Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: The Empire Targets the Abyss Undead
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The thunderbolt-like news that the empire was targeting the Abyss's undead.
Leyzon stood frozen for the first time upon hearing those words.
"Those trash empire bastards—they've been preparing something like that!"
The monkey man snarled, his eyes twisting in fury.
A devout worshiper of the Abyss, he treated this as nothing short of blasphemy.
"On the flip side, from the empire's perspective, it just means they've judged Lord Abyss's undead to be that dangerous."
The butterfly-masked woman seized the chance to praise the Abyss instead.
As she did, she cast a subtle glance at Leyzon from behind her mask.
She wanted to get close to him, the one connected to the Abyss.
"Heh heh heh, put another way, doesn't that mean we can steal the Abyss's undead too?"
The skeleton tossed out a mad idea.
The other necromancers didn't even acknowledge it.
He often spouted nonsense like this for fun.
"What do you think? Can you pass it along?"
Finally, the lizard man asked Leyzon again.
Leyzon slowly relaxed his stiff expression.
"Sure. I'll make sure it's delivered."
And it was delivered crystal clear.
'Tch, time's closing in fast.'
He'd been rushing because he didn't know when the empire might collapse.
But to think they'd even set their sights on the undead.
'To see the ending, clashing with the empire was always on the cards, to some extent.'
But the empire had prepared a ploy beyond his expectations.
'Entering the Resonance World was the right call.'
From the impostor to intel on the empire's inner workings.
Not a moment had been wasted.
Leyzon's gaze settled on the lizard man.
He didn't particularly trust the necromancers here.
'Even in the Resonance World, there's someone siding with the empire.'
If a traitor was among them.
The lizard man would almost certainly be killed.
"One question. How far along is the undead production array for stealing the Abyss's undead?"
The lizard man swallowed hard at Leyzon's question.
"Two more years. It'll be complete by then."
Two years.
Leyzon finished calculating the timeline in his head.
And quickly sorted out what needed to be done in that time.
Leyzon smiled faintly.
It was plenty.
For the empire, of course.
And the necromancers too—they were missing one key fact about the Abyss.
That Leyzon's undead were no longer what they used to be.
'All my undead have evolved.'
Evolution meant the entities themselves had changed entirely.
Which meant every undead they made would be useless.
'Go ahead, waste time on pointless crap.'
As if he'd let them steal anything.
"As thanks for the info, I'll tell you one thing."
Leyzon decided to extend a bit of goodwill.
"There's a necromancer planted by the empire operating in the Resonance World."
The necromancers' gazes snapped to Leyzon in unison.
The skeleton clacked his teeth meaninglessly.
The butterfly mask's face visibly stiffened even behind her mask.
The monkey man erupted in rage.
The lizard man quietly swallowed again.
He seemed to sense his own doom already.
"Lizard, my room number is 680126."
He looked up at the next words.
"Anyone suspected of betrayal or even looking suspicious—shove them into my room."
The lizard man's eyes widened slowly.
He grasped what Leyzon meant.
"I'll make sure they're thoroughly punished, even if I have to tell the Abyss myself."
The lizard man suddenly had a bodyguard.
Leyzon's gaze shifted to the other necromancers.
This was a warning.
If anyone touched the lizard man.
They'd better be ready for all-out war with the Abyss.
No one would approach the lizard man carelessly now.
Even with a traitor, he'd at least buy some time.
"...Thank you."
Leyzon asked his final question as the lizard man expressed his gratitude.
"So, any dual-class Poison Necromancers here?"
The research on the Poison Necromancer's codex—his original goal.
He needed a necromancer to help with that.
Unfortunately, none of them were Poison Necromancers.
They were an unpopular class to begin with, so he hadn't held high hopes anyway.
Still, he got some useful info.
It came from the butterfly mask.
"703211—that's the room of a Poison Necromancer called Poison Spider. Leave a note on the door, and you can arrange to talk."
She often entered the Resonance World, though not right now.
Leyzon slipped the note into the door as she described.
Then he logged out of the Resonance World.
He opened his eyes to a darkening sky beyond the window.
Leyzon stirred and sat up.
"Lord Leyzon!"
Syria Nosferatu lifted her head from where she'd been sleeping on his arm.
She'd been lying there since he entered the Resonance World.
And apparently hadn't moved the whole time.
Bound by her duty to guard the defenseless Leyzon.
"Syria, good work."
"It was nothing~!"
Syria beamed innocently.
Nothing, my foot.
Leyzon reached out and stroked her head.
She purred like a cat in response.
Clearly delighted by the praise.
"Syria, things are more urgent than I thought."
Leyzon recounted what he'd heard in the Resonance World.
Once she heard it all, Syria's eyes narrowed fiercely.
"How outrageous. To try stealing us, Lord Leyzon's possessions. Far too arrogant."
"But it confirms the possibility. We need to gather the undead faster."
Syria nodded in agreement.
If they actually lost any undead.
The situation would turn catastrophic.
"So, who will you seek first?"
Leyzon pondered.
Among the remaining three undead.
The Curse Demon King's location was known—the far west.
The Moving Black Castle was in the far east.
The last one he only vaguely suspected.
No precise location.
'Curse Demon King in the western extreme, Moving Black Castle in the east.'
Both far from Leyzon in the northern Ged Mountains.
'In that case.'
Leyzon had two skills he needed to acquire first.
One in the Sahā Realm dungeon.
Perfectly on the way, right in the middle.
The other...
Creak—
The door opened, and Hanok Wilbria entered with Daseot.
"Ah, Lord Leyzon, you're awake."
"You've arrived."
Hanok wagged his tail happily, and Daseot bowed.
Hanok had been training under Daseot lately.
Daseot was hero-class knight.
Naturally, his weapon mastery and physical prowess made him an excellent teacher.
With a good master, one grows strong.
Hanok's movements were growing ever more refined.
According to Daseot, Hanok had seized onto an animalistic instinct in his training style.
Already heavily reliant on senses, they honed that aspect further.
'Neither I nor Syria can teach Hanok much more.'
Making Daseot a familiar had been a smart move.
'Even if the empire stole talents.'
Creating something from nothing—that was effort.
Hanok was reaping the rewards, growing steadily stronger.
'If the empire had envisioned only such ideal scenarios, it might've been a fine world.'
A world where effort alone, regardless of talent, achieved anything.
Talents rarely align with true passions anyway.
In a talentless world, anyone could pursue what they loved.
And instead of blaming talent.
They'd blame their own lack of effort and push harder.
But that wasn't the empire's goal.
'A birdcage.'
To Leyzon, this world was a birdcage.
A massive cage confined by the empire.
No matter how beautifully a canary sang inside.
Its voice never reached outside.
So, smash the cage.
"Hanok, Syria."
Leyzon set their next course.
"We're heading west from now on."
The Curse Demon King in the west.
He was the next target.
The Ged Mountains—the world's largest range.
This colossal chain spanning the entire north showcased nature's majesty.
In one section of those mountains.
A recently devastated area from some commotion came into view.
Mountains recover quickly.
Fertilizer from mass die-offs of trees and beasts.
Sprouts were already pushing up here and there, feeding on it.
Mostly weeds, sure.
But they were the fastest restorers of the wild.
Atop those tender weeds stood a single man.
Wearing a helmet with a pitch-black tail, he slowly scanned his surroundings.
Once—the traces of the mountain's annihilation.
Clear signs of some massive being rampaging.
"Why are there so many hidden monsters in this world?"
The helmeted man muttered, rummaging in his pocket.
He pulled out a mana cigar and slipped it into the helmet's slit.
Sizzle—
A spark from his fingertip lit it.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled a long plume.
"You still avoiding mana cigars?"
A voice reached his ear just then.
He turned slightly to see an old man there.
A bald elder with a wild beard, draped in a gray robe.
The former lord of the Gray Mage Tower.
His gray eyes fixed on the man.
The helmeted man met his gaze and chuckled softly.
"Can't exactly quit what's left, can I?"
"You really can't let go. It's an addiction."
"Heh heh heh, dying from mana cigar addiction sounds fine to me."
He laughed grotesquely, clacking his teeth.
The Gray Mage Tower lord frowned at the sight.
"You picked up weird habits in the Resonance World."
"Figure it'll come in handy someday."
"Lord help me, you've never shaken that vice since way back."
"Not even a necromancer, and you infiltrate the Resonance World anyway—cut it out."
"I'll think about it. Had some fun lately anyway."
The helmeted man shrugged nonchalantly.
Clearly no intention of stopping.
The Gray Mage Tower lord continued, irritation showing.
"More importantly, the palace hasn't sent anyone lately. Decided to stop hunting me?"
The helmeted man took a long drag on his mana cigar at those words.
Then exhaled a thick cloud.
"Old timer, that's why I'm here."
"Why?"
"One of the Night Ravens I sent your way vanished without a trace."
Thanks to that, the other Night Ravens were searching now.
The empire's shadowy blade in the underworld.
The Night Ravens handled the dirty work—and one had gone missing.
"Packed him full of goodies to give you trouble, too."
"...Wasn't me."
"Sure. If it was you, you'd have messaged thanks for the gift."
Some gift.
"Thought it might be that serpent dragon hiding in the Ged Mountains."
He tapped his arm with a finger.
"If it was the serpent dragon, our guy would've noticed. This is something else."
His tapping finger stopped abruptly.
"Lord of Blood and Shadow. The Vampire Queen."
The Gray Mage Tower lord's face slowly hardened.
"The undead that wiped out an imperial knight order 15 years ago and vanished—she's back."
The helmeted man locked eyes with him.
"You know what that means, right?"
The Gray Mage Tower lord fell silent.
He'd recently met a man tied to shadows.
'That guy.'
Maybe a familiar sent by the Vampire Queen.
That would explain his intel and the mask he'd given.
'So he came to find me because...'
The Vampire Queen.
Searching for her vanished master?
'The Abyss's disappearance is real?'
The Gray Mage Tower lord quietly clenched his fist.
Seeing it, the helmeted man's eyes gleamed.
"Speaking of, I heard something interesting in the Resonance World."
He couldn't monitor the Resonance World itself, even if he sent people in.
So he didn't know all the comings and goings.
"They say the Abyss created a new undead."
The Gray Mage Tower lord's eyes widened.
The Abyss, whose soul itself had vanished.
The Vampire Queen searching for the Abyss.
And now a new undead from the Abyss after a century.
Something ominous was afoot.
'What in the world is the Abyss...'
What are you scheming?
"Your reaction tells me you have some guesses."
The Gray Mage Tower lord realized he'd revealed too much.
"...Nothing certain."
"Old timer, always like this."
The helmeted man flicked his mana cigar.
It burned to ash midair before hitting the ground.
"Issue is, beyond the Night Ravens, other blades are moving on their own."
One knight commander got tangled with the Vampire Queen...
The Gray Mage Tower lord flinched.
The situation was graver than thought.
"So, advance warning."
The helmeted man slowly floated into the air.
"Old timer, stay out of it."
For anything Abyss-related, he always meddled.
Leaving the warning, the helmeted man vanished.
Perfect spatial teleportation.
"...A fitting imperial mage."
The dream of spatial travel, used so casually.
The Gray Mage Tower lord's face hardened watching him.
Such a man was hunting the Abyss.
Worry creased his features.
'I hope my old benefactor stays safe.'
The Gray Mage Tower lord could only pray quietly.