Chapter 28 Pervert!? An “Expert on Zombie Chicks”, “Afterlife Pervert”, “Battle Gentleman”
Real Title: Necromancy
“Are you ready?”
“Do I look like I am?”
The second she descended to the 6th floor and got her feet on the hard ground, Emera with a fiendish look went to punch Zef. It was the outcome of his non-stopping comments that lasted till they got to the floor which teased the not exactly acrophobic, but just casually disliking high places Emera.
“They sure are noisy.”
With a wry smile Mira glanced over them and moved her eyes to the giant castle towering in the middle of this space. There is no place that fit Soul Howl better than this castle. Mira understood that from the very beginning.
“Fine, I’ll leave them alone and move on to the castle.”
Saying that to the rest of the members, she started to walk the bare rocks of the ground. It was quite rough, but not enough to stop her progress.
“Let’s go to the castle too!”
Asbar agreed with Mira and loudly hailed that to the pair who were clamorously playing the tag near the lake. Judging by the occasionally echoing screams, it wasn’t clear if they had noticed it.
The sight of the giant castle now that they were looking closely overwhelmed Asbar and Frica. Contrary to them, Takuto was restlessly looking around.
“Although there is nothing to get, that sight itself is worth something.”
A cold lump of stone made in the shape of a castle. It was giant, the walls had no visible joints.If only it was on the ground instead of the depths of a commonly farmed dungeon, it could become famous among tourists. Alternatively, it could also become home to a roost of thieves.
Mira entered the castle through the door-less gates. A large staircase ascended in front of her, some shining crystals were scattered by the walls. They were the only decoration of those unadorned stone walls and floor.
“Well, can you all wait for me here? The rest is kinda confidential.”
She couldn’t take them any further. She couldn’t let them any adventurer know that she is fullfilling an order of the king. It was also especially because she couldn’t find golems she expected to guard of the castle, considering the personality of Soul Howl. The title “Giant Wall” wasn’t just a decoration, the mere entrance of the castle could be too narrow for him.
And since the sixth floor didn’t look dangerous, she decided to part with them here.
“Hmm. confidential?”
Asbar wondered what exactly it could be, but couldn’t ask about it directly. The same, although directed to a bit different vector, applied to Frica and her delusions about Mira’s secrets.
“Sorry for leaving Takuto to thou.”
With those words, Mira placed the Takuto’s palm in Frica’s hands. Frica who was calm for a while now almost burst again due to that.
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Take care, Mira-oneechan.”
“Don’t worry too much about me.”
After she gently brushed Takuto, Mira walked to the entrance upstairs. After seeing her off, Asbar and Frica decided that since the secrets are upstairs, they can freely search the first floor.
Mira immediately started to look for a room with a certain facility. In a little hurry she peeked through the doorless entrances and found it in the sixth room.
She got inside and looked at a stone chair with a hole at the center.
“It should work.”
In a doorless room Mira sat down, pulling off her underwear. She was restless for a bit, but somewhat calmed down.
After that, without any troubles she took paper from her item box. After learning a lesson with the poison flower, Mira carefully stocked the paper. Lastly, she substituted the lack of a flush with the shapeless skill’s fire extinguisher.
Wiping the washing water against the hem of her robe, Mira tried to find her goal with 【Xian: Sense Life】. But it did not find anybody except the three people downstairs. The Sense Life had limits on the distance, and as one of the Nine Wisemen, Soul Howl could easily hide himself so it did not mean he wasn’t here.
Mira headed to the last floor. She considered loudly calling him, but changed her mind because the people downstairs could hear it. Calling him names like “Expert on Zombie Chicks”, “Afterlife Pervert”, “Battle Gentleman” was an option too but it could ruin her reputation instead so Mira resorted to searching for him.
After getting to the top floor Mira just to be sure cast the 【Xian: Sense Life】 again.
“Got thee.”
There was extremely weak response. However, it was so weak it could have went unnoticed without paying attention. Only by getting closer did she manage to feel it. It was so fragile it seem likely to disappear in any minute.
The place she sensed was in the large hall in the middle of corridor up the stairs to the top floor. The throne room.
Mira huddled against a wall next to the throne room and carefully peeked inside to find the perfect moment.
“The heck is that?”
An unfathomable sight opened to Mira’s eyes, who expected to find him surrounded by zombie maids. The madness of the throne room state made her start to sway.
The countless chairs that faced the throne were arranged like at a concert. Mira closed the distance to one of them and brought her face closer, looking inside.
“Is she suspended?”
Mira touched the cheek of the woman in a maid suit that sat in the chair. Cold, no trace of life warmth. Closed eyes, closed lips, nothing of it carried any emotions, she was simply being here.
“It seems his fetish got even worse.”
In disgust, Mira dropped a look over the surroundings. Western and eastern women dressed in a variety of maid uniform clothing occupied all the chairs in the room. The embalming was perfect, most likely done by Soul Howl.
However, all of them are dead and can’t be detected with the Sense Life. Mira concentrated again and felt the response further, from the direction of the throne.
Here Mira found a very different being.
She was a pretty woman with a delicate yet bold face dressed in a beautiful, elegant dress. Her sheer indigo hair reached the waist. The skin was too white, even pale. She was about 17-18 years old.
Confused, Mira reached a hand and instantly pulled away as she touched the skin.
“She’s frozen…”
The skin of this woman was cold as ice.
“Soul Howl, are you here?!”
Unable to understand anything anymore, Mira reluctantly called him. However, a dozen seconds passed, another dozen, and there was no answer. Mira gave up and went to look for clues herself.
Assuming it could be a clue, Mira took some papers to look at them.
“The Holy Grail of Bright Divinity?”
Mira pronounced the answer she got from all the papers and piled up documents.
However, there was no rumors of anybody actually getting this artifact. Thus, amongst the players it was rumored as an unimplemented item; nobody knew even if it was a drop item or a treasure from some dungeon.
The Holy Grail of Bright Divinity existed only in the lore.
(Why would he research such a thing?)
It surely had exceptional effects. But the situation where one of the Nine Wiseman would be forced to use such a thing barely happens. Then why?
She returned to the king room and thoroughly examined this woman from the tiptoes to the head. Feeling a little guilty, Mira calmed herself saying that it is all for finding the truth.
“Nothing here?”
The examination finished with Mira being unable to find anything special so she started to consider other possibilities. But here Mira looked straight at the woman and got one thing. Since the woman was sitting, Mira hasn’t checked her back.
The red stain spread on the dress. But it was not blood. The stain was made of symbols and shapes lined around a six-pointed star. And letters ‘XV’ were in the center.
The weird circle engraved on the back is a seal. It was known as the curse of the netherworld or the blessing of a devil and meant exactly one thing: a sure death.
Mira could clearly recall that due to the seal and the desperation.
This memories were connected to the Holy Grail of Bright Divinity. Soul Howl was going to remove this seal with the power of Holy Grail. Since this seal existed exclusively for the event, no spells or potions could dispel it. That’s why anybody who was asked what to do with it, would probably point to the Holy Grail. Mira herself concluded that nothing else could work.
She looked at the woman again. Despite her being frozen, she was alive since she had the life response. It should definitely be one of the necromancy skills though Mira couldn’t name it. Although, 30 years passed so it would not be strange if somebody found a spell with such an effect. And Soul Howl probably stopped her time when she is still alive and left looking for the way to help her.
“Still, with an alive woman… Perhaps he changed a little too.”
Remembering the restless about undead girls Soul Howl, Mira bowed to the woman at the throne and left the king’s hall.
The mission target was not in the underground graveyard but she found traces. She looked around the castle, collected in her itembox materials that could become a clue and returned to the first floor where everybody was waiting for her.
The castle entrance. Emera and Frica snuggled together with pale faces. Asbar was looking somewhat bad, Zef and Takuto, who were playing cards, noticed Mira descending the stairs and waved their hands.
“What happened here?”
Called by Mira, Emera and Frica turned their absent gazes to her.
“Really, what’s wrong?”
With a bit of a wry smile Mira looked away. Then something suddenly came and hug her from a side.
“Welcome back, Mira-oneechan.”
“Was thou a good boy?”
“Yup!”
Takuto nodded with a full-face grin. Saying ‘Really?”, Mira patted his head.
“Mira-chan… nothing… special is supposed to be here… right?”
Forgetting about the age difference, Emera, unable to hold it in anymore, clung to Mira.
“Wait, what exactly had happened?”
“Dead maids… a lot of dead maids…”
Emera voiced the situation while Mira was trying to make some guesses. It seems they found maids similar to ones in the throne room.Moreover, a lot of them.
“Thou don’t need to worry. It’s just necromancy.”
“Do you mean this necromancer lives here?”
Still sitting Asbar turned his face to Mira. Looking for the answer, Frica who was sitting nearby lifted her head too.
“There were traces of him. It seems he left so he’s not here right now though.”
“Judging by your words, could it be that your errand had something to do with this necromancer?”
“Yeah, that’s right. But there is no reason to worry. His hobbies are as bad as you saw but he’s a good guy.”
Despite her words, it was absolutely crazy for them.
Also, necromancy is officially recognized as one of the 9 masteries. So the people of this world don’t really think it’s some inhuman or immoral, heartless skill.That said, it does have some dark, eerie image.
After Mira explained to them it was just a necromancy, Emera and Frica, and Asbar obviously quit digging deeper. Excluding only Zef.
“Necromancy?.. I wonder how to use it.”
Zef half-seriously muttered that, impressed by beautiful the maids.
“For now, let’s eat. I’m hungry.”
Stroking around his stomach, Zef sat down.
“Hmm. sure.”
Hearing him, Mira noticed she got hungry as well and agreed. The rest of the members half-heartedly agreed too and started to take the food and tools from item boxes.
“Hey, vice-captain, you too.”
“Huh… It would be better if we actually hadn’t found anything here.”
Emera with a sigh muttered that when Zef called her.
They finished the lunch and were resting with tea. With all that shopping they did the other day, the lunch made by Emera and Frica was good. And as dessert, the apple ole from Mira got good responses. Everybody’s feelings mildly cleared up.
“This place is really cozy for some reason. Even though it’s a dungeon.”
“Speaking of that, we’re still inside of a dungeon.”
“Oh, are we? I have no idea, what’s going on with this place.”
Still reposed, Zef muttered that, and Frica with Asbar got suspicious too if it was really a dungeon. Although nobody was going to answer that. Even Mira had no idea why this place exists.
“All right, my task is done. Let’s go home.”
Contrary to the resting Zef, Mira said that while rising up.
Mira more or less cleared her goal here. Even though she couldn’t meet him, she was going to return with the materials she got and look for his next location.
“Sure. Let’s return. No matter how safe it is, we’re still at the last floor of a dungeon.”
Done with cleaning up the lunch, Emera readjusted her sword on the waist.
“Riiight.”
“That’s right. Let’s go.”
“Let’s get moving.”
With the words of Emera, the rest of the members stood up too and, after checking their weapons, did stretches. Takuto swiftly stood up and hastily reserved his spot beside Mira.
After leaving the giant white walls, they proceeded to the stairs to the upper floors. Just as on their way here, the way was lit by the light of crystals so they could clearly see the way.
“Wait, isn’t there somebody over here?”
With those words Zef stopped and stared at the lake. The surface of the lake that was shaped like somebody took out part of the bedrock with an icecream disher diffused the light of crystals coming from everywhere. At the same time, the crystals in the lake shone too and made the sight even more fantastic.
“Are you sure? As long as monsters don’t appear here, even the curious adventurers won’t show up.”
Asbar said that, dropping a glance over the lake. The swaying light of the lake surface could actually be mistaken for somebody when seen with a side vision. Zef himself started to believe it, but at the words of Mira he stiffed his face.
“No, something is really there.”
Mira immediatly looked around the lake with the 【Xian：Sense Life】.Putting his personality aside, Zef is a scout, that’s why Mira checked this slight possibility and confirmed it.
“Hey, hey. Who could be in that place?”
“Something? There are no monsters, right?”
Asbar tightly gripped his large hammer, Emera unsheathed the sword and turned herself towards the lake.
The 【Xian： Sense Life】 of Mira detects life but can’t tell what exactly it is. It only tells if there is something alive or no.
And in case if that something is not friendly, they can’t show their backs. To check it out, Asbar and Emera stepped towards the lake and at this moment
“Wha!”
A large water pillar arose from the lake. A pitch black shadow thrust out of that pillar lit by crystal’s light and landed in front of them.
“That’s… What’s the hell…”
“Impossible… Why is he here?!”
Asbar and Emera shout that when they saw what appeared here. A black unnatural body resembling a human, four fingers on each of the distortedly crooked hands grabbed attention with shiny black nails. The black flat face lacked the nose like a Noah mask, it had only disgustedly distorted eyes and mouth. And the most peculiar things were the two crooked black horns and bat-like wings growing from the back.
The creature appeared in front of them looked like the ones that threw this world into chaos 10 years ago.
“It can’t be… A devil…”
“They were supposed to be exterminated 10 years ago…”
Astonished Zef muttered that. Frica too gaped at the black creature in front of her.
“What’s the matter? Why is a devil here?”
Devils. Absolute antagonists of mankind. The defense war of three holy countries was a war against the demon army lead by devils with the survival of mankind at a stake. And it was believed that humankind won the war and eliminated the devils. However, in front of their eyes without any doubt there was one of the devils.
Just for a moment the seal on the woman’s back flashed in the mind of Mira. Was this devil related to it? Still, since the circumstances around that seal aren’t clear, there was no way to find it out.
Devils were known as exceptional creatures, unlike some monsters. Thus, in the game they appear only on the missions with the Three Holy Countries. Every one had a court rank, and the weakest of them, barons of third rank, were equal to freshly capped highest level players.
Mira immediately summoned the Holy Knight and, adhering him to Takuto’s protection, pushed his back with ‘Takuto, return to the castle.” Takuto probably felt the unrest filling the air and with a light nod went to the castle along with the white knight.
“Meeting people in such a place surely means fortune loves me. It should become a good souvenir to my king.”
When they heard sounding like that from under the water muffled voice, a large scythe appeared in the hands of the devil. Seeing that obvious hostility, Emera and Asbar wrinkled their faces.
“Damn! As I thought, he’s going at it!”
With an impatient voice Zef put up a dagger, Emera and Asbar also got on alert and took a low stance. Frica started to prepare a spell behind them.
In such a situation, Mira Inspected the devil. Since it was totally unheard of to meet a devil in such place, she checked his strength. It was a natural habit of any game player.
“Hmm. Earl, third rank. Guys, can you fight him?”
From the weakest, their court ranks were Baron, Viscount and Earl. Each one was divided into three ranks. Unless something had changed, at the very least he required a party of 6 max-level people.
Asbar had already seen devils like the one before them.Once, when he just became an adventurer, black clouds covered the sky. A swarm of devils rained down from it. He still could clearly remember it. Trampling down adventurers, he even admired some of them. In the end had he become stronger than them? He shook his head, thinking about that. It did not matter since there was nowhere to run.
“If you mean to match him, it’s straight down impossible. At the best we can buy some time.”
As Asbar with a bitter look answered that without releasing his eyes from the devil, he remembered the heroes that swept down the devils attacking the city. The backs of people easily exercising enormous strength.
“Hmm, I see.”
Mira compared the crooked with gloom faces of Asbar and Emera. She realized that the four members of the Écarlate Carillon are no match for this enemy.
(Have I ever fought seriously since I came to this world?)
When she was still Dunbalf, she had beaten devils up to the third rank duke. But at that time she still had the proper equipment and it was a game. Now she was concerned that all the feelings became real and a part of that equipment went to Creos.
A lot of anxiety. She still hasn’t got the feeling of reality in fights, and she still wasn’t ready to risk her life. Mira was going to gradually accustom to this world.What still works, how far goes her control over the body. She planned to carefully explore it.
Right now Mira had only the skills and knowledge she had fostered in the game. And, judging only by that, this devil wasn’t something to be wary of.
“Step down, guys. I will fight.”
Mira almost whispered that and stepped in front of the three people.
It wasn’t a long time, but she felt the goodness of those people and wanted to protect those who came along to such place. And she could accomplish it by doing the usual thing. That’s where Mira got the resolve for the fight.