Previously
Ariella discovers the castle library is in ruins due to rain leaks and a lack of maintenance funds. Determined to save the records, she uses her own gold to fund urgent repairs through Groib. She then recruits Philly for a slime-hunting trip, securing four Orc skeleton guards from Richmond's laboratory to ensure their safety.
Richmond let out a low chuckle.
“The humans I met always showed sheer terror and disgust whenever they saw a skeleton moving before them.”
Groib nodded in agreement.
“The humans I saw were the same. Miss Ariella… is different from ordinary humans.”
“Precisely! It is astonishing that she laid eyes on a skeleton and immediately thought of employing it as a fighting force.”
What was this? Was that all they were talking about?
Ariella replied, her expression unchanged.
“Disgusting or not, we’re on the verge of ruin, so we must make use of whatever we can. Whether it’s a living dog or a dead one, so long as it guards the house well, that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
“…Haha! Hahahaha!”
Richmond seemed to be in high spirits. He let out a louder laugh than before.
“Whether a living dog or a dead one, so long as it guards the house well! That is true! That aligns completely with my philosophy!”
Richmond, to be exact, was dead as well. Consequently, the dead dog Ariella mentioned might refer not to the skeleton, but to Richmond himself.
Even so, Richmond showed not the slightest offense.
“It gladdens me to finally meet a kindred spirit who shares my vision. In any case, to answer your question, these cannot be used as a guard force.”
“And why not?”
“Because their summoning time is limited. They died a long time ago.”
Still, he said they would protect Ariella during the brief time they spent outside.
Ariella had countless questions.
What did the time elapsed after death have to do with the spell? Why did a zombie last longer than a skeleton? What were the advantages and disadvantages of using zombies as a fighting force, and why did mana wavelengths differ in corpse manipulation techniques?
The questions rushed through her mind in an endless stream. Her lips twitched silently as she tried to suppress the deluge of inquiries that threatened to burst like fireworks.
Richmond, seemingly noticing the signs of curiosity, spoke gently,
“Would you care, perhaps, to learn this spell? It is among the magic humans classify as the foulest sort.”
“Yes! Absolutely.”
She answered eagerly, as though she had been waiting for the offer, but quickly returned to practicality.
“Though I have other matters I must see to first.”
Richmond nodded in understanding.
“If that feeling remains unchanged later, come back to me. There will, of course, be a price.”
“A price?”
Did he mean there was no such thing as free lessons?
Richmond spoke, his voice tinged with an affection deeper than before,
“Even if you are contracted to the Demon King, you cannot obtain everything for nothing. For this spell is the fruit of my entire life and death, a masterpiece wherein I reached my absolute limits!”
His words were saturated with pride and passion, befitting someone steeped in the magical arts.
As Ariella reflected on his words, Richmond clasped his pale white skeletal hands together and added,
“So, when you are ready to pay the tuition, I shall be waiting for you then.”
Ariella decided to put off her many questions about necromancy for later and left the room.
When the fairy saw the skeleton trailing behind Ariella, she took fright and bounded up to cling to her shoulder.
“Miss Ariella! Weren’t you scared?”
“Scared?”
“I mean of that person!”
Ariella voiced the impression she had formed of Richmond.
“He’s far easier to talk to than I expected. His way of thinking is quite reasonable, too.”
“…What?”
Philly’s face contorted bizarrely, as though she had heard something utterly absurd, to the point that Ariella felt sheepish.
“What is it? Was what I said that shocking?”
“Yes. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone praise him.”
Philly lowered her voice and went on,
“In truth, most residents of the territory fear him. So much so that they avoid going anywhere near him.”
“Really? Why?”
“His reputation is dreadful.”
It seemed the skeleton had an even worse reputation than she had thought.
Rumor had it that his hobby was kidnapping residents of the territory and turning them into undead for his own amusement. But Ariella did not buy it so easily.
‘Would Ludvic truly turn a blind eye to that? Naturally the residents would flee if such rumors spread.’
She frowned slightly as she considered it.
‘…Then again, it’s true Ludvic isn’t all that dependable. And sometimes it seems as though his subordinates walk all over him.’
To begin with, how had he ended up saddled with a territory on the brink of collapse?
Once Ludvic crossed her mind, her thoughts scattered entirely, drifting far away from the skeleton.
Her head filled with that Demon King once more, and Richmond was momentarily forgotten.
A whisper from the fairy pulled her back to reality and steered her thoughts back on course.
“Even if you’re contracted to the Demon King, Ariella, you can’t let your guard down entirely.”
“Why?”
“They say the reason he came here is because he turned one of his superiors into an undead and was found out!”
“Hmm, really?”
Still, Ariella did not pay it much mind.
‘Rumors are always exaggerated.’
And if she could win Richmond over to her side, she might be able to learn that marvelous magic.
Ariella, consumed by excitement for the new spell, interpreted everything in her own favor.
“In any case, how much farther until we arrive?”
“We only have to cross that river. Do you remember the bridge I told you about?”
“Which bridge?”
“The bridge that keeps collapsing. It collapsed again recently, and they’re rebuilding it now. So, inconvenient as it is, we have to take a slightly longer path.”
Just hearing that was enough to kindle frustration in her heart.
Collapses happening again and again? In the kingdom she had lived in before, such a thing would be unthinkable.
Not only because lives would be at risk, but because severed roads meant the movement of goods stopped, and that was the lifeblood of a state.
Was it poor construction techniques?
“Roughly how often does that bridge collapse?”
“The last time… was just before the Dark Lord arrived, meaning about a year ago.”
Even so, a year was far too brief a span. It was as though they had built it with toothpicks.
Passing the bridge construction site where goblins were gathered, the party took a detour through a shallow stretch of the river.
“Ah, there they are. You can see the slimes from here.”
The two reached an area where slimes were slowly roaming about.
“Are you truly going to hunt them?”
“Yes.”
Ariella looked toward the Orc skeleton soldiers flanking them.
‘Why not try something now?’
She called out to the skeletons,
“Catch that slime!”
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The skeletons remained rooted in place, not budging an inch. An awkward silence settled over Ariella, Philly, and the skeletons.
Feeling acutely embarrassed before the fairy, Ariella tried prodding them.
“Dearest skeletons?”
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“Hey!”
There was still no response whatsoever.
‘Is it because they have no ears to hear with? No, that makes no sense. They understood Richmond’s words perfectly well…’
She tried everything after that, from direct orders to threats, but the skeletons remained motionless.
Apparently, they were programmed solely to guard her, refusing to carry out anything else.
‘Where exactly is the line drawn for the concept of “guarding”? What if I found myself in danger because they failed to carry out an order? Would they respond then?’
Had she more time, she would have conducted further experiments. But circumstances did not permit it.
Ariella glanced up at the sky, which had grown thick with dark clouds.
“Philly, you said you were capable of simple spells, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Looks like we’ll have to catch it ourselves.”
“Are we really doing this?”
Philly took the lead, chanting a spell first. Ariella watched her, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. What would fairy magic look like?
‘Oh?’
The way the magical energy circulated was similar to what she had read in spellbooks.
“Capture!”
The fairy wove a net of magical energy from her fingertips and cast it toward the slime. The net of invisible threads enveloped the slime entirely.
However,
Wiggle, wiggle!
Squish—!
Sensing danger, the slime reacted swiftly. Its soft, undulating body quivered as though fluid, then stretched and flattened out.
“Ah!”
The fairy let out a dismayed gasp. Meanwhile, the slime
slipped neatly through the mesh of the net and escaped.
Philly chanted the same spell once more.
“Capture! Capture!”
Yet the exact same thing happened again.
‘Ah, Philly has a good heart, but she…’
Ariella looked at Philly, who seemed on the verge of tears, and quickly understood the issue.
‘She’s clumsy at practical work.’
The net Philly wove had gaps that were far too wide and loose. Had she made it tighter and finer, she would have succeeded.
Why was she casting it that way?
Watching her, Ariella felt it was time to try her own hand at it.
“Huh? What are you going to do?”
“I’ll give it a try too.”
“Ah… all right…”
Philly seemed not to expect much. The human realm she had read about in books was practically a wasteland when it came to magic.
She had no idea how Ariella had learned magic, but she did not imagine her skill level would be high.
So, rather than offer any comment, she quietly stepped aside, not wishing to upset Ariella.
Ariella stepped forward and hesitated for a moment before beginning her incantation.
‘Could this affect Ludvic again?’
According to Richmond, Ariella’s latent power—her “capacity”—was vast enough to rival that of the Demon King.
Yet the abilities she had displayed thus far were very limited. If she attempted to wield powers beyond her current level, she had a tendency to involuntarily draw energy from Ludvic.
It was a rare condition, made possible only because Ariella’s “vessel” was abnormally large.
‘When I confronted Bivar, I think I was acting on pure survival instinct.’
In her sheer desperation, she had absorbed all of Ludvic’s energy without realizing it.
This time, however, she resolved to maintain absolute control over the amount of energy she expended.
Her energy began to swirl at her fingertips, weaving into an intricate, delicate form.
‘This isn’t enough… It has to be finer!’
Having practiced magic in secret within the human realm, she had never been able to employ large amounts of energy during her training.
Thus, her practice had focused on using minute quantities of energy and manipulating them with intricate precision.
If compared to an artist, she had not carved massive statues to be viewed from afar; she had carved pieces the size of a fingernail, etching into them the intricate orbits of the sun, moon, and stars.
And so, by virtue of natural talent and long years of training… Ariella possessed a phenomenal, almost unfathomable mastery over energy control.
Yet she did not yet know that this gift of hers was considered rare even among demons themselves.
“Capture!”
The moment the net of magical energy shot from Ariella’s hand… Philly gasped in stunned disbelief.
END