Demonic Skeleton God-Chapter 44: Steward

"You’re treating me this way because I have swords in my hand," Flain asked.

"Partially, maybe, but I would treat any warrior like this. I’m just an ordinary farmer—if someone killed me, it wouldn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things," the man said.

Flain smirked. He was already a criminal in the Empire of Light, so why not deepen that reputation? He placed his black sword against the man’s neck, causing him to tremble. Flain also noticed a thin layer of aura pulsing around the man’s body for a brief moment before vanishing.

"Are you scared?" Flain asked.

"Y-Yes," the man stuttered.

"Then you have a reason to be," Flain whispered and sliced off his head.

"Flain, what are you doing?" Itai muttered.

"I killed him. It’s a free soul, though a small one. I doubt anyone will find out, and I highly doubt there’s anyone strong living in the village," Flain said.

"That’s not what I meant. Why did you kill him when he was innocent and wasn’t in our way?" Itai murmured.

Flain stared at him. "Do you even hear yourself? You’re mourning the death of some insignificant farmer. We’ve already killed plenty of soldiers before, and you didn’t object then," Flain muttered.

"But they were in our way," Itai argued.

"Listen, if you keep thinking like this, you’ll never become the greatest necromancer in the world. Trust me, I had to overcome my humanity in my past life too. If I hadn’t, I would have been dead long ago—stabbed in the neck by some random villager bribed to kill me," Flain said, mixing truth with lies.

Itai looked down at the ground. Flain’s words, coming from someone he trusted and cared about, sank deep into him. Then, he looked back up at Flain.

"I’ll try," Itai murmured.

Flain smirked and patted him on the back. "Good. Then watch as I go slaughter innocent people," Flain murmured with a grin.

The other farmers working in the field noticed what had happened and started running, but they didn’t get far. Flain easily caught up to them and killed them all without effort. Around the guards, a slightly thicker layer of aura appeared briefly before disappearing again. Itai then raised them all as zombies.

[+2100 EXP]

Flain returned to Itai. "Let’s continue and check out the village," he said.

The five of them moved forward until they saw wooden walls ahead, with two guards standing in front of them.

When the guards saw them, one asked, "Are you from the army?"

"Yes, we’re on a break and decided to take a walk through the village," Flain muttered.

He said this deliberately, as the guards might have searched them otherwise. Flain had plans for the village, but first, he needed to assess its condition.

The guards immediately stepped aside and let them in. As the group walked through the village, it didn’t seem like there were many warriors—almost none, in fact. The people here looked mostly like farmers, and the houses appeared quite poor.

Flain also noticed that the same aura flickered around the villagers as it had around the ones outside. He assumed he was beginning to develop a sense for detecting magical energy. That was great, as it meant he would finally be able to gauge an opponent’s strength, allowing him to avoid pointless fights he would certainly lose.

Flain stopped one of the villagers. "Hey, who is the strongest person in this village?" he asked.

A man with red hair looked at Flain. "The strongest? Oh, you mean the Steward? I can take you to his house—we’re friends," the man said.

Flain agreed, and the man led him through the village. "Are you from the army, if I may ask?" the man asked.

Flain nodded. "Yes, we are. I assume the Steward’s job is to oversee and manage a certain area, so in this case, your village," Flain muttered.

The man nodded. "Can I ask you something a bit more sensitive?" he asked.

"Feel free to ask," Flain said.

"Does the Steward have a problem?" the man asked.

"No, I just came to visit him," Flain said.

As they passed a small pond, Flain stopped and wiped the dried blood stars off his armor. He wanted to appear as a proper soldier of the Empire of Light now.

Eventually, they arrived at a house that looked less impoverished than the others, though it was still far from luxurious. Flain then ordered the man to leave.

"Flain, why are you doing all this? Didn’t you want to seem like you weren’t from the army?" Itai asked.

"I have a plan, but first, I need to check something," Flain said and knocked on the door.

A man who appeared to be around fifty opened the door. He had black hair streaked with gray and piercing green eyes. He wore light iron armor and had a sword on his back.

"Are you from the army?" the Steward asked. So the armor they wore wasn’t that easy to identify as military gear—otherwise, someone like the Steward, especially at his age, should have recognized it immediately, Flain thought.

Flain nodded.

"Sorry for not recognizing you—all of you are wearing helmets except for that young man. Are you new, or do I know you?" the Steward asked.

"We’re new, and we were just temporarily assigned to guard the dungeon entrance nearby," Flain said.

"They’re assigning Stage 2 soldiers there now? Well, that’s a pretty easy post. Soldiers come here to eat sometimes, and they always say they don’t really do anything there," the Steward said with a laugh. Around him, magical energy flickered a few times again.

That confirmed to Flain that the Steward could already see magical energy—he had recognized Flain’s. Now, Flain wanted to determine the Steward’s stage, and he had come up with a fairly simple trick that might work.

The reason he didn’t just ask directly was that instinct seemed to develop at the beginning of Stage 2. The Steward had already expected Flain to be able to see it—otherwise, he would have treated him differently. Flain could feel that the Steward assumed Flain should know. Flain’s magical energy was currently about average for Stage 2 because Nexosaron had mentioned Flain was merely a average Bone Hunter.

"I’d like to challenge you to a duel," Flain said...

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