Chapter 11: rethinking things.
Renner Responded as she held the documents, she had found a discrepancy in the paper, one that could be very dangerous not just for adventurers but for the entire city of E-Rantel of course that's only if her suspicions are true.
"we have a problem"
"did you find anything abnormal?"
Lakyus quickly leaned forward as a sense of urgency became apparent in her eyes. Hopefully, it wasn't as bad and ominous as it sounds.
" In a sense, yes. I see here that the Guild measures the spawned rates of undead seasonally rather than monthly. Why is that?"
She pushed one of the documents towards Lakyus, and it showed a line graph of the spawn rates of each season.
"well that's because most adventurers don't like having to go to the Katze plains for something like this, it's not exactly a quest and doesn't pay very well too so it's hard finding someone willing "
She explained, and Renner quirked a brow at her words. She found her explanation to be inadequate, or rather, she felt more like the guild was being much more careless than she had realized. A place like the Katze plains required regular observations considering its proximity to the kingdom. The guild's main purpose is to protect the people from monsters.
"what about the guild employees?"
"Most of them are women as a way to cater to the adventurers that are mostly male and none of them have any adventuring skills, so it's dangerous for them"
Hearing those words Renner withheld a smile, she wondered if it would be possible to foster a sort of partnership with the guild and the Palace regarding the forces that will monitor the Plains and perhaps maybe have the guild finally bend it's knee to the Throne of course that will happen when she's the one sitting on said throne but she'll put such thoughts at the back of her mind for now.
"I see, well what I'm seeing from these reports, every thing has been consistent over the years, the spawn rate, negative energy levels and death rate of adventurers always increase in winter, but never in summer, there's a bit of an increase in spawn rates in Autumn but not by much and since the Katze plains are a dessert, summer has lowest spawn rates of powerful undead and always spawns low-level skeletons despite the fact it has a highest level of negative energy, how interesting"
In winter death knights, death soldiers/ Death guards and Lichs are almost always guaranteed to spawn, Lichs are the most rare followed by Death knights with death soldiers and death guards being the most common however due to the yearly war held by both the Re-estize kingdom and the Baharuth empire there's a lot of death in summer and large amounts of bodies, yet for some reason no powerful undead spawn only just skeletons.
"That's because the bodies decompose faster in summer, plus when the war is finished both sides either burn or burry the bodies elsewhere, it takes about 7 days for a vengeful spirit to absorb enough negative energy to take over a dead body and by that time the body has long decomposed into a skeleton."
The amount of skin leftover can play a great role on the power level of an undead, the skin symbolizes their leftover will, the left over will does not mean it is the Will of their former humanity but instead it's just raw will that is turned into a vengeful desire to kill all life once transformed into an undead. which is the reason why it's such a hassle for Necromancers to control death knights.
"All of that is well and good however the problem here is the fact is we're in the middle of spring yet for some reason the spawn rate of undead seemed to increase and negative energy decreased, that doesn't make much sense now does it?"
Renner stated, and Lakyus concurred. Spring time usually has around average spawn rate and negative energy levels with little to no fluctuations, these things fluctuate and slowly rise throughout autumn and they reach their peak in winter and then they decrease once spring hits and remain averagely consistent till summer.
"It looks like my brother may have been right. The Organization Zurrernorn might be doing something in the Katze plains"
"What do you think we should"
"Before I tell you that, could you please call for my brother Zanac, Lakyus."
"of course"
Lakyus quickly got up and exited the room, leaving Arthur and Renner alone, Renner then beckoned Arthur to come closer towards the table.
"Do you need something, my lady?"
"3 days ago you displayed a great feat and have been the talk of the castle ever since, it's safe to assume that you're now considered an asset to the kingdom"
Arthur nodded to her words. He could already tell where she wanted to go with this, but he decided to let her continue rather than interrupt.
"The problem in Katze is probably a decoy by Zurrernorn in order to have the guild dispatch as many High rankings Adventurers there so that they can attack. Once this is clear to everybody, both you and Mr Gazeff, along with his warrior troupe, will be sent to aid the adventurers and will most likely arrive with E-Rantel under siege from undead."
She explained and Arthur nodded, considering that he was in overlord this meant that the timeline was the same as the first season of the anime with the difference being that some characters are older, he was certain his Canon knowledge might not be accurate if this was an Alternate timeline however he can still use it to guide him in some way.
"I want you to outdo Mr Gazeff and showcase yourself as either an equal or greater in strength than him cementing yourself a prize of equal value to the kingdom"
"if I do that more nobles will want me to either join their faction or want to get rid of me, there's also the chance I might be approached by someone who's a spy for Baharuth right?"
"…"
Renner found herself a bit puzzled by his response, while they hadn't had time to know each other's strengths and weaknesses she was certain he was less brain and more brawn, no if she thinks back to it, he had managed to spin a lie that was quite convincing back when he first arrived and he managed to fool even her. Renner was unsure if she liked that, it will be far more difficult to lead him in a way she wants if he is capable like this.
'no, it should be fine'
She denied, even if He is capable of think for himself and is quite smart that's not necessarily a bad thing it should make things easier when planning and a second head to offer ideas isn't bad plus it's not like that makes him any less alone, he's still in a foreign world surrounded by nothing but strangers, His smart mind won't hinder his reliance on her.
"princess?"
"Oh I was just lost in thought, anyway that's the gist of it I'm glad you were able to catch one, saves having to explain a lot"
Renner informed and Arthur showed a smile, he needed her to understand that he was not just some muscle head, of course he'd never claim that he was great at critical thinking but he does need to have an equal relationship with Renner rather than just one of employee and employer and to do that he needs to display that he isn't a fool.
"once everything has been set to place I'll detail what needs to be done, as you said more nobles will want you on their faction and with that we'll be able to figure out who's truly loyal to the crown and who we don't need in the kingdom"
She explained, Renner for the longest time did not care for the kingdom, this was because she was painfully aware of her own lack of power and as consequences she had thought to not care about the kingdom and only secure her safety and life, that entire thing regarding the Slaves was just to test how much sway she had in the noble court and how much can she manipulate and unfortunately that proved she had little sway in the court.
"do you plan to take the throne, princess?"
"I don't know, but I happen to find myself with a bit of power in the form of you, and now I'm rethinking many things that I thought I wanted"
She said and took a sip from the cup of tea that was near her, Her reputation among the peasants was utterly useless and did not actually translate in to power however by building Arthur's reputation as her knight she will be able to gain some political power in return after all the nobles in the kingdom had their own armies that backed up their influence though money did help too, strength + influence + money = power, although for the most part both strength and money resulted in influence.
"I see"
Was all Arthur could say at her words, Her original goal in the original series was just basically wanting to live her life in peace without the responsibilities that come with nobility and use Climb as a living dildo but it looks like that has changed a bit.
'I definitely wouldn't mind being her living dildo tho'
He thought and showed a small smile that was layered with perversion which caused Renner to quirk a brow at him but before she could ask about it any further a knock came from the door, Lakyus had brought prince Zanac.
...
A/N: I tried to add a bit of lore on how undead works and the adventurers guild, hopefully