Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

As Sir Baron had predicted, the closer they got to Rotfallen, the smaller the Duke’s forces became.

“How much farther to the front line?”  

“We still have a full day’s march ahead.”  

“Still?”

As they neared the front line, the Duke’s mood darkened, and the soldiers’ morale dipped accordingly. The scent of death, blood, and steel grew stronger. What started as a march of hundreds had dwindled to dozens. The Duke’s army was now split into the rear guard handling supplies, the main body, and the vanguard performing reconnaissance and scouting.

While they were advancing slowly, a sound reached their ears.  

“Halt!”  

The Duke halted the troops and listened closely.

Faintly, they could hear someone screaming—  

“Aaargh—!”

A scream. The Duke shouted,  

“Prepare for battle!”  

“Prepare for battle!”

The rear guard nocked oil-soaked arrows, and the knights drew their swords and shields. Binaeril, having no specific task, moved to stand beside the Duke.

“Could it be the vanguard?”  

The Duke nodded heavily.

They were passing through tall grass on a meadow. Binaeril was the first to spot what emerged from the front.  

“Undead!”

The soldiers and grotesque corpses of the vanguard were tangled in a chaotic melee. Among them were some knights Binaeril recognized.

“We must help them!”  

Ignoring the Duke’s shout, Binaeril rushed forward. He heard the Duke call his name from behind, but he ignored it. The vanguard of barely a dozen faced over twenty undead.

“Cease fire!”  

The Duke ordered the soldiers. In the tall grass, firing flaming arrows could put their own men at risk.

“Your Grace, your orders!”  

Sir Baron and the other knights looked to the Duke anxiously.

“Damn it! Save Sir Binaeril and the vanguard!”  

“Charge!”

The knights drew their swords and charged at the undead. The sound of hooves thundered across the ground.

In the chaotic melee of soldiers and undead, using wide-area magic was impossible. Instead, Binaeril cast multiple magic bullets to target the undead.

Zzzzap—.  

The defenseless undead couldn’t withstand the power of the magic bullets and fell.

“Eden, help the people!”  

His spirit, responding to his command, sprang from the ring. Eden transformed pieces of the ground into caltrops. While they wouldn’t pierce the soldiers’ thick soles, they could immobilize the undead. It was a wise move.

Cries of relief echoed from the vanguard.  

“With Sir Binaeril’s support, we’re saved!”

With the undead immobilized, the vanguard freely swung their swords, targeting shoulders, hearts, and heads. The stronger among them even cleaved the undead in half. But the undead didn’t retreat. Knowing no pain, the immortal beings pressed on.

At the moment when they thought they had the upper hand, the soldiers hesitated.

“What are you doing! Pull back quickly!”  

“But—”  

“Hurry!”  

“…Follow his orders! All vanguard units, retreat!”

The soldiers who had repelled the undead attacks slowly pulled back.  

‘Perfect!’  

As the frontline opened up, it was the moment Binaeril had been waiting for. He jumped off his horse and ran forward, crossing paths with the retreating vanguard.

“Whoa!”  

He heard the startled shouts of soldiers as he extended his hands forward. Gathering his mana, he recited the incantation that matched the image he envisioned. Mana flowed into the words, and the words invoked a miracle—the miracle called magic!

“O world of icy blue and white, freeze everything that stands in your way!”  

Zzzz-ZZZT!

An intense cold spread from Binaeril’s fingertips, freezing everything in its path—grass, trees, and the bodies of the rampaging undead.  

“Stop, stop!”

The knights who were charging in support frantically pulled their reins.  

“…Sir Binaeril?”  

Their drawn weapons and fierce charge seemed suddenly pointless.

Some of the retreating vanguard, overwhelmed by surprise, fell backward, landing on their rear ends.  

“What is this!”

It was their first time witnessing Binaeril use such a large-scale spell with intent. As he had described, the world before them was a milky white, a new season appearing at the touch of one man’s hand.  

“Why have you all stopped?”

The Duke arrived a step late and questioned the halted knights. Baron, at a loss for words, pointed at the scene before them. The Duke, too, was speechless at the sudden arrival of winter, a harsh, freezing landscape.

“Is anyone injured?”  

Within the embrace of winter, Binaeril turned and asked the others.  

“Asdal, report the situation.”

The Duke commanded the knight who led the vanguard.  

“Yes! While advancing cautiously, we were ambushed by a group of undead from the front. Caught off guard, we engaged them. I apologize for our negligence.”

“Any injuries? How many undead were there in total?”  

“Not precisely, but roughly twenty. Thanks to Sir Binaeril’s swift support, there are no injuries.”  

“…We should be thankful we didn’t leave any bodies unburied. Baron!”

At the Duke’s call, Sir Baron hurried over.  

“You said there was still a distance to the undead’s emergence zone. How did this happen?”  

Baron didn’t have an answer but proposed two possibilities.

“In the worst case, the area of undead emergence may have expanded beyond our knowledge. In the worst-case scenario, the front line may have already been breached.”

Either scenario was bad news for the Duke’s army.  

“Even if we know which is true, there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

The Duke, who had been pressing his knights, turned his attention to Binaeril. Feeling the Duke’s piercing gaze, Binaeril averted his eyes and replied.

“Next time, wait for orders. Charging out like a spooked horse won’t do.”  

“I’m sorry…”

The Duke sighed deeply. If Binaeril had been one of his retainers, such impulsive behavior would have earned severe punishment. However, it was also true that his actions had saved lives.

“Still, thank you. Thanks to you, not a single soldier was injured.”  

“Even so, I’m sorry…”

“Let’s move on. Replace all the vanguard. Baron will lead the vanguard this time.”

Not far from Rotfallen, at the Ulm Outpost:

“They’ve breached Sector 17! Move out, quickly!”

“Is the resupply here yet? We can’t hold out much longer!”

“Hey, over there! What’s happening?”

“We have wounded.”

Gustav, the knight in charge of the Ulm Outpost, paled as he saw the soldier being carried on a stretcher.

“How bad is it?”

The soldier carrying the stretcher shook his head slightly, indicating there was no hope.

Gustav peeked under the blanket. The skin was already decaying, indicating that the infection had spread.

Just then, a hand shot out from the stretcher, grabbing Gustav’s thigh tightly.

“Commander, I’ll be fine, just…”

Wounds inflicted by monsters left behind a malevolent energy. For soldiers without resistance, even minor wounds could be fatal, let alone such severe ones. In any other situation, the wounded would be evacuated and treated, but this was the front line—against the undead, no less. Here, the wounded held a particular significance.

Gustav covered the soldier’s face with the blanket. He couldn’t bear to say it while looking him in the eye.

“Move him to the burial ground.”

At that moment, Binaeril and the Duke’s forces arrived.

“Gustav!”

“Your Grace!”

Gustav ran up and saluted the Duke, followed by dozens of soldiers. They were the much-needed reinforcements and supplies.

“Gustav, you’ve done well.”

The Duke patted the knight’s shoulder, and Gustav was deeply moved. This front line was hell beyond description.

“It’s time to end this war.”

Binaeril noticed the wounded soldier being carried away and asked,

“Is there no doctor here? Where are they taking the wounded?”

Gustav, looking at the unfamiliar face, hesitated.

“This is Baron Binaeril. He’s my guest and a mage.”

A mage!

Gustav, startled, quickly greeted Binaeril.

“We have a doctor, but they can only treat minor wounds. Severe injuries are sent to the burial ground.”

“The burial ground? But he’s still alive!”

“Sir Binaeril,” Sir Baron explained, tugging at Binaeril’s sleeve, “hopeless cases are all buried. As I mentioned before, they might come back and attack us.”

Binaeril looked at Sir Baron with a horrified expression, then turned to the Duke for confirmation.

The Duke, also uncomfortable, avoided Binaeril’s gaze.

“This is unacceptable, Your Grace.”

“We have no other choice. Wounds inflicted by the undead spread faster than those from other monsters. It’s not an order I gave willingly.”

Binaeril recalled a past memory. In Fairhill Village, Veritas had once healed the village chief’s son, extracting the malevolent energy from the wound.

“If the wound can be healed by removing the infection, then perhaps I can do it.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Bring the wounded here. I’ll try to heal him.”  

“Can you really do that?”  

“I’m not certain, but I will try.”

A troubled expression crossed the Duke’s face. He didn’t want to give the soldiers false hope only to deepen their despair. But then again, Binaeril had performed seemingly impossible feats before.

“…Alright.”

Faced with the wounded soldier, Binaeril encountered an immediate challenge.

‘Why isn’t this working!’  

– The mana from the undead is disgusting. It tastes horrible.  

‘Is that your only reason!’

Before him lay a dying man, his chest slashed deeply. The soldier’s pained eyes held a glimmer of hope, hoping a mage might have a way to save him. This added pressure to Binaeril’s heart.

– Why do you always act on your own without my consent? I told you in Fairhill, didn’t I? It’s unnecessary meddling. If you had just left it alone, this wouldn’t be an issue.

But Binaeril couldn’t simply accept burying someone alive without even trying to help. If Veritas wouldn’t help, he’d have to do it on his own.

‘But how?’  

Despite racking his brain, he couldn’t come up with a solution. He didn’t have Rike’s healing talents or her ability to detect malevolent energy with special vision.

[Binaeril?]  

Eden’s voice broke through his confusion, sparking a thought. Veritas had told him that Eden had the power to reject anything Binaeril deemed negative.

‘Eden’s power dispelled the Lich’s magic. Maybe it can also remove this malevolent energy…?’

Binaeril quickly communicated his idea to Eden.  

[I’ll try!]

Eden’s cheerful voice flowed into his mind as usual. A small beam of light emerged from Binaeril’s ring and hovered over the soldier’s wound. Then, something incredible happened.

“The wound, the wound…!”