The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

65 Now then, please pay your compulsory fee of goods

Vandalieu used the Zombified expedition army as a makeshift disposable army to begin a reverse invasion on the Mirg shield-nation, where he planned for them to suffer an honorable defeat.

He lit several Demon Fires and had the Zombies make noisy footsteps and groan loudly to ensure that the soldiers at the fort that had been built at the tunnel's entrance would notice them.

He positioned those who had fortunately turned into high-Rank Undead at the front of the army, excluding the expedition army's important members. The reason he did this was because it would have been problematic if Mauvid, Riley or Gordan were to be somehow broken during the preliminary skirmishes.

And the soldiers in the fort retreated, just as Vandalieu had intended.

"Is it fine that we're not slaughtering them all, Bocchan?" asked Sam.

"It's alright," Vandalieu replied. "They're not worth killing, and it's not necessary. With that being the case, I mustn't kill them."

The soldiers at the fort were average in strength, and the commander was hardly an important figure in the army. There were only a few hundred of them, anyway. It wasn't worth taking the effort to kill them all.

And more importantly, it would be more helpful to have them act as messengers.

... Though when they set the fort on fire, Vandalieu did feel some bloodthirst.

He used Heat Leech to extinguish the flames, salvaged the unburnt materials of the fort and continued through the tunnel.

"Wow, it's so spacious. How many carriages of Father's size could fit through side-by-side?" Rita wondered.

"Five... six would likely fit through," Vandalieu replied.

"I wonder how a tunnel like this could be built," said Saria.

"GUGAH?!" Rapiéçage let out a noise of pain.

"Rappie, if you fly too high, you'll hit your head on the ceiling," Vandalieu warned her.

Vandalieu simply proceeded through the dull tunnel, letting the Zombies at the front of the army deal with the fort at the tunnel's exit, and then used a wide-area Detect Life to dispose of the remaining spies of the Vampires.

And then he headed straight... not for the town, but for the cultivated land that had once been the Devil's Nest forest.

Sending the army to the town, Vandalieu and around a thousand Zombies remained in the villages in the cultivated land.

The army advanced on Balcheburg, the capital of Viscount Balchesse's territory, and engaged in a crude, reckless frontal assault.

There were three thousand of them, but since they were between Ranks 2 and 4 and unaffected by Vandalieu's Strengthen Followers and Strengthen Subordinates, Balcheburg's defense would likely succeed.

They were moving slowly directly from the front in the middle of the day, the Zombie mages were unable to recite incantations, Gordan and Riley weren't equipped with their Magic Items and Undead with utility value such as Chezare hadn't been added to this army. Even in the worst case scenario where the Undead managed to break the city's wall and get inside, Vandalieu had ordered them not to kill unarmed elderly citizens, women and children.

No matter how useless Balcheburg's defenses were, its population was around ten thousand. They should have received word in advance and there were Dungeons and Devil's Nests nearby as well. Adventurers and soldiers would have been desperately gathered here.