1. The Skeleton Soldier Rises from the Grave
The place where I rose was a prison.
I could tell just by looking at the rusted shackles hanging on the wall.
To be precise, an old prison.
It was a grave of skeletons in one corner of that prison.
Rattle—
As I rose from the grave, the bones on top of me fell and made a sound. I pushed through the collapsed pile of bones and stood up.
Torches burned on the walls of the old prison. My shadow was cast against the wall.
'Where am I?'
That was the first thought that crossed my mind. However, I soon realized the question was wrong.
Right after, the question I should have asked first came to mind.
'Who am I?'
I lowered my head and looked down at my body. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a body.
Because I was a skeleton.
There wasn't even a need to look at the gaunt shadow cast on the wall. When I lowered my head down, I could see bones dirtied with dust.
A skeleton that rose from a grave of bones. Should I call that natural?
"A new friend has arrived."
I heard a voice.
When I turned my head, I saw a skeleton just like me.
"You're out of it, right? I was like that too."
That skeleton approached me.
If that skeleton could speak, could I speak too?
The way to produce a voice came to mind naturally.
"This place..."
"Ah, thankfully you're not mute."
"Mute? We're nothing but bones, so how could we be mute?"
Another voice.
When I turned my head, there was one more skeleton.
"You never know. By that logic, how're we even speaking?"
"Is that what matters right now? Hurry up and teach him what he needs to know first."
The two skeletons bickered back and forth. Just who on earth were they?
"Where is this place? Who are you?"
"Friend, that's not what's important."
The skeleton that had spoken to me first answered. Since his frame was larger than the other skeletons, I decided to call him Big Guy.
Big Guy raised both hands.
"There isn't much time left. Those bastards'll storm in soon."
"Bastards? Who...."
THUD— THUD— THUD—
My head turned on its own at the sudden sound. Just what on earth was this heavy sound?
"Ah, don't worry about this. It's just the doors closing."
"The doors...?"
The skeleton that wasn't Big Guy—since he was at least the tallest among us, I decided to call him Beanpole.
Beanpole raised a hand and pointed to both sides of the prison.
"One door over there, and two doors on both sides here. The intruder'll probably appear from that door."
"An intruder...?"
I asked while looking at the door Beanpole was pointing at.
"Yeah. We stop that intruder."
Beanpole clenched his gaunt hand that had only bones left.
Was he clenching his fist to harden his resolve? If so, was that resolve just as gaunt as that fist?
"Stop stating the obvious. This friend probably knows it too."
No, I didn't know.
I asked Beanpole. After all, he looked smarter.
"Um... What is your name?"
Since I didn't know what to call them, I asked for his name. I couldn't just call him Beanpole to his face.
"Name?"
Beanpole's tone was strange. He moved his head from side to side.
"What do you mean, a name? Aren't we Skeleton Soldiers?"
"This friend's a real peculiar one."
Big Guy burst into laughter.
It was my first time hearing the sound of a skeleton's laughter. No, had I ever heard the sound of laughter before?
'What on earth....'
My head was in chaos. Even when I groped through my memories, everything was blurry.
Nothing came to mind.
"Was I... Was I a skeleton from the very beginning?"
Beanpole shook his head again. It seemed that was a gesture showing he was thinking.
"We're Skeleton Soldiers. Skeleton Soldiers guarding this room. Other than that, I don't really know."
"I hate complicated stuff. All we have to do is kill the intruders who come in here. We have to do that."
Big Guy cut the conversation off firmly. His tone sounded as if he had decided to stop thinking altogether.
"Why must we do that?"
At my question, Big Guy waved his hand as if sick of hearing it and moved.
"Do you call that a question? Because we have to! We have to fight!"
His attitude showed he wouldn't take any more questions. Beanpole was the same.
"You'll get used to it soon."
"Wait...."
THUD— THUD— THUD—
Just as I was about to ask another question, the iron bars blocking the door disappeared upward with a heavy sound.
Beanpole turned his head and opened his mouth.
"Looks like the intruder passed through the first room."
"The first room?"
"There're all kinds of rooms in this place. And passages connecting room to room. When an intruder passes through another room, the door opens."
Beanpole moved to the center of the room with Big Guy. Once Big Guy took his position, Beanpole moved a short distance away.
"Then... how many rooms are there in total?"
"That's different every time."
Beanpole stopped in place.
'Every time...?'
What did it mean that it was different every time?
Before I could get an answer to my question, Beanpole pointed to a spot with his finger.
"Wait over there. When the intruder comes, we have to fight together."
"I'll smash them to pieces!"
Big Guy burned with fighting spirit. I tried to ask another question, but Beanpole turned away from me.
For now, I walked over to the spot he had pointed out.
'What on earth....'
There wasn't even time to organize my thoughts. Big Guy and Beanpole turned their bodies at the same time.
BANG—
With the sound of the door opening, someone came inside.
Human. Male. Young.
He was a boy with black hair and a youthful-looking face.
He held a notched sword in his hand and carried a small backpack on his back.
There were small scars across his face. Judging by his appearance... had he been through a lot of hardship?
"It's an intruder!"
Big Guy shouted and moved. At the same time, Beanpole also moved toward the boy.
"Skeleton Soldiers, huh...."
The boy muttered with a relaxed expression. Was he used to this kind of situation?
'Should I fight?'
I hesitated.
Big Guy and Beanpole had said we had to fight. Without even knowing the reason why.
Unlike them, I thought for myself. Why was that?
While I stood there blankly, the boy swung his sword at the approaching Big Guy. Big Guy's shoulder bone fell to the floor.
For someone who had talked so big, he was too weak.
The boy didn't stop. With an indifferent expression, he snapped Big Guy's neck bone.
Roll, roll, roll—
Big Guy's skull rolled across the floor.
Right after, it was Beanpole's turn.
I ran urgently. Because after Beanpole, it would be my turn.
Should I call it survival instinct? The thought struck me that I had to help him if I wanted to live.
Of course, whether a skeleton even had a survival instinct was a secondary question. Wasn't a skeleton already dead?
In that sense, struggling to survive was a strange thing for me to do.
"Coming at me all at once, huh!"
The boy laughed.
Beanpole thrust his fist forward. The boy stepped back to dodge the fist and bent his knees.
"Watch out...!"
I called out, but it was too late. Closing right in on Beanpole, the boy slashed his sword upward.
Even notched, a sword was still a sword, and it pierced straight from Beanpole's jawbone to the crown of his skull.
Just like that, Beanpole also collapsed to the floor. Arriving too late, I stood in front of the boy.
"Phew, it really is the first floor."
Letting out a short breath, the boy looked at me.
Why had this boy taken up a sword? And why was he trying to attack me?
"Wait...!"
I raised my voice. Couldn't we perhaps resolve this through conversation?
However, it seemed my words didn't reach the boy's ears.
The sword flew toward my forehead. Reflexively, I raised both arms.
Did I even know how to fight?
Then again, when I didn't even know who I was, how could I possibly know how to fight?
The sword shattered both of my wrists. Thankfully, there was no pain.
With my crumbling hand bones as the last thing I saw, the sword lodged into my forehead.
My vision dyed black.
***
'Ah....'
When my consciousness returned, my vision was still dark.
There were letters visible within that dark vision.
[Death Count: 1]
What was this?
Did it mean the number of times I had died?
Rattle—
As I rose, a skull fell.
It was the grave again. That same grave where I had risen.
'What on earth...?'
I couldn't make sense of it. The boy's sword had definitely lodged into my forehead.
"A new friend has arrived."
I heard a voice. I turned my head.
Big Guy stood there looking at me.
Big Guy was alive. Then again, I had come back to life too.
"You're out of it, right? I was like that too."
The problem was that he was repeating the exact words he had said when he first saw me. What came next?
"This is... What on earth...."
"Ah, thankfully you're not mute."
"Mute? We're nothing but bones, so how could we be mute?"
It was identical. Beanpole approached.
'What is this...?'
I immediately looked around.
'No... Not everything's the same.'
Big Guy and Beanpole bickered. Leaving them behind, I approached the wall.
What had happened?
There were two doors in the wall. Didn't the room I was in before dying definitely have three doors?
THUD— THUD—
Just as I was about to get closer, iron bars dropped in front of the doors.
"Whoa, be careful. Looks like an intruder's arrived."
Did that mean that black-haired boy was coming again?
If so, we were in trouble. Because we wouldn't be able to stop him.
"Is there nowhere to hide?"
"Hide?"
That boy hadn't arrived in this room yet. Was there nowhere to run before then?
"This friend's a real strange one."
"We have to fight! We've got to stand against the intruder and guard this room!"
Beanpole and Big Guy prattled on.
'But you couldn't guard this room.'
There would be no point in telling them. I decided to find my own way to get out of this place.
I grabbed the iron bars that had dropped in front of the door.
'It's solid....'
It didn't seem like I could ever open them. The only advantage of my gaunt bones was that I couldn't feel the coldness of these iron bars.
I changed direction. Could I perhaps break the wall?
Tap— Tap—
I tried tapping on the wall. However, even if it wasn't quite as tough as the iron bars, there was no way I could break through the wall with my strength.
I glanced over at Big Guy and Beanpole. As if they had no interest in me, they moved to the center of the room.
If my guess was right, the intruder would arrive soon.
Urgency welled up inside me. We had no weapons, whereas that boy had been holding a sword.
'It's impossible barehanded....'
I remembered my hands falling to the floor right before I died.
It was the same for Big Guy and Beanpole. We had nothing but our bones.
As I looked around here and there, the grave of bones where I had risen caught my eye.
I urgently ran over to it.
I rummaged through the grave of bones. I had no need for skulls, hand bones, or foot bones. Because they were too small to use as weapons.
'This is it...!'
I found a long shinbone. It was shorter than a sword, but it would serve well as a makeshift weapon.
THUD— THUD—
I heard the sound of the iron bars rising.
"Rookie! It's an intruder!"
Big Guy shouted.
As I turned my head, the door burst open.
'This is...?'
My expectation was off the mark. The one who opened the door and came in wasn't the black-haired boy.
There wasn't just one intruder.
It was a person wearing heavy-looking plate armor with a red-glowing sword, and a woman draped in a robe holding a book in one hand.
'A knight and a mage.'
The classes came to mind immediately. Why did I know things like this?
"Skeleton Soldiers?"
"Let's clear them out quickly and head up."
The knight and the mage exchanged a brief conversation. To them, Skeleton Soldiers didn't seem very serious.
Big Guy and Beanpole ran toward the intruders.
'Oh no....'
For now, I ran too. Fighting while Big Guy and Beanpole were still alive would be more advantageous than facing them alone.
The knight swung his sword and drove it into Big Guy. Then, something strange happened.
Even though he was definitely nothing but bones, Big Guy was engulfed in flames. Just like that, Big Guy turned into gray ash.
Meanwhile, the mage flipped through her book and mumbled under her breath. I didn't know what it was, but her hand glowed with a bluish light before a blue sphere flew toward Beanpole.
Beanpole turned into a block of ice on the spot. Having eliminated Big Guy, the knight kicked Beanpole.
CRUMBLE—
The ice shards broke apart, and Beanpole shattered into pieces as well.
I was the only one left.
I didn't have the courage to get close. I hurled the shinbone in my hand.
"Huh?"
As if dumbfounded, the knight swatted away the flying shinbone.
Clack— Clatter—
The shinbone bounced across the floor. It had been my final struggle.
'Oh no....'
The knight spoke as he charged toward me.
"Save your mana. I will handle this."
As soon as the sword touched me, flames soared up just like they had with Big Guy.
Amidst the flames, my vision darkened once again.
***
Rattle—
It was the grave.
[Death Count: 2]
Yes, I had risen once again.