TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: None
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Sir Leshach is a church knight searching for black wizards.
He had just smashed so undead wolves attacking a shepherd.
So a necromancer popping up in this tiny village wasn't that strange.
But the villagers caught that necromancer?
Now that was f*cking weird.
"Any casualties?"
"None, sir."
Sir Leshach and Ian wore increasingly bewildered expressions.
Even if wizards are weak in close combat, they usually have so trump card up their sleeve.
But they caught a necromancer without a single casualty?
Either the necromancer was a total novice or a complete sucker. One of the two.
"Suspicious. Surrendering so easily to peasants."
Sir Leshach muttered.
"Could there be so ulterior motive?"
Ian offered a shallow deduction.
As a forr modern person, Ian wasn't unfamiliar with the existence of such bizarre necromancers.
Why? In novels and comics, the mastermind villain often lets themselves get caught to execute their secret plans.
Of course, based on his experience with countless dieval people so far, it was more likely just a screw-loose black wizard.
A mastermind villain deliberately getting caught by the police?
That only happens in comics.
In reality, 99% of criminals are idiots who get caught while fleeing from the cops.
A necromancer caught by villagers due to so ridiculous blunder...
That was the strongest contender.
"Where's this necromancer?"
"We, we locked them in the storehouse."
This was a small village, so they obviously didn't have a prison.
The sturdiest building, the storehouse, was serving as a makeshift jail.
"Oh my, what a ss this is..."
"Thank goodness the knight ca!"
As Sir Leshach and Ian passed by, the villagers whispered fervently among themselves.
They didn't even bother lowering their voices, as if not considering Ian human.
Thanks to that, Ian could hear the villagers' thoughts plain as day.
"I always felt sothing was off about that one."
"To think that young thing could kill soone...!"
'Young thing?'
Ian cocked his head slightly at the odd word choice.
Could the necromancer be a child?
"Be careful!"
The village chief opened the storehouse door with trembling hands.
His fear of the wizard was evident.
Especially since the opponent was a wizard dealing with the mysteries of death. Who knew what curse they might unleash if killed rashly.
So they had temporarily locked them in the storehouse as a stopgap asure.
"Are you the necromancer?"
Sir Leshach asked in a cold voice.
A voice answered from the darkness.
"...No."
Sir Leshach was slightly taken aback.
'A young girl?'
The necromancer's voice was that of a young girl.
Ian was more composed than Sir Leshach.
Thanks to his high dark affinity, Ian could see clearly through the darkness.
'It's a girl.'
Though she was buried in the shadows, Ian could see her clearly.
Jet black hair and pitch black eyes.
In stark contrast, pale white skin.
Was she around sixteen years old?
She looked like a middle schooler at youngest, high school at most.
"Co out and show your face."
Sir Leshach spoke with a growling voice, as if about to draw his sword at any mont.
Ian was slightly impressed by the voice dripping with killing intent.
Wow. Sir Leshach shows no rcy to black wizards!
He gives it his all even if the opponent is a child!
To be honest, in Ian's eyes, it looked a bit silly. A grown knight getting all worked up over a tiny girl.
But the others didn't see it that way at all.
No matter how young, the opponent was still a wizard.
No one could predict what kind of crazy sh*t they might pull.
"..."
The girl obediently revealed herself.
The soldiers gasped when they saw her face.
"Huh...!"
"A witch! That's a witch, isn't it?!"
Though still a girl, she displayed extraordinary beauty.
They all tried to deny it, but in the girl's pale face they glimpsed intense decadence, maturity, and a fragility that stirred protective instincts.
You lolicon bastards! Is that any way to talk about a high school girl?!
...One might think that.
But in reality, many girl group idols in South Korea debut at middle or high school age.
That's old enough to be considered attractive.
Biologically speaking, it's not that strange when you consider at what age people finish puberty and beco capable of pregnancy.
Of course, anyone getting horny over 12 or 13-year-olds is definitely a lolicon.
In this dieval fantasy world, marriages at 16 or 17 were quite common.
You could say there was a subtle line between cri and legality.
"Sir Leshach! Look! It's a witch! A witch!"
The girl stared at the soldier with her black eyes.
Her oddly lifeless eyes suggested she'd been through so hard tis.
"...I'm not a witch."
"D-don't talk to ! You witch!"
The soldiers shouted hysterically.
"Sir Leshach! There's nothing more to see! This woman is the necromancer who summoned those undead wolves!"
Ian expected Sir Leshach to draw his sword and cut down the girl in one stroke.
I an... that's the image of a church knight, right?
You're a heretic? Yep. Death sentence for you.
But surprisingly, Sir Leshach didn't draw his sword.
Instead, he observed the girl much more cautiously than before.
"Na. And state your cri."
"Maria. And the cri I committed..."
The girl who introduced herself as Maria trembled, then spoke with difficulty.
"...I committed murder."
"Murder?"
"Yes..."
---
---
Sir Leshach interrogated Maria thodically.
The girl's na was Maria.
She said she was a wandering child, taken in and raised by the village herb woman.
Until recently she lived with just the old woman, but after the grandmother died last year, she started working as a maid for so household.
Up to that point, it was the typical story of an orphan in the Empire.
In the dieval Empire where war and death were commonplace, parentless children were a di a dozen.
But the strange part ca next.
"Speak. Who did you kill?"
"...I killed my master's son."
The surrounding soldiers reacted violently to Maria's words.
"Such an ungrateful wretch!"
"They fed and sheltered you, and you killed their son?!"
Their reaction was understandable.
What could a parentless wandering girl do on her own?
She'd end up enslaved or selling her body.
The master who took her in was practically her savior.
Yet Maria killed that family's son.
"...It wasn't intentional."
Maria spoke calmly, looking down.
Her deanor only riled up the soldiers even more.
"That despicable b*tch!"
"Sir Leshach! Cut down this murderous whore right now!"
Sir Leshach cald the soldiers.
"Quiet, all of you. Maria. What do you an it wasn't intentional?"
Maria spoke as if sighing:
"I... blacked out for a mont. When I ca to, he was dead."
"You blacked out?"
She was claiming temporary insanity.
Ian pondered deeply.
It was a suspicious statent.
You close your eyes, open them, and soone's dead?
That's a pretty damn precise testimony.
"People think I... killed him with necromancy, so they locked in here."
Sir Leshach asked coldly.
"You're saying you're not a necromancer?"
Maria knelt obediently and answered.
"No, my lord. I don't know necromancy."
Naturally, Sir Leshach's gaze turned to Ian.
"Wizard Ian. What's your take on this?"
Ian shrugged.
"I dunno?"
Ian was lying.
In fact, he had a vague sense.
...Because he could feel the mystery of death surrounding the girl called Maria.
But Ian didn't tell the truth.
If that girl was really a powerful necromancer, they'd need to evacuate people before fighting.
She might decide to massacre the villagers and raise an undead horde.
If she was a real necromancer, she wouldn't have let herself get caught without any preparations.
That issue needed to be discussed privately with Sir Leshach.
Separately, the soldiers demanded a quick verdict.
"Sir Leshach! Stop listening to that b*tch's words!"
"We can't punish without proper investigation."
"She's obviously a witch! What's the point of listening to a witch?!"
"Hmm. From the way you talk, you must be a magic expert."
When Sir Leshach shot back, the soldier faltered slightly.
"Tell . Why do you think Maria is a witch?"
The soldier stamred his reply.
"Well... she looks different from us... her eyes and hair are pitch black! She must be a demon's bastard!"
Ian took splash damage from that statent.
"I see. What do you think, Ian?"
"Tch. Brings back childhood mories."
Ian briefly recalled the past.
Ah... those bittersweet mories of neighborhood kids chirping and teasing about Ian's black hair!
Ian's mood soured a bit.
"Black eyes and hair are common around the southern Coral Sea. Are you claiming the Coral Sea is a demon's lair?"
The soldier blubbered nonsense.
"Maybe it could be... possibly?"
"The Papal State is just north of the Coral Sea."
"Uh!"
Ian stared blankly at Sir Leshach.
Sir, why do you keep this moron around?
Sir Leshach calmly cleared his throat.
"His Holiness's soldiers aren't only recruited from near the Papal State. So haven't been to the Coral Sea, so try to understand."
"Even so, calling the Papal State's location a demon's lair is a bit much."
A re soldier had no chance of beating a wizard in knowledge.
The soldier imdiately kowtowed with a pale face.
"I-I'm so sorry! Please forget what I just said...!"
Tsk tsk. These ignorant Imperial bastards.
Ian keenly felt the pain of lacking public education.
If there had been a school in the neighborhood, he wouldn't have been teased for his black hair!
...Though if there had been a school, he probably would've been teased inside it.
The cri of being born with rare hair color.
Ian tossed out casually to Maria:
"Seems like you and I share the sa ancestors."
"...The sa ancestors?"
"Yeah. Golden Empire people."
"..."
Maria silently stared intently at Ian's face.
But Ian had already turned away.
"Sir Leshach. Let's go back."
"Alright."
Ian locked Maria back in the storehouse and headed to the village chief's house.
---
---
"How... did it go?"
The village chief asked as soon as he saw Sir Leshach.
He must have been quite curious about the outco, forgetting even to bow.
"Did you take care of her?"
Even to Ian's ears, the chief's tone was slightly grating.
Needless to say for Sir Leshach, the Pope's knight.
"How impudent. I'm not your underling, Chief."
"I-I'm sorry!"
Sir Leshach ignored the chief's words and explained unilaterally.
"It's true so suspicious circumstances were found regarding the girl called Maria. But we can't punish based on circumstances alone."
"...Pardon?"
The chief wore an expression like he'd heard alien language after listening to Sir Leshach's explanation.
Why... can't she be punished???
Circumstantially, Maria is a necromancer...
Just chop off her head and be done with it!
"From now on, we'll gather evidence that Maria is a necromancer."
"But Sir Knight! That b*tch is definitely a necromancer! What do you an evidence... what even is evidence?"
"You don't know what evidence is?"
"No, Sir Knight!"
"Then shut up."
"..."
The chief imdiately shut his mouth.
He was excellent at following orders, at least.
"Ian. I need your help."
Sir Leshach didn't trust what others said.
They were just squawking like parrots, "Maria's suspicious, let's kill her!"
But Ian was different.
Now was the ti a wizard's intellect was needed.
"I'll compensate you well. Please cooperate with the investigation."
Ian pondered briefly before answering.
"Alright. I'll help."
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