LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 82
Titles and honors vary greatly from region to region.
Family trees more intricate than spider webs and tree roots.
Customs that take precedence over laws, and so on.
Among the many symbols of feudalism, the most widely recognized would be territories and manors.
Those who own them are nobles.
What about commoners possessing them?
If a commoner owns a territory or a manor, they immediately become a noble.
Typically, these individuals, considered the power holders in society, would own manors, just like the Wizard’s Tower associated with the Felwinter Family had its own territory.
However, unlike someone owning it outright, the Wizard’s Tower functioned more as an institution that held rights of collection and such.
Catherine, the de facto ruler of that tower, was obligated to personally verify the allocations of the territories awarded along with her rewards.
After all, even if taxes were being collected from the manor, one must assess the current situation to have an accurate estimate.
There’s a stark difference between written reports and reality despite having received them in written form.
However, piled on top of a never-ending pile of tasks, Catherine simply couldn’t afford to be absent. With Olivier coming and winter being the issue, there would be a business trip to Obsidianberry after winter ended.
The difference was that there were fewer soldiers or adventurers to guard the wagon than before.
Moreover, with the distance to the manor being about half a day’s journey, a single cart loaded with supplies would be sufficient.
Regardless, what Karem needed to prepare remained unchanged.
The group’s meals and snacks.
This required preparing cooking utensils and food supplies.
Considering there were fewer people compared to last time and the time before, the preparations were all the more reduced.
“Uh-huh, so that’s why the load was so light?”
“Well, right? The adventurers will manage their own meals, so don’t worry. Still, I’ve made sure to pack a fair bit of food.”
“Then can I ask one thing?”
“Sure?”
“Why am I being dragged along in the first place?”
Narque pointed at herself.
Her tone was laced with genuine bewilderment.
Karem could empathize with her feelings.
She literally got dragged in at the last moment just before setting off to the manor, after a few teams of adventurers hired by Catherine had already joined.
From Narque’s viewpoint, there was no authority to resist Catherine, who was akin to the head of the company.
Catherine took a bite of the shortbread cookie that Karem had offered.
Enjoying the crunch and the subtle sweetness complemented by the salty surface, she nodded.
“Isn’t that natural?”
“Is it natural for me to be dragged along?!”
“Of course! That’s the way things are with the undead problem since you’re the necromancer. Just think back to the scene when we left Coldon.”
What else could be said?
The scene when returning from Obsidianberry was nearly identical to this one.
Of course, there were differences of sorts.
Perhaps the number of undead and adventurers had increased somewhat proportionally?
Karem found himself puzzled by the sudden mention of the undead.
“Is the manor suffering from undead issues?”
“Right after the messenger delivered the letter, he collapsed and hasn’t recovered since, and even that letter was nearly indecipherable aside from a few mentions concerning undead and requests for assistance. Something must have gone quite awry.”
The Wizard’s Tower; perhaps the only necromancer in all of Coldon.
It was time for Narque to make her entrance.
“Of course, I’ve lived long enough to know a thing or two about undead.”
Having bitten into the shortbread cookie with its serrated edges, Catherine munched it down, gesturing to Narque.
“But my effectiveness would surely be less than that of a necromancer who constantly digs into corpses.”
“That’s just so sudden! I wish I could have been informed at least!”
Narque protested softly.
Yet Catherine shrugged off such resistance like it was nothing.
“Isn’t that exactly why I’m explaining it to you directly? The undead issue falls to the necromancer, as they say.”
“But corpses and undead are distinctly different entities!”
Now, that was an interesting claim.
Karem suddenly felt curious.
But a completely dejected Narque hung her head, muttering to herself as she retreated into her own world.
Karem decided to ask about something else that he found intriguing.
“By the way, Sir Atanitas.”
“What is it, kid?”
“I feel a bit strange asking this now, but is it fine to leave Mary behind?”
“Hm? You’re asking that after so many hours have passed?”
“Well, it’s because it felt so natural that I hadn’t thought about it until now.”
Since moving to Winterhome, whenever Catherine had to go anywhere, Karem always moved in tandem with Mary, and that had been a given without question.
After all, how could a servant follow their master without orders?
“Maybe if it were winter when fewer people were around, but as the number of people has increased, for management’s sake, it’s not feasible for the house fairy to leave the tower. Above all, Mary is the only one managing the tower.”
“True, since anyone who takes a little initiative would have a fit.”
“Well, you’ve even assisted me briefly, so I have some trust in you to take care of things for me despite the mild irritation.”
Karem wasn’t sure if he had misheard for a moment and rubbed his ears.
This was the first he had ever heard of such a thing.
“I haven’t heard Mary mention anything like that.”
“She must have taken a while to think it over and reached that conclusion late last night.”
“Mary had been frowning for several days—was that the reason?”
Catherine chuckled without thinking.
The hard labor of the Wizard’s Tower was far removed from household chores.
In contrast, it was relatively light labor supporting Catherine.
Mary’s image, groaning like a puppy wanting her snack, was still fresh in Catherine’s mind.
“But still, she could have just said it directly.”
“She probably thought that saying it straight out would hurt her pride; it was a bit humorous that she entrusted that to you.”
“Is it really for pride’s sake?”
“She’s a house fairy, after all.”
“Shouldn’t love be a factor too? Shouldn’t she tone it down?”
“That’s the average for house fairies. The average.”
Karem’s face twisted oddly.
Specifically, his brows furrowed, and one side of his mouth curled up in an awkward grin.
The average for house fairies, huh? Just how encumbered did their world become with workaholics? A volunteer slave species? A wizarding world of Mrs. Rolling?
Yet even Narque, now with restored spirits, was nodding vigorously.
Given even the elf with far more experience than Karem was acting this way, at the very least, Catherine’s notion of the average for house fairies had to be correct.
“By the way, Escarna or Ni—”
“You can call me Narque!”
“Well, Escarna probably hasn’t become that intimate with me yet.”
“How heartless!?”
“I’ll refer to you by name in a few months.”
Karem firmly placed his clasped hands on his knees.
In truth, Karem had formed a bond of familiarity with Narque long ago, but he acted this way purely because she was fun to tease.
“Excuse me.”
Karem swiftly brought a handkerchief to dab the crumbs of the snack around Catherine’s mouth.
“So exactly what is the problem with the manor?”
“That’s exactly why I’m moving like this to confirm.”
“Weren’t the causes mentioned in the letter?”
“The letter I received was half damaged upon arrival. So while the contents are unclear, it’s a formal document since it has the village chief’s seal.”
“Surely, there should have been an adventurer or someone who delivered the letter?”
Catherine shrugged her shoulders.
“The adventurer who delivered it didn’t know anything beyond the fact that undead suddenly invaded the village, Fungusbee.”
“Hmm, so you’re thinking of Escarna then?”
Catherine nodded as if to say that was correct and took a bite of the end piece of the shortcake that Karem offered her.
By now, Narque had exited her world and was cocking her head, muttering.
“If the problems are serious, should we stretch out a barrier right after we arrive?”
“A barrier? To drive away the undead?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s similar, but a bit different.”
Narque hummed, choosing her words thoughtfully.
“Yeah, right. You know how sometimes a bait is used to lure certain monsters or animals?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve heard that kind of story multiple times.”
“Good! That makes it easier to explain! Undead generally tend to be drawn to beings that bear a certain level of life, see?”
“Like how undead attacking passing animals wouldn’t touch trees or grass, right?”
“Exactly that.”
Narque assumed a posture as if protecting something in the void with both hands.
“Yeah, so it’s like making a barrier that misleads the senses of the undead.”
“Considering a village, or even fields, that sounds like quite an extensive range.”
“Heh. I’m an elf with my own capabilities, you know? A natural lower undead won’t even notice someone directly ahead and will just pass by the village. They’ll perceive it as a rock and turn away.”
“Oh, if it’s that effective, then why isn’t there something like that in a big city like Coldon?”
That was a question one would expect.
If there were such an easy solution, it wouldn’t take long for the city to get overrun!
“Well, a city has too many people, making it impossible to mislead them, you see? And frankly, necromancy isn’t scalable either…”
“Oh, is that so?”
With Karem being utterly unfamiliar with magic, especially necromancy, he had no justification to argue against that.
He decided to think of it as too foul-smelling to be remedied even by air fresheners.
Catherine nodded in agreement.
“Well, unlike other forms of magic, necromancy has been oppressed every day, you see.”
“Because they’ve made so many mistakes in the past.”
“Hah! It’s just that the perception of necromancers studying the undead is so frightful.”
Catherine chuckled in disbelief.
“Considering the ratios, it’s only natural that other mages have caused more trouble than necromancers.”
“Is that really true?”
“Of course. Think about it, little one. How many necromancers have you actually encountered among all the mages you’ve seen?”
“Uh, aside from Escarna, none?”
“With that low a number, if something went wrong, it’s obvious which group would have caused more damage.”
“Other mages aside from the necromancers?”
“Exactly that.”
As Catherine waved her finger, Karem hastily brought a cookie near her mouth.
“Well, just when I was working as an adventurer, I hardly had to count on even five captured necromancers. On the other hand, mages easily exceeded twenty. The bandit knights are even worse than monsters.”
In the end, it all came down to ratios.
With necromancers being such a small group, the chaos caused by a few of them led to the decent ones suffering.
But then again, the notion of a decent necromancer—was there even such a thing as an appropriate pairing of words?
As Karem pondered, the wagon suddenly came to a halt.
“Uh? Have we already arrived?”
“You said we’d arrive in half a day, right?”
“Yes.”
Just as Karem was about to check outside, someone knocked on the door.
It was the voice of an adventurer guarding the wagon.
“Excuse me, Sir Mage. It seems you ought to step outside.”
“Huh? Is something wrong? Let’s take a look.”
As Catherine stood to leave, Karem organized his things and followed closely behind her.
Upon stepping outside the wagon, they could finally grasp the situation.
Frowning at the sight of a crowd surrounding the village in the distance, Karem frowned.
“They definitely spoke of an undead attack.”
“Hmm, did the village chief lie?”
“Come on, would a brazen village chief dare to lie to his lord?”
“Kid, the world is broader than you think.”
“No, more than that—what is that? A giant walnut?”
From walnuts the size of a child to those easily exceeding an adult’s height.
The inhabitants on the palisade stood their ground against a massive horde of walnuts.
Narque murmured as she observed the scene.
“A naturally occurring Mushroom Golem?”
“Excuse me? Escarna, do Golems also occur naturally? No, more importantly, are those mushrooms? They look uncannily like walnuts!”
At that moment, a large cluster of colossal walnut-like mushrooms set loose from the crowd encircled the village and began shaking the ground as they approached the wagon.
“Enough chitchat! The Mushroom Golem has recognized us! Get ready for battle!”
At the signal from the elf adventurer perched on the wagon’s roof, the adventurers swiftly drew their weapons and braced themselves.