“Oh? That armor. That lance and shield. You are a Blue Lance Knight of the Byron Empire, aren’t you? This is the first time I have seen one anywhere other than a battlefield.”
He looked at Jeanne with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes as he spoke. The moment the words “Blue Lance Knight” came out of his mouth, Jeanne flinched. Meeting on the battlefield meant they had faced each other as enemies. The man took another leisurely sip of his coffee and continued.
“Ah, do not worry. You do not need to be so tense. Not right now.”
“Not now?”
“Yes. Now. You guys are very fortunate at the moment.”
He smiled faintly.
“Why, you ask? Because you came while I still have my consciousness. If you had showed up at any other time, you would already be under attack from the wraiths. I will forgive you for breaking the barrier I set up and trespassing in my manor. So do not do anything foolish. If you want to live, leave this manor… no, leave this entire region at once.”
“That is a bit difficult for us.”
“Difficult?”
“We were searching for a missing person and ended up finding this place. You are the one who brought up wraiths, and there were countless footprints at the entrance of this manor. It all looks suspicious. Were the wraith attacks on the village your doing?”
When Yuda, standing behind Jeanne, asked that, the man widened his eyes, then let out a chuckle.
“Ha ha. Well now, a sharp kid has come. You got it exactly right. I was possessed by the wraiths when I did it, but there is no denying that it happened because of me, so you are not wrong.”
He crooked his finger. In that instant, a wraith spawned at his side.
“Do you see it?”
It was the same wraith they had seen more than enough of already, a black shape radiating foul energy. It let out an eerie, shrill laugh and slipped into the wall. After showing them how he controlled the wraith, the man smiled and started toward the hallway at the front of the room.
“Why did you do something like that?”
Jinmu’s faint smile vanished and his expression darkened. Why he had done that, they asked.
“Why? There are many reasons, but you can just see it as the pitiful end of a necromancer. I do not really feel like talking about it. So turn around and go back the way you came. I never know when the wraiths will steal my consciousness again.”
“What happens if the wraiths take your mind?”
“Let me see. Well first of all, you two would be eaten by wraiths. I do not know which route you took to get here, but I am sure you passed through at least one village. A much wider area would end up a ruin like that village. A dreadful outcome. Which is why it is such a shame. If capable adventurers had come instead of fledglings like you, I would have asked them to kill me.”
“You would ask someone to kill you? Can you not simply stop yourself?”
At Jeanne’s question, he frowned.
“If I could do that, we would not be having this conversation. Right now, I cannot die, and I cannot even harm my own body in order to die. Hoo… let us end the talk here. I am a man with plenty to think about. Do not shorten your lives for nothing. Leave this place. If there is something you need, feel free to take anything from the manor. I have no use for such things anymore. Now, off you go.”
He waved his hand, turned his back to them, and walked toward the corridor. Yuda could hear him mutter, “The coffee tastes good,” even from where he stood. Watching his back, Yuda quietly opened his Status Window. Since he knew the man’s name, he was able to check his information.
──────────────────────
「Status Window」
[Name: Jinmu]
[Title: Reaper of the Battlefield]
[True Name: Nightmare of Kalypso]
[Level: 78 (-38)]
[Job: Necromancer (B+)]
[Race: Human]
[Strength: 78 (-33) (B) / Potential: B]
[Health: 79 (-33) (B) / Potential: B]
[Agility: 59 (-17) (C) / Potential: C]
[Magic: 92 (-37) (S) / Potential: S]
[Magic Resistance: 89 (-36) (A) / Potential: A]
[Charisma: 65 (-19) (B) / Potential: A]
[Charm: 60 (-18) (B) / Potential: B] ◀ Special
[Knowledge: 78 (-23) (B) / Potential: A] ◀ Special
[Luck: 59 (-17) (C) / Potential: C] ◀ Special
[Favorability: 0 (Normal)]
[Trust: 0 (Normal)]
「Traits 7/7」
[Servant of Bel-Terza] – Rank: A
[Wraithbinder] – Rank: B
[Hero of Baekje] – Rank: B
[One-man Army] – Rank: B
[Possessed by Wraiths] – Rank: A
[Grudge] – Rank: B
「Skills 6/6」
[Black Magic: Necromancy] – Rank: A
[Black Magic: Magic Circle] – Rank: B
[Possession] – Rank: B
[Mana Amplification] – Rank: B
[Imperial Close-Quarters Combat: Valla] – Rank: B
[Imperial Swordsmanship: Valla] – Rank: B
──────────────────────
His eyes went straight to the insanely high level and the traits that matched it. In their current state, Yuda and Jeanne had no chance of winning against that man. That was how it would be if he were in perfect condition. Now, however, his body had been worn down by constant possessions from the wraiths, and many of his stats had dropped.
"Still my level is still higher than I expected."
If they had come a little later, his level and stats would have fallen further, and he would have been much easier to fight. Even so, he had already weakened enough that Yuda felt they had a chance to take a shot now.
Yuda summoned Altemia into his left hand and hurled it at the man’s unguarded back. Sensing the blade shooting toward him like a line of light, magic surged from the man’s body.
Woom!
The magic took on a dark purple hue and wrapped around his body, forming a barrier against Altemia. Even with level 70 traits and skills, a hastily formed barrier could not stop Altemia. The incomplete shield was sliced apart by the blade, which grazed his collar and buried itself in the floor behind him. He stopped moving at almost the exact same moment. Yuda’s lips curled up with tense excitement.
“I never said I was just going to leave. From the sound of it, you need someone to kill you. I can do that for you.”
“…Huh.”
The man turned around, downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp, then stuck out his tongue with a pained expression.
“Burned your tongue?”
“Of course. I drank something hot.”
As if to ask why he would even bring that up, the man shot Yuda a sidelong glance and threw the mug. It hit the wall and bounced off the floor, but did not break and simply rolled along the hallway. Whoever had made it, and wherever it came from, it was very sturdy.
“Anyway. You are a cheeky, fearless brat. Seems you have some skill, too. But do you really think something like that is enough to kill me, Count Jinmu? I was on the battlefield for twenty years. You will need to be at least a Spirit Sword Bearer if you want a chance at killing me. I am not trying to send you away for nothing.”
“…”
Yuda knew. Count Jinmu, necromancer of the Baekje Empire, the man who inflicted heavy losses on the Byron Empire whenever war broke out between them. The Byron Empire had even sent assassins to kill him. They failed to kill him and only managed to burn his family and lands. After that, enraged, he tormented the Byron Empire even more on the battlefield.
Of course, Yuda could not explain any of that here, so he stayed silent.
“Count… Jinmu?”
“Ah, yes. The Blue Lance Knight over there must know of me. What do you think? Can you kill me? I am asking if the two of you can really handle the thousands of wraiths tied to my soul.”
Jeanne swallowed hard, nerves showing. She silently thanked the heavens that she was wearing a helmet. No one could see that she was afraid. Hiding behind her shield, she quietly called Yuda’s name.
“Yuda. If he really is Count Jinmu, we need to run while he is letting us go.”
She spoke as if calm, but Yuda could feel her shaking. She must have heard stories after becoming a Blue Lance Knight.
“Do not worry. He is not as strong as he used to be.”
Yuda spoke in a low voice, but Jinmu seemed to have overheard them. The count nodded, removed his glasses, and took a small cloth from his pocket to wipe the lenses.
“You are right. I have grown much weaker than I was in the past. But I am still not weaker than you. In my opinion, listening to her is the wise choice. I am giving you a chance here, a chance to live. While my mind is clear, I do not want to kill anyone, especially people who do not have the power to kill me.”
“What if I am confident I can kill you?”
The count was silent for a moment, then spoke again.
“Adventurer, mercenary, soldier, it does not matter. There is something all of them must value. You must judge whether your opponent is stronger or weaker than you, and know when to fight and when to retreat.”
He put his glasses back on and met Yuda’s gaze.
“You have skill, but you lack that sense. Do you think this is worth trying just because you broke through one of my spells?”
Yuda nodded with an easy, shameless look.
“Of course. Seeing a man who used to control wraiths getting possessed by them instead, even if I did not know how you were in the past, it is obvious you are very weak now. Look. Your legs are shaking.”
Naively, Jinmu lowered his head to look at his legs. Naturally, they were not shaking at all. He just did not fully trust his own body anymore, so he checked. In that brief moment, Yuda stepped out from behind Jeanne, threw Altemia at him again, and drew his bastard sword from his waist.
“What a cheap trick…”
As the dagger flew at him like a bolt, Jinmu narrowed his eyes and opened his hand. The purple magic swirling around him rushed into his palm and spiraled upward, forming a single sword.
Clang!
He swung his sword and knocked the dagger aside. It did fly off, but the sword formed from his magic suffered heavy damage. His timing and angle had been perfect, and there had not been that much force behind the dagger. There was no real reason his sword should have been damaged. No reason except one. The weapon it had struck was far beyond ordinary.
“So, it is quite the weapon after all?”
He spent more magic to restore the sword, then glanced at the dagger buried in the floor where it had landed. After that, he lifted his eyes to look ahead and hopped back in a big step. At some point, Jeanne had charged in. She kicked off the ground, leaped, and slammed her lance down at the spot where he had just been.
Kwoom!
A deafening impact shook the air and shattered the bricks laid on the corridor floor, scattering fragments in every direction. Jeanne ripped her lance back out of the stone as if uprooting a weed, then charged straight at Jinmu with her shield held forward.
“What makes a Blue Lance Knight frightening is that defense and charge. If I just pin down your legs, there is nothing to fear.”
Jinmu shouted as he stirred up magic. Black shapes rose from the floor and rushed Jeanne, wrapping themselves tightly around her legs.
“..!”
A foul chill seeped through the gaps in her plated boots. Jeanne tried to lift her foot, but it would not budge, as if bound by iron ropes.
────!
A shrill, wordless sound rang out.
Then, accompanied by disturbing laughter, wraiths began to emerge from the walls, ceiling, and floor. At that moment, Yuda’s daggers flew in one after another toward Jinmu and the wraiths, embedding in the walls. Jinmu moved his body, dodging one of the three daggers aimed at him and knocking the other two aside with his sword. The wraiths, however, were impaled as they came through the walls, screaming as they vanished. Seeing the wraiths get sucked into Altemia, Jinmu’s eyes went round with curiosity.
“Oh ho. So it is not a normal weapon. It absorbs wraiths, or no, is it absorbing life force? Remarkable.”
He seemed to have misunderstood Altemia as just a magic item. Watching him lower his guard, Yuda smiled. This was the moment. While Jinmu was not fighting seriously, he had to finish it.
He activated Altemia’s skill. Not on all ten daggers at once, but only on the one that had ended up on the bare floor when Jinmu dodged earlier.
“Hm?”
Jinmu sensed something with his battlefield-honed instincts and glanced back. All he saw, though, was a sinister blood-red aura surging out of Altemia and rising like thorns. Before he could react, the spikes pierced his back and lifted him into the air.
“Ghh… wha, is this…!”
Altemia began to drain his life force in that state. He grit his teeth and furrowed his brow in pain. Just as Yuda was about to activate the skills of the other daggers around him, black shapes started pouring out of Jinmu’s body.
“Gah, aaaaaaaaah!”
The black shapes rushed to his side, wedging themselves between him and the blood-red spikes, severing Altemia’s grip as it sucked his life away. Yuda activated the other daggers’ skills as well, but the wraiths near Jinmu threw themselves into the path and blocked them with their bodies. More and more wraiths were summoned in a flood.
─────!!!
A roar of countless voices rang out.
Screaming as they appeared, the wraiths surged toward Yuda and Jeanne like a tidal wave. Yuda quickly summoned Altemia again, hurled it straight ahead, and activated 〈Liberation〉 for the first time. Five percent of his health was shaved off in one instant. Blood sprayed from Altemia’s blade and whirled around it, growing into a massive vortex that spun at high speed and shredded every approaching wraith. It was like watching fruit get pulverized in a blender.
The hundreds of wraiths that filled the corridor like a wave were all erased in a single strike. Each wraith only restored a small amount of health on its own, but when hundreds of them were absorbed at once, all the health he had spent until now was completely restored.
Still, there seemed to be no end to the wraiths Jinmu commanded. They kept appearing without pause. If he kept using 〈Liberation〉, he could handle them without too much trouble, but Yuda first cut away the wraiths binding Jeanne’s feet and watched the situation.
The wraiths that had been summoned after the first exchange did not attack. They simply drifted around Jinmu and chattered.
-Kihyahya, see that? Did you really think you could do anything without our help?
-To take a wound like that from some brat like him, all those who died before you will feel so wronged. Ah, myself included.
-Do you realize you almost died just now? You, who rolled across the battlefield for decades. Or were you trying to die on purpose, hoping for rest? Oh no, that will not do. That would be a problem. You are not seriously thinking we would let your soul go so easily, are you?
Ignoring the wraiths’ racket, Jinmu glared at Yuda with bloodshot eyes.
“Y, you damned brat. If you do not want to die, get out. Get out of this place, right now!”
At that sight, one of the wraiths placed a hand on Jinmu’s shoulder and whispered in his ear.
-Kihyaa. How noble. Why are you even thinking of letting that boy go? You could just add him to your consciousness as well. Or is it because he reminds you of your son? Now that I think about it, you did not include any boys around your son’s age among the villagers or adventurers you took into the ritual. You let them go. Of course, we chased them down and killed them afterward. Hahaha.”
“Shut… up. I am your master. I am the one who moves you. Do not oppose my will.”
-Oh dear. Have you forgotten that the control between us changed long ago? You did direct us once. But now…
Many of the wraiths that had been speaking flowed into Jinmu’s body as if to show him. He choked and staggered, then suddenly went completely still. Slowly, he raised his head and his lips curled up.
“We will be the ones to move you now.”
From Jinmu’s mouth came a voice that sounded like hundreds speaking at once.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
***Author’s Note***
Wow, seriously, Lost Ark.
It really turned me into an addict.
I leveled a Warlord to 30 and melee feels like trash… ranged is going to be the noble class at this rate.
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