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Suzuki Satoru returned to the castle with Keno in tow. This time, he was planning to search the interior more carefully. He lent Keno an item that could cast [Fly] and the two of them used [Fly] to look around the inside of the castle. All Keno did was to see if there was anything different about the castle compared to when she had lived in it. Even so, checking such a huge castle took quite a lot of time.
In the end, they had not turned up anything special. Keno had locked her parents in her mother’s room. While they were still undead, they were also still intact. It would seem that undead being had not been interested in anything other than turning the throne room into a research lab.
And so they returned to the sewer for the time being. After Keno’s mana recovered, they cast [Fly] again and headed to the throne room for more indepth investigations.
The sun set, and night slowly descended upon the land.
The throne room was divided into three rooms. The one adjoining the door was piled high with books, the second was heaped with treasures gathered from throughout the city, and the final room was the undead being’s lab. It contained some mysterious fluids and a stench that would not go away.
After seeking Keno’s opinion on the matter, Suzuki Satoru decided to put all the items into his inventory since it did not exceed his weight capacity, and then he moved them into a random room.
Keno had originally wanted to go back to her own chambers, but Suzuki Satoru shot that idea down. If they were going to do that, they would not have needed to use [Fly] while conducting their investigations.
After that, they decided to move on to the room once used by the maids. When
Suzuki Satoru had first explored it, both he and his minion had prepared to move into the room, but instead they had gotten a faceful of white dust. It was less dusty now, though.
“There’s so much dust…”
Suzuki Satoru had been mentally prepared for this, and all he could do was shrug at Keno’s lamentation.
“Well, it’s been a long time since someone lived here.”
The floor was thick with dust, which indicated that nobody had set foot in here for a long time. Therefore, the two of them did not dwell on it after giving it a once-over.
Keno was the first one into the room. She went through it and opened the window.
The wind that rushed in threw up a great deal of dust. If there were any living creatures present who needed to breathe, they would probably have been coughing by now. However, both of them were undead, who had no such need, and the most that the clouds of dust could do was mildly annoy them.
“May I clean up this room?”
You don’t need to ask my permission for that, Suzuki Satoru thought, and then he answered.
“I don’t mind. However, what do you think of cleaning up the dust this way?”
Suzuki Satoru took out a scroll. As a compulsive hoarder, he was the sort of person who did not use consumable items lightly. However, this was just a lowlevel item and he had many superior substitutes for it, so it did not matter to him.
The scroll contained a [Summon Monster – 1st] spell.
It could summon a low-level Lesser Air Elemental. There was no need to speak to it; it was as though it had a mental link to the caster, who could give orders with a mental impulse.
The Air Elemental began spinning, and it swiftly blew the dust within the room outside.
“Keno-san, this scroll contains the same kind of spell. Why don’t you try summoning a Water Elemental with it?”
Suzuki Satoru handed the scroll to her and Keno cast the spell, summoning a Lesser Water Elemental, as he had said.
“Thank you, Satoru-sama.”
“There’s no need to stand on ceremony. Don’t take it to heart. Elementals summoned by first-tier scrolls only exist for a short time. Please keep your priorities in mind when cleaning the room.”
“Alright!”
“Also, you can dispel the [Fly] spell now.”
“Got it!”
Although there had been no great changes in the situation, perhaps being able to regain her home made Keno visibly happier, and she nodded. As he observed the marked change in Keno, Suzuki Satoru contemplated it with a calmness that surprised even himself.
He had given Keno the scroll for a reason.
While he had conducted many tests after coming to this world, this was the first time he had actually used a consumable item like a scroll.
I see… so Yggdrasil scrolls can be used by the inhabitants of this world. Then what about the other way around? I’d like to test that out too. Also, the Elementals summoned by the scroll are very short-lived — she didn’t seem to find anything wrong with that. So my knowledge of scrolls in Yggdrasil is also applicable to this world… am I right?
While he had asked Keno about things like that before, he had his proof now. It was not that he did not trust her, but seeing was believing, after all.
As he had said, the two Elementals soon vanished, but by that time the room was already quite clean.
“Where shall we look next?”
“I wanted to start from this bundle of parchments.” Why had that undead creature come here?
Who was that undead being?
What lay behind all this?
And most importantly — was there really a way to restore the people who had been turned into Zombies?
It was those questions in her heart which drove her, giving her the faint hope that she could find the answer within those parchments, which was why she wanted to start with them.
Just as Keno was about to open up those rolled-up parchments that reeked of a foreboding odor, Suzuki Satoru stopped her.
“Is something the matter, Satoru-sama?”
“Allow me to remind you, but have you checked if they contain traps? Is it possible that they contain some sort of magical trap?”
“—Eh?”
“Some traps are disguised as scrolls. When people try to use them, they explode, and so on.”
“Do, do such things exist?”
“Huh, you mean they don’t?”
The two of them looked at each other.
“Ah, er, Satoru-sama, do you have a solution?”
“I’m not good at disarming traps. I think it would be best to let one of my created undead open it.”
Saying so, Suzuki Satoru created a Death Knight.
He had the Death Knight go outside the room and open it from a distance. However, the problem was that ordinary parchment would also burn in the event of an explosion, so he had to take each piece out individually to check if they were safe.
After repeating the process with all the parchments, they moved on to the books.
While the Death Knight repeated a rote action, Keno was also checking the parchments that had been declared safe.
However, Keno’s face froze.
“I’m sorry, Satoru-sama. I don’t understand these words…”
“Ah…”
He had heard before that many languages existed in this world. Suzuki Satoru stood behind Keno and looked at the parchments. Wow, I can’t believe it’s in Japanese — but such wishful thinking was not to be.
“In that case—” Suzuki Satoru took a monocle out of his inventory. “I’ll lend this to you. This item should allow you to translate languages.”
Suzuki Satoru did not use it himself because he felt that he would not be able to understand the contents of the research.
As a proper adult, he ought to check if it contained any content that was not suitable for children, but this was still better than looking at it and saying, “It’s too specialized, I don’t understand it,” and then handing it to Keno.
Keno did not seem to realize that Suzuki Satoru was abasing himself in his heart and thanked him. Then, she put on the monocle and began reading.
It would seem the monocle was effective, because Keno began perusing the contents of the parchments.
She read in silence, reaching for the next parchment after finishing the first.
In order not to disturb Keno, Suzuki Satoru moved aside.
There was nothing he, as a person who had never considered magic to be a field of study, could learn from them. From time to time, Keno would mention a question about magical principles — to Suzuki Satoru it was just confusing. He did not feign knowledge either; instead replying with a simple “I don’t know.”
Even though Suzuki Satoru did not seem to know anything, Keno did not seem to distrust him.
After all, the fact of his overwhelming power was on full display, and there were some classes which controlled magic by feeling rather than theoretical knowledge. She must have taken him for one of those feel-based magic casters.
As he looked at Keno’s small frame, buried in her books, Suzuki Satoru began to lay out the items he had discovered on the ground.
At the same time, he used his spells to see what kind of magic was imbued into those items. The first one he investigated was a staff.
After seeing the magic it contained, he called out to Keno, despite feeling a little embarrassed.
“Excuse me, but could you come over and take a look at this item?” “Ah! Yes!”
Keno hurriedly turned to look his way.
“About these it—”
“—Ah!”
Keno stood up from her seat and ran over to the items, where she picked it up.
“This is it! As long as we have this!”
The look of delight on Keno seemed like it would revert to normal from time to time, but it was unconsciously replaced by joy again.
“Is this the resurrection item you mentioned earlier?”
The notion in his heart had been validated; this was an item the undead being had abandoned when he invaded.
This was one of the nation’s treasures, along with the Mask of Ilvia Hordan, the Robe of the First Invern, and the Gauntlet of the Gryphon Lord.
It was a transparent wand, carved out of a gigantic crystal and further worked upon.
Its name was Lost White.
If what she said yesterday was right, then Suzuki Satoru believed that the spell contained within it ought to be the fifth-tier divine spell [Raise Dead]. But according to his investigations just now, the spell’s effects were slightly different. Or rather, it looked like a wand, it should be usable as a wand, but fundamentally, it was something else entirely.
It felt like a bit of a shame to just use it like that.
However, while Suzuki Satoru also had resurrective items which contained higher-tier spells, he had no intention of taking them out until yesterday.
One of the reasons was because he was not sure if resurrection magic followed the same mechanics in this world. But it was true that he had covered that part up.
Suzuki Satoru was not nearly thick-skinned enough to be frank about that.
However, Momonga now had no skin to speak of.
“Yes! Now I’m sure everyone can be…”
Keno bit her lip for a moment, probably because there was no way to save everyone with a limited-use item. No, it was obvious that a powerful item would have some kind of limits on its usage. Keno was now in a position where she would have to decide who to save.
“Even so, we’ll need to destroy them first before we’ll get a chance to restore them to human beings.”
“Then how can I bring them back to life?”
“Erm… how about ending their life as a Zombie and then trying to resurrect them with this item?”
“I see… we won’t be able to test it out in the castle, then,” Suzuki Satoru explained to a mystified Keno.
“While my knowledge of this nation might differ from this one, if we destroy a Zombie here — pardon me, if we kill someone here, it’s possible that we might incur the hostility of all the surrounding Zombies. In order to avoid that, we need to take our test Zombie far away where it won’t generate hostility.
However, I have no idea how far that would be. Do you have any ideas?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, is it like that?”
“…It isn’t?”
The two of them looked at each other.
This was not so much a divide in their understanding of the world so much as neither of them not being sure what the problem was. Therefore, they needed to discuss the gains and losses of such an action together.
In the end, they decided to let Keno finish reading all the books first. This was a decision made in the hope that one of them would give her an answer, entrusting their luck to the heavens.
After seeing Keno pick her books up again, Suzuki Satoru went back to examining the remaining items from that undead creature.
As Suzuki Satoru picked up a silver necklace, he knitted his nonexistent eyebrows.
This isn’t a magic item… it’s an enchanted necklace. Is this kind of accessory in style?
One could not equip multiple magic items to the same item slot. While one could wear many magical items around their neck, he had heard from Keno that only the powers from the item that had been last put on would be usable, so it would seem that principle was the same in this world as it was in Yggdrasil.
While he did not particularly mind if that undead being was the sort of fellow who adorned himself with pointless ornamentation, it did not seem to be the case. He did not have any other non-magical items besides this necklace.
There must be some meaning to this.
There was a circular silver object depending from the necklace. It looked slightly worn, but he could clearly see what looked like symbols and letters carved into it.
Is there some significance to this? Is it a key for something? No, it might be a holy symbol of some kind, for an undead creature. Or was this some core item with religious significance? There seems to be something on the back, it looks like some kind of… guild badge… ah! Does this imply that it belongs to some organization?
He was unsure of the meaning of this, so all he could do was conjecture. However, it would be bad if it belonged to some group.
While I’m wary because it’s possible… I just have to pay that Keno knows the meaning of that emblem.
Keno was speed-reading, flipping rapidly through the books.
From the side, he could see a tense and frightened look on her face. He probably would not be hearing good news from her.
“Keno-san, I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re busy, but could you help me take a look at this necklace?”
“Huh? Ah, yes… let’s see, it doesn’t look like letters. Are they… marks?”
“I see. Then what about things on your end?”
There was a pile of books that had been read and a pile of books which had not been read. He had asked because the former dwarfed the latter. Keno sighed heavily. It was a sigh which sounded like it came from a company employee who would be working overnight. It did not sound like a sigh that ought to have come from a youthful-looking girl.
“Firstly, those books concerned various kinds of magical knowledge. The parchments, on the other hand, contained matters that the undead being was looking into — messily-written research notes. But they were too complex, so it’s possible I might have misinterpreted them to some extent.”
Keno rounded her shoulders in dejection. Her voice sounded gloomy too.
“It’s just… that powerful undead being that I thought was the mastermind doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the people of the city becoming undead.”
I thought so too, Suzuki Satoru mused.
That undead creature had been far too weak for someone who could turn an entire city into Zombies.
“While I found something that looked like a diary, it only said that the undead creature you killed was also puzzled by how everyone in the city could have turned into a Zombie, and that he’d liked to have investigated it if he had the time. Also…”
Keno looked like she was about to say something, and then she changed her mind.
“…That’s all. It didn’t have anything to do with that undead being.”
“Is that so? Then what are you going to do?”
“…Even so, I still want to see if they can be resurrected.”
There was a hollow determination in Keno’s voice. She probably understood that it would be useless. After all, she was the one who said that there might be a possibility if they eliminated the main culprit, and now she was the one saying that the undead being that Suzuki Satoru had wiped out had nothing to do with it. That said, even if she understood, she still had to give it a try.
Suzuki Satoru looked at the girl and thought about a fire.
It was about how even if one was alone, there was no need to put out a fire that had been prepared for others.
“Is that so… in that case, we won’t use your parents. We’ll experiment with one of the guards.”
Keno’s face twisted as she heard the words “experiment.” However, she did not say anything, because she knew that pretty words would not be able to change the reality of the situation.
Suzuki Satoru began by opening the window and jumping out, using [Fly] to hover in mid-air. From there, he memorized a location far in the distance, beyond the city limits, and teleported there. Once he reached his destination, he surveyed his surroundings with his ability, and after verifying that there were no undead around, he memorized the area and cast [Greater Teleportation] to return to Keno’s side.
After that, the two of them left the room. Keno led him to a guard who had apparently been quite strong in life before becoming a Zombie, and then he cast [Gate].
He grabbed part of the guard’s armor in order to make certain that it could not be interpreted as an attack, then dragged him into the [Gate].
And so, the three of them were transported outside the city.
Just as Keno said, “I’ll do it,” Suzuki Satoru killed the Zombie in one blow, without saying a word.
He did not smash his head to bits with a crushing weapon. Instead, he lopped his head off with a magically conjured sword.
“Now then, can you use that item?”
“A-Alright…”
The pure white light within the wand moved to the corpse of the Zombie guard.
The corpse slowly got to its feet, but that was not a sign that it had returned to life. It was simply a Zombie moving once more.
Keno lowered her head, and Suzuki Satoru, who had been worried about being attacked, let his caution fade. The Zombie just walked around aimlessly, with no signs of hostility. Presumably, any aggro that had been generated had faded with its death.
“…What should we do?” Suzuki Satoru asked. After a brief period of introspection, Keno raised her head and looked Suzuki Satoru in the eye.
“—Satoru-sama. Do you think that I can restore everyone if I work hard enough on my research?”
Her voice was ponderous and heavy.
It was the voice of someone who did not even believe herself. It was the voice of someone whose only hope had been crushed to bits.
Suzuki Satoru thought for a while. He could try to comfort her or simply to gloss it over. He could also try to steer the topic back to an appropriate direction. However, he compared it to his own image from several days ago, and then he discarded all those selfish notions.
He quickly inhaled, and then Suzuki Satoru met Keno’s gaze before speaking. “I won’t say the possibility is zero. While I haven’t studied magic academically, I feel that there might be someone out there in this world who might know what happened here. If we ask them for help, perhaps we might be able to devise an effective solution. However… it’ll be very difficult.”
“…I, I think so too.”
The undead could not cry. They lacked the capacity to shed tears.
However, Suzuki Satoru knew that Keno was crying.
“Actually, I’d sensed it from a long time ago. There wouldn’t be a happy end to all of this, with the sun rising and everyone waking up by themselves. In the end, I couldn’t save anyone, and I couldn’t bring about an ending like that…”
“You can’t be certain that you can’t save them.”
“I can’t be certain that I can save them either, right?”
Suzuki Satoru expressed his agreement with silence. However, that was based on the Yggdrasil knowledge that Suzuki Satoru had.
“…Like I said earlier, we can’t say for sure that the possibility is zero.”
Suzuki Satoru looked to the sky, and the faces of his former friends floated in the night sky. After making up his mind, Suzuki Satoru expelled a breath.
“…I have a friend called Yamaiko. She often said that children were a treasure. Right now, I will carry out her will.”
Suzuki Satoru produced the Shooting Star ring that Yamaiko had given him. Truth to be told, he did not want to waste it in such a way. But Yamaiko would scold him if he did not use it now.
After all, with this in hand, I can use the remaining two wishes for whatever I want.
A strange sensation assailed Suzuki Satoru as he activated the ring.
He understood how to use the spell [Wish Upon A Star].
He could pay several levels’ worth of experience to make a bigger wish. However, he only planned to use a single level’s worth of experience. In other words, when he made a wish, a smaller wish was more likely to come true than a bigger one. But if it failed, the experience would be burned and that would be the end of it.
He had the feeling that “restoring Keno’s parents to normal” was more likely to come true than “restoring everyone in the city to normal.” However —
“I WISH! That I would learn a way to restore the people of this city to normal!”
That was all.
Once he understood the means, he could carry it out.
However, after one of the three shooting stars carved into the ring vanished,
all that remained with Suzuki Satoru was frustration. And then, he hesitated over how he should explain all this to Keno, who was staring at him with a blank look on her face.
He mock-coughed a few times, and the Suzuki Satoru addressed Keno with the look of a salaryman on his face.
“I just used an item which could grant wishes. After using it, I came to realize something — Keno-san, I’ll get to the point. There is no way to restore the Zombies of this city — its people — to their original state.”
That was the answer. He had lost a chance to grant a wish forever for that answer.
In Yggdrasil, you were forced to pick an option from a random list of selections, so which way was better? Suzuki Satoru hurried continued speaking. “However! This is simply the information I have obtained with my magic. There might be another way. Therefore — let’s explore the world together. We’ll find someone who’s far better than us, ask them for help, and see what possibilities open up.”
“Is… there really such a person?”
“I believe there is.”
Although a part of his mind was wondering why he was going this far to cheer her up, he had not forgotten the kinship to her which he had felt back then. Keno stared at Suzuki Satoru, and then she nodded.
“Alright — I believe there is. Still, will it be alright?”
Suzuki Satoru asked Keno what was alright, and she answered.
“Going out and exploring the world together. Is it really alright for me to accompany you?” Keno looked down at her little palms. “I mean, I’ll get in the way—”
“—You won’t.”
“Huh?”
“I need your strength for this. Also — in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. I’ll help you out a little more.” At the very least, until she could travel by herself. “Otherwise— I feel like Yamaiko-san and Touch-san would scold me.
Keno Fasris Invern. Let’s — yes, let’s travel together.”
Keno took the hand that Suzuki Satoru had extended to her.
“Th-Thank you… very much… Satoru-sama…”
Keno bowed her head and trembled. While she could not shed tears, that was all. Keno was quietly sobbing without crying.
Still, it would not do for her to thank him that much. After all, he had ulterior motives.
Well, forget it, Suzuki Satoru thought. After all, she lost everything at that moment. Helping her for a while more won’t hurt.
In any case, he had no goals of his own now. The things he was supposed to protect were gone, and the bonds he was supposed to maintain were broken. All that remained were this ring and this staff, as mementos, but that was all.
“Then let’s hurry and finish our preparations so we can leave. I have the feeling there isn’t much time left.”
Keno voiced her doubts, and Suzuki Satoru explained himself.
If their adversary belonged to an organization, they might have kept in contact. In that case, the enemy would get worried about losing touch with him, and so he suspected that it was very likely that they would send reinforcements over. While he could probably slaughter them all if that undead being’s power was any indication of their strength, he could not conclude that there was nobody stronger than him around. Therefore, the best course of action would be to take what they could carry and leave this place as soon as possible.
For that reason, he had set up little tricks in various places to keep the information from getting out.
After he saw that Keno understood, the two of them returned to the castle again.
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