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Chapter 59 : Dipping a toe into the underworld

At my words, Asili blinks and looks at me.

Then, after glancing around nervously for a moment, she begins pushing me out of the cemetery.

Eventually, we arrive at the cemetery entrance, away from the noisy chatter of the disciples.

Only then does Asili, who had been pushing my back, let go and ask in an exasperated voice.

“Wait, the underworld? Why are we suddenly going there? And why are you taking me along?!”

“You heard about what happened, right? About how I found the bodies of those three.”

I had explained it to everyone during the funeral when I called the disciples, so there’s no way she hadn’t heard.

So, Asili nods at my words.

But she still didn’t seem to understand and opened her mouth again.

“Sure, I get that only underworld necromancer-types would make something like an undead chimera, so you’re looking there… but how the heck are you going to find that necromancer? How are you going to comb through that massive underworld and track them down?”

Asili’s point was completely valid.

Even for me, finding the necromancer who made that undead chimera in the vast underworld was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

And even if I gathered all the necromancers and asked them one by one if they were the culprit, if they just denied it, I wouldn’t have any solid evidence to tell who was lying.

But of course, I was well aware of all that, and it wasn’t like I was heading into the underworld without a plan.

“Nella.”

“Nella? Why are you bringing her up all of a sudden..?”

“Yes, you called, Master.”

“Wah?! Damn it, you scared me!!”

At my call, Nella appears next to Asili and me.

At her sudden appearance, Asili jumps in surprise and barely swallows a curse, and I gesture toward Nella.

“When we took down the chimera, Nella scraped up the remaining pieces of its core. We’re going to use that to find its owner.”

“The core at the center of a chimera can recognize and imprint its owner. If we have it, it’ll lead us to them if they’re within 500 meters. With my magic, we can even extend that range to a kilometer temporarily.”

A spell to track the owner of the chimera’s core.

With that, even the vast underworld wouldn’t make it too hard to find the necromancer.

Fail ten, maybe fifty times at most, and we’d still be able to find the chimera’s master.

“Hmm… well, if we’re using that, I guess it’s not impossible.”

And apparently, Asili agreed with that plan, as she gave a reluctant nod.

Still, she looked uneasy as she asked me.

“Okay, but you still haven’t told me why I have to go.”

“Don’t tell me you’re seriously asking that?”

There was no need to even answer. I knew, Nella knew, and Asili herself knew the reason. So I just stared at her.

Under my gaze, Asili bit her lip and shut her eyes tightly.

“You told me to stay away from the underworld forever! Now you’re taking me back in—how does that make any sense?!”

“I never said to stay away from the underworld. I said don’t commit crimes again. And honestly, no one else around me knows the underworld like you do.”

“I haven’t been there in over 25 years! They say even a mountain changes in ten years—what am I supposed to do after 25?!”

“You’ve gone back a few times since you became my disciple, haven’t you? Be honest.”

Old habits die hard. Even if she didn’t commit any crimes after becoming my disciple, there’s no way Asili never went back.

The underworld was full of black markets with everything she’d need for her life as a thief.

“What are you talking about?! I’ve never gone back to the underworld, okay?!”

“Really?”

Sweat.

Of course, Asili reflexively denied it. But when I just stared in silence, cold sweat began to run down her cheek.

Eventually, she couldn’t resist my gaze and confessed.

“Excluding that one time I had to go because I really needed something… I swear, I barely went back after that…”

“So, you did go. Let’s go.”

“No, wait! Even that last time was five years ago! In five years, the entire underworld’s layout could have changed!”

Why was she so desperate not to go?

Seeing her nearly throwing a tantrum, it made me curious. But the answer was simple.

“Did you… steal something from the underworld again?”

“…Hehe, I couldn’t help it. When you dragged me out last time, my name went on the blacklist. And then I, uh… kinda stole stuff twelve more times over the last 25 years… So now, I’m on the instant execution list.”

She said it with a sheepish laugh, but the content was absolutely outrageous.

She’d stolen so much that she’d gone beyond the blacklist—now she was a target for immediate execution.

Sure, she was stealing from other underworld criminals, so I wasn’t exactly mad about that.

But stealing like a lunatic to the point of being on a kill-on-sight list—yeah, I was at a loss for words.

Even so, her knowledge was essential for moving safely through the underworld.

So, I casually grabbed the scruff of her neck as she tried to sneak away.

“Let’s just assume you’ll die if you get caught this time and go.”

“No, Master! I really can’t go!!! I’m scared to even step in there now!!!”

Naturally, Asili struggled to break free of my grip, but the outcome was already decided.

“Nella, let’s go right now. I already told Ruina and Elia, we’ll be back today.”

“Yes, let’s go, Master.”

“No, I said I don’t wanna go!!! Hey, Nella! If you really take me, I’ll kill—!!”

“Teleport.”

With a flash of the magic circle, Asili’s voice was cut off.

And despite it being a long time since I last met them, I swallowed my regret of not being able to catch up with my disciples and entrusted myself to the light.

Since everyone will be in the capital until today, I should finish everything by this evening and return to reunite with my disciples.

By this evening, I must catch that damned necromancer who created the chimera.

Flaaash—

“Well, I said all that… but there’s really no need to go so far as to risk our lives just to catch the necromancer.”

The rocky mountain near Rahman, where we arrived via Nella’s teleport.

There, I looked at Nella standing as usual and Asili standing with a sullen expression, and spoke.

The necromancer who created the chimera. I truly wanted to catch and kill him, and this anger that still lingered, ready to explode at any moment, was also genuine.

But from now on, we would be entering the Underworld.

One careless mistake could cost us our lives in the Underworld.

Having Nella, who could use teleport magic, greatly reduced the risk, but it was still a place that couldn’t be taken lightly.

So while it would be great to catch the necromancer, I had no intention of taking unnecessary risks to do it.

The only reason I was going to the Underworld now was because of the chimera’s core fragment—a tool that might be worth testing out.

However, if testing it seemed even slightly dangerous, I was fully prepared to back off without hesitation.

The Underworld was a massive den of criminals who would one day be purged by the kingdom.

No matter what method I had, I wasn’t about to ruin a long-term plan by acting recklessly.

“Then maybe just…”

And hearing this, Asili seemed like she was about to ask if we couldn’t just not go, but then she recalled that this incident involved her own schoolmates and closed her mouth.

Then, mumbling awkwardly, Asili continued.

“Let’s just… do what we can now that we’ve come all this way. Yeah…”

Since we were already here and couldn’t turn back, Asili sighed deeply as if the ground would cave in.

She looked so reluctant to enter the Underworld that her feelings were practically written all over her face.

Noticing this, Nella raised her hand slightly and spoke.

“Master? Since it’s my first time in the Underworld, I wanted to ask… Should we wear masks when we go in? All three of us are pretty well-known, so I feel like some criminals might recognize us.”

A reasonable question from Nella.

And the one who answered was Asili, who was rummaging through her pockets beside us.

“If you wear a mask in the Underworld, you’ll be immediately treated as an outsider and get a crossbow bolt in your neck. It’s easier to use a face-concealing mask or disguise magic instead. Normally, we’d have brought some face masks, but since we don’t have them today…”

Pausing for a moment, Asili pulled something out of her pocket.

She then tossed one item each to Nella and me as she continued.

“Since we’ve got a mage here this time, let’s go with disguise magic. You can use it to mimic the face on that citizen ID, right? That should let us in without trouble. Just so you know, those things are limited, so handle them carefully.”

What Asili tossed us were none other than citizen IDs.

But unlike normal citizen IDs, these were dark and gloomy in appearance, and their contents were quite different from the usual.

Instead of family relationships or place of residence, the fields were filled with criminal history and the name of the affiliated organization.

That’s when I realized what kind of ID this was.

“A citizen ID for the Underworld?”

“Yep, that’s right. You get them by killing well-known criminals wandering around outside. I picked this one up and have been putting it to good use.”

Asili shrugged and nodded at my words.

She spoke in such a casual tone despite the highly abnormal content that I couldn’t help but let out a dry chuckle.

Seriously, she’s been making me want to say a lot since earlier, but the way she was constantly preparing everything so professionally left me with nothing to say.

So instead, I turned to Nella, held out the ID I was holding, and swallowed my laughter.

“I’ll leave it to you, Nella?”

“Sure, leave it to me.”

Without hesitation, Nella swung her staff in response to my request.

Soon, light from her staff enveloped my face.

Ten minutes before entering the Underworld, a flash of light burst atop the rocky mountain.