“Are you sure it’s not a human?”
“Come on, we’ve been dealing with those things for years. How could we not tell the difference between a human and a zombie?”
“Right.”
It had already been a year. The guards who had faced zombies hundreds of times would never mistake a zombie for a human.
Eileen nodded, but she still didn’t want to believe that the thing heading toward her territory was a zombie.
“Let’s just keep watching for now. Tell them to hurry up and repair the damaged section of the outer wall gate.”
“Yes. Then I’ll be heading back now.”
She tried to look calm on the outside, but inside, Eileen was burning up with anxiety.
She had thought they had barely gotten through yesterday’s crisis, but it wasn’t over.
In fact, with the vice-captain’s party having arrived, the amount of mana gathered there had increased even more than yesterday. It wouldn’t be strange if more than two mutants—or even more—showed up soon.
No, zombies were already pouring in even during the daytime. This was clearly a sign of a zombie wave.
With a shocked expression, Eileen tried to recall the contents of the setting notes she had once looked up on the author’s blog of the original novel Saint of a Ruined World.
A zombie wave.
It was a phenomenon where, when a certain threshold of strong mana gathered and lingered in one place, mutants that craved living mana—and the zombies they controlled—were drawn in large numbers toward the dense mana.
“There was a number mentioned in the settings for when a zombie wave activates… I think…”
No matter how she searched her memory, she couldn’t recall it.
Well, it had been how long since she last saw it?
Three years already. She had loved the male lead enough to be considered a fan, but it had been too long to remember every detail.
If only she had written it down somewhere.
At the time, she thought it would be enough just to avoid the male lead. Besides, she had been too busy preparing for the zombie disaster to bother recording detailed settings.
She regretted that now.
In the original story, the first time the protagonists encountered a zombie wave was a few days after the crown prince met the saint.
At that point, neither of them had reached their peak power yet.
However, since they were destined to become the strongest in the story, both already possessed enormous amounts of mana and divine power.
On top of that, they were joined by the knights serving the crown prince, so a zombie wave was inevitable.
The crown prince, barely recovered and not even fully composed, endured the zombie wave together with the saint.
And in the process of the saint healing his battered body, it awakened the dormant dragon blood within both of them.
As they gradually exchanged emotions, their mana and divine power increased, and they repeated cycles of waves and awakenings until they eventually became the strongest beings in the world.
“But the saint isn’t even here, so how is the rest of the mana count matching up?!”
Eileen exploded in frustration.
Of course, she did possess both divine power and mana. But they were both minimal—no, not even worth calling substantial.
It was rare for magic users to also wield divine power, so she was just a slightly unusual case.
Even she only discovered it after bringing in a mage to learn offensive magic.
In the original setting, most nobles of the empire were supposed to have some level of mana.
Thinking it would be good to learn a few survival spells, she had started studying magic—and that had led to unexpected results.
Eileen only realized she could use divine power when she tried learning purification and healing magic after mastering several offensive spells.
“This… isn’t mana, it’s divine power!”
The eyes of Carmilda, the territory’s mage who had been observing her first healing spell, filled with shock.
“Divine power?”
Eileen herself looked completely confused.
She had assumed she had some mana as a noble, but divine power? Wasn’t that something only priests or saints possessed?
And she had no faith in any god whatsoever.
Was this some kind of isekai bonus?
“Yes! Both mana and divine power can be used as the source of healing magic, but their manifestations are very different. Divine power specializes in healing and purification, allowing far more complete restoration than mana. But… you were just casting a normal healing spell, weren’t you?”
“Yes, I just followed what you taught me.”
“How is it possible to produce divine magic using a normal spell formula?! And yet the result is identical to divine healing magic!”
Magic formulas were designed to utilize mana, while divine incantations were designed for divine power.
So casting a mana-based spell and producing divine magic should have been impossible.
Naturally, the mage’s excitement did not die down easily.
Meanwhile, Eileen only grew more indifferent.
“Um, Master?”
“Lady Eileen! This is extraordinary! Mana and divine power not interfering with each other—this is unheard of!”
Whether it was impossible or not didn’t matter to Eileen.
What difference did it make whether it was divine power or mana? As long as she could use magic, that was enough.
What mattered was survival.
With a commanding tone, she pressed him firmly.
“Master. This is happening right now. Stop being surprised and just teach me magic. I really don’t have much time.”
“Ah—yes, yes! Then the next spell we’ll try is…”
Only later did Carmilda realize that Eileen’s divine power wasn’t actually that large—and deeply regret it.
Had her mana and divine power been just a bit greater, she would have made a name for herself across the empire.
For Eileen, that was actually a relief. Her goal was simply to survive as an ordinary noble lady and watch the protagonists’ happy ending from afar.
She hadn’t realized how difficult that would be.
Two days later, Captain Ralph of the guards came to see Eileen again, his face even more shadowed than before.
“This is bad. We’ve already dealt with the ones that entered the inner wall during the day, but…”
He hesitated, unable to continue.
Eileen forced herself to stay calm and asked evenly.
If she showed panic, the territory’s residents would panic even more.
“What is it? Are more of them coming?”
“Yes… Tarbeo and Owl have been watching from the watchtower all day, and they say there are over a hundred moving toward our territory. What looked like dots in the distance yesterday are clearly visible now. They’re getting closer by the hour. And more will keep coming. We should take action immediately.”
There was only one action they could take.
Reduce the amount of mana gathered here.
“…Ah. How is the damaged outer gate repair going?”
“We fixed it again, but if another mutant comes, I don’t know how long it will hold.”
The outer wall and gates had been reinforced as much as possible from the beginning.
But it was impossible to fully upgrade the outer settlement where most of the residents lived in such a short time.
There were no construction machines like excavators or trucks here.
At best, they had pickaxes and carts.
There was no way to rebuild such a long wall quickly with those.
They had reinforced the existing fences with wooden palisades and attached thick wooden gates that wouldn’t easily break.
That alone had been enough to keep out ordinary zombies. And unless they were mutants, once they lost sight of a target, they would eventually lose interest and disperse.
So at first, there hadn’t been much concern.
But after seeing mutants appearing one by one and leading zombie hordes, they had hurriedly evacuated all residents from outside the outer wall into the inner castle.
Of course, abandoning the outer territory entirely had been impossible.
Temporary shelters had been prepared inside the castle, but they were far from enough to accommodate hundreds of people.
And they couldn’t simply give up grain storage, livestock farms, orchards, mills, or blacksmith workshops outside the wall.
If they could hold the outer wall, even with increasing zombies, there was still a way.
During the day when the zombies weakened, knights and guards could clear the outer area, residents could go out to work, and return before nightfall.
“Marie, could you check where Prince Tristan is right now?”
The only solution was this.
Get Tristan to leave quickly.
If all those mana clusters moved elsewhere, the mutants would follow him, and the territory would be safe.
‘He might be a little endangered, but he’s the male lead. He won’t die.’
In the original story, he hadn’t even come to Whitewood Territory at all.
“He’s currently meeting the mage, apparently.”
Carmilda? Why?
It was puzzling, but not important right now. Eileen quickly instructed Marie.
“Then after he’s done, tell him I’d like to meet him in the reception room.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Marie’s footsteps quickly faded away.
The ticking of the clock on the table sounded like the approach of death itself, pressing down on Eileen’s anxiety.
