Chapter 7

Chapter 2 Desire to Survive The lord and I had gone out for our nightly hunt. Now that I didn’t need to hide my true ability anymore, the magical beasts in the forest were no match for me. I’d already gotten used to the physical abilities of a ghoul during my own hunts every night. Between the billhook and my nails, higher physical capacity than a flesh-man, and the lord’s backup on top of all that, I was unmatched. I mowed down an entire pack of nightwolves, which had been such terrifying creatures before, and fed on their flesh. The meat was raw, but a sweet-flavored heat the likes of which I had no memory of from life slid down my throat and burned within me. I used to take off my clothes for my nightly hunts because I couldn’t let them get dirty, and I’d had to be extremely careful not to get any blood on myself, but none of that mattered now. I devoured the corpses while covered in blood as the lord murmured, sounding impressed, “To mutate into a ghoul in only three months… Such incredible talent. And…to have thoroughly concealed the mutation for so long…” “How many months did the last one take to become a ghoul?” “Ten. But that was by no means a long time. You… You are too fast. There are certainly individual differences, but nonetheless… It must be your noble blood.” Sure, I’d been the son of a small-time noble, one who had governed a region. But it wasn’t a large house, not like the ones the nobles in the stories were part of, and no one in my family had accomplished anything of note. We simply had more money than average people, and while I was grateful to let them try to extend my lifespan after I’d been ravaged by the incurable disease, my noble blood had never felt special to me. As I dug my sharpened fangs into the bones of the nightwolves, with all the meat sticking to them, I glared at the lord. “…Nobles, commoners—they all end up as corpses,” I said. “……You’re not wrong. Ah well. You will likely mutate into a darkstalker before too long. As for the reason…I will leave that for you to ponder.” The lord sounded partially like he was talking to himself. All my desperate resolution and rebellion had earned me were a few tiny bits of information. And the most crucial among them…was that I couldn’t hope to do anything to the lord in my current state. I was helpless, now that he’d forbidden me from attacking him or doing anything that would cause him harm. But even if he hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been possible to cleave through all 120 of his lives before receiving an absolute order. My surprise attack had managed to shave off two, but even if the lord hadn’t stopped my actions using a command, I probably couldn’t have killed him anyway. The lord had magic. And against that, I had no recourse. I had figured it wouldn’t matter if I killed him in a surprise attack, but I’d gravely underestimated sorcerers. A darkstalker. A demon who lurked in the shadows—and the next thing I would mutate into after ghoul. According to the encyclopedia, there were very few of them among the undead, but I doubted I’d be able to match the lord even if I mutated into one. “…If I become a darkstalker, will I be able to defeat the Ender Knights?” “No, of course not. Don’t overthink things. Loath though I am to speak of it, they are specialists at hunting the denizens of the dark. Even against a third-rank knight, in a fair fight, you would never win. For the living dead to attain victory over them would require…an abyss that even their power could not easily fill in… One would need to be at least a vampire.” The lord uttered the name of the most famous of all undead, far higher than what I was on the chain of mutation. After becoming a ghoul, I thought I’d gained a considerable amount of power. But apparently, once again, that had been pure arrogance. The Ender Knights were supposedly human. They weren’t like the undead, who grew massively stronger by killing living creatures as I did. How did humans acquire so much power for themselves? The lord, a necromancer, was more powerful than the fairy tales implied, and it seemed the Ender Knights had the strength to oppose him. It was hard for me to believe, from my perspective—having been someone whose only possession had been a body merely awaiting its death. And that only made it more important that I not let people like them kill me. If they were going to kill me…then I’d kill them first. Anyone who tried to kill me was an enemy, regardless of whether I’d idolized them long ago. “Rest assured,” the lord said darkly, “they have spread watches in this forest. For the present, those are your enemies. You may have the makings of the king of the dead, but as you are now, you are weak. Our interests align. I will not allow you to be defeated so easily.” He snorted. I silently clicked my tongue in annoyance. Then I finished my meal and stood up to search for new prey. The lord was my enemy. My greatest enemy. His absolute control over me made him significantly more troublesome than even the Ender Knights. At least I could run away from them. As always, after being returned to the basement room, I was ordered not to leave it. The only thing given to me was that encyclopedia of the undead that I’d read cover to cover—the book that had led to Lou accusing me. If I’d been in the lord’s position, I would’ve given the same command. His unbreakable authority over me was powerful but not invincible. At the very least, having an undead subordinate who hated him and also had intelligence was doubtlessly inconvenient for him. Nearly every book in his library contained magic spells, so giving one to an undead who could read was too dangerous (even though I couldn’t actually read the language they were written in). But no matter how much I understood the logic behind it, I couldn’t tolerate this state of affairs. My freedom was much more restricted than before, when I could sneak outside—too restricted. It felt suffocating. Of course…it was far better than being killed. In the basement room, filled with only corpses I was forbidden from eating, thinking and exercising were about all I was allowed to do. The one good thing about my situation was that the lord had convinced himself that I’d acquired my intelligence through my rank mutation. The worst of it was not that the lord had stopped my rebellion. It was that the lord was overwhelmingly powerful. He was too strong. How was I supposed to beat someone with 120 lives? He wouldn’t die in an accident, and even death by old age…didn’t seem promising. Most importantly, I didn’t know what the lord’s goal was. Why was he still bringing me on nightly hunts, even after finding out about my rebelliousness, and trying to raise me? Besides that, why wasn’t he seeking to give me any of the knowledge I’d need to be strong? And what in the world was this king of the dead? What was he attempting to do in this forest? I’d tried asking him that one, but he always evaded the question. He was a necromancer. There was little doubt he was plotting wicked things, and by restricting my freedom, he showed he didn’t have any intention to try to get along with me. The lord’s eyes when he looked at me were incredibly unimpassioned. It wasn’t the gaze a father would bestow on a well-brought-up son—it was one someone might give to a successful experiment of their own creation. Did he plan on strengthening me as an underling and using me as a powerful pawn? Even though I’d defied him? That wasn’t possible. The lord didn’t trust me. I looked at his owl familiar in one corner of the room. Its glittering, inorganic eyes were locked on me. The Ender Knights were approaching. I had to kill the lord at any cost. He had 120 lives—no, I took two, so 118. I was still bound to his commands, and I needed to get away from him somehow. Hugging my knees, I sat in a corner and lowered my face. I scratched madly at my head, then opened my eyes and sank into thought. I endured the intense impatience and pondered. But in the end, I didn’t come up with any ideas that stood out. However, a few days into my experience of this cramped lifestyle, the fateful hour arrived. The opportunity came from the lord himself after a hunt: “End. You will go with Lou, as her bodyguard, to the nearby town—to Enge.” My eyes widened at the unexpected order. I even forgot my unhappiness over my current lack of freedom. As my expression changed, the lord furrowed his brow and stroked his staff. “The town is dangerous—but I cannot go. I’ve prepared an item that will hide the scent of death from the Knights. Proceed with caution, and all will be well. I’m sure someone who deceived me so fully will have no issue.” I had no right to refuse. And I didn’t intend to. It was possible that I would find something in the town that I needed to change this state of affairs. I constructed a frown, not letting my thoughts reach the surface. The lord watched me with keen eyes. And that was where I would first see the heroes, the natural enemy of necromancers and the undead—a group of warriors lauded since times of yore as the strongest in the world for their overwhelming advantage over the darkness. It had been a long time indeed since I’d gone into town. About five or six years had passed since I’d become bedridden. The sunlight stung my skin. We always went out hunting at night, so I hadn’t been out during the day for quite some time, either. Sunlight was poison to all undead. It radiated positive energy, albeit weakly; thus, most undead were only active at night. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t be active during the day. The most famous of the undead, for whom sunlight was said to be their weakness, were vampires, who would turn to ash from exposure alone. However, that wasn’t because their abyss was completely filled up with the sunlight’s positive energy—it was due to the effects of the curse itself. In exchange for their restriction preventing them from being active in the sunlight, they wielded immense powers at night. When it came to the curses on the undead, as a general rule, the more weaknesses they had, the stronger they became. Like how a ghoul gained several levels of power in exchange for needing food and feeling a tiny bit of pain. And according to the lord, ghouls—one of the lowest of the undead ranks—weren’t subject to the influence of the sunlight. The curse on pre-mutation flesh-men had zero restrictions regarding sunlight, but they possessed little negative energy. Even the tiny amount of positive energy the sunlight contained was a major burden for them. The undead with the best balance overall, which could also be active under the sun, was apparently the ghoul. The lord had lent me two things for our errand in town: the Cloak of Perpetual Night, which lessened the sunlight’s effects, and the Amulet of Shadow, which hid my negative presence from the Ender Knights. Because of the jet-black cloak, moving around wasn’t much different for me even in daylight. It was almost enough to make me forget I was an undead. But my next mutation, the darkstalker, would apparently be heavily affected by the sunlight, so this might be the last chance I ever had to walk around in the daytime normally. Lou, who had been assigned to the errand with me, walked in front without speaking a word. What little of her skin was exposed was about as white and sickly as mine—an undead—and with her spindly arms and legs, she looked even more deathly than I did. There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and her hair was only nominally brushed. Her clothing was cleaner than usual, but that was because the lord had made her wear things that wouldn’t make her stand out when she traveled. In the end, the lord’s attitude toward Lou, who had risked her life to accuse me, hadn’t changed in the slightest. She’d avoided being turned into an undead, but that was it. I didn’t know her background, nor did I have much interest in it, but she must not have been worth very much to the lord at all. I didn’t have any interest in her, but I did feel a certain amount of sympathy. She was only a tad better to be around than the lord, but her enslavement reminded me of when I was confined to a bed in my past life. If I ever managed to safely kill the lord, I might find it in myself to release her. The mission the lord had given us was to receive an item in town that he’d requested from Hak. Lou smoothly led us out of the forest and into town. Monsters had attacked us on the way, but I’d already reached a level where I could make it through the forest while protecting someone. I wasn’t given the billhook I always used since it had a chance of coming off as suspicious, but even handicapped with Lou, my nails were more than enough. Enge was about an hour’s walk from the forest. I’d thought we were in a pretty secluded area, considering Hak regularly brought coffins to the mansion, but it was closer than I’d thought. The forest the mansion was in was vast, and it would probably be difficult to find if you didn’t know where it was, but if you knew what direction to go in, you could possibly even get there just by walking straight. With that in mind, it seemed natural that Hak had stopped coming into the forest once he’d caught wind of the visitation of our sworn enemies, the Knights. The town of Enge was fairly prosperous. It wasn’t a big city, but it wasn’t small enough to be called a village, either. The gates were sturdy, the ground had been packed down underfoot, and several large carriages were traveling this way and that. It had the hustle and bustle I’d craved so long ago. We entered the town using the identification the lord had prepared for us. There was no sign that anyone suspected I was an undead. Despite being an undead, though, my appearance was fairly close to human. My face lacked color, but plenty of people had the same issue. If I showed the kind of intelligence the undead usually didn’t possess, most of the odd factor would go away. Vampires were especially feared, the reason being that they had higher intelligence than the average undead and could infiltrate communities of people. I was a ghoul, but I could speak and even be out in the sunlight. In terms of blending in, it was quite possibly the best form of undead—even better than vampires, who could only move around during the night. With just a tiny bit of anticipation, I looked at the throngs of people. The place was filled with sounds, colors, and smells. “Lou, could I look around town a little?” “……” I didn’t mind the lord’s darkness-veiled mansion, but the scenery here was wonderful. We were only given enough money for the item, so I couldn’t spend any, but I doubted we’d be punished for the smallest amount of sightseeing. As I stood with my eyes wide, trying to burn the bright imagery into my mind, Lou answered curtly, “We were…ordered…by the master…to finish our business…and return at once.” “But he didn’t tell us to finish our business swiftly without taking any detours. As long as we tell the same story, we won’t have a problem.” “……Your…duty…is to…protect me.” “We’ve been living in such darkness this whole time,” I said in persuasion, voice lowered, chasing after the quickly walking Lou. “We deserve a little fun.” Lou had been serving the lord for far longer than I had. She must’ve had that many more complaints about him. “The lord can’t see us or hear us right now. He’ll never know. And it isn’t like we’d be disobeying orders. He told us to hurry, but he didn’t give us a time limit.” “……” “The restrictions on you are a lot lighter than the ones on me. If I could do it, you’d have to be able to.” Slaves were few in number, but they were fairly commonplace. Even I knew a little bit about the restrictions on them. A slave collar had a spell cast on it to prevent the wearer from disobeying orders. However, unlike the unrestricted, absolute commands one could give the undead, this spell was quite loose. The restriction placed upon slaves…was pain. My body would follow commands on its own, but if a slave disobeyed orders, they would feel intense pain as punishment. The number of restrictions differed, too. A slave collar could have only three at one time. Two of them were always to prevent self-harm and to forbid any indirect or direct attacks against their master, so only one remained for whatever command was right for the job. The command had to be strict. If it was too broad in its scope, an accidental breach of that command could possibly kill the slave with the pain, and conversely, it left the door open for exploitation. There were several loopholes when it came to slave commands—and that was why I’d been told to accompany Lou. I knew exactly what the lord had ordered her to do since he’d given it right in front of me. Lou had just said it was to finish our business…and return at once. The lord had also explained to her in detail how if I somehow died during the errand, she would be subjected to extensive torture and then killed. The commands he’d given me were to protect Lou and obey her instructions as much as possible, and that if things got out of hand, I would abandon Lou and flee back to the mansion on my own. There was no limit to the number of commands he could give me, so the earlier prohibitions against taking any action that would harm the lord as well as running away still remained. But at the very least, the commands given to Lou and me weren’t in conflict. When she thought about that nice idea I had, Lou’s eyes changed for the first time. With a gaze filled with fear and a tiny bit of anger, she looked up at me and, in a trembling voice, said, “D-don’t…tempt me…you monster. I will report…everything you’ve…told me…to the master…later…” So much for negotiations, then… Lou’s tone was more mature and stubborn than her appearance would suggest. I couldn’t blame her. She’d already been punished once because of me. Strictly speaking, I was not the reason—it was her own fault for stepping out of line—but she probably didn’t think of it that way. With Lou acting courageous to hide the fear she felt within, I smiled at her. “It won’t work. Surely you’ve realized by now… Even if you made that report, he won’t ever treat you any differently, until the day you die. The lord already knows that I was saying and doing all those things.” That was why the lord had avoided sending me to town alone. Part of it might have been that I didn’t know the way, but he could have given me a map or something, and I would have managed. I was sure he’d put me with Lou because we weren’t allies. I should have expected as much from a cunning sorcerer—everything he thought was insidious. Lou’s purple lips shut tightly, and her face stiffened. She did not have a taboo existence like I did, but she seemed to fear and distrust everything. And I’d just gone into town for the first time in so long…and was feeling so refreshed, too. How wonderful would it have been if I could freely buy things, eat, and sightsee? “Here’s an idea. If you go along with my proposal…then once something kills the lord, and you become free, I’ll bring you safely to town.” For a moment, Lou looked baffled at my offer, but her face quickly fell. Her eyes opened wide as she clenched her skinny hands and broke out into a shiver. The voice that emerged had more feeling in it than before. “The master…would never die. He’s invincible. The master…is a fearsome person. I’ve seen him fight off and kill…many people before now. You and I…would be the first ones to die.” She practically sounded like she was shrieking. I didn’t feel any deep emotion. No pity. All I felt when I heard her say that was disappointment. I’d predicted this from how she had been in the past, but when actually presented with it, that particular emotion still got through. Lou’s heart was already in pieces. In fact, that was probably why she could continue serving as a slave under an evil necromancer for so long. Her shackles were loose, but nevertheless, she’d kept on living, letting herself be pulled along by the current. Perhaps her fear of the lord was out of her knowledge that, when it came to necromancers, death did not mean salvation. I wouldn’t be able to persuade her. I’d thought that she’d be a powerful ally if I could go about this skillfully enough, but she was too weak to be my collaborator. If I wanted her help, even for something small, I’d have to come up with a good way to persuade her. “I see…,” I replied. “That’s, well…scary.” “……” Lou started off walking again at my inoffensive comment, hanging her head a little and not saying anything, as though she were a puppet. I breathed a short sigh, then decided to go along with her as I’d been commanded. The reception of the requested item went smoothly, and carrying it, we headed for the town’s exit. When Hak saw Lou and me coming, he’d just opened his eyes wide—he didn’t say anything. He was the type not to intrude on his clients’ affairs, probably because of the shady nature of his business. I liked the man. The item the lord had prepared was bundled up in a thick cloth. It was close to a meter long, with a slender tip and a thicker base. It was a strange shape if it was a weapon, and it was too heavy for Lou to lift. I didn’t know what the item was, but it was important enough for the crafty lord to risk the danger of sending me to town. Hak hadn’t said anything he hadn’t needed to, so I couldn’t guess as to what was inside, but maybe it was a secret weapon for the lord. In the end, I didn’t get to do any sightseeing. Still, if I kept surviving like this, I’d get another chance or two eventually. Feeling dragged away against my will, I followed Lou and headed out of town. And then I encountered a living embodiment of the sun. They were near the gate leading out. Just seeing them made my mind go blank for a moment. The energy left my body, and the lord’s item fell from my arms. My knees buckled in dizziness, as though I’d stood up too quickly, but I frantically rallied my nerves and got back up. Lou turned around to face me, wondering what was happening. It was a group of several people clad in armor polished to an immaculate white, and a variety of weapons hung from their hips and backs. At a glance, they looked like any old knights. But what made them so different from other people was…the positive energy they held inside them. An undead such as myself could somewhat sense the positive energy the humans we ate had. The energy around this group was far beyond any human’s I’d seen thus far. They were still a hundred meters away, but they were so radiant I couldn’t look at them directly. Not because they were physically glowing. Nobody else had their eyes on them. But I knew. And despair was too tepid a term. If I had to compare them to anything, it would be to light, to the moon, to the sun—to miracles. My arms and legs trembled, and though I’d stopped needing to breathe long ago, my breathing grew ragged. I was so insignificant compared to them that just getting too close would probably be enough to wipe me from existence. My mind, my instincts, were sounding alarm bells at full blast. I wanted to run away, but my legs wouldn’t move at all. The curse operating my body was saying that if I got near them, I’d disappear—and that even if I didn’t, the mere act of opposing them would spell my demise. They were the natural predators of all undead. Heroes. Champions. Disciples of light. The ones who killed necromancers. …The Ender Knights. I had always wondered if there was truly anything the lord, with his life split into 120, would fear. My faith wasn’t as strong as Lou’s, but I’d never doubted the lord would win. But now, having seen them for real, I understood down to my very soul why he would view the Ender Knights as such mortal enemies. I’d known they were heroes. I’d looked up to them once, too. But I’d never truly believed in their existence. Against them…I couldn’t win. I would never—not as I was now. I was a demon whose only skills were in eating corpses. How would I be able to beat those who could unleash a light stronger than the sun itself? “…What’s wrong? Quick… Pick up…the item.” “R-right…” Lou’s words snapped me out of it. Burning the sight into my eyes, I slowly squatted and picked up the item that had fallen to the ground. I bit my lip hard. As I moved, I resolved myself. I needed to beat them. If they attacked me, I had to devour the light in order to live. I had to win. The lord called the Ender Knights our fated enemies, but he never ran away. The crafty old necromancer would have to know all about them, and he must have had a way to defeat them. Rallying strength into my entire body, I brushed aside the light threatening to overtake me even at this distance. It was fine. They’d never find me. I was too far away, and I’d borrowed protective charms from the lord to deal with them. The amulet with a large black gemstone—the Amulet of Shadow—concealed the negative energy all the undead gave off and that the Ender Knights could sense, preventing it from leaking out. I tightened my hand around the amulet in my pocket, then walked toward the gate slowly, gathering information. Thanks to having endured the shock once already, as long as I used all the strength I had, I could move without succumbing to the pressure. I counted six Ender Knights—a mix of old and young, male and female. Among them were three large men who looked very knightly and one blond-haired woman. Their weapons included a mace, a staff, a sword and shield, and a bow. All in all, they gave off a far stronger light than normal people did. It was said that there were three ranks in the Ender Knights. They were probably the ones called third-rank knights. Like the lord said, I definitely didn’t have any chance of beating them. Nonetheless—they were still the better choice. There was one woman with a beautiful, silvery, jeweled sword and short silver hair. She was younger than the first four, but the light clinging to her—there was far more of it than they had. I didn’t have much to go off, but my gut told me she was more than twice or even three times as powerful. She didn’t even seem human. Her features were incredible, and I’d never seen such a person before, but her existence itself was something else. If I fought her, I’d be killed without even having any time to attack. She was like the moon. Supernatural and powerful but wrapped in a quietly glowing light—a disciple of the moon. And the problem was why I had assumed those first four were third rank. The reason I was forced to put this transcendental silver-haired woman down as second rank. Unbelievably, there was one who stood even higher. His soul, his flesh, his existence—all of it was radiant. Even the combined light of all five of the others would not reach this one person. He was an older man, tall. Old, like the lord, but unlike the lord, he stood as straight as a pin and had an exceptionally muscular physique. His hair was white, all of it brushed back, and though wrinkles scarred his features, his eyes shone with a warm glow. That man was like the sun itself. Just getting close to him would burn my entire existence to nothingness—a disciple of the sun. Just a glance revealed the difference. He was an invincible hero. His poise was overwhelming; I’d never be able to beat him, not with a hundred years of training. If he wasn’t a first-rank knight, then I didn’t know who was. Any disciple of the dark would have fled upon seeing him. I was sure every god that existed had given him their blessing. Ah, what cruelty! That there were men like me, ravaged by strange illnesses, confined to bed, destined to die in agony, and yet there were also old men like him who possessed that much positive energy. …This world…was so unjust. After the initial shock, what burned in the back of my mind was not fear. It was anger. Envy. My goal was to survive. To survive and gain my freedom. If I could accomplish that, I would never even think of taking on the Ender Knights. But that aside, I couldn’t allow a man like him to exist. Even if I didn’t fight him, I would never bend my knee. It enraged me simply thinking about blessed beings like him coming to kill a miserable thing like me. I maintained an impassive look and quieted my heart. No—I need to endure it. I can’t beat them. At least…not yet anyway. I was good at biding my time. That was the only privilege, the only strength of the weak. I overcame the anger by thinking. I followed Lou, who was watching me dubiously. But how did the lord plan on handling the Ender Knights? Did he have any chance of winning? Even without me, the lord had countless underlings. But to the Knights, they were all rabble. The skeleton knights were certainly strong, but even they probably wouldn’t beat third-rank knights. There was far too large a difference in their base power. Dammit… I just don’t know. The lord was powerful. But the Ender Knights were so powerful, it nearly defied reason. It was almost like a battle that would take place in the heavens—a war between light and dark. I didn’t know how the lord intended to make use of me in that battle, but if I had to confront them…I’d die. And the second life I’d been nurturing would end before I could do anything with it. My head was pounding, like I’d gone back to being human. My gait wavered as I felt a strong urge to vomit. I grew dizzy. Shit—I can’t think straight. I need to get away. One way or another…I just…need to get out of here… And so, after managing to get into the line leaving town, now that I only needed to follow the person in front of me, now that I had a moment to breathe, a voice suddenly called out from behind me. “Excuse me… You don’t look well. Are you…all right?” “??!” My breath caught at the cold voice. I steadied myself before the trembling could start naturally and turned around. The second-rank knight woman, clad in the light of the moon, and the four third-rank knights, were all staring at me from within arm’s reach.