Chapter 47: Yesterday’s Enemy Is Today’s Friend (2)
47
“Ah, not yet! Not yet!”
The moment Raven’s spirit body, which had slowly walked out, fixed its gaze on Jill.
He urgently held up the ring on his right hand and spewed demonic energy toward Raven.
“J-Just because the Death Knight disappeared doesn’t mean the power Lord Akimond left behind is gone!”
…….
Raven’s spirit body, shrouded in black smoke, stared at him in silence.
When he didn’t attack immediately, Jill grew conceited in an instant and burst into mad laughter.
“H-Haha! Hahahaha! Right! I knew it! If I just subjugate this thing again with my demonic energy…!”
Just as Jill, having completely surrendered himself to madness, reached that point.
“Why do you keep rambling on? What are you planning to do?”
I asked him bluntly through the smoke surrounding him.
And at that moment.
“Uh, uh…?”
Jill’s right hand, the one wearing the ring, shot straight up into the air.
A sword draw so fast it couldn’t even be perceived.
His blade had already severed the necks of every undead present here.
Of course, including the Skeletons I summoned and even Hector.
‘Hah, this really leaves me speechless.’
I muttered blankly while watching Raven inspect his own body.
‘The spirit body I endowed should’ve been designed the same as Hector’s.’
Unlike Hector’s, which was angular all over, his armor was smooth like traditional plate armor.
And on top of that, the sheer amount of magical power packed inside.
‘He surpassed the level of an ordinary knight long ago, and he’s nearly approaching the level of a commander-class knight.’
In that brief moment of constructing his spirit body, he had absorbed as much of the magical power dwelling in the Ice Castle as possible, reshaping his body on his own.
A Death Knight’s capabilities were determined by the soul that formed its foundation.
And he had been a legendary knight who protected Berkel while cutting down waves of undead.
…….
Raven, who had cut down every undead existing in the space with a single stroke.
He was now staring at my utterly exhausted face.
‘My identity is written in the contract, and if he intended to kill me, he would’ve done it along with the undead just now….’
As I endured his unreadable gaze and pondered how to respond.
“U, uaaaaaagh?!”
As if he had belatedly realized what had happened to his body, Jill’s scream covered the Ice Castle.
“M-My arm! The h-holy power Lord Akimond bestowed!!!”
Leaving behind his completely blown-off right hand, his left hand, sprawled on the ground, clawed madly at the floor.
“The ring, the ring, the ring…! W-Wh-where is it…?!”
“Looking for this?”
When I held out the Obsidian Ring before his eyes, deep despair swirled in Jill’s gaze.
“N-No…!”
Ignoring his desperate cry, I slipped the Obsidian Ring onto my right index finger.
Kurururur…!
As if melting into water and vanishing, the Obsidian Ring completely seeped into my body.
“Khngh…!”
Along with the hot sensation felt near my heart, I accumulated the demonic energy that suddenly filled my body.
This was the Obsidian Ring’s original method of use.
Not extracting demonic energy, but accepting it whole into the body.
‘I can’t accept it all yet. I’ll have to increase it slowly.’
As I sensed the ring’s presence embedded within me, that was when—
“Y-You dare take Lord Akimond’s sacred relic—!”
Perhaps sensing me absorbing the Obsidian Ring, Jill, filled with rage, charged straight at me.
More precisely, he tried to.
Slash-!
Jill’s head flew into the air from my horizontally swung blade.
“……!”
“Even in this state, I’ve got more than enough strength to kill just you, you bastard.”
I had only left him alive for the sake of Raven, who had regained his will.
As I thought that to myself, Jill’s body, now completely devoid of life, collapsed on the spot.
I briefly considered restoring his head to extract information, but soon gave up.
‘With a soul this deranged, trying to extract information would just cause unnecessary trouble.’
The Order had moved its base to Plysian, and these were those abandoned by the Order.
There was nothing to dig out anyway.
“Well then, that takes care of all the pests tangled up in the Ice Castle.”
Now there were two remaining tasks.
One was relatively simple, but I didn’t know how the other would turn out.
Carrying a sliver of unease, I approached Raven, who had his gaze fixed on me.
“You read all the contract terms, right?”
…….
The Death Knight had been staring at me without saying a word since earlier.
When there was no answer even after asking, I frowned and spoke to him once more.
“There’s no falsehood in the contract. It’s written exactly as it is, so you can judge for yourself—”
At that moment.
Kaang-!
I deflected and nullified Raven’s sword strike aimed at me with the same technique.
“I knew it’d turn out like this, you fucking bastard.”
The target of the magic-infused strike was my neck.
It was an attack filled with unmistakable killing intent.
Paat-!
Raven immediately stepped in further and raised his sword at me.
But there was one thing he had overlooked.
-Aki, mond……!
‘So you finally speak.’
A triumph achieved a full twenty minutes after manifesting as a spirit body.
Feeling a small sense of joy at that achievement, I showed him a villain-like smile.
“Do you really think Akimond of all people would revive you without setting up at least one safety device?”
With those words, Raven’s body froze in place as if turned to stone.
The binding rune I had engraved on the back of his head.
It reacted to my gesture and shackled his movements.
“If you have no intention of contracting, then quietly pass on. Don’t go screwing over innocent people—”
-Did Berkel fail?
Cutting off my words, Raven’s voice flowed out.
-Did our sacrifice vanish in vain as well…. In the end, did you achieve what you sought?
“No. The opposite.”
I shook my head as I answered his question.
“Berkel succeeded. Akimond was beheaded, and the North became land where people could live.”
-Then, you….
“Why am I alive?”
When I cut off the question he was about to ask, Raven, who had been silent for a moment, nodded.
“I’m not alive—I came back to life.”
As I said that, I showed him the Leinrant emblem attached to my collar.
-That emblem is…?
“Second son of the Duke of Leinrant, Klein Leinrant.”
Though it was decorated in a dignified, antique style befitting a ducal house, its fundamental form was not something that could be changed.
“That’s my name now.”
The emblem Berkel had carved into his chest when he set out to kill me.
Only after seeing it did the killing intent clinging to Raven’s sword begin to slowly fade.
“Please, let’s make this easy. I’m already exhausted to death as it is.”
Suppressing the fatigue that felt like I might collapse at any moment, I released the hand seal I had been maintaining.
Though Raven was freed from the binding, he no longer seemed to have any intention of attacking me.
‘No, to be precise, should I say his thoughts have stopped?’
Raven, who had been staring at me blankly, spoke again in a tone of disbelief.
-Necromancer Akimond…. was reborn as Berkel’s descendant?
“Yeah.”
-You…. the public enemy Necromancer of the continent, are the descendant of my friend?
“That’s how it is.”
Even explaining it myself was driving me insane.
No, it was all written in the contract, wasn’t it? Why ask again?
As I mulled over the contents of the contract, I finally understood why.
‘…Now that I think about it, even if I were Raven, I probably wouldn’t believe it.’
He might even think, ‘This devil-like bastard is mocking me in death.’
Ah, is that why he tried to kill me?
-If what you say is true…. then the other contents must also be true.
“Specifically?”
-That Berkel’s family is falling into ruin.
When those words reached me, I couldn’t say anything either.
‘The world they protected with their lives is now trying to abandon them.’
A bitter smile surfaced, but only briefly.
From my standpoint, with work piled up like mountains, I didn’t have time to sit around here.
“So, what are you planning to do?”
-If I can help Berkel’s descendants, I should step forward willingly.
Unlike before, the answer came out immediately.
‘Such loyalty even after death—should I call it admirable, or foolish?’
-However, there is one thing I question.
As expected, there was no way there wouldn’t be a postscript.
When I nodded for him to speak, Raven stared at my face and said,
-You who were killed by Berkel—why do you help Berkel’s descendants?
A question Rudel had once asked me returned again.
-To you, Berkel—no, we—were those who obstructed your plans….
“Ah, seriously, that damn reason, that damn justification.”
As irritation began to bubble up, I cut him off and spat out bluntly.
“The knight who took the head of the great Akimond is now whining about whether he’ll live or die because of some lousy emperor or whatever, huh?”
Pointing a finger at Raven’s face, I continued firing at him.
“They took the North in exchange for my life, and now it’s about to be handed over wholesale to idiots like the Empire?”
……!
Ah, I really shouldn’t be clashing like this before signing a contract.
Even as I thought that, there was no taking back words already spoken.
“I’m going through this dogshit hardship because I absolutely can’t stand seeing that happen. Is that good enough?”
After I said that at last, Raven remained silent for a long while.
-…In the end, was Berkel right?
Raven muttered something in a voice I couldn’t hear.
Soon, he stepped up before me and inscribed his name on the contract.
-I do not fully trust you. You were our mortal enemy.
“I know. But since we’re contracting anyway, I’ll work you until I get my money’s worth.”
After firmly warning him so he couldn’t complain later, Raven nodded and extended his hand toward the contract.
-As you wish.
At the same time as receiving his consent, I inscribed my name on the contract.
The demonic energy required for the mutual contract was supplied through the ring within my body.
Unlike the contract I had made with Rudel, a permanent contract that could be used continuously was formed.
“To think the day would come when I command Berkel’s Twelve Knights.”
-Likewise.
With that brief exchange, the contract began to shine.
I hereby declare: the dead Raven Foldring entrusts his soul to his longtime enemy.
With Raven’s incantation, the contract opened, and runes began to wrap around his body.
I hereby declare: the guide Akimond leads the lost soul of a former enemy.
Eventually, the runes enveloping his body burrowed into the back of my hand.
This time, it wasn’t a temporary contract like the one with Rudel, but a permanent one.
The runes that started at the back of my hand immediately climbed up my arm, reaching the area near my heart and flaring with heat.
‘This really fucking hurts…!’
Pain so intense I’d rather have been beaten earlier.
Enduring it, I completed the remaining incantation of the contract.
Until the moment the goal is achieved, the guide Akimond shall illuminate his path.
Until the day the promise is fulfilled, the dead Raven Foldring shall become his sword.
Paaaat-!
The contract, having reached its threshold, flashed once.
With that, the contract was complete.
Compared to my first attempt, it was a far smoother process.
“Now there’s only one thing left.”
After checking the runes engraved on my arm, I turned my gaze and injected demonic energy into the wall of the Ice Castle.
Kurururur…!
The wall that had held nothing slowly descended, revealing a passage leading deep underground.
‘Good. This place hasn’t been discovered.’
Feeling the chill wafting up from below, I let out a sigh of relief.
A move prepared for the inevitable head-on clash with the collateral branch and the worst-case scenario that would unfold afterward.
And the biggest reason I had headed to the Ice Castle lay sleeping at the end of this passage.
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