Reunion (2)
One week before Elin met the necromancer.
A pure white light poured down over a silent forest blanketed by the night sky — a sight like a savior descending upon a world of darkness.
"Fucking hell!"
What rang out from within that light, however, was nothing but crude cursing.
When the glow faded, it was not a savior who stood revealed, but Yuli and the Demon King Subjugation Force.
Until moments ago they had been locked in battle with the Demon King's army. The result was exactly what now lay before them. They had lost — and fled in the most disgraceful fashion imaginable. Barely a few dozen had survived, buying their place here with the lives of thousands of soldiers.
Of the valor they had carried on the day of their departure, nothing remained. Drenched head to toe in blood, they looked like nothing more than broken remnants of a routed army.
"Kyle, that son of a bitch!!"
Yuli roared up at the night sky as though every scrap of this disaster had sprung from Kyle alone. His blood-red eyes were so soaked in rage that even the agony of a torn-off arm seemed momentarily forgotten.
Muni, for her part, sat slumped against a tree.
"We failed…"
Her sense of loss cut deeper over what she had failed to learn about black magic than over the battle itself. She had been certain this was her chance to bring Kyle back. In the end, she had only wasted time.
And what came next was worse. The entire continent already knew of the Subjugation Force's existence. The Emperor had thrown his full support behind them, and Yuli's swaggering speeches — boasting of certain victory — had even made the Continental News. After raising that much noise on their way out, results of equal measure had been mandatory.
What they had delivered was catastrophic. It had not even been a battle worthy of the name war. It had been a slaughter — a one-sided trampling. Not only had they lost, they had abandoned thousands of soldiers and run. What excuse could they possibly offer once they returned to the Empire? A prison sentence was certain. In the worst case, they would have to prepare for the gallows.
The thought left Muni's heart a tangled mess — dread of death twisted together with the faint hope that she might still see Kyle again.
"Um… Lady Muni…"
"Hm?"
One of the mages called out to her. He glanced between her and Yuli with a look of pure helplessness. The other mages wore the same anxious faces, waiting for their commander's orders. With that commander in his present state, they had come to her instead.
"What should we do now?"
"…Haa. Give me a moment."
She sighed and approached Yuli. The last thing she wanted was to exchange words with a man like him — but getting out of this place came first. The Demon King was unlikely to chase them this far, yet lingering was still a poor choice. They would pass through the nearest city and make for the Empire. With what strength they had left, they could not face even the Demon King's stragglers, let alone the Demon King herself.
Muni put the question to him.
"Yuli. What now?"
"…"
"Yuli?"
No answer came. The man who had been spitting curses at Kyle moments earlier now stared blankly at the sky. Had his mind finally snapped?
There was no room for pity in that sight — and more than anything, she had no desire to waste another second. She asked again, irritation bleeding into her sigh.
"Huu. Yuli. I get how you feel, but unfortunately you're still the commander. So you need to give some kind of order—"
"Yeah. It was all that bastard Kyle from the start."
"…What?"
Muni blinked.
"Yuli. What did you just say?"
"That bastard really was in cahoots with the Demon King bitch the whole time."
"Ha… Are you serious right now?"
"Damn right I am. How else do you explain this mess?"
"That's…"
Because of you, you idiot — Muni barely managed to swallow the words at the back of her throat. Even a man like him could not be rebuked in front of everyone while he still held the title of commander.
But anyone with eyes could see that Yuli was the root of everything that had happened today. He had been the first to shout for retreat. He had taken command with zero experience, then lounged about without a single competent plan. The only "strategy" he had ever devised was pitching camp beside a village — and even that had been so he could wipe the place out and make his own exploits look grander. Every death in today's battle was a product of Yuli's making.
And still he refused to admit it. Instead he bellowed for all to hear.
"It was all that bastard Kyle colluding with the Demon King! He knew this would happen from the start and set us up to get fucked!!"
"You— enough already—"
"He's right."
Someone cut into their exchange. Muni turned to find Damian sitting hunched over, clutching his side.
"All of it. Every last bit of it was something he orchestrated."
"Damian!? You…"
"Kh— that filthy traitor!"
Damian drove his fist into the ground. Did he truly believe it — or did he simply need to? For the first time, Muni found herself speechless. She had never imagined those words would come from him of all people. The pure eyes he had worn the day he first drew the Holy Sword now burned with the same rage as Yuli's.
"You think so too, don't you, Jain?"
"H-huh? Me?"
His gaze swung straight to Jain, as if demanding agreement. Under that pressure, Jain glanced at his face and stammered.
"W-well, I… I don't really know…"
She took no one's side — even though she was the only one among them who knew the full truth. The sheer cowardice of it set Muni's teeth on edge.
"Master, we should head back for now. Then we report everything to His Majesty. That all of us were deceived by the former Hero, Kyle."
"…Huu. Yeah. You're right, Damian. Let's head back."
Yuli nodded at Damian's words. One by one, the other soldiers began to fall in line with them. It was the only way they would survive. Today's disaster could not be their failure — it had to be Kyle's crime, every last piece of it.
Muni could only watch the cheap farce unfolding under the moonlight, too stunned to speak.
"Kh— before that, I need this arm treated first. Alice!"
As the adrenaline of rage drained away, the pain finally hit him, and Yuli called for Alice in a hurry. But no answer came from the dark forest.
"Damn it, Alice! Answer me already!"
Was she high on drugs again? Yuli snapped and called once more, but only the quiet wind answered. They began searching the surroundings one by one —
"…What? Where the hell did she go?"
The forest offered only the cries of animals stirring from sleep and the flutter of birds' wings. No matter how hard they looked, the Saintess was nowhere to be found.
Necromancer.
The word referred to those who created corpses — or controlled them. For all the uniqueness of their craft, the public image of necromancers was far from kind. Raising and puppeting the dead was unsettling enough on its own, and the ability itself ran counter to every ethical standard. Plenty of people felt a visceral revulsion toward them, and because the power defied the natural order of the world, it was a profession shunned among adventurers as well. Who would entrust their back to someone who fought with corpses? There had even been a real case of a necromancer murdering a party member and using the body.
Which made chatting with an old necromancer in a guild tavern full of watching eyes a poor decision. In the end, I cut short my drinks with Clara and brought the old man back to my place.
"Hoh. Nice house you've got here."
He looked around, impressed, and settled into a chair. I had not invited him out of any fondness. We had met only once, and as the sole person who knew my true identity, keeping my distance would have been the wiser course. Precisely because of that, though, I needed to confirm something — whether today's encounter was pure chance, or something engineered with intent.
I offered him a cup of coffee with a smile and sat across from him.
"Coffee work for you?"
"Ah, much obliged."
"So. What exactly was that earlier?"
I asked with the tavern incident still fresh in mind — not why the adventurers had been roughing him up, but why a necromancer had been at the Adventurers' Guild at all. Hated as they were, necromancers usually stayed well clear of the place.
"Heh heh. You saw the whole thing, did you? Embarrassing. Truth is, I tried to form a party with those adventurers and got myself turned down flat."
"Well, no adventurer's going to take a necromancer into their party."
I sipped my coffee, recalling how he had once run his business in the Empire's underground waterways.
"What about your old line of work, then?"
"Haa. Business is a lot thinner here than it was in the Empire. Peaceful place — almost no customers come looking."
He sighed, half muttering to himself. Hmm. In a resort city like this, that kind of back-alley trade was never going to thrive — drugs, maybe, but not corpses. Unlike the Empire or the Republic, the Kingdom had no demonkin, so opportunities to handle the dead were scarce.
Perhaps that was why. The old man glanced at me, then let the merchant in him show through.
"Which brings me to my point — you wouldn't happen to need any more corpses, would you?"
"Nope. Don't."
"Heh heh, don't be so quick. Order now and it's buy one, get one free."
"I said no. Haggling over corpses — give me a break."
Were all necromancers like this? I stared at him in open disgust, and he hastily switched tactics.
"Ah — or I've got something else."
"I told you, I'm fine."
"Come now. At least hear me out to the end."
He leaned in close and whispered, conspiratorial.
"Tell me, lad — what about a living corpse?"
"What?"
"Say, for instance… someone you wanted to bring back."
A living corpse. A cold smile hung at the corner of his mouth as he said it.