The punishment for the three members of the Literature Club had been altered. Nia’s tentacles hung their skulls, like they were hooked to three teapots. When Alianna took them back to Naslan and they reappeared, it was clear that the once unruly trio had become much more compliant.

Lyle guessed that Helena, the elder sister of Naslan, had manipulated their souls in some way. When Lyle tried to inquire about it, they didn’t answer at first but instead stared at Lyle with a pitying voice.

"Lyle, your future is fraught with misfortune."

The three Liches had been temporarily turned into devices resembling Soul Stones, their souls sealed within their skulls, and not even Mr. Delusion could escape. The three skulls could be grafted onto other creations to replace labor, but they would always feel the helplessness of being controlled. Such malevolent trickery was unacceptable to all living beings.

"Your body has become a prison, and you constantly think of breaking free," said Mr. Gentleman, describing their current feelings. The punishment had begun.

Lyle sighed and brought the three "disabled" friends back to the Necromancer Figure Club. As a friend, Lyle intended to help them as much as possible. Fresh bodies, resistant to decay, devoid of sense of smell, and furthermore... the tongues had to be of good quality.

My goodness, Lyle shook his head, making the bird beak on his mask tap on the table. "It feels like the punishment meant for you three has been transferred to me."

As Lyle was attempting to construct a body, Shiny and others came by.

"Boss, what’s this? A new collection?" Shiny picked up Mr. Reporter’s skull.

Mr. Reporter’s soul flame began to flicker inconsistently, emitting a deep sound.

"Foolish Lich, you have disturbed the Skull Spirit who has been asleep for five hundred years, which is I. Now you must satisfy me with three secrets, or you are surely doomed!"

Mr. Shiny’s hand visibly trembled. "What’s this, are Elves always such a hassle? Besides, I’ve been long dead. Boss, I think this Skull Spirit has a lot of potentials. Let’s turn him into spare parts for the Necro-Gundam."

"...I’m a reporter, put me down."

Mr. Shiny chuckled, "Long time no see, Mr. Reporter. You really have become ’more convenient’ with death."

"...Plague Doctor, the people here speak so nicely."

"Not at all, the Literature Club is the role model for Andrey."

Lyle briefly explained the situation of the three to his companions, ready to pool their wisdom to overcome the challenge together.

Mr. Innovator pinched his own jawbone, "So, you’re saying we just need to turn the three sirs into cleaning tools, right?"

"You can’t just call them cleaning tools; at least give them a human..." Lyle caught himself, "It seems... indeed, there’s no need for them to be human anymore. Many of the creatures I construct can’t really be called human. Wouldn’t it be better for me to directly create some sort of mutant in the most efficient manner?"

Lyle had a sudden revelation.

"Plague Doctor! Your magic power seems to have turned black!"

The four members of the Necromancer Figure Club were huddled around the three skulls, already concocting new plans in their minds.

"The cleaning tool is limited to ’tongue,’ but not only humans have tongues. How about creating a flesh mountain specialized in tongues?"

"A flesh mountain isn’t efficient enough. What about a Multi-legged Sea Monster with tentacle-like tongues? It could reach into every nook and cranny."

"For cleaning ability, the things we need to clean are as hard as rock. We could create some flesh spikes on the tongue coating to increase grinding efficiency."

"Is that still a tongue? It has spikes now."

"Why not with spikes? A cat’s tongue has spikes on it!"

The members of the Necromancer Figure Club engaged in a fierce debate over the best approach, while Mr. Reporter and the gentleman exchanged glances.

"Are you sure soliciting help from the Plague Doctor is a good choice?" "What other options do we have?"

Lyle and the others finally reached a consensus. They presented the diagram of magic power drawn to the three members of the literary club.

"Gluttonous Serpent 1.0."

Its body consisted of a series of vertebrae, with the cross-section of each joint forming a perfect equilateral triangle. Each pointed joint had magic power-conducting spikes, and on each exposed side of the vertebrae lay a five-centimeter-thick layer of abnormally-growing lingual plaque with visible coarse barbs, more akin to scraping than licking. The nerves rich in magic power at the very top of the spine transmitted the taste stimuli from each side’s lingual plaque to the nerve center, exactly where the skulls of the three members of the literary club were to be placed.

With every movement of the Gluttonous Serpent, the targeted section would get coated with a thick layer by the surface lingual plaque. The force was estimated to be capable of crushing stone and metal. To increase efficiency, a complete set of flesh-tuning nerves was embedded within the dense muscle layer, allowing the plaque to fit perfectly onto any surface it encountered, ensuring that each movement scraped away at least one centimeter of surface material. As the highest cost for efficiency, those active nerves also relayed the taste of what the tongue licked, unfiltered, back to the nerve center.

As an isotope of hungry flesh, it was almost constantly licking and tasting. Yet, the thought of what it would lick next was indeed a sad tale.

In the following days, Lyle was continuously working on improving the hungry flesh. Finally, the restricted version of the hungry flesh was integrated into the lifestyle of the Liches.

On a beautiful morning, Castle Andrey woke up with the sunrise.

The serene Castle Andrey was shrouded in mist, which was the steam rising from the Liches’ teacups. One after another, the Liches dressed in their corpulent flesh disguises, sipping warm tea, commenced the experiments of a new day.

During the day, the Light Bats tucked their heads into their wings, extinguished their glow, and began to sleep.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap.

A series of hastened footsteps irresistibly drew the little ears to peek out from the gaps, swaying with the source of the sound. Several hapless Light Bats were knocked down, instinctively screeching at the spider-like entity that raced across the walls, then flew back to their original spots on the walls with a disgruntled air, attempting to sleep again.

Crack crack crack crack crack.

Another sound emerged in their ears, and this time, the Light Bats tensed up, refraining from peering out to investigate.

Along the corridors of Castle Andrey, the sunlight was shredded by ancient columns, casting incomplete shadows on the ground. The bare boned creatures trod on those light and shadow, extending bony hands, and with shameful screams chased after the red spiders.

Finally, they arrived at the Executive Committee. Hanging outside the Executive Committee were skeletons as bare as themselves.

Those red spider-like creatures lay in clusters, resting in the shade of the Executive Committee. Mr. Law looked at another skeleton, picking up his notebook.

"Which regulation did you break this time?"

Before the skeleton could speak, the pursued red mass of flesh had already crawled to Mr. Law’s feet, expelling a large blob of vomit on the ground.

"Excessive intake of fats, hang for five hours," Mr. Law handed the skeleton a rope and a tag, "Fifth empty slot from the left, hang yourself up there for five hours. Once it’s up, you can collect your hungry flesh."

Those boneless chicken-like flesh creations were the new hungry flesh.

Lyle had fulfilled all the requests from the Dean.

Not only were the Liches’ diets restricted, but whenever they violated the regulations of the hungry flesh, their hungry flesh would detach from their hosts and run to the Executive Committee to sound the alarm. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Such was the new life of the Liches of Andrey.

A battle of wits and wills with the hungry flesh, a game of hunger and pursuit.