Ch.138Undead King Elder Lich – 6

There, sitting on the bed, was the Elder Lich, staring blankly. No, not just blankly—he was no different from a doll. His unfocused eyes didn’t blink at all, and he remained completely unresponsive even when the Director poked him.

“He’s been like this ever since we brought him here. Despite still possessing his Life Vessel, he shows absolutely no reaction to external stimuli. What on earth happened, my child?”

After briefly considering how much I should reveal, I shared information about the magic the Elder Lich had used, omitting details about my past. I explained everything from the purpose of the spell’s development to how it functioned.

This was possible because I had slightly misunderstood the magic, causing the memory transfer to become bidirectional rather than one-way. While sharing memories, the Elder Lich’s thoughts had flowed into me as well.

“A magic developed solely to destroy the Sword Saint… I never would have imagined.”

“He probably thought that without the Sword Saint, the rest of humanity wouldn’t pose much of a threat.”

“So you’re saying you withstood this magic, interpreted it, and turned it back on him?”

“Yes. He couldn’t handle it for long—clearly didn’t expect to be on the receiving end. He said if one’s mind breaks from within, there’s no coming back, so I suspect his current state is because his mind has completely died.”

At least there was no lie in what I just said. It was true that the Elder Lich couldn’t withstand the memories of death, and he truly hadn’t expected to experience such agony. It’s just that those death memories happened to be mine.

“I see…”

Suddenly, the Director pulled me into a tight embrace with tears welling in her eyes.

“Oh, my child… memories of an undead… how painful it must have been… how much it must have hurt… It’s alright. In my arms, you can let everything go. Lean on me as much as you want…”

Rather than painful or hurtful, it had been a shocking experience in an entirely different way, but I couldn’t mention that here. Besides, I knew what response I’d get if I said I was fine, so I remained still in her embrace.

No matter how many times I might insist I was fine, would she really listen? She’d just think I was pretending to be strong, trying not to worry her.

‘It’s not particularly unpleasant, though.’

The Director held and comforted me for nearly an hour before finally releasing me. My face felt warm after being buried against her chest for so long.

“May I ask what you plan to do with him? Since you captured him, you may dispose of him as you wish.”

Her long finger pointed at the Elder Lich.

“What happened to the undead at the front lines?”

“They still charge at humans, but they no longer emerge from empty ground below as before, nor do they show intelligent, organized movement. They’re just like other undead now, moving slowly like corpses. The number of Death Knights has also significantly decreased.”

It seemed to be because there was no Elder Lich left to give orders. If their organization had weakened, Leona could probably catch a break too.

“What if we kill him completely?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. He won’t collapse and vanish, so either he’ll go berserk or remain much the same as now. This is my first experience with such a situation, so I can’t say with certainty.”

“Then for now, I’ll assume the berserk scenario is possible. Let’s leave him as is and decide later. Since the undead have already slowed down, it doesn’t make much difference whether we kill him now or later.”

The first thing to be clear about is that I have absolutely no intention of letting him live. This is merely a question of whether to kill him now or later—sparing him was never an option to begin with.

If he had behaved like Durahan, I might have hesitated a bit, but the Elder Lich wasn’t even that, so there was no reason to deliberate.

‘I wonder what happened to Durahan.’

The number of undead wielding magic swords couldn’t be infinite, so eventually, things would have to return to the relationship between demons and humans—a relationship that only ends when one side dies.

Nika was truly a special case. Durahan would be 100% likely to choose death in a desperate last stand rather than surrender to humans. After all, wasn’t he the one who had committed such outrageous acts out of loyalty to the Demon King?

“Um… my child?”

While I was lost in thought about what would come next, the Director, who had been fidgeting since our conversation ended, carefully approached and took my hands.

“Is there anything else you need? You should just lie down and rest. You might still be injured somewhere… I’ll stay right by your side to take care of you…”

Though she went on at length, what she wanted to say was simple: she wanted to take care of me, so I should lie down.

“What exactly do you want to do for me?”

“W-want to do? It’s not so much that… I’m just worried since you were affected by that magic and just woke up… N-not that I don’t want to do things for you! I always do, but… well…”

Her desire was dripping from every word, despite her protests.

It seemed that after awakening to maternal love while raising humans, but having no outlet for it, she had been accumulating those feelings for 130 years. Now that she’d found someone she could properly express it to, her instincts were overriding her reason.

“Alright. Let’s rest. It’s good timing for that anyway.”

Nika had returned to being a maid, and the Elder Lich was effectively finished, so there wasn’t much to do until Durahan requested a conversation first. There was still some time before the final exams for the subjects I planned to take.

If not now, when would I rest?

“Do you really mean it?!”

The Director’s face brightened considerably.

“Thank you, Beatrice. Now I understand how normally you’ve been taking care of me all this time. I truly realized what it means for a person to lose their dignity. If you hadn’t stopped her, something terrible would have happened.”

“…What are you suddenly talking about, Young Master?”

Although the Elder Lich matter was resolved, there was one final issue to address: my past that had emerged during the memory-sharing process with him.

Honestly, it was puzzling even to me. How could there be events from the first world that I couldn’t recall?

I wondered if they were memories fabricated by him, but that would lead to the absurd conclusion that the Elder Lich’s mind was broken by fear of memories he himself had created, so I had to rule that out.

“…So. I want to ask you all. If I did seal my memories, why would I have done it? And why seal only parts rather than everything?”

Fortunately, I didn’t have to struggle with these possession-related concerns alone. Priscilla, Rosaria, Laura, and Elisier each fell into contemplation after hearing my question.

“Perhaps you didn’t want to shock yourself too severely,” Laura spoke first, having experience with memory sealing.

“Think about it. Even now, you prefer not to recall past events. If you were in a situation where all memories needed to be sealed, it must have been worse than your current state, not better. What if, in such a situation, some trigger suddenly restored all your memories? Tell me, could you guarantee you wouldn’t collapse?”

“That’s… I’m not sure.”

“You see? Even you can’t be certain. So you might have divided and sealed parts of your memory. Just as you’ve recovered memories of who you are, but not yet the memories of the 1,700 cycles of regression.”

“Or it might not have been your will at all, Mira,” Elisier interjected abruptly. Laura glared at him briefly but yielded without protest, apparently having finished what she wanted to say.

“Not my will?”

“The you I observed was someone who suffered from the past but never avoided it—with one exception. But why would you need to selectively seal memories that weren’t particularly more painful than others? That’s why I believe someone else’s will may have been involved.”

That was true. The memories the Elder Lich saw weren’t especially more painful than others. I had significant questions about what criteria might have been used.

“Or perhaps that someone tried to seal all your memories, but you resisted, resulting in only partial sealing. Who did it, why, and for what purpose—we’ll have to discover that gradually. From your description, you were practically a god descended to earth, so whoever could seal your memories must be no ordinary being.”

“Wow, then what kind of crazy person are we dealing with?” Rosaria stuck out her tongue. Elisier calmly concluded:

“Nothing is certain yet, so consider this just one perspective. What do you think, Rosaria?”

“Hmm… I think I’m with Elisier on this? I’ve seen your face when you recall old memories, Mira. If you were going to bury memories, I think you would have buried them all. What about you, Priscilla?”

“I’m with Laura. I don’t think there was anyone stronger than the old Mira. Or maybe what that skeleton thought was ‘sealing’ was actually something else entirely.”

“If we start doubting like that, there’s no end to it. However, as Priscilla says, we should take some of this with a grain of salt. After all, these were merely his thoughts.”

The three exchanged opinions seriously. They seemed particularly concerned since it involved me.

“…”

Except for Laura, who was deep in thought.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something about your concern feels familiar, but I can’t pinpoint why exactly.”

“Didn’t you feel the same way before?”

“Yes, when you mentioned the mana breathing technique. I suspect it’s because our situations have become similar. After all, I too sealed my own memories.”

“I suppose that could be it.”

“It must be that, not ‘could be.’ Otherwise, it would mean there are even more secrets hidden between you and me. My head is already about to explode with what we know now.”

I stared at Laura, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa. She gave me a questioning look.

“If you say that, then why are you wearing my dress shirt?”

“Very well. I’ll give you one of my own shirts to do with as you please. If you want, I can throw in a garter belt and stockings as a bonus?”

“…”