The Ruined Death Knight

Staring at the noble who had a leisurely look on his face, Velkir walked towards the couch and brought out a whole box containing Danzel contracts to the table.

"I don´t remember granting you permission to use my second name, your highness." Velkir said with his cold voice as he seated apposite to the noble.

Reaching his hand, the noble took browsed through one contracts runes with interest.

"Is that so? As far as I remember you told me to call you Veleron. Isn´t it just you that forgot it? After all, you are aware of what kind of condition the likes of us suffer."

"..."

With their silence of them resuming, the noble put the runed contract away and stared at Velkir in surprise.

"Those are awesome, Veleron! I have heard some rumors of a runesmith appearing in the arcana kingdom, but since I was in Ioratal, I couldn´t confirm it. But to think that the famous "Forced Contract" does exist..." the noble said while glancing at Velkir as if waiting for an explanation.

"You better put does into some good use, the merchants of the union seem like to no longer produce them. Even getting all of those was hard and most of all, expensive." Velkir said while hinting at the word expensive.

Seeing through the hidden meaning of Velkir´s words, the noble looked away.

"Tch-here you go." The noble said before throwing a small bag into the table.

Though the bag seemed small, in actuality it was a spatial storage device that contained much more than its size presented.

"For a second, I forgot how shameless you were behind that flesh mask of yours."

Ignoring the noble's words, Velkir took the small bag and put it away inside his robe.

"How are the other 3 doing? Did any news come from the council?" Velkir said.

"You should know that nothing changed. They are looking for opportunities, but the king is always on high alert with every noble to the point where he the spear of Ioratal to be his bodyguard 24/7."

"As about the council...you should know best that except that one faction, the other two factions stay to themself. Of course, some of our guys will eventually come out to refill their resources." The noble said with a lazy tone.

"So no changes, huh?" Velkir said as he stood and turned his way towards the array where the dark liquid came out.

"Huh? Are you already leaving? But you just came..."

"If there is nothing else that you need my presence, then yes. I still have some stuff to prepare." Velkir said as he tapped his staff on the array, making it spew out the dark liquid and sink inside of it.

"Nonetheless, I wouldn´t want to waste the precious time of your highness."

Were Velkir's last words before disappearing.

Being left alone in his room, the noble stood up and made the box filled with runed contracts disappear.

"Tch~, making fun of me when I got the short end of the stick. At least compared to the other 3, Veleron seems more reliable." The noble said before going to leave his room.

Reaching out to draw the handle, he halted his steps as he looked at his hand which was bleeding.

"Oh...it seems that I got too worked up with the contracts." The noble said while looking at the cuts on his finger and the tip of his finger where his bones were coming out.

In the next moment, his injured was engulfed with dead mana.

Once the dead mana vanished, his hand was as good as new.

"I put too much time and effort into improving the status as an illegitimate child of the king. Ruining my cover from a careless mistake of mine would undoubtfully be not funny."

Once he opened the door and walked out with a maid following behind him, he suddenly halted his steps as he remember something.

`Ah, I even forgot to ask Veleron about his two new apprentices.´

"My lord, is something bothering you?" The maid asked with a corned look on her face.

Gazing at the maid for a brief moment with a cold look, the next moment he showed a bright smile.

"No, I just remember something." The noble said before continuing walking.

`I will just ask him the next time we meet.´

****

The next day, in Velkir room.

Just like yesterday, the duo of Agares and Shiro were there together with the two undead of the whole group.

Agares was observing from the side as always while Velkir was teaching them about magic theory with a book in one of his arms.

Of course, the ones he taught were Shiro and Danzel.

"That will be all for today." Velkir said while glazing at Danzel,

Remembering the magic that he showed him, he would be lying if he said that he wasn´t surprised.

`I understand that he is of the 3rd-tier, but improving a 1st-tier spell that he was taught not long ago is a thing that only genius can do.´ Velkir thought internally.

As a Lich that lived for centuries long, Velkir of course met without countless genius that had talent in magic.

And it was because of that very reason why he was confused by Danzel's quick progress. Because Velkir knew that Danzel was no genius nor a talent that comes every 1000 years.

If he had to describe Danzel purely out of his talent, then Velkir would rank it above average, but not to the level of genius.

`Does his progress come from the inheritance of his old body? If that´s the case, then that could explain as he is a [Wight], but that seems unlikely...´

Velkir's guess was that the corpse that became the now [Rue Danzel] was someone unordinary. As Undead who were naturally born from dead mana tent to inherit the skills of the corpse, they were before.

If someone of the 4th-tier were to be cast in a dead mana-infested area for dozen years, the possibility of turning into undead with special skills was all the more likely.

But considering that Danzel's main weapon was a sword and not magic, Velkir was unsure if that was the case.

An archmage is more likely to turn into a [Skeleton Mage] or a [Lesser Lich] than of a warrior after all.

`Hmm...I will have to make sure.´ Velkir thought to himself.

"Danzel, tomorrow at the same time we will have another lesson together with you undead dog. I will turn her into the next tier as I once said."

Suprised by this announcement, Danzel slowly nodded his head as a certain thought appear in his mind.

`Skull Claw should be able to pass through the door...right?´

Seeing him nod his head, Velkir's attention went towards the excited Shiro.

"Shiro, this time around you wouldn´t able to take part in tomorrow's lesson. Study what I taught today and train under Agare's supervision." Velkir said with his cold voice before putting the book on the table.

Shiro in turn, her bright full expression of a second ago disappeared into thin air as if she was soken in ice-cold water.

"Master Velkir! Why can this guy take your lesson and not Shiro!? This is unfair!" Shiro said as he pointed at Danzel.

Without even glancing at Shiro, Velkir answered.

"The reason why you won´t take part in tomorrow's lesson is simple I will be teaching about the school of necromancy. It´s magic that defiles the living and raises the dead to the undead. If you are interested in learning this sort of magic, I don´t mind teaching you, but the one who you have to convince isn´t me but Agares."

Hearing that, Shiro turned her head towards Agares as if she regained her vigor of before.

"Grandpa, can I-"

But before she could even finish, Agares's harsch voice echoed through the room.

"Velkir! Stop arousing my granddaughter's curiosity about your vile magic!" Agares jelled as he turned his head towards Shiro.

Shiro who saw her grandpa's face froze for a split second.

Her grandpa that always showed her a gentle and concerned full look at her was nowhere to be seen. What she saw was her Grandpa's scary face that she had only shown her three times.

Getting on his knees, Agares grabbed Shiro's shoulders lightly and made sure that their eyes met each other.

"Shiro, my dear, please cast the thought of learning such magic away." Agares said without leaving any room for negotiation.

"I know better than anyone else of your love for magic Shiro. You can also be considered to be a genius in the subject of magic. But for this reason, alone I cannot allow you to learn such magic."

"If you were to learn such magic, everyone will despise you. treat you as a monster that needs to be killed. But most importantly, such magic will change who you are for the worse."

Hearing what her grandpa just said, Shiro couldn´t help but glance at Danzel and Velkir for a brief moment before turning and glancing at her grandpa.

Unsure what to say or do with his serious look cast on her.

"So...Shiro, please. Promise me, that you wouldn´t learn such magic ever. I...won´t like to see you such magic." Agares said before slightly increasing his grip on Shiro's shoulder.

"For the sake of your parents...please give up on learning necromancy."