My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 143

"We can't understand it either. Lord Kosichä and Lord Yang Hao can't understand it either... But I think it would be better to kill those nobles as soon as possible and end this war in order to prevent the people of the Ursus Empire from being slaughtered."

This head maid seemed to possess a status and knowledge beyond her years, and some ideas that might even be considered threatening to important figures... However, Bozocasti didn't want to say too much about other people's family affairs. He simply nodded, indicating that they should indeed be dealt with as soon as possible, and then he found that Head Maid Monica had led them to the entrance of a strange street.

The street was blocked off, and to get on it, you had to go through a checkpoint guarded by police and soldiers.

"here it is?"

"The infected area. All the infected in the Duchy of Koschche will be treated here almost indistinguishably from ordinary people, enjoying the schools, hospitals, police stations, and various convenient community centers and markets they deserve. Naturally, they should also do what they are supposed to do—whether it's working in a factory or running their own business; in short, they have their own jobs here. But even so, to prevent ordinary people from also becoming infected, we still need to isolate them in this area to prevent the Oripathy from continuing to spread."

Is this... some kind of paradise?

Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes... just from the verbal description, Bozokastie subconsciously thought it was some kind of paradise-like place—but then again? Is it really true?

He was very suspicious...

"So, why are we here?"

"Yes, your son often comes here... Usually, he helps out at the Oripathy Research Center here, and only goes back to his post when there's nothing else to do—I'm not very familiar with Wendigo's habits, but your son is indeed a bit... a bit too active in some ways."

And Großwazel is here too? He comes here often? In other words, his workplace isn't actually in this area, but somewhere else?

"I'm sorry about this. Did he do his job properly?"

"Of course. If he doesn't do his job properly, we won't allow him to run around like that."

The head maid smiled and nodded, then led Bozokas to the entrance of the checkpoint for them.

However, they didn't conduct a routine check. After the head maid said a few words, the police and soldiers at the scene let them through. After fully entering the infected area, those who had initially doubted the head maid's words now sincerely believed that what she said was indeed true.

On the streets of the infected area, although pedestrians didn't seem as happy as those in normal neighborhoods, they were indeed less restricted—the police officers on the street were also infected, as were the street vendors hawking their wares. Apart from some special facilities, almost all the work in this area was done by infected individuals.

Moreover, Bozokastie also saw many infected people working at construction sites...

"That's a temporary shelter built for newly arrived infected. Recently, more and more infected people have been coming in from outside—although the two adults haven't refused their arrival, but how should I put it? With the increasing number of infected people, the original facilities in our quarantine area seem a bit... too few."

"Therefore, more buildings need to be constructed... but if they were placed elsewhere, the nobles and the government would simply put them in one place and let them solve their own problems..."

"It's impossible for them to solve their own problems, after all, most of the infected people don't have money or the ability to do anything... So as a government, we have an obligation to help them get out of their miserable lives—we don't need to be so meticulous as to put food in front of them, but at the very least, we should give them job opportunities."

Is this...your idea?

Bozokast could not help but begin to respect the head maid's ideas.

But to his surprise, the head maid simply smiled and shook her head in response to his respect.

"No, this is Lord Yang Hao's idea. He brought all of this up. If you want to know more, I recommend you ask him directly."

He paused for a moment, and before he could answer, the head maid announced that they had arrived.

Chapter 59

Mr. Bozocasti arrived safely in the infected area and, led by the head maid, entered the heavily guarded Oripathy Research Center.

Leaving aside his praise for the entire area, he paused for a moment when he pushed open the door and was met with his son's shameless and irresponsible words, "Slacking off is great!"

When he discovered that his son was neither working nor resting, but instead was engrossed in reading a picture book of Kuranta people, half-centenarians, which he had somehow acquired, he was taken aback.

While Bozocas was still in a daze, Mr. Grovazel finally came to his senses. He was still wondering, "Who just suddenly came over like this?", when he looked up and saw his father, his father's men, and the head maid who had somehow walked to a corner with a strange expression and seemed to be preparing to leave.

"Father?! Monica, head maid! Please explain this to me!!"

"...Mr. Groivazel, I thought you were a gentleman who might be a bit lazy but at least had no problems with your character... I didn't expect you to be like this...? By the way, who gave you that sketchbook?"

"Yes, it was given to me by a girl named Lily from the creed... She said that Lord Yang Hao also likes to read it..."

"...Please take care of yourself. Ah, Mr. Bozocasti, make yourself at home here—don't worry, no one will come in from the outside. Please give your son a good talking-to. I'll be leaving now."

...

Head Maid Monica quietly left amidst the screams of the Wendigo scholars. After all, what could be more terrifying than slacking off at work while casually reading erotica, only to have your stern father suddenly arrive and catch you completely in the act? Perhaps there is, but for Mr. Großwazel, he had to get past his father before he could continue working properly.

So, Mr. Großwazel, please keep up the good work. By the way, I will carefully investigate that book you have in your hand.

...

With this thought in mind, Head Maid Monica returned to the audience hall. She then discovered that the two lords were still working on their thrones, but Lady Sonia and Serpent Scale Paul were nowhere to be seen.

“I’ve sent them to do some things for me,” Yang Hao explained from his throne, addressing Monica’s confusion. “Paul is going to take the Serpent Scales to infiltrate the eastern cities of Casimir and assess the actual speed of the Colombian advance. As for Sonia, I’ve told her to go back and rest, and prepare for battle with her juniors—and the village of Kos is about to face its first deep-sea attack since we started building our defenses on reclaimed land, so I need to keep a close eye on things here.”

“Yes, I understand. So, gentlemen, would you like to rest now, or continue working?” Monica nodded.

"Let's take a short rest," Lord Kosichä chuckled. "We need to find a way to contact the mercenaries in Kazdel... otherwise, no matter how anxious we are here, it's useless. Sigh. Hopefully, the nobles of the Sherlock Holmes nightclub won't put their dirty plan into action right now..."

"That's all we can hope for."

They reluctantly prepared to go back and rest for the time being.

Meanwhile, at the location of His Majesty the Emperor's main army, the Imperial Guards were struggling to resist the endless, relentless tide of advancing troops.

That was a tide made up of corpses.

To be precise, it's a trend made up of [mutilated corpses].

They are like the legendary zombies or ghouls, with countless fatal wounds on their bodies, and many of them even have their lungs and ribs exposed, yet they are still active.

"How are we supposed to fight these things?!"

The Imperial Guard soldiers formed ranks, holding back the advancing corpses. Although the corpses posed virtually no threat to their fully armed forces, however...

There are still too many of them.

And it's not just about the sheer number of them; figuring out how to kill them quickly and effectively is also a good question.

After all, their bodies were riddled with fatal wounds, and crushing their heads would be futile—many of the corpses were headless. They didn't know how they moved; the soldiers could only raise their shields to desperately defend against their attacks and the onslaught of their bodies, waiting for the mortar crew or something else to blast the corpses to pieces before they could finally rest.

This was not good news for His Majesty's soldiers. They would rather face a stronger enemy than a tidal wave of scum. Moreover, many soldiers had noticed that the corpses seemed to be units created from the bodies of civilians... many of them didn't even have a wooden stick in their hands; rather than combat units, they looked more like experimental subjects created for someone's amusement...

...This has severely damaged the morale of His Majesty's army: His Majesty's promise to them in war was to "save the people in the territory of the Hercules Nightclub," but now, good heavens—these bastards are even targeting his own senses?

The soldiers were furious.

Further away, the emperor, clad in armor, was even more furious as he commanded the operation.

"Those despicable people actually slaughtered their own people and then desecrated their corpses..."

“But Your Majesty, their move has indeed been very effective—we cannot continue advancing while ignoring these hundreds of thousands of corpses. They... there are simply too many of them.”

A general gave a wry smile, saying that if they wanted to break through the wave of corpses as soon as possible, the only thing they could do was to have all the soldiers board the Saint-Germain Fortress and let the fortress run over the undead—but even if they did that, the large number of undead would become the most troublesome enemy in the area in the future.

Mobile cities and towns might be able to run over the zombies and escape, but villages and ordinary caravans simply couldn't get through the obstacles formed by the zombies—in other words, if they didn't want the area to be overrun by zombies in the future, they would have to deal with all the zombies before continuing their advance.

"...Then let the Saint-Germain Castle come up. Provide fire support with its cannons, and we'll deal with them before the nobles of the other Hercules nightclubs also commit such despicable acts."

"Yes."

Her Majesty the Emperor sighed and issued the order. However, now that she was stranded in this wasteland by the zombie horde, she could only hope that Yang Hao would bring some good news.

Chapter 60

At 10:27 AM on April 7th.

While Yang Hao, paralyzed in bed, was still worrying about how to make contact with the important figures in Kazdel, and while he was anxiously looking at his phone, searching for potential partners on the marriage agency app who might be connected to the Sarkaz, his head maid suddenly appeared in the room where he was alone. She respectfully said, "My lord, you need to get up," and added that the messenger she had sent out had finally returned—and not just the messenger.

He also brought guests from Kazdel.

"Ah? The messenger is back. It's good that I can get my things... but what's with the guests from Kazdel?"

"He said he experienced too many Originium disasters on his way back and had to detour through Kazdel... But perhaps because some people in Kazdel also wanted to trade with us, he brought those people who should be [noble representatives] with him."

"Is that so? Okay... I'll get up now. Are they in the audience hall right now?"

"Yes. Lord Kosiché is receiving them."

"Can I take my time?" Yang Hao blinked, thinking that since his wife was already entertaining them, it would be reasonable for him to take a bath here before going over, right?

"Please hurry. Otherwise, Lord Koschche won't let you off the hook tonight." Monica, the head maid, simply chuckled at Yang Hao's lazy behavior, then stepped forward and pulled the man, still sprawled on the bed, up, helping him get dressed as well. "So please hurry—after you've dealt with their matters, you can continue to rest."

"It's not like Monica and Kosiché have been letting me off the hook lately! It's you two who've been making it so I can't get out of bed every morning!" He pouted, letting the head maid help him get dressed. He sighed, "Oh well... thank you for your help. By the way, Monica, could you please have Sonia come over this afternoon? There are some things I need her advice on in Kos village..."

"Understood, my lord."

Yang Hao quickly washed up and, with Monica's help, changed into formal attire for receiving guests. He suddenly remembered that there seemed to be no news from Mr. Bozocasti, so he asked his most trusted head maid what the situation was.

The head maid smiled and said that Mr. Bozokasti had recently settled in the guest quarters of the Duke's mansion with his guards. Aside from waiting for any possible orders from His Majesty the Emperor, he spent his days at the research institute supervising his son, Mr. Grovazel, as he seemed to be an old acquaintance of Ms. Kal'tsit, as they could occasionally be seen chatting together.

"Really? I heard that Mr. Bozokastie is over a hundred years old? In other words, Ms. Kal'tsit is about that age too?"

"Perhaps? Hmm... Rather than that, Lord Yang Hao—can I ask you for a favor?"

"what?"

He paused for a moment, then tapped the ground lightly a few times with his cane before hearing Head Maid Monica make this request:

"It's just... even if you find more lovers in the future, please don't distance yourself from Lord Koschche and me, okay?"

He felt Monica hug him from behind; her hands were so warm, and trembling... Was she worried that he would distance himself from her in the future? Yang Hao paused for a moment, then simply smiled.

"Instead of worrying about that, why aren't you worried about me being trapped in the room by the two of you, unable to move, and possibly dying in bed in the end?"

He won't distance himself from Monica. Monica and Koschche are the people he trusts and loves most right now.

Of course, this doesn't mean he doesn't like Margarita... it's just that now the two of them not only bear the love of each other, but also a lot of accumulated responsibilities... With all those things piled up together, Yang Hao can't possibly ignore them, can he?

Not to mention, one was his wife, and the other was the head maid he had helped ascend to immortality. In a sense, their positions in Yang Hao's heart were almost unshakeable, truly—

Aside from Sonia's mother. Her maternal instincts are so strong that even if Yang Hao were to say "it's nothing special" now, probably no one would believe him.

"hehe."

She smiled, hugged Yang Hao tightly for a while, and then the head maid disappeared. It seemed Koschich was calling her.

In that case, I should hurry over there too.

He straightened his collar, then, tapping his cane, headed to the audience hall to prepare for his work.

.......

Meanwhile, in the audience hall of the Duke's mansion, Kosichrie was receiving a guest from Kazdel—a distinguished guest with white hair, a pair of asymmetrical black horns on his head, and red eyes.

Of course, the person currently in charge of speaking with Kosichä is not the guest, but the diplomat he brought—according to the diplomat, they came to Ursus for a "deal".

snort!

transaction!

Kosichrie smelled money—of course, she knew even more clearly that the people asking for money weren't from her side, but from the Sarkaz guests. They seemed to want to trade money or resources for some kind of commodity, and what could be the most valuable specialty of the Kazdel region?

Mercenaries, of course.

Although she didn't know why she was sleepy and a pillow was suddenly provided, Kosichrie knew that if Kazdel's guests were willing to exchange their mercenaries for her resources, she would definitely agree—but why wasn't her husband here yet? If he came, they could sign the contract immediately.

This is absolutely not because Kosiché felt that these Sarkaz guests were annoying for any reason, absolutely not.

Ugh.

For the sake of Ursus... let's be a little kinder to these Sarkaz guests for now?

She comforted herself with this thought, and just as she was about to ask the Kazdel guests for more details, her husband finally appeared at the entrance to the audience hall.

Before Kosiché's joy could fully manifest, she noticed that the pink-haired, red-eyed guest suddenly realized something and stared intently at her husband like a vulture that had discovered carrion.

Her face instantly turned ugly.

Chapter 61

After Yang Hao took his seat on his throne, he finally had time to find out who the person who had been watching him was. While searching for the person's true identity, he also used his [Puppet Stage] to observe the guests present. He discovered that the guest from Kazdel was indeed a [Distinguished] guest.

You're actually the current royal family member—I mean, the current royal regent personally visiting incognito? While Kazdel is a small place, at least in terms of status you certainly have… oh dear?

So you were the one who was watching me the whole time? The Regent's Daughter...?

Yang Hao blinked, and after pretending to be calm as he chatted with his wife about the guests, he had a vague sense of foreboding.

"In short, the guests from Kazdel want to trade resources with us through mercenaries, right?"

"Yes, darling. The full catalog is here."

"Alright then, let me take a look... Ah, guests, please wait for me, thank you."

He pretended to be discussing something with his wife, but in reality, he was secretly observing the white-haired, red-eyed Regent. He wasn't just observing the Regent; he was also keeping an eye on the catalog in his hand and the new events popping up from the [Puppet Stage]—a true example of multitasking.