The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns

Chapter 41

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Chapter 41

Simply freeing the lich from its seal and claiming that they attempted to overthrow the royal family seemed too suspicious to conclude things.

In other words, those whom the royal family had exterminated were merely the tail.

While it was difficult to call a lich just a "tail," the real mastermind remained elusive.

As a result of the incident, Melissa, who suddenly found herself unable to return to the Cascadia Count's estate and had to stay in the capital, came rushing over as soon as I returned.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."

"I heard a lich appeared—one of Archmage level, at that."

"It did."

At my response, she narrowed her eyes.

"I heard you were the one who killed it. Were you really okay?"

"People are making a big deal out of nothing. It wasn’t much."

"Hey, you do know that a lich is at least a 6th-circle monster, right?"

Liches are classified as monsters—extremely dangerous, top-tier monsters at that.

She seemed dumbfounded by my nonchalant attitude after facing such an enemy.

"I told you before, didn’t I? There’s something fundamentally wrong with necromancy these days."

Fighting the lich made me realize it for sure.

An outlier must have emerged at some point in the steady progression of necromancy.

That person had recklessly sacrificed security in favor of efficiency.

Perhaps they assumed that hacking into it wouldn't be easy, or maybe they had left behind a countermeasure of some sort.

But everyone from that era was long dead, leaving future generations to make baseless assumptions about their predecessors' intentions.

Maybe the mages of that time had devised solutions, but as magic developed, those solutions were forgotten, leaving necromancy twisted into its current form.

There were undeniable problems with modern necromancy.

But I didn’t particularly mind.

Necromancy’s progress was outside my area of concern, and at the very least, this incident proved that I had little to fear from necromancers.

"More importantly... who the hell is that?"

She had been uneasy for a while, and now, she cautiously pointed at the Death Knight standing behind me.

At that, the Death Knight’s glowing eyes flickered with a sharp, chilling light.

"Eek?!"

Sensing its ominous presence, Melissa instinctively reached for the sword at her waist.

"That thing… it’s not human, is it?"

"It’s a named-class Death Knight created by the lich."

"What?! A Death Knight?!"

"It’s only at the peak of the Expert level now, but soon, it will reach Swordmaster strength on its own."

"Is it safe?"

Carrying around a weapon made by an enemy—who knew what it might do?

I understood her concerns.

"I have full ownership and control over it. In fact, because it has a strong sense of self, it has more restraint than most undead."

Still skeptical, she stared at the Death Knight in silence.

But the Death Knight remained still.

"Is this your first undead or something?"

"Of course not. You have one beside you too."

At my words, she jumped in alarm and looked around frantically.

"Damn it… I’m not good with ghosts..."

Then, as soon as she noticed the figure emerging from her shadow, she threw a punch without hesitation.

"Tyvel Cascadia! You bastard!!"

Boom!

The materialized ghost of Tyvel, reinforced with physical power, was instantly blown away by her strike.

"Leon. You son of a—did you seriously attach that thing to me?"

"Of course. He spent his life resenting and suffering because of you, and now, even in death, he’s forced to protect you. Besides, that thing only looks like Tyvel—it’s basically a tattered husk now."

"......"

I then tapped the Death Knight’s armor.

"Once this guy fully manifests as a wraith, I’ll replace Tyvel with him."

"Hmm… Are you sure that’s okay?"

"Just think of him as a person."

"But he’s undead… isn’t that, you know, a corpse?"

Curious, she examined the Death Knight closely.

"It doesn’t smell rotten or anything, though."

Her question was reasonable.

Lesser undead like zombies usually had a foul stench unless they were high-tier variants.

While high-level zombies were nearly indistinguishable from humans, low-tier ones were just like the ones in old movies.

"He’s a high-grade undead, so his human form is perfectly intact."

She seemed intrigued.

"Can I see his face?"

"Uh… sure?"

At my signal, the Death Knight removed its helmet.

This was my first time seeing what was inside the armor, too.

When the helmet came off, a man with red hair, seemingly in his mid-30s, was revealed.

"Red hair, huh? Just our luck."

"Yeah."

Ever since getting entangled with Mielephon, anything red-haired put me on edge.

"Do you know him?"

"No. Of course not."

Despite saying that, she frowned.

"But… he looks strangely familiar. I’m not great at remembering faces, though."

Even after pondering together, nothing came to mind.

I gestured for the Death Knight to put his helmet back on.

"Whatever. It’s not like you made this Death Knight. If anything, you saved him from that monster. Anyway, what about the royal family’s reward?"

Duke Berli took credit for the achievement publicly, but I still expected a tangible reward.

Melissa knew this too, so she seemed excited about what we might gain.

"I told them to keep it on hold for now. Who knows what might happen later? And the royal family is still in disarray."

"Hey, that’s exactly why you should squeeze them dry while they’re distracted!"

Why is Melissa like this when our father was such a loyal royalist?

I narrowed my eyes and stared at her.

She must have felt guilty because she averted her gaze.

Then—

Boom!!

The sudden sound interrupted our conversation.

“What was that noise?”

“I’ll go check.”

The sound came from my room.

Leaving Melissa behind, I walked over and pushed open the door.

In the center of the room lay a blue, square-shaped box.

It was the same blue box we had taken from the underground chambers of Tyvel Cascadia’s estate.

The Librarian had said it was a living being, but I still had no idea how.

Since I didn’t even understand what kind of creature it was, I had sealed it for now.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that bringing it here might have been a mistake.

“Isn’t that the thing you were carrying back then?”

I turned to see Melissa standing with her arms crossed, looking at the box in my hands.

“Could it be some kind of egg? It is a living being, after all.”

“Where in the world have you seen a square egg?”

“Fair point.”

The blue box no longer moved or reacted.

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Instead, a faint blue light pulsed from it.

It didn’t feel particularly threatening or give off a sense of hostility.

“You sure this isn’t dangerous? What if it suddenly explodes?”

“What do you think it is, a bomb? Still, just in case, I’ll reinforce the seal with some magic.”

I wasn’t too worried.

If the creature inside was hostile, the Librarian would have warned me.

[Relying on me is efficient, but not a good long-term strategy.]

Yeah, yeah.

What could possibly go wrong?

[PR/N: Classic.]

* * *

A message arrived from Duke Berli, saying he would contact us once the investigation on the necromancers progressed.

With nothing else holding us in the capital, Melissa and I returned to the Count of Cascadia’s estate without hesitation.

The relief of returning home after a long time away was beyond words.

“About Marquis Vider…”

“Hm?”

“He’s completely out of it. I guess losing to that lich hit him hard.”

Vider, who had personally led the search party to rescue his son during the recent campaign, was now a broken man.

After the battle, he started staring blankly into space, as if his mind had shut down.

“For us, it’s great that one of the noble faction’s key figures has been taken out. But still, if he tries to pull something behind the scenes…”

“I don’t think he will.”

As we walked down the quiet halls of the Cascadia estate, I disagreed with her assessment.

“That man… when he saw his son’s corpse, he completely lost himself.”

“…What?”

“That’s all there is to it. Sure, from our perspective, he was a despicable man. Everyone called him a cold-blooded noble who wouldn’t hesitate to cut off his own son for the sake of the family.”

Melissa stopped in her tracks.

“But when he saw his son had died in such a gruesome way… everything shattered?”

“I’m not sure, but that’s my guess.”

“…Hah.”

Neither of us felt any sympathy.

We had no good history with him.

His son, Goldsun Vider, was no exception.

Still, seeing that made me realize—no matter how power-hungry a man is, even he has paternal instincts.

“This is making me feel weird. Maybe I shouldn’t have heard this news. Ugh, let’s just eat something. I feel like my stomach is digesting itself. I’m craving something sweet.”

She was subtly hinting that she wanted ice cream.

But instead of answering, I grabbed the back of her collar.

“What are you doing?”

She narrowed her eyes and looked up at me suspiciously.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to do ever since we got back.”

Ignoring her protests, I dragged her to the training yard.

Then, I tossed her a fine black sword—Black Night Blade No. 1.

“What’s this?”

“Fight me.”

I folded one arm behind my back and beckoned with the other.

Her expression immediately soured.

“I know you’re strong, but is this really necessary—”

“I need to know your level so I can teach you the right swordsmanship.”

I wasn’t backing down.

“You know the necromancers aren’t wiped out yet, right?”

“….”

“They attacked the Marquis’s family without hesitation. If I were them, I’d investigate more thoroughly this time. And it won’t take them long to realize I’m a threat.”

“Ugh…”

“And if they can’t get to me, who do you think they’ll target?”

I had already taken precautions, setting up protections like Death Knights and Tyvel’s ghostly wraith.

But her own strength was what mattered most.

“…Fine, let’s say you’re right. Do you really think a few sparring sessions will make a difference? You might not realize it since you’re pulling off crazy feats like sword aura, but I’m barely at the Expert threshold. Growth slows down a lot from here. There’s a reason why so many people get stuck at this stage—”

As she kept rambling, I calmly lifted one foot.

Boom!!

The ground shook as I stomped down, releasing a massive shockwave.

Melissa, momentarily stunned, stared at me with her mouth slightly open.

I shot her a mocking look.

“…Scared?”

Words were unnecessary.

With a sharp breath, she charged at me, sword swinging—so focused that she forgot all about her hunger and craving for sweets.

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