A Masterpiece in Ten Minutes
"Where did the head go, caw?"
"I don't know either."
"You're saying someone snuck in and took it, caw?"
"It's possible. It vanished exactly one year ago."
…What on earth was this about?
This was the Death King's laboratory. Directly beneath his castle. The place was littered with tools and magical implements designed to kill any intruder who set foot inside.
And someone had dared to enter a place like this — and steal Andasar's face, no less?
"Doesn't a Dullahan's body instinctively seek out its face, caw?"
"I've tried. It only goes berserk every time."
"If I can stabilize that body, caw?"
"Then I'll gladly hand it over."
The Death King nodded. Of course, he wasn't simply giving it away. The real question was whether I could stabilize a body that he himself had failed to tame.
He seemed to regard this as some kind of duel between corpse artists. A strange, eager fascination gleamed in those empty skeletal sockets.
"My art is something I perform alone, caw."
"The solitary type, are you?"
"That's right, caw."
"A shame. I would have liked to watch."
The Death King said it honestly. But I couldn't show him how I stabilized that body. By keeping it hidden, I could elevate my counterfeit art into something that looked like the real thing.
"How much time do you need? Tomorrow's presentation is out of the question, of course. About a year, perhaps…"
"Ten minutes, caw."
The instant reply made the Death King freeze.
"…Ten minutes? Your jokes are getting out of hand."
At first he thought he'd misheard. He had spent an entire year on the stabilization work and failed. And now this Corpse Crow claimed it would finish the job in a mere ten minutes.
By any reasonable measure, it was impossible.
"Ten minutes is plenty, caw."
"Hmph… I hope that confidence of yours is justified."
The arrogance had gone past the point of absurdity. Watching the Corpse Crow's face after ten minutes of failure would be entertaining in its own right.
The Death King shrugged and left the laboratory.
Exactly ten minutes later.
"…How did you do it? Just… how…"
The Death King stared at Andasar's now-stable body with eyes that refused to believe what they saw. He had no eyes, and yet the shock radiating from him was unmistakable.
It was only natural. The body that had been thrashing in mad frenzy was now utterly still, as if none of it had ever happened. Even after the sealing orbs were released, it simply stood there, calm and whole.
Something he had failed at for an entire year — done in a mere ten minutes.
Ten minutes was generous. In truth, it hadn't even taken that long.
"What magic did you use? Tell me."
"Asking an artist about technique is taboo among artists, caw."
"I can't believe this…!"
He could neither accept it nor believe it. Like the Corpse Crow, the Death King was one who made art from corpses. But he had always been certain his own craft was superior. Even a Transcendent being, he believed, could never surpass him in the realm of art. In this field, he was the greatest master alive.
And yet the Corpse Crow had done, right before his eyes, what he could not — and in a mere ten minutes. The past year flashed through the Death King's mind like a lantern reel.
I was going to use that body myself…
While the Death King reeled in shock, I felt a private twinge of regret. There was only one reason Andasar's flesh had been unstable.
She was in a Chaotic state.
The precise term was Chaotic. Gamers who accumulated a certain amount of bad karma entered a Chaotic state — unable to use warps, hunted by the city guard, shunned by NPCs who refused to give them quests.
But beyond the external reactions, Chaotic status also applied a debuff to the character itself.
Fall into a Chaotic state, and you catch Frenzy.
Frenzy. In a word, you go mad. In the game it only meant a slight drop in certain stats. This place was not a game. She had truly been seized by Frenzy and run amok.
There were only two ways to clear a Chaotic state: build reputation through good deeds — or an Indulgence. The former took time. The latter ended it in a single stroke.
I had planned to use the Indulgence Priest Andrew gave me for myself, but plans change.
I still have one more, anyway.
One of Priest Andrew's Indulgences remained. I would simply keep it. He had used one to save his daughter; if I asked for another, he could hardly refuse.
Unlike humans, monsters seem completely ignorant of Chaotic status.
It would have been strange for monsters to enter a Chaotic state from accumulating bad karma in the first place. Rising reputation, maybe — but not that. And Andasar had originally been human, so the whole structure was different for her.
Still, one thing puzzled me: why had she fallen into a Chaotic state at all?
She was already dead. Why did she go Chaotic?
Andasar had died the moment she became an Eldritch and turned undead. She had been purified, yes, but a corpse was still a corpse. An undead accumulating bad karma and entering a Chaotic state was odd from every angle. That was something worth investigating later.
"As promised, this work of art is mine, caw."
"…Is there truly no way you'll tell me what you did?"
"I'll think about it, caw."
"…! I do hope you decide in a favorable direction!"
The Death King was serious about corpse art. He seemed to believe that, in that respect at least, we shared some common ground. I had no desire to get cozy with this particular hobby of his, but among the Four Lords he was the most amicable toward me, so there was little choice. Making an enemy of him would be the most exhausting option of all. Outwardly, at least, I would have to maintain friendly relations.
I spoke to the Dullahan Andasar's body.
"Go to where your face is, caw."
The Dullahan's body kept moving in the direction of its face. In the end, though, it never found it.
"That place is the hot spring where the Star Guardians gather."
The hot spring of the Star Guardians — the largest site at the heart of Kramdel. That was where the Dullahan kept heading.
"The Star Guardians are investigating the spring. Likely because of what happened a year ago, when the Goddess's tears first began to mix into the waters."
One year ago. The time when the winds of real change first swept through Kramdel. That was when the hot spring flourished and the monsters stabilized.
"Fifth Lord. We and the Star Guardians maintain a non-aggression pact. You would do well not to do anything foolish."
"Why, caw?"
I couldn't understand why the Four Lords and the White King — monsters of a caliber that had no reason to fear the heavens themselves — would be so cowed by the Star Guardians.
"Because nothing good ever comes of getting involved with them. It's only natural."
Their relationship did not appear particularly warm. An unspoken rule of non-aggression stood between the Star Guardians and Kramdel. To a degree, I could understand it. Star Guardians were, in the end, bound up with humans — the masters of the stars. Even if they did not actively aid humanity, from the Four Lords' perspective the Star Guardians might feel like traitors.
But one point still didn't make sense.
"You say non-aggression, yet Star Guardians entering Kramdel is fine, caw?"
"Anything related to the stars and the Goddess is absolute to them. On those two matters, we have no choice but to yield."
Yield. Hearing the Death King use that word was almost comically out of character. But it confirmed something.
"I'm not officially the Fifth Lord yet, am I, caw."
Until the formal announcement, I was not the Fifth Lord — merely a visitor who had stopped by Kramdel. The matter didn't concern me.
The Death King looked troubled.
"Then it is all the more out of the question. If you get entangled with the Star Guardians and something goes wrong, as a mere 'visitor' we cannot help you."
As Fifth Lord they would assist; without the title, they would not. I had never expected help in the first place.
"I don't need help, caw."
Just as I said — I truly didn't need any. I had a trump card of my own.
Leaving the still-bewildered Death King behind, I set out for the largest inn in Kramdel.
Star Guardians. Most of them were Mythic or Fantastic species, yet they were treated as something beyond even that. A guardian who protected a star could be granted power and authority far exceeding the ordinary, so they existed on an entirely different plane from common monsters.
Ordinarily, they never left the domains they guarded. Their gathering was an event that might happen once in several thousand years — if that.
And right now, more than ten Star Guardians were soaking in the hot spring of Kramdel.
"It's definitely the thirty-third star."
"It isn't the body of the Goddess Rhea. Hers was scattered into thirty-two pieces. Then whose is this?"
"Fina…"
"The twin goddess herself?"
"The possibility is high."
"To confirm it for certain, we'd need to look beyond — but it's sealed behind a Unique-grade mystery. Whether someone deliberately blocked it with a mystery of that magnitude is still something we need to investigate."
"That will take time."
While the Star Guardians conversed intently, Dramut quietly slipped out of the spring.
Dramut was called the Old King, but even to him the Star Guardians gathered here were like walls. He was the weakest among them, the youngest, the little sibling — and he could not easily join their conversations. Even if he wanted to, he needed something to contribute, and he had nothing.
Look. No one even noticed he was gone. Proof enough that the Star Guardians had no interest in him whatsoever.
Dramut sighed and slowly returned to his room.
"…What are you? A Corpse Crow?"
The moment he stepped inside, Dramut could only stare in confusion. A Corpse Crow was sitting in his room. The Star Guardians' chambers were supposed to be strictly isolated. Had it wandered in by mistake?
"It's been a while, Dramut, caw."
"If you don't want to be eaten, get out. I'm not in the mood for games."
Kyaaaaah!
He opened his jaws and made a show of devouring something. A Corpse Crow he'd never seen before. There was no way he and that thing were old acquaintances. His mood was foul, but he had no desire to cause an incident. Make trouble in Kramdel and he'd only get scolded for nothing. So run. If it wet itself on the way out, he might even let it live.
Then, abruptly, Dramut's face twisted.
"Wait — how do you know my name…?"
…Now that he thought about it, something was wrong. How could a mere Corpse Crow know the name of a lofty Star Guardian like him?
That was when it happened.
Mystery Destruction
Crrraaack!
The Corpse Crow pulled the core from its own chest. Its entire body began to buckle and warp, flesh and bone collapsing in on themselves. Melting was the more accurate word.
Did it scare itself to death and take its own life?
Dramut watched the whole sequence with a look of pure disbelief. A monster tearing out its own core? A monster that lost its core died. It was the act of a creature so terrified it chose to end itself. Then again — if it had been in its right mind, would it have set foot in a Star Guardian's private chamber?
"Hm?"
But the strangeness did not end there. As the wings fell away and flesh and bone melted down, a human form emerged from within. And that human wore a face that was somehow deeply familiar.
"You— you…!"
"My appearance has changed a little, and already you fail to recognize your master? And you still call yourself my loyal servant?"
"H-how are you here…!"
Shock gave way to outright disbelief. But the human standing before him was unmistakably real. Dramut's entire body shrank in on itself.
The Holy Land of the Desert. The mountain where the star slept, in the deepest reaches of that place. Guarding that mountain and that star was Dramut's duty. Originally the star's master had been Wilhelm — but Wilhelm had died, and the star had fallen back to the mountain. Then a human had suddenly appeared in his domain: Randolph. An unidentified human who became the star's master despite being woefully unqualified!
"And that form just now — it was definitely a Corpse Crow."
It had been a Corpse Crow. Appearance, scent, even the weight of its presence — there had been no room for doubt. The Corpse Crow had become Randolph. No — Randolph had been transformed into a Corpse Crow.
But he couldn't understand it. As a Corpse Crow, there had been no trace of the star. The moment he became Randolph, the signature of the star Dramut guarded became palpable. It wasn't simply putting on a skin. He had become an entirely different being. Nothing else could explain it.
Moreover, the melted feathers and chunks of flesh were sucked cleanly back into the extracted core.
Once I return to normal, I can't use the King of Corpse Crows skills.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. I had expected as much, but simply removing the core had completed a flawless switch. As the King of Corpse Crows, I couldn't equip gear but could use the related skills. As Randolph, I couldn't use the Corpse Crow skills but could wear equipment. In game terms, it was like a transformation, an avatar, or a costume. I had already anticipated it, so there was no great disappointment.
Right now, Dramut was more important.
"Dramut. You're here because of the thirty-third star, aren't you?"
"…Humans are not supposed to be here."
"Did the form you saw a moment ago look human to you?"
Dramut closed his mouth.