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Volume 2, Chapter 9: Feudal Lord, Earl Mondo ①

After regrouping with Alvana and the headless horse, they continued their journey toward Barreira City.

Although he urged the headless horse to run, it refused Lambert’s order while matching its walking pace with Alvana.

Just as he expected, the headless horse could walk calmly with Lambert—who was no different from a lump of metal of the same height—riding on its back.

It was still far cry from the warhorse ridden by Lambert when he was still alive, but the headless horse’s large build resembled that of a warhorse used by Regios Kingdom during the era of the Eight Countries Unification War.

Lambert was elated when he found out that the headless horse could run with the former riding on its back. After all, Lambert hadn’t been able to find a horse that could run with him riding on its back in Ainsaz City.

「Hmm, not bad…」

Despite what he said, he didn’t exactly feel like that inside.

The headless horse was scared of Lambert, but its attitude after Lambert tamed it in a bout was praiseworthy.

Just like humans, the beast was also the kind of living being that was attracted to strong men.

That was why Lambert was truly elated after he gained such recognition from the headless horse.

Even though Lambert was just straddling over it, the headless horse had also become emotionally attached to Lambert as they advanced on the road.

Alvana, who was originally sensitive to changes around her, had also noticed the change in the headless horse’s actions.

She even secretly admired such a fact.

「You’re so amazing, Swordsman-sama. It’s as if you’re charismatic enough to attract humans and animals—and undead animals on top of that. You’re definitely a king’s vessel.」

Lambert reacted upon hearing Alvana’s words.

He forcefully reined back the miasma that unconsciously leaked out from his body, and shook his head.

「No, I’m sure that you really are. But of course, what intrigued me the most was the reason why someone as great as Swordsman-sama… was traveling alone?」

The reason for Lambert’s death was none other than his own charisma. It was so great to the point of surpassing his lord herself.

Lambert, who could have easily snatched the throne of the newly formed Regios Kingdom, ended up killed by Glyph—his ex-best friend. What resulted from that was Lambert’s name falling from grace, reduced to that of a mere sinner.

「No, I’m sure that it’s just your imagination.」

「Are you by chance… thinking about something?」

Alvana asked such a question as soon as she felt that Lambert was slightly troubled by her remark.

She was torn between digging in deeper into this matter or not.

「I’m trying to think of a name for the horse.」

Lambert replied bluntly as if the eerie atmosphere from before was a lie.

Alvana spotted Lambert’s lie immediately, but she had no intention of further delving into this matter.

「Oh, I almost forgot about that. Of course you need to name your horse. I was a bit skeptical when you said you’d make that horse yours at first, but… After it calmed down from its frenzy, I found out that the horse was a really adorable child.」

「I expect that much from my horse.」

Moreover, Lambert felt that an undead horse was more appropriate for him, who was an undead too.

It was already a rare thing for an undead to find an appropriate undead mount.

On top of that, both the rider and the mount maintained their own sense of self to an extremely high level, equivalent to that of when they were still alive.

The existence of such an undead with an ego was the rarest of the rare.

It was as if Lambert and the horse were tied by a string of fate.

In order for an undead to maintain their ego, three requirements needed to be fulfilled: mana, lingering attachment, and strong will.

In a normal situation, mana would be dispersed back to nature once the body died, but it would remain inside as long as the body had an extremely powerful lingering attachment. In this case, it was infused in the bones instead of being dispersed outside.

Most necromancers manipulated the corpse by using the residual mana in the bones.

But without a will to control their own body, the said undead was reduced to a mindless husk, a mere puppet of the necromancer.

Therefore, the strength of the mana, lingering attachment, and will would decide just how much of the ego was retained in the undead.

In that respect, one could see the main reason for the fame of the headless horse. It retained its will, even after becoming an undead.

There was the continuation of the story—the most important factor for the undead to retain their ego was the elapsed time after the death of the body.

In case a long time had passed since the death of the body, the mana inside of the bones would mutate, transforming into something else and completely losing its original pattern.

The headless horse—who only transformed into a violent undead instead of a mindless undead even after fifty years had passed since its death—aside, Lambert retained his entire ego from when he was still alive. This case, in which over two hundred years had passed since his death, was definitely out of norm.

「Can you tell me the name for the horse, Swordsman-sama?」

「… Umm?」

Lambert was caught completely off guard since he hadn’t put much thought into the matter.

Alvana’s face was drenched in a cold sweat upon seeing the troubled Lambert.

After all, she forgot that Lambert was lying about thinking of a name for his horse.

She asked such a spontaneous question in order to break the ice and keep the conversion going.

She had zero intentions of making things awkward between them.

「Chocolate… What do you think about that name?」

Unexpectedly, Lambert was the one who broke the ice.

Before he added the reasoning, “because of its black color,” he looked at Alvana, who made a horrifying face upon hearing that name.

「… No, I gotta say… It might be quite adorable, but… I don’t think “Chocolate” is an appropriate name for it…」

Alvana disagreed with Lambert’s choice of name.

The meaning behind her remark was clear, “As if I could tell a story of you running alongside the headless horse named Chocolate.”

「Uh, I see.」

「What do you think about “Nightmare”? I mean, it was originally an extremely famous and fearsome undead called 『Great Horse of Nightmare』 after all.」

「Hmm… Let’s take that into consideration for a name.」

Alvana let out a chuckle as she rubbed her lips.

「The horse aside, I think you’re quite adorable too, Swordsman-sama. I never expected that you, of all people, would choose “Chocolate” as a name… Well, naturally, I don’t mean to look down on you or anything! But do you really like chocolate?」

「…」

Lambert didn’t answer her question.

Chocolate… It was the kind of chocolate pastry loved by Aurelia, Lambert’s former lord.

Naturally, Aurelia lived a life of almost complete abstinence from her favourite food in order to prevent her identity as a woman from being discovered by the archduke, who was aiming for Regios’ throne.

Lambert was once again reminiscing about his past.