The misadventures of the necromancer

They left the inn as quickly as possible, only delayed by the innkeeper. He had finally realized that something had happened involving one of his maids and had spent some time speaking with her to understand what had occurred.

Apparently, the man had been in the kitchen, unconcerned, until he noticed the commotion. After hearing the story, he apologized to Sena, saying that things like that didn’t usually happen in his inn, which normally had a familiar and well-behaved clientele.

Several people commented that the men who had bothered Sena had never been seen there before. The innkeeper even assured her that if she recognized them again, they would never be served in his establishment.

“Come on, come on,” Nero muttered, beginning to walk quickly the moment they stepped outside the inn.

“Nero…” Sena began hesitantly.

Only to be quickly interrupted.

“Don’t worry about it, Sena. Let’s just go,” Nero said.

“But those men…” she continued, clearly worried. So much so that Adar assumed she, too, had realized that their real target must have been the necromancer.

“They were idiots!” Nero said coldly, before adding sourly, “Fortunately.”

“If that fool hadn’t given me such an easy target…” Nero’s words immediately brought the scene back to Adar’s mind: the man clutching his groin as he collapsed to the floor. At the same time, hearing Nero talk in his usual manner was strangely reassuring.

“And his little friend being so kind as to throw himself at me, thinking that his tiny knife would scare me…” he continued, clearly referring to the other man who had tried to attack him with the blade. Not that it could ever have worked while the necromancer was protected by his spell.

“Otherwise, I might have had to take things seriously. And that would certainly have ruined our new peaceful life.”

“Nero!” Sena began again, struggling not to raise her voice. “Those men—”

But he cut her off again.

“They knew more than they should, and less than they could,” Nero declared, turning to look back at them.

“And the problem isn’t those three. It’s whoever sent them.”

As he turned forward again, he added, “And even those don’t seem very intelligent.”

“What!?” Adar and Sena asked at the same time.

“Yes. After all, whoever organized that just lost their element of surprise. And what kind of idiot throws away an advantage like that?” he said, shaking his head with clear disbelief.

“That’s what you’re thinking about?” Sena asked, astonished.

“Yes, of course it is. Because it shows they know far less than they could. Someone with better information about me would hardly do something so foolish,” Nero said calmly, casting subtle glances around them as if he were simply trying to keep track of the group.

Adar quickly concluded that Nero was checking to see if someone was following them. Which meant that when he had loudly announced, for the whole inn to hear, that they were going to the enchanter, it had been deliberate.

For a moment, Adar himself started looking around, searching for anything suspicious. But seeing nothing—and catching a pointed look from Nero—he stopped, not wanting to ruin whatever plan the necromancer had in mind.

“After all, someone who really wanted to cause me trouble and knew more about me would never try something so simple. Don’t you think, Grumpy?” Nero continued.

The question was actually interesting. Adar had to agree. Unless someone wanted to see an inn explode, approaching Nero like that would be incredibly dangerous. At the same time, Nero himself would have been at almost no physical risk.

Of course, afterward, they might have had to practically flee the city—but what would anyone gain from that?

“Yes,” Adar replied, inevitably agreeing.

Sena rolled her eyes at him as if to say, “As if you were ever going to disagree with him.” That irritated him slightly. After all, he wasn’t like Seres, who genuinely agreed with everything Nero said. Adar disagreed with the necromancer plenty of times and believed he deserved to be recognized for that.

“But…” Sena tried once more to steer the conversation back to what had happened.

This time, Adar himself interrupted her.

“Nero, weren’t we going to the enchanter? We just passed the street we were supposed to take.” He pointed behind them.

Nero turned around and began walking backward, raising his voice slightly more than necessary.

“Yes, yes, we’re going to the enchanter. But first we’re going to see Saca.”

Turning forward again, he added in a lower voice, “I want to check if they’re alright.”

That thought made Adar glance at Sena, whose face instantly filled with concern as she imagined possible danger for her friend and the baby.

“Don’t worry. If they’re interested in testing me, they shouldn’t care about them,” Adar said, trying to sound reassuring.

“This should be just a test. And we’ll leave you all together while I take my little walk to the enchanter,” Nero added, sounding almost caring.

Sena nodded, though her expression grew more serious. Clearly, several scenarios were already running through her mind.

Adar suspected Nero wanted them all together so they wouldn’t interfere with his plans. He was fairly certain that was why Nero had raised his voice earlier—to confirm their supposed destination for anyone who might be following.

“But why the enchanter?” Sena suddenly asked, perhaps wanting to think about something else.

Nero reached into a pouch and pulled something out.

“It's a place as good as any other, and I can use the time to find out what this is,” he said.

In his fingers, he held up a copper ring so that they could see.

“Isn’t that the ring I found?” Sena asked in surprise. Adar immediately remembered the day she had disappeared to dive into the lake searching for the ring Nero had spent days trying to locate.

“Yes, it is,” Nero confirmed, studying it more closely as he turned it between his fingers.

“The runes on it indicate that it’s magical. But I have absolutely no idea what it does.”

Adar leaned closer to get a better look. None of them had really examined it before. And although the fact that it was magical wasn’t shocking—otherwise Nero wouldn’t care about it—it wasn’t every day one had the chance to see a magical artifact.

“But how do you not know what it does if you were looking for it?” Sena asked curiously.

Nero turned his head sharply to look back at her. Even though Adar couldn’t see his face clearly from that angle, the surprise in his voice was unmistakable.

“You think this is the ring I was looking for?”

Sena’s step faltered, and her mouth fell open slightly in confusion. Considering what she had gone through to retrieve the ring, her reaction was more than understandable.

Before she could respond, Nero turned forward again with a sigh.

“Don’t worry. What I was looking for was always difficult to find. Even if it’s still there…” he said, shaking his head in frustration.

“…Even when I found it last time, it was more luck than anything else.”

It was an intriguing and confusing revelation. Sena’s expression showed that Adar wasn’t the only one thinking so. Why would Nero be searching for something he had already found?

Had he found the ring and then thrown it back into the lake? But why would he do that to something he clearly wanted—especially when he had been sending undead into the water looking for it?

Any chance of asking disappeared when Nero continued.

“But anyway, it was quite impressive that you managed to find any magical ring in that lake. Now we just have to figure out what it does.”

The shift in conversation made it clear that Nero wouldn’t answer any questions about the other ring.

And while Sena smiled slightly at the praise, Adar couldn’t help noticing that if it had been him or Seres who found the wrong ring, Nero would have mocked them rather than complimented them.

Instead of praising the feat, Adar was certain Nero would have said something like:

“Why would you think I’d want this?”

While Adar imagined the insults he would have received, Nero’s voice suddenly broke through his thoughts.

“It’s there, right?”

Looking ahead, Adar saw the house of the wet nurse.

“Yes, it is,” Sena replied anxiously.

Just then, Saca came out of the house, waving when she saw them approaching. Sena sighed with relief and hurried toward her friend, passing Nero.

But suddenly she stopped and turned back.

“What do I tell her?”

Nero slowed slightly in thought before answering.

“The truth. It’s better if she’s prepared.”

Sena nodded, recognizing the wisdom in that, and quickly went to her friend.

By the time Nero and Adar reached them, Sena had already begun explaining what had happened. Saca’s expression quickly filled with concern.

Finally, the blonde girl asked tensely,

“So what danger are we in?”

“Probably none. That group only bothered Sena to provoke a reaction from me. They were just testing the waters,” Nero replied.

“That still means there’s danger. We’re targets if someone wants your attention,” Saca concluded—correctly, in Adar’s opinion—pointing at herself and Sena.

Nero paused before nodding.

“Yes, that’s true. But I meant for now… and if things go well, maybe that danger will disappear soon.”

“Until then, what weapons do you have, Grumpy?” Nero asked.

Adar blinked in confusion.

“None!”

Nero narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t have any weapons. Where would I even get one? The best I have is a kitchen knife, and what good is that in a real fight?” Adar replied, carefully avoiding asking when Nero expected him to be armed.

Adar had no doubt about how much Nero trusted him. And even if he had a weapon, why would he need one with the mule nearby?

It's more likely that he’d risk being misunderstood and crushed by the undead creature in defense of its master.

Nero looked frustrated but seemed to admit Adar had a point.

He turned to the girls.

“And you?”

Both shook their heads.

With a frustrated sigh, he muttered, “We need to find a way for you to protect yourselves.”

“But for now, stay inside the house…” he said, before looking directly at Adar and adding, “…and close to the kitchen knives.”

Then he began to leave, only to stop and say in a lower voice:

“See if you can find somewhere private. Just in case I have to have a longer conversation with our unknown friends.”

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