Seems Like It’s Not My Business.

Looking at the scattered magic circles around us, it was immediately obvious that they closely resembled those used in ‘Mortis’s ritual.

But that’s odd.

Weren’t you not a necromancer? So why did you worship a god like ‘Mortis’?

“Lormond served Mortis?”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand. When Serena heard Edmund’s words, she looked at the ritual circles spread out around us and asked him.

“Hmm…”

Thinking for a short while, she glanced at Edmund.

“By the way, Edmund, you don’t worship Mortis too, do you?”

“Of, of course not. I serve Hyrat! I even received baptism not long ago!”

“Phew! That’s such a relief!”

Serena let out a sigh of relief and smiled brightly.

I saw it.

Serena’s hand clenching and unclenching into a fist as she asked Edmund about his ‘faith’.

No way, right?

I wondered, but even Barkal’s breaths in and out weren’t normal.

Both of them harbored enormous hostility toward ‘Mortis.’

* 〈Thrag expresses strong disgust.〉

So it’s not just the two of them, but three.

Am I the only one not reacting sensitively? Don’t judge too harshly just based on rumors, guys.

But I almost died when I actually saw it, didn’t I?

Count me in too.

“The truth is, there’s another reason why I hired all of you to visit my father’s tomb.”

Another reason?

“I suddenly became worried. My father, who served Mortis… I wondered what I should do if by any chance his corpse had become an undead…”

Ah, I see.

Barbarians and clerics. It’s a stereotype, but those two classes don’t seem the type to spread rumors.

I mean, let’s not even talk about barbarians.

And clerics have that sincere vibe.

Plus, bringing a cleric to fight against ‘undead’ is partially the right move.

Though our ‘cleric’ is actually stronger against ‘people,’ not ‘undead’.

“It’s hard to find an adventure party made up of both a barbarian and a cleric.”

When Serena continued, Edmund nodded.

Then, with hesitant steps, Edmund approached the coffin at the center of the tomb.

“If… If my father, Lormond, has become an undead, could you all take care of it?”

With a serious tone, Edmund asked. Serena, clutching her chest as if in pain, responded.

“Lormond Steldian was truly a great man. If such a man has turned into an undead…”

Sniff.

Serena wiped away a single falling tear.

“There’s nothing we can do… Good or not, good is good, but undead are undead!”

If that’s what you were going to say, why did you sound so hesitant at first, Serena?

Edmund, the person concerned, swallowed nervously and shifted his gaze to the coffin.

The ‘Mortis’ ritual circles drawn around were certainly gaudy and chaotic, yet Lormond’s actual coffin was unbefittingly plain for a nobleman.

Gulp.

I could even hear Edmund swallowing from here. His trembling hand wavered toward the coffin, stopping and going, stopping and going.

“If you keep dawdling, I’ll check myself!”

Raising his axe, Barkal sounded like he was about to try some kind of barbarian quantum experiment.

Was he planning to collapse human Lormond and undead Lormond into one with a single strike?

“F-Fine! I’ll open it now!”

Startled by Barkal’s move, Edmund squeezed his eyes shut and opened the coffin.

A musty haze puffed out once from inside the coffin, and its contents slowly came into view.

Bones.

Not an undead.

“… Phew.”

Edmund let out a sigh of relief. His father worshipped a necromancer god. To see such a father’s corpse return as an undead would be heartbreaking.

His feelings must be complicated, but I could understand where he was coming from.

“What a relief! Mortis is a truly wicked evil god! Watching the corpses touched by her fingers start to move is absolutely horrifying!”

Barkal shuddered, perhaps recalling the events in the Lurudan Forest.

“Do you all believe Mortis is an evil god?”

“Of course!”

“I believe so, don’t you?”

“I think so too. But my father thought differently.”

Sensing this was heading for a long-winded conversation, Barkal touched his skull helmet and snorted.

“In three words, then…”

“Barkal, I’ll listen, but you close your ears.”

At my words, Barkal mimed closing his ears with both hands.

“All life dies. Good or evil, everyone dies. Corpses, in the end, are what await us, and death is everyone’s fate.”

When Barkal tried to speak up again, I stepped on his foot. I couldn’t overpower that bulk, but maybe it worked—he closed his mouth.

“It is Mortis who embraces us all in death without distinction. She cannot be an evil god.”

“That’s also true.”

I nodded at Edmund’s words.

“Brother?”

“Brother, what do you mean by that!”

“Evil—well, that’s just a human perspective. If death is also a part of the cycle, then from the perspective of nature, Mortis is merely carrying out what is natural.”

* 〈Thrag frowns.〉

What a petty guy.

You get offended at a comment like that?

It almost sounded as if I were defending Mortis, but I wasn’t at all.

“But you are human, so you look at things from a human’s perspective. Mortis is an evil god. I don’t care for complaints.”

Serena and Barkal were stunned by my words. Barkal, especially, looked so shocked only the whites of his eyes showed beneath his skull helmet.

But in no time, he was back to his usual self.

“Kahahahaha! Well said, sage!”

Barkal clapped my shoulder, nodding.

“A god’s complaints aren’t worth listening to! If a god spouts nonsense, you just separate his head from his body!”

Isn’t that the method for killing gods the sage taught you? Barkal added, still cackling madly.

“In that sense—weakling! I will remove your worries!”

“Y-Yes?”

“If we grind these bones to dust, he’ll never become an undead!”

Barkal stepped forward. Once again, he seemed ready to conduct another round of quantum experiments.

You madman, stop it!

“Brother! What’s the matter with you!”

When I stopped Barkal, he called to me in a flustered voice.

I do hate Neo-Confucian Taliban types, but I still don’t like people who go this crazy!

After a brief struggle and being unable to withstand Barkal’s strength, I got pushed forward.

Which landed me right in front of the coffin.

Barkal, what the hell are you doing!

You know, this kind of thing in front of somebody’s coffin is just asking for bad luck.

Huh?

What’s that?

Now I could see something gleaming in the skeletal hand of what was now a bare skeleton. Looked like a red gem.

“A-A gem?”

Edmund, who’d tried to steady my balance, seemed to have seen it too.

He carefully moved the thin, bony fingers, and took out a gem.

A blood-red ruby. It was so perfectly round, it almost gave the feeling of an artificial eye.

* 〈Thrag begins to retch.〉

As soon as the gem appeared, Thrag started to react. In other words, this gem must be related to ‘Mortis.’

* 〈Thrag wants the gem destroyed.〉

Sheesh, calm down already.

Still, it’s a family keepsake, so it’s not like I could just destroy it.

“Why would Father have such a gem…?”

Clutching the gem in his hand, Edmund left the room behind the coffin.

* 〈’Necromancy Tracking’ level has increased.〉

Necromancy Tracking [2] -〉 [3]

And then traces of necromancy began to appear around the gem.

* * *

Though Edmund visually confirmed that Lormond’s corpse hadn’t become an undead, he still seemed uneasy.

For now, he said he’d clear the dungeon that sprang up around the tomb and cremate the entire coffin.

Isn’t that a bit much?

That’s what I thought, but I guess his views are pretty different from mine.

Then again, in a world where ‘zombies’ are real…

“Sage, I’ve been waiting for you!”

As we emerged from the tomb, Grunt and the members of the ‘Barbarian Respect Association’ were waiting outside.

“It’s time to go home, brothers.”

Time to head back. Edmund should get ready to settle accounts when he returns, right?

“I’ve been waiting for those words.”

Upon hearing me out, Grunt placed his left hand on the ground. As the burly barbarian opened his hand, a tiny scorpion popped out.

Wasn’t that what the barbarians had for a snack earlier?

〈Master of the Dungeon〉

Trap Maker

Ah, so this thing’s the dungeon master.

Before I could say anything to it, Grunt smashed the scorpion to bits with his right hand.

* The dungeon master has died.

As soon as the ‘dungeon master’ died, a faint tremor ran up through our feet. At the same time, a ‘portal’ appeared in front of us, leading outside.

Of course we entered the portal without hesitation and made it out of the tomb safely.

“Sage, was that helpful?”

Once outside, Grunt approached, followed by the other members of the ‘Barbarian Respect Association’.

“Grunt, and the Barbarian Respect Association—I could never have solved this so easily without your help!”

“If it’s the sage, you would have solved it anyway!”

“That’s right! The sage could have done it anyway!”

Seeing them so happy made my chest ache for some reason.

Too naive to realize they’d been used. What should I do with you precious fools? Isn’t this basically like the auction exploitation incident all over again?

“Edmund.”

“Y-Yes?”

“We’ll only take five gold coins for our share. Please divide the rest equally among the Barbarian Respect Association.”

Edmund nodded at my words. It was Grunt and the barbarians who were flustered instead.

“No reward is needed, sage!”

“We only helped for a brother!”

They refused, but I refused their refusal.

“Still, we don’t want to take money from our benefactor!”

“We are thicker than blood!”

“Aren’t we barbarians all the same!”

I’m not a barbarian.

“Do you want to make me out to be like that auction guy?!”

I shouted at them. The ones far larger than me started to shrink back at my outburst.

“Never give away your talents for free.”

“Sage…”

“You respect me, and so I respect you in kind.”

I thumped my chest twice with my right hand and then showed them my clenched fist.

It was the greeting I saw among the ‘Red Wolf Tribe’ barbarians before. It seemed appropriate now, so I copied it.

“Any further refusal, and I’ll take it as a lack of respect.”

“That cannot be!”

“We respect the sage!”

Uoooooh!

With a shout, the burly men imitated the ‘Red Wolf greeting’ I performed.

“Respect us! We respect you!”

“Respect us! We respect you!”

And thus began the “Respect Association”‘s chant.

This is enough.

Thinking about fifty gold coins makes my stomach hurt, but honestly, it was the Respect Association that cleared the dungeon, not us.

Still, fifty gold coins is enough to live it up for a year. I could buy new gear with that money.

Ah.

Should I just call the deal off?

“Brother!”

While I was lost in such idle thoughts, Grunt approached.

Between the deeply pulled-down Viking helmet, Grunt wore a grin. Nice teeth.

“I want you to have this!”

Grunt took something from his coat and handed it to me.

It was the ‘horn flute’ he used earlier to summon the ‘Barbarian Respect Association’.

Horn of Gathering

Grade: Rare

【Momentum】 1

【Summon】 1

【Barbarian Affinity】 1

“This horn suits you best, after all.”

Why give this to me? You’re the head of the association.

“The sage who gave purpose to the Barbarian Respect Association.”

I said I didn’t need it, but—

“If there’s danger, use this horn. If we can hear it, the Respect Association will come to your call!”

I wanted to say something, but looking into Grunt’s sincere eyes, I couldn’t refuse.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep