Chapter 834: Chapter 846: Old Acquaintances et
“Ahem, Your Highness, please mind your words…” Soveris awkwardly reminded from the side, “Don’t lose your royal etiquette…”
“Pfft.” Fran scoffed, curling her lips disdainfully, “If I paid attention to royal etiquette back then, would you even have a chance?”
“At that ti, I was a child blinded by your beauty, which is why I made such… transgressive moves…”
“And afterwards? Who beca so skilled that they could climb to my balcony blindfolded?”
“…My lady, I still rember every bump on the way up…”
“…Hmph… That so…”
Their conversation suddenly fell silent, and Lancelot and Little Isha, who had been eavesdropping with pricked ears, exchanged knowing glances. The Succubus nonchalantly continued his actions, rotating his wrists in the air in a special posture. Two vines extended with his movents, tightly wrapping around that bone again and again. Then he pulled out a handful of talismans, so for sealing spirits, so for concealnt, and so for subduing evil, and pasted dozens of them onto the bone before cautiously storing it in his dinsional bag.
“That should do it, right?” The Zombie Princess took the initiative to speak, “Let’s get out of here, this place feels really odd…”
“Wait a mont.” Soveris’s voice ca from another direction, “Co over here and take a look…”
Lancelot turned his head and saw the Elf leaning against the door on the other side of the bedroom, tilting his head toward the outside.
“I rember there’s a pretty large bathtub over there.” Lancelot tied up the dinsional bag and walked over, “But there shouldn’t be anything special about it…”
“The bathtub itself is nothing special.” The Elf shrugged, “But what’s soaking in it is a different matter…”
Everyone’s curiosity was piqued by his words, and they gathered around. Behind the door was a slightly smaller room, with a square marble bathtub on the floor and a statue of a multi-headed hydra at the deep end. Scalding hot water poured from the monster’s five heads, filling the tub below. Just as the Elf had hinted, a corpse was soaking in the bathtub. Although it was bloated from being in the hot water, Lancelot still recognized the deceased’s identity.
“Flor Coke, the manager of the Wolf King’s Den hotel, and rumored lover of Endier.” Soveris squatted by the edge of the bathtub, dragged the corpse out of the water, “Everyone in Chadegory Town knows that this gentleman represented the Madam’s will. Seeing him was like seeing the Baroness herself… Look at his complexion, and the dark bruises on his neck—this loyal servant was forcibly drowned, and the hand that held him down left long fingernails.”
“What a peculiar way to die, completely different from the ones we saw earlier.” Lancelot stroked his chin, “And if I’m not mistaken, this death should have happened more than half a day ago, when the Lich’s soldiers were still far from this building’s gate…”
“If everything is as it used to be, in a few more hours, the dead should resurrect in so deserted part of the forest.” The Elf placed his hands on his knees and stood up, “But after today, I fear many things will change.”
“I still don’t understand why the Baroness would kill him.” Lancelot looked sorrowfully at the bloated corpse on the ground, “To be honest, I had a pretty good impression of him, a very polite gentleman, though his attitude was sowhat arrogant.”
“We could ask him directly.” Little Isha suddenly spoke, her tone eager.
“Ask him directly?” Lancelot recalled their past adventures, “You an that Divine Art Alamir used to make the dead speak?”
“Yes, dead conversation.” Little Isha nodded repeatedly, “I just rembered that Lord Cranvo taught how to cast this Magic… Can I try it?”
“Go ahead.” Lancelot encouraged, gently patting Little Isha’s head (he was nearly a whole foot taller than her), “Even if it fails, at worst, I’ll put the corpse in the dinsional bag and bring it back for Alamir to resurrect…”
“It should be fine… um… the incantation…” Little Isha clenched her fist and gently knocked on her head, “Great Lord of the Dead, please help your follower, I need to cast a dead conversation…”
Before Lancelot had a chance to mock the overly straightforward ‘incantation’, a mysterious gray light appeared in the girl’s hands. The gray light rose like smoke and penetrated the corpse’s nose, mouth, and ears with the summoner’s gestures. After a spasm, the corpse, which had once belonged to the hotel manager, opened its mouth and spoke in a garbled, underwater-like voice:
“Hello… Welco… to the Wolf King’s Den… the best hotel… in the entire Kingdom…”
“This Magic only reactivates the corpse with a bit of life energy, it doesn’t bring the soul back.” Little Isha whispered to Lancelot, “He can’t understand any new information or make any judgnts. Brother, you can ask five simple questions, limited to things he knew in life.”
“Understood.” Lancelot nodded and addressed the corpse, “Mr. Flor Coke, hello. Who killed you?”
“Endier… my lover… betrayed… betrayed… betrayed…”
The corpse seed to be stuck repeating that word, so Lancelot quickly asked:
“Since she was your lover, why did she kill you?”
“I… no longer… had any value… and… I knew her secret… she had… long ago… prepared for it…”
“What kind of secret?”
The corpse’s face showed a painful expression, as if its body was instinctively resisting revealing the secret. Seeing this, Little Isha muttered sothing under her breath, and the mysterious gray light reappeared in her hand, gently caressing the bloated corpse, calming its expression.
“For a long ti… she’s been able to hear… Peyton’s whispers…” the corpse said slowly, “…the Lich promised… if Endier… helped it resurrect… it would marry her as the Queen… but the Madam… loved … loved … loved …”
“Of course, that’s undoubtedly true.” Lancelot played along with the reanimated corpse while continuing to ask, “Did she say anything to you before she killed you?”
“You are… a sacrifice… to the new god…” The corpse’s voice turned sharp, seemingly mimicking a woman’s voice, “It’s… your honor…”
Lancelot turned back, exchanging uneasy glances with his companions. Fran had ntioned sothing similar earlier; now it seed the situation was far more complex than they had thought.
“Brother, that’s four questions.” Little Isha whispered to Lancelot, “You can ask only one more.”
“I see… actually, I don’t really…” Lancelot hesitated, “Alright, in Bruto Frostforge’s na… Mr. Flor Coke, where are the Baroness’s treasures hidden?”
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