Just as I thought the stone houses were the best defended. Each in a completely different way but always based on the same thing, mercenaries. Employing decent paid warriors instead of lazy and useless guards was an instant indication of who was concerned about their safety. Or who has an exaggerated anxiety for his own life and thinks his opponents will do it instead of him.

Well, that's probably how it came to be three houses, and three different mercenary groups. Anxiety and fear.

In each the mercenaries kept constant vigil, all night, all the time as soon as we arrived. Only every now and then they changed the night watch

Even during the attack they were organized enough to change formation throughout. However, in the last house the mercenaries even woke up the owner, who, in his night pajamas and axe in hand, wanted to throw himself at my troops. But unfortunately, whether because he finally woke up or the mercenaries stopped him, he did not do so, but still bravely stood in line.

In contrast, the fat owners in the others were shaking with fear at the mere sight of me. It was easy to see who had made a profit on what.

But yes, the lack of surprise and good organization meant that the stone houses were also, for now, the one place that made me lose my subordinate.

But a necromancer to do what he is best at, so it still didn't matter. The loss of one was immediately replaced by a new one, my new favorite tactic blow for blow, life for life. Just the number of defenders was decreasing with each passing minute.

Of course, the defenders were still human and not some puppets like in some game so they finally came to their senses. Instead of fighting the incessant horde of undead they tried to get to their summoner, me. But they didn't even have a chance to get close as Gawain just as easily as in the barracks killed everyone in a split second. Anyone who got too close to my person.

"I feel sorry for them, it looks rather like a fight between an adult and a child," I tried to joke while looking at my knight, but as always a confused look answered me. So I didn't try further. Joke on me.

~~~

After the time-consuming task of dealing with the last stop, it was time for one last build.

For who would count a forsaken marketplace devoid of anything, certainly not me.

I still wanted to attack the temple before the rest of my bunch massacred the rest of the inhabitants, but a disturbing signal reached me. I halted in place for a moment and looked in a particular direction as soon as I felt the loss of one of connections.

"I wonder who else managed to kill a skeleton on his own. Did I meet some knight?" I thought with a sinister smile on my lips.

"Gawain slight change of plans, we will have one more place to check. My knight I think you will have a contender."

And as soon as my words were spoken, nothing changed, as usual. But only seemingly because from the side of my brainless servant for the first time I felt some stronger emotion, anticipation.

~~~

The area of the unscheduled halt I arrived at was ordinary, no hidden passageway or basement, not even a hero standing there who came from nowhere to save the village, nothing, just a wooden house like any other nearby.

But still, something was different, the occupant of this house stood out. I slowly opened the door and we went inside the wooden cottage.

Silence was all I found, silence. I began to slowly look around the room in search of something or someone who could destroy one of my undead, maybe not exactly me but my servants count as me. Naturally, I also let my knight go ahead while I watch everything from a safe distance.

With each step of the undead, the wooden floor creaked making our presence known.

I searched and searched until I finally found someone, the cottage wasn't that big after all, and it had to happen at some point.

"So here you are," I said through the mouth of the undead to the ruined skeleton. Crushed skull, broken bones, the very remains. Someone must have been really pissed off.

I found the skeleton but no one nearby, the attacker therefore either escaped or continues to hide here somewhere. So I kept searching.

"Did he run away, or maybe he's hiding?" I pondered aloud as if someone hidden in the area was listening to me. Leaving a spark of hope for possibly hidden individuals, but I did not retreat.

I searched the room further for anything, some kind of lever, a hidden passage or a hidden basement yet still nothing. I licked every wall and rearranged all the furniture again still nothing.

So I went on to the next room and the next until I was left with the last one, the largest of them all in which was a large wooden bed covered with animal skins.

This time I decided to do things differently as the probability that someone was hiding here only increased. The skeleton I controlled, as if stepping on ice, silently moved across the floor until it stood by the bed.

I searched the entire room with my eyes looking for several potential hiding places but I started with the simplest and most obvious one.

"Boo!" I shouted as soon as I dipped my head under the bed. Scaring the person who was there.

The terrified woman, along with the child, quickly crawled out of the other side and then ran to the door, wanting to run out of the room as quickly as possible.

But she did not wander far because I had already predicted such a variant, Gawain with all his mass blocked the passages so carefully that even a mouse would not squeeze through.

The woman, seeing her escape route blocked, tried to find another path but it was too late, she was too slow.

My knight instantly grabbed her neck with his free hand and then lifted her up as the woman was not very tall. Then, at my command, his steel grip was tightening tighter and tighter with each passing moment, watching as she ran out of air more and more.

"Stun her." I said as I watched the woman no longer even trying to defend herself.

Gawain, obviously, obeyed the command and with one swift blow rendered her unconscious, and then let her fall to the ground, making her collapse on the floor like a stringless doll.

Her son at the time, just a few years old boy, did not even move an inch. He didn't even show any emotion or feeling as if everything was indifferent to him. Too stupid to know what was going on or too arrogant to do anything. In a decade or so on the battlefield such behavior might have been a great advantage but now it was a fatal flaw. Not that a child would be able to do anything.

"Lock the boy in the first best room and make sure he doesn't escape." I gave the order pointing to one of the skeletons. I didn't have to say it but it was more fun that way. "I'll need them later, I've got some important questions."

~~~

Naturally, I wasn't fooled and kept looking, after all, it's not that hard to find monsters who sacrifice their family just to survive. I kept looking but there was no one else.

'Only a woman with a child.... no, they wouldn't be able to defeat a skeleton. Somewhere it must be a man, just where?'

'He escaped ... just where, how, after all Randaloph should see something. Wait, is that dog again...'

My thoughts were interrupted by a very, very quiet bone crunching sound coming from the roof of this building. I had not given the order to cut something so it meant only one fucking thing.

Confident of what I was going to see I went outside and caught sight, a big wolf holding onto something in its teeth, trying to hold on with its paws the bones of the human arm.

I didn't have to say anything for as soon as the wolf saw me he involuntarily released his arm from his paws causing it to fall to the ground with a thud.

How I wish I could roll my eyes and yell at my dog right now, but I managed to restrain myself. I owed him something and besides, this was not the time or place for such arguments.

One can call me petty but orders are orders, o I couldn't let this dog think to himself that I wouldn't settle with him.

"Randaloph come here for a moment." I said quietly.

Wolf silently jumped off the roof and landed directly in front of me.

Bang

'Deep breath'

"--__--?"

'He still has the nerve to...'

"Well done on catching our runaway only where is the rest of his body?" I asked looking at the half-bitten human arm.

Seeing that I wasn't yelling at him, the wolf quickly took the hand in his mouth and eagerly led me to where the dead warrior was now hiding, all the while not letting go of his prize from his teeth.

"Relax, the hand is all yours."

I crouched by the rest of the carcass and, as usual, absorbed whatever was left of it. I could afford to lose a few mana points per hand in exchange for a moment of peace.

Then as the bones were left alone just as the others I ordered to be taken to the rest, to the already sizable pile accumulated in the village market, with the appropriate division into categories.

But not wanting to waste any more precious time, I moved on to the last place that still needed to be taken care of. It was time to face the gods.

~~~

Interior of the chapel was clean and neat and as was the exterior it also contained many icons of the sun. Many carved from wood but there were also a few made from more expensive bullion, but that was to be expected.

Then of course there was the stained glass inside, damned stained glass that couldn't be seen from the outside. Why did it always have to be stained glass windows?

Glass paintings arranged from right to left depicted some interesting story. Probably something about the creation of the world, some kind of struggle, that the gods are watching and such nonsense.

'The question, nonetheless, is whether their gods were real.'

'To me it would be better if not, that it is a fairy tale, opium for the stupid. Otherwise it could be quite a mess, because I don't see that the gods will look on with a favorable eye as I destroy this globe. Still, knowing my luck, they definitely exist, and there's a very good possibility that they're even already aware of my presence.'

'But until they bluntly let me know that I'm not welcome here I will pretend that they don't exist or I don't know anything. After all, what could go wrong?

When I finished analyzing the story I began to look around further down but there was nothing much more interesting in the room. However, there was more to come, a passage to a place connected to the chapel where priests should usually eat rest and sleep.

I didn't meet the chaplain inside so, not wanting to take any risk, I had to go there. But knowing that priests in novels usually used some form of magic I didn't want to risk my own life and go there in person.

That's why, as usual, I sent my pawns in the lead while I, at a safe distance, will watch everything with Gawain protecting my ass.

It's was time to hunt for a priest.