“Well, what do we want to do now? I guess this place would make a decent base for the time being. It’s better than the middle of the Purgatory Forest, at least,” I mused as I surveyed the ghost town in front of us.
“Woof woof! (I hardly expected we’d be granted this place!)” said Mataza happily. I could understand why; he had high hopes for the immediate future.
Beside him, Liber said merrily, “Woof woof, woof! (We’ll be starting from scratch, but this is a fine place, close to the city!)”
Yes, we’d been granted the village of Asyl. By whom? The city council of Midrogue, of course. To be more precise, the city council had decided to lend us a long-term exclusive right to use the land, but Katarina had devised the technical legal formalities in our favor as best she could, so there was no point in dwelling on it. She’d told me her intent was to eventually amend it so that the area would be completely transferred to me, so I’d just have to trust her on that. If it didn’t work out, then so be it. We could just withdraw to the forest if need be, so we had nothing to lose.
When I’d been a noble, the prospect of having nothing had been terrifying. But it actually felt quite exhilarating to have total freedom this way.
“Meow.” As if she knew what I was thinking, the feline monster Cath, the most free animal in the world, meowed at me.
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∗ ∗ ∗
“We should start by demolishing all the dilapidated houses. Let’s do our best, guys,” I said in front of the buildings.
The kobolds all gave a howl of “Woof!” and got to work. Their behavior was confident, a far cry from the kobold pack that had lived fearfully in the forest not too long ago. Mataza and Liber gave precise instructions, and the crumbling houses were dismantled bit by bit.
One might wonder if it was really all right for us to do this. This village had been deserted for ages now, but someone might still own the houses or other buildings, so we shouldn’t have touched them. But Asyl was where Glydel had produced droves of skeletons, and it had been abandoned for a long time. Therefore, there was nobody who could claim to hold rights to the area. No human would willingly live in a place where tons of undead had shown up. The location was also very remote and had no special commodities. By all measures, the land was completely useless.
Even so, people used to live there. There were good spots for water wells and farming, and the forest was bountiful. It was relatively decent land, but the fact that nobody had decided to move back in showed that the place was unwanted. It was still under Midrogue’s jurisdiction, so you would need the city’s permission to use it, which the city council had voted to grant us. Thus we could have some peace of mind about demolishing everything.
What would we do after destroying it all? We’d steadily construct new buildings and turn the place into our own settlement. We were doing this because we couldn’t impose upon Katarina’s hospitality forever. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. The biggest issue lay with my skills.
That day, I’d noticed that there was a new entry on my status card under the <Follower Contract> section:
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Follower Contract: Demon Cat (Juvenile), Hound Sprite x10, Hound Trooper x2, Normal Folk x1, Black Skeleton King
That last entry was startling. There was Cath, the kobolds, Mataza and Liber. And then there was Aht. But...a black skeleton king?
I don’t remember contracting with one of those things, I wanted to say. But it was written right there. I couldn’t deny the facts. So I tested it out to discover what exactly this “black skeleton king” was. But of course, I couldn’t experiment in a populated area.
I took on a random job and exited Midrogue. After I’d gotten somewhere a little bit away from the highway, I tapped on the “black skeleton king” letters on my card display. Suddenly, a dreadfully powerful skeleton king appeared in front of me. Its bones were dark-colored, and I could tell that it was a special individual.
Aha. I can see how someone controlling this thing would believe that a noblewoman, her steward, and a couple of iron-rank adventurers would be easy pickings. I understood what Glydel must have felt. Yes, this was without a doubt the skeleton king that Glydel had used.
But why is it listed? I was confused, and at the same time I wondered, Will it even listen to my orders? Only more questions came to mind.
I stared into its sunken black eye sockets. It went without saying that I was poised at the ready in case it attacked.
But despite staying like that for a while, the black skeleton king didn’t have any reaction. Actually, it was like it was waiting for me to react. When I looked into its sunken eye sockets, I sensed no emotions within. Nonetheless, somehow I knew that there was still something there. Was it its soul? It was an undead being, but it sure seemed like it had one.
It was a strange feeling, but I knew the importance of intuition from my rugged life in the Purgatory Forest and my onerous training with Aht. It’s said that humans lost most of their animal instincts after building civilization, but it seemed like I’d regained them after returning to the wild.
Regardless, what I had to do right now was...
“Hey. Do you understand what I’m saying?” I asked the black skeleton king.
It rattled its dark bones and gave a reserved nod of its head. It was much bigger than a normal skeleton, big enough that it could have squashed me with its weight, but I was surprised at myself for thinking it strangely cute.
There really shouldn’t be anything cute about it, though... It doesn’t look like it can speak, so I should just ask yes-or-no questions.
“All right. Then...let me think. Are you the same one that previously served Glydel?”
This is crucial. Depending on its answer, I might be able to get an idea of where it came from. How will it answer?
The black skeleton king nodded again.