I have eyes but cannot see. Please… please forgive me, Lady Fia!”

“Hmm—”

Fia’s tone was deep, but she subtly glanced at the people around her. She found that everyone in the hall—Lucitine, Ruth, and even the more distant Thirteen Attendants—had turned away, clearly not wanting to intervene.

Lucitine had already told Afla in the hall before that since she had offended Fia, she should seek Fia’s forgiveness. The queen had issued such a decree; even Ruth couldn’t act on her own whims.

But this felt different to Fia. She still couldn’t understand why the Thirteen Attendants acted like mice seeing a cat when they looked at her. She didn’t like Afla, and Afla had indeed offended her, but that didn’t mean she would kill Afla out of anger. Afla’s current fear was infinitely close to someone with their head on the chopping block, her whole body shaking like a sieve.

Probably Lucitine’s order, Fia guessed; otherwise, she couldn’t imagine why that arrogant maid had suddenly knelt and begged for mercy.

It wouldn’t be good to arbitrarily execute someone else’s servant. Here, it was better to do Lucitine a favor and magnanimously forgive her.

Fia waved her hand expressionlessly.

“Since you already have a heart of repentance, let this matter pass. Everyone has recommended you as my adjutant to convey orders. I will naturally treat you as one of my own.”

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Although Fia had forgiven her, Afla showed no sign of getting up.

She naturally wouldn’t believe Fia would easily let her off. First, the stronger a person was, the more they valued their own face and honor. Just like she, as one of the Thirteen Attendants, didn’t care about wealth, but absolutely wouldn’t allow anyone to belittle her or trample her dignity; otherwise, she would retaliate with her life. As an undead, she valued dignity far more than ordinary people and understood this matter perfectly. How could someone of Fia’s caliber just pretend that others’ belittlement of her had never happened?

Putting herself in Fia’s shoes, what would her mental activity be if she forgave someone in this situation?

Naturally, she would think the other party’s sincerity was insufficient, or she would on the surface forgive while actually planning to slowly deal with them later. She had been burdened by her companions with the responsibility of staying by Fia’s side as a mouthpiece during future operations. Fia would have plenty of opportunities to torment her, to make her lose face in the eyes of other undead, to the point where she couldn’t survive in the undead world.

Afla couldn’t help but recall the tearful complaints of the maid Ness, who had spent some time with Fia. Ness bitterly recounted how Fia had trampled her dignity, how she had made her act against her own will, barking and obeying like a dog in front of all the living. If not for her duty to serve the queen, Ness would have died to wash her name clean. The memory of Ness’s indignation to the point of tears was still fresh in her mind, and she couldn’t help but shudder, a chill running up her spine.

The thought that she too would wear a collar, having to crawl like a dog led by Fia, and moreover in front of her own subordinates—Afla’s spirit became unstable, her soul trembling. She even imagined Fia commanding her to lift her leg like a dog to mark territory with scent. Good heavens, this was a punishment more terrifying than death. She would rather die than become Fia’s plaything!

No, she had to settle the punishment here and now, to avoid endless humiliation.

The more she thought this way, the more tense Afla became. She prostrated herself on all fours, unconsciously pressing her chest almost to the floor of the hall, her tone even more fearful.

“It is only natural to be punished for one’s mistakes. Besides, as one of the Thirteen Attendants, I should set an example. If you don’t punish me today, how can you warn others? They will think your dignity can be freely trampled. Moreover, my principles don’t allow me to pretend nothing happened. If you don’t impose punishment, I will be unable to eat or sleep in peace. Please, you must punish me to warn others!”

This woman is really troublesome.

Fia couldn’t help but click her tongue inwardly. Since she wanted punishment so badly, she might as well satisfy her.

She could use the special whip she had used to teach a lesson to Ruth, which could make even souls feel pain, tie Afla to a stone bed, and spank her bottom severely—thinking this, Fia couldn’t help but glance at Ruth. Ruth, as if understanding something, instantly clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, making Fia feel her eyes would spew fire in the next moment.

Dear daughter, how can you be angry with your mother?

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Fia replied playfully in her mind, then looked back at Afla prostrate on the ground, giving her a good once-over.

Unlike the ghost Ruth, Afla was an undead with a physical form. Her skin was pale, her body had very little decay. With her hair in twin tails and being shorter than the other Thirteen Attendants, she seemed more like a young girl. In terms of looks, she was actually quite good.

Teasing her would be quite interesting—especially the humiliated expression of gritting her teeth, trying not to make a sound for the sake of dignity. But the whip would probably be blocked by Afla’s physical body before striking her soul, and since the undead just so happened to have no sense of pain, the punishment would lose its effect.

Fia pondered for a moment. Then a light bulb went off above her head.

She could first turn Afla into a living person, giving her senses, and then beat her soundly. As for what to do if Afla didn’t like having a living body, she could later have her ask Lucitine to become an undead again. Turning a dead person into a living one was difficult, but turning a living person into a dead one was something anyone could do. This was also part of teaching her a lesson.

She waved her hand decisively.

“In that case, after today’s operation, you will return to Blossom with me. Then you will know the punishment.”

Go to the world of the living?

Afla’s heart tightened. She didn’t know what Fia was up to. But what relieved her was that she had probably secured a chance to avoid endless humiliation. As long as she got through these two days, she would be innocent.

Nothing could make Afla feel lighter than this. Besides, it was the world of the living. Even if she lost face, it wouldn’t spread to the kingdom of the dead. She thanked her quite sincerely.

“Thank you very much.”

Not investing further energy in Afla, Fia turned to face the massive stone table temporarily placed beneath the throne. On it lay the already explored map of the anthill, covered with tightly packed, winding and twisting lines that made one dizzy. Fia’s focus was on two very prominent red circles in the map’s upper left corner—the two marked Chaos outposts.

“Although I think Lucitine and I should personally scout first before acting, since undead have already fought Chaos, who knows if these Chaos will get wind of it and change nests, causing us to miss the opportunity to pick them off one by one. We should act as soon as possible.”

Seeing that Fia hadn’t chosen to kill Afla, Lucitine breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said.

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“I agree. Our people are already in place and can act at any time.”

“Mm.”

Fia nodded lightly. These two outposts were Chaos nests she had deliberately arranged above the anthill, much smaller in scale than the original Chaos nest. Even Lucitine could lead people to eliminate them. This was done to increase Lucitine’s confidence. The previous major defeat had left Lucitine in low spirits, thinking she was no match for Chaos. Fia wanted to make Lucitine more confident. If Lucitine became too cautious because of this, later on she wouldn’t be able to make her firmly believe that the Chaos beneath the kingdom of the dead could be eliminated by her.

She continued asking.

“How is the team searching the large cavity? Have they found any traces of Chaos?”

“Yes,” Ruth, who was in charge of surveying the anthill, answered. “They reported yesterday that they followed fresh corrosion traces and found a suspected used nest, located below the anthill, closer to the depths than the battlefield where the war fortress is. Our preliminary view is that continuing downward from there should lead to the Chaos’s main base.”

“Deliberately opening up the battlefield far from their nest, making us think their old nest was under the battlefield—so this is their game. No wonder we couldn’t find them before.”

One of the Thirteen Attendants gritted his teeth in anger. His conclusion was agreed upon by everyone. Chaos’s intelligence exceeded their past estimates. This feeling of thinking you had outsmarted the enemy only to be outmaneuvered yourself was unpleasant for anyone.

“In that case, let’s prepare and set out.” Fia paused, then looked at Lucitine. “Lucitine, I’d like to bring Claire along to help, and also investigate her connection to Tartaros. Is that alright? After three days, the you in the sanctuary should have recovered.”

“Of course, no problem. An extra combatant is always good.”

Although she said this, Fia saw Lucitine’s pure pink eyes slightly glance down, as if darkening.

If she harbored romantic feelings for Lucitine, she would now feel unable to bear it. But she didn’t have such feelings for Lucitine, and at the same time, she felt a faint guilt for gradually luring Lucitine into the trap. She didn’t like this feeling of manipulating others’ fates, but things had developed to this point, and there was no other way. Fia ultimately chose to pretend not to see it and directly activated teleportation magic to leave the hall.