Derat City (2)
It was the tenth day since they had begun staying in Derat City.
Today as well, the moment Karnak and Baros left the inn, they headed straight to the Adventurers' Guild.
Checking for new information and then going out to explore local restaurants had become their daily routine.
"Welcome, Baron Karnak."
In the first-floor lobby, a teenage boy greeted the two with a polite, eager attitude. He was Hans, an apprentice guild member working as a receptionist.
"Would you like to check your commission?"
"Yes. Is there anything useful?"
"Unfortunately, not much today either…"
Handing over a bundle of papers, Hans wore an apologetic expression. Even to someone as young as him, it was obvious that most of the guild's information was trash.
"It's fine. I wasn't expecting much anyway."
Replying calmly, Karnak took the documents and skimmed through them.
As expected, there was nothing worth taking.
Baros, peeking over his shoulder, frowned.
"No, blaming the Darkness of the End because a wife ran away after being beaten by her drunken husband—isn't that a bit much?"
Of course, that husband was insisting that since his wife, who had always endured the beatings quietly, suddenly ran away, she must have been tainted by darkness.
"If she'd really gained the power of darkness, would she have just run away? She'd have torn her husband apart first."
"Which just proves this is bogus information."
Hans asked cautiously,
"You told us to collect everything related to the Darkness of the End, no matter how trivial… but should we start filtering things a bit more?"
"No. Keep working like this. Just in case."
Having reached the extreme limits of necromancy, Karnak could detect even the faintest traces of dark power—ones that even the highest-ranking priests would fail to notice.
Even information that looked like garbage on the surface might contain suspicious elements that others couldn't find.
The problem was that, so far, not even such minor clues had appeared.
"Looks like another bust today."
Baros tried to console the disappointed Karnak.
"How about Serrale Street this time? I hear there's a bakery around there that makes incredible baguettes."
"Let's go. I'm already drooling."
The two of them, their eyes sparkling with anticipation for new delicacies, were about to leave the guild side by side.
That was when a booming voice echoed from the hall across the lobby.
"How can you not believe me? I'm telling you, a wicked necromancer has really appeared!"
Baros and Karnak looked at each other in disbelief.
"Master, he said a necromancer."
"No way. The timing's too perfect."
The man who had shouted was an ordinary-looking farmer in his early thirties.
He said he came from a small village called Gelpa, about a day's journey from Derat City.
"So you're saying a necromancer appeared in your village, and you came all the way here to report it?" Hans asked.
The farmer nodded vigorously.
"Yes! But no one believes me!"
Because he'd caused a commotion, other adventurers had gathered in the first-floor hall along with the receptionist. The adventurers exchanged looks and shook their heads.
"This sounds like a pretty common story."
"Right? From the sound of it, he already went to the temple."
Incidents related to the Darkness of the End were something that even the Church of the Seven Goddesses treated with extreme caution. Normally, if you went to one of the Seven Orders, they would dispatch personnel to respond.
That is, if it were truly an incident related to the actual Darkness of the End.
"It seems the church didn't believe you either?" Hans asked.
"I'm telling you, they didn't!" the farmer shouted indignantly in response.
One of the adventurers stepped in to calm him down.
"Alright, alright. Let's hear the story first. What exactly happened?"
The farmer began explaining, haltingly.
Some time ago, an unknown outsider had appeared in Gelpa Village. He had taken up residence in an abandoned villa belonging to a noble family, located in the forest near the village. Using strange methods, he went around enchanting all the village maidens, earning the glares of the young men.
"Even Emily, whom I had promised to marry, fell for him!"
"I see. And then?"
"…And then?"
The adventurers waiting for more stared at him blankly.
"Wait a second."
"That's all?"
The farmer raised his voice, as if asking what more was needed.
"Emily was a diligent and kind woman! She's not the sort of frivolous woman who would fall head over heels for some man she'd never seen before!"
It sounded like the usual story these days: the woman he'd secretly set his sights on had fallen for some random guy, so it had to be the influence of dark power.
It was an extremely common tale in the current times, but just in case, the adventurer continued questioning.
"What does this man look like?"
Grinding his teeth, the farmer answered,
"He's handsome enough to put a pretty boy to shame."
"How old is he?"
"A young man in his twenties."
"Does he swindle money from the village girls after seducing them?"
"No. I don't know where he got it, but he's got plenty of money."
The adventurers listening were dumbfounded.
"So, in other words…"
"So you're saying this young guy is handsome and rich, and he's been charming all the women?"
"And that requires the power of darkness?"
Baros, who had been listening from behind, stepped in casually.
"Then did the other villagers just leave him alone? If it's only one person, there's no reason to come all the way here, is there?"
The farmer's shoulders slumped.
"The villagers are all enchanted by him too…"
"What exactly did he do?" Baros asked.
"Well, um…"
At Baros's continued questioning, the farmer's voice grew quieter.
"He… holds village feasts, gives medicine to the sick, things like that…"
So he was young, rich, handsome—and even kind.
Hans spoke seriously.
"From the guild's standpoint, we can't accept your report. Unless you'd like to make a private request?"
"T-that kind of money…"
The farmer's face went pale.
There was no way a simple farmer could afford to hire adventurers.
He must have come all the way to Derat City trusting that the Church of the Seven Goddesses would actively deal with necromancy-related incidents.
In the end, the farmer left the guild building, dejected.
Watching his retreating figure, the adventurers sneered.
"Sounds like an ugly guy just jealous of a better man."
"Tsk, tsk."
"This kind of thing happens all the time these days."
With the same mocking smiles on their faces, Karnak and Baros also left the guild.
Just as they turned a corner into an alley, their expressions changed completely.
"Suspicious, isn't it, young master?" Baros asked.
"It is."
"That sounds exactly like something you would do."
"I've actually done similar things before."
At first glance, the story didn't seem strange at all.
But if you thought about it more carefully, there were suspicious points.
It wasn't strange for village maidens to flock to a young, handsome, wealthy, and kind man.
But if you looked at it the other way around—
Why would a man with that level of ability bother seducing girls from a rural village?
"If he were truly capable, he'd be courting a noble lady. Why go after plain country girls?"
Karnak nodded and muttered,
"To a real womanizing con artist, country girls aren't worth much."
However, there was a field in which naive country girls had great value—more precisely, their souls.
"Black magic?" Baros asked.
"That's what it looks like to me."
Of course, the world was wide and full of eccentric people, so it wasn't impossible that he was genuinely targeting rural girls. Still, it was more than worth checking out.
"You said it was Gelpa Village, right? Let's go."
"Since everyone laughed it off, we won't have annoying adventurers swarming the place. We can investigate without any pressure."
The farmer had said it was a day's journey, but that was from the perspective of someone traveling slowly on foot.
Riding horses, Karnak and Baros reached Gelpa Village in just half a day.
They climbed a nearby hill overlooking the area and surveyed the situation.
It was an ordinary rural village. At a glance, there was nothing unusual.
But Karnak smiled with satisfaction.
"We came to the right place."
Baros asked,
"Do you see something?"
"I'll let you see it too."
Karnak stirred his chaos mana and lightly overlaid it onto Baros's vision. Beneath the scenery of the village, faint black lines connected to one another.
"Oh. A barrier."
Invisible dark power was woven like a spider's web beneath the village.
It was hidden so subtly that even fairly high-ranking priests wouldn't be able to detect it.
"He's skilled. At this level, it looks like he learned things properly."
After seeing nothing but amateurs for so long, encountering orthodox(?) necromancy was enough to make Karnak feel pleased.
As he continued observing the village, Baros asked another question.
"So it really is the Darkness of the End?"
"We'll only know after we catch him."
The nature of darkness could only be identified by digging down to its very source. That was why, even in Fred's case, they hadn't been able to determine its attribute until Karnak personally extracted and absorbed the darkness.
"It could just be an ordinary necromancer."
"Possibly."
Either way, they had to check. And checking wouldn't be difficult at all.
There were no eyes watching them, and no companions they needed to worry about.
They could simply ride straight to the noble family's villa where the man was staying and deal with him on the spot.
"Judging by the barrier, he's got some skill—but that's all."
Karnak confidently reached for the reins.
"Alright, let's hurry over and take him out—"
Suddenly, both of their expressions changed.
They felt a presence coming from beyond the hill. And it was moving straight toward them.
"Huh? Someone's coming," Baros said.
Unlike Baros, who merely sensed the presence, Karnak was genuinely startled.
'A high-ranking priest?'
Necromancers and clergy were keenly sensitive to one another's presence. The person approaching possessed a considerable amount of divine power.
'In a backwater village like this, someone of that rank?'
Through his flustered gaze, Karnak caught sight of a man.
A young man in his twenties, wearing green robes embroidered with the symbol of mountains and holding an oak staff.
As he ran, the young priest shouted toward them,
"E-excuse me! You there!"
The young priest who had run up to them took a moment to catch his breath, then immediately launched into speech.
"You're adventurers who noticed something suspicious about this village, aren't you? Perfect timing! I was just about to investigate this place myself!"
The way he declared it before they could even respond was rather baffling.
Baros asked cautiously,
"…And who might you be?"
Only then did the priest realize his mistake and choose his words carefully.
"Ah, my apologies. I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Alius, and I serve Hatova."
"A priest of the Earth Order, then."
Baros acknowledged him and introduced himself as well.
"I am Baros, a knight of House Jestrad. This gentleman is our lord, Baron Karnak."
At the word "baron," Alius's eyes widened.
"You're not adventurers?"
Karnak, looking equally puzzled, asked in return,
"Why did you assume we were adventurers?"
"Well, just by looking at you, it was obvious you're highly skilled…"
Only then did the two understand the situation.
To avoid trouble, they had deliberately dressed in a way that made them look like powerful individuals, and he had mistaken them because of that.
Realizing his error, Alius asked cautiously,
"…Then were you not here to investigate this village?"
Baros sent a magical message to Karnak.
[What should we do?]
They couldn't keep communicating forever with just glances, so Karnak had used chaos magic to establish a discreet messaging system between them.
[At this point, it's too late to pretend we were just passing by.]
[Right. This priest seems fixated on the village anyway—he'll probably keep digging.]
For now, a vague answer would do.
Karnak spoke in a careful tone.
"We didn't come here specifically to investigate. We were simply passing through and happened to hear something strange, so we were observing."
"I knew it!"
Alius brightened at once.
"Then would you help me? This too is a sacred duty in service of the goddess!"
Though he already knew what the man wanted, Karnak asked innocently,
"A sacred duty, you say?"
Alius glanced around nervously, then lowered his voice.
"…There's a possibility that a wicked necromancer is operating in this village."