—–
Using Fenrir’s help, we detected every corpse from the knights. Some of them were being slowly eaten by small rats or other little animals, which we quickly eliminated. They were so small that their EXP given was minuscule. After we picked each corpse, we swiftly moved back to the village where we secured all the corpses inside the church. Corpses in this world are treated by two ways. Commoners and below have their bodies cremated and the ashes are kept in a jar or buried underground by the families. Meanwhile, Nobles have special graveyards where they bury the bodies of their family members after being purified with holy magic. This process is done because the Mana leaking out of corpses ends up corrupting and turning into miasma, which subsequently may turn corpses into Undead.
Of course, this doesn’t happen so often inside forests because corpses are quickly eaten away by scavengers before they can raise as Undead. However, humans love to preserve their bodies, so the risk of them turning into Undead eventually is quite high. This is why anybody below nobles who can’t afford to pay for a place in the public graveyard have their deceased family members cremated. Meanwhile, nobles who can afford it will have their family members “purified” by holy magic, which essentially dries their bodies into mummies, that won’t decay as quickly and the leftover mana will also be purified and cleansed.
I would say they should just cremate the bodies and not waste space into useless graveyards, but humans overvalue their lives too much. Maybe because they have such fleeting lives that they usually see their beloved ones pass away in front of them. Having short lives does change the mentality of a person a bit. Even I have begun to change due to this reason, and many more. I might eventually begin to think that being a human is not so bad… Which slightly sickens me. But in the other part, there are many things in this life that had brought a lot of happiness to me. Happiness has always been a rare emotion in my previous life, so I have begun to appreciate things more. I fear Eleanora has also been infected…
Before reaching the church, I had stored all my Familiars inside my Shadows. The Knights were very surprised when they saw this, but I told them to not talk about these Familiars and these shadow storage powers I had, as it would be a bit annoying to explain it. By abusing [Intimidation] a little bit, I had actually managed to make them slightly understand what I said, and they seemed okay with it. You never know if they’ll eventually talk, but it seems that for now they’ll remain in silence. Thankfully, these knights were all grateful and honest people. Maybe you could call them a bit naïve, but that’s good as well. Abusing naïve people is my specialty, and making naïve people indebted with you is the best way to gain their loyalty.
Nonetheless, I wasn’t overthinking this too much, nor I was going to push myself into them either. I quickly left them into the church without taking off my mask. Eleanora was inside my Spirit Orb by now so everybody just saw a little kid leading a group of blood-covered knights. The priests quickly greeted them alarmedly, and so did the rest of the knights that were gathered in the church. I didn’t had any point in staying here any longer, as I didn’t wanted to get too involved into this.
“I’m leaving now, you’ll get help from the church. It is up to you what you do later on. If you’re willing to continue fighting or go back to your homes. Quite honestly, both options are fair.” I said, as I slowly walked away.
“W-Wait!” Lucas ran towards me, putting his hand in my shoulder. “You never told us your name…”
“Hm? Ah, my name is Blank. I work through the week with the church healing people occasionally.” I said. “If you ever need my help you can find me through the week here.”
“I see… Thank you, Blank. I’ll make sure to pay you back one day.” Lucas said as an honest smile surged on his lips.
“…Sure, do as you may.”
I walked back into the streets and quickly disappeared into the shadows using Shadow Sneak, the knights were unable to follow me with their eyes as I had melded with the shadows and the darkness of the night. As I moved back home, Eleanora began to speak with me about everything that had happened. She seemed slightly concerned.
“My lord are you sure about having revealed so much information to them?”
“It is fine, Eleanora, don’t overthink this.”
“I see you’re strangely more carefree than before…”
“I am slightly sleepy. But don’t worry, Blank is my second name. Nobody knows about my true identity as Blake. They don’t know where I live either… I also want them to actually repay me in the future. Seeking my second identity with the church would be ideal.”
“I see… It makes sense now I suppose… You’re always thinking several steps ahead!”
“Don’t overexaggerate. These “Schemes” with these humans cannot even be called that. They’re so simple minded it is like playing with children. Other races in the Universe… well, some were very hard to deal with, especially entities such as Mindflayers or High Elves.”
“You’re right. Compared to them, humans are really nothing… You had many difficulties dealing with the squid-faced Mindflayers.”
“Indeed, but their technology was great, so I had to get it. Fighting them back then would had been suicide seeing how big their network of colonies was… But they were always opportunistic bastards. They’re probably letting go loose now that I am gone.”
“Hahh… You’re right. I hope those that survived from our group are okay.”
“I hope for that every day and night, Eleanora. I really hope for that…”
“Well, it is not like you can do much about it for now, right? Let’s rest for the moment.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
—–