Chapter 155

Chapter 155

Crybaby Black Veil

***

The waterfall-like flow of her snow-white hair made her seem as noble as a moon shining in the midwinter night. Her calm eyes, reminiscent of a golden lake tinged with the sunset, were beautiful, but they also held an unreadable depth that sent chills down one’s spine.

Her beauty, though stunning, emitted a sharp elegance like a bewitching blade, making it hard to approach. Even though she didn’t take special care of her looks, her smooth skin, long eyelashes, and soft lips bore a resemblance to Iris.

‘So this is where Iris gets her looks from.’

Lian, with a dazed expression like a swordsman who had just achieved enlightenment, stared at the Duke’s face in a trance, only snapping back to reality when her hand withdrew. He awkwardly rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.

“It seems you don’t have a fever—”

“Haha! Yes, no fever at all, just brimming with energy! Thank you for your concern.”

The Duke misinterpreted Lian’s nervous reaction to the sudden contact.

‘He must not be used to receiving concern from others. Despite living such a life, he still expresses gratitude so earnestly…’

This world wasn’t a fairy tale or some feather-light gag universe. It was a dark fantasy world, where tragic backstories were as common as dirt.

In such a world, people with a dark past who remained kind were incredibly rare to find.

‘If that side of him isn’t fake…’

The Duke suddenly smiled bitterly as she thought.

‘…Perhaps a new Hero has appeared.’

Considering that Iris, the daughter of the Hero, was poised to become the next one herself, it might seem plausible to think that the Hero’s legacy was passed down through bloodlines. But that assumption was wrong.

A Hero became one not because of their lineage, but because they held the power to defeat the Demon King. While a Hero’s descendant might possess a more robust body and a basic level of holy power compared to ordinary people, that was the extent of it.

Their abilities were on par with, or perhaps slightly inferior to, the aristocratic families that brought in outstanding talent to continue their bloodlines.

The title of Hero wasn’t passed down through blood, but chosen by the gods. Anyone could potentially be chosen, be it commoner, noble, or priest, as long as they possessed a vessel capable of holding a vast amount of holy power and an innate talent for swordsmanship.

Lian had skills that surpassed the level of genius, possessed holy power strong enough to heal the Duke’s wounds in an instant, and even smiled lightly at those who had once stabbed him.

It was only natural that the Duke mistook Lian for a new Hero.

Thanks to this misunderstanding, the Duke’s usual stern demeanor had softened. Anyone who had served her for a long time would have fainted at the sight. Of course, it didn’t show outwardly, though.

“Ahem, let’s start figuring out how to get out of here then!”

“Agreed.”

The two of them, along with the voice of a cursed sword (which the Duke couldn’t hear), began to brainstorm several escape plans.

***

Meanwhile, at that very moment.

The Necromancer, a luckiest of her kind who had managed to trap both the mightiest warrior of the empire and a character belonging to a gag world, was nervously pacing around her room.

“What do I do? Should I go now? But what if they’re still alive? Then everything I’ve worked for will go up in smoke!”

She stomped her feet in frustration, her face scrunching into a distressed pout. It didn’t take long before she burst into tears for what felt like the hundredth time.

Clatter.

“I had them this time! This is so unfair!”

Clatter, clack.

“Why did I feel lucky in the first place! Uwaaah!”

Clatter, clatter.

Between her sobs, the sound of a Skeleton Mage clacking its jaw rhythmically filled the room. Annoyed by the oddly persistent sound, she glared sharply in the mage’s direction.

“Argh! Why are you so noisy today?!”

Clatter.

The Skeleton Mage, which usually stood still like a statue, pointed its finger at its own body. It was a gesture the Necromancer had never seen before, causing her eyes to widen in surprise.

“Wh-why are you moving on your own?”

After hurriedly wiping the residual tears from her eyes with her sleeve, she walked up to the Mage. The Skeleton Mage seemed to be indicating both its body and the crystal ball on the table.

“You mean… you’re saying you’ll go and check?”

Clatter.

The Skeleton Mage nodded. The Necromancer stood there gaping, her mind ablaze with two thoughts at once.

‘Wait, I haven’t harvested its soul, so how does it have self-awareness?’ and ‘Why didn’t I think of this earlier? I could’ve just sent an undead in my place to check whether they’re alive or dead!’

Curiosity momentarily flared within her, but she suppressed it. Right now, securing the Duke—the Empire’s strongest warrior—was more important.

“Alright! Go confirm and come back quickly!”

With an excited face, she re-summoned the Mage and then immediately summoned three additional Skeleton Mages, ten Skeleton Knights, and two Skeleton Rangers above the ground. Like Lian and the Duke, she too was hidden underground, so it was a necessary step.

‘Even if they run into some monsters along the way, this much force should be enough to win easily.’

With a satisfied smile, she sent the undead towards the pit where Lian and the Duke had fallen.

While commanding the Forest Master to tunnel through the ground was an option, it consumed ten times the amount of magic compared to overground movement and would likely dissipate the dense fog that blanketed the forest.

“Hehehe, now all I have to do is wait…”

She crossed her legs and leaned back into her gaudy chair, her sleek, pale legs fully revealed.

“Erboan, wait for me. I’ll be right—”

Once again, she lost herself in her wild imaginations, drooling slightly as she envisioned a future where Erboan adored her. While daydreaming about bearing him ten children, she muttered to herself with a silly grin.

“Eh…?”

Suddenly, the undead party she had sent began to be forcefully unsummoned. The distance was too great to share detailed information, so she immediately sent a signal.

“Red… beast?”

That was all the information she got before the entire party was wiped out. She stood there, mouth agape in shock, before shaking her head wildly to regain her senses.

“Heh… hahaha… They must’ve run into a strong monster. I’ll have them take a detour.”

Once more, she summoned undead and sent them on a slightly different route. As she focused on the receding magic from her undead, she felt herself calming down.

As the second group of undead neared their destination, her initial tension gradually eased. Fortunately, whatever that ‘red beast’ was, it seemed to be a territorial monster.

“Phew… Looks like I’m pretty smart today?”

Feeling very pleased with herself, she shrugged her shoulders and muttered something that made her look quite foolish. Then, sensing that her undead were now close to their goal, she shot up from her chair.

“This is no time to be sitting around. I should be preparing to start the ceremony!”

Though she’d already done most of the preparation, it wouldn’t hurt to check things over one more time. With excitement and her face flushed red, she opened the door on one side of her room and moved into the adjacent chamber. The atmosphere in the windowless room was grim.

A dark red magic circle drawn with precious herbs and monster materials covered the floor, and at its center lay an altar large enough for one person to lie on. The altar, inscribed with geometric symbols, exuded an ominous aura.

After checking the altar’s condition, she meticulously inspected whether there was enough blood for the ritual. Simultaneously, she felt something off again.

“Huh? Again?!”

The connection to her undead party was being severed once more. She quickly ordered three of her Skeleton Rangers to flee. Standing idly like before would only result in them getting wiped out.

While she could always resummon fallen undead, if they were destroyed too quickly, she wouldn’t get the critical information she needed.

She focused on the information the surviving Rangers managed to transmit about their opponent.

“A human woman with white hair…?”

Just as she had been wracking her brain trying to imagine what kind of monster could be described as the ‘red beast,’ that information came through, dumbfounding her.

“Are you telling me that there are two beings powerful enough to wipe out a knight-level party? And one of them is human?”

Even after subduing the Forest Master, she hadn’t let her guard down, thoroughly checking the monster levels in the forest. While there were rare cases where fallen Forest Masters triggered powerful mutations, the probability was near zero.

To think such an unlikely event would actually occur, introducing a being powerful enough to be dubbed the ‘Red Beast,’ and on top of that, a human of similar strength roaming around…

Once again, she felt tears welling up in her eyes, ready to cry, “Uwaaaah!” all over again.

However, her misery didn’t end there.

Thanks to the Skeleton Rangers, which could move quickly in the forest, the remaining undead were rapidly approaching her hiding spot. As the undead crossed into a 10-kilometer radius, she activated her magic, allowing her to seize their vision.

A faint red glow flickered in the empty skulls where their eyes should have been—an indicator that the Necromancer was peering through the undead’s senses.

‘Sh-she’s really human?!’

When she saw Iris’ white hair fluttering as she sprinted towards her at breakneck speed, the Necromancer’s face turned ghostly pale.

‘Wait a second, that girl… she looks familiar—’

Just as she began to realize how much Iris resembled the Duke’s doppelgänger—

CRASH!

Several trees on the Ranger’s right were smashed apart as though crushed by a massive boulder.

“Growl…”

Through the wreckage stepped Jess, a beastman with red hair, furred ears, and a tail.

End of Chapter