A few hours later, when the sun had disappeared into the horizon and the moon had taken its place, a man with emerald eyes was holding an emergency meeting with one of his ‘business associates.’ Said meeting was held within one of the rooms belonging to an inn near the blackmarket, the man with emerald eyes sat at the table, with a hooded man sitting opposite to him.

Other than them, there were two others in the room. These two ‘people’ who were clad in rusty steel plate armour stayed absolutely silent as they guarded the door.

A recent turn of events forced the man with emerald eyes to take some precautions. Unfortunately, these precautions came at the cost of his main source of income. In spite of the grim situation, the man with emerald eyes, Walter Faust, found that his tone was surprisingly calm and even nonchalant when he spoke.

“Until I say otherwise, I want you to indefinitely suspend all operations regarding the goblin hides. The smuggling, the sales, all of it. Just sellout whatever is in stock but that’s it.”

“Suspend all operations? My lord, are you sure that you want to do such a thing?”

The hooded man who called himself ‘Broker’ was slightly surprised when he was told by Walter to suspend the sale of the goblin hides. Yet Walter still replied indifferently.

“Unless you want to end up with a noose around your neck, I suggest that you follow my orders.”

Broker opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by Walter casually waving his hand as he explained himself.

“The arrival of the Frankonians complicated things. According to my credible source, they are on a manhunt. Even if we aren’t the targets of their hunt, we run the risk of being discovered by them if operations were to continue as is. That is not a risk that I am willing to take.”

Although Broker remained silent, Walter could tell that Broker both understood and accepted Walter’s explanation. From the look in his eye, Broker also seemed to be rather disappointed. Walter couldn’t blame him, Walter would be similarly disappointed if he learnt that a lucrative source of income was suspended, even if it was only temporary.

With a shrug, Walter spoke up again, maintaining the nonchalant manner of his voice.

“Of course, you are still free to continue with your other clandestine activities if you are greedy or desperate enough. Just know that I will have you permanently silenced if you get caught.”

While it was very quiet, Walter heard Broker nervously gulp in response to his implied threat, especially since he threatened Broker in such a casual manner. After remaining silent for a few seconds, Broker responded succinctly.

“I understand.”

“Good.”

Just as Walter was about to announce his leave, he suddenly remembered something else.

“Oh and I almost forgot to mention. I’ll be taking my cut now.”

Snap!

Walter didn’t wait for Broker’s response when he snapped his fingers, ordering his skeleton knights to walk over to the corner of the room. There, they pulled open a floorboard and revealed a secret compartment, one that was filled with multiple brown pouches. When a skeleton knight pulled a pouch out, the chinking sound of coins could be heard.

“I trust that that is all of it?”

Although he appeared to be shocked, Broker answered Walter’s question.

“Yes, that one bag is two thirds of all profits made this week, I counted it myself.”

“Since you still have a weeks worth of goblin hides in stock, I’ll be taking next week's cut in advance as well. I don’t plan on returning here anytime soon. There aren’t any problems with this arrangement is there?”

While he watched the skeleton knight take more pouches from the secret compartment, Broker hesitantly agreed.

“Ye-yes…”

“Then it’s time for me to make my leave. Farewell Broker.”

With the gold franqs now firmly in his possession, Walter announced his leave. He no longer had any reason to remain here and Broker wasn’t exactly the type of person one would have a friendly chat with. Hearing Walter’s farewell, Broker replied with his own.

“Farewell my lord…”

After Broker said that, Walter simply nodded before he left the room with the two skeleton knights, first stuffing the pouches filled with golden franqs into their satchel bags before following after him. After he exited the tavern, Walter turned to his right and continued down the street until he came across a particular alleyway.

Turning to enter said alleyway, he continued walking straight without turning left or right for a minute. After doing so, he came across another skeleton knight standing guard at an intersection. As he expected, the skeleton let him pass, allowing him to continue onwards for another minute before he found a lone man with a golden coat standing alone in the dark.

“So it is true, your family is indeed too preoccupied with the Frankonians to keep an eye on you. That is quite convenient if I do say so myself.”

For some reason, Thyvin didn’t reply to Walter’s joking remark, instead the former only silently glared at the latter.

Oh shit.

Alarm bells immediately started ringing inside Walter’s head, and he felt the passage of time slow down to a crawl as he tried to analyse his current situation.

What is the meaning of this? Am I overreacting?

Multiple questions arose within Walter’s mind, all of which were questions which he’d rather not answer. He wasn’t foolish enough to not foresee the possibility of this scenario. But since Thyvin relied on Walter to continue his necromancy research, Walter believed that the chances of any sort of betrayal occurring was virtually none.

Although he was prepared for this situation, Walter wasn’t sure if the current scenario warranted such a brash course of action. For all he knew he was just being pedantic. He could attack Thyvin now with either his hidden crossbow or the ‘gift’ he received from Jane. However, he would be acting on a baseless accusation which will only worsen the situation.

The only thing left for him to do was directly question the necromancer and see what he has to say.

Time then resumed its normal pace as Walter pretended to be confused and question Thyvin.

“Hmmm? Is there something wro-gah!”

But he didn’t even finish his sentence, his voice interrupted when a skeleton pinned his arm behind his back and pressed him to the wall.

“W-what do you think you’re doing?”

“Interrogating you.”

Thyvin’s voice sounded slightly irritated when he answered Walter’s question before he presented a question of his own.

“The manhunt. The target is you isn’t it?”

“What?!”

Walter felt his eyes contract as he shouted, this was not a betrayal. This was something much worse. Soon, the skeleton knight forced Walter to face the necromancer as the interrogation continued .

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about. I said it in the letter. The Frankonians are searching for a ‘rogue transmigrator.’” That transmigrator is you correct?”

“And what if I am?”

Knowing that there was no point in agreeing or disagreeing with Thyvin, Walter responded with a neutral reply. However, Thyvin’s answer surprised Walter.

“Then I’m even more eager to work with you.”

The skeleton knight let go of Walter when Thyvin declared those words, prompting Walter to voice out his confusion.

“Wait what?”

Seeing Walter’s surprised reaction, Thyvin smiled as if he didn’t just threaten Walter’s life a few minutes ago while he explained himself.

“Transmigrators like yourself are said to be blessed by deities. The ramifications of their mere existence is far-reaching and I would much prefer to have one by my side. However...”

Thyvin’s voice trailed off for a moment before he resumed speaking again.

“I must say that even amongst other transmigrators, you are a rarity.”

“Hmmm? How so?”

Although Walter had a slight idea about what Thyvin meant by ‘rarity,’ he still thought it best to confirm by questioning the necromancer. With that smile on his face, Thyvin confirmed Walter’s thoughts.

“Among all the transmigrators, you’re the only one to have been summoned without the aid of a summoning ritual. Typically, the Summoners of the Royal Magos or another similar group would have to perform the ritual to summon a transmigrator but here you are.”

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure of it myself.”

Walter shrugged casually as he responded to Thyvin. While maintaining a calm and nonchalant disposition, Walter made another remark. One that was more self-deprecating.

“But compared to the other transmigrators, aren’t I the most disappointing one? I’ve read and heard about heroic transmigrators who weren’t even human, who could split mountains and contend with the mightiest daemons. But me, I’m no different from a regular human, some would even say that I’m below average. What’s the point of being unique if I’m useless?”

That was a half-lie. Neither his ability to slow down his perception of time nor his ability to continue everyday ‘deprived’ of sleep could be considered ‘normal.’ But then again, they also weren’t spectacular abilities like those possessed by the transmigrators of history. In comparison to the legends of the past, Walter was no better than a ‘common man.’

However, Thyvin’s response would once again surprise Walter.

“Wait, are you saying that you don’t even know?”

“Know what?”

Walter’s question seemed to have likewise surprised Thyvin, whose eyebrows rose when he heard Walter’s question.

“Wow, so you really don’t know…”

But he soon casually shrugged his surprise off as he continued speaking.

“Well that makes sense I guess. Based on your conservative and calculative approach to everything, I doubt that you have ever confronted the… true nature of your being.”

Thyvin’s explanation only served to confuse Walter even more. Probably seeing that Walter didn’t understand any of his words, Thyvin sighed slightly before he explained.

“I told you already didn’t I? As a necromancer who specialises in manipulating life, I can perceive the ‘life force’ of all living beings to a limited extent. When I’m at the peak of my power, like when I absorbed all those goblin souls weeks ago, I can sense the life force of pretty much anything, from the peasantry to the nobility. But for you Walter… I didn’t sense life…”

As Thyvin paused for a short moment, Walter processed all the information he had just learnt. He now understood the meaning behind Thyvin’s words and Walter wasn’t sure whether he should be enthusiastic or appalled. The suddenness of this development did not do him any favours either. Regardless, Thyvin soon resumed speaking.

“I sensed undeath… Not ‘undeath’ in the same manner of my revived skeletons and zombies, that is merely shackling damned souls back into their body so that they can be pressed into servitude. The undeath I sensed in you is undeath in its most pure and unadulterated form. Undeath not derived from the works of another sorcerer, but undeath incarnate.”

When Thyvin concluded his explanation, another phrase said by someone else echoed within Walter’s mind.

“A mortal? Walter, we’re beyond that.”

Those words said by Lucile during their second meeting at Paulus’s Pleasure Palace repeated itself in his head, the true meaning behind them now fully revealed.

But before Walter can contemplate these findings any further, the wrist of his right hand was suddenly grabbed by Thyvin. The glove on Walter’s hand was hastily pulled off by a skeleton knight and his sleeve was rolled back by another. While this happened, the black markings on Thyvin’s golden coat began to glow a dim purple colour as his eyes dilated with mad curiosity and glee.

And then the necromancer uttered the two words that Walter dreaded.

“[Drain Life]”

Contrary to what Walter expected, the pain he predicted never came. Instead, he felt… nothing. Even as he watched the flesh of his right hand crumble into dust, he still felt no pain. What did surprise him however, was the image that was revealed once his skin and flesh melted away.

His bones did not appear white and chalk-like as one would expect. Instead, they were a metallic chromatic black, looking as if his bones were made of some alien steel. Not only that, but he could move his metallic hand even though it lacked muscles to facilitate movement, similarly to that of Thyvin’s skeletons.

In fact, it felt as if the metallic skeleton hand was his ‘true nature’ and that his ‘flesh’ was just a hollow shell.