"So the formidable enemy this fellow said he encountered was you."
Skull Jester's skeletal hand still pointed at Yūki, and the bone bells around his neck swayed twice.
Ding, ding!
Yūki did not rush to answer. He first turned his head toward Zombie Chief, who was kneeling on the ground.
"You sent word, too?"
Zombie Chief's hands froze above his head.
The green flames in his eye sockets darted about. His rotting mouth hung open for ages before he forced out, "Sir, please let me explain. There's been a tiny little misunderstanding..."
"How tiny?"
"Probably just tiny enough to summon the divine envoy here."
Yūki nodded.
"You really know how to gauge these things."
No wonder this fellow had kept rambling when answering his questions earlier. He had dropped to his knees faster than anyone, but his mouth had never stopped moving.
He was not simply afraid of dying.
He had been stalling for time.
Seeing that Yūki did not immediately strike, the green flames in Zombie Chief's eye sockets suddenly brightened.
He looked toward Skull Jester as though he had finally spotted his savior.
"Divine Envoy!"
He scrambled up from the ground and broke into a run toward the other side.
"You've finally arrived!"
"This human has been relying on his status as a duelist to slaughter his way through the forest, and he even demanded that I reveal our god's secrets!"
"I refused to yield even under threat of death and feigned surrender, doing everything I could to stall until now, all to await your arrival in person!"
Yūki's eyebrows rose as he listened.
In less than two minutes, this fellow had already rewritten his role from collaborator to loyal retainer.
Whatever else could be said of the Spirit World's dark creatures, their will to survive certainly advanced