34: It is fine (2)

Ricky rubbed his red eyes.

Realizing that he was looking at Jamie, he jumped up grabbing Jamie’s shoulders.

“Are you fine?!”

Ricky looked at Jamie’s condition with worried eyes.

He was a mess.

Looking at Jamie, he cried.

“What the hell happened?”

“What is this? Are you worrying about me when you’re in that state?”

“Hm?”

An Innocent expression.

Jamie couldn’t understand him. Ricky seems to have completely forgotten about the time when he threw himself at Jamie trying to cover him.

He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Was it because he was still young? Even with that thought, the fact that Ricky threw himself willing to sacrifice himself for Jamie’s sake didn’t change.

This one,

Ricky was his benefactor.

“Uh? But why are your eyes like that?”

Ricky saw something strange.

“Why are they purple?”

The Welton family was famous for their emerald eyes.

But now, Jamie’s eyes were purple.

“Oh? Why is my body acting like this?”

He checked his condition.

“The tingling feeling… what is this now?”

It felt a little uncomfortable.

It felt like two things were wriggling inside his body.

Ricky frowned and looked at Jamie.

And Jamie answered.

“You are now an apostle of God and an Undead.”

“… what?”

“An apostle of God and an Undead.”

“What is that?”

Ricky didn’t know what both of them meant.

Because he was never taught those terms.

Jamie gave Ricky the detailed meaning.

“The apostle of God refers to the one closest to God, and the Undead refers to a living corpse. Undead are summoned by a dark magician.”

Even though he wasn’t sure, Ricky was aware of what a dark magician was.

A vicious bunch of people ignoring the dignity of life and committing evil deeds without a sense of guilt.

In many hero stories, the main villain was the demon king or a dark magician.

Jamie told that he was now an Undead, an evil being.

“Uh…”

Ricky was confused.

He wasn’t sure how to accept it.

Before that, why did he even become an Undead?

“I made you that way.”

Jamie’s sudden confession.

Ricky’s eyes widened.

“I am a dark magician. A dark magician who made you an Undead.”

“Ah.”

“There was no time to heal you, and you were dying. Had I left you like that, you would have certainly died. Somehow, I didn’t like that thought. Maybe because you were the one who was willing to sacrifice yourself for me? Well, I just don’t know. Uh, just.”

The body moved on its own.

Pyro was right. Making him undead was an insult to Ricky. But he wanted to know why Ricky acted as such, and if Ricky stayed by Jamie’s side, he’d definitely figure out about Ricky’s nature.

Silence.

The two looked at the ground and didn’t say anything.

After some time passed, Ricky spoke first.

“I see.”

Ricky’s expression hardened.

And he nodded his head as if telling he was fine.

“It is alright.”

At that, Jamie shook his head as his expression slightly distorted.

“Wh… at?”

“It is alright. Because you did that to save me. I thought that all dark magicians were bad people, but now I know that you are a good person.”

Ricky didn’t know anything.

What kind of a person Jamie was.

For him to say something like this…

“I tried to kill you, and your sister too.”

“But you didn’t kill.”

Ricky responded with a smile.

He was right.

He didn’t want to see Ricky die, so he made him into an Undead.

Rather, he did something more heinous, but Ricky didn’t care.

“So, what I am saying is, you are kind.”

‘I am not kind.’

Rather, he was a terrible being who was anxious to destroy everything in the world.

However, he couldn’t say that out loud.

Jamie spoke with a bitter face.

“Are you forgiving me?”

“Forgive for what? I am here thanks to you.”

But the Undead are dead.

Unlike Azad and Raiza, he wasn’t able to bring up a slave contract because of Pyro’s intervention, so Ricky’s consciousness remained.

And Ricky could’ve hated Jamie. If not, he could’ve chosen to spread it out and never speak to Jamie again.

Still, Ricky was smiling.

“Honestly, this is shocking. I am Undead.”

No longer a living being.

That fact itself was shocking, but frankly, Ricky didn’t know what had changed exactly.

Maybe he would have thought differently if he looked like some terrifying monster, but it didn’t matter now.

Jamie took a deep breath.

“Even though you are an Undead, it will be hard even for a high priest to notice what you are. Above all, with the unusual holy power within you, you might not even be an Undead, in a way.”

“Right. You did say I was an apostle for God? Then this tingling feeling…”

“Holy power of Pyro.”

“Pyro means the God brother Lars worships.”

Ricky smiled.

“I hated God till a moment back… what is this situation?”

Having been betrayed by Zenith, he abandoned all faith and filled himself with anger against God.

Ironically, he turned into an apostle.

“Interestingly, Pyro has a hostile relationship with Zenith.”

“Is that true?”

“Well, they are enemies.”

One word popped into Ricky’s mind.

‘Fate.’

Things happened the way they were supposed to.

Jamie thought that the way things happened was interesting as well.

The human who nearly fell into despair because of Zenith turned into the apostle of Pyro.

A case he has never seen before.

“Anyway, you have a good balance right now. It is because you have the powers of an apostle while having the powers of an Undead.”

“But how can the two be together?”

It was common sense that holy power and black magic couldn’t coexist.

It was because holy power was the natural enemy of black magic.

Ricky’s holy power of an apostle. No matter how powerful the black magic was, it had to be destroyed.

In other words, it was normal for Ricky’s body to die without being able to withstand the collision of the two forces.

“It is because the black magic I use is different from the modern black magic.”

“The black magic you use?”

“We don’t have to talk about all that. Anyway, you and I are on the same boat now.”

“Huh.”

Like it or not, the two were inseparable.

Ricky, who was staring at Jamie, put his hands on Jamie’s shoulder. He was about to ask why, but then a light covered his body.

“…!”

Jamie’s eyes widened.

All the wounds were healed.

As the light disappeared, the body that was entirely covered with scars was completely healed.

“I tried it thinking it might work, but it really actually did.”

Ricky looked at his hand in surprise.

He never learnt such things. And he didn’t know how recovery magic worked.

The talent of the apostle.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you, heh.”

“And.”

At that time, he felt the presence of Lars and Shadow knights in the distance.

Jamie frowned and said.

“Don’t tell them that you met me. Speaking of a dark magician, of course.”

“Sure.”

“When you see me again, act like usual.”

“Of course.”

“You know what the apostle does. Right?”

“I am not that stupid.”

“Okay then.”

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Jamie took refuge before Lars could feel his presence.

Ricky was a little shocked when Jamie disappeared.

He knew that Jamie had talent, but not at this level.

‘But how did he become a dark magician.’

He had that question, but as soon as Lars arrived, he pushed the question away.

“Ricky!”

“Brother!”

Ricky got up and ran to Lars.

---

Jamie returned to his room and took a deep breath.

Ricky healed all his wounds, but there was nothing he could do about the fatigue.

“I need to deal with the clothes.”

They were a mess.

He was exposed to all kinds of attacks.

And if one of the maids saw this, it was clear that the mansion would be in a mess about what happened.

And then the matter would reach his parent’s ears.

“No big deal.”

Jamie removed the clothes and burned them.

He had so many clothes. Even if one pair disappeared, no one will know.

Jamie put on his pajamas and sat on the bed.

“Black.”

Black who was summoned stayed on the bed.

Black was all messed up because he used the doppelganger magic. Even though Black was summoned, it was in deep sleep.

“You have been through a lot.”

Although he didn’t have much left, he raised the black mana and injected it into Black.

‘The whole-body breathing.’

He had to sleep, and then everything will be fine.

And it would take a few days for him to be back in his original state.

After reverse summoning Black, he laid flat on his back. His body felt numb. If he could just close his eyes, he would go straight into dreamland…

“Wait.”

Just as he was about to drift into sleep, Jamie got up.

He frowned and looked around.

“Why is it so quiet?”

It was natural for the night to be quiet.

But not this one night.

Because the brainwashed Lincoln was supposed to expose everything about Zenith to the Count.

And if that information reached the Count’s ears, then the mansion had to be noisy.

“No.”

Jamie got up from the bed and went out the door.

He slid down the stairway across the long hallway.

And then when he reached the front door.

Kik!

The sound of the door opening.

Jamie hurriedly hid himself and tried to examine the identities.

‘Lars.’

It seemed like they had managed to make a warp.

Lars went to the Count’s bedroom without delay. It was a very rude action, but given how serious the situation was, it couldn’t be helped.

Chuckling, Jamie went back to his room.

After a while, the mansion started to get noisy.

And now he was sure.

“I got hit.”

Apparently, Lincoln was eliminated.

---

Late dawn.

Count Welton put on his armor and headed somewhere with his men.

Next to him was Lars with a sharp expression giving out a terrifying light.

“We were one step late.”

It was the Count who said that.

Lars’ expression distorted like a monster.

“These bastards, they cut off their tail…!”

They saw the crowd gathered in the distance.

It was late hours, dozens of people were looking at something at the same time.

The zenith church.

To be precise, it was the corpse stuck high on the church.

“Bishop Lincoln.”

“I know him.”

Lincoln, whose head had been severed, was tied to a pole and showcased.

A terrible sight.

The Count made his way through the crowd.

There were a series of people covered in white clothes.

Familiar symbols on their chest.

“Zenith church. Judging from their act, it has to be the ‘judges’.”

“If it is the judges, then you are referring to the armed forces in Zenith?”

“Yes.”

They knew what it meant.

The Count and Lars approached them.

Among the judges, one had a red crest who bowed to the Count.

“Nice to meet you. Count Welton. We are the judges of Zenith Church. We apologize for not being able to reveal our names other than judges.”

As Lars said, they were judges.

“And what are the judges doing here?”

When the Count asked them in a low voice, the one leading them, politely pointed to Lincoln’s corpse and said.

“We were tracking him by the order of our superiors. And then found him here in Haiss, it was confirmed that bishop Lincoln was a traitor, he confessed it and then we executed him. We apologize for showing you such a cruel scene so early in the morning.”

Lars saw the bottle that the judge held out.

A small bug was wriggling in it, and that bug contained holy power.

Something made by the chimera maker.

Lars, who couldn’t stand it, shouted.

“Such self-made excus…”

“Stop.”

However, due to the Count’s restraint, he couldn’t yell.

Lars looked at the Count with a doubtful expression, but he didn’t look at him and approached the judge.

“You are pretty brave by the way.”

“What do you mean?”

Count Welton’s eyes gleamed at that-

“Who dares to commit ‘murder’ in my estate.”

Thud–

As the judge fell down on his knees.

The other judges behind them approached and tried to stop.

At the frightening pressure that was making the judge kneel down.

‘So this is Count Welton.’

The count squatted down to make eye contact with the judge.

And said,

“Do you all wish for death?”

The judge thought for a second.

Count Welton’s eyes were those of a beast.