My Harem of Dangerous and Crazy Women as a Reincarnated Necromancer-Chapter 85: An Unforgettable Memory

After the small camp was ready, Mark lay down on the grass near the campfire and closed his eyes.

And for Mark that was a mistake, not because anything bad happened, but because the moment he stopped moving, every sensation he had been ignoring throughout the day hit him all at once.

’I don’t remember feeling this awful...’ Mark thought as the heat from the campfire warmed his side.

His sore throat was no longer the mild discomfort from the morning, it was now an intense burning where every time he swallowed it felt like sandpaper scraping the inside of his throat.

His head throbbed with a dull ache concentrated behind his eyes and radiating toward his temples.

His nose was completely stuffed, forcing him to breathe through his mouth, which in turn dried out his throat further and made the burning worse.

’Good thing I wasn’t more stubborn,’ Mark thought. ’If I had kept walking for another couple of hours, I probably would have collapsed in the middle of the forest.’

In the end, stopping early had been the right call, his body needed to recover and it wasn’t going to do that if he forced it to keep moving.

And tomorrow, with any luck, the extra rest would make him feel well enough to complete the journey to the dungeon.

Mark slowly turned his head to one side to see who his companions were that night.

Normally the ones who stayed close to him during the night were Yuki, Rose, or Alice, but tonight was different. Sitting around the campfire in silence were Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

’How did I end up with these three?’

And then he remembered.

Rose had insisted on patrolling the area around the camp that night.

Saying she wanted to personally make sure no one disturbed her Master while he rested.

While Yuki had told her it wasn’t necessary since she could handle perimeter security as always, Rose insisted, and Mark seeing no reason to refuse had allowed it.

But then, to Mark’s surprise, Alice also volunteered to patrol, and that he hadn’t expected.

At first Mark didn’t understand why, but he quickly decided not to overthink it.

So that night the patrol was made up of Rose, Yuki, Alice, Delta, and Epsilon, leaving Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to watch over the camp.

Mark looked at the three girls sitting around him in complete silence.

And it was precisely that silence, combined with his headache and burning throat, that was making him focus too much on how terrible he felt.

He needed a distraction.

"Hey..."

"Yes, my lord?" the three answered almost simultaneously.

Mark shifted slightly on the grass, looking for a position that didn’t make his whole body hurt, and looked at them. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"I’m curious," Mark said in a voice that sounded slightly rougher than he would have liked. "Since you’ve spent the last couple of days walking with Yuki at the front and have fought under her orders... how is Yuki as a leader compared to Alice?"

The three looked at each other, and Alpha was the first to speak.

"Miss Yuki is an incredible person," Alpha said in a respectful tone.

"That’s true," Beta added. "Miss Yuki is probably the most competent person I’ve ever seen in my life."

"Her efficiency is admirable," Gamma agreed from the other side of the campfire. "She wastes neither movements nor words."

"But," Alpha said, and her tone shifted slightly. "If we had to choose... we prefer Miss Alice."

"Really?" Mark said. "Why?"

Hearing him, Alpha fell quiet for a moment as if searching for the right words.

"Because she saved us," Alpha said finally.

Mark looked at her without saying anything.

"Our memories are... confusing," Alpha continued, lowering her gaze slightly toward the fire. "There are many things we don’t remember and many moments that are blurry or simply aren’t there."

Beta nodded with an expression that reflected the same.

"But there’s one memory none of us has forgotten," Alpha said, raising her eyes back to Mark. "And it’s the one where we were saved inside the dungeon."

The three fell silent for a second.

"Miss Alice," Alpha continued. "She was wounded too, bleeding, looking exhausted, but even so, the first thing she did was come toward us."

"She got us out of there," Beta said. "She carried us one by one even when she herself could barely stay on her feet."

"She didn’t leave us behind," Gamma said. "She could have gone alone and in fact that would have been easier... but she didn’t."

Hearing them, Mark went quiet, he hadn’t expected that answer.

’So that’s the memory that survived...’ Mark thought. ’Of everything they went through, of all the memories they had, the moment Alice saved them was the one that stayed etched most deeply.’

Mark looked at the fire.

’Alice is something else,’ he thought.

It wasn’t just that she was strong, or loyal.

She was someone who, even in the worst circumstances, even when her own life was in danger, didn’t abandon others.

Mark smiled slightly despite the sore throat.

"I think a lot of Alice too," Mark said, the burning in his throat making itself known with every word. "Even though I haven’t known her long, I can say with certainty that she’s an exceptional person."

"Of course she is, Master," Alpha said, nodding.

Mark nodded back and then closed his eyes, he was starting to feel worse, because with every passing second the discomfort was intensifying slightly.

Then he opened his eyes and looked at the three of them.

"I think it’s time for me to rest," Mark said with a smile. "I’m pretty tired."

"Alright, my lord!" the three replied at the same time. "We’ll stay quiet so we don’t disturb you."

"We promise," Alpha added with a serious expression.

"You won’t hear a sound from us," Beta said.

"Rest easy, my lord," Gamma said. "We’ll keep watch."

Mark looked at them and smiled.

"Thank you..."

Then Mark settled on the grass, using his arm as a pillow the way he had the previous nights.

He closed his eyes and let the sound of the campfire fill his ears.

’I like this peace and quiet...’ Mark thought as he felt his body, despite the discomfort, begin to relax.

Until he finally fell asleep, leaving the camp in nothing but calm and silence.

But if peace reigned inside the camp, the surroundings were an entirely different story.

...

"Mind telling me what exactly you’re trying to do?" Rose said, crossing her arms and looking at Alice with a mocking smile.

"I could ask you the same thing," Alice replied with hostility.

And twenty meters away, leaning against a tree with her arms crossed, Yuki watched them with her usual neutral expression.

’...So childish,’ Yuki thought as she let out a sigh and walked away.