Chapter 369 Operation ‘Synchro’: Aftermath

The simultaneous battles against the undead concluded just before the sunset for the day, with the next few hours being spent on the very necessary task of discarding the bodies of the undead creatures that were fought.

The fire mages had their work cut out for them as they were assigned the task of burning the bodies of every single undead creature that had been gathered by the other adventurers and soldiers.

It was a very important procedure that was taken after every fight against large numbers of undead creatures, as necromancers have shown the ability to raise the undead once more if their bodies were relatively intact.

Of course, undead creatures like liches and skeleton knights hardly fell under this category, but their shattered bones were still burned just in case.

Since returning to their respective bases wasn't exactly feasible, each of the attack forces made camp a few kilometres from their battlefields while rotating the watch duty amongst their various groups.

The atmosphere at the camp that night was sombre, to say the least, as more than just a few knights soldiers and adventurers had lost one or two companions during the day's battle.

By the next morning, when everyone was suitably rested, they began their journeys back to their respective bases, along with the corpses of the fallen who had been purified by the priests of the church.

Position A was only half a day's journey from Bultom, so by afternoon, they had already reached the satellite towns around the county's capital.

This also served to make Evan realize that it was impossible to carry out their plan for the Count of Falos on the 25th, though he had already expected this.

Instead, he spent the rest of the day handling the matters pertaining to the casualties along with the Duke and the other military higher-ups.

Calculating the number of casualties, assigning the officers who were to break the bad news to the families of the fallen knights and soldiers, as well as initiating support for the families that they had left behind.

Important tasks like that could not be left unattended.

Duke Charles also had his work cut out for him as while he was focusing more on the undead crisis, there were other aspects of governing the Cheverton Duchy that needed his direct attention.

Thankfully, he had competent vassals under him and a Duchess who didn't rest on her laurels, so things were a lot easier for him to handle. He had even taken this opportunity to test his two sons to see their level of competence in handling issues like this.

And so the day passed, with more of the forces returning to their respective bases to rest for the D-Day, while the Brigades that didn't participate in the simultaneous attacks prepared themselves to move out to Falos.

Only the ones brought by the Second Sword Luke to Bultom, along with a Brigade of Knights under the Duke and a thousand adventurers were to participate in this plan.

While the soldiers and Knights were assembling themselves to move west, Evan and his party members were all peacefully sleeping in their beds, as they sure as hell weren't going to get any sleep that night.

â—‡ â—‡ â—‡

Church of Artemisia Branch

Bultom Dungeon City

Cheverton Duchy

April 26th

Year 1052

[🎶Oh the summer of '1021

Summer smiling had me a blast, oh yeah

Summer smiling happened so fast🎶]

The late morning of this fine day was welcomed by the priests and Holy Knights of the Church of Artemisia in Bultom City, with the scene of a young twelve-year-old-looking girl holding a radio in her hand as she sauntered through the halls of the Church Building.

She had her straight black hair tied up in a long braid that reached just below her knees, wearing a similarly coloured short-sleeved shirt and a pair of white shorts.

On her hands, she had black leather gloves, matching the boots she had on.

The passing holy knights and priests couldn't help but take notice of her as she looked at a piece of paper in her hand while navigating her way through the halls of the building.

Appearance-wise, she looked like a normal twelve-year-old, however, the clergymen and other workers of the church, especially the holy knights, knew she was one of the farthest things from a 'normal' twelve-year-old.

On one hand, she was a very powerful, presumably high-ranked member of the elusive spirit race, and it was also becoming common knowledge that she was in a contract with a certain Duke's son, at least within Bultom.

Those who saw her actions in the battle on the 24th had gone on to spread the word, allowing the passing priests to be able to instantly identify her at first glance.

While she was moving around the church with her hand-drawn map, she occasionally waved at the holy knights and priests that she passed, eventually reaching an area that was restricted to outsiders.

The knights guarding the entrance to the area did their jobs, stopping her to question her destination although one of them seemed slightly scared of the little girl.

[Big Sis Amelie told me that her room was here and I should come to find her.

She even drew a map for me.]

She held out the map to the holy knights while switching off the radio in her other hand and dropping it to the ground.

Just when they thought that the device would shatter upon contact with the ground, the girl's shadow wriggled lightly and expanded a bit, with the radio falling into it and disappearing.

That reminded the holy knight looking at the hand-drawn map that the girl in front of him wasn't the only spirit that their Prime Minister's son was said to be contracted with.

Nevertheless, he quickly regained himself and asked one of his female companions to check if the person she had come to find was in their room.

However, before that person could even enter the dorm area, another knight came over from another direction with a message from the Bishop in question.

"Bishop Harris said you should come over to the Bishop's office to talk to her there."

[Oh...Okay!

Thanks, Mr Knight.]

Like so, she followed the knight to the office of the Bishop of the Church of Artemisia of the Bultom County, arriving to meet Amelie and the aged Bishop engaging in a heated discussion.

The young spirit silently seated herself atop a couch that was placed nearby while playing with the fur of a familiar-looking black cat in her arms.

After a few minutes, the two Bishops concluded their discussions, with the resident Bishop vacating his office to take care of other matters outside.

"Sorry for the wait, Lady Kayla."

[Just call me Kayla. No need to fuss over honorifics.]

Kayla remarked as she sauntered up to the black-haired woman and jumped atop her lap, before stretching out her hands to push the older woman's hair behind her ears.

[Everyone's so busy these days.]

"Well...Dealing with the undead doesn't only entail fighting them."

[Mmm...I understand.

Sorry to bother you at this time.]

Seeing how Kayla was looking a bit dejected, Amelie smiled lightly before poking the young spirit's nose and saying.

"Don't feel bad about it, okay? You're not bothering me at all."

♧ ♧ ♧

Hey y'all, it's your friendly neighbourhood author, _michael here.

So, within a few days, I'd be reporting for mandatory youth service in my country, which is basically a pseudo-military camp.

This means that chapter updates would reduce for a while as I would not be able to write much while doing training drills with soldiers.

However, it's only for a couple of weeks so chapter updates should be returning to normal around the last week of February.

Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to you continuing on our Reincarnated Hero's journey.

This has been _michael.

Over and Out!