Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: It's Okay (2)
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Riki blinked tiredly.
Realizing who he was looking at, he bolted upright and grabbed Jamie's shoulders tightly.
"You okay?!"
Riki scanned Jamie's body with worried eyes.
It was a total mess.
He looked at Jamie with a tearful expression.
"What the hell happened?"
"Jeez. You get beat to hell and you're worried about me first?"
"Huh?"
An innocent expression.
Jamie was dumbfounded. This kid had thrown himself in harm's way for him, nearly dying, but he'd apparently forgotten all about it.
Was he just too good-hearted? Or a total pushover?
Maybe he was too young to understand. That thought crossed his mind, but it didn't change the fact that the kid had tried to sacrifice himself for Jamie.
This guy...
Riki was his benefactor.
"Huh? But why are your eyes like that?"
That's when Riki tilted his head, noticing something odd.
"Why are they purple?"
The Welton family's eyes were famous for their beautiful emerald color.
Yet Jamie's eyes right now were a dull purple, almost murky.
"Huh? And what's up with my body?"
He finally checked his own condition.
"This itchy feeling... and what the hell is this?"
A slight discomfort hit him from two directions at once.
Something inside him was wriggling.
Riki frowned and looked at Jamie.
Jamie spoke up.
"You're an apostle of the gods... and an undead."
"...What?"
"An apostle of the gods, and undead."
"What's that mean?"
Riki didn't know what an apostle or undead was.
He'd never been taught.
Jamie explained both in detail.
"An apostle of the gods is someone closest to the divine. Undead are corpses that move. And black sorcerers command undead."
He might not have learned much, but Riki knew what a black sorcerer was.
They were wicked scum who disregarded the sanctity of life, committing atrocities without remorse whenever it suited them.
In most hero tales, the main villains were demon kings or black sorcerers.
Jamie was saying he'd become an undead commanded by one of those evil beings.
"Uh..."
Riki was confused.
He had no idea how to process this.
Before that, why had he become undead?
"I did it."
Jamie's sudden confession.
Riki's eyes widened.
"I'm a black sorcerer. The one who turned you into undead."
"Ah."
"You were dying. No time to heal you normally. If I'd left you, you'd have died for sure. For some reason, I couldn't let that happen. Because you're the guy who threw himself at danger for me? Who knows. I don't really get it. Just... yeah. Just."
His body had moved on its own.
Pyro was right. Turning him undead was an insult. But he wanted to know why he'd done it. Watching from the sidelines might reveal the reason.
Silence fell.
They both stared at the ground, saying nothing.
After a while, Riki spoke first.
"I see."
His expression was stiff.
Then he nodded, as if resolved.
"It's all good."
Jamie looked up. His face twisted slightly.
"What... did you say?"
"It's all good. You did it to save me. And I thought all black sorcerers were bad, but I know you're a good guy."
Riki knew nothing.
About who Jamie really was. That's why he could say that.
"I tried to kill you. Your sister too."
"But you didn't."
Riki smiled as he replied.
He was right.
Hell, Jamie hadn't wanted to see him die, so he'd made him undead.
A more cruel act in a way, but Riki didn't seem to mind.
"So you're a good guy."
I'm not good.
I'm a monster itching to destroy the whole damn world.
But those words didn't come out.
Jamie spoke with a bitter look.
"You're forgiving me?"
"Forgiving? You did it for me."
Undead were ultimately the walking dead.
Unlike Azad and Raiza, Pyro's intervention meant no master-servant contract, so Riki retained his full self-awareness.
He could've hated Jamie plenty. Jamie couldn't complain even if he spat curses.
Yet Riki just smiled and said,
"Honestly, it's a shock. Me, undead."
No longer among the living.
That fact shocked him, but honestly, nothing looked different on the outside.
If his body had turned into some horrific monster, he might feel differently, but right now, it was fine.
Jamie let out a deep sigh.
"You're undead, but I put a lot of care into it, so even a high-ranking priest would have trouble noticing. Plus, the divinity inside you is no joke. No one would even think 'undead'."
"Right, apostle of the gods. So this itchy feeling is..."
"Divine power. Pyro's."
"Pyro... the goddess Ras worships."
Riki let out a hollow laugh.
"Me, an apostle of a god... I hated gods just a bit ago. What an ironic twist."
Betrayed by Zenith, he'd abandoned all faith, filling the void with rage at the divine.
Yet fate had awakened his talent as an apostle.
"Funny thing, Pyro's hostile to Zenith."
"For real?"
"Enemies, basically."
One word popped into Riki's head.
Fate.
It felt like everything had led to this.
Even Jamie found this part intriguing.
A human on the brink of despair from Zenith turned out to be Pyro's one and only apostle.
He'd never seen a case like this before.
"Anyway, you're in a good balance now. You have an apostle's power alongside undead abilities."
"But how can those two coexist?"
Common sense said divinity and black magic couldn't mix.
Divinity was black magic's natural enemy.
The divinity Riki had was an apostle's power. No black magic, no matter how strong, should withstand it—it should've vanished.
Normally, Riki's body would've collapsed from the clash.
"The black magic I use is very different from modern black magic."
"Your black magic?"
"Don't worry about that. Point is, like it or not, we're in the same boat now."
"Yeah."
Whether they liked it or not, they were bound together, unable to betray each other.
That's when Riki, staring at Jamie, placed a hand on his shoulder. Before Jamie could ask why, light burst forth, enveloping his body.
"...!"
Jamie's eyes went wide.
All his wounds healed.
As the light faded, his battered body was pristine, like nothing had happened.
"Felt like it might work, so I tried. And it did."
Riki looked at his hands in surprise.
He hadn't expected healing magic. He'd never learned it.
This was the apostle's talent.
"Thanks."
"No need."
"And."
That's when he sensed Ras and the shadow knights approaching from afar.
Jamie frowned and spoke quickly.
"Don't tell them you saw me. Or about the black sorcerer thing, obviously."
"Of course."
"Act normal if you see me again."
"Obviously."
"The apostle thing's up to you. Got it?"
"I'm not that stupid."
"Good."
They shared a smirk.
Jamie slipped away before Ras could sense him.
Riki was a bit shocked at how Jamie vanished like a ghost.
He knew he had amazing magical talent, but honestly, he hadn't realized it was this level.
'How'd he even become a black sorcerer?'
The question arose, but it vanished the moment Ras arrived.
"Riki!"
"Big bro!"
Riki struggled to his feet and ran to Ras.
Back in his room, Jamie let out a deep sigh.
Riki had healed all his wounds, but fatigue wasn't so easily fixed.
"Gotta deal with these clothes first."
They were in tatters.
Of course they were. Exposed to every attack imaginable—expecting them intact was greedy.
Still, if any maid saw this, she'd freak out demanding to know what happened.
And it'd reach his parents' ears.
"No way."
Jamie stripped, incinerating the clothes with magic.
He had plenty more. No one would notice one missing.
He changed into pajamas and sat on the bed.
"Black."
Black was summoned onto the bed.
He'd taken Jamie's place with doppelganger magic and was a wreck. Even summoned, he slept soundly to recover.
"You did good."
Jamie didn't have much left either, but he channeled black mana into Black.
'I've got the full-body breathing method, at least.'
A good sleep would make him feel better than now.
Taking days to fully recover, though.
He unsummoned Black and flopped down. His whole body ached. Close his eyes like this and he'd be in dreamland...
"Wait."
Just as sleep crept in, Jamie shot upright.
He frowned, scanning the room.
"Why's it so quiet?"
Nights were quiet, sure.
But not this quiet.
Because he'd brainwashed Lincoln to spill every Zenith Church secret to Count Welton.
If it'd reached the count's ears—even late—it should've caused a commotion.
"No way."
Jamie got up, stepped out, crossed the long hall, and slid down the spiral stairs like a playground slide.
He reached the entrance just then.
Creeeak—
The door opened, and a group entered.
Jamie hid quickly, peeking out to check them.
'Ras.'
Already here—they must've found the warp point.
Ras headed straight for the count's bedroom without pause. Terribly rude, but given the situation, unavoidable.
Jamie clicked his tongue and returned to his room.
Soon after, the house began to stir faintly.
That confirmed it.
"We got played."
Lincoln had been taken out.
Late into the night.
Count Welton donned his armor and headed out with his private guards.
Beside him, Ras glared fiercely with a sharp expression.
"One step too late."
The count spoke first.
Ras's face twisted in fury.
"Those bastards cut off their tail...!"
They spotted a crowd gathered in the distance.
Dozens of people staring at something, even at this hour.
It was the Zenith Church.
More precisely, a corpse impaled high on a pillar at the entrance.
"Bishop Lincoln."
"I know."
Lincoln's headless body was crudely reattached to his neck and stuck atop the tall entrance pillar.
A gruesome sight.
The count pushed through the crowd to approach.
A group stood there, draped in white cloth.
Their chests bore a familiar emblem.
"Zenith Church. Judging by the robes, probably 'Judges'."
"Judges... their armed force?"
"Yes."
He got the gist.
The count and Ras approached them.
The sole Judge with a red emblem bowed politely to the count.
"A pleasure, Count Welton. We are Judges of the Zenith Church. Please forgive us for not revealing our names—it's our protocol."
Judges, as Ras said.
"What brings Judges here?"
The count growled lowly. The lead Judge pointed politely at Lincoln's corpse.
"We were tracking heretics on orders from above. We discovered this in Hice and confirmed Bishop Lincoln as a traitor to the Church. We extracted his confession and executed him. We're truly sorry to show such brutality in the dead of night."
Ras eyed the small vial the Judge offered.
A tiny worm wriggled inside, infused with divinity.
A chimera made by a chimera creator.
Ras couldn't hold back and yelled,
"This farce—!"
"Enough."
But the count stopped him.
Ras shot him a look like why, but the count ignored him and stepped toward the Judge.
"Pretty bold, though."
"Pardon?"
The count smirked at the shameless reply—
"Daring to commit murder in my territory."
Thud—
The Judge dropped to his knees.
His comrades moved to intervene, but he waved them off.
Kneeling, the Judge was awed by the immense pressure.
This is Count Welton.
The count squatted to meet his eyes.
He said,
"You all wanna die?"
The Judge thought,
Count Welton's eyes were those of a beast.