“Ridiculous!!!” the woman's voice rang out again. The same woman who had earlier been defending the owners of the house.
“Elenor!” Embor said in a calm tone, though it clearly carried a warning as he glanced toward the line of bound prisoners beside Nero.
“What? They're obviously hiding something with this absurd story!” the woman shot back indignantly. Unfortunately, as Sena knew all too well, she was right.
“Lady... Elenor...” Adar began, visibly searching for the right words to address her, giving Sena hope that he might still salvage the situation.
Too bad he was abruptly interrupted by Nero.
“It's not worth it, Grumpy.”
Nero let out a sigh before turning toward the tunnel entrance and shouting,
“Come on out.”
The strange command made the prisoners nearly run over each other in their haste to get away. They stumbled so badly they almost crashed into the guards surrounding them, prompting more than one guard to draw a weapon.
The confusion was so great that even Sena didn't immediately notice a familiar sound. A sound that nearly made her heart stop.
In a low voice, she asked Saca,
“What is he doing?”
Meanwhile, more people noticed the click, click she recognized as the sound of Nero's skeletons approaching.
As she'd feared, two skeletons armed with sword and shield emerged from the tunnel.
The guards, preoccupied with the terrified prisoners, only noticed them when cries erupted from the crowd.
“Skeletons!”
“Undead!”
Immediately, every guard prepared for battle, while panic rippled through the crowd as people scrambled backward. Confusion began to spread through the crowd to such an extent that Sena stepped in front of Saca, trying to prevent anyone from bumping into her and hurting either her or Delmic in her arms.
At last Embor reacted with a simple,
“Undead?”
His gaze shifted between the two skeletons and Nero.
Adar, meanwhile, covered his face and seemed to mutter something under his breath.
The only person showing any calm was Nero. As though the scene before him were perfectly ordinary, he merely shrugged.
“More or less.”
Then he scratched his head thoughtfully before continuing,
“Technically, I suppose they could be classified as undead...”
To them, with a genuinely curious expression, he shrugged again.
“Though they were never actually alive to begin with, much less dead... Still, it's an interesting question.”
Faced with the skeletons' obvious lack of hostility and, Sena supposed, Nero's complete composure, the crowd itself began to calm down. It was as though Nero's confidence allowed them to set aside their fear and indulge their natural curiosity at such an extraordinary spectacle.
“You have to understand that, unlike a necromancy spell, which animates mortal remains...” he said, gesturing toward the two skeletons,
“This is a summoning spell. The bodies themselves are created through magic.”
“This is absurd! Are we really going to stand here listening to these stories?” the woman shouted in frustration before barking an order.
“Guards! Arrest this young man. We'll sort all this out afterward.”
But before the guards could move, Embor's deep, threatening voice echoed once more.
“Elenor!”
The guards immediately stopped.
Nero looked at the man with obvious appreciation.
“Whether what I said is true or not is easy enough to prove,” Nero interrupted, breaking the silent contest of wills between Embor and Elenor.
The crowd, by now, had fallen almost completely silent.
He pointed toward the skeletons.
“The spell should be ending soon. Just a few more minutes.”
Sweeping his gaze across the crowd, he added,
“When it ends, if everything disappears, including the weapons. That logically means they were created by magic.”
Elenor still tried to object.
“And we're supposed to just believe you?”
But, oddly enough, some voices in the crowd began murmuring,
“That actually makes sense.”
Sena could only assume that Nero's absolute calm was lending him credibility.
At that point, Adar spoke again.
“Wouldn't it be better to wait a little before making any decisions? The spell should end soon, just like he said.”
“Yes, Grumpy's right. Now, how about we talk about something else while we wait...” Nero began, flashing what was almost an innocent smile toward the group of councilors.
The smile vanished instantly, replaced by a hard expression.
“Like what exactly you guys have been doing while a group of cultists has been attacking people?”
The crowd fell silent for a moment. It seemed as though no one was even breathing.
Then someone simply said,
“Yeah.”
With that, every gaze shifted toward the councilors.
It reminded Sena of how often people at the inn had complained about this very thing whenever the disappearances in the city came up.
It wasn't Embor or Elenor who tried to answer, but rather a tall man with white hair and a neatly trimmed white beard.
“The city did everything it could... These criminals were simply difficult to find.”
“And not by you,” Nero remarked dryly.
“Well... yes...” the man tried to recover, only to be interrupted by Elenor's now familiar voice.
“Can't you see he's changing the subject?”
“Of course I'm changing the subject! After all, how important is my question?” Nero replied. Looking around at the crowd, he added,
“Nah, it's not important at all.”
But he didn't stop there.
Turning his back on the crowd and appearing more interested in his skeletons, he continued,
“Good grief, when I first heard about multiple disappearances, even I got worried.”
Suddenly, he turned toward Adar.
“If I remember correctly, I said back then that I'd be worried by a wave of missing dogs and cats, let alone missing people.”
Adar nodded in obvious agreement to the discussion that Sena herself remembered.
“One or two deaths, well... crime happens,” Nero continued before raising his voice in frustration.
“...But multiple disappearances?!”
“If it were the rich and powerful... fine. Power struggles happen. For better or worse, most people aren't affected.”
Then he raised his voice again.
“But the poor and the weak?!”
“In a world where magic exists!”
Even Sena found the remark unusual, though it made perfect sense.
“No, that always ends badly.”
Nero placed a hand against his chest as he continued.
“And I was being optimistic by assuming it was necromancers. At worst, half a dozen undead. Annoying, but manageable.”
That statement earned him several astonished looks.
People were clearly wondering what kind of person considered half a dozen undead manageable.
Naturally, Nero continued. Not caring or even noticing the stares.
“But cultists!!”
With that, everyone remembered his earlier revelation that they had been summoning a demon.
The baker standing near Sena gasped.
“The demon! The city was almost destroyed!”
This time, the crowd didn't turn toward Nero.
They turned toward their own councilors.
Embor was the first to attempt a defense.
“Surely...”
But Adar's voice rose over his.
“Nero, you can't be like this. These poor people...” he began, gesturing toward the now visibly tense councilors.
“They don't possess the same...”
He paused, and everyone watched him carefully choose his words, mindful of Nero.
“...knowledge and experience that you do.”
As he finished, Sena noticed the faint twitch at the corner of Adar's lips, as though he were suppressing a smile.
That made her think carefully about what he'd just said.
Then her eyes widened.
Adar was brilliant.
At first glance, it looked as though he was doing what he usually did, restraining Nero.
But in reality, he had just won the argument.
The councilors now had two choices.
They could accept Adar's explanation, admitting that Nero knew more than they did. Which would also mean accepting his explanation about the skeletons.
Or they could reject the idea that Nero was more knowledgeable, in which case they'd also have to admit that they should have recognized the danger posed by the disappearances themselves. A crisis that Nero, not they, had ultimately resolved.
In other words, they would be admitting their own incompetence.
It was a choice between two terrible alternatives.
Embor wasted no time.
“Yes, as your friend said...”
Nero gave him a loaded look, as though he were about to say something, but ultimately held his tongue.
The hesitation gave Embor pause, but he continued anyway.
“But that is only due to our ignorance as ordinary country folk with no great knowledge.”
Nero didn't even bother replying to the man.
Instead, he moved on.
“Alright. With that settled, let's move on to the next point.”
The statement made all the councilors visibly more tense. Even Elenor, who had been the most confrontational until now, looked weary.
As if she already knew what was coming.
Nero pointed toward the abandoned house and looked at Adar.
“As for the...”
Naturally, Adar completed the sentence without hesitation.
“Greensides?”
“That's right. As for the Greensides...”
“A family that has contributed greatly to this city since its founding, regardless of whatever ideas you may have,” Elenor replied preemptively, refusing to let the matter slide.
Contrary to what Sena expected, Nero didn't become more aggressive.
In fact, he seemed to consider her words.
“Alright,” he simply said with a shrug.
Keeping his eyes on Elenor, he tilted his head toward Boris and, without ever looking at him, asked,
“Cousin, who did you tell me you worked for?”
With the eyes of the entire town upon him, Boris swallowed hard before answering weakly,
“The Greensides.”
The crowd erupted with reactions.
“Oh...”
“I never liked them.”
“I never would've expected this from them.”
Their words already condemning the family.
Elenor shook her head, looking genuinely incredulous.
“No... that can't be. There must be some mistake. The family...”
“I'm sorry...” Adar interrupted, “...but the children identified the cult's leader as Clarice Greenside.”
As if to reinforce his words, the children, who had remained silent ever since the little girl had spoken out of turn, nodded all together.
“Yes.”
“That's true.”
“It really was her.”
“It turns out she always had a passion for magic,” Embor revealed, of all people. “Making the Greensides spent a fortune trying to make her a mage... but it never worked.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Nero commented.
“After all, what kind of competent mage devotes themselves to blood magic? Even the most...”
Just as Nero seemed ready to launch into another lecture about blood magic, Adar cut him off with a tense,
“Nero!”
His face clearly saying, This is not the time.
And by some small miracle, the warning actually stopped the necromancer from continuing.
That was when the white-bearded councilor decided to speak again.
“My dear Elenor, I know the Greensides have always supported your career. But considering the evidence...”
The man sounded conciliatory.
But only a fool would fail to notice that he was stabbing Elenor while she was down, using her connection to the Greensides to potentially destroy her career.
“You can verify everything if you go where the bodies are, including Clarice's,” Nero continued, cutting off the accusations the crowd was beginning to direct at Elenor. The promise of more details drew everyone's attention away from the councilwoman.
He gestured toward Boris with his head again.
“A few trustworthy guards led by the cousin should get there quickly.”
The suggestion immediately prompted Embor to turn toward one of the guards.
“Captain, select some of your best men.”
As the captain began pointing at several guards, Elenor asked,
“How did she die?”
Nero seemed surprised by the question but eventually answered,
“Through stupidity and indecision.”
Elenor listened to the less-than-informative answer and appeared to accept it.
Then another shout rang out.
“They disappeared!”
Everyone turned to look behind Nero, where the two skeletons had been standing.
Just as the cry had announced, they were gone.
Without leaving the slightest trace.
“I think that settles the discussion,” Nero declared as he turned and began walking away from the tunnel entrance.
“I've already used up my patience for annoying people for an entire month.”
With a casual wave, he signaled for Sena and Saca to follow him, while Adar also started after Nero.
The only people Nero paid any attention to as he walked away were the rescued children.
“Goodbye, kids.”
And with that, the four of them left, while the crowd remained behind, staring at one another in silence.
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