Death King Karnak Novel - Chapter 7

Death King Karnak

2. A Good Lord? Who? (2)

In the thick darkness of the mountains, dozens of pursuers carrying torches were roaming the mountains.

“This way!”

“Found their trail!”

“Don’t miss it! Allium’s blessings to those who catch that demon!”

On the other side of the ridge, two young men were running anxiously down the mountain road.

“Hey, shit, shit!”

“Young Master! Run a little faster!”

Karnak cursed at Barros’ nagging, “Damn it! If I knew this would happen, I would have learned how to summon Death Mount first!”

Since he had built a wall to avoid his usual exercise, even a short run in the mountains made him out of breath. It would have been much more convenient if he could summon a death mount and ride it, but the main was that he put it on hold because he thought that he wouldn’t need it right away.

‘Did you know something like this would happen, did you?’

However, if he had sat down because it was getting difficult, he would go directly to the stake, so he clenched his teeth as he moved his two heavy feet.

‘How did they find out? I clearly erased all the traces, each one of them!’

Everything went smoothly when he took care of his father, stepmother, and two older brothers.

Karnak’s necromancy skills had reached such a high level that no one should’ve noticed that he was the cause of the horrible disaster that befell the Zestrad family.

‘I thought that all that was left now was to occupy the family and enjoy a lavish life…’

But Allium’s priests suddenly appeared and declared him a necromancer. They didn’t even give him time to say it was a misunderstanding.

“They must have been very confident!”

Was it because Karnak’s feet were too slow?

Suddenly, a group of pursuers approached and stopped the two. They were all heavily armed and sturdy warriors, the elite soldiers brought by the priests. The soldiers let out a cry as they drew their swords.

“You devil!”

“Don’t think you can run away anymore!”

“Willfully accept the punishment!”

“Y-Young Master!” Barros looked back at Karnak in terror.

“Whoa!”

Karnak spread his hands to both sides while grunting. The wide sleeves of his clothes began to flutter violently.

“Even if you’re the Allium’s priests, to think you’re that afraid of a single man!”

Darkness spread from his whole body. A low murmur flowed through the darkness of the night.

“Come, wandering spirits… Erase the fate of the living with the light of the abyss…”

The darkness soon turned into the shape of a swaying demon. It was a wraith, a ghostly spirit that took life while covered with a veil of darkness. The soldiers’ complexions turned pale.

“It’s necromancy!”

“He’s possessed by evil spirits!”

“Everyone, the Protector!” The soldiers hurriedly took something out of their arm sleeves.

The goddess Allium, a bronze sculpture with scales engraved on hexagonal bronze plates of different lengths, was said to ward off dimensional energy.

It was when the soldiers hurriedly held out their protectors.

Siaeeeeeeh!

The Wraith slid through the air with an eerie sound.

Bam! Boom!

The moment they got in contact with that being’s aura, all the protectors got shattered and scattered away.

“W-What?”

“Why isn’t the goddess’ protection working?”

Soon, evil spirits attacked the soldiers.

They tried to block it with shields and swung their swords but to no avail. The Wraith passed through the soldiers like a phantom and continued to reap their lives.

“Oops!”

“Aww!”

More than ten warriors collapsed and vomited blood in less than a few seconds. Karnak gave off a cold smile after settling the situation instantly.

“Okay, this will grant me extra power.”

He started bizarrely moving his fingers.

“Arise, dead. Resurrect and walk the earth.”
The freshly dead people raise their bodies with their eyes wide open. With blood dripping from his eyes, nose, and mouth, they staggered around and started returning the way they had come from.

“Keuk.”

“Kuaaa…”

While looking at the undead soldiers walking away, Barros asked, “Are we safe now, Young Master?”

Karnak shook his head.

“No, I summoned them too hastily, so their full power didn’t come out.”

An undead of that level would only have one-tenth of its life force? At most, they could only buy them some time, so their only choice was to hurry up and escape the area.

Karnak and Barros started running on the mountain road again. Karnak clenched his teeth once again, desperately moving both his feet.

“I barely got my revenge! I finally got my hands on my family!”

That’s it. It was the fault of the unknown author who wrote that necromancy book.

“That swindler! What? No one would notice? All the priests noticed!”

Even in the middle of the urgency, Barros hit the candle.

“It only said the ordinary people wouldn’t notice. Are priests considered ordinary people?”

“That author wrote it confusingly from the beginning!”

The exact written text was like this:

『 With this method, ordinary people will never notice the traces of the necromancer. Even knights who have mastered martial arts and wizards who are ministers of mana cannot notice it. 』

“Look, there’s no word saying the priests won’t notice.”

“He should then have written down the precautions! It’s common sense!”

“If you were a person having common sense, you wouldn’t have learned necromancy in the first place, right?”

Seeing him risking his life to die even when his life was at stake, it seemed like it was his real nature.
Karnak let out a nervous cry, “Shut up and make a quick splash!”

Recalling memories of the past, Karnak and Barros made some ambiguous expressions.

“We were struggling at the time.”

“We thought it was over, and we were almost caught and chased day and night, right?”

“It was when the legend of the commander-in-chief Karnak began.”

“Ah, that’s not true. The legend started much later, and that was the time when an ugly third-rate necromancer was running around like a cockroach to save his useless life…”

“Barros, you ran away too! What are you talking about like you’re somebody else?”

Anyway, Karnak of the past was overconfident in the necromancy he had learned. If he had moved secretly, he could’ve achieved the things he desired without getting caught by anyone.

He couldn’t blame his past self for being stupid. Considering the level of knowledge he possessed at that time, the inability to predict that outcome was his limit.

“So, I can guess that’s why you made that mistake,” Karnak said abruptly. He shrugged while referring to himself in the mirror as someone else.

“You must have thought that if you used necromancy secretly, you could defeat Randolph. Well, it sure has that much power.”

Secretly putting a curse on the guy while pretending to be fighting an ordinary battle on the outside! That was the typical case for most necromancers when fighting openly. In this way, it would seem to be an ordinary battle in the eyes of the general public.

“But if I do that, it’ll become a reiteration of the past.”

Even if ordinary people could be fooled, it was impossible to fool the priests. Priests can use divine power and are particularly sensitive to the traces of psychic power. No matter how secretly he tried to use the necromancy, they would still follow the traces to the end.

The current Karnak was the same as his past self. Didn’t he finally give up being a human after being chased by the priests of Allium, who found him suspicious of the disaster regarding the Zestrad family and building up notoriety?

“I went back in time to try to live like a human being at best, but I can’t do that.”

To use necromancy without getting caught, he would have to thoroughly erase the traces to the point of paranoia. The Allium Goddess Church would chase him like a hunting dog if he were to leave even the slightest trace.

“Simply put, you’re saying I should never use necromancy magic in front of priests?”

“Yes.”

“By the way, this is a dueling trial, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, will the priests act as the referee?”

“Yes.”

“By the way, what kind of guts did you have to say that you would go to a dueling trial?”

“About the time. How could I know about that?”

“Keuk…” Barros groaned and fell into trouble. Then, suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Couldn’t you postpone the duel for half a year? Then I’ll transform your body for the upcoming fight.”

The answer came back.

“I can’t postpone it.”

Judging by the speedy response, it would seem that Karnak also thought of delaying it.

“Can’t something happen to the dueling party? Let’s say the reason was the young master was injured…”

Barros gazed at Karnak’s leg with a reserved look.

“If you break it with an iron, it will take half a year to get back together.”

Karnak took a deep breath.

“It’s a duel organized by the priests. Do you really want to do that?”

Priests of the church had the power of healing bestowed by the goddess.

“Even if I was trembling with pain, they would make me stand right away with their divine power.”

“Oh, there was that healing magic, was it? Living as a Death Knight, I forgot that living people can benefit from religion.”

Of course, the priests’ healing magic wasn’t omnipotent. The powerful priests’ healing spells were just as expensive. It wasn’t an amount that even those moderately wealthy could easily pay, so most people would still rely on the power of medicine.

“However, who will believe me if I demand the trial to be put off because of lack of money even after knowing that I belong to a rich family with a copper mine?”

Moreover, healing magic couldn’t restore lost body parts. If he lost a part of his body as Parratt did, recovery would be impossible.

“That’s why I can’t just cut off the whole leg just because I want to delay the duel.”

Barros came up with another idea, “How about cutting off Randolph’s leg before the duel?”

Cutting off Karnak’s leg would be a waste. However, Randolph Bridge’s leg, could anything go wrong with cutting it?

“Won’t that be enough to get rid of the dueling trial? I think it’s possible.”

Karnak looked at his attendant with pitiful eyes.

“Who’s going to do that? Didn’t you say you’re no match yet?”

“Pardon? Well, the thing is that the young master can curse him to deal with him or kill him once and for all. In the past, after killing your parents and siblings, the consequences we faced…”

“We were chased to death, weren’t we?”

“That’s right. Do you want to be chased again?”

It was quite a predicament.

Karnak of that time would have rushed to learn necromancy with excitement and said that it was a good idea, but after looking at it from the viewpoint of no return, he wouldn’t commit that foolish act very again.

“Ah, I’d rather have a territory battle. Then secretly use necromancy somehow… No, because it’s the same as getting caught later.”

“Shall we secretly apply poison to the sword?”

“The priests have a detoxification magic, Barros.”

“Oh, that’s no use either. If you get caught using poison, you lose by foul right away, right?”

No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one way left.

“Should I run away too?”

The dueling trial was set up in the name of Allium, so he couldn’t avoid it now. He would be executed for mocking the goddess if he did that.

So, he could just steal all the treasures, take the money, and run away before the duel. And he could just continue living as an adventurer after giving up his title and hiding his identity.

“That isn’t a bad idea. I think I’ll be able to live well enough because I know about future events. And I can then buy enough time to build my strength again.”

“But the current situation is too good to give up.”

All his disgusting family members died on their own, and he became the owner of a wealthy family. Unlike his previous life, he was now loved by the people of the estate. It’s a situation where every desire of his past has come true.

“I don’t want to give up this…”

“Isn’t it better than dying? Well, the only solution was to let me train into a great knight, but that solution is also not feasible right now.”

“You’re right, but…”

Looking at Karnak, filled with regret, Barros shrugged his shoulders.

“Hey, I’ll just do what the Young Master tells me to do.”

He spoke as he stood up from his seat, “I’ll be off now. There is something the old butler asked me to do. Let me know when you decide.”

Karnak groaned while watching his attendant leave the room.

“Keep it. How can I…?”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

It was the morning of the next day that Karnak called Barros back.

“Why did you call again? I was doing laundry.” It was when Barros asked an abrupt question as he roughly wiped his wet hands.

Karnak said with wide eyes.

“I have decided.”

“Oh! Shall I pack our things? I already know where the treasures and money for the management of the estate are stored.”

“……When did I say I would run away at night?”

“There is no other way.”

“I came up with a way.”

Karnak gave a determined smile.

“I’ll have to take some risks, though.”

[To be continued.]