Necromancer Of The Black Bible (126)

Verdin flinched.

Because the girl was staring straight at him.

But that couldn’t be.

Verdin was under Natasha’s corporeal-illusion magic, so ordinary eyes couldn’t perceive him.

Besides, they weren’t even moving.

It was hard to imagine someone seeing him in that state.

Yet the girl kept coming closer and shouted.

“Sir Knight! Holy Maiden! Please! Help us!”

[Knight? Holy Maiden?]

Natasha seemed to sense something odd as well.

She turned to Verdin and asked.

[That child seems to be able to see us.]

[……]

[Shall we help?]

Verdin wasn’t keen on helping strangers on a whim.

They were third parties unrelated to this fight.

He didn’t want to meddle and make things worse.

He also didn’t want to draw his sword here.

‘No matter how I look at it, it’s unnecessary.’

Just as he reached that conclusion, the girl who had come right up shouted.

“Sir Knight! I know who you’re looking for! I know where she is!”

Those words struck something deep inside Verdin.

‘Her?’

At that moment Verdin stepped forward two paces, drew his sword, and in an instant cut down the three soldiers trailing the girl.

Shaak-

With a chilly whisper of wind, Verdin’s figure revealed itself.

He was wrapped in a tattered cloak like a rag.

Warm blood still dripped from the blade he had just drawn.

Then a familiar voice came to his ear.

-To stain your blade with blood for something like that… you’re still far from it.

It was William’s voice.

Since joining Damian, Verdin had been linked to William.

To keep the promise made at Shadowpeak.

<If such an opportunity arises, would you consider learning from me?>

<If such an opportunity truly comes, I would gladly accept your instruction.>

<Can you swear it?>

<I… swear it.>

For this reason, William, who had been linked to him after he received the spirit-body, volunteered to be his master and had been passing on secret techniques whenever possible.

-Remember this. Before you lift your sword, set your mind. Your mind seems unsettled now.

[I’ll hear it later.]

Verdin brushed off William’s words and approached the girl to ask.

“Who are you?”

The girl stared up intently at Verdin’s face.

Surely to a human, Verdin’s appearance would be grotesque.

It would look like an invisible man wearing a ragged cloak and holding a sword.

But the girl was looking straight into Verdin’s eyes.

She glanced at Natasha, who had come right beside her, then bowed on one knee in greeting.

“I’m Laerin. Laerin Windsoar. A Sylph… in other words, an Air spirit.”

“An Air spirit?”

“So you could recognize us?”

When Natasha revealed herself and asked, Laerin nodded.

“When the incident occurred, the Sylphs found you. So I asked them to lead you here.”

Verdin recalled the earlier situation.

The presence he had felt while resting in the pine forest.

That presence had definitely been strange.

‘It was oddly distinct.’

At the time he thought his senses were just sharp, but knowing it was the Sylphs’ influence made sense.

Sylphs can carry sound far on the wind.

‘Even so, I distrust this child’s motives.’

She had dragged them into a fight.

She looked like a girl, but she wasn’t ordinary.

Moreover, as far as he knew, spirit mages were rarer than wizards. Not something a child would pick up by chance.

Verdin lifted a hand and brushed Laerin’s thick brown hair back.

A pointed ear tip was revealed.

‘An elf, then.’

Then everything made sense.

Even looking so young, an elf would easily be over a hundred years old.

Verdin lifted his still-bleeding blade close to Laerin’s throat and asked.

“You’ll answer for what you said earlier.”

Laerin nodded gravely.

“I— I’m not lying.”

“Then tell me who I’m looking for.”

At Verdin’s command, Natasha also focused on Laerin.

Laerin glanced between them and then spoke cautiously.

“You’re looking for Princess Lillian, aren’t you? In… the Kingdom of Altera.”

“How did you know that?”

“The Sylphs… told me. They said you were searching for Princess Lillian back at Shadowpeak.”

Verdin pressed his sword closer and asked.

“Do you know where the Princess is?”

Laerin nodded, and Verdin asked again.

“Where is she?”

“That’s…”

Laerin swallowed and continued.

“If you save us… I’ll… tell you.”

The last words were barely a mosquito’s whisper, but Verdin and Natasha heard them clearly.

Verdin looked at Natasha; she nodded.

“Do as you like. It’s a lead you barely found, after all.”

“I’ll finish quickly and be back.”

“You can take your time.”

Verdin bowed slightly to the faintly smiling Natasha and moved forward.

Laerin followed behind him, whispering.

-This place is called Silvandel. It’s known to the world as the ‘Silvanite’ mine. Every year we mined Silvanite and gave it to them, but apparently it wasn’t enough. So they came and ruined our homes like this. If we let them live any longer…

[Enough.]

Verdin turned to Laerin and said firmly.

[I have no interest in your plight.]

Laerin’s eyes wavered for a moment.

She briskly nodded and answered.

-I understand what you mean. This is a bargain, then.

[Yes. It’s a deal. Promises must be kept.]

-I will keep it.

Verdin met Laerin’s resolute gaze once more before moving on.

Now that the screams that had been coming from all around were only from one place, it seemed the situation had been largely sorted.

-It’s over there.

Laerin’s voice whispered at his ear.

Even though she was easily ten paces away, her voice sounded so close it seemed she was using the Sylphs’ power.

As Verdin stood still, the wind gently pushed him, and he followed where it guided him.

So he approached the scene where a hulking armored knight was committing slaughter.

The village was a grisly sight.

Dismembered corpses lay strewn along the roads, and cries rang out here and there.

Laerin went to those still clinging to life and cast healing spirit magic.

A fresh breeze from the woods swept over the wounded, and their wounds closed as if washed clean.

That sight seemed more potent than the healing power of the priests of the Kallios Theocracy.

-I can’t revive the dead. Please stop that thing before it kills more.

Verdin looked toward the opponent.

The hulking knight had skewered a struggling man with a halberd and was twisting his neck.

Crack!

With a chilling sound the man’s neck went limp, and the knight who pulled the corpse from the halberd looked at Verdin.

“Huh? What’s that?”

A normal reaction.

Verdin’s appearance was strange no matter how you looked at it.

The fluttering cloak and the sword hovering in midair made him look like a ghost.

So most screamed and fled, but the hulking knight did not.

Instead he doubted his own eyes.

“Am I finally possessed by a demon? I’m seeing things?”

The knight lifted his helm and peered at Verdin several times.

Then the regular soldiers beside him spoke.

“A ghost guarding this place?”

“It’s a forest with spirits, so ghosts are expected.”

“Perfect timing. Let’s sweep them all away.”

“With numbers like this, any ghost could be defeated.”

The soldiers gathered in groups of three and five.

The hulking knight also advanced toward Verdin.

Verdin leisurely surveyed the surroundings.

‘Twelve soldiers and one knight. The rest are just watching.’

The soldiers’ skill was negligible.

The knight was no different.

They were just large, their aura felt no stronger from the heart.

‘At most, the lower edge of Expert level?’

Then William’s voice sounded in his mind.

-This time swing calmly. You must read the grain.

[I will try.]

Verdin lowered the sword in his right hand toward the ground.

Aura began to frost the once-bloodstained blade, but nobody here noticed.

‘Can I slice them in a single stroke?’

He asked himself that, then shook his head.

Because of the advice he had heard from William before.

‘Do not doubt.’

Doubt dulls action.

That slight dullness is what leaves blood on the blade.

Verdin focused wholly on the sword.

Though stray thoughts had wandered his mind until now, the blowing wind aided him.

It blocked hostile strikes coming from all sides and let him feel his own energy fully.

Verdin quietly waited for the enemies to approach.

So they would enter his personal ‘range.’

And when they had all come close enough.

Verdin swung his sword.

Sshk-

A small sound brushed past them all.

The knight and soldiers approaching him had no idea what had brushed by.

Then the head of the halberd the knight held clopped off.

“What the—?”

The knight reflexively looked down at the halberd and soon realized he hadn’t seen it wrong.

It wasn’t the halberd head that had fallen—the right forearm holding it had been severed clean off.

“Wh-what on earth is this?!”

The knight couldn’t finish his sentence.

A straight fissure appeared across his chest, and along it his body began to split.

Meanwhile other soldiers fell with screams, split in two on the ground.

Verdin inspected the blade he held.

Until just a moment ago the blade had been caked with dark blood, but now it was different.

A spotless blade shone coldly, without a single stain.

As he confirmed this, William’s voice came again.

-Not bad.

[It wasn’t me.]

This was clearly the work of the Sylphs.

Concluding that, Verdin casually sheathed his sword.

With his sword back in its scabbard, Verdin spoke to Laerin watching from afar.

“Don’t ever do something like this again.”

“What did I even do…”

Laerin tried to protest, but Verdin shot her a killing glare and she fell silent.

Verdin looked at her and asked.

“Now it is your turn. Where is Princess Lillian?”