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Chapter 81: Chapter 80: The Prince\'s Plot (4)

"You said you weren\'t going to live like before anymore, right?"

Karnak frowned, looking as if he had been wronged.

"It wasn\'t me who did it, you know?"

He really hadn\'t killed Alford.

"Why would I have any reason to kill that man?"

Baros tilted his head curiously.

"To keep a secret?"

"There has to be a secret to keep! What does that guy even know about me?"

"...Now that you mention it, you\'re right."

In reality, Alford knew absolutely nothing about Karnak and his companions. He had been confined in the palace the entire time since the body swap.

"If I had done something unnecessary, it would have only aroused more suspicion. Especially since I was the last one to meet him."

Alford died three days later. By then, others had already interrogated him, so there was no way Karnak would be blamed.

Recalling what happened in the prison, Serati asked, "Then what did you do back then?"

He stuck a needle into a perfectly fine person\'s head and rummaged through his brain—anyone would think that was pure evil.

"That was really nothing."

All he did was extract information about how Prince Alford had aligned himself with the Cult of the Dark God and what he knew about the cultists.

"Isn\'t this proof that I\'m not living like I used to?"

"...You controlled his mind and even manipulated his memories?"

At Serati\'s retort, Baros slyly defended Karnak.

"Well, in that case, it\'s true he\'s not living like before. He didn\'t kill anyone, after all, right?"

In any case, if Karnak wasn\'t the culprit, there was only one possible suspect left.

Serati frowned.

"So you\'re saying the Cult of the Dark God took care of him?"

Baros nodded.

"They wouldn\'t want Prince Alford to leak any information he had. Plus, they\'d probably try to gather more intel on us as well."

This, too, didn\'t seem to be much of a problem.

"That\'s why I made sure to handle it first."

After extracting the information, he had neatly erased Alford\'s memories as well.

Serati asked in astonishment, "Did you predict this would happen, Lord Karnak?"

"Cultists are necromancers too. It\'s easy to figure out how necromancers think."

Now, all that was left was to cross-check and extract any useful information from the souls of Detzras and his group.

"I\'ll take my time and slowly look through them."

Serati looked flabbergasted.

"No matter what, they\'re still human souls. Treating them like a bunch of documents seems a bit..."

"Well, since they aren\'t innocent souls, it should be fine, right? They\'re just paying for their sins."

"Does it really work that way?"

She sighed.

The more she stayed with these people, the more her sense of good and evil seemed to blur.

Karnak smiled faintly and turned to leave.

"For now, let\'s head back to the lodging."

***

Late at night, a young man in his mid-twenties was receiving a report in the study of a noble estate located in the capital. With blonde hair, blue eyes, and the appearance of someone who had been raised in luxury, he looked every bit the aristocrat.

A man in his thirties, standing opposite the young man, kept his head bowed, glancing nervously.

"The mission in the Kingdom of Yustil has failed, Lord Hudel."

Though dressed in plain clothes to conceal his identity, the man was a necromancer of considerable rank within the Cult of the Dark God.

Despite this, he remained nothing but unfailingly polite before the young man called Hudel.

The necromancer continued his report in a voice tinged with fear.

"Prince Lloyd has regained his body, and Bishop Detzras has become a martyr."

"Damn it..."

Hudel rubbed his forehead.

\'Who the hell interfered with our plans?\'

No small effort had been made to secure the prince of a kingdom, and now it had all been for nothing.

"You made sure to clean up the aftermath properly, I hope?"

"Yes. Prince Alford\'s soul has been properly retrieved."

Even though the dead don\'t speak, under necromancy, they could sometimes become even bigger blabbermouths than the living. That\'s why the Cult of the Dark God took great care with post-mortem management.

Proper necromancy was a power granted only to those who served Tesranak. However, even sloppy necromancy could yield results for lesser necromancers, so vigilance was always necessary.

"And the prince\'s soul?"

At Hudel\'s next question, the necromancer pulled out a black pearl.

"It\'s here."

While the royal family of Yustil might be going through the motions of a grand funeral, believing the prince\'s soul to have gone to rest with the goddess, in reality, his soul was trapped inside this pearl.

"Once the situation is fully understood, I will erase it cleanly."

Hudel inspected the pearl from different angles.

"Is there no other use for it? After all, it\'s still a royal soul, isn\'t it?"

"The quality wasn\'t particularly high."

"Well, a soul\'s value isn\'t determined by bloodline or status during life, after all."

The power of necromancy is determined by the strength of the soul itself. In a way, it treats all humans quite equally.

Returning the pearl, Hudel asked another question.

"Does anyone else know about this?"

"They\'ve all been dealt with. Fortunately, Prince Alford had only informed a small number of close associates, so cleaning up was relatively easy."

"At least the cleanup was done properly."

Still, Hudel had no intention of offering praise.

He fell into a brief moment of contemplation.

\'What should I do? I can\'t just leave the Kingdom of Yustil alone like this.\'

The reach of the Cult of the Dark God extended beyond the Kingdom of Yustil. It had quietly infiltrated all regions across the continent and every domain of humanity.

But even among them, the Kingdom of Yustil held special importance.

\'It was a place that Lady Elezar specifically instructed me to keep an eye on.\'

One of the three Archmages, Elezar de Reflacion, Imperial Mage of the Lacaenia Empire. Few knew that she was one of the three saints leading the Cult of the Dark God. Hudel was among the select few.

Recalling his conversation with Elezar, Hudel furrowed his brow.

\'I don\'t know why she gave such orders, but still...\'

***

"Take a closer look at the northeastern part of the continent, Hudel."

Hudel was caught off guard by this sudden command.

"I beg your pardon, but could you provide more details? At the moment, the order seems a bit too vague."

Fortunately, Elezar did not get angry.

"The situation isn\'t clear enough for me to do that. How should I put it... Just keep an eye out for anything unusual. That\'s about all I can say."

It wasn\'t that she was being deliberately vague because of secrecy; she seemed genuinely uncertain.

This gave Hudel the courage to speak up.

"In that case, could you at least narrow down the scope of the investigation?"

"Hmm, well..."

She finished her sentence with a languid smile.

"Look for events that seem like our doing, but aren\'t actually caused by us."

***

Though Hudel didn\'t know why such an order had been given, it was the duty of a good subordinate to carry out orders faithfully.

Thus, he had been keeping a special eye on the Kingdom of Yustil and the Kingdom of Tarum, which were located in the northeastern part of the continent.

And now, something had indeed happened in the Kingdom of Yustil.

\'What on earth should I do...\'

As Hudel mulled over the situation, he suddenly found something odd.

Even after completing his report, the necromancer hadn\'t left.

"Is there something else?"

The necromancer, hesitant, finally spoke.

"There\'s one more problem."

"A problem?"

"Although we\'ve retrieved Prince Alford\'s soul, we can\'t locate Bishop Detzras\' soul."

In an instant, Hudel\'s face paled.

"What? How is that even possible?"

"Well, uh, I don\'t know either..."

The one making the report seemed more flustered than Hudel.

It\'s common enough for souls to get lost while practicing necromancy, so the necromancer hadn\'t expected Hudel to react so seriously.

But that was merely due to his lack of knowledge.

To anyone who understood the spell cast on Detzras, this was indeed a major issue.

\'A soul marked by Lord Tesranak has strayed from its proper path? Could it be that the servants of the Goddess have gained such powerful authority?\'

In a panic, Hudel hurried out of the study.

"I\'m going to the altar! Prepare for the necromantic spell!"

The flustered necromancer immediately followed behind.

"Y-yes, sir!"

***

Hudel and the necromancer made their way to the basement of the mansion.

They descended a staircase, passed through a dimly lit corridor, and arrived at a hidden stone chamber.

The place was filled with grotesque items: chunks of flesh, black slime, dried herbs, and strange plants and animals. A red magic circle was drawn on the floor.

Standing at the center of the stone chamber, Hudel closed his eyes and then opened them again.

Not only his blue irises, but even the whites of his eyes turned pitch black.

"Come, believer Detzras..."

He attempted the summoning several times, but there was no response from Detzras\' soul.

\'It\'s true. His soul is gone.\'

Hudel\'s expression darkened.

\'What in the world has happened?\'

Had Detzras\' soul already crossed over to the other side, the world beyond death?

No, that was too soon.

Detzras\' soul bore the mark of the great god of darkness, Tesranak. There was no way it had simply passed on to the afterlife.

\'So, someone must have stolen his soul...\'

Hudel ground his teeth.

This was a truly serious problem.

If it had been done by magic or a holy spell, then what?

Tesranak is the god of death and darkness. But if that power over death had been broken by magic or the divine power of the goddess?

It would be like saying that a necromancer had surpassed mages or the clerics of the goddess in using light-based or healing spells.

Just how powerful would someone have to be to accomplish that?

\'Or is it the work of another necromancer?\'

Indeed, there were plenty of necromancers out there who had not received Tesranak\'s teachings and were not affiliated with the cult. After all, the darkness of doom had spread widely.

It was true that some of them possessed considerable power.

Could there be someone among them who was strong enough to erase the mark of the Dark God?

\'I don\'t know.\'

Either way, continuing these attempts seemed pointless.

So, Hudel turned his necromancy toward the soul of Alford instead.

"Rise, heretic Alford..."

The soul trapped within the black pearl immediately reacted.

"Ugh... uh..."

Alford appeared, a translucent, half-formed soul, resembling the state he was in just before his death.

After suppressing the soul, Hudel began interrogating it. The more he learned, the darker his expression became.

"What the hell is this?!"

Alford\'s soul knew nothing.

The real issue was that he didn\'t even remember things he should have known.

"You don\'t even remember cooperating with the cult?"

The only explanation was that someone had already erased his memories.

It wasn\'t completely impossible to understand. Magic or divine powers could erase human memories, too.

But memory manipulation was usually the domain of necromancers.

Given the missing souls of Detzras and his group, this situation became even more suspicious.

Elezar\'s order naturally came to Hudel\'s mind.

-Look for events that seem like our doing but aren\'t.

As he ended the necromantic spell, Hudel spoke.

"I need to conduct a proper investigation in the Kingdom of Yustil."

The necromancer bowed his head deeply.

"Who will you send?"

Hudel pondered for a moment.

"The situation is different from when we dispatched Bishop Detzras..."

The goal was not to expand the cult\'s influence but to uncover something. In that case, the best strategy would be to stir up chaos and observe the reactions.

\'Not long ago, the headquarters sent us a cursed sword, didn\'t they?\'

Having collected his thoughts, Hudel finally spoke.

"I\'ll use that."

The necromancer flinched and asked in surprise.

"But... we can\'t control it."

Hudel smiled coldly.

"Who said we need to control it?"

A monster like that would create more than enough havoc simply by being released into the world.

Whether the enemy was a necromancer or not, someone would surely react.

"When a storm arises, the hidden reefs will reveal themselves."

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