房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 469 154 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 1)

　　|What in the world was that spell that I used...?!|

　　|Little ones – do you know what happened?|

　　The black-haired boy shook his head and thought, sending his thoughts to his usually resident sentinels who seemed to be somewhere in the castle... for whatever reason...

　　"(Ah! Master! You woke up!)"

　　"(Master~! We will go right to you, just the last bite!)"

　　The two sentinels responded in a way different manner than Zoemi expected them to – especially the second one was suspicious, to say the least.

　　|...the last bite...? What are you biting over there?|

　　The black-haired boy couldn't stop himself from frowning as he thought – but this time he did not get the answer, but he could tell for sure that the sentinels began moving.

　　They did not teleport nor phased through the walls, which was slightly odd, but still, what mattered most was that they were on their way.

　　"Young lord, is your condition getting worse...?"

　　The elderly woman asked with concern, seeing the boy's face go through a lot of expressions without him actually saying anything out loud. She also glanced over at their son who looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders with a confused expression.

　　"..."

　　Since he was talked to, Zoemi faced the brown-haired woman – and his eyes immediately darted above her shoulder and he frowned.

　　"I am alright. But while we talk about the condition... how many people got... brought back by my spell?"

　　The black-haired boy asked, frowning slightly as he stirred up the pain in his abdomen while trying to get to a more comfortable position.

　　"Everyone from the pile in the backyard is like me now – our memories got cleared up, although the parts affected by the hexes are fragmented. We also got an upgrade to our abilities – many people are experienced rapid growth of their mana reservoirs and some can even more than one attribute. The people in the briefing room got hit with just the magic shockwave caused by the magnitude of the spell and it was enough to wash off the hex... But it's also not like everyone got helped. The two who were killed on the spot while protecting the young heir were not affected at all..."

　　"...they weren't in the pile...?"

　　The elderly woman began explaining casually, although it seemed that she was keeping some things to herself – and was interrupted by Zoemi's sudden question.

　　"No, they were not. Similarly, the three who were wounded and then killed and left in the infirmary..."

　　*click*

　　"...!"

　　"Master~!"

　　"Hello, master~! Well, how do we look~?"

　　As the woman answered and was about to continue, the door to the room opened once again and two people were pushed by the shocked officer and cheered out towards the equally shocked black-haired boy.

　　The two were young but their faces and body proportions were so ambiguous that it was impossible to tell their gender at the first glance.

　　Or the second.

　　Or at all.

　　"Wha...?! What the hell did you take over some bodies?! What were you up to when I was unconscious?!"

　　Even so, thanks to the connection that Zoemi had with his sentinels, he could instantly tell who these two were.

　　In front of him stood his resident sentinels who for whatever reason healed and changed the bodies of the people murdered in the infirmary.

　　"Noo...! Master, it's not like that! We didn't do that on purpose...!"

　　"Yeah...! We didn't!"

　　The two shook their heads at the same time and gasped in pitiful voices, getting right to Zoemi's bed and crouching by it to pleadingly look up at their creator.

　　"I hope that you know it is very rude to take over the bodies of normal people – especially in their own home right by their family members. Explain yourselves, little ones."

　　Zoemi shook his head with a frown and waved his hand around as if showing off the place and the other people in the room to the two puppets.

　　"You see, master when your spell broke form under your control and used up all of your mana, something weird pushed us right out of your body!"

　　"Yeah! Something weird, it wasn't mana, and it was hurting a lot! And it chased us!"

　　The two corpse puppet sentinels cried out making sure that they look extra innocent as they spoke.

　　"...?"

　　Zoemi raised his brow, but otherwise stayed silent and waited for them to continue.

　　"Exactly! It felt similar to whatever erased sir Ludier, and we didn't want to get erased, but we also didn't want to get too far away from you, in case you would need us."

　　The first one nodded their head while clenching their fists on the bedsheet.

　　"That's when I said that we should try to cut off our connection with you for a bit and hide in the corpses!"

　　"Shhhhh! Why are telling that to master!? You will get yourself scolded!"

　　The second one nodded their head vigorously and got elbowed in the side and hissed at by the first one.

　　"We thought about that, master! WE! It was our idea! And it worked! And we are sorry for not asking first, but we really couldn't think of a better way!"

　　Then the first one turned back to Zoemi and declared before bowing down and apologizing.

　　"...you were pushed out by a power similar to the one that erased Ludier...? But... wait... that wasn't a hallucination...?"

　　The black-haired boy raised his brows and muttered, subconsciously putting his hand over his stomach.

　　"...see? I told you master would not be angry if we explain!"

　　"You were lucky, stupid! You didn't know that it would work out and wanted to take all the blame on yourself. I am healthy again, you don't have to protect me!"

　　Meanwhile, the two corpse puppet sentinels whispered to each other, the second one was cheerful while the other one furrowed their brows but was blushing in embarrassment.

　　"...I am so sorry for them..."

　　Zoemi breathed out and looked over to the elderly woman and her son and bowed to them while apologizing.

　　"There's no need. They already explained things to us too."

　　The brown-haired woman waved her hand dismissively and gave them a warm smile.

　　"They will return the bodies to their proper state and leave them as soon as the space for the burial is prepared."

　　The black-haired boy declared without straightening his back.

　　"...uuuu..."

　　"Huh?! But master! It is so nice o have bodies! The food is tasty!"

　　The reaction of his sentinels was within the expectation – the first one slumped down and made a sad noise while the second one complained innocently, not understanding the moral problem of the situation.

　　"There's no need to rush that."

　　"...there's not...?"

　　But a far stranger reaction – in Zoemi's opinion, at least – was that Devios's cousin, so a member of the Perserios family who wasn't brought back to life with the black-haired boy's spell, waved his hand dismissively and assured him.

　　"Miss Burushi has told us what you were intending to do. Unfortunately, since the original plan didn't work, we will simply proceed with what we can do."

　　The man explained what he meant, making Zoemi go wide-eyed.

　　"Considering that the Barbariacca forces are convinced that all of us had died, as they intended, I believe they will be at least a little bit confused about what is happening. They can continue using the bodies just for the headcount to more or less match."

　　The elderly woman added, spreading her arms to the sides with a confident smile.

　　"I wonder how many of them there are?"

　　She added, and her smile turned a little bit more threatening.