Chapter 10

The Necromancer of the Mine (2)

"W-Well, um, this person is..."

"He is the second young master of the Leinrant Ducal House."

At Dunkel's explanation, the village chief's legs trembled like quaking aspens.

Even a mere viscount—only fourth among the five noble ranks—was someone as lofty as the heavens to people like them.

And now, a member of a ducal house had personally come to their village. To them, it was no different from terror.

"W-What brings such esteemed people to our village...?"

"We heard reports that undead have appeared in the mine. We came to investigate..."

While Dunkel explained the situation to the village chief, I looked around at the village.

"There was an attack here recently."

Broken fences and empty houses scattered throughout the village.

Stains of blood that hadn't yet been cleaned up were splattered here and there.

I could also see children sneaking glances at me and Dunkel from a distance.

'They're far too skinny.'

Without work, the village granary was bound to empty little by little.

It had already been two months since the mine was shut down.

Since the village practically survived on the miners' wages, two months without income naturally meant starvation.

"Is that really true? From the count's family?"

While I was thinking, I heard Dunkel question the village chief.

"Yes. About two months ago, they suddenly announced the mine would be closed without any explanation, and then last week, from inside there..."

"You're saying undead came out."

After cutting into the conversation, I asked the village chief,

"During those two months, did anything strange happen?"

"S-Strange, you say...?"

"People disappearing, perhaps. Or someone taking away corpses that were supposed to be buried."

At my words, the village chief nodded vigorously.

"T-That's right! People from the count's estate came and said that whenever someone in the village died, we were to bring the body to them immediately..."

The moment he heard that, Dunkel's eyes widened.

"Young master. Then the undead coming from the mine are...!"

"They were artificially created. Systematically, and by the count's house."

Dunkel ground his teeth.

"How could a count use his own people like this...!"

"This wasn't the work of Count Cornwall alone."

I continued calmly,

"The Cornwall Count Family has been a family of knights for generations. They neither have the ability nor the reason to research necromancy."

"Then Count Cornwall merely provided the people and the location? Who would do something like...!"

"In the current continent, who would be capable of pulling something like this on us?"

The moment I said that, Dunkel clenched his jaw.

"The Empire...!"

"Now the pieces are finally falling into place."

Dalton had tried to kill me as an example.

And when he failed, an imperial necromancer appeared as though he had been waiting for it.

"We need reinforcements from the knight order. Let us return to the ducal estate first."

I shook my head at Dunkel's proposal.

"We don't have enough time. The moment the main house moves, the other side won't stay idle either."

Then I continued,

"We need to catch them in the act. We move into the mine tomorrow."

Dunkel sucked in a sharp breath.

"That's reckless! It's a closed space like a mine, and we have no idea how many undead might be inside!"

"This is a chance to secure proof that the Empire is interfering in the North. We can't let it slip away."

Dunkel was momentarily speechless after I countered him with pure logic, but he quickly fought back.

"Even so, I cannot throw you into certain death, young master! To begin with, His Grace the Duke intended...!"

"He probably meant for me to gain experience through relatively safe work."

When I stated the reason Heinkel had sent me here, Dunkel slowly nodded.

"But tell me, Dunkel."

Looking directly at him, I forced a smile that only moved my lips.

"Does our house look like it's in a position where it can afford to wait for me to grow stronger?"

"...!"

Dunkel fell silent, recalling the conversation we had shared beside the campfire the previous night.

'The North as it is now could simply be crushed.'

Once, the Leinrant Ducal House had defended the continent head-on against Archimond's army.

Compared to those days, the North had grown pitifully weak.

And he remembered those very words coming from his own mouth.

"Just because Cornwall falls doesn't mean the Empire's surveillance network disappears. The instant the knight order mobilizes, the bastard hiding in the mine will erase every trace."

"Young master..."

"Trust me a little. I'm not doing this recklessly."

After reassuring Dunkel, I turned to the village chief.

"There are a few things I need. Can you gather them for me?"

By the time we arrived at the village, it was already past noon.

Since we planned to depart the next morning, Dunkel and I were allowed to stay in one of the empty houses.

"Young master... what is all this?"

"Supplies. The village chief gathered all sorts of things for me."

I looked over the pile of miscellaneous items spread across the middle of the room.

A cow's leg bone, a sun-shaped wooden cross carved from timber.

And a small amount of alcohol brewed for ancestral rites.

"These are supplies? This is just..."

"The ingredients needed to create symbolic objects. Sacred relics, holy icons, holy water."

As I spoke, I pulled out a dagger and began carving the bone.

I sharpened the bone—about the length of my forearm—into a stake, then attached a wooden cross to the end of the grip.

"And if you sprinkle holy water on it..."

As I poured alcohol over the bone stake, a reaction immediately appeared.

"What... is this?"

The white bone stake instantly turned pitch-black.

"Young master, you can do things like this too?"

"The Church taught me."

At my answer, Dunkel nodded.

'Well, I never said it was the Holy Church specifically, so it's not technically a lie.'

Feeling satisfied that he had accepted the explanation, I examined the spirit-banishing tool I had made.

'It absorbed the demonic energy I refined quite well. This should be enough.'

Though I had disguised it by carving the symbols of the Holy Order onto it, priests of the Church—who wielded divine power—would never even be able to comprehend what this object truly was.

Necromancers.

Those who dealt with corpses (Nekros) and divination (Manteia), a title once used for countless priests who had existed long before the monotheistic Holy Church took root.

But now that the Holy Church had spread across the continent, the word had become nothing more than a term for inferior mages who raised corpses as servants and used them in battle.

'The biggest reason necromancy became so twisted... was probably because of me.'

The Great Catastrophe in which millions of undead invaded the continent—the Archimond Incident.

Ignoring all existing logistics and tactical doctrines, the endless undead horde had shaken the entire continent.

People later said that if the North's great hero, Berkel Leinrant, had not slain the caster Archimond, every nation on the continent would have fallen.

That was why the nations that survived the catastrophe could not help but both fear and covet the potential of necromancy.

Soldiers who did not care about injury, who did not die, who never tired.

That was why, despite the terror associated with the name "necromancer," every nation except the Holy Kingdom—the headquarters of the Holy Church—refrained from outlawing them.

'Publicly, they condemn it as the cursed knowledge of Archimond. But behind closed doors, they're all trying to figure out how to weaponize it.'

An imperial insignia engraved on a mask.

Remembering the mask worn by the necromancer who attacked me, I couldn't help but feel the irony.

Rustle!

At the sound coming from outside the building, I stepped out through the door.

"Young master. Is something wrong?"

"No, I just heard something..."

"A sound?"

As I answered Dunkel's question and looked around, something caught my eye.

"Eek!"

"We got caught! What do we do?"

"H-Hide! Hurry...!"

The source of the noise was a pair of children hiding behind a wall while watching me.

It seemed they had become fascinated by the horses tied beside the house.

Beckon, beckon.

Squatting down, I gestured for them to come over.

The two children hesitated before slowly approaching, finally meeting my gaze.

"U-Um, well..."

"W-We deserve death! It was our first time seeing horses up close...!"

While listening to their excuses, I placed a hand on one of the children's heads.

"Ah, um..."

"I know."

The child who had been trying to avoid my hand relaxed his shoulders at my reply, then raised a finger and pointed toward a corner.

"So it's coming from there. Thanks."

After seeing the child beam brightly at my response, I turned toward the house and called out,

"Dunkel!"

"Yes, young master."

Dunkel approached me at once.

"We still have some of that venison from yesterday, right? And we brought plenty of rations too."

"Ah, yes. We brought enough jerky and dry provisions for about a week, just in case."

The trip from the ducal estate to this village only took two days, yet they had packed enough supplies for a week.

It really showed how overprotective Duke Heinkel was.

'Well, he even assigned a knight commander-level escort to protect me.'

Thinking that, I spoke to Dunkel.

"Tell the village chief to lend us the biggest pot he has, and gather the villagers together. Let's feed them."

"E-Excuse me?"

"That's an order. Hurry."

After staring at me for a moment, Dunkel eventually got to his feet with a resigned expression.

"Ah, but young master."

As he stepped outside, Dunkel tilted his head in confusion.

"Who exactly were you talking to just now? I didn't sense anyone nearby..."

Hearing that, I shrugged.

"Just talking to myself."

But when I turned around again, the children were nowhere to be seen.

***

"I truly don't know how to thank you enough."

That evening, as the sun began to set, the village chief swallowed hard while staring at the stew bubbling inside a massive pot.

Crushed dried wheat bread mixed with jerky, venison, and vegetables the villagers had brought.

Judging by their expressions, it had clearly been a very long time since they had last eaten meat.

The villagers' faces looked far brighter now.

"Young master, even so, what if something happens? Using even your own supplies..."

"It's fine. If we're staying here for the night, I should at least pay for the room."

Answering both the village chief's gratitude and Dunkel's concern at the same time, I quietly observed the gathered people.

Villagers seated together inside the hall where a fire crackled warmly.

Holding bowls of steaming soup, they chatted about the world, traded trivial gossip, and every now and then burst into laughter.

Watching them from a distance made the suffocating feeling in my chest ease somewhat.

"I kind of missed the smell of people too."

Murmuring that, I turned my gaze toward the direction of the mine.

And not long after, I heard hurried footsteps as someone came running toward us.

"T-This is bad! From the mine—from the mine, undead are...!"

A villager from the outskirts came sprinting over, but the moment he saw everyone calmly eating together, he blurted out in confusion,

"W-What? Everyone's already gathered here?"

The building where the villagers had assembled was the meeting hall located at the highest point of the village.

Looking over the now-empty village, I nodded and walked down toward him, patting the young man on the shoulder.

"Warm yourself up, and whatever happens, don't go outside. Understood?"

Seeing the clothes I wore and the sword at my waist, the young man immediately nodded and ran into the hall.

The undead attacked just after the villagers had gathered together.

The timing fit together far too perfectly.

Dunkel's eyes widened.

"Young master... don't tell me you predicted this from the beginning...?"

"If I wanted to solve their hunger, I'd go beat up the local governor in the count's territory instead of relying on some temporary fix like this."

As Dunkel muttered while staring at the zombies shambling toward the village, I answered him.

"But how could you have predicted an undead attack? I didn't notice any signs at all..."

"I didn't know at first either. But..."

As I spoke, I looked toward the house where we had been staying.

"The children here warned me. They said something frightening was coming."