Who Said A Necromancer Can't Be A Priest?-Chapter 86: Caring Fiancé

The two idiots laughed when their third comrade fell.

"I told this moron to drink to his limits, not exceed it, hehe." One of them laughed, pointing at the other.

"Get up now," the other one kicked him. "Or some bastard will take our pick in the brothel."

The two waited, but nothing happened. The man didn't move. They thought he had passed out, but as they lowered themselves to pick him up, they noticed something.

Blood.

The sight of blood turned them sober instantly. While the shorter guy checked for a pulse, the tall one frantically looked around, gun in hand.

"Come out, you bastard! Show your face!"

He yelled into the darkness, but there was no reply. He turned, sensing something was off, but as he did, he saw the short guy lying next to their dead comrade.

"W-What is happening!?"

Without a second thought, the man tried to run out of the alley. But tripped over something and fell, his gun slipping out of his hand. The man scrambled to get his gun, but then someone took it.

The man hesitated before looking up and saw a gun pointed at him instead.

"…who—?"

He wanted to ask but was met with the back of the gun, slipping into darkness.

Aaran took off his mask and dragged the man back into the alley, away from stray eyes.

***

The man came to after hearing the clanking of chains. He slowly opened his eyes, only to see the corpses of his comrades before him. The man jumped back and looked around, but he couldn't see anything other than his dead friends.

"HELP! Anyone—Hmph!"

"Stop yelling, you'll wake the spirits," Aaran whispered. "They already want you dead. It'll be better if you don't antagonize them anymore."

Aaran removed his hand, and the Marki was stunned.

"You!"

"Yes, me."

Aaran recognized the man as one of the Marki who attended his coming-of-age banquet. In other words, he was one of those who tried to kill him.

"Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

Aaran shrugged. "What have I done? Other than returning a long overdue gift?"

"…you're making a mistake. The Emperor won't be happy—!"

"Emperor Marki? I don't think he would bat an eye over one of his many illegitimate children. I'd be surprised if he even knows your name, considering how many children he has."

It was no exaggeration. To perfect his bloodline, Emperor Marki had a lot of children. Some were conceived naturally through love and most through advanced technological methods.

It was estimated he had over six hundred children, out of which twenty-one were his legitimate children. The rest were conceived through Elysium's IVF methods and were given numbers, instead of names.

The three guests who visited Velrune were all numbers. Usually, Emperor Marki wouldn't even care about them. But after the stunt they pulled in Velrune, he had to move to protect his reputation.

That was the only reason these numbers survived. But now they had no use for him. Hence, he wouldn't care even if they were killed.

Aaran would even bet that Emperor Marki intentionally left these fools in Medibi so the Runedral would take their revenge and calm down.

Obviously, Aaran did not know Emperor Runedral knew about them, but he thought he did. Otherwise, he wouldn't go as far as ordering Aaran to kill them.

"Karma is a bitch," Aaran smiled. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have met each other."

"Karma? Wait…that maid. You're here because we fucked a bitch?"

Assassination because Alberta requested it? That was the official reason, but Aaran had no intention of intervening in such trivial matters.

He was killing them because his father asked him to. He didn't care if they tried to kill him or not. If it was about dealing with them, he could have had them killed in secret using the Emperor's hounds. That would have been much clearer.

There was another reason.

Aaran could feel the darkness coming from him. But it was faint, too faint. It was likely the man didn't even know he had darkness within himself.

"Four hundred and eighty-nine. That's quite a mouthful for a name," Aaran mumbled.

"MY NAME IS FRAN!"

"Fran, I see," Aaran nodded, putting a gun to his head. "It doesn't matter. After all, corpses don't have names."

Without a second thought, Aaran pulled the trigger, killing Fran. Despite killing him, his frown deepened.

"The darkness. It's still there."

Usually, when dark mages die, their darkness dissipates or gets absorbed into others. Only in one case, the darkness stubbornly clung to the dead.

Fran had made a contract with a demon.

A moment later, Fran's body turned to ash, leaving nothing behind.

"…it keeps getting better and better."

The way Fran's body disintegrated could only mean one thing. The contract demon knew he had died and erased any link between them.

It was strange because demons weren't one to hide. On the contrary, they often flaunted themselves around. For a demon to erase its presence could mean one of two things.

"Either it's a newly born demon or someone who knows humans well."

While the former case was easy to handle, the latter would be troublesome. A demon well adept in human life could hide in blatant sight and still be invisible.

Hell, it could be someone from the academy for all I know.

It made sense. The academy was brimming with talented people. As useful as such individuals were to humanity, they were also useful to the demons.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

The people thrown out of the academy were full of resentment, at least for a while. That made them easier targets for the demons.

Fran could be one such person.

Things were getting troublesome. Aaran had thought the academy would help during the invasion. Now, he wasn't so sure about it.

Out of the thousand students, only a hundred and twenty-five students graduated from the academy. This left the remaining students to join the demonic side.

No matter how talented the hundred and twenty-five people were, they wouldn't last against the human-demon army.

The academy which Aaran thought to be their salvation was anything but that. It had turned into a hub of all his problems.

***

It didn't take long for people to notice what happened. Naturally, Aaran became the suspect when it was found a Marki had been killed, given what happened in Velrune.

Their suspicion only deepened when they found out Aaran didn't attend the Fresher's party. Without any additional evidence, they rushed to his dorm room.

Forget about knocking. They kicked the door open only to find him in bed, with Seraphina sitting next to him. The guards lost all their hostility the moment they saw Seraphina there.

"What is the meaning of this?" Seraphina asked, getting up.

As she did, the guard got a better look at Aaran. He had a cloth draped on his forehead and a bowl of water on the bedside table. He had a fever and Seraphina was taking care of him.

"There's a murder and Prince Aurelia—!"

The head guard began speaking, but Seraphina cut him off.

"Prince Runedral," she said. "While every one is equal in the academy, I'd still suggest commoners address royalty with proper titles."

"My apologies," the guard said. "But we have a warrant for Prince Runedral."

"Warrant? In what case?"

"He's the prime suspect in the killing of Fran Marki, which happened an hour ago—"

Slap!

Seraphina didn't hold back and slapped the guard. The guards were stunned to see a beauty like Seraphina showing such a cold side of her.

They had a warrant, hence they had every right to interrogate Aaran. Yet, it didn't seem Seraphina would let that happen.

"How dare you smear my fiancee's name," she yelled. "He has been sick all day after traveling through a faulty magic portal and you dare slander him?"

Seraphina continued, "I get it. It's the Marki, isn't it? They killed their own people to frame my fiancee. Do you think I will let that happen? If the Marki are so desperate for a war, I'll give it to them."

Aaran rolled his eyes. He had asked her not to go overboard with her act, but she did.

After killing Fran, Aaran knew the guards would come after him. That's why he asked Seraphina for help. With a credible alibi, even the guards won't recklessly take action against him.

He would act as if he was ill and couldn't attend the party, and Seraphina was to vouch for him while flexing their standing. But Seraphina went overboard, even calling out the Marki to fight.

"Sera…" Aaran coughed. "They are merely doing their duty. Let them in."

"But—"

"They won't leave until you do. I would like to get it over with so I can rest."

Suddenly, the head guard shook his head, as if he changed his mind.

"There's no need for that, Your Highness," he said. "We apologize for disturbing you so late. You can give your statement tomorrow if you feel good."

Aaran smiled and nodded before closing his eyes. The guards also apologized to Seraphina, who scoffed and slammed the door shut as they left.

"How—?"

Seraphina was about to say something, but Aaran pressed his finger on his lips, gesturing her to shut up. The guards didn't leave so suddenly for no reason. They were probably outside, hearing them through some method.

"I'm feeling cold," he said. "Could you light a fire?"

Seraphina understood what he wanted and conjured fire. Mana devices were sensitive to heat. If the temperature suddenly rose, they would malfunction, and that's exactly what happened.

A moment later, a man shrieked outside the room before running away.

"My ears!"