Death King Karnak Novel - Chapter 2

Death King Karnak

1. Something’s Wrong

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a blond young man in his twenties with a shabby look.

‘…Who is it? Somehow it looks familiar.’

A familiar voice came to Karnak’s troubled ears, “Hey, are you the young master?”

He remembered him, “You’re Barros.”

Before becoming a Death Knight, this young man in front of him was his henchman from when he was still young.

“Something is different from what I imagined.”

After blinking his eyes, Barros put on a blank expression, “Hello, me in this world… Now a new life begins… I’m just going crazy… I thought it would be like this.”

Karnak did not dare to hit him, “Oh, I knew it would be like this.”

Did you really think everything would change as soon as you closed and opened your eyes? It was so sudden that he couldn’t even feel it.

“Get me a mirror so I can see myself.”

“There seems to be a mirror. There’s no way we could have such an expensive item at this point, right?”

For Karnak, the ruler of the world, a mirror would have been a common cheap item, but it was a luxury item that was difficult to obtain for him as an illegitimate son of a fallen aristocratic family.

Barros checked his face in his stead, “Don’t worry. You’re just a 20-year-old boy. You have a skinny body, black hair, black eyes, and a cheeky expression.”

“Is my expression that bad?”

“Didn’t I tell you to make a pretty face? When you’re quiet, you’re giving the impression that you’re complaining about everything in the world, tsk tsk.”

Karnak smiled happily, “It’s good that at least one thing hasn’t changed.”

Even after returning to the past, Barros was indeed Barros.

“He’s still a pretty rude fellow.”

And he had kept that ignorant henchman by his side for over 100 years. He had gotten too used to it to get angry now.

“Yes, I did have a lot of complaints about the world when I was young.”

Karnak looked around his surroundings. The two were standing in a place that resembled a dark cave—a small table on one side of the wall with a book open. The only source of light is a small flickering candle.

After picking up the book that looked like a scribble, Karnak murmured, “Here it is, the beginning of it all.”

An old book that he accidentally found deep inside the family storage room. A simple notebook with no title and transcribed in messy handwriting.

It means that it is not a properly published book, but someone has personally scribbled on it. However, the knowledge gained from this book allowed me to walk the path of the necromancer for the first time.

“I wonder if I should try…”

Karnak snapped his fingers while chanting. A small spark the size of a fingernail emerged and grew bigger as it burned those old books.

Hieek!

The flames quickly turned books to ashes and died out.

“The current command power is this much.”

Karnak nodded, “It’s almost as I expected. It’s natural since it’s the time when Park started necromancy.”

Barros was watching all that and asked in shock, “Eh! Why did you burn it?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter because the content is all in my head.”

This book itself does not contain any special dark magic. It was an ordinary book containing only written knowledge.

“It wasn’t necessarily a high-level knowledge. It was only basic-level necromancy.”

He was able to become the strongest necromancer on earth because he traveled all over the world and continuously acquired ancient knowledge. This book did not make him a transcendent necromancer in a flash.

“On second thought, I have to burn it even more. Well, it was thanks to this book that I was able to get into necromancy.”

If Karnak was able to walk this path, it would mean those other idiots out there could also do it. Besides, they would be hanged if lucky or burned at stake in case of bad luck if someone found out they had this book.

“There’s no need to leave a source of trouble because I don’t need it now.”

He looked out of the cave after brushing off the ashes. He saw a shimmering light from the other side of the cave.

“Shall we head out first?”

Karnak let out a scream, “Whoa!”

Barros was shocked, “W-What the hell is this?”

Tremendous light fell upon their heads! A ray of light so concentrated that it could burn the entire world!

Barros murmured blankly, “Oh, that’s it.”

“Huh?”

“Sunshine.”

“Come to think of it, was the sun like this from the start?”

The two of them were dumbfounded after looking around. Their eyesight was restored, and they could now see the world properly. The reality of what they saw was only something natural that occurred in this world.

How could the sunlight scare them like hellfire? Was it because they were now human beings and not the undead? The fuss was over after they were dazzled for a few seconds.

Could the reason for making a fuss be a matter of mood? Their fuss somehow still lingered.

“Whoa!”

“Young master, the sun is so warm!”

“Smells like grass! I can smell the grass!”

“I can smell the dirt too!”

They were unconsciously shocked by the natural things all humans could feel because of their newly regained senses. Both Karnak and Barros were moved to tears. And again, they were so moved by the fact that they could finally shed tears.

“Look at this, Barros! Tears! Tears came out!”

I even have a runny nose!”

“I have saliva pouring out too!”

“At this rate, wouldn’t it be possible to pee?”

“Of course, I can do it! I’m back as a human!”

“……now, let’s stop with all that dirty talk right now.”

They indeed managed to get it back. A real body that could feel sensations, emotions, and impressions. However, what was lost in return was absolute authority. They were no longer the strongest necromancer or the strongest Death Knight in human history.

“Oh, right, there’s no need for that!”

“Of course, that doesn’t make me too happy!”

Karnak shouted at his old servant, “Let’s live like normal human beings this time!”

The two men were walking on a forest road in the summer sun among the green trees in a forest on a low hillside. Both wore traveling clothes that looked plain and a little shabby.

The young man with frizzy blond hair suddenly put a hand on his forehead and looked up at the sky, “The weather is nice.”

A handsome young man with sleek black hair replied blankly, “Of course. The weather is really nice.”

The sun was shining, and the grains of sand were sparkling. The weather was fresh and warm.

“……isn’t it too hot?”

“I’m annoyed because I’m sweating.”

“I know. Though strangely, this sensation is bothering me.”

The black-haired young man, Karnak, sighed deeply, “This is such a disturbing trait of the human body.”

Half a day had passed since they packed their things and left the cave. They were annoyed because it was hot, annoyed because they were hungry, and annoyed because they were thirsty.

Their happy impression lasted only for a moment, and after a while, they started missing their former glory and power. No wonder they say that people’s hearts are cunning.

“Well, we can’t be troubled with it now, and we must get used to it.”

Barros unfolded the map, murmuring, “I think it’s time for Darha Village to come out…….”

He scratched his head as he compared the map with the nearby terrain, “It was so long ago that I don’t remember a single thing now.”

It was like going 100 years back in time. Things were weirder than what he remembered.

“However, shouldn’t there be a restaurant over there? At the corner of town here.”

“The old me chose this place because of that.”

The current time period is when Karnak secretly escaped from his family to learn necromancy for the first time.

At that time, he entered the path of magic of darkness while staying for three or four months in a cave in an uninhabited forest while avoiding the eyes of others.

“Looking at the amount of mana, it seems about two months have passed since I first gained the power to command.”

“Isn’t it exactly when you first felt the power to command?”

“It involved going back 100 years, so that kind of error was expected to happen.”

Even while mastering necromancy, you still have to eat and live, but it’s hard to expect such a service in a remote area where outsiders rarely come and go.

So, he deliberately chose a hill near the village of Darha. Darha Village is located on the central trade route of the Yu Steel Kingdom.

Since it was a trading town with inns, restaurants, and shops for peddlers, he sent Barros occasionally to buy all daily necessities.

“Doesn’t it bring back memories?” Barros’s eyes suddenly lit up while murmuring.

“Wait, does it mean we can also go to a good restaurant to eat premium-quality juicy thick meat and drink wine now?”

Karnak put on a sad expression as he tried to ignore his henchman’s eyes that were shining like stars, “There’s no way there’s such a high-level restaurant in Darha Village.”

Honestly, even if there was a restaurant, they couldn’t buy it anyway.

“No money.”

“Well, weren’t we poor?”

Barros sneaked up on the guard pouch on his waist.

“It’s quite heavy. It’s all coins.”

The Karnak of this era has nothing to do with high-quality currency, such as silver coins. Goldfinch? Such a precious person has only seen it a few times from afar.

Karnak sighed deeply, “What do I do? Even if I belong to an aristocratic family, it’s all ruined.”

He was an illegitimate child from a ruined family. Thanks to that, he could still vividly remember saving little pennies for this secret trip. Even though it happened more than 100 years ago, he still remembers it until this day.

“Is this the reason I made such a fuss about learning necromancy? I finally feel that I’m back.”

Karnak recalled the past as he moved on, “Come to think of it, do I have to see my parents and my two older brothers on the road? I don’t like it, but it can’t be avoided.”

“Argh. I don’t like that either.” Barros’s face got furrowed.

The storehouse keeper was very generous, and since it was a ruined family, the family was especially harsh on Karnak. In the first place, his very existence was a source of humiliation for them as he was an illegitimate child.

At least, if they could afford it, they would have been somewhat lenient, but the two older brothers were also in a difficult position to take care of themselves. Of course, Karnak took all sorts of abuse every time they met him. Would he be able to remain calm if he saw his brothers again?

Barros put on a worried expression as he recalled the past, “Won’t they hit you as soon as you see your face, young master?”

“Ah, come on now. Just please me, and don’t give me that face.”

“Isn’t it the sole reason you ended up like that?”

Karnak smiled as he recalled the past of ruining his family, which included killing his two elder brothers and committing all kinds of evil deeds, “I can also do it now. But I’m too old, right? I’m not a 20-year-old kid anymore.”

“The current young master is exactly a 20-year-old young man.”

“The memories stored in here amount to 100 years, don’t they?”

He struck them with his youthful spirit then because he couldn’t stand being ignored, but he now had the confidence to overcome all of it.

“Now that I think about it, it wasn’t even that harsh.”

He thought he was carrying the weight of all the world’s misfortunes on his shoulders at that time, but he could finally understand it all as he had now experienced all sorts of things.

His two elder brothers, like every other human, claimed that because they were in pain, they just poured it out on poor young Karnak.

“Wait, but wasn’t it a bit harsh compared to others? Ugh, thinking about it makes me mad?”

“Look, where does your personality go?”

“It’s a joke, a joke.”

Karnak continued walking along the mountain path, waving his hands. In any case, the problem they were facing now was finding a meal, not their distant home.

“By the way, what about money? Shall we rob people on the street in moderation?”

“Didn’t you want us to live like normal humans?”

“That’s right. It’s become a habit, so it’s unintentional…”

“Is robbery a habit?”

“Whose story are you telling me right now? You killed more people than me!”

“And didn’t you also bring them all back to life after killing them?”

“I only brought them back to life. You’re the one who killed them.”

Whether joking or being serious, they kept walking while having ambiguous conversations, and soon the forest came to an end, and a field came out.

The village of Darha was faintly visible in the distance.

“Anyway, let’s eat something. Let’s eat for now and think later.”

Barros was pleased to hear Karnak’s suggestion. He had saved some of his money to head back home, but it wasn’t enough for them to eat a meal.

“I totally agree with you, young master!”

[To be continued.]