As the tip of Erdin’s sword swept past, the old man’s head fell to the floor.
At the same time, the body Glen was holding went limp.
THUD—.
Erdin remained with her sword extended, breathing heavily.
“Haa… Haa….”
As though it had all been a lie, the corpses began collapsing one after another with almost anticlimactic ease.
The Animate Dead spell had been dispelled.
Lakolin, the Death Knight, also crumpled like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
“What is this…?”
Nedain, who had been fighting him, looked bewildered.
He stared blankly between Glen and Erdin.
A moment of silence passed.
“Is it… over?”
Erdin slowly lowered her sword and asked Glen.
Even the person who had severed the old man’s head appeared dazed.
“…Haa. Yes, it seems so.”
As the tension left his body, Glen collapsed onto the ground and released a long sigh.
Figures throughout the chamber sank down with him.
“I-I thought I was going to die….”
Tilen’s face was pale, and her fingertips were trembling.
After briefly surveying their surroundings, Erdin seemed to remember something and approached Glen.
“What do you think, Young Master Glen?”
“Hm?”
Her strangely triumphant expression left Glen puzzled.
“Was I of assistance?”
“Must you ask me that now?”
“…Yes. Am I not allowed to?”
Her stubborn expression met his incredulous question.
Glen burst into quiet laughter.
“Heh heh. Yes, you did well. Very well.”
He wiped the blood from his face and began rising to his feet.
At that moment, a chilling laugh echoed through the chamber.
“Th-This is truly unfortunate. Hee… hee-hee-hee…. What a pity that this body was already dying.”
The severed head of the old man was speaking.
It was an utterly repulsive sight.
Had he always been capable of something like that?
“Y-Young Master Glen, was it…? Heh heh. You are v-very interesting.”
“….”
Without answering, Glen quietly lifted his sword and walked toward the head.
“H-Have you perhaps s-seen me before?”
“…No.”
“Hee-hee-hee. Th-Then when we meet again, I shall take those eyes as a g-gift—”
“Get lost, you disgusting pile of bones.”
WHOOSH—!
Glen’s sword split the old man’s remaining head in half.
Only then did the old man finally fall silent.
Their brief but intense encounter with the mysterious old man—
No, with Benedict Taran, the Arch Lich—had come to an end.
“Haa….”
Had they failed to finish the battle quickly, the outcome might have been reversed.
Necromancers became overwhelmingly more dangerous the longer a battle continued.
Because Glen understood that fact, he released another sigh of relief.
***
As Glen stared at the old man’s corpse, which had become little more than mangled flesh, he found himself considering something.
‘Should I tell them who he was?’
Benedict, the Dark Mage and Necromancer, would not die merely because his current shell had been destroyed.
That was because of his troublesome ability to possess the bodies of other people.
Glen remembered falling victim to it several times in his Previous Life.
The question was whether he should tell the others.
Glen scratched his eyebrow as he organized his thoughts.
‘…No.’
After careful consideration, he concluded that it was still too soon.
According to his memories, Benedict should not yet have been actively operating.
Furthermore, even though he had been possessing someone, he had been far weaker than the Benedict Glen remembered.
That meant he was unlikely to pose a significant threat for the time being.
Most importantly, Benedict was not someone they could find merely because they wished to search for him.
Glen’s thoughts were interrupted by Erdin, who had approached without his noticing.
“This is a truly revolting place.”
Erdin frowned deeply as she surveyed the chamber.
Glen nodded in agreement.
She did not seem to have noticed that he had used Blood Magic.
Then again, it would have been stranger for her to notice during such a chaotic battle.
“Yes. Dark Mages are not rejected throughout the continent without good reason.”
He had felt the same way in his Previous Life, but this was a place he never wished to visit again.
Merely existing there seemed enough to damage one’s mind.
Glen removed the waterskin from his waist and poured its contents over his head.
Once the blood and pieces of flesh were washed away, he felt slightly more alive.
“Phew….”
At the same time, he became aware of the aching and stinging pain throughout his body.
He suddenly removed his gauntlet and looked down at his palm.
His skin had been melted by acid, scorched, and covered in blood.
It was a complete mess.
“…Are you all right?”
Erdin, who had been watching beside him, looked concerned.
“Do I look all right?”
Glen asked playfully.
However, Erdin shook her head with a serious expression.
“No. You appear to require immediate treatment….”
When his joke failed, Glen waved his hand dismissively.
“I can endure it for now. What about you?”
“You were probably injured more severely than anyone else here.”
“Is that so? That is a relief.”
Her head tilted at his unexpected response.
“…How is that a relief?”
“If everyone else remained safe and I was the only one injured, then that is fortunate, is it not?”
“That is….”
Erdin looked slightly startled.
“Should you not go outside as well? Dame Tilen does not seem capable of enduring this place.”
Perhaps because of the horrific environment, Tilen had left the Abandoned Mine with a pale expression.
In truth, Erdin did not look particularly well either.
“…Are you truly all right, Young Master?”
“No. Now that I think about it, I feel as though I might die from exhaustion. I want to collapse and sleep. But I cannot do that, so… tsk.”
Those were not empty words.
He truly wished that he could.
He had forcibly used Blood Magic for no longer than five seconds at the end of the battle.
Despite that, the backlash was this severe.
Had Erdin not helped him, he might already have lost consciousness.
Damn it. I truly need to find a Mandrake somewhere.
“That is not what I meant…. Are you all right after seeing… all of this?”
She could not bring herself to look at the horrifying sights as she spoke.
Glen glanced at her before answering.
“I am not particularly all right. It is disgusting, honestly. But I cannot allow it to show.”
“Because of the others?”
“At least one of us has to pretend to be holding together.”
“…Is that how it is supposed to be?”
“Yes. But what kind of question is that?”
“….”
Erdin merely nodded, as though she had come to understand something.
Glen chuckled at the sight before speaking again.
“Go outside and bring the rear unit here. No matter how I think about it, they are taking far too long.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
Glen had witnessed countless horrific scenes since his Previous Life, so he possessed a degree of tolerance.
Erdin did not.
She was probably suffering considerably even now.
The fact that she immediately left when he told her to go was proof enough.
After Erdin disappeared, Nedain approached him.
“Young Master. For now… we have rescued everyone who could be saved.”
Nedain had been helping the knights release the people imprisoned in the cages.
“How many were there?”
“We managed to save three.”
“And the others?”
“Most of them were… already too badly damaged. I believe it was because of the Narcotics. We dealt with those beyond saving as you instructed.”
Those who had been destroyed by Dark Magic and Narcotics could no longer be saved.
Simply remaining alive would have been hell for them, so it was better to release them from their suffering.
Dark Mages generally used people as experimental subjects.
Even when they were not conducting experiments, they ‘used’ people in Sacrificial Rituals, Necromancy, and similar practices.
Cheap Narcotics were frequently forced upon their victims during that process.
They used the drugs to deliberately destroy their minds or make them easier to control.
“You explained it beforehand, but… Dark Mages truly are insane. I had heard stories, but I never imagined they could be this terrible.”
“Remember what you saw today. The only good Dark Mage is a dead Dark Mage.”
Nedain nodded in agreement.
“However… how do you know so much about these things, Young Master?”
“What things?”
“The Dark Mage we encountered today and places such as this.”
“Well… I read about them in books.”
Glen felt a twinge of alarm but decided to offer a vague excuse.
“Books? When in the world did you…?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No… there is not.”
Fortunately, Nedain did not press the matter further.
He appeared somewhat suspicious at the idea of Glen reading books, but that did not particularly matter.
How Glen possessed the knowledge was not truly important.
A short while later—
“Young Master, I believe you should see this.”
After some time had passed, they discovered a stockpile of medicinal ingredients stored in one section of the Abandoned Mine.
To Glen’s astonishment, they included something he had been searching for ever since returning to this life.
“Well. To think there would be a Mandrake here.”
“A Mandrake…? I understand that it is a rare Alchemical Ingredient.”
“That is correct. It is exceedingly difficult to obtain.”
It was a plant said to grow from the blood of someone who died bearing deep resentment.
That was also why the blood spilled by condemned prisoners at execution grounds was traded at such high prices.
Condemned prisoners generally died filled with resentment, creating the ideal environment for Mandrakes to grow.
However, Glen sought the Mandrake solely because of Blood Magic.
‘This is the most important ingredient in the Elixir required to begin practicing Blood Magic.’
As Elixirs went, one made from a Mandrake was nothing compared to a Vampire Heart.
The problem was that while a Mandrake was merely rare, a Vampire Heart was several times more difficult to obtain.
In other words, the Mandrake was his next-best option.
Of course, a Mandrake alone was not enough to create the Elixir.
He would need several additional ingredients, but those should be relatively easy to acquire.
Glen spoke with a satisfied smile.
“I have a separate use for this, so make certain that it is secured. Move all the other medicinal ingredients outside as well.”
“Understood.”
“Ah, did you discover anything else?”
“We found a large quantity of Narcotics and some Silver Coins.”
“We can burn the Narcotics with the corpses… and take the Silver Coins for ourselves.”
“…Is that truly acceptable?”
“What is the problem? Would you prefer that we return them to their owners?”
“No… that is not what I meant.”
“Good. Then take every last one.”
His body had suffered considerably, but the rewards had not been poor.
The thought made him nod in satisfaction.
***
Dawn was beginning to break when they emerged from the Abandoned Mine.
They had certainly spent a long time inside.
Glen breathed in the noticeably fresher air and released a quiet sound of appreciation.
“Haa. I finally feel alive again.”
“Indeed. Shall we return directly to Sharn Castle?”
“No. We must first join the rear unit… Ah, there they are.”
A group of figures appeared in the distance.
Erdin and Tilen, whom he had sent earlier, were at the front.
“They certainly arrived quickly.”
“…Indeed they did.”
Glen and Nedain chuckled at the pointless joke.
Only then did it finally begin to feel as though the operation was over.
“Hm? Is that the Koron Mercenary Company from earlier?”
“…It is Soron, Young Master.”
In any case.
Glen muttered to himself and looked somewhat surprised.
Why was that mercenary company here?
“G-Greetings, Young Master Glen.”
Soron, the Mercenary Captain, approached Glen hesitantly.
“Yes, Soron? Why are you here?”
“H-How could we simply leave? Although it was only for a brief time, we still fought together….”
Erdin, who had been frowning for some time, interrupted Soron.
“It appears that he discovered our identities. That is most likely why he is behaving this way.”
A trace of contempt was visible on her face.
Then again, Erdin had never liked Soron from the beginning.
No, she had actively disliked him.
Considering the first impression he had made, that was only natural.
“Forgive us, Young Master! We lowly mercenaries failed to recognize our place and dared to….”
When Soron prostrated himself while carefully watching Glen’s reaction, Glen gave a slight nod.
“Well, such things happen. It may sound strange to call it compensation, but could you do me a favor?”
“…A favor?”
“Do you have a spare wagon? Our cargo has increased.”
“W-We do, but it is one that we use….”
“So, are you saying that you do not have one? Hm?”
The expressions of the surrounding knights immediately hardened.
Noticing them, Soron hurriedly continued.
“We have one! You may have it without hesitation!”
“Do you take me for some common thug? Do not worry. I will pay for it.”
“Th-Thank you.”
“At its secondhand value, naturally.”
“…Yes.”
Watching Soron’s complexion change in real time made Glen chuckle.
“Good. We will leave the cleanup to the rear unit and return now.”
“Yes.”
Glen turned his gaze toward the breaking dawn.
It was time to leave the Kingdom of Arian.