Chapter 223 The Blond Knight and the Undead King!
"My name is Darkness, and my class is Crusader. Please, you must let me join your party!"
After enjoying a hearty dinner at the guild, Arthur and his two companions had barely stepped out the door when they were stopped by a valiant blonde female knight.
With a clanking of armor, she approached with firm, steady steps, her expression serious and earnest.
Arthur's heart tightened, and a sudden sense of foreboding arose within him.
Kazuma, however, stopped his taunting of Aqua, his eyes fixated on Darkness.
Darkness's gaze swept over the three of them, finally resting on Arthur, and she extended her right hand, clad in a leather glove.
"You must be the leader of this adventuring party, right? May I ask your name?"
Arthur stepped forward and took her hand.
"Just call me Arthur, Miss Darkness, right?"
"Yes!"
Darkness suddenly gripped Arthur's hand tightly, the force making his eyebrows involuntarily twitch.
Arthur subtly withdrew his hand and asked calmly.
"With all due respect, the three of us only registered today. We have neither strength nor reputation. What attracted you to us?"
At this moment, a scene from earlier that afternoon at the city gate flashed through Darkness's mind—
Arthur walked expressionlessly and immaculately at the front, followed by a dust-covered, almost exhausted Kazuma, and a sticky, tearful Aqua beside him.
"No! This way... is perfect!"
Darkness's tone suddenly became unusually excited, her breathing quickened, and a strange flush appeared on her cheeks.
Arthur, who was seriously considering whether to add a new teammate, was startled by her reaction and took half a step back, becoming even more certain.
This Miss Crusader and Aqua were, to some extent, of the same kind!
"Hey, Big Brother!"
A red-faced Kazuma stole a glance at the beautiful and well-proportioned Darkness, nudged the unresponsive Arthur with his elbow, and whispered.
"It's rare for such a beauty to want to join. You're not going to refuse, are you?"
Arthur glanced at him, then turned to look at Darkness, who was breathing heavily and had a dreamy look in her eyes, and shook his head apologetically.
"I'm sorry, Miss Darkness, but we still have an exorcism quest to do today. Let's discuss forming a party another time!"
With those words, Arthur turned, grabbed Kazuma, dragged Aqua with his other hand, and strode out of the Adventurers' Guild.
Behind him, Darkness, who had failed to join the party, let out a long sigh of relief, a unnatural blush spreading across her cheeks.
"He... he actually... refused without hesitation..."
...
Bidding farewell to the clearly peculiar Darkness, Arthur and his two companions quickly arrived at the quest location on the outskirts of the city.
The new moon had just risen, and the public cemetery deep in the forest was silent, with only the cold wind sighing through the treetops.
"This place is too quiet. It doesn't feel like there are evil spirits rampant at all."
A cold wind blew, and Aqua, who had bravely volunteered to lead the way, suddenly hugged herself, her teeth chattering.
"The... the quest we took, it was to subjugate a zombie maker, right?"
Arthur pulled out the quest scroll from his embrace and shook it, his tone firm.
"That's right, it is."
Aqua said uneasily, "But I have a bad feeling. The guy who came out this time isn't some small fry, but some undead big shot..."
Kazuma, huddled close to Arthur, shrunk his neck and said anxiously.
"Hey! Don't just make such a flag! What if your silly jinx comes true again!"
Aqua, who was about to retort, suddenly stopped, her gaze piercing through the gaps in the trees, looking towards the depths of the cemetery.
A huge, blue-white magic circle was flickering intermittently in the distance, its eerie glow illuminating the surrounding tombstones with a ghostly aura.
In the center of the magic circle, a figure in a black robe stood, and several flickering light orbs could be seen around it.
Kazuma cautiously poked his head out from behind a tree, his expression suspicious.
"Is that the zombie maker? It feels... the aura isn't quite right! Could it really be a big shot!?"
Arthur's eyes glowed, and he clearly saw a dense aura of death lingering around the black-robed figure.
"No matter what the other party is, it's definitely an undead. If that's the case, Aqua..."
Before Arthur could finish speaking, Aqua suddenly leaped out from behind the bushes, like an enraged wild boar, charging straight at the black-robed figure.
"You audacious Lich! How dare you run rampant in a place like this! Watch me deal with you!"
"Eh!?"
Wiz, who was guiding wandering souls to ascend, turned back in astonishment, only to see a blue-haired woman charging into her magic circle with bared fangs and claws, and stomping on it.
"Please stop! Who are you? Why did you suddenly come out and destroy my magic circle? Please, please stop!"
Wiz cried out, rushing forward and tightly hugging Aqua, who was vigorously trampling the magic circle.
"Shut up! You damned undead! This kind of weird magic circle definitely isn't for good!"
Wiz shook her head frantically: "That's not it! This magic circle is specifically to guide lost souls to the path of ascension!"
"Look! Aren't those souls heading to heaven?"
Indeed, as she said, pale blue souls gathered from all over the cemetery were continuously floating into the magic circle, slowly ascending in the blue glow, and finally dissipating.
Aqua was momentarily speechless, but how could she admit she was wrong? She immediately raised both arms, striking a sacred pose.
"You mere Lich, stop being so arrogant! This kind of thing should naturally be handled by me, the Great Priestess!"
"Watch closely! I can purify the entire cemetery in one go! Turn Undead!"
In an instant, dazzling white holy light burst forth from Aqua's center!
The slow-moving zombies, controlled by the Lich, were instantly erased from existence as soon as they touched the light!
Even the ghosts gathered within the magic circle were thoroughly purified the moment they bathed in the holy light!
Of course, Wiz, being the closest, naturally became a victim as well, her entire body becoming transparent, as if she could dissipate at any moment!
Thud!
Arthur delivered a precise hand chop to Aqua's head, physically halting the indiscriminate purification.
"How can you be a goddess? Purifying both good and bad together?"
Aqua clutched her head, glaring back with tear-filled eyes.
"Why did you hit me! All undead are rotten apples, none of them are innocent!"
Arthur ignored her, waving at Kazuma who had run into the cemetery.
He signaled for Kazuma to quickly pull his useless cheat away, while he himself strolled over to Wiz.
"Miss Lich, are you alright?"
The translucent Wiz, with tears still swirling in her eyes, shakily stood up and bowed deeply to him.
"N-no problem. Thank you for your help. My name is Wiz, and I am a Lich."
Saying this, she pulled back her long robe's hood, revealing a delicate and somewhat timid pretty face in the moonlight.
Now, it was Arthur and Kazuma, who had just dragged Aqua over, who were astonished.
As a notorious undead monster, a Lich should have abandoned its human body and spent its entire life researching magic.
But Wiz, before them, not only retained her human appearance but was also secretly helping lost souls ascend, which was strange in every way.
Arthur raised an eyebrow: "Although I stopped Aqua, as a Lich, why are you in the beginner village's cemetery guiding souls?"
Wiz shyly lowered her head: "Because most of the souls here don't have family to hold proper funerals for them, so they cannot ascend."
"I am also somewhat known as the 'King of the Undead,' so I regularly come here to guide these children who cannot return to heaven."
Hearing this, Kazuma glanced sideways at Aqua, who was still drawing circles on the ground and sulking.
"So, Miss Wiz is a good person... ah no, a good Lich!"
Aqua, who refused to admit her mistake, turned her head and stammered in defense.
"W-what can I do! We came here because we took a quest to subjugate a zombie maker!"
Arthur clapped his hands, drawing their attention, and summarized.
"Alright, thanks to a certain goddess's Turn Undead just now, there are no other undead in the cemetery besides Miss Wiz. Quest complete, that's all for tonight."
Wiz, hiding behind Arthur, looked at Aqua timidly, took out a business card from under her robe, and said softly.
"I currently run a magic item shop on the next street. As a token of my gratitude, please do visit sometime."