Just A Bitter Liquid

“You don’t have the strength to move a single finger anymore, do you? It’s impressive enough that you still have consciousness. After that I’ll take you to the Holy Mother of the Stigmata, and have your chest pierced with the Primordial Cleric’s Holy Stake just like the Crimson Vampire Princess—then the mission will be complete.”

Selva took out a sealed leather mask with no gaps for the eyes or mouth.

Probably the mask was filled with poison as well, a mask meant to keep me restrained.

“My 【Apothecary】 and your 【Shadow Necromancer】 are both—rear-line types who leave it to their skills and don’t fight themselves. Once their skills are neutralized, a rear-liner like you is little more than a baby.”

He knelt down, bent over, and reached for my head to put the mask on――――

“—Is that so?”

――――At that moment.

――――Slash!

“Gah!?”

The greatsword I swung as I rose cleaved across Selva’s torso in a diagonal slash.

Selva panicked and took a backstep to put distance between us.

“Guh—w-why can you move!? Even accounting for your poison resistance, I should’ve bought extra time…!?”

Selva, his white coat stained with blood, looked bewildered.

Why can this guy move? — he thought.

“Sorry. This body is already dead; none of its bodily functions remain. Whether the muscles are paralyzed or the nerves are scrambled doesn’t matter. To put it bluntly—poison doesn’t work on me.”

I said that for effect, but in truth this was the first time I’d been poisoned since awakening as Undead.

But as I expected, I found that this body couldn’t be affected by poison.

However, to lull Selva into complacency I had deliberately acted like the poison was working.

I even went so far as to bite my tongue and fake spitting blood (……).

“That’s unexpected! 【Medicine Generation (Potion Create)】!”

Selva activated his skill.

His hand glowed, and a vial filled with potion materialized from nothing into Selva’s palm.

So this was the skill that generates potions in exchange for MP.

“I won’t let you!”

――Whoosh!

A throwing knife taken from Vanargand sliced Selva’s arm.

With his tendons cut the arm went limp, and Selva dropped the vial full of potion.

“Too bad… sorry, Kaine… I’ll be going ahead…”

“If there’s any reason you lost, it’s that you didn’t train your raw physicals. Get some exercise outside—you bean-sprout.”

――Slash!

I closed the distance in a single bound and cut him down with the greatsword.

Selva’s head flew through the air, and his HP dropped to zero.

“Sure, both you and I might have rear-line skill setups, but relying only on poison mist means you can’t move in situations like this and you lose.”

With my reflexes, I could have avoided or parried that diagonal slash from the prone position earlier.

I’m glad I trained my raw physical ability and reflexes instead of just relying on stats.

Thanks to Master Dullahan as well.

“Kukaka—what a splendid performance.”

Ekarraat emerged after the duel ended.

In the worst case, if my body had truly been immobilized by poison and I couldn’t use skills, Ekarraat—being a vampire—was in my shadow, so at least she could move.

And the fact she didn’t intervene until it was decided means she trusted me that much.

“So—what shall we do after this?”

“I’m done for today. Let’s go home.”

“Are you leaving the corpse as is? I thought we should clear the dungeon and dispose of the body?”

“No, it’s actually more convenient to leave it. This is a declaration of war. The Holy Church picked a fight with me. I accepted. From now on it will be real killing—I’ll leave the body deliberately to make that known.”

“So there’s no turning back now, huh?”

“That’s right.”

If we keep living in hiding like this, sooner or later our base will be found and Rin might get dragged into the fighting.

If that’s the case, it’s better for me to be confronted in a dungeon like this.

“Then how about using 【Necromance】 to send this corpse back to the Grand Cathedral?”

“That’s way too tasteless…!!”

“In the end it goes ‘boom’ with a bomb planted inside the body.”

I’ve become ageless and immortal and turned into the same kind of being as her, and my senses have dulled, but I still can’t keep up with the gruesome thoughts she sometimes shows…

“So—how many of those Knights of Stigmata are left?”

I forcibly changed the subject because she might actually rig a corpse with explosives.

The cleric Selva had called himself the Fifth Stigmata.

That means there are at least four more.

“The Knights of the Stigmata always number seven. Stigma One—Oswald Weidenreich—died in a mutual kill with me. No replacement was made. On the other hand, one member of the Hero party Sid killed, Stigma Seven—Lilium Morse—has already been replaced.”

So with old Oswald and this Selva we just killed gone—that leaves five.

“Even the Holy Church will have to back off if their top forces are wiped out. For now the goal is the annihilation of the Knights of the Stigmata.”

My hometown was burned to the ground by the Holy Church, but not everyone in the Church is pure evil.

There must be many good faithful people like Florence among them.

They were just carrying out orders from above to hunt the Shikai Tribe.

So the final goal will be—wipe out the Pope and the College of Cardinals, the top echelon of the Holy Church—and call it even.

“That aside—if poison doesn’t work, then alcohol and caffeine probably don’t affect me either, right…? So I was just getting drunk on the atmosphere all this time…?”

When I still had a living body, I never drank coffee or alcohol, so I never noticed.

How am I supposed to feel when drinking coffee from now on…?

＊＊＊

I returned to the Goblin Forest where Rin was waiting, aboard Vanargand.

“Ah! Master! Welcome back!”

“I’m home, Rin. Anything different?”

“Yes, everything is as usual!”

When I returned to the log house, Rin hurried over and took my long coat from me.

Judging by the reaction of the Goblin Lord I left as guard, there was no abnormality.

As suspected, the Holy Church seems to know my destinations but hasn’t pinpointed this base.

It looks like we can live a slow life here a while longer.

“Master, I’ve made coffee.”

“Hm, ah, ah…thank you.”

When I get home, I have a habit of drinking coffee first.

Rin makes coffee without being told… but I’ve already spoiled the fact that caffeine has no effect on my body.

Nevertheless—I drink the coffee.

A liquid that’s only bitter.

Yet, somehow it calmed my heart.

Ah, I see.

“Master? Is something the matter? Does it maybe not suit your taste?”

“No, it’s the opposite. It’s delicious today too—Rin.”

I gently stroked Rin’s purple hair.

Rin, puzzled yet happy, smiled shyly and looked up at me.

The reason I like coffee.

It’s surely because Rin carefully makes coffee for me.

This body is already dead.

It’s nothing but rotting flesh that regenerates endlessly.

But—my emotions certainly remain.

So I’m sure I’ll keep drinking coffee from now on.

As long as Rin brews it for me.

It’s something that works on me too, a very bitter――and gentle poison.

＊＊＊

Sid Ranorus left the dungeon, and in the now-uninhabited dungeon.

――Footsteps, footsteps, footsteps.

Footsteps.

A corridor where the dispersed poison was thinning.

A purple-haired girl—a member of the Ragiu Tribe—approached Selva’s corpse.

“……..”

“The Fifth Stigmata—it’s real.”

The girl stood silent before the corpse.

A man of the Shikai Tribe standing behind her spoke up.

Ragiu and Shikai, both minority tribes—an unusual pairing.

“Ru—bring the body here.”

“……..”

The girl lifted Selva’s corpse and handed it to the man waiting behind.

The man reached out, touched the body, and chanted――

“【Necromance】.”

＊＊＊

――A few hours later.

――The Holy Church’s proud headquarters, commonly called the Grand Cathedral.

The Fourth Stigmata—Kaine Kaiwell.

The Holy Knight, wrapped in bandages from head to toe and wearing a leather coat and a deeply pulled leather hat, appeared before the Grand Cathedral’s main gate.

“…Selva, is that you?”

They had received reports that Selva Arturus, who had gone to hunt down the eradication target Sid Ranorus, had returned in a strange state; the other Knights of the Stigmata were out, so Kaine handled it.

But Kaine was speechless at the sight of his old comrade’s altered form.

“S-sorry… Selva… I’ll go on ahead…”

Selva’s skin was discolored like a corpse—no, he was actually a corpse.

Manipulated by the Shikai Tribe’s skill, the severed head had been crudely sewn back on, and the scars were gruesome.

――Boom!

――Splat!

Selva’s corpse exploded!

A bomb planted inside detonated—blood, bodily fluids, organs—sprayed across Kaine’s body.

“…!?”

Selva, having lost most of his upper body, collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.

Kaine gritted his teeth beneath his bandages and clenched his fists tightly.

“Ranorus…! Not content with defiling souls with Necromance, but to toy with the dead as well—you bastard—I will personally put you to rest with these hands…!”