Episode 21. 6. Derat City
A wide plain filled with the breath of spring.
Along a straight road stretching far ahead, two men were riding on horseback.
The black-haired young man on a white horse was, at a glance, clearly the scion of a distinguished family.
He wore an elegant travel outfit woven from deerskin and silk, and the magic staff hanging at his waist was an item of considerable value. He was unmistakably a mage of noble birth.
The young knight on the brown horse escorting him was no ordinary man either.
He had a well-trained physique and sharp eyes. Though not heavily armored, befitting a traveler, he wore armor made from the hide of an expensive magical beast, while his bracers and greaves were of high-quality steel. A large bastard sword was slung across his back, and that too was a top-tier weapon.
The young knight, Baros, suddenly glanced to the side and spoke.
"It really feels like we've gone back to the past. Back then, even when I had money, I deliberately dressed shabbily."
The noble youth, Karnak, replied with a smile.
"See? You shouldn't live your life committing crimes. Being able to travel openly under your real identity feels great, doesn't it?"
"I thought flaunting wealth might attract troublesome types, but no one's really picking a fight."
"Of course not. I took that into account when choosing these clothes."
Disguising oneself as a poor traveler to guard against bandits is not a particularly good choice.
Bandits don't target wealthy travelers—they target easy ones. Rather than taking risks for a large payoff, it's more profitable to safely collect small amounts of money.
That said, looking too much like a rich young noble out on a pleasure tour isn't good either. That would attract people willing to take risks regardless.
In that sense, the current attire of Karnak and Baros was quite appropriate.
At a glance, they looked like travelers backed by a noble house. Not merely flashy, but expensive and practical—clothing of seasoned individuals with considerable travel experience.
Baros's large build and level of armament, along with the magic staff Karnak carried, openly showed that they were not opponents to be taken lightly.
"Bandits are just trying to make a living, after all. Usually they won't cross a dangerous bridge for no reason."
Even if bandits who were not "usual" did appear, it wouldn't be a problem. With Karnak's current chaos magic and Baros's martial strength, they weren't at a level where they'd be beaten anywhere they went.
And if they happened to encounter an enemy beyond what they could handle at their current level?
"Then I'll just use necromancy."
Thanks to that, the two were able to continue their journey comfortably, without incident.
If they traveled for just another half day, they would reach their destination.
Looking down the road ahead, Baros asked,
"By the way, how are you planning to find the Darkness of the End? Do you have some special magic to locate it?"
"I'm researching it, but for now, no."
"Then how are you going to look for it?"
"We'll do it the proper way. You know the place we used to frequent back in the day."
Baros nodded, understanding.
"So we're relying on the Adventurers' Guild again?"
The Adventurers' Guild.
This organization originally began as a group of bounty hunters who hunted wanted criminals.
Hunting fugitives requires information just as much as strength. After all, you need to know where someone is hiding before you can capture or kill them.
As bounty hunters shared information with one another and joined forces to pursue their prey, the group eventually developed into an organization specializing in information aggregation and networking—the Bounty Hunters' Guild.
As the guild grew larger by managing all kinds of information and connections, someone within it had an idea.
'Is there really any need to sell information only to bounty hunters?'
What might be worthless trash to one person could be worth a fortune to another.
They began selling information to treasure hunters who explored ancient ruins left behind by pre-human races—so-called dungeons. Naturally, treasure hunters also became members of the guild.
Monster hunters who exterminated monsters and magical beasts were likewise eager buyers of information, and they too joined the guild.
At this point, it was no longer an organization solely for bounty hunters, and its name was changed to the Hunters' Guild.
The Hunters' Guild gradually expanded its influence, spreading across the entire continent. At the same time, its nature slowly changed.
Those who actively "hunted" became fewer than those who simply moved accordingments.
The forms of requests also became far more diverse.
Mercenary work, fighting in territorial wars for local nobles in exchange for money.
Escort missions to protect merchants or travelers.
They even handled trivial errands like acting as messengers, or minor problem-solving tasks such as collecting unpaid debts.
They were no longer even hunters, so another name change became necessary.
But calling them "irregular contract laborers who do anything as long as it pays" was far too long and lacked flair.
Thus, the chosen title was "adventurers."
These days, with anyone and everyone being called an adventurer, the term has become somewhat embarrassing, but back then it was a word with quite a good image.
The Adventurers' Guild, where all kinds of information converged, was an extremely useful place for Karnak during the time he was searching far and wide for ancient necromantic knowledge. He, too, obtained a great deal of information through the guild.
"Still, there's just as much trash information mixed in, so you really have to filter it carefully."
Baros looked up at the sky with a wistful expression.
"I miss those days. We owed the guild a lot back then."
When the two of them were fugitives, the identity they most commonly assumed was that of adventurers.
Wandering adventurers were perfect for laundering one's identity. If you claimed to be from some other territory in some other kingdom that no one had ever heard of, there was no real way to verify it.
Karnak glanced at Baros and scolded him.
"You miss that time? I'd rather not remember it at all."
Given the nature of their work, they were far more often wanted criminals than simple adventurers.
"Having yesterday's friend chasing you with bloodshot eyes, trying to take your head, isn't exactly a pleasant experience."
"You killed them all and turned them into zombies, and now you're talking about friendship?"
As they continued on, chatting about this and that, a city soon came into view in the distance.
It was Derat City, the largest trading hub in the northern part of the Kingdom of Yustil.
"Do you think the necromancer we're looking for will really be there?" Baros asked.
Karnak replied calmly.
"We just have to be patient. Necromancers aren't exactly common."
"Well, I can live with that."
Baros grinned.
In truth, it wasn't something that required much patience at all.
"Waiting while drinking good liquor and eating fine food at a luxury inn? I can do that forever!"
As soon as they arrived in Derat City, Karnak headed first to the Adventurers' Guild.
In their previous lives, Karnak and Baros had concealed their identities, registered with the guild, and worked as adventurers.
They needed to earn money while hiding who they were.
At the same time, they were able to secretly obtain information related to necromancy, so it was killing two birds with one stone.
"But this time, there's no need to become adventurers."
Now he had a legitimate身份: Baron Karnak, lord of Jestrad.
Investigating incidents related to the Darkness of the End wasn't a crime either.
He openly revealed his identity and commissioned the guild to gather information related to the Darkness of the End.
He even provided a plausible excuse.
—A necromancer connected to the Darkness of the End appeared in our territory. Fortunately, the Church of Latiel dealt with him, but there's no telling when something like this might happen again, so we can't afford to ignore it.
Since it was something that had actually happened, it didn't seem suspicious at all.
As it turned out, there was no real need for an excuse anyway.
Other nobles were already gathering various bits of information related to apocalyptic prophecies through the Adventurers' Guild.
Since a necromancer could appear in one's territory at any time, preparing in advance was simply what any good lord ought to do.
From the guild's perspective, Karnak was just one more ordinary client.
"Thank you for using the Derat City Adventurers' Guild, Baron Karnak! We'll contact you as soon as any new information comes in!"
One week after arriving in Derat City.
Karnak and Baros had taken rooms at a top-class inn and spent their days eating and drinking to their hearts' content.
Thanks to the copper mine, they had plenty of money, so there was no need to hold back.
They stayed in the most expensive rooms, ordered the finest dishes, and enjoyed themselves thoroughly—living the life of true layabouts.
If there was one difference between them and other newly rich upstarts, it was that they didn't spend their nights embracing women in the pleasure district.
It wasn't that they had any sexual problems.
They had only just barely returned to human bodies, after all. And weren't these bodies in the prime of youth? It would be a lie to say they had no sexual desire.
They weren't the sort to care much about morals or ethics either, so they did, in fact, go to the brothels.
Yes, they went—but…
"Ah… no, this really isn't a good idea."
After taking one look at the prostitutes, Karnak quickly turned around and left.
It was because he was a necromancer.
The nicknames attached to necromancers who were considered particularly powerful usually went something like this.
Lord of Death, Lord of Darkness, Lord of Plague, and so on.
Necromancers are specialists in disease and pestilence as well.
Unlike priests, who specialize in healing, they specialize in infection.
In other words, to Karnak's eyes, the venereal diseases afflicting the women of the pleasure district were practically visible, as if he could reach out and grab them!
How could people who even restrain themselves when eating snacks for the sake of their health possibly be so careless with their bodies?
"I really should meet a good woman, get married, and live properly. That's what it means to live like a human being, right?"
"So you're thinking about getting married?" Baros asked.
"Of course. I'm a lord now, aren't I?"
For the head of a noble house, leaving behind an heir is also an important duty.
"Marriage is something I have to do. Ideally, with a woman I truly like."
He had no intention of marrying some woman he'd never even seen through a political arrangement. The current House of Jestrad wasn't so desperate as to require that.
"What about you, Baros? Didn't you have a woman you liked?"
"Well… there was someone I'd been thinking about."
Apparently, the way the maids at the estate had been looking at him lately was rather suggestive, and he had secretly been getting his hopes up.
"Really? Then why didn't you make a move?"
"I was just about to, when some lunatic went and started spreading the apocalypse across the world, you know? And now here we are because of that."
"S-sorry about that…"
In any case, they had enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
The problem was their original purpose.
"It's been a whole week, and we've got absolutely nothing to show for it."
"Yeah. I didn't expect it to be like this."
It wasn't that there was no information about the Darkness of the End.
Quite the opposite—there was far too much.
The goddess herself had delivered an oracle, and the Seven Orders had proclaimed it.
That the end of the world was coming, and everyone should prepare for the darkness.
How would ordinary people interpret that?
Bandits running wild in the hills? Blame it on being tainted by darkness. Magical beasts rampaging in the forest? Also the darkness. Getting swindled and losing money? The swindler was tainted by darkness too.
At this point, even if the neighbor's dog bit the neighbor's chicken, people would say the dog was tainted by darkness.
Every bad thing in the world was being blamed on the Darkness of the End.
"Haa… so that's why the Seven Orders kept the oracle hidden all this time."
Karnak shook his head.
All kinds of alleged necromancy-related incidents were flooding the world, and naturally, almost none of them were real.
"Just how blatantly did that bastard Fred mess things up to be hunted down so fiercely?"
"Considering what he did, it's almost surprising he wasn't caught sooner."
It was something they only learned after coming to Derat City, but the Church of Latiel hadn't been pursuing Fred from the very beginning.
In the early stages, a search request had gone out through the Adventurers' Guild.
In the process, several adventurers were killed, and then a priest of the Church of Latiel who found the situation suspicious followed the case—only to meet a one-way journey as well.
Only then did the church realize the gravity of the situation and deploy large numbers of troops.
With so much false information floating around, even the Seven Orders couldn't jump into every case. They only intervened once things became reasonably certain.
"We need to intercept a case before that happens."
Walking through the night streets, Karnak said, almost as if in prayer.
"Hopefully tomorrow we'll get some usable information…"