The Hero Party's Pack Mule

[Chapter 1] Born of the SHADOW Necromancer

“Monster spotted, one orc ahead!”

“You’re in the way, slowpoke! Move!!”

“Guh…!”

S-Rank Dungeon――【Crimson Night Moon】, lower level.

“Take this! 【Blade Blast】!”

“GIGYAA――――!?”

I, who walk at the front for scouting and trap searching, was shoved by an ally walking behind me and fell over.

The party member who shoved me――Heavy Warrior Garen swung his greatsword down.

The greatsword skill struck directly, crushing the orc’s skull.

“Ouch…”

Pushed aside, I stood up, nursing my body covered in bruises.

Then Garen, who felled the orc with one blow, punched my head, and I landed on my backside again.

I had done my scouting job properly, yet this treatment…

“It hurts…”

“Sid, you bastard! You’re always slow, you puke-scorch! You’re useless in battle, so when a monster shows up, step aside quickly!”

“I’m sorry…”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it, trash! Hey! Hurry up and recover the Magic Stone from the corpse! Do I have to tell you every single time!?”

“Y-yes.”

Garen is a huge Heavy Knight standing 180 centimeters tall, and his shouting is more intimidating than some monsters.

I quickly pulled out my knife, shoved my arm into the orc’s corpse, and searched for the Magic Stone.

Adventurers mainly make a living by selling these Magic Stones.

Maybe annoyed by the orc’s blood splatter, Garen was rubbing his arm across my back.

I wanted to say I’m not a towel… but if I said that I’d obviously get another hit.

“Hey Sid~! You took a pretty spectacular fall earlier, but is the stuff in your pack okay? If my favorite cup is broken you’ll have to pay me back!”

The Mage Lilium let out a shrill, high-pitched voice.

Despite being only fifteen, the same age as me, she’s an orange-haired beauty hailed as a genius.

“I think it’s fine, but…”

“‘Think’ what do you mean ‘think’! Check it right now!”

“Bringing a ceramic cup into a dungeon in the first place is wrong—if it’s that important, you should carry it yourself—uggh!?”

“You dare talk back for a slave? How presumptuous~ ❤”

――Gichigichi gichigichi!!

“Guh… it hurts… I’m gonna die…!”

Lilium channeled magic into her ring.

Then the slave collar around my neck tightened.

Unable to breathe, I could only crawl on the ground and writhe in agony.

“Enough, Lilium. Sid is doing well despite being incompetent. Among uneducated slaves he’s relatively decent. I don’t want to waste time teaching a new slave the tasks.”

“If Sylvan says so, can’t be helped~ ❤”

The party leader, class Hero Sylvan, scolded Lilium.

Lilium immediately switched to a coaxing, catlike voice and cuddled up to Sylvan.

If you stayed in this party, you’d notice Lilium likes Sylvan whether you wanted to or not.

The party leader Sylvan is a rare class――the Hero, a blue-haired handsome young man.

When gazed at by his ice-cold eyes, every girl apparently falls for him.

On top of that, he is the country’s second prince.

“Geh! Huff, huff!”

“……..”

Being berated by Garen, strangled by Lilium, and scorned by Sylvan, the one who neither joined in attacking nor comforted me, but simply stared in silence, was the last member, the Assassin-class Ruru.

She is a girl from a southern minority tribe, notable for her brown skin and purple hair.

I’ve hardly ever seen Ruru speak.

She’s that taciturn.

The four above are an A-Rank Adventurer party――the Azure Sword Company.

They are an elite adventurer party personally selected by the king to clear one of the five S-rank dungeons on the continent.

They’re also called a Hero party.

The leader and second prince, the Hero Sylvan.

Heavy Warrior Garen, seconded from the Royal Knight Order.

Lilium, a Mage affiliated with the Holy Church.

The Assassin from a southern minority, Ruru.

And me, the pack mule and Magic Stone collector, Sid Ranorus.

Well, strictly speaking, I’m not a party member.

I’ve been a slave since childhood, and while I stood in the slave market, I was bought by the Hero party who were looking for a pack carrier.

The slave collar I’m wearing is designed to tighten when the master channels magic into the master’s ring he wears.

It marks you as a slave at a glance, and if a slave rebels, it lets them be punished immediately.

“Phew, Magic Stone collection.”

Somehow I managed to take the Magic Stone from the orc corpse and put it in my pack.

“Finally done, slowpoke! Then move in front quickly! You’re only good for bait anyway!”

“Y-yes…”

“Ahaha~ ❤ Sid’s wobbling so much~ ❤ Hilarious~ ❤ Do you have any friend corpses today?”

“Well, I actually prepared one, but…”

“I smashed it. His skill stinks and I couldn’t stand it.”

“For sure, that garbage class called 【Necromancer】—useless and smelly too ❤ Garen, nice one ❤”

My class is 【Necromancer】.

It’s the ability to manipulate corpses.

That said, with my skill level I can’t control the orc corpse in front of me.

It’s a skill that can only control monsters weaker than oneself, and at my low level the strongest I can control is about goblin level.

This morning, as pack mule and decoy, I woke up early and hunted goblins in the woods to prepare corpses, but after Garen said “That skill’s gross!” and mangled the corpse with his greatsword, he also clubbed me with the flat of his blade.

“We are a noble party personally ordered by His Majesty the King to clear an S-rank dungeon. We can’t show the public a Necromancer skill that was forbidden until ten years ago. Garen’s judgment is correct.”

Surely I’ll be worn out, my body reaching its limit, used up until I die.

My homeland is the Shikai Tribe, where Necromancer skills are born.

They were a tribe notable for their rare black hair and black eyes.

But the skill to control the dead was treated as forbidden magic for being against the doctrines of the state church, and until ten years ago they were persecuted.

Because the hunting of the Shikai Tribe was conducted so flagrantly, public criticism arose and they are no longer officially persecuted, but the surviving Shikai are mostly slaves and very few free Shikai remain.

My homeland was destroyed by the Holy Church’s hunting of the Shikai; my parents and siblings were killed, and my life was decreed to live as a slave forever—does it even have meaning…?

With such melancholy thoughts, I adjusted the now rather heavy pack on my back and stood up carefully so as not to fall.