TNRSF 11

Chapter 11

Necromancer of the Mine (3)

“Two went that way!”

“This is…. the last one!”

Puh-seok!

With the sound of a watermelon bursting, the zombie’s body collapsed.

“Agh, I’m out of breath!”

I wiped the blood off my sword and panted heavily, but in truth, Dunkel had done most of the work.

The number of zombies that had flowed into the village was twenty.

Dunkel, who stepped forward, dealt with fifteen, and I dealt with the five he hadn’t been able to finish.

“Only managed to deal with five. As expected, real combat is different.”

With eyes watching, I couldn’t use necromancy.

My first battle using only a sword.

I wasn’t injured, but there were one or two moments that sent chills down my spine.

A field of vision relying solely on torchlight, unpredictable movements, and even the stamina consumed just to sever bones.

‘I never realized it when I was the one making and sending them, but Berkel and those hangers-on weren’t called heroes for nothing.’

From the side sending undead to the side blocking undead.

While I was feeling irony at the strange shift in circumstances, Dunkel, who had finished confirming the kills, walked over to me.

“You handled as many as five. Soldiers encountering undead for the first time can barely manage even one.”

The Dunkel who said that showed no sign of fatigue, as if he hadn’t even warmed up.

“I don’t see any other movement. The others….”

“They’re already doing what they need to. Look over there.”

While we were dealing with those who had stormed into the village, the villagers had paired up in groups of five or six and were going house to house, searching for remaining zombies.

“None at Dave’s place!”

“One next door!”

“Drag it outside! Slowly!”

“Kiiiii-!”

As they lured the zombie inside the house outward, long spears bound the zombie’s legs.

“Hraaaah-!”

Puh-seok-!

The zombie’s head burst under the axe swung by the young man who had sounded the alarm of the zombie attack.

“They look accustomed. The group tactics used by soldiers at the wall….”

“These kinds of attacks haven’t been happening for just a day or two.”

Which also meant that no one had helped them until they adapted like this.

Adding that, I walked toward the villagers.

“Is the village all cleared out?”

When I said that, the village chief nodded and approached me.

“Thanks to you, we survived. It was three times the usual number. If not for you, young master, and the knight….”

“Thank him. I didn’t do anything.”

After saying that while pointing to Dunkel following behind me, I looked at the sprawled zombie corpses.

“As expected, it’s just….”

“Again, this time too…!”

The villagers who saw the zombie’s face grimaced and turned their heads away.

“Is it a familiar face?”

When I asked, the young man clenched his teeth and spoke.

“It’s my older brother. He said he’d go to the city a month ago….”

“Haa….”

If only I hadn’t cut off the head.

Thinking that, I looked around at the villagers.

“What about the other bodies?”

At my words, those who had checked the other zombies spoke to me.

“This one is the daughter of the neighboring village’s chief. And here….”

The village chief’s daughter who went out hunting.

The farmer’s son who disappeared one day.

The old woman who went into the mountains to gather herbs.

Among the twenty-one zombies that attacked the village, there was hardly a single person they didn’t know.

“Villagers go missing, and those missing villagers attack the village….”

Dunkel clenched his teeth.

“Did we…. do something wrong?”

As I stood silently looking at the corpses piled on one side of the village, a young man spoke to me.

“For two months, thirty people disappeared just from our village. Thirty people! No matter how much we begged for help, no one even listened, and only now…!”

Unable to contain his emotions, his voice kept spilling out.

After enduring this pain with nowhere to appeal, a so-called noble had finally appeared.

I couldn’t blame the arrow of hatred for being aimed at me.

“Dan, stop it!”

“What are you saying in front of the young master!?”

“Let go of me-!”

As if the emotions dammed up by a levee had exploded, the young man shook off those trying to restrain him and strode toward me.

“Wait! Don’t be rude to the young master…!”

“Leave him.”

When I said that to Dunkel, who had stepped in front of me, he turned back.

“Young master. I understand his feelings, but this is…!”

“It’s an order. Let him come.”

At my calmly settled voice, Dunkel stepped aside.

In the meantime, the young man called Dan came right up to my face and pressed his face close.

Blood of a brother.

And a face soaked with tears was staring at me.

“If you have a mouth, say something!”

“…….”

“What did we do wrong to deserve living like this!”

I silently accepted his scream.

The struggle for dominance between the main family and collateral lines.

People like these were probably the ones suffering the greatest damage from that pathetic political game.

And so, bearing the name of Leinrant, I said nothing to them.

The corpses of Northerners sprawled in the middle of the village.

It was a scene that reminded me of an image etched into my memories of a past life.

Twenty million Northerners who died from the plague.

And the other humans who turned away from that tragedy.

Even me, who could do nothing and only watched them.

“It’s identical to back then.”

“Pardon?”

Without even answering Dunkel’s question, I approached the bodies of the dead.

“Grrrk…!”

“Kiiiii…!”

As expected, they were merely unable to move—they weren’t dead yet.

A zombie was the product of half-soul sorcery that bound the soul of the dead to their living body and controlled it.

If the ritual was not released, their souls would remain bound to the zombie’s body and continue to suffer.

‘At least as long as I’m here, I can’t allow that.’

After finishing my thought, I released the demonic energy I had refined within my body.

Pajit-!

Black smoke spread out in an instant, drawing a circle, and geometric rituals and runes filled the space.

“Wh- what is that!”

“Is that, that thing? A magic circle?”

Startled, the villagers stepped back.

The ritual, taking form as if dyed with ink, glowed blue.

I beseech the innocent spirits who died in sorrow.

I chanted while extending my hand toward the gathered corpses.

‘Voice of the Dead’ imbued with demonic energy.

As the magic circle grew brighter in response to my words, Dunkel’s expression twisted.

“Y-Young mas…ter?”

The flimsy excuse I had given while preparing exorcism tools.

That I had sensed the zombie invasion in advance.

By now, Dunkel must have realized it too.

‘He had to know someday.’

After smiling at him, still wearing a shocked expression, I continued chanting the spell.

Light the guide’s lantern and illuminate the path before you.

A Necromancer was one who handled the souls of the dead and their corpses.

That original role was a guide who sent the souls of the dead back to where they belonged.

Lay down the resentment and sorrow weighing on your hearts, and ascend.

Hwarik-!

The writhing zombie bodies sank down, and blue flames clung to the bodies that had stopped moving.

Before long, the blue flames gradually took on human shapes and turned their heads as if looking at me.

Ooooo-!

A haunting that sounded like cheers and like screams echoed.

Hearing their voices, I drew my finger through the air and created runes.

Blue light written into the empty air.

What it signified was the Rune of Engraving.

I, Klein Leinrant, have inherited this, so all of you let go and rest in peace.

An engraving that promised their revenge.

As the runes written in the air wrapped around my wrist, the flame-formed figures bowed their heads toward me all at once.

[Please….]

A voice was heard.

Not a blood-soaked shriek, but the resonance of souls that had regained their reason.

[The others trapped there as well….]

Hearing that, I spoke with my eyes closed.

“Don’t worry.”

And the next moment, all the flames and demonic energy disappeared.

The village grew quiet, as if nothing had happened.

The zombie corpses that had contained their souls had turned pure white and scattered on the wind.

“Th- that was… what in the world…!”

At the unbelievable sight that had unfolded before their eyes, all the villagers stood with their mouths open, unable to move.

“Spirit resonance, it’s spirit resonance!”

The first to speak was the village’s eldest, the village chief.

“Two hundred years ago, when the plague covered the entire North, this was the exorcism ritual they performed! What the old priests used to do…!”

Leaving him shouting with his eyebrows trembling, I rose from my spot.

Having made a promise to the dead, I could delay no longer.

Step- step-

From after the first exchange of words until the narrow path leading to the mine appeared.

Dunkel and I hurried along without exchanging a single word.

“You’re not asking?”

There was no way he could keep his mouth shut forever.

When I broached the subject first, Dunkel’s voice came after a long pause.

“If I ask, will you answer?”

“I have to. Otherwise, I might die by your hand.”

At those words, Dunkel’s footsteps behind me stopped.

“Then I will ask.”

Saying that, Dunkel drew his sword with a heavy expression.

“Who are you?”

The tip of Dunkel’s blade aimed at me.

Unlike his stiffened face, there was a faint tremor in his voice.

‘I thought he’d charge right in.’

With a bitter smile, I turned my head and faced him.

Klein Leinrant.

The cursed young master who had called himself the reincarnation of Akimond.

And now that I was actually using necromancy, his confusion was only natural.

“Berkel Leinrant’s maxim. You know it, right?”

When I said that while facing him, Dunkel nodded heavily.

“…‘What defines an existence is not its origin, but its actions’.”

The words Berkel Leinrant had spoken flowed from his mouth.

If one upheld honor and pride, no matter how lowly they were, they could become a duke.

If one failed to uphold them, no matter how noble their bloodline, they could not become a duke.

The greatest reason Dunkel, once the child of a commoner, could become a knight commander.

And at the same time, the justification that had allowed me, a cursed young master of foreign blood, to preserve my life until now.

“It’s already been eight years since you started guarding me.”

When I opened like that, the tip of Dunkel’s sword aimed at me twitched.

“Since leaving the Holy Order, the one who’s known me the longest is you, Dunkel.”

At those words, a crack appeared in Dunkel’s rigid face.

As I said, Dunkel was the knight who had attended me for the longest time.

If I couldn’t persuade him, I wouldn’t be able to draw anyone else to my side.

“So, you decide.”

And so inevitably, this was a kind of test.

A test to determine whether the reform of Leinrant I envisioned could be achieved.

“Whether the me you’ve seen all this time is Klein Leinrant, or Akimond.”

At my question, Dunkel’s twisted face looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

Ignoring that, I stepped closer to the blade aimed at me and pressed my neck against it.

The edge of my neck was cut by the sharp blade, forming a bead of blood.

“If you think I’m Akimond, you can kill me right here.”

“……!”

“We don’t have time. Even as we speak, undead will be pouring out of the mine.”

When my blood flowing along Dunkel’s blade touched his gauntlet.

The sword Dunkel had been aiming at me slowly lowered to the ground.

“Dunkel.”

When I called his name, a deep sigh was heard.

“I haven’t decided yet. I’m even less convinced.”

As he sheathed the sword he had lowered, Dunkel spoke.

“The one I serve is the second young master of Leinrant. Not some heinous public enemy of the continent.”

“…Yeah. Thank you.”

Letting the slander directed at me pass, I turned my head away.

“Then there’s no need to delay any longer.”

As I said that, before my eyes, the entrance to the mine—already turned into the workshop of a Necromancer—waited with its maw wide open.