NOVEL NEXT 144- Ronan Doesn't Eat Children; He Plays with Them.
I'm arriving at the village. Truth is, I don't even hold back anymore with Ronan's minion mounts. I approach the two guards at the palisade, who know me by now, riding the deer with another identical one following behind. This second one is for Ronan.
I dismount.
"Good morning."
"Did the training go well?" asks one of them, a middle-aged soldier.
From what I've observed, there are six guards total who take turns watching the gate.
"Yes."
"You didn't bring boars today," says his companion, a young man.
"No, today wasn't hunting day. I can leave these deer around here, right? Don't shoot them or anything."
"The creatures of a noble with high dark affinity?" asks the older one with some irony. "Wouldn't occur to me."
"Ronan's a sweetheart of a guy," I defend him.
As if he'd kill them or do something worse if they destroyed his deer. They are, as he says, feral undead that just follow orders without thinking. Even though I call all his creatures minions, the truth is only the ones without souls are real minions. Nothing like Joe, Bob, and Tom. Or Myrthaxya.
Uh, well maybe Ronan isn't as much of a sweetheart as I think—if they hurt Joe... Who knows.
I shake my head. I don't want to think bad things about Ronan, like him cursing the guards. My friend is right, I overthink things.
"Everything okay? Aren't you going in?" the younger guard asks me.
Oh, I just stood there without saying anything.
"Yes, of course, thank you so much."
I give the deer that brought me a pat on the side and tell them to be good, stay close, and not get into trouble. Then I head into the village.
I greet the furrier when I encounter her on my way to the square with the portal. She's got her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a bucket full of water in one hand.
"Not bringing me any more boars?" she asks.
"Maybe another day. We're currently going through the two-week trials at the academy."
"I understand."
Oh, she probably thinks I need to collect something from the forest. Whatever. If I can, I'll bring her a boar sometime—not for the money, which is pretty small compared to what I can make in a dungeon, but because it's a way to help her and the village. For low-level commoners, hunting is dangerous.
Once I'm back in my dorm, I let Ronan know I've returned and tell him to head to the room Catrina lent us. After a while, he shows up with Tom carrying a huge backpack, and Ronan's got another one. He also brings the few ice golems he managed to get out of the dungeon, plus some others he must have animated from their cores. In total, there are nine small ones stuck together in a three-by-three formation, a floating platform. No need to tie them together with ropes or harnesses since, just like with his improvised armor, they stick to each other automatically when brought close. Ronan's thrown a blanket over them, and on top of that are several bags stuffed to the brim. Ah... the materials for the goblin village. I think Ronan's backpack could fit up there too. I tell him so.
(By the way, his trip through the hallways must have been quite the spectacle, but students should be getting used to having a necromancer as a classmate by now.)
"I know, my lady. But I want to build muscle and some constitution."
"Trying to get pack mule mastery?" I raise an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you need more weight for that?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Or something that challenges me for a longer time."
Fine. I'm definitely not signing up for that. Look, I wouldn't mind the mana density thing since it might give me wisdom points. But pack mule mastery?
No thanks.
As for Ronan, he's not what I picture as a typical necromancer—some weak, sickly mage. I mean, he was like that when I first met him, but now he's putting effort into building up his physical strength too.
He said it was because of Darius, because of the punch Darius landed on him when Ronan thought he was protecting me from him.
This physical training definitely wasn't something the final boss lich from the trailer ever did. This change in Ronan, driven by his desire to defend me, is another deviation from the otome game's possible endings.
I treat this world like it has infinite possibilities, but I have to remind myself that back on Earth, this was a game with set paths you couldn't stray from.
That uncertainty—not knowing whether I'm following a hidden route or if this world has gone completely off-script—is something I try not to dwell on.
And I succeed, mostly. It's way more interesting to focus on what my next spell upgrade will be, or to imagine myself entering the ballroom on the prince's arm.
Ahhh, the look on Sol's face. I don't want to miss that.
"Shall we go, my lady?" Ronan asks, pointing toward the room.
"Sure, wait for me outside for a moment."
I open the door, see that no one's in the hallway, and place the stones with as much separation as the small room allows. Then I tell Ronan to have the golems enter and position themselves inside the stones. Tom next, pressed close. Then Ronan, and finally me. I have to climb on top of the golems because otherwise I can't get in. I close the door and lock it, then say the words that activate the teleportation.
Really, it's a shame we all have to go together and can't do this in turns.
Well, we can, but with limitations.
Unlike portals that are fixed, with stones embedded in their structure, these stones bind to whoever casts the spell and can't be used again while that teleportation spell is active. Portals like the academy's or the ones at the capital's portal station, however, allow simultaneous use of multiple teleportation spells.
Catrina warned me about this during one of her private lessons when she saw I was going to the village with Ronan. The woman thought ahead that this might happen, that Ronan might want to bring his skeletons.
"If he travels without you, with several of his creatures, and says the words, then you won't be able to enter. The stones can't be used again to go to the village until whoever said the words returns. Well, there's also another way—if the stones are removed from the ground, then they reset and can be used again. It's because they only support one teleportation spell at a time. Removing the stones would break the spell."
"So, if I remove them and place them again?" I asked.
"Then Ronan would have to come back with you, because the village teleporter wouldn't work for him."
That means we could send more undead, though Ronan would have to go with them unless he brought a zombie capable of speech. Then I'd go, and as long as those undead didn't try to return to the academy, there'd be no problem.
(I'm assuming a zombie could speak if it still has vocal cords. And another thing: if an undead can't enter a dungeon before its master, can it even cast teleportation spells?)
But there's no point in overcomplicating things. If we all fit together, then that's what we'll do. We travel as one group.
Once in the village, as we walk down the main street with the golems, several children stare at us and point in amazement. The adults quickly scold them and apologize to Ronan.
What do they think necromancers are? Ruthless killers who breakfast on children's blood and hearts?
"It's fine," I quickly tell them. "The golems obey Ronan. You can come closer if you want."
"Can we?" asks an excited little boy about six years old, who apparently wasn't too bothered by the smack his mother gave him earlier.
I elbow Ronan. He gets it and approaches the mother.
"There is no danger." He turns to the child. "Do you want to ride the golems?"
"Yesss!" he answers enthusiastically, clapping and jumping.
The mother eyes Tom warily. Even though he's covered up, they know from previous visits that he's a skeleton. Word travels fast in such a small village.
"Guys," Ronan says to the golems.
They gradually cancel their levitation to land carefully on the ground. Tom, who was pushing the platform, steps back a few paces.
The little boy runs over and climbs on.
"But be careful not to break anything," I warn him, momentarily worried about the bags.
The pelts aren't a problem, but Ronan's probably brought some flasks of troll blood. He wants the goblins to learn how to make a potion lab. Well, more like he wants me to do it when I have the village interface active.
And I bet he brought worm eggs too...
The boy listens to me and climbs where there aren't any bags. The golems rise again.
"Will you walk with us to the palisade?" I ask the mother.
She nods. Like she has any other choice… if she took the boy down now, he'd be really disappointed, especially since he's shouting that he's flying and things like "giddy up!" As if the golems were horses.
We start moving. I'm the one pushing the platform so Tom can stay further back. Other children chase us laughing, and Ronan lifts a couple up to sit with their legs dangling.
When we reach the guards, the children get down, the parents thank us, and some apologize for the trouble.
"It was no trouble at all," Ronan surprises me by telling them. "The golems enjoyed playing with your children."
The parents take the children away, though they would have loved to come to the forest with us. I greet the guards, the same two as before. Their shift ends after noon.