“Claire...” It was a heartbreaking sight. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was Claire. She looked like a beautiful young woman, exactly like what I imagined the little girl I had grown up with would have looked like if she had been allowed to grow to adulthood.
“Alex...” Biting her lip, she clasped her hands in front of her chest.
Free from the bindings of her undead body, her face and body language spoke volumes. Her face trembled with fear. A slight smile tugged at her lips as all the old memories came rushing back. Something akin to a sense of yearning pulled her brow into a tight frown. And in her eyes was a faint light, as if desperately reaching for a distant hope.
“I don’t have a single doubt in Enma’s abilities as a necromancer,” I said. Hearing her master’s name made Claire flinch backward. “Hypothetically speaking, if I were to create my own undead minions to serve me as demon prince, I would place some kind of curse on them just in case they ever try to turn on me. A specific phrase that would seal their minds or make them self-destruct. Something like that.” Like the curse Sidar had tried to use on Liliana in the night elf prison. If I were Enma, I would absolutely have some sort of contingency plan in place.
As I spoke mostly to myself, Claire didn’t say a word. She neither confirmed nor denied anything. Any response here would be telling me something. But the expression she wore would likely be coupled with the blood draining from her face if she were still alive. Her eyes told the whole story—she felt the same way I did.
This was why I had wanted her in spiritual form. We were childhood friends. Just by seeing each other’s eyes and expressions, we could tell exactly what the other was thinking!
“On the other hand, by the looks of it, Enma gave you high-level undead quite the free rein over your ability to think. All of you will be spending a lot of time together, potentially for eternity. But you’ll inevitably get on each other’s nerves at some point. If this ‘contingency’ were to trigger over some minor disagreement, it could destroy a perfectly useful subordinate over something entirely trivial. Using emotions as a gauge of betrayal seems too impractical.”
This was what Ante and I had concluded after quite a bit of debate. Something based on emotions could lead to Enma’s subordinates locking up regularly from everyday conversation. It would make them next to useless. And based on my observations of how Claire and Enma interacted, Claire was more than capable of saying things to tick off her master without ill effect. If the trap needed emotions to trigger, it would have to be holding out for extraordinarily powerful emotions, like my hatred for the green-headed bastard.
“I am...grateful to the professor. Truthfully, she saved my soul,” Claire said, looking to be on the verge of tears. This wasn’t some facade to trick Enma. It felt like she was stating the honest truth. So I took it seriously.
“That day...I still remember you reaching out to me, begging for help.” As tattered and ragged as my memories were, that sight had been seared into my brain. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t save you...”
My mom had grabbed me and ran, leaving Claire behind. I had so badly wished I could have saved Claire back then. That burning regret and frustration was probably what ended up turning me into a hero.
“I do too. I remember. I remember you crying like a baby, fighting so hard to reach me.” Tears of black magic started to pour from her eyes. “After that, I called your name over and over. Begging for you to come rescue me. But by then, I had already given up. I assumed there was no way you were still alive. Once I learned Necromancy, the first thing I did was to call on my mom and dad, and then you. But no one answered. The professor told me it was likely because your souls had already faded away. And if I couldn’t reunite with any of you again, I figured the whole world could go to hell for all I cared.” So she had supported Enma until this very day.
“Claire...”
“So really...now I feel like you saved me. I got to see you again. And I finally got to do what I wanted and in my own way,” she continued, looking back in the direction of Evaloti with a teary smile. “I don’t have any regrets. Because now I know there was meaning in me surviving as a monster all this time. If I get to disappear now, by your hand...then I...”
I wrapped my arms around Claire’s spiritual form. As she started to fade, I poured dark magic into her.
“Alex...?” Claire looked back at me with bewilderment as I reinforced her spiritual body.
Maybe letting her pass on like that would have been the kindest thing I could do for her. Among all the possibilities I could think of, it was certainly one of the better ones. But...I just couldn’t let things end like this!
“Claire... My plan is to wait for the right moment, then break you free from Enma’s control.”
“Huh...?” Claire’s eyes went wide.
“But! I don’t know how long that’ll take. At least right now. And of course, it’ll be up to me to decide when the time is right!” In other words, whether it was a hundred or two hundred years from now, it all came down to me. “As a marquis of the demonic kingdom, I outrank Enma. With her being only a count, my orders take precedence over hers. That is, as long as they don’t bring harm to your master.”
So as long as my orders didn’t directly harm Enma, they couldn’t count as betraying Enma.
“As Seventh Demon Prince and marquis of the demonic kingdom, I will be taking you into custody temporarily. I want to stay on good terms with Enma. I’ll learn everything I can from her so that one day I can become an even greater necromancer than she is! Or at least as strong as she is.” And when that happened, I’d remove all of Enma’s traps from Claire’s soul. “In the meantime, letting you roam free could throw my relationship with Enma into jeopardy. So until things cool off, you’ll be sticking with me. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? You disappearing will make Enma really sad, but she’ll have quite the surprise in store when we reveal that you were okay the entire time.” That would allow me to keep Claire safe in secret.
“That does sound like a wonderful surprise...!” Catching the meaning behind the facade I was spinning, Claire gave a mischievous grin through her tears.
We both knew full well that the surprise would happen the day I openly declared war on Enma, but neither of us had to say as much aloud.
“Okay, I understand. I have no complaints in regards to being taken into your custody. However, as a necromancer, I would like to request treatment that befits my station,” she said, face entirely serious.
“Oh? And what would that entail?”
“The resources I need to continue my Necromancy research. Paper, a pen, a simple body capable of utilizing them, and a place where I can work in secrecy!”
I gulped, goose bumps rising on my skin. Claire couldn’t reveal any of Enma’s fatal weaknesses to me. But just like how she was free to read any and all of Enma’s tomes during my Necromancy lectures, if she had a space where no one could find her, she would be free to write whatever she wished!
“So she intends to write down all of Enma’s secrets for you?” Ante commented, clearly impressed. “The moment she decides to share those notes with anyone, it will likely be perceived as a total betrayal, activating whatever mechanisms Enma has in place. In the eyes of Enma, that should be a sufficient act of betrayal worth protecting herself from. For those that died and were narrowly rescued to be made into undead, their greatest fear would have to be the loss of their minds. None of them would have any motivation to turn against her if it would cost them their own existence...”
Yeah, Enma had nothing to fear. So long as none of the people from the old lives of her subordinates appeared, hiding within the demonic kingdom.
“Okay then, I promise. To the best of my ability, I will prepare a place for you to continue your research as you please.”
“Then I happily accept.” Claire gave a polite curtsy in response to my serious answer.
It was only then that I took notice of the clothes she wore in her spiritual form. They looked exactly like the dresses she used to wear as a child. I felt something hot start to drip from my eyes.
“Hey, Alex.”
“What is it?”
“Let’s prank everyone a whole bunch, just like old times. Give them all...the greatest surprise we can!”
“Yeah... Yeah...!” I nodded over and over like an idiot as I sniffled. “This time, I’m all in. Let’s do it!” We would give them the greatest prank they had ever seen. Something so big that it would shake the very bones of this kingdom!
Both of us laughed through our tears. The smile on her face was far too wicked to be described as that of a prankster...and mine was no different.