Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 213

213: A Return to the Old Nest

Rebecca and Harken, leading the death knights of the Sixth Army, arrived three days after the subjugation of the husk.

Their skeleton horses pulled open wagons. Taking advantage of the fact that they were all undead, they had apparently skimped on travel expenses. Though I had left all the arrangements to them.

From beyond the gate, I heard Rebecca’s voice.

“The Sixth Army, Rebecca Stagnet and fifty-one others, have arrived! Requesting permission to enter!”

“Permission granted. —Welcome back, Rebecca-sama!”

As I watched Rebecca and Harken lead the others, dismounting from their wagons and entering in two columns, I felt a surge of emotion.

Liz, Eldritch-san, Flora-san, and I were there to greet them. She bowed her head slightly.

“It has been a long time, Eldritch-sama. It seems you and Flora are as close as ever.”

“I have heard of your accomplishments. The mock battle with the Second Army, the development of new equipment. And that you, an undead, stood before the Order of Evangel.”

Eldritch-san’s face broke into a smile—well, I imagined it did—as he listed her ‘accomplishments’ since she had joined the Sixth Army.

“Please forget about the mock battle. The new equipment was just a realization of the Lord of Disease’s idea, and I only provided magical support from the ramparts against the Holy Knights.” Rebecca was so modest.

“The Sixth Army… how is it? It’s not a bad workplace, is it?” Flora-san asked Rebecca, with a slightly hesitant glance in my direction.

“…No.” There was a slight pause. But she continued, with a small, wry smile.

“It’s a good workplace.”

Since her superior was right in front of her, there was probably a bit of social nicety in her words. But if she truly had a complaint, now, with her former supreme commander and vice-commander, and the entire undead army, right here, would have been the perfect opportunity.

For someone of her caliber… a transfer request, with a valid reason, would have been approved smoothly. She was a veteran, and undoubtedly in high demand.

Rebecca smiled.

“Our master treats the undead with no prejudice.”

“Oh? I look forward to hearing more about that from the others.”

“…They will be happy to tell you.” Another slight pause. I’m starting to get a little worried about what they’ll say.

And she turned to me.

“—It’s been a while. The journey was smooth. And of course, not a single one was lost.”

“Yes. —Yes.”

Her voice, no longer the formal tone she used with Eldritch-san, but her usual voice. I couldn’t help but hug her tightly.

“Hey, let go. …What’s wrong?” Rebecca, who had been trying to push me away, stopped.

“I saw… the ‘husk.’”

“…Yes.” She nodded and gently patted my head, which was still high, even as I was hugging her.

“I don’t know its origin. But it was probably a new one. Harken and I are veterans, and we won’t let the new recruits make that kind of mistake.”

Her words were convincing.

When one became an undead… there was sometimes a period of confusion.

If someone was there to act as a ‘teacher,’ the confusion would be minimized, and the worst-case scenario, where they would go on a rampage, indiscriminately attacking and absorbing mana, and becoming a ‘husk,’ would almost certainly be avoided.

A necromancer like Rebecca could perform a set of procedures on a corpse, from the ‘awakening’ as an undead to the ‘education.’ And that was, in a sense, what they called ‘summoning.’

A high-level necromancer could even animate a soulless corpse, which would not normally be resurrected as an undead, but it would be an undead, not an undead ‘creature.’

Since Rebecca, a high-level necromancer, had said so, it was probably true.

I released my hug.

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

“I’m not angry.”

“Hugging our princess…?”

“To hug Rebecca-sama? So, if you become a supreme commander…”

“Is that a common occurrence in the Sixth Army?”

“I’m so envious…”

Flora-san, in particular, was looking at me with a mixture of envy and admiration.

“Stop calling me a princess, Flora.”

“Ah, this is an official occasion. We can talk more later.” Flora-san switched back to her competent vice-commander mode.

“Harken, it seems you have finally found a master. She must be a wonderful master, even more so than I.”

“Eldritch-sama, do not tease me. But yes… she is as fond of her vice-commander as you are.”

“I see.”

“Indeed.”

“You two are close.”

“Hmm… he is my ‘teacher.’ His manner of speech has rubbed off on me.”

“Really? I thought that old-fashioned way of speaking was because you were from four hundred years ago.”

“The spoken language of four hundred years ago is not so different from today. How long have you lived, I wonder.” Harken looked at Eldritch-sama.

“I have forgotten the time before I met Flora.”

Eldritch-sama declared, his voice firm. How cool.

“Master… you’re not thinking of imitating Eldritch-sama’s words, are you?”

“Liz, when did you learn to read minds? I thought assassins could only read lips.”

“This is a special case, for a terrible master.” Liz declared, her voice firm. Cute.

“I wouldn’t imitate him, but I have forgotten the time before I came to this world.”

Not everything, but the ethics of Earth were only a reference in this world. The problem might be that they were too much of a reference.