Hero's Coffin Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Yes, you're our first donor!"

In the commotion that arose the moment donations were mentioned, everyone turned to look as one person abruptly stood up. Bart welcomed him with a brightened face.

"I'll make sure to pass on the name of our first donor to Lord Isaph..."

Using his nonsense as background noise, he quickly scanned the space. There were men who had entered with Bart and were now blocking the warehouse door. Though they wore black robes, their burly builds weren't hidden. Considering the hype man sitting in front, it seemed these people moved as a group.

Sigh, he let out another deep breath before speaking.

"Why don't you guys play in another city?"

"...What?"

"Our settings seem to overlap a bit. I was planning to operate here. You seem to be acting as His closest aides, but I've been preparing hard to imitate Him completely. Do you know how much trouble I went through to find a black cat that matched perfectly..."

"What nonsense are you spouting!"

Though he had stood up abruptly with the thought of stopping the commotion, no suitable solution came to mind. So he blurted out whatever came to mind, and Bart shouted angrily. Hmm, it seemed this strategy wouldn't work. He had tried to gain credibility by grabbing En and showing him to everyone, but...

–Mrrow.

En made a displeased sound and quickly slipped away, so in the end, he just shrugged and changed his approach.

"You, are you really Isaph's closest aide?"

"What? You clearly heard me contacting him just now!"

"How can you be sure that voice wasn't manipulated? And to begin with, who among the people here knows Isaph's voice? You could bring anyone and have them act."

"...H-How dare you! Don't casually use His name!"

Ah, still maintaining the closest aide setting? It seemed he couldn't find a way to refute his point and was just nitpicking, but people were already starting to murmur and express doubts one by one.

And if he really wanted to stick to that setting...

"Can you take responsibility for your words?"

"...Responsibility?"

"Isaph escaped from the heavily guarded prison in the holy city and even stole the holy sword Piarus. Do you think someone like that would let a person who dared to steal his name to commit fraud live?"

He spoke in a low voice.

"Think about it. It's 'that' Isaph."

"..."

"The one who horribly tortured and killed all the villagers of Klam, the mass murderer."

"Th-that's a misunderstanding...!"

"Can you be sure it's a misunderstanding?"

They wouldn't be able to ignore the ominous atmosphere exuded by Isaph, the original gloomy one. With that belief, he deliberately lowered his voice, and Bart's shoulders trembled. Even Sile, who was right next to him, turned pale, which made him feel sorry, but he had to maintain the atmosphere.

However, Bart seemed quite determined to make a big score and stood his ground firmly.

"You! I learned necromancy directly from Lord Isaph!"

Was this level of stubbornness necessary to commit fraud? He looked at him indifferently and tilted his chin. At this gesture challenging him to do it if he could, the man became even more indignant and stretched out his hand.

Showing off, huh. He was inwardly sneering, but then he faltered as he saw the shadow on the floor ripple stickily. Bart's shadow seemed to writhe... and then something really rose from it. A translucent black soul was floating in the air.

Though it looked like a small-bodied ordinary person, it was clear that this was an 'undead'. As he stood there speechless, people screamed.

"It-it's really an undead!"

"What should we do...!"

Though they claimed to be Isaph's followers, everyone panicked at the sight of a real undead. It was natural, as they had probably gathered to play around sharing a dark edgy sentiment. They likely had never seen an undead before.

And their naivety became good prey for the scammer.

"Quiet! If you hand over all your money and belongings, I'll let you go!"

Bart shouted, seemingly switching to threats, and the burly men standing by the door also stomped their feet, creating a threatening atmosphere. Some tried to escape but were blocked by the big men and thrown back. People's fear grew even more.

Now the big men didn't even bother to keep their hoods on. They all had fierce looks, and identical tattoos were engraved beside their ears. It was a complex pattern inscribed within a triangle.

Seeing him standing there blankly, Bart sneered and took off his hood. His fully revealed face was the very picture of a con artist.

"How about that! Do you have a little more faith in my words now?!"

He remained silent. It wasn't simply because he was shocked by the undead Bart had summoned. Rather, his gaze was fixed on what was flickering around Bart.

Besides the undead Bart had summoned, something was clinging thickly to his back. What is it? As he wondered and focused his eyes, he let out a soft exclamation.

Ghosts.

They were exactly the same as the ghosts he had seen to the point of nausea on Earth. He hadn't seen any ghosts since entering Isaph's body, so why could he suddenly see them? Perhaps they hadn't been visible because he hadn't wanted to see them until now. This body was called a genius in necromancy, wasn't it? So maybe his eyes had been closed, and now that he wanted to see, he could see the form of ghosts.

He suddenly felt disgusted. Not only was the sight of ghosts clinging to one person creepy... he knew when this phenomenon occurred. He had witnessed it on Earth.

This happens when people are killed painfully.

Those who were killed by him were lingering around, harboring grudges. Perhaps the scar on Bart's chin was also because of this. Maybe he had deliberately killed people for necromancy. It could be that out of many attempts, he had only managed to subjugate one small-bodied undead.

He had thought they were just scammers using Isaph's notoriety to extort money, but they were more terrible than he had imagined.

...Was this unpleasant feeling what the holy knights had felt? After all, Isaph had also committed the Klam Massacre and then subjugated the victims as undead, using them like slaves. A headache came on, and as he was pressing between his eyebrows, Bart approached him, snickering.

People screamed and cleared a path. Parting the crowd, Bart instantly came right up to his face and tapped his shoulder.

"You were so sarcastic earlier, but now why have you gone quiet?"

"Is there a way to break the subjugation of the undead?"

At this unexpected question, Bart responded with a "What?", but he had no attention to spare for him. He read the text on the blue window that had appeared before his eyes.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neutralize the necromancer.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How exactly do I do that?"

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reach out your hand towards the man's head.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Though he had never communicated with the status window before, now the conversation flowed as if they were talking together. He didn't even feel particularly strange about the change in attitude of the previously unfriendly status window. He simply reached out his hand as instructed.

Whoosh—

A dark purple energy began to spread around him. The chairs clattered, shaking, and his vision flickered and darkened. It was a phenomenon that occurred as the light from the lamps on the walls rippled strangely.

"W-w-what's this!"

Bart backed away in shock. He had good instincts and quickly distanced himself. He watched him blankly as he slowly moved forward.

"Attack that bastard! Kill him!"

[Graaaah!]

Following Bart's order, the undead flew towards him. It approached with its hands outstretched threateningly as if to strangle him, but when he waved his hand, it flew and crashed into the wall. Though it was a very light gesture, the soul was thrown away as if swept up in a typhoon.

It was probably a scene just like the eyewitness accounts of Isaph that the followers had been shouting about.

Bart's face turned deathly pale. He tried several times to call the undead back, but the purple energy was suppressing that soul. Eek! Bart screamed and fled in a hurry.

Thud, thud, thud...

He calmly pursued Bart. The man kept glancing back at him as he ran, and eventually his steps tangled and he fell to the floor with a crash, looking ridiculous. Even in that situation, he tried to crawl away, propping himself up with his arms, as if a danger alarm was instinctively ringing that he needed to get away from him.

"W-what are you all doing! Protect me!"

"Don't be a nuisance. If you don't want to get caught up in this."

The gang members who were about to follow Bart's words froze at his murmur. The energy rippling around him must have looked eerie.

And it wasn't just the other men who stopped at that voice, but Bart as well, so he was able to easily stand in front of him. He bent his knees to meet the eyes of the man fallen on the floor. He looked down expressionlessly at the terror-stricken eyes that were trembling.

He now thought he understood what the 'neutralization' the status window had mentioned meant. He could guess even without specific instructions appearing. Grasping Bart's head, he quietly repeated the same command as before.

"Fall."

His soul was ejected from his body.