The story of the black silk female knight

However, the royal family was indeed very interested in the underground ruins where Friggia had been sealed, and repeatedly expressed their hope that Valensa could lead the royal investigators to visit the ruins.

It was difficult to refuse such a request directly, so Valensa could only shift the blame onto the great witch, Friedeja, once again.

She said that the area of ​​the underground ruins was haunted by the legendary curse of the Great Witch, and that the living should not approach it. This was also the reason why she and Tia dared to confront the wild beasts there.

The reason she and Tia were able to move freely within the cursed zone was because they were the ones who broke the Great Witch's seal and had gained the Great Witch's approval, so they were naturally not afraid of the curse.

However, the original Great Witch, who has lived from the last era to the present, is quite capricious. Valensa said that she could not guarantee whether the Great Witch could accept others, and those who were not accepted would suffer a kind of continuous harm after entering the cursed area.

The royal family did not doubt this claim, but they were still very curious about the underground ruins and insisted on sending royal investigators to try it out.

Why not give it a try?

Valensa couldn't allow Tia to teleport the royal investigators directly into the ruins; they led the group through the main entrance above the underground ruins.

That location was the epicenter of Valencia's nuclear bomb detonation, and even though only a few months have passed, the nuclear radiation has barely diminished and still has considerable destructive power.

After experiencing firsthand the power of the 'Great Witch's Curse,' the royal investigators ultimately failed to muster the courage to formally enter the underground ruins.

Royal orders are important, that's true, but their lives are even more important!

Therefore, the investigators discussed the matter and, based on their previous experience investigating various underground ruins in the Barren Ridge, wrote a report that was roughly similar to 'This ruin was clearly made by a very powerful civilization, but it is too old to be repaired or used.'

The report was clearly fabricated. To prevent Valensa from saying more, several investigators secretly slipped her a bag of gold coins as hush money.

Valensa pretended to be serious and declined for a while, even scolding the investigators, before finally putting on an act of a little girl feeling a bit guilty for doing something wrong for the first time and accepting the gold coins.

That's the situation with the underground ruins for now. And the fact that Valensa and Tia used the underground ruins as a base to fight against the undead and wild beasts is no secret to those who know about it.

So it wasn't surprising that Elsers would produce such a paper from Tia; she flipped through it carefully, page by page.

The paper is long and rich in content, but most of it consists of actual battle examples and detailed explanations. The real core tactical ideas can be summarized into only a few points.

Firstly, the undead's combat power is not affected in the Barrens at all, and is even stronger than in the Fran homeland. Moreover, they do not need supplies or rest, and can easily sustain themselves through combat, making them arguably the best soldiers.

Secondly, the undead are immune to curses. Valensa and Tia's idea is to replicate the success of the area where the Great Witch resides, using the 'Legendary Curse' to create more lands in the Barrens that will cause continuous damage to the living but are harmless to the undead, as strongholds for the undead.

Thirdly, although the proportion of warriors among the wild beast race is very high, it is impossible for the entire population to be soldiers. There are still many female individuals, elderly individuals, and young individuals engaged in production.

These individual wild beasts can inflict effective damage even using the lowest-level undead, and can also be used to spread undead plague, further damaging the wild beasts' rear.

Fourth, even if the wild beasts were to concentrate their elite and top-tier combat forces to launch a devastating attack on the various undead positions, it wouldn't matter.

They're just cannon fodder anyway, so there's no need to feel bad about losing them. They can even weaken the fighting power of the powerful beast warriors.

Moreover, even if the wild beasts destroy the undead, it will be difficult to eliminate the 'legendary curse' of the first Great Witch that was spread by the undead.

Those places that have been used as battlegrounds by the undead can no longer serve as habitats for the living. And the dead beasts will become new undead... As one group rises and the other falls, the living conditions for the beasts will only get worse and worse, until one day they will perish naturally.

"...A very good undead tactic."

After roughly finishing reading the paper, Elserse first affirmed Tia and Valensa's work, then sighed somewhat helplessly:

"But similar ideas and tactics were actually proposed hundreds of years ago, and various geniuses have thought of this over the centuries, but it has never been approved by the royal family... Do you know what the biggest flaw of this tactic is?"

"It is the spirit of the dead itself."

Before Tia could answer, Elsers continued:

"If I'm not mistaken, the undead you and Valensa plan to use in this tactic are probably the uncontrollable kind, right? After all, there aren't many necromancers in our Fran, and undead completely controlled by necromancers are much weaker in both number and combat power than uncontrollable undead."

"Is such that."

Tia smiled and nodded:

"Besides the difference in combat strength and numbers, the undead controlled by the necromancer are also very afraid of decapitation operations targeting the necromancer himself... In fact, I have been targeted in the past few months, but fortunately, Sister Friggia's legendary curse is powerful enough that those beast assassins can't get close to me at all."

"But not every necromancer can gain the approval of that great witch like you, and how many undead can you control all by yourself?"

Elsers shrugged, then said seriously:

"So in the end, this plan still has to choose uncontrollable undead as the main force... and these undead will hate all living beings, whether human or beast... How can you guarantee that these undead won't become a stronger and more terrifying new natural disaster after they wipe out the beasts?"

Chapter 9 The Sword That Controls the Undead

Necromancers can transform the dead into undead and summon undead from the realm of the dead, but they are by no means the only source of undead; at most, they are borrowers of undead power.

Long before necromancers appeared, undead monsters existed in the world.

Therefore, the undead can be divided into two main categories: those controlled by necromancers and those not controlled by them.

Those skeleton soldiers equipped with automatic rifles by Valensa are undead controlled by Tia and Lily of the Valley's necromancy.

The advantage of this type of undead is that they are absolutely unable to defy the will of the necromancer. In fact, most low-level undead lack self-awareness and are entirely puppets of the necromancer, with all the magic power used to maintain their activities provided by the necromancer. Once the necromancer is killed, this type of undead will immediately cease its activities.

Another type of undead is the undead that is not controlled by the necromancer. Creating or transforming them consumes less energy for the necromancer, and they are more powerful than the same type of undead that are controlled by the necromancer.

Although these undead lack clear self-awareness at their lower levels and act entirely on instinct, they possess the ability to autonomously absorb magic or devour the flesh and blood of living beings to evolve, somewhat like the zombies in Valensa's previous life's bio-apocalyptic works. When they evolve to higher levels, they not only become much stronger but also possess intelligence no less than that of humans.

Some beings with special physiques or talents, even if they were quite ordinary in life, become incredibly powerful after being transformed into undead... For example, the headless girl who became the undead lord in Bodek Town is someone with exceptional undead talent, and may even be an accident for her transformer.

These undead, which are not under the control of necromancers, naturally do not require the necromancer's magic power.

Simply put, if a necromancer has enough energy, he can produce these powerful, autonomous, and evolving undead indefinitely, like a humanoid factory.

However, this kind of undead also has a fatal flaw... After it gains a sense of self through evolution, it will develop an ability called "Undead Will," which makes it completely immune to the control of necromancers and even makes it hate the necromancer who created it even more.

This is what Elsers… or rather, all the members of the Fran royal family throughout history, have been most concerned about when faced with similar tactical proposals.

How strong is the Undead race?

Very strong.

Is it feasible to create a large number of undead to harass wild beasts in the Barrens?

Totally doable.

But... what if the undead of the Wasteland not only successfully harassed the wild beasts, but also completely defeated them and took their place?

It's important to understand that the undead are a race that sustains itself through war. There's no such thing as needing to recuperate after a major battle... After defeating and transforming the entire beast race, the undead race, which has unified the desolate lands, will only become stronger and turn into an even more terrifying and unstoppable natural disaster.

By then, France will not be able to simply fight a defensive battle every autumn; it may very well face an endless, all-out war.

This is the concern of the French royal family, and the reason why similar tactical ideas have been rejected over the years.

"Of course I know all of this, but the fact that I'm bringing it up even though I know it means I have a way to solve this problem, doesn't it?"

Despite Princess Elses's worries and doubts, Tia remained quite confident and produced a second document:

"Take a look at this... This is top-secret knowledge from that great witch. Currently, there are probably no more than 10 people on the entire continent who know about it."

"Oh? You've come up with a solution to this problem?"

Elser's curiosity was completely piqued, and she quickly took Tia's second document, flipping through it. She couldn't help but be surprised after only a few glances:

"This is... information on the Netherworld Clan? How do you have such information? The Netherworld Clan is one of the three calamities of the Frenoia Continent, and America's most troublesome enemy... It is said that this race is as mysterious as the Mist Demons of the Four Islands Alliance."

"To modern human civilization, the Netherworld Clan is indeed very mysterious. But to a great witch who has lived from the last era to the present, the Netherworld Clan is not so mysterious."

Tia chuckled and said:

"Although Sister Friggia doesn't fully understand how the Netherworld Clan evolved into what it is today, she knows a lot about the Netherworld Clan's original origins and the essence of their powerful innate abilities... Anyway, take a look at this information first."

"I went to great lengths to find research material for my sister Friggia, and I finally managed to get half a corpse of a Netherworld Clan member from the Sage's Tower."

"...Okay, I'll take a look first."

Elserse began to carefully review the information once again.

Although this princess had a rather dissolute private life and hadn't really practiced Buddhism properly, she still managed to complete some of the basic courses for members of the royal family.

Although Elseris could only understand a little bit of the research material that Tia provided, which involved many of the underlying principles, she could fully understand the research conclusions.

"...The meaning of your research data is..."

It was precisely because she understood that Elsers took a deep breath and couldn't help but gently rub her temples with her left index finger to suppress her shock:

"The Netherworld Race is not a high-level undead life form as we originally guessed; they are actually living, normal life forms... So the methods we usually use to deal with the undead will not be as effective when fighting the Netherworld Race?"

“That’s right.” Tia smiled and nodded.

"And the fact that the Netherworld race is born with the ability to control the undead and transform living things into undead is not because they themselves are a high-level undead, but because of a special substance in their spinal cord?" Elsers asked in return.

"That's how it is." Tia nodded with a light smile.

"You and Valensa want to hunt down a batch of Netherworld creatures' spinal cords in America, just like you would use monster materials to craft equipment, to extract that special substance and forge a special weapon... a weapon that can control the undead?" Elserse bit her lip tightly, her voice trembling slightly.

"Is such that."

Tia was still smiling, but this time there was a hint of wry smile and helplessness in her expression.

"That idiot Valensa has even designed the weapon's appearance and name... It's a really cool sword, and its name is Frostmourne..."

That idiot was quite excited while designing these things, and kept muttering things I couldn't understand... something about Elsers and Arthas having similar names and blonde hair, so it's not surprising they have a Frostmourne, right?

"The sword... Frostmourne... Wait a minute!"

Elseris murmured a couple of words, then suddenly her eyes widened:

"What did you just say? You and Valensa want me to wield that sword?"

Chapter 10 The most suitable candidate

The reason why Princess Elseris was chosen as the controller of the undead army is certainly not just because her name sounds similar to that of a certain filial son.

First, if the tactics described in Valensa and Tia's paper succeed, then there will definitely be a powerful undead legion on the future Barrens, at least no weaker than the current Wild Beasts.

This is undoubtedly a very powerful force, and in order to put the French royal family at ease, Valensa and Tia cannot control this force.

Their engagement was a powerful alliance that the royal family had to take notice of.

For the stability of the Kingdom of Fran, the best situation is one of one superpower and several strong powers between the royal family and the great nobles. A situation where two superpowers are vying for power is something that most people do not want to see.

Anxiety, confusion—please stop getting stronger.

This sentiment is perhaps how the royal family feels right now.

In other words, the Church of the Sun has an explicit rule that it will never interfere in the internal affairs of any country, and the Britannia family has always been loyal, so the royal family has no other ideas.

If this were in Valensa's previous life in ancient times, and a military family controlling 70% of the country's army were to marry into a religious sect that the entire population believed in, then unless the emperor was extremely incompetent, he probably wouldn't sleep soundly at night, fearing that the country would no longer be his when he woke up the next day.

In conclusion, for various reasons, although the internal politics of humanity in this world are far more harmonious than in Valensa's previous life, there are still limits to it.

Tia is the heir to the Britannia family, a disciple of one of the top ten sages in the Sage Tower, and engaged to a paladin of the Church of the Sun.

If she were to gain control of an undead legion no weaker than wild beasts... even if the Fran royal family trusted the Britannia family, they would have no choice but to suppress and weaken them.

Therefore, it would be better to hand over control of the undead army to someone else from the beginning, preferably someone the royal family can trust, so that the royal family feels that the undead army is under their control.

For this reason alone, no one is more suitable than Princess Elsers.

Even if Elseris is dissolute and dissatisfied with her father and brothers who always pressure her to marry, she is still a member of the royal family and understands that she is a member of the royal family and will not betray the royal family... because all her glory and treatment come from her identity as a royal princess, not from the name Elseris.

Meanwhile, Elsers is also a good friend of Valensa and Tia. Apart from being a womanizer, she has no ambition... Everyone will be satisfied if the undead army is handed over to her.

Besides being absolutely suitable in terms of identity, there was another important reason why Valensa and Tia chose Elsers as the future leader of the undead army... Elsers herself was very weak.

As a member of the royal family, Elsers's talent for cultivation is actually quite high. Coupled with the resources of the royal family, she could easily break through to the Lighthouse level by the age of 20 with a little effort.

Unfortunately, Elserse was too uneducated and dissolute in the past. During the best and most youthful years of her life, she was either partying with pretty girls or preparing for those parties, completely wasting her time.

As a result, Elsers's training path was completely abandoned, and she even forgot all the basic swordsmanship she had practiced as a child.

Even if Elsers starts to catch up now and desperately invests resources in herself, she will never be able to advance to the Radiant rank in this lifetime.

In other words, even if Elsers does run into trouble like that filial son and tries to use her undead army to cause trouble, her own lack of strength will make that problem easy to solve.

In conclusion, having Elsers in control of the undead army is the ideal situation.

The royal family will not suspect anything.

Elseris no longer needs to worry about being forced into marriage by her father and brothers. (No king with a sound mind would want to marry off a princess who commands an undead army to someone else.)

Valensa and Tia could have Elses help them conceal some of their little secrets that they didn't want the royal family to know... and many things could even be done directly in the name of the royal family, just like how Valensa often shifts the blame to the Sun Goddess and Friggia now. The princess who will control the undead army in the future probably won't care that she has inexplicably gained some great achievements.

This is a plan that will satisfy everyone.

With Tia's patient explanation, Elserse quickly understood everything, and her expression and voice couldn't help but show some excitement.

She had been a useless princess of the desolate silver for far too long, and now that she had the chance to completely change this terrible impression in everyone's eyes, Elsers simply couldn't refuse.

After drinking several glasses of water, Elseris finally managed to calm down from her feverish state and pounding heart and began to carefully consider the possibility of this.

Logically, there seems to be no problem, the only thing that is somewhat worrying...