episode_0135

“I’m going to catch the Necromancer.”

I spoke casually, in my usual voice, as if saying, ‘Today I had spaghetti for lunch. It was very delicious.’

[………….]

No sound came from the communicator.

“Your Majesty?”

[………….]

“Huh, did it cut out?”

[………….]

“Emperor Your Majesty?”

[………]

“Emperor Your Majesty, the great ruler and sole sun of the great Croa Empire?”

That’s strange, the communicator still has light. Could it be broken?

Thinking about how I’d tell Yerika if it were broken, I thought of the word that would most likely get a reaction from the Emperor, then spoke.

“Father-in-…”

[Haaah……….]

The Emperor sighed after a long silence.

Then, he spoke, cutting off each word.

[So.]

[Tomorrow.]

[You’re going to catch the Necromancer?]

The Emperor seemed dumbfounded even while speaking, small snorts of laughter escaping him now and then.

To the Emperor’s words, which held the meaning, ‘Did I hear that correctly?’, all I could do was:

“Yep. You heard correctly.”

Assure him that he heard correctly.

[Haaah… Alright. I’ll summon the Knights and Duke Freya, just in case…]

“No! No! There’s no need for that.”

I cut off the Emperor, knowing it was rude.

Oh, no, that won’t do.

After that, I rambled on for about 10 minutes.

Normally, I would have thought a bit before contacting the Emperor, but I was tired from planting something in the forest.

The Emperor summarized my 10 minutes of rambling in a short phrase.

[So, you’re saying I don’t need to worry because you’ll handle it yourself.]

“…Is that how it sounds?”

[Then why did you tell me?]

“……………..”

If I was going to handle it myself anyway, there would have been a way to catch him and report it later, like last time.

The Emperor was asking why I told him in advance.

‘I didn’t intend to tell him originally…’

From the Emperor’s perspective, sending the Knights or Duke Freya would be much safer than an academy student to catch a Necromancer.

But in that case, Sepia wouldn’t be able to get her proper revenge.

Still, the reason I specifically told the Emperor I would catch the Necromancer was…

“If I bring the Necromancer’s head this time too, will you give me money?”

I couldn’t forget the taste of the money I received after killing Mordor last time.

[…………….]

What the right hand does, the left hand doesn’t need to know [a proverb about keeping one’s good deeds humble or private].

But the good deed I did, the Emperor definitely needed to know.

.

A small village a little distance from the capital. And a forest in that village where people rarely came.

Sepia, flying in the sky with the help of spirits, closed her eyes, feeling the chilly morning breeze all over her body.

As she closed her eyes, the events of yesterday and today quickly flashed through her mind.

Hogu said that the spirits knew Betzdo’s location, and at first, she couldn’t believe it. After believing, she was angry at the spirits for not saying a word to her, but she reconciled after having many conversations with them before going to sleep. She wanted to come right away after knowing the location at night, but Hogu said he had things to prepare and suggested going tomorrow. She had waited 10 years, so she could endure just one more day. And then, the long-awaited today. She met Hogu early in the morning, a time when she would normally be sleeping. Hogu skillfully guided the way as if he had been here before. After telling her to hide here, Loki left to lure Betzdo. At first, Sepia had objected to Loki going to lure him personally, but after hearing how he planned to do it, she couldn’t argue. There was no more certain way to lure Betzdo than that.

Sepia recalled the words Loki left before he went to lure him.

‘I will not intervene in the fight from the moment Ms. Sepia starts fighting Betzdo.’ ‘Let’s quickly get rid of that guy and go have tea again. I’ll treat you to lunch especially!’

As Sepia flew through the sky, worrying if something might have happened to Loki, a vexed voice came from below.

“Why is that old man ordering people around and acting like a jerk? So annoying.”

A voice she had never forgotten. It was the voice of the man who had killed her parents and tormented her.

Sepia opened her closed eyes and looked at the target of her long-awaited revenge. It was the man who had killed her family and friends, destroying her peaceful everyday life. More than 10 years had passed since that day, but Betzdo’s appearance was unchanged. Her fist trembled. Betzdo didn’t seem to notice her flying in the air, swearing and looking around.

Sepia, who had borrowed an artifact capable of invisibility during her short time in the Levyden family’s treasure vault, prepared the most powerful attack she could currently unleash. A week ago, Sepia’s right hand had been empty, but now it bore a lightning-shaped pattern, and that same pattern was on the forehead of Chirp-Chirp, who was flying beside her. Chirp-Chirp, who had maintained a shrunken form even after growing to stay on Sepia or Loki’s head, now revealed its true form, boasting a larger size than the wyvern Sepia had ridden before.

“Let’s go.”

Sepia stroked Chirp-Chirp’s head once and spoke.

One of the powerful races before extinction. A race that was not called a magic beast because it possessed intelligence, but was exterminated due to a certain organization wary of its powerful strength—or so they thought.

The divine beast, born not long ago but inheriting special blood within its race. Chirp-Chirp, who had learned from the Dragon, known as the greatest and most powerful of all races.

Following its contracted master’s command, it created lightning from the cloudless sky and unleashed it upon the ground. The lightning, which even the Dragon who taught it directly said was very powerful but uncontrollable, and would instantly kill anyone in the academy except for a few, struck the unsuspecting Betzdo.

A tremendous roar!

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!”

Along with the sound of lightning, Betzdo’s scream echoed. Sepia, confirming Betzdo’s condition — not dead, but certainly not unharmed — steeled her resolve. Recalling the attack pattern she had practiced diligently for a month, Sepia tried her best to suppress her trembling hands and descend to the ground.

Boom! Bang! Boom! Bang! BOOM!! Bang!BOOM!BOOM!Bang! BOOM! Bang! BOOOOOOM!!! BOOM!Bang! Bang! BOOM! Bang! Bang! Boom! Bang! BOOM!! Bang! BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!! That is, until the sound of insane explosions continued for about 30 seconds without stopping from the ground. Startled, Sepia looked around, but no one was visible. That would mean someone had planted those bombs beforehand… Sepia and Chirp-Chirp looked at each other. Since forming their contract, they could communicate without speaking directly. ‘Did you do that?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then who would be doing that right now?’ ‘There’s one person, isn’t there?’ Hearing Chirp-Chirp’s words, Sepia recalled someone. Someone who had skillfully guided the way, as if they had visited this village before. And the last words that person left before going to lure Betzdo. ‘I will not intervene in the fight from the moment Ms. Sepia starts fighting Betzdo.’ From the moment the fight begins, huh…

“……Heh!”

Sepia chuckled lightly, and when she descended to the ground, no trace of tension remained on her face. ‘Let’s finish this quickly and get lunch from Hogu.’

.

‘What on earth is going on right now?’ Betzdo thought, about 20 minutes after the sudden battle began. Mordor, Death Haven’s Rank 8, who was higher in rank than him but whom he thought he would never lose to in a fight. When that old man, who hadn’t attended recent meetings, suddenly showed up and summoned him here, he hadn’t cared much. He couldn’t care less whether that old man was dead or alive; he had only come here willingly to get information about that woman, Rank 4. But when he arrived in the forest, the old man wasn’t waiting, and what greeted him was horrifying lightning. And the bombs that kept exploding beneath his feet. Normally, he could have easily blocked the bombs, but his reaction was delayed due to the initial lightning strike, and as a result, he took all the bomb hits.

Crunch! Crunch!

“Tsk.”

Betzdo clicked his tongue, seeing the skeletons shattered in an instant, and summoned new ones. But those skeletons were also quickly destroyed by the girl before him.

Betzdo was annoyed by the woman who hadn’t lived even a tenth of his life. She was strong for her age, but compared to him, she was weak. A bug. Clearly, he thought he could kill her quickly, but.

Gnashing.

“Ugh!”

Betzdo gnashed his teeth at the persistent pain. He still couldn’t move his body properly, no matter what kind of lightning it was. He increased the number of skeletons to try and end it quickly, but.

Crunch! Crunch!

Not a single skeleton could even touch a single strand of the girl’s hair. She was fast. That wasn’t it. She avoided attacks as if she knew exactly where and how they would come. She was a bug-like girl, weaker than him, and he should clearly be able to kill her quickly. The feeling of having to watch his attacks fail to connect was infuriating.

“Did that old man Mordor send you?!!!”

“……………”

Betzdo didn’t know that Mordor no longer existed in this world, so he thought Mordor was behind Sepia. Therefore, Betzdo wanted to conserve as much strength as possible, even thinking about fighting Mordor after killing the girl before him. As a result, Sepia gained a slight advantage.

Crunch! Boom!

Betzdo summoned skeletons to block a flying fireball, then vowed that he would not kill the girl before him easily.

“Anyway, you’ll have to tell me everything soon!!”

Judging that the unpleasant fight would be prolonged, Betzdo sent a signal to his subordinates who were far away a moment ago. When dozens of subordinates arrived, he’d be able to kill the girl before him quickly.

.

The group of dozens, expressing “I’m suspicious” with their whole bodies even from afar, received Betzdo’s signal and headed towards the forest in the village. All the clothes they wore had skull patterns drawn on them. It didn’t take long for them, moving their feet without a word according to their master’s command, to reach the forest. And they found an old man at the forest entrance.

“Please buy some of this…”

The old man, who had laid herbs and vegetables on a straw mat, looked haggard at a glance. He looked as if he hadn’t eaten for days, so thin that his bones protruded, and there was no strength in his voice.

“Kill him.”

The man at the very front of the group ordered casually, as if killing a bug that had entered his house. They could have just ignored him and entered the forest, but they deliberately sought to bestow death upon the old man. And not a single person among them opposed that order.

“Yes.”

A hand wreathed in black mana moved without hesitation toward the old man’s heart. The old man, whose heart was pierced, died instantly. And they entered the forest. No, they *should* have.

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!!”

The old man should have screamed and died, but. The one screaming on the ground was the man who had just attacked the old man.

“Be careful of children and old people.”

The voice came from where the old man had been, but it wasn’t the old man’s voice. They instinctively looked at the old man, and what was there was not the old man who looked like he was about to die, but a man wearing a red cloak and even a mask.

“It’s common martial arts knowledge, perhaps you haven’t learned it?”