Hell Lich Respawn?

The Adventurer Guild was packed in the morning with adventurers looking for new requests.

Liricia and I also went to the bulletin board.

—I planned to take only gathering-type jobs today, since we would be exploring the Hell Lich’s dungeon afterward.

Liricia began taking request slips from the wall one after another.

“Medicinal herb gathering… and mushroom gathering. Ah, we can probably do Blue Quail Egg collection as well… and then…”

Well, leaving it to Liricia should be fine.

After all, she could find them one after another with her finger monocle.

It seemed to be an appraisal skill granted to an angel.

While she picked jobs, I absentmindedly scanned the requests too.

Then I spotted a startling request and couldn’t help speaking up.

“Huh?”

“What is it, Master?”

“There’s another Hell Lich request…”

“Are you saying there were two of those things!?”

Liricia’s violet eyes rounded in shock.

A man standing nearby turned and explained.

“You’re Alec, the Hell Lich Slayer, right? But yesterday’s was the one in the forest, yeah? There’s a rumor one showed up here in the city too.”

“What? A Hell Lich in the Royal Capital!?”

In thirty years of being a hero, I’d never once seen a Hell Lich appear in a populated area.

Liricia clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her voice.

“Isn’t it insanely dangerous to have something like that in the Royal Capital!?”

“Well, it’s just at the rumor stage right now. Still, there are several people who say they’ve seen it. There’ve also been a lot of suspicious disappearances. That’s why it’s flagged as an investigation.”

Looking closely at the request slip, I saw it wasn’t a subjugation request, but an exploration one. Difficulty D-rank.

Liricia tilted her head, her silver hair swaying as she asked:

“Could it not be the same Hell Lich as the one in the forest?”

“No way. A Hell Lich’s range of movement is tiny. They can’t even get a hundred steps away from their lair.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Even when they’re in castles or ruins, some won’t leave a single room, much less the building.”

I added that from the side.

Liricia lowered her gaze, her expression suddenly serious.

“There’s also the danger of other monsters being involved. Perhaps we should wait before deciding to live in the Royal Capital…”

“H-hey now, miss, hold up! You two already took one down, didn’t you!? We need you to stay! Please? Please?”

The man begged us in a panic.

If it turned out his comments had driven us away, he’d be glared at by everyone—apparently that terrified him.

I stared hard at the request slip.

—Something about this bothered me.

If multiple underling undead had been sighted, that I could understand, but having several boss-class Hell Liches running around?

Maybe, just as Liricia said, it was the same one.

It bothered me enough that I picked up the request note.

Even if we failed, I intended to accept it.

When Liricia finished choosing as well, we headed to the counter together.

The adventurers who’d been watching me began whispering.

“Another Hell Lich job…”

“Does he have some kind of grudge against Hell Liches?”

“The way he’s so chill is insane.”

“No wonder Barial’s too scared to show his face.”

—Huh? Come to think of it, the big guy with the axe isn’t here.

Well, that didn’t matter. I’d barely tapped him; he shouldn’t be injured.

Honestly, it was a relief not to have anyone trying to pick a fight.

When I handed the request slips to the receptionist, she raised one eyebrow.

“Gathering quests and… another Hell Lich, I see.”

“Hm? Is it bad to take similar requests back to back?”

“No, that’s not a problem. However, in this case, we aren’t even certain it’s really there…”

“There are eyewitnesses, right? What kind of Hell Lich was it?”

“They say it was a black skeleton in a red robe that appeared in the city.”

“…That sounds different from yesterday’s.”

I lied.

We hadn’t looted the dungeon yet and still had to claim the treasure.

But there was no mistake—it was the same one.

The receptionist’s shoulders slumped in disappointment.

“I see… I hope it turns out to be just a mistaken sighting.”

“If we can’t find it and fail the mission, what happens? Is there some kind of penalty?”

“In this particular case, nothing. For time-limited requests placed by a client, a compensatory fine may be charged, but not here.”

“Got it… Then we’ll take these for today.”

“All right—here are your adventurer cards back.”

With a clank, she ran them through the press to form a party and imprint the quest details, then handed them back.

We left the guild.

Morning sunlight shone on the cobblestones of the main street.

As we walked through the crowds, Liricia leaned in close and whispered softly.

“It was the same, wasn’t it.”

“Yeah, the same one we defeated yesterday. But given a Hell Lich’s habits, that shouldn’t be possible… Maybe that dungeon has something to do with it.”

“That seems highly likely… Let’s go buy a lantern and some rope before we head there.”

“Good idea.”

Before going to the forest, we stopped by a general store and an outfitter to buy dungeon exploration supplies.

Lanterns and rope, blankets and matches, canteens, small pouches and large bags for our collected items.

We also bought cases so the gathered eggs wouldn’t break.

Altogether, it came to 36,000 Gort.

Remaining funds: thirty-two large gold coins, eleven gold coins, eight large silver coins, and eight silver coins. 3,318,800 Gort.

In the forest southeast of the Royal Capital.

With our dungeon gear stocked, Liricia and I made our way to the Hell Lich’s cabin.

On the way, Liricia used her finger monocle to harvest herbs and mushrooms, and we advanced deeper into the forest.

Today, she also examined the branches of the trees.

“Ah! —There they are.”

Suddenly, she spread her wings with a soft whoosh and lightly kicked off the ground.

That alone sent her gliding up to the high boughs.

With a faintly sorrowful smile, Liricia reached toward a bird’s nest.

“I’m sorry—may I take just one?”

—It was the gathering request for Blue Quail Eggs.

Liricia, having secured an egg, spread her wings and glided back down.

With shafts of light slanting through the leaves of the green forest, the angel with alabaster wings flying through the air looked beautiful enough to belong in a religious painting.

—To think I’m allowed to hold this breathtakingly divine angel in my arms… I can’t help but feel my life was worth living after all.

While I stood there staring, entranced, Liricia landed and approached me with a puzzled tilt of her head.

“What is it, Master?”

“I was just thinking how beautiful and adorable you are, Liricia.”

“O-oh, honestly! Please don’t praise me so suddenly!”

Liricia turned her head away, cheeks flushed.

But I didn’t miss the way her white wings gave a delighted flutter.

It was just a shame that she had to fold them away again so quickly.

—Still, it couldn’t be helped; it would be a problem if anyone saw her.

By late afternoon, the sun had dipped quite a bit.

We finally reached the Hell Lich’s cabin deep within the forest.

At this point, there wasn’t a single other adventurer in sight.

Apparently everyone else finished their quests further back.

Because my Serâge kept me from encountering enemies, we could cover several times the distance of other adventurers.

“Took longer than I expected.”

“I’m sorry, I kept stopping to gather things…”

We had collected herbs, mushrooms, and bird and insect eggs whenever we found them.

That had slowed us down a bit.

I patted Liricia’s head as I replied.

“No, it’s fine. I’m happier when you work that hard.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Blushing, Liricia leaned against me.

Staying close together like that, we entered the cabin.

Inside, the room was still neat from the tidying we’d done yesterday.

I opened the wardrobe at the back of the cabin; darkness spread out inside.

—But.

I immediately shut the doors again.

Beside me, Liricia tilted her head, her silver hair flowing smoothly.

“What is it, Master?”

“Let’s eat an early dinner first. It’ll be easy to prepare it here.”

“Ah! You’re right! —I’ll start right away!”

With her white habit swaying, Liricia dashed off.

At the kitchen, she lit the firewood and looked around.

“Where do we get water?”

“There was a pump out back, if I remember right.”

“I’ll check!”

Liricia’s thin arms and legs pumped as she ran.

I followed her, and we found a hand-pump well behind the cabin.

Liricia wrapped her slender arms around the lever and pulled with a creak.

At first it just clanked uselessly.

I stepped in to help.

Gradually, reddish water began to flow.

Then, finally, a torrent of clear water gushed out.

“There it is! This should be drinkable!”

“Yeah, that’s good water.”

We filled a bucket and carried it back to the cabin.

Then we prepared dinner.

Hot soup and steaming sausages.

The bread was plain, but it went well with both soup and meat.

“It’s delicious!”

“It’s thanks to you, Liricia.”

“No, anything for you, Master.”

Smiling, Liricia munched on her bread.

Eating beside her, I found myself thinking yet again just how impossibly cute this angel was.

When we finished our early dinner, I felt satisfied.

So satisfied that another desire rose up to be fulfilled as well.

After watching that radiant angel all day, I wanted to hold that softness in my arms.

There was a bed that seemed unused, and there was no sign of anyone watching.

—But even so, we wouldn’t.

There was something more important we had to do first.

I took hold of Liricia’s slender wrist.

Her violet eyes widened as she looked up at me.

“W-what is it, Master?”

“Let’s get in some post-meal exercise.”

When I stood, still holding her hand, Liricia flushed and grew flustered. Her white habit shifted out of place.

“N-no, Master! We can’t make love in a place like this! We never know when monsters might attack! And doing something so exhausting right before dungeon exploration is…!”

She rattled off her protests in a rush—but even as she spoke, she was tugging at her clothes to expose her cleavage and drifting toward the bed, the opposite of what her words implied.

“What are you talking about? I want to drill how we’ll fight together inside the dungeon.”

“Ah—”

Liricia lowered her gaze, face blazing all the way to her ears.

I brought my lips close to one of those adorable ears.

“Or would you rather we confirmed our love on the bed first?”

“Uu… Master, you’re so mean…”

Her violet eyes shimmered with tears as she looked up at me.

—With such a tempting expression, I almost pushed her down right then and there.

When that dignified beauty crumbled, she became so cute it hardly felt of this world.

But precisely because she was that precious to me, I wanted to make sure our coordination in the dungeon was perfect.

I wanted to protect Liricia, and I absolutely would not lose her.

Reining in my feelings with effort, I took Liricia’s hand and led her outside.