Chapter 8

Something in my expression must have shifted, because Isaac’s serious face began to crack.

“Pffft… Khm.”

He barely stifled his laughter. Clearly, he’d been teasing me just to see my reaction.

“Enough with the jokes,”

Edmund said wearily, trying to bring the meeting back on track. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since we started, and he already looked drained.

“Will you be all right? I mean, sure, it’d be good if you can gather information—but if something goes wrong, it could expose everything.”

“They didn’t seem very knowledgeable about necromancy.”

Even if I used it right under their noses, they’d never realize it without a detector.

Edmund studied me in silence for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

“I take it you wouldn’t listen even if I told you to back out. Once you make up your mind, you’re even more stubborn than Yullia or Isaac.”

“Was I always like that?”

“You were,”

Isaac chimed in from behind me. Yullia nodded in agreement.

“Just this once,” Edmund said firmly. “You’ve already agreed, so it can’t be helped—but next time, come up with any excuse you can and refuse.”

He made it clear the discussion was closed.

“As for the site you’re visiting tomorrow… we cleaned up as best we could, but it’s still pretty obvious a carriage accident happened there.”

“That’s probably why they used the detector. A broken-down carriage stranded halfway up a mountain is bound to raise questions.”

Finally, the meeting was back on topic.

“Just in case, I’ll come along and clean up anything you might’ve missed.”

“Good idea.”

“That wraps up our first agenda. Onto the second.”

I looked toward Isaac, who was fiddling slightly with his half-dangling wrist.

“Once you report to duty tomorrow… do you think you can hide that?”

“Ugh… probably not. I skipped training today because of the duel—and even then, I only managed to hide it thanks to your help…”

The moment regular drills resumed, his body clearly wouldn’t hold up.

“Small mercy is that the training ground’s closed off because of today’s incident.”

“So where will they train?”

“They’ll probably use the second training field. That’s the backup location they use when maintenance is underway. We’ll be sharing it with the palace guards, so it’s cramped. At the very least, there won’t be any full-track endurance runs for a while.”

That was something. But it didn’t solve the core problem.

“Then there’s only one option…”

Edmund’s voice dropped low.

“Desert.”

“…What?”

“Come again?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. This wasn’t something calm, logical Edmund would say.

“There’s no better way to skip knight training without drawing suspicion.”

“Brother, what about my reputation?”

“And what if maintaining your reputation gets us all exposed?”

That… was a real dilemma.

Which is more disgraceful: desertion, or turning into a literal zombie? As someone who’s not a knight, I wasn’t sure how to measure that.

“If we move fast, we can still book a ship. Somewhere far, with weak law enforcement… Yes, the Kingdom of Schuhl would be ideal.”

The more I listened, the more plausible it sounded.

I found myself nodding along without thinking—and Isaac’s face went pale. Then again, maybe it was always that pale.

“Why not just say I caught some deadly disease~?”

“The imperial court might send a royal physician.”

Isaac snarked, but Edmund replied completely seriously. Clearly, he hadn’t missed the sarcasm—he was just pretending to annoy him further.

“Then why not just say my wrist fell off! Not much difference anyway!”

“Okay, both of you, stop.”

I stepped in before things escalated.

Isaac and Edmund were both on edge. Understandably so—having to worry about being watched all day had to wear on them.

“I was thinking about it earlier… Everyone else’s body seems manageable, so why is it only your wrist that keeps falling off?”

Isaac was the only one whose body constantly gave out. Edmund and Yullia were both fragile, but not to that degree.

“I think it’s because of what happened during the crash.”

“The carriage accident?”

“Yeah.”

I blinked slowly. The scene from that day was burned into my memory like it had been branded under my eyelids.

“You reached your arm out of the wreckage.”

Like a single flower growing out of a pile of corpses. That outstretched hand, sticking out from the crushed carriage—I could never forget it.

“That probably threw off the balance in your body.”

I couldn’t think of any other reason. Edmund had been inside the carriage, so his whole body was smashed. Yullia, on the other hand, had everything intact except her heart.

“Huh… I see.”

Isaac scratched the back of his neck.

“Honestly, I don’t remember much. I just recall throwing you out of the carriage…”

Right after that, Isaac added that everything had gone black—and the next time he came to, he was already a zombie.

“So, about that wrist… what if we, like, smash it and try reattaching it again?”

“……”

Isaac’s eyes said, ‘Emily… not you too…’ Yes, it was a bit extreme, but I couldn’t think of any better solution.

“That’s a great idea. Yullia, go get the hammer.”

Edmund responded instantly.

“Does my opinion not matter?! Don’t I need to consent to this?!”

“And why would we need your input? It’s not like you feel pain anyway.”

“I do feel pain—mentally! Emotionally! I am not okay!”

Isaac recoiled, hiding his hand behind his back. Watching your own wrist get smashed in real time probably wasn’t something anyone could handle, even undead.

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover your eyes for you, okay?”

“That’s not the issue!!”

Clearly, not the kind of reassurance he was hoping for.

“L-Look, I don’t even have to report in tomorrow. Let’s try thinking of another way over the weekend, and if nothing works… we can talk about deserting or whatever. Okay?”

“Isn’t this your ‘other way’?”

Edmund had already taken the hammer Yullia rushed back with.

As Isaac nervously backed away, Yullia and I grabbed his arms on either side.

“Why do you guys only work so well together when you’re ganging up on me?!”

“We’re twins.”

“Yup, exactly.”

We nodded at each other. Isaac had always had a hard time resisting the two of us when we teamed up.

“Well then…”

Isaac’s hand was laid out neatly on the table.

Fwoosh—the hammer was raised high above. Isaac, having resigned himself to fate, shut his eyes tightly.

Just as the hammer was about to come down—

“I’m hoooome~!”

Click.

The lights came on, flooding the table with bright light. Andrea stood in the doorway, tilting his head at us.

“What are you guys doing?”

“……”

“……”

We all exchanged glances, and then—like we’d rehearsed it—we broke into identical, cheerful smiles.

“We were waiting to throw a surprise party for you~!”

“But looks like our little baby caught us before we were ready! What do we do now~?”

I stepped forward, blocking Andrea’s view.

“Huh? But it really looked like you were bullying Isaac…”

“Bullying? Nah, we were just playing around. Right, Isaac?”

I jabbed Isaac’s side, and he quickly chimed in.

“Y-Yup! That’s right~!”

“Really? With a hammer?”

“Yup! It’s this new game that’s trending. Loser has to do a penalty!”

Andrea tilted his head again.

“Grown-ups are weird!”

Ever since he once sneaked a sip of the pre-dinner wine we were having, he’d firmly decided he’d never try to understand adult hobbies again.

Edmund discreetly slipped the hammer behind his back and changed the subject.

“So? How was your first day at the academy? I made sure dinner tonight included all your favorite dishes.”

“Y-Yeah! There’s even cake! We specially ordered it from that pâtissier from the Kingdom of Tahil!”

It wasn’t just a made-up excuse—we’d actually been planning this for months to celebrate Andrea’s first day.

“Reaaaally?!”

Andrea’s eyes lit up. He ran over to us, not even bothering to change out of his uniform.

“This is the best!”

And then—zoom.

He launched himself straight at Isaac.

‘No!’

We hadn’t even healed Isaac’s wrist yet. Andrea was just doing what he always did, but for Isaac, it could be fatal right now.

Everything felt like it moved in slow motion.

Andrea flying toward Isaac. Isaac, flustered and frozen mid-catch. Yullia hesitating in place. Edmund, instinctively reaching out a hand.

Huff—!

I sucked in a breath I’d been holding.

Just before Andrea collided with Isaac, I grabbed him by the back of his collar.

But it didn’t end there. Of course it didn’t. No way someone my size could stop an eleven-year-old mid-flight with just arm strength.

Slither.

A red snake crawled up my forearm. Thankfully, the wound I’d made earlier was still fresh.

Snap!

The red snake bit its own tail and wrapped tightly around my wrist. The rebound from the grip stopped Andrea in place—just short of crashing into Isaac.

“Huh? Sis?”

“Isaac’s feeling a little sick today. You don’t want to catch it, do you~?”

“Gasp! Nooo, I don’t wanna get sick! Then I’d infect my friends too!”

“Right? And then you might not be allowed to go to the academy.”

“That would suck!”

Andrea stumbled backward in alarm, putting distance between him and Isaac. Isaac muttered something like, “That’s a bit too far,” but no one acknowledged it.

Soon, the first dishes of the dinner course were served, and Andrea’s attention shifted immediately.

When Yullia finally brought out the cake, he even swallowed audibly.

Everyone did their best to keep up the act of a “normal, peaceful evening.” The party went on late into the night—until Andrea, worn out, fell asleep.

By the time everything was finally over and I collapsed onto my bed, I felt completely drained.

I could’ve passed out right then and there—but I still had something left to do.

“Rev.”

I turned to the black cat stretching with a wide yawn and a lazy flick of his tail.

“Teach me necromancy.”

At my words, Rev curled his lips into a languid smile.

—At last, you’re ready to receive the great teachings of this magnificent being?

He lifted his chin arrogantly, his tail swaying gracefully.

“A little.”

—You should’ve listened to me from the start. Then your siblings wouldn’t have come back in such laughable condition.

He casually licked his paw and smoothed it over his face. Just like a regular cat.

“I still don’t know. If this is really the right thing.”

I gave a bitter smile.

“But right now, I need that power.”

Whether it was right or wrong could be decided later. For now, I stared straight into Rev’s golden eyes.

His slit pupils narrowed even more, then curved upward as he let out a soft, gleeful chuckle.

If a cat could smile, that’s probably what it looked like.

—There’s a certain thrill to teaching necromancy to a descendant of Samuel. It’s wonderfully sinful.

Moments like this reminded me that he really was a demon.

And for some reason, that sent a chill crawling down my spine.