Chapter 112
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Fairy and the Uninvited Guest (4)
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'I wonder what kind of magic it'll be this time.'
Holding onto that anticipation, I observed the Underground Guide Grimoire.
And finally, its movements came to a stop.
Right after that, information about the newly acquired spell flooded into my mind.
Undead Disguise
The Underground Guide Grimoire's fourth spell.
Its name was Undead Disguise—a technique that made undead look like living people.
'I'll check the details myself later.'
Either way, I didn't have enough mana right now to try out the new spell.
So I pulled my attention away from that information and focused on the Underground Guide Grimoire's voice.
I had to hear its next demand.
This would be its final request.
"Heros. As I've always said, the dead cannot be revived. But I can create undead indistinguishable from the living. And the material needed for that is souls. So procure them."
The Underground Guide Grimoire had given me another tough assignment this time.
Procure souls?
I had no clue how to even approach that.
But it didn't feel like too much of a burden.
I'd somehow managed to pull off the previous task, after all.
So I could do the same this time.
'I'll get them eventually.'
With that thought, I put my mind at ease.
Before the others arrived.
I hid Gilbert and the undead knights.
Even if the mercenaries vaguely suspected they were undead, letting them see it with their own eyes would be incredibly awkward.
What kind of reaction would they have to a bony Gilbert or an undead knight with just a head left?
'They'd end up fearing me, their necromancer.'
So until I could give them new bodies, I had no intention of showing off Gilbert and the other seven knights.
"Lord Heros! We're here!"
At that moment, Cedric's voice rang out.
Behind him marched the mercenaries who'd been waiting at the edge of the forest.
Fortunately, there were no deserters.
The warhorses and wagons were all accounted for too.
"It's a monster!"
"What the hell is that thing? It's huge!"
"Whoa, never seen anything like it."
As the distance to the mercenaries closed, their murmurs grew louder.
They were all shocked by the basilisk corpse.
And rightly so.
Monsters of that size weren't something you saw every day.
"This here's the basilisk!"
Cedric puffed out his chest in front of the stunned mercenaries.
Once he had everyone's attention, he excitedly launched into the tale of what had happened here.
"The damn thing was so huge and heavy, every step shook the ground like an earthquake! But even it couldn't withstand Lord Heros's magic."
Cedric hyping me up, the mercenaries hanging on his every word.
I watched quietly, feeling my face heat up.
His blatant praise was embarrassing.
So under the pretense of checking out the cave, I slipped away.
'Might as well inspect the statue.'
The statue inside the cave.
I headed over to it.
Then I peeled away the moss covering its surface.
Before long, the statue's true form emerged.
It was a sculpture in the shape of a person.
The sculptor's skill wasn't great—the best you could say was that it depicted a child.
Everything else was vague.
The face, the body, the clothes.
Nothing was properly rendered.
"Is this supposed to be you?"
I asked the little girl beside me.
She'd been watching intently as I removed the moss and nodded.
"Yeah. A carpenter devotee made it for me."
"So this is your goddess statue, and that rectangle in front is the altar for offerings?"
I pointed at it, and she nodded again in affirmation.
Then this really was a temple.
I looked around the cave once more.
No signs of human activity—it felt long abandoned.
"So what do you usually do here?"
"Wait."
"For what?"
"For someone to become my devotee."
With that, the little girl continued.
"A god without devotees eventually fades away."
"How many do you have now?"
"One."
"Oh, at least you've got one."
"Yeah, got him today."
The little girl beamed as she answered.
So I asked her about it.
I was curious who her sole devotee was.
"Today? Who's that?"
"You."
She pointed right at me.
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"I don't believe in you, though?"
"You passed my trial."
"What trial?"
"I asked you to drive out the uninvited guest, and you completed the trial I gave you perfectly. In other words, you passed the test to become my devotee."
"Huh..."
Her words drew a hollow laugh from me.
Becoming a devotee to some nameless god without realizing it.
Totally unexpected.
Then a sudden question popped into my head.
Could the grimoire's demands have been a divine trial?
"Mages have to fulfill a grimoire's demands to read it, right? Does that count as a trial too?"
"Yep. That's how everyone recruits devotees. How many gods do you think want to just sit around and fade away?"
"So I'm a devotee to over twenty gods right now?"
"Eek? That's a ton!"
The little girl jumped in surprise at my words.
Seeing that sparked another curiosity.
If she could appear like this in human form and walk around, why not just recruit devotees directly?
Why had she waited until now?
"Then why haven't you proselytized before? You could just talk to people like this and make them your devotees."
The little girl gave a wry smile.
"Truth is, manifesting an avatar in front of humans like this is super inefficient. It takes a lot of power."
"Then why bother now?"
"Just... wanted to talk to someone."
Hearing her story, I fell silent.
Nothing to say to that.
Crackle, crackle.
A campfire flickered to life in the ever-dark cave.
Humans gathered around it.
To Mere, it all felt fresh and new.
"Cedric, a basilisk isn't just any monster, right? We took down something that terrifying, so shouldn't we give Lord Heros a new nickname?"
"I've got one in mind already. How about Dragonslayer?"
"Ooh, that sounds badass."
The Oak Mercenary Company's members chattered away.
Mere sat in the shadows beyond the firelight, eavesdropping breathlessly.
A sight she hadn't seen in centuries.
Just watching was plenty enjoyable.
Then someone approached her.
Heros.
"What're you doing here?"
"People-watching."
"Fun?"
"Yeah. They're all so cute."
"Cute? Those rough mugs...?"
Heros tilted his head, baffled.
Mere found it amusing and giggled.
Then he held something out to her.
"What's this?"
"A gift. Or... an offering?"
"Whoa...!"
What Heros offered was a necklace woven from stems like a flower ring, adorned with white blossoms.
Amazed, Mere quickly asked.
"This is for me?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"You're my one and only devotee, right? Figured I should do something as one. Plus, you gave me a divine revelation earlier today. This is payback."
"Revelation?"
"You answered my question. That's a revelation, isn't it?"
"Ahh! Thanks!"
"The necklace is kinda crude, huh? I'm no good with crafts. Wanted to make it pretty, but that was my best shot."
"It's fine. It's pretty enough as is."
Mere gazed at the necklace.
She could feel the sincerity in it.
That only deepened her confusion.
He had no reason to like her.
"But why are you so nice to me?"
"I hate seeing people lonely. You looked lonely, so I wanted to cheer you up."
"Heros, you're such a sweet kid."
"Just did it to ease my own mind."
Mere stared at Heros.
He'd reminded her of something she'd forgotten.
Why she liked humans.
Because of pure kindness like this.
'I can probably last a few more centuries on today's memories.'
Mere truly believed that.
Just like when she'd received the flower ring.
We stayed in the cave for a few days.
We needed time to regroup.
And now, I was about to test the new spell.
"Looking good."
Gilbert and the six undead knights stood before me.
Their bodies were fully restored.
I'd used the basilisk's bones, flesh, and blood lavishly to craft stronger physiques than before.
Now all that was left was the Undead Disguise spell.
'Undead Disguise.'
I cast Undead Disguise on Gilbert.
I felt the mana drain from me and flow into him.
And that was it.
'What's different?'
Undead Disguise made undead look like living people.
But I couldn't sense any change in Gilbert.
He'd already looked human before.
'Hmm...'
I observed Gilbert calmly.
And soon spotted the difference.
'He's breathing?'
Incredibly, Gilbert was breathing.
I couldn't tell if it was real respiration or just mimicry.
But his chest was definitely rising and falling.
Normally, he and the undead knights didn't breathe.
Watch them long enough, and you'd notice they weren't normal people.
Not anymore.
'Now it's impossible to tell.'
Not content with breathing, his heart was beating properly too, and he was blinking frequently.
There were other subtle changes as well.
Gilbert looked utterly alive.
And the spell's effects didn't stop there.
'Can't sense the undead aura anymore.'
Undead Disguise concealed undead mana.
Like the intangible barrier I'd detected on the little girl.
A similar veil now shrouded Gilbert.
Unless you were a mage with exceptional mana sense like me, no one would ever suspect he was undead.
'No more worrying about getting outed as a necromancer.'
Thrilled at the thought, I cast Undead Disguise on the six undead knights as well.
"Leaving already?"
On the day we departed the cave.
The little girl appeared before me and asked.
Regret plain on her face.
"Gotta go. Still got a lot to do."
I glanced around the cave as I replied.
The mercenaries had cleaned it up—it was neater than before.
The moss over the statue and altar was completely gone now, of course.
But that wasn't all that had changed.
The little girl looked different too.
Cleaner than before, her clothes crisp and new.
'Didn't expect purification magic to work on a god.'
Her grubby state had bugged me, so I'd tried a purification spell.
The grime vanished in an instant.
While I was at it, I'd picked some decent clothes from the spoils as an offering to replace her rags.
"Will you come back?"
As I surveyed the cave.
She asked timidly.
I nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah. Once I'm done up north, I'll swing by on the way back to the territory."
I'd buried the basilisk byproducts in the cave floor.
Too much to carry all at once, so I'd taken what I could now and stashed the rest here.
Planned to pick it up on the return trip.
And visit my devotee while I was at it.
"Got it! I'll wait here for you then, Heros. I'm great at waiting, so don't worry about me."
The little girl replied briskly.
But her eyes were already brimming with tears.
Pretending not to notice, I headed out of the cave.
The mercenaries followed.
Was she seeing us off?
She trotted after us outside.
"We're off."
"Yeah!"
Short farewell exchanged.
I and the group resumed our journey north.
The little girl raised both arms above her head, waving us off vigorously.
Until distance finally hid us from each other's sight.
'Wonder if I'll learn her name next time.'
Thinking that, I kept walking.
Partings always felt bittersweet. No matter how many times.