Necromancer Survival - Chapter 211

     Choi Kyung-sik observed me placidly; lips drawn in a thin line, I left my signature on the illusory parchment.

     Finally, when Choi Kyung-sik finished signing, I felt a sharp pain on my back as if I were being seared with a branding iron. The contract seal must have been engraved on my back this time.

     Although I tried not to show my discomfort, Choi Kyung-sik smiled faintly at my frown.

[You exaggerate 1 quite a lot, Lee-kyung-ssi.]

     “……”

[Ah, will I garner your hate for saying something like that? Mm… Then, your body must be quite sensitive.]

     “It sounded like harassment both times.”

[Really? I didn’t really mean anything by my words.]

     Choi Kyung-sik smiled with a gentle expression. That smile was so soft; I felt like such a strange man for getting upset at him.

     I’d probably be at odds with this man in the future–just as I thought that, Choi Kyung-sik slowly approached me. He looked down at me and spoke with a congenial expression.

[Choi Lee-kyung-ssi really seems like the type to like Guildmaster-nim.]

     “…What are you talking about, all of a sudden.”

[Should I say you’re transparent… To put it nicely, you’re innocently genuine.]

     I frowned at his words and glared at him. However, unlike before, Choi Kyung-sik quietly spoke with a serious expression.

[When you access my memories with the ‘Vengeful Ghost Memory,’ I can see deep into you as well.]

     “……”

[What you currently crave, your current situation–I can see all that. When you sign a contract with me, you can see my status window, right? Servants have access to similar functions before signing the contract.]

     “……”

[That’s why I’m saying all this. I can see all of Choi Lee-kyung-ssi’s emotions.]

     I was a little shocked to hear that the servants could see my feelings like I had with the [Vengeful Ghost Memories]. Then, soon after, I felt severely uncomfortable. This must be why Choi Kyung-sik found me such a pushover.

     However, I had no way to express all this, so I simply stood while staring at the ground. I wanted to ask if he still had access to my feelings, but I endured that desire with superhuman patience. However, Choi Kyung-sik ended this conversation with another question.

[As expected, it seems like this is new information to you?]

     Brief silence settled around both of us. However, the [Vengeful Ghost Contract] looked as if it would soon be completed, signalling its end as the interdimensional space slowly dissolved around us. I began sinking into the light.

     Because of that, I missed the timing to answer the Alchemist. In reality, I had no energy to properly respond to him. If Choi Kyung-sik intended to sow distrust between me and Seo Dawon…he unfortunately succeeded. I closed my eyes–it felt like I was falling into an endless void.

[Replay of the deceased, ‘Choi Kyung-sik’s,’ memory has ended.]

* * *

     ‘Ah…’

     Soon afterwards, I opened my incredibly weighty eyelids at the feeling of something pressing down on me.

     At first, I thought that weighty feeling was from how gloomy I felt after that uncomfortable conversation with Choi Kyung-sik ended badly, but, when my vision cleared, Lackey’s white and round skull came into view. Judging by the pain in my compressed chest, it seemed like the skeleton had been curled up on me for a long while.

“Lackey-yah…” A rough and hoarse voice came out of my mouth, as if, for three days, I hadn’t drunk a drop of water. I inadvertently closed my mouth. Lackey raised his head as soon as he heard my voice and soon came to my side, tilting its head–the skeleton didn’t have ears though, so how did it hear me?

When I looked into the red light that originated from Lackey’s empty eye sockets, my heart felt strangely calm. It felt like I was back home after a long and arduous trip–like I had just passed the threshold with my big suitcase. Though my body was tired, I felt such comfort from the skeleton that my heart felt relieved.

     Pushing down my teary emotions, I patted and touched its cut head with a weakened hand… At first, Lackey opened its mouth gradually as I rubbed him; after a minute, it loudly clacked and hugged my face with the full extent of its power. I even felt the skeleton’s thin arms trembling.

     “You were worried, huh… Haah. Sorry…”

[Clack clack clack clack!!]

If Lackey had tear ducts, it would have cried waterfalls by now–that was how intense its reaction was. Seo Dawon had said in the [Vengeful Ghost Memory] that I hadn’t opened my eyes for 3 days. The skeleton’s reaction was probably due to that.

     However, as I hugged the Lackey that recklessly rubbed itself into my embrace, I was shocked after looking down at my body. “Seriously… What on earth is this?”

Jung Garam had once revealed his weird tastes while replacing my bed… What a maniac who would put chains at the head of the bed–I had forbidden the assassin from stepping foot in my room, saying those cuffs would never be used.

But…

     My body under the blanket was stark naked, and my ankles were locked in chains. The very chains connected to the bed.

     Shocked, I stared blankly down at it before suddenly raising my torso. I barely had any strength left since I had been laying down for so long, but I was overcome by the desire to get myself out of this situation.

     However, the door suddenly opened at the chain’s rattling noises; my bare chest was exposed to Seo Dawon, who suddenly barged in.

     “……”

“……”

     Seo Dawon was holding something that looked like a towel in his hands. Similarly wide eyes met mine; the Mage reached out and closed the door while still staring at me. I assumed the other servants were in the hallway–by closing the door, their view had been naturally blocked.

     As soon as the Mage entered the room, Lackey raised its head and tried to crawl up my body, resembling a tempestuous cat with its fur raised all over. Because of that, the blanket, which was ambiguously perched around my hips, was dragged down; I had no choice but to hurriedly hold the edges of the blanket and remain in vague danger of exposing myself.

That was to say… In short, I was embarrassed enough to want to die.

     “How’s your body feeling?” The Mage asked.

     “…A-Alright.”

Fortunately, Seo Dawon casually passed over this embarrassing situation.

While I responded, I returned back under covers and laid down. I felt heat flush through my reddened face, and there was no way I could lower the blankets that I had pulled back up over my torso. Since I was naked, my actions were inevitable.

     The problem, though, was that Lackey hadn’t given up on trying to bury itself into my embrace. The skeleton dragged down the blankets I had worked so hard to gather and clung onto my hips.

Simultaneously, Seo Dawon approached my side of the bed, and my body was in clear view; my arms trembled as it expended effort to grab the blankets the skeleton had stolen, somehow. Fortunately, Seo Dawon pretended not to notice anything, even as I succeeded in pulling up the blanket once again.

“That’s a relief. Rest well today, and, later, you should eat the potions that Kyung-sik-ie makes.”

“Ah, mhmm…”

“You’re not in pain or uncomfortable?”

     “No…”

Expressionless, the Mage rearranged some of the bangs that had been glued to my forehead with sweat. I flinched at his touch; when my ankle bent a little, the chain touched my big toe.

     “Then, rest.” Seo Dawon said.

     “Ah! B-But… Excuse me… Why is something like this tied to my ankle?” I asked hastily.

Seo Dawon, who was about to leave, looked down at me. Then, in lieu of answering, he gently placed his palm on my forehead.

     At first, I thought he was measuring my temperature, but he had only briefly placed his palm on my forehead before he began to stroke my head a few times. Then, as if he were explaining to a child, Seo Dawon explained. “I said that you’ve been asleep for 3 days, right?”

     “Huh? Ah… Yeah.”

“Sometimes, you’d walk around while asleep. I tied you to the bed because I thought it’d be dangerous if I weren’t there.”

     “What? Really?”

“You weren’t tied up at first, but… you kept getting injured.” With that said, Seo Dawon deliberately pressed lightly on my ankle underneath the blanket.

     I immediately felt a throbbing pain, as if he pressed on a bruise. When I flinched in shock, Seo Dawon looked at me with an incomprehensible gleam and placidly said, “I washed you everyday, but, everytime I washed you, I saw a new bruise I hadn’t seen before–it bothered me.”

“……What?”

The mage said something so shocking, quite casually, and smiled with his eyes when he saw my rigid self. “I’m joking. To think you’d get so surprised…”

     However, contrary to his claims, he continued to knead at my legs.