"Master, they're the last humans left in this village," a voice called out to Wade, its tone muffled yet filled with concern.
Wade's consciousness was somewhat hazy, only hearing someone calling out to him beside his ears, a voice that sounded gentle yet captivating.
"Master?"
Wade's memory finally cleared a bit, a monster standing beside him, and the caring greeting came from this "creature".
The name of this creature surged into Wade's memory, surprisingly, Wade didn't feel afraid despite the terrifying appearance of this monster.
Zombie Maid, Lucy.
"The last humans..." Wade instinctively followed the direction pointed out by the Lucy, where flames engulfed the surroundings, bodies piled on the ground, and the air filled with an indescribable scent of blood and charred flesh.
This village had just experienced a massacre.
The dwellers' attires were not the modern clothing Wade was familiar with, but rather resembling the attire worn in medieval Europe, or perhaps, Isekai?
"Master! According to your orders, the bandits who plundered this village have all been killed. Should we also kill these villagers? " Lucy spoke again. Okay, I guess this is why we cannot trust the surface of a book, even though it can be a cute figure.
Despite her cadaverous visage, the zombie maid exuded an undeniable allure that defied her macabre existence. Her eyes, though clouded with the haze of undeath, held a glimmer of something sweet and innocent, adding a peculiar charm to her otherwise haunting presence.
With each step, her once-white apron, now stained with the remnants of her former life, swayed gently, lending an eerie yet strangely captivating aura to her form. Despite the decay that threatened to consume her, there was an undeniable cuteness about her, like a character plucked from the pages of a storybook, bringing an unexpected warmth to the desolation of the undead realm.
As Lucy approached, the villagers looked at her with fearful, and uncertainty.
"There is no need, just bind them for now." Wade hadn't fully grasped the situation yet. Just seconds ago, as a game designer, he was burning the midnight oil in his office, rushing to meet deadlines for his game project. Now, he found himself in this strange world, accompanied by an undead maid who seemed to obey his every command.
This sudden crossover caught Wade completely off guard, with no warning whatsoever.
Fortunately, Wade's adaptability was akin to a slug's, coupled with the fact that the original soul within this body hadn't dissipated yet, Wade showed no signs of abnormality and accepted the current situation naturally.
"At your command, Master."
Zombie Maid Lucy obeyed Wade's order. She waved her decaying hand towards the void, and a portal composed of dark purplish light particles appeared in front of Wade.
Dozens of skeletons and zombies jumped out of the portal, seizing the bound villagers and dragging them into the portal amidst their feeble resistance and cries of anguish.
Wade sorted out his thoughts. Undead were a diverse community, with these zombies and skeletons being the lowest-ranking undead in society, low in intelligence and physical prowess, similar to humans. Their only advantage was their vast amount, usually served as cannon fodder, overwhelming the enemy with sheer force of numbers.
The Undead Lich, Wade, was currently accompanied by, Lucy, was a high-level Zombie Maid, serving as his personal bodyguard and butler. Just from her imposing appearance, no one could tell how powerful the Zombie Maid was.
Most undead forms were vastly different from humans, and Wade felt relieved that although his race was undead lich, the highest echelon within the undead community, their appearances were remarkably similar to humans', except for both eyes — hollow eye sockets that emits an eerie glow, framed by sunken cheeks and gaunt features. Well, not bad if compared to other type of undead.
Wade could accept this kind of crossover. What he couldn't accept was turning into a non-human entity.
Noble Lich? Not a bad sound. Yes, Noble. He added that just to describe his elegance and discerned himself from other lich, to lean more towards human-side. Pathetic.
"Let's go back, Lucy," Wade replied.
"Master, don't you plan to take advantage of this opportunity to make more corpses?"
"Corpses?"
Wade glanced around the environment once again. According to his organized memories, Wade remembered why he was here.
This innocent undead 'noble' had planned to summon more of his minions out of the corpses in the human realm.
After a medium range teleportation, a group of human merchants took him in, as he disguised as a merchant via magic. However, when this merchant group stopped to rest in a village, they were raided by a bandit gang.
The village had naturally been subjected to a massacre from top to bottom. It was only when this undead lich couldn't bear it any longer that he summoned his guards from the undead realm to wipe out the bandits. For your context, the undead realm is the world belongs to the deceased.
This spared the village from complete annihilation. However, judging from the fearful expressions of the villagers, being abducted by undead was even more despairing than being raided by bandits.
"Not interested, I mean for now."
Wade naturally didn't care about any small amount of increase of disposable minions. Besides, he didn't have the time or inclination to attack humans now.
"By the way, Lucy, there's still one person alive over there." Wade pointed to a figure in the distance among the pile of corpses who was attempting to flee.
This bandit was clever, pretending to be dead to deceive everyone, but he was a little too hasty.
"At your command."
There was no need to articulate all of Wade's intentions; Lucy understood them perfectly.
Accompanied by horrifying screams and the sound of flesh being torn apart, Wade open a teleportation spell back to his own dwell.
...
The Immortal Castle, Phantom Keep
The environment here wasn't as bad as Wade had imagined. At least the sky can be seen, and the temperature was just slightly cold than outside.
Ghostly torches flickered, casting dancing shadows upon the walls draped with cobwebs. Surrounding the castle, a necropolis of crumbling tombs and skeletal warriors stood sentinel—scenes that would typically be associated with undead chambers in the modern human imagination were completely absent here.
The portal led to a garden, where unknown flowers bloomed on the ground, emitting faint purple particles of light.
If it weren't for the undead standing beside Wade, he wouldn't have believed this was his dwell.
"Your Highness, should we lock these humans up in cages?" Lucy asked.
"For now, yes. Feed them, don't let them starve. They might still be useful to me."
After giving this command to his guards, Wade walked towards the depths of the castle.
Wade bypassed the intricate pathways within the castle according to his memories and returned to the area where this body originally lived.
"This place is really chaotic."
Entering the interior of the castle, the living quarters of this undead lich were much messier than Wade had imagined—much messier.
What looked like a luxuriously decorated room was piled high with various unknown items, dirty to the point where even Wade, who wasn't particularly fastidious, furrowed his brow.
Wade barely recognized the spread-out books and some scattered crystals on the ground, the rest being some strange-looking odds and ends.
Was there no servant to tidy up the room? Wade recalled his memory backup once again.
Finally understanding that the clutter in the room was all the 'research results' of this undead lich…
Wade Grimstone, the third son of the ancient kingdom, Ebonreach. The undead lich, is truly once sit at the highest rank of nobility, a royalty heir just beneath the king. Not that it make much difference now as the kingdom is vanished for centuries.
As undead, he was atypical one, always inventing some strange things, causing chaos from time to time. Luckily, there is not much living beings in the surroundings. Due to this, other undead colleagues where he met from time to time for arcane research and experimentation, often describe him as,
'A despicable human!'
In fact, compared to humans, Wade leaned more towards goblins or gnomes.
Although he do not possessed as much dark knowledge and spells, necromantic rituals as his counterparts, the talent displayed by this undead lich in subjects such as 'mechanical engineering,' 'magical engineering,' 'crystal construction,' etc., could be described as insane.
The clutter stuffed in his room was all his 'unfinished products' from previous research.
'Magic Camera' and 'Storage Card,' after flipping through Wade's memory about the introduction and function of these two gadgets, Wade preferred to name these two items as 'Camera' and 'Memory Card.'
"Interesting."
Wade's crossing into this world initially didn't have a clear purpose.
Not everyone likes to make combat or becoming stronger their ultimate life goals. Wade wasn't particularly interested in power.
The legacy left by this Undead noble gave Wade an inspiration.
Perhaps he could make movies in another world, or if that didn't work, he could create some card games like Magic: Hearthstone, Clash Royale, DnD and then write a few novels and draw some manga. Wouldn't that be delightful?
As an artist, Wade felt it was essential to spread Earth's culture to this world, no... rather, to invade this world.