Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Haunted Territory - 2
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Before the regression, something like a mental illness had swept through Reyners Territory.
It was later revealed to be a form of necromancy, not insanity.
By the time we arrived in Reyners Territory, it was already in full swing.
Take right now, for example.
“Huh?”
An old man walking a few steps ahead of us suddenly stared blankly up at the sky.
He looked utterly lost, so Jenia cautiously called out to him.
“Grandpa. Are you okay?”
The old man’s vacant eyes shifted as he slowly turned his head.
“Where am I?”
“Huh?”
“Who am I? Ugh. My head hurts so much. My head!”
“P-Please snap out of it.”
“Kehehehe. Kekekekeke!”
The change was so surreal that for a moment, I wondered if it was a prank.
But Jenia grasped the situation in an instant.
“That body. It’s not yours, is it?”
“Uahaha! Die!”
“Return it to its rightful owner. The only place heaven’s god permits for the dead is His embrace.”
Jenia drew her holy sword Kesar in a flash and swung it.
The blade sliced a perfect diagonal line across the old man’s body.
He frothed at the mouth and collapsed.
Even Neril, who barely blinked at most things, stood there with her mouth agape.
“Hey. Did you just kill him?”
“No.”
“But I just saw—”
“Holy sword Kesar can strike souls directly. That grandpa had a ghost possessing him. I just sent that lost soul on its way.”
Neril clicked her tongue.
“Live and learn.”
“Coming from you, that almost sounds convincing.”
“I’ll let that comment slide. Anyway.”
Neril glanced around.
A perfectly normal person suddenly going mad in the middle of the street.
Then charging with murderous intent.
And Jenia subduing the old man with her holy sword.
Despite witnessing the whole raw sequence of events, none of the territory folk showed shock or panic.
Instead, they clucked their tongues and murmured among themselves.
“Another possessed one.”
“Grandpa Dran. Such a kind man, and now this.”
“What’s to become of this territory? Who’s behind all this?”
“Who else? There’s only one necromancer in our territory.”
“It can’t be Lady Mariana.”
That was the gist of it.
A few wondered who Jenia was to handle a possessed person so easily, but the overall sentiment pointed fingers at Mariana.
Just then, the old man came to.
“Ugh. What happened to me?”
“Are you alright?”
“...I suppose. It was me this time.”
Having seen it happen multiple times before, the old man spoke not in shock, but with bitter resignation.
“You saved me, miss? You’re a holy knight, aren’t you? From the Knights of Light, by chance?”
“Yes.”
“Ohhh. Does this mean our territory can finally shake off its ghost town reputation!”
His face lit up with vigor.
He tried to stand, but his body wouldn’t obey, trembling instead.
Jenia quickly stopped him.
“A dead soul possessed you. You won’t move right away. Rest for a bit.”
“Very well. Thank you so much. Truly. Please, save our territory.”
The old man shed heavy tears.
Jenia soothed him a few more times before returning to us.
“No doubt about it. What we just saw was necromancy.”
Necromancers didn’t just summon old souls into their own bodies.
They could handle most things involving souls.
Like calling wandering spirits from across the continent and scattering them over a territory.
Neril cut in.
“I agree. The question is, who’s behind it?”
“From the murmurs, it seems they already have a suspect.”
“You mean this Mariana person?”
“Yes. Summoning the dead alone defies divine will. Let alone irresponsibly scattering them across the world instead of possessing herself. That’s why I hate necromancers!”
It was the first time I’d seen Jenia drop to informal speech.
Priests and holy knights were sworn enemies of necromancers, or so they said.
‘For enemies, Jenia and Adwin got along pretty well before the regression.’
Neril spoke up again.
“Anyway, Maide. Your job this time is to resolve this... disease? No, what do we even call it?”
“Ghost outbreak?”
“Yeah. Handle the ghost outbreak?”
“Yeah. And we’d better hurry.”
I turned at the commotion from behind.
Territory folk were hastily parting to the sides.
Neril asked.
“Who is it?”
“Who else? When weird stuff like this hits the Empire, you know who comes knocking.”
“Ah.”
We all looked at Jenia at once.
Jenia sighed and muttered.
“It’s the Knights of Light.”
The Knights of Light dispatched to Reyners Territory was a mid-level officer named Tibur Bain.
He spotted us—more precisely, Jenia—in a corner of the street right away.
The smug guy on horseback, acting all high and mighty, leaped down in a hurry.
“Vice-Captain Jenia? Is that you?”
“Yes. Long time no see, Sir Tibur.”
“I never imagined running into you here. I heard you were traveling the continent on some mission.”
“You didn’t hear the details from Father?”
“No. The Captain just called it classified.”
Dame and his classified bullshit around anything involving the Witch of Atrocities.
Jenia just smiled awkwardly.
Tibur didn’t press and changed the subject.
“Either way, glad to see you.”
“Same here. Where are you headed?”
“To the lord, naturally. There’s been a necromantic disturbance here.”
“Hmm.”
Jenia glanced at me, as if something clicked.
I nodded to confirm her hunch.
Seeing that, Jenia said.
“Then I’ll join you.”
“Pardon? But Vice-Captain, you’re on a separate—”
“True, but I can’t just ignore something this big. With you and me together, Sir Tibur, we’ll wrap it up quick.”
“Haha. Y-Yes. Understood.”
Tibur looked a bit displeased.
He probably figured he’d have to share the credit with Jenia.
I slipped in between them.
“Shall we go, then?”
“And who are you? This isn’t a place for riffraff like you.”
Yup. Knew he’d say that.
Jenia spoke up then, radiating clear displeasure.
I was the one insulted, but she was the one fuming.
“Watch your tongue, Sir Tibur. These are my companions.”
“C-Companions?”
“Yes. Maide, the Unyielding Sword Emperor. And the lady next to him.”
Neril looked exasperated.
“My introduction feels so half-assed.”
I quickly hushed Neril and whispered.
“Can’t be helped. You gonna announce the Witch of Atrocities in front of the Knights of Light?”
“No. But ‘the lady’?”
“Can’t exactly call you ‘the man.’”
“You call that an excuse?”
“Then what should I say?”
Neril pondered seriously for a bit before answering.
“How about ‘miss’?”
Yeah. Pass.
Neril decided to go by the alias Celia for now.
I checked her Blood Letters list, wondering if it tied to some deep connection.
No such name.
So I asked directly.
“Why Celia?”
“Just popped into my head.”
“...”
Overthinking’s no good.
Anyway, as if prearranged, we soon stood before the lord alongside Tibur.
And we weren’t the only guests.
“Who’s this?”
Across from the lord sat a prim-looking noblewoman.
Reyners’ lord, Count Cobalt, spoke up.
“Allow me to introduce her. You probably know who she is. This is Lady Mariana Ain.”
At that, all our eyes—including mine—widened slightly.
The Empire’s rank seven? She looked barely late thirties.
Mariana bowed gracefully.
“I’m Mariana. Pleased to meet you.”
“Tibur of the Knights of Light.”
“Jenia of the Knights of Light.”
“Maide Mohan. Mercenary.”
“Celia.”
Compared to the others, Neril’s intro was downright perfunctory, but Mariana didn’t seem to mind.
She greeted us each with a smile.
But the smile soon faded, leaving only gloom.
Mariana said.
“I’m no good at beating around the bush. So I’ll be direct.”
“...”
“The Knights of Light being dispatched means you suspect me, right?”
She’d warned us, but damn, straight to the point.
The count lightly dabbed his brow with a handkerchief.
Mariana held no title herself, but with her deep ties to the Emperor, he couldn’t treat her lightly.
“How could we suspect someone of the Empire’s seventh rank? Reporting anomalies to the Knights of Light is simply a noble’s duty.”
“I told you I’d handle this myself. Besides.”
She glanced at Jenia before continuing.
“Holy knights tend to dislike us necromancers anyway.”
Jenia started to respond hastily, but Tibur beat her to it.
“We’re just following procedure. If you’re innocent, Lady Mariana, there’s nothing to fear.”
“I never said I was afraid.”
“...In any case, this territory’s ghost outbreak can only be explained by necromancy. Care to explain in detail?”
Mariana let out a small sigh and began her account.
But since I already knew the gist, I tuned out and recalled pre-regression memories instead.
Long story short: Mariana was indeed behind it.
And before the regression, the one who exposed and resolved it was none other than Mr. Perfect himself, Kaild.
A few months from now.
Kaild arrives in Reyners Territory with Neril in his party.
There, he meets Mariana’s son, Adwin Ain.
By then, the number of souls Mariana summoned had ballooned, possessing nearly thirty percent of the territory folk.
Those thirty percent went fully berserk, requiring even the army’s mobilization.
Most couldn’t be captured and had to be killed... The cemeteries overflowed, so they gathered the bodies in one spot and burned them.
Mariana, already pegged as the culprit, was imprisoned and tortured to send the souls back.
I heard about it after joining the party, but Kaild apparently told the bawling Adwin:
“Adwin. Convince your mother. Ask her to return the souls to where they belong.”
“I’ve told you a million times! It’s not Mom’s fault!”
“The Knights of Light’s preliminary investigation—and all the evidence—points to Mariana as the source.”
Adwin wept like a child, and knowing how soft-hearted the guy was, I could picture the scene.
That very night.
Perhaps threatened by the “hero’s” visit, Mariana exploded everything from her cell.
She flung open the gates to the afterlife and shoved souls into every last territory folk.
Jenia and Serein apparently teamed up for a grand ritual called “Purification” to enforce divine will and fix it.
A spell to restore everything to its proper state, curses or whatever. I’m no expert.
But I remember Jenia’s bitter tone when recounting it.
“Purification is normally too much for even Serein or me. We got lucky, but there was probably a cost.”
“A cost?”
“Who knows. What heaven’s god took... But since I and those around me survived unscathed.”
Her face darkened.
“I suspect some lifespan got shaved off.”
After Purification, Kaild’s group searched nonstop for Mariana, but she vanished without a trace.
Bitter aftertaste all around.
The only “win” was Kaild’s fame skyrocketing.
A grand ritual pulled off by Jenia and Serein sacrificing lifespan—and the glory went to Kaild.
Just because he was called a hero.