Chapter 12 – Paradise of the Resurrected Dead

I was flying over the plains with the feeling of gentle sunlight upon my skin.

I flew along the undulating terrain, passing by the flowering plants.

The wind had a hint of warmth, and it felt like it was enveloping me as I flew on my broom. It was such a comfortable feeling that I felt like I might nod off.

Looking further ahead, I saw a country before me.

Ever since I found out that this place exists, it has been my dream to visit there some day. And now, that place is within sight.

It’s a small country surrounded by high walls. I can’t see the inside of the country properly from here.

However, I have a feeling that it is going to be a lot of fun. The wall surrounding the country shows decoration different from that of the other countries.

Well, I call it “decoration,” but it’s basically just words written on the walls in large script.

“..Oh?”

This is what was written.

『This country has been taken over by dead people. Do not enter.』

My, they certainly know how to build the right atmosphere.

I finally arrived at the gates, but they were closed. They don’t respond even when a guest arrives? This is troublesome. How am I supposed to enter?

The large gate didn’t make much of a sound when I knocked on it, only a weak one.

......

Oh, I see. So that’s how it is. The setting is that the country was taken over by dead people—so of course the main gates won’t open. Are there any entrances apart from here?

I wandered around near the gate for a bit.

“Hmm..?”

And found it quite easily.

There was a small door to the side of the main gate. It was a regular-sized door, the size you’d expect to see on a normal house.

“......”

I noticed that there was a sign posted on that door when I made to open it.

“This place has been fully taken over by dead people. Please do not enter.”

That was written in bad handwriting, and below that:

“However, there might be some people who are still alive besides us. If you are a strong and brave person, please enter and save the people inside.”

That was written there too.

By the way, there was a sign saying 『OPEN』 hanging from the doorknob.

“Hoho..”

Wow, they’ve really put some effort into this. Just as I expected. They know just how to make it feel authentic.

I opened the door without any hesitation.

I am both brave and strong, after all.

○

This place, called “Paradise of the Dead,” was a strange country.

I’ve heard that this is a wonderful and bizarre country that uses monsters known as ghouls as an attraction to entertain tourists. It appears to be fairly famous in this region, and when I asked people “Are there any interesting countries nearby?” one in three people recommended this place to me.

This place sounded so interesting that I came here without asking for more details, but it’s overflowing with a very interesting atmosphere.

Not only did they have a plan in place to entertain visitors even before they passed through the gate, the sights inside the country were also equally entertaining.

Most of the buildings were partially destroyed and covered in ivy. The main road that stretched out from the gate was littered with rubble from the fallen buildings, and weeds were poking from between the pieces of rubble.

It looks like this place has been like this for quite a while.

“..Hoho.”

Like I said, the area immediately inside the gate was in a horrible state of disrepair, but it truly made for a great atmosphere. It makes me think that ghouls might show up at any time. I would like to take my hat off to the person who came up with the idea of turning an entire country into a place of recreation.

I slowly drifted through the country while riding on my broom.

Most likely, this country had been allowed to come to such a state on purpose. I looked about in admiration while flying past a large pool of water that had formed in a large depression in the street.

And that’s when it happened.

“Aaaaaaaah...!”

Something jumped around the corner of the street while screaming.

“Uwaaah!”

I was unable to stop or avoid it in time, and my broom came to an abrupt halt while making a dirty, squishing sound.

It looks like I scored a clean hit.

I was thrown off the broom, and after fixing my posture as I flew through the air, I landed right in the pool of water. I was soaked from the knees down. Horrible. This is the worst.

I was angry. I was?really?angry.

“Hey! What’s the big idea, jumping out all of a sudden—”

However, when I turned around, I saw something even more horrible, impaled by the handle of my broom.

“..Uwah.”

Right in front of me, my broom was drifting in the pool of water. And beside it was something that looked like a person.

It was a man, and the handle of my broom had pierced his temple. He was holding a sword in each hand, for some reason he was naked above the waist (with plenty of muscles), and overall he gave off a dangerous air, but he was currently lying facedown in the puddle.

Dead. With the handle of my broom still stuck in him.

“..Umm.”

I hesitantly approached that man and touched his shoulder.

And then,

“Uuuu..”

He turned his face that was noticeably ruined by decomposition towards me, and started to make some noise. One of the eye sockets was empty, and drool was leaking out of his mouth.

Oh, it’s just a ghoul.

“Are you okay?”

“Aahhh..”

Looks like he’s fine. In that case, I should hurry and move on ahead.

I put a foot on the ghoul’s shoulder and tried to pull my broom out. I can’t go on ahead without it, after all.

“Aaaah....”

However, I wasn’t able to pull it out. Each time I pulled on the broom, it just created more ripples in the water along with the ghoul’s head.

“Hnnnnnnn..!”

I pulled even harder.

And then, finally, the broom responded to my efforts and slipped free. Yay, I managed to pull it out!

“..Ugh.”

Nope, I didn’t manage to pull it out after all.

The head of the ghoul was still attached near the tip of my broom handle. Apparently, it was his head which was pulled free from his body instead.

Looking down, I saw his body twitching near my feet after it was separated from the head.

......

Ah, this is bad.

It looks like I’ve destroyed some property belonging to the country right off the bat. I could reattach the head with magic, but there’s no point in doing that if the head is still stuck on my broom.

Even so, the idea of removing the head from the broom by myself was somewhat repugnant. I didn’t want to touch it, after all.

“......”

In any case, I should find someone in charge and apologize..

Obviously, I didn’t want to walk around while holding a broom with ghoul’s head stuck on it. So I used a piece of cloth I found lying around to wrap the head of the ghoul, and resumed flying.

By the way, the ghoul’s head still kept making noises like 『Aaaah』 and 『Nuuuu』 even after it was wrapped in a cloth, so I stuffed a rock in its mouth. Actually, this made for a good counterweight at the end of the broom’s handle.

“Hello.. Is anyone there..?”

Unfortunately, this country had the right atmosphere, if nothing else. No one came to help me even though I flew around asking for help.

『Aaahhh..』 『Uuuu...』 『Oooh..』

What’s more, even the ghouls were ignoring me. The ghouls just looked up at me as I flew overhead, but none of them even tried to chase me.

“..Ugh.”

It took some more flying around before I finally ran into another living person.

“..! Hey look! It’s a witch! A witch is here!”

“Hey! Please save us!”

There were two people waving at me from the windows of a very large house. Thank goodness. I’ve finally managed to run into some living humans.

I can finally say goodbye to this ghoul stuck to the end of my broom! With a light heart, I made my broom fly higher and headed towards those two people.

“......”

And then, I looked down at the garden of that large house.

“Really, they’ve put too much effort into this.”

I muttered that to myself while taking in the scene spread out below me.

There were a large number of ghouls milling about right below me. There were about a hundred of them, raising an unpleasant chorus of 『Uuu’s 』 and 『Aaah’s』.

“......”

I started to feel like breaking just one of them wasn’t really a big deal.

○

I didn’t notice it while I was looking at it from a distance, but the moment I entered the building, I was assailed by a sense of unease. The two people who had been leaning out of the window were a decidedly strange pair.

“Thanks for coming. You did well to find us here, but I suppose I should have expected nothing less from a witch.”

One of them was a girl with messy brown hair. You might think that’s pretty normal with just that description, but she had an extremely large sword hanging from her waist for some reason. She looks really cool.

“Seriously though, thanks for coming! We’ve been under siege by them for almost a week. Our stock of food was starting to get dangerously low. ”

The other was a young man who was wearing armor. He looks really cool. But he stinks. I took a step back.

“Do you people work in this country?”

When I asked that, the woman nodded.

“Yes. Or rather, we?used?to work here. This country is no longer functioning as one. As you can see, it’s been overrun by ghouls.”

She gave a sigh after saying that.

Really, I don’t want to hear about that setting anymore.

“If you’re people from this country, then that’s fine. Actually, I came here to apologize—”

“By the way, Witch-san! What’s your name?”

Armor-san interrupted me in the middle of my sentence. Ugh, he really stinks.

“Ah, my name is Elaina and I am called the Witch of Ashes it’s nice to meet you could you please not come any closer?”

“I see! It’s nice to meet you! By the way my name is Anthony, and this is my partner Anna.”

I ignored the Armor-san who appeared to be in high spirits.

“This country has a lot of ghouls, doesn’t it? Just how many are there?”

I asked in a roundabout fashion, with a light jab to accompany my apology.

“If you’re talking about the ones outside, they’re all real. The artificial ghouls aren’t active right now.”

The brown haired girl with glasses, or Anna-san, said that.

“Umm, let’s forget about your rehearsed script for now. How many are there?”

“..Well, if you’re talking about the artificial ones, I’d say about fifty?”

“Hmm? Are there really only fifty? There were definitely more than a hundred ghouls outside, though.”

“Those are real ghouls.”

“Is that a part of the setting too?”

“No, I’m serious. They’re really actual ghouls. We used to use crappy imitations to get by before but there was an idiot who said 『Reality is important!』 and decided to use actual ghouls. Because of that, the ghouls started multiplying inside the city, and this is the result.”

“.....”

I want to think that the girl is lying, but for some reason I feel like she is telling the truth.

“Umm, is that part of the setting too?”

“It’s the truth.”

“..Oh, come now.”

She must be joking.

It’s a part of the setting for this place.. Right?

“Unfortunately, this is the undeniable truth. If you still have doubts, go and let those ghouls outside catch you. You’ll learn the hard way whether those guys are real or fake.”

“......”

“I’ve already said this many times, but I’m not joking.”

“......”

“Our country has been destroyed by ghouls.”

Anna-san said that with a smile like it was of no consequence.

I couldn’t believe it.

The ghouls that I saw all over the city were all genuine? Seriously?

For starters, I threw my broom away.

○

I saw that the issues beleaguering this country were not really that complicated. To put it simply, it was something like this.

About a week ago from today, the magician living in this city said this:

“Why does this country insist on using such cheap knock-offs for business? Use the real ones, the real ones are better.”

But wouldn’t using real ghouls invite disaster into our midst? How do you even catch a ghoul, anyway? The people raised such concerns, and the male magician said,

“Don’t worry. I’ll use an incredible technique to make the ghouls obedient.”

And laughed after saying that.

And so, the man brought a few ghouls to the country at a later date.

“See! These are real ghouls!”

The people of the country were overjoyed.

“Amazing! Magician-san is so great!”

“I see.. So real ghouls actually look this disgusting..”

“Compared to this, the ghouls in our country really do look fake.”

“Using real ghouls would probably excite the customers more.”

“No objections!”

The man nodded towards the delighted people. And then he let it go to his head.

He put his hands into a ghoul’s mouth, and forcibly spread it open.

“By the way, I’ve removed all the teeth from these ghouls. Ghouls infect living humans by biting them, right? If you do this, they can’t spread any infection! So we can go ahead and use real ghouls without worrying about them attacking anyone! Besides, ghouls can stay alive forever even if you don’t feed them, meaning there’s no cost involved in their upkeep! What do you say, have you ever heard of a better idea than this?”

The people were once again overjoyed. They once again raised their voices in approval similar to before.

Of course, this made the man even more arrogant.

The man reached out to a ghoul, put his neck in its mouth, and laughed.

“Look! No matter what they do, it’s useless! I’m not injured! How’s that!? Isn’t that perfect!? Hahahahaha—”

And so,

『Ahhhh』 『Uuuuuh』 『Ohhhh』

This country was overrun by ghouls. And they lived happily ever after.

If you’re wondering what exactly happened, the male magician thought that the toothless ghouls were harmless, but that was apparently not the case and they were actually able to spread the infection. Just coming into contact with their saliva was more than enough.

No matter how perfect it seems, all plans have a chance of failure—or so Anna-san concluded.

“..So can I just assume that all the people involved were idiots?”

That was all I could say after hearing that. Anna-san replied,

“Your interpretation is mistaken, because I am not an idiot.”

“..Putting that aside, what you’re saying is that the two of you barely managed to escape with your lives and now you’re the only ones left?”

“That interpretation is mistaken as well, because we are not the only two people left alive.”

“What do you mean?”

Seeing me tilt my head in confusion, Anna-san explained.

“From what we’ve been able to see from here, there are around a hundred people still alive. Take a look out of the window. You should be able to see the messages written by the people who are still alive.”

Saying that, she gestured towards the broken window behind me.

Looking around, I saw a beautiful sky spread out before me.

“Wow, such nice weather.. Fumu.”

Looking down over the devastated scenery of the city, I understood what she meant.

I didn’t notice them while I was flying overhead, but I now saw various signs posted all over the city with things like 『Please help!』 『I’m still alive』 and 『There’s a child here. Requesting aid.』 written on them.

“The day the magician brought the real ghouls to the city, we accepted visitors as usual. Meaning the visitors who entered the city that day also turned into ghouls.”

“I see.”

“We want to go around to those signs and save the people while they are still alive, but..”

“..That looks like it would be pretty difficult.”

I looked downward. My eyes met the stares of an innumerable number of ghouls. Ugh.

Seeing me staring at the ghouls with a depressed expression, Anna-san let out a laugh.

“No, getting past those ghouls is actually pretty easy.”

“Getting past those numbers? How?”

While I was confused about what she meant, a heavy, clanking noise came close to us—meaning Armor-san came to join us.

“We are scholars who studied the physiology of ghouls back when this country was still functioning normally. By the way, Anna was at a pretty high position even among the other scholars, and she was even called the Ghoul Craftsman.”

“That’s all well and good, but why are you wearing armor?”

“Isn’t it cool?”

“It is.”

But it stinks.

“Right? And so, according to Anna—”

Based on what Armor-san said, Anna-san was the one who had been creating the ghouls that had been previously used in this country. She knows ghouls and their behavior inside out.

Anna-san snorted like it was no big deal and continued to speak.

“Well, I have enough samples down there to completely fill up the area around the building, so it wasn’t hard to come up with a way to counter them. And so, I made something like this.”

Saying that, she held out a small bottle towards me.

“..What is that?”

The bottle was equipped with an atomizer, and it was filled to the brim with a dark red liquid. It looks dirty. For some reason, I think it may smell very bad.

“This is a perfume that will let you avoid ghouls. They don’t eat each other, so I thought that they would ignore us if we smelled similar to them. Their sense of smell isn’t all that great, so they can’t tell the difference. This perfume is the result of that theory. If you use this perfume, the ghouls won’t attack you as long as the smell persists. It’s foolproof.”

“..Oh? That’s incredible.”

“Meaning it’s a chance to make a whole lot of money in one go. Fufufu.”

“......”

Apparently, mental toughness and commercial spirit won’t die even though the country is destroyed. I learned that today.

I can only hope that she is not cut from the same cloth as that magician she was talking about.

“Oh? What, you don’t believe me? Don’t worry, it has already been tested. The two of us put on the perfume and walked around the city, but the ghouls didn’t react to us. I won’t make stupid mistakes like that male magician.”

......

“In that case, why not just go around to all the places where the people are hiding and rescue them?”

“There’s one reason why that won’t work. After going out into the city, we discovered a certain troubling fact.”

Anna-san fell silent after saying that and showed a depressed expression while clutching the perfume bottle, so Armor-san picked up where she had left off.

“The magician who brought the ghouls into the city is now a ghoul himself, and he’s crazy strong.”

“..What do you mean?”

“It appears to a mutation of some sort, but he’s just insanely strong. What’s more, the perfume doesn’t work on him. Even if we hide among the ghouls, he discovers us and chases us around. Goddammit!”

Armor-san stamped his feet in frustration. So noisy.

“Dammit.. If we could just do something about that magician.. If not for him, we could go and save everyone else..!”

Anna-san glanced at me several times while saying that. So sly.

......

Oh? Wait a minute, are they trying to use me?

I felt a bad premonition about where this was going as Anna-san continued to speak.

“That magician’s ghoul is extremely muscular, naked above the waist for some reason, and what’s more it wields a sword in each hand. We tried to fight back in the same way and took up swords as well, but we were no match for it. If only we had someone who could snipe it from a distance. We’d be able to win easily. Then we can go and help all those people.”

My bad premonition was right on target. Also..

“..Hmm?”

A strange coincidence seems to have occurred. Oh, my.

Hmm? Extremely muscular? Naked above the waist? Wields a sword in each hand?

I feel like I’ve seen something that matches that description. To be specific, it wasn’t long after I entered this country.

“..Umm.”

I half-ran over to the broom that I had thrown away earlier and unwrapped the rags that were wound around the object at its front.

“This magician you’re talking about, did he perhaps look like this?”

After being freed from the cloth, the ghoul.. or rather, its head spat out the rock that had been stuffed in its mouth and greeted the other two people with a 『Nuu.. Ahh..』

“......”

“......”

The two of them were silent for a while and looked at each other. Shortly thereafter, they exchanged a high-five with a loud sound.

“You’re the best!”

Said Anna-san.

“I get that a lot.”

By the way, I took it out in close quarters rather than from a distance.

○

Right before we left the building, Anna-san sprayed the perfume on herself and Armor-san and said,

“Okay, here’s the plan. To begin with, the two of us will go out into the city as we are wearing the perfume. Witch-san, you will guide us while flying from above. You should be able to see houses where there are people waiting for aid easily from up there, right? ”

That’s how it was.

The perfume used for keeping ghouls away smelled so bad that you’d think anyone who smelled that would run away after getting just a whiff. That’s just how incredibly stinky it was.

“Ooooooohhhhhh!”

Incidentally, there was already a puddle of vomit around Armor-san’s feet. Ugh.

“Right. Now it’s your turn, Witch-san.”

“Ah, sorry, but I don’t need it. I have this, so I’ll be fine.”

I rejected Anna-san’s offer while showing her my broom which still had the ghoul’s head attached to it.

The rescue operations started off with such a lackadaisical feeling.

“There’s a house around that corner with a sign that says 『Help!』 By the way, there are five ghouls in the alley.”

I gave out directions in that manner and the two of them replied with an “Understood!” and went in the direction that I indicated.

Surprisingly, it looked like the effects of the perfume were quite palpable as none of the ghouls assaulted them. They just looked on as the two of them passed by, occasionally making sounds like 『Aaaa』.

In this way, they two of them were able to rescue the people without any difficulty.

“Thank you so much! I didn’t think anyone would actually come to save us!”

“The two of you really stink.”

The people hiding in the house turned out to be a couple. Anna-san mercilessly doused the two of them with the perfume while they were embracing each other. They threw up.

The rescue operation continued in this manner.

I gave directions from the air while guiding the group of people who gave off a horrible stink, allowing them to rescue other people.

However, the people who were being rescued—no, the people who had managed to survive this long were all people with less than ideal personalities.

For example,

“Hehehe.. So this is the last bottle... Hehehe.”

There was a drunkard who was drowning himself in alcohol.

“Ugh! I’ll draw these ghouls away! The rest of you, go on ahead!”

And a man who shouted something like that all of a sudden. We’re here to rescue him, so what one earth is he saying?

“Like, I doubt these ghouls are really that tough in the first place.”

“Taking them out would be a breeze, for sure. They look like they’d be really slow.”

“Anyone who’s afraid of ghouls is a pathetic wimp.”

“Hell yeah!”

We also found a group of youngsters who were in high spirits about the whole thing. I can’t help but wonder how they managed to survive.

“She’s not here! My Madonna-chan has been missing since yesterday! Madonna-chaaaaaan!”

Oh, there was also a rich-looking old lady who was searching for her lost dog.

Such people are not only often useless, they definitely would do something unnecessary and mess things up, so I advised against taking them along with us, but in the end, we ended up taking them along.

“Oh, no~ Ghouls are so scary. I can’t stand them~”

In addition, there was a woman who spoke in such a sweet voice that I felt like my ears would rot just listening to her speak. Of course, we rescued her as well. In addition, she was sprayed with the perfume and ended up covered in vomit. Yay.

“......”

And then.

Before long, we had already rescued several dozen people. I felt that these people who would normally be expected to have died long ago are unexpectedly resilient when the going gets tough.

Of course, not all of our rescue efforts went off without a hitch. There were some places where we were already too late.

“Hey! We’re here to.. help..”

“Aaaaaah.”

“Uuuuuuu.”

Anna-san opened the door enthusiastically, but was greeted by a group of people who had already been turned into ghouls. There were about ten of them.

“Tch. This place is no good.”

Anna-san clucked her tongue in disapproval, as if she was annoyed by something.

It was around this time that she and the others started acting strange.

“..This place is no good either.”

Every time they found former citizens who had been turned into ghouls, and every time they added more people to their ranks, Anna-san and the others grew more and more haughty.

“Hey, they’ve already been turned into ghouls. Oh well, let’s just cut them down for now.”

In the end, they began to attack ghouls if they found them in houses where they were looking for survivors.

And then.

“Oraaaaaaaaaa! It’s a bunch of ghouls! Kill them! Don’t let a single one escape!”

Eventually, they turned into a violent mob.

I found myself wishing for a perfume that would keep ghoul-hunting humans away.

○

The few dozen survivors gathered near the gates of the city.

Anna-san stood on a pile of rubble and looked down at the assembled people.

“Once you pass through these gates, you can return to the outside world. Those who want to escape, feel free to go.”

Armor-san, who was standing beside her, also spoke out.

“The two of us intend to stay here and restore our country. We cannot allow our birthplace to stay a den of ghouls. We want to bring it back as a theme park.”

“If there are any among you who want to restore this country, then please help us. Let’s work together and bring it back as the greatest theme park ever. Those who want to help, please raise your hands.”

The people in the area were silent for a while.

And then, in that place where inhuman creatures were wandering around while uttering groans of 『Ooooh』 and 『Ahhhh』, one man eventually raised his hand.

“Hey, if we work for you, will you continue to give us that perfume?”

It was that drunkard we ran into earlier.

Anna-san nodded right away.

“Of course.”

“In that case, I’ll do it! Hehe.. I’m addicted to the smell of that perfume now.. I can’t live without it.. Hehe..”

He seems to have gone off the deep end. Or maybe he was always like this.

After him, many other people started agreeing with Anna-san’s plan.

“I’ll help as well! I still haven’t found Madonna-chan!”

Like the rich-looking old lady who was searching for her dog, for example.

“I’ll help too~”

And the woman with the sickeningly sweet voice.

“Hell yeah!”

The group of clueless youngsters agreed as well. This group probably haven’t even thought about it. They’re just going with the flow.

In the end, all the people assembled there raised their hands and agreed to Anna-san’s plan.

“We did it, Anna! With this many people, we can return the country to how it used to be for sure!”

“Fufufu.. Now all I have to do is make this plan work and restore this country, and I’ll be a billionaire.. Fufufu.”

Anna-san was muttering some unpleasant things under her breath.

..She’s money-mad.

Right before I left the country, I had Anna-san take the ghoul’s head off my broom.

“So in the end, you’re the only person leaving.”

Anna-san pulled the ghoul’s head off with her bare hands, and tossed it away. The head landed near the group of clueless young people who started kicking it around as it moaned 『Ooooh』 and 『Ahhhh』. Ugh.

“It l-->>

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