Undead, but Adorably Cute

For Emilia, the situation was a little strange.

First of all, it was already odd enough that she, a member of the royal family, had come to a remote town with a guard to deal with undead.

The main reason for this was the Iris Kingdom's system of succession.

Because supernatural powers existed, a king needed not only political ability, but also a certain degree of supernatural power. Even if they were not at the very top, they still had to be an expert.

Although the royal family could provide the best training resources, resources alone were not enough. Talent was also crucial.

This made it difficult for a pure primogeniture system to guarantee a crown prince with both adequate political ability and supernatural talent.

Therefore, the Iris Kingdom used a system of succession that combined elective monarchy with hereditary monarchy.

The crown prince was elected, but the candidates had to be members of the royal family.

Royal family members of the same generation were assigned to different places, such as the army, territories outside the capital's core districts, magical organizations, or even adventurer parties, in order to build up their credentials.

Emilia had been sent to the Caster Association among her generation.

Originally, the Caster Association had been an excellent place. She could meet many outstanding casters there and easily achieve results in the field of magic.

However, in recent years, the demon race had resurged. Since the Iris Kingdom directly bordered their territory, conflicts were frequent, which also created opportunities to earn military merit.

In crown prince elections, military merit had always been the most useful credential.

So Emilia was getting anxious.

She was even more eager to expand her own power and accomplish something tangible.

Preventing the undead from wiping out a town was unquestionably a heroic deed.

In her imagination, things should have gone like this.

Jia Xiu could not deal with the undead, but could protect himself. She would arrive at the last possible moment with her guard, save the town, rescue a talented young warlock struggling to survive, win his loyalty, and score a huge victory;

Jia Xiu could deal with the undead, so she would not get the chance to save the day, but it would prove that he was no ordinary prodigious young warlock. She would reward him for saving the town, and score a solid victory;

Jia Xiu could neither deal with the undead nor protect himself. She would lose a gifted warlock, but could at least still save Creekwood Town, and score a small victory;

In short, there was only one word for it.

Win!

However, all those plans rested on one premise: the legendary undead had to appear.

Yet after a surge of frenzied magic that looked, no matter how one viewed it, like the prelude to the arrival of an extraordinarily powerful undead, everything suddenly went quiet.

Emilia, surrounded by protective spells, looked at her guard.

"That undead appeared, right?"

"I'm not sure."

The guard answered. He was an honest warrior. Whenever he did not know something, he simply said he did not know.

"Should I go in and take a look?"

His greatsword had already been coated with sword oil effective against spirits, and his satchel held a Primordial Crystal. He was confident he could handle any undead, no matter how powerful.

"No."

After thinking for a moment, Emilia answered.

"Let's wait a little longer. What if Jia Xiu has already controlled that undead? It would be rather awkward if we went in now..."

At that moment, the cave had also fallen into an eerie silence.

Billy stared at the figure on the altar in disbelief.

It had a short little body, dressed in a tattered dark-blue robe, filthy leather gloves and boots, and a slightly crooked pointed hat. That oversized hat was probably half as tall as it was, yet even counting the hat, it was less than four and a half feet tall.

The exposed part of its face was completely shrouded in shadow. It had no features except for a pair of round, yellow eyes.

Those eyes blinked. It briefly made eye contact with Jia Xiu and the cultists, then turned around and clumsily walked toward the back of the statue.

Along the way, it accidentally kicked a candle on the altar and stumbled. After finally reaching the statue of the God of Deceit and Curses, it hurriedly hid behind it, only for half its oversized hat to remain exposed.

After confirming that it had hidden itself away, it spoke in a deliberately fierce voice that did not sound fierce at all, like a baby leopard trying its hardest to roar but only managing a meow.

"I am the most evil, powerful, terrifying, bringer of destruction, and utterly ev—uh, utterly evil sounds good..."

"Utterly evil and capable of every wickedness," Jia Xiu quietly reminded it.

"Oh, thank you. The utterly evil and capable of every wickedness fairy Bubu!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

Billy finally snapped and roared furiously.

"Aren't you supposed to be some demon-king-like undead?"

"I am," Bubu answered softly.

"What kind of demon king is named Bubu?!"

The faith that had sustained Billy for over twenty years collapsed in an instant.

"It should have been a terrifying undead with infinite magic, one whose every move brought disaster and destruction! Where did it go wrong? Where did it go wrong?"

To summon this undead, Billy had given everything. He had sacrificed a full eight offerings and could never return to an ordinary life.

Yet all of it, all of it, had ultimately brought him this thing.

"Oh, I get it. I get it now. This was all a scam by the God of Deceit and Curses."

Billy was like a gambler who had staked everything and lost it all. He had completely lost his mind.

"Since we could deceive the god with tourists' faith, of course the god could deceive us too. It never intended to summon any powerful undead at all. Hahahaha, I understand now..."

Jia Xiu, standing nearby, was rather surprised.

Billy had actually figured it out. The deceitful evil god truly had never intended to summon an undead from the beginning. Bubu had already been sleeping in this cave, happened to cross paths with them, and intercepted the faith to awaken.

Billy continued ranting, "It never intended to help me destroy Creekwood Town! Evil god!"

He picked up a rock and was about to smash the evil god's statue.

But Bubu's little head suddenly poked out from behind the statue.

"You want to destroy Creekwood Town?"

"Yes, I want to destroy Creekwood Town!" Billy answered hoarsely.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because the people here don't deserve to live!"

"They may have done some wrong things, but not enough to deserve destruction. If someone did something bad to you, you should make that person take responsibility," Bubu said seriously.

"They all deserve to die!" Billy had no interest in discussing who should be held responsible.

"Do you really have to destroy Creekwood Town? This is the last time I'm asking."

Billy completely failed to understand what Bubu meant by the last time.

"Of course! I want to destroy Creekwood Town, no matter the cost! No matter what method I use..."

Before Billy could finish his vicious declaration, his head bloomed in an instant.

Jia Xiu could not think of any other word to describe what happened to Billy's head.

It simply bloomed, like fireworks.

His ferocious face rapidly swelled, then burst apart the instant it reached its elastic limit. Not a single drop of blood splattered out. Instead, it became colorful sparks and powder that rose layer upon layer through the air, forming a miniature mushroom cloud.

The rest of Billy's body collapsed to the ground like a discarded rag doll.

"Excuse me, does anyone else want to destroy Creekwood Town?"

Bubu asked.

It had not lied. At least, not about the part where it said it was powerful.

The remaining cultists frantically shook their heads.

Jia Xiu calmly took a contract from his bag, along with the knight's sword Emilia had given him after bestowing his knighthood.

"Fairy Bubu, I, Jia Xiu, a knight bestowed by Her Highness Emilia of the Iris royal family, believe you possess the fine character required to become a knight. I now recruit you as my squire. From this day onward, I will train you to become a true knight. Are you willing?"

Bubu's round yellow eyes blinked, then gradually widened.

As a powerful fairy, it had suffered misunderstandings, carried out revenge, and even become undead, but its wish had never changed.

It was the very first line of the nursery rhyme about it.

Poor Bubu wanted to become a knight.