'Clean up the mess.' was the first and last order Lord Ziloh gave them.
Elion was staring at Lord Ziloh's back, still stunned with the Lord's stunt.
The young Lord kept walking farther and farther away until he vanished at the corner of the hallway--- leaving the team that he was supposed to lead behind.
"All right!" One of the guards said as he dusted off his hands. "You heard the Lord, let's clean up." he abandoned his shield and sword, leaning on the wall. "I never liked these dogs, but still…" he grabbed the nearest bundle at its matted fur and its other half on the other hand. "This…" he gulped and shook his head. The group took a step aside to make way for him, walking towards the opposite direction where Lord Ziloh vanished.
The remaining guards understood the cue, abandoning their weapons and lifting their sleeves up, they marched towards Lord Ziloh's direction with empty hands--- passing right by Elion.
Picking up the other bundle, one of the guards asked. "What are you waiting for?" he turned his head to Elion. "Go with them, follow the Lord and clean up after him."
Elion blinked for a second. "Right." he followed right behind the group. But he suddenly pivoted around--- leaving his sword behind.
***
Ziloh did not leave any corner of the palace unturned, with his eyes blaring red, he would pass by at the side of an infected and its head would roll off.
"Another one!" One of the guards announced, unfolding the sack he was carrying--- his second one. He lowered his chest and waited for the head to roll over towards him. "Got it!" he scooped up the severed head into the sack.
The guards were taking turns, breathing heavily, trying to keep up with Ziloh.
Ziloh was producing so much corpse than the guards can handle.
"How many were they so far?" The guards were having a conversation amongst themselves.
"I don't know…I've lost count."
"Count them again!" The much older royal guard hit the younger one at the back of his head with heavy force. "We need to account for everybody!"
"Alright," with his head lowered, the younger opened his first sack and emptied its content on the floor--- counting the heads he collected so far. "One… two…" he began counting.
"You better be exact. We won't be able to count them later tonight anymore." The older guard reminded him. "Wait…" he jerked his head towards the hallway where Lord Ziloh was just standing earlier. "No," he exhaled. "Not again!" he grabbed the other sack--- the one with one head "Where's the kid?" he was referring to Elion.
"Ran right after Lord Ziloh."
"My knees are too old for this." The older guard mumbled. "Follow us as soon as you're done with that." he ran, favoring his right leg.
Ziloh was on the adjacent hallway, killing one after another, the body of his victims would fall on the floor with a heavy thud.
It was harder to make Alyssa laugh, to make her angry though is another matter--- he's already an expert on that.
In truth, he was getting bored, it was as easy as stepping on a cockroach--- but messier.
Looking at his hand--- palms up, palms down--- he got annoyed. Stuck in his nails were little scrapes of flesh and blood--- that would be a pain to clean later. His shirt too was spattered with chunky meats that he did not even bother to remove now--- this, he would have to throw right away afterwards.
No guards were behind to clean up after him except for one--- Elion--- and he's not even part of the guards.
The look on Elion's face irritated Ziloh more. Admiration, awe, curiosity--- or was he being judged? As if he was the bad one, the sinful one, the odd one.
Ziloh smirked at him in defiance.
Maybe in the future, once Alyssa was tired of him, he would have a chance to cut through his neck too.
***
Elion was in front of the princess's room once again. "I'm back." he murmured under his breath. He crouched on the floor as he shoved one of the corpses on his right shoulder, and the other one on the left, he then scooped up their heads on each of his hands.
He stood up and began walking.
Other guards passed by towards him, nodding in his direction in a form of greeting, not seeing anything unusual on Elion. After spending the whole day cleaning up, the guards were not bothered of the sight anymore, they just wanted to get this over with.
Instead of being repelled, the guards are in awe of Elion, cleaning despite being a mere attendant. Elion somehow gained the respect of the royal guards.
A huge swirl of smoke traveled towards the moon, there were barely any stars tonight, but the quarter moon was bright enough to guide him.
The air was warm, drops of sweat fell on his forehead, ashes stuck on his face.
As he walked down the stairs and got closer towards the field, the air became heavier, darker as more aches were carried by the wind.
A huge bone fire was in the middle of the field--- it was tall enough to look as if a tree was burning. Piles of burned logs were at the base of the fire, keeping it inflamed. But upon close inspection, there were no logs at all--- under the fire, there were only piles of dead bodies.
"Two." he said to a guard who was jotting down notes.
Elion got closer to the fire and tossed the heads and the bodies onto the it. He grabbed a barrel of oil beside him and emptied it on the fire--- the fire blazed higher, reaching towards the sky.
The cold night turned into burning hell.
A whiff in the air was enough to make you gag--- the pure stench of a burning flesh.
The guards would cover their nose with wet cloth, others with more sensitive senses would vomit on the grass until their stomach has nothing to release anymore.
Elion have buried many, but he never burned a body before. Burning their dead in the slump was rare, for it would make their location known.
Compared to the others, Elion was not repelled by the stench, he smelled something worst outside the kingdom, these zombies were not infected long enough, others in the slumps have been infected much worst--- thus smelling worst.
"The last one." One of the guards announced as he tossed a corpse in the fire.
The group erupted in cheers and greetings--- tapping each other on the shoulder, hugging each other with laughter.
A guard walked towards him with both hands wide open, hugging him on a tight embrace. "Wait---" Before Elion could protest, he was hugged tightly as the guard who was a few inches smaller than him managed to lift him up. "Wait—" Elion was ignored.
"We did it!" the guard said and kissed him on the cheek. "We did it!" on both cheeks.
Stunned, he held onto his cheeks in embarrassment.
The team were in high spirit, a flask of whisky was passed down amongts them--- each taking a well-deserved sip.
"Hey." The guard beside him shoved the flask onto him.
Elion took it with both hands and looked at the guard for instruction.
The guard lifted his chin--- signaling Elion to take a sip.
Elion regarded the flask for a moment, swirling it on his hands.
"Come on, kid. Just drink it." The guard encouraged him.
It was already late at night, his shift is over, and the clean-up was done too, Elion thought.
Elion took a big gulp. He winced as his throat burned as he passed the flask onto his left.
"Good job, kid." The guard patted him on the shoulder.
Everybody was in high spirit for a reason, no more guard died--- no one expected to survive another day--- but they did.
Everybody was celebrating--- except for Elion. No one questioned the inhumane power of the young lord. Elion wondered if the lord is a mutated version of those called Cured. Maybe when he returns to the slumps, he'll have more to report to Brian that he thought he would have.
The team celebrated the whole night as the corpses burned and turned into ashes.
***
Elion, tired and covered with ashes, returned to his dorm room. He rushed towards his bathroom and took a long bath--- the princess' floral scented shampoo had long been gone.
He reviewed back what happened, there were rumors that the Cured are not immune to a zombie's attack--- this turns out to be proven true. Otherwise, the royals would not hide in a room protected by a metal gate. They were susceptible to the infection as much as normal humans are.
Also, thanks to Chef Will, Elion discovered the layout of the palace more in detail. He now knew the shortcut to the princess' chamber--- noting that it would come in handy once the princess' birthday comes as he fulfills the mission to kidnap the princess—a mission he does not intend to fail.
Done with his bath, he now noticed how chaotic his room was. His clothes--- his uniforms--- were sprawled on the floor. He picked them up and tossed it on the empty bed. He noted to himself to ask for a new pole for his cabinet first thing in the morning.