The Necromancers
Ch. 42:Terror in Lien City
Every night, the residents, merchants, and adventurers were nowhere to be seen along the way. Cold air and deep silence, there was not a single sign of the existence of someone outside the building but they were already asleep, some were partying inside the Adventurers Guild Hall.
"I hope this matter is resolved quickly."
"Yes, you're right."
At one of the tables, there were three adventurers who came from Colorful Adventure.
The fat man with arm muscles wore iron armor on the abdomen and a shield placed on the wooden floor, had brown hair and a long brown beard, looking outwards whenever he noticed something lurking behind the darkness.
The woman by his side, he was wearing the clothes of a witch who was smoking a cigarette that had been exhaled while crossing one of his arms in the chest, who is also worried about the condition of the city over the past few weeks.
The city of Lien, the city that they should have thought of as the Port City that was famous for its food, dance, and customs that were typical of Lien City had had something that they themselves did not know what it was.
About two weeks ago, almost half of the people disappeared in the dark of the night. Those who disappeared came from the houses and inns that were rented out for adventurers, there was no sign of their existence being obliterated or kidnapped.
Some people will think it is a mere imagination, but over time it becomes a frightening terror to be noticed constantly for the next few days until now.
Moreover, there was shocking new news, the news of the emergence of a group of black-robed people covered in their hair hoods, as well as masks that covered their faces to be unrecognizable, they referred to themselves as The Necromancer.
Eradicating, killing, eliminating, all three things are activities carried out by The Necromancer so far in attacking innocent people and never make mistakes.
"What do they want?"
"You're right."
The black-haired, thin-bodied, brown-skinned man was watching outside the Adventurers Guild building standing by the side of the Guild entrance, noticing that something was amiss over what had really happened.
By his side, a young man also looks worried over the fate they have as well as the residents of the city. Will they be fine with the appearance of The Necromancer or not, the young man hoped that they would not lose anything.
•••••
The Regard POV
"Is this his mission?"
"Yes." Yeah."
A piece of paper that Reita had taken, I watched her closely.
The mission that sounds difficult but easy to do is to find out who is behind The Necromancer.
Really, I don't know what to say to the mission maker this time. As far as I know, The Necromancer only has members that I have, but I don't know if there are any out there.
"What do you think, Shikazu?"
"It's really bad."
"Yes. Not only does it make us look guilty, but those people want us to be perceived as a threat by everyone."
Sasaki's right.
The Necromancer is protecting the innocent weak and against the strong who have wrongdoing for evil deeds, that's the principle made by me.
But, I myself am surprised if others imitate The Necromancer so easily. The mask, the black cloak, as well as the members he had, I don't know how many of them there were, but I'm sure they deliberately did it to imitate us.
"Huh..."
"It can't be allowed, can it, Regard?"
"Yes, that's it."
Letting this spread to other cities or not, we will be considered as criminals who will make the royal knights eye one of our members.
"alright. Let's go to Lien City."
"Yes." Yeah."
"certain."
"Let's teach the people who have made our reputations bad."
Friya's right.
If we don't act immediately, they'll arbitrarily take the name The Necromancer in the wrong direction. So, I decided to find out who they were, why they were doing on behalf of The Necromancer, and what their goals were.
After knowing everything, sooner or later, I will make them regret having followed our way of dealing with the problem in a good way that is to eliminate them all.
•••••
Outside the forest, the five girls and one man were in a corner of the forest that no one was around either at close or far distance.
"Why did we stop at this place?"
"simple."
The smiling Regard, placed his hands on the surface of the ground which made them shocked at what he was making.
A horse formed from the ground. The ground that was visible on the horse's body, slowly turned into the same as the real horse, as well as the carriages that came from the ground also turned into wood in a short time.
"How can you do that? Aren't you..."
"Thanks for this, I can do it."
Putting out a small purple flame in the open palm to show them, the five girls nearby were startled and began to understand it in confidence or not.
"Are we going to ride this horse?"
"Yes. I want us to arrive as long as the sun hasn't sunk."
"Can we arrive as you think?"
"certain."
Reita, who seemed hesitant, thought again to be sure that this horse, a horse made of earth, could carry them easily.
Not only Reita, Shilphonia also seemed unsure that this could accelerate them to arrive at Lien City in a short time according to Regard's prediction, which should take a long time for three to five days.
"Hurry up! You'll know for yourself later."
"All right."
Their hesitant faces on the horse that Regard was about to ride chose to shut up and pay attention to him, while Regard, who had been sitting on the coachman's seat, held a rope attached to both horses.
"Hold your hands tight..."
"Hold hands..."
"Don't tell me you're gonna..."
"We're gonna speed it up in no time through this horse..."
A young bluish glow emerged from the wheels on the carriage carrying their cargo inside, as well as the horses, both of which were fitted with purple-colored armor that could live easily, run as fast as possible without looking slow.
"Isn't this an act that's too rash!?"
"Don't worry, this horse won't be seen by anyone because I've given [Camouflage] and [Illusion] that makes it invisible to anyone who passes us."
At high speed, those who had been holding on to the horse seats, were pounding over the impropriety in the run of the two horses that could shake them during the journey.
Deep in the basement, Lien City, there is a slum camp where there are many people living.
"They've started moving."
"They?"
"Who do you mean, Grandma?"
"Those people, sooner or later, he'll shake the world easily."
Those who did not say anything looked at each other, not understanding what the old grandmother said, her body bent down with her hand holding a cane to lead her in walking.
In contrast to them, the granny felt a strong presence that was heading to Lien City. A presence that could resolve this matter easily, with no one to sacrifice, that was his feeling when he knew from a distance that he would arrive to end it.
•••••
The sun turned west, indicating that in two hours the night would come, leaving the entire Lien City in darkness.
"Luckily we arrived on time."
"Yes." Yeah."
One by one the girls got off the train. Starting from Shilphonia, Friya, Reita, Fuuya and Sasaki came down while looking in the distance on a quiet and silent path without a single person lined up.
"Are we late?"
"No, we're not late."
Regard who got off the horse, deprived him of all the abilities he had made in the horse-drawn carriage just by extending his hand forward and palms opened making both the horse and the carriage vanish like grains of sand, pointing towards the distance were two royal knights patrolling outside the gate.
The reason why they were descending in the distance of the city from Lien City, Regard wanted to avoid glaring things so that none of the residents or visitors to the city were interested in the speed of their journey to Lien City which should take days, he said, easy to overcome with just a few hours.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes." Yeah."
Noticing his friends, Regard smiled at them as he showed them the black cloth they were holding in each other's hands.
The black cloth was not from the Adventurer Guild, but Reita's work was deliberately changed through [Change Material] derived from rocks that can be found on the ground anywhere and anytime, anywhere, Reita turns it into a cloth that is then changed to black to be proof that it is a sign as an adventurer, Black Adventure.
Because Regard did not want the previous incident to repeat itself, he deliberately told Reita to do so so that he was not considered a greedy master in having many slaves of his age and type.
That was the real reason Regard created a hoax for the sake of his reputation as an adventurer and spared the trouble that would trouble him when people were jealous of him.
"Excuse me, may we enter the city? We had been exhausted from having been riding in a horse-drawn carriage for a few days, we had just arrived at this place."
"Tell me your names and the purpose of coming here!"
"Good."
Led by Regard, he explained the purpose of coming here because someone sent out the strange mission that was in the Adventurers Guild in Resihei City, where they had stayed before.
One of the men in black, white-haired, long white-bearded tiger-like mane picked up the paper and looked at it closely. At his side, the skinny young man who had a sunken face, hurriedly approached the man by his side to find out the contents of the letter.
"Your names?"
"I am Regard Arthen. She is...."
"Shilphonia Autheurus."
"Friya Furuhiora."
"Reita Hiena."
"Kneese."
"Sasaki."
After confirming each name, the two guards opened an iron-plated wooden double door that heard a soft creaking sound to their ears.
"Please come in and be careful!"
"Cautiously?"
Shilphonia who stopped her steps turned to the brown-skinned, white-haired, white-bearded old man with a tiger mane who was astonished at her intentions.
The old man in black approached him, nodded and smiled at him.
"It's been three more weeks, Lien City was attacked by something we didn't know about. Losing a few residents, serial murders everywhere, as well as the discovery of bodies bearing their group's name, The Necromancer is a creepy and scary thing."
"That's right."
The skinny, sunken-faced young man approached Shilphonia and the old man in black.
"I was even on patrol when I saw that some of the royal knights who served two weeks ago were easily wiped out, but the next day their bodies disappeared."
Friya who felt interested eavesdropped on the conversation, stopped her steps and walked up to the three of them.
For Friya, this incident is quite strange happening to her own group "The Necromancer" who are unlikely to commit bad crimes against innocent people, especially by kidnapping and killing royal knights for no apparent reason and reason.
"Do you know who they are?"
"So far we don't know anything. They came and disappeared easily without anyone knowing, and left a trace of their group's name."
"....."
In the distance, Regard thought this would be a great threat if they were to misbehave in Lien City.
His unknown enemy, able to follow his way in moving in the middle of the night without being known to the public, but in a vile bad way that is; kill the inhabitants, abduct the dead and the living, and kill the dead, as well as killing the innocent knights was the only one who deviated from the principles created by his own group, The Necromancer.
Who're they? What do you want them?
Thinking incessantly of no use, Regard ended it when Fuuya who was on the right hand side held onto the clothes and pulled them, looking at him with a worried expression at Regard.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
Squeezing his head around, Fuuya was pleased that Regard had not suffered a severe mental shock.
Moreover, this caused by an unknown enemy could cause the reputation of The Necromancer group to be destroyed easily, Fuuya thought that worrying about the person he liked was natural. But it seemed like his conjecture was wrong, instead of Regard looking shaken, he looked calm and ordinary.
Signore...
On the left side, Sasaki who was looking at him felt that this would be a terrible and frightening conflict that they had to experience for having used the group name created by his master.
His master, Regard would not let them die quietly, instead, he would likely do anything to make them feel more pain for the torment than death itself, at least that was what Sasaki was thinking.