The Necromancer Who Was Despised

“That’s good. We are currently being pursued by our enemies. We must escape as quickly as possible, so I would appreciate your cooperation.”

“…I understand.”

The dwarf replied curtly.

I suppose that since he knows what will happen to him if he is caught by them, he has decided to cooperate with us, who have formally hired him.

“Then I shall lead the way. Everyone, please follow closely.”

I let go of the remaining horse and sent it running off in a random direction before deciding on a direction and leading the group in that direction.

I would have preferred to abandon the horses altogether, but I couldn’t because of Kayla, whose feet were still sore, and Vanis, who was clearly not very physically fit and would slow us down.

As we left the road, the terrain became increasingly difficult for the horses to navigate, which limited our speed.

‘But at least this terrain will be just as difficult for our enemies.’

Besides, they have more horses than we do.

And so, until sunset, we continued walking, checking our direction as we went.

The problem was what came after sunset.

‘We are seriously lacking in camping supplies.’

We had managed to grab an expensive-looking fur rug from Vanis’s carriage, but that was about it.

All we had was some water and a little food.

All the artifacts we had were loaded onto the servant’s carriage, so we had almost nothing.

I handed the blanket I had brought to Vanish, and we somehow managed to distribute the food we had so that we could have one meal.

“We have to hunt…”

It’s very difficult to find wildlife around here.

But we couldn’t stay like this.

“If we go around, it will take at least three days, and as long as four. We can’t starve for that long.”

The distance we had left to travel on horseback, which would have taken about a day, was multiplied by several times because we had to go around on foot.

Therefore, it was essential to replenish our water and food.

Besides, if we hunt well, it will smell, but the leather…

“C, cold…”

At that moment, I heard Vanish mumbling softly.

Even though I had given him a blanket, it seemed that his young body couldn’t withstand the night weather.

“He was raised so preciously after all.”

It was true that as a noble, and the son of a noble with a territory, he had grown up relatively more preciously than commoners.

We couldn’t make a fire because there were pursuers, so it was definitely quite cold.

However, the next absurd words he said after that made me speechless.

“Jim, Jimnis. Can I borrow your slave for a day? I want to warm my body.”

At first, I thought I had misheard.

The intention of those words was clear.

“You’re saying you don’t want to hold a woman in this situation?”

He’s young… I guess that’s understandable. But I never thought he would say something like that in this situation.

I replied as calmly as possible.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“She is our greatest asset. She needs to rest and also stand watch at night. If we encounter pursuers while she is exhausted…”

“…I see. I understand. I spoke out of turn.”

As the improved situation, it seemed that he had other thoughts. Moreover, his tone of speech had returned to that of an old man.

Dupre, the servant, also reacted as if he was taken aback, just like me.

-What a sick little kid.

The dwarf seemed to agree, muttering softly in Dwarvish.

He probably didn’t think anyone would understand, but I could speak several foreign languages.

Therefore, I could understand what the dwarf was saying.

I looked at him with a strange look.

The dwarf flinched for a moment at my gaze, but soon avoided my gaze and lowered his head.

Vanish was enduring the cold, wrapped tightly in a blanket.

Surprisingly, Kaila didn’t look too offended.

She must have heard it, but she just didn’t seem to care.

“I’m going to scout the area. If possible, I think we should hunt.”

“…Indeed, our food situation is not good.”

Only I can do such a thing.

Kaylar is not agile enough to hunt, and the rest are just baggage.

Dupre, a servant, seemed to be doing his part by taking care of Banis here and there, but he had no fighting ability whatsoever.

“So I’ll go out. If His Highness acts recklessly after I leave, refuse and say it’s my order. Ignore any threats he makes.”

I can handle that much of a threat.

“And if the enemy attacks… .”

I added in a small voice that only Kaylar could hear.

“If you think there’s no way out, feel free to abandon them all. Prioritize your own life.”

It was a pity to give up what we had built up so far, but it couldn’t be helped.

My priorities were my own life and freedom, followed by those I could trust, those on my side.

To me, Arti and Kaylar were more important than Banis or the dwarves.

As long as we were alive, we could start over again, even if it took some time.

‘The risk will increase, though.’

Still, it was better than dying here.

Kaylar nodded solemnly at my resolved words.

And so I left the others in Kaylar’s care and went out to hunt.

“Dammit! “How far did they run?”

Funny enough, I was able to find the pursuers.

?

The first thing that came to mind was that single punctuation mark.

This was no joke.

Of course it wasn’t. The direction they were headed in was completely off.

I had moved quite far from the camp to hunt, and in a completely different direction at that.

‘I didn’t go back, so why are they here?’

The distance was so great that if they continued on this path, we would never meet.

They were going the wrong way, so to speak.

I suppose they could suddenly change direction drastically, but there was no reason for them to do so.

‘The fact that they came this way in the first place means they couldn’t read our tracks properly.’

Unless they had literally given up everything and were just wandering around, relying on luck to find us, their pursuit could be considered a failure.

‘Hmm… I’d rather not tell them about this.’

It doesn’t suit my purpose.

But I was tempted by their supplies.

There were about a dozen of them that I could see.

They had brought horses despite the terrain.

Of course, they wouldn’t be of much use just carrying them around.

‘There are probably no users… In that case, shall I do it?’

If there had been any mana users in the first place, they wouldn’t have lost us.

If only I could put out the torches they were carrying… .

‘They’re human, so they’ll rest soon… .’

As if on cue, one of them spoke up.

“Damn it, that’s it for today! Let’s find a place to rest for now!”

“Dammit, we can’t let them get away…” Those merchants won’t leave us alone.”

“They’ll whine about us paying the penalty fee, won’t they?”

“Well, we’ll all be dead before that. That dwarf, he’s a count, right?”

“Yeah. Damn it. Hey, captain, isn’t this fishy? It’s like we’ve gotten into a fight for no reason.”

“It’s too late now. It’s water under the bridge. We either catch them and make a big deal out of it, or we all die.”

“We’ll get paid big if we finish this job, right?”

“We’ll even get hired full-time. They say they’ll hire us until we die, but can we trust merchants? Still, if we don’t cause any major accidents, we’ll be able to live comfortably for 10 years.”

“10 years… If we succeed and get paid big, we could even retire, right?”

“That’s why we have to find them quickly! Let’s get some sleep and search again. We have to find them before the Basilians do. Then we can even get a bonus!”

“Ah, okay, okay. Let’s sleep for a bit and think about it!”

‘Merchants… .’

It seems like they were the ones who commissioned this.

‘Why merchants?’

I’ve never thought about it in depth, but my first thought was that it was a set-up by the count’s family who didn’t want to lend the dwarf out, or maybe it was people from another pioneering territory.

But surprisingly, it seems like the culprits are merchants. And they’re from the Siglen County.

‘And it doesn’t seem like they’re the only ones chasing us… .’

I don’t know what happened to Rainbank and the seeds.

If that’s the case, there’s no point in hiding their existence anymore.

‘Let’s just take care of them all… and use them to send a warning.’

To be exact, I planned to use them to pressure Barnis.

After I chose to hunt humans instead of beasts, I stayed hidden until they made a temporary camp and fell asleep.

The weather was quite chilly, but I’ve experienced worse.

‘This is nothing.’

We couldn’t even light a fire in case we got caught, but those guys were lucky enough to light a fire and set up a noisy night watch before going to sleep.

I stayed perfectly still until then.

That’s when the first person on night watch fell asleep, and the second person on night watch started nodding off, unable to fight the fatigue.

That’s when I started to move.

They were so careless, probably never thinking that they could become prey.

“Creak… .”

They underestimate my skills.

‘It would have been much easier if Atina was here.’

She’s better at this kind of thing than I am.

But I’m not bad at it either.

The night watchman with a knife in his neck shudders and dies.

Neigh.

The horse reacted to the sudden attack before the humans did.

I immediately put out the campfire.

There was almost no moonlight, so the temporary camp was plunged into complete darkness.

“What the hell is going on!

“Ugh… I just barely fell asleep, and now what… ”

Some reacted quickly to the sudden commotion, while others fumbled around, still trying to figure out what was going on.

[Animate Dead]

I immediately headed toward where the horses were after raising the one I killed into an undead.

Humans can’t even see properly in the pitch-black night when they can’t use mana.

“Grrr… ”

“Dammit, enemy attack! Get up right now!”

“Enemy attack?”

“Who the hell… ? There shouldn’t be any strong monsters near here?”

They seemed to know the distribution of monsters nearby, as expected of those active in the nearby fiefdom, Count Siglen’s territory.

That’s why they were even more careless, convinced that there was nothing that could threaten them, and they didn’t even guess my surprise attack.

I moved to where the horses were and untied all of them.

Poof!

“Heeheeheeng!”

“Dammit, they’re after the horses! Block them!”

Someone shouted after hearing the sound, but there was nothing they could do in the darkness.

And then their horses neighbors.

I had no intention of killing these horses.

I stabbed the horses’ flanks and rumps with my sword, and they started running around, screaming in pain.

No matter how well-trained a warhorse is, it can’t just endure the pain of having its rider gone and a sword stuck in its body.

They couldn’t help but run wild since they were attacked by surprise while they were resting and not in the middle of battle.

I guided those horses toward the mercenaries, and as a result.

“Eeeek!”

“Block them! Block themmm!”

“Where are they! “Who are they!”