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[He's still locked up. Refuses to admit he did anything wrong.]
Luo Wei blinked. "That much backbone?"
Two full months since they'd caught him, and he still wouldn't bow his head?
"What's his situation now?"
[As per your instructions, we built a prison and locked him inside. We've been sending different people to talk with him every day.]
[But his temper is terrible. The moment he sees anyone, he starts cursing. The island residents are frightened of him.]
With Zachary's looks , red beard, green eyes, those eyes wide as copper bells, whole face like something carved to scare children , honestly, it was hard to blame them.
Luo Wei sighed. "I miscalculated."
She'd figured that having those former slaves visit him daily, prodding at his pride, would crack him eventually. She hadn't expected that even as a prisoner, he'd still be throwing curses at anyone who walked through the door.
The problem was that those slaves had spent years being beaten down by traders. Seeing Zachary, they couldn't even raise their voices. Then he'd start screaming at them, and suddenly it wasn't clear who was supposed to be pressuring whom.
"Where's the prison? Take me there."
Time to change tactics. Zachary was textbook , he bent for soft approaches, dug in against hard ones. If she had no use for him, she'd have ended it already. But she couldn't stomach throwing away such a valuable piece.
All that talk about killing him and turning him Undead had been nothing but bluster.
She couldn't even summon back Grandpa Village Chief's soul. What made her think she could command Zachary, a Senior Artificer?
Zachary had roots in the Northlands. He had real strength of his own , Senior Artificer, favored by the Fire God, the whole package. Bringing him to heel would solve a dozen problems at once: building an army, for starters.
But using someone like him required care. His abilities ran deep, and if she wasn't careful, he'd end up running her instead.
She turned it over the entire walk there , how to get him, and what to do with him once she did.
[Master, we've arrived.]
Patrick stopped and pushed open a stone door set into the cliff face.
Luo Wei looked up and had to give the Necromancer credit.
The prison was carved directly into the rock wall. Unless the prisoner could dig through solid stone, there was no way out. And even if he could, the other side of that wall was magma, with a ring of Undead burial chambers surrounding the whole thing. Digging out only put you somewhere worse.
She followed Patrick inside, through one winding turn after another, until they reached the cell where Zachary was being kept.
He was lying on the ground, apparently dead asleep. The Undead jailer gave him one small bowl of water and one fish per day , enough to keep him breathing, nothing more. Two months of that had hollowed him out. His cheeks were sunken, his frame whittled down to angles.
[Master, shall I wake him?]
Patrick leaned forward to ask.
"Don't bother. He's faking."
A Senior Artificer couldn't hear her walking up? He simply didn't feel like acknowledging her.
Or maybe the man who'd lost wasn't ready to face the person who'd beaten him.
Luo Wei crossed her arms and studied him. "Mr. Bunyan. It's been a while."
Zachary rolled over, putting his back to her, and kept "sleeping."
"Looks like you really do plan to grow old and die in here." Her voice was light, unbothered. "I was going to offer you a deal. Let you walk out. But if that's not what you want, I suppose I'll head back."
"Hmph. A deal." The words came out laced with contempt. "You have no honor. You think I'd believe a word out of your mouth?"
Luo Wei pressed her lips together. Zachary's voice was thin, hollow , the sound of someone who'd been genuinely hungry for a long time. He wasn't living as comfortably as she'd imagined.
"If you don't believe me, why did you bother opening your mouth?"
A hint of laughter crept into her voice. "Someone who truly didn't believe me would've kept pretending."
Zachary shoved himself upright and spun around, fury written across every starved feature. His copper-bell eyes , too large for how sunken his face had become , blazed at her. "I know exactly what you want! You despicable creature! You want me to craft for you! It won't happen! I, Zachary, will rot in this hole before I help you — starve to death, die of old age, whatever comes first — I don't care! I will not help you!"
"Help you? Hahahaha!" Luo Wei threw her head back and laughed until tears pricked at her eyes. "Mr. Bunyan, you really do think a lot of yourself!"
She wiped the corner of her eye. "No offense, but if I were passing over the master artificers in my royal palace to go begging a minor artificer like you for help, I'd be seriously questioning my own sanity."
That landed. Zachary's expression curdled into a sneer. "Master artificers. The entire Western Continent hasn't produced a master artificer in over a thousand years. You think I'm some greenhorn who falls for cheap bait?"
"You said it yourself , the entire Western Continent." Luo Wei tsked and shook her head. "A frog at the bottom of a well, convinced the little patch of sky overhead is all there is."
Zachary bared his teeth. "You little beast. You think this old man has never left the Western Continent? Even in the Wastes, you won't find another artificer who comes close to matching me!"
He thumped his chest hard enough to echo. "Back when I was making my name in Galan, your grandfather probably wasn't even born yet! Go home and ask the old fossils in your family , ask them who Rudolf is! You think you can just grab me? Ask them if they'd dare!"
Luo Wei frowned. "Rudolf? I thought your name was Zachary Bunyan." She glanced at Patrick. "Have you heard that name? Rudolf?"
Patrick extended one pale finger bone and drew a single elegant line in the air.
[Apologies, Master. He was most likely not yet born when I died.]
Zachary couldn't hear the Undead speak, but he could see the gesture. His red hair seemed to bristle outright. He lunged to his feet and roared. "Ignorant fools! Brainless, the lot of you! Stupid lambs! Swine! You have no idea — no idea , what kind of artificer you've locked up in here!"
"Which royal brat are you?! Go back and ask whoever's still breathing in that dusty court of yours whether Rudolf is someone you can just throw in a cell!"
"You ignorant little pest , I'm only here because I haven't bothered to deal with you yet! The moment I tell the Magic Association I'm alive, they'll squash a tiny tick like you without a second thought!"
"Patrick." Luo Wei raised both hands and pressed them firmly over her ears. "Did you give him too much food? Where is he getting the energy?"
Patrick pressed a hand to his chest. [My mistake, Master. I'll reduce the portion next time.]
"Just water. Why are we giving him fish?" Luo Wei muttered, then turned back to the cell.
"Sorry, Mr. Bunyan. I missed that. What were you saying?"
Zachary's chest heaved. His eyes, locked onto her, looked about ready to catch fire.
Before he could start again, Luo Wei , still with her ears covered , said brightly, "Right, you asked something just now. Which royal family I'm from, wasn't it?"
"My kingdom is probably somewhere you've never been. It's in the Misty Plains." She tilted her head, genuinely sympathetic. "Pity, really. You'll be in here until you die. Otherwise, you might have had a chance to visit , maybe meet a master artificer or two from my Misty Kingdom."
➤ Next: I'll Definitely Send You Back First
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