The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

”Weren’t the two of them... allies?” I muttered.

The effeminate duke had drawn Botis’ blessing through Biblio. Even if no camaraderie bound them, the two had always thrived in the Empire’s shadows together. I had seen moments of friction between them. However, before a threat like Leandro, I thought they would compromise easily.

Rena tilted her head. ”I’m not so sure.”

She swept aside the stack of papers on the table, then drew several reports from a drawer. Spreading one open, she revealed a finely painted portrait of a woman with bold features and heavy makeup.

”Lawrence Tartier. Obsessed with wealth to the point of ridicule, terrified of anything that might smear her makeup... a ridiculous human, perhaps. But...”

She turned the page.

”Fourteen years, Empire’s First Sword. Eleven years, head of the Imperial Special Commission. Had she openly opposed Leandro, balance would have demanded that T&T step into an all-out war.”

”So the effeminate duke shielded the marquis?”

”Exactly. Whatever else he was, he was a swordsman. She valued true talent. Leandro’s meteoric rise from a youth with poor political sense to a county marquis was only possible thanks to her.”

”So it’s not out of loyalty, but... personal affection.”

My mind slipped back to that time I spent beneath Isaac’s hall. The effeminate duke had grieved when I spoke of Leandro’s death.

Ah... how could this be... If lust had to stir, why not for me instead... I didn’t even buy him a birthday gift!

The grief had been real. Even if she killed him later, the decision could not have been easy.

Rena continued, ”Leandro himself bears her no ill will now, but Lawrence von Tartier cares only for herself. Like before, she’ll turn on him. Ilien’s Tear will change the form, but not the outcome.”

So that was it—walking on a blade’s edge. I clenched my jaw.

”Our victories against Necron... were only possible because of Lawrence’s indulgence,” Rena explained. ”If she turns, all of this could collapse.”

”Our choices?”

”Risk everything to aid the marquis... or stand aside and watch the hound die.”

”If we help, what’s the risk?”

”Then we’ll expose ourselves, the effeminate duke’s team, and the remnants of Biblio. Open war.”

It would not only endanger T&T. It would draw in the Merchants’ Guild, Grassmere, Yublam under Lime’s rule, and even Rubia of Erast.

”And if we warn Leandro?”

”Then he’ll turn on us. He owes her his rise, and his prize of Ilien’s Tear. That man is too stubborn to even recognize the hand on his throat.”

There was a moment of silence. The decision was mine.

”I want to save the marquis.”

Leandro had to live. If Ilien’s Light faltered, Necron would surge again and Rubia’s rise would collapse. Above all, the system’s words still burned in my memory.

[The causal weight of the Witch Trial scenario has greatly increased.]

I remembered Rubia’s past end where she had been burned as a heretic. If Leandro fell, Biblio’s shadow could stretch south once more.

Rena’s eyes hardened, though her voice softened. ”I thought you’d say that.”

”You agree?”

”Of course. Who else but you, who lived through the past, could choose rightly? I’ll approach him first, carefully.”

I looked at her. Guilt and gratitude welled up together. At my word alone, she was willing to risk not only her life, even her guild’s. Regardless, it could not be her.

”I’ll go myself,” I stated.

Rena barred my way with a raised arm. ”That’s suicide. The Blue Lion Knights’ creed is to slay all demons and monsters. You think their captain will listen to you?”

I shook my skull. ”I’ll tell him the truth about my return.”

I remembered the sign he gave Isabelle. He would remember it. If I spoke with sincerity, perhaps he would believe. Besides, Rena’s pendant that I had won from the scenario lay still and silent on my chest. Not once had it warned me.

I told Rena about the pendant, but she remained firm.

”That pendant? It’s worth nothing. I won’t allow it.”

Even Rena didn’t trust her own pendant.

”Then your risk is acceptable, but mine is not? What of T&T’s safety? The Empire’s wrath?” I countered.

There was no easy path. The only thing bugging me was going against Rena. She pressed her lips thin.

”If it were anyone else, I’d tell them to try. But it’s you.”

”Then that’s settled. Arrange the meeting.”

Suddenly, the chamber door opened.

Creak.

Silver hair spilled in, followed by a lithe figure.

”Naneow Tropin?” I blurted.

She smirked. ”You sound surprised. Am I late?”

Rena shook her head. ”No. He just came too early.”

”If you’re worried, I’ll follow him and drag him back alive. He’s been pining for me, anyway.”

”Fine,” Rena sighed.

Naneow strode toward me, eyes bright with delight.

I stiffened. ”What... do you want?”

”This.” From her robes, she drew a glass vial, liquid silver sloshing softly within. ”Lurium. I gathered some for you. You’ll come, won’t you?”

***

Through a labyrinth of wards, I checked Isaac’s state within my inventory.

[Observation ongoing...]

The vial of mana-rich fluid was meant for him, but I couldn’t give it to him in his current state. The silver in the bottle shimmered faintly, luring my eyes as Naneow led me beyond the city’s edge. A lake spread before us, while the mountains looked behind us. Soon, we reached a two-storied wooden house.

The door was unlocked, yet the wards woven around it would keep even a bird from trespassing.

Rumble.

Inside, there was no trace of life. There was no kitchen, no fireplace, not even a window. I only saw shelves upon shelves of glass flasks, filled with liquid in every color, and a great table lined with syringes.

I whispered, ”Are you human?”

Naneow blinked at me as if I’d asked something absurd. ”What is a human?”

I had asked a reckless question that she answered with a riddle.

”I mean, I...” I stammered.

Naneow cut me off sharply. ”You are human.”

She sat on the chair beside the table, lifted a sharp syringe, and injected green liquid into her bare shoulder.

”Perhaps... a little more than me.”

Her joke was ridiculous. I looked away, lips pressed shut, embarrassed for reasons I couldn’t explain. Naneow already had another syringe in hand, and Pink fluid sank into her thigh. Then she used another dose on the back of her hand. She shivered faintly, eyelids fluttering in a strange kind of relief.

I broke the silence. ”What are these?”

”Jet-Roc. Vexnel. Tridyl. Sedative narcotics. They stabilize the nervous rejection.”

”...”

”Isn’t drug addiction a small price? In exchange for living three hundred years, not on blood, but on Lurium.”

So that was her truth. Naneow Tropin’s addiction. A grotesque cost hidden behind a beautiful face. The veins along her arm swelled, heated, then subsided again and again as the liquid settled. A grotesque rhythm. No miracle spared her from paying the price. Perhaps the efficiency was worth it. When the tremors passed, she rose and seized her sickle. Its blade struck the floor.

Rumble...

A crack opened, cool air rising from below. She fitted a key into the fissure and turned. The stone yawned, then revealed stairs leading down into the dark.

”This way.”

The hidden cellar was cramped and double locked. Unlike the first floor, only one kind of liquid lined the walls here. There were just two bottles, and one was full. Naneow carefully placed the vial she had brought beside them as if she were setting down a child.

”You didn’t... draw that from your own blood, did you?” I asked.

Naneow smiled faintly. She spun the syringe between her fingers.

”No. Balanced as this is, I wouldn’t dare.”

Her eyes lingered on the silver bottle, alight with something like reverence.

”You told me once you could absorb Lurium. Then... show me.”

It would not be difficult.

”Don’t you need it yourself?”

”My body can only hold so much. That limit’s already filled.”

”And there aren’t... other uses?”

”Perhaps. But more than that, I want to see it with my own eyes. Do it.”

There was no reason to decline if she was so sure.

”Half. I’ll take only half for now.”

”Why? All of it was for you.”

”I need to use the rest elsewhere.”

Naneow tilted her head. ”As long as you show me. Then sure.”

Swoosh!

The silver inside the glass hissed, vaporizing into pale motes that swirled into my hand.

Naneow Tropin exhaled a breathless sigh. ”Ah...”

[You are becoming accustomed to absorbing Lurium...]

Her gaze clung to me, throat moving as she swallowed hard. By the time half the vial was gone, a system message popped up.

Ding!

[Next class unlocked.]

[— Skeleton Knight

— Skeleton Hunter

— Lich]

I could see the class options. I’d already received the perks of a Skeleton Knight. I glanced at the message beneath the classes.

[Would you like to advance?]

[Lurium insufficient.]

The message repeated for each path, including the Lich.

”So, not yet.”

The last of the silver mist faded. I withdrew my hand. Naneow slowly clenched and opened her fist, blinking as if surfacing from a trance.

”It’s... real.”

”You can’t do this yourself?”

”Of course not. I never imagined anyone could. For three hundred years...” Her silver hair fell forward as she sighed, voice hollow. ”I’ve studied this liquid. Replacing blood with it worked, but without constant narcotics, I will fall apart.”

She sighed again and reached for the shelf. Every book was worn with years of handling, each marked with Lurium on it.

She pulled one free and offered it to me. ”Can you take a look at this?”

Lightly Stiffened Pain.

I couldn’t tell what it’d be about from the title alone, but the author’s name was extremely familiar.

Lightly Stiffened Pain - Kevin Ashton.