Chương 6: Xác thối! Người dân địa phương nhiệt tình quá mức

Since the previous owner had managed these interpersonal relationships well, Field might just be able to reap some benefits from it in the future.

"Haha, Viscount Bull and his son are well-known for, uh, sorry, I spoke out of turn." Cao quickly shut his mouth. Gossiping about another noble right in front of one was looking for an early grave, even if the person before him was famous for being weak and cowardly.

Back then, he had lost his bright future and ended up exiled to the Northern Border precisely because he meddled in others' business and stumbled upon a noble's affair.

Field wanted to press further, but he noticed a swarm of red skull icons suddenly appearing on the mini-map in his mind, rapidly moving in his direction.

"Hiss, could it be that someone is coming to welcome us?" Though he said that, Field was no fool. The skull icons were definitely bad news, so he hurriedly instructed the manservant to call Knight Conner over.

"Haha, with all due respect, Lord Baron is simply being overly paranoid!" Hearing the manservant's slightly anxious message, Conner laughed out loud with a look of disdain and sneered, "This is behind the walls of Mt. Ka Citadel, the strongest ring in the Empire's defense line. If there's danger here, I'll eat all the dung my warhorse drops!"

In Conner's mind, Field had already been stamped with the label "the final struggle of a desperate man."

"Tell your baron that heading to the Nightfall Domain is supervised by both the law and the family. He cannot back out at the last minute; that is unfit for a noble's character."

Hearing Conner's aggressive statement, the manservant lost all confidence and had no choice but to return and report.

Field merely uttered an "Oh" and ordered the slaves to slow down.

Riding his horse, Conner was forced to walk at the front of the procession.

"What a coward! I really don't know how Lord Count sired such a spineless creature," Conner mocked softly.

However, his face turned extremely ugly soon after.

Because Field had encountered the "locals" who came to warmly welcome them.

"Roar!" Strange shrieks echoed.

"Are they here?" Field chuckled softly. "Looks like someone's having horse dung for dinner tonight."

Amidst waves of gasps, Field peered past the slaves blocking his view and saw corpse monsters in peasant clothes, their eyes pale grey, sprinting recklessly toward his direction. Running ahead of them were a dozen or so normal humans. Even at a distance of a hundred meters, the bone-chilling hostility and putrid stench surged straight toward them.

These rotting corpses were the products of the Northern Province!

"What's going on? We haven't even reached the Northern Border yet, how could there be monsters!" Conner, the cavalry captain, spat on the ground and cursed his bad luck. Just when he thought he could hand over the mission, he ran into an unexpected disaster. "Mount up, knights! Prepare for battle!"

What disgusted him even more was that he had just mocked Field, which made him exceptionally furious.

Conner raised his lance with a stomach full of reluctance, but if he failed to fulfill his duty, he would be forever cut off from the upper class.

Twenty knights immediately formed a single line, rode up the high ground on the right, and then utilized the momentum of the downhill slope to charge rapidly into the horde of corpses.

"It's better to rely on oneself than on others." Field's heart tightened as well. He stared intently at the clawing, gnashing corpses, and shouted to the slaves behind him: "Chain the wooden carts together! Any brave men left, grab your farm tools and fight with me! I will reward you based on your performance!"

The slaves remained unmoved, merely shivering behind the wagon train or praying for a divine miracle.

"Don't rely on those useless wretches." The butler's legs trembled so violently it looked like an electric motor had been stuffed inside, terrified to the point of almost wetting himself! Grabbing Field's robes, he urged in a trembling voice, "My Lord, let's run for our lives! Uh, I mean a strategic retreat! There's no need to care about these peasants, we can just buy more if they die."

Field brushed the butler's hand away and frowned, "If this little thing terrifies you so much, you had better not go to the Northern Province."

Do you think I wanted to?! The Count singled me out by name! Cao the butler wished he could ascend to heaven right then and there, his face contorted and red.

"Ah? Are there enemies?" Ashina leaped down from the carriage. Days of recuperation had pulled her out of her sallow and emaciated state. Flesh had grown right where it belonged without ambiguity, making her skin fair and tender. If not for the slave mark and maid uniform, she would look just like a noble lady.

"My Lord, I... I will do my best to protect you!"

Ashina raised her tiny pink fists, standing wobbly in front of Field, shivering like a kitten in the freezing wind.

"That won't be necessary." Looking at Ashina's cat ears folded back into airplane ears out of nervousness, Field didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he still felt quite touched. It turned out the meat and bread hadn't gone to waste after all.

Unlike a certain hateful fellow who ate his food yet still held a grudge against him.

"Save us!" The peasants running at the very front saw their saviors and rushed over crying for their mothers, drawing the corpse horde along with them.

"For glory!"

Upon reaching a certain distance, Conner's cavalry squad launched their charge. Shouting slogans at the top of their lungs, they thrust out their three-meter-long lances as far as they could, charging head-on into the lunging corpse horde.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

A series of squelching flesh-tearing sounds rang out. Seven or eight zombies were directly skewered and sent flying by the lances, crashing to the ground like broken sacks. Purplish foul blood, corrupted over time, squirted out wildly, soaking the ground into a sticky mess.

This was merely an appetizer. After the lance charge, the cavalrymen turned around on the spot, wielding flails or sabers and swinging them rapidly from atop their warhorses. Accompanied by blossoming spatterings of blood, the rotting corpses fell like reaped wheat. Some were knocked over by the warhorses and had their chests crushed by iron hooves, creating a scene like a sheer slaughter.

The stray corpses slammed headfirst into the cart barricade Field had organized. The brains of these rotting corpses were mere decorations; they understood no tactics whatsoever, resorting to blindly tearing and biting at the wooden carts.

"Oh God!" The slaves shoved against each other, trapped inside the convoy, so squished together that escaping was impossible.

The butler was no better off; his plumbing had completely failed, soaking his trousers.

"Fuck, what a bunch of cowards."

Although he was scared too, Field wasn't nearly as dramatic, perhaps owing to his love for apocalyptic novels and zombie movies before transmigrating.

"Looks like I'll have to handle this myself."

Field didn't have a single soldier under his command. Seeing that while the rotting corpses were agile and fearless of death, their mindless movements were by no means unsolvable, he had to take action himself. This body, after all, had learned some basic combat skills.

With a low grunt, Field seized the moment when a corpse was pushing against a handcart and thrust his longsword into its neck. He then yanked hard to the side, causing the corpse's head to droop limply against its chest like a lightning-struck branch.

"Ugh~"

The stench of rot and fermented feces surged unceremoniously into his nostrils, nauseating Field so much he nearly threw up. Yet deep down, he felt a faint trace of excitement; blood that craved battle coursed through his soul.