Volume 10 Chapter 9 The Kingdom Of The Dead
"...I don't like violence, though. It's not beautiful."
The Funeral Director shrugged and pulled out a skull from his chest.
A demonic, misshapen skull that seemed to belong to a king.
It was both terrifying and majestic.
"Cursed equipment...!"
"Just a little more, and Eliza will be complete. She'll come back to me. So――"
The Funeral Director put on the skull like a mask.
"――Don't get in the way, Phantom."
The Funeral Director's voice changed.
A cold, bloodless voice that seemed to come from the depths of the underworld, echoing in the mind like a dark stain.
"With the Reign Helia Crown, I'll command the dead――"
The Funeral Director spread his arms wide.
And then, he said.
"――Dance"
It was a quiet, solitary voice, like the sound of a small bell.
The voice was quickly swallowed by the darkness and disappeared.
For a moment...silence.
Nothing happened.
Was it a dud...? Just as I thought that, the moment passed.
Suddenly――the graveyard burst open.
"...!"
The ground swelled up like a boil, and a flurry of dirt and debris shot up.
As the stench of death grew stronger, white bony hands emerged from the ground.
From the graves, skeletons crawled out, one after another.
The red meat lump on the altar also started to move, squirming and twisting.
Waaaa, waaa, waaa...they began to let out a wailing cry.
It was an unbelievable sight.
The dead had revived.
"...The dead, revived..."
The bizarre scene, like a feast of the dead, left me breathless.
The power of the cursed equipment was indeed reckless, but this was beyond the norm.
The number of revived dead wasn't just 100 or 200.
An overwhelming number of dead were packed tightly together, shoulder to shoulder.
Equipment that controlled the dead...it was a power that even defied the gods.
"This is my power, Phantom."
The Funeral Director whispered quietly.
"Resurrecting the dead... Think you've become a god?"
"No, I'm not going to become a god or anything."
The Funeral Director chuckled low and quietly, "kukukuku".
"I'm the king."
As soon as the Funeral Director spoke, the restless dead bodies began to move in unison.
They pulled out crosses and held them like spears, forming a line to protect the Funeral Director and his "lover", pointing the crosses at me.
Their stance was like that of knights.
It was as if this was a kingdom of the dead.
"This is our kingdom, Eliza's and mine. A beautiful, eternal kingdom that will never perish..."
His voice was intoxicating, like it was stroking my eardrums, making me feel uneasy.
'Calm down, Noroa. That's just some cheap B-horror movie.'
"You think it's just for show... but the smell is the worst part."
'Then, do you want to smell my scent? It smells like strawberries, doesn't it?'
"Yeah, sure. You kind of smell like mold, though."
'What?!?'
Juju started to get angry.
It was annoying, but thanks to that, I was able to calm down a bit.
"Indeed... it's just a facade, after all."
I was deceived by the impact of what I saw.
But if I looked at it calmly, I would quickly realize.
The dead were just moving automatically according to orders, like puppets.
"You said you're the king."
"What about it?"
"But what you're doing isn't ruling the dead at all."
This was just a puppet show using the dead bodies.
"This is just a play."
"...a play."
The Funeral Director's voice suddenly became harsh.
"Your 'lover' is the same."
"......"
"That's not your lover. It's not Eliza-san."
"...Shut up."
"You're just using Eliza-san's corpse as a toy and playing with it."
"Shut up, I'm telling you!"
The Funeral Director roared.
"Eliza will come back to life I have the power to do it!"
His tone was strong, but it was as if he was trying to convince himself.
The Funeral Director was trembling, covering his ears and shaking his shoulders.
He must have felt it somewhere in his heart.
That what he was holding wasn't his lover.
"I can't forget that...! I can't forget that...!"
The Funeral Director gritted his teeth, strongly clinging to his "lover".
"――Kill that sinner!"
The command sounded like a scream.
At the same time, the dead, who had formed a cross, came rushing in.
It was like a battlefield scene.
But in the end, it was just a bluff.
The dead weren't monsters, nor did they have any equipment.
They had no power left.
'There's no need to take them seriously.'
"That's right."
I readied my sword and charged into the group of dead.
Even if I underestimated, it was 1000 against 1.
The numbers were overwhelmingly against me. It was like charging into an army alone.
But that was it. Whether it was 1000 or 2000, they couldn't stop my equipment.
I cut down the crosses one by one, blowing the dead away with my sword wind.
And in the gap that opened up, I moved forward.
I left the dead behind and pushed on.
Before long, I broke through the first wave of dead.
In front of me, there were dead guarding the Funeral Director.
They were densely packed, but not that thick.
At this distance, I could fly.
I stabbed the Slime Sword into the ground.
And then, I transformed it in one go.
Zwip! The blade extended.
With that momentum, my body was launched into the air.
I flew over the group of dead, going even further forward.
"...What?"
The Funeral Director's shocked voice.
I adjusted my body in mid-air, returned my sword to its original length, and readied it.
With the same momentum, I flew towards the Funeral Director――.
"No, stop...!"
The Funeral Director's scream and my sword's downward swing were simultaneous.
A vertical, straight-line slash from the sky to the ground.
I dodged the Funeral Director's attack, but my aim was never at him from the start.
Leaving behind a blue sword light that ripped through the night sky, that slash――.
――pierced the "Lover's" body.
"Ah..."
The Funeral Director reached out to his "Lover".
But before his hand could touch, his "Lover" split in two,
spilling out rotten fluids as it slowly fell.
"Eliza..."
The Funeral Director rushed to his "Lover's" side.
He seemed to have forgotten about my existence, abandoning the fight.
"――Wake up...please wake up..."
Even when ordered, his "Lover" didn't budge.
"This is strange...Eliza won't wake up...won't smile like usual."
He desperately tried to gather up his "Lover's" remains,
but the melted flesh oozed out between his fingers.
"Ah... I have to remake her... Eliza will die."
The Funeral Director held his "Lover's" remains to his chest.
But soon, he dropped the rotten flesh to the ground.
Perhaps he realized that the dead wouldn't come back to life.
In the end, the Funeral Director's curse was triggered because...he couldn't give up on the dead.
That's why I destroyed his "Lover".
By giving her a second death and making her unable to move even with cursed equipment, he would have no choice but to give up.
"Eliza..."
The Funeral Director collapsed, as if defeated, on the spot.
He could still have fought, but...he seemed to have lost the will to do so.
The dead surrounding him also fell to the ground with a thud.
The outcome was settled quickly.
"...Kill me"
The Funeral Director looked dejected, as if offering his own neck.
"If Eliza is gone, I have no reason to live"
"...I won't kill you"
"Is that so, you're really cruel, aren't you?"
The Funeral Director let out a low, mocking laugh.
"There's something I want to ask, though."
"...What is it?"
"Where did you get that cursed equipment?"
That's what I couldn't help but wonder.
This town has way too many cursed equipment.
And it's been increasing rapidly lately, I've heard.
It's like someone is intentionally spreading them around the town.
I like cursed equipment, and I think they're meant to make someone happy.
But if they're making someone unhappy, that's no good.
"...Is this about the Reign Helia Crown?"
The Funeral Director pointed to the strange, deformed skull covering his head.
I nodded silently.
"That's...――!!"
The Funeral Director tried to continue speaking, but then...
Something red burst out of his mouth.
I thought he was coughing up blood, but it wasn't that.
――It was a red butterfly.
"What...!"
It wasn't just one or 2 butterflies. They kept pouring out of the Funeral Director's mouth endlessly.
Glgglglglgl... The Funeral Director kept spitting out butterflies.
Before I knew it, his entire body was torn apart, and the red butterflies flew out all at once.
It was like his body was bleeding out butterflies.
The Funeral Director's body was being devoured by the butterflies, disappearing...
"...Ah"
The Funeral Director looked down at his body and smiled peacefully for some reason.
"...Eli, za... always, together..."
Thud.
He collapsed on top of "his lover", as if embracing her.
And... didn't move.
The Funeral Director was already dead.
The red butterflies danced above him, fluttering... as if mocking the two of them...
"Why..."
This red butterfly wasn't the Funeral Director's power.
Then, this means...
'It's to silent him, huh?'
"...Yeah."
The person who gave the cursed equipment to the Funeral Director—or rather, the mastermind behind the scenes.
They must have set up this "butterfly" to keep their true identity hidden.
To avoid revealing their true identity,
I decided to catch one butterfly to test it.
"Eh..."
With a pop sound, it burst. The butterfly lost its shape and turned into a mere liquid.
"...It's blood"
A butterfly made of blood ――a Blood Butterfly.
I don't know how it works, but one thing is certain, this butterfly looks familiar.
"This butterfly... has been in the city for a long time."
I've seen it often in Ravenyard, blending into the cityscape, always flying above our heads.
If this red butterfly is a familiar, it sends shivers down my spine. But I can't help but think about it.
"Have we been watched all this time?"
Even now... and at this very moment.
- Reign Helia Crown [Curse]
...The proof of the King of the Dead. It can control corpses, but it can't bring them back to life.
Rank: SSS
Type: Accessory
Effect: Death Command (control corpses as commanded)
Cost: Number of corpses × command time × 4, consuming remaining life.
* * *
Tonight is the eve of the festival.
Ravenyard is filled with the mood of a memorial service.
The festive noise, like a floating feeling, echoes through the night.
"How annoying..."
Chester is polishing his medals in the command room, snorting in disgust.
This is a low-class, unintelligent festival. It might be fitting for this trashy city, but...
Most importantly, this year's memorial service is crucial for Chester.
"Commander."
"Roreis?"
He notices Roreis standing there.
As always, she's standing upright, saluting with a serious expression.
However, she looks exhausted from preparing for the memorial service, but she doesn't show any signs of fatigue, reading her report as usual.
"Lady Milnas will be entering Ravenyard tomorrow."
"Hmph. So that fox woman is finally coming"
――You're still a child, you don't know true strength.
Suddenly, Milnas's words from back then echo in Chester's mind.
He still remembers, 5 years ago.
With Milnas's words, Chester was dumped into this trashy city called Ravenyard.
With his equipment slot blessed, Chester was walking on the path to success. But for him, it was a de facto demotion. Chester's honor fell to the ground, and even his friends who were jealous of him disappeared.
However, Chester didn't give up there.
He piled up his preparations, built up his strength, and steadily achieved results. He didn't choose his methods to do so.
To gain power, he even got involved with cursed equipment.
To achieve results, he spread cursed equipment throughout the city.
Ravenyard, where the Curse Site ―― a disposal site for cursed equipment ―― was located, was the perfect place to get his hands on cursed equipment. By using the pretext of "disposing of cursed equipment," it was easy to smuggle it in.
Everything was for the sake of returning to the stage of glory once again....
"...just a little more"
Recently, he couldn't achieve results because of the Phantom's interference, but if he could just hunt down that Phantom, Chester's achievements would top the Inquisitor's court.
If he became the top achiever, even Milnas wouldn't be able to deny it.
The strength of Chester Ville, the man.
The mistake of demoting him.
The only concern left was how the Phantom would move....
"Somehow, it's going well."
That too, was no longer a problem. The trap he had set for the "Immortal King" had worked well.
He had already grasped the Phantom's true identity.
Chester had an "eye" that could oversee the entire city, a special "eye".
If he knew their true identity, it would be easy to dispose of them.
Whether they were a hero to the citizens or not, he didn't care.
Taking away cursed equipment was the Inquisitor's job.
"...I'll bring the Phantom's head as a souvenir to the central government."
Chester stood up and headed out of the office.
A red butterfly fluttered after him.
"――Now, the fun festival is about to begin."
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