Rebirth in Another World as the Undead Queen

Extending a Helping Hand

Pelam swam skillfully underwater. As she approached the shore, she transformed back into Serea’s form, and coincidentally, at that moment, tifia also returned to the shore.

”Serea, My Queen, why are you here?”

”I received your distress signal, so I hurried over.”

Seeing that he had mistaken her for Serea, Pelam simply let the misunderstanding continue. Under Serea’s control, Pelam spoke with ’Serea’s’ tone.

”Additionally, your son and tribespeople have already been rescued by my people, but they were gravely injured. So I brought them back to my camp for treatment.”

While ’Serea’ was saying this, tifia was greatly alarmed, but he quickly came to his senses and responded hastily.

”Thank you so much, queen Serea, I... I...”

Tifia didn’t know what to say. Originally, he thought Serea’s alliance with them was just to use the Jawfang tribe as a shield, and that so-called support was simply impossible.

But now, with Queen Serea personally coming to offer support and rescuing their tribespeople, tifia could truly confirm the other’s identity as an ’ally’.

But there was still one question...

”Queen Serea, did you see everything that just happened?”

”The lake god? Don’t worry, I will keep your secret.”

”Thank you for your understanding, my Lady.”

After that, ’Serea’ whistled, and Chips charged out of the woods with a Carrion Beast. At ’Serea’s’ signal, tifia mounted the Carrion Beast and followed her into the woods.

Once they had left, tethys led Little Mo up from the lake bottom, but there was no one left on the shore.

”Damn it, they... they tricked me...”

Tethys showed a distressed look. Beneath her tough and aloof exterior hid a fragile young girl’s heart...

”Woo...”

Seeing Tethys upset, little Mo wanted to comfort her, but Tethys just turned away and dove back to the lake bottom.

”I must find that guy.”

”Woo!”

Little Mo hurriedly followed, and the two charged into another underwater passage at the bottom of the lake together...

...

After a few minutes, Serea and Tifia found the lizardmen who had set off first.

”Clan Chief... and, queen Serea?”

”Mm, queen Serea is here to help us.”

As he spoke, Serea interjected.

”I checked your camp earlier. It’s already been destroyed, and the residences are no longer safe. If you trust me, come stay at my camp for now.”

As she spoke, Serea considered Jawfang her ”trade alliance” poster child. By helping them, she wanted the smaller tribes to take notice, so that she could gradually control the forest through the ’trade alliance’.

”Queen Serea came to help us personally—how could we not trust her? But is it really okay for you to take us in when we’ve lost everything?”

”There’s nothing wrong with it. As allies, we should help each other. Come along.”

”...”

Tifia glanced at the wounded tribespeople and could only agree.

”Then we’ll trouble you, My Queen. If there’s anything we can help with in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

”Mm, let’s go.”

...

It took nearly three hours to escort Tifia and the others back to camp. When Pelam returned to camp, it was already late at night.

Tifia and Digue were reunited as father and son, while grief for the destroyed home and slain tribespeople spread among the lizardmen. Serea said nothing about this. She silently revived the Skeleton Cavalry, then had Little Black take the strange bug to the Elf Tree house.

Inside, Little Black took out the black bug. It was still struggling, and its previously severed tentacles had begun to regenerate.

”Squeak squeak!”

Hearing the threatening cry of the weird bug, a voice echoed in Serea’s mind.

”As expected, this is an Erosion Demon.”

”Hm? Dogsius, you know about it?”

”Yes, but this Erosion Demon is a bit different from the ones I’ve seen before, so I didn’t recognize it at first.”

”Tell me what you know about these things.”

”Erosion Demons are monsters that dwell in the abyss. They live by parasitizing the bodies of weaker creatures. While they can influence a host’s mind, they can’t truly control it, and their own strength isn’t that great. But this one...”

Dogsius, controlling Celia’s body to examine the bug, continued explaining.

”But the Erosion Demon before us seems to have undergone some unknown mutation. It is extremely aggressive and can perfectly control its host. It can even control powerful creatures like ogres.”

As Dogsius spoke, Serea had already confirmed through her observations that the monsters controlled by these bugs were ogres.

But where did these bugs come from, and who was commanding them?

Maregof!

Serea could only suspect this, because all the ogre tribes in the jungle were under his control. For so many ogres to be controlled by Erosion Demons, only he could be the mastermind.

But without solid proof, this could only be considered a near-truthful guess...

Thinking about this, another Serea entered the house. As she strode in, her cheeks were puffed up, and she was still wet all over.

”Bad master, I won’t listen to you anymore. I don’t want your materials either.”

With that, Pelam tossed Serea a cloth bag of materials, then turned back into a bracelet.

With the empty bag in hand, Serea’s mouth twitched...

”She says she doesn’t want them, but in the end, she ate them all.”

Serea understood why Pelam was angry. Anyone would be mad at suddenly being put in such danger.

With an apologetic heart, Serea tossed out another bag of material Crystals.

”All right, all right, I won’t have you carry out such dangerous tasks in the future. Consider this extra payment.”

With that, Pelam turned into a slime and swallowed the Crystal materials in one gulp, then reverted to a bracelet and pouted at Serea.

Seeing this, Serea simply shook her head and said nothing. She put on the bracelet. Pelam’s return reminded her of the ”lake god’s” request.

”Lola, has someone named Nora come to camp?”

”Nora? No.”

”Then forget it.”

After all, Pelam had escaped, and Nora wasn’t at her camp, so none of it concerned her.

But just as Serea was thinking this, a blood slave walked in from outside.

”Reporting, My Queen.”

”What is it?”

”Captain Maro brought back a little girl from the jungle, says her name is... Nora. But since she’s an unknown outsider, Captain Vina asked me to report it to you.”

”!!!”

”My Queen, could it be—?”

Lola looked to Serea, and Serea replied with just one sentence.

”Go take a look.”

(To be continued...)