Artifact (3)
"And... you might not know this, but among the branch managers, there's talk about making you the next one. I once suggested picking out dispensers with potential and grooming them as successors. Not everyone wants to keep working forever like me, so we've already got some candidates lined up. You're one of them. Only a few know you're my heir."
I figured that was probably something Lilith had been setting up to position me as her successor.
Instead of shoving me out there suddenly, she'd been laying the groundwork subtly to minimize backlash.
Apparently, she'd been busy with a lot behind the scenes without me knowing.
She'd always nagged me about keeping up my ratings and stuff, and I knew she was working hard to make me her successor, but...
This time with Shirasgal was part of that too.
Like, handling the branch's headaches on my behalf—something like building up achievements.
Anyway, I got that I'd somehow become the top dog around here without realizing it through all these things. But I had no clue why she was calling a meeting just for dispensers.
So I asked, and Lilith hit me with something totally out of left field.
"You remember that Dimension Crash from before, right?"
"The one from before?"
I racked my brain and recalled the Dimension Crash that happened when I met Eileya last time.
It was in the middle of the desert, and I remembered it being no big deal...
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Turns out, a decent number of folks came through there."
What the fuck.
Did another race cross over or something?
There'd been no news, so I thought nothing happened, but apparently not.
The World Government hiding it tight-lipped made it feel like shit might blow up bigger than expected.
But...
I still couldn't connect that to why the World Government side was summoning me, a dispenser.
I found out soon enough.
"Their conditions to the World Government were three. Ensure the safety and autonomy of their people and nation. Lift the 'curse' on them. And men."
"...Men?"
I thought I'd misheard.
"Yeah, men. Their world was apparently on the brink of collapse. All the men vanished due to some unknown curse."
"...Uh, is that safe?"
If I went and got hit by that curse and croaked, fuck the benefits—I'd quit being a dispenser on the spot.
"Don't worry about that. It's not life-threatening. Just a curse where no men are born. And most of it weakened when they crossed over."
Well, that's a relief.
No, but what kind of bullshit curse is that?
A curse stopping men from being born—it's pathetic and lame-looking, but basically guarantees extinction.
No idea what they did to get hit with that.
Did they piss off a demon lord by stomping its dick while killing it or some shit...?
So the raging demon lord curses the cunts to die out with no men and self-destructs?
Unlikely, but whatever.
Anyway, curse aside, how the hell did a nation on the verge of total collapse have the balls to lay down conditions to the World Government, which had unified dozens of worlds?
"They came over in a big group?"
The only thing I could think of was if so many crossed that the government couldn't handle it right away. But Lilith shook her head at my guess.
"Population's small. A few thousand? They'd been crumbling under the curse for ages, so not many survivors left. Without men, the numbers just kept dropping. Honestly, calling a few thousand a kingdom is a stretch."
I thought maybe tens of millions crossed at once, but no. Then what the fuck? Lilith continued.
"But... those few thousand are apparently pretty damn strong. Or rather, that's why they survived that long. Anyone who didn't reach a superhuman realm probably died of old age."
Well, unless you're a long-lived race, even at best you'd kick it after a hundred or two hundred years.
To avoid that, you'd need to cultivate martial arts or magic to break into superhuman territory.
Makes sense they'd be strong if they were survivors from a world that was truly fucked.
"No, but how strong?"
How strong to make even the World Government, which crushes most kingdoms outright, compromise? Lilith said,
"Word is, they're all master-level necromancers."
"...What?"
Necromancer.
Summoner of spirits.
One-man army.
That's what they were called.
And thousands of them?
"No way that's right? Is that even possible?"
"I don't wanna believe it either, but the report says so."
If the report says it, it's legit.
Thousands of necromancers, huh...
The danger of necromancers was well-known even back when races were still slaughtering each other.
During the 'Night the Dead Rose' that lasted three days, when necromancers rampaged raising hundreds of corpses to charge, I thought the world was fucking done for.
It ended in a three-day joke, but corpses rising to attack the living was so horrific it stuck with me.
"...Isn't that dangerous?"
That was before the World Government formed, but the twenty-two heroes were active, and the aggro was huge, so they got wiped before covering a single city.
Even though necromancers from various worlds totaled just a few hundred and caused that chaos, thousands— a whole kingdom of them—sounded insanely risky.
And I was right, because Lilith nodded.
"Dangerous, yeah. A master-level necromancer can raise thousands of skeletons alone. Dozens of sturdy knight-class ones too. Thousands of them? That's a undead legion of hundreds of thousands. Makes sense to call it a kingdom, I guess. Kingdom of the dead, though."
Lilith shrugged casually as she said it.
Too chill, right? And I wasn't the only one thinking that—Hoaran, listening beside us, spoke up.
"A nation made of those filthy things? And they want to send Hanjo there?"
That was exactly what I wanted to say.
The necromancers I knew were fucking nightmare fuel, etched in my memory from the war-torn days when everyone was scrambling to survive.
Not just raising corpses and attacking the living—they'd fuck the corpses of people they'd killed themselves. Sending me to a place with thousands of those psychos? I was shitting bricks.
With no men left, they probably didn't fuck corpses, but maybe the women there only knew getting fucked by corpses.
No way in hell was I sticking my dick in a corpse-fucked pussy.
What if I caught some disease?
"...Hoaran, it's not like that, so don't worry. Their necromancy evolved differently from what we know."
How the fuck is it different?
Still necromancy, and necromancers are cock-standing psycho perverts raising corpses, right? But Lilith said,
"Unlike those creepy corpse-fuckers from before, over there, necromancers played a priest-like role. Not black mages raising dead to attack the living or play with bodies—they relay words the dead couldn't say in life. Like priests. Their karma scores are even on the good side."
"Karma...?"
Sounds familiar.
"...Do you remember what this lady told you before? Even in death, the will lingers—especially grudges."
Hoaran tilted her head at me and reminded me.
Yeah, something like grudge spirits clinging to assholes who'd wronged others.
And good deeds leave the opposite kind of energy.
Having a bunch doesn't curse you or bring bad luck directly, but it muddies your soul over time, I think she said.
"But you can measure it?"
"Talented shamans can sense it. Or famed Taoists or priests. And..."
Hoaran glanced at Yustitia.
Following her gaze, Yustitia yawned hugely and said,
"I made one a while back... a tool to measure soul filth. Just for fun, but they use it to check newcomers' alignments."
So Yustitia made some magic device to measure karma or whatever.
With her making cum dressings and slime onaholes, a karma meter wasn't surprising.
"...Hard to believe clean souls become spirit summoners, but if true, no worries, right? Then why the sour face earlier?"
Even Hoaran said that, so it seemed safe. But why had Lilith looked pissed since then? Curious, I stared at her. She sighed heavily under our gazes.
"...It's the duration. Heard I'd have to be there at least a week."
Eh, that's it?
I figured some big reason, but that was minor.
Yustitia might wither without my cum, but I could stock her up beforehand.
With Lilith and Hoaran around, she wouldn't dry up while I was gone.
But Lilith continued, eyeing me.
"You think this idiot won't cause trouble separated from us for a whole week? Even if he doesn't, he'll get dragged into some bullshit."
She said it like I summoned disasters.
"...Indeed, that could be trouble."
And Hoaran nodded along.
"Hoaran, you too...?"
I stared at her, and she said,
"I don't agree with Lilith on everything, but you do get wrapped up in incidents unusually often, Hanjo."
Okay, true, but...
Even Hoaran, disagreeing partly, looked at me like a brat who comes home battered daily. Felt weird, but I couldn't deny it after all the shit I'd been through.
Attacked by some psycho bitch the first day away from Lilith, terrorism on a rare group outing while lounging at home.
Count the small stuff—my life's been a fucking variety show.
Hoaran bailed me out plenty, or without her and Lilith, I'd be dead many times over.
Now I was getting anxious too.
"Then refuse? If..."
"Not good. The talk about making you branch manager would vanish. I don't care, but all my prep work so far would go to waste."
That sucked.
Whatever she'd set up to make me successor, I couldn't just toss it for 'what if' worries.
"Conversely, if you shine again... no one could complain about you as branch manager. That's why I said it's good luck or bad."
Even harder to refuse now.
"...If you're that worried, make another artifact to protect me? You've got Hoah from Hoaran—one more for defense, and I'd be fine no matter what."
As I pondered, Yustitia chimed in.
"Eh... Artifacts are that quick to make?"
"Deadline?"
Two days.
I told her, and she shrugged.
"Two days? No problem. Skimp on sleep. With enough materials, two or three easy."
Eh...
Are artifacts mass-producible like that?
My Body Checker, handmade by her, was insanely expensive. Even mass-produced ones cost a fortune.
Mass-produced were pricey, yet she says two or three in two days? My common sense shattered.
"...No materials?"
"Use my stash. Some of Hoaran's tail fur... peel off some of my scales?"
"...Me?"
"Lilith, your stuff won't make a proper artifact."
Yustitia shut it down flat.
Made sense—succubus materials? Who knows what pervy shit it'd make.
Touch-activated orgasm artifact or something.
Anyway, seemed settled: Yustitia makes me a few protective artifacts.
Artifacts, huh...
"Oh, hey, can you use this as material?"
Forgot I had something. Maybe not ideal, but I pulled out the fang I'd yanked from Shirasgal. The three stared.
Yustitia's eyes sparkled at it.
"...Lamia fang? With poison gland. Tons of uses..."
Usable, cool.
Didn't expect that.
"Use this too, then."
Perfect timing—decided to make Shirasgal's fang an artifact material.
It was mine now, right?
"...Handing it over like it's nothing. Where'd you get that?"
Oh, right, hadn't told them.
Explained the Shirasgal ordeal briefly. Yustitia went "hmm, got it," but Hoaran and Lilith's faces hardened.
Eh...
Something's fucked.
"You... I didn't ask for that."
"Hanjo...? Even if Shirasgal started it, yanking her fang is..."
I got an earful from both.