They were wearing cloth masks, and with some difficulty, lugging around a corpse.
Allen, who'd just sat down, looked at this new corpse with heavy amount of annoyance. He'd just spent his entire morning and afternoon burrying five bodies, and the moment he was done they brought him more.
"So, uh...Sir Imperial Prince.... Uhm…" the country bumkin villagers didn't know how to react to his presence.
The paladins who had brought Allen to the god forsaken place told the villagers to treat him no different than any other priest, but that was impossible for them.
"W-we greet you Your Highness, the Imperial Prince sir." the old farmer said while bowing heavily, the younger villager remaining quite but similarly bowed.
There was no way that a couple of villagers from the sticks would know anything about decorum or etiquette, but Allen noticed they seemed to be walking around eggshells whenever they meet him.
'They probably did try to treat me normally, but the original owner of this body must've thrown a almighty tantrum after such greetings were offered his way.' Allen thought.
From what he read about in his books at the monastery, this world had dragons, demons and other supernatural creatures. So in order to not be accused of being a shape shifter or a demon possessing the prince, Allen tried to both fit the demeanor of the previous Prince and pulled the classic amnesiac card.
Pointing rather dramatically at the body the two were lugging around, "What the hell is that?" Allen said rather haughty, his voice having a twing of anger in it.
"Y-you see, sir, my neighbour B-Beron died from the plague..... it was so terrible... I'm worried about us getting infected by the plague ourselves and die later." The old farmer explained
"So your afraid of the plague, but you haul his body all the way out here instead of simply cremating it yourself?" Allen said in a condescending voice.
There was an awkward air of silence as Allen looked at the two like idiots,and continued rocking back and forth in his rocking chair.
"Well, that… You know, it's a bit… Even though we weren't that close, we still said good mornings to each other everyday, so we figured that he should at least get a proper burial, you see… We heard that a simple purification ceremony is enough to let us bury a plagued corpse intact." The old man said hopeful .
"W-we got tasked with this job recently, so we don't know much about the finer details on what we should do, sir. How should we even cremate the bodies…" the younger villager finally chipped in.
Allen glared at them with eyes filled with dissatisfaction as he raised himself up from his chair. He actually respected the fact they'd risk their lives just to give a relative stranger an intact burial.
Of course he did think they were stupid, as dragging his infected body carried the risk of spreading the plague to not just themselves, but others aswell. Still, he was impressed by their kindness .
"This might be too hard for you to understand but I'll only say it once, build up a big fire and just chuck the body into it. You could use the blacksmiths bellow to increase the heat of th-"
Allen's eyes narrowed as he reached for his nearby shovel and lifted it high into the air. The villagers flinched in surprise and began backtracking away in a hurry.
"I-Imperial Prince?!" The young Villager panicked
"I told you his old habit is still there! He didn't change after his suicide attempt…!!" The older farmer yell out.
After awakening in this world, Allen was scared and confused so he obviously asked others for help. Telling them about awakening inside of a noose, only for them misconstrued this as him seeking for help after a failed suicide attempt.
As the old farmer began backing away in fear, the fabric that they had used to wrap his neighbors corpse with suddenly burst open, a rotting arm grabbing onto the wrist of the old farmer!
The corpses cheeks were torn open and its mouth was split wide open as it neared its rotting mouth to the farmers hand. Just a second before its teeth sunk into the farmer, a shovel came slamming into the head of the animated corpse.
The farmers got the shock of their lives and ended up falling on their asses at the scene.
"I keep telling you people-" Raising the shovel again, Allen slammed the shovel into the head of the corpse as a small crack appeared on its skull.
"If you don't cremate a corpse quickly-" Once again he hefted the shovel into the air as the corpses eyes finally locked onto Allen but it was too late as he performed the kill shot, the shovel shattered the skull and smashed the brains
"It'll turn into a zombie in three-four days." Allen said huffing, his body still sore from hours of digging.
This world was rather unique, there wasnt a zombie virus that turned a person into a zombie when bitten but instead a person has to die near 'Negative Spots' to turn.
Negative spot are simply areas that have high amounts of demonic energy, when dying near them demonic energy seeps into the corpses and has a chance to transform them. The longer the corpse remains to seep in Demonic energy, the higher the chances of it turning.
Even if the old farmer was bitten by the zombie, he'd only have a higher chance of turning into a zombie when he actually dies but he wouldn't turn into a zombie simply from the bite. Of course he would have had to worry about the obviously infected wound from a plague ridden and decaying corpse.
Demonic Negative spots can spring up anywhere and can be different sizes, it can covers an entire forest, a town, or even just a house.
The way these Demonic Negative spots come into existence isn't well know, but it plagues humanity and forces them to be on all alerts.
It was the standard rule of this world like air and sunlight, no matter which region of the world you are at a negative spot could randomly appear anywhere. That is why those who can use Divinity to put corpses to rest had a greater position in life.
Randomly having people turn into a zombie, even inside of a city, sounds like a terrible curse that would severely hinder humanity but it was actually the exact opposite.
The fact that a zombie could appear anywhere forced people to build up strong interactive communities that constantly checked up on each other, never even giving a corpse a chance to turn into a zombie.
The negative spot found in the surrounding vicinity of the 'Land of the Dead' was especially strong, with people having a higher and quicker chance to turn into a zombie after death. This was because it was the final resting ground of the Necromancer King, the one who turned the continent into an ocean of death in the past.
The villagers already knew about this, and yet their dumb beliefs meant they were reluctant to cremate the dead with their own hands as they'd believe they'd get cursed.
It took him thirty minutes of shoveling to make another hole, of course since it was their idea Allen forced the two villages to help.
Wiping the sweat off of his tired forehead and drinking some water out of the leather waterskin, Allen prayed over the fresh grave.
As he finished his purification prayer, he sensed a slight wave of Divinity flow into him and increasing his Divinity capacity.
The only ways to increase ones Divinity in this world was to perform tasks in accordance with the Gods wishes.
"Now that that is over with you two may go now." Allen waved my hand dismissively.
The two farmers swallowed nervously as they stood back up, they quietly looked at each other before nodding in agreement.
"Excuse me… Sir Imperial Prince?" The old farmer said.
"What now?" Allen said in real annoyance, it was late afternoon and he'd yet to even eat breakfast yet. The boy had been woken up early in the morning by banging on his monasteries wall, only to find out an entire family had been killed by the plague and now he had to bury them.
"I-Imperial Prince, sir, you… You're a Priest in a way, yes?" The old man said in hope.
"I don't know crap about being a Priest or whatever, but I'm the grandson of the man labeled Gods Emissary. So I guess I'm like an honorary priest."
"I-in that case, is it possible for you to bless us so that we don't get infected by the plague?"
'A blessing prevents the plague from infecting you?! Is this some old country bumkin superstition or is it true? Could this be why I don't seemed to fall ill even when surrounding by decaying and diseases filled corpses?'
Taking his annoyed look and silence as a no, the old farmer began pleading even further.
"E-even if you don't fully know it, can you at least try to bless us, please! W-we'll even pay you" taking out a rust few copper coins, the old man offered them graciously.
Getting a blessing from a normal Priest usually costed people tens of silver, meanwhile this amount of copper would only get Allen a loaf of bread.
That being said... Allen wasnt being paid for his services whatsoever, so he quickly scooped the coins up!
Walking over to the old farmer, Allen made a cross in the air with his hands.
"Goddess Gaia, May you bless this man with protection from disease and illness and may he...."
'Vile Curse!' While reciting the blessing from a book he read in the monastery, Allen activated one of his Heretical abilities!
The Divine energy poured into the ability, and the affect...
[You have blessed your target.]
"Hey, my back suddenly feels much better!" the old farmer said with a smile.
"....."
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100 copper = 1 silver
100 silver = 1 gold