TNRSF 03

Early morning.

The day of Klein Leinrant, the second young master of the Duke Leinrant family, began with a refreshing water torture.

“Seriously, this crazy priest bastard—!”

“Ohhh, you can stay submerged for a full minute now!”

“You look like a fish, Young Master~!”

While I shook off the holy water soaking my silver hair, Arin and Priest Garrison were clapping and looking at me.

“Why did the time double again today?”

“Hahahaha, I couldn’t help but feel a sinister aura coming from your room, Young Master. So I reacted a bit sensitively.”

“You feel a sinister aura and just go to town on me? This is really…!”

Knock knock.

Just as Priest Garrison and I were bickering like that, a knocking sound was heard.

When I shouted for them to come in, a neatly dressed maid entered and bowed politely to me.

‘Judging by her face and clothes, she’s not from our household…?’

Sure enough, the seal pressed into the letter she produced belonged to the Count Cornwell family, one of my maternal relatives.

It was the family of Dalton, the knight who had sparred with Delsion yesterday.

“Young Master Dalton has sent you an invitation.”

“Dalton?”

“Yes. He said he wishes to apologize for what happened at the training grounds.”

The maid said that and handed it to Arin.

Soon, after she closed the door and withdrew, Arin came trotting over and handed me the letter.

“What does it say?”

“I can’t read it!”

“You’re studying letters.”

“It’s boring!”

“Yeah. Something to be proud of, really.”

Come to think of it, I had been reading her letters from her hometown for her too.

Thinking that, I opened the letter and read its contents.

“…What is this?”

And when I finished reading it, my expression had twisted strangely.

“What does it say?”

When Arin asked that with a cookie in her mouth, I explained the contents to her.

“Hunting competition?”

“Yeah. It’s being held by the count’s family, and they’re inviting me too.”

I answered Arin, who was speaking with a cookie still in her mouth.

An apology, now of all times, from that immature brat.

“Do you think there’s another motive?”

“Of course. Just looking at it, this wasn’t sent by that Dalton bastard himself, but at the count’s level.”

I said that while looking over the list of nobles attending the hunting competition.

“What do you plan to do?”

When Dunkel asked me, I waved the letter around and said,

“If I go, it’ll be a mess. If I don’t go, it’ll be an even bigger mess. Better to go.”

“Will you be all right?”

“I’ll be fine.”

As I said that, I looked at the wooden sword propped up in one corner of the room.

“It’s not like I have nothing to rely on.”

When I said that, Dunkel, who had been thinking for a moment, nodded.

“Understood. I’ll prepare the carriage.”

The moment the word carriage came out, Arin immediately shot her hand up.

“Carriage! Me too! Can I go too?”

Dunkel scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Miss Arin, wild animals may appear, and above all, the other nobles—.”

As Dunkel was about to continue, Garrison spoke.

“In that case, how about I accompany you as well?”

At those words, Dunkel spoke as if surprised.

Of course, so did I.

“If you, Father, as the proxy, are coming along, that would be reassuring, but… do you have another reason?”

“Hahahaha, didn’t I tell you already.”

Even as he replied to Dunkel, the priest’s gaze was directed not at Dunkel, but at me.

“That I feel a sinister aura.”

Clatter— clatter—

The carriage carrying me and my companions ran through the forest to the sound of hooves.

Inside the violently shaking carriage, Arin had already been knocked out for quite some time.

“I told you not to come….”

After tossing another pillow to Arin, I looked out at the passing scenery.

“It’s changed a lot.”

This place, once a snowfield, was the western forest of Leinrant.

The frozen ground once filled with corpses created by war and plague had embraced two hundred years of time and transformed into lush greenery.

“Young Master. We’ve arrived.”

At Dunkel’s voice coming from outside the door, I opened it and stepped out.

Carriages at least three times the size of the one I rode in were packed tightly together.

“Fine horses. They’re no worse than the Empire’s warhorses.”

“Look at the carriages! They’re like princesses from a fairy tale!”

At the admiration of Priest Garrison and Arin, I let out a deflated sound.

Spending this much money on a kids’ party.

Once again, I could tell just how much of the ducal family’s wealth the collateral line had siphoned off.

“Ah, there he is.”

“That guy?”

“His face isn’t bad. When he grows up, should we use him as a servant?”

“Hahahahaha!”

Following the contempt-filled conversation, I saw a familiar face.

Dalton Cornwell.

Dressed in flashy hunting clothes and mounted on a white horse, he looked like some fairy tale prince.

Well, his looks weren’t half bad.

“Hey, Klein! Come over here! We’re thinking of heading out right away!”

When had I ever gotten close enough with that bastard for him to call my name like that?

As I was thinking that, Dalton spurred his horse.

He shot off toward the forest, and the others urged their horses on after him.

“Keep up to the end, Klein!”

Dalton shouted that at me as he went deeper into the forest ahead.

“Hah, would you look at this?”

At this point, none of the other noble youths were in sight anymore.

The intention was painfully obvious.

“Sir Dunkel, please take care of the other guests.”

Another noble who had confirmed Dalton’s departure spoke to Dunkel.

Unlike when speaking to me, his tone was polite.

“I am Young Master Klein’s escort knight. I cannot rashly leave my post….”

“It’s fine, Dunkel.”

I stopped Dunkel and handed him something.

It was a scroll engraved with a signal spell.

“Where did you get this?”

“I stole it. From Father’s study.”

At those words, Dunkel’s eyes went distant for a moment, but I spoke without caring.

“If that priest bastard disappears, tear this. That’s all you need to do.”

“Priest Garrison? Why all of a sudden….”

“I don’t know why that man insisted on following us all the way here.”

When he saw the look in my eyes as I said that, Dunkel nodded without another word.

“…Understood. Please be careful, Young Master.”

After hearing Dunkel’s reply, I urged my horse forward into the forest, following after Dalton who had gone ahead.

When I rode on and reached the place where he was waiting.

“Huh, would you look at this?”

In the hand of the man facing me was a combat sword.

“What are you trying to do?”

I asked that to confirm it one last time.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”

“This day?”

“Yes. The day I kill you.”

So he was crossing the line after all.

With a heavy sigh, I looked around the forest he had led me into.

“If I die in a public place, it’ll be known that much faster, won’t it?”

When I said that, Dalton, brimming with arrogance, started rattling on.

“The faster it’s known, the better! You’ll be a warning sent to the main family!”

“A warning?”

When I asked back, Dalton pointed his sword at me.

“I’ll cut off your head and place it right before Heinkel’s eyes, then tell him.

“…….”

“That if he doesn’t give up the dukedom, you’ll be next!”

Hearing that, I slowly dismounted from my horse.

“I’ll give you a chance for one last struggle. Draw your sword! I’ll personally kill you myself!”

As he said that, Dalton threw a sword at me.

Its sharpened blade was stuck in the ground, waiting for me.

‘As long as that priest bastard was around, I was planning to end this without a clash somehow….’

I felt my tightly clenched fist tremble.

There was no special reason I was angry.

It was because the way this damn household operated was so utterly trivial and pathetic.

To think they killed me to create something like this.

That Berkel family, degenerating into something this base and contemptible.

“Huh, so you still have some pride, is that it?”

When I drew the sword, Dalton sneered as if amused.

“Go on, swing it as much as you like! I’ll play with you a bit before killing you spe—!”

“You little brat, I let things slide nicely and now you crawl all over me without any limit.”

It had been a while since my original manner of speech slipped out.

Not the useless second young master, but the voice of Akimond the Necromancer.

“W-what?”

At the unfamiliar voice, Dalton also seemed to realize that something was wrong.

“H-ha! Looks like you’ve got something hidden, but it’s all useless!”

As Dalton raised his hand while saying that, mercenaries holding crossbows burst out from all around the forest.

“If I just give the order to these mercenaries—!”

“Then go ahead and try.”

I cut Dalton off and extended my hand.

A black aura gushing forth not from the dantian, the source of mana, but from my heart.

As I felt it, the smile caught on my lips deepened.

Ah, this nostalgic sensation.

Just how many years had it been since I last handled necromancy?

“Hah! What, are you going to use magic or something? When you don’t even have any mana…!”

“It isn’t magic.”

I cut off Dalton’s blabbering words, spoken while feigning composure.

This body, managed by the Holy Order, could no longer use mana.

But the Order had never properly grasped the origin of a necromancer.

This clean body, untainted by mana, was precisely the optimal condition for becoming a necromancer!

Uuuuuuu…!

Along with a chilling sound, the forest trembled.

The sound of mana boiling over.

It was the mana possessed by the souls bound to this forest.

“W-what is this?”

“Where is that sound coming from…!”

Faced with a situation they had never experienced before, the mercenaries looked around in confusion.

“W-what is this, you bastard, what are you doing…!”

“Haunting. So-called wails of lingering souls. They must be reacting to magi, the source of necromancy.”

“The source… of necromancy?”

Hearing my words, Dalton seemed to think of something, then staggered back in shock.

“N-no! That can’t be!”

The rumors about the second young master of Leinrant, and necromancy.

Recalling that, Dalton shouted as if he couldn’t believe it.

“A-Akimond…!?”

In the meantime, my magi had already been scattered throughout the forest.

‘With this body, about thirty is the limit.’

I thought that as I counted the number of spirits responding to my magi.

Necromancy being used for the first time in this reincarnated body.

Unlike before, the souls were not refined, and the amount of magi I had scattered was insufficient.

Even so, this was enough.

Necromancy was the act of handling the mana of contracted souls through magi.

Once the souls were summoned, the mana to form their bodies would naturally come into being.

With mana equivalent to thirty souls, it would be more than enough to deal with those things!

“If you were hired for money, then be prepared to die for money. Do not resent me.”

That wasn’t said to him.

It was a message delivered to the mercenary riffraff he had hired.

[To the old specters buried by the passage of time, I call.]

The scattered magi formed summoning circles according to my design.

One, two. The summoning circles increased up to thirty, shining dimly as they awaited my command.

[I shall pull you up and let you stand within the light.]

“This is crazy, that’s real necromancy! Right now—!”

Mana pouring not from the caster himself, but from the summoning circles.

Realizing that this was necromancy and not magic, a mercenary urgently aimed his crossbow.

“It’s already too late.”

Crunch!

“Guhh?!”

The mercenaries who were about to fire their crossbows froze in place.

Skeletons that had already crawled up from the ground were grabbing their ankles and snapping them.

[Akimond commands! Until those lingering souls are exhausted, eat, eat, and eat again!]

With those words, I scattered the magi pooled in my hand in all directions.

Crunch! Crack!

Soon, thirty black skeletons rose up from the ground.

Soldiers forged from specters and lingering souls, skeletons.

Kiiiaaaaaaaa-!