Undead creatures are born from the souls that escaped the cycle of life and death due to their desire to return to Earth. I know this because they occasionally spawn in the Upper Realm as well.

  The event itself is quite rare since souls will perish once they try to disrupt this cycle. Though a few of them can possibly survive, they will be in an extremely unstable state, hence they are reborn as undead. Yet, the knight seems to describe an army of undead that is currently charging at this place.

  That means an abnormal number of souls was able to break through the cycle. Unless the Reincarnation Well has been destroyed, how can that be possible? In any case, I need more information to find out.

  “Before you leave, can you lead me to the Great Hall?”

  “Of course, Your Highness!”

  .

  …

  ….

  The Great Hall is where the meeting of the officials is regularly held. The room had a long rectangular table in the middle. At the end of the table, which was just a couple of steps closer to the door, there were three chairs placed beside each other. These seats were for the three commanders who led their own divisions, respectively.

  At the far end of the table stood a grand chair with a tall backrest. Its golden frame was adorned with exquisite carvings, and a plush red cushion added a touch of elegance. This seat was naturally for the Emperor, and it was currently empty.

  As for me, I was peeking through a small crevice in the double doors. I haven't had my coronation yet, so I can't enter this place. Although my unofficial status as the Crown Prince allows me to enter as I please, formally, I still can't. I can't see much inside, but I can still hear what they're saying from here, and it seems like the meeting isn't going as smoothly as I expected.

  “What do you mean to continue to remain here in the city? Are you saying we should let those unholy beings step on our sacred grounds!?”

  “Our duty is to protect the royal city and the royal family within it! Leaving the city and charging directly at the enemy will leave this place unguarded! This is a clear violation of your oath!”

  “You said that protecting the royal family comes first, and yet the Emperor and the Empress cannot even be seen anywhere!”

  “That’s…!”

  As I watched them argue with each other, I fully grasped the whole situation. This meeting was divided into two sides: those who wanted to stay and protect the city and those who wanted to directly attack the march of undead. Both seemed to be sound ideas. The main concern that I had was that my parents weren’t present at this meeting. As far as I know, they weren’t the kind of people who would leave their responsibilities and abandon their citizens.

  “You. You don’t have the right to comment about the Emperor and the Empress.”

  One of the commanders suddenly spoke out coldly. This commander was sitting in the middle of the three of them. He was wearing a red uniform that had a golden deer-horned dragon and a crossing sword embroidered on the sleeve. His long green hair flowed smoothly along his shoulders.

  “I-I apologize..! It was a slip of the tongue—”

  “Shut it.” The green-haired man stared hatefully. “Normally, I should punish you with death right this instant. Unfortunately, we are currently in a national crisis. Consider yourself lucky.”

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The green-haired man appeared to lament more about the fact that he couldn’t behead the man rather than the crisis the nation was facing right now. This man was always a bit too extreme.

  I often saw him lingering around my father all the time. His name was Lorien Oakshade, the commander of one of the legions that represented the pillar of the empire, The Royal Knights Order. Their duty was to protect the royal bloodline no matter what. This group always took things too far, especially their commander. He would sacrifice anyone to protect the royal family—himself included. In other words, he was a fanatic.

  The strange thing was that this fanatic was too calm. The other two commanders were also composed, as if this was any other day. This was suspicious.

  “Then, since His Majesty isn’t present to lead us, will you be the one to do it, Commander Lorien?” one of the Vice Commanders from the ‘protect the city’ side asked.

  “Hahaha...” Commander Lorien laughed at the question. “How can I take the position of the royals? If the Emperor is absent, isn’t it natural that the successor will be the one to take the reins as the General?”

  “Do you mean His Highness, the Crown Prince Arthur? But we don’t know where he is currently. We don’t have enough time to find him. Any moment now, the army of undead will enter our land.”

  Why am I suddenly mentioned at this meeting? From the way this conversation is going, I have a bad feeling. F-For now, I should immediately leave this place as fast as possible. Just as I turned around, intending to get away from this place, a rock-hard wall suddenly appeared in front of my path, leading me to crash into it.

  “Ouch…” I grimaced in pain as I scratched my swollen head. “Where did this rock wall come from?”

  “Your Highness, Prince Arthur, I wonder where you are headed?”

  I turned toward the source of the voice. It was Commander Lorien. He was looking at me with a sly smile. Right, this person also had the personality of a fox. There’s nothing scarier than a mastermind who is willing to scrap everything to achieve their goal.

  “Commander Lorien, you do know I don’t have the right to enter the Great Hall yet, don’t you?” I looked straight into his eyes, showing a composed expression.

  “Well, why does it matter? The Crown is already set for you; this much can be ignored.”

  I chuckled lightly at his answer. “That’s a lot of words I didn’t expect to come out of you, a man completely devoted to the royal family.”

  “...”

  It seemed that I had hit a nerve, seeing him speechless. Well, even though I berated him, I still decided to enter the Great Hall. I expected that this would not be the last time this would happen, so I thought that escaping this responsibility would be useless. I had enough experience as a general anyway.

  And that’s how I was currently sitting in the grand chair, acting as the leader. I observed the expressions of each person in the room, and as expected, some of them had a frown on their faces, mostly from the ‘attack the march of undead’ side. Yet, they didn’t seem to be brave enough to state their dissatisfaction. Was it perhaps because of my status or out of fear of incurring my father’s wrath?

  I didn’t know. And I didn’t care.

  Actually, it was kind of refreshing, really. The guys in the Upper Realm always obeyed every word I spoke. Occasionally having these kinds of people under me makes me look forward to leading them even more.

  “First of all, inform me of the situation.” I broke the silence of the room first and proceeded with the meeting. The one who explained to me was one of the vice commanders under the Royal Knights Order.

  According to him, the army of undead came from the far north. Coincidentally, this was also where the war between our race and the human race happened thousands of years ago. They suspected that the remains from that war had risen from the ground and become undead.

  The abnormal thing was that the undead were countless. Along with the armor they had worn in their deaths, it was practically an army.

  From the ranger’s report, there were approximately twenty thousand armored undead currently marching in our direction. This was definitely not normal.

  But they were only undead. They were slow, mindless, and acted instinctively. I was sure that with our army, we could manage to win.

  “Regarding that, Your Highness…” This time, Commander Darius of the Knights Order was the one who spoke out. “The current number of undead overwhelmingly exceeds our army.”

  What? How can an Empire have so few soldiers?

  “...To be specific, how many exactly do we have?”

  “...We have at least ten thousand knights stationed here, Your Highness.”

  I widened my eyes in shock. “D-Did the other knights perhaps go on an expedition to other countries? Or are they guarding the Emperor and the Empress?” I asked, seeking comfort in the hope that the other knights were just not present.

  Which Commander Darius immediately dismissed.

  “We don’t have something like that, Your Highness. Almost all the countries are hostile towards us. As for the latter, even though we’d like to, we don’t even know the whereabouts of the two of them. How can we send knights to guard them?”

  This seems to be more troublesome than I thought.