Rebirth of the Undead King: Book 2

by Ink Bamboo

  “Good,” said Richard, nodding his head. “How about our ‘volunteers’ then? How many of them do we have left?”

  “Five down, three to go,” said Jan. “We already sent them to the infirmary. Nobody will even realize they’re missing.”

  “What about the young man?” asked Katherine. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s still alive,” answered Jan, rubbing the stubble of his beard. “I ordered him to go and guard the butler we captured in the prince’s place in the meantime. We should probably check on them, by the way.”

  “Good,” muttered Katherine, placing her fan on her mouth. “I hope he can stay alive until the end.”

  ✽✽✽

  Inside a dark, humid dungeon, Zaros stood facing a single prisoner. The old man in front of him had a severe wound in his leg, something Zaros could tell was caused by the piercing effect of an arrow. The old man’s face, however, didn’t reflect any pain. Instead, it expressed an endless amount of relief, like he had accomplished his life’s goal.

  Placing a tray with food down on the floor, Zaros sat down in front of the cell, looking at the old man in earnest. Before long, the old man returned his look, smiling as a simple laugh left his lips.

  “What is it, boy? Aren’t you a bit too young to be here?”

  “I was thinking the exact opposite about you,” answered Zaros. “Aren’t you a tad too old to be our only prisoner?”

  “Fair enough,” answered the captive. “What’s so interesting about me, anyway?”

  “I’m just wondering how someone who works for the royal family can look at peace,” answered Zaros, not feeling the need to hold anything back. “Just now, you looked like you had accepted your own death.”

  “Are you the one they sent to deliver it?”

  Zaros shook his head from side to side before replying with a question of his own, “Would I be carrying a tray with food if that was the case?”

  “I guess you’re right,” admitted the man. “You can call me Johan, by the way.”

  “Zaros.”

  “So, Zaros, what do you expect to earn from this conversation? If you’re not here to torture or kill me, I don’t see what you can earn out of speaking with me.”

  “Peace,” replied Zaros. “Like I said before, I want to understand the logic in your mind.”

  “And how I manage to live with myself?” added Johan.

  “Exactly.”

  “I take it you’re some kind of orphan, aren’t you?”

  “I am,” said Zaros, not bothering to hide anything. “How is that of importance?”

  “Well, so am I,” explained Johan, looking into Zaros’s eyes. “I know that look of rage and desire. I used to have it as well.”

  “What changed?”

  “I found solace through those you and your rebellious comrades oppose. The royal family took me in and trained me as their servant. They fed me, housed me, and offered me an identity — a family. They made me who I am today.”

  “Was that enough to earn your sympathy?” retorted Zaros. “Is your life worth that little?”

  “No,” answered the butler, tightening the bandages around his leg. “I just wanted to illustrate that the members of the royal family aren't as bad as you seem to think they are.”

  “They enslave others for their benefit and murder anyone who opposes them. They tax the villages to starvation and abandon those who serve them once they’re no longer useful. Do you really intend to tell me they aren’t as bad as I think they are?”

  “What about the regular citizens then?” asked Johan. “They fight, rob, murder, and rape each other on a daily basis. Are they not worse?”

  “Perhaps,” said Zaros, looking at Johan’s wound. “But I’ve also seen them fight and risk their lives to protect each other. They have kindness within them. The conditions just aren’t fit for them to behave in such a way.”

  “Anyone can be kind in good times,” replied Johan. “In any case, how is the royal family any different? Isn’t this stupid war their attempt to protect ensure their family’s safety? It’s just the scale that’s different. The intent behind their actions is all the same as those you wish to defend.”

  Zaros sighed, realizing the butler had a point.

  “The only difference is strength,” continued Johan. “Those with power are the ones capable of defining what’s right and wrong. Take now, for example. With this victory, I’m sure your side is confident of establishing a new rule.”

  “They probably are,” admitted Zaros, recalling the nature of those he had met in the rebel forces. Most of them were not doing this out of kindness or indignation. They had the intentions to propel themselves to power with their victory.

  “Do you think they will magically make everything okay?” asked Johan. “No, it will be exactly the same. Taxes? Slavery? Regardless of what it is, it will all remain the same.”

  “That still doesn’t explain how you’re so calm,” noted Zaros, changing the topic back to its original course.

  “Have you not listened to me all this time?” asked Johan. “It’s not about others, it never is.”

  Zaros’s silence prompted the man to continue, “I lived with my own goals, and I did everything I could to achieve them. I am at peace with myself. All that is left for me is to await my ending.”

  “What goals?” asked Zaros.

  “I returned the favor the old king granted me. He gave me a chance at life along with a purpose, so I simply used it to protect his descendants to the best of my ability. That was my own choice and I stand by it.”

  “I can respect that,” said Zaros. “It’s not a path I can follow, however.”

  “You’re still thinking about others,” noted Johan. “Your life is yours alone, boy, and so are your choices. Only you can decide which path you want to take and what you want to do as you travel it. Want to feel at peace? Then go your own way and stand by your choices.”

  “Even if that path leads me to take your king’s life with my own hands?” asked Zaros.

  “Yes,” admitted Johan, looking at Zaros with schadenfreude in his eyes. “However, I don’t think you will be able to. Knowing him, he will escape before you all arrive. And even if he doesn’t, his life is sure to be claimed by someone else. Someone who’s not as young as you.”

  “I’ll find a way,” answered Zaros, standing back up to his feet.

  “If you do,” continued Johan, “I hope you do it for the right reasons.”

  “Why would I need to?” asked Zaros. There was a new spark of understanding in his eyes, causing him to look at the prisoner with both appreciation and pity. “Didn’t you just say it? I can go my own way as long as I have the strength to do it.”

  “You got me there,” admitted Johan, barely laughing before coughing some blood. “How about you do me a big one then?”

  “What?”

  “Mind passing that food on to me? I would love to have a warm meal before your bosses come over here. It might just give me the strength to vomit over the bastards once they try to torture some answers out of me.”

  Zaros laughed, passing the tray on to the shackled Johan. “Thanks, old man.”

  “Good luck, youngster. Don’t get yourself killed. It wouldn’t be fun if you died while behaving as arrogant as the members of the family you despise so much.”

  Zaros turned around, ready to leave. Originally, he had only been ordered to guard the prisoner, bringing him some food was a choice of his own. “May I ask a last question?”

  “Shoot,” said Johan, taking a gulp of the soup that lay on the tray.

  “Do you know the reason behind the royal family’s order to attack the villages in the forest?”

  “So you’re aware,” muttered Johan, gulping the soup in his mouth. Facing this question, he looked a little more pensive than before. “I’m not going to ask how you know it was them, but yes, I was there when they made the decision. They reasoned it was the best option available to them at the time.”


  Zaros stood still, awaiting Johan to continue.

  “As a matter of fact, it was my lord’s idea. The prince realized the rebel forces had grown too strong, and thus, when we were faced with the need to take your lands, he reasoned it would be easier to kill you all than risking a second rebellion in the south.”

  Zaros nodded his head in silence, not asking any more questions. Like that, he left the dungeon, climbing the stairs back to ground level. There was no way for a wounded old man like him to escape, anyway. Amro had already confirmed he was not someone who would pose any threat.

  “May I know why you decided to poison him?” asked Amro. “I have no issue giving you what I had left, but I thought you were hesitating when you didn’t give him his meal in the beginning.”

  “I changed my mind halfway through,” answered Zaros. “He said he would stand by his choices with no regrets. My choice to kill him was simply a result of his own.”

  “Interesting,” noted Amro. “So, boy, are you as willing as him to shoulder the consequences of your choices?”

  “I am,” said Zaros. “All I need is to keep getting stronger, so I’m always able to pay the price.”

  “You are truly amusing at times,” replied Amro, thinking of a particular debt the boy had accrued with himself. “I’ll enjoying watching you try.”

  As Zaros opened the door to the outside world and exited the building, he was met by Katherine and Jan, both of whom were looking at him with different expressions. Jan, on one hand, was looking at him with the same devious smile as always. It was a look Zaros had seen before in merchants who were trying to scam his fellow villagers. Katherine, on the other, was looking at him with pity. It was obvious there were a myriad of things she wanted to say but was holding back.

  “So, boy, did the prisoner say anything?” asked Jan. “You were an awful lot of time inside there.”

  “A few curses to our cause,” lied Zaros, shrugging his arms. “I brought him some food so he would shut up.”

  “Ho, ho,” laughed Jan. “You’re being awfully kind to the enemy, aren’t you?”

  “Just being respectful of my elders,” replied Zaros, glancing quickly towards Jan’s white, balding hair and stubble.

  Jan frowned, realizing the subtle mockery he had just been subjected to. Katherine’s crescent eyes confirmed it wasn’t him overthinking things.

  “Go feed the horses then,” ordered Jan. “Enough dallying.”

  “Sure thing,” said Zaros, shrugging his shoulders on the way out. He already knew the old man wouldn’t do anything to him. His worth as a sacrifice was too big for them to discard so easily.

  “Tch, arrogant brat,” said Jan, watching Zaros leave.

  “Not any more so than you,” noted Katherine, cooling herself off with her fan. “What do you have against him, anyway?”

  “I don’t like his eyes,” explained Jan. “What right does he think he has to pity me?”

  “You are awfully judgmental at times,” said Katherine. “In my opinion, he is a good kid. Truly a shame you and Richard decided to include him as part of the sacrifices.”

  “Volunteers,” retorted Jan. “Regardless, you agreed to this plan just as much as both of us.”

  “It’s not something I’m proud about,” admitted Katherine.

  “Let’s get moving,” said Jan. “We have many things to do and I want to confirm a few things before dusk. We can’t give the kingdom more than a day to prepare. Perhaps, if we hurry enough, we might be able to stop everything without much bloodshed.”

  “Since when do you care about bloodshed,” replied Katherine, entering inside the building and holding the door open for Jan. “From military strategist to someone who was willing to use an artifact coming from the Church of Death. Your hands have always been dirty. Perhaps, if you hadn’t involved yourself in all of this, your daughter would still be...”

  *Slap!*

  “Don’t you dare mention her, you whore,” warned Jan, turning around to stalk towards her. “The only reason you’re still in the council is out of respect for your dead husband. You know as well as I do everything you have can be taken away, don’t forget that.”

  Katherine raised her head, placing her hand over the cheek where Jan’s blow had landed. Her eyes stared daggers at Jan as she watched him climb down the stairs, thinking of all the things she could do to get her payback. She didn’t know what had compelled her to call out the old man on his hypocrisy, but she suspected it had something to do with her increasing discontent with the council’s actions.

  “Are you coming or not?” asked Jan. “We’re on a schedule here.”

  “Fine,” said Katherine, walking towards the stairs. It still wasn’t time yet.

  Chapter 25

  Damned.

  Having escaped the rebels’ chase, Nyx’s prince felt exhausted. Nothing had gone like he planned. Only a small group of his soldiers had managed to escape, totaling a death count in the thousands. Even his elite guard had been completely decimated, all chances of their survival extinguished by the hordes of undead stopping their withdrawal.

  It was over for him.

  Even if he managed to convince the churches back in the capital of the rebels alliance with the infamous Church of Death, his future was equally doomed. Once everything was over, the nobles wouldn’t lose the chance to remove him and his family from power. They would take everything away for themselves. With most of the kingdom’s military might gone, he knew he had no choice but to give up the throne. That was, of course, if his father didn’t deal with him before the nobles did.

  “Damn it all!”

  It was the worst result possible. Even his loyal butler — someone who had raised him in his father’s stead — had sacrificed himself to enable his escape. The prince knew the silly old man was shrewd in his own ways, but he had to recognize even Johan wouldn’t fare well in the rebels’ hands. There were plenty of factions among their ranks who would love to cause a loyalist harm.

  Therefore, it was normal for him to assume he would get a break. At least before he arrived into the kingdom’s capital, everything should have been somewhat uneventful. Oh, how wrong he was. Before he knew it, he was faced with a new threat.

  Armed and disciplined, a new group had encircled his troops, looking at them with uncanny amounts of attention. The fact that they were dressed in white, luxurious clothes did nothing to lessen the disingenuous look of their smiles. Those were expressions the prince had seen before in sleazy nobles. Nothing good would come out of this.

  “We meet for the first time, your highness,” said an old man riding atop his horse. He was the worse of the lot, his expression ten times brighter than those of the men behind him. If not for encountering him under these conditions, the prince might have suspected the man really had good intentions towards him and his party.

  But as of right now, he knew better.

  “Who are you people?” asked the prince, his voice full of wariness.

  “Just a few lowly servants sent to enact the will of the Lady of Light,” replied the old man. “I myself am just a simple cardinal, here on my way to speak with your father, the king.”

  Hearing this answer, the prince grew furious. In his mind, the Church of Light was responsible for the failure behind his latest clash with the rebels. The ‘secret’ reports they had shared with his father had interestingly omitted the latest addition to the rebels army. It was far too coincidental not to be premeditated.

  The knowledge of what had happened in the neighboring country of Ionia was enough for him to hold on to the belief that it was a dark ploy crafted by the church. As far as he knew, nothing good had ever come of any organization associating with them. Much less when it came to royals like himself. It was a basic principle that both wanted every bit of political power for themselves.

  “You bastards, you knew all along!” roared the prince.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re trying to say,” replied the cardinal, calmly
smirking in obvious mockery. “We’re just here because we want you to help us have an audience with your father.”

  “Do I have a choice?” asked the prince, glancing at the few dozen troops he still had left. Most of them were mildly injured, yes, but they could still put on a fight if threatened into a corner.

  “Of course you do,” said the cardinal, looking at the squad of paladins and priests surrounding the prince. “However, I would suggest you reconsider. It doesn’t take a genius to see what the result would be.”

  Time stood still. Tension was visibly accumulating as most of the prince’s men started sweating in preparation for a fight. They thought they had been fortunate enough to survive the raid on the fortress, but this day just kept getting worse. If only their arrogant master managed to hold his temper for once...

  “Very well,” said the prince, taking everyone by surprise. His shoulders were slumped in frustration, a clear sign of how much he hated taking this decision. “I’ll follow you on the way back. Therefore, I’d like you to answer one thing with honesty. What is it that you wish to accomplish with all of this?”

  “We only wish to bring our lady’s glory into your kingdom,” spoke the cardinal, his tone filled with righteous zealotry. “Now, if you may.”

  “Of course,” answered the prince, gritting his teeth. “Lead the way.”

  Before long, the prince’s entourage was surrounded by paladins, leaving him on his own next to the cardinal, an old man, and a young girl. Riding their horses, they continued to make their way towards the capital, this time with a little less haste. Something both parties agreed was for the best.

  Normally, traveling from the northern front to the capital would take a little over two days. Being part of a group filled with priests and paladins, however, was bound to make that much shorter. If anything, such a team was more threatening because of their healing capabilities than their ability at combat.

  “So,” said the prince, breaking the silence that had overtaken their group, “now that you’ve got me under your thumb, do you plan to tell me the truth?”