Death King Karnak Novel - Chapter 21

Death King Karnak

6. Derat City

A wide field filled with spring vibes.

Two men were riding their horses along a straight road.

The black-haired young man riding a white horse was a child of a noble family. The luxurious travelling clothes woven from a mixture of deerskin and silk and the magic staff worn around the waist were also quite expensive. It was clear that he was a wizard of noble origin.

The young knight on the brown horse who accompanied him was also not ordinary. He had a well-trained physique and sharp eyes, and even though he was not heavily armed like a traveller, he was wearing armour made from expensive beast hides, and the sleeves and leggings were also made of high-quality steel. On his back was a large bastard sword, which was also of high quality.

The young knight, Barros, suddenly said something after turning to the side, “I feel like I’m back in the past. In the past, even if we had money, we would deliberately wear shabby clothes.”

Karnak, the son of a noble family, smiled and replied, “As expected, people shouldn’t live by committing sins. How good is it to be able to travel while revealing your identity?”

“I thought if I were to show off a lot of money, it would attract some troublesome guys, but no one really bothered.”

“Yes. Didn’t you wear it like this with that in mind?”

Disguising yourself as a poor tourist out of fear of thieves couldn’t be considered an excellent move. Thieves don’t target wealthy travellers, but they target easy travellers. It’s better to loot the small penny safely than to take a risk by aiming for a larger sum.

However, it also wasn’t good if it looked like some insanely wealthy Noble was out on a cruise. That’s because some people would be willing to take the risk.

In this sense, the current outfits of Karnak and Barros were entirely appropriate. They looked like travellers from aristocratic families with big stomachs, and they wore expensive but practical clothes rather than looking tacky on the outside. That attire was something befitting veterans with considerable travel experience.

The size and level of Barros’s weapon and the magic wand that Karnak was carrying also openly showed that they were formidable opponents.

“Even though thieves are all trying to make a living, they also don’t want to cross a dangerous bridge for no reason.”

It wouldn’t be a problem if unusual thieves appeared. The current Karnak’s Chaos Magic and Barros’ power alone weren’t weak enough to get them beat up everywhere. But what if they encountered an enemy that they couldn’t handle at their current level?

“At that time, I can use necromancy.”

Thanks to this, the two of them were able to continue their trip comfortably without any incident. Now, they were only half a day’s distance from their destination.

Barros asked while looking across the street, “But how are you going to find the darkness of the end? Is there any magic to find it?”

“I’m researching it, but I can’t right now.”

“Then how are you going to find it?”

“We’re going to the adventurer’s guild. There’s a place we used to go often in the past, right?”

Barros nodded as if he understood.

“Will you be indebted to the Adventurer’s Guild again?”

Adventurer’s Guild. It was originally an organisation that started out as a group of bounty hunters that hunted wanted people with bounties.

While hunting a wanted man, information was just as important as force. Shouldn’t you know where they’re hiding before you can capture or kill them?

Bounty hunters shared information with each other and joined forces to hunt their prey. It then got developed into a guild of bounty hunters, an organisation that specialised in information gathering with a vast network. Someone in the guild thought of it as it grew in size by comprehensively managing this with information and personal connections.

‘Is there a need to sell information only to bounty hunters?’

Information that seemed like garbage to someone might be worth a thousand gold to someone else. They sold information to treasure hunters who explored ancient treasures or ruins left by different races before humankind, aka dungeons.

Naturally, the Treasure Hunters also became members of the guild. Monster hunters who fight monsters or demons were also good buyers of information. They also became members of the guild.

At this point, it was no longer just an organization of bounty hunters. The name was then changed to the Hunter Guild. The Hunter Guild gradually expanded its power and spread throughout the continent. At the same time, its way and work scope also gradually changed.

Rather than ‘hunting’ something, there were more people who would move by simply receiving a ‘request’. The format of requests had also become much more diverse.
A mercenary business that would receive money and jump into the territory of each local aristocrat. Escort work to protect the merchant corps or travellers.

They even took charge of solving trivial problems such as messenger work by labelling them as trivial errands and would recover money that had been stolen.

Since it was no longer even a Hunter Guild, a need arose to change his name again. However, if they called it ‘non-conventional service providers willing to do anything that makes them money’, it would be too long and uncool.

So, the title chosen was ‘adventurer’. It’s an embarrassing title to be called a dog or a cow or an adventurer now, but that word had a really good image at the time.

The adventurer’s guild, where all kinds of information were gathered, was a really useful place for Karnak, who was searching for ancient necromancy knowledge. He also got a lot of useless information through the guild.

“There’s a lot of garbage information, so we need to filter it out.”

Barros looked up at the sky and made a vague expression.

“I miss you. I was greatly taken care of in the past.”

The most common identity of the two fugitives was that of adventurers. Becoming wandering adventurers were easy to wash their identities. If they were from another territory in another kingdom that they had never heard of, there would be no way to confirm it.

Karnak turned to Barros and threw a scolding.

“Do you miss those days? I don’t even want to think about it.”

Due to the nature of his field, there were more cases where he was a wanted man than an adventurer.

“It’s not a very good experience when your friends from the past chase after you with both eyes wide open to cut your throat.”

“Since you killed everyone and turned them into zombies, who are you talking about as friends?”

As they continued to walk while having conversations about this and that, before they knew it, they could see the city beyond. It was Derat City, the largest trading city in the northern part of the Yu Steel Kingdom.

“Are we really looking for a necromancer here?”

Karnak responded calmly to Barros’ question, “You must patiently wait. There’s no way being a necromancer is that common.”

“Well, that’s not a bad claim.”

Barros laughed.

In fact, it wasn’t even a question of patience.

“I can do as much as I can while waiting at a high-end inn with good food and drinks!”

Upon arriving in Derat City, Karnak looked for the adventurer’s guild. In their previous life, Karnak and Barros used to hide their identities by registering in a guild to act as adventurers because they had to hide their identities to earn money.

Meanwhile, he could secretly obtain necromancy-related information, so it was like killing two birds with one stone.

“You don’t have to be an adventurer this time.”

Now, he had the proud status of Lord of Zestrad, Baron Karnak. Investigating cases related to the dark apocalypse wasn’t particularly a crime either.

He proudly revealed his identity and entrusted a request to collect information related to the darkness of the end. The excuses also became plausible.

“A necromancer related to the darkness of the end had appeared in our territory. Fortunately, the Church of Ratiel killed him, but we have no idea when something like this will happen again.”

Since it happened for real, it didn’t seem suspicious. However, as it turned out, there was no need to make excuses as other nobles were also collecting various information related to the Oracle of Ruin through the adventurer’s guild.

It is a good lord’s duty to prepare in advance, as you never know when a necromancer may be rampant in their territory. From the perspective of the adventurer’s guild, Karnak was just one of their daily customers.

“Thank you for using the Derat City Adventurer’s Guild. Baron Karnak! We will contact you as soon as the latest information comes in!”

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A week had passed since their stay in Derat City.

Karnak and Barros ate and drank happily after unpacking at the finest inn. Thanks to the copper mines, there was plenty of money, so they didn’t need to refrain from anything.

They had a great time staying in the most expensive room and ordering and eating the finest dishes. He indeed enjoyed himself to the limit.

However, if there was a difference from other nobles, it would be that he did not hold a woman from a brothel. It wasn’t that they had a sexual problem.

Both of them had barely returned to human bodies. Besides, wasn’t it a young body in its prime? It would be a lie if they said they didn’t have a sex drive.

They weren’t the ones who cared about morality or ethics, so they actually went to brothels.

Right, he went with…….

“Oh, this doesn’t seem like much.”

Karnak immediately turned back at once after seeing the prostitutes. That was because he was a necromancer.

The nicknames given to a bit-powerful necromancer were usually like this: The Lord of Death, the Lord of Darkness, the Lord of Plague, and so on.

The necromancer was also a disease specialist. Unlike the cleric, he was a specialist in infection instead of healing.

In other words, in Karnak’s eyes, the venereal disease of those prostitute women could be seen as clear as day! How could humans who avoid eating snacks for health reasons ruin their bodies recklessly?

“As expected, I should meet a good woman, get married, and live a decent life. Isn’t that what it means to live like a human?”

“Are you thinking of getting married?”

“Of course. Aren’t I the lord now?”

If you were the head of a family, leaving behind an heir was an important duty.

“Of course, you should get married. If possible, with a woman you like.”

He had no intention of an arranged marriage with a woman he had never seen before. The current situation of Baron’s Zestrad family was much better than its pitiful state from before.

“Is that Barros, you? Have you ever had a girl you liked?”

“Actually, there was one kid I was thinking about.”

It is said that recently, the maids of the mansion looked at him so meaningfully that he was also looking forward to it.

“Really? Why didn’t you pursue her?”

“I was trying to seduce her, but wouldn’t the world end because of some madman? Thanks to you, I’m here.”

“I-I’m sorry…….”

Anyway, they enjoyed their stay to the fullest.

The only problem was from the side of their main goal.

“There are no results even though a week has passed.”

“That’s right. I didn’t expect this to happen.”

It wasn’t that there was no information regarding the darkness of the end. On the contrary, there were too many of them. The goddess directly issued an oracle, and the seven churches announced it. Doom befalls the world; everyone must prepare for the darkness.

How did the general public perceive this?

Even if bandits rampaged in the hills, it was because of being stained with darkness. Even if demon beasts are rampant in the forest, it is because of being stained with darkness, and even if they were swindled or robbed of their money, it was because of being stained with darkness.

Even if the dog from the front door carried the chicken from the next door, the dog would make noise, saying that it was because the dog was stained with darkness.

All the bad things in the world were all put into the account of the darkness of the end.

“Ehh. That’s why the seven churches were hiding the oracle for some time.”
Karnak shook his head.

The whole world was overflowing with incidents related to necromancy. Of course, only a few of them were real.

“Was that guy Fred pursued so hard because of how shamefully mischievous he was? ”

“Looking at what he did, it was so strange that he didn’t get caught at once.”

It’s true that he was from Derat City, but the Church of Ratiel didn’t start chasing Fred from the beginning. At the beginning of the incident, a search request was made through the adventurer’s guild.

In the meantime, several adventurers were sacrificed, and it was when a priest of the Church of Ratiel suspiciously went missing again while giving chase.

Only then did the church realise the gravity of the situation and deploy a large number of troops.

Because there was so much false information, even the seven churches couldn’t tackle every case. That’s why they only intervened when they were certain.

“Before anything, we have to be the first ones to get the information.”

Walking the streets at night, Karnak said as if praying.

“It would be nice if we could gain some useful information tomorrow…….”

[To be continued.]