The Necromancer Who Was Despised

No, maybe she was trying to hide her feelings of despair at her miserable situation, unable to refuse the oath.

As I had figured out earlier, she wasn’t broken yet.

“I like it very much. Now that I’m ready.”

“…Ready, you say.”

Kayla asks back, sensing something strange in my words.

“I am a warlock.”

I immediately revealed my magic, and an overwhelming sense of despair appeared on Kayla’s face.

“Oh my… I’m not only a slave to a monster hunter, but also to a warlock…”

Her eyes die.

But my next words brought her back to life.

“Well. Wouldn’t that be better for you? Maybe I could fix your legs?”

“My, legs, you say?”

Hope flickers on her face for a moment. But soon she shook her head.

“This is a wound that even a high priest can’t heal. But how could a mere warlock…”

“Mere, you say. How about being a little more careful? Your master is that warlock.”

To be honest, I’m a warlock too, but it’s a fact that most warlocks are trash, so I couldn’t really argue.

“And even if a high priest can’t heal it, I’m a little different. Remember the first slave I brought?”

“I know a little bit.”

She, too, was someone who had lived underground. There was no way she wouldn’t know Tia.

“That child’s illness is gone.”

If she knows about Tia, she must know about her illness.

Her illness was so severe that even the priests couldn’t figure it out and told her to go to a high priest.

It was no wonder that Kayla was surprised to hear that such an illness had been cured.

“To be exact, it was a curse. A curse that even a high priest would be hard-pressed to discover. Of course, I was the one who cured it. More precisely, I’m still treating it.”

I’m still treating it, but I’m confident that it will be cured. Unlike Kayla, it’s not a possibility.

That’s why I could say it so confidently.

She’s not stupid. She was once a knight.

It was a curse that even the temple, which was sensitive to magic, couldn’t figure out. She must have realized right away that it was no ordinary curse, since they told her to go to a high priest.

Since I was the one who cured such a thing, she must have noticed right away that I was no ordinary warlock.

“Oh, just in case, I’m not going to use you as a guinea pig.”

She was a colleague through and through. And I intended to make her a colleague who would never betray me, until the very end.

After all, she was a slave and I had her on a leash, and she was someone who could even teach Athena.

She was useful now and had future value, and she had the ability to train talent for the future.

She could be seen as a talent that was too much to acquire now.

Kayla didn’t say anything for a long time after hearing my words.

I kept quiet too, as she looked like she was thinking about something with a serious face.

Rumble, rumble.

All the while, we were gradually approaching my house.

After a long silence, Kayra opened her mouth, seemingly having collected her thoughts.

“Can you really, truly fix my leg?”

“I can’t give you a definite answer. But there’s definitely a possibility.”

“…If you fix my leg…”

Her eyes held a strong determination.

“I will pledge my loyalty to you. I will become your sword to cut down those who insult you, and your shield to defend you against any threat that comes your way.”

It wasn’t the oath of a mana. However, there was more weight to her words than that.

“Until the moment I die. No, even after I die, I will remain by your side as your knight, forever.”

I don’t know what meaning there is in fixing a leg.

But I vaguely realized that there was something there that I couldn’t fathom.

The problem is that I can’t be sure I can fix it.

So I tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

“You were just telling me not to think about using you sexually, but your attitude has changed a lot.”

“If you just fix my leg, I’ll follow you without complaint, even if you ask me to sleep with you.”

There wasn’t a hint of playfulness on Kayra’s face.

She had just given up the last line she had been holding onto with her life.

“Like I said, I can’t be sure.”

“I have nowhere else to turn anyway.”

She already knew that I was a warlock, and I had no intention of letting her go.

‘It doesn’t matter if she finds out about the warlock thing later…’

But not now.

“…I’ll do my best.”

“That’s enough. I’ll just wait eagerly for that day to come.”

Her demeanor had changed completely from before, Kayra said.

A little while later, we arrived at my residence, and Athena and Tia came out to greet us, or rather, me.

“Welcome back, Inha-nim.”

“Come in. Why do you have so much luggage? And there’s… another person there?”

“I received a request. This is a new colleague.”

“My name is Kayra. But… there are two of you.”

“She’s Tia’s older sister.”

“I didn’t know that… Don’t tell me you kidnapped Tia.”

“It was a condition of my deal with Athena.”

I said, looking at Athena.

“You should greet her. She’s going to be your teacher.”

“…Teacher?”

“Master. Don’t…”

“Don’t use the oath you made to Kuman right now. Kayra, teach Athena.”

Even if I didn’t use the oath, she would have probably accepted my request.

But as if I was freed from a shackle, I immediately wrote the oath I had received from Kooman.

‘I may have taken it over, but this oath originally belonged to Kooman.’

I was going to get rid of it all at once.

“I understand. “I’ll do my best.”

“Congratulations, unni. You received help from Inha-nim again.”

Athena looked as if she didn’t understand what was going on, but Tia seemed to know a little about Kayla.

It wasn’t strange. I also knew about Kayla’s existence even though I didn’t have much contact with her in the past.

“Learn well from her. She’s a former knight.”

Only then did Athena look surprised.

“Are you saying you’re making a former knight my teacher?”

“Uh. You’re lucky. Forget the mana breathing technique and aura cultivation technique I taught you. You’ll learn new ones.”

My words made Athena frown a little.

“I was just getting used to them… .”

“Learn the better ones. It’ll help more.”

While I was talking to Athena, Kayla and Tia greeted each other.

Since they knew each other’s faces and names, their greeting was short.

As soon as their greeting was over, I immediately talked about the request I received.

“We have to catch orcs? Isn’t that too dangerous?”

Perhaps because she was a warrior from the plains, Athena knew very well about the dangerousness of orcs.

“They move in tribal units and are very vengeful. If you make a mistake, you could be chased by hundreds of orcs.”

“Don’t worry. It’s just the location of a small tribe. You, me, and Kayla. “The three of us will be more than enough to catch them.”

I also received a lot of necessary items.

“Just follow my instructions and keep a few precautions in mind, and it won’t be that dangerous.”

“What are you going to do… .”

“What do you mean, what am I going to do?”

I said as if it was obvious.

“What would a black magician do if not black magic?”

Hunting

Of course, I wasn’t planning to ‘only’ use black magic.

I also planned to faithfully use the methods that monster hunters actually used when capturing orcs.

Since I had many tools, there was no need to stick to just one.

I didn’t do anything as foolish as rushing to the orcs’ habitat right away.

I had to find out Kayla’s abilities and check how much Athena had grown.

The two of them also needed time to get to know each other and me.

So, for about three days, we spent our time figuring out each other’s limits.

‘As expected of Sene.’

The strongest among us was definitely Kayla.

To be exact, she was tied with me.

‘I can’t take Kayla down, and Kayla can’t chase me away.’

The weakest was naturally Athena.

Athena has been eating well lately and has gained stamina and control over her mana, but she was no match for me.

‘When it comes to Kyla… The moment we made contact, there was no escape or anything.’

I was subdued in an instant.

Athena had an expression as if she couldn’t understand what happened when she was subdued by Kyla.

“Master, you’re a warlock, yet you show movements like a warrior.”

“I couldn’t go around revealing that.”

“It’s great skill for a disguise, but even looking at your pure close combat skills, you’re at the level of an intermediate mercenary. However, a high-ranking mercenary… ”

“I know. It’s impossible.”

It’s an objective assessment.

Even though I handle magic, it’s difficult to engage in close combat with high-ranking mercenaries who know how to properly handle their mana and use aura.

“Athena… It seems like you have talent.”

“… When Teacher says that, I feel like I’m being made fun of.”

Athena said with a small sigh.

“It’s an objective assessment.”

Kyla, who spoke to Athena briefly, looked at me and said,

“On top of that, this child is lucky.”

“Teacher says that too?”

“What do you mean?”

“Inha said I was lucky too.”

“Your master?”

I shrugged my shoulders briefly.

‘I guess I am lucky.’

I saved my sister, saved myself from ruining my life, and even saved my teacher.

This is the kind of luck that three generations of good deeds might or might not create.

It feels like a reward for the miserable life I had in the first round.

‘Why do I feel like I’m the one giving the reward instead of heaven?’

Instead, I’ll just use it all up.

“Well, just being noticed by master is lucky in itself. But that’s not the kind of luck I’m talking about.”

Kyla glossed over Athena’s words and said to me,

“You probably already know that I was originally a knight.”

I nodded.

“However… “I wasn’t an ordinary knight.”

“Was there another kind of knight?”

“I was born a commoner. On top of that, I was known as an ordinary knight to the outside world, but it was a little different internally.”

Kyla said with a slightly bitter smile.

“I was a cleaner who took care of all sorts of dirty work.”

‘I see.’

Athena’s talent is closer to an assassin than a warrior.

It wasn’t a coincidence that she blossomed under Kyla.

“The lives of nobles may seem glamorous on the outside, but they’re much dirtier on the inside. The higher the rank of the noble, the worse it gets. That’s why they needed someone to take care of all the dirty work.”

One of them was Kayla.

In this kind of work, secret is life.

In other words, when you look closely, it means that you have received an education that is almost like an assassin, not a knight.