Necromancer, What the Heck Is a Summoned 055?

"Come back with me, and you'll find out!" Kangna slowly tightened his grip on the shaft of his lance.

"You think you can make me?" Peiwen narrowed his eyes slightly, his left hand closing around a No. 4 grenade at his waist.

Since Kangna refused to let the matter rest, they could only settle it here, one way or the other. Although the Mystic-Armor Knight and he might not be able to determine a victor anytime soon, he had the weapons of that "Cyber Monarch" to rely on. He should have no trouble seriously wounding his opponent before retreating.

Then he felt an oppressive aura that seemed almost tangible.

Behind Knight Kangna, a "soldier" in ordinary leather armor, who had kept his head lowered all this time, slowly stepped forward.

With every step he took, the suffocating pressure grew stronger. Ignoring the sword Peiwen had pointed at Kangna, he turned toward the dense forest behind Peiwen and gave an impeccable knight's salute, full of classical elegance.

"The fifth knight in the service of Marquis Gaoshi greets Your Highness, the esteemed Commandery Princess Liushuang."

His gaze then slowly shifted to Peiwen, who was braced for a formidable enemy. A trace of appreciation seemed to touch the corner of his mouth.

"And... the valiant Captain of the Guard Peiwen."

"Your loyalty and valor have been widely celebrated across kingdoms and territories. From Creek Moon to Green Pine, your illustrious name is praised everywhere!"

Chapter 72: Firmament's "Crow"

A little over a month earlier, Gaoshi Valen, a marquis of the Green Pine Kingdom, lord of Gaoshi Territory, and honorary insight priest of the Seven-Eyed Divine Church, had hurried back to his territory from the royal capital and begun his final preparations for war. At that time, the territory's clerk reported that several swordsmen and knights who were supposed to be among those conscripted had gone missing.

At noon that day, Haisen, the eldest young master, was hung upside down from the large tree in the courtyard behind the marquis's mansion.

Two guards stood on either side, swinging their whips and lashing Gaoshi Territory's chief heir back and forth like a spinning top: three turns one way, three turns the other...

As a Silver Armor Rank warrior, Haisen could easily have withstood a whipping of this degree, but he did not dare use even the slightest protective skill.

The last time he had done that, the marquis had personally given him a lash infused with Psionic Energy, striking straight into the depths of his soul.

The sensation was just like getting kicked in the groin when he wanted to engage in a physiological exchange with his wife.

So the eldest young master Haisen could only let bloody welts appear on his body, one after another, while he wailed and begged for mercy between lashes.

"Father! Spare me! I know I was wrong!"

"Ah-! Please! Stop!"

Although his father was not there and begging was useless, he still had to beg. Otherwise, wouldn't the whipping be for nothing?

The eldest young master understood that much.

He howled for an entire afternoon, and only after a grand dinner had ended did Marquis Valen finally arrive.

The marquis casually tossed his splendid evening clothes, adorned with all manner of jewelry, to a meekly attentive maid standing nearby. He then sank heavily into a broad ebony wicker chair carved with griffin-claw patterns and gave a weary sigh.

His slightly portly body sank deep into the soft cushions. He rested his feet on the shoulders of two kneeling maids, and servants respectfully removed his boots. The marquis narrowed his eyes slightly, enjoying the massage from the girls' soft, warm fingertips as he relaxed his tired muscles.

"How many lashes?" the marquis asked in a low voice that betrayed neither pleasure nor anger.

"My lord marquis, one thousand six hundred and fifty lashes!"

Marquis Valen gave a slight wave, and the two guards stopped whipping. The eldest young master's wails also cut off abruptly, turning into low, pained groans.

He knew his father was about to speak.

"Have you figured out what you did wrong?"

"I shouldn't have withheld part of the mission reward, causing the mission to fail!"

The marquis rubbed his fingers together, and a long whip cracked against Haisen's back, which already looked as though it were clad in red fishnet. Another diagonal bloody welt appeared, and the eldest young master let out a short, fierce cry of pain: "Ah!"

"I, I shouldn't have used the city defense force to chase that lowly servant, causing the territory... causing the territory losses..."

Crack! "Aah-!!"

"I failed to judge people properly and put the wrong people to work. I let you down, Father..."

Crack! "Aaah-!!!"

"I shouldn't have bothered my younger sister behind your back, Father..."

Crack! "Gah-!!!"

The cracks of the whip continued without pause, and Haisen's howls rang to the heavens. The other heirs, who had been secretly hiding in the front hall, were all pale, their hands and feet cold.

Maybe we should forget about competing for the heir's position. We can't take a beating like our eldest brother!

Right, and our throats aren't as good as his, either. We'd have gone hoarse long ago from all that yelling...

After an unknown length of time, the marquis seemed to grow tired of rubbing his fingers, and the courtyard finally fell quiet.

"Let him down!"

The ropes came undone, and Haisen fell onto the cold ground like a heap of mud. Struggling on all fours, he shuffled over to his father's feet.

"You must be hungry. Come, have something to eat first!"

Gaoshi Haisen finally saw once more the father who was refined and mild-mannered at the kingdom's court.

Although he always felt the old man might be a little twisted in the head, turning from a raging storm one moment to a gentle spring breeze the next, his father's return to a loving tone meant he had gotten through this ordeal.

"The fact that you haven't been beaten to death or banished by now," Marquis Valen said slowly, watching the sorry way he ate, a nearly imperceptible trace of mockery in his voice, "is thanks to two people."

"If your mother's family weren't powerful, and if she hadn't arranged a match for you with an even more powerful family early on, your place in the line of succession should be the same as that dead one's... What was his place again?"

"Nineteenth..." Haisen answered quietly.

"Right. At best, you'd be on the same level as him. I might not even remember your name."

Pushing the platter closer to his son, Marquis Valen continued, "Of course, your mother alone couldn't have saved a fool like you. As it happens, though, you also have a good son."

"Really, if the church's high priest hadn't come to verify his bloodline, I would have always thought he wasn't yours!"

"The only possibility is probably that when you were born, you left both your talent and your brains in your crotch, then passed them both on to Little Dimo. Of the family's nineteenth generation, he's the child I'm most satisfied with."

"That's why I've tolerated your stupidity again and again!"

Haisen, who was ravenous and exhausted from howling, wolfed down a roast pig and gulped down several large bowls of thick soup. Then he obediently left his seat and crouched beside his father to listen to his instruction.

Although Marquis Valen spared no effort to humiliate his eldest son with his words, he still could not help laying out the calculations and analysis on his mind to this "good-for-nothing" in the plainest terms.

He looked every bit an old father frustrated that his son would not live up to his potential.

"Several mages and advisers of the territory and I have carefully examined the entire affair from beginning to end. We all agree that this is definitely not an isolated accident. It can almost be regarded as part of the continental war!"

"When we reviewed what happened, there were several questions we couldn't get around!"

Marquis Valen tapped his fingers unhurriedly on the armrest of his chair. "A Preparatory Apprentice with no skills, who suddenly appeared from who knows where, managed to kill an entire squad, including a ranked warrior the family assigned to Lit... that little thing who was somewhere in the teens in the line of succession."

"Then, through a coincidence, he got aboard Cloudmist Territory's airship."

"Somehow, he came into an astonishing fortune and acquired strange magical weapons."

"Several groups of warriors were sent after him in succession, and all vanished without a trace. They even caused no small amount of trouble for our Gaoshi Territory!"

"Finally, after making a round through the Creek Moon Federation, this fellow joined up with the people of Cloudmist Territory again. And information from various sources shows that Cloudmist Territory relies on him heavily!"

The marquis suddenly paused, then spoke more emphatically. "One accident might be an accident. A whole string of accidents put together can't possibly be just accidents!"

"Do you understand?"

Haisen nodded, then shook his head, his eyes full of confusion.

"Fool!" Marquis Gaoshi Valen could not help cursing him again, and personally revealed the answer.

"If you'd just use that brain of yours, rotted by wine and women, the answer is practically written right there. He's a 'crow'-and if I'm not mistaken, a crow from the Firmament Empire!"

Haisen understood the word "crow." It meant a great power's secret agent or spy.

And the Firmament Empire! It was a behemoth that loomed in the historical shadows of the southern kingdoms! A powerful force that had once trampled the Emerald Plain beneath its iron hooves and, though forced to retreat after the "Qiwu War of Independence," had never truly taken its eyes off this fertile land!

Many, many years ago, most of the Emerald Plain had been occupied by the Firmament Empire. Firmament's oppression of the region had kept the land in constant unrest.

Later, while Firmament was locked in a desperate war with foreign races, local rebels worked with generation after generation of pioneering knights from the Moonrest Dynasty to gradually take over the region, making it a loosely controlled vassal realm of Moonrest.

After that, the pioneering knights' descendants, incited and assisted by the Mist Moon Divine Court, raised the banner of independence and defeated Moonrest's punitive army, eventually forming these independent kingdoms and duchies.

After a century of peace, the four southern nations were once again engulfed in war because of the power struggle between the Moonrest Dynasty and the Mist Moon Divine Court.

At a time like this, it would be perfectly reasonable for the Firmament Empire to send a few "crows" to stir things up.

The eldest young master was dumbfounded, but it was as if he had suddenly seen the light.

That's right, it fits! Everything fits together!

Chapter 73: Unraveling the Truth

Under his father's guidance, the truth of the whole affair pierced through layer upon layer of fog and was reconstructed piece by piece.

The fellow named Chen Mo was almost certainly a lone "crow" from the Firmament Empire who had left the nest. For some reason, he had ended up in the Green Pine Kingdom and been picked up by Black Raven Castle.

Following that line of thought, many incomprehensible questions in the extensive investigation reports became clear.

For example, how could someone who claimed to have no foundation and severe amnesia learn the Roosting Moon Language in a month and Undead Summoning in forty days? It was all an act!

This cunning "crow" had pretended to be ignorant and have amnesia to lower Black Raven Castle's guard, allowing him to lie low in that sinister fortress.

In that case, their own little Nineteen-that little blond fellow-had most likely stumbled upon some secret and brought death upon himself.

Black Raven Castle certainly would not admit that the apprentices had fought over a romantic rivalry, or that Little Goldie had tried to kill someone and been killed instead. So the report stated that Chen Mo had plotted and committed murder.

It all made perfect sense.

The subsequent investigation of the scene also showed that, while fleeing, the fellow had abducted a scout and another female apprentice traveling with him.

He had taken the scout to guide him, and the female apprentice presumably to toy with her on the road.

After reaching the outskirts of Six-Leaf Camp, he had mercilessly killed the poor man and woman and dumped their bodies in the wilderness.

Who but a ruthless, cold-blooded spy could do such a thing?

Another bull's-eye!

Another example was what had happened at Six-Leaf Camp. Many wanderers had seen the fellow throw money around nonstop, then use some mysterious object to win over the people of Cloudmist Territory and finally board the airship.

That had never made logical sense. Why would someone who had been destitute at Black Raven Castle suddenly possess so much wealth and extraordinary bargaining chips? Even if he could steal money, could he just pick up rare items wherever he went?

But once his identity as a "crow" was established, it was easy to explain. Six-Leaf Camp was a place where all sorts mingled, so Firmament must have had a covert contact or handler there who supplied him with funds and some other important things.

"That's right! The witch doctor!" Haisen slapped his thigh and, predictably, struck a wound, making him grimace in pain.

"Our people questioned many witnesses. Other than dealing with that group of dim-witted centaurs, the only place he went in the camp was the witch doctor's hut!"