Ch.1717. The Girl Buried Underground

The artificial wind sound grates on my ears. Though unintentional, it’s also irritating how it coincides with the timing of turning pages.

“Take it easy.”

“Huh? I’m just warming up!”

Findenai, who was swinging an axe in the corner of the room, scoffs as if I’m talking nonsense.

She was about to start again but paused briefly, then stiffly turned her head to look at me and grumbled.

“So when are we going? It’s been three days already.”

“Preparations were necessary. What we’re dealing with isn’t an ordinary monster.”

“Hmm? How is just reading books any kind of preparation?”

“This isn’t preparation.”

The preparations themselves were already completed this morning. Right now, I was just waiting.

“Hmm?”

Findenai tilted her head wondering what I meant, when right on cue, there was a knock. As I slowly closed my book, I instructed Findenai.

“Go out and get ready. We’re leaving now.”

“Ah! You were waiting for your little sister? Then I should make myself scarce.”

With the axe resting on her shoulder, Findenai immediately stepped onto the windowsill and jumped outside. Somehow, she managed to close the window on her way out.

Creak.

Even though I hadn’t answered, Deia entered my room.

“Five minutes.”

Click.

The pocket watch in Deia’s hand began ticking. As usual, I simply looked at her.

Deia also stared at me with her lips tightly sealed.

It had been a week since she started giving me five minutes of her day.

During that time, neither of us spoke a word, just staring at each other with our mouths firmly shut.

“…Sigh.”

But today was a little different.

After three minutes had passed, Deia scratched the back of her head as if bored and opened her mouth that had been closed for a week.

“What are you thinking?”

“About what?”

I answered immediately. That seemed to irritate her more as Deia bit her lip and got angry.

“For a week. Does it feel good to steal my five minutes like this? Did you develop some fetish for just making me stand here and stare?”

“…”

I slowly uncrossed my legs and answered.

“I was waiting.”

“…What?”

An expression that didn’t hide her disgust. Calmly and carefully, I explained slowly, as if testing a stone bridge before crossing.

“I thought I shouldn’t speak first, so I just waited.”

“Ha! While forcing me to stand here?”

“Yes, because that was our agreement.”

I knew that creating this time was forceful in itself. That’s why I left all subsequent choices entirely to Deia.

If she didn’t want conversation, I wouldn’t say anything either.

“Your puberty came late.”

Clicking her tongue, Deia folded her arms and walked up to my desk with heavy steps.

“Since we’re talking, let me ask. Why are you acting like that toward the family head? Do you know what’s happening to his standing because of you?”

“You’re not in a position to talk about that.”

“…Well, that’s true, but.”

She seemed to recall how she had hurled insults at the family head, calling him stupid when we were crossing the mountains from the scrapyard, and her face turned slightly red with embarrassment.

“Anyway! I didn’t break his wrist. It looks like you saw something in the basement.”

“Yes, Darius needed to be held accountable.”

“Accountable?”

“As the current family head, he’s responsible for knowing the truth yet remaining silent. Breaking his wrist was actually being lenient.”

If he hadn’t been the family head, I would have ordered Findenai to beat him until every bone in his body was broken.

Sensing something ominous in my words and demeanor, Deia swallowed hard and asked.

“What exactly is in the basement?”

Click!

The sound indicated that five minutes were up. When I glanced at the pocket watch, Deia stuffed it into her coat pocket with annoyance.

I maintained a neutral expression, knowing that if the corner of my mouth twitched even slightly, Deia would leave immediately.

“What’s down there? I’ve closed it off as you said, but the servants are in an uproar because strange screams echo from there every day.”

“I plan to resolve it today. Consider it a responsibility that the Verdi family must bear.”

“Responsibility?”

“Yes, I intend to shoulder it in place of the family head.”

Hearing movement outside, I rose from my chair. Deia stepped back, startled by my sudden movement.

I walked past her and put on the coat hanging on the rack.

The door opened with perfect timing.

Findenai stood there wearing a yellowish coat over her maid uniform, with an axe resting on her shoulder.

“Awesome, I’m excited! I need to swing my axe at least once every three days, you know?”

Findenai bounced around, urging us to hurry. After grabbing my staff and adjusting my clothes, I looked at Deia.

“This is the Verdi family’s disgrace. You have the right to see it, but if you don’t want to, wait here. After today, the screams will no longer be heard.”

With those words, I stepped out of the room. Findenai followed behind me, humming a tune, and shortly after…

Deia flung the door open and shouted.

“W-wait! I’m coming too!”

* * *

Once again, we stood before the storage room leading to the basement. Findenai whistled at the sight of the collapsed entrance that prevented anyone from going inside.

“Wow, this is going to be a pain to clear out.”

“That’s why I said it was difficult. Actually, on the first day, I tried to go down myself, but the debris blocked the way completely.”

Deia glared at me with her arms crossed, as if throwing a tantrum.

I moved the two of them aside and touched the tip of my staff to the debris.

“No problem.”

The souls I had absorbed began to flow out through my staff.

They seeped into the debris, and I transformed them into simple blade-shaped wind magic.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The debris was finely chopped by the pressure, turning to powder and clearing a path.

The interior had originally been a passageway, so once the blocked part was cleared, the inside was hollow like a cave.

“Wow, that’s cool.”

Findenai shrugged and entered first as the vanguard.

I followed her inside, while Deia, who had been staring blankly at me, hesitated and asked.

“W-what was that? How did you do that just now? The movement of the magic was too complex to be just wind manipulation. It was like…”

When I glanced at her, Deia awkwardly continued.

“The magic seemed alive.”

“…”

It was an excellent observation, but I had no intention of revealing the answer. Necromancy was a forbidden magic even in the kingdom.

If I used it carelessly, Deia would only hate me more. It would just add the criminal title of “Black Mage” to my name, increasing her disgust.

We continued down into the basement. Climbing over the collapsed debris took quite some time, but eventually we reached the room where the bone monster was located.

“Findenai, stall the bone monster as long as possible. It would be best if you could kill it, but that probably won’t be possible.”

“Hmm? I’ve already assessed its capabilities. It’s enough.”

Findenai declared confidently, but I didn’t add anything more. This type of creature is something one needs to experience firsthand to understand.

“Deia, you…”

Deia was the concern, but she pushed back her coat to reveal a long-barreled pistol holstered at her waist.

“It’s a magic-powered gun. I can protect myself well enough.”

“What? So people from the kingdom have guns too?”

Findenai seemed surprised, as guns were thought to be exclusive to the Republic of Clark, but Deia concealed her gun with her coat and answered.

“Norsweden is closest to the Republic. Naturally, technology reaches us first.”

“Yes, but it won’t be of much use.”

“What?”

Deia glared at me, offended, but I was already grabbing the doorknob and giving Findenai additional orders.

“Protect Deia as much as possible.”

“I got it, so let’s hurry up and go in!”

Pushed by an excited Findenai, who was thrilled about combat after a long time, I opened the door and entered.

In the still, quiet darkness, the bone monster with blue flame eyes sensed our presence and immediately began crawling toward us.

Click, click, click.

The chilling sound of bones touching the ground. Having not mentioned anything about the bone monster, Deia was shocked, her mouth agape.

“Th-th-that! What is that?! Something like that was in the mansion basement?!”

Stepping in front of Deia, I planted my staff on the ground to raise mana.

“Let’s go!”

Findenai, with her axe on her shoulder, quickly charged forward.

Her speed was definitely much faster than the bone monster’s. Before it could properly open its mouth, she had already leaped and was bringing her axe down on its skull.

CRACK!

The skull split precisely in half and crashed to the floor. This caused nearby bone fragments to scatter and dust that had accumulated for a hundred years to rise in a cloud.

Having anticipated this, I had already cast a protective wind spell, so Deia and I were fine.

“Cough! Cough! How about that, master! This is how I protected my comrades!”

Findenai proudly raised her axe while standing on the bone monster, laughing triumphantly.

Without saying anything, I gestured toward the bone monster with my chin.

Click, click, click.

The bone monster, which had lost its light when split apart, began to reassemble. Not only that, it absorbed the scattered bone fragments around it and rose again with an even larger body.

“…I hate this type the most.”

Findenai, who had already run back to us, grumbled. She realized this was an opponent that couldn’t be defeated physically.

I dispelled my magic and stood beside Findenai. My gaze was already fixed on the decayed girl’s body at the end of the bone monster.

“Keep the bone monster occupied while I reach her.”

“…I understand that, but are you planning to kill it?”

Findenai asked casually. Deia, who was behind us, also stared blankly, waiting for my answer.

Receiving their questions and gazes, I took a step forward.

“One who is already dead cannot be killed again.”

This was a truth I had felt and experienced from my previous life to my current one.

Dead people cannot die again. Even my necromancy could only hold them, not grant them peace or make them disappear.

“What I must do is always the same.”

I felt as if I made eye contact with the girl who had the bone monster embedded in her heart.

Kidnapped, experimented on, and dragged around by a monster many times larger than herself, like a parasite.

“All spirits whisper very secretly about their regrets and attachments. These whispers can become language, actions, or traces.”

The bone monster rushed toward me like an avalanche. Findenai quickly intervened to block it.

Even in this urgent situation, I was walking straight toward the girl in a single line.

“Scream.”

Over a hundred years.

A tongue that never touched a drop of water would have hardened and twisted by now.

Too much dust would have blocked her throat, worms would have eaten her flesh, and spiders would have built their homes on top of her, using those worms as bait.

“Beg, shed tears, cry out about your miserable life.”

The girl’s soul was already broken beyond repair, unable to find peace even after death.

“Wake up and pour your remaining resentment onto me.”

I felt as if the girl’s gaze reached me. As if she were asking what difference it would make to speak to me.

I responded to her.

“Then I will save you.”