Free Web NovelChapter 53: Chapter 52: Come with me
"Please, sit."
The two walked into the thatched hut, and Mumu gestured for him to sit. Li Ziyu glanced around. The floor was covered with hay, so he simply sat down cross-legged. When Mumu sat, he grimaced in pain, and his wounds started bleeding again.
Li Ziyu couldn’t help but wince. ’Only a Minotaur’s tough body could endure being covered in wounds like that. If it were me, I’d be long dead. Sit down? As if! The pain alone would’ve killed me.’ "You... shouldn’t you get those bandaged first?"
Mumu started to say it wasn’t necessary, but he could feel his strength draining away. At this rate, he would probably pass out after just a few words. He sighed, then turned and rummaged around, pulling out a pile of assorted herbs and flowers. He stuffed them into his mouth, chewing them into a pulp with juice splattering everywhere, then applied the mixture to his wounds.
The people of the Tribe had their own ways of surviving. The medicines they used were purely natural and quite effective. As the herbs were applied to his wounds, the bleeding quickly stopped. Numbness replaced the pain, followed by a cool, soothing sensation. His tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed, and the pained expression vanished from his face.
Once the pain eased, Mumu set down the herbs, took a sip of water, and raised his eyes to Li Ziyu. "Thank you again for your help."
’I should probably stock up on some of those,’ Li Ziyu mused, his gaze drifting to the herbs. ’They seem pretty useful.’ Hearing Mumu’s words, he waved his hand. "Don’t worry about it. We’re friends."
’Besides, saving you was no loss for me. I’ve already claimed the bodies of the Demonized Minotaurs. I might not have a use for them now, but special materials are always valuable eventually.’
’As the old saying goes: more friends, more paths; more enemies, more walls. I’m a Transmigrator with no roots in this Otherworld. If I ran into trouble, I’d have no one to turn to for help. Making a couple more friends is definitely a good thing, especially Natives. Their relationships are a complex web—who knows when I might be able to get some help from them?’
After a moment’s thought, he spoke again. "By the way, what are your plans now? Are you going to continue living here?"
Li Ziyu’s question made Mumu fall silent. ’That’s right,’ he thought. ’We fought off the Demonized Minotaurs’ attack, but what’s next? Can we really keep living here on our ancestral land?’
Their Tribe, which had never been large, had suffered heavy casualties in the battle. Minotaurs weren’t a fast-breeding Race, so trying to carry on with their current numbers seemed like an incredibly difficult task. He had no way of knowing if more Demonized Minotaurs would come to attack. As long as that threat existed, life would not be easy for them.
Many of the Beastman Races were deeply attached to the land and would not easily abandon their ancestral territories. The Minotaurs were no different. To them, their ancestral land was their roots. To leave their roots would be to become like rootless duckweed, adrift in the world. The feeling of solid ground beneath their feet was what they cherished most; they did not want to leave their ancestral land.
But if they didn’t leave their ancestral land, could they even continue to survive?
This time, it was over a hundred Demonized Minotaurs. What about next time? Would there be even more? How would they defend themselves? Were they supposed to run to the Undead for help every time the Demonized Minotaurs attacked? The Undead Lord was his friend, not his father. Why should he be expected to help them every single time? Helping once is an act of friendship; helping twice is a tremendous kindness. He can’t be expected to help them indefinitely. freewёbnoνel.com
Mumu was no ordinary Minotaur Warrior; he was the Clan Leader. The weight of the Tabu Tribe rested on his shoulders. His duty wasn’t to lead his kinsmen into endless war against the Demonized Minotaurs for the good of the Wasteland. It was to ensure the Tabu Tribe could survive in this Wasteland, that his people’s lives could steadily improve.
Before the battle, all he could think about was defending their ancestral land. A surge of hot-blooded passion had driven him to find an Ally and fight the Demonized Minotaurs. But after the battle, that passion had cooled. His people were reduced by nearly half, leaving mostly the old and the young. Their settlement was in ruins, and they still faced a threat that might return at any moment.
All this made Mumu question whether he had made the wrong decision. Maybe he should have listened to the elders, abandoned their home, and fled elsewhere in search of temporary peace. freeweɓnøvel.com
’No, that’s not right!’
Mumu shook his head, rejecting the idea. ’The Demonized Minotaurs aren’t ordinary invaders. They don’t want our land. They come to kill and to force Demonization upon more Minotaurs.’
’Even if I led my people to flee, the Demonized Minotaurs would just hunt us down relentlessly, giving us no rest until every last one of us was dead. There are too, too many stories of that happening.’
’Fighting them, destroying them, is the only way to buy more time!’
Li Ziyu sat quietly across from Mumu, watching the endless parade of expressions on his face—a frown one moment, a shake of the head the next, then a brief look of relief. After waiting a long time for Mumu to speak, Li Ziyu finally broke the silence. "I have a suggestion, if you’re willing to hear it."
"Please, speak, my friend." Mumu looked up at the sound of his voice.
"Come with me," Li Ziyu said softly. "Bring your remaining people. Follow me. Join me."
"Come with you...?" Mumu froze. ’Who is this guy? He’s the Master of the Undead! Does ’come with him’ mean he wants to turn all of us into Undead?’
Li Ziyu had already thought this through. ’The Mobile Fortress will keep getting bigger. It can even link up with other fortresses to form something like a City-State. So why not recruit more Races to join me?’
’It should be possible. All sorts of different Races living together in harmony under the rule of the Undead. What a wonderful future! And these Races would include Fox People, Snake-men, Rabbit People...’
’Ah, and it’s absolutely not because I’m a lech. It’s because the Undead... are fair. Mmm, yes, that’s it. It’s about fairness. It has nothing to do with beautiful women from every Race. It’s because the Undead can create a world of harmony, fairness, and love. That’s it. Exactly.’
’No one could argue that the Undead aren’t fair, right? After all, our goals are completely different. Power, wealth, women—the things most Races strive for—are utterly meaningless to the Undead. Food, shelter... the Undead don’t care about any of it. In a way, you could say these Skeleton Undead are desireless saints.’
’The human scramble for fame and fortune is nothing but a passing cloud to the Undead. They can be saints without desire, the most impartial judges and arbiters. Their fearlessness in the face of death allows them to be mighty Conquerors and protectors.’
’Look at it any way you want, can’t the Undead bring about the kind of peaceful, prosperous era that all those philosophical schools from my past life dreamed of?’
’Flawless. The logic is sound.’
’This is the perfect opportunity for a test run. If the Minotaurs can live successfully on the Mobile Fortress, then other Races should be able to as well. And then, the fortress will be filled with Fox People, Snake-men, Rabbit People...’
Li Ziyu was quite pleased with his line of thought, but that’s not what Mumu was hearing. All he could think was that the Undead Lord before him wanted to turn them all into Skeletons and drag them away. His expression soured. "We don’t want to become Undead."
"Huh? Become Undead? I never said anything about turning you into Undead," Li Ziyu said, scratching his head in confusion. "I meant you should move onto my fortress and live there. You saw it yourself—my fortress got bigger. There’s more than enough room to accommodate you."
’Is that what he meant?’
Mumu was baffled. ’He doesn’t want to turn us into Undead, just have us live on his fortress?’ Thinking of the Mobile Fortress outside, now so much larger than before, he suddenly felt tempted.
