Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Parade of Hundred Ghosts
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The performance ended.
The yokai festival began.
They formed a single procession and set off to circle the entire city, while people watched their march like it was a parade.
[Over here! Come this way! Don't go anywhere else, just follow behind me!]
Naturally, they couldn't be left to their own devices, so the Black Necromancer led them from the front of the procession.
The people couldn't see the Black Necromancer, but the yokai could see her just fine, so there were no issues.
The yokai reveled in all the attention—people marveling at them in wonder, jumping in surprise, laughing in amusement, or cursing in disgust.
Delighted, the yokai joined the procession of their own accord and basked in the gazes of the crowd.
It was truly the yokai's night.
The sight of a hundred yokai parading through the night could only be described as the Parade of Hundred Ghosts.
"Um, Necromancer."
Owen approached me as I watched the yokai procession from a spot where most of the people had already left.
"That performance just now..."
"It was Oster Baltani, your grandfather. He's fallen back asleep now, but I granted his request to play one last time for you."
It had been quite the impressive experience, becoming a pianist despite not knowing how to play the piano at all.
"As I thought..."
Owen, who knew about my abilities, responded calmly, as if he had expected it.
I asked the boy.
"So, what did you learn?"
"......"
"Oster sat at the piano to teach you the joy of performance once more. Even after death, his skill hadn't rusted at all."
"You're right. Grandfather was truly... amazing."
It wasn't quite the phenomenon of a final burst of clarity, since Oster was already dead, but in any case, his performance before returning to rest had been intensely powerful and explosive.
It had moved the yokai deeply and filled the people with anticipation for the festival.
"But I could never do it."
Owen slumped, overcome with sorrow. I shared my thoughts with the boy, who had been doubting his own abilities lately.
"Why do you think you and Oster were granted such powers?"
Owen had said that he had always been able to see them, even when playing piano with his grandfather, but Oster was different.
One day, suddenly.
While playing the piano, he began to see them, and they came to him for comfort before vanishing, or so he said.
One could argue that such sudden, fateful abilities had unclear origins.
"But I think I know why you gained yours."
"What?"
Owen looked at me in surprise, seeking an answer. But telling him wouldn't lead to any growth on his part.
It would be like how he now assumed it was natural that his grandfather had comforted yokai, having seen it with his own eyes, and believed that to be the absolute truth.
The boy would once again glimpse the answer key and live with narrowed vision, convinced that was the only right path.
"Follow that procession closely and observe. By the time the festival ends, you'll figure it out yourself."
"M-Me...?"
"Yes, you."
I patted his head unnecessarily, then turned away.
Pindenai and Iluania were waiting for us in the distance, but I had somewhere else to go.
"What, you're not coming with us?"
"If you have business, we'll help."
"No need. It's nothing major, so I'll go alone."
Iluania bowed her head and acknowledged it, but Pindenai smirked slyly.
"Out hunting? Well, looking like that, no woman would turn you down."
"Oh my! Old habits die hard..."
Iluania reacted immediately to Pindenai's words, covering her mouth in shock.
"Gonna sidle up, nudge her with your elbow, and go, 'Know the Necromancer? That's me'?"
"That's too tacky. These days, I use a different approach..."
Suddenly, the two launched into a discussion about the most efficient ways for me to pick up women.
Irritation surged, and I sighed. Iluania snapped to attention and apologized, while Pindenai just shrugged.
"You two can't handle a joke. Fine, we're going. Call if you need us."
"......Try to stay near the front of the procession if possible."
"Hm? Got it."
Pindenai headed toward the festival procession, taking Iluania and Owen with her.
I appreciated that she noticed I wanted to act alone and didn't cling, but she just had to add unnecessary commentary.
'She always tacks on pointless remarks.'
It was typical of Pindenai, but it was noisy regardless.
"Hoo."
The festival had begun. The yokai were enjoying themselves and showing off freely, while Owen followed behind to gain enlightenment.
Now, I had only one task left.
To find the one who desired Owen's abilities.
The mastermind who had tried to forcibly claim Owen by bringing in loan sharks.
It was time to pay them a visit.
* * *
Bam!
The door to Volfras's office bent like a bow before shattering and rolling across the floor.
In the dark room.
As I entered with blue flames wreathing my hand, faces emerged from the shadows, swinging clubs.
But of course, their strikes never reached me, halting in midair. I released blue mana light, illuminating the interior brightly as the loan sharks waiting to ambush me were flung rolling across the floor.
No matter how little combat experience I had, I wasn't about to lose to ordinary thugs.
"Ugh."
"M-My tailbone! I think it's broken!"
"You said we just had to ambush him!"
Their writhing groans made them look like maggots.
I moved to interrogate the thugs separately, but the enemy's next move came in a flashy display.
Grrrrowl!
A bizarre cry echoed from outside the room. The sound of four-legged beasts charging toward me, drooling saliva.
"So the thugs were bait."
The enemy had anticipated my arrival and set a trap in advance. They used the thugs to lure me into the office, then planned to hunt me down.
Grotesque dogs with two heads entered the room.
The fight itself was simple.
I cast basic protective magic on myself and blasted flames at the incoming hellhounds.
Since the flames were made of mana, there was no risk of fire spreading.
But the hellhounds kept coming endlessly.
"W-Wait, I'm on your side!"
"You crazy mutts! I said don't bite!"
"You black mage bastard! This is why you can't trust those guys!"
Even the loan sharks who had ambushed me became fodder for the hellhounds, reduced to chunks of meat.
No need to spare them, so I indifferently moved my hands while sighing and glancing out the window.
"Stalling for time, huh."
For such a dramatic entrance, the battle felt disappointingly anticlimactic. The intent to simply hold me down was clear.
But now I couldn't escape easily either.
I drew up my mana once more. I had intended to gain real combat experience without using soul manipulation.
But this wasn't some game grinding session—this was just labor, not combat.
"I'm breaking through."
I awakened the souls of the hellhounds that had burned to death in my flames.
With Remegaton's help, I had handled demon souls before.
Controlling the souls of magic beasts that had died mindlessly under orders was no issue even without Remegaton.
Rooooar!
[Raaaagh!]
Translucent hellhounds rose en masse from the corpses.
The living hellhounds clashed and tore into the dead ones.
A mad frenzy where they ignored their own bodies, fixated solely on ripping out each other's throats.
'The opponent's a Beast Sorcerer.'
No matter how well-trained they were, the hellhounds obeyed my command—the one who had just killed them—without hesitation, which felt off.
The fact that I had killed them seemed utterly irrelevant to them.
They were like emotionless puppets, conditioned to recognize and obey the current master.
These were magic beasts raised in pain.
Just as ordinary necromancers tamed evil spirits through torment, beast sorcerers dominated their minds, inflicted pain, and suppressed their instincts.
In any case.
My side wouldn't die even if bitten, and if killed, they rose again as zombie-like spirits.
Individually weaker than the living hellhounds, perhaps, but our numbers kept growing.
Gradually, as the spirit hellhounds multiplied, all the living ones ended up as cold corpses.
The office and hallway floors were buried under hellhound corpses, invisible beneath the pile.
Blood squirted out like squeezing a sponge with every step I took over them.
Emerging from the second-floor Volfras office, blood flowed down the stairs, gradually soaking the surroundings.
People were calling the guards at the eerie sight.
But in the distance, on the rooftop, my eyes met those of a woman looking down at me and snickering.
She waved in greeting, wearing a familiar robe.
"Dante after all."
Aside from me, the only skilled black mage in the kingdom was from Dante.
I had assumed a beast sorcerer of this level would naturally be Dante-affiliated.
The red-haired woman twisted away into the building like she was playing tag.
I didn't like how she shook her tail, beckoning me to chase.
"Chase her."
I released the souls of the hellhounds I had bound.
Like Santa's reindeer.
Countless translucent spirit hellhounds took to the sky, charging toward their former master.