Chapter 81. It’s a bracelet to me, but not to you
Right now, this was an emergency where every moment mattered.
Normally, it would be only proper to consider the mercenaries’ morale, but that meant there was no room to spare for that.
‘Morale only matters when your allies are safe, anyway.’
If the Fourth Base Camp collapsed, what use would it be even if morale was sky-high?
“Just as I thought. Got it. Then we’ll do that. Still, a short break should be fine, right?”
“Of course. Let’s eat properly and then head out.”
At my reply, Fixer immediately relayed orders to Aviot’s mercenaries.
I was watching that quietly when someone approached me.
“Um….”
“…?”
It was Plen.
Over the past few days we’d been together, today was the first time Plen had spoken to me.
So I glanced at him, puzzled.
“I’m sorry I’m late with this. The brothers of Victima. Thank you… truly, for letting us see their end.”
Looks like he’d figured out that the one who said to leave the Second Base Camp’s horrors as they were had been me.
“You don’t resent it?”
“Honestly… I resented it a lot. I wished we could’ve let the brothers rest in peace sooner. And also….”
“Why you had to show us that dreadful state, stuff like that?”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
Plen answered awkwardly, then gave a bitter smile.
“But after thinking about it afterward… it was good that we saw it. Still, whether we loved them or hated them, they were guys we rubbed shoulders with. We should at least see how they went. And….”
“And make those bastards taste the same pain.”
“……”
Plen’s eyes shone coldly.
He didn’t bother to hide that look.
And since that killing intent wasn’t aimed at me, I didn’t tell him to open his eyes kindly, either.
“And also, thank you—”
“Enough. That’s far enough.”
“…?”
I patted Plen’s shoulder.
He was a guy with a head or two on me, so it didn’t exactly look right, but who cared.
“Seems like you’re about to talk about dealing with those rats. But this revenge isn’t even over yet. Save your words.”
“…Ah. Yes.”
Plen answered that far and clamped his mouth shut.
I clamped my mouth shut, too.
“……”
“……”
Once we’d said everything we had to say, an awkward silence settled in.
Originally, conversations like this didn’t need many words.
Just enough for each person to understand the other’s heart, and a few words to express that understanding—nothing more.
‘It’s definitely not that things are awkward between us.’
“Ahem, hmm. Then, I’ll be going….”
“Uh, uh. Yeah. Go on.”
I saw off Plen as he backed away awkwardly.
And then, right on cue, a voice came drifting in.
[Hey, kid these days.]
The owner of that voice was Shine.
I looked at him with a sullen expression.
“What, little one.”
[Come see me for a second.]
“I’m looking at you right now, aren’t I?”
[I’ve got something I want to ask. Follow me a moment.]
Shine babbled in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
He tossed out only what he wanted to say and then strode off, his heavy armor clanking.
“…Whatever.”
I watched him for a moment, then followed after him.
Where Shine led Aster was the outskirts of the Third Base Camp.
It was a secluded hut located right in front of the defensive wall, with hardly any people around.
[….]
Shine, who had arrived at the hut a step ahead, sat quietly on the cot and looked toward the doorway.
Creeeak—
Soon, the door opened and a face entered. No— a mask.
“What is it? You wanna fight?”
The tone was the usual one.
Still rude, generally not serious, and the kind of way of speaking that begged for a punch.
But Shine’s helmet as he looked at him— the flame within— was utterly calm.
[I have something I need to say.]
“Something you need to say?”
Shine von Lehmann, putting on weight he didn’t suit.
In response, Aster narrowed his eyes and looked at the Death Knight in black armor.
That was when Shine opened his mouth.
[While moving up to this place, I checked the state of my body… hrrm. Anyway, I checked my condition.]
“And?”
[It seems… my time isn’t infinite.]
An explanation as unfriendly as could be.
But Aster’s reaction was calm, as if he’d expected it.
“So it is like that, after all?”
[Hmph. Do you know something?]
“I don’t really know. I just had a hunch.”
A Death Knight.
No— when people say undead, they often think of an immortal existence that doesn’t die even if you kill it.
But nothing in this world lasts forever.
Why was it that naturally occurring undead constantly wandered in search of the living?
To steal vitality and maintain their existence.
“I figured that no matter how undead you are, you’d still need an energy source. Looks like I was right.”
[…Hmph. Then this will go a bit faster. I’m an amateur in this sort of thing. Listen, and you decide.]
Shine calmly laid out his own condition that he’d grasped during the journey.
A Death Knight. A body already dead, yet his voice had no particular emotion for someone who sensed the end.
And when all of it was finished—
[What do you think?]
Shine looked at Aster with wavering flame.
“Hold on. Let me organize this.”
First, putting together what Shine had said, it was like this.
First.
“When you kill monsters, you get your strength back— even if only a little?”
[Yes.]
“That part’s similar to naturally occurring undead, I guess. Anyway, after that….”
[Just in case, I also tried casting the Aether Breathing Technique. That had some effect, too.]
“That makes no sense.”
Something that can’t even breathe, using a breathing technique—what?
Yet Shine let out a short laugh, like Aster’s reaction was ridiculous.
[The essence of a breathing technique isn’t “breathing.”]
“Then what is it?”
[In the end, it’s a matter of “will.” It isn’t the body that accepts mana and stores Aether. It only borrows the vessel called the body. Breathing, too, is nothing more than an act.]
A story that was… hard to pin down.
“Will….”
[You won’t understand it all at once. And you’re not a mage, are you. Just remember there’s something like that. Anyway…]
“Fine. Anyway, you’re saying the Aether Breathing Technique worked?”
[But the efficiency is poor. It’s nothing like when I had a body. The speed at which Aether gathers doesn’t even reach one hundredth. And even that…].
“It’ll be depleted in an instant.”
[Correct.]
It was only natural.
From the looks of it, Aether was being used as an energy source, too.
If it gathered that slowly, then instead of accumulating, it would be consumed as fuel on the spot.
“Hm. What do we do about this….”
Aster folded his arms and sank into thought.
‘This isn’t good.’
To be honest, forbidden magic—especially necromancy—wasn’t my field.
And as for high-grade undead like Death Knights, even a necromancer couldn’t easily touch that territory.
‘And I still haven’t resolved all the Thirteen Sins.’
Losing Shine’s existence would be a painful loss of combat power.
“How much time do you have?”
[At most, about half a month.]
“Not bad.”
[Do you have some method?]
“Of course….”
At Shine’s question, Aster shook his head.
“I don’t know a method, either.”
[Then what’s ‘not bad’?]
“At least I might be able to use you until we beat the black mages.”
[…!]
At that utterly selfish remark, Shine stared at Aster with flames gone cold.
[What trash you are…]
“I’m kidding.”
Aster looked at Shine with sly eyes.
“In this state, I don’t have any way to handle it either. In this state, that is.”
[…Then?]
Shine asked, voice carrying a subtle expectation.
That was when Aster pulled something out from his chest and showed it.
“Do you know what this is?”
What Aster took out was the bracelet the Forbidden Magic Society mage had used to control Shine.
Even after freeing him, I’d kept it, thinking it might be useful.
But—
[…Isn’t it a bracelet?]
Shine had given the correct answer, but Aster shook his head slightly.
“It’s a bracelet to me, but not to you.”
[…?]
“More like… your leash.”
[Leash…?]
A creeping, ominous premonition rose up.
You might think it made no sense for a Death Knight—one of the most ominous existences—to feel ominousness, but at this moment, Shine truly felt chilled.
On the other hand, Aster smiled brightly.
So brightly that his cheeks puffed up and the mask lifted slightly.
“You—be my slave… no, my companion.”
[…]
“Then I’ll make your dream of extending your life come true.”
It was relatively recent that I learned what the bracelet did.
‘Come to think of it….’
The knowledge of Friegen I’d devoured in my past life.
In it, there was quite a lot of accumulated knowledge about forbidden magic and Artifacts, and among them, there was even something like this.
[Artifact List]
A list organizing the Artifacts he knew.
‘Back then… I just thought it was an idea notebook.’
You know the type.
Like a proposal saying, I’ll make an Artifact with this and that function—something like that.
But among them was this.
[Bracelet of Subjugation]
Fortunately, my memory wasn’t that bad, so I vividly remembered its appearance.
Well, I’d practically memorized it out of revenge, too.
But—
‘No way… that bracelet was this one.’
Now that I looked, it wasn’t an idea sketch.
Meaning, it had been a list organizing the Artifacts the Forbidden Magic Society mages possessed.
I couldn’t know why the bastard had organized other people’s Artifacts, but what mattered was the ability the “Bracelet of Subjugation” had.
That ability was—
‘It subjugates a single undead entity.’
It didn’t matter what it was.
It could be a naturally occurring undead, and if a few conditions were met, even an undead with a caster could be subjugated.
Looks like the necromancer Forbidden Magic Society mage had given it along when he lent out the Death Knight….
[…So you’re telling me to be subjugated again?]
“Hey, ‘subjugated’—come on. I’m saying companion, right? Let’s call it forming a friendship bond.”
At Shine’s voice turned cold, I put on a smooth act.
Of course, I understood how he felt.
The Forbidden Magic Society mage who’d awakened him from death—his hatred for that bastard wasn’t ordinary.
Going back to that sort of position wouldn’t sit well with him.
But.
“Think about it. The half month you said—be honest. That’s assuming you do nothing and just breathe, isn’t it?”
[…I don’t breathe. I was assuming a situation where I held out by receiving an energy source from monsters.]
“Then how are you supposed to get revenge in that state?”
Let’s say you extend the time to dissolution somehow by barely killing monsters.
Then what about revenge?
“Later, won’t you be too busy even running around hunting monsters? No matter how much Hamelin Great Forest is overflowing with monsters….”
[…Ggh.]
Shine let out a groaning sound.
I waited for that answer at my leisure.
Of course, some might think this.
If it’s such an amazing Artifact, can’t you just subjugate him by force?
But it wasn’t that easy.
‘For that, I’d have to learn forbidden magic, and doing that just to get one undead is….’
The cost-benefit didn’t add up.
So I needed Shine’s consent.
If it was an undead with a sense of self, a contract could be made with mutual agreement.
[…Then if I’m subjugated, life… tch. Is the dream of extending my life actually possible?]
As if realizing he didn’t have any other method, Shine asked in a subtle tone.
“Of course.”
Taking responsibility for your summon’s livelihood was a summoner’s virtue.
But was he still unable to make up his mind?
[…Ggh.]
Shine fell into 고민 again.
Watching him, I whispered.
“This is a pretty good Artifact. Even if it’s ‘subjugation,’ I’m not telling you to become a slave. I can even grant you the right to refuse orders, you know?”
Of course, I was going to use him as a slave.
“And that’s not all. If I allow it, you can even draw on my magic power. Wouldn’t that let you move a bit more freely?”
Of course, I wasn’t going to allow it.
For a while, I coaxed Shine with all sorts of sweet words.
Had my temptation worked?
[…Fine. Good.]
At last, Shine’s consent fell.
Inside, I cheered.
‘It’s a bit of a waste, the magic power that’ll be used as an energy source, but….’
Receiving someone who’d been a Master Knight as a slave—no, as a full companion—what was that compared to this?
[But there’s a condition. If you guarantee that part clearly, I’ll accept.]
“…Fine. Tell me.”
After the discussion ended—
A contract made.
[…Tch. Disgusting.]
Perhaps the feeling of being subjugated was unpleasant; Shine kept grumbling, but for me, it was a good thing no matter how you looked at it.
‘This much… the magic power consumption is manageable.’
Was it because my magic power was so pure?
The moment the contract was formed, magic power leaked toward Shine in streams, but the amount was extremely small.
“Looking forward to it, slave… no, companion.”
Smiling, I held out my hand.
[…Damn it.]
Of course, Shine smiled too.
As a Death Knight, he didn’t have facial expressions, but he was definitely smiling.
And so, after going in circles and putting Shine under my command—
A few more days passed.
“…Over there! It’s the Fourth Base Camp!”
We were able to reach the Fourth Base Camp.
But how should I put it.
“…Huh. That’s the Fourth Base Camp?”
The Fourth Base Camp in front of us was on a completely different level from the base camps we’d seen so far.
