CHAPTER 1 | Drastic Times Call For Drastic Skeletons After Terios finished his introduction, he sat quietly in his seat while the children told him their names. “I will finish cleaning up. Please go have a rest in bed.” Though the potion had cured the disease and their empty stomachs were now filled with porridge, their bodies were thin and frail after not eating anything for days. They weren’t fully recovered. In fact, the children were already rubbing their eyes sleepily, their bodies calling out for rest despite the fact that they had just woken up. “Thank you. We’ll go sleep.” Far from being afraid of Terios, the beautiful, if gaunt, white-haired girl seemed somewhat friendly toward him because she had been conscious when he saved her. She bowed her head, then pushed the other children’s backs to urge them to the bedroom. Terios watched them go, then opened the front door and stepped outside. “I saved nine children. I suppose that is a lot, considering,” he muttered to himself, looking around the village. Until a mere two weeks ago, this small farming village had carried on peacefully. Now it had transformed into a hell filled with countless green-spotted corpses. The corpses directly exposed to the early-summer sun were in horrific condition, rotting with insects writhing over them. He couldn’t let the children see that. “It’s times like this when I’m glad I’m a skeleton.” Terios’s teeth chattered as he laughed. As was plain to see, he lacked both nose and stomach on top of being undead. The stench of the bodies would not cause him to vomit, nor did he risk contracting the disease. “But…the green rot?” He gathered the fallen bodies from the houses and carried them to an open space that looked like a cemetery a little ways from the village, a finger on his chin as he thought. The green rot spread through airborne transmission, and anyone infected died within ten days or so if they didn’t receive treatment. It was one of the deadliest diseases around. However, because symptoms developed quickly after infection, people swiftly realized they were contagious and avoided spreading the ailment. On top of that, the pathogen had a fatal flaw: With a few extremely rare exceptions, it couldn’t infect anything besides humans. For that reason— “I thought I’d eradicated it two hundred years ago…” “My, my, aren’t you full of yourself?” Out of nowhere, the black cat jumped on Terios’s shoulder in reply to his conversation with himself. “Don’t you think a human trying to destroy a disease that’s death incarnate is a bit like picking a fight with Pluto himself?” “If that’s what it takes to create a peaceful world, I will fight even the gods.” “My, how scary.” He spoke seriously, but the black cat wiggled her whiskers in a laugh. Though his body should have lost all ability to feel pain, he felt a headache come on as he watched her. “What do you want? If you’re not busy, perhaps you could keep the children company.” “They’re all sleeping like the dead.” “Please choose your words more carefully.” If he had arrived only a few hours later, the children really would be dead. It was no laughing matter. As Terios chided her, she smiled cruelly and said, “But it’s a good thing.” “What exactly?” “Finding such a convenient village. Lady Luck must have blessed you indeed.” “I’m sure you meant to say cursed,” he replied unhappily, finding the content of her joke too distasteful. But the black cat didn’t relent. “But isn’t it true? There’s no one better suited for you to bring into the fold than some poor children who were waiting for someone to save them from a horrible disease.” “……” Terios shut his mouth. The black cat spoke the truth. He needed people to accept his existence to bring about a peaceful world. But undead were normally seen as evil monsters, and he was an Undead King, a being powerful enough to destroy an entire country. Typically, it would be impossible to get people to accept someone like that. But that was just it: It was only impossible under normal circumstances. Extreme situations were an entirely different story. When pushed to desperation, people might beg for salvation from anyone; whether from god or demon, they didn’t care. The weak might even cling to a wicked undead creature. “I was thinking more along the lines of some citizens suffering extreme taxation from their lord.” Terios sighed. Even he hadn’t foreseen stumbling upon a village on the brink of destruction from the green rot. “It’s convenient indeed,” said Terios. “So convenient that people might falsely accuse me of spreading the green rot myself. If Lady Luck or whatever you say is truly involved, then I fear she’s toying with me.” “Then how about you start over somewhere else?” suggested the black cat, but Terios shook his head after a moment of consideration. “No. There is likely no location better suited for the start of my plan.” They were currently in the northwesternmost part of the continent of Trokhia, within the borders of the Erythron Kingdom. Tall mountain ranges shielded the northern and eastern sides of the Erythron Kingdom from outsiders. Sea dragons inhabited the ocean that bordered its western side, making travel by ship difficult. That meant it was only connected to other countries by its southern swamplands. Such geography made the land challenging to invade and easy to defend. “As my plan advances, some will wish to destroy me. When that time comes, I will not stand for attacks from any direction,” he said. Fighting a war on all sides was the height of foolishness. Terios knew, deep in his bones, that limiting battle to a single front and aiming for a swift resolution were the most important things in a war. “While the Erythron Kingdom is naturally protected on all sides, this also makes expanding its territory troublesome. Nevertheless, I think its advantages outweigh its disadvantages.” With that in mind, he used an illusion spell to visit the kingdom in the guise of a human. While gathering information inside the country, he heard about Krio Village being threatened by the disease, which is how he ended up here. “I’ve experienced enough plans going awry in life to suspect foul play in any situation where coincidences come together so conveniently.” After pausing for a moment, he added, “I’m just putting it out there, but it wasn’t me.” “I believe you.” While talking with the black cat, Terios gathered the dead bodies from the village into the cemetery. “There are forty-two in total. About thirty of them appear usable,” he mused. “If that’s not enough, why don’t you go pick up the bodies of the people slain by soldiers and monsters?” “I don’t think that will be necessary. There are nine children. Three per child is almost too— Hmm?” Sensing something behind him, Terios whipped around. He saw the children, who had been sleeping in the village chief’s house, now plugging their noses from the intense smell as they approached. “Um, what are you doing?” asked Mira, acting as a representative for them all. Terios answered directly. “I’m burning the bodies. If I don’t, the disease may spread.” The green rot wasn’t transmitted through plants or animals, but its ability to spread from corpses was concerning. “The dragon-marrow potion I had you all drink increased your vitality, and it heals most diseases, but its effects will wear off in a few days. I believe you should have resistance to the disease now that you’ve been treated for it, but there is a chance you could catch it again if the bodies are left as they are.” “—Ah?!” The children trembled in terror at being told they could suffer the same misery again. “That is why I planned to burn them,” stated Terios. “That isn’t a problem in your faith, is it?” “Our faith?” asked Mira, confused. “It would appear not,” said Terios, relieved. He then explained, “Followers of the God of Earth, Ceres, believe that by returning to their mother, the earth, after death, they can be reborn as humans in the afterlife. For that reason, they are opposed to burning their dead.” “Really?” “Yes. That’s why, when a follower of Ceres commits a serious crime, they are burned alive. Their leftover bones aren’t even buried. They just get thrown away in a field,” continued Terios. “Burned alive…?” Merely imagining it made all the children, not just Mira, pale. Seeing that, the black cat smiled maliciously and interjected, “It’s such a good thing you don’t follow Ceres. If you objected to us burning the bodies, we would’ve had to burn you right alongside them, right, Terios?” “Wha—?!” The children’s shocked, terrified eyes leaped over to Terios, and he quickly assuaged. “Please don’t worry. I would never do that.” “Are you suuure?” said the black cat with a grin. Terios glared at her like he had a foul taste in his mouth, then turned back to the gathered corpses and cast a spell. “Soil Wall.” The surface of the ground erupted to form a wall that encircled the bodies on all sides. Now that he had an environment that made it difficult for the flames to escape, he cast another spell. “Cremation.” A raging fire erupted behind the dirt wall, burning away the mountain of green-spotted bodies in the blink of an eye. The burning pillar’s intense blaze stretched toward the sky. In response, the children rubbed their cheeks as the gust of hot air threatened to burn them. “Aaagh…” “Wow…” “I may have overdone it,” said Terios. Seeing how the children both admired and shrank from such awesome power, Terios scratched his chin as if embarrassed, then suddenly met Mira’s eyes as she looked his way. “You’re an amazing magic user, aren’t you, mister?” she asked. “It’s all thanks to my dedication to training,” Terios said with a smile, flexing his bones in lieu of a bicep. Mira’s eyes sparkled in response, and then she suddenly looked down weakly. “I wish I could be like that…” “What was that?” he asked. “Oh, it’s nothing.” Something clearly bothered her, but Terios didn’t inquire further. He turned his eyes back to the column of fire that was burning the green rot away, waiting for the flames to die down before destroying the dirt wall. Countless white human bones scattered across the blackened ground, and the children’s expressions twisted in grief. “Mommy, Daddy…” “And Carpo just got married this spring…” Since their little village had numbered only about eighty people, everyone had known one another. They had worked and lived together like a family. Yet, all those people had been rendered indistinguishable, transformed first into horrifying green corpses and now into ivory bones. Terios gently addressed the weeping children. “I know you are all worried about what will happen to you now that you’ve lost your parents and grandparents, but please worry not.” After that first remark, he faced the mountain of bones and began reciting an incantation. “Empty bones devoid of life, take this makeshift soul and move your arms and legs in service of the living—” He took more time than when he made the dirt wall or the pillar of fire, drawing mana into his fingertips. Mira stared at them, fascinated by something. Oh? Could this be…? thought Terios, at risk of becoming distracted by the discovery of a surprising prize, but he finished reciting the last of the incantation and completed the spell. “Create Bone Golem.” The massive amount of mana gathered in his fingertips morphed into a blue light and cascaded over the burned bones. Like they were being drawn by invisible strings, the bones that had been scattered across the ground clustered together and connected, forming skeletons that stood as if they still drew breath. Twenty-nine in total. Well, that should be plenty. Terios counted the skeletons that came together, which excluded the babies, who were too small, and the elderly, whose bones broke during cremation. Nodding in satisfaction, he turned back to the children and said cheerfully, “Everyone, these will take the place of— Huh?” “Aah! Eeeeeeek!” In complete contrast to Terios, who was about to gleefully launch into an explanation, the children were more disturbed than when they had first laid eyes on him. One of them even fell and lost control of their bowels out of sheer terror. Even the friendliest of them, Mira, was frozen in fear, her face white as a sheet. “What?” asked Terios. “Oh, don’t look so confused, you moron,” rebuked the black cat, disparaging Terios as he fretted over the children’s reactions. “Has being dead for two hundred years left you that out of touch with the living? Just try to imagine how you’d feel if the bones of your friends and family suddenly started moving about.” “Uhhh, I suppose I’d first find a blunt object to use as a weapon.” “You would, wouldn’t you?” The cat smiled as if she enjoyed watching him but also sighed in exasperation to deftly cover it up. While that might not have clued him in, Terios did realize his mistake. “Normal people fear them, hmm? I suppose I was so fixated on my goal that I failed to take everyone’s feelings into account,” he said. “That’s how you died, too. Guess you haven’t improved at all.” “Argh…” The cat’s sneer bugged the hell out of him, but since she was correct, he couldn’t make a comeback. Gritting his teeth, he decided to give up on an argument he had no chance of winning. Then he looked to the children and spoke as kindly as he could manage. “Everyone, please calm down and listen to me. These bone golems won’t hurt you. Actually, I’ve designed them to protect you from fighting and hunger.” “……” Doubt showed on their silent faces. He may have saved their lives, but the sight of the villagers’ bones walking about was too much for them to trust him readily. Given the state they’re in, will they even listen to me if I explain…? Mira, perhaps having sensed that Terios was at a loss, hesitantly asked, “You made them for us?” “Yes, I did.” At least she would listen to him. He felt relief well up inside him, then started to go into a detailed explanation. “As you may have already noticed, you all are the only people I was able to save from the green rot.” “……” “Now that this village has lost its adults, the workers, it will end up utterly destroyed. Even if we asked people from other places to come and help, no one would want to come to a village that was ravaged by the disease.” “Oh no…” The children were already grieving the loss of their friends and family, and now Terios was twisting the knife with the cruel truth. After that, he quietly asked, “Everyone, do you want this village to be destroyed?” “No,” replied Mira without a moment’s delay. “Krio Village is where we all lived together. I don’t want it to go away.” Beyond being sad at the loss of her hometown, she probably also feared the very real possibility of losing her life’s foundation. “Momma’s gone, and if I lose the village, too, I won’t…” Lacking relatives to depend on, she had nowhere else to go. Dying on the wayside was her only alternative. At the sight of Mira hanging her head, the other children started whispering to one another. “My uncle lives in the next village, but he’s not nice. He’ll probably be mean to me.” “Besides, are there any villages who would want to take in kids like us, who were sick?” “No one will even believe us if we tell them we were cured…” No matter how much they talked, they couldn’t imagine a bright future for themselves. The real problem was that no one would want to help a bunch of children who were nearly killed by the green rot but saved by a strange monster that gave them a potion. It was all way too creepy. “Which means you’ve got no choice but to stay here in this village on the brink of collapse,” said the cat, her whiskers twitching in a smile, almost like she was giving condolences. “That is why we need these bone golems!” said Terios. He held up his hand, and the twenty-nine golems snapped to attention all at once. “As you can see, they act in accordance with my commands. They can’t do complicated tasks, but they can harvest the crops or protect the fields from animals in place of the people who have died.” “And then…?” asked Mira. “Krio Village will survive thanks to their labor, of course,” shouted Terios with a thump to his chest, while Mira’s eyes shone at the glimpse of hope. “And unlike humans, bone golems have no need for food or sleep. They can work twenty-four hours a day without rest. That will liberate you from farmwork, giving you an even richer life than before.” Still, the children would be responsible for a number of tasks, like cooking, because the bone golems had limited intelligence and, like Terios, no sense of taste. Even so, the labor of the bone golems would more than make up for the absence of the adults. “How is that? Isn’t it wonderful?” “……” Even as Terios addressed them proudly, the children remained silent, mixed emotions plastered over their faces. On a logical level, they understood that they would need the bone golems to continue living in the village without adults. However, they probably couldn’t overcome their instinctive disgust at creations that used the bones of their friends and family. Hmm, what a pickle, thought Terios, a finger on his chin. Using the labor of bone golems wasn’t just to keep this village afloat; it was the first stepping-stone toward his ultimate goal of creating a peaceful world. After all, most conflicts started over hunger. Someone close to dying of hunger might steal bread, even if it meant killing. Others may revolt in the face of being starved to death by high taxes. A country could also raid another country’s villages just to feed its own military. When extreme circumstances push people to the brink of starvation, they will abandon their morals and open themselves to murder. Conversely, that meant most conflicts wouldn’t occur if people had access to enough food that they weren’t concerned about dying. As the old saying goes, “Well fed, well bred.” People can’t be expected to be their best in an environment that warps them into starving beasts. Therefore, stable food production was a prerequisite for peace, and that production required labor. In the past, countries placed that burden on those deemed less than human—slaves. They claimed that with all the labor forced onto the slaves, their citizens would be freed from the stress of work and the worries of finding food and shelter. They could peacefully while away the hours, playing and enjoying the arts. But that all came to an end when the majority, the slaves, grew more and more enraged until they exploded at the minority, the citizens, and revolted. Which leads me to believe labor peace needs a nonhuman source of labor. History had shown Terios that enslaving people and treating them as property was a mistake. This was why he prepared labor in the form of bone golems. As simple tools, they lacked a will of their own that would lead to revolt. And I thought it was such a wonderful idea, too. I’m surprised it’s not going over well… “That’s because you evaluate everything from your perspective.” The black cat had read Terios’s thoughts and butted in with the Telepathy spell. “Most humans operate on short-lived, frequently absurd emotions instead of well-ordered reason. You died and still can’t get that through your thick skull?” “No, I understand that perfectly well. But I had anticipated they’d accept the golems, considering their lives are on the line,” explained Terios, scratching his chin. The cat let out a heavy sigh. “Then you’re a dumbass. Children are the most emotional creatures of all. They’re not going to play along just because you say it’s for their well-being. Don’t you get that they’ll rebel once they get drunk off power that isn’t their own?” “Aren’t you being too harsh?” While Terios and the black cat glared at each other, sending telepathic messages back and forth, he felt an unexpected tug on his robe. He looked down in surprise to see a concerned Mira. “Um, we understand that we need everyone’s skeletons to work so we can live, but…” “But?” “Are they…suffering?” Terios couldn’t help but clap his hands together upon hearing her ask so hesitantly. “Aah! No, I’ve failed to explain properly. I’m terribly sorry.” As the black cat had pointed out, he was thinking only from his own perspective, from his own knowledge. He had failed to consider those like the village children, who lacked any understanding of magic. Terios bowed his head low and apologized, then tackled the source of the misunderstanding. “It seems you have mistaken these for the monsters known as skeletons, but rest assured that they’re different. As I recited in the incantation earlier, these are bone golems,” he explained. “How are they different?” asked Torio. He probably felt bad about making Mira do all the talking. Terios searched for words that the children would understand so he could explain. “Yes, they are the same in the sense that they’re both moving bones. However, while skeletons use the spirits of those who have died in order to move, bone golems use my power.” “Huh?” “In other words, they’re not haunted by the spirits of all the people who died,” said Terios, clearly laying out the logic to the confused children. Skeletons used as undead servants were crafted through a blasphemous necromancy technique, whereby the soul of a deceased person was attached to it as a power source. In contrast, the bone golems were made with augmancy, a magic used to augment. That spell did nothing more than create a mock soul from the caster’s magic power and fix it to the skeletons so they could move. On the surface, the two skills seemed the same, as they both produced moving bones that acted in accordance with the caster’s commands. In reality, creating skeletons was a relatively easy skill that abused the spirit of the departed, while creating bone golems was more difficult but used only the bones of the deceased. Their theory and operation could not be further apart. “So that means they’re not suffering?” asked Mira. “Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” replied Terios with a strong nod. “All the spirits who passed have traveled to the afterlife. These bone golems are just me moving their empty skeletons with magic. No one is suffering.” “I see… Thank goodness,” said Mira. “…Is that really true?” asked Torio. While Mira was happily relieved, he regarded Terios with suspicion. As a non–magic user, he had no way of actually telling a skeleton apart from a bone golem beyond accepting the verbal explanation Terios gave them. “Well then, what about this?” offered Terios, sending a command to the bone golems so he could explain something related to souls. As he did, the twenty-nine bone golems immediately started doing a complicated ballroom dance he pictured in his mind. “How’s that? Do any of your friends know how to dance like this?” Of course, you could do the exact same thing with a skeleton, but the sight of the scary bone golems pulling off elegant twirls was probably going to get the point across. The children couldn’t help being drawn in by the show, and Mira was the first to burst out in laughter. “Hee-hee, there’s no way grumpy old Boll could dance like that.” “Ah…” Seeing her laugh in amusement, the other children finally grasped that the bone golems weren’t the people they knew. They at least understood in their hearts, if not their heads. “She’s right. My mom’s so stubborn. She’d never follow orders that nicely.” “It’s not Daddy and the others…” Their instinctual fear of the moving skeletons hadn’t gone away, and they were still hesitant about the use of their loved ones’ remains. On the other hand, they had accepted that the spirits of their friends and family were no longer in this world. They looked sad, but they nodded to one another in acknowledgment. It wasn’t just Terios who felt relief when he saw that, but Mira, too. “Good.” “Heh-heh-heh, this girl’s better at persuasion than some brainless moron I know,” said the cat. “Sorry for not having anything in my skull, I guess,” grumbled Terios as she sneered. He then looked at Mira’s profile, her white hair fluttering. This one might be a real find. She had calmly accepted the fact that the children wouldn’t be able to continue living without the help of Terios and the bone golems, and she did an excellent job of persuading the other children. She was both smarter and braver than he would have expected of a village girl barely in adolescence. Not to mention her reaction when he cast Create Bone Golem— “Even if I am cursed by Lady Luck, I should be grateful I came across such a diamond in the rough,” he said. “Mister?” asked Mira. “Pay me no mind. I have a bad habit of talking to myself,” replied Terios, nodding many times in satisfaction. Mira looked up at him in confusion, and the black cat followed her gaze and hurled an insult at him. In the end, with some fear and uncertainty, the Undead King and the bone golems were accepted as members of Krio Village. The bone golems used shovels that Terios pulled out of thin air to dig holes in the ground, which Mira and the children used to bury the remaining bones that hadn’t become golems. “Vulcanus, God of Fire, light the dark path and guide their souls to the other side,” said Mira. The other children put their hands together and prayed as she spoke. Mira’s mother wasn’t an official priestess or anything like that, but she had been in charge of leading the prayers at funerals, weddings, and festivals. Mira had been with her, listening, and managed to memorize parts of the prayers without being taught them. Terios waited for the abbreviated funeral services to draw to a close before speaking again. “Now, everyone, I’m going to do a little shopping. I’ve ordered the bone golems to protect the village, and you should be safe as long as nothing too extreme happens. If something does, however, tear this to call for me.” He pulled slips of paper out of thin air and handed one to each of the children. Confused, Mira stared at the complex pattern drawn on the paper. “Mister, if you can pull anything out of thin air, why do you have to go shopping?” she asked. “Actually, I’m just pulling out things I need from my own storage. I’m not creating them from nothing.” “Oh, okay,” said Mira, looking slightly disappointed as Terios explained with a weak smile. From the perspective of someone as weak and uneducated as her, it must have seemed as if magic was almost omnipotent, but it turned out he couldn’t do everything. So he definitely can’t bring back people who’ve died… There was probably some way to call them back as a monster, like a skeleton, a zombie, or even a ghost, but there was certainly no way to restore a human life as if nothing had ever happened. Momma did tell me that troubadour’s story about a person who tried to bring their lover back from the afterlife and failed. As she swallowed back her tears from the pain of suddenly remembering, Terios waved and said he’d be back later. Then he recited some incantation and disappeared like smoke in the wind. “Now what?” asked Torio, looking at the bone golems, which had spread out to surround the village. Mira thought for a moment, then asked, “Well, how about we clean our houses?” The effects of the potion were huge, even when you considered that the children had had as much porridge as they could want and had slept again after eating. They were so full of energy that you wouldn’t think they were recovering from a serious illness and so probably wouldn’t be able to sleep. Besides, grief was going to hit them whether they were moving or not. “Good idea. They’re pretty dirty,” agreed Torio, and the other children nodded as well. All nine of them went to their own homes. “I’m back,” declared Mira as she entered the empty home, and another wave of sadness washed over her. First, she gathered the dishes scattered beside the bed. “The honey’s all gone.” A sweet smell still lingered in the small unglazed ceramic bottle that used to hold her favorite food, but there was otherwise none left. She’d eaten the rest without really tasting it while delirious from the green rot. It was a waste, thinking about it now. Nonetheless, the honey might have given her enough strength to endure until Terios arrived. That honey, and her mother, who had left it by the bedside, had saved Mira’s life. “Thank you.” She rinsed the bottle and placed it on a shelf, then turned to the bed itself. “I’ll have to change the straw inside.” After her mother had disappeared, there had been no one to help care for her. Mira had been unable to get out of bed or clean up after herself. Cheeks tinged pink with shame, she looked at the smelly bed, then noticed something strange. “Come to think of it, how’d me and my clothes get clean?” At some point, the strange smell coming from sweat and urine had disappeared. Most likely, Terios had used some spell to clean her while carrying her from this house to the village chief’s. “Magic really is amazing.” Though it certainly had limits, it could instantly create a dirt wall that would take an adult dozens of hours to build, or produce a massive column of fire without firewood or kindling, or even summon moving skeletons, which normal human technology could never accomplish. Mira feared how easily Terios’s power could kill her, just like it could the other children, yet at the same time, she felt another emotion welling up in her heart. “It’s cool.” You couldn’t resurrect the dead, even with magic. But you could cure the green rot if you did it before the person died. If she were as powerful as Terios, she could have saved the entire village. Her mother would still be smiling by her side. The ridiculous fantasy filled her with regret and started to get her down, but she shook her head vigorously and chased away the feeling. “Let’s get cleaning.” Since her bed was simply a large sack filled with straw, it wasn’t that hard to empty out and wash. The chore, which she took over years ago when she wet her bed, brought on feelings of nostalgia, but she occupied herself with cleaning. The sun reached its peak. Shortly afterward, Mira hung the newly cleaned sack of a bed on a rope to dry. She started cleaning the inside of the house and caught the scent of baked wheat wafting in from outside. “Is that bread?” Curious if someone was using the bread oven, she went outside and found Terios. He’d come back before they knew it, carrying a basket full of bread, fruit, and other food. “I’ve returned,” he said. “Shall we start with some food?” “Yay!” Drawn by the smell of food, the children poked out their heads and cheered as they gathered around Terios. “Freshly baked white bread! Where’d you get so much of it?” one asked. “I went to the capital to buy it,” said Terios. “It’s from a highly regarded bakery, so it’ll be delicious.” “There’s figs and raisins… Oh, and even meat!” said another child. “It’s ham. You’ve all gotten so thin because of the illness, so you should eat plenty of meat.” Krio Village was so small and poor that it didn’t even have this kind of luxury on festival days. The children’s eyes shone as they drooled. At some point, Torio came up to Mira. He looked at the other children and muttered in annoyance, “Those babies were all scared before, but all it takes is some food to win them over.” “C’mon, there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Mira with a half-hearted smile, not wanting to scold the others. Yes, Terios was probably enticing them with nice things in order to dispel their distrust from the bone golem incident. At any rate, without any adults around, they would have to rely on his power to survive. Weak, powerless children like them wouldn’t gain anything by being pointlessly stubborn. “Come on—let’s go, too,” said Mira, grabbing Torio’s hand. Then she started walking over to where the other children were surrounding Terios. Torio blushed a little but obeyed. “O-okay.” “Ah, the joys of youth,” came a voice. “Huh?” asked Mira. The voice had come out of nowhere from right next to her. She turned her head in its direction in surprise and found that the black cat had climbed onto her shoulder at some point. The feline was smiling unnervingly. “It’s fine that you two get along, but you should wait at least three years before trying to repopulate the village, all right?” said the cat. “Wha…? Oh.” “Wh-what are you saying, you dumb animal?!” Mira needed a moment to realize what the cat was implying but then quickly blushed. Bright-red, Torio shouted at her, “I wouldn’t do that to Mira!” “Of course not. There’s no way Torio would have any weird feelings for a white-haired girl like me,” acknowledged Mira with a pained smile. Her pale locks were different from Torio’s brown hair, her mother’s red hair, and everyone else’s that she knew. Since everyone in the village had been so kind, no one had made fun of her strange hair color. But on her way to the capital for a festival one time, she had noticed other travelers staring at her curiously and mocking her for looking like an old granny. It left scars that still hadn’t healed. Mira sharply denied the accusation that had stirred painful memories, but Torio hung his head glumly for some reason. “O-of course they’re not weird feelings…” “Poor thing. You’re starting from zero, but keep at it.” “Shut up!” shouted Torio angrily as he tried to grab the cat, who was only making things worse. Smiling at the sight of them, Mira followed Terios into the chief’s house. “I’ll help,” she said. “Ah, thank you,” said Terios. He gave the children the basket of bread and fruit, and they ran off into the living room. Then he and Mira went into the kitchen. “Could you please cut this ham for me?” he asked. “Okay.” Mira used a knife to cut the large chunk of meat Terios handed her, dividing it into portions on small plates so the others wouldn’t squabble over getting their share. Suddenly, she smelled a familiar sweet scent. “Is that—?!” She looked up in surprise to find an open ceramic jar in front of a pot Terios was using to boil water. “Mister, is that…?” “I was thinking about making some hot water with honey, since I heard it’s good for the body,” he said, revealing the contents of the jar to Mira, who walked over unsteadily. “But I don’t know how much is appropriate. Would you mind…? What’s wrong?” “…Huh?” Mira finally realized she was crying when she heard his concerned question. “Do you feel sick if you eat honey, by any chance?” asked Terios. “No, that’s not it. I’m fine,” said Mira, quickly wiping away her tears and smiling up at Terios. “I love honey.” She loved that golden honey and the memories its flavor brought back. When Mira had found that empty jar in the house, the girl thought she’d never be able to taste it again. Perhaps she only craved it as nothing more than a sad compensation in place of her mother. Even so, she shed tears of joy at Terios giving her something she thought she’d lost. “Could I have a taste?” Mira asked. “Sure, go ahead,” Terios replied, and handed her a wooden spoon. She scooped out a spoonful of honey and placed it in her mouth. A tingly sweetness spread across her tongue, but its flavor and texture were just slightly different from what she remembered. “Not all honey is the same, is it?” she asked. “No. It’s made from flower nectar that bees collect. The flavor and scent can change depending on what flower fields the bees live in.” Mira squinted her eyes tightly to try to keep the tears from flowing as Terios told her about something he heard from a beekeeper a long time ago. She smiled gently. “It’s a little different, but I like this honey, too. It tastes nice,” she said. “I’m happy you find it to your liking,” he said with a clack of his teeth and a smile. Mira took the jar and dropped some honey into the hot water, taking care not to make it too sweet. They brought the finished food and drink to the living room, where the hungry children waited. After a bountiful dinner, they all slept in the chief’s house like before because one of the little boys was afraid to go home to an empty house. The next day, Terios gently posed a question to the children as they ate a breakfast of leftovers. “Everyone, do you have anything to do today?” “Uh…” The children looked at one another in thought, but nothing came to mind. The fields had been sown a long time ago, and the harvest was still a ways away, so they didn’t have anything urgent on their plates. If pressed, they might say they should pull weeds, but the bone golems Terios had made were taking care of that and didn’t need their help. Although at some point they would have to sort through the belongings of their families and neighbors who died of the green rot, the wounds on their hearts were still too fresh to do that now. “There’s not really anything once I finish washing the dishes,” said Mira. “I don’t have any plans…,” said Torio. “Me neither.” “Me neither.” Following Mira and Torio, the rest of the children confirmed they had no chores to do. Expecting that response, Terios happily offered a suggestion. “Well then, everyone, shall we study?” “Study?” The children’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar word. “Yes. First, we’ll learn how to read and write, then we’ll practice arithmetic, like adding and subtracting.” “Huh?” Terios ignored the confusion and made another inquiry. “Is there anyone here who can read or write? Or do addition and subtraction?” “Momma taught me the numbers up to a hundred. But reading…,” said Mira. “Reading and writing’s the village chief’s job!” shouted Torio, as if protecting her from embarrassment. “That’s right. Normally only the village chief and their family can read and write,” said Terios with a smile and a nod, not blaming the children for their lack of education. “However, it appears that your chief and their family are no longer here. There’s no one in this village anymore who can read, write, or do arithmetic.” “……” Their silence acted as confirmation. Though they didn’t know what the village chief used reading, writing, and arithmetic for, they could sense they’d lost something important. “That is why all of you should study and learn how,” said Terios. “Ummm…” Despite Terios’s cheerful tone, the children just stared at one another in confusion. Hmm, it seems they don’t understand the value of literacy and mathematics. The learned would understand how valuable those skills were for daily life and would be grateful that Terios offered to teach them for free. But these village children had spent their entire lives in ignorance. They couldn’t possibly understand the value of reading, writing, and arithmetic. So Terios kindly and thoroughly explained. “If you don’t know how to do arithmetic, people might lie to you about the amount of change you get when you’re shopping, or a lord might charge you too much tax, but you’d never know.” “That happens?!” cried Mira in shock. Apparently, she’d never faced that hardship before. It looks like the adults of the village took good care of their children. Regretting the loss of such kind and capable people yet again, he continued the conversation. “Unfortunately, this world isn’t peaceful yet. In fact, it’s brimming with people so obsessed with money that they’ll even frame those they deceive.” “Really…?” “That’s why you all need to learn arithmetic, to become the kind of people who can’t be deceived.” “I guess.” The children nodded, their mixed emotions evidence that they hadn’t understood how the village chief had protected them until it was too late. “Next is reading and writing. If you can do that, you can enjoy reading books,” he informed them, casting the Apport spell to pull a picture book out of thin air to show the children. “For example, this book tells a story of a hero who defeats a hydra.” “Ah, that’s Arkhaia, the demigod!” said Torio, his eyes sparkling with excitement alongside the other boys’. The hero Arkhaia was the son of Jupiter, God of the Sky, and a human queen. His incredibly popular legends spread across the continent through troubadour songs and books. “You know this story already? Well, I have plenty of others: stories about a hero who rides a Pegasus, or a princess held captive in a castle of thorns,” said Terios, pulling out a number of books he had bought yesterday and laying them out on the table. “There’s so many…” Books were so valuable that there was only one in the entire village; it belonged to the chief. The children were never allowed to touch it. On top of that, these books contained not only words but pictures as well. A single volume cost as much as building a house. While the children didn’t have a firm grasp of their exact value, they’d been told how amazing books were. Seeing a mountain of them left them at a loss for words. “When it’s raining or snowing and you can’t play outside, you can stay in and pass the time by reading all kinds of stories,” said Terios. More importantly, being able to read and write would help them make massive strides in the study of commerce, military affairs, and a number of other fields. But telling children who only wanted to play that they needed to study in order to study even more wasn’t likely to please them, so he kept that part to himself. “What do you think? Would you like to learn to read, write, and do arithmetic?” he asked. “I’ll do it. Please teach us.” “Fine, I’ll learn, too.” “Me too.” “Me too.” Mira was the first to volunteer, and the other children followed. Terios smiled joyfully and said, “All right, let’s start with how to read your letters.” Taking out a picture book meant to teach noble children to read through familiar examples like bread and dog, he taught them how to read letters. Mira was learning to read, something that only important people like the village chief or government officials knew how to do. On top of being fun, it made her feel like she was becoming an adult faster. However, it was mentally taxing, especially since she didn’t normally use her brain like this. After a short while, the younger children started to complain. “Hey, how long are we gonna do this?” “I wanna play outside.” The moment Terios heard them, he quickly closed the book he was reading and summoned a leather ball from out of nowhere. “Let’s finish there and have some fun,” he said. “Yay! Kickball!” “After that, let’s play tag!” The children took the ball from his hands and rushed energetically out of the village chief’s house. “Geez, that lot,” muttered Torio with a tired smile before following after to keep an eye on them. With everyone else gone from the room, Mira bowed her head to Terios. “I’m sorry they just ran off like that…” “We’re not in any rush. Don’t worry about it,” reassured Terios. She bowed again, then asked about something she’d been wondering. “Um, why are you teaching us?” Ignorant about the world as she was, even Mira could guess that the book he used for the class was incredibly expensive. What could he possibly stand to gain by spending all that money and teaching them to read, write, and do arithmetic? Why did he even save us in the first place? Thinking about it now, she realized that the potion he used to cure their green rot was also probably costly. She didn’t understand why he would go so far out of his way to save mere villagers like them. Though Terios had been kind to her, a corner of her heart filled with doubt toward him. That’s it. Not knowing in itself is scary. Suddenly, as if the scales had fallen from her eyes, she realized it. Things she couldn’t understand were scary because she couldn’t tell whether they posed a threat. That’s why I wanna understand. She wanted to know more about Terios so she could cast off fear and simply be grateful. Perhaps he picked up on her decision, because his eyes narrowed in a smile, and he gently patted her head. “You want to find out because you don’t understand. That feeling is the very essence of learning. As long as you don’t forget that passion, you’ll blossom into a brilliant person.” “Okay.” She nodded deeply, and he withdrew his hand, then answered her original question. “Now, about why I’m teaching you. In truth, it’s required for fulfilling my objective: the creation of a peaceful world.” “Huh?” The unexpected response took Mira off guard. The black cat, previously unseen, suddenly materialized and sneered with exceptional cruelty. “Hee-hee, despite the fact that if you give the moronic masses knowledge, they’ll revolt against the ruling class and plunge the continent into the fires of war.” “Stop talking like your pessimistic imaginings are a legitimate conclusion,” rebuked Terios in annoyance, even though the cat spoke like she’d seen it happen. Seeing them like that only gave Mira another question. Just what kind of relationship do these two have? At first glance, you might think pet and owner, but there wasn’t much affection between them, nor was there mutual respect. If she had to guess, Mira might say they were like friends who constantly bickered, but what history could a pile of moving bones and a talking cat possibly have to end up like this? The mysteries just kept coming. But before Mira could ask about their relationship, Terios turned the conversation back to its original topic. “To build a peaceful world, I’ve spent a long time defeating countless monsters, refining my magic skills, and exploring ancient dungeons to gather treasures. However, no matter how much power they gather, no one person can eliminate fighting by themselves.” “If you could manage that, you’d be greater than even the gods,” said the cat, beaming, which cast Mira deeper into doubt. Not even the gods can make a peaceful world? Her mother had told her that a number of gods had created this world, but it was strange that its creators couldn’t even free it from conflict. Perhaps anticipating what Mira was thinking, the black cat grinned, but she instead continued the conversation without answering this new question. “You can’t do it alone. So this numbskull’s raising collaborators.” “That is correct. I have designs on you as assistants—after you’ve all grown wonderfully, of course. That is why I’m teaching you,” said Terios with a light clack of his teeth, smiling, the implication being that Mira didn’t need to thank him. “Rest assured that I have no intention of forcing you to help me. Even just raising you to be intelligent people and improving your daily life to a level of abundance will help work toward peace.” “I see.” Mira nodded, accepting the explanation, but Terios suddenly changed topics. “By the way, Mira, I have a request I’d like to make of you.” “What is it?” “Would you try learning magic?” “…What?” For a moment, she was dumbstruck, unable to process his words. After slowly working through their meaning, she finally shrieked out of sheer shock. “Whaaaaaattt?!” “Hey, what’s going on?!” shouted Torio as he rushed back into the chief’s house from where he’d been playing outside. The loud cry had likely surprised him. “Are you okay? Did that bony old coot do something weird to you?!” “Ha, bony old coot. Pfft.” “Well, I wasn’t planning on acting young at this point anyway…,” muttered Terios somewhat woundedly, while the black cat burst out laughing like a child holding nothing back. Mira smiled in amusement but quickly cleared up the misunderstanding. “It’s nothing—I was just surprised,” she said. “You sure it wasn’t anything?” asked Torio. “Yep, it’s fine. He’s nice anyway. He wouldn’t do anything weird to me.” Even if his kindness was born from selfishly hoping the children would assist him in the future— No, it was precisely because she understood it was in his self-interest that she could fully trust him. To show Torio that they were getting along, she took Terios’s white hand. However, for some reason, this upset him even more. “You perverted, bony old coot!” “What was that?” asked Mira. “You’re quite the temptress if you’re doing this on purpose,” said the black cat to a confused Mira, before sighing. Torio glared even more angrily at Terios. The cat leaped onto Torio’s head and tapped him on the cheek with her tail. “Don’t worry about it, cherry boy.” “D-don’t call me a cherry boy!” “This bony old coot doesn’t even have anything to do the nasty with. Want to take a peek?” said the cat. Ignoring Torio’s yelling, she leaped over to Terios and flipped open the front of his robe. Torio nodded firmly at the sight of Terios’s bare pelvis. “…Guess you’re right,” he said. “Please don’t use such a crude method to convince him,” said Terios. Surely a man would feel sensitive about losing that part of himself after becoming undead. He fixed the front of his robe, feeling slightly dispirited. Torio stared at him for a moment, seeming to have finally accepted the situation, then went back to watching over the other children. “Ha, he’s so naive. You can still get up to all sorts of perverted stuff after losing a thing or two,” said the cat. “Please be quiet. This conversation is getting tiresome,” said Terios as he grabbed the sneering cat by the scruff of her neck and tossed her out the window. Mira watched, face bright red, secretly curious as to how someone could still do perverted things without that, but she instead put the conversation back on track. “Um, what you were talking about before… Would even someone like me be able to use magic if I studied?” she asked. “Yes, you have a talent for it,” he replied, nodding vigorously to a still uncertain Mira. He lit a blue light on the tip of his finger and asked, “Can you see that?” “Yes, it’s a very pretty blue light.” “This is mana, the source of magic. However, normal people can’t see it.” “Wha—?!” Terios gestured Mira over to look out the window, then waved his hand in the direction of the children playing ball a little ways off. When he did, the blue light fell from the sky like snow, all around the children. “Ah!” Mira couldn’t help but gasp in admiration at the dreamily beautiful sight. But despite being surrounded by the light, the other children didn’t notice it at all as they played ball. “As you can see, normal people can’t sense mana,” said Terios. “Does that mean I’m not normal?” asked Mira, frowning sadly as she touched her white hair. It was different from everyone else’s, even her mother’s, and if anyone told her she was special for it, she wouldn’t feel superior. Instead, she would feel alienated. “I’m sorry, I know you were trying to compliment me…,” said Mira. “No, I should be apologizing,” said Terios with a bowed head. With a white bone finger, he touched her white hair. “But you know, I quite like your hair, Mira. It reminds me of silver thread. It’s lovely,” he said. “Silver thread…” Mira had never even touched a silver coin, so she couldn’t imagine what shiny silver thread would look like. But it was the first time anyone had ever complimented her in that manner, and she couldn’t help but flush.
Chapter 2
45 min read