Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Girl Buried Underground
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An artificial wind noise grated on my ears. The timing of the page-turning sounds matching up, even if unintentional, was irritating too.
"Cut it out."
"Huh? This is just my warm-up."
Pindenai, swinging her axe in one corner of the room, let out a scoff as if I'd said something ridiculous.
She paused for a moment as if to start again, then stiffly turned her head toward me and grumbled.
"So, when are we going? It's already been three days."
"I needed to prepare. What we're dealing with isn't an ordinary magic beast."
"Hmm? How is just reading a book preparation?"
"This isn't preparation."
The actual preparations had already been completed that morning. Right now, I was just waiting.
"Hmm?"
Pindenai tilted her head as if wondering what nonsense I was spouting, but just then, a knock echoed perfectly on cue. I slowly closed my book and gave her instructions.
"Go on out and get ready. We're heading off now."
"Aha! Waiting for your little sister, huh? Fine, I'll make myself scarce again."
With her axe slung over her shoulder, Pindenai stepped onto the windowsill and leaped outside. She even neatly closed the window behind her with impressive agility.
Creak.
Without any response from me, Deia entered my room.
"Five minutes."
Click.
The pocket watch in Deia's hand began ticking away. As usual, I simply gazed at her.
Deia, too, stared back at me with her lips pressed tightly together.
It had been a week since she started giving me five minutes of her day.
During that time, Deia and I exchanged no words whatsoever, just staring at each other in silence with sealed lips.
"......Hoo."
But today was a little different.
At the three-minute mark, Deia scratched the back of her head irritably, as if bored, and finally opened her mouth after a week of silence.
"What are you thinking?"
"About what?"
I replied immediately. That seemed to annoy her even more, as Deia bit her lip and snapped.
"For a whole week. Does stealing my five minutes like this make you feel good? Or did you develop a fetish for just standing there staring blankly?"
"......"
I slowly uncrossed my legs and answered.
"I waited."
"......What?"
Her expression hid no disgust. Calmly and cautiously, as if testing and crossing a stone bridge, I explained slowly.
"I thought I shouldn't be the one to speak first, so I just waited."
"Ha! By forcing me to stand here like this?"
"Yes, because that was our agreement."
I knew full well that creating this time in the first place was forced. That's why I'd left the choice afterward entirely up to Deia.
If she didn't want to talk at all, I had no intention of saying anything either.
"Puberty hit you late."
Clicking her tongue, Deia crossed her arms and walked up to my desk with deliberate steps.
"While we're on the topic, good timing. Why'd you do that to the family head? Do you even know how his reputation has tanked because of you?"
"You're hardly in a position to say that."
"......Well, that's true, but."
She must have recalled how she'd hurled insults at the family head, calling him an idiot while crossing the mountains from the Scrap Merchants, because Deia's face flushed slightly with embarrassment.
"Anyway! I didn't break his wrist. Looks like he saw something underground."
"Yes, Darius needed to take responsibility."
"Responsibility?"
"As the current family head, for knowing the truth and staying silent. Breaking his wrist was going easy on him."
If he weren't the family head, I would have ordered Pindenai to beat him until every bone in his body was shattered.
Sensing something ominous from my words and tone, Deia swallowed hard and asked.
"What exactly is down there?"
Click!
The five minutes were up. I glanced at the pocket watch, and Deia irritably shoved it into her coat pocket.
If even the corner of my mouth twitched here, Deia would bolt, so I met her eyes again with a composed expression.
"What's down there? We sealed it off like you said, but the servants are freaking out because weird screams echo from there every day."
"I'm planning to resolve it today. You can see it as a responsibility the Verdi family has to bear."
"Responsibility?"
"Yes. In place of the family head, I'll shoulder it."
Hearing footsteps outside, I rose from my chair. Deia flinched in surprise at my sudden movement.
I passed by her and took my coat from the rack.
Right on cue, the door opened.
There stood Pindenai, a dingy coat thrown over her maid outfit, axe on her shoulder.
"Yes! This is exciting! Axes need to swing at least once every three days, right?"
Pindenai bounced around excitedly, urging us to hurry. I grabbed my staff, straightened my clothes, and looked at Deia.
"It's the Verdi family's shame. You have the right to see it too, but if you don't want to, wait here. After today, you won't hear any more screams."
With that, I stepped out of the room. Pindenai followed, humming cheerfully, and moments later.
Deia flung the door open and shouted.
"W-Wait! Take me with you!"
* * *
In front of the warehouse leading underground once more. Seeing the collapsed entrance that blocked any way in, Pindenai whistled.
"Wow, clearing this is gonna be a pain."
"That's why I said it's a problem. Truth is, I tried going down myself on the first day, but the debris was packed tight—I couldn't get in."
Deia crossed her arms and glared at me peevishly.
I pushed the two aside and tapped the tip of my staff against the debris.
"No problem."
The souls that had been absorbed into me began flowing out through the staff.
I transformed the ones seeping into the debris everywhere into simple blade-shaped wind spells.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The debris shattered into fine powder under the pressure, clearing a path.
The inside had been a passageway to begin with, so once the blockage was gone, it was horizontally empty like a cave.
"Whoa, that's cool."
Pindenai shrugged her shoulders and boldly took point, slipping inside first.
I followed her in, and Deia, who had been staring blankly at me, hesitated before asking.
"W-What was that? How did you do it? It wasn't just blowing wind in—the magic moved so intricately. It was like......"
I glanced at her, and Deia continued awkwardly.
"The magic looked alive."
"......"
It was an excellent answer, but I had no intention of giving her the correct one. Necromancy was forbidden magic even in the kingdom, to begin with.
Using it carelessly would only make Deia dislike me more. I'd just gain another criminal label as a 'Black Mage' and fuel her disgust.
We headed underground as is. Descending through the collapsed debris took quite some time, but we eventually reached the room with the Bone Centipede again.
"Pindenai, buy as much time as you can against the Bone Centipede. Killing it would be ideal, but you probably can't."
"Hmm? I've already gauged its strength. I'm good."
Pindenai declared confidently, but I didn't add any caveats. Types like her only learn through direct experience anyway.
"Deia, you......"
I worried about Deia, but she flipped back her coat to reveal a long-barreled pistol holstered at her waist.
"It's a Mana Rifle. I can defend myself decently."
"What? Even kingdom folk have guns?"
Pindenai eyed it curiously, having thought guns were exclusive to the Clock Republic, but Deia hid it back under her coat and replied.
"We're the closest to the Republic here in Northsweden. Naturally, the tech arrives fastest."
"Fine, but it won't be much use."
"What?"
Deia bristled and glared at me, but I was already gripping the doorknob and giving Pindenai another order.
"Protect Deia as much as possible."
"Got it, so let's get in there already!"
Pushed by Pindenai's excitement for her first fight in a while, I opened the door and entered.
In the still, pitch-black darkness, the Bone Centipede with glowing blue flame eyes sensed our presence and began crawling straight toward us.
Tap, tap, tap.
The chilling sound of bones clattering against the ground. Having said nothing about the Bone Centipede, Deia gaped in shock.
"Th-That, that thing! What is that?! Something like that was in the mansion basement?!"
I stepped in front of Deia, planting my staff on the ground to raise mana.
"Let's go!"
With her axe over her shoulder, Pindenai charged forward at full speed.
Her speed was definitely superior. Before the Bone Centipede could even open its mouth properly, she had leaped and was swinging her axe right in front of its skull.
Craaaack!
The skull split perfectly in half and slammed into the floor. Nearby bone fragments scattered in the wake, kicking up a century's worth of dust into a thick cloud.
As expected, I'd already cast a wind barrier, so Deia and I were unharmed.
"Cough! Cough! How's that, Master! That's how I used to protect my comrades!"
Pindenai proudly hoisted her gleaming axe, laughing atop the Bone Centipede.
Without a word, I nodded toward it.
Tap, tap, tap.
The split Bone Centipede, which had lost its light, began reforming. Not only that, it absorbed the scattered bone fragments around it, rising again even larger.
"......I hate types like this the most."
Pindenai grumbled as she dashed back toward us. She'd realized it was an opponent she couldn't beat physically.
I dispelled my spell and stood beside Pindenai. My gaze was fixed on the girl at the Bone Centipede's end—a completely rotted corpse.
"While I head to her, just block the Bone Centipede's movements."
"......Got it, but you're gonna kill it?"
Pindenai asked sidelong. Deia behind us stared blankly, awaiting my answer too.
Receiving their questions and gazes, I took one step forward.
"You can't kill someone who's already dead."
This was a truth I'd felt and experienced from my past life to this one.
The dead can't die again. My necromancy could only hold onto them—it couldn't grant them release or make them vanish.
"There's only one thing I ever do."
My eyes oddly met those of the girl with the Bone Centipede embedded in her heart.
Kidnapped, experimented on, dragged around by a parasitic yokai several times her size.
"All spirits whisper their grudges and lingering attachments very secretly. The whisper could be words, actions, or traces."
The Bone Centipede charged at me like a flood. Pindenai hurriedly intercepted it.
Even in the urgent chaos, I walked straight toward the girl.
"Scream."
Over a century.
Her tongue, untouched by a drop of water, must have hardened and withered long ago.
Dust clogged her throat. Bugs devoured her flesh, and spiders built webs above her using those bugs as bait.
"Beg, shed tears, wail about your wretched life."
The girl's soul was already shattered beyond repair, denied rest even after death.
"Awaken, and pour out your remaining resentment onto me."
I felt the girl's gaze reach me. As if she'd asked what difference it would make if she told me.
I answered her.
"Then I will save you."