I silently looked up so I could see Yuki atop my head. She seemed to have put a lot of thought into my situation.
“When did you start worrying about such complicated things?” I said, petting her slender body with one finger. “You could barely even speak when you were first brought to my estate.”
“I’ve grown too. I listened alongside your disciples, and I can even recite Confucius by heart.”
“You’re right.” I broke out into a faint smile. That was before I ever reincarnated. “Then what should I do now?” I asked, only to receive a curt reply.
“I don’t understand complicated stuff.”
“Come on, that’s not true,” I said in exasperation.
“Anyway, seeing as living as a normal person is impossible, I don’t see any other option except just trying to come to an understanding with politicians.”
“Come to an understanding with them, huh?” I sighed. That didn’t seem easy. I wasn’t cut out for trying to understand those sorts of people. “If only force could solve everything.”
“The human world isn’t so simple.”
“If an ayakashi is saying that, then it’s really hopeless.”
“For now, why not just focus on what’s right in front of you? The horde of the dead is still something that can be dealt with by force.”
“That’s not so simple either.” I couldn’t help but grimace.
“You’re giving up in a contest of sorcery?” Yuki asked, sounding surprised.
“They’ve got the advantage,” I said as though making excuses for myself. “What am I supposed to do when they have so many corpses and won’t show themselves?”
“Can you not trace their location from the corpses?”
“Unfortunately, our opponent is skilled. Anything I might track them by has been erased to an extent that it’s frankly shocking how thorough they are. It gives off a sense of aesthetic obsession.”
There were occasionally sorcerers who relentlessly pursued a single spell to its absolute limit. They were highly capable, almost without exception, and sometimes reached realms that ordinary sorcerers couldn’t begin to comprehend.
Yuki groaned. “Hrmm. Then we’re stuck?”
“Not necessarily,” I said hesitantly. “There’s one thing that bothers me.”
“What’s that?”
“The range the necromancy can control the undead from is too wide. From the reports I’ve heard, it seems like the rebel army is active over a large area. Wherever the enemy is, it shouldn’t be possible to maintain the technique when the undead get too far away.”
In the first level of the world where magic and sorcery operated, distance didn’t matter. However, if the location was too far away, the connection would break, and the spell couldn’t be maintained. For that reason, there are very few spells capable of exerting influence over long distances. No matter the curse, it would weaken if the target crossed a single mountain, and it would almost entirely dissipate if they crossed the sea. The same applied to cursed objects.
The divine demons had magic items resembling clay tablets to communicate with the capitals of the other races, but given that they ordinarily crossed forests to communicate, the magic items likely required something costly to overcome the constraints of the distance.
“Hmm. So does that mean there are multiple enemies?”
“No.” I shook my head. “There’s no way there are multiple people this capable. There’s only one. I’m confident of that.”
“Then that means...”
“There’s some sort of trick to it. Something that allows them to do what should be impossible. If I can find out what that something is, I might be able to locate them.” That was our only hope.
“Do you have any idea what the trick might be?”
“I suspect they’re relaying the spell somehow. It would be logical for it to be through a corpse, but I shouldn’t assume that. At the very least, they wouldn’t use such a method to communicate with their collaborator.”
“Collaborator? Didn’t you say there was only one sorcerer?”
“One sorcerer, yes. But somebody’s backing them, I’m sure of it,” I said, frowning slightly. “Obsessives like this tend to be a little off. There were plenty of them in our previous world.”
“Yeah, a few people come to mind. Most of them were your friends.”
“Those types couldn’t pull something like this off on their own. Even just gathering information on the cities would be difficult.”
To carry out an invasion, one had to know the locations of the cities, their size, and any other relevant characteristics. Yet obtaining that knowledge required a certain level of social ability—listening to traveling merchants, seeking out and purchasing accurate maps, and so on. Power alone wasn’t enough. A degree of normalcy was necessary to carry out such a large undertaking.
“I don’t know when they died, but it’s far too convenient that this necromancer just happened to be able to turn a large group of slaves and religious believers into undead. There’s almost certainly someone backing them, and they’re likely still communicating to achieve their goals.”
I suspected that the communication was also utilizing some sort of method to overcome the distance. They wouldn’t use ordinary methods like horses or birds that could be tracked, given the mastermind was most likely someone of high status.
“At the very least, the collaborator is familiar with the empire’s geography and has enough power to prepare a large number of corpses. I suspect it’s someone in the capital.”
“A politician?”
“Who knows. It’s possible, since the second and third princes seem to be behind the initial revolts, but I feel like a merchant would have more to gain from this situation. No, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. I shouldn’t speculate at all, actually. It could end up getting me into trouble.”
There were some things you were better off not knowing, and the inner workings of the current incident were likely among them.
“It’s frustrating, but I guess for now we just take down groups of undead one by one, like you said.” I stretched my back, sighing. Before I knew it, we had been out here for a while. I could investigate the corpses more tomorrow. It was time to go to sleep. Just as I was getting ready to head back—
“Master Seika.” Yuki suddenly called my name.
“Hmm?” I stopped in place.
“I know what I said earlier, but I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong in this life,” Yuki said gently. “A lot has happened, but I think you’re living in a way that’s true to yourself, Master Haruyoshi.”
Tengu’s Beard
A spell that severs objects with thread made of basalt fibers. When basalt, a type of volcanic rock, is melted and converted into fiber, the threads have a tensile strength four times that of steel wire, as well as many unique physical and chemical characteristics. Pele’s hair is a similar, naturally occurring formation caused by volcanic eruptions, and has been called “Tengu’s Beard” in Japan since ancient times.